Daylight switched places with darkness while Lin's entourage shrunk the gap between them and the water in the south slightly. Despite resting for a whole day then sleeping again earlier before they started to move Mia ended-up sleeping on top of Sun's back once again after spending a few cheerful hours clapping and screaming in enjoyment because Sun did all kinds of stunts while following behind Lin! if the comparison is speed-wise then the red-tiger is leagues and miles beyond its previous self before the latest evolution. Its evasion and maneuverability were so quick and smooth which made the boy shake his head after seeing how easy his tamed-beast made it look no matter how hard the action it did. Not to mention how charming the sights were and extremely captivating to the degree of making the great-sage sigh at the beauty of the movements whenever his red-tiger stretched itself to lunge or withdrew itself to crouch low before jumping above an obstacle.

'Beasts really are this world's favorite-children like Mia said before! just by consuming resources they can leap-frog any normal cultivator, Sun just reached another stage by consuming a demonic-core, while I haven't managed to unblock any of the acupoints related to the system of body-refinement yet.' Lin thought while he watched Sun keep-up with him pretty easily and they travelled at a high speed south. If they dared move at their current speed before the tiger ate the Cerberus's demonic-core then it would've burned-out all of the stored energy within its body long ago and ruggedly breathed with its tongue-out after drinking all of their water while resting on its side.

“Buddy, let's take a break... we camp here for the night.”

Lin said then stopped at a mid-sized hill and sat cross-legged to start his soul-cultivation which is something that he didn't do for days now because of the existence of Mia.

“Won't you check your share of the spoils? since there's a space-ring then you should at least give it a try!”

“Indeed... I’m really curious about many things in this world, specifically this tool.”

“Then let’s see if you can access it within this land.”

Jin Bao's voice rang inside Lin's head with a shadow of interest smeared all over his words! clearly he was trying to tickle the boy's curious-nature and it worked perfectly because Lin opened his eyes to look at the silver-ring which has a single green line coloring its center from the inside. While caressing the edges of the silver-ring on his open palm with his finger-tip in circles Lin saw Sun lower the supply-box to the ground gently then used his fangs to carry Mia off of his back by the scruff of her clothes and was about to rudely drop the young-woman and let her fall to the ground from a few meters in the air with a mischievous smirk on his face. But it noticed the look and frown on the boy's face in the last second which made the gargantuan red-tiger snort faintly and lay her down gently on top of the supply-box instead. Sun moved towards Lin and crouched in front of him then wagged his thick and long tail left and right which was like a whip when it made a "woo-woo" sound.

“Come-on buddy... you just ate enough to sustain you for at least a day! how could you be hungry already? are you really, really that hungry?”

Lin knows Sun’s character all too well to understand his mood to the tiniest bit. Once the boy saw the tiger take the initiative to come seek his favor then it’s certainly going to ask for something in return! and indeed the red-tiger asked for another snack and if possible make it a full-meal.

“Purr...”

Sun laid-down on his back and showed his belly in a spoiled-gesture to ask for a second-meal in less than a day.

“I understand that you’re hungry... alright, I get it! but it has been a while since I meditated, so... you can have your meal right now-”

“Purr...”

“Don’t interrupt me buddy it’s rude! let me finish... your meal now would be raw, I know I’m sorry, but you can’t be selfish. There’s another option if you like to hear it.”

“Growl...”

“You can wait for me to finish my meditation! if you do so then I’ll cook you some delicious meat.”

Lin squinted his eyes and he looked at the tiger's shoulder-area where the protruding-parts grew a few inches in the short span of time they spent travelling south! soft bones started to form and grew-up beneath its back-muscles and created what looked like another joint underneath this meaty and very strange-protrusion.

“Howl...”

“Fine then, now be-careful not to wake-up our sleeping beauty! alright?”

Sun tried to grumble and make Lin finish cooking his meal first before meditating but the boy tilted his head to the side and ordered the tiger to good and guard him and Mia! the sight of the huge red-tiger when it dropped its head and whined faintly—after the boy whose height didn't even reach its knees denied it the meal which it felt like it’s necessary right now unless Sun worked for it and showed enough patience—was a comical sight on its own way. The saintess was drooling from the edge of mouth in her deep-sleep while she hugged the surface of the supply-box with her hands. But her extremely beautiful face and very alluring body would make the majority of the male-cultivators within the spirit-world burn with the heat of lust if they saw this pure scene. If these devoted-admirers of the saintess's beauty knew that this barbarian-boy once had the fortune to witness Mia in her sleep yet ignored this once in a lifetime opportunity? then they’re certainly going to chase him to the end of the horizons with sharpened and hardened resolve to make an example of the boy! if they—devoted-admirers—knew that the boy ignored this heavenly-chance to gaze upon the saintess in her sleep and went to try and access a space-ring while being inside the land of forgetfulness—which is something that’s proven many times to be impossible to achieve by anyone other than sovereigns—then surely they'll ridicule Lin and curse him to be the greatest and most wasteful and hateful idiot of all times. Because only those extremely rare few of people who has all their "screws-loose" would look the other way and not gaze deeply at these perfectly curved-buttocks. Hell!... even "eunuchs" would lick their lips if they saw that fine ass completely guard-less in her deep-sleep. The natural-reaction of any normal male would be stretching their palms slowly by pure-reflex to... ehm! Lin held the silver-ring between his fingers and raised it to his eye-level.

“How do I know if I can use this ring?”

“Just like before when we first met... drip a drop of your blood on the ring, if your martial-spirit is restricted from accessing a storage-item like all of us normal-cultivators when we dwell and venture in this land of forgetfulness, then you wouldn't be able to see what's inside this space-ring! but you'll still feel your connection with the ring, albeit the connection is usually very-weak and faint.”

Jin Bao answered Lin once he’s asked and waited to see what will it be anxiously! if it was back in his glory-days and someone asked the dual-cultivator who’s in the spirit-king and soul-clone this question : "Can someone below the realm of spirit-sovereign use a space-ring or any other storage-item naturally inside the land of forgetfulness?" then Jin Bao’s reply would be quick and decisive and consisting of a single word : "Impossible!" Yet after the trapped-cultivator witnessed the boy use his spirit-wings day after day normally with ease and the durations of using his martial-spirit went-on for longer and longer time with every increase in the boy’s soul-force. The man known by the title of "soul-demon"—which his name travelled everywhere in the south and east continents until two centuries ago when news of his whereabouts were cut-off suddenly and mysteriously—would answer now with a serious expression all over his face : "If someone can... then this little freak of nature and his shady twin-sister are the ones to seek if you want to accomplish that impossible-feat, If the boy couldn’t do it then don’t bother looking for his twin-sister anymore, because despite both of them being way beyond my standards and rank for someone to be called a great-genius by me, the kid is far too brilliant even when compared with another freak of nature like his twin-sister!"

Lin pressed the tip of his forefinger at the tip of Sun's claw and pricked it while wondering what happened to his pain-sensors after he got burned alive in the previous-life! his pain-tolerance in this life for everything was raised by a dozen grades or so. Except his tolerance for the severe-cold which somehow remained the same.

Squeezing the very shallow prick-wound the boy caused a drop of his blood to fall on the edge of the silver-ring which is held in his left hand and said : “Here goes nothing...” Lin watched his drop of blood cover a small-part of the silver-ring which is green-lined from the inside in the middle.

One second... three seconds... ten seconds!... Lin waited for a whole minute for some change to happen on the ring yet nothing occurred at all.

“Sigh... looks like there’s something about you which can be called normal, you’re just like the rest of us after all.”

Jin Bao said in a sad-tune and in fact he was a bit disappointed because soul-demon wanted to witness this well-balanced and freakishly-mature six years old boy achieve another miracle for him to be honored to witness! being trapped within that ring made his life dull and boring while Lin’s company has added many colors to his days. Or maybe the spirit-king’s life has been dull and colorless way before he was trapped in that ring but he just didn’t notice it until he was betrayed.

“I can't bound this space-ring huh!... I guess it doesn’t matter since these wings already helped me enough-”

Lin activated his wings and made them appear when he spoke gratefully but once his wings revealed themselves the silver-ring on top of his opened left-palm sucked the drop of blood completely and no trace of it remained on its surface! the boy noticed that some pocket of space appeared inside his head once his blood disappeared. Like a mental-projection which suddenly appeared out of nowhere within his mind and a strong feeling connecting him to that pocket of space formed within his thoughts. The scene of that mental-projection is a large cube which is surrounded by six-walls and each of these walls is glowing in the green-color while the edges had brown lines.

“What do you see? can you enter the ring’s space with your mind? do you see what's inside it? how big is it?”

Jin Bao rained his questions on Lin once his soul-sense picked-up the disappearance of the boy’s drop of blood from the silver-ring. The reason soul-demon is agitated is because what Lin just did means this freak of nature just succeeded in bounding this space-ring to himself. The reason it happened so soon with almost no effort is most likely because of this land’s suppression on spirit-energy. Since the earlier mark from the assassin who owned this space-ring got erased once the previous owner died then the whatever spirit-energy that man has left within the storage-item must be very weak and docile right now. All the boy has to do next would be using his martial-spirit or whatever miniscule spirit-energy which his wings have in-stored ever since it awakened to access the space inside this silver-ring! most people—of the normal spirit-cultivators—would find their storage-items covered in walls made from their own spirit-energy once they enter this land and these walls would prevent them from entering or accessing their own space-ring or even seeing what's inside it anymore. That’s one of the most vexing things about this land of forgetfulness because it uses the spirit-cultivator’s spirit-energy against them and the same phenomenon happen within the dantian and meridians! Not to mention leaving their spirit-mark on a storage-item. Any spirit-tool or item of any attribute besides the space-time elements would turn into scrap metal gradually by the effect of that phenomenon inside the land of forgetfulness because the tool-souls of inheritance-tools and items plus the spirit-energy within spirit-tools and items would be suppressed thoroughly which places a great strain on the materials of each spirit-tool, spirit-weapon, and spirit-armor. Even spirit-cultivators with the affinity for space-time elements would find themselves suppressed just the same within this land because the chaotic-energy which is covering the land of forgetfulness like a dome is very pure in energy and refined to extreme-quality and grade to press-down any element other than chaos-energy within the borders of that dome. That’s why only spirit-sovereigns who attained this world's peak-realm are said to be able to push back this suppressive restraint from the land of forgetfulness and use their top-grade spirit-energy in both purity and quality for a while! but if their tank of spirit-energy happen to run-out before they leave the borders of this dome of chaos-energy? then their fate will be to struggle their way back out on foot or be stuck here until the end of their lifespan without spirit-energy or spirit-tools to help them survive any danger they meet because nobody can replenish their spirit-energy within this land! filled with excitement... Jin Bao patiently waited for Lin—who closed his eyes and immersed himself in this strange feeling of having something mysterious like space-ring—to answer.

Within his mind the boy walked towards this dark-area which is surrounding the cube with six green-walls which suddenly appeared inside his mind once he activated his wings! Lin immediately understood that this here wasn’t an imaginary body but his soul-body and this place is probably somewhere far from the domain of light which his soul-force generated. Raising his right-hand the boy extended it to touch the surface of one of the six green-walls and this simple touch caused a series of circular ripples to appear around his palm and move outwardly like waves on a body of water and reach the surface of the other green-walls on the cube. Then the boy’s extended right-hand began to sink deeper into the surface of the green-wall then his palm entered slowly and the green-wall gradually sucked his entire body inside it just like how water would swallow a stone if you throw it inside a lake. Then all the ripples on the green-walls faded gradually and the six walls returned to their previous calm afterwards. But once Lin's soul-body entered the green-cube completely the colors of the six walls turned from green-color with a few brown lines at the edges to six walls of the yellow-color and these yellow-walls had lines of gold-color swimming on top of their surface them like a swarm of bees dancing in a field of yellow-flowers! while periodically one spot and line of the color dark-gold would appear fleetingly and quickly before disappear after consuming some of the gold lines or slightly more of the yellow-color on the six walls. Lin was met with the sight of a stretch of square-tiles of the brownish-color neatly-inlaid on the ground underneath his soul-body’s pare-feet and extending for four-hundred and fifty meters ahead of him and the ceiling was in the exact same height which made the boy confirm that he’s inside that green-cube but from within he’s clearly seeing these six walls in the yellow-color! next to his feet towards the left there’s a stack of gold-bars reaching about five meters high and towards the right there’s wooden-boxes filled with coins of different colors and each wooden-box is a cubic-meter and the amount of boxes is... a lot. Because these wooden-boxes reached high-up until the ceiling of this mysterious-space and the coins filling these boxes all has a simple design in size and shape while on-top of each of them is the same insignia of two people sitting cross-legged side-by-side while there’s a sword which is halfway stuck in the ground between them. Each of these two in the insignia is using one hand to hold the sword’s hilt while the same foreign word is written underneath this small picture on every coin of any color. But Lin instinctively knew that each coin has its different weight and different degree of mystery but it all depended on the color of each coin and if the color is the same then all coins are identical! the lowest in order from below is the silver-coins while the highest up in the wooden-boxes is the purple-coins. And just by holding one of these coins on his palm the boy felt the strange power which is perfectly contained and hidden very deep within this purple-coin. While ahead of him is the body of a strange yet extremely-huge creature which looks like the combination of a crocodile and a lizard but a lot bigger than the mammoth in size because it’s more than seventy meters long and thirty meters high which is a bit shorter than the mammoth but if that thing stood on two feet then the mammoth would be instantly dwarfed by it! it had black-scales covering all of its body and there’s countless red-spikes which are jutting-out from its head and all of its spine plus the four legs especially the knees and tip of its tail. Despite being actually dead from what appears to be a single wound which is one meter wide and punctured its skull exactly from the center of the forehead between the two eyes. Lin still felt a dangerous threat coming from that beast’s body from a big distance. To the side of that creature there’s a wide-table which is full of different glass-vials containing liquids of various-colors and many other small and big transparent glass-bottles which are containing round-pills of many sizes and colors plus a three-legged bronze-cauldron. Next to that bronze-cauldron is another table which is smaller in size yet its surface is full of pieces of colorful jade! each piece is inscribed with strange words which Lin couldn't understand any of their meanings but these words glowed and moved freely on the surface like a school of fish swimming in a pond. In the middle of these pieces of jade there’s a single tome which seemed to be torn in half down the middle and it’s made from some sort of green-leather and its pages felt heavy to Lin when he tried to flip them open. The writing on them seemed very complex if compared with the other words the boy saw on the other pieces of jade which made him doubt if both words were from the same language. No matter how hard Lin tried to squeeze his mind and compare these words with any of his universe's civilizations to see if he can understand any of their meanings the great-sage still couldn't find a clue to deciphering that weird language which he finally shrugged at and accepted his ignorance before turning to see the rest of the items. Another chest contained small crystals and the boy felt great-pressure and weight on his soul-body’s palm from one of these crystals once he carried the smallest crystal! somehow these glowing and colorful-crystals gave Lin the same feeling of holding high-voltage batteries and extreme-purity or excellently-refined containers of nova-fuel. Closing the lid of the crystal-chest the boy turned his attention to the last and final items in this ring. A tall stand full of shelves which extends and stretches all the way to the ceiling and many small-sized wooden-boxes are neatly placed side by side on every shelf after stepping on air to go upwards Lin moved to the highest-shelf and opened the only box on it. Inside that box there’s a single herb with a barbed-stem and a full-blown red-tulip and despite experiencing facing that flower while being in the form of his soul-body and within the confinement of the walls of space-ring the boy still felt unendurable pressure from heat-wave fill the area eighty meters around this red-tulip and he quickly reacted by closing the wooden-box and sealing the lid by sliding the lock back in place. Next to the stand is the clothes which were displayed side by side with the armors and weapons in neat order and next to the displayed items to the side is a small-mountain of unorganized items and that small-mountain is made-up of clothes and weapons or armors or tools which are suitable for both genders and stacked carelessly on top of each other! last thing to notice is some kind of liquor-collection. Alcohol-barrels, gourds, bottles, jugs, and cups of all sizes and shapes were in that collection. 'Wanker! my father would love to see this for sure.' Lin thought this when he saw the wine taking almost a quarter of the space dedicated for alcohol while food and water only occupied about ten cubic-meters all in all.

