Shifting my gaze to Mu Ning Xue, who was strangely blushing after my speech, I sighed heavily. Feeling emotions isn't always fun, especially when you suddenly understand things you shouldn't. Eh, how do I play dumb log now? My conscience would eat me alive! Oh well, nothing for it—give her time to burn out. Once the novelty of emotions wears off, cousin will back off on her own. Eh, who am I kidding?
Shaking my head, I hurried to switch from girl topics to something neutral. Like these slackers I'd voluntarily taken under my wing. Why bother with this hassle? I won't see these people again after practice. Except cousin. They're dense—let them be; why fix it? Let them get killed by the nearest monster after my "care" ends—what's it to me?
But after some thought, I realized what a golden opportunity had fallen into my lap. The clans of these good-for-nothings are strong but don't surpass even Mu Nujiao's clan, let alone Ai Clan or the Mu (ice) clan behind my girls. They don't even have High-level mages among their "sect ancestors." I wasn't joking when I said my "roof" lets me flip them off after killing their heirs.
Sure, they could escalate, get influential backing, or hire assassins. But fact is, they're weak on their own. That doesn't negate their influence, though. Even Zhao Manyan's relative from a minor family branch is here. Weak branch, but her connections outnet many prestigious clans.
Unite them all under the Tan Clan—which, I hear, is negotiating with Ai and Mu clans backing my girls... That's a solid force, boosting my influence in the country if I can rely on it.
I see no reason they'd refuse cooperation. Worst case, wait till I break through to Curse and subjugate by force. Easier to control an organized structure than hunt them individually.
But I doubt it'll come to that: I've got ideas to tip the scales my way, making them respect me as someone to heed, not ignore due to age. Those thoughts for later—after practice. Eh, so much to do...
First off, how do I subjugate these slackers when their collective view of me is "strong scary boogeyman, stay far away"? Simple and banal—Spirit element.
These young mages' weakness—they haven't earned enough family weight for spirit-protecting artifacts—plays right into my hands. And no, I'm not brainwashing them... not in the usual sense.
I'll teach, as promised to these "kids." Enhancing my words with subtle spiritual pressure? Just part of training. It doesn't count as a spiritual attack and wouldn't affect normally... but this ain't normal.
They just survived a life-or-death moment, making them highly suggestible. Start now, and my first words sink into fertile soil. Then, build the house on a solid foundation. Good thing I laid it from the start of my speech using this method.
Thanks to it, the previously yelling Jing Jing finally shut up and hung her head in shame. Not everyone's conscious, but when the rest wake, they'll be even more receptive to my manipulations. After all, they've already said goodbye to life.
Eh, their weakness is so convenient. My Spirit element's only at Mid-level peak, but don't forget my sixth spiritual boundary peak. Repeat: targets' weakness. By the Totem, some are just late first boundary. Even Mu Ning Xue's only first boundary peak, thanks to Ice Leek training that chips her soul and heals stronger.
With my excellent Spirit control from past life, honed further here by control talent... These kids have no chance. One "authoritative" talk isn't enough for total mind change. This isn't brainwashing—more "rapid adaptation to environment with rule acceptance."
But we're in a wild zone all around us, and I promised to command them until we arrive in Jinlin... I think the leadership will be glad that we linger for a week on the city's outskirts. After all, they wanted to unite the teams from our two universities, right?
Let them think the plan is complete, while I, under the guise of "training," throw them into life-threatening situations, always pulling the kids out at the last moment. And the follow-up lectures dissecting their mistakes, seasoned with ideological indoctrination emphasizing the good of all mankind—that goes without saying.
Heh, I'm even curious how much the talent for control will boost my already pretty solid mind-influence skills. And I need to do it so that even the most scrupulous spirit element mages won't detect any anomalies in these students later on.
Just a simple reevaluation of values and personal growth in life-threatening situations. Everything should seem natural, and my face should appear there at most as a strict big brother and mentor who helped them find the right path in these confusing times.
