The Lazy System's Path

He placed his sight onto the ground once more.

"I feel like I'm not in any way a system anymore since SA's Informant is in-charge of that. Well, this feels weird and complicated" He decided to stay put for now and wait for the sun to shine before he continues on his journey.

He went to look for a wide flat rock to lay down and take a rest. Of course, the position must not be in the near vicinity of any trees.

When he found one, he sat down. "I should've brought that entire bed with me." He said when the he didn't feel comfortable at all.

Argen opened up his mental storage and took out a pillow that he sneakily snatched during yesterday's night. But he felt cold due to the breeze so he decided to just make a fire.

"Oh no. Could I even collect some twigs for the fire? Aren't the trees here some half-living creepy creatures? If there are indeed twigs I can find for the fire, aren't those their discarded fingers or something?" He felt like crying. If only he had enough cloth to just wrap himself, he wouldn't even bother to think that idea.

"So should I find a cave then? Well, I'm pretty sure I just spotted one not far away from here. But still, what if it's more dangerous than this place? I would just be putting myself into deep sh*t. Fine, let's just stay here. At least if I am 'surrounded' I have a lot of escape routes." He f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y neglected the cold chill in the air and lay on his pillow.

Not long after, he fell asleep.

Nah, he didn't.

"IS THIS F*CKING ANTARCTICA OR SOMETHING!? The cold's just getting worser by the second!" Argen sat up and w.h.i.n.ed like a brat. He was trembling from the cold. He tried to rummage his brains to find for some solution he must've learnt back in SA and to his dismay, the solution was to cultivate.

Cultivating is one of the ways to bring a body's condition back to the optimum one. It includes either dispelling the irritating heat or cold sticking on the body.

Rotating the cultivation base is also a given, but since he was still just a measly Earthly Martial 2, he couldn't.

"I'm afraid that there's nothing I can do except to sit like a damn statue, doing nothing but absorbing the world's spiritual essence until crap would come out of my skin" He summarized his insulting thoughts about cultivation and hesitantly just went on with it.

Argen closed his eyes and for the first time tried the Perpetual Supreme cultivation set.

After 10 minutes he could feel the cultivation set's doubled effects.

[ Progress : 2/ 120 EXP ]

'I don't know whether I should hate or celebrate this amount of reap per 10 minute. I mean, shouldn't the Perpetual Supreme grade be badass?' Argen thought

While cultivating, he was also vigilant in his surroundings. Every now and then he would activate his divine scrutiny for a brief moment, and after confirming nothing was wrong, he would resume cultivation.

----

Not far away from Argen's location was a cave. It was the same cave that Argen had discovered through divine scrutiny.

Inside a hidden location of the cave, a congregation of black creatures were cl.u.s.tered together in a respectful bow towards a throne.

Sitting on it was their king, whom was sitting languidly.

"You mean you have discovered a peculiar individual different from those humans?"

"Yes. We are at a loss on how to proceed since we only devour humans, turn them into one of us, and feed 50 their life-force for Your Highness and for ourselves."

Although they haven't devoured one ever since the wall was erected, they had acc.u.mulated a lot in the past to feed themselves until now. However, this stock won't last forever and they have to do something sooner or later.

"But, that individual feels neither human nor a high-level beast, so we are skeptical whether to trap him or not" One of the black creatures spoke with great honesty. "He gives off a dangerous yet a weakling's aura. It's so confusing" The crowd nodded.

The king grunted in understanding. "Has he noticed something amiss when a lot of 'trees' suddenly vanished? I mean, you in those forms surely means, less in number from the forest's trees."

"Our telepathy tells us that he did not notice anything strange at all. Furthermore, we all were located in the furthest location there is. So even if he's a powerful cultivator, his Divine Scrutiny surely won't be able to cover THAT far." The subordinate said in reassurance and the crowd nodded yet again.

'It has been boring as of late. Maybe I should do something about it.'

When the crowd placed their sight back at the king, they were flabbergasted to see he was gone.

"...?!"

-----

Most of the cold has already been dispersed and Argen decided to stop cultivating for now.

When he opened his eyes, he suddenly felt a chill on his back. He closed his eyes and activated Divine Scrutiny.

He saw a red dot at his spot.

"I-it's behind me..." Argen tensed up.

'Hmm...this guy really does gives off a confusing aura' Thought the silhouette at Argen's back. It was without saying that it was the Underworld's Mother Nature's king.

'My gut tells me he can't fight back, but if we do defeat and devour him, it feels like something really bad will happen. Well, let's continue with the original plan' He thought before he decided to speak.

"Hey, what are you doing in our territory?" He asked Argen.

Meanwhile the 'trees' whom were observing the area, were wracked with worry. Some of them couldn't help but return to their original appearances to secure their king.

"Your highness!" They screamed but then they froze up when realized their mistake.

They had devolved their king's identity to the enemy.

____

"Hey, why are you not answering?" The forest's king continued to asked while he walked to place himself in front of Argen.

Argen was still silent.