“Kid!... say something, is it working?”

Jin Bao’s voice awoke Lin from his daze when the trapped-cultivator asked again since the boy stood silently with his eyes closed for about five-seconds without answering but his facial-expression alternated between many temperaments quickly which worried Jin Bao slightly.

“There’s gold and lots of coins of many colors plus some colorful-crystals which feel strange to the touch! when my soul-body held one I felt like there’s a huge amount of energy bottled-up within that small-crystal. A set of alchemy-tools and a bronze-cauldron plus many pills and liquids in glass-bottles and vials surplus a huge amount of different herbs. One red-tulip in particular is placed on top of the rest of these herbs and it caused a wave of extreme heat to hit my soul-body when I opened the box. There’s clothes and weapons as well... lots of those and many tools which I can’t figure-out their use! liquor... this man is a serious case of alcoholism judging by the amount he has in-stored. Some food and water but not much really... and yes I can both enter and see what's inside the ring old Jin.”

“Good, good, good! hahaha... excellent. Oh... how big is it?”

“It's a cube of about four-hundred and fifty meters. I forgot to mention that there’s the intact-body of a huge beast here! tell me old Jin... how can I retrieve or store things inside a space ring? this invention is amazing... I really wonder how it’s made, do you happen to know the name of the inventor? it would be awesome if I could meet such a creative person.”

Lin opened his eyes and replied the extremely excited cultivator who’s trapped in a ring because through the soul-link ability the boy could feel emotions coming his way from the ring like waves of happiness when he answered and the rugged breathing of Jin Bao were clearly audible before he answered and soul-demon who’s famous for being composed and calm always like an icy glacier laughed joyfully after saying the word good thrice.

“Listen well kid... to store or retrieve anything using a space-ring then all you need is to think of doing it! in-theory... with but a single thought, you can store a whole-mountain inside your storage-item if you want, that’s possible to accomplish under the condition and rule of you being capable of covering the whole-mountain with your perception.”

“I think for us soul-cultivators that would be extremely easy! our ability of soul-sense makes it like taking a walk in the park, does that mean storage-items operate on soul-force instead of spirit-energy?”

“Yes and no... it's all related to spirit-energy expenditure but our incredibly-wider perception makes it easier to store or retrieve bigger-sized objects with far less expenditure of spirit-energy! do you get it?”

“Kind-of... actually I don’t get how it’s possible to store an entire mountain! do I have to touch it? maybe raise it first!”

“Heh... typical thinking from a barbarian-descendant, as long as you have sufficient spirit-energy, or better yet if there’s more to spare in your dantian, then you'll compensate the condition of having to lift the object or raise it physically in-order to store it inside this space-ring of yours.”

“Well... sorry to disappoint you old-man, being a descendant of barbarians and all.”

“Way-off kid... I wouldn’t ask for a better ally in my time of need, so don’t sell yourself short and have some confidence, because sometimes that’s all it takes for one of two cultivators with the same amount of potential to surpass the other! back to topic... to store an object inside a space-ring said-object needs to be free of attachment to other objects first or it will be stored along-with everything attached to it. So if you’re trying to store—for example—a whole-mountain, then you have to separate its root from earth first, otherwise you'll be trying to store the entire spirit-world inside your space-ring alongside every living thing which is an impossibility, since storage-items in the spirit-rank and the inheritance-rank are unable to store living things, unlike beast-medallions which can do so and store beasts even if the beast-medallion is a spirit-tool of the lowest level and has the smallest of spaces inside it.”

“Old-Jin is so knowledgeable... go on, teach me more.”

“Cough!... that’s how it was explained to me once by a spirit-cultivator of the space-element, snotty-brat...”

After a long explanation Jin Bao emphasized the lack of personal-knowledge on this subject because all he knew was gathered from other cultivators but the trapped-cultivator was blushing within the confinement of his imprisoning-formation nonetheless.

“Hehe... so... what level or rank is this space-ring then?”

“That space-ring is a level-seven storage-item, not a bad first space-ring at all... not too shabby indeed, good job snatching it from that saintess.”

“Level-seven huh... tell me about your first storage-item, what level was it?”

“Mine!... my first storage-item was only a level-one bracelet which I had to kill my foe to own it, it was such a useless thing which had only seven cubic-meters of available space in it. Hehehe... unlike you... I had to put my life on the line for everything I owned and didn’t get any chances to skip ahead... you lucky brat! you better be grateful for that, if you start complaining then I’ll ignore you, better remember that.”

“Yes sir, I’ll keep working hard.”

“En! that’s the spirit kid, now you can store the supply-box and all of your items inside the space-ring and carry your tamed-beast to travel faster if you want.”

“Indeed! but wouldn’t that mean that Mia has to run on her own again? she had an agreement with Sun before giving him the space-ring and the cloak you know.”

“Kid!... this little girl abstained from willingly offering you the share you should’ve rightfully owned from the spoils, I say you make-up another reason and don't let your beast carry her anymore, then manipulate her again into giving you the other space-ring, sounds reasonable to me.”

“Not reasonable to me to be honest, sorry old-Jin. So... who invented storage-items and how are they made?”

“Sigh... forget it! just don't dwell too much on the matter of how storage-items are made and by who, because that's an unfathomable dao which is treaded by those rare few who are destined to be called spirit-forgers. Since you have no affinity for the element of space... then even if you became a spirit-forger in the future, your ability to create a storage-item of high-quality will be... far too ordinary.”

Jin Bao said while he watched Lin store the black and sleeveless-cloak inside the space-ring of course he wasn’t happy since his attempts to encourage the boy to scam Mia failed. Conning another cultivator or all cultivators of their wealth is an action which all cultivators would do if they can without feeling a shred of shame or any embarrassment at all! because cultivation itself is considered an endless game of wits and accumulation. Since it’s a tiresome-battle that will only end or stop once a cultivator truly reach the peak then you gather more resources because more resources means more opportunities. But almost all cultivators understand that after reaching the peak you'll probably find another peak ahead of you which is much higher and harder to scale and you need to climb-over it to see what lies-ahead beyond it. Since that’s the only way to know then you need to have a certain mentality to be a true-cultivator : "Always move forward, always look ahead. One step forward, another step ahead!" That's cultivation and being a cultivator is to seek only one aim : "To be stronger... stronger than heavens itself! as long as the dao is firm enough, then nothing can hold-back such cultivator." That's why there's a common-saying in this spirit-world which says : 'To cultivate means to be ready to tread both heaven and hell! to trounce gods and buddhas, suppress devils and demons, wrest luck from ghosts, refine all things even undying-ashuras! in-exchange for power true-cultivators would never hesitate to delve-deep into the seventh-level of hell to slay-yamas.' Because the moment a cultivator hesitates may be the only chance for them to attain the next stage or grade or realm! miss it and forever they remain stuck in their current realm or stage or grade. That's why cultivation is always called and described as a never-ending fight with fate. The more a cultivator manages to accumulate the closer said-cultivator is to reach a higher realm and closer to the peak.

“It’s that hard to make huh! then how do we differentiate the levels of storage-items?”

Lin wasn't interested in the idea of taking Mia's possessions and asked old Jin while rubbing Sun's fur to calm him since the tiger was startled and jumped in fear when Lin stored the black-cloak inside the space-ring which he wore on the ring-finger of his left-hand! after the boy carried the saintess on top of his arms he stored the supply-box too then with a thought he retrieved the mattress from the ring and lowered the young-woman on top of it and smirked when he saw her turn and position her body in a comfortable position. Then the great-sage turned to look at his huge red-tiger who frantically sniffed around the area and searched for his food-source which is the supply-box then after finding no clues Sun looked at his buddy and glared at Lin seemingly accusing him of making the food which Sun worked very hard to hunt simply disappear.

“Hehehe... what? not only can I make your food disappear... I can make everything disappear... got a problem with that kitty?”

Lin smiled widely in amusement which made the tiger become timid and look at him with wary and confused eyes then the boy teased Sun and enjoyed the feeling and moment of pranking his best-friend.

“Whine...”

When the boy saw the tiger’s gesture of surrendering and crouching-down then whining  pleadingly he smirked and raised his left-hand up in the form of a closed fist and said : “Oh!... surrendering so soon? but the show isn’t over yet buddy, not only can I make things disappear, things can appear too. That is... if I want.” then opened his fingers towards the side in a gesture of dropping something to the ground and : “Thud!...”

“Xiaoxi don't hug Sunny! hug meh-”

“Roar!...”

Cutting his words short, Lin willed it to make the black-beast inside the ring appear towards his left then finished his phrase once it appeared. The gargantuan black-beast with its body-size which is comparable to a small-hill and is covered in long and short thick and thin red-spikes which covered its back from head to tail and branched like a miniature thick-forest! it made a muffled thudding-noise and the immense-weight of that black-beast’s arrival caused a seismic-wave that awoke Mia from her strange and weird dream once it reached her. Expertly the young-woman's dominant-hand stretched towards the short-sword in a quick and practiced-motion and she’s already in defensive-stance before the saintess even opened her drowsy-eyes and jumped a few meters backwards. Meanwhile Sun's red-fur entirely stood at end and he roared at this enemy which suddenly fell-out from nowhere! but the huge red-tiger didn't attack this black fellow and was instead ready to run with the boy if he received the signal or if that enemy tried to make any sudden-move. Still Sun was very worried because his buddy was very close to the black-beast and practically touching its black-scales. The tiger’s yellow-eyes kept jumping from the boy below and up to the black-beast while trying to squeeze its intelligent brain in-order to find a safe-solution for this situation.

“Whoa!... what's going on? this!...” Mia threw the weapon in her hands and ran towards Lin and grabbed his shoulders and shook him back and forth in excitement then she asked with a screaming-voice in the transmission : “You're able to use your space-ring?” Then waited for an answer while staring at these wide black-eyes from a dangerously-close distance which shrunk quickly.

“En...”

Only to find Lin calmly nodding once to confirm it.

“I really don't know how these two get their hands on the intact body of such a rare species.”

“What is it called and how strong was it?”

“Judging by the level of threat I’m feeling from it... then it’s at least a beast-lord! honestly I never thought I would see a fire-eating dark-lizard of such high cultivation.”

“Lord!... didn’t you say they were both in the tyrant-realm? can cultivators hunt beasts in a higher realm?”

“Yes they were both in realm of tyrants, and yes some cultivators has the abilities and methods to do so but... I don't think these two could hunt a beast in the lord-realm, maybe this man bought it for some reason. Anyway... all of that man’s belongings now belong to you little-Lin, now give big-sister a hug!”

“I’ll pass...”

“Yikes!... at least a quick one for the big-sister who gave you the ring.”

“I’ll still pass all the same...”

“Humph...”

Mia pouted her lips when the boy avoided her hug twice then ignored him and directed her eyes upwards then climbed up on the dark-lizard’s back until she reached the head and noticed the single one meter wide and extremely deep wound on this vital point. The saintess’s careless-attitude did the job and eased-up Sun's fear and agitation slightly and the red-tiger gave the exaggerated-lizard another look before slowly and carefully moving forward to sniff it! clearly this huge tiger was prepared to flee on the first sign of danger.

“Don't worry buddy... this dark-lizard is already long dead.”

Lin patted the foot of the lizard with his palm and felt its black-scales with his fingers and he smiled at Sun's timid-attitude but he didn't blame the tiger for being afraid! Because Lin had this feeling that this dark-lizard can really fight. The mammoth and the scorpion-tailed Cerberus plus the huge-bird which his village suffered from its attack twice added-together with the vulture-committee and their king combined could fight it and that dark-lizard would still come-out on top and winning! even if Sun and Moon and their streak of tigers and offspring joined the fight. The final result would be the same and this dark-lizard would make short-work of its enemies with minimum-effort and loses.

“Growl...”

Still Sun felt creeped-out and uncomfortable from being near the dead body of the black-beast even after seeing Lin touch its house-sized feet and Mia climbing its body and standing on its head! however the tiger's instincts reminded it that there's another one of the useful demonic-cores still within and inside the big-head of this black-lizard. The mere thought of getting the chance to consume one more demonic-core so quickly made its saliva run like rivers.

“Don't think about it Sunny... if you want to eat this one's demonic-core then you'll have to wait at least until you reach the ancestral-beast realm!” Mia jumped from above the dark-lizard’s head and stood in front of the red-tiger and spread her arms to the side. Clearly the saintess was blocking the boy’s tamed-beast from doing anything stupid.

“What happens if he eat that demonic-core?”

“If Sun ate this beast-lord’s demonic-core right now then he will end-up exploding from within by the excess energy if he doesn’t refine the core completely!”

“Howl...”

“You’re not saying that to annoy Sun and prevent him from eating that demonic-core?”

“Of course not! I'm not kidding here... it's very dangerous and he’s ninety-nine percent chance of dying if he does, don't be a glutton, you just ate one demonic-core already, Sun... your body is currently filled to the prim without any vacant space or room for more energy, you need to store all that energy within your demonic-core and seek higher realms first before thinking of refining such a demonic-core of higher grade and realm.”

The young-woman transmitted urgently while hoping that the boy would say anything to calm his endgy-tiger. The great-sage gave his tamed-beast a single look which meant : "No way in hell buddy... you're definitely not eating that demonic-core now, especially after what she said, the odds are ninety-nine percent!"

“Snort...”

Sun snorted loudly yet he didn't continue to try and push for a chance take the demonic-core of that black-lizard right now. But the red-tiger was feeling displeased that Mia’s attempt managed to succeed in stopping him from doing something! even if it’s done for his own good. Because it felt like the young-woman would probably start thinking that she can control him now. Since the tiger didn't like to fall under anyone's control other than buddy and his twin-sister or the rest of the boy’s family in certain situations. For example if it wanted to do something... ehm... naughty! with Moon. Then Lily would be the mastermind and organizer of the event whether Sun likes it or not. The earlier is his owner and mentor-figure and caretaker while the latter is the most frightening girl which this tiger ever met. Now that the saintess managed to spout a few words to stop it for the first time from doing something which he felt curiosity and greed towards it. Sun squinted his eyes and turned his gaze towards his buddy then gave the gesture of being hungry.

