“That’s... "ruling-heart" the boy actually did open eighteen of his acupoints! he just managed to connect these acupoints but, why isn't there any signs of qi-vitality on his body? there’s no trace of aura... at all” Chentian Ao was "well surprised" after seeing and sensing the phenomenon of ruling-heart from Lin—which could only be witnessed when a body-refiner succeeds in linking a certain number of acupoints after opening them, however... even body-refiners who didn't reach the realm of being lesser-qi refiners— which refers to those who only have a half-complete cycle in qi-circulation or slightly a few more in the count of opened acupoints—can use their qi-vitality... albeit crudely! after successfully opening and linking only twelve of their acupoints. Yet... the kid wasn't using his qi-vitality at all! and that made the great-sage—within the expert-eyes of someone like Bo An’s grandpa—seem like someone who’s ignorantly placing the carriage before the horse... since Lin should have full-access to such unique type of energy—qi-vitality—but the boy did not use it. Not even once during the whole race! the usage of physical strength is mainly dependent on that unique type of energy... since it’s augmented by qi-vitality to begin with. While the great-sage is running right now... Lin is only relying on his pure physical strength! and unfortunately—according to Chentain Ao’s judgment—the boy is casting-away his qi-vitality to the side and blocking the assistance of that unique energy... which could be very helpful to anyone in such times of need. Like a heap of burning firewood to someone who’s shivering from cold in the middle of a freezing winter.

“Now that I remember... the kid told me that he's an orphan which these juniors from Cheng clan found during their journey west, I believe he has yet another advantage over those from his generation—which is wings, I guess the boy just doesn't have any reference to learn from it how the system of qi-refinement works. The western-islands are very close to the western-continent, maybe... this Ming has some relations to these barbarians and some of their blood is already coursing within his veins since he managed to accomplish all that without any guidance.” Inspector Huang said that to answer some of Chentian Ao's confusions however... even the spirit-king was taken aback by Lin's clear and dominating superiority to many of those from his generation in the aspect of qi-vitality! a chosen few descendants of the barbarian-emperor might be able to do better within a similar age? yes. But, once the fact of the boy being a mere orphan... yet being someone who has such advanced attainments in that system despite his ignorance! if that small piece of information is confirmed for certainty as a fact? then... all of those "well-groomed" and "carefully-chosen" descendants of the barbarian-emperor... those lucky and extremely fortunate juniors who has an abundance of spirit-resources constantly provided for them and rare medicinal-ingredients always at their beck and call... are merely "favored sprouts" which are being groomed within the safety of a "greenhouse" meanwhile... the boy is a shoot of "wild-weed" a common plant which is unlucky to be born on the side of a road! yet... that helpless and neglected sprout still refuses to bend-over under the suppressive-weight of countless boots no-matter how many times it got trampled-on. Just one look at these focused-eyes of the kid is telling these two seniors—which has been watching almost from the very beginning of the race—how much discipline this boy has over his character... just the kid’s silence is giving the two of them some pressure! Ao and Huang would've been somewhat distracted if any of them was in the shoes of this Ming... yet the boy was unaffected at all when the rider of the shadow-colt told him that he clearly has hit his limits. The kid was wholly focused on taking another step towards his goal—which is the finish-line of this race—even if the odds does seem to be against him... the boy never lost hope in finishing the race... he never lost faith on himself! just how much "sheer-will" and "mental-fortitude" does this kid have exactly? such examples can only be witnessed within experienced veterans of the spirit-world... those rare few who stared death right in the eye and lived to tell the tale. Only after experiencing many situations of life and death does that characteristic reveal itself on cultivators... that's why no-matter how high peoples’ spirit-cultivation is when compared to others from this spirit-world... the dangerous and deadly claws and fangs of the rare few who experienced the true cruelty of the spirit-world can still reach the necks of others and succeed in squeezing the life of their enemies in a heartbeat. If a cultivator lowered their guard? then... it might be their end! simple as that... the assassins-guild is such an example. Beside that group of sneaky and formidable monsters from the assassins-guild there's many other organizations and factions—which prefer to remain anonymous and keep themselves hidden, anyway... the fact remains that the countless tales which fill countless historical-tomes does prove the importance of "character" to all cultivators! in the beginning Huang got to learn that this kid has a strong soul and learned the news of when the boy unleashed a great amount of soul-force that’s capable of resisting the spirit-suppression from a spirit-lord... while personally witnessing the boy show his superior-grade body to the world as he ran. Then the brat's superior-grade body seemed to mock the city-lord—who though that the previous show was the kid’s limit—when it exploded in an additional display of qi-potential! not to mention that the water-cultivator is planning to use the potion of thought-rebirth on the boy next—which would greatly help Lin and assist him in catching up with those from his generation in the aspect of cultivating spirit-energy—the spirit-king isn’t doing anything from the goodness of his heart actually... inspector Huang is aiming to use the potion's side-effect to confirm the whereabouts of the water-pearl. The potion of thought-rebirth can temporarily erase the consciousness of those who consume it! the sly city-lord is planning to use that potion to interrogate the weakest individual amongst Wei's group... Lin is the best candidate for the water-cultivator to achieve his aim without endangering tarnishing his reputation more than it already has. The spirit-king's special-device—which he’s been using to locate the water-pearl—was always giving him constant taps on its possible whereabouts ever since the natural-treasure left the confinement of the ocean’s water... inspector-Huang was planning to wait until the fish entered the net—pearl-harbor—first before he makes his move and send his people to retrieve the item discreetly! however... something went wrong because the signal was suddenly lost... the city-lord waited for a few days which he spent being worried and hesitating whether or not should he make his move and order his underlings to search for the water-pearl and retrieve it. The water-cultivator was afraid... honestly the spirit-king really dreaded that the "twang of the bowstring" would frighten the "bird" into flying away! if his prey decided to take the long way around the southern-continent instead of passing through his territory? then inspector Huang would be left helplessly stationed on his territory and unable to do anything... say nothing of snatching the water-pearl. Not to mention that... the water-pearl itself is near-impossible to find using any special or rare-devices if the natural-treasure was thrown back into the ocean water... the closer that medicinal-ingredient is to the ocean-floor... the harder it would be for him to locate it! when city-lord Huang personally went to search Wei's ship... the man didn't forget or neglect anything and scanned the ocean-floor surrounding the ship with his keen senses as a spirit-king and a spirit-cultivator who’s specialized in the element of water. The inspector went even a step further while doing his "inspection" to find the water-pearl... Huang and circled around Wei's ship in disguise and searched the floor of the ocean along the path the group took! of course the city-lord came-out empty-handed in the end. However... the spirit-king didn't know that the reason he came-out empty-handed is because of his own choice to wait three more days after losing the signal! once Lin arrived on Wei's ship—along-with Kai—it was like the last nail on the coffin that sealed the fate of that natural-treasure... it practically became impossible for the water-cultivator to find the water-pearl anymore. All inspector Huang will ever have is a mere suspicion about the water-pearl’s whereabouts... that suspicion was born because when Huang finally lost his patience and decided to send his subordinate—which is Hai the spirit-lord and fire-cultivator—towards the direction which his "special-tool" last pointed towards... Hai just happened to find Wei's ship being the only ship in a wide-range of a clear area! yet... all and every space-rings on that ship was devoid of what the inspector wanted. In-total... all of the information above means that this boy possibly could have many superior aspects compared to those of his generation! which are the aspects of soul and body... then the aspect of spirit is close at hand—with Huang being the one insisting on helping the kid achieve—three systems in total! two of these systems are already ahead of those from the kid’s generation... or—at least— the boy is already within the front-row seats. Add to these advantages... the kid’s character which is seemingly unblemished and balanced! just these two traits make this boy Ming... extremely suitable and compatible with every kind of cultivation... something which is boosting these many unlocked aspects of his. The kid’s mentality which doesn’t fit someone who’s just a junior... is already making Huang and Ao envious! the boy is being given the stink-eye by two respectable seniors because he has that steady character... Chentian Ao terribly wished that his little BoBo would someday—hopefully soon—have a strong will and great mental fortitude like this Ming. After all... juniors are famous for their stubbornness and willfulness more than anything else! however... most of that stubbornness would merely be stubbornness of the stupid sort. Meanwhile... this boy Ming did indeed have a stubborn-look within his golden eyes despite being extremely exhausted and on the brink of falling unconscious from an enormous amount of accumulated-fatigue earlier! however... the beauty of it is that the kid’s stubbornness afterwards was proven to be of the "useful" kind of stubbornness that feeds the trait of "tenacity" which is an accepted sort of stubbornness that increases self-confidence in a healthy way that improves the character of its owner in an extremely positive manner. That sort of stubbornness... every cultivator usually needs to have within their reservoir in great quantity! because... it’s extremely helpful when cultivators face others who are much stronger than themselves or when faced with tough and difficult situations that backs them into a corner and makes it an uphill struggle which most people end-up questioning their capabilities at some point. What would cultivators do without that rare characteristic? the majority of them would only-end up being helplessly limited by their narrow views! those who get to survive would needlessly fall into some loop of despair at some point however... those rare few are at least fortunate because they get to survive the tough situation in the end while most people would fall prey to heart and mental demons before they get to face their problems.

“Oho! so he's actually a blank when it comes to the system of qi-vitality, uh-huh... I see, that explains so much. Now that I remember... you once happened on such a good technique for body-refinement, what was its name again?” The eyes of Chentian Ao lit-up with an excited glow that hid a glint of slyness when the famous beast-tamer heard inspector Huang speak about Lin! like an old and cunning fox... Bo An’s grandpa asked the city-lord about one of the items which the spirit-king has always held truly dear and close to his heart ever since the old days when both men were juniors.

