Divide and conquer was an old, old axiom. It was old because it worked.
Manuel smiled. If he had been a few centuries younger, it might have split into a grin.
He had been quietly, ever-so-quietly, moving gamepiece after gamepiece, sending cultivators into the Cannibal Sect territories, scouting further and further.
Five years ago he had uncovered something. The Blood Arrays used by the Cannibal Sect served as cultivation device, defensive array, and security against Clan cultivators all in one. They used blood methods to detect outsiders, and become progressively more intricate as one penetrated further into Cannibal Sect territory. Of course, he'd known all this for centuries.
What he
hadn't known was how to use Child Corpse Gulper's leg as the foundation for a new Blood Key, one allowing him access to practically anything Child Corpse Gulper had himself had access to, which had been the vast majority of the Sect's possessions. It had been two years after that, his spying had truly borne fruit. A slow infiltration, but the keys allowing him to plunder arrays for their knowledge and records. Often incomplete, but he had begun to put together a picture of the Cannibal Sect.
Slowly at first, and then faster and faster, he found nothing but depopulated territories. Empty villages, ruined cities. Corpses, dried-up and withered lining the streets, from city centre to the traders entering it. By his count, at least ten million mortals had been consumed.
It was then his greatest advantage occurred. A single Foundation Building expert of his had died, consumed by Child Corpse Gulper. A shame, but the woman had known her risks going in. However, as he was tearing away at her legs with his razor-sharp teeth, she remembered her duty to the clan. A jade slip, sending messages across vast distances, directly to him. Child Corpse Gulper had advanced to mid-level Nascent Soul.
He sighed, and quickly looked down at her details. A Callista, though that in itself was not unexpected. They had risen in prominence considerably of late, with that slip of a girl showing the strongest bloodline he'd seen in nearly a millennium. He would have the details sent to the girl, though not the specifics. Her great-aunt had died bravely, and brought considerable benefits to the Clan.
They were jockeying for position, of course. Not in so many words, but the Callista branch of the Golden Devil Clan had not had an elder for nearly three hundred years, largely due to the losses in their bloodline. They had been consolidating, rebuilding their strength. And now they had been accruing merit after merit. The Merit Contribution Board tracked more than simple individual contributions, after all. Families and lines also wished to purchase things, such as putting themselves in contention for various positions of authority. This allowed some corruption, of course, but a territory of forty million people would be unmanageable without
some corruption. The thing was to align incentives, to make doing good rewarding in itself, not merely to hope in the goodness of the Clan.
The great advantage was it aligned the selfish desires of various families to gain power with their service to the Clan, and the Callistas, by any mark, had become major contributors. Not enough to outright
buy an Eldership, but Aikaterine Callista was probably the third-most talented general he could see, and she was in Early Core Formation, meaning she had a good long life ahead of her. With some resources she could easily be pushed into Mid Core before taking on the role. It would take some doing, but Rina was too promising not to offer some favour to.
It sounded biased, and perhaps it was. But Manuel knew the power of the Old Blood, the fabled Blood of Gold. His own Blood of Bronze ran as thinly as it was possible to do so and still possess it. He hadn't even began manifesting any bronze traits until Foundation Establishment! He had on occasion used the slivers of will protecting the Clan for guidance, though only rarely. Athenia Callista had given him some wisdom eight hundred years ago, helping him advance to Nascent Soul. Moreover, he knew if she were alive, a fight between them - even in the same realm! - would be more aptly considered an execution.
He doubted the girl would reach such heights, but the Callistas were probably the best choice for the Elder of War, or
Protostrator. Politically convenient, linked to a powerful manifestation of the blood, and it would reward three centuries of relatively unrewarded toil. He'd wring them for a few more resources, of course, in the form of commitments and Spirit Stones to help raise new warriors, but the other two choices were far older, and didn't come with the same level of familial support.
This, he thought, all linked into Child Corpse Gulper. He felt his Dao rise, felt the Heavens shift in vague protest, felt darkness surrounding secrets lift as his mind divined truths that from others would be mere suppositions, but with enough information he could simply
know. As long as he could reason it out, the more his foes sought to keep their secrets, the easier it was for him to find them in the gloom of secrecy.
The man had advanced to Mid Nascent Soul.
So.
He had either killed and consumed Old Cannibal, or used millions of mortals and his own Sect to make up the difference.
If he had done the former, there would have been no need to kill so many mortals.
Therefore, Old Cannibal
and Child Corpse Gulper were still alive. And of course, there were insufficient resources for both of them.
Three possible ends.
Firstly, the two allied and attacked their surrounding enemies. Unlikely.
Both he and Jingshen clan could kill and ambush a Nascent Soul. And the two would be at odds, both knowing only one could survive in the end. At worst, he would face a single assault from a mid Nascent Soul, which could be dealt with. Blood Path cultivators were like piles of loose sand, easily fooled and Child Corpse Gulper was less dangerous than he had been. Despite his greater cultivation, he was without lifesaving treasures, which meant he would need to be excessively careful.
Second, civil war, with the two killing one another. Unlikely. Such a conflict would see one dead and the other badly wounded, and then the Cannibal Sect would be at an end. Only a fool would do so.