“You sure buddy?”

“Purr...”

“Well... if you want to eat it raw then don’t make me stop you.”

Lin retrieved the supply-box from the space-ring and pressed it to expose the huge amount of raw-meat which his tiger released its frustrations by chewing at them. Mia on the other hand was puckering her lips because she’s slightly disappointed since that’s a chance to whip that cocky and proud but very cute tiger into obedience and pull it under her wing! if that had happened then the young-woman could become a lot closer with the boy's tamed-beast but the red-beast managed to avoid her trap.

'Probably his sharp animal-instincts! hmm... this journey back is going to take time, one way or another... you'll come to love this saintess like Xiaoxi did before you anyway. My space-ring has many spirit-herbs... which will make your drool flow and run like rivers, and cascade like waterfalls before covering the ground! let's see if you can resist the temptation when it happens, but before that... let’s play this card first. Hehe... this is going to be fun.' Mia smirked when Sun choose to retreat and ignore her which made the young-woman insist more on making this tiger treat her the same way it treats Lin in the future.

“Quick!... show me what’s inside this ring.”

Mia gave Lin the space-ring she took from Xiangming and asked the boy with a sly-smile on her face to empty the space-ring then clapped her hands like a little-girl while stealing side-glances at Sun! Lin took the other space-ring from the young-woman and willed it to store the dark-lizard's body back inside the space-ring on his left-hand. But it seems like taking something from inside a storage-item is very easy while storing it back is harder especially if it’s that big. Because the great-sage suddenly felt like his spirit-wings were exhausted and reached their limits. Storing titan-sized dark-lizard back inside the space-ring made Lin feel like he just flew all day with his wings if his pair of wings were being tirelessly worked at their maximum power. The boy felt drained from the inside-out and sweat started to ooze from his forehead and slide-down on the skin of his face while feeling his exhaustion deepen every passing second not to mention that it took more than fifteen seconds to store the dark-lizard. After the huge body transitioned into the ring's space Lin felt like a mountain worth of weight was lifted off of his shoulders and he sat-down to rest while gasping and waited for his hurried breath and racing-heart to calm-down. While wiping the sweat on his forehead with his sleeve the great-sage did all kinds of mental-calculations aiming to find-out the most suitable size of an object to bring-out from the silver-ring in the future and store it back in without getting his martial-spirit exhausted like it just did! but it was a hard equation to make right now because he lacked a lot of information. Not to mention the fact that the boy didn't rest much and hasn’t caught a wisp of sleep during more than two days now. His martial-spirit has been activated for long durations in these two days and the pair of wings has always recharged their energy faster whenever he slept. Yet here he is... after days nonstop usage of his wings and not giving them any sleep or opportunity to recharge their energies! add to that the factor of the massive consumption of spirit-energy just earlier to store the dark-lizard inside the space-ring. Lin suddenly found himself hitting rock bottom with nothing to fuel his wings which deactivated themselves without his command.

“Don't try and force yourself to do anything little-Lin... just rest for now, we can always do everything later! yes we'll see the contents of the other ring later after you properly rest.”

Mia instantly felt saddened and had a very apologetic look on her face and a sorry gaze in her green eyes when she looked at the extremely tired sight of the boy and remembered how Lin hasn't rested at all since they met! yet she the grown-up has rested more than four times already and her previous playful-attitude would show her carelessness for the well-being of the kid and more attentive for the health of his tamed-beast instead. Seeing Lin’s fatigued and visible exhaustion reminded the saintess that he’s only six years old boy which she should be the one taking care of him and not the other way around! Mia instantly knew that she was tricked by the boy’s overly-mature behavior and attitude which felt like someone who’s older than she’s. Unaware that she’s always been behaving reliantly on Lin and imagining him as the older and stronger individual while passively taking it for granted that the kid is the leader of the group since his overflowing-charisma affected her deeply and the saintess unconsciously accepted that her rank be lowered from a supposed-leader in this group to be one of Lin's followers! when Mia couldn't find the strength within her to directly apologize to the boy for previous-neglect she sat-down next to Lin and wrapped her arms around him and tried to hold him tighter in her embrace. Feeling slight-resistance from the boy in her arms the young-woman looked downwards and was surprised when she found that Lin is blushing obviously in the cheeks and trying to hide his embarrassment! Mia instantly felt happiness swell in her chest and giggled after seeing a different kind of expression from this boy who’s always so serious and practical. Firmly but gently the saintess used her soft hands to cling onto Lin's waist when he tried shyly to struggle-free from her embrace then turned him to face her after his struggles ceased and stopped. Then a bit forcefully this time the young-woman buried the boy’s face in her... oh! so-soft and bouncy chest which made him freeze all of his motions while feeling shocked by this unexpected situation. Then Mia wrapped her arms around Lin’s waist and pulled him into a tight hug and stoop-up to walk towards the mattress. All of this happened while Sun was watching this scene in front of his eyes and staring wide-eyed with a gaping-mouth which is full of chewed-meat that he forgot to swallow and didn’t seem to notice that some of it was actually falling to the ground next to his front paws. The reason the red-tiger was shocked is because his buddy was never this passive or tame at all when dealing with others! not even when he dealt with Lily. If it’s taken into consideration that Lily is the kind of person who can always find weaknesses in others to drive them on the back-foot if she wanted then she shouldn't be counted. But she was never able to make Lin behave like now. The boy was like a toddler who couldn't move a limb and didn’t know what to think or say in this situation because he never touched a grown-up woman beside his two mothers from two different lifetimes which doesn’t count in the logs of this virgin and inexperienced great-sage.

"I'm sorry Lin... I was too distracted by my problems and didn't notice how tired and exhausted you’ve become, will you forgive me because I was neglectful of your current state and condition?” Mia looked at Lin's face from the side and asked the boy who blushed deeper and didn’t answer because he’s feeling shy and the young-woman felt terribly-amused by that expression! then she used her right-hand to push away some locks of his black hair which blocked some parts of his face from her eyes and began to gently caress his left-cheek with the tips of her fingers and continued to speak but this time it felt like the saintess was talking to herself : “You helped me avenge myself against my enemies, helped me get rid of my pursuers and vent my stifled emotions, fed me delicious meals and made me something to wear, you gave me the same feeling of being at peace, just like how I used to feel back in the sect!” The saintess of the seamless-sword sect stopped her transmission then spoke in her foreign-language and said : “Your and Sun's company made the bleakness and gloom of this cursed-land... feel like a fun picnic in the gardens of the Chentian-estate, now it’s big-sister's turn to watch over you.” then she transmitted back while saying the same thing out-loudly in the same foreign-language : “Sunny... will you watch over Lin with me? he needs to sleep.”

Lin was experiencing one of these rare moments where his mind just goes completely blank in an unexplainable freeze! maybe it’s because last time he actually touched boobs was when his mother breastfed him in the first two years of his life but the reason was completely pure and it happened because he needed the nutrition in-order to survive. Unlike his twin-sister Lily who did breastfeed from their mother and from many other women plus the countless shameful-acts and deeds which she did entirely for her own reasons. Now the boy is buried face-first and deep in-between the young-woman's chest and great-sage Lin was reminded of the big-chested loli "Sarah" whom he kept hesitating for years about revealing his feelings for her until he missed the chance to do so in the previous life then coming to regret it before his death! more so was how Lin is currently someone who lived two lives with the combined age of more than thirty-five years under his belt yet he's still a virgin thorough and thorough. 'How sad... to live two lives without truly understanding what it feels to be drowning within the feeling of hugging a beauty! yet after experiencing the feeling... here I’m being conflicted over the lack of true feelings of love between the two of us, after all to her I’m just a child... while in my eyes she’s someone fifteen years younger. Sigh... I feel tired.' Lin thought before closing his eyes to sleep.

Mia leaned-back on the mattress with her upper-body after sitting on it and let her body be the boy’s bed and her squishy-chest be his pillow without feeling a shred of shame or worry for her reputation of being the saintess of the strongest sect in sword-intent cultivation within the spirit-world. Despite being on top of a first-grade beauty who's completely and entirely unguarded against him Lin rested his head and closed his eyes to sleep. Sun on the other hand hurried to pick-out the rest of the raw-meat from the supply-box with his fangs and stuff them in his mouth then went to crouch-down next to his buddy’s mattress to guard him. The huge red-tiger kept the young-woman under his eyes while his best-friend used her body to rest its sharp-gaze which remained on the saintess spoke volumes of how much this boy’s tamed-beast can and will do without hesitation once she dares to do anything "funny" because all of their previous friendly "scuffles" and moments of "acquaintance" will easily be wiped-clean from the memory of this tiger without a single moment of hesitation if she dared to actually try and harm its buddy! this whole-world and even its own cubs are worth absolutely-nothing in comparison to the safety and well-being of this little-human in Sun's eyes. That's why Mia instantly understood from the serious and intense look which the red-tiger’s yellow-eyes were giving her and the young-woman didn't make any sudden-movements and after smiling towards Sun the saintess closed her eyes and continued her sleep. The matter with the other space-ring can wait until Lin wakes-up from his sleep and recover his lost energy. What about Sun's lack of trust? Mia knows that she can handle that issue with the method of "bribing" since that method worked miracles with her Xiaoxi before then there’s no reason for it to fail if used against the red-tiger. Despite being a complete idiot and a wasteful-fool who wasted away almost all of her wealth on a beast just to tame it. Her lord-father didn't flinch once when he heard the news of how much wasted medicinal-ingredients and herbs plus how many demonic-cores were thrown at that weird-beast.

Sun remained crouching-down while he guarded the sleeping-duo and a few moments after Mia slept he started to frown at the stream of comments this sleeping-beauty kept saying. That name "Xiaoxi" kept being mentioned in sentences of that weird-language with the word "Sun" over and over. This language was foreign to the red-tiger and he knew it but somehow he felt like he can understand it! the more this weird-woman spoke in her sleep the more Sun became familiar with the language until he understood every word Mia said when his buddy "Lin" got pulled into the mess of her strange-dream. The things his buddy did in the beauty's dreams were "awkward and childish" until finally the red-tiger couldn’t stand to listen to this crap any more. Sun growled at Mia faintly then used the tip of his long and thick tail to block her mouth for some peace and quiet. But the sleeping saintess seemed to enjoy the fluffy and ticklish feeling on her face and kept muttering other childish sounds or giggling and the show escalated with time until Lin who became a pillow for the young-woman instead ended-up waking from his short-sleep after a few hours! in the beginning the boy was surprised by the red-tiger’s action of gagging the mouth of this enchanting-beauty with his tail and gave his tamed-beast a curious look while raisin an eyebrow. Sun snorted in reply then raised the tip of his tail slightly for Lin to hear the sleep-talking and the wondrous-charm of this beauty's subconscious-mind. Once the translation arrived with an awkward-tune from Jin Bao inside the ring it made Lin blush in shame then shake his head before gesturing with his head for Sun to return his tail where it was a few seconds ago. Lin would've never thought that Mia is that kind of person deep-down but she seemed to place both him and his beast-companion in a very special place within her heart! otherwise she wouldn't speak of them unconsciously for so long in her sleep and incorporate them into her... oh! so inappropriate-fantasies. Just now the saintess said that they were having a group-bath together and Xiaoxi was carrying her on her "shell" while Sun licked her neck and Lin washed her back... most embarrassing thing was the boy’s curiosity about her privates...ehm! trying to wiggle himself free from the young-woman’s embrace and get up Lin found his palms pushing on her soft chest and sinking deeper.

“Mnnn...”

The stifled-moan which was uttered softly from the sleeping Mia made the great-sage freeze in that position and halt all movements for a few seconds which the young-woman took advantage of them to correct her sleeping position and bury his smaller body beneath hers! Lin’s fingers unconsciously squeezed the lumps of fat held between them which caused the shape of that perfect-chest to distort and deform then another moan to be released from the green-eyed beauty. The second moan was much louder and when the eyelashes of the saintess fluttered silently the great-sage felt his heart speeding-up and anxious fear grip his chest. Honestly he didn’t know what frightened him more. The loss of his reputation after getting misunderstood by Mia if she woke-up to discover him groping her chest! or if somehow Lily found-out what happened here in the future. Sun looked at the awkward-attitude of his best-friend with a pair of amused yellow eyes and gave him a very sly and knowing look since the red-tiger already saw the monks and some of the villagers mating before it thought Lin was about to do the same to Mia.

“Purr...”

Sun nodded to Lin in encouragement then got-up and ran towards the east in the direction of the rising sun to look for anything to hunt since there’s no more meat in the supply-box and because he’s thoughtful and mindful enough to give his buddy some privacy! sighing while watching the red-tiger swiftly making itself scarce from the area the boy knew that he must've been misunderstood by it and shook his head while trying to release his waist from the embracing-arms of this beauty. 'Why is she holding on to me that tightly? and how long is she going to sleep for?' Lin thought while trying to gently ease Mia's grip on his body.

“Ehehehe... Lin is kissing my neck, Xiaoxi don't be jealous! you too can kiss me if you want. Sun you baddie... kisses from the mouth are only for my husband...”

Lin's back shivered for no reason when he heard the words of the young-woman and his breathing staggered slightly when he received the transmission and translation from Jin Bao who had the same touch of being amused in his tune of voice during the delivery! Which made Lin transmit back : “Old Jin Bao... that’s enough! stop teasing me.”

“Hehe... just admit that it was funny.”

“Fine... but please... no more.”

Lin received no more translations of this young-woman’s strange and fantastical-dreams but once he finally flipped the saintess on her back the boy’s neck was hugged by her arms and found his body getting pulled towards Mia's chest and his head was slowly dragged-downwards towards her beautiful face despite his palms which pressed hard against the sinking-mattress in an attempt to support his weight and resist. Finally he succeeded in his weird struggle but from this dangerously-close distance it would appear like Lin’s pressing Mia’s body beneath him and the two of them are about to kiss! he’s currently a few inches from her peachy-lips which remain unguarded and muttering strange words then these pair of lips started to elongate towards his face which made the great-sage blush fiercely. Shaking his head from these "unhealthy-thoughts" Lin supported his weight on the mattress around the young-woman’s waist with his feet then twisted his upper-body quickly to free his neck from her hold and used his right-elbow to relocate the other arm of the saintess slightly downwards before sticking his left-hand below her’s and finally slithering his waist from Mia's hold. The boy stood next to her and spent a few seconds just looking downwards at the expression on her sleeping-face because this saintess seemed to be uncomfortable for some reason after he left her embrace.

“I can't leave you sleeping on this simple mattress on-top of this hard floor any longer.”