Having settled on a plan for the coming days, I set about executing it. First, I ordered all the wounded dragged to a visible spot to subconsciously imprint on the students the sight of those who don't follow my commands. Naturally, I didn't say it outright, but explained it as making it easier for Bai Tingting to treat them. She's already exhausted as our sole healer—how can we make her run around the entire camp chasing patients?
Watching the expressions on these blockheads harden as they realized what could have happened to them without my intervention, I smiled covertly, reinforcing and amplifying it with my spiritual pressure. Heh, this'll be a fun week! And don't forget, I'm doing all this not for personal gain, but for the Common good! All for mankind's survival!
Wonder why I suddenly crave lemon slices? Is my life too sweet, and I want to sour it up? Eh, whatever—time to set up a new unfortunate acci... ahem, I mean, send them all to the next training session.
Four days later. Jinlin.
"Lu Nian, what the hell? Why haven't they shown up yet? Are they so weak they vanished on the road? My time is valuable—I doubt your budget can handle another week of waiting," said a young man of twenty-four or twenty-five.
He had black hair and matching eyes. His aura was so grim that even the soldiers who'd dared follow their boss Lu Nian into desertion kept their distance from him. And the guy had a pretty dour look, clad head to toe in black. Though, given the organization he belonged to, it didn't seem out of place.
"Fsh-sh-sh."
Exhaling smoke from his pipe, the sturdy red-haired man—none other than Lu Nian, who'd deserted the army with his men to continue forbidden research on breeding a new element—decided to reply.
"And it's not me paying you—it's those guys over there. If they want to burn more of their cash waiting for our targets, so be it. I've already shown massive generosity by not ratting you all out to the authorities through back channels."
Lu Nian pointed his pipe at three figures in blue robes standing a bit apart from them.
"Hmph, don't play the upright soldier, Lu Nian—considering how many died in your experiments, you'd fit right in as a deacon in blue. And by the way, that's no joke; your brains would be useful to our organization," spoke one of the blue-robed men, apparently the leader of the trio.
"Don't lump our actions together. All the sacrifices I made were for mankind's good. Your goal is its destruction—we're fundamentally different."
The soldier shoved his pipe back in his mouth.
"And yet that didn't stop you from coming to us for help against that kid and his battle harem."
Amusement dripped from the blue-robed man's words. He seemed to enjoy belittling the soldier's honor, which the man was so proud of.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, and I can't pass up the perfect research material in their team. After this trip, the big clans will likely snatch him up, and I won't get near him. And didn't you hire backup from the Assassins' Temple? Guess you're not so sure you can handle these 'kids' either."
Lu Nian bared his teeth, jabbing his pipe toward the black-clad young man who'd started the whole conversation.
"Hmph, we're just playing it safe. He's already wrecked too many of our cardinal's plans for us to get sloppy. If we could mobilize High-level mages right now, we'd send one."
The man scowled, unwilling to admit he outright feared that little punk's power. Too unpredictable. Though he wasn't alone—the organization was footing the bill for the assassin's fee, not him.
"Back to the point: where are our targets?"
The black-clad guy steered the talk back. He was openly sick of hanging around here, and even big money didn't make it palatable.
"My brother, on the joint team from the two universities, stopped sending me their location three days ago. No idea what happened, but his last message said that guy took command of the team and led them on a detour via the long route. Probably decided to humble the clan kids while he had the chance. I figure max three or four more days, and they'll be here."
Lu Nian finally spilled something useful, puffing his pipe nonchalantly. Only it and his higher purpose reconciled him to working with civilization-wreckers like the Black Church. Their ideas and ideals clashed too hard.
"Hmph, so we wait four days, and if they're not here by then, we go hunting."
One of the blue-robed deacons decided and turned away. He didn't like talking to the soldier who clearly despised them either.
"Hey, guys. Wanna play cards? I'm bored."
The black-clad guy pulled out a deck of playing cards but got ignored by all. They paid him to kill, not to annoy them with kid stuff.
"Fine, no takers. Guess I'll count birds flying overhead. One bird... Two birds... Three birds..."
Everyone's eyes twitched at the pro assassin's new whim. This was gonna be a long four days.