“Sigh. Fallen-yin... it’s one of the best techniques for body-refinement. Among the countless cultivation-manuals—which my cultivation-alliance managed to collect through the years in the headquarter, fallen-yin is currently held the highest! within the rankings... the technique I found back then is... in the number-one ranking. I was later informed that... only barbarians from the war-god throne or the axe-holding statue... are confirmed to have body-refinement techniques of a similar quality, these two organizations are suspected in having better cultivation-manuals actually! however... there’s no solid proof related to these doubts.” Inspector Huang became apprehensive once Chentian Ao began asking questions about the spirit-king’s belongings out of the blue but the water-cultivator respectfully gave the spirit-emperor the truthful-answer anyway.

“En. Fallen-yin, hmmm... that's the one! I’ll be taking that body-refinement technique in-exchange for my potion of thought-rebirth, remember that you’re the one who said "I’m willing to compensate the potion with anything that I own" your cultivation-alliance already have a copy of the technique—which doesn’t give me the full and exclusive-rights when possessing this cultivation-manual—you only have the original-source in your hands. You can still have access for this fallen-yin technique by contacting your superiors and entering the main-library of your headquarters... I don't think the higher-ups of your organization would deny giving you another copy of the technique, since you’re the one who donated it to begin with! if you need one? all you got to do is... ask.” Honestly the eyes of Chentian Ao eyes had some signs of amusement within them yet his words remained strong and forceful—which left no room for the city-lord to deny anything from what the spirit-emperor just said, because... the beast-tamer already made it very convincing when he clarified the true worth of a non-exclusive cultivation-manual. However... the water-cultivator's face still paled once he heard these words from Chentian Ao! simply because... that fallen-yin technique is the main reason why Huang was able to reach the seventh-stage within the major-realm of a spirit-king . Despite it being a technique which is originally for qi-vitality and the system of body-refinement... it’s always been very compatible with the inspector’s natural-affinity for the element of water! fallen-yin did help the man understand a lot of things about the characteristics of the water-element whenever he used the technique as a simple... reference. Even if the city-lord did surrender the cultivation-manual once to the "board of command" so that his superiors could make a copy of the fallen-yin technique—in-exchange for spirit-resources, the spirit-king has always had a very strong intuition—when it comes to the fallen-yin technique—an intuition that screamed "this cultivation-manual does hide a very deep secret!" regretfully... the requirements to cultivate the fallen-yin technique are extremely cumbersome. Plus how the spirit-king hasn’t got any talent—whatsoever—when it comes to the aspect of qi-vitality or body-refinement! that's why... the water-cultivator couldn't unearth any of the potential which this cultivation-manual must hide deep within its layers—according to inspector Huang’s gut feeling, inspector Huang did search for juniors which are talented in the system of qi-vitality once—for quite some years actually—yet... the city-lord still failed in the end. The spirit-king failed to find someone which he can trust with his own secrets—in this case it would be sharing his original-version of the cultivation-manual, now the water-cultivator just feels like all these endeavors through the years has been nothing but... a waste! since now the inspector just knows that he must hand the original-version of the fallen-yin technique to this black-hearted beast-tamer... the spirit-emperor immediately twisted the arm of the spirit-king to repay the city-lord for what he did before—when Huang threatened to notify grand-elder Renshu about the potion—before plucking the most valuable asset from the hands of the water-cultivator! if the inspector wishes to gain access to the cultivation-manual once again? then... Huang needs to exchange for another copy by contacting those who manage the main-library of the headquarters. Not to mention that it would be an extremely embarrassing thing for the city-lord to actually do... because doing so would seed and birth then give room for others to ask a lot of questions! especially from the higher-ups—since it’s a sensitive-matter unlike what the spirit-emperor might think very "casually" of the matter, the spirit-king would still be required to use a great amount of his personal contribution-points to gain a copy of the copy which he once gave the cultivation-alliance! the water-cultivator would need to pay one-hundred thousand of his personal contribution-points to get his hands on a copy of a cultivation-manual—which is practically useless for him since he isn’t a body-refiner—a copy... that lacks the "secret" which the inspector only felt while holding the original-version of the technique. Contribution-points just don't grow on trees within the cultivation-alliance after all... the higher-ups would work their underlings almost to death through low-reward requests—which are both very safe and extremely boring or monotonous, then periodically give a few chances to those who seek to gain huge amounts of contribution-points all at once by... offering extremely dangerous and risky requests within forbidden-territories! or... the missions would be surrounded by complicated circumstances and demand specialized individuals with special traits... which almost makes it impossible for others to actually succeed in completing the requests anyway.

“This jade contains the original-version of the fallen-yin technique.” City-lord Huang retrieved a piece of rectangular jade—which is obsidian-black in color and the size of an opened-hand, on the center of one of its surfaces there’s a hollow indentation in the shape of a ball... that narrowing and hollow circle is half-way pushed inside the body of this obsidian-black jade! however... that small indentation has a very delicate engraving of complicated inscriptions and runes—which already form an incomplete formation—Chentian Ao immediately gave that jade a keen look once he held it in his hand... for a few moments there... Bo An’s grandpa was actually completely distracted from the ongoing race between the boy and the fine-quality shadow-colt because... honestly this isn’t an ordinary technique! this is a... cultivation-manual of the low-grade yes but... that low-grade is later followed by the words... "forbidden-rank" that’s a rarity and specialty since that technique belongs to the system of body-refinement. Which means... other than high-born barbarians within the top-tier clans, sects, or organizations of the western-continent... there’s a few other organizations and fewer individuals of the spirit-world who actually have a cultivation-manual of similar rank... even more less who actually has one from the same system of cultivation like... way less! “Thump!...” However... this loud thumping noise quickly pulled Chentian Ao’s attention back towards Lin and the famous beast-tamer focused on the ongoing race because this stage is critical in deciding who would gain the advantage between these two competitors. Still... the kid’s heartbeat is a lot noisier and louder this time! Lai and every cultivator in the realm of spirit-grandmaster did feel their own hearts skip a beat before their chests tightened after a painful pressure squeezed their innards... that pressure suddenly fell on every one of them seemingly out of nowhere. Most of the spectators reflexively used their own spirit-energy to resist that pressure right afterwards, but... the faces of those within the realm of spirit-master became flushed during the struggle of resisting that weird pressure before they managed to repel that uncomfortable feeling! albeit barely. What happened to those below the realm of spirit-master? most of them coughed blood outright! if none of the cultivators who were around or nearby them helped them alleviate the pressure? these unfortunate fellows were left unconscious and sprayed on the yellow road along-with their mounts! however... the sight of a huge cluster of cultivators from different schools of thought paling and flushing in the face or coughing blood then falling unconscious because of a single sound-wave that came from the boy's heart was... really another huge surprise for the famous beast-tamer and the city-lord who watched it happen.

......

Lin felt like he’s being dipped in cold water after walking a few miles in the deepest layers of a scorching hell! what followed this refreshing feeling is... the boy sensed that all his accumulated-fatigue and extreme exhaustion has been stripped away from him somehow. Instantaneously the great-sage noticed that his body did regain its previous fleeting-lightness! his muscles gained back their lost strength... and more because Lin’s two legs began to run like two well-oiled machines... Lai knew that this sound of heartbeats is bad news ever since he heard the first beat. That’s why he urged his shadow-colt forward as fast as he possibly can! because the blade-user understood that this is the only solution he have left to win this race and best this freak. However... unfortunately for him the second sound of heartbeat didn't only affect only himself but... his own mount was restrained by this devilish-sound as well! right after he overcame the restraints of this suppression and before he got enough time to used his gold and earth-energy or blade-intent to help his shadow-colt and shake the suppression off of his mount... Lai was shocked when he found that Lin has already gained a considerable ground and shrunk the gap between them. Once the blade-user's shadow-colt was able to go at its top-speed... the boy was back and running head-to-head next to him! the vexing detail of this situation is the kid’s current pace... his speed just kept upping gradually without end. Within a single minute—much to the dismay of the majority of cultivators currently spectating the event live, the great-sage became ahead of Lai—who endlessly urged his horse to go faster—for the first time and gained the lead by a few kilometers! and continuously widened the gap... yet Lin never slowed down and kept increasing the distance between them by going faster even still! meanwhile behind the boy... Lai's shadow-colt finally couldn't keep-up going at that hellish pace of hard gallop anymore... the fine breed of a horse had to go slower after one hour—which the beast spent enduring an endless urging from Lai to go faster until it almost died—during the first light of dawn... that moment witnessed Lin's arrival at the western-gates of pearl-city... that moment heralded the boy’s win and the end of that long and exhausting race. The great-sage stopped and went to the side of the road then began to regulate his breathing... while enjoying this beautiful morning before the huge white-colored gates of pearl-city Lin waited for his friends to catch-up and began watching his surroundings from the other side of the yellow road... the high walls of this—huge and massively-sized—pearl-city is right ahead of him... there’s countless people and caravans lined-up in front of the white gates to enter... all of those who wish to enter has to pay the entrance-fees first though. Many of these people were actually looking towards the boy and giving him various types of gazes and looks! be that approval, appreciation, disbelief, or annoyance. But... no-one was courageous enough to approach the great-sage at all! because of the two men who stood almost five kilometers up in the sky... the pressure kept people away from the kid. The great-sage raised his head up to look towards these two then decided to give them his courtesy of respect—since they have been a silent audience, Lin gave a slight bow while cupping his fist and he saw the two men gazing towards him with different expressions. Chentian Ao just nodded once and revealed a smile on his face when he noticed how the kid didn’t forget to give them this respectful gesture... city-lord Huang just squinted his eyes slightly while looking directly downwards at the boy... the water-cultivator seemed to wish that he might be able to peer-through this junior and see all of his deepest secrets! because... doing so would save the inspector from wasting two items... two extremely valuable items.