Lin took-out the only bed inside his silver-ring then carefully raised Mia from the mattress and placed her on the bed then tucked her carefully under the thin covers and pulled the bed-curtains to block the sunlight from her eyes and stored the small mattress which was supposed to be his bed during this journey. The feelings which blossomed inside the boy’s chest in the previous minutes were rudely cast a side by his practical-mind once he placed the young-woman on the bed and he related these feelings to his lack of experience on the matters of relationships while avoiding and parrying her hands which tried to ensnare him in their embrace once again! taking a deep breath to clear his mind from distractions Lin started his daily session of physical-exercise until he finished the routine then sat-down to soul-cultivate and meditate on the soul-strengthening technique after eating a light snack. But he made sure a small part of his concentration would always keep a lookout for any enemy with the spread ability of soul-sense operating at fifty-percent. Now that Sun is away and Mia is asleep Lin had to be the look-out. After finishing his session of meditation it was way past afternoon already yet the red-tiger still didn't return while the young-woman was already awake thirty-minutes ago yet the saintess tossed and turned in bed and hugged one of the pillows to her chest with a frown on her beautiful face. 'Not the same... this feeling is not the same, when I hugged Lin to sleep it felt... warmer, calmer, and many times more peaceful than hugging Xiaoxi! just like when mom hugged me to sleep back in the days... it felt like everything is going to be alright as long as I'm hugging her.' Mia thought while she fought the urge to run towards Lin and hug him. She never felt this close-attachment to anyone other than her lord-father and her tamed-beast Xiaoxi! yet right now she feels like the boy just seized a unique place in her heart after she experienced hugging him for the first time. Once the young-woman woke-up to find her arms empty she felt uncomfortable as if her heart lost some piece of itself or misses something very important which she couldn't explain why it’s like that no matter how much she tried to find reason. Peeking-through the bed-curtains the saintess found Lin diligently meditating and she felt proud for him since the boy isn’t lazy or neglectful of his cultivation! yet her heart grumbled about how could he be this dense and cruel to leave her embrace to just go and meditate. Is her soft embrace that bad of a place for him to prefer sitting cross-legged on the hard ground? every time the young-woman tried to think about this boy-genius her heart and mind would give her two opposite thoughts which further drove Mia into confusion.

“Mia... are you hungry?”

“Uh!... nothing...”

Lin asked after getting-up and patting the dust off of his clothes and the sudden question startled Mia and interrupted her thoughts which made the saintess jump from her bed in a hurry and realize that she's behaving strangely after appearing in front of the boy.

“Nothing! are you hungry or not?”

Mia's confusion was replaced with warmth when she saw Lin's eyes evade looking at her exposed thighs and blushing slightly at the cheeks. The saintess just felt the urge to explore that adorable side of him and wanted to tease the boy some more when she saw his bashful expression! and the young-woman intentionally leaned forward and held her knees while replying which exposed the deep valley and the majority of her chest : “Very hungry... but Sun already ate all the meat we have.”

“Cough!... I see... W...we still have seeds and some dried-fruits and edible-vegetables plus many other products! you can’t be like Sun and think like Sun. Eating meat if essential in any diet but you can’t rely solely on meat for all your meals.”

“Hehe... yes! I’ll make sure to remember.”

“I can make-do with what we already have for a not too bad late breakfast... or do you want to go look for Sun?”

“No! I would like to st-” Mia almost blurted her true-feelings and felt embarrassed when Lin frowned at her for severing the transmittion so suddenly! the young-woman gestured for the boy to link with her again before transmitting : “Sorry about that... I’m such a klutz sometimes! let’s have a simple breakfast... and give Sun more time to play.” The saintess thought afterwards : 'Sun... you better take your sweet time coming back here or else!' before smiling sweetly towards the boy.

“Actually there's some food in this space-ring... but I'll have to check first if any of it is edible... that might take a while! that’s why I didn’t make that offer... since you said that you’re very hungry.”

Lin coughed when he saw Mia's breasts dangle in front of his eyes and hurried to turn his head away and he transmitted with blushing cheeks that blushed too much until their redness started to spread to his ears and neck! the saintess was feeling joyful at how shy the boy was right now because that’s yet a new cute side of this freakish-genius. Then when the young-woman heard the boy explaining himself for her in such awkward way she understood that he’s considerate enough to take her situation into consideration which made her feel like melting to the ground right there and then. But she held strong and looked at the shy kid who still wouldn’t dare look at her skin and transmitted : “One condition!...” Mia transmitted then waited for Lin to answer while smiling slyly like a she-fox.

“Condition!... why would you give someone a condition if he wants to prepare you a meal and arrange your table? let's hear it then... please remember that you’re hungry, so don’t give me some condition that would waste time.”

Lin somehow felt a headache coming when Mia extended the forefinger on her right-hand while maintaining her posture of leaning-forward with her upper-body because the teasing and sly smile on her face made the boy very confused! because the behavior and body-language of this beauty is ninety-percent similar to a maiden who’s new to the feelings of love. Lin asked Mia to say her condition while avoiding eye-contact and tried to hide his embarrassment right now by acting like he's looking for Sun.

“My condition is simple and wouldn’t waste any time...”

“Are you sure you’re hungry?”

“Of course I am!”

“Then why are you still wasting time?”

“I’m not!...”

“Then why is it until now I still don’t have any clue about your condition?”

“Are you looking for a fight? huh!... because if you’re looking for trouble... then this big-sister won’t go easy on you because you’re younger.”

“Sigh... condition... please!”

“That’s a much better attitude. Humph!...”

The transmission quickly escalated into Mia scolding Lin who cringed and apologized quickly! the young-woman stifled her laughter and faked being displeased but her emotions were growing and swelling in her chest towards this polite boy with increasing familiarity and likeness.

“Please!...”

“Listen-up... my condition is... give me a hug!”

Mia crossed her arms and looked at Lin while transmitting that but when she saw the boy gawking and looking at her with widened-eyes full of shock and disbelief the saintess avoided eye-contact and felt antsy inside with some anxiousness.

“Th... that’s it?”

“Big-sister... still hasn't thanked you properly for... all the things you did for me.”

“You should’ve said so from the beginning... I was beginning to think that you’re mad at me for some reason, or having some trouble.”

Mia opened her arms and drew Lin to her chest because once the boy gave the young-woman this final transmission he walked towards her while shaking his head but his body-language was of someone about to give a hug.

Straightening her back and twirling-around while hugging Lin the saintess was inwardly celebrating the return of the previous feeling which she felt yesterday! that feeling exploded in Mia's heart like a wave of peacefulness and warmness that flooded her whole body. All of the confusions in the young-woman’s mind were evaporated into thin air when the boy is in her embrace. She’s sure that her likeness towards Lin and feelings of greed for the boy to be always close to her are because of the peaceful feelings he’s giving her. Like a radiant-sun this boy is exuding warmth and tranquility while his calm-eyes are an endless source of harmony and just interacting with him is a quick shortcut for ease of mind! now that Mia has found such a great catch she started started to think of ways to take Lin back with her to the seamless-sword sect just to have him for herself and to see the look on the face of her lord-father when he learns of the existence of this genius.

“Um... can you let go now? I can't make our breakfast if you keep being glued to me like this.”

Lin's body resembled a log with his hands beside him after Mia hugged him for a whole minute and didn’t seem to have enough from the feeling because the saintess closed her eyes and leaned her head on the boy’s shoulder to bury her face in his clothes then just breathed in and out! the way this young-woman sniffed him reminded Lin of old Ba and Boss when they smelled his clothes in that embarrassing incident and he asked bashfully while trying to struggle free from her arms but his short feet were ways away from the ground below.

“Hehe... yes... but... I am allowed to hug you whenever I want.”

The young-woman kept swinging the boy left and right while transmitting in her playful voice.

“Why’s that?”

“Because... if you choose otherwise... then I'll just decide to stay here for a bit longer.”

“And!... what does that have to do with me exactly?”

“Tsk... you know how much Sun likes me, right!”

“Yeah!...” Lin transmitted back while thinking : 'Not a single bit.' But he choose to keep the obvious truth to himself.

“Hehe... since you understand then... I take it that you’re aware that... you'll be on your own for the rest of the journey if you don’t obey big-sister... right!”

“Sun will go after you!...” Again the boy transmitted while thinking : 'He will chase you to the ends of this world to make sure that you stay away from me... of course that’s what you meant, but I’ll just let it slide and take it as you being embarrassed, too embarrassed to mention that he’s going to take a big-chunk from your butt, that will work as a souvenir from Sun for me, and as a trophy for himself for succeeding in chasing you away because you annoy him a bit too much, and as a reminder for you to keep your distance!' Again he kept his opinion to himself and just rolled his eyes inwardly while looking at the beautiful complexion of this green-eyed saintess.

“Of course! ehm... this saintess already has a long line of suitors asking for her hand in marriage, suitors who'll chase you for three days and nights with all kinds of weapons in-hand... if they knew that you received a hug from me. Not to mention the permission to do that whenever you want in the future! chin-up kiddo... you got yourself a beauty to hug without bargaining, so hug like no tomorrow, hug fiercely if you want.”

Mia rubbed her cheek against Lin's and said that before letting him go and the boy felt like he shouldn’t try and ask for an explanation for what she truly meant by saying that! because it will certainly complicate things between them. But the intimate action which was done so naturally by Mia towards Lin like he’s her own family-member or little-brother which she's used to taking advantage of him! the young-woman’s current attitude is similar to Lily's attitude whenever she wanted to force her way into her brother's embrace while giving and making all kinds and sorts of excuses. But the proud way and the tune of voice which the saintess uttered her status and title had a certain charm to it which is the kind of mature-charm of a woman who’s confident in her own beauty. His younger twin-sister is a project for a much more startling-beauty than Mia but unripe-fruit should never be compared with the ones who are fully-ripened and waiting on the branches to be picked. The dazzling wink Mia gave Lin had countless meanings within that gesture to the degree of confusing the great-sage about the true intentions of using such seductive-techniques on him! but the boy was sure this young-woman is doing that intentionally to give him mixed signs and leave him confused or maybe it’s being done purely-instinctively. In his previous-life the great-sage attempted to figure-out how women think and regretted the time he wasted and now he’s reminded again to keep away and clear from this ever-forking path or at least delay that project for now. This headache-inducing topic made Lin smile professionally at the happy saintess then leave this airhead of a woman after a quick and stressed nod because he wanted to leave this land "ASAP" and if this Mia dragged her feet and delayed him then he will have a not so peaceful journey. Since he doesn’t want to be separated from the saintess yet then the boy has to endure. After all Mia is currently a treasure-trove of precious information on this world especially when old Jin Bao is being kind-of stingy with his words lately since his phrases are lacking more and more information. From the young-woman Lin can draw a bigger and clearer picture of the world which is fresh if compared with Jin Bao who spent what appears to be a long time trapped within the ring. For the great-sage there's only one kind of power or weapon which will never fail him in any kind of situation! that would be "knowledge" his martial-spirit or soul-force and even his own body can fail him but never his mind... only if he fed it the right kind of nourishment. Especially after his conclusions led him to understand that his current superior-attainments in soul-cultivation seem to be affected extremely by his mental-fortitude to great extent. If the boy was any other kid with the same birth-circumstances then Lin at best-case scenario is going to be unable to use his wings... if he managed to awaken his martial-spirit that is.

Mia was feeling satisfied by Lin's lack of reply and obviously a lot more satisfied by the step back which the boy just took silently and nervously when he’s faced with her self-righteous argument. The young-woman remembered how she once asked her sick-mother about how she should choose her future husband and the reply she received was : "When he doesn't argue with you... much. hehe... couples should argue and fight you know, but if he take a step back in the right moment... despite you yourself being fierce and overbearing for no reason. Then watch the eyes little-Mia... if he gives you the look which means : 'you must be crazy!' then turn him down and ignore that person in the future... because he doesn’t respect you. But if he gives you the look which means : 'just what’s she thinking?' then keep playing around with the feelings of that person... not too much though, we girls should always keep our men surrounded with a cloud of confusion all the time, the most dazzling woman in the eyes of all men isn’t the most beautiful or charming one... remember it and keep it a secret. The mysterious-one is the most dazzling... that’s why we keep secrets from them to keep them hooked." Little-Mia looked at her mother that time with a gaping-mouth then replied her sick-mother : "Mommy... Is that how you got daddy to love you so much?" then the little girl looked around her to confirm that her lord-father didn’t hear what she whispered in her mother’s ear. "Humph... humph... of course! see how your daddy has nothing going through his mind but me and me and more me and a lot more of me. Any woman who could rule her man has to be like mommy... listen little-Mia the hearts of men are fickle which means that occupying that place within them... just isn't enough! why not take the head? seize their brains and you'll always be in control of their behavior, seize their hearts and you’ll always be in control of their thoughts." Mia’s mother hugged her daughter closely to her chest and smirked since her husband has choose to hide himself but he was crying tears while listening to his dying wife teach their only daughter lessons way above her age. After snuggling deep in her mother’s warm embrace for a few dozen seconds little-Mia had an epiphany and asked : "Mommy... now I’m confused, should I seize the heart of my husband or his brain?" and her mother looked outside the window seemingly in a daze for a short moment before saying : "The heart... makes men do stupid things, but if you got your man to always think about you then it wouldn’t be a bad thing... hehe. The head... makes men include you on every tiny bit of detail in their lives, we women hate useless details and sometimes we get this strong need for a change. Tell you what little-Mia... just follow your gut, when it happens you’ll know." Little-Mia frowned and pouted her face that time and her mother kept laughing at the sight of her confused daughter then her lord-father arrived and kept playing with her until she quickly forgot why she was annoyed earlier. A tear fell on Mia's cheek when she remembered the advice which she received from her mother just two weeks before her death and she quickly wiped it off! yes she knows now that most of what her mom said before was a joke to tease her but she’s grateful for this little kid's mature and gentlemanly-attitude of revoking his right to argue with her. Because by doing so especially his expression and the look he gave her before the boy withdrew to make breakfast is a realistic repetition of the prophecy her mother once spoke of. Lin was unaware what he did to make Mia super-ecstatic like so but he was happy because she seemed grateful right now and she kept humming what would appear to be one of her favorite songs while drumming her fingers on the table's surface.

“Howl...”

Once he started to arrange the table for Mia the boy heard Sun's loud voice long before the tiger entered the range of his soul-sense

“Hrmm...”

Spreading his soul-sense to maximum range Lin noticed that the red-tiger was coming towards them while holding between its sharp fangs the bleeding neck of the vulture-king! its side and back has a few long scars which seemed to be caused by the talons and beak of this vulture. Yet despite being riddled with these wounds its situation didn't seem to hinder this tiger from hunting this unfortunate-bird.

The boy thought that this vulture-king is unfortunate indeed because in the beginning he manipulated it and the members of its nest to be his frontiers and vanguard before Sun and Mia took-out the assassins for a one-way trip to the afterlife! then the boredom of the red-tiger and the bad luck of this vulture-king caused them to encounter one another. If that encounter happened before Sun ate the Cerberus's demonic-core then hands-down the tiger would be disadvantaged. But unfortunately for the vulture-king the difference between before and after swallowing his second demonic-core is like battling two entirely-different tigers. The vulture-king was actually winning at the beginning of their fight but Sun was extremely cunning and good at evasion while his sudden-burst of quick-movement plus the tiger’s good use of the surrounding terrain forced the vulture-king to fight in a tight place which had little room for it to actually fly and use its wings. Knowing that it has to give chase otherwise this cocky tiger will escape from it the vulture-king dived foolishly into the trap and met its end. Add to that disadvantage how the numbers of its followers dwindled after the battle with the Cerberus and the two assassins. The obvious fear and timidity which its followers showed when faced with another order of going into more fights drove the vulture-king berserk and it attacked both Sun and its followers like mad! the ruler of this territory after the big mammoth died soon followed its previous colleague to death by the same beast. But this time the red-tiger didn't play "support" and on its own "soloed" the boss of vultures. Not only that... Sun frightened the loyal-vultures which didn’t flee with the timid-ones earlier into fleeing too after a mighty roar towards them while he stepped on the dying body of the vulture-king. It felt good to do so because Sun did give it his best to win this time and even had to use the shrinking-ability to escape this bird's fast pierces whenever he couldn't evade normally. Yes it caused it to burn-out more of its energy and stamina much faster but it helped the tiger live to see another day and fight another battle which all that matters. The wounds on its body doesn’t matter because its best-friend can fix everything. To sum this situation it could be said that right now Sun is both extremely hungry and very proud of himself.