"Kid! Hey! Talk!" The king was irritated when Argen ignored him and tried to take away his veil.

"NO...!" Argen fought back but it was futile since the cloth that covered most of his sight was taken off. Argen closed his eyes before he could see the surroundings and with the help of his Divine Scrutiny, he dashed away in fear.

The black king vanished and reappeared to intercept Argen. "Don't run away!"

Argen swerved away from the king's block.

"I said...!" The black king slapped his t.h.i.g.hs when he realized something. "Oh yeah! He can't understand our language!"

He was correct in that assumption cause ever since he first spoke, all Argen could hear was a creepy and disgusting gargle.

Humans can't understand their language while they could to the former. Even if these black creatures does understand their language, they couldn't speak it without using some methods.

Plus, Argen also hadn't understood the words 'Your highness' that the subordinates called the black creature, so Argen was still oblivious that this place's king is currently hot on his trail.

The black king coughed awkwardly and dashed to catch up to Argen. While doing so, he was also giving a command telepathy at his subordinates to keep distance.

He snapped his fingers and suddenly, a human head appeared on his hands. He opened the mouth and severed the tongue. He then took it out and connected it inside his tongue-less mouth.

"Hey! Stop!" It was obvious that Argen had understood his message since he had a slight jerk on his movements.

'Who wants to stop just because you said so! I'll die if I do!' Argen thought and continued running for his life.

'His speed is of an Earthly Martial 5. Quite normal. However speed is not my specialty, so we have about the same output. I don't want to injure him to slow down his speed though. He might just die.' The king thought and gestured his subordinates to corner Argen.

"Human-like individual! Just stop! We won't harm you! We just want to ask a few questions or perhaps make a deal!" He yelled.

"Oh hell no!" Argen turned down his request and continued his exhausting run while continuously updating his map through Divine Scrutiny.

He refused to open his eyes, lest he falls onto their spell once he sees them.

"Why?!" The king frustratingly asked.

"IT'S DAMN OBVIOUS THAT YOU'LL SAP MY POOR LITTLE LIFE AWAY AND TURN ME INTO A F*CKING PLANT!"

"You wimp! We won't! I swear!" The king felt like coughing blood.

Why am I even wasting time on this coward? If only he didn't have that weirdly dangerous aura despite a weakling, I wouldn't even bother and just eat him straight.

"That is not convincing at all!" Argen responded and never did he stop once to catch his breath.

"Okay! Okay! I swear to the lord of the underworld that if I ever harm you in any way, may I be drowned in holy water and be refused entry to hell!" He said hastily

Just as the king uttered those words, a blood-red lightning stuck from the sky.

"THAT IS NOT A PUNISHMENT AT ALL BUT A BLATANT REWARD, YOU SWINDLER!" Argen protested madly, not realizing that his interlocutor was a devil incarnate and his oath was already abysmally heavy for him.

In cultivation worlds, holy water is an expensive high-tier elixir for humans and animals alike.

However, its meaning couldn't be the same for Argen's interlocutor.

"You...!" The king was greatly incensed and finally spat blood. He had already made that oath and he can't take it back now lest he'll suffer the very same consequences similar to the one he uttered as punishment.

The king laughed at his own idiocy for making a rash oath.

Well, for his subordinates, that mistake wasn't surprising since it has been years since their king met some opposition.

Surely his wits must've rusted but they do not dare voice these thoughts out loud. It would be no different from digging their own graves, if ever.

"Would you shut it?! I'm a devil incarnate! Not some measly human! That punishment is the apex for me!" He let out his indignant thoughts

"Oh... Well if that's the case, then even if you won't harm me, the others will!" Argen said and started his pace started slowing down, not because he was now trusting the black king's words, but he was just rapidly falling into exhaustion.

"They are at my command and their lives are connected to me. They won't oppose me and my orders or else I might very well just end them here and now." His words triggered chills onto his subordinates' spine.

"But you have that damn spell or some sh*t..."

"We will deactivate it. Don't worry and just come with us. I have already made the oath and you are safe in our hands. Plus, you've already ran out of energy and you that yourself. We could just catch as easy as a chicken with its legs tied or something." The king said which shattered the last hesitation that was binding Argen to agree.

____

"Daddy! Daddy! When will the rebellion begin? I want him now!" Said a teenage girl while holding her father's sleeves.

"Don't worry honey, it won't be long. Just wait, 2-3 days and the plan will begin" The father let out a warm smile and a knock was suddenly heard on the other side of the door. "Come in" He said and the door rapidly swished open and close. An individual that was wrapped in black assassin clothes gave a slight bow at the father and daughter duo.

"How was it?" The clan head let out a solemn look at the guest.

"The Junjo Clan has agreed to lend a hand. They will immediately send 2 Sky Martials to accompany the silent infiltration of the palace with the other two assassin groups, tomorrow at dusk" The assassin said.

"How about the other troops blocking the palace's secret escape routes?"

"They are still unknown from the enemy"

The clan head nodded and gestured the assassin to leave.

"Inform me when there are changes in the plan" He said before the door went shut.