**[Back in the Untamed Jungle]**
"Why is everyone here so useless? I'm not feeding you to be worthless trash!!" A loud voice thundered through the surroundings as a short Kitsun emerged from a large tree. He had been observing the Kitsun reinforcement struggle against a group of Blood Oath Demon Monkeys.
The Kitsun's eyes were crimson, and his skin was as close to pitch-black as it could be. His appearance was already unique compared to every other Kitsun, but his presence was even more noticeable and prominent. It was a mixture of wrath, desire, possessiveness, and desperation.
The unique-looking Kitsun was the Kitsun Lord, Haro Ki.
He waved his hand through the air and activated his Soultrait to control the dark gas every Kitsun produced to create their cloud-like lower body. Tapping into the dark clouds of the Kitsun in his range, the Kitsun Lord created a strong suctioning force to shape a large cloud in his hands.
Haro Ki released the dark cloud toward the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys before he began to move as well. He turned into a black flash and appeared behind the monkey that was the furthest in the back. In one moment the Kitsun Lord had been walking near the reinforcement and in the next moment blood spurted through the surroundings. Two furry arms flung through the air and the Blood Oath Demon Monkey that was the furthest in the back began to scream out loudly.
Faint trails of blood trickled down from the Kitsun Lord's finger as he looked at the two fountains of blood that spurted out of the arm stumps of the monkey he faced. In the next moment he licked his fingers, tasting the monkey's blood.
"It's not as bad as I thought. Seems like you ugly bastards have some talent," Haro Ki said while the dark cloud under his control engulfed the heads of each Blood Oath Demon Monkey, cutting off their access to oxygen.
The monkeys screamed aloud, their voices filled with surprise and a tinge of fear. The screams rang through Haro Ki's ears, but he only smiled. He willed the dark cloud to invade the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys' bodies through their nostrils and wide-open mouths.
The monkeys began to writhe in pain, and they tried to resist the attack, but their efforts were rendered futile. The dark clouds entered their bodies, where they expanded by draining their energy and the remaining oxygen that resided within them.
Merely seconds passed before the first monkey collapsed on the ground, twitching helplessly. More Blood Oath Demon Monkeys followed soon. Some clawed at their own throats, hoping that they could breathe in some oxygen that way. However, every attempt to get rid of the black cloud and to take in oxygen ended up failing miserably.
Not even half a minute passed since the Kitsun Lord arrived, yet the Blood Oath Demon Monkey group had been decimated. A total of 31 corpses were now littered over the ground around him, dark gas oozing from their bodies.
Haro Ki pulled the dark gas out of the corpses and moved it inside his lower body. His black cloud expanded ever so slightly before it was compressed into its former size.
While staring at the monkey corpses, the smile on Haro Ki's face disappeared. A deep frown replaced the satisfactory smile of the sadist.
"Thank you for rescuing us, Mylord!" A young Kitsun Awakened at the 2nd Tier approached Haro Ki.
The Awakened bowed respectfully to his lord and began summarizing the happenings of the last few hours, "We've received several reports of the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys attacking us with smaller groups ranging from five to 25 members. They usually focus on smaller parties of the reinforcement, similar to our group. The vice-leader sent out Pustan and Zaram to deal with the monkey king, but it looks like they died as well. We're honored to meet our Lord again after such a long absen—..."
Even before the Awakened could finish his sentence, he felt that something was off. His heart skipped a beat as a streak of pain swept through it. A single glance down at his body told him what had just happened.
Haro Ki cut off one of his Awakened's arms in rage. Blood spilled through the vicinity and the Awakened began to scream aloud, the shock amplifying his pain massively.
"Shut up."
The Kitsun Lord's blunt words barely reached the now amputated Kitsun and a dark cloud formed around the Awakened's head, muffling his screams before finally cutting his access to oxygen as well.
"You bastard! How useless can you guys be?! Why did you not eliminate the grotesque monsters yet? Do you think I raise and feed y'all to stand around and let yourself be killed?" Haro Ki thundered, his crimson eyes turning cold like glaciers, "If that's the case, then die at my hands."
The moment his words reached the Awakened's ears, Haro Ki's flat hand shot forward. His speed and strength were extremely high, posing no problem as his flat hand pierced through the Awakened's chest. The Awakened flinched and tried to escape his Lord's wrath. Unfortunately, it was all for naught.