“You idiot! why did you kill this poor bird? wasn't it enough already that we caused the death of too many of its followers before... now you go and hunt it as well.”

Lin flew towards Sun and reprimanded him once he saw him acting all smug and grinning then said with a deep frown on his face because he’s feeling sorry for it! really sorry... and felt that this bird was treated unfairly by both himself and Sun.

“Snort...”

The red-tiger was apparently displeased when it heard the accusations of its buddy and glared at the boy stubbornly with two fierce and penetrating yellow eyes while crunching the neck of its prey between two set of fangs since it didn't go provoke anyone at all and this black-bird and rude feathery-thing kept harassing it then tried to gang-up on it with others from its kind! Sun knows that he only defended himself from enemies and killed the one which tried to kill him and acted upon self-defense which is justified. Instead of complimenting him for winning and returning safely or getting worried for him since he’s currently wounded. Buddy is reprimanding him instead? if Lily is here and witnessed this situation then she'll be infuriated at Lin’s attitude instead.

"Kiss my ass, it’s just a stupid... stupid bird! tend to Sun’s wounds and shut your mouth, or at least ask what happened before jumping to conclusions... idiot." she'll say with her hands on her hips while daring her twin-brother to retort.

“Well!... let’s hear it then, what happened?”

Lin was patting the vulture king's wings and feeling the texture of its black feathers which he complimented it on having them before then after uttering a sigh he raised his head to look up at Sun and asked. To apologize to this vulture-king for what his buddy did to it the boy was prepared to punish the red-tiger if he discovered that it’s in the wrong.

“Growl...”

Sun knew that he has to tell Lin everything right now without trying to hide anything otherwise he'll be befallen with some sort of punishment or restriction if his buddy saw that he’s in the wrong! after the red-tiger gestured frenetically and posed rabidly to explain what happened to its best friend it gasped for breath while watching the boy who smiled helplessly and looked silently at the motionless carcass of the vulture-king next to his feet. Extending his hand to touch the black-feathers of the vulture-king and muttering a very faint prayer for it afterwards the great-sage shrugged and sighed before taking-off towards the sky and saying : “Let's go back Sun... you're eating vulture meat today buddy, sorry about calling you "idiot" earlier I was wrong, now hurry back so I can tend to your wounds quicker.” Sun was shivering in excitement when Lin forthrightly apologized to him and quickly used his fangs to raise the vulture-king again then sprinted to chase after his buddy because what the boy just said meant that he's going to cook this bird for the red-tiger and wouldn't let it feed on it raw! according to the great-sage’s teachings just a verbal apology isn't and will never be enough. He has to back it up with actions too in-order to give the recipient something of both worlds... always.

“Little-Lin... you left suddenly after we heard Sun's voice! did something happen to Sunny? I'll slice up whomever dares bully him... snort. Humph... humph... where’s he?”

Mia was standing on-top of the supply-box and squinting her eyes while looking everywhere anxiously because Lin suddenly disappeared after summoning his wings and the saintess didn't get a chance to see which way the boy took when he left! being restricted with the narrow range of sight which extends to one-hundred meters the young-woman knew that she can get lost very easily if she left the campsite which made her best solution and safest action to take is to wait until the boy returns or until he contacts her. Once Mia noticed that Lin has returned she quickly transmitted and asked him but when the saintess saw his conflicted-expression it made the young-woman incorrectly judge the situation. Coming-up with her own premature and wrong-conclusions... Mia glared and threatened the non-existent offenders by cutting and slashing thin-air with both of her palms quickly left and right like a karate-grandmaster performing kata in her exaggerated-pose and wide-stance while showing a mean-expression on her face.

“You can't kill what’s already dead... can you?”

“I... I’ll try!” Mia gawked at the expression the boy was giving her and jumped down from the roof of the supply-box while answering. Then the saintess saw the small smirk on the boy’s face and knew that she overreacted earlier and might’ve embarrassed herself! she blushed slightly before transmitting : “W... what happened to Sunny?”

“He got found-out by the vulture-king and its followers.”

“Huh!... this is bad, these guys are strong and that blackey is ruthless, let’s go help Sunny right now.” Mia gawked again before waking-up from her daze and running towards her weapon while transmitting that.

“Didn’t you hear what I said before?”

“Uh!... you don’t seem worried at all, is the battle over already?” the saintess frowned then seemed to finally understand the situation and confirmed it when the boy nodded to answer her question before transmitting back : “Sun killed it already and chased-away its followers, but he received some battle-scars from it... thankfully none of them managed to hit his vitals.” The young-woman smiled widely when she heard the result and planted the short-sword in her hand in the ground next to feet before jumping up and yelling : “Victor... Sunny!” Lin just shook his head and placed the plates one by one on the table and he replied : “Honestly... I feel somewhat bad for what happened to it, but I can't blame Sun for defending himself. Sigh!...” The reason this boy wasn’t happy is because it seems the fate of this vulture-king appears to be sealed long before they met and it’s destined to die and fall under the paws of his tamed-beast! no matter how much Lin tried to avoid it the circumstances forced them to cross-path. The great-sage couldn’t prevent that tragic-end from happening and can’t bring himself to be angry at his tamed-beast because Sun had every right to defend himself. Not to mention that from what the red-tiger described it was this king of vultures who chased it aggressively like a lunatic and kept being insistent-on killing the tiger.

“Oh-no! Sunny is hurt... oh you poor, poor thing, did this blacke-... I mean "dummy" scratch you?” Mia looked at Sun's wounds once he arrived and ran towards him while attempting to coaxed him into accepting her love while theatrically talking like an actor on a stage before resuming her role : “Look what this dummy did to your perfect fur! what an atrocious sin that is... you know what? I say this stupid brute got what he deserves.”  after double checking with her eyes that none of these wounds are fatal the saintess smiled widely and did another victory pose while giggling before continuing : “Sunny is the strongest and mightiest of all... hooray! Lin just made me some delicious breakfast earlier, I don’t mind sharing some with you, I don’t mind personally feeding you either.” slyly the young-woman tried to bribe the red-tiger to change form so that she can hold it again.

“Purr...”

Only to feel a chilly gale hit her face with wind which felt cold and lonely and penetrated her heart from the side when the red-tiger ignored Mia the "blabbermouth" and go directly towards the boy and drop the carcass of the vulture-king in front of Lin then urge him in a cute gesture—which planted another cold knife in the saintess’s heart when she saw it happen—to start preparing and go on and cook it right now! when the young woman saw the red-tiger rub its huge head and nudge the boy intimately she felt like her heart just shattered and countless veins on her head popped-up. Mia gritted her teeth and stomped her two feet until she arrived between the boy and his tiger and stood facing Sun after intentionally interrupting this moment while he’s in the middle of groveling to Lin. Pointing her right forefinger at Sun's nose while shivering from frustration Mia said : “I've... had enough! enough of running, enough of being lonely, and above all else... I’ve had enough of your arrogance Sunny. This saintess tolerated it when you ignored her, but I won’t stand and watch while you grovel to someone els-” the young-woman noticed that she’s speaking to those who can’t understand her and suddenly halted her self-righteous speech before snorting and resuming her speech! but this time she transmitted to the boy what she’s saying : “I warned you when we first met... if I can access my space-ring then I’ll make you beg me to hug you! Lin, help me take-out the contents of this ring... please.”

Mia tossed the space-ring she took from Xiangming back to Lin and asked him for the second time to open it after threatening Sun who just used one of his paws to push her away carelessly then got busy licking his wounds while ignoring the nuisance.

“Taking things out is not a problem at all... but storing items back in is a very exhausting thing to do.”

“Just do it...” The saintess’s aura appeared when she snapped at the boy and her personality which is of someone who’s used to throwing orders at subordinates reveald itself.

“Are you doing this to delay us?” Lin asked while seriously looking in Mia’s eyes. She noticed that her previous transmission was both rough and forceful with a superior and commanding-tune to it! and the young-woman quickly replied in a panicked-tune : “Of course not! it’s just that... Sunny’s attitude is really, really pissing me off for some reason.” the boy answered while feeling helpless : “Mia... this’s just how Sun is.” and the young-woman seemed to be pleading when she nodded and said : “I know that already... but I feel like I shouldn’t back-off from this.” This time it was Lin who became surprised by Mia’s serious attitude.

“Sigh... all of it?”

“En... all of it, but don’t worry little-Lin, if there’s useless stuff inside it, then you don’t have to store them back inside the ring.”

“Stubbornness isn't healthy you know...”

“This time... I refuse to be anything else but stubborn.”

“As a sword-user you need to be adept at both methods of being soft and manipulative or hard and suppressive.”

“The way I see it... being forceful is the best method.”

“Shock-therapy huh! no wonder your battle with Xiangming previously wasn't balanced at all.”

“Huh!... what do you mean?”

“Between defense and offense, your defense was holding somehow, but... I felt like your style of attacking was handicapping the smooth transition from defense to offence or the other way around! only after that violet-aura appeared and coated your sword did that situation change. When it covered that disadvantage, you became able to fight evenly and win the latter exchanges because your opponent was very distracted by the surrounding circumstances and let his emotions get the best of him.”

“You saw all that by just watching that short fight! what is that about soft and manipulative? is it some sort of sword-technique, or maybe a method for sword-intent cultivation.”

“Yes I did, and no it isn’t a cultivation-technique or anything related to your so-called sword-intent!... don't you know that swords can be used to defend?”

“Humph... of course I know! who do you think this saintess is? some kind of sword-apprentice maybe? snort... don’t underestimate me.”

“See!... you always think in a simple way, it’s good to be simple but you need to understand the complication of things before you simplify them, otherwise you’ll be understanding the shell from outside while not knowing how things work from the inside.”

“Now you’re being annoying... what is it that you want to say exactly?”

“Soft-styles of swordsmanship is my advice to you, practice them and try to understand the workings of defensive-techniques, there’s a saying which goes like this : "A good offense is a good defense while a good defense is a good offense." was that helpful?” Lin spoke and found Mia scratching her head like an ape! only if that ape was standing in front of a mirror for the first time in its life. The young-woman confirmed it by uttering a : “Huh!...” while opening her mouth wide and leaning her head to the side then raising a very suspicious-eyebrow.

“Stop frowning and look here! since it’s hard for you to understand... then let me make it simple for you, like a never-ending circle that swirl like a whirlpool you need to completely figure it step by step, if this part is defense then the other is offense, but... when the sides switch places it means there’s a quick transition from playing this role to the other, in other words "counter-attack!" that’s the easiest way to smoothly transition yourself from defense to attack, however... if you’re already on the attack then your chances of finding a chance to counter gets minimized while the chances of your opponent actually countering your moves gets maximized. Question! what do you do to solve this problem lady Mia the esteemed saintess of the seamless-sword sect?”

“Yikes!... attack faster to prevent my opponent from countering me while being on-guard for any attempts to counter my moves.”

“Wrong!... parry, feint, or reveal weaknesses if you have to. These methods makes it far easier to control the tempo of the battle and makes it harder for any opponent to control the rhythm of the fight, whoever loses more concentration will be the first to lose in a prolonged battle. Your forceful methods will work against opponents weaker than you and might actually fail against opponents of the same power and abilities like yourself! while if you listened to my advice then your chances of beating stronger opponents will certainly increase and your disadvantage when meeting them will be covered.”

“Hey!... what do you even know about swords? you’re not a weapon or spirit-cultivator yet, meh... stop lecturing me, I’m a lot older yet I let myself be dragged into your nonsense. Quickly listen to big-sister and take the things inside this space-ring out... don’t try changing the subject to confuse me anymore because I’m blocking your technique.” Mia found that a few light-bulbs has lit-up inside her brain when she looked at the drawing which Lin made on the ground with a stick then tried to bullshit his way while explaining the rest of his lecture to distract her from making him take these items from the second space-ring. The young-woman turned towards the red-tiger and shouted in her foreign-language : “By the way Sunny... the vulture-king’s demonic-core that you want so much, won't be yours until your body reaches its saturation-point, otherwise you'll still explode from the inside-out.” then the saintess extracted her short-sword from the ground and used a single thrust with its tip then with a twist and a yank afterwards she sent the demonic-core towards the boy’s hand and muttered while scattering the blood and brain-matter from the sword-edge with a few quick swipes : “Humph... you gluttonous baddy! I know that you was hoping for another chance at a quick-evolution, snort... not on my watch, you'll only end-up hurting yourself if you did so... and I can’t allow it.” Before she went to sit cross-legged on the soft bed Mia warned Sun but her true intentions were for Lin to hear then she asked : “Lin... help me and stop Sun from taking any of my things while I meditate.” But the boy looked at the young woman as if she’s a fool if compared to a thousand fools! because she’s using a language which he shouldn’t be understanding if it weren’t for Jin Bao’s timely translations. Lin said : “Maybe I should really let him take all your stuff.” Mia just smiled and said : “Don’t worry it will be just for a short while... don’t leave me here please! and I promise to give you whatever you find in the ring.” Lin raised an eyebrow and said : “Maybe I should just take the whole thing instead of waiting.” Mia extended her hand towards the bed-curtains and said : “You’re a good-teacher... but sometimes you say annoying things.” The young-woman was both happy and annoyed at the boy and herself because she had to stop him from saying anymore at some point of their conversation! many of his words caused her comprehensions of the sword-dao to deepen and she was enlightened with many sudden-enlightenments. Because the rest of what he said was too-complicated for her to understand and pulled her away from the feeling of being close to assimilate these enlightenments to her dao of sword-intent. The saintess hid her shyness behind the request she gave the boy to empty the space-ring before running away.

Sighing... Lin rubbed the demonic-core in his hand with his fingers and watched Mia draw the bed-curtains close and prickled his finger again then dripped a drop of blood on the other space-ring then bound-it after activating his wings.

“Heh... told you so, I sense feelings from and into and some in-between.” Jin Bao’s voice revealed that the trapped-cultivator seems to be pleased about something.

“I’m glad to know that someone is in a good mood... at least.”

“Only if you’re serious about robbing her clean of her items... but you probably shouldn’t do that. If she somehow managed to exit this land then reported you to her sect’s disciplinary-hall, then it would be troublesome to peacefully gather the items I require while being hunted by one of the great-sects.”

“Still thinking about that huh!... old Jin, you didn’t tell me how to differentiate between the ranks and grades of storage-items, what method do you use?”

