One Wish to Own the World

After quickly packing his belongings, Atum bid Frank farewell. He knew how to return favors; not because he cared about repaying but because it was necessary in order to get other favors in the future. As a Supremacy Phase cultivator, he had enough money to pay for twenty years' worth of rent.

"I will be going then. See you later when I pay for everything."

The bulk of his payment wasn't just for rent; it primarily covered Frank's extensive healing expenses. Since he returned in a broken state, Frank had to expend quite a few rare materials and pills to get him back to life, even going as far as participating in an auction for an eighth-grade pill.

"I will be waiting, bye-bye."

Atum kicked the ground and disappeared, starting his long trip toward the border with the Serene Lotus Sect. Back in the day, he looked down on the young kid and did not bother asking for his name, but he found out about Ken's identity since then.

Frank once returned with a rumor about a boy known as the Devil's Heir. He was described as cruel, powerful beyond his stage, young, and recognizable by his piercing red eyes. No matter what, Atum knew he would never forget the boy's mocking red eyes as they saw him get caught in the explosion.

As the desert wind whipped his hair, Atum's mind seethed with the replay of that fateful day, each recollection more twisted than the last. The young boy's smirk in his memory had morphed into a taunting laugh, echoing endlessly in his head.

The humiliation of being bested by someone so young gnawed at him, fueling a deep-seated desire for vengeance. It wasn't just the physical pain that had been inflicted upon him; it was the blow to his pride, a wound that time had only deepened.

'I will kill him! I will kill him! This was a quarter of my luck!' He fumed in his mind. The worst thing yet, his luck summoned a healing opportunity for him. A pelican crossed the desert one day, and Frank who chanced upon it shot it down with his Qi for barbeque.

Later on, they found out the pelican held in its mouth Purified Water from a special pool located in the Central Zone. The water was a rare ninth-grade product with a very limited stock.

'Ah… I get pissed just remembering it,' he thought. This water helped him shorten his healing process by at least five years, which would be very lucky if his luck could regenerate itself, but it couldn't. He wanted his luck to be used for opportunities to get stronger, not for healing!

Alas, one could not control their luck.

Traversing the barren landscape, Atum moved under a merciless sun, which cast long, distorted shadows across the sand. The quiet of the desert was a stark contrast to the turmoil in his mind.

"Hm?" Atum stopped in his tracks. He sensed a powerful presence coming in his direction, prompting him to hide himself and wait.

"A dog?" He looked at him in confusion. He introspected himself, seeing that this encounter cost him an additional hundred luck points. At this point, every drop of luck lost pained him.

The dog sniffed the air around it and locked its eyes with Atum, making the human understand there was no use in hiding. The man canceled his concealment and readied himself for battle.

The dog was at the peak of the seventh rank, similar to Atum. It moved at an inconceivable speed while holding a domain of its own inside Atum's domain of Demonic Qi. It dodged its enemy's strikes with agile movements, squeezing itself between the dangerous Qi.

It tried to bite Atum, its teeth coated with Darkness Qi that would leave the man struggling against corrosion. Atum, however, only snorted.

"A mere beast is trying to prevail against a human? Know your place!"

His hands were both strengthened by endless refining with Demonic Qi. He washed his body in lava, poison, fire, water, air pressure, and many other methods he had collected with lucky encounters. Despite being an independent cultivator, Atum was at least as strong as an elder of the same stage from the top sects.

He grabbed the dog's open maw from its jaws, his muscles bulging as he strained them.

*Woooooff*

The dog let out a pained whimper before his head was ripped in half forcibly by Atum's pulling force. He threw the corpse into his storage ring and inspected his body. He noticed that his palms were slightly injured from pressing on the dog's teeth so hard, and he was losing sensation. He calmly removed the Darkness Qi until he regained full control of his arms.

He looked around him, searching for a treasure. He also followed the dog's path from before encountering him, still finding nothing of value.

'What is going on? I lost some luck, shouldn't it mean something good happened? If there's no treasure then it's time-wasting. How can it be considered a lucky encounter?'

He scanned the area twice and thrice making sure he wasn't missing his opportunity for a breakthrough in his cultivation. When he was convinced that there was nothing to take, he sighed and left.

'Luck is mysterious. Perhaps this delay will make me cross paths with someone or something later.'

Atum rushed to intercept the Devil's Heir, flying for hours without a break so fast he generated a strong gale behind him.

As dusk fell, the eerie calm of the mountainous area he just arrived was shattered by the sudden, high-pitched screeching of bats. Atum tensed, instantly alert to the new danger.

"Another animal?" Atum gaped when he sensed a sound wave of a bat scanning him. It was too late to hide. Soon, sound waves washed over him as a flock of bats screamed to find their way.

The night air was filled with the flapping of wings and Atum's grunts of effort. Each swing of his arm was precise, a dance of death under the moonlight. The bats, a swirling mass of darkness, descended upon him in waves. Atum's movements were a blur, his Demonic Qi lashing out like whips, tearing through the night predators. But for every bat that fell, another seemed to take its place, an endless, screeching tide.

After another bloody fight that left him covered in blood and filled with wounds, he scanned his area again, finding nothing but the corpses of the many bats he slayed.

'What is going on? Why does my luck keep making me run into trouble?' Atum was confused. Luck was supposed to be a good thing, yet it interfered with his goals without any rewards whatsoever.

'Screw that, I will just go in stealth from now on,' he decided. Finally, he managed to cover the distance without further distractions, avoiding all the packs of beasts he encountered on the way. To his anger, his luck kept dropping, but he did not delay his trip. He had lost 400 luck overall from this single travel without earning anything.

'I can't wait any longer, who knows when he's going to get rid of the pill,' he decided. He was sure that Ken knew that the pill made him trackable, which meant he was in a race against time.

"He is close. I will have his head by tomorrow," Atum gloated at the thought. He soared over varied landscapes, his single-

minded focus rendering the breathtaking scenery of lakes, forests, and deserts mere blurs in his vision. As an independent evil cultivator, he had traveled across the continent many times, and those sights paled in comparison to his excitement of taking revenge.

'Huhhh, he is here…' Atum sighed and smiled widely, his face a distorted mix of madness and happiness. He leaked killing intent without noticing, making every living being in his proximity shiver and run silently the other way.

---

'Oh, this is a strong killing intent,' Ken was somewhat impressed. He had killed tens of thousands and had relived those moments millions of times, and the killing intent he sensed in the distance was not too far from his own in terms of quantity, albeit light-years away in terms of quality.

"Alaric, play some music for our special guest. Tiara, I might have you perform for him, too. Vivienne, you cannot laze around, he is somewhere at the peak of the seventh stage."

The plain was all set for the incoming battle; it was a huge landmine where every wrong step could result in danger. The four were only expected to launch long-range attacks and support Ken from behind while he battled it out with Atum. Luckily, he had no problem remembering the exact location of each trap.

Henry floated in his lotus pose, Qi converging around him as he prepared to be the protector of the group.

Alaric summoned his guqin, letting it levitate above his lap. His eyes started dancing on the strings of his instrument, releasing a beautiful melody. His stronger techniques often required a build-up, and now was a great time for it.

Tiara brought out her translucent blue saber, made of Ice Qi and Metal Qi from rare minerals found in the Central Zone's frozen area.

Vivienne made her preparations as well, stretching her arms like a cat after a long sleep. Despite her appearance, the air around her seemed sharper as she took control of all elements in the vicinity.

The battle was about to start, a chance to sort out the trouble he picked up with the evil cultivator twenty years ago.