Supreme Devil Lord: I Can Refine All Energy-Chapter 60: Five Captives

Anger flashed in her eyes, especially when she remembered the moment when Eric appeared.

[I’ll let you have a taste of her if you help me kill him.]

[Don’t worry; I know of a way to make sure she doesn’t open her mouth in front of our lord.]

’That vicious bastard!’ She gritted her teeth. She knew how he was going to make sure she didn’t say anything. He was most likely going to threaten to kill her daughter, his sister.

’It’s a good thing he died. But... what if that noble came to take revenge? How is Er... Lord Eric going to handle him?’ She thought. She knew Eric was going to take her to the middle city, but for a noble, it wouldn’t be difficult to find where they live, and the city’s rules most likely wouldn’t be able to stop him.

After worrying about it for a while, she sighed, ’Why am I worrying about it? I belong to him now. I just need to obey him with my heart and body, and he will worry about it.’

Her face reddened when she thought this.

’Maybe if I can gain his favor, and he becomes strong enough, I can even request him to save Elliot.’ Remembering her daughter, her face fell, and once again, she felt anger rising in her heart for Luke.

...

In the core city, in an underground, dark room, a girl was sitting against the wall, her head tilted to the side as she stared at nothingness in front of her, a dazed look on her haggard face.

She was pale, her thin lips were dry and chapped, her long black hair was unkempt, her clothes were torn, and there were many bruises all over her body, including her face. If anyone with some humanity left in them saw her, they would be enraged at the one who tormented her, would feel pity for her, and would want to protect her. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"...Hey. E-Elliot? You alive?" Suddenly, a feeble voice sounded beside her. Elliot’s pupils flickered when she heard the voice and slowly looked to her right.

Sitting a meter away from her was another girl, in a similar state as her. She appeared to be a little older than her and was looking at her with a worried look in her eyes.

Elliot’s lips trembled, and she croaked out, "Y...Yes."

Then tears appeared in her eyes as she asked, "H...How long is he going to torture us?"

The girl shook her head, a despairing expression on her face. "I... don’t know. Maybe until we die."

Right then, another weak voice sounded, "No. He won’t let us die easily. He is going to beat us up for a few weeks until we break. Then he will take us out of here, would sexually abuse us until he is satisfied. T-Then... he will sell us."

Elliot and the other girl looked at the one who just spoke, their hearts palpitating in fear.

There were five girls in the room, with the oldest being 22 years old, the one who just spoke. All of them were in the same condition.

The noble, Luke’s lord, was called Alfred, and he had a twisted habit of bringing downtrodden girls from the slums to here. He would then beat them, torture them to his heart’s content until their wills were completely broken, and then just as she said, he would r*pe them. Once he was satisfied, he would either kill them or sell them to slave traders.

"H-How can you be sure about it?" Elliot asked,

The girl sighed, a desolate expression on her face. "Unlike you all, I’m from the middle city, and my father works for him. I had heard about this from him."

"Huh? Your father works for him? Then why are you—" Another girl questioned in confusion.

A mocking, anguished, and despairing smile appeared on the 22-year-old’s face as she said through gritted teeth, "...It was my father, who, to please him, gave me to him."

The three other girls were shocked hearing this; only Elliot wasn’t. After all, it was also her family members, her own brothers, who had sold her. She closed her eyes, tears flowing down her cheeks.

She wanted to die, but her hands and feet were bound, just like others in the room. Even if they were not bound, she doubted she had enough courage to take her life.

...

Time passed as Eric forced himself to continue circulating the <Hundred Tempering Body Refinement Technique>. After a few hours, he had started to become numb to the pain. It would have been good news because he could better focus on tempering his body; unfortunately, his mind was becoming numb too; his thoughts weren’t so clear, which made it difficult to circulate the technique.

He, however, didn’t give up, and no matter how slow he became, he continued pushing himself to circulate the refined energy.

Then, after what seemed like a very long time, the first tempering—that only needed one complete circulation of the technique—was completed.

Right then, the system screen flickered in mind sea, attracting his attention.

[Congratulations, host, for completing the first tempering! Your hard work has paid off. Your body has become stronger.]

Eric’s lips curved up in a small smile when he read this, and he muttered in his mind, ’Thank you, system!’

He then asked, ’How much time has passed?’

[It’s been exactly four hours and fifty-two minutes since you started, host.]

’Just the first tempering, which was supposed to be the easiest to complete, has taken so much time and effort and, not to mention, caused so much pain. How difficult are the next ones going to be?’ He worriedly thought.

’System, I’m afraid I need months to complete the hundred temperings, but I don’t have that much time. I need to become stronger than Paul within a few days.’

He knew he could increase his cultivation right now if he wanted, but that would make improving his foundation afterwards more difficult. That was why he wanted to temper his body and improve his foundation first.

However, if he had to complete all hundred temperings first, he thought he would just increase his cultivation and become strong enough to handle Paul. Then when he had time later, he would slowly temper his body.

[Host, you don’t need to wait to finish all hundred temperings. Just complete two more temperings, and you can increase your cultivation to grade two of the Novice realm without worrying about increasing the difficulty of improving your foundation.]

’I see.’ Eric sighed in relief reading this.

He then proceeded to open his status screen to see how much stronger the first tempering had made him.