Haro Ki's flat hand coiled around the Awakened's heart. He twisted his hand and tore the Awakened's heart out of his body with brute force. The black cloud shrouding the Awakened's head disappeared as the Awakened slumped to the ground. A moment later, Haro Ki threw the Awakened's heart at his face, ignoring the tears trickling down the young Awakened's face.
A smug and superior look plastered on his face as he watched the miserable end of the Kitsun Awakened in front of him.
The satisfaction died down quickly, replaced by anger and frustration.
"Who else wants to report how useless they are?" Haro Ki asked, clearly not done relieving his stress.
The small group of Kitsun Summons and Awakened didn't dare to say anything. They avoided their Lord's eyes and lowered their heads as low as possible.
"Trash. Utter trash. Why do you guys even exist?!" The Kitsun Lord cursed, turning away from the small group, "Bring me to the rest of the reinforcement. The vice leader owes me an explanation!"
The wrath of the Kitsun Lord was easy to perceive by everyone. However, little did anyone realize just how enraged Haro Ki truly was.
The Kitsun Lord's family heirloom had been stolen and nobody could explain how that was even possible. Nobody dared to explain the situation to him face-to-face. Even the Captain of the Elementals Cave security didn't dare to meet him head-on. The captain decided to commit suicide instead of facing the Kitsun Lord's wrath.
That was probably for the best, but it enraged the Kitsun Lord even further.
He didn't even have anyone to torture for the next few months after his useless subordinates lost the Elemental Empress, his family's most important asset – also considered his family's heirloom. He had to get back the Elemental Empress, otherwise, he might not survive the wrath of his elders. It had been his mission to nurture another Emperor-ranked Core for the next generation of the Ki family, after all.
But now…now the Elemental Empress had escaped. She was in the clutches of another Lord, a Lord who had been foolish enough to invade his territory to reduce his forces one by one.
The Lord didn't even bring ten subordinates with him to attack Haro Ki's territory. It was only obvious that the foolish Lord sought death.
But there was also something that bothered the Kitsun Lord.
The invading Lord and his subordinates possessed too much knowledge. They were only Awakened at the 2nd Tier, yet their knowledge of the Kitsun race, the mechanics of Haro Ki's territory, and the traps and trickery used by Haro Ki was simply too profound.
It was almost like the invading Lord and his subordinates could see the future, or that they knew the infrastructure of Haro Ki's territory as well as the Awakened, who had been working for the Kitsun Lord since the days he entered the Origin Expanse.
It was eerie and confused Haro Ki because it didn't make any sense.
'Did he torture my subordinates to obtain these pieces of information? Are they using Soultraits to procure insider information?'
The Kitsun Lord was led to the main group of the reinforcement where the vice-leader was already waiting for him.
"Welcome back your majesty. I have been waiting for your return for a long time. I sincerely hope that your breakthrough to a Higher Lifeform succeeded. There had been a minor incident, but you don't need to worry about that. Your majesty didn't have to grace us with his majestic appearance!" The vice leader greeted, his voice overflowing with seriousness.
Haro Ki ignored the vice leader's slimy comments and stared at him like dead meat instead. Of course, his breakthrough to the 4th Tier didn't succeed. Haro had been pulled away from the enlightenment chamber to return to the Origin Expanse because his useless subordinates were neither strong nor intelligent enough to kill a handful of Tier-2 Awakened.
Instead, his trashy subordinates allowed close to 20,000 Summons, and 170 Awakened to die. But that wasn't even the worst because they had yet to catch the invaders, who had continued to wreak havoc and already destroyed three Beast Ranches.
The Kitsun Lord's losses were terrifying, especially the fortune he wasted for attempting to upgrade his War Rune. His advancement to the 4th Tier failed, and all his invested money had been burned to a cinder.
Haro Ki was not merely angry at this point. He was fuming in fury and longed for the death of the invading Lord and his subordinates.
"I hope you have good news and an even better reason why the reinforcement is still in the Untamed Jungle and not hunting down the invader in the Savannah. If not, hope that I'll get back what belongs to me, otherwise, you won't see the outside of the torture chamber for a very long time," The Kitsun Lord said coldly.
"And I'm not talking about a few weeks."