Lin muttered while storing the demonic-core in his own space-ring before washing his hand and beginning to operate on the carcass of the vulture-king. But he focused on his soul-body when it sank deeper and entered one of the six cyan-purple walls which cover this second cubicle of space that appeared in his soul-world.

“The method is simple... nine meters of space within a storage-item is the maximum amount of space which a level-one storage-item can have... anymore capacity makes it of a higher level than level-one. Maximum-capacity for the next level is to be within the limit of double the amount of maximum-capacity of the previous-level on a storage-item, and so it goes until level-nine of the spirit-rank and beyond that rank is the inheritance-rank and it has only four grades within it, low, middle, high, peak. But since I never owned one of these tools then I don’t know how much storage they can hold or what special abilities these inheritance-items give its owner after the tool gives birth to an independent-soul! anyway... from a minimum of one meter of space-capacity to a maximum of nine meters of space-capacity is considered a level-one storage-item. from a minimum of ten meters of space-capacity to a maximum of eighteen meters of space-capacity is considered a level-two storage-item. The rest is simple math... you're a quick-witted kid, figure-out the rest on your own... what’s this girl after?”

Jin Bao said in a lackluster-tune then returned to his silence because currently he’s more focused on Mia and was interested to know the reason behind her sudden withdrawal from a verbal argument with the tiger or the boy! Which is unlike how the saintess acted usually since she met Lin but he couldn’t erase the memory of the sight of violet-color light which floated in her green eyes when she looked at the boy with a gaze full of excitement.

“Whoa!... two-thousand and three-hundred and four cubic-meters of space, can such big area really be available in a level-nine space-ring?”

“Correct... but that’s the best of the best of storage-items in the spirit-rank.”

“That's a lot of space though, say... old Jin, at what level was your best storage-item?”

Lin was excited not because his space-ring turned-out to be of a high level but because Jin Bao finally started to be generous with his information.

“Hrmm... it was a peak eighth-level space-ring which had one-thousand one-hundred and fifty-two cubic-meters of space-capacity, but that one was pried-off from my dying-body. Hehehe... now that you reminded me, that would be a favor that I must repay extremely handsomely in the future. I decided long ago already that the first thing I do after I get my body back is to go settle the score.” Negative and dark-thoughts plus a chaotic mess off feelings were transmitted from Jin Bao after the last last verse! emotions so thick that they made Lin stop himself from asking about the history behind all this hate. the boy didn't want to make the mood of the trapped-cultivator any worse than it already is because if that happened then the probability and chances of him actually gaining more information will drop drastically. That would be a big taboo in the accounts of the great-sage.

“Guess what old Jin?”

“Did you find something good within that sissy’s space-ring?”

“That space-ring is a level-seven like mine... but it’s larger than my space-ring in capacity, yet still within the limits of a seventh-level storage-item, since it’s almost five-hundred and sixty cubic-meters. So close!... only seventeen cubic-meters more and it would reach the next level already.” Lin muttered once he saw how large the space inside this ring but he intentionally spoke in an exaggerated-tune to distract Jin Bao.

“Good for her then... you should’ve snatched it when you had the chance, told you so.”

'Got to remember to ask old Jin later when he’s in a better mood... about if there’s a way to enlarge or upgrade a space tool, and how.' Lin thought when he heard the man’s short answer then rolled his eyes at how this trapped-fellow didn’t seem to forget to purposefully poke at him and make fun of him despite being in a sour-mood! turning that excess attention towards the items in the ring instead of wasting his effort to cheer-up certain "someone" just to become the source of his jokes.

Xiangming's space-ring is leaning more towards the empty-side of things! it has lots clothes which are heavily-decorated with gems and crystals and countless types and sizes and shapes of precious-stones mixed with other styles of embroidery some of them being colorful dragons and phoenixes or strange beasts and scenes of forests. The majority of these clothes were made for men but some of them were styled for a female and the boy cringed when he saw the fitting-size for the deceased-assassin. After Lin retrieved all these neatly-folded clothes the eyes of his soul-body fell on another stand which had on it a full-body armor of the colors half-cyan half-purple streaming and mixing on top of the exterior and interior of that armor which looks very lightweight yet could cover the body of its wearer from head to toe and provide sufficient safety! next to the armor-stand near the scaly-gloves is one dagger on each side and both daggers are of the same color and style just like the ones Lin buried with Xiangming. There’s also two leather-scrolls which are rolled-close and neatly placed between the two feet of the armor-stand. Two huge metal-chests were found next to the armor stand and when the boy opened them he discovered that they’re filled to the brim with the same kind of mysterious crystals which he found some of them in the wooden-boxes in his ring. But the only difference was that these crystals are only either cyan-crystals in one metal-chest or purple in the other! however Lin felt that these cyan and purple crystals are of a higher grade or purity if compared to the mixed-color crystals in his space-ring. This Xiangming has more food and water in his ring which is a good sign and one of the things which caught Lin's eyes at once is the meat and water because not only did they feel finer and fresher and of higher quality than what he already found earlier in Weisheng's space-ring but also he kept feeling like he’s holding ingredients which are sterilized and the familiarity was a bit too much.

“Is this Xiangming some kind of a mysophobic-person? everything stored in here is just... spotless-clean!” Lin muttered then he refrained from retrieving the water and food from the ring then went to open the only big-sized wooden-chest and was surprised when he found more than a hundred of these demonic-cores placed inside it in four separate-piles of different colors and sizes and shapes! these piles are separated by a thin piece of silk which somehow separated the aura from these demonic-cores and blocked them from influencing the cores in the other piles. The boy smiled helplessly and said to himself while closing the lid back shut : “Mia sure is lucky... her getting her hands on all these demonic-cores in this sensitive-time, can only mean that she’s certainly going to... seek trouble with Sun when she finds-out, should I leave this box here or... sigh! she’s going to play this card sooner or later... I guess what I should be doing is to have faith in Sun’s mental-fortitude, or maybe that would be a good wake-up call for him. Whatever... off you go boxy.” Below Lin’s extended hand the wooden-box which contains the demonic-cores appeared and the red-tiger which was helping him prepare the vulture-king its movements suddenly froze and its yellow eyes stared in shock at it with inexplicable-greed. Finally after seeing the frown on his buddy’s face Sun woke-up from his daydreams and returned to do his work.

After the wooden-box was also taken of the way Lin’s eye fell on a small-table which has a dozen pieces or so of these jades covered with glowing and moving inscriptions and next to these jades is a stack of five books and just like before Lin understood nothing from the inscriptions or the words in the books but these words were slightly different from the torn leather-book in his ring! only six small wooden-boxes had herbs in this ring most of them had flowers and one wooden-box had a small twig of the captivatingly brown color which is the size of a finger and has a single green-sprout on it. This ring has no gold and no wine or a set of alchemy-tools or any boxes of the colorful-coins in it. But the last stand of shelves seemed full and on it there’s loads of big and tiny glass-bottles or containers and each has a kind of pill or many pills inside it. The higher on the shelves of this stand Lin looked the fewer bottles or containers he found on the next shelf until his eye fell on the shelf number seventy-three. There on it is a single pill which is stored inside a small glass-bottle that has a wooden-cork on top of it and that cork gave a very strong smell which made the boy feel like this soul-body is getting electrified! before the great-sage got to shake that weird feeling off from his numb-head a tiny whirlpool appeared from the middle of this cyan-purple pill. Lin swears he saw an image of a full-blown lightning-storm in the middle of that whirlpool which covered the pill. The lightning in that storm is not your regular silver or white-colored lightening. It’s deep-purple in color and like purple-dragons which were swimming in the storm’s cyan-clouds as if they’re regular water. These mighty-looking dragons took the storm as their playground and chased each other at insane speed and agility. After struggling to pull his eyes away from this strange pill the boy found that his soul-body is already shivering all-over but this affect didn’t travel to his physical-body! when he gathered his courage and looked back at the pill there was nothing at all. No whirlpool or lightning-storm not even a single one of these purple-dragons could be seen. The cyan-purple pill is like any other pill in the glass-bottles or containers on the lower shelves. Calming himself and shaking the numbness away from his head Lin started to take out the items on the extremely tall stand one by one. Only after taking another glance at the pill on the top-shelf just to confirm that what he saw previously is really not just his imagination.

Sun wanted to con Mia of the box which smelled like the previous two demonic-cores and appeared out of nowhere but the red-tiger stopped itself with sheer-will! somehow the tiger's keen sense of danger and animal-instincts warned it that it will end-up being forced to obey this annoying woman if it took her belongings. Looking at Lin with eager and anxious-eyes Sun kept trying to busy himself by helping his buddy as much as he can by removing the feathers from the wings of the vulture-king or using his fangs to snap and break some bones! yes it’s clumsy when the red-tiger did these jobs but it knew that this will save a few minutes for the boy and that would be more than enough. Since the final result will be that his meal will be served a bit earlier then Sun would be more than satisfied. After all the red-tiger has already burnt a considerable amount of its primordial-energy in the previous-skirmish with the vultures. Which means that Sun needs that meal badly... now if possible.

Lin did what Mia asked then took off the space-ring from his hand and placed it on the small-table next to the pieces of glowing jade and the stack of five books.

“Old Jin... are you still there? I've took-out all the items in the ring, except for the water and food provisions, plus some wood-stand but I already emptied it, yet I still feel like I can access the ring after taking it off!... how do I sever this weird-connection with a storage-item?” Lin asked while beginning to seriously use his mini-kitchen again to cook the first plate of Sun's next meal.

“It will sting a bit when you perform it... so beware. Touch the walls of the space-ring and feel the location of your blood, if you draw that blood towards you then separate and extract your blood from these walls, then the bond will be removed and the storage-item will return to become ownerless.”

Jin Bao answered while he watched the containments of the space-ring which Mia plundered from the assassin after the fight and the first thing to grab his attention from the items is the purple-cyan pill which was at top-shelf. The rest of the items are nothing much in the eyes of the spirit-king but the full-body armor and the pair of daggers were not a too bad spirit-tools for a junior-cultivator in the spirit-tyrant realm in the opinion of this soul-demon. The six medicinal-ingredients are all spirit-herbs of more than a thousand years old of age.

The five books are : one book contains a level-seven spirit-cultivation technique for cultivators of the dual-affinity of both attributes wind and lightning it’s called : "storm-dance lightning-dragon." another book contains a level-six movement-technique called : "gale-step thunder-flash." while the other three books contain two methods for spirit-attack for each element of the wind and lightning of the sixth-level and they’re called : "cutting-wind and lightning-clap." the final book contains a level-seven dual-attribute defensive-technique which is called : "swirling-hurricane lightning-net." the spirit attack methods are created to be executed with short-swords or daggers specifically! one of them is suitable for an all-out single attack which is both fast and instantaneous and makes "lightning-clap" very compatible with the occupation of an assassin. The other technique is created for prolonged fights and requires the use of a short-sword to fulfill the maximum-potential of the "cutting-wind." technique. But in the experienced eyes of the spirit-king he immediately noticed the uniqueness of the defensive-technique "swirling-hurricane lightning-net." which almost perfectly integrated the two elements of wind and lightning into near-perfection of fusion! that alone is enough to make that technique second in worth behind the spirit-cultivation technique "storm-dance lightning-dragon." while "gale-step thunder-flash." follows after it in third rank in rarity only because it’s a sixth-level movement-technique. But that doesn’t diminish the quality and value of that technique. The jades on the table has the accumulated-comprehensions of Xiangming's incomplete-dao of wind-lightning and some maps plus some information which he bought on one of the spirit-kings of the spirit-world. Only one of these jades recorded a technique which has a thorough-introduction to fire-energy cultivation.

'His ambition seems to have no limits... but it isn't ever enough to reach the top with ambition alone, he might’ve had a chance if he didn’t encounter the kid because his foundations look solid enough to me for a junior, unlike his partner who’s way past his prime... this one could probably surpass the realm of spirit-king if he met another fortuitous-encounter.' Jin Bao thought when he understood where Xiangming was planning to take his dao after the tyrant-realm! the path and dao of destruction has countless users of the lightning-element who seek the same power which the barbarian-emperor once held by force and comprehended after struggling with man, heaven and fate. 'All of his spirit-crystals are of the high-grade and only of either affinity be that wind or lightning, he must've been planning to shoot directly for the realm of spirit-lord in one go by using them and that pill. Quite courageous indeed... but these herbs don’t fit with his dao! what is it that he’s after?' old Jin seemed to have had enough of looking at the scattered items and turned to his attention back towards Mia.

The trapped-cultivator wants to understand and see for himself just what is it that Lin said earlier to cause the saintess of one of the five great-sects to ignore everything and quickly rush to meditate in such a hurry! because in this land of forgetfulness her spirit-energy cultivation is useless then she’s certainly meditating on her sword-intent but the mere idea frightened Jin Bao. The next major breakthrough in her sword-cultivation is like taking a step to cross worlds. The difference in abilities between her current self and what comes next after the breakthrough is like comparing a toddler with grown-up. The next realm of sword-intent is the first watershed and such realm of weapon-intent has been endlessly debated and compared to the soul-eye realm in soul-cultivation.

Meanwhile Sun was becoming impatient for his meal after the aromatic-scent tickled his very sensitive-nose.

Lin finished handling the vulture-king and let the different parts be cooked then started to tend to Sun's wounds. He calmly spread the herbal-ointment on the wounds after cleaning and disinfecting them then the red-tiger was released from the irritating pain which he felt whenever a tiny gust of wind touched the surface of his exposed wounds. When the meat was done he received the okay gesture from his buddy and Sun ate and completely enjoyed his meal then burped very loudly then slept after smirking when his buddy frowned at him because his gesture was rude! Yes the tiger was a bit sad because its third and hard earned demonic-core was denied from it for now. But he enjoyed the whole experience of eating the delicious meat of the vulture-king's body and sucking the juice out from its bones before crunching them too with his fangs.

Yet despite wasting all these hours cooking and organizing his supply-box Lin frowned because Mia still didn't finish her meditation! which is strange since she can’t use or sense her spirit-energy because it’s being suppressed in this land or use soul-energy. 'Why was she taking that long to calm her mind? That's the only way meditation will be of use for her in these circumstances!' The boy thought while taking a walk around the area. He carried the kitten on his hand which is a sight that’s certainly would make the saintess terribly-jealous. Lin kept watching Mia with his soul-sense but she sat still in her cross-legged posture on the bed he gave her.

“Old Jin... just what is she trying to do by meditating for so long? it’s almost dawn already yet she hasn't moved a muscle or said a single word.”

Lin asked then sat-down and placed the sleeping tiger in the form of a kitten on his lap and ran his fingers through its orange-fur.

“If my guess is correct then... something you said, has made her attain sudden-enlightenment on her dao of sword-intent.”

Jin Bao plain and simply gave Lin his conclusions.