Bo An’s grandpa looked towards Huang and said : “We better get this matter over-with, his companions are going to arrive here in about an hour or so.” And the water-cultivator hesitated slightly because he honestly felt like a drowning person who’s hanging by a fine-thread from the abyss of despair itself! if this brat confessed and confirmed that one of Wei's group actually have the water-pearl? then all is good and the spirit-king wouldn’t feel like he lost much from this exchange... however, if these juniors had nothing to do with the water-pearl? then... not only would inspector Huang lose the fallen-yin technique—an extremely rare cultivation-manual of the body-refinement system—but also the even more rare potion of thought-rebirth. Add to these losses the dissatisfaction and disappointment from grand-elder Renshu and the huge possibility of the grand-elder actually failing to tame the water-dragon hatchling in the end... plus the loss of his own and the cultivation-alliance’s reputation! after all... when seniors intentionally bully juniors? the world never lacks in busybodies and telltale-cultivators or scandalmonger organizations who just love to gather these sorts of news to throw mockery and ridicule at the perpetrators. In the end... the city-lord nodded once then followed after the spirit-emperor and descended towards the boy.

“Ming has seen senior Huang. Senior Huang... I beg your pardon, because-of my ignorance... this little one doesn’t know the identity of your companion, still... I extend my most respectful greetings as a junior all the same, junior Ming has seen his seniors.” Lin quickly bowed once again when these two men landed just three meters in front of him... the boy politely spoke these words and didn't straighten his upper-body after he finished his greetings.

“En. Rise little one... I'm little Bo An's grandpa, I've witnessed you race against that shadow-colt, what you did was really... something admirable! admirable indeed... you must be feeling good after winning. Don’t you?” Chentian Ao was the first to speak... the spirit-emperor spoke softly and kindly praised the boy! the man in grey robes seemed to be teasing the kid when he asked how does he feel after his win.

“Senior Chentian overpraises this little-Ming, my win was just luck I really don't deserve these great words.” Lin refused to accept the praise and denied himself the honor with a simple shake of his head... afterwards the great-sage kept his silence and waited for one of these to speak... surely one of them would! these two old-men aren't here to commend the boy on his win... these two wasted almost a whole day after all. Both of them patiently waited for Lin and Lai’s race to end before they decided to approach the great-sage... not to mentioned the "uncommon" exchange which happened between the two of them! all these circumstances does point and lead towards a single conclusion... there's really another reason behind this sudden and unexpected visit.

“Drink this. I have something I need to ask you.” Chentian Ao kept admiring the calmness within Lin’s golden eyes. However... Huang wasn’t in the mood to enjoy it at all! honestly the spirit-king did find it an irritating thing to look directly at these pair of eyes... the water-cultivator said while handing the potion—which contain the turquoise-liquid—to the great-sage. The inspector’s tone of voice commanding and left no room for disobedience but... his bloodshot eyes made the man in blue robes seem like a gambler who just called an "all-in" despite knowing that he only have meager chance in actually winning his gamble! Lin extended both hands forwards and respectfully received the potion from the spirit-king... right afterwards Sun stuck out his cute and small head from Lin's chest to take a sniff at this turquoise-liquid once the boy opened the cap. Chentian Ao immediately noticed the uniqueness of the kid’s tamed-beast after a single look then nodded towards Lin and exposed an encouraging smile on his face when he saw the great-sage silently look towards them while revealing a... puzzled expression! 'Senior Ka-' Lin sounded panicky and in an urgent need for an immediate consultation from the talking-raccoon. “Drink it. Humph... you little coward! you don't worry about a thing, you'll only sleep for some while after drinking it... then wake-up later with a much better sense towards spirit-energy.” Kai answered the boy before the kid even got to begin asking! right after hearing the effect of drinking this potion... the great-sage raised the glass-tube towards his lips then swallowed its turquoise-liquid without leaving a drop.

“Fuck these assho-” Ming who’s inside the soul-world suddenly cursed before his soul-body fell face-first and splashed on the surface of the golden-colored water. it seems like... the deadly-sin of pride just experienced fainting for the first time huh! Lin thought once he witnessed it happen and chuckled. However... the boy noticed the immediate and swift effectiveness of that turquoise-liquid right after he swallowed it... his physical-body was separated from his control and the great-sage sensed that his awareness has been restrained towards his soul-world! his ability to manipulate soul-force or control the gaseous-clouds of spirit-energy is outside his control... gathering the tiniest amount of physical-strength felt harder than redoing the previous race three-times over. Oddly enough... the small fire inside the glass-heart wasn't affected by that turquoise-liquid! however... Lin became very surprised when he found the miserable state which that glass-heart is in. Its invisible and transparent surface from before is no more! the glass-heart’s surface has turned into something similar to a spider-web... if compared-with the last time the boy did see his glass-heart? it’s like... a completely different glass-heart. That "useless" organ should only have one crack down the middle! how come it does seem like someone of Sun’s "caliber" in "mischievousness" and "destructiveness" just had lots of fun wrecking that glass-heart with a sledgehammer? would it be alright despite being in such a sorry shape? when the glass-heart in that state... is it a good thing? or... a bad thing? Lin honestly doesn't know anything about fire-intent alright! the boy doesn’t know how to make that intent stronger... he doesn’t know how to use it at all really. Mia and Lai both has their own intent, however... theirs is focused on being used through weapons! augmented through these tools when slashing, piercing, chopping, and cutting... meanwhile the great-sage have the intent of fire itself. Fire-intent is clearly very different from the element of fire... the spirit-energy of fire burns and consumes! to grow stronger... fire-energy needs to grow in size and temperature... fire-intent doesn’t require fuel to grow stronger! doesn’t require a medium to grow in temperature because... it doesn’t require a temperature to exterminate the foes of its user. The boy noticed this simple truth once he meditated on his fire-intent back on the ship... that’s why the great-sage need to learn more about the natures of intent and how to harness or tame them! the situation of his glass-heart just doesn't look good from where he sees it... glass is good whenever Lin sees it not being broken almost to fragments. Anyway... the boy doubts that his weak fire-intent could actually harm any of these two men! the weakest of them—inspector Huang—might be a user of water which is the bane of fire... meanwhile Bo An's grandpa has always been complete mystery in the senses of the great-sage. The old man in grey robes is slightly similar to Kai who’s another mystery! however... the talking-raccoon is on a whole different level. If Chentian Ao is being compared-with Kai? then—from the senses of Lin—one of them is a mere firefly while the other is the moon itself! there’s a huge disparity between the two and from the beginning to end it would be an unfair comparison to begin with.

Like a spectator who’s watching the sceneries outside from behind a window... the boy watched how his body is just standing there and imagined how his own eyes must be very devoid from the glow of livelihood! in front of him is inspector Huang and Bo An's grandpa looking back at him. After a single wave from one of his hands... the city-lord caused a barrier of blue-energy to cover the three of them in a dome! clearly this spirit-king aims to hide whatever that’s going to happen inside this blue-dome of water-energy from the eyes and ears of others.

The old man in blue robes held Lin's wrist and pressed it slightly with his fingers before sending a faint and weak wisp of his water-energy inside the boy’s body to confirm if the kid is still in-control of his body or not then asked : “Do you know about a medicinal-ingredient that’s called a water-pearl?” Lin could hear and see clearly through the narrow window—which is his own golden-eyes—the huge amount of hopeful expectations that’s currently filling the eyes of the city-lord! the words of that question rang directly inside the great-sage’s soul-world... when it happened... Lin immediately understood the reason why this inspector insisted that the boy drinks the turquoise-liquid first before asking this question. From this scenario the great-sage deducted that the turquoise-liquid must’ve been some "lying-prohibitive" which targets the awareness of those who drink it and suppresses the conscious while forcing the subconscious to surface in its place! by doing so the turquoise-liquid is able to revealing Lin’s deepest secrets directly... that must be why Ming fell like a "log" after cursing these two men. However... shouldn't it be the other way around? where Ming is the one who gets to be awake in these sorts of situations while Lin is the one who’s supposed to faint! even if both of them are sharing this physical-body and soul-world... in the end the boy is the rightful owner of this meat-suit while the deadly-sin of pride is just a guest... hopefully not the sort of guest who would over-stay and prolong their visit. Did Ming help the great-sage remain conscious in this situation by swapping-places? but... even if so actually true! why would the deadly-sin of pride decide to take this "hit"? from the sound of it... Ming wasn’t happy or pleased after getting smacked! yes... there's nothing wrong in taking a rest for a while. However... the deadly-sin of pride didn’t sound like it’s going to wake-up from this! that final vulgar curse sounded like... it’s never going to wake again. Judging by how Lin can overthink both the possibilities and the impossibilities of everything... sometimes it would confuse even himself! or... maybe that turquoise-liquid is a lie-prohibitive that’s targeting the subconscious from the very beginning which leaves the awareness unaffected. But... wouldn’t that be very contradictory to begin with? such useless liquid wouldn’t help interrogate anybody! are these two men intentionally targeting Ming? does any of them have any unhealthy-habits... like bullying juniors for instance! after shaking-off these shaky-hypothesis... Lin decided to give these two old men an answer after intentionally waiting three seconds... just to add some suspense to this weird situation. “Yes.” once Lin thought of giving that answer... his mouth opened mechanically and gave a similar answer! albeit a bit slower and the word seemed to come from a robot not a human-being because it sounded extremely unemotional and unfeeling.

