Tzu

"What do you want?" I asked the man.

His grin exposed his black bloody gums.

"I want power. You you look like a bountiful meal."

Next thing I knew he was infront of me his saber held up to my neck.

I didn't have even a second to react.

I let my charming smile grace mt face.

"How does killing me make you stronger? Last I checked you should be having a training montage near a waterfall somewhere if you want to gain strength. Not killing some random cripple." I said.

His grin just widened.

"If you were some ordinary mortal that would be the case. But I am a cultivator! The souls of my foes strengthen me!" He yelled.

Joe squitned at him.

"So your an immigrant." He said.

The man nodded.

"Yup. My names Tzu and I'm from the land two mistwalls over." Said Tzu as he extended his hand to shake.

I looked at him in confusion. Who goes from threatening someones life to casually greeting someone!?!?! This man was nothing short of insane.

"So are you going to try and kill us?" I asked him.

He nodded.

"Yup. But I can do that anytime I want. Instead let's chat first." He said.

I couldn't help but think. Was this because of my charm? But no one's reacted so strangely to my charm before. There's no way that could be it.

Tzu casually stepped atop one of dead bodies littering the bar and sat down at the counter. Joe sat me down next to Tzu then took a seat across from me.

I glared at him. He was using me as a meat shield between him and tzu.

We sat within awkward silence for a few minutes.

I just couldn't bear it.

"What's cultivating like?" I asked tzu.

He grinned the moment he heard me speak. I took that as a further sign that I may be my charm making him act so strange.

"Okay so basically I kill people then I eat their souls. And doing so makes me stronger."

I sighed.

"You already said that." At those words he put his hand on his saber.

Due to my crippledness I couldn't even jump from my chair in fear.

"So you want to kill us and consume our souls then?" I asked him

He nodded. He was listening to me so he could be reasoned with.

"Do they have to be killed by you in order to consume their souls or do they just have to be recently dead?" I asked.

"They just have to be recently dead" He said.

"Mhh. Okay. So then a war would be a great place for you to gain power." I asked

Tzu nodded slowly.

"Yeeeees." His hand went down to rest on his saber.

He was getting bored.

"I'm going to war against the world. Would you like to join me?" I asked him

A childlike smile graced Tzu's face.

"Sure! And after I kill everyone else and get stronger I'll kill you last!" Said tzu

I quitely nodded along. This guy was an idiot. It's explotation 101 that if you want to exploit someone you shouldn't make your malicious intentions known. It's not like his intentions mattered anyways though, I would have craig and the arch granny kill him way before he got strong enough to hold a candle against me.

I turned and looked at Joe. I leaned over and whispered in his ear.

"Do you think that there is anyone left in this island?" I asked him

Joe shook his head.

"No. Immigrants like this guy are too powerful For anyone to survive. Also for him to have killed everyone we would also have to assume that this place didn't have any immigrants of its own."

I nodded. That sucked. I still needed people to manage my navy. It's not like I could summon people out of thin air. This place was filled with ships but if there were no people to man them then they were about as good to me as hunks of driftwood.

Not only that. The merchant ship had left already. I was counting on getting people to man one of the ships here and riding that back to home base. But if we had no one to do that then I was stuck here.

Tzu silently sat at my side drinking from his throfy blue mug.

Maybe he knew a way to get out of here. After all, I highly doubt that he could have arrived on a ship. Based off how he acts and the corpses surrounding him. He would have probably killed the crew.

"Tzu. Do you have a ride out of here." I asked him

Tzu nodded.

"Yes." He dropped both his mug and sabre and clapped his hands.

The headless corpses nearby stood up. The mist flowing from their necks turned into phantom skulls.

"DEAD PEOPLE! FIND A SHIP AND TAKE US…. WHERE ARE WE GOING?!?!"

I winced at Tzu's volume.

"Joe will guide you." I said.

Joe seemed to know everything. I'm sure he'd known the way back to that rundown fishing village.

Joe smiled awkwardly.

"Okay. I'll see if I can find the way." Said Joe.

🐐🐖🐐🐖🐐🐖🐐

I sat in the best ship we could find on the docks.

The undead seemed to be able run the ship effectively which was impressive considering they literally didn't have brains. They would occasionally start walking into each other like a couple of buggy ncp's but they'd do fine once Tzu separates them.

As we travled Joe started to look increasingly agitated. He started fidgeting with theutmost intensity. He tapped his foot and drummed his fingers in unison.

When I asked him what had him so agitated he responded simply.

"I have no idea where we are going." He said.

I didn't have a clue either. Neither did Tzu.

And so there we were. Lost at sea without a clue on how to go home