Mia cleaned-up and found Sun lazily yawning and crouching next to Lin when she came out while to the side was the carcass of a giant animal and that must be the "mountain-ram" which the tiger left earlier to hunt.

“This is frustrating... my clothes are still dirty even though I tried to wash them twice.”

Mia held the hem of her dress and wringed it to squeeze and drip the remaining water from it. But she frowned slightly when her fingers touched the skin on her smooth thigh through the tears and missing pieces of her clothes! feeling bitter about the ruined garment and lamenting how this dress used to be one of the future gifts which her mother prepared for Mia when she grows-up. Despite being more than happy after finding the chance to be able to survive this life-tribulation with the help of Lin and Sun. The young-woman couldn’t help but feel annoyance and be somewhat disgruntled because if she had access to her spirit-abilities right now then this dress could be saved until it’s perfectly intact. This experience gave Mia an extremely valuable lesson. First thing she learned is to store some useless attires in her space-ring just in-case she’s going to enter some forbidden-area where she wouldn’t be able to use her time-energy. Using spirit-energy to "coat" and cover your body or something else gives it a layer of protection against the elements and other effects of tear and wear or corrosion! without that energy-armor protection this normal dress which was her mom's gift for Mia when she’s twenty years old then it’s ruined. Even if the young-woman tried to use her time-energy to revert-time on that dress to make it new again after they leave the borders of the land of forgetfulness! it still wouldn’t work because her time-abilities can’t overcome the "force of suppression" which affects all types of spirit-elements in this land.

“Now it's torn... almost to shreds. Sigh... sorry mom! I promise not to let it happen again to any of your other gifts.”

That was indeed a cause of grief for Mia because she felt like her mom was currently displeased at her while she watched-over her from heavens! the young-woman slapped her face lightly and she remembered how her mother used to be sickly and weak all the time yet she still didn't forget to arrange clothes for her only daughter all the way until Mia was fully-matured into one charming woman exactly like her late mother used to always say she will.

“Well... at least you’re all cleaned-up, which is good... I guess since you don’t seem to like being clean.”

“Of course I am! I’m just slightly mad because my dress is ruined, my late-mother gave to me and now... guhh!”

“That’s really unfortunate... you can wear this to cover-up all that dangling-skin, for now at least.”

“What’s that? this fabric is soft to the touch but it isn’t silk... is it?”

“Our manufacturers in the textile-workshop likes to experiment with various types of materials, I converted one of the bed-sheets to this... cloak! I hope you like the colors by the way. It’s seventy-percent white-cotton of the good-meddling color-grade eleven which is their best in the raw-form, leaf-grade one before the refinement-process is initiated on the raw-material. Thirty-percent grade-A mulberry-silk! which I honestly think it’s wasteful for bed-sheets but the management falls under Lily and "Tian"—my mother— so I have no say in the matter, can you believe they were actually planning on making them from a hundred-percent grade-AAA mulberry-silk in the beginning! crazy right?”

Lin offered the distracted Mia the turquoise-cloak and she smiled sweetly when she discovered that Lin didn't get bothered when their hands touched. She didn't feel the previous chilly feeling on the back of her neck whenever the young-woman was close to Lin and the dangerous-vibe which she felt previously from Lin when they first met is a lot fainter now. It didn't fade at all entirely yes but it stayed there like a beacon in the darkness of her subconscious and acted like a warning. It was calm and quiet like a sleepless-eye which remains eternally-observant and looking-over all of her movements along-side the whole world. But quite-honestly Mia understood nothing about the history of this turquoise-cloak and didn’t know what to say.

“Thanks.”

Mia donned-on the cloak while thanking the boy and held herself back from just hugging him right here and now because he took care of her safety for a day and is considerate enough to make her cloth just like her mother did before! then she climbed her way on top of Sun's back and hugged his thick neck with her stretched arms and kept feeling his fur intimately with her fingers. But Mia's eyes were focused and despite the happy smile on her face the young-woman’s vision was pointed at Lin's body and waited for him to tell them what to do next despite already knowing the plan. She found the feeling of having this boy making decisions for her somewhat addictive because it made the saintess feel slightly similar-to the safety which she only felt within her sect and under the protection of her lord-father and fellow sect-members! there was a difference though... Mia just couldn’t put her finger on it.

“Earlier I scouted our "assassin-friends" and they’re still quite a safe distance behind, these two assassins are persistent but cautious, despite knowing that we’re helping you widen the distance away from them they remain steady on their travelling-speed, and it would seem that they’re aware that we have been making them go on circles for a day now.”

“Does that mean we need to change our plans?”

“No need... after you and Sun deliver this mountain-ram carcass to the dead-end, wait on the opposite side of this mountain-pathway and stay-low... it’s very important that you two hide yourselves from the eyes of the vulture-committee, especially their king.”

“I already know that... no need to repeat things for me, I’m not dumb.”

“Buddy, go incognito-mode alright! when you hear the loud-noise of rocks falling, then it’s my signal for you to return and occupy the high-terrain, but stay hidden when you climb your way back up, I'll find you and we can watch the battle together.”

Lin summoned his wings and flew at top-speed towards the location of the vultures-nest after rolling his eyes at the woman who seems bored-enough to throw a silly-tantrum before her decisive-fight! Sun on the other-hand ran around the rocky-area towards the narrow-path in the mountain until he reached the dead-end while dragging the ram's carcass with him and let go of it there. Then the tiger started to agilely and lithely scale and climb the mountain’s steep and dangerous-looking rocky-wall which blocked their path forward while carrying both Mia and the supply-box on his back. But that didn’t seem to trouble the huge-tiger at all and from the young-woman’s perspective she felt how experienced and extensively-trained Lin’s tamed-beast must’ve been! once Sun reached the top of the rocky-wall he used his fangs to unhook and release the supply-box from his back and let go of it there as well before the tiger started descending the other side of the rocky-wall which wasn’t as steep as the other side with only Mia on his back. But the tiger really wanted to discard this final package off of his back as well because this young-woman kept chattering non-stop in that foreign-language of hers about a "Xiaoxi" this and Xiaoxi that which was Mia’s way of fighting boredom and expressing how much she misses her own tamed-beast.

----

“Just like I thought... last time I was here you really did notice me huh! you're a really sharp fellow... aren’t you?”

The vulture-king glared at Lin with infuriated eyes because Lin had suddenly crossed the two kilometer distance separating them once it felt his presence and appeared in front of its nest! it was angry because Lin has not only trespassed on its sacred territory but also because this "invader" dared to challenge it when he stopped on a higher-level of elevation than itself with his tiny-wings and fluttered them slowly which couldn’t be anything but a gesture of challenging its authority.

“Xiiiii...”

With its screechy-voice calling for the committee to be alerted of this unwelcomed-invader the vulture-king pushed strongly with its talons on the branch underneath it and took to the sky aiming to impale Lin's tiny body with its blood-red beak.

“Whoosh...”

"Sorry... but not this sage my dear, this sage is planning to live one long and happy life this time... now if you’ll be so kind and follow me! you seem like a good leader to me so... bring your friends over to the party. You see... it's time to eat, and this meal is special in some way, the harder you work for it... the more tasty the meat you eat. And it will be... tasty! so what are you waiting for? come-on!”

Lin used his hands to block the wind-effect after the vulture-king passed nearby him and that gust of wind was harsh and sharp despite the boy’s careful evasion by using a single flutter of his wings to change place and shift his position more than thirty-meters to the right! the wind still affected Lin at that close-distance and he didn't dare stay in place after it happened because the earlier sound from the vulture-king had already alarmed the rest of the vulture-committee of his presence and all eyes were focused on his tiny body right now. These vultures all did like their king and started to try and impale Lin with their beaks or try to use their sharp and long hooked-talons to catch him to no avail. Lin said that after he evaded the threatening attacks of the vultures left and right for a few seconds then flew back towards the mountain-ram's carcass. The fastest vulture at his tail is the black-feathered king who was able to suddenly accelerate by strongly and repeatedly pushing down with its wings to pick-up speed. Still Lin was keeping watch over its position and the distance separating them all the time with his soul-sense! whenever the vulture-king tried to suddenly accelerate Lin would speed-up too and keep the distance within a safe stretch yet not too far apart for the kettle of vultures to decide on giving-up this chase.

“Don't get too full of yourself "birdie" that’s what Lily would say... yet I doubt you'll understand me, here is where we both say our goodbyes oh-king of vultures. Uh!... almost forgot there, I like your royal-feathers by the way... your highness.”

Lin turned to look at the kettle of vultures before he arrived at the dead-end and landed on top of the ram's carcass and stood there looking up at the vultures who surrounded the area. These vultures circled the sky and glared down at this little prey which dared to intrude into their territory and looked towards their king because without an order from their leader none of them dares to make a move. The vulture-king which was flying close to Lin who stood still on the carcass seemed to be studying the territory first with its cautious and alert-eyes! then after confirming that it’s safe around here the king tried to find an opportunity to launch a devastating and decisive-attack to catch Lin or hurt him to the degree where this prey wouldn't be able to fly faster or higher than the vulture-king ever again. The vulture-king glared at this cocky little stranger which dared to come provoke them in their own nest and its instinctive-nature screamed that it needs to squeeze him beneath its talons and step all-over him while tearing this prey with its beak to teach its followers a lesson and remind them who’s the leader in the committee before eating this prey. When the black vulture-king heard Lin’s words it felt like this strange creature was provoking it with whatever voice it.

“Xiii...”

The vulture-king found that its talons had dug deep into the mountain-ram carcass instead of the yellow-winged pipsqueak and knew that its sneak-attack was a failure since the little-one is nowhere to be found through its sharp-sight or keen senses! the black vulture-king found shock and confusion in the eyes of its brethren and followers when it looked at them. Then the spurting-blood from the mountain-ram carcass soon made the vultures seem more interested in this easy-meal which they found than looking for the one who led them here in the first-place.

“Don't bother looking for me and enjoy your meal... your highness, a good-leader must take the well-being of his subjects into consideration before his own.”

This time the vulture-king heard Lin's voice ring inside its head and it felt like this voice is coming from a deeper place within itself but somehow it understood what was said! the hot-blood which is gushing on its talons and the smell of fresh-meat made the vulture-king compare the size of Lin's body and this ram-carcass. But the sour-feeling of missing its chase made the vulture-king take to the sky and the anxious-committee was forced to ignore this free-snack and follow their leader in a tour around the area to look for Lin.

“Don't make me force you to stay there until our guests arrive... because I’ll if you don’t go back soon.”

Lin said to himself while he hid somewhere nearby the mid-way of the narrow-pathway and watched the kettle of vultures circle the sky around the area of the dead-end because he didn't want these vultures to leave until the two assassins arrive! it would be very different if the assassins stumbled-into the vultures while they’re eating then it would be a lot more provocative than if they got spotted by the vultures way before entering the dead-end or before entering the narrow-pathway. When the king of vultures failed to find Lin it returned to the carcass of the mountain-ram and started to feed alone under the excited eyes of its happy followers. But it wasn't in the mood to eat and left the body and perched on the highest rock of the dead-end and looked around with its bloodshot eyes. The strongest few of the vulture-committee were the first to step forward to eat after their king and the rest of the weaklings waited obediently for their turn behind them.

“Good committee... now it's my turn, the most suitable position for me to effectively block the way back on these two assassins is this place, let's see which locations on these two walls are prone to collapsing if I manipulated the balance...”

