One Wish to Own the World

Atum knelt on one knee. His body was battered with holes. The area around him, tainted by his Demonic Qi-infused blood, lay dead and withered. The combatants listened to Atum's labored breath in the silence of the plain.

He looked up at his opponent towering above him. Ken seemed like the god of death in his eyes, a natural enemy, a predator that was there to devour him.

'Mind-Poisoning Domain – Paralyze Mode.'

"I commend your power. You have done well, surviving against the five of us while forcing out our best moves."

Ken was not in a rush. His opponent was kneeling, injured beyond recognition. Atum sniffed out the rampaging Sword Qi with his muscles again, and his wounds only worsened.

His veins were sliced, organs punctured, and bones fractured. He was practically naked with nearly half of his skin gone. No mortal would ever survive this condition. As a matter of fact, even a sixth-stage cultivator might not be able to survive it for long, let alone fight in it.

"Don't think you have won, Devil's Heir. I still have a few tricks up my sleeves," Atum gritted his teeth and produced a few black pills out of his ring. "Many see alchemy as a weakness, a crippling blow to combat prowess. However, it's not true. Pills are just as dangerous as techniques if exploited correctly."

With those words, the black pills turned into dust in his fingers and black smoke enveloped the whole area in a radius of kilometers. It was his one final move before deciding to run away. One last attempt to kill his enemies and abduct Ken for his potential knowledge about luck cultivation.

From that point on, his enemies would only grow stronger while he might remain the same. The earlier he could kill them, the safer his future would be.

'Hmm, my technique has dissipated,' Ken noticed right away. Every ounce of Qi he let out of his body was lost instantly, leading him to believe the fog made the control of Qi impossible within it. 'It also means he can't form his domain, otherwise, it'd be useless against seventh-stage cultivators.'

Ken's conjectures were right. Atum never imagined he would need the pills' help to deal with sixth-stage cultivators, so he never tried to create pills that would give an edge to domain users.

"In a world without Qi, let me see how you fair against a Demonic Qi cultivator." With his lips torn and gums damaged, Atum's smile was a terrifying sight. His bloody teeth made him look like a true demon.

"What a coincidence, we also have a Demonic Qi user in our team," Ken smiled back and a heavy figure landed by his side. The blindfolded monk took his fighting stance, ready to fight alongside Ken. Three more figures appeared behind them.

They all had their constitutions changed into what Ken called Demonic Body by the combination of the Godly Qi and Henry's Demonic Qi. They were strengthened enough to hold their ground using seventh-grade weapons.

As though they agreed on a signal, the wind blew the withered flowers away, and the six of them vanished from their spots. Henry and Ken took the front line while Alaric backed them with his spear. Vivienne did not use a weapon either, but the group learned that she always had her methods, while Tiara could only dash for a bit of support and retreat.

Atum's arm collided with Henry's forearms, propelling the monk backward with a clang akin to two metallic clubs striking each other. Despite having the upper hand, the evil cultivator did not enjoy any respite, and his palm tried to close on Ken's blade to shut it down. Without their weapons, most of the team would be harmless to him.

Ken's sharp mind captured the intention, and with a slight twist of his wrist, the flexible sword changed its course, leaving a shallow scratch on the enemy's palm while escaping his grasp.

Alaric used the chance to thrust his spear, but Atum crouched, letting it miss his face. He sent a kick at Ken who managed to rotate on his leg in time to evade it by a hair width, and Tiara used that split second to slash at his thigh, leaving behind a small cut with ice that melted right away due to the black fog.

Vivienne did nothing, standing behind and concentrating on something that nobody knew what she was planning.

After blocking one more swing of Alaric's spear, Atum stomped the ground, generating a quake through sheer physical strength. The three lost their balance for a moment, but Henry was already there to back them up, exchanging a few fists with the evil cultivator, each leaving a blue mark on the monk's skin.