The two men on the other hand... made sure that the boy does still have the same vacant and lifeless eyes when he gave that answer... inspector Huang almost wanted to jump in joy after hearing this answer because the city-lord felt like there’s still hope after all! Bo An’s grandpa frowned slightly yet he didn’t say anything to intervene with the spirit-king.

“Did you see a water-pearl with Cheng Wei?” The water-cultivator asked once again and expectantly awaited an answer from the kid. Within the soul-world... Lin was actually thinking about... how Ming did look extremely hilarious in the way he couldn’t finish a single line of words before falling like a puppet with its strings cut loose and face-first kissing the water! still... the great-sage gave an answer in the end after building more suspense to tease the agitated inspector. “No.” That answer made the city-lord feel like he’s a step closer to despair! still... the old man in blue robes continued to ask : “Did you hear any talk about a water-pearl from anyone on the ship? do you know if anyone within the ship did acquire or try to acquire a water-pearl during your stay within the Cheng clan’s ship? or before you joined them?” This time the spirit-king tried to leave no loopholes for the kid’s suppressed-conscious to evade telling the truth! however... the water-cultivator’s face paled when the boy’s mouth opened to say : “No.”

“How long have you been with these juniors from the Cheng clan?” Within a couple seconds the face of city-lord Huang darkened after he heard Lin's answer of a single word! but the inspector still stubbornly asked the great-sage this to confirm if Lin was actually on the Cheng clan’s ship when the signal vanished... even if it’s impossible that they found this kid after the signal of the water-pearl vanished since there’s no islands nearby that location. However... let’s not forget that the boy himself once said to the spirit-king that his martial-spirit is actually "wings" that could be a flaw that the water-cultivator missed! still... there’s no way to witness what kind of martial-spirit the kid has right now since he already drank the potion of thought-rebirth.

“Three weeks.” Lin estimated their movement-speed and how long it would take Wei's ship to travel from that island—which resembles a hog then added a few more days, the boy wanted to make the answer as reasonable as possible! in-case that old man Huang decided to ask Wei's group too to confirm whether or not the great-sage is lying by comparing answers from everyone however... the kid underestimated the rarity of the potion of thought-rebirth and didn’t know the reason why he was chosen to drink it. First of all... the others might sever their life-vein and prevent these two old men from forcing the truth out of them! the second reason is... the owner of the potion of thought-rebirth... Chentian Ao would rather refuse giving it to the inspector and offend grand-elder Renshu if the potion is going to be given to some third-rate nobody instead of his own Bobo.

Once again... the city-lord’s face became a shade darker after he heard that answer from the kid! the old man’s grip on the great-sage's wrist tightened and the long fingers of inspector Huang dug deep on the skin when they squeezed until Lin's right-hand became greenish-blue in color. “Cough!...” Until Bo An's grandpa coughed to remind the spirit-king of his presence while exposing a deep frown on his genial face! the spirit-emperor clearly wasn’t happy after seeing the water-cultivator hurting and mistreating this helpless boy. After all... the famous beast-tamer has gambled on the great-sage’s future once he allowed Lin to drink the potion of thought-rebirth! how could he allow anyone from the senior-generation to bully the kid after doing that? the sheer-audacity in doing so right under his own eyes is a huge offense! inspector Huang awoke to reality in how inappropriate he’s acting right in front of Chentian Ao... the city-lord released his grip on Lin's wrist completely then held it gently once again... just like how the spirit-king should’ve done from the very beginning when dealing with a junior. Unbeknownst to Lin is... this water-cultivator and famous beast-tamer never doubted the effectiveness of the potion... they never did... not even once! the wisp of water-energy inside Lin’s body—which constantly confirmed that this boy isn't in control of his body—is kind-of... useless in this situation.

“Within the span of time during last week... did anybody—including you—ever separate from the ship to go anywhere? or... suddenly disappear for a period of time. Did the ship change its course towards any direction other than east?” City-lord Huang was practically at the "edge of his seat" and awaiting for any kind of useful answer! an answer that would give the spirit-king any kind of hope... hope for a breakthrough to the major-realm of spirit-emperor. Now it all depends on whatever that’s going to come out next from the mouth of this little brat... finally the kid’s mouth opened to emotionlessly say : “No-one left the ship... we always moved east ever since I joined young-master Cheng Wei and his clansmen.” Lin honestly felt some sympathy for this old man in blue whose face suddenly became filled with countless veins—which kept throbbing and pulsating faster to indicate his current anger—after the boy gave him that answer with the same mechanical and robotic-attitude! the bloodshot eyes and how he gritted his teeth with a grinding force... did speak volumes about how frustrated this inspector Huang currently is right now.

“Huang. That's enough! the boy clearly doesn't know anything about the water-pearl... the way I see it, his travelling-companions doesn't have anything to do with the pearl either, nothing good would come out from this if you keep pushing things any further with a junior, the dao might be severed or separated from our senses... but it isn’t merciful towards people like us, these sorts of transgressions attracts karmic-sin! I’m not one to tread these turbulent waters, only if the survival of my clan is at stake I would do so. Grand-elder Renshu can either try his luck without one, or... try and use his own connections to find one, leave the boy be. Now!” Chentian Ao finally snapped at the spirit-king! the man in grey robes has tolerated that reckless behavior from the water-cultivator before since Lin stands to benefit from the potion of thought-rebirth... meanwhile the famous beast-tamer has already got his hands on the fallen-yin technique—which means that their transaction is completed once Bo An’s grandpa bore-witness to the interrogation—however... the answers which they got from the kid... just weren't what inspector Huang wanted to hear! what makes matters worse is that with every passing second... the city-lord began to show signs of losing control over his emotions and that’s why Chentian Ao didn't want this farce to continue anymore.

“Yes senior Ao. I... understand. I’m going to go and join grand-elder Renshu, maybe see if I can be of assistance in trying to get another water-pearl. If there's anything that you want from me then... please don't hesitate in notifying me of your requirements with a voice-transmission.” The spirit-king seemed like he’s "electrocuted" back to attention once he heard the hidden-warning within the hard words of Chentian Ao! after all... the water-cultivator already lost track of the water-pearl... now the inspector can't risk losing Chentian Ao’s assistance too. The spirit-emperor could provide great help—when grand-elder Renshu is attempting to tame the water-dragon—the famous beast-tamer can offer both his wisdom and experience and the formation of thousand-beasts to suppress the wild tendencies of the dragon-hatchling! after releasing Lin's wrist... city-lord Huang turned towards Bo An’s grandpa and cupped his fist to express his compliance with Chentian Ao’s order then gestured with his hand to scatter the blue-colored barrier of water-energy that he created in the shape of a dome around the three of them before flying towards his manor at the center of pearl-city to sadly announce these awful news to grand-elder Renshu. The spirit-king is feeling troubled in how is he going to deliver these bad-news in a soft manner? the news that... the water-cultivators won't be able to get his hands on a water-pearl—despite giving a confident promise that he would—because all of the leads he had on this one... suddenly vanished into thin-air! Huang felt like he’s someone who went for wool and came back shorn instead... the way his old face maintained a pale complexion and his motions remained restless made inspector Huang seem like someone who just lost all his fortune when he left.

Chentian Ao on the other hand didn’t leave Lin’s side after the city-lord left... Bo An’s grandpa gave the boy an appreciative-look—which took a few seconds, then the famous beast-tamer retrieved the obsidian-black jade that contains the fallen-yin technique and began to thoroughly read the cultivation-manual by using his spirit-sense while awaiting the great-sage’s travelling-companions to arrive. A simple chair made from bamboo appeared beneath the old man’s butt once he sat down... the calm attitude of the old man in grey did calm Sun slightly—who’s been on edge ever since these two old men approached him and his buddy—and the tiger in kitten-form kept watching without taking any action! meanwhile... the black sparrow appeared from inside its beast-medallion then took a couple spiraling-flights around the kid before deciding to perch-on Lin's shoulder—which is much to the annoyance of the red-tiger who felt offended when another dared to seize its favorite-spot, however... the winged-tiger curbed its anger because it’s more fearful for the safety of its best-friend. Sun has been worried for his buddy ever since the boy drank that turquoise-liquid... from the moment it happened until right now... it feels like Lin is actually asleep while standing on his feet—which never happened before—what makes it slightly worrying for the red-tiger is... his best-friend never closed his eyes! how could he sleep with his eyes opened? something doesn’t feel right... Sun just can’t get his "paw" on it yet.

“Meow!...” Sun ignored the black sparrow because she smells like the old man in grey robes—which is the second-strongest creature that Sun has met after that troublesome little fellow who talks, walks, and acts like a human despite being a beast—and tried to gently pat Lin on the face with his paw to wake his best-friend up from that scary state. “Ming!...” Meanwhile—in the same time where Sun attempted to wake him up—Lin was squatting next to his soul-clone which belongs to the deadly-sin of pride and imitating Sun's action by slapping Ming on the face over and over! the boy knows that he isn’t able to move... he understands that he shouldn’t say anything right now to calm Sun since they’re still in the presence of Bo An’s grandpa. Anyway... the great-sage wasn't scared or worried about anything while being in this extremely passive-state! simply because... Kai was the one who told him to drink that turquoise-liquid... not to mention that he wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop Bo An's grandpa if the old man in grey robes wanted to do anything to him or Sun anyway. Why resist a group of sick-minded rapists if you already know that you have zero-percent of getting away while they have a perfect score which is a hundred-percent in catching you? better enjoy it instead! while looking at that obsidian-black jade in the hands of the old man... Lin was feeling extremely annoyed that he isn't able to give it a closer and thorough look to see what kind of information is contained inside it! that’s something which is... kind-of regretful and extremely frustrating because Bo An's grandpa seems like he’s having so fun while being consumed in reading whatever knowledge that’s inside this jade.