Lin discreetly arrived in place and felt the walls with his hands. “Hrmmm... they're here, perfect timing.” While the boy was studying the cracks on the rocks with his soul-sense he discovered the oncoming assassins who just arrived at exactly two kilometers away from him. One of them is riding the scorpion-tailed Cerberus and the other is running next to it and Lin felt like that man somehow isn’t as healthy as he might seem! both of the cloaked-assassins stopped at the entrance of the narrow-pathway which leads to the dead-end. Vigilantly the two-people looked at the two sides of the high rocky-walls until their vision got blocked by the thick curtains at one-hundred meters then again at the only road forward between these walls which is the narrow-pathway covered in traces of blood and clearly something both heavy and bloodied was dragged this way. They have to go forward in that same direction and at their fastest speed to catch-up with the saintess otherwise Mia will be given more and more time to rest if they delayed their chase any longer than it already is! She already got time to eat and rest a day before and the latest traces which they found earlier indicates that she had enough time to clean-up and shower. Maybe if they allow her anymore space and free-time the saintess of the seamless-sword sect might get daring enough to lay a trap for them. But what if she’s already aiming to ambush them in this narrow-pathway? what if she’s only baiting them into thinking that way? since she’s gaining to benefit if they became too vigilant in their pursuit. If they choose to scale and climb the high-terrain instead then it will waste more time while the saintess use that time to escape further and make a better trap and wait for them to fall in it. Both men looked at each other and once they made eye-contact Xiangming jumped from the back of his tamed-Cerberus and clearly these two assassins choose to venture through the narrow-pathway and advanced cautiously while keeping a close-eye by looking up at both sides of the rocky-walls. A very alert-mode was turned-on by these two assassins who moved in silence and seemed in a hurry to cross this narrow-path.

'Quite vigilant indeed, they positioned themselves closer to the Cerberus's body to shelter beneath it if there's a case of big rocks falling from above or some stones or other projectiles being thrown at them huh.' Lin smiled widely when he saw how these assassins half-way understand what his plan is but the hidden factor of the incoming-event when they intrude on the vulture-committee while they feast on the free-snack is certainly something which these two didn’t predict. 'Hrmmm... what kind of intuition is that? but since you already started to enter the pathway then I know for a fact that you'll continue going further in! even if you feel like there's something wrong.' Lin thought that when he noticed that the two assassins had stopped underneath where he stood and looked up! but the distance separating him from the two assassins is more than seven-hundred meters already. After hesitating whether or not to go forward on the narrow-pathway which snaked about in this rocky-terrain. Just like the boy predicted they would do Lin watched through his soul-sense how the two assassins and Cerberus continued to go deeper through the narrow-pathway towards the vultures but one of the assassins—which is the one whom Lin felt like he’s not in his best-shape—looked back up towards the general angle where Lin stood.

“Pointless.”

Lin said faintly to himself and watched the two assassins and their scorpion-tailed Cerberus move further and waited until they reach the mid-way point where they’re supposed to enter the sensory-range of the vulture-king. That time would be when Lin uses the technique which he used in his first flight-trial to demolish some rocks in these rock-walls and cause it to collapse. The boy remembered once he returned to his room after the first flight attempt almost killed him and how he kept looking up at the hole in its ceiling. It was later after his soul-cultivation reached the soul-eye realm that Lin started to use his wings to experiment on how could they evaporate the hard formula of concrete which he created their palace-foundations from it! the amazing thing however is that there wasn't any broken or demolished parts on the ceiling at all. Which would make strangers think that it’s Lin who had originally designed and created the ceiling on his room with this hole in the shape of half-folded wings in the middle of it and did the same to the other layers of foundation behind it. First the boy started his trials with simple sheets of the most fragile-glass and after wearing his full-armor and as many as possible of protective-gear layers underneath it! then he'll use the propulsion-force of his pair of wings and try to make that strange phenomenon happen again by passing through solid-material. The same phenomenon of evaporating solid-matter with his wings only happened when the boy used his pair of wings to separate any part of his body from the glass and the entire-area of collision. When his body isn't included in the impact-zone Lin simply passes from one side to the other at high speed and leave a different shape of his wings behind on the obstacles. Lin kept-on thickening the glass and add other sheets to test how far can he take this ability and understand how many obstacles his wings overcome of if there’s any limits to the ability at all because he can escape dangerous situations or defend himself using them! or maybe use these wings to access things he want behind obstacles when needed. But things weren’t easy on him because when the sheets and plates of glass are thicker it became harder to breach them without having to break one or two at the end. Following that Lin understood that he has to release his restraining-cap on the control of his pair of wings which he placed in-order to slow them down before. The reason the boy placed this restriction on the wings was to inhibit their acceleration to a reasonable limit otherwise Lin would be thrusted to who knows where by these pair of insanely-fast wings. Right now—and most of the time he’s using his wings—Lin is forcefully integrating his soul-force into control of this martial-spirit which he calls it "wings of light" because if he didn't stop these pair of wild-wings from moving beyond what his soul-sense is capable of perceiving with its range and beyond the limit of what his brain is capable of processing and judging when to evade and which way to move or which obstacle is penetrable and which is impenetrable! then Lin is possibly going to smash face-first into some hard-obstacle with his body before even understanding what happened he might be long gone. If it’s his body taking the hit then no matter how strong his protective-attire or how strong his body is then all that will remain of the boy’s body will be a buddle of gooey-innards and a splatter of blood in the spot he crashes! the same can’t be said and probably wouldn’t ever be said if his wings were embracing his body and covering it in the exact moment of impact at that insane speed because Lin knows it in his gut and by pure-intuition that he will end-up passing through any sort of obstacle just like a hot knife would move through a block of butter. If his speed is equalizing or over the required limit of the mass, density, and thickness of the obstacle then his wings would give him a smooth-ride. If it isn’t then his smooth-ride through the obstacle would be rudely halted mid-way or end-up breaking the remaining part of the obstacle with brute force if Lin's speed is lacking by a slight margin. Too slow and severely lacking in speed would end-up with the boy fully-stopped by the obstacle in the very beginning and his body receiving the full-impact after his protective-gear absorbed whatever it could from the collision! Lin ended-up calling this ability "wings of freedom" because by propelling himself with enough speed while his pair of wings are covering his body can allow him to go through any obstacle in his way. Lin can pass through anything safely and cleanly as long as he’s correctly judging the thickness and sturdiness of the materials in any object. The whole ride through solid-material wouldn't make Lin experience anything different from flying in the clear sky while no aftershocks or vibrations would happen if his speed is correct. The wings of light would make everything disappear from its way at that time then the sheets and plates of glass became too easy for Lin. The boy changed his trials and would try with different obstacles everyday seeking to see the differences in resistance when confronted with his wing's ability of penetration and evaporation! from experience Lin knew that these stones on the rock-walls wouldn't be a problem to him if he wanted to make a few holes on the weak-points in the two sides of this narrow-pathway to make the summits collapse entirely and block the way back on the two assassins and their Cerberus. The boy stuck his back to the rocks at an angle seemingly aiming to exit diagonally from the other side of the pathway’s summit. Meanwhile the dark-feathered big-bird seemed to be quite irritated because Lin had escaped its range of senses despite being under its beak right before he disappeared and kept looking everywhere around it trying to find where this small-winged and very arrogant-prey hid itself.

“Xiiii...”

“Now.”

Once the vulture-king noticed the slowly approaching assassins and their three-headed and three-tailed Cerberus moving towards its followers who indulged themselves in the mountain-ram it made a loud shrieking-voice with its blood-red beak and shot towards old Weisheng and Xiangming at top-speed aiming to scoop one of the two assassins and crunch him with its talons.

“Careful!...”

“Arghhh...”

“Let’s retreat... quickly!”

“There’s more of these beasts...”

“Crack... crack... boom!... krrr... boom...”

Despite being unable to catch-up to Lin during their short chase the boy could never deny the fact that this vulture-king is really an extremely fast creature because whenever it seriously tried to move faster he would be forced to remove a bit more of the restriction-cap of soul-force on his martial-spirit to avoid its instant boost speed. When he escaped Lin was able to successfully evade the vulture-king only by removing slightly more of his control over his wings of light which is a dangerous thing to do because doing so would make the boy move at an incomprehensible-speed which is way beyond his current capabilities to take precautions during flight. But thankfully Lin could calculate the trajectory of his flight if it’s in a singular-line and that enabled him to instantly leave the range of sharp-senses which this vulture-king has by flying towards the sky instead then quickly back towards the ground before hiding himself. These assassins and their Cerberus instantly felt the threat heading their way and Xiangming which is the faster assassin among the two tried to warn old Weisheng while he hid himself deeper underneath the belly of his tamed-beast for protection. But the vulture-king was heading for the older assassin at breakneck-speed and latched on-to the man’s left arm before Weisheng could really avoid its sweep-attack and all it took was a slight squeeze from these talons and the end-result was that old Weisheng felt his left arm being torn from the shoulder while he himself was raised from the ground and thrown back down after Xiangming quickly reacted by holding the ankle of his partner to stop that animal from snatching him. Both men knew that Weisheng might’ve kept his left arm intact if that previous tension didn’t happen and after gritting his teeth the old assassin spoke and told Xiangming that they should retreat while pushing with his right hand on the stump of the missing arm to stop the spurting blood. Xiangming was already retreating while carefully being on guard against the other vultures which started to appear flying above them in great numbers but Lin was never going to give them a chance to just leave that easily now is he? like a cannonball he went in and out from the both sides of the narrow-pathway and left one hole after another behind him both high below and the huge-blocks of heavy-stones couldn't hold their place after those underneath them collapsed! a great landslide covered the only path of retreat behind the two assassins with rocks more than one kilometer high and deprived them from the ability to leave at all since it’s coming their way and they instantly knew that they had to run back into the direction of the saintess because they have no other choice right now. It was a trap indeed and they had no other choice but to bite the bait and they did. Both assassins thought so while they ran deeper into the narrow-pathway until they finally arrived at the spacious-area which is a dead-end but their vision couldn’t cover the whole place but they knew that they’re not out of the danger yet. Because now Xiangming and Weisheng found themselves surrounded by hundreds of vultures plus the vulture-king right after the dust-cloud which was covering their already restricted sight finally started to partially disperse and clear-out little by little.

“Fuck! now we're trapped by these birds... old-Man Weisheng how's your hand?”

“Gone... the saintess led us into these beasts, was it her who caused the pathway to cave-in?”

“No... the entire time she was in that direction, and she’s still ahead in that location.”

“She has others assisting her now... this isn’t good.”

“Of course it isn’t! can you fight?”

Xiangming pulled out two gleaming daggers from scabbards on his waist one of these daggers had a cyan color and the other purple color and asked while he tried to look around at a suitable position nearby which could help them defend the attacks from these vultures. Earlier during his swift escape underneath the Cerberus’s belly Xiangming noticed that the black bird aimed at Weisheng instead of him because the old-man is slow and saw his partner desperately try and cover the stump of his left arm with his right hand to stop the bleeding after managing to take cover under the Cerberus with his help after he saved him.

“Don't mind me now and focus on killing whomever comes near us.”

“I know that already... don’t order me around.”

“Sigh... I still have a few poison-vials on me, you should smear them on your daggers.”

“What does it do?”

“The lightest wounds or scratch will make these birds paralyzed for at least a day after a minute if they are below the devil-beast in realm.”

“Now you’re talking old-man Weisheng... I think these ugly-birds are demonic-beasts or below that in realm, maybe the black-bird which took your arm is a devil-beast already while these white-headed birds are in the peak-stages of the demonic beast.”

“It doesn’t matter because we need to dwindle their numbers as much as we can as quick as we can, otherwise there will be no chance for us to survive this trap if we allow these birds to sap our strength, we’re dead if we become exhausted.”