“You mean that violet-aura?” the boy asked while frowning and the reply arrived very quickly : “Yes... like qi-vitality and soul-force, weapon-intent isn’t suppressed in this land.” Lin gawked and asked : “Wait a minute... you mean to tell me that I’m wrong in thinking that there’s only three types of energy?” and again his answer arrived very quickly in Lin’s head : “Don’t be foolish now... there’s three main powers and schools of thought which are spirit-energy, soul-force, and qi-vitality... nobody can deny their superiority and notoriety or fame, there’s no doubting this fact. But... there’s other schools of thought and powerful systems of cultivation which are acknowledged by many seniors, these methods if they’re harnessed and sharpened then strengthened enough... then they’re sufficient to take you all the way to the peak, weapon-intent is one of these slightly-unorthodox schools. However cultivators of weapon-intent are not of the rare ones, cultivators of karma-strands or faith-threads are much, much rarer in comparison... while devil-incubators and evil-evictors are said to be rarely encountered within a generation for the majority of living cultivators.” the great-sage was dancing inwardly since all this knowledge is a fortune among fortunes for him. After giving the trapped cultivator a moment to catch his breath since he spoke too much which is so rare! the boy said : “That’s eight types of power and if my deductions are correct then... soul-force, devil-incubators, and evil-evictors are the only schools of thought and systems of cultivation which aren’t considered one of the great-sects.” Jin Bao sighed within the formation and just replied : “Correct... during my time there’s very few soul-cultivators within the same realm of soul-clone, and a bit more within the realm of soul-eye, the rest were either juniors giving it their best or seniors with insufficient-potential.” Lin frowned and said but in a much fainter tune of voice this time : “Didn’t senior ever meet someone in the seventh-realm...” Again Jin Bao sighed inside the formation which trapped him and said : “Once... when I received the inheritance of the soul-strengthening technique, however it was just a projection of that senior’s soul and it disappeared once it transmitted the complete technique for me, so... it doesn’t really count as a meeting. Afterwards I searched for any information on that senior but found nothing at all within the tomes of history... I think she’s long dead already, or her realm is so high that she’s secluding herself from the mundane-world.” After a short moment of silence the trapped-cultivator snapped at the boy and said : “Look what you’ve done... we should be outside this land already, yet she’s still peacefully meditating!... tsk. We still need to arrive at our destination then collect information then get the fucking ingredients then go to another location and repeat the same process five times, let her be and rob her clean before you go kid, her damn-sect can come after us I don’t care... if push come to shove then we’ll slaughter them all!” Jin Bao suddenly became aggressive which Lin understood that it must’ve been caused by what he mentioned earlier about that senior. Quickly the great-sage tried to calm the man and said : “But... I was only trying to make her change her mind really, now it looks like we're going to be delayed some more because of what I said earlier, me and my big-mouth! just calm yourself senior Jin, I promise to wake her up if she takes any longer than thirty more minutes, and the rest of this journey I’ll just be pushy and stop her from delaying us anymore.” Lin smiled helplessly and shook his head when he discovered that his words turned-out to be the cause and main reason of this unnecessary-delay. Jin Bao answered in a faint sound which seemed tired and weary while each of his words is in fact hiding oceans worth of sorrow and grief. The trapped-cultivator said : “Sometimes... no matter how much you try to prevent something from happening, you end-up finding-out that you're nothing but a praying-mantis trying to stop a chariot, in the end you don’t get what you wish for... this is how I’ve been feeling for many years now! maybe it’s because I’m getting old, maybe it’s because I’ve become weak. Sigh...” then the man looked at the formation which trapped him for centuries and remembered that he’s talking to a mere boy of six years of age and felt sorry for the heavy-burden which he’s hurrying the kid to carry for him! he remembered the sight of this pure boy when he saw someone die in front of him and how his kind soul seemed to be shivering while Lin did his best to bury the two men. Jin Bao continued to say : “Forget all the previous-ramblings from this senile old man, just remember to take care of yourself... always! and trust no-one but your own strength.”

Lin didn't argue and nodded because his only death is one of such cases and what happened to the vulture-king in the few earlier days is another case. But he didn’t agree with the trapped-cultivator about the part of trust. However he didn’t argue because it doesn’t matter what others may think of him since he’s mentally-mature enough to make his own decisions and to face the consequences of his actions with a clear-conscience.

“Om!... whoosh...”

Suddenly a wave of air-pressure that caused the bed-curtains to flutter outwards and snap with a loud sound after folding then quickly unfolding like whips! It seemed like a storm just happened and pushed them while Mia's sitting-body appeared in front of Lin's eyes for the first time in hours.

“Meow!... grr...”

"Hrmmm... looks like she succeeded, she's already about to breakthrough into the next realm of her sword-intent, don’t just stand there like a fool! Hurry-up and move these items away from her, quickly we don't know what can happen if we leave any of these precious items near her during the breakthrough.”

Sun felt like he’s being rudely awakened from his sleep and his hairs stood at end and the kitten glared at this sudden threat which suddenly descended on this place from obviously nowhere! then its fangs were bared at Mia and the kitten decided right there to stop allowing this woman which kept making its life harder ever since she joined them from riding its back anymore. Because the red-tiger never liked her anyway. What about the items she gave in exchange for her right to ride its back and their agreement? to hell with all that crap! she can take the ring and the sleeveless black-cloak all back he doesn’t care. Not even Lin himself can change Sun's mind on this decision.

Jin Bao's command made Lin feel a headache coming and he hurried to move the pills and the six wooden-boxes which contain the medicinal-ingredient then did the same for two iron-chests and he dragged them instead because the spirit-crystals made them heavy to carry for the boy! then returned for the chest of demonic-cores and moved it one-hundred meters away from Mia. In the beginning he moved these items forty meters away from the young-woman but old Jin insisted that these items need to be moved at least one-hundred meters or more away from the saintess. He seemed to be hesitant on this matter because he couldn't get a clear estimation on the effective-range of Mia's breakthrough.

“That violet-aura appeared again, but it’s much stronger this time... damn-it now the bed is ruined, that violet-colored energy is very agile and destructive just like a blade which is very sharp.” Lin was feeling a little frustrated because Mia's violet-aura which appeared around her body from the area on the center of her right breast and the first thing that aura would do after appearing is flailing everywhere around the young-woman like a grinding wheel of swords which would cut everything in its path! still the boy noticed that these small parts of sword-intent coming from the saintess like tiny violet-swords would pass like ghosts right through Mia's body and never harmed her once. The young-woman seemed like she didn't exist in this world anymore. Or at least it’s like so for that destructive violet-aura. After that violet-aura kept expanding while mischievously ruining everything within the range of ninety meters around Mia’s motionless-body like countless giant and small yet peerlessly-sharp swords. That violet-aura receded towards the source of its existence after cutting everything in its path and causing deep and frightening scars on the ground everywhere it went! then Mia finally moved her body and extended her right-hand in front of her.

“Finally you’re done!... that sword-intent of yours is really formidab-”

“Idiot! stay away from her, quickly move towards her flanks or behind her, hurry! don't you dare stand in front of her while she’s materializing her sword-intent. Hurry and move your ass or I swear that I’ll come out and kill you myself before she does... humph!... humph... damn brat! you’ll be the death of me some day, I just feel it.”

Jin Bao's voice was surprisingly full of worry and obvious dread when he urgently commanded Lin to change location to be stationed beside or behind Mia and keep his distance. Lin never heard such anxious tune of voice from the man who’s trapped in a ring before and he hurried to comply with the instructions by hugging Sun who seemed to want to jump from his hands and just go bite Mia's butt right now! Lin stood behind her at a distance of five-hundred meters and watched while this beauty slowly opened her eyes with the ability of his soul-sense. The boy saw the saintess making grasping gesture on empty air with the fingers of her extended right-hand! but these fingers didn’t close into a fist like you would expect from someone clenching thin-air with his fingers especially if such force is added to the grip. Instead the young-woman seemed to be firmly holding the hilt of a sword which is perfectly made for her pretty fingers. One green one violet were the colors of Mia's current eyes when she opened them! then slowly she gripped her fingers around air tighter and that great amount of violet-aura which was scattered in the area practically stepped on top of one another and fought amongst themselves just to reach the saintess a bit faster. After each finger of the young-woman’s right-hand was clenched the pommel of an entirely violet-sword appeared and formed by the parts of violet-aura which fused. From downwards the violet-aura began with the hilt upwards towards the guard then the lowest edge of the two-edged two-handed long-sword and rising upwards all the way until the tip of this completely violet-sword was formed. Slowly lowering her right-hand in a cutting gesture while she’s in the middle of standing-up then releasing the violet-sword from her hand once her halfhearted swing was over. The violet-aura which accumulated earlier in the shape of a violet long-sword scattered instantly into thin-air then disappeared once Mia let go of its hilt! then the eyes of this beauty returned back to their original color where both pupils are forest-green. Standing on the only intact piece of the bed which got shredded to sawdust by that violet-aura then looking around her from inside the ninety meter area which experienced absolute ruin and destruction from her sword-intent. Mia watched the long and deep crevice from where she stood at the only intact part of this circle which is only one circle not wider than a meter! her previous halfhearted and extremely careless cut which she performed without aim actually stretched to the limits of her sight which increased to one-hundred and fifty meters.

“It is safe to approach her now... but remember that if you had considered her dangerous before, then you better know this, right now this woman can cut you in a split-second, before your slow physique can even react you’ll be already on your way to the afterlife! as long as you're in her domain of influence which is that big circle... multiplied by two considering the difference in ability between the two of you, then you’re completely under her mercy. Of course I don’t need to remind you that... now she can accomplish all that, without the need to wield a sword in her hands, all thanks to you. Now there’s another monster in this spirit-world and you gave birth to it, monsters eat monsters in my spirit-world and you better be careful now, because that monster is looking at you.” Jin Bao warned Lin of Mia's newfound strength and waited to see what the boy will do next. Especially after he presented the kid with a few solid truths of this world. But the boy didn’t flinch or show any signs of being intimidated like many others around his age. It made Jin Bao smirk and think : 'Monsters are indeed... can’t help but be attracted to other monsters.' because like a monster... which is a title which the kid undeniably deserve because he’s a monster within monsters potential-wise and accomplishment-wise.

Mia looked back towards Lin who carried Sun on his shoulder and was approaching her in silence then smiled and for a few seconds the silence ruled the scene and only the sound of Lin’s steps and jumps between cracks which caused rocks to fall or the blowing wind could be heard.

“It worked! your hints made me breakthrough to the next realm in my sword-cultivation and materialize my sword-intent, come-on... we need to celebrate this, this is something which stayed in a constant bottleneck for years now, this has been bothering me long before I entered the trials of the drowned-realm. Yuck!... just remembering makes me want to vomit my guts out, but all of that is... no more... hooray to me.”

Mia felt the visible cautiousness from the boy and his tiger and saw it in their eyes she cheerfully spoke while trying to ease-up all the tension from the air by acting like spoilt-princess.

“Congratulations!... but we can’t celebrate yet, because we need to go actually. You wasted a lot of time in your previous session of meditation, it’s almost a whole day already.”

“Eh!... but I wanted to hug Sun and Lin and moosh... moosh... all night while we dance around fire like barba-” Mia suddenly choked-up on her words when she remembered that she’s not transmitting her message and actually speaking directly in her native-tongue. Quickly she wiped sweat off of her forehead and sighed because most people of the west-continent would be offended by the word barbarians. Thankfully the boy’s ignorant and doesn’t understand that language yet.

“Hahaha... she’s offending you kid, don’t you feel like smacking her butt?” Jin Bao cackled from within the ring but Lin kept his act solid and didn’t reveal anything on his face except confusion. But from within he was starting to like the idea of punishing this woman because this isn’t the first time she called at him this word.

“Hmmm... am I supposed to understand what you just said?” Finally the boy broke the awkward-silence and transmitted with a slight frown on his face.

“No... not at all I... was just venting-out some emotions which were bottled-up for a long time!... ehe... ehehehe.” Mia frenetically waved at air with her hands then started to giggle to herself in a creepy-way which made Lin think : 'I bet she’s thinking to herself right now "I’m such a clever girl, nobody can do better to save such a delicate-situation" or something like that.' meanwhile Mia was scratching the back of her head and gazing at the sky like a wise-hermit while thinking : 'Safe... phew! they’re so nervous after seeing my breakthrough, that word could complicate the situation... I better be careful.'

“Come then... over there on the small-table you can find your space-ring and whatever that’s inside it except for a few things which I took it upon myself to keep them inside it.”

“Really!... like what?”

“Food and water...”

“Eh!... that’s it?”

“Yes... the quality it good and I thought they might become contaminated if I took any of these provisions out before receiving your permission.”

“Such a considerate way of thinking... even-though I don’t care at all about these items, just his care is making me feel bad about myself, oh-no I want to hug him but... doing so might scare him... oh-no what should I do? come-on Mia think... hrmmm.” Again the saintess blushed in the cheek and reverted back to her native-tongue.

“Maybe that’s her trap... honeypot-style, hahaha...” Hearing these amused words from Jin Bao almost made Lin pop a vein. The boy asked : “What was that?”

“N... nothing! are these the items which were in that revolting-man’s ring?” Mia panicked and turned towards the items and asked while walking towards them. Somehow just looking directly at the eyes of this boy made her jumpy for some reason! the young-woman couldn’t pinpoint her feelings and hesitated because Lin is a soul-cultivator and that might be the reason which is influencing her right now. But if the emotions of this saintess were a bit calmer then she would remember that since her sword-intent has materialized then it means that she’d practically on equal-footing with someone who activated the ability of soul-sense in soul-force.

“Yeah... go on and take a look, be at ease that I didn't allow Sun to take any of your stuff, of course I didn’t do such a thing.” Lin smiled professionally at Mia and gestured for her to go and check her items to distract her from these weird and disturbing-thoughts of hers! the boy didn't ask the young-woman anything personal about her abilities or about how she's feeling and just waited to see how Mia will behave after attaining this great-power. Despite being very close to the saintess the boy wasn’t actually being careless at all even if seemed like he’s acting normally like he used to behave before. On the first sign of danger from Mia he wouldn’t hesitate to activate his wings and flee then never look back. Because he saw it many times before people who change and turn into different-personalities after becoming powerful. Be that "financial" or "militaristic" kind of power or any other type of vain strength which causes people’s souls to turn dark and wicked like devils in human-skin. Mia's previous destructive-cut had caused a wave of compressed air which demolished his supply-box once it touched it and it seemed like a storm of swords has exploded within the poor box! not to mention that it caused many of Xiangming's beautiful clothes to be torn to shreds before these shreds were buried a few meters deep under the rubble or sinking into the dark cracks. A high point of view will show a ninety meter circle of land which is scarred countless times by the swords of giants while there’s a single line which is stretching from its center all the way until one kilometer of distance away. This was all caused by a careless and incomplete-swing which was performed halfheartedly! Lin's current caution is for apparent reason and his black pupils watched Mia’s movements closely while his ability of soul-sense was secretly doing the same. Sun wagged his tail happily and watched Mia and enjoyed this sight from the annoying-woman who kept treating him like a young cub. Sun felt the change immediately when his buddy suddenly became tense and knew that Lin is actually giving Mia the cold shoulder. This stupid-girl is just too dense in the head and didn’t notice it yet! the previous frustrations of this red-tiger at this shrimp-girl for blocking him twice from the two demonic-cores of both the fire-eating dark-lizard and the vulture-king which were like hot magma within his chest are currently being quenched with dry-frost! and it felt good.

