As ascenders, they were made privy to the genuine history of their realm. James, their devil lord, brought his foreign army and slaughtered the entire world just to cultivate a Dao! Their leader was a heartless, bloodthirsty maniac.

The sphinxes had no thoughts of rebellion. They could not, they were slaves mentally and physically. And so it would be for eight more generations of sphinxes.

The dark elves willing followed James, so it was strange getting to know the actual history of how they came to inhabit the Tutan World. Dark elf elders had been mum about the founding of the Elf Nation in the Tutan World. For generations to be loyal to James that dirty history had to be wiped out throughout the entire world.

Their loyalty was still strong despite knowing the truth. Their tribe only had a few Knights apparently before following James, now they were Knights born every generation and the weaker ones could live safely in the pocket world.

~~~

While his ragtag war division was coming into being James was hard at work studying and mastering the [Curse Binding Scripture].

I deepened my understanding of Fire, Soul, Electric, and Curse Dao. Every day I would forge a new curse weapon. This young lord was rich with souls. Might as well use them!

I fully immersed myself in Runeforging. It was a wondrous experience for me, this was the first time I truly enjoyed devilry. Time had no meaning and flew by. Now that I had a wealthy organization backing me, I had forging resources delivered to me daily.

Ah, the life of a prodigal young n.o.ble. Who needs to go work hard to get resources when your lackeys can do it for you?

Kyle even sent a personal attendant to see to my needs. I felt it was natural, these were the things I expected to have as a young lord.

My mindset was slowly changing. I no longer saw myself as a young n.o.ble. Now that I had an organization and followers, I saw myself as a young lord. A proper devil ruler.

~~~

This change in mentality was great for our young devil hero. He was reaching the age of adulthood, his childhood fantasies of being a prodigal son were being replaced with being a prodigal young lord. James desired personal power and strength to back his arrogance.

He was wholly independent of the Hudson clan; he looked forward to the day that [Libra] would overshadow [Mountain Shadow] as the most powerful organization in the Hudson clan.

Our young devil hero was maturing from a devil boy to a devil man!

~~~

The work I did forging the cursed rune weapons was not only rewarding to me but every single one I created deepened the understanding of the Daos.

I had even entered the Metal Dao after working with so many materials. I started with Tier-1 cursed weapons and slowly improved my craft until I could form a Tier-2 cursed weapon.

Every weapon I crafted would be different, they would take on their form from a combination of the Metals, Souls, and Dao Runes I carved within them. Each would have a connection to me. These weapons were alive, they hungered to find a mortal soul to beguile and degrade.

The best use of these would be to send them into a pocket world and watch the madness unfold. I could conqueror an unsuspecting world without a fight.

"Meow, that"s the best part of cursed rune weapons! It is very difficult to invade stronger worlds."

"Meow, Cursed Rune Weapons could easily beguile an unsuspecting mortal soul giving you a chief agent to enact your will on an unsuspecting world."

I must forge a Baron Weapon and send it down to an unsuspecting Tier-2 world. According to Kyles reports, I should be able to purchase Tier-2 world coordinates in a few years.

"Listen! You should work on stepping into the Baron realm, the stupid book will teach you how to scry for worlds once you do. It desires many souls to repair itself."

The stupid book kept the lion"s share of the souls from the Tutan World! I"m altering the deal next time I conquer a world.

"Meow, you forget the stupid book gave you the realm coordinates."

"Hey! The stupid book is fair."

I didn"t have time to argue with the Codex Aspects. Through my deeper understanding of Soul Dao, I realized the Aspects were just unique personalities born of the Codex to serve its hosts.

They were the Codex, and the Codex was them. It was truly a remarkable artifact. All this time he was speaking to it with his conversations with the mischievous cat and the cute pixie.

"Meow, when you grow stronger you"ll be able to create a personal Aspect within the Codex of Souls."

"Watch Out! He"s way too weak to be thinking about creating an Aspect."

I worked hard day and night forging, increasing my Dao mastery. I had an armada of Tier-1 and Tier-2 cursed weapons now. Some poor unsuspecting world would soon be "gifted" these prized weapons.

As my understanding of Curses and Souls grew, soon I was on the cusp of breaking into the Baron realm. I had spent an entire year in closed-door devilry.

Adding the year he spent in the Tutan World and the year I spent closed up studying mastering my Daos, I was now eighteen years old.

I would head out to do tasks from time to time, but mostly I spent my time holed up in my hut forging. Nothing would stop me from reaching the Baron realm!

I even got a notification when Wanfang broke through to Baron. As a young lord, I could not fall too far behind my followers. They would look down on me!

I forged my first Tier-3 cursed weapon after spending so much time mastering the [Curse Binding Scripture].

I took a few weeks of materials from the Tutan World supply for this one forging! It was time to make a glorious weapon.