188 Human Bank 3

One factor that could easily take over people's minds was disruption to their thoughts. But, did Lucas need this? Yes, he needed it to conserve mana even though he already knew how to save his mana and control it wisely.

Lucas stood out among the villagers, and the cultivators' attention was on him. But, as they looked at him and pointed their attention at him, they couldn't help but be confused in the midst of the terrifying emotions they were feeling.

Lucas did not pose any danger to him. He was just nonchalantly standing without doing anything. Meanwhile, they were slowly forgetting the creep they felt from the bizarre event and asked Lucas.

"Are you the one who was doing this?"

It was a common reaction since Lucas was the only one who seemed unaffected by the majority's expressions. He was the only one who had a different expression, and normally, any person who noticed it would simply ask that.

Lucas nodded and then came after with his lips curling upwards. 

The leader gripped tightly onto his weapon, but before he could ask another question, Lucas cast a spell with his chants, slowly dozing them off and taking out their consciousness.

Their eyes turned white while a transparent light in the form of a plate appeared on Lucas's two hands. Slowly, Lucas was mind-bending them, and he took all of their knowledge and memories. He didn't replace them, he only copied what was already present and then tried to understand what was currently happening on the mainland.

After a few minutes of his mind-bending, Lucas had already captured them.

'The expansion will start by now. I should start with the nearest city.' Lucas decided to leave his villagers behind since the range of his control was wide and it was difficult to disconnect.

Meanwhile, he sent back the cultivators to their sect for him to study more about their sect. He was thinking of taking over their sect, but working inside and learning their system was the best method to execute.

Then, just as Lucas had already fixed his plan, he went to the nearest city by the sky and changed his face again, but this time into a more appealing and scholar-looking young man. 

'I should act as a scholar and take over the landlord's trust.' Lucas already had a small idea of what the city was like. From the memories of his minions, he had a small idea of the land around him.

He wouldn't go into a place being clueless since he knew that it would take a long time. But, as he had seen a different approach to the landlord, he still wanted to make him trust him to easily brainwash him.

Lucas had already mastered saving his mana, but it would be strange if he still wanted to take the landlord's trust. 

'I should just take the landlord's trust to easily gain control of him. It would take time, but I was thinking of using the landlord's body to make a clean deal with the other cities.'

There were types of mind-bending or brainwashing. There was a mild one, leaving some consciousness to them but in favor of him. He could control them directly, but only for a short time.

But, there was also a hard and harsh mind-bending in which they would be living as his puppets. If he wanted him to decide, he could just let him. But, if he wanted to control him like a puppet, he could do it at any time without any limitations.

***

After 7 months, Lucas had already taken over 5% of the Eastern Continent secretly. But most, in general, were away from huge cities. He was spreading like a virus; his human bank would expand without the knowledge of the authorities.

He only had seclusive land on him, so he was also not aware of what was happening continentally.

Lucas was simply sitting silently inside a pavilion, awaiting the routine of his energy source. He was not lacking in it. Rather, he was stacking them up and saving them for a grandiose plan he had in the future.

At the same time, he took Lia's presence into account since he was still thinking that Lia was the strongest cultivator on the continent.

In his plan, after taking the continent, he would take over the whole realm. He made certain that his plan would be carried out on a small scale, and that he would not be threatened in any way.

He knew that in this world, he was not the strongest human alive. The ranking had changed, and he was fixated on not indulging himself with cultivation since he was the God of Magic, using magic to reach the peak of everything.

Suddenly, Lucas's attention was shifted as, from a distance, cultivators were running and going in his land's direction. He was confused and pondered their purpose. Hence, he made a small group of his minions meet them.

"Who are you?" Lucas asked through one of his minions.

The group of cultivators stopped panting. They were disturbed as their eyes were bothered by something. They then looked back and went to look at the group of cultivators Lucas was controlling.

"Is this the land of the Secret Arts Sect?"

The group Lucas was controlling didn't reply, and just silently looked at them. 

The group of cultivators then continued their words.

"Please help us. Some rebels were coming this way, and they outnumbered us."

Lucas raised an eyebrow. He had always been hearing about rebels for the past few months, but he didn't know why they were bothered by it. Rebels in any place were common, that was why he was uninterested in the matters about rebels.

But yet, the rebels were brought back again and, slowly, he was getting curious about why these cultivators who seemed to be coming from a normal sect were running away from rebels. 

There were plenty of possibilities that could be laid on the table as the situation, but what stood out was that those rebels might have already taken control of large parts of the mainland.

Lucas directed a question. "Are the rebels already on a huge part of the mainland?"

The cultivators nodded.

Lucas let out a sigh and then ordered half of the cultivators in the Secret Arts Sect, the place he was currently staying, to meet with the rebels and fight them.

At the same time, Lucas ordered the cultivators to come to him so that he could mind-bend them and learn what happened since they were the people who had encountered most of the rebels.

After that, as Lucas had already had the cultivators in front of him, he didn't waste any time and brainwashed them. He took their memories and read them all through. Then, he finalized what he gathered.

Everything was all about war with the other continents, especially the Northern Continent. As the Eastern Continent's authorities commenced their unification plan of the continent, rebels appeared and caused more turmoil in the continent.

For some reason, they were not easy to erase, and they kept on reappearing, creating more problems on the continent.

Lucas let out a sigh and tilted his head. His thoughts were rolling around in his head, but he still couldn't feel any interest in the situation. Instead, it could be more useful to him. He could expand the human bank using the distraction the rebels made.

Without the authorities' eyes on him, he could gather more human essence and save the mana he could obtain from them.

'It is interesting to see that the authorities' attention was divided. However, I am not interested in getting my feet wet in the war against the rebels. In the meantime, I will use the situation to expand my human bank secretly. And after that, I could just do whatever I needed to attend to.'

Lucas stood up from his seat and redirected an order to the cultivators he had sent. He wanted to have more people from the mainland, meaning some of the rebels must not die so that he could get into their heads and read their memories.

Lucas went out and flew out of his pavilion. He was floating above the fight going on between his cultivators and the rebels.

He just started absorbing the mana from the dead rebels as well as the cultivators on his side. After absorbing them, he smiled to see that his cultivators had won the fight. 

He then went down and stood before the rebels that his minions had caught. He then brainwashed them and read all through their memories. After a few minutes of reading, a conclusion was drawn.

'There is no need to continue studying their actions. Just using the situation to my advantage would be the greatest decision to make.'

Lucas shook his head. After a few months, he had already taken over 10% of the Eastern Continent. He then observed the war from above, and just smiled at how amusing it was that they were fighting for a legacy.