Haro Ki's life and choices had been predetermined from the moment he was born.
The Ki family was not a family with high social standing, but they were successful merchants that focused on the production of elemental crystals and element seeds. One of the Ancestors of the Ki family raised a newborn Lesser Elemental to become an Elemental Emperor by nurturing it for several centuries. Unfortunately, the Elemental Core of the Elemental Emperor sustained massive cracks as the Core of a Lesser Elemental was never supposed to advance to an Emperor-level Core.
Despite the cracks, the Elemental Emperor was able to produce an heir by sacrificing a part of his damaged Core. The Emperor created another Emperor-Level Core that would birth an Elemental Emperor once enough origin energy had been supplemented to it.
The Ancestor of the Ki family from a thousand years ago was already old and he didn't have anything of value left. His territory was about to disappear due to his unhealthy obsession with the Elemental Emperor. All that was on his mind had been the Elemental Emperor rather than the protection of his territory.
Therefore he lost his territory all while the Elemental Emperor he raised with painstaking efforts died. Only the Emperor Core was left behind. Too old and weak to raise another Elemental Emperor, the Ancestor of the Ki family decided to hand over the Emperor Core to his youngest son. His youngest son was still in possession of a territory. It was large and filled with resources that could be used to nurture the Emperor Core, create an Elemental Emperor, and use the Elementals to fight one's enemies.
From the day the ancestor handed over the Emperor Core to one of his descendants, it became a tradition to create Emperor and Empress Cores for the descendants of the Ki family, therefore allowing the subsequent generation of the Ki family to create their own society of elementals that would fight for them.
Haro Ki was no different. His War Rune manifested when he reached adulthood, and he obtained the only Empress Core his father's Elemental Emperor had been able to produce over the course of decades. Raised in an environment filled with the desire to torture their servants and slaves, Haro Ki never thought that it was wrong to hurt others. On the contrary, he believed that others should feel grateful that he was willing to hurt them. It was a sign that he was interested in witnessing their pain. They should thank him for that kind of generosity!
However, while Haro Ki was interested in inflicting pain and suffering on others, he quickly lost interest in continuously torturing his slaves and servants. They didn't react much to his actions, which made him feel bored quickly. Therefore, the Origin Expanse turned out to be a heavenly place that was made for him.
The moment he entered the Origin Expanse, he learned about the true pleasure provided by torturing those who never felt much pain, in the first place. His territory was located in the Untamed Jungle, which ought to be a disadvantage. The weakest monsters located in the Untamed Jungle were at the Lowest Tier-1 with Common combat prowess. That should be strong enough to deal with a Mid Inferior Tier-1 Kitsun. In fact, even three Mid Inferior Tier-1 Kitsun might not be able to deal with the monsters of the Untamed Jungle. The jungle monsters knew their territory well and possessed enough intelligence to use the surrounding environment to their advantage.
But it was not a disadvantage for Haro Ki. He awakened the Cloud Domain less than a minute after he entered the Origin Expanse. Afterward, he used the ten days grace period granted by the Will through the protection barrier that protected every newly constructed territory for the first ten days of its appearance. Haro Ki accumulated the Cloud Domain while being still inside the territory's protected area. Then he spread the Cloud Domain to strike monsters in their sleep. He shrouded them with the Cloud Domain, deprived them of their sight, the ability to absorb the surrounding energy, and the oxygen they needed desperately to survive.
Suffocating them slowly, Haro Ki's Cloud Domain expanded and he continued to hunt monsters without a need to enter the dangerous areas. His Soultrait might have been rather low-ranked but since it possessed an extremely high restriction, it harbored tremendous power. Not everyone possessed a gaseous body part. Therefore, Haro Ki had been extremely fortunate to manifest the Cloud Domain – even more so since the Cloud Domain was a perfect tool to torture a large number of people at once and make them suffer as much as possible.
Haro Ki enjoyed watching the monsters of the Untamed Jungle suffer as they suffocated due to his attacks. He advanced to Tier-1 quickly and expanded his territory inch by inch. It didn't take long before he had accumulated enough energy to awaken the Empress Core he had obtained from his father.
It was time to awaken the Elemental Empress of his territory. But beforehand, Haro Ki collected a wide variety of Soul Pacts to make sure that he could bind the Elemental Empress to himself by force.