......

Those who are within the realm of spirit-tyrant and higher from the cultivators who enjoyed watching the race between Lin and Lai live or the rare few who own or did rent mounts of a superior quality above the blade-user’s shadow-colt... returned to pearl-city after witnessing the boy's win! some of these cultivators—especially the majority of those who were in a great "hurry" to pay the entrance-fees so that they can enter the city—are those who actually betted on the great-sage winning. These fortunate people didn't hesitate to burn most of the spirit-energy within their dantians while heading towards the gambling-facilities which they left their bets with wide-smiles on their faces! most of these cultivators didn’t forget to give Lin a thumbs-up and many encouraging gestures before they entered the white gates. After all... since the "underdog" actually won the race... then the reward these people would get is... twelve-times what any of them placed on the original-bet! those who have an extremely good luck betted on the boy actually winning without having to rely-on using any spirit-energy... and the great-sage did win in the end while relying-on nothing else except for his pure physical-strength. What does that mean for these gamblers? well... it means whatever those "rare" lucky ones placed on the original-bet has just became fifty-times more! that sort of return would break the fatty’s heart once he learns about it... that's why these winners were in such a hurry to cash-out their fortunes. They’re trying to get their hands on these resources before any of the losers comes to seek any sort of trouble with them! in these situations it’s better to act in a very low-key manner to avoid being targeted by others... of course there’s always going to be those who like to brag and gloat... and those who end-up being targeted despite doing their best to stay in the shadows.

......

Finally after about an hour or so—which Lin spent being bored to death because all he could see through the narrow-window of his own eyes is Chentian Ao having a blast reading that obsidian-black jade—Wei arrived with Lai, Wang, and Zhang. The merchant saw Lin standing like a statue next to Bo An's grandpa and was about to call the boy towards them... it was then that the fatty did notice how his brother isn’t moving! after just one look in the eyes of Lin... it made these four spirit-cultivators shocked and fearful for the well-being of this little-ancestor. After all... if anything happened to Lin? then... the true Ming would fall on their weakened five-clans like an infuriated-titan! the least that angry titan would do is... smiting their Tang-city along-with whomever within it into a heap of sand. These vacant and unfocused-eyes of Lin did worry all of them already! not to mention... the formidable presence of the old man in grey robes who’s sitting next to the boy who’s standing like a granite-statue... this person worried the four of them even more. All of them were panicking! yet... feeling helpless in the same time.

“Juniors... there’s nothing to worry about. Here... come and take a look! he's perfectly fine, however... the boy would be sent into a long and prolonged state of sleep once one of you help Ming close his eyes. I’m sure all of you want to ask... how long is he going to sleep for? well... actually nobody can give an exact number! anyway... this area of the continent is becoming chaotic and it isn't safe for my little BoBo anymore, maybe... I should send her with you guys, she could to take care of the kid for a while, I don’t think it would be possible for her to do so until he actually wakes-up though... she needs to go back and-” Bo An’s grandpa suddenly stopped speaking and sighed... which made Lin feel like wishing if he could move right now! so that the boy would slap this old man in grey while saying : "Finish you damn words already! don’t leave me hanging for no reason." The famous beast-tamer looked towards the merchant in the center of these juniors and said : “Well... go ahead and take him if you like.” Chentian Ao's calm attitude and elderly tone of voice greatly affected Tang Wei and the rest—who were feeling extremely anxious and worried about the kid, the four spirit-grandmasters listened closely to each and every word this senior-cultivator said. Once the old man allowed them to retrieve the boy... Wang nodded towards Zhang who supported Lin's small body with one of his hands before using the other hand to help the boy close his eyes. When Zhang closed the great-sage’s two golden eyes... it became Lin’s turn to resemble a puppet whose strings got cut-off! both of the boy’s knee-joints buckled downwards and the four limbs of the kid lacked all signs of control or strength! while being in this state the great-sage seemed very vulnerable... if Zhang hadn't quickly held the boy’s waist with one of his muscular and strong arms? then... Lin would've just smashed his head against the surface of the yellow stones—which this wide road is paved with—face-first.

Meanwhile from the boy’s perspective... that was the last thing he got to hear from Bo An’s grandpa or see of the world around him. Because when Zhang helped the great-sage close his eyes it was like... the only open window that Lin had just been closed shut! since he can no longer use other abilities to compensate the absence of the sense of seeing—for example by relying on soul-sense, whatever that’s currently going-on within the world has been blocked—which kind-of makes it feel like the thick-curtains of that sole window has been pulled to cover the last ray of light—and with that... this unexpected encounter was finally drawn to a close. Right afterwards the great-sage was instantly transferred from absolute darkness towards the world of light... once again! however... this time there’s no Lao or Jin Bao to pull Lin out from the comfort of being surrounded by nothing else other than pure and gentle rays of light. There’s no effect from the outside world—that could reach the boy inside this private sanctuary—and great-sage Lin floated aimlessly after he surrendered himself to drift within this blinding light and be carried by it. Since Kai was the one to tell him to drink that turquoise-liquid... Lin didn’t think about his own safety! like... at all. After all... If it’s something that Tang Wei—and the rest—can’t handle by themselves? then—when the grandmasters find themselves unable to protect the boy—the talking-raccoon should handle it! certainly... Kai isn’t going to let someone or something—other than himself—bully the great-sage. 'Well... hopefully once I wake-up, everything would be alright.' The boy’s last thought was like a wish of dreamy-kids before closing their eyes to sleep! that wish quickly spread within this world of light then evaporated into nothing.

..........

Within the material-domain of this spirit-world. Exactly within the southern-continent’s westernmost borders. During that day... Tang Wei and the rest retrieved Lin’s body—which is in a comatose-state—from that senior-cultivator! that old man in grey robes—who turned-out to be "Chentian Ao" in the flesh and Bo An's grandpa—didn’t do or say anything to delay their journey anymore... the famous beast-tamer made it simple for their group of four to enter pearl-city directly without having to wait or take their place at the end of the long line. They followed the spirit-emperor inside the yellow walls of pearl-city and shared a long walk of silence together! the four spirit-grandmasters gave their respects and separated ways with Chentian Ao... they rode their mounts and took the kid’s spotted deer-mule then left towards the estate of their Cheng clan. These four men only hoped that... Bo An’s grandpa didn't lie to them when he said that Lin is alright.

One day later... Liao Lai succeeded in removing inspector Huang’s water-energy from inside his body—which were clogging his major-meridians—then after one day of rest the blade-user was back in tip-top condition! meanwhile... Tang Wei spent these two days making final-preparations and setting his trade-caravan into order. The fatty wants everything to be ready so that they can depart from pearl-city... next day must signal the beginning of their next journey! still... merchant Cheng Wei made sure to hire a costly company of guarding-escorts from the branch of mercenary-guild within pearl-city—just in case Bo An's previous-warning to Lin from three days ago is true—because beast-wave attacks are extremely dangerous. And... the fatty just couldn’t stand spending another day within a city which is filled with countless people walking and talking about how much fortune he could’ve made yet missed! the reason why Tang Wei has been acting like a "torch of activity" for more than two days without getting a blink of sleep—which is uncommon from the "lazy bastard" according to Lai—is because... he couldn’t sleep! or... nightmares wouldn’t let him. Even Zhang was surprised by how much young-master Wei has changed within a few short days! the simple man helped by assisting the merchant speed-up things. Wang sighed sorrowfully while waving goodbye to the crowd of ladies—which the handsome-man didn’t get any chance to spend any time with them despite just returning from a long journey—these "loyal girls" who waited on the city-gates to send the ice-cultivator off with tears on their cheeks and more tears accumulating within their eyes... almost made Wang break his cool and friendly-attitude just to kick the asses of the overweight-merchant and the stubborn-ox who helped him for ruining his much-awaited fun! however... in the end the handsome-man remembered their group’s most valuable-asset—who’s currently sleeping inside one of the caravan-carriages like some useless "baggage" then sighed—after Wang succeeded in curbing his frustrations he kept his silence for a while before he could overcome that heavy mood.

After the Cheng clan’s trade-caravan left pearl-city on the third day. And after the caravan moved at a regular speed for about half a day or so... an urgent-report arrived from the caravan’s rear-guards and reached Lai—who’s the supreme-commander on all matters related to the caravan and peoples’ security as long as anyone, or... thing is within this trade-delegation—that sudden report went like this : "Young-lady Chentian Bo An... is requesting an immediate audience with merchant Cheng Wei, now! otherwise? she’s going to take little-Ming under her service at once, and take care of him by herself. Humph. You fatty have three minutes to give this lady an answer." Of course Tang Wei hauled-ass to meet that "little-grandma" the merchant even used his lightning-energy to assist him in moving faster so that he would save time! however... after meeting her the little-girl still refused to be assigned to a personal carriage—a fancy and luxurious one even—of her own. Bo An choose to stay with Lin on the same—small and tight-cornered—carriage so that she would get to take care of the boy! the young-lady of the Chentian clan immediately behaved like a rude "bandit" and ruthlessly kicked Wang and Zhang outside the great-sage's carriage... thankfully Zhang wasn’t in the mood to fight and bicker—especially with a little-girl—that’s why that transition of power over that carriage went so smoothly that day.

Afterwards the trade-caravan moved forwards for days and nights towards mercenary-city on pearl-road. However... some reports of huge gatherings of beasts within the vicinity of the caravan kept on coming and updated daily! the additional evidences from eye-witnesses of more beasts leaving the territories of "beast-mountains" and crossing the boundaries towards pearl-road were seen by many scouts of the trade-caravan while it advanced... more and more trade-caravans could be seen on their way forward... left in ruin and destroyed while the remains of corpses—which belong to mortals and cultivators alike—are scattered everywhere around the aftermath. That frightening scene became a normal sight to these restless people of Wei’s trade-caravan... be they passengers or workers... almost everyone within that trade-caravan felt more despair spread within their chests with every passing day! maybe... Bo An is the only one on this caravan who wasn’t worried for her own or the boy’s safety because of the safety-measures and trump-cards which her sweet and loving grandfather left with her long before they left the Chentian clan.