Weisheng said before stuffing his remaining hand inside the folds of his cloak and brought-out three small glass-vials containing a faint-yellow liquid and handed them to Xiangming with bloodied fingers. Then Weisheng tore a piece of his clothes and tied it around his bleeding shoulder while gritting his teeth then wiped the sweat from his forehead. Xiangming nodded in agreement with what the old and ugly-looking assassin said then applied the poison from the glass-vials on both daggers before taking his defensive-stance and just watched from the safety of being underneath his Cerberus's belly while the average brown-vultures harassed his tamed-beast from every position. Despite the Cerberus having three-heads and three-tails to defend itself against these vultures it still accumulated wounds very quickly because these vultures were indeed too many and their attacks were constantly leaving more wounds on-top of its body. Those elite-vultures and their king were observing the ongoing fight between the Cerberus and its brethren like a general overseeing the battlefield while circling the sky! every time one of the vultures got stung with one of the Cerberus's stingers or got bitten by its green fangs said-vulture will either lose its ability to move entirely soon-after and bleed purple-black blood from the sting-wound or wobble left and right while flying like a fledgling-chick learning to take its first flight for a short-while before falling to the ground to sleep. After Weisheng quickly tended to his wound and stopped the bleeding he unsheathed his weapon which is a short-sword and used it to attack any vulture that he can hit from the safety of being underneath the Cerberus while Xiangming was more daring and suicidal in his defense because his handsome-self refused to be bested by these ugly-vultures or anyone in a contest of speed! the assassin would venture-out from the safety to try and stab or graze a few vultures with his daggers before he returned to safety next to the Cerberus once a lot of vultures targets him all at once. But the main-target of the attacks from the average-vultures would always be the Cerberus itself. Just ten-seconds after the main-attack of the entire vulture-committee started on the assassins and their Cerberus began and its body is already covered in light-wounds and bleeding lots of blood while one of its three-heads lost an eye.

“Xiii...”

It seems like this vulture-king was a ruthless commander because it didn't go easy on these enemies and its already bloodshot eyes started to darken after it made that loud screeching-sound in anger. Once it saw more than a dozen of its followers fall after the first clash either being dead or paralyzed for some reason it commanded its group of elite-vultures to aim for the Cerberus while the vulture-king itself targeted the most annoying one of these enemies which is Xiangming! noticing the vulture-king fleeting in and out from his range of sight at insane speed forced the younger assassin to ignore targeting or attacking the average-vultures in his surroundings and focus on preventing the black vulture-king from sneak-attacking him. At once the Cerberus was befallen with all the pressure from the vulture-committee especially since Weisheng was already struggling to use a single arm to protect himself and couldn’t do anything to attack or hurt any of the vultures with his slow movements. While Xiangming was passively unable to deal any further damage to the vultures because of the vulture-king which made the younger assassin very alert and not daring to be careless with the defense. But what annoyed him the most was that he couldn’t deliver a single scratch to the black-bird which made him feel like he’s being toyed-with by it just to stall for more time.

-----

Lin snuck around the ongoing-fight and met-up with Sun and Mia while they were halfway-through of climbing their way back-up to the supply-box they left on top.

“I felt the earth shaking earlier... how did it go?”

Mia expectantly asked Lin once the boy suddenly appeared next to them and her eyes were full of excitement while she imagined countless ways where her pursuers would meet their end.

“I blocked their path of retreat and they had no choice but to escape to the dead-end, they’re trapped.”

“And? I heard the voice of a bird earlier... did the flock of these "vultures" attack the assassins? they... didn’t become timid by the sound of falling stones, did they?”

“Currently they're fighting the vulture-committee, the vulture-king crippled one assassin and tore-off his arm, their scorpion-tailed Cerberus lost one eye and got inflicted with countless shallow and light wounds but it’s losing a lot of blood.”

“Yes... hell-yeah. Go vultures! so... are they winning?”

“Right now it's a stalemate I guess, because if the two assassins are able to somehow overcame the vultures and manage to push them into leaving then the Cerberus is going to be unable to join any other fights, at least for a while. But of course that's only if the beast manages to keep its life until it actually happens! right now the vultures are showing that unfortunate-Cerberus hell really.”

“Serves it right... it kept leading these two baddies towards my location. Humph!”

“You should be happy then because if these vultures won, then you wouldn't need to do anything at the end, and my job here will be done.”

“I don’t want it to end so easily for them though...”

“Are you going to leave with me and Sun? or are you going to stay here? I can point you towards the location of my village if you’re not planning on leaving just yet... but I need to warn you, whether or not you'll get permission to enter or how long you’ll be allowed to stay will be entirely up to my sister Lily.”

Lin briefed Mia on his accomplishments and the situation then asked the young-woman about her future plans when she saw that she started to pucker her lips and shrugged when the boy told her that Lily is currently the judge, jury, and executioner of his birthplace and is the highest-authority of its current inhabitants.

“Leave... I really would like to meet your twin-sister Lily, but it has to be in some other day because I can't delay my breakthrough to the tyrant-realm anymore.”

“Why’s that?”

“Delaying any further than these two years which I spent in this land of forgetfulness will unfortunately be useless for me.”

“How so?”

“My spirit-energy is already refined to the limit within my current spirit-realm, As a grandmaster my time-energy is refined and I can feel like it’s crystalizing already within my dantian!”

“I understand...”

“When you’re planning on returning here someday just remember to take me with you.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because I want to see Lily! or do you only think of this big-sister here as some burden which you can’t wait to get rid-off very soon and plan-on ditching somewhere after giving her a hand just once.”

Mia crossed her arms and hugged her developed chest cutely and said that while giving Lin a mischievous smile when she replied because she liked Lin’s careless attitude! The more this boy acted insensitive towards her feelings and ignored her wishes the more the young-woman felt like she just wants and has to invade his life and privacy and become part of it too. Mia’s attitude differed very much once she heard from Lin that he doesn't mind sending her towards his home-town to live there for a while if she wants—that means the boy doesn't fear that the young-woman might try and harm his family—is what Mia thought while unaware that there—in the midst of his village—is one person which is a thousand-times more scary and frightening than our kind-hearted Lin here. Lily that walking-miracle which duplicated Lin's insane intellectual-potential before shedding herself from his soul before their birth who’s in her bag alone is more than a dozen ways to safely and cleanly get rid of Mia here if the girl felt like doing it.

Pouting her lips slightly to show an obviously fake expression of being disgruntled when Lin ignored her last phrase Mia asked again : “Don’t you want me to travel together with you anymore?” The young-woman wanted to hear it from the boy directly. If he doesn't want her to accompany him and Sun in their journey outside the land of forgetfulness while doing her best to push her chest upwards and making it sway and vibrate to tempt Lin to agree on letting her stay with them.

Looking at Mia's green eyes and her sight in that fluttering turquoise-cloak which moved with the wind and danced like a heroine’s long-cape while the beautiful woman mounted his tiger. Lin shook his head slightly and didn't answer her playful question because there’s no need to answer at all since she’s just the type of people who stick to you even if you chased them with a stick. After accompanying this young and beautiful woman for more than a day now Lin already gave his verdict on what kind of personality Mia has when she’s not holding a sword! an airhead, lazy, mischievous, spoilt a bit too much, honest, and kind. If she’s holding a sword then Mia is... sharp, scary, deep, and mysterious which contradicts a lot with her normal behavior! she isn't your typical big-sister living next-door but she deserve his help because the young-woman never lied in whatever she said to the boy. Otherwise Lin would've left her after helping her to a meal and never gave Mia a chance to rest if she lied or showed a single sign of attempting to deceive him. The boy was convinced by her circumstances and saw justified-reason in helping and assisting the young-woman. Especially-so when he noticed the shadow of longing that appeared in the depth of her green eyes whenever Mia mentioned her sect or her lord-father because Lin has the same buried feeling whenever he remembered his previous life.

“Tsk... Just so you know I’m not planning on leaving Sun. Y... you b... bully him too much!”

“We both know that I’m not a bully, if you like our company that much then just admit it.”

“I do like it... S... Sun’s company!... I mean.”

“Fine... suit yourself.”

“Yay... I’m never leaving Sun, he’s just too soft and cuddly.”

“Growl!...”

“You two keep it down... we’re getting close.”

Mia snorted and tried to use a forceful method instead when she found that her charm didn’t work on this little-monster and made the tiger her excuse instead and Lin just exposed her scheme and smirked when she fell for his trap before shrugging and letting her have what she wants. But when young-woman tried to get cozy with Sun he turned his head to threaten her and the boy quickly intervened to stop them because the young-woman was about to do something which would certainly agitate the demonic-beast.

“Here is fine Sun, now let’s hide ourselves over there.”

“Are we close? I can hear voices from below... don’t tell me it’s over so soon!”

“No it’s still going hot, when the fight is over between the assassins and the vultures I'll notify you. If they survive the vultures somehow then we proceed like we agreed earlier, I not join the fight and Sun will if I give the permission.”

“What if it isn’t safe for Sun to join the fight? will you let your big-sister Mia be bullied by these two smelly assassins from the assassins-guild? at least let Sun defend your big-sister!... sniff”

“Stop your act already, that's your matter to deal with in the firs-”

Lin suddenly stopped talking and looked down towards the direction of the fight which made Mia who was about to cry to give the perfect act suddenly frown and ask : “What happened?” While squeezing the handle of the sword in her hand.

“Growl...”

Sun's sudden growl stopped Lin from explaining the situation to Mia and both of them looked towards the tiger waiting to see what is causing him to suddenly throw an objection and interrupt the transmission between them! the tiger quickly clawed at the ground and scratched its surface to cause countless sparks and the boy understood what his tamed-beast’s intentions are and why is the tiger conveying them now.

“You want to fight freely? we don't know what these assassins are capable of doing buddy, it’s too risky and has to be done under my supervision.”

“Grrr...”

“Idiot... lower your voice! what if you attract the vultures towards us? I said you can join the fight not that you’re not allowed.”

“Whine...”

“See! you’re bullying him again... that’s why I’m not leav-”

“You stay out of it Mia!”

“Snort...”

“Snort...”

Both Mia and Sun snorted in the same time but the young-woman was giving the boy the stinky-eye while the tiger was rolling his eyes at the foolish woman instead! because she thought in sheer-idiocy that she can get in-between him and his buddy.

“You can fight but under one condition buddy, I be the one to give you commands during the battle, only what I tells you can be done and nothing else.”

“Purr...”

“If you defy my orders just once... then I'll add shifting-shapes to your daily-training.”

“Whine...”

“See! you’re doing it aga-”

Sun lowered his ears and whined but within his eyes was a mischievous-glint and when Mia tried to play his guardian and got herself glared-at by Lin the tiger smirked cunningly because he caused this annoying woman to be disciplined by his buddy.

“Humph... j... just d... don’t do it again.”

Mia’s cheeks blushed and she muttered these words while avoiding eye-contact with Lin but her heart was racing because when the boy glared at her it wasn’t just her words which stopped! the young-woman felt like her heart skipped a beat just earlier and it wasn’t because of fear but something else which is a foreign feeling she couldn’t understand it felt warm but she felt embarrassed for some reason.

“Sun... if you disobey me once, then I’ll lower all of your food-portions by more than half in the future, both cooked and raw! so if you're okay with starving, then by all means ignore my orders and drag your feet whenever you’re executing them.”

Sun's fur stood at end when he heard the threat from Lin and repeatedly nodded his head to accept the terms of this agreement but the tiger didn’t know that Lin increased the punishment because he tricked Mia into foolishly standing-up for him just for fun.

“Good that you know obedience still. If you behave yourself, then you might get your share of the spoils after the action, maybe a bigger share if I’m feeling generous.”

“Purr...”

“Ehm... you two stop it or big-sister wouldn’t be able to focus on the fight... the fight! what’s going on down there?”

“That Scorpion-tailed Cerberus just took a vital-wound and one of its heads is almost decapitated, from the amount of blood it’s losing, I reckon it doesn't have enough time left to live. These vultures have lost many of their members as well! in this fight where the Cerberus and two assassins on one side and the vulture-committee on the other side, both sides has their fair share of casualties among their ranks. I just wonder if that vulture-king will beat the drums of retreat anytime now, its group of elite-vultures has only half of them in a good condition to fight, the other half are either dead already or barely even alive and paralyzed! the rest of the vulture-committee are the average-vultures which are the majority, but they lost two thirds of their members already, thankfully most of these vultures are just paralyzed.”