Thirdly, reaching out to their neighbours to intervene in their conflicts. Ideally after crippling some of their warmaking capacity, and allying with another Nascent Soul to take down their rival. A trade in wealth or territory, no doubt.
Divide and conquer.
His mind went back to those words. By forcing them into a fight, and only assisting the other, he could quite possibly press a wound on one, and kill the other at no cost to himself. In that time, the abandoned territory would be open and easily taken - in theory, he could seize perhaps as much as a fifth, maybe even a quarter of the Cannibal Sect territory.
If, he reminded himself, everything went to plan.
It was another year before Old Cannibal reached out to him.
Manuel felt like laughing. He had sent Ioannes Vatatzes out, his current
Protostrator.
To his death, of course.
Or at least, that's what Old Cannibal would have thought. In reality, Ioannes was safe at home, a clone of his generated at great expense. Only in the Early Core Formation Realm, but the poison would make it believable. He sent him out to gather men on the border, to build up what looked like a strike into Cannibal Sect territory.
Old Cannibal had materialised there, and killed the clone swiftly, taking its head. He had proceeded to demolish a local city of fifty thousand people, killing them down to the last man, woman, and child.
Manuel frowned. He had expected some restraint if the man was looking to make a deal. Old Cannibal was more desperate than he thought.
Still, it had worked. He would believe that the Clan were in no shape to wage a war. If Manuel couldn't get the deal he wanted, he would have an exceptionally easy time of invading, especially against a Sect who believed their chief commander to be dead.
Three days later - the exact travel time from the clan headquarters, Manuel stepped out in the air above the ruined city, meeting Old Cannibal there.
The other Nascent Soul looked at him.
"Manuel fucking Konstantinos. The thorn in my side at Xi Yi City. The pissant little
fuck who stopped me consuming Alia Fortuna. Bearer of some of the worst bronze flesh I've
ever seen, but rest assured, I'll still enjoy chewing on you while you're still alive, eating you down to the last skerrick of flesh before I consume your Soul and consign you to the void."
Manuel raised one eyebrow mockingly.
"Sun Diaxiang. I see your manners haven't improved. Here to beg for me to finally help put your wagging tongue to rest?"
Old Cannibal swiped at him, a wave of raw force exuding Blood Qi smashing towards him.
Manuel evaded it easily, dodging out of range.
"Let me guess. The smell finally caused your Sect to drive you out, and now you're here to plague me for my precious Three Lizard Soap. Here."
Manuel pulled a bar of soap out of his Immortal Aperture and threw it over.
Old Cannibal caught it, crushing it in one hand.
"I'm here with an offer, shitstain."
Manuel felt his heart rise. Everything was within his expectations.
"Oh? And why should I listen to you? You just destroyed one of my cities?"
Old Cannibal laughed.
"Child Corpse Gulper and I are fighting. Here's my offer. You help me kill him. I cede these lands-"
He threw over a jade slip containing a
map.
"-to you, and don't try and retake them for a hundred years."
Manuel almost sighed. How droll.
Offer him depopulated lands, wait for the Clan to make them wealthy again. Seize them and consume them. A pitiful ploy, he thought, especially for a Nascent Soul Elder.
"So, I get some empty lands and a promise from you? In return for risking my life?"
Old Cannibal cursed.
"What more do you want, shit-for-brains? Who am I, your father to offer you more?"
Manuel grinned openly. Such an agreement would be bound by several Heavenly Treasures - if he were to make it, he truly would be bound by it.
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[ ] Accept the Offer - You will gain the Depopulated Regions on the map, as well as a 100-year grace period. Manuel will assist in killing Child Corpse Gulper. This is not especially risky - two Nascent Souls versus one without lifesaving treasures and with what would be an unstable cultivation base should at worst see Manuel wounded.
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[ ] Negotiate - If you choose to negotiate, ask for things below. The more you ask, the less chance of the offer being accepted, though. Negotiate is Accepting the Offer but asking for more before agreeing. To Negotiate, create a Plan with what you're asking for below.
More Land - You could ask for the Scarred Lands and Oasis Rebel lands on top of what is already being offered - one, or both.
Child Corpse Gulper's Corpse and Immortal Aperture - An Immortal Aperture can be turned into valuable storage items, and there are likely many treasures stored within.
More Time - 100 years is not long enough! Ask for more time to rebuild the lands and make it worth your while to hold them. 200 years is the extreme outside of what Old Cannibal would consider.
Wealth - Fuck you, pay me. Ask for Wealth in units. 1 Wealth is roughly 10 years of savings for the Clan, and 5 Wealth is worth as much as an additional piece of land. The corpse and Aperture is worth 10 Wealth, as is a Heavenly Treasure.
Heavenly Treasures (Nascent Soul Level) - Request a Heavenly Treasure to be remitted to you once you kill Child Corpse Gulper.
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[ ] Decline the Offer - Prepare for a war in force against the Cannibal Sect. Much riskier, but the gains could be much higher. With your new Blood Key and surviving
Protostrator, you can easily prosecute such a war against the Cannibals.
