The subsequent few days on the Blood Plains were a grueling blur of screaming artillery and the stench of burning flesh, so Sunny decided to take a much-needed rest.
He curled up on his cot within the command pavilion and wrapped his dark silk robes around him, becoming a completely exhausted, demonic cocoon.
In the early morning, the harsh, metallic clashes of the Death Sworn Vanguard drilling their formations could be heard outside the heavy entrance flap.
Quite a number of the surviving disciples had already started their day's slaughter, adding a gruesome sort of liveliness to the devastated outpost.
The jarring sound of something sharp tapping against obsidian came from beside the cot.
Along with the sound, faint psychic vibrations echoed in Sunny's mind.
A pale hand reached out from beneath the dark silk and accurately grabbed the wooden hilt of a nearby dagger.
With a weak groan, Sunny pushed himself up.
Only after a few minutes of silent contemplation did Sunny swing his legs over the edge of the cot. He sat up and yawned. His long black hair was a tangled mess, ruining his usually flawless, aristocratic villain aesthetic.
"Ah, this won't do. If I don't get up and maintain my terrifying aura, someone is going to try and poison my tea." Sunny rubbed the sleep from his glowing crimson eyes.
Then he got off the cot, adjusted his silver-trimmed robes, washed his face in a basin of chilled moon-water, and prepared to inspect the morning spoils.
Crunch, crunch, crunch—
Rhythmic, wet tearing sounds came from the center of the pavilion.
Sunny turned around to look while adjusting his heavy, spiked armguards.
The corners of his mouth twitched.
In the center of the room, the Phantom Ash Scorpion had a massive, severed limb of an Orthodox Siege-Beast pinned under its claws and was staring expectantly at him. Its two mandibles were like a pair of jagged shears, snapping against the bone, making loud crunching sounds.
The limb was entirely stripped of flesh, with nothing left but marrow.
"Wait a while..." Sunny motioned for the Scorpion to keep still.
With a wave of his hand, a localized telekinetic array activated, flipping a heavy iron grate over the pavilion's internal fire pit.
A thick slab of marinated Terror-Boar meat sizzled upon contact. A heavy, spicy aroma filled the air.
Quickly, Sunny removed the seal from a clay jug resting near the fire. His restorative Blood-Ginseng brew was simmering inside. He channeled a sliver of dark Qi to cool the liquid and poured it into a skull-goblet.
The pungent ginseng scent and roasting meat aroma mixed wonderfully together. Sunny motioned the Scorpion over with a pale finger, "Come here."
The Scorpion scuttled over, dropping the stripped bone, and stared with glowing ruby eyes as its master tossed the massive slab of sizzling Terror-Boar meat onto the obsidian floor.
Sunny looked at the leftover brew in the jug. He would force the Shadow-Ghoul Ape to drink the rest later to accelerate its core condensation.
...
"Young Master." Disciple Zhao was already kneeling at the entrance flap when Sunny finally emerged from the sleeping quarters into the main audience area of the pavilion.
Sunny nodded his head in silent reply and took his seat upon the spine-throne.
Slightly past the hour of the bleeding sun, Sunny's communication jade slip suddenly vibrated violently.
"Speak," Sunny commanded, channeling his voice into the jade. There were few people who possessed the access sigil to contact him directly.
"Supreme One, it is this lowly servant, Quartermaster Jin."
Sunny finally realized what was going on. It was the terrified supplier from the Resource Hall.
The desperate, groveling manner in which Jin had parted with the sect's premium Corrupted Spirit Stones during his last request left a deep impression on Sunny. Quartermaster Jin did not even think twice about bypassing the Elder Council's rationing limits.
"Supreme One, I mentioned previously that I had acquired another rare, highly toxic specimen that I hoped you could personally refine, yes? Do you have time to receive the offering today?"
"Bring it to the pavilion," Sunny said coldly, nodding his head even though the man couldn't see him.
"At once!" Quartermaster Jin happily cut the connection.