Lin gave Sun a look that told him to quiet-down for now and narrated to Mia what she expectantly waited for him to say and update her on the ongoing fight.

“Serves them right... bully me for two years! humph... one of them is already crippled and missing an arm, and the Cerberus about to be decommissioned from the fight huh, I’ll take these odds. Now... even if these vultures retreated, then I'm not letting these two men leave here alive. I’m planning on taking these two assassins out, little-Lin don’t try to make me change my mind.”

Mia smiled and squinted her eyes trying to see downwards through the thick curtain one-hundred meters away which looks like floating clouds made of both mist and cotton at the end of her sight while hoping if she could see these two assassins struggle to save their lives.

“Nobody is trying anything here except you! squinting your eyes doesn’t help huh... let me help you with that.”

Lin again decided to be helpful to Mia and give her the satisfaction of spectating the fight and he transmitted to her what his soul-sense is able to see.

“Hrmmm... thanks little-Lin, want a hug?”

“Keep it...”

“Tsk... yes! sever the second head... argh... dummy! don't you know that you shouldn’t aim for the front when dealing with a scorpion-tailed Cerberus, its back is wide-open already... poke it in the butt or something, your beak looks long enough! watch it... the fast assassin is behind you guys... ugh... idiots could've left a few wounds on him or at least ruined his spirit-armor, it looks too shabby and already about to break. Useless! these vultures are stupid, only "blackey" is doing a good job and the rest are just brown trash, "whiteys" are just so-so.”

Mia rolled her eyes after gawking at Lin’s quick denial to her offer then clicked her tongue while pouting her lips, then she quickly got over her it and started commentating on the fight excitedly which the boy kept sending her the live-feed of all ongoing-action in the battlefield with his soul-link ability! waving her fist in the air after every successful-attack delivered by the vultures or successful-evasion and covering her face after every wasted-opportunity to attack or flee which any of these vultures could've used.

“It's dead... hahaha... you see... eh! they're retreating, why? come back whiteys... blackey come back... no they can still win, come back idiots! one of them lost an arm and already about to fall from exhaustion after he received more wounds, and the other has nothing more to protect himself except two spirit-daggers which are about to lose their spirituality completely. Sigh... whatever, I guess I'll have to do the rest of the work myself. Sigh... but I wanted them to keep on struggling a bit more, this isn’t fair. Meh... vultures are no fun after all!”

Mia was ecstatic when the scorpion-tailed Cerberus fell in a blood-pool of its own making then she stared-up with her eyes at the white mist covering her view while watching with the assistance of Lin's soul-sense how the vulture-king—which is the only vulture who didn't get wounded at all in the previous battle—ordered its minions to retreat and left many of its followers behind! the battlefield below was decorated with many paralyzed-vultures and more carcasses of dead vultures plus the mountain-ram and the scorpion-tailed Cerberus’s carcass and after a final glance at the ground the vulture-king flew away without making a sound. Then the young-woman noticed that the vulture-king seemed to look towards their general-direction twice before it left and remembered how the boy warned her earlier that this blackey can sense others from a considerabley-huge distance! after sighing Mia understood that this intelligent-creature knew that she and Lin had used it and its committee to attack these three. Blackey knew that it might be dragged further if it stayed to fight longer since these two could ensnare and entangle even him into their trap if they could keep themselves hidden from it. Maybe even kill itself and the rest of its family.

“That's why I said before that they might retreat, the vulture-king didn't forget about my existence during the whole fight and long before that before these two assassins were discovered by it.”

“Blackey is so clever... hehehe.”

“Now that it lost the majority of its nest-members and avenged its fallen brethren by personally-killing the one who caused most damage which is the scorpion-tailed Cerberus, it can maintain its image of invincibility amongst its remaining followers and prestige within the other members back in the nest, but if it stayed longer and subjected itself and more of its followers to possible harm then it can lose all that, if we happened to fall-on them and catch it and its followers and the assassins and take them by surprise with their pants-down around their ankles while both parties are wrestling in the mud.”

“Humph... you’re making it sound naughty, naked, and dirty. It can scurry-away and give an order for retreat any time, they can fly while the assassins can’t!”

Mia smirked and scrunched her nose at Lin’s expressive words and appeared to be annoyed but in fact she believed the boy’s point of view.

“Even if it managed to escape before we catch it, the surviving vultures might feel unsecure under its command if their numbers dwindled any further and abandon the nest together, the vulture-king knows that I can fly and much faster than it but doesn’t know if I’m strong or not! don’t forget that in its eyes I’m an enemy too.”

Lin contemplated for a second then told Mia his conclusions while looking towards the leaving vulture-king and sent it off with an apologetic gaze! the boy wasn't happy that he used this animal to weaken Mia's enemies but he didn't have any other means to solve her situation otherwise without having to personally act with his tiger quite actively which might spill and cause some unavoidable-danger.

“Blackey is indeed too clever... well I guess that means it’s my turn to take the stage.”

“All yours princess...”

“Hehehe... saintess! I’m not some princess. Kekeke...”

Lin nodded and shrugged and Sun felt like puking on the swelling-head of this annoying woman right here and now while rolling his eyes at her but he decided to do it later since if the tiger did it now his buddy might punish him by making him disallowed to join the battle.

“Hey... worms from the guild of worms down there! can you hear me? this saintess is right here, if you want to keep track of my location then this saintess will allow you the chance, but you better hurry-up already, I don't have any more time to waste playing tag with your sorry bums... one-minute, do you hear me? one minute is generously gifted by me for you worms to catch-up, don't you ever try and say that this saintess isn't merciful and kind. Hurry-up already! if I get bored from waiting then I’ll just leave and let you worms eat all the rot in this accursed-land, I know you like eating filth but I heard you’ve a mission to complete before stuffing these ugly faces of yours.”

“You’re the one who’s ugly... you bitch! you caused the death of my Cerberus.”

Once Mia shouted that downwards at the top of her lungs in the common-language of the spirit-world quickly came the replying-answer from below and the voice of Xiangming the handsome assassin could be heard ringing loudly in the whole area while the man himself bolted forward towards the mountain-wall and agilely jumped on between the stones like a monkey in a lush forest and used his two daggers to help him latch-on the rocks for stability or to propel himself upwards! despite his speed which is at least two-times faster than the best professional mountain-climbers in Lin's previous life the height of this steep mountain-wall would take Xiangming at least five minutes to reach Mia.

“She's baiting us... wait! Xiangming listen to me. Sigh... he's lost it after she called him ugly, fuck-youth.”

Weisheng tried to call for Xiangming to calm-down but the suicidal assassin didn't look back once and continued to climb higher until he disappeared from his partner’s range of sight! after looking at the stump of his missing arm Weisheng followed after him but at a much slower speed because he’s climbing singlehandedly. Their mission vitally relied on the Cerberus's godly-senses of directions and abilities to keep track of its target's location no matter how big is the separating distance. Now that it’s dead then Weisheng and Xiangming has to keep Mia under their close sight all the time if they wanted to finish their mission successfully. Yes the death of the beast complicates things for Xiangming with the swan-pill but it can be replaced with another later no problem. Despite being riled-up Xiangming did the right thing by going after their prey—Mia—without hesitation and Weisheng knows that already but he just hates how much the situation has turned upside-down in so little time.

“Oh! you mean that mutt... my condolences "worm" I admit it then, I guess you can say that it was because of me. At least I have the courage to do that, unlike you spineless worms.”

“I’ll kill you!...”

“Don't be so sad worm... this saintess promises you that I’ll be sure to cut your handsome face off, right before I send you to hell, when you’re there you can join your mutt and be friends again. Now shut your mouth and hurry-up worm, you’re too slow just like a snail! kekekeke...”

Mia heard everything the calm cripple said with the help of Lin’s soul-sense and smirked evilly before she antagonized the handsome Xiangming and enraged him further just to enjoy the angry expression on his face while the young-woman drove him insane with her words.

“Cut off my face! I'll rape you until you love me... huff... then I'll skin your face slowly While I fill your cunt with my precious seed. You bitch dare to have thoughts about the face of this celestial-being? hateful woman... I’ll make you regret saying these words.”

“Handsome face!... it couldn’t be. Xiangming she can see further than us.”

“I know already... don’t waste a second old-man, I trust you know what to do.”

“Right behind you...”

Xiangming’s temper flared-up and his eyes glowed with pure rage when he heard Mia compare him to a worm and his climbing speed increased by another notch! the assassin was climbing fifty meters on this steep mountain-wall every ten seconds or less despite how rough the terrain is. Lin frowned upon the string of profanities which Xiangming gave Mia once she transmitted back to him the translation of the ongoing conversations. The boy looked towards the young-woman and nodded then quietly gave his tiger the sign to convert its body to a kitten-form. Sun didn't whimper once this time then jumped at Lin's shoulder and crouched lower while excitedly urging his friend to move it and go after their target he just couldn't stop using his kitten paws to pat and scratch gently on the boy's shoulder in excitement while shaking its little fluffy tail. Both of them—tiger in kitten-form and the boy who has wings—tailed the cripple assassin who slowly climbed upwards and left Mia alone on top of the rocky-wall! the young-woman in turquoise-cloak waited for the handsome assassin which is called "Xiangming" to reach her while standing in a very relaxed stance and holding her sword with a single hand which its tip faced the ground and almost touched the surface but her steady hand kept the sharpened-tip constantly within a millimeter of distance.

“Heh... you’re very confident as always huh! you little bitch. Don't think that your sword-intent will be able to affect me, I'll make sure you really... suffer for what you said earlier about my face.”

“Big words... worm! let's see whether or not you have the backbone and abilities to back them up. But since you already know that this sword of mine can be heavy... I’m guessing you know what to do, stall for time until your crippled-partner arrives and use gang-tactics to gain the advantage.” Mia smiled and she replied the assassin whom she could've tried to kill or wound before he even stepped foot on the summit! yet she wanted to vent all these negative-emotions which were accumulated after two years of being chased and clouded her "sword-heart" and kept interrupting her flow of sword comprehensions. The young-woman raised her sword and pointed its tip in Xiangming’s face before continuing : “The reputation of your assassin-guild rests upon your hands now, you foul-mouthed and ugly-creature to the extreme, I should’ve expected much from one of these group of snakes hidden in the grass... no it should be worms feasting on a decaying corpse instead. Come then... this lady will take it upon herself on-behalf of your poor mother and teach you some manners today, that will come at the cost of your life... of course. Tehehehe... fair isn't it? ugly... worm!”

“Thrice today... you bitch has offended me by causing the death of my Cerberus...”

“Clang...”

“Saying something that you shouldn't have... said about my perfect face...”

“Crack...”

“Calling me ugly...”

“Ka...”

Veins popped-up and appeared on Xiangming's face when he heard Mia's cynical and ridiculing-words! it seemed like something inside him just snapped right there and then! because the assassin wildly swung both of his daggers before attacking and while he did attack he kept talking to himself like a psychopath. While Mia’s response was the sword in her hand quickly rising up to block the first strike which was delivered from the cyan-dagger in Xiangming’s left-hand and the sword in her hand was pushed-back by a faint cyan-halo which suddenly covered the body of the cyan-dagger! the second-attack followed after from the purple-dagger in Xiangming's right-hand and it caused the dilapidated-sword in the young-woman’s hand to receive another crack on its edge after a few electric-sparks resulted when Mia parried the second backstabbing-swing when Xiangming twisted his torso and aimed to pierce her side. The third-attack caused the upper-third of Mia’s sword to break and fall after meeting the cyan-dagger for the second time in a row head-on and Mia saw Xiangming smirking in despise which revealed his cold yet charming expression. Then the young-assassin tried to pour-in the pressure on his foe and diminish Mia’s fighting-spirit and unleashed his killing-intent without abandon in attempt to frighten the saintess and disrupt her momentum. The young-woman on the other hand didn't seem to be phased by Xiangming's trick and looked him back in the eyes apathetically with a pair of cold and extremely focused green eyes.

“Idiot...”