Lai—being the supreme-commander of security—made sure to send the scouts on missions towards the southwest and deep west... these scouts never stopped going on similar missions for months! just to make sure that no beast-wave would take their caravan by surprise. However... these complicated procedures only slowed-down the caravan and delayed the convoy way more than it should've been on the original-schedule of this journey! after three months the trade-caravan only managed to cross seventy-percent of the journey which is a two-million kilometers of travel... that’s the separating distance between pearl-city and mercenary-city which is famously known as pearl-road. Still... repelling a dozen or so of the smallest beasts-waves—which their trade-caravan had no way of avoiding—resulted in Wei's caravan suffering some casualties of its own and its guarding-escort fell into an endless-cycle of exhaustion after everyone spent many sleepless nights and days fighting these maddened and suicidal-beasts and engaging their small-waves in reckless skirmishes which they couldn't avoid facing head-on! the weakest and faintest howl of a stray-dog would cause these people to jump-out from their sleep or rest and search with extreme-panic for their weapons or... be rudely awakened from their meditations after hearing it... every spirit-cultivator was diligently using every second of their free-time trying to refill their spent spirit-energy—which has been already been spent almost to complete-exhaustion—however... the mental-strain was making everyone within this trade-caravan very-edgy and extremely-nervous. Gradually with time... no small-chats happened between the guards anymore and the air became heavy under this looming pressure of possible death—which can happen once a slightly bigger beast-wave does manage to find their trade-caravan, the mood was too stifling and these people were practically struggling under this terrible-anxiety which filled their days with maddening-worry that kept increasing daily.

..........

From Lin’s perspective... his stay within the world of light this time was both very short and very pleasing! a short-duration which the boy enjoyed being alone by himself within the comfort of the quietest and brightest yet above all else... it’s the calmest room in the whole spirit-world. During his stay within this world of light... there’s been no other thought inside the great-sage's mind other than... light itself and how calming and peaceful it’s making him feel! during this stay... Lin truly felt like he’s riding these gentle and free rays of light... a carefree-ride which took him on a transcending-journey above all elements and systems of cultivation. However... once the boy began to immerse himself on this joy of being carried by light he heard something.

“Fang Bo. Stop bullying Sun... eat together or starve together! honestly you two are such a pain. Humph.”

“Snort!... growl!...”

Lin heard it clearly while being within this world of light... Bo An scolding the two beasts with a harsh tone of voice—which resembled a mother who had enough with her squabbling-kids—then another sound of Sun snorting and Bo An's grey-puppy exchanging dislike for each other followed the young-lady! then... that pure and rare joyful-feeling of riding rays of light instantly vanished once the boy became distracted by these voices... the great-sage got transferred back towards his soul-world a split-second after these voices distracted him and saw Ming waking-up from his nap and getting-up to stand on his two feet. However... something on his soul-clone seemed different! the look within these eyes seems very different... Ming did seem very easy-going and fun outwardly on the exterior but... the eyes of the deadly-sin of pride usually and normally had this deep and soul-ingrained arrogance and superiority-complex whenever it looked at everyone else! except for when Ming looks at Lin... during all of their conversations Ming would shed all his arrogance and pride then replace them with a gaze of love and adoration which the boy always found it creepy and uncomfortable. Right now... the look in the eyes of his soul-clone is both strong and hardened with extreme self-confidence! the great-sage sensed how this gaze is devoid from unhealthy-feelings and are full of respect and excitement yet these emotions are held in-place with a firm hand of self-control.

“Which one of the six are you?” Lin asked his soul-clone while using his soul-sense to take a look at the material-world around his body. Once he did... the boy found himself layed-down on a huge and comfortable-bed which took almost a third of the space of this slightly narrow and small carriage! Bo An is really next to him and sitting on a comfortable chair next to the window and hugging her knees... the young-girl glared towards her grey wolf who threatened Sun by snaring and revealing his canines to express his displeasure since they both have to eat from the same bowl—which is a bowl of an exaggerated-size by the way, once the two beasts found no way the girl would actually allow them to eat separately they—Sun and Fang Bo—buried the hatchet between them and began to eat together despite their great distaste for one another.

“Take your guess. Ming has already lost his free-opportunity—that we decided to give him from the good of our hearts and allowed him to effortlessly get—to be your companion, however... once you drank that turquoise-liquid his fate was sealed.” Lin's soul-clone smiled when it heard the boy's question then crossed its arms before the soul-clone admitted that the deadly-sin—which is currently driving that soul-clone—isn't Ming who’s originally known as the deadly-sin of pride.

“So it means that... you're either greed, wrath, sloth, gluttony and—hopefully not right now—lust. Right?” The great-sage scratched his cheek with a finger when he spoke his mind to this—newly-arrived—deadly-sin! then... Lin continued to speak once he received a nod of confirmation from this strong-eyed and confident soul-clone : “Wrath? the look in your eyes just fluctuated slightly when I said the name! that's currently the best guess I have really.” While shrugging his shoulders the boy gave this answer.

“Wrong,” While shaking its head and donning an amused smirk on its face... Lin's soul-clone spoke then continued to say : Go-on... take another guess!” Then it wiggled its eyebrows up and down while looking mischievously at the great-sage.

“Oh no! lust?” Lin remembered how Ming once said that lust would naughtily prank the group of deadly-sins just for fun! however... didn’t he also say that it wouldn’t possess the vessel of a male? because... it’s gunning after the boy’s virtuosity. Quite frankly... the great-sage wants the deadly-sin of lust to surface last of all the six deadly-sins currently remaining within his body.

“Ding ding ding! however... you’re still wrong chief. Hehe... honestly! didn’t Ming tell you before that lust would never choose the body of a male? even if it’s just a soul-body... that sister of ours would never budge on her aim, you're the "ultimate-goal" after all,” that soul-clone intentionally gave Lin an unnecessary-scare before continuing to say : “Take another guess. I think you'll get it right this time... you’ve narrowed it down from five possibilities to just three.” Then it snickered faintly when it noticed how Lin glared at it.

“Greed?” The boy was met with another shake of the head from his soul-clone once he guessed again and squinted at it... the great-sage felt like this one—deadly-sin—is intentionally toying with him! Lin said : “You're not sloth or gluttony... right?” After asking... the boy walked towards his soul-clone and hugged it when the soul-clone calmly nodded once again to confirm the hypothesis of the great-sage while grinning widely.

It was then that Lin said : “From now on. You're Gang. Brother of Lin, Lily, Ming... you know everything about the rest of the gang! former Wrath... welcome to the circus of my life.” The boy let-go of his soul-clone and pushed it away at an arm's length to admire this third member of the deadly-sins with his eyes from top to bottom and all the way back up! this one... didn't shy-away like Lily—when she’s met with intimate gestures from the great-sage—or... blush in a deep-pink color on the face like Ming whenever he’s under one of Lin’s serious-gazes. Gang just raised his head up and puffed-out his chest then stared right-back at the boy’s soul-clone with the same pair of strong and confident eyes.

“Heh. Gang it’s then... you can go-on and check what’s going-on outside this place, I’ll handle things here while you fill us out on what happened when we were asleep,” Gang said then sat cross-legged on the surface of the golden water to meditate on the soul-strengthening technique right away! however... before the great-sage separated his awareness to leave the soul-world he heard Gang continue to say : “From here-on... you shouldn't get distracted by others anymore, we need to get stronger fast or... our siblings would really start causing trouble! especially Ming... it took all of us giving it our "everything" just to calm him down after he was sent back. So... I’m here to smoothen and quicken things for their arrival, now that I delivered their message... you know what we need to do, just order me if you need my assistance with anything.”

“I'm working on it already! they just need to have... a bit more patience.” Lin left that answer before his awareness exited the soul-world while feeling another headache once the boy thought about the matter of the six deadly-sins which are still trapped somewhere inside his body! or... maybe it’s the soul.

“Purr!...” Once the great-sage opened his eyes he heard the sound of Sun—which was the first one to notice Lin’s awakening, the red-tiger jumped towards its best-friend and willingly left its share of delicious meat to Fang Bo! the winged-tiger quickly transformed into a small and very adorable orange-kitten then showered its buddy with repeated licks which are full of its saliva... Sun was generously covering the boy’s face with his body while raising his tail fully-erect like an antenna.

“Sun has been really worried for you... he always refuses to leave your side, not even once did he allowed you to leave his sight while you slept! and... he did a really good job by ascending to the peak of the demonic-realm, you should reward him with many treats since he’s been such a good friend... and repay him by taking good care of him in the future.” Bo An smiled when she saw the boy's red-tiger finally release its heavy and hidden emotions of extreme worry—which burdened and concerned this beautiful and loyal beast, the young-lady of the Chentian clan told the great-sage about the everlasting-loyalty of his tamed-beast while getting-up from her seat and going towards him to sit next to Lin on the bed. When the girl helped Lin raise his upper-body from a sleeping-position into a half-sitting half-reclining position... the boy found his face stuffed into the comfortable-skin of Bo An's undeveloped-chest while the girl was busy placing some of the bed-pillows behind his back! the breathe—which his body reflexively took once she pulled him towards her chest—was filled with the scent of the girl’s body... and the great-sage couldn’t help but think that 'she smells really good' even her choice of perfume is compatible with Bo An’s "fiery-personality" that scent seeped-through his olfactory-nerve then deeper within the nose extremely forcefully! the smell of her body really provoked his senses and Lin remembered his twin-sister Lily. How is that "little-critter" doing? is she behaving herself during his absence? like... she should! hopefully... everything is alright back in the village. However, what’s more important to ask right now is... why can't the boy move his body? did that turquoise-liquid banish Ming while crippling Lin’s body? hopefully... that scenario isn’t true. The great-sage would really hate to waste time fixing the nerve-system of this physical-body! because... the required tools are quite delicate and without Lily’s assistance it would become much harder to guaranteed the results.