After the jade went dark, Sunny mentally categorized Jin as 'Unlimited Resource Glitch.'
Sunny's command pavilion was relatively large. His spine-throne was positioned perfectly to allow the eerie, purple light from the Blood Plains to cast a long, intimidating shadow across the obsidian floor.
That's quick, Sunny thought with surprise. He had only cut the connection less than ten minutes ago. Did the Quartermaster sprint across the entire war camp?
"Enter," commanded Sunny.
"Greetings," said a middle-aged cultivator draped in heavy, rune-carved iron chains as he stepped into the pavilion.
The chained cultivator was surprised to see that Sunny was not actively torturing someone. But almost immediately after, his deep-seated fear of the Heavenly Demon Sect's hierarchy prevented him from showing any inappropriate expressions on his scarred face.
"You are Young Master Sunny, I presume? I am the acting commander of the Abyssal Vanguard Mercenaries. My name is Captain Vane."
"Speak your purpose, Captain Vane," replied Sunny, not offering a nod or a smile.
"We have heard of your terrifying renown, Young Master. You are the Sect's youngest practitioner of the Flesh-Mending Arts, and even more impressively, our only known master capable of instant fiend-ascension. As such, we would like to offer you a blood-oath to be our mercenary band's supreme flesh-crafter." Captain Vane gave Sunny a deep, formal bow, his chains rattling loudly.
"A supreme flesh-crafter? Explain," Sunny demanded, his voice flat, not simply agreeing straightaway.
"Right, forgive my presumptuousness," Captain Vane said apologetically.
"Our mercenary band mainly provides shock-troopers for the Sect's most suicidal pushes; hence, highly mutated, disposable fiends would be the best choice. For our current contract, my men have captured a brood of wild Razor-Fiend Mantises from the southern rotting swamps."
Sunny was momentarily stunned when he heard the words 'southern rotting swamps.'
His predecessor's mother was once the matriarch of the Southern Swamp Coven, but she had suddenly vanished during a failed dark ritual.
The inner sect was in turmoil because of her disappearance. Things only regained stability when Sunny's father assumed absolute control.
"Right now, our band's first batch of Razor-Fiend Mantises are slowly reaching their breaking point due to the combat stimulants; hence we are hoping to secure your dark arts. As our supreme flesh-crafter, you will be tasked with forcefully mutating our Mantises before they die from exhaustion."
"This blood-oath will not bind your freedom. We will only seek your presence when our band's beasts are on the verge of core-collapse," Captain Vane finally added.
Sunny's brows furrowed, "Why seek me? The sect has entire pavilions dedicated to beast refinement. Also, if I recall correctly, we have several Grand Elders who specialize in the Flesh-Mending Arts. Their cruelty should be much more refined than mine."
Captain Vane shook his head. "Young Master, having achieved such a terrifying mastery without an array at your age, we believe your methods must be uniquely destructive. Also, you might not be aware, but although it is true that there are Grand Elders who can mutate beasts, they demand an exorbitant price in human souls," smiled Captain Vane bitterly. "One of them is Elder Shen He of the Law Enforcement Hall. His demands for live sacrifices would bankrupt my entire band."
"The other is Grandmaster Gu," said Captain Vane with a hint of primal fear in his voice.
"Grandmaster Gu holds the title of the Sect's premier torturer and refuses to work on anything less than a Commander-tier beast. I certainly do not have the sacrifices to request his gaze."
"As for the other standard beast-refiners, honestly speaking, they take months to achieve what rumors say you did in seconds. Rather than those slow, methodical fools, I would rather put my trust in your immediate, volatile genius."
Whether or not Captain Vane's words were meant to flatter him to secure cheap labor, Sunny could not help but feel a wave of profound relief wash over him...
He was, after all, completely faking his entire skillset through the System. If they expected slow, methodical alchemy, he would be exposed instantly.
But hiding his relief was one thing, and maintaining his absolute authority was another thing altogether.
"We can discuss the tribute later, but I dictate the terms of this oath.