A single word is what Mia said before a sudden burst of violet-halo covered her broken-sword in an aura of sharpness—which made Lin suddenly look up towards Mia because his sense of danger which is increased by his currently-activated ability of soul-sense warned him of being anywhere near the young-woman right now and especially not in front of wherever that direction which her broken-sword is facing—like thick violet-jelly that coated the steel and vibrated with the slightest movement then increased in intensity when Mia swung her broken-sword downwards at Xiangming in a swift but graceful motion! this time when she took the offensive for the first time the young-woman aimed at the cyan-dagger which caused the boy who spectated the fight with his soul-sense to closely and expectantly wait for the outcome when these different weapons clash for the third-time. First-time the sword struggled to block that cyan-dagger and second-time it lost completely in the exchange when it broke and lost some part of it but will that violet-aura make a difference?

“Screech...”

Sparks flew when both blades of the cyan-dagger and the broken-sword met and the faint cyan-halo which was covering the cyan-dagger dimmed considerably upon contact and kept losing more luster! not only that but Xiangming himself took half a step back and seemed to be on the losing side of this exchange and about to be pushed-back completely before the assassin had to use both daggers and two hands to stop Mia's slash. If Xiangming didn't quickly react then he would've been pushed-back and lost his balance. Losing balance while facing such an expert swordswoman like Mia would mean his end and he knew it.

'How could she be this different? her sword wasn't this heavy last time we fought... when we cornered her she was barely able to escape, what caused her to change this much... is it because these spirit-weapons has reached their limit? no... her sword-intent is sharper and her fighting-spirit is burning! one look in her eyes and I can see hop-' Xiangming tried to shake-off the after-effects of clashing with Mia’s broken-sword and stop his hands from shivering while countless thoughts and reasons flooded his brain before an idea appeared! 'oh-no. Where's the beast and the kid who helped her earlier?'  once that thought appeared in his head Xiangming’s eyes-widened and he fleetingly scanned around him searching for Lin and Sun then he opened his mouth to shout while taking a defensive pose.

“Old Weisheng wa-”

“Not so fast now worm... I can't have you ruining the surprise for our dear one-armed guest now, just focus on soaking-in this valuable lesson before you die...”

Mia smiled when she noticed that Xiangming was no longer speaking trash and timidly checking his surroundings. The assassin had finally noticed that Lin's plan from the very beginning is to corner and preferably separate these assassins for her to take her sweet-revenge and the boy did a damn good job so far because he got rid of the scorpion-tailed Cerberus without the young-woman having to break a sweat which gave her the chance to enjoy venting her stifled frustrations on these senior-cultivators to her heart-content before sending them to their graves to enjoy the afterlife in hell. Mia lunged-at Xiangming and thrusted her broken-sword towards his throat and the assassin had to shut-up and focus on stopping Mia's attacks while hoping that Weisheng would be able to understand his intentions with the previously incomplete warning. Every swing from the saintess was both fast and heavy which caused Xiangming to retreat one step after another while feeling sour-humiliation well and accumulate deep inside his chest because he couldn't keep-up with the tricky angles of Mia's strikes. The saintess of the seamless-sword sect is a junior-cultivator with a spirit-ranking of a lower-realm if compared to him but she’s someone who's a genius when it comes to swordsmanship and sword-intent! while he's someone who’s supposed to be the senior-cultivator in this situation with more experience and higher spirit-ranking and realm plus the advantage of being armed with a set of spirit-tools and weapons with the surplus of being physically stronger thanks to his guild and its harsh requirements. Yet Xiangming struggled to defend himself while being on the receiving-part of this clash especially in this considerably narrow-area where he always found himself backed-against the edge and endangered to fall back all that way. The younger-assassin regretted losing his composure earlier when his tamed-beast died which is not only a special and rare-breed of beasts but a crucial-ingredient for his follow-up plan! a plan which Xiangming can’t allow it to be delayed because if that chance is missed then his colorful-future will lose all its shine in a hear-beat. The assassin tried to stall and buy time until Weisheng arrives hoping that the "ugly-fuck" would hurry up right now since he's barely able to hold Mia at bay but that won't be for long because this "bitch" was clearly toying with him and seems to be holding back her sword-intent.

Weisheng heard Xiangming shouting his name before his voice disappeared and thought his partner was trying to warn him about a sneak-attack from a falling boulder and stuck his body in a narrow-crack in the mountain wall! vigilantly looking up he waited for a while only to end-up finding nothing falling and hearing nothing but the sound of weapons clashing coming from above.

“Xiangming... what’s going on up there?”

The one-handed assassin shouted and received no reply while Lin and Sun watched from where the boy’s wings fluttered silently at the exact distance of one-hundred and two meters behind Weisheng! the tiger in kitten-form was looking at Lin and waited for his buddy to give the command while a mixture of excitement and impatience were all-over its yellow eyes. Both boy and beast watched Weisheng come out from the crack and cautiously-continue to climb up at a much slower pace while always expecting threat to happen.

“Sun... I'll appear behind him in three seconds, you get only one chance to attack, buddy do you understand?”

Lin asked Sun through the ability of soul-link and received an excited nod in return and the kitten stood-up from its crouching position but once hearing the boy start the countdown it dug its tiny claws in its friend's clothes which tickled the skin on his shoulder.

“Now!...”

Lin gave the signal for Sun to attack and perfectly stopped behind Weisheng exactly where the assassin's blind spot lies at seven meters of distance from the assassin.

“Roar!...”

Sun transformed into tiger-form once its hind-limbs left Lin's shoulder and the tiger’s left-forelimb slashed with four long black-claws at Weisheng's midsection apparently aiming to bisect the one-handed assassin in two from the get-go! but when Lin appeared behind Weisheng the assassin's sixth sense warned him of the sudden-danger and the man’s reaction was very quick and decisive. His fingers on the remaining hand let go of its grip on the rock which it was hanging from. Free-falling was his quickest way to escape this crisis and maybe because of his gravitational-abilities and affinity to the element of earth and its energy the man appeared to fall faster than normal. Right when he was about to use his legs to step on a protruding-rock to change his angle the old and one-handed assassin heard the deafening-sound of Sun's mighty roar which froze him a split-second after he let go! Weisheng instantly knew that if he hadn't already let go beforehand then his body would've held-on instead by pure-reflex and that beast could've succeeded in severing his body in two with its attack. But before the assassin could finish sighing inside he felt pain assault his shoulder and that pain is specifically coming from the stump of his right-hand and blood splattered on his face when he looked and covered his eyes.

“Arrgghh...”

Sun changed the angle of his swipe midway with his claw and severed the assassin's remaining hand from the shoulder when the tiger saw the slippery prey about to fall.

“Kitten-form. NOW!”

Lin's voice rang inside Sun's head in extreme urgency before the tiger got to celebrate its successful assault or its paws touch the rocky-wall! once Sun's huge tiger-form shrank back into cat-form the assassin which was currently free-falling without arms and sucking-hard to inhale air suddenly twisted his neck and looked upwards while puffing his cheeks then blew hard in a spitting gesture.

“Vzzzt...”

The sound of crackling-electricity covered this one bluish-green needle while it flew towards the place where Sun's head was supposed to be then struck the rocks behind on it way and these rocks melted like butter on a hot frying-pan! that needle entered thirty meters deep in the solid stones of the rocky-wall before its delicately fine body shattered into countless tiny pieces and fragments then fully-evaporating in a bluish-green cloud of mist. The area fifty meters in in range of this needle turned from solid rocks and stones into grains of sand before trickling-down after the falling-assassin who tried to use his legs to stop himself from falling the few hundreds of meters which he climbed earlier. Lin who caught Sun and flew away before the tiger finished its transformation into a kitten just watched from a considerable distance which he deemed "safe" while that cluster of weird-looking blue-sand followed after Weisheng and fell back to the battlefield.

“Meow...”

“Noo!...”

Sun shivered in Lin's embrace when he saw the aftermath which that needle Weisheng shot earlier has caused and the tiger bared his kitten-fangs at the falling assassin seemingly cursing at him before he dies while reminding itself once again to obey the boy's every command without delay or hesitation in the future. Weisheng on the other hand constantly flipped in the air with no way to find his balance after losing two arms the old-assassin uttered his final shout of unwillingness right before his body slammed the hard-surface of the ground on the dead-end.

“Boom... crack... creak... bffff...”

The old-man and assassin called Weisheng hit the bottom and first-contact made a small cloud of dust to fly around his body and the sound of bones breaking who-knows how many times was totally audible to the boy who felt his stomach twisting upon itself while a feeling of nausea made him want to vomit his last meal! the sight of the assassin spurting blood from his mouth afterwards which flew five meters high before all vital signs stopped from his body and life went-out and disappeared completely from the man’s eyes then blood kept coming-out from the countless wounds which this assassin accumulated in the previous fight with the vultures and spread around Weisheng slowly in a puddle before the cloud of blue-sand finally caught-up and covered the motionless-body. That scene was the last straw that broke the camel's back and Lin flew to a nearby rock and once his feet stood on it the boy felt his legs give-up and fail him before he kneeled on both knees and started to spray vomit downwards from very high-up at the battlefield below.

“Huff... huff... buddy... don’t you feel it? this sickening feeling!”

“Meow!...”

“We caused the death of a human... you and I did something very bad today. We’ve sinned.”

Lin sat-down and watched the cloud of blue-sand settle completely around and on-top of the assassin’s motionless body then he remembered how the first killer from his previous life felt after killing his brother! hugging Sun's body between his shivering fingers the boy muttered faintly while regretting giving permission to let Sun join the attack because this matter of dispute between Mia and these two assassins had nothing to do with him yet here he’s feeling like being the only one actually losing something of value.

“This world of mine is like an endless swath of land covered in mud, any direction you decide to go you'll find yourself still ending-up with some of that mud stuck on your shoes.” Jin Bao's voice rang inside Lin's head and it was full of wisdom and tinged with a touch of fascination. “These two assassins are men caused the death of many others, at least a thousand other cultivators fell under their hands from the thickness of their killing-intent, nobody knows how much mortals they hurt or affected, and believe me when I say this. Many more would've suffered if they’re left to live more years.” Again with the calm voice Jin Bao seemed to be trying to calm the boy's agitated emotions and he continued to say : “Don't think too much about the mud at your feet Lin, karma-threads have us all entangled one way or another, just imagine how much wrong this caused in his life to fall under the hands of a six years old kid and his tamed-beast. But remember that those who harm will suffer from harm in return and you're not an exception to this, and the same goes for everybody.” Jin Bao seemed to be advising Lin yet for our young great-sage he felt like the man trapped in a ring was reminding himself of something instead! “You caused the death of that one and the one above is surely going to follow him anytime now after that girl gets her fun, but you need to ask yourself this question, will your village and its people live peacefully in the future while countless undying-ghosts and tormented-souls rest in peace now because of what you did?” Jin Bao said so with apparent pride smearing each word and what he said seemed to uplift Lin's downhearted-mood somewhat.

“Thank you old Jin...”

“Buddy... I'm alright now.”

Lin wiped the sweat off of his forehead and stood-up after patting the head of Sun who anxiously kept trying to erase the boy's sadness by rubbing his fluffy head in Lin's chest and lick the boy’s cheek.

“What happened here is considered nothing in my spirit-world outside, when you go there you'll see sights of a much more wicked-acts, done by despicable-people and inhuman-individuals everywhere you go.”

“I guess that means that I have to thank you again on the heads-up.”

“You sure you want to do this? you're a kind and compassionate-kid who’s gentle and thoughtful of others, I myself, honestly don't wish to see you ending-up getting suffocated by the darkness and injustice in my world, I would rather you don't leave this land at all.”

“Don't worry old-Jin, since I said that I'll help then I will do so, besides I was going to leave home one day anyway, your help just made it happen faster that’s all.”

