Nine Venoms Sect Founder

More questions followed and, at the end of the discussion, Harun felt that the world had become an even bloodier mess than he initially thought. Annoyed, he took off his golden mask, throwing it onto the table. For the first time, Gulseni witnessed the looks of her new boss, and her jaw almost hit the floor.

"What? Cat got your tongue? Never seen a baby-faced monk before? Don't drool. Even if you throw yourself at me, I won't necessarily bed you," Harun rebuked the captive sect mistress, and summoned a gourd of dandelion wine. A man of clear priorities, Harun always kept at least 10 varieties of alcohol-filled gourds on him. Before his devotees prepared the feast, he could enjoy an appetizer.

At his right, Gulseni still couldn't close her mouth. How could this adorable baby boy be the dreadful expert that crushed her sect? Did he cultivate the mythical Everlasting Scripture? This couldn't be his true appearance, right? Confused and annoyed, Gulseni kept staring at Harun's face, but unable to endure it further, Mukri stepped in.

"What is wrong with you? So old, yet so eager. Master is only five years old! Show some restraint!" Mukri snapped at Gulseni and snorted for good measure.

"How do you know?" Harun and Gulseni both turned toward Mukri, and with squinting eyes, asked like a choir. Having not expected the sudden cooperation, Mukri floundered, but thinking that Harun was putting him to the test, he regained his composure.

"Humph, isn't that obvious? So much for a Celestial Knight. If Master appears as a five-year-old, it means that he is five-year-old. His mental age doesn't matter. The appearance he keeps reflects the image he desires! So, as subordinates, we need not probe further!" Mukri proclaimed with righteous zeal, turning Gulseni speechless. In her 864 years of existence, she'd seen her fair share of barefaced sycophants, but this Emissary Bull outdid them all. Undoubtedly, he'd become a pillar of the…

BAM!

But as Gulseni pictured Mukri's future triumph, Harun's right fist crashed into the bull, sending him shooting across the sky. Terror-stricken, Gulseni leaped back, and ignoring her, Harun made a grasping motion at Mukri, pulling him back with a surge of telekinetic energies to knock him down with a knuckle strike.

"Master, what have I…"

"The gal! So you mean that for the past 150 years, I wanted to look like a pipsqueak? You even dare call the thorn in my heart the 'image I desire?' Let me redesign your face!" Harun stood on top of Mukri's downed body, and snapped without an ounce of Spiritual Lord dignity.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

"Master...I was wrong! I was wrong!" Mukri pleaded under the rain of tiny fists, but Harun showed no mercy. Before the sight of a baby boy pummeling a colossal bull, Gulseni's face turned blue.

"And so the baby-faced monk became a mobster," Gulseni blurted out. But the nearby Birusk children thought otherwise, believing that in his grand generosity, the Spiritual Lord braved public scorn to re-educate the depraved bull. What a selfless lord!

After venting his frustration, Harun flew back to his chair, glanced left and right, and realized he'd exposed himself. His gangster face took a 180 turn, and he flashed the lads a radiant smile. Graced with the Lord's light, the Birusk children prostrated themselves and exclaimed, "All hail Lord Birusk!"

Having nothing else to say, Gulseni glanced at Mukri, who sobbed with uncontrollable tears and said, "Instead of playing the wimp, go train your Devil Essence. How unsightly. Even with a Devil Stone, you're still reduced to a punching bag. If I had half your luck, I'd have conquered the Mountain Edge World already." Recalling how Mukri stabbed her in the back, Gulseni couldn't resist pouring salt on his wounds. The words had the opposite effect, and Mukri leaped back onto his feet.

"Humph! After I've mastered my Devil Essence, I can beat you black and blue. My future is limitless, but as a loyal servant, I won't take offense from a future concubine's words," Mukri jabbed back, making Gulseni's face pale at the words. Mukri's current control of Devil Essence reached near-zero. Besides activating and deactivating it, he couldn't do much. But after several decades of harsh training, when he mastered the principles hidden within, Gulseni indeed couldn't handle him.

This time, Harun nodded in approval, thinking that the bull was quite sensible. But then the word "concubine" pealed in his mind, and Jiyan's figure took shape. By now, the Birusk clansmen had finished the preparations, and carried booze and plates to fill the tables. Harun closed his eyes, and a slender girl of empyrean beauty appeared between Gulseni and he.

"Beloved, missed me?" Harun jested.

"Naturally," Jiyan spontaneously replied, meeting Harun's jest with an enchanting smile. But then she assessed her surroundings, sweeping Mukri, the Birusk clansmen, and Gulseni at her right--her eyes stopped there. Feeling the temperature drop, and a chill running up her spine, Gulseni met Jiyan's icy-blue gaze, and her eyes almost popped out of her sockets.

"Mistress?" The great clan elders and Empyrean clansmen aside, not many knew what Jiyan looked like. Still, in the contours of her face, Gulseni saw striking similarities to the mistress of her heart. The mistake didn't trigger any change in Jiyan's gaze, and though her current cultivation couldn't match Gulseni's, under the pressure of those piercing eyes, the sect mistress shivered.

"So young yet so murderous. How did I offend her?" Gulseni asked herself.

Sensing the atmosphere tense up, Harun believed that some presentations were in order and said, "Gulseni, Jiyan. Jiyan, Gulseni. Jiyan, I just conquered her sect and added her to our ranks. Gulseni, this is the great elder of my Birusk clan. My right hand man, or woman in this case. Oh…" Instantly, Harun realized the mistake, and his tone underwent a 180 turn.

"Bold Gulseni! How dare you occupy my right hand's seat despite my repeated warnings?" Harun barked, and muddled by the change of tune, Gulseni didn't take note of the name's implications--stuttering to no end:

"Y-you said…"

"Are you trying to drive a wedge between us?"

"I…"

"Unrepentant! Mukri, take her and go run laps! I'm sick of you two!" Harun ordered, and with a "I got you boss" wink, Mukri followed Gulseni, who under Harun's orders, couldn't resist running laps around the Birusk village. Satisfied, Jiyan pulled out a jade slip, engraved the name "Gulseni" at the top of the list, and took her rightful seat—asserting her dominance.

"You were feeling complacent. But now the house matron showed up and, just like me, you must run laps—on your welcome banquet at that. This is karma!" Mukri chortled, making poor Gulseni break into tears. Perhaps, across all eras, no one ever experienced such a "Welcome Banquet."

Meanwhile, the Birusk clansmen's dazed eyes darted between Jiyan and Gulseni, both that kind of appeared out of nowhere, and in awe, said:

"Lord Birusk is extraordinary. With a breath, he summons peerless goddesses, and sets up his personal harem."

"And here I was thinking of offering him my daughter."

"Bah, his standards are too high for the current clan. Maybe in the next generation…"

"Lord Birusk is almighty! All hail Lord Birusk!"