"Firstly, I require absolute silence while I work. If any of your mercenaries disturb my refinement process, I will feed them to my scorpion. Secondly, I accept the title, but I am not your servant. I will mutate your beasts only when it amuses me. I merely promise not to mutate the beasts of your direct rivals within the Vanguard. If you accept these absolute terms, we may proceed. If not, remove yourself from my sight."
With that, Sunny leaned back into his spine-throne and rested his chin on his pale hand. He was prepared to be rejected. In all honesty, he only wanted access to their captured beasts to farm fusion materials. He had no actual desire to be a mercenary doctor.
'Supreme flesh-crafter' might sound mighty and important to these cultists, but it just meant more work for the System. Sunny was a little too exhausted to care if the deal fell through.
Captain Vane could not help but flinch. The scars on his face twitched as though he wanted to argue, but the suffocating pressure of Sunny's innate villainous aura choked the words in his throat.
He stared straight at Sunny's glowing red eyes and said, "I submit. I agree to your terms."
'He actually agreed?' Sunny was dumbfounded internally. 'These demonic cultivators really love being threatened.'
After expressing his submission, Captain Vane produced a dark, pulsating parchment made of cured skin from his robes. He presented the blood-contract to Sunny.
Sunny took the gruesome contract in his hands and scanned the glowing crimson runes. The terms were straightforward, but just to be safe, he glanced at Disciple Zhao, who was an expert in sect loopholes.
"The oath is binding, Young Master." This blood-contract was not complicated and many of its clauses heavily favored the flesh-crafter. Zhao bowed his head with certainty only after a quick look at the runes, reaffirming that it was heavily skewed in Sunny's favor.
But Sunny was still a little suspicious. This was not consistent with the cutthroat way demonic mercenaries operated. Such a submissive contract... seemed as though the Captain was desperate.
There were no quotas, and a tribute of five hundred high-grade Corrupted Spirit Stones per month, plus a bounty.
The bounty was fifty spirit stones for every one of the band's Razor-Fiend Mantises that Sunny managed to successfully mutate without killing it.
This Abyssal Vanguard Mercenary band... were they secretly funded by a rival Elder trying to test his abilities?
Sunny was not entirely familiar with the war camp's black market rates, but the tribute definitely felt absurdly low for a supposed 'supreme' title, at only five hundred stones a month. Just a few days ago, he had casually demanded hundreds of stones from the Quartermaster for free.
There were other refinement masters who demanded the complete souls of fallen Paladins, but those were usually binding oaths that required the masters to march with the troops. This meant that after signing the oath, those refiners would be prime targets for Orthodox assassins.
After Sunny pressed his thumb against the parchment, sealing the oath with a pulse of dark Qi, Captain Vane stood up and offered another deep, fearful bow. "I thank the Young Master for his dark mercy."
As he was exiting the pavilion, Captain Vane took out his own communication jade slip. He hesitated for a moment before channeling his Qi.
"Commander... The oath is sealed, yes, the Young Master chose the unbound terms. Commander, there are so many stable beast-refiners in the rear camp, why must we risk his volatile methods..." Something cold was transmitted over the jade then. Captain Vane wore a complex, terrified expression on his scarred face. In the end, he simply bowed his head in resignation to his unseen superior.
As the pavilion flap closed, Quartermaster Jin was standing outside, levitating a massive, sealed iron cage containing a highly toxic, violently thrashing Swamp-Basilisk.
Jin frowned a little as he saw the scarred mercenary captain exit the Young Master's tent. This mercenary looked familiar somehow.
He thought for a moment then suddenly shuddered. He remembered. That was the most ruthless captain of the Abyssal Vanguard, known for sacrificing his own men to win skirmishes.
He seemed to have just finalized a deal with the Young Master.
What horrific alliance were they forging? Quartermaster Jin thought for a while until his mind raced with terrifying political implications.
He decided to think about it no more. Jin nervously pushed the floating cage into the pavilion, determined this time to prove his absolute loyalty to Sunny before the entire camp was drowned in blood.