Turning towards the items which were in the ring she currently owns. Mia jumped from rock to rock across the countless miniature-canyons, cracks, crevices, trenches, and holes which her previous outburst of sword-intent caused. The saintess grumbled about how "unfair" Sun and Lin were treating her right now. and how much she want to celebrate right now. and how much she was planning to hug and kiss them all-over until they melt inside her embrace! yet they coldly watched like blocks of ice and from their attitude they’re in a hurry to leave. The torn clothes didn't bother Mia and she didn't feel sad for losing any of them no matter how pretty or valuable they once were. The young-woman didn't even second-glance at the crystals and precious-stones which is used to decorate these attires when she stepped on them. First thing Mia did was check the pills and only nodded then gave a faint-hum when her eyes fell on the pill which used to be at the top-shelf. Flipping the books in her hand she returned them back to the table like they’re nothing important and the glowing-jades were left untouched because she can’t use her sword-intent to read their content unlike soul-force that special type of energy is useful for battle and awareness that’s all. That’s why Jin Bao could read the contents of the pieces of jade while Mia was forced to ignore them for later. Then she went to open the metal-chests which are filled with high-grade spirit-crystals then the saintess closed them at once without touching any of the crystals at all. A sly-glow lit-up in Mia's eyes when she saw the demonic-cores lined inside the wooden-chest. Grabbing one of the smaller-sized demonic-cores Mia raised it up from the wooden-chest for Sun to clearly see and smirked evilly.

'So it has come to this... like I expected from her, she wouldn’t hesitate to target Sun once she has a way. Sigh... looks like I’ll be delayed one way or another.' Lin thought while patting Sun’s kitten head to calm him. But Mia destroyed his attempts when she said : “Here... kitty.” Despite saying it in her native-tongue... the message was loud and clear.

Sun who was lazing-around on Lin's palm while watching Mia’s lonely and emotionally neglected figure with amused eyes because she’s still unaware that she’s under surveillance! suddenly stood-up and gave the young-woman his full attention while his pair of yellow eyes were glued to the red demonic-core in her hand. His tail which was wagging previously stood-up like an "antenna" and the kitten seemed hypnotized when it took a step forward before an electric-current ran through its body before its muddled-eyes finally cleared-up. It seems like it took all of his will-power for Sun to stop his body from taking another step towards Mia and after the kitten glowered at the woman while showing its fearsomely-cute set of fangs it twisted its neck to looked up at the boy.

“Did you already forget buddy? you can't eat anymore demonic-cores until you refine the excess-energy within your body completely.”

“Meow!... purr...”

“It’s already yours... of course I don’t mind giving it to you right now.”

“Purr... purr...”

“But... do you promise not to eat it until I give permission to do so?”

“Meow...”

“Then be-careful of what you wish for... don’t you dare say that I didn’t warn you buddy, only an idiot would bring a knife to a gun-fight.” Lin knew what Sun wanted and raised an eyebrow while he spoke because the boy was trying to teach his tiger a valuable-lesson which is : "Greed and hotheaded-ness will do it harm." If it tried to play that childish game with this young-woman then it’s bound to lose. After all Mia has more than a hundred of these demonic-cores in the wooden-chest in front of her! Sun nodded his head then licked the surface of Lin's palm to show his agreement and that he understands then sat on his butt to look back calmly at Mia this "ignorant-outcast" and revealed one of his cunning-smirks which made him appear to be saying : "You have one? hah... big deal!... are you an idiot or something? don’t you see that I have one right here within the reach of my paws, and another one which is much, much better... which my buddy is hiding... somewhere! snort. Loser and ignorant and an outcast, I pity you woman. Sigh."

Lin did his part of the agreement and brought-out the black demonic-core which Mia extracted from the head of the vulture-king and left it between Sun’s front-paws. Mia in-turn couldn’t help but smile broadly at Sun when she saw the cute interaction between the kitten and its owner earlier and said in her foreign-language : “Well... if that isn't enough for you to play then... have some more bait!” the saintess bent-over the edge of the wooden-chest and brought what her hands could hold from it and straightened her back while hugging a huge amount of demonic-cores to her chest and between her arms which cause some of them to escape her grasp but the young-woman let the demonic-cores fall carelessly left and right while looking at the kitten’s gaping-mouth and shocked-expression and giggled blissfully. Then Mia looked at the sky which she can’t see and said : “Cores falling from the sky! today... dreams come true for Sunny... hooray... let’s celebrate already!” before throwing the demonic-cores up and jumping in the air.

“Hahaha... told you so, this monster was born in a place where wealth has a completely different meaning and standards from you, while you... my little monster, are not only dirt poor! but also ignorantly feeling your way around in this dark place since the day you were born, the fortune which you currently hold in your hands is because she allowed you to take, while in her eyes your fortune is a plaything... a bait for your cute beast to play and entertain her because she’s in a good mood.” Jin Bao was speaking while watching the boy and the saintess he wanted them to part ways because her influence on the kid might dull his edge. If that happened then Lin’s growth in the future might be greatly affected and that’s something which he can’t allow to happen.

Sun who thought he won was looking up and staring agape at the demonic-cores falling from the sky all around this annoying-woman who’s dancing underneath them to make fun of him! then back down at the lone demonic-core between his paws then stared back up at Mia's smile which made him feel like he just ate "smelly shit" for breakfast.

“Roar...”

After jumping from Lin's palm Sun transformed back into a huge red-tiger and roared loudly at this "bitch" who kept being a pain in his ass all the time! just by keeping her company is trouble and he just knew it! again and again this annoying-woman kept trying to control it but it clearly demonstrated to her that it refuse being ordered by her again and again just to make her back-off and stop trying to take Lin's place in its heart with her childish-attempts. But Mia kept trying and trying. Again and again until finally Sun had enough and he has to teach her a lesson... ehm. It wouldn't be too bad to snatch a few of these scattered demonic-cores while he's at it. Right! maybe snatch them all before kicking her out since she’s annoying and all.

“Hey!... don't pick a fight with people for no reason.”

“Howl...”

“She’s playing with her stuff, it has nothing to do with us since she’s free to do whatever she wants.”

“Growl...”

“Really now... don’t you remember buddy? she’s been annoying to you since day one, why choose now to teach her a lesson? you wouldn't be eyeing her demonic-cores... are you?” Lin already saw it coming from miles away and was prepared to stop Sun first thing if it happened. That's why when the boy saw the kitten jumping to leave his palm he hurried to cover and block his ears with his hands then said once the deafening sound-wave passed him.

“Snort... grrr...”

“Then let me remind you of something else... buddy look around you, can you beat someone who can do all this? ask yourself that question before you go baring your fangs at someone stronger.” Lin muttered while gently massaging the red and black-striped fur of the tiger.

“Roar... roar...”

Sun was like an angry person which suddenly got doused in icy-cold water! he stopped once he heard these words and unwillingly looked at Mia's smile while she danced then pushed hard against the unstable stones on this scarred-land underneath his large paws then ran away from the campsite towards the west to go hunt anything to unleash this stifling feelings of rage and frustration which kept welling-up and accumulating within his chest. The red-tiger was infuriated... not at the annoying-woman or because it couldn't take any of Mia's demonic-cores but because of its own weakness instead. Sun already knew when his instincts warned him that it would be harmful to him if he tried to swallow anymore demonic-cores right refining the demonic-core which he took from scorpion-tailed Cerberus. Its gut-feeling notified the red-tiger that it’s still weak and not ready to do so with the demonic-core of the vulture-king and that’s why it didn’t try to ask for it before. However Sun knew that if he’s strong then consuming any demonic-core wouldn't harm him and if he’s stronger then he can swallow lots of them. It just needs to eat and eat for now to grow stronger and to refine that excess-energy within its body and send all of it to its demonic-core. Since Sun’s shoulders has been itching specifically on the upper-area for a while now after his previous evolution. The red-tiger knows what it has to do because when it previously felt that irritating-itch within its body was when it consumed the mammoth's demonic-core. Later Sun discovered that he can shrink now he needs to know what kind of new ability he will receive after making that itch go away by washing it off of his body by consuming the meat and drinking the blood of its prey. That day saw Sun massacring one prey after another and eating like a ghoul until his fur was coated completely and covered in many layers of dry and fresh blood from his victims! if Lin had seen any of what he did then the boy would've surely stopped his tamed-beast from this madness. Killing or hunting for a need is okay in the eyes of the great-sage but excessively killing to satisfy your urges isn't. Especially since Sun isn’t hungry but he’s still forcing himself to eat more anyway.

“Eh!... don’t go, Sunny... you’ll miss the celebration. Humph. Dummy, tsk... Sunny is a big dummy. Fine! go I don’t care, little-Lin is way better in keeping my company, with him I feel safe. Humph, ouch... my eardrums are buzzing, little-Lin help! am I going to lose my sense of hearing? poor Mia you’re going to become deaf, Sunny did this to you, he looks cute but he’s naught and baddie and harmful, Lin kiss them to make them better, you’re a good boy I know you can heal them with a kiss...” Mia looked at Sun while he left with an expression which revealed that she’s in pain while picking her ears to ease their sting then turned towards Lin and again intentionally spoke in her native-tongue : “Lin!... are you going to ignore me too? you’re not a bully... I just know it.”

“You know that I don't understand your language... right? this can’t keep on going or both of us will be like... living in an entirely different worlds despite standing next to each other.” Lin transmitted through his soul-link ability and kept watching Mia’s act while shrugging his shoulders. He’s thinking about having this saintess to teach him her native language so that he can be able to understand the contents of the items in his space-ring! since the young-woman began to forget to transmit her messages through the ability of soul-link a lot lately. Then Lin can take advantage of this situation to learn her language especially when Mia is longing for someone to interact with her.

“Yikes!... sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“How about you be coming my teacher.” Lin retrieved two chairs from within his space-ring and gestured for Mia to sit with him. “Can I? are you sure that you want to learn the way of the sword? is it because the sight of big-sister’s breakthrough made you jittery with excitement and you thought "She’s so cool." and such!” Mia seemed happy while she jumped from one location to another and gathered the scattered demonic-cores back inside the wooden-chest then closed it and she sent Lin this transmission then went to sit next to him and looked at him with an expression which waited for praise to shower her. The boy composed himself and stopped a snort which almost escaped his throat! looking slightly upwards at the beautiful face of the young-woman he said : “Teach me... to speak, and read your language.” The saintess felt like her body was just transported to the frozen-tundra when she heard this transmission and for a few seconds she felt completely lost and didn’t know what to say. But inwardly she was smashing things with her thoughts and cutting mountains like fruits with her sword and mutilating fearsome and gigantic enemies! finally Mia knew what she has to do to payback this kid. After extending her hands to pinch his cheeks slightly she said : “I knew that already... big-sister was just asking because, she needed to know if you want to become a swordsman. Ehe... ehehehe...” Lin just rolled his eyes and thought : 'No you didn’t... because I already said it, if I want to use a weapon then it would be a blunt-weapon, such an obvious and blatant-lie wouldn’t work on kids my age!' Then he smirked and transmitted : “Just a few words from me helped you breakthrough... maybe I should be your teacher instead.” Mia who just accepted the glass of wine from the boy and was in the middle of taking a sip immediately felt like choking and sprayed the wine from her mouth. After regaining her bearing and composure the young-woman looked at the boy and glared at him before squinting her eyes then she transmitted : “You can't roam my spirit-world without learning the common-language... of course. Poor-thing... big-sister will take care of that for you. Big-sister wouldn't lower herself to your... tamed-beast’s despicable-level and ignore you, big-sister will teach you... personally.” The saintess kept saying the word big-sister over and over which made Lin smile inwardly at how sensitive she’s despite how much she acts like a careless person. Mia spoke slowly in her native-tongue then repeated what she said twice before transmitting : “What I said earlier means "big-sister Lin is sorry... I love you because you’re my world, Sun adores you too." come-on! try saying that, let's see if you can say these words right.” Lin thought : 'Everyone has their own unique way of doing the basics... I guess.' then he maintained his usual calm and patiently replied everything Mia said earlier and spoke these foreign-words while ignoring her weird-choice of words. Then he transmitted : “How do you write these words?” which caused Mia to gawk slightly because she thought Lin would be frustrated or annoyed which would’ve made he feel slightly better after venting at the boy for making fun of her earlier. Sighing she transmitted the thought and the cold-battle was continued between them and the young-woman tried to make Lin say thing which are way more embarrassing in each test that follows.

-----

While drinking his fresh-juice five hours after the first test Lin was reclining calmly and reading an alchemy-manual. This book has lots of information on some of the commonly-known medicinal-herbs! the lack of pictures and images in this book makes it a complete headache for alchemy-apprentices. Yet the boy thought that it’s a step that would be completely unnecessary because the explanations and descriptions on this book has more than compensated for the absence of drawings. Lin was enjoying this book very... very much right now while thinking : 'Jackpot!' from that alchemy-manual the boy learned the name of many herbs and some of those can be found within in his space-ring. One herb in specific is that flower which is located on the higher shelf on-top of the stand of medicinal-herbs. Fire-tulip a spirit-herb of at least two-thousand years! and that information he learned about the fire-tulip from the way it affected his soul-body with its heat-wave once before.

Mia on the other hand was grumbling endlessly while squatting at the side and choosing one of the attires from Xiangming’s space-ring to wear. But she was absentminded and kept playing with her fingers in the dirt because Lin learned her language in three hours! despite how much she tried to annoy the kid he remained calm and got what he wanted in the end. It took the saintess three years to learn how to write that complicated-language. The young-woman felt like this Lin has given her self-esteem another sneaky-kick in the gut to punish her for teasing Sun and angering him earlier and for trying to play games with this freak.

'So what if he's a genius!... humph... humph... didn’t I unleash my weapon-intent at the age of nine? Lin is already six years old, he can't even use a weapon, while I in the same age, was able to completely master all of the basics of swordsmanship. Humph... serves you right for refusing to let me teach you, now you wouldn’t be able to surpass my record.' Mia fist-palmed one of her hands when she discovered that finally she has something which she can actually beat Lin at. That discovery satisfied the young-woman’s most-inner parts of her egotistic-feelings of superiority and calmed her previous irritation slightly! after the saintess stuck her tongue out towards the boy who resumed his joyful read while ignoring her. She grabbed the short-sword and started to do some sword routines and dances on an empty stomach. That’s something which caused Mia to endlessly blame herself for. Destroying the supply-box is a grave-mistake and she tried to atone for it with each move and swing she took in her sword dance. The saintess worked on controlling the wildness of her sword-intent to avoid such incident from happening again in the future.

Lin simply multitasked. He watched the whole area within his range of soul-sense. Watched Mia's movements and dissected her techniques to the tiniest bit of detail! yet he didn’t lower his guard in the slightest. Learned about medicinal-herbs of this world plus a small part about pills and some of their uses which is a bonus reward of information. The boy was glad because this journey is already showing prospect of becoming a lot more fun and enjoyable in the future. Especially now that he found an access to a huge-source of new information.

For Mia it’s a complexity of feelings between having fun and having to deal with arrogant brats!... but since they’re cute then it’s alright and she doesn’t mind their company.

For Sun it’s a goal which he has to achieve... become stronger.