The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 366: Enter the Cauldron

“Yes… Right there…” Victor said.

After finishing with the awakening hall, under Victor’s instruction, Rita headed toward another building that was nearby.

Using the chance when most of the elders and guards ran to watch Diana’s test, she could move more freely, following Victor’s bizarre instructions she ended up heading down an abandoned drain and then crawling through some very nasty shit.

In the end, Rita managed to find herself passing through a series of walls to appear in an empty large room.

“Did we really have to pass through that route?” Rita asked with disgust. If Victor told her beforehand she would have never accepted. Those rats there were as big as dogs!

“Yes! Do you know how many hidden sentries are guarding this place!” Victor scolded. “Even with my disguise, I can’t guarantee you not stepping into some trap of formation, so we had to use the safest route!”

“Do I have to go through that again when leaving?” she asked as she shivered a little.

“Don’t worry, your return trip will be easier…” he said, “Now do you know where we are?” he asked.

“Some Library?” she said, noticing the shelves around the dimly lit room filled with dusty books.

”In a way, but it is more than that!” he said with a cheesy smile that she couldn’t see. “Welcome to the Von Zwei Sacred Vault!”

“What? Really?” Rita asked as she looked around. “Are those skill books?” she gasped as she realized what she was looking at.

“Yup… “ Victor said, “And this is just the first room!”

“Ah…. You plan to steal their entire vault?” Rita gasped.

“Dah… I told you we can’t waste this chance!” he said.

“Ahh…” she had to confess. He made a point, but wouldn’t her life be in danger if the Von Zwei family suspected her after this?

“What are you waiting for… Stop worrying about stupid things and start working!” Victor commanded, making Rita return to her senses and begin to grab the skill books that were worth millions then throw them inside the storage space as if they were a stack of potatoes.

As far as she knew Victor got her back, so she only had to do as he commanded!

After finishing with this room, Rita sneakily left through the wall, heading to the next one where she repeated the same thing collecting all kinds of gems, artifacts, and treasures.

They even had some rooms full of stacks of gold bars and precious materials that Rita gladly took.

Throughout the operation, she made sure not to step out to the corridors which were filled with traps, only passing from room to room directly under Victorʼs instructions.

It took her less than 30 minutes to ransack the entire place. Three floors filled with treasures! Even the shelves that were made out of some very exotic wood were not spared!

Too bad Victor couldn’t only get his hand on a very few S-ranked artifacts. This was due to the Von Zwei family situation where the Patriarch and the elders didn’t trust each other so most of the family’s vital treasures were kept with them all the time.

Still, the current haul was not bad at all. Victor would not have to worry about feeding his harem for a few hundred years after this! And he got some really nice things that the Von Zwei family didn’t really appreciate and understand their value.

Finishing with the vault after making sure it was squeaky clean, Victor ordered Rita to head to the bottom floor then head out carefully to an abandoned corridor then shadow shift, through one of the vaultʼs walls into the adjacent building for one final investigation.

Unlike the other places, the target building this time was destroyed when the Von Zwei base was raided after the reckoning, so he didn’t have a detailed plan of its structure, guards, and traps.

His only solution was to move Rita toward the only room there that was left standing after the destruction.

“Hsss…..” Passing through the wall into the dark humid dungeon that was illuminated by a single light bulb, Rita gasped.

It was a scene that almost made her puke… Even Victor who was not moved easily couldn’t help but frown.

Hundreds of young women and girls were tied in steel chains to the long walls and gothic columns. They moaned in pain and cried as dark blood oozed from their severe wounds that were being kept open by dark metallic stakes.

The dark filthy smelling blood slowly fell to the ground and got collected in a drain that led it toward a hole that went deep underground.

“What is this place?” Rita asked as she shook a little. Even after what Levi did to her, she couldn’t believe how savage and cruel the Von Zwei family was.

“... I am not sure… But I guess this must be a feeding ground for the Von Zwei ancestor…. That guy is definitely down there…” Victor said as Rita slowly approached the hole in the middle. It was very deep, and nothing was visible. It must be hiding in a negative space below!