As Atum and Henry exchanged blows, the others circled, looking for openings. Alaric's spear danced dangerously close, while Tiara and Vivienne readied for their turns.

"ARGH! DIE ALREADY!" Atum screamed in frustration. Henry aside, he had no idea how the others were not overwhelmed by his superior strength. He expected to swat them like flies, not to struggle when his body was already on the verge of collapse.

Ken joined the monk to share the burden, however, with his Qi unable to leave his body without disappearing, his techniques turned much weaker. He could not even coat his sword with enough Qi, and even direct hits only left superficial scratches that healed within a minute if he did not re-open them.

"I have bathed in fire and ice, if this is a tenancy competition, you will fall first!" Atum spat in anger.

"Atum," Ken smirked widely as his sword whipped the iron-like body of his opponent repeatedly, "Many see alchemy as a weakness, a crippling blow to combat prowess. Some hold the misconception that alchemists can only bridge that weakness using pills. Let me teach you something today, alchemists can fight!"

'What?' Atum recognized his own words, but he did not understand the last part. Unless you could place your enemy inside your cauldron and cook them, what good was Alchemy in a battle without pills?

*Cough* *Cough*

Atum started coughing out blood, causing him to lose his step and take on Henry's heavy strikes directly.

"What's going on?" He asked anxiously as he backed off the close-combat battle and stumbled back. He was sure that he could still hold on for a few minutes before his body fell apart from the accumulated damage it had sustained.

"You, second-rated alchemist, have consumed impure pills in your life."

Ken laughed loudly as he charged, forcing the coughing enemy to stay in close-range combat.

"What… what are you talking about?"

It was true. As far as Ken knew, he was the only person he knew who had never consumed an impure pill, only taking those he managed to create with 100% purity. His companions' pill diets improved after meeting him, but they also consumed junk before.

Atum inspected his body carefully while fending off the closing-in enemies. To his fright, he finally understood.

"You made my impurities act up!" The realization struck him like a bolt of lightning.

When one took a pill without 100% purity, they would have to expel the impurities from their body. However, it was impossible to expel them all. There would always be a tiny bit, less than 0.1% of the impurities, that would remain behind. They generally remained dormant and only caused damage when too much of them accumulated.

Ken's new technique, Impurities Revenge as he called it, caused those impurities to rage inside the target's body. Each time Ken's sword touched his enemy, the impurities would get a pulse that made them cause inner damage to Atum's body.

'I must run!' Atum thought in despair. He sprinted through the black smoke, outrunning all the others. He saw the border of the smoke right ahead of him, yet before he could celebrate his escape, he sensed a gale of wind, and a stunning woman with platinum hair blocked his path to freedom.

"I don't really want to fight. Stay put obediently and we can avoid all the hassle," she said.

"Move!" He screamed and tried to ram into her. He was still confident in his power to bulldoze his way through someone of a lower stage who couldn't use Qi.

Unfortunately, his share of surprises was not over yet. The woman raised her palm and the ground itself bent to her will, sending a thick pillar from beneath her feet to meet with him.

The stone shattered upon their clash, but it slowed him enough to allow Vivi to hit his chest with her palm and send him back with a strong gust.

"You… how can you use Qi inside the smoke?" He asked in disbelief. It was a seventh-grade pill that even prevented him from channeling Qi out of his body, let alone one measly cultivator at the Sea of Consciousness Expanding stage.

"Why should I tell you?" She asked with an annoyingly beautiful grin. "I told you to stay put. If you listened, wouldn't it be easier for everyone?"

Her attack hardly did any damage, but the wind was enough to send him back a few meters, letting the other members of the group catch up.

"Seems like you are surrounded."

In a moment of resignation, Atum closed his eyes and accepted his fate, sitting down on the hard cold ground. He would never run away. Now he knew the reason all the mishaps on his way consumed his luck. The heavens were trying to prevent him from meeting with Ken because meeting with the Devil's Heir marked his doom.