“Sigh... all I ask is for you to help me gather the ingredients which restore my physical-body back, after that I promise not to try and delay or make you stay a day longer if you wanted to return home, and to do my best to deliver you safe and sound to your family if you couldn’t do it on your own. On that... I swear to the dao on my soul and spirit let them shatter to smithereens and my dao-path be disperse for the rest of eternity if I go back on my words.”

Jin Bao still felt worried that Lin might've some second-thoughts about returning home and swore an oath to the boy to ease him mentally.

“Returning here in the future will happen one way or another because Lily isn’t going to sit-back and wait, no need to overthink things more than needed, you just said it earlier.”

Lin answered after shaking his head and flew upwards to the top. The boy knew that if he left for long then his sister would do the same on her own anyway! and if this world is full of darkness and evil like Jin Bao said. Then Lily has to be monitored by Lin himself if someday the girl decided to leave the land of forgetfulness. Otherwise it should be a good enough reason and cause for the whole-world to go absolutely mad with anxiety if she left on her own.

“It's been quite a while since your ugly-mug said anything... what happened? cat got your tongue? worm... you know that your weapons are about to lose whatever spirituality left inside them right! no more tricks up your sleeves huh... that’s something to be expected from someone from the society of worms, I guess. Then I can only send you to join your mutt, before I’m bored to death.”

Mia sarcastically said while she engaged Xiangming in a flurry of slashes and after every exchange of quick blows which proved the fact that the saintess is winning every one of her exchanges pushed Xiangming back one step further towards despair! especially after all of Xiangming's hidden-weapons and tricks were successfully evaded by the young-woman and she has Lin to thank on this matter because if it wasn't for the boy’s assistance of the activated live-feed of soul-sense then Mia would've been wounded at least twice by now. Now she’s sure this Xiangming was panicking inside but maintained a tough facade while hoping for his partner's arrival to help alleviate her pressure and escape this precarious situation which he foolishly dived-headlong towards it with his free will. While snickering inside the young-woman licked her lips seductively and said : “No need to wait... your colleague just fell to his death after losing his remaining arm, the earlier shout was his last then it happened, accept your fate... or don’t. I’m still cutting that handsome face for you!”

“Clang...”

Xiangming pulled back into a scurrying-flee once his two daggers blocked Mia's last stab while his widened-eyes and gaping-mouth spoke volumes about how much the assassin wanted to retort the saintess yet his tongue felt heavy right now! heavier than mountains and his throat was dry like the desert.

“I... impossible!”

“Believing it or not... isn’t going to change a thing, you're going to join him soon enough worm, you can confirm my words then. Right! Lin.”

The young-woman didn't try to convince the handsome-assassin and shrugged her shoulders while answering the antsy-man then she turned her head to look towards the left where the boy stood with his tamed-beast outside the range of Xiangming's range of vision and asked with a beautiful smile on her face. But this time she didn’t transmit any translation about the ongoing conversation and Lin knew that he’s being mentioned when his name came up in the end.

“You know that I can't understand your language Mia... I want to leave this place, so... please hurry-up and finish your business with this guy, because I’m not feeling well.”

Lin transmitted through his ability of soul-link after walking two meters ahead for the handsome-assassin which is called Xiangming to see him and nodded once to introduce himself to this bad-person! since Mia spoke with the man in their foreign-language and mentioned him. The boy thought that they were saying something related to him or maybe this young-woman wanted to give this fellow one last wish before he meets his end. It’s impolite to speak with others without looking at them and that's why Lin choose to appear for the man to see him.

“Yes... I'm done with this piece of trash anyway.”

Mia nodded and stopped toying with Xiangming anymore and her attacks became faster and the violet-aura appeared thicker and more violent on the two edges of the broken-sword! the panicking-Xiangming gritted his teeth and tried to focus more on evasion instead of defending while his eyes searched around for a path or a way-out from this predicament and right in that desperate-moment where the assassin tried to escape. Finally his eyes fell on Lin's small body in the distance where the boy is standing-still and watching the fight in silence.

'This little brat is the reason this bitch was able to rest and retaliate against us, her being able to trap us must be because of him too, he’s the reason my Cerberus died and the reason Weisheng died must be his beast since it’s not here but I heard its roar earlier. Is the reason my dream seems impossible for me to witness anymore is going to be because a barbarian-kid ruined my plans? laughable... I’m the most handsome being of all beings in this spirit-world, I’ll be the talk of the world of cultivators as a "celestial-genius" and I'm going to take you all with me to the grave if you want my life, no way am I going to die here alone!' Xiangming thought that when he saw Lin watching him with a pair of saddened black eyes which agitated the assassin for some reason because these sad-eyes were the same kind eyes of someone watching others before meeting their end! if the boy is within safety then either the assassin or the saintess are about to die.

“Don't be too sad worm... someday I'll send the holy-daughter who hired you to chase me to come and accompany you two in hell, we got to admit that despite how black-hearted she's... Katherine is still quite a beautiful woman with a doll-face and a perfect-figure, I hereby as the saintess of a great-sect... give you my permission and allow you, to indulge yourself in shameful acts with her body later in the afterlife.”

"Aeon's Slash."

Xiangming couldn't move a single muscle despite wanting to run towards Lin and take him as a hostage to escape this predicament, Mia's voice was like the grim reaper's sound as it entered his ears, cold and apathetic.

Lin watched as the sword in Mia's hand sent one violet slash at the remaining assassin once Xiangming had the idea to target the boy instead of facing the young-woman in an unfair duel. Then the skin on Xiangming’s face slid-down slowly to the ground first before the rest of the body slumped to the ground and the glow of life faded from his eyes! that violet slash didn't leave a single wound on any other place of the assassin's body but it looked like his soul was cut into two by it.

Mia looked at the sword in her hand which started to crumble and fell piece after piece into the floor. The saintess was overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude for that sword since it withstood the burden of delivering the final strike before it was ruined completely! “Ptooey... assassin-scum.” then she walked towards the body of the dead assassin and spat-down at it and cursed the man before squatting-down next to it and rudely pried the daggers from his hands and the ring in his left-hand before finally leaving the dead body to rest in peace after checking every piece of armor and clothe the assassin wore on his body and unceremoniously removing and taking whatever she felt like taking.

“Let's go down and retrieve the storage-item and other tools from the other assassin... little-Lin! why are you giving me that look? is there something on my face?”

Mia stood-up after rummaging-through the corpse and was carrying in her hands two daggers, one ring, a pair of shoes, a black-cloak inlaid with three shining gold-stars, a silver armor which covers almost the full-body, and one brown belt which is decorated with nine large diamonds. Which left the disfigured-corpse of Xiangming almost practically naked! once Mia transmitted that to Lin she found him looking at her like she’s some sort of thief and the young-woman couldn’t help but getting edgy and anxious while being under the serious-gaze from this boy and she asked because she’s apparently annoyed by it.

“You're disrespecting the dead.”

Lin transmitted calmly and waited for Mia to return the man's belongings.

“Huh!... bfffftt... haha... hahahaha.”

The young-woman wasn't expecting that kind of reason from the boy and let go of the items in her hand and they scattered next to her feet but she didn’t seem to mind it at all because Mia was bent-over and holding her belly and struggling to hold her amusement before she finally started laughing like a lunatic which just escaped a mental-institution.

“Is there something funny here? if I’m missing something in this situation then by all means... enlighten me.”

Lin frowned at Mia's demented-behavior and transmitted with a straight face while Sun shook his head to warn the saintess not to try and be an idiot right now! the tiger already knows that his buddy was in a bad-mood and not feeling well earlier and now he’s in a kind of mood which is much worse. The great-sage can be stubborn sometimes whenever he sees or learns of something which is done outside his set of rules or the limits of moral-conduct and behavior. In these rare occasions and cases which occur infrequently it's either people learn how to behave according to these set of rules of his. Or Lin would just simply cut them off from his company and they no longer get to enjoy that privilege again unless they show sufficient repentance and honest-feelings on correcting previous errors and no longer repeating past-mistakes! Sun hated Mia's annoyingly-childish and mellow-attitude whenever she interacted with him but the tiger can’t deny that he loved how she never stopped scratching his fur to please him. Honestly he hates having to see his buddy kicking this woman away from their side because the young-woman gives a good massage and that's enough reason for the tiger to keep her around since it would be a lot better and easier if she would just shut-up right now that's all.

“Hrmmm... you’re actually being serious about this! these are my spoils, do I really look like someone who needs this trash? if I don't take these items then I'll be cursed by all cultivators of the spirit-world... all of them! do you understand? even a spirit-sovereign can’t survive such burden and would sooner or later suffer the consequences of karma. Come-on... it isn't like I left him naked or anything, did I? can’t that be called me showing enough respect for an enemy who took advantage of my helpless situation and chased me relentlessly for two years! he wanted to shame me by raping me, disfiguring me, and killing me. All I did to the man is take some of his valuables, which aren’t of any worth to me but might be of use to someone... like you.” Mia felt disgruntled and defended her actions with pouted lips and gave Lin her stinky-eye at the end before continuing : “This is how it works... the winner takes the wealth and belongings of the loser and try to become stronger, to honor the memory of their fallen-enemies by rising higher in power within the spirit-word.” The saintess crossed her arms defiantly in front of the boy and once he was about to retort her words Jin Bao's voice stopped Lin from lashing-out at Mia with one of his long-speeches about honoring the dead and showing proper respect : “She's right... wealth is one of the most important aspects for any cultivator to potentially prosper to the absolute-limit, alongside both hard-work and inborn-talent of course! chance of fortuitous-encounters can be added to these three main-points but it relies more heavily on the luck of cultivators. Anyway... don't stop her from taking these items since they belong to her by right, it’s her kill so don’t intervene. Even if that man is brought back to life right now and asked if he minds the saintess taking these items, then he wouldn't object... and I doubt any true-cultivator ever would do, me and her included.”

“You go first... I'll bury him first before I go down.”

Lin shook his head and refrained from arguing with Mia anymore on this matter after Jin Bao spoke then he walked towards the supply-box and pressed an area which opened a small compartment with tools neatly lined in order! the boy silently stretched his arm and brought-out a small shovel then closed the tool-compartment and started to slowly dig the hard and solid rocky surface of the ground under the watch of Mia's green eyes.

“Bury these items with him then... but I’m taking the space-ring and the cloak with me.”

“Meow...”

Sun was agitated when he saw Mia bite and chew on her lower lip for a few seconds before turning around to leave and head downwards towards the battlefield down below. when the tiger couldn't help but notify Lin of his intentions of going down too he started to ask to be excused from his buddy with pleading eyes because he knew that his best-friend was currently feeling sad.

“Go... but don't make trouble for me, I'm really, really not in the mood right now buddy.”

When Lin accepted Sun's request he found the cat rewarding him with a few cute poses and the boy smiled faintly then waved at his friend to leave already before he change his mind! not wasting any time after being dismissed the tiger in a cat-form ran towards the edge then leaped-down and enjoyed the feeling of wind hitting against his small belly and flattening its skin to work like some sort of a parachute which alleviated and slowed the speed of his fall. When he was next to Mia and on the same level the tiger gave the young-woman a mischievous kitty-look and the saintess stuck-out her tongue then competed with the beast in who can reach the bottom faster by holding the edges of the black-cloak which she took from the assassin and jumping away from the rocky-wall which she was descending earlier! she didn’t seem afraid from the high-fall or if this makeshift-parachute would really help her touch-down to the ground safely. When Lin saw this scene and the young-woman giggling while looking at the cat and taking a fun-ride on top of air. The moment Xiangming died replayed in his head and he was reminded once again of just how dreadful this Mia can be! first measure of precaution the boy took is severing the live-feed of his soul-sense from the saintess. Despite being somewhat of an airhead all the time the young-woman didn't hesitate at all not even once when killing this assassin. Afterwards she didn’t seem troubled by what she did whatsoever which means this isn’t her first or second time committing such a crime because Mia was acting far too calm. Not to mention how she naturally acted like a veteran-bandit when searching the corpse of the assassin thoroughly and looting all of the valuable items cleanly! maybe if it wasn’t for Lin’s judging-gaze then the saintess would’ve insisted on taking the rest of the items too.