“You mean that thing, the Corpse-eating Maggot you told me about?” Rita asked. “Is it real?”

“Apparently… This is the only explanation…” Victor sighed. “Those stakes in the women are filled with corpse poison… They are milking them for blood to feed it,” Victor said solemnly. He was not sure about this chamber before, as it. There were many theories about it when it was discovered. At that time some said that it contained some treasure while others said that it was a slaughterhouse… Apparently the latter were the correct ones.

“Oh… Can we help them?” Rita asked after some hesitation. She wondered if Victor would approve. She knew he didn’t like to risk his operations. Earlier when they were ransacking the vault, he kept mumbling about how he couldn’t scam that awakened girl earlier because of that.

“They are severely poisoned… and helping them is very troublesome,” Victor said, then paused. “We can’t leave them like this… Let’s do it!” he finally added after a sigh, making Rita smile a little. She was glad he felt the same as her.

“First locate the door though and block it…”Victor said

Rita nodded, finding the dungeon’s steel door and then using a few locking talismans on it before she turned to the girls and began to unchain them.

The woman didn’t resist or talk, they must have been given some very potent drugs to make them last longer.

“How shall we take them out?” Rita asked as she worked, Giving each girl she helped a healing pill. She got a lot of those from the vault earlier.

“Inside the storage space, there is a cauldron… It functions like a storage ring but can contain living beings. Collect those women in it!” Victor said.

Rita nodded, she carefully took the golden-looking covered cauldron from the storage space and then hurried into action without inquiring about it.

She had long realized that Victor was full of surprises.

She was nervous about how to operate the cauldron at first, but she quickly realized that, as Victor said, it was just like a storage ring.

The women were so thin and exhausted that they didn’t even have the will to resist so collecting them went smoothly.

“There are only young women here…” Rita said as she worked. Why can’t they do such things to men too?

“Because women are full of Yin dark energy… The ones here are not normal, they all have a unique body constitution, they must have been collected for this purpose,” Victor said. “Remember the array above? The women here must be the last step in it… they collect the energy with their bodies before it gets transferred down with their blood!” he added.

“Oh… How are they still alive after all this?” Rita asked, noticing the scars on the feeble woman. Some of them were old and long healed.

“They must be feeding them healing and energy pills to keep them alive…Normal food would affect the energy balance…” he said coldly. “Collect the stakes too, those things might come in handy.”

“I understand…” Rita nodded as she discovered that she didnʼt even need to unchain the women to drag them inside the cauldron, the chains on the wall were made from ordinary steel and seemingly could not stop the cauldron’s effect.

There was only one girl whom the cauldron failed to capture, but Rita only had to look into her eyes and ask her to let go for the girl to be dragged into the cauldron after saying thanks in a hoarse inaudible voice.

Victor who was watching carefully appraising the girls with a depraved smile from his study opened his eyes and, ignoring Lily, he ordered Margret to go get Ruby. Those girls needed to be healed fast!

The entire operation took about 25 minutes until all the women were safely transported into the cauldron, and just when Victor was about to order Rita to start investigating the building the sound of a siren could be heard weakly from above.

It was coming from the vault!

“It seems like we were discovered…” Victor said with a sigh. “Quickly, take the glass bottle I just placed in the storage ring and empty it in the hall… Make sure not to touch its contents!”

Rita frowned but quickly followed his common, emptying the green-looking liquid inside of the hall. It didn’t take a genius to discover what this thing was!

As soon as the bottle was empty the earth shook violently causing the hall to sway before it went silent again.

“What just happened?” Rita asked.

“Nothing important,” Victor chuckled as he waited for the experience points to pour in. “Just a…” he didnʼt continue as from the hole in the ground, a horrifying shriek suddenly sounded as everything began to shake.

“Shit… Why is it still alive…” Victor cursed. He underestimated this guy’s strength.

“What now?” Rita asked as she held a nearby column to support herself as she looked around at the dungeon’s wall that began to crack.

Victor frowned… That thing was still alive. Sending Rita to her cell now was no longer an option.