“Why can't I move? and how long was I asleep for? why’s everyone looking... so gloomy and weighed-down by despair?” Lin asked Bo An after using the ability of soul-link to communicate—because moving his jaw is currently difficult with Sun all-over his face, then... the boy spread his soul-sense a bit further outwardly to look for Wei and the rest. The great-sage found the four spirit-grandmasters sitting with a few dozen strangers within one of the extra-large and extra-luxurious carriages! that extravagantly-big carriage is pulled by a dozen horned-bulls... each one of these beasts is a fine-quality beast. These horned-bulls are strapped in threes-lines and four bulls on each row... meanwhile that carriage is located at the head and very front of the caravan! however... all those people—stranger and familiar faces alike—inside the carriage are currently frowning deeply. 'Wei. What's wrong?' Lin latched a soul-link on the fatty then asked... meanwhile Tang Wei—who jumped from his seat after hearing the boy's message ring inside his head—immediately left the luxurious-carriage in a hurry! which made the people within the carriage stare at each other in... befuddlement.

Lai gave the fatty who ran towards Lin's carriage like an agile-cheetah despite his extreme-overweight—which worsened because of the merchant’s anxiety and nightmares—a hard and silent look then the blade-user gave Wang a side-glance which meant : "keep the merchants and captains of the guard-units here in the carriage until we return... especially the mercenaries!" before running after his young-master Wei accompanied by Zhang.

“Fellow cultivators. I believe our troubling issue can be overcome... if we increased our vigilance that is! don't tell me that you really... want to turn tail now? now! when we're almost within the territories of mercenary-city... why venture that far within pearl-road just to turn back? the caravan can't go back and cross one-million and four-hundred thousand kilometers, we can push forward just a few hundred-thousands of kilometers... we could reach the safety of mercenary-city. Only if... we unite our efforts, and work together as one. Please do think it... and be reasonable while making you decision! the situation requires it... we need to be wise and cast-away our differences for the greater-good.” Wang said then looked towards the few dozen people currently within the carriage... a few of them are hired-mercenaries—hired by Wei and other merchants—currently playing the role of captains and escorting their employers! these captains are responsible for protecting trade-caravans through the journey on pearl-road... the rest of strangers—currently attending this meeting with Tang Wei—are merchants who ended-up deciding to join their trade-caravans with Wei's trade-caravan once they realized that... this journey isn't safe at all and it isn’t wise to be traveling alone on the pearl-road anymore. A few haughty-merchants immediately demanded that Wei returns "right now " so that they can speak with the one who’s "in-charge" and not some "third-rate" subordinate! other merchants—which are slightly timid—nodded discreetly in approval after hearing Wang's suggestion... while a stubborn few threatened to take their men and leave immediately. However... the handsome-man completely these "idiots" simply because... the ice-cultivator welcomes the idea of getting rid of these troublesome morons who were responsible for delaying the rest many times before! their nonsense has been unbelievable and their uselessness has been confirmed... these few individuals are "deadweight" to this union of caravans.

......

Back to Lin and Bo An’s carriage.

“Grandpa said that you wouldn't be able to move once you awake after drinking the potion of thought-rebirth, so... it’s normal to feel the way you’re now, don't worry... it isn’t permanent or anything! the feeling of your body would come back to you, albeit... gradually or... somewhat slowly over the days. You've been unconscious for about three months now, and these people look gloomy and in despair because... they suffered from some small-scale attacks of beast-waves! they had to join the forces of their caravans to resist the increasing attacks from the beasts.” Bo An smiled and played with her fingers through Lin's much longer hair... it really grew longer compared to the first time the two of them met in the renting-station—and the young-lady of the Chentian clan likes it better when the boy’s hair is long—communicating through the ability of soul-link is so much easier than speaking the words directly indeed. The girl lowered her head to kiss the cheeks of the great-sage—like she has always been doing secretly for three months now—the motion came naturally for Bo An because... she’s really used to doing it all the time! however... this time the young-lady of the Chentian clan blushed slightly once she remembered that Lin is currently awake. The embarrassment of this situation made the girl give the boy a nasty-glare! because—according to her—the great-sage must’ve been the reason that caused Bo An to "somehow" forget that important detail and clumsily reveal that secret. Right! that certainly must be the reason... indeed. “I already told Cheng Wei that... if I see the situation getting dangerous? then... I’ll take you and leave them. He immediately agreed and was seemed extremely delighted to hear it! shouldn't it be... him looking to escape by himself while leaving his subordinates behind? instead of choosing to give that rare-chance to survive this crisis to some orphan—which they found while on some island during one of their journeys, don't mistake me now... I like the idea of them being protective of you, honestly that's why I didn't move ahead of their caravan and leave them behind. If the fatty didn’t care about your well-being? then... I would've ditched the group like long ago! I thought... since they’re loyal to little-Ming, then maybe I should give them a "hand" before I take you and escape. Of course... that’s only if things got really, really dangerous. Well... that's all I have to say, like always... it feels the best and calmest when I’m hugging you.” Bo An decided that—since Lin already saw and witnessed her kissing him then—there's no harm in the boy actually discovering about the rest of the "things" which the little-girl is used to do to the boy after she spent three months staying together with the kid... after laying-down next to the great-sage the young-lady of the Chentian clan hugged Lin completely towards her body then leaned her head at his chest! Bo An naturally glued her body to Lin while sending him a briefing of the few and rare conversations between herself and Wei during the past three months... however... the boy sensed that this girl is intentionally avoiding eye-contact despite acting courageously by hugging and kissing him without asking for permission first.

Bo An sensed the existence of a secret within this group after mingling-with the four "misfits" of the Cheng clan! not only was there honesty within Wei's worry about Ming but also the fatty’s care for the boy’s safety and health was... great. The rest of the misfits were acting almost the same and seemed to be treating this little-boy like he’s some sort of "treasure" a precious thing—which would cause their end if they happened to lose or damage, in the beginning the young-girl suspected that the great-sage is some relative with the misfits since these guys care so much about the boy! but, later afterwards... Fang Bo told the young-lady of the Chentian clan that Ming's scent is kind-of special and hard to disguise... the boy’s scent on the bodies of these four spirit-grandmasters is really faint. It’s been that way ever-since they first met Bo An back in the renting-station! which proves the story these four has been telling about Ming and how they did find the boy somewhere west on one of the western-islands... just a few days before they met Bo An in pearl-harbor. Their story seems solid... every fact confirmed affirms the truth within their narration! however... Bo An just couldn’t buy-into all of their words... something is awry within this situation and she’s going to unearth it some way or another. She just needs to be patient and wait for them to slip and expose themselves to her... 'Listen Bo Bo... when people are comfortable, or... feel confident about their success. They relax their guard... and you know how vulnerable they can become once they think they’ve already won.' That’s the lesson which her grandpa Ao taught Bo An before pushing her to enter her first juniors-competition.