Haro Ki spent his time channeling energy into the Empress Core in which several weeks passed. The Elemental Empress was born after the 4th week, and her fate for the next decade was predetermined by her birth. She was forced into signing a Soul Pact even before her form had taken shape, and she was bound to Haro Ki.
After this day, a period of excitement and pleasure began for Haro Ki. He began to torture the Elemental Empress, and force her to create more Elemental Cores which would then result in the birth of dozens of Lesser Elementals. While he tortured the Lesser Elementals, many died at Haro Ki's hands until he decided to use the Lesser Elementals as a combat force against his enemies in the Savannah region.
Five territories lay adjacent to the border of the Untamed Jungle. None of the territories dared to expand into the Untamed Jungle, but they fought each other to determine the true Ruler of the Savannah region. Neither had expected the attacks of a Lord who spawned in the Untamed Jungle. One of the territories was overrun by 10,000 Lesser Elementals – mostly because the Fire Elementals turned themselves into large-scale bombs that tore down the settlements of their enemies. The memories spreading through Michael jumped a few years ahead to Haro Ki using the Cloud Domain against a Lord who had annexed several other territories. The Lord's military power exceeded 100,000 combatants and he was crowned as the most likely candidate to become the ruler of the Savannah region. He was feared by many due to his tremendous power.
However, the Lord couldn't do anything against Haro Ki's Cloud Domain…not after Haro Ki sacrificed 20,000 Kitsun to drain their energy and Kitsun Cloud to expand his Cloud Domain faster and increase its power. The Cloud Domain continued to drain the surrounding energy and oxygen to expand over the course of 24 hours, watching the enemies suffer until Haro Ki finally decided to infiltrate the enemy's territory with it. The Cloud Domain spread throughout a large portion of the enemy's territory, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians even before it reached the main army of the Lord. The Lord put up a brave fight against the tremendous power of the Cloud Domain, but he failed at the end of the day. Haro Ki utilized the exceptional power of the Cloud Domain very well. All he had to pay attention to was to cancel the utilization of Cloud Domain once it reached a specific size. After it crossed a certain threshold even the Kitsun Lord couldn't control the Cloud Domain anymore. This threshold naturally increased as Haro Ki accumulated more Soul Power by advancing his Tier and expanding his territory's population. Once the Lord and his army of 100,000 members had been eliminated, the Kitsun Lord was unstoppable. He looted his enemy's corpses with a simple touch and harvested the goods generated by the Will of the Origin Expanse to expand his territory and summon more Kitsun. At the same time, he digested the energy influx obtained from every kill slowly and steadily, improving his Tier over the course of time.
Even though Cloud Domain was a powerful Soultrait, it had a long cooldown. The larger the size of the expanded cloud and the longer he used it, the longer Haro Ki had to wait for the cooldown to end before he could use his Soultrait once again. That was a big downside of his…1-Star Soultrait. It was extremely powerful due to its restrictions but the restrictions were also what deemed such a lethal Soultrait to be just a 1-Star Soultrait. It could only be utilized by a few beings, and those beings could only draw out their full potential once every few months. Therefore, Haro Ki decided not to rely on his Soultrait all the time. He created Beast Ranches with bloodthirsty beasts and focused more on the Elemental Empress – something he loved to do. His obsessiveness with the Elemental Empress increased, which resulted in the creation of many more Soul Pacts that wore down the Elemental Empress both physically and mentally.
Instead of continuing to expand his territory right after the cooldown of Cloud Domain ended, Haro Ki decided to come up with a foolproof plan to eliminate the three most tenacious Lords bordering his territory; the Valyr, the Zynur, and the Laprix. Their territory was located next to each other and Haro Ki wanted to make use of that.
He desired to attack the three Lords simultaneously, using Cloud Domain's true power to the full extent once he advanced to a Higher Lifeform. He had amassed more than enough wealth and means of transportation for everything necessary. Yet, before he could even make use of his entire wealth an unknown variable had shown up, foiling his carefully crafted plan.
Michael Fang, a Lord from the Untamed Jungle appeared out of nowhere…and he took what was the most important to him.
He took the Elemental Empress!!
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