“From the black box, take the black remote-control-looking thing, press the buttons 1 7 6 then press the red one… Quick, we don’t have time!” he said as the dungeon’s door began to shake. Someone was trying to enter.

Rita who was swaying hard quickly did as commanded, pressing the red button.

“Done!” she said nervously as she eyed the door. It was still holding.

“Wait a moment…” Victor said, making sure to listen carefully for the distant muffled explosion sound. The server room had been successfully destroyed.

“Now, stretch your hand forward… Make sure it is not touching anything,” Victor said as he activated his Space Fracture skill for the first time through Rita who followed his command.

“Ahh!” Rita gasped as in front of her stretched hand a circular tear in space suddenly opened in front of her. It was as if someone pierced the space itself with an awl.

“What are you waiting for! Go in it quickly!” Victor, who was coughing blood on Lily’s lap due to the extreme energy loss, said as the unstable tear began to close down and the room’s locked door began to crack. That locking talisman pasted on it was slowly burning out.

Rita took a breath and then jumped directly into the space tear just from the corner of her eye, she could spot a strange slimy thing climbing from the hole behind her.

She didn’t know what happened after that. It was as if she was passing through a dream, getting pulled by an invisible force. It was very similar to the feeling she had when her shadow shifted, but 100 times more prominent.

Seconds later, Rita reached the end, stepping out of the tear as it closed behind her.

She nervously looked around. She was now in a small study where a very familiar handsome young man was looking at her with a smile as he sat on a couch surrounded by two pretty girls who had worried looks in their eyes.

Wait… Did he grow more handsome in the two months since she saw him last?

“Welcome home!” he said with a smile, ignoring one of the girls who was pinching his arm very hard as she wiped the blood off his mouth.

“Ahh…” Rita didnʼt know what to say.

…

Diana smiled proudly as she knelt in front of the supreme elder who nodded in satisfaction after appraising her awakening results and testing her loyalty.

Although she was not a descendant and lacked the family’s bloodline, her Authority and Class made up for that.

“Good, good… From this moment on, you are my disciple!” he said. “You may stand up!”

“Thank you, master!” she said, squeezing her fist in triumph as she stood up right at the moment when a young man came running into the chamber.

“Elder Katras! How could you take her before consulting my father?” Levi said angrily as he caught his breath. Seemingly he hurried here after his spies told him about Diana. Too bad he was late.

“Since when do I have to report to you father?” the supreme elder asked coldly.

“Elder! We…” Levi didn’t continue as suddenly the sound of sirens filled the hall.

“What is going on?” the elder said.

“An intruder…” another elder who came running said. “The Vault, someone….” he began to explain then paused as the earth began to shake under their legs. An earthquake?

It took moments for everything to calm down.

“What…”

Before the elder could speak, the earth began to shake again, this time stronger, causing the walls of the hall to start cracking as a loud shrike shook every Von Zwei family heir in the room. Only Diana, who didn’t have their bloodline, didnʼt hear it.

“The Ancestral vault!” the supreme elder yelled in shock before he hurried out in a blink of an eye as the turmoils began to subside.

Levi, realizing something, quickly followed after shooting Diana a threatening glare on his way out.

…

Theta woke up abruptly as Margret walked into her room without knocking.

“What?” she asked nervously as she sat up.

“Just a little something…” Margret said as she looked at Theta’s roommate, Ruby, who also just woke up. “Ruby… Put something on and follow me!”

“Is there a problem?” Ruby asked as she jumped out of her bed. As a healer, she had been trained by Hilda to be always ready.

“Yes, Victor wants you to enter his cauldron…” Margret said, biting her lip.

“Cauldron?” Ruby asked. Was this some new sex term? As someone who had deep knowledge in this domain, she had never heard of it before.

“YUP! Come, I will explain on the way…” Margret, who was being vague on purpose said as she dragged Ruby out of the room, leaving a shocked Theta alone.

“Wa…. I want to enter Victor’s cauldron too!” Theta yelled as she jumped from her bed and then quickly followed, feeling a little jealous.