From a military standpoint, this battle was completely unbalanced.
Fifty elite disciples of the Yan Clan, each at the 7th–9th stage of Qi Refinement, against two hundred trash disciples of the Ashen Vein Sect, most of them stuck at Body Tempering—or crippled.
It should have been a one-sided slaughter.
But when a Yan Clan disciple's sword carved through the body of an Ashen Vein disciple, something strange happened.
Crass!
An Ashen Vein disciple lost his arm, his abdomen pierced clean through. He did not scream. Instead, he smiled like a madman and grabbed the Yan Clan disciple who stabbed him.
"For Lord Yan!" he roared.
BOOM!
His body exploded.
Not with gunpowder—but with Toxic Qi. His blood and flesh, altered by Yan Kesh's experiments and the sect's drugs, transformed into a corrosive mist that melted flesh on contact.
"AAAAHHH! My face!" the elite Yan disciple screamed, dropping his sword as his skin dissolved.
Yan Bohai, watching from the rear, widened his eyes in shock.
"Suicide troops?! They're using their own bodies as weapons?!"
Yan Kesh stood calmly atop the steps, Audit mode active.
He did not see human deaths.
He saw asset liquidation.
Every Ashen Vein disciple who died had signed a Life Insurance Contract with him. If they perished for the sect, their families in the lower villages would live in guaranteed prosperity.
That was why they died willingly.
"…Madness," Yan Bohai muttered, trembling. "This isn't a sect. It's a demon's nest."
He couldn't allow his forces to be ground down by such disgraceful tactics. He had to eliminate the root.
"YAN KESH! DIE!"
Yan Bohai leapt into the air, soaring over the battlefield. His blue sword shone brilliantly, compressing Qi into a gigantic blade over ten meters long.
Technique: Ocean Wave Cleave.
A Foundation Establishment attack powerful enough to split fortress gates—and Yan Kesh—clean in half.
Yan Kesh did not move.
He had no Qi to block it. No speed to dodge.
But he had a calculator.
He stared at the incoming energy blade.
[INCOMING ATTACK AUDIT]
[Type: Pure Qi Attack (Water Element)]
[Energy Magnitude: 2,500 Units]
[Cost to Yan Bohai: 10% Qi Reserves]
Yan Kesh raised his right hand, palm open toward the attack.
"The fundamental law of economics, Elder," he whispered. "When demand rises, so does price."
He activated his new technique:
[The Markup]
He did not block the attack.
He manipulated its efficiency.
He injected inefficiency into the structure of Yan Bohai's technique.
He injected friction into the flow of his Qi.
Zrrrt!
The massive blade suddenly trembled violently in midair.
Yan Bohai's expression changed.
His Qi was draining at an absurd rate.
A technique that should have cost only 10% suddenly demanded 50% just to remain stable.
"What?! Why is my Qi leaking?!" he panicked.
The blade hadn't even reached Yan Kesh—but Yan Bohai already felt like he'd run a marathon.
Yan Kesh smirked.
"You're terribly wasteful, Elder."
The blade lost cohesion.
Before it could reach him, it shattered into harmless droplets of water.
Byuur.
Yan Kesh stood drenched—but completely unharmed.
Yan Bohai landed on the ground, gasping for breath. His face was pale.
He didn't understand.
He had poured everything into that attack—yet it had collapsed mid-execution, as if reality itself had corrupted it.
"What kind of sorcery…" he rasped.
Yan Kesh wiped water from his face.
"It's not sorcery."
"It's called luxury tax."
"You attempted to use a high-tier technique within my jurisdiction without permission. Naturally, the cost increases."
Yan Kesh stepped down one stair.
"Now it's time to collect."
He didn't attack physically.
He pointed at Yan Bohai's chest.
[TECHNIQUE: DEFERRED RETRIBUTION (REVERSE)]
[Source: Su Ran (Remote Contract Link)]
[Target: Yan Bohai]
Inside the fortress, in a secure chamber, Su Ran suddenly felt a cold force ripped out of her body.
On the battlefield, Yan Bohai froze.
Not from external frost.
His own blood crystallized inside his heart.
"Ugh—!"
He coughed up frozen blood. His knees buckled, collapsing before Yan Kesh.
"H-how… can you use ice element…" Yan Bohai stammered, teeth chattering.
Yan Kesh crouched before him.
"I don't have an element, Elder. I simply borrow from assets you tried to steal."
"You wanted Su Ran, didn't you?"
"Here. Have a taste of her energy. Free of charge."
Yan Bohai tried to stand. Tried to circulate his fire Qi to melt the ice.
But every attempt triggered The Markup.
His efficiency collapsed.
He needed one hundred units of effort for one unit of result.
He went energetically bankrupt within seconds.
Around them, the battle had ended.
The Yan Clan elites, their morale shattered by suicide explosions and their Elder's defeat, had surrendered—or died.
Yan Kesh grabbed Yan Bohai by the hair, forcing him to look up.
"You once called me a bad investment," Yan Kesh whispered.
"Now look around you. Your army is destroyed. Your Qi is gone. Your life is in my hands."
"Tell me, Great Asset Evaluation Elder…"
Yan Kesh smiled.
"…who's the loss now?"
Yan Bohai stared into his eyes—
And saw nothing.
Not cruelty.
Not rage.
Just emptiness.
"Kill me," Yan Bohai croaked. "The Yan Clan will hunt you to the ends of the earth."
Yan Kesh chuckled softly and released him.
"Kill you? No."
"That would be a waste of assets."
He stood and patted He Qiu's shoulder.
"Bind him. Seal his meridians. Take him to the Therapy Chamber."
"The Therapy Chamber?" He Qiu asked, confused.
"Yes."
Yan Kesh looked toward the peak of the mountain, toward the Ashen Hall where Qiu Moren resided.
"Chairman Qiu needs a new filter. My body grows tired of acting as intermediary."
He looked at Yan Bohai like a spare machine part.
"A Foundation Establishment cultivator like Elder Yan…"
"…is a very durable filter."
"He can endure Chairman Qiu's poison for at least a year before breaking."
Yan Bohai's face turned deathly pale.
He understood his fate.
To become a living poison container.
A fate worse than death.
"NO! KILL ME! YAN KESH, YOU DEMON!" he screamed as Gou San and the others dragged him away.
Yan Kesh did not look back.
He gazed at the battlefield.
Corpses of allies and enemies alike lay scattered in the same ash-stained mud.
He took out a handkerchief and wiped a speck of blood from his finger.
"He Qiu."
"Yes, Lord."
"Send a letter to the Yan Clan. Inform them that their Second Elder and his forces went missing in the Black Mist Forest due to a beast attack. The Ashen Vein Sect offers its condolences."
"And attach an invoice."
"For search and evacuation expenses."
"Even in tragedy, administrative costs must be recovered."
He Qiu stared at his master's back with growing fear—and reverence.
Today, Yan Kesh did not merely defeat his past.
He privatized it.
He converted trauma into fixed assets.
And turned his enemies into backup batteries.