Besides her suspicions about Ming’s identity. After Bo An spent days and months’ worth of time sleeping right-next to Lin or... directly hugging the poor kid even while spirit-cultivating! Bo An's spirit-cultivation actually increased by two-times faster just because she’s doing it while being next to the boy... without relying-on any spirit-gathering formations or consuming any spirit-resources. Despite the lack of these assisting-factors... the young-girl still confirmed the massive-increase of her spirit-cultivation! once the young-lady of the Chentian clan used a spirit-gathering formation—which is of the lowest grade and simplest formation-runes and inscriptions and fed its nodes with spirit-crystals of the lowest grade, the increase of her spirit-cultivation—which was already going on a massive and insane-speed with the boy’s help—increased to double the normal speed of the cultivation-sessions when Bo An isn’t relying-on and spirit-gathering formation. And... within these three months the young-girl succeeded in ascending a whole stage on her spirit-cultivation! right now she’s at the major-realm of spirit-grandmaster exactly at seventh-stage... Bo An is already halfway-done on her work of filling the seventh-tank of spirit-energy inside her dantian to reach the eighth-stage as a spirit-grandmaster. That’s why—along with the passing of days—Ming became some sort of a "treasure" to the young-lady of the Chentian as well! a rare treasure which could assist her in increasing her spirit-cultivation—which was beginning to prove troublesome for Bo An lately before her encounter with the kid on the renting-station—just by using the boy as a... pillow. How simple, relaxing, and comfortable is that? it would be incomparably-beneficial to any spirit-cultivator to have this Ming! maybe... that’s why the four misfits treasure the kid so much despite being just an orphan which they happened to pick from somewhere whilst doing one of their trade-journeys. Honestly... the young-girl doesn’t feel comfortable in handing this boy over to anyone after spending time with him! especially since Bo An’s comprehensions towards cultivating spirit-energy has become so very easy to understand lately... particularly whenever the young-lady of the Chentian is meditating in a very strange and inappropriate way. Somehow—just by being close to the boy, Bo An would feel like she’s at peace with the dao and the elements whenever Ming is nearby! spirit-cultivation has never been this easy... the temptation was strong and the opportunity was so close at hand and could never be easier. Since nothing is going to harm her in trying... the young-girl began experimenting-with the unconscious-kid! first... Bo An tried attempting to spirit-cultivate far away from the boy then gradually shrunk the distance between the two of them until she practically hugged Ming whenever she spirit-cultivated. Later afterwards... the young-girl became used to getting-rid of hers and the boy’s clothes whenever she’s in the mood to spirit-cultivate or get herself some sleep! she already seen everything anyway... who do you think is the one who path the kid and cleans his clothes for him? humph... call it rent if you feel like it. Being someone of such huge-talent and someone who’s blessed to have all the help and care from her grandpa... Bo An really wants to become strong just to make her "hero" and best grandfather in the world the most proud! however... the young-girl always tend-to compare herself with those of the like of Mia and Katherine and the rest who achieved great-attainments while being in a similar age. That endless-struggle with ancestors—which are currently extremely old or long-dead—who accomplished greatly during their junior years! or... geniuses of the current-era who achieved better records compared to the ancestors of bygone-eras... has always shadowed the competitive-personality of Bo An because she’s been treating her life like some sort of race. However... after she grew-up and got to see and understand a tiny-bit of the spirit-world... the young-lady of the Chentian clan who felt like admitting her inferiority to these so-called supreme and eternal-geniuses! because... no-matter what era these people lived they’d always shine the brightest and surmount everyone else. It was then that Bo An met Ming... the ease of her transition from the sixth-stage to the seventh-stage of the spirit-grandmaster realm! then afterwards the young-girl gained half a stage more... the lightning-quick elevation in her spirit-cultivation ignited the fighting-spirit of the young-lady of the Chentian clan and she focused more and more on her spirit-cultivation during these three months. Just filling the dantian with liquid spirit-energy while being in the spirit-grandmaster realm wouldn't help spirit-cultivators ascend another stage—like in the major-realms before the grandmaster-realm, they need to understand the mysteries of their martial-spirit and the way it relates with their natural-affinities of spirit-energy itself! to control their martial-spirit to the finest-detail and learn how to use it best and augment its powers with spirit-energy... because the following major-realm is the tyrant-realm. The spirit-energy that’s used by spirit-tyrants is a grade higher in purity and quality in rank and much stronger in both offense and defense because... it’s in a crystalized-form! meanwhile... spirit-grandmasters only use spirit-energy in the liquidized-form—which has to be purified with each stage higher within the grandmaster-realm—until it shows signs of crystallization at the higher-stages of that major-realm then within the peak-perfection of the grandmaster realm the spirit-energy end its last step of crystallization then spirit-cultivators ascend successfully to the major-realm of spirit-tyrant. What about the rest of major-realms which come before these two major-realms? well... let’s begin with the first two major-realms! spirit-apprentices and spirit-disciples do use spirit-energy of different intensity yet of the same category which is spirit-energy in the gaseous-form. Meanwhile... cultivators within the major-realm of spirit-master do use spirit-energy in the liquid-form similar to those within the grandmaster-realm! however... their spirit-energy is considered the weakest type of spirit-energy in the liquid-form. Main-point here is... if Bo An's control over her martial-spirit within the grandmaster-realm isn't flawless? then... the spirit-energy inside her body would harm the young-girl’s martial-spirit instead once she ascends to the tyrant-realm because spirit-energy is much harder to control when it undergoes the process of crystallization! to have such a clear and obvious crack on her foundations means... more delay on her spirit-cultivation and furthermore delays from future breakthroughs. And every spirit-cultivator knows that spirit-cultivation is a long-marathon where people’s head-start always matters just like the last and final dash before reaching the finish-line... the further they go with that mild-sprint in the very beginning the easier it would be to breath the fresh-air ahead of the rest while those behind them could only take what those in-front of them leave to those in their wake! so to claim a share of every opportunity that she gets to find while facing others from her generation... means less time wasted in the future to look for spirit-resources. If Bo An got delayed in the tyrant-realm later? then... her current-records would stop being added into the pages of history anymore! the young-lady of the Chentian clan would forever be remembered as... another genius whose talents began to fade into mediocrity once she reached the age of her early twenties or something. The young-girl already had complete confidence in herself that she can reach the peak-perfection of the grandmaster-realm at the age of eighteen! and... if lucky? Bo An was confident that she might actually be able to reach the tyrant-realm before her twenties. Yes... that would’ve been nothing if compared to Mia or Katherine—who were already at the peak-perfection of the grandmaster-realm at the age of eighteen—but... everyone have their advantages and disadvantages! not to mention that... these self-predictions from the young-lady of the Chentian clan were made before she met Ming. The issue of her spirit-foundation has been unquestionably the most essential and crucial-matter for Bo An... she doesn't want to be delayed until she reaches her thirties in the future before ascending to the major-realm of spirit-lord! then—hopefully—she would get to reach the major-realm of spirit-king before becoming forty years old... following so Bo An wants to reach the major-realm of spirit-emperor before hitting the age of fifty. Just like her role-model—which is her grandpa Ao, however... right now the existence of Ming just being near-by the young-girl has made Bo An sure to reach the peak-perfection of the grandmaster-realm by the age of eighteen years old like... at the latest! and... most certainly the tyrant-realm would be achieved before her nineteenth birthday. The difference of one year would mean much better records than her grandpa Ao! every time Bo An broke one of her grandfather's records the famous beast-tamer would smile widely and laugh loudly... and brag proudly about the amazing achievements of his lovely granddaughter.

“Wei is here.” Lin decided not to say anything about his origin to Bo An—despite feeling how extremely eager she’s for an opportunity to get to know him better, then... distracted the young-girl since this is currently his safest option.

“Young-lady. Can I come-in?” Before Bo An got to say anything to complain about the boy's deliberate evasion and not answering any of her confusions, Wei’s voice could be heard from outside the carriage. The fatty’s voice sounded anxious and nervous when he requested another visit.

“We're not done here, you and these misfits are hiding something from me and... I don't like it! humph,” Bo An smiled while rubbing noses with Lin and sent him back these words while staring directly from up close at his golden pupils. Then the young-girl left the bed and returned to her seat and said : “Come in.” And right afterwards the door of the carriage was pushed open by Tang Wei who seemed at a hurry to push his big-mass of fat into the space of this carriage! however, once the narrow-eyes of this merchant fell on the great-sage’s face and confirmed the existence of a pair of opened eyes... Wei ran towards the boy and hugged him tightly. The fatty seemed on the verge of crying and ignored the beastly-growl which is directed towards him from Fang Bo because Wei almost stepped on the grey-wolf’s tail when he ran towards the great-sage! and didn’t care about Sun's meows of frustration because this fatty dared to include him as well as Lin in that bear-hug. The merchant’s mind and thoughts were already drifting towards the main cause of this whole situation, the potion of thought rebirth! how long does it take for people to wake-up after drinking that wonderful creation of alchemy? some say... the maximum amount of "dormancy-time" would be the current age of those who drink it... that’s the side-effect of drinking that potion. While some say... the side-effect of the dormancy-time would be less than half the current age of those who drink it! however... in the naked truth of things it’s unknown. The side-effect of that potion has never been calculated or measured with certain standards throughout history! so... if Lin had actually ended-up wasting six more years of his life in a state of deep-slumbering and peaceful-sleep? then... his grandpa Ming might blame Wei and the rest in being the ones directly responsible for wasting years of the boy's life. Years which the kid could accumulate spirit-resources and wondrous-treasures plus extremely valuable-experience! drinking that potion is the main-factor in delaying all these accomplishments. Even when the potion of thought-rebirth is incredibly-rare and perfectly-tailored for someone like Lin to drink? especially in this time! senior Ming could possibly be of the stubborn and overprotective sort of people and trouble the five-clans. Because before that soul-keeper left his grandson with the group... that senior Ming "specifically" told them to do what? "interfere" with anyone of those who are trying to overstep their boundaries from the senior-generations! and to protect his precious Lin... yet during the boy’s first and second encounter with those from the senior-generations what happened? the kid’s space-ring was searched! then later afterwards he almost got bullied by a spirit-lord if it wasn’t for Bo An’s intervention then it might’ve actually became true... then in the end—once the brat left their sight for a short-while—Lin was forced to drink the potion of thought-rebirth. Yes... that’s something which is extremely-helpful for the boy! what’s the harm here then? it’s because they were told later afterwards how the kid underwent an interrogation from inspector Huang... that interrogation aimed to uncover the whereabouts of the water-pearl or information related to it. Tang Wei felt extreme gratitude and disbelief when he heard from Bo An how Lin cleared the useless interrogation—which her grandfather insisted on being a witness when it happened—the reason behind the fatty’s gratitude is because... the boy somehow actually managed to give inspector Huang wrong answers despite the other side-effect of the potion of thought-rebirth! which is... telling the truth about the person’s deepest secrets until the eyelids are closed—of course only the person who personally handed the potion gets this privilege—still despite all odds... the kid could help Wei's group escape from being considered possible-suspects—probably the primary-suspects in the eyes of the city-lord—who does own a water-pearl. The reason behind the merchant’s disbelief is because... how could Lin do it? how could the boy prevent the potion’s side-effect—which is telling the truth—from affecting him? the kid just protected the four of them from a hidden-dagger! to top that great and practically impossible-achievement... Lin actually prevented Wei and ancestor Jianyu’s plans from being exposed to a person of authority within the cultivation-alliance. The fatty understands that this boy handed him and the five-clans another great-debt! the kid saved their lives and their wealth plus the five-clan’s... life-line. Which only affirmed Wei's previous-intentions in being the first to do everything within his powers to help Lin in the future! from now... the merchant is going to be the boy’s eternal-ally until the fatty’s death. The water-pearl can not only help his ancestor Jianyu heal