“So that's what you were after... looks like there's another demonic-core for Sun to eat after the one he took from the mammoth, I wonder if his body is going to experience some changes once again after eating it.”

Lin saw Sun land safely down there on the battlefield a few seconds before Mia and instantly change-form back into a huge tiger then sprint at top-speed like a red lightning-bolt towards the mutilated-carcass of the scorpion-tailed Cerberus! quickly using his black claws to crack the skull of its middle-head open after a few mighty swipes. The tiger’s long fangs and barbed-tongue soon extracted one larger-sized demonic-core which is purple-green in color from inside the complete mess of blood, flesh, bone fragments, and brain-matter then swallowed it whole while showing a greedy expression on his face but Sun’s excitement was too much to the degree of shaking all over from paw to head and purring loudly in satisfaction! once he got all that pleasure out of his system the tiger crouched-down on his belly and closed his eyes. Before the boy got to completely cover Xiangming's body in the grave with dirt and stone-fragments his tamed-beast had already began emitting steam which was red in color and covered both its body plus the area a few meters around it in a red globe. Mia on the other hand dug out the body of the other assassin who’s called Weisheng from underneath the huge bile of blue-sand and adeptly looted all the items the armless old-man wore or had on his body. Afterwards she just walked towards a stone below the rocky-wall and ignored the paralyzed vultures in her path and stepped-over them with a wide grin on her face then sat in the shade and rested her back after scattering the items she got from Weisheng on one of the black-cloaks and spreading the other cloak below and behind her back carefully so that the turquoise-cloak which Lin made for her wouldn’t be dirtied! Mia was feeling relieved and inwardly-swimming in abundant feelings of freedom and ease of mind. That’s why once the young-woman rested her head back she was instantly asleep and her exhausted body sunk downwards and deeper into the ground until she laid-down and was spread completely on-top of the black-cloak. Peacefully the saintess of the seamless-sword sect let go of every and any kind of mental or physical guard which she might have left-on and activated for years! the young-woman released all kinds of defenses and turned-off her alert-mode. Mia only does that when she’s in her private-abode within the sect and amongst her fellow sect-members which she treats them like they’re her brothers and sisters. Even the saintess herself would laugh it off as a silly-joke if she were told that someday in the future she'll do the same thing in the presence of a six years old barbarian-boy and his demonic-beast especially if their acquaintance only lasted less than three days. For the young-woman to give Lin this kind of trust in this very short duration of time is going completely against her sect's teachings and her lord-father would surely reprimand Mia if he knew of what happened that day from the saintess. Lowering your awareness and leaving yourself completely unguarded and vulnerable is a very risky move and shouldn’t be the choice of any wise-cultivator at all! because the majority of cultivators could be very unpredictable and they’re always vulnerable to all kinds of temptations. Especially if these temptations could assist them in their "main-pursuit" which is advancing quicker into higher realms. Being the saintess of the seamless-sword sect naturally means that this young-woman has her fair-share of wealth on her person all the time. All it would take from Lin if he’s plotting-against Mia is a single order for his tiger to slit of her throat while she's asleep with his claws just once.

Lin buried Xiangming with his belongings and went down towards the battlefield to do the same to Weisheng’s body. The boy looked at the scattered items of the older assassin which Mia left next to her temporary-bed then took them all except for the cloak and the ring plus the short-sword then buried them with him. After he was done Lin began cooking the remaining of his food-supply for Sun and compensated Mia for the items which he took by giving the young-woman a proper bed with a soft and silky-cover plus a few comfy-pillows after shifting her body on a sleeping-mattress from his supply-box. He himself was exhausted a lot and once the tiger’s food was done the boy sat cross-legged to replenish his soul-force. Sun’s strange steamy-phenomenon took longer than the previous incident this time! it lasted more than eight hours and by the time Mia woke-up from her sleep and yawned lazily it coincided with the time this tiger's globe of red-steam which covered its body for eight hours started to fade-out.

“You're done with your evolution Sunny? you’re so great... yay!”

Mia only rubbed her drowsy eyes then got-up and energetically ran towards Sun once she noticed the red-steam fading out! the tiger which just appeared in front of the boy's eyes for the first time after more than eight hours seemed entirely different just from the aura it gave. That steamy-globe of red color was able to block Lin's soul-sense and he didn't dare to forcefully try and take a look inside to see what’s going on in fear of causing any unnecessary-trouble or harm for Sun.

“Growl...”

Sun who just stood-up from his crouching position was about to stretch lazily and stick his butt-up like all felines found Mia suddenly throwing herself at him for a fluffy-cuddle with his left-forelimb has interrupted that moment of joy and ruined his fun! again Sun didn't accept Mia's childish-attitude despite not understanding anything she said but he felt like she’s acting like a cub. The tiger tried to get rid of the young-woman by pushing her away yet her arms were gecko-like and she didn't let go at all no matter how hard or quick the tiger flailed its forelimb. Mia was giggling instead since she’s enjoying the swinging-motion from Sun when he tried to get rid of this "pest" which is stuck to his leg. Lin ignored them both and focused his soul-sense and complete focus on Sun's body and noticed that except for some slight changes in the muscle-ratio within the tiger's body and the increase in the threatening-aura which he felt instantly once the boy laid-eyes on his tamed-beast. Sun’s shoulders has two slight-protrusion on both sides of the uppermost-area above the two forelimbs.

“Whine...”

Once Lin touched the strange parts of Sun's shoulder which looked like undeveloped-limbs in the way each protrusion was meaty and pink in color like a baby’s tender and tiny arm! the tiger whined and forgot everything about its previous annoyance at the saintess after a sudden shiver caught Sun’s body like an electric-current suddenly exploding within his nerve-system and he lost all feeling of strength and power within his body before crouching-down and looking pleadingly at the boy as if saying : 'Buddy... no more. This area is very sensitive!'

“Hrmmm... this tickles huh! what if I do this? still tickles? then take this... and this, some more of this and this.”

“Murrrr...”

Lin understood Sun at once and figured-out why his buddy’s attitude changed earlier from extreme-irritation to total-submissiveness in a matter of a few seconds! after mischievously smiling once while nodding his head and caressing the tiger’s much softer fur and feeling through his fingertips the smoother and finer layer of scales below it. The boy suddenly used his five fingers to hold Sun's novel body part and gently tickled it while feeling amused since the tiger was gasping for breath when its best friend tickled it until it couldn't think of anything other than the word : 'Mercy!'

“It’s not fair to have fun alone!... here I come Sunny.”

Mia who got entangled in this rare-incident dug herself out from Sun's unintentional hug after struggling for a while. When Lin touched the protruding parts on the shoulders of the tiger it ended-up falling on its side by reflex when it tried to lay on its back to cover that new weakness but when it did the belly became completely exposed instead! and his buddy took advantage of that by tickling it all the same and during that game of cover your weakness the tiger was reflexively using its two forelimbs to squeeze the saintess’s body to its chest which is full of fluffy-fur of the blood-red color. In the beginning Mia was enjoying this unexpected-gesture of intimacy from Sun who’s usually threatening her with his growls or snarling at her by showing his dangerous fangs. Yet when she finally could see... this young-woman was shocked and feeling left-out when she found that this whole situation is all caused by the boy who’s pranking the tiger in some fun-looking game. The saintess crawled her way over to the tiger's shoulder-area then attacked the other side or joined-hands with the boy to make it harder for the huge tiger to escape this game. Sun was both enjoying this treatment and hating it in the same time because he felt vulnerable and his majestic-image in front of his buddy was cracked by the existence of this weakness. But the joy from having fun like that with his buddy didn’t happen in a long time and the tiger couldn’t really remember the last time it played games with the boy. Ultimately the tiger knew that this situation can’t go on any-longer and it gathered the remainder of its strength and stood-up to shake-off both of Mia and Lin from on-top of it and ran away with its tail between its legs under the endless giggles of the saintess who felt like she prevailed and the amused eyes of the boy who watched his uptight tamed-beast finally loosen-up a bit.

“Roar...”

“Alright... alright! I will not bother you again.”

“Growl...”

“I promise... now come over buddy, there's lots of delicious food waiting for you here, go finish it all before I change my mind and eat it all by myself.”

“Howl...”

“That’s the spirit... now go get it tiger.”

“Grrrr...”

“Go small...”

“Snort...”

“Let me feed you...”

“Growl...”

“Sun don’t!... they might poison us if we ate them! just let them be and go find us something else to eat. Free-mode buddy, but don’t wander for too long because we need to continue our journey.”

“Purr...”

“That one is the one which poisoned most of these vultures in the first place dummy!”

“Snort...”

Lin heard Sun's disgruntled roar and pointed at the piles of food which he prepared earlier for him to feast! the boy knows that the tiger was feeling a bit of frustration towards him and is emotionally-hurt and feeling slightly-betrayed because buddy had ganged-up on it with the young-woman earlier! more so because Lin actually exposed Sun's newfound-weakness to this annoying Mia who kept sticking close to the tiger all day like the glue. Baring his teeth at the saintess in a gesture of intimidation and a warning to back-off and give him space while he’s eating Sun refused to change back into his kitten-form no matter how much she asked him to do so. After gulping all the meat his buddy offered at a hurry the tiger didn’t waste any time before going away to hunt something to restock their food-supplies since the boy told him to leave the paralyzed-vultures and their dead alone and the same went for the Cerberus's body.

“Hehehe... Sunny is too cute when he's shy!”

Mia laughed at the sight of the tiger escaping from her and returned to the supply-box and rested her back on one of the chairs lazily and let her head hang back and enjoyed the feeling of the wind when it ruffled her hair.

“You’re speaking in your native-language, I don’t understand what you’re saying Mia.”

“Oh I know... hehe.”

Mia slowly turned her head to look towards Lin and transmitted back her reply while smiling which revealed a different side of her beauty. The boy was embarrassed by her gaze because it didn’t feel pure at all! these green eyes certainly has hidden intentions towards him but he couldn’t interpret them. Shaking his head from the distractions he severed eye-contact with the saintess and walked away.

“One of these two space-rings should be yours Lin, why didn't you take it earlier or ask for your own spoils? are you feeling uncomfortable to ask?”

“A bit uncomfortable yes... but not about asking. It’s just that I don’t feel like I should take that "space-ring" or that man’s cloak.”

“At least do it for your tamed-beast! think about its future, sooner or later it will require some medicinal-ingredients or items to grow stronger, these stuff won’t be for free and you got to admit that right now you’re dirt-poor.”

Jin Bao said to Lin who began to pack his stuff and organize them back into their compartments on the supply-box up on the summit of the rock-walls but from his voice the boy understood that the cultivator who’s trapped in a ring seems to be very displeased with this matter! and in-truth he was really annoyed with the attitude of this saintess of the seamless-sword sect. Because in his opinion the one who should take everything is the one who contributed the most and the monstrous-genius which he discovered fits the criteria perfectly because without Lin and his abilities or plans then nothing would've changed at all for this greedy-woman even if it’s a couple years later when the spirit-tools of these two assassins become useless. Them ganging-up on her with the help of the Cerberus can always endanger Mia and she would be a fool of she tried to take the three enemies head-on. Yet after all the help and assistance Lin gave only the Cerberus's core was snatched by his tamed-beast and the rest of the spoils fell into Mia's pockets and this stupid boy didn't ask for anything at all and instead he buried quite a few spirit-tools and items which could’ve been sold once he’s outside this land and turned into a small sum of money which wouldn’t be so bad for a fledgling-cultivator! old Jin Bao thought : 'Doesn't he know that his journey to come would require a certain amount of wealth! at least some cultivation resources are going to be needed for his spirit-cultivation, better yet if some medicinal-ingredients helpful to body-refiners could be bought or found.' Jin Bao was feeling sorry for the dormant-potential which remains buried-deep within Lin's bloodline and still left without release. Right now amongst the kid’s three aspects of cultivation Lin has the aspect of the soul taking first-place and is followed by the aspect of body taking second-place after he successfully managed to wash its hidden-impurities twice so far then the aspect of spirit is taking the last and third-place within Lin and is still without a single "wisp" of spirit-energy inside his barren and empty "dantian".

“No need to ask old Jin... since Sun stands to benefit from one of these wings then I have a way to test her intentions, if she's greedy by nature then the next phase of this journey will certainly witness the end of my assistance, if she’s more than greedy?... then we simply part ways! and I’ll only do so after taking what should’ve belonged to me and Sun.”

“Show me then... I’m interested to see how you’ll play this out.”

“Time will reveal old Jin... have some patience and enjoy the show.”

Lin replied then went to a clearing and started to train his body according to the pumma-style.

After the boy ignored the saintess she felt a sudden boredom overcome her when she’s no longer on the run or being pursued. Especially so since she couldn't understand the purpose of Lin's training routines. Mia saw Lin slowly alternating poses and transitioning from one pose to another like a senile old-geezer which didn’t match his small body and young looks! it made the saintess think : 'How could that be considered training? others would lift-weights or quench and baptize their bodies in difficult and harsh environments, or use formations to help doing that instead, some wealthy few would be lavish and wasteful enough soak themselves in liquids made from valuable medicinal-concoctions.' Yet this boy who’s someone from the descendants of the barbarian-emperor was doing some kind of a dancing-routine to train! it felt like a wrong thing to witness in the eyes of the saintess and she thought : 'Tsk... I thought he will come to me to ask for his spoils, I guess little-Lin is the type who’s proud by nature then. Humph... I'll play your game of silence, let's see how long you can play it.' Mia ignored the boy and checked her face in the reflection from the stars on the black-cloaks but she was feeling annoyed with the kid because she wanted to give him his items if he just asked for them but Lin has abstained from saying anything. The young-woman didn’t mention anything about the missing spirit-tools and items from Weisheng and understood that the boy must’ve did the same with the crippled assassin and smiled slightly when she remembered how thoughtful Lin was to leave the weapon Weisheng used to use which is a short-sword for her with the space-ring and the black-cloak.

-----

Sun returned carrying his hunt and this time it’s a bear about half his size which has yellow-fur then the tiger helped his buddy skin it first before climbing up to bring the supply-box from the summit and together they filled it with enough meat which should be enough to sustain their group for two days.

“Buddy... don't allow Mia to get on your back.”

The boy transmitted that message to his tamed-beast once it carried the supply-box while he himself took to the sky with his wings.

“Eh!... hey... wait for me!”

The young-woman was surprised when the tiger ran after its owner without letting her ride its back and she grabbed her spoils from the ground and quickly ran after them while shouting in a language which nobody understand except for the trapped cultivator! despite the light-weight of the things in her hands it made the saintess feel uncomfortable while she ran. Add to that how much revolting and obnoxious the mere idea of having to run anymore would make Mia sick to the stomach. Especially after spending two years running like a tireless-horse.

“Sun... come-on! this game isn’t funny...”

Mia tried to convince Sun to let her ride his back while the blood-red tiger gave her a teasing-smile while showing two lines of dreadful fangs in their entirety then ignored her! but the tiger always kept a distance of thirty meters between itself and the young-woman to prevent her from latching-onto him somehow and to tease her some more. The boy on the other side was keeping his silence and watched while receiving a translation of whatever the saintess is saying from Jin Bao.

“Liiiin!... tell Sun to carry me, he's being naughty.”

Mia stuck her tongue out towards Sun after he kept ignoring her then shouted her complains at Lin who flew eighty meters high and ahead of her.

“How many times do I need to say this? if you want me to understand you... then transmit it to me, I... don’t... understand... your... language...”

Despite knowing what the young-woman wanted to say the boy still acted like he didn’t! Because the boy wanted to keep the existence of Jin Bao a secret and to allow Mia to speak her mind however she wants in her native-language. Maybe that way with her character she wouldn’t hold back and reveal her intentions since in her perspective Lin is ignorant and wouldn’t tell the difference between right or left if she wanted to scheme against him. Since her threat is no longer a problem then this would be the best time for the saintess to plan and act towards her next objective and the boy loves to assist others if he can but he hates it when others use him or try to do so. Now is the time to force Mia to reveal all her cards and if one of these cards made him frown then Lin shouldn’t hesitate to sever all ties.

“Oh!... tell Sun to stop being naughty and carry me.” Mia transmitted back through the soul-link ability then stuck her tongue again towards the tiger who mimicked her gesture and exposed his barbed-tongue to the limit.

“Sun is my friend and he can decide for himself whether or not he carry you... if you were wounded then it would've been another matter, I would be happy to tell him to carry you if it was the case. But you're not! why should I force him to do anything?”

Lin answered while shrugging his shoulders and Sun didn't forget to answer Mia's gesture again by wagging his stuck-out tongue and seemed to be saying : 'Only I tell myself what to do... got it shrimp? now... shut-up, and move your bum! or you’ll be left behind.'

“Bullies!... you two are clearly and intentionally doing this to bully me. Humph, I'm not running anymore, you two go on ahead without me, I’m mad at you both... and I don’t feel like I’m being treated fairly.”

Mia's face flushed with anger and annoyance then she pouted her lips and puffed her beautiful cheeks before stomping her feet like a kid throwing a tantrum then the young-woman threw the two black-cloaks in her hand to the ground and stepped on them while saying that! the saintess pushed the short-sword halfway into a nearby stone then plopped her butt on another rocky nearby and defiantly looked up at Lin. The last phrase was intentionally spoken in the native-tongue of the saintess to frustrate the boy who looked at her with fake confusion.

“You can try and convince him you know... Sun doesn't like to help people for free, try and it might work, I think he’s just enjoying the moment of teasing you, don’t forget that earlier you and me ganged-up on him and bullied him, since he knows that without me cooking his food it would be hard to get his paws on delicious meals, I guess he saw you as the weakest-link and decided to start by bullying you until there’s a chance to twist my arm comes up for him!”

Lin expected Mia to throw a tantrum with that personality of hers and said calmly after throwing that hint and reasoning. The boy stopped saying anymore and looked at what the young-woman will do now while his tiger stood at a safe distance and licked its paws which showed how careless of an attitude it has towards the saintess! like all of Mia’s previous actions and feelings were none of Sun’s business since she’s speaking a foreign-language to the tiger anyway.

“Huh!... how could I forget uncle Chentian's advice? here Sunny... do you like this cloak?”

“Snort...”

“Yikes!... I’m such a klutz, what use will a beast have for a cloak which can make the user immune to sensory-abilities? come-on Mia think... what can a demonic-beast want from these items? uh... none I guess. Here... Sun! come and see if you like any of these rings, take one of them or that sword if you want... but, you have to carry me from now on, at least until we exit this land.”

“Purr...”

Mia slapped her forehead then tried to negotiate with Sun who nodded then started to use his long claws to play with the two space-rings and ignored the short-sword completely! the saintess was unaware of the commands the tiger was currently taking from his flying friend and how she simply fell in the boy's manipulations when she asked the tiger to take its pick. Sun tapped on the space-ring in Mia’s left-hand with his claw then took the sleeveless black-cloak with it and all of Sun's choices belonged to the poison-expert Weisheng which made Mia hesitate and deliberate the tiger's choices whether to agree or not! because these two items she had originally planned to give them to Lin once he mention the topic of his share of the spoils. Then the young-woman saw the provocative-smirk which the tiger was giving her and it made Mia's daring-personality refuse to be looked-down upon by a beast which is many times weaker than her.

“Smile all you want... once I can access my space-ring, you’ll be salivating over the things which I have.”

Deciding to give Lin her own share of the spoils if the need came to be. Mia opened her palm in a handshake towards the huge red-tiger and asked to finalize the deal while saying these words which Sun didn’t understand their meaning and how it will actually come true later! being the saintess of the seamless-sword sect she has no use for the space-ring or the black-cloak and the same goes for the short-sword. The true wealth of the two assassins must be stored within the space-rings instead and now that Sun has snatched one ring the young-woman still has one extra space-ring beside her own space-ring which she can give Lin if he demanded his share.

“Good job buddy... your acting skills has improved, really I mean it, they're way better than before!”

Lin commended Sun on his efforts and watched while Mia climbed on the tiger's back then urged it to run.

“Come-on now... run like the wind.”

Mia raised her arms to the sky when she spoke while her feelings of freedom intensified a hundred-folds after she remembered how she's finally going to be able breakthrough soon. When it happens then she'll be able to fly! much better than Lin too since she’s going to do it simply without having to use any spirit-tools or having to activate her martial-spirit like the boy.

Sun exchanged a glance with Lin once before following his buddy towards the south direction and this time their speed and trajectory were uninterrupted and unchanged by any obstacle or detour.

“Heh... I’ve got to admit it kid, you manipulated her good, nicely done! but don't take this idiotic woman's personality as a front-image of us cultivators. From the way she behaved earlier... I’m guessing she must’ve been clearly seeking to use this chance to twist the situation and make it seem like you owe her a favor, maybe she would only give you your share of the spoils once you ask for them.”

“What does she stand to gain from it?”

“Probably use that favor as a leverage to convince you into joining her sect, if I were in her shoes then I would’ve dragged you back if I have to.”

“But these space-rings seem expensive... even she has only one of them.”

“Since she's so rich to the degree of not needing a single one of these items... then why not use them to recruit someone like you? never underestimate a member of the five great-sects, not to mention that the person in front of you is the saintess of one of these five and the only daughter of the sect-master, when the truth of what happened gets revealed to the rest of the world then two of these titans will clash or one of them submitting! either way it will cause mountain-sized waves in the spirit-world. Mark my words.”

Old Jin Bao's voice was full of recognition of Lin's ways and methods yet he felt like the saintess was careless about these two items and let go of them way too easily because of their uselessness and worthlessness to her.

“I know, Mia isn't that dumb either... she's just in a good mood after solving the troubles of the assassins and is feeling generous, do you see the look in her eyes when she's staring towards the south? I bet she's more eager to leave right now and go back home! even more than how much me and Sun wish to leave this land. As for her problems with that holy-daughter and the church of light? it has nothing to do with me... this time I’m helping you old Jin, and exploring this spirit-world while doing so.”

“Now that’s a relieving thing to hear... honestly I was afraid that you might keep chasing her skirt.”

“I’m a bit young for that old Jin ma-”

“Don’t sell yourself too short... I’ve seen the way you look at her. Anyway... until you part ways you can have your fun, I’m not here to judge what you youngsters do. There’s some soul-soothing stones left... I probably should refine them all, work hard because I’m depending on it.”

“Alright... keep depending on it then! I’ll make sure not to let you down old Jin.”

“Heh...”

Lin listened to the trapped cultivator then gave the excited beauty in a fluttering turquoise-cloak a look then smiled at how Sun was exchanging cunning looks with him sneakily! that attitude seemed to suit the tiger best because not even its strong and majestic attitude came close to how natural this behavior felt right now. Still the red-tiger complied with the young-woman’s requests and ran faster when she asked for it but actually this sneaky-tiger was in fact testing its improved body and using this chance to please its naive-customer which didn’t know that it was being scammed.

Two birds... one stone.

'I'm the smartest!' Sun thought and he lunged forward then after crouching-down very low he jumped on top of a fifteen meters tall rock then pushed forward at an increasing speed to cross a big area of rough-terrain covered-with rocks, ravines, chasms, jutting-stones with narrow tips.

“Yahhooooo... go Sunny! faster... jump over it, got to duck now... excellent.”

Mia was very happy and made a few pleased loud sounds to encourage Sun to keep-up doing more of the same dangerous-actions and gave him commands which the tiger didn’t understand at all but it just acted on its instincts.