Luck is a Charm

'A spy would indeed be nice for helping Krista in overthrowing the empress but the guard cannot be trusted at all.' Zen thought long and hard before finding a perfect solution.

Flickering his hand, the essence flame started surrounding them and blocked off any vision from the crowd that was spectating.

There was like a flame wall and the crowd could only curse aloud for not being able to spectate anymore.

"Damn it, why would he suddenly hide from our view?" A person from the crowd shouted in anger.

"I know right, we wanted to see the guard's death but ugh." Another person added and left with frustration.

Seeing how there was no point in staying any further, the crowd slowly started to walk away and mind their own business since they didn't want to risk their lives and have someone else snitch on them for cursing the imperial guard.

Meanwhile, inside the area where Zen was calmly standing still with the essence flame hovering around them, he said, "I don't mind sparing your life if you can prove yourself useful but how can I tell that you wouldn't backstab me the moment you get away."

The guards shuddered slightly as they had no way to prove their loyalty. Even if they said they would not betray Zen at all, they doubt he would actually believe them. 

If they were to swap positions and Zen was the one saying that then they wouldn't even believe an ounce of his words.

"Hmm, seems like even the two of you know that it's impossible to tell that you would stay loyal and betray the empress right." Zen chuckled softly and continued.

"Therefore, I give you two options now. The first option is where I simply kill the both of you and get this over with."

The guards quickly shook their heads as they both shouted, "We choose the second option."

They got up to this point because they were afraid of death so why would they choose the first option that clearly wanted their life.

Zen nodded his head and smiled, "Good choice, because if you had chosen the first option then not only have you wasted my time, you also ruined my mood."

And he continued, "So if you were to choose the first option, I would have made sure to locate your family and treat them very well." 

Zen held a wicked smile as he talked about the things he would do to his wife and the guards could only tremble in horror that they didn't do it because their wife's fate would be worse than theirs.

"D-Devil… he's even more frightening when compared to the empress." The guard mumbled softly with his back feeling a chill.

"No need to tremble like that. I'm a very easy-going person after all." Zen laughed and vanished from his position using his movement technique.

Appearing behind the two guards, Zen did a karate chop motion at their necks, causing them to faint on the spot.

"My mistakes, I meant easy going when I communicate with a female, not a male." Zen adde.

Afterward, Zen sends a mental transmission to Cecilia and informs her to bring these two guards into the mysterious space.

Whoosh!

Zen and the two guards vanish and reappear inside the mysterious space. 

Of course, Zen's essence flame remained outside to deceive the others that we're spying on them and make them believe he was still inside there with guards.

"What do you want this time? I'm busy trying to cultivate and focus on regaining my physical body." Cecilia came out and said with a tone of displeasing sound.

She was trying to get a physical body but Zen kept on bugging and annoying her, causing her to lose more precious time.

"You sound very angry. Did I do something wrong?" Zen ignored her displeased attitude and asked in concern.

He hadn't communicated with her much after finding the ancient text and the fact that he held Cecilia's hand with the intention of ravaging her, caused her to ignore him as she tried to cultivate.

"Hmph, I doubt you have the time to worry about me when you have many other women to care about." Cecilia scoffed and in her mind, she was going crazy as she doesn't understand why she's so mad.

'What is wrong with my mind? Why did I even mention him with other women?' Cecilia sighed inwardly, hoping to resolve this problem sooner or later.

Meanwhile, Zen smiled brightly when he realized she was being jealous. 

'No wonder why you cut off communication with me previously and ignored me this whole time. My charm is really awesome to make you fall in love with me.'

Zen laughed inwardly as he cleared his throat slightly since it was not time to flirt yet. 

He pointed at the two guards who fainted and asked, "Is there any technique or method to guarantee the person would never betray you and would do anything you order?"

Cecilia looked at Zen in confusion so Zen could heave a soft sigh as he explained what happened.

Usually, Cecilia would know everything that's happening outside as long as it's related to Zen but since she was busy wondering about her emotions and cultivation, she has stopped spying on what's happening outside. 

Therefore, she had no idea what just happened regarding these two guards and when Zen finally finished his explanation, Cecilia looked at him like an idiot.

"Just that simple and you did all this unnecessary work," Cecilia said as she shook her head in disappointment.

Zen scratched his head slightly in embarrassment and asked, "Then what's the best solution for this? I'm still ignorant about most things despite having many awesome abilities."

Although he has skills like Hymn of Death and essence flame now, there are many other techniques and skills that he never heard of. It was similar to that time when he got hit with some status ailment spells and was dumbfounded by their sheer prowess to disable a human.

"Sigh, you're hopeless as usual. The fastest and easiest method to guarantee a person will never betray you is… a slave contract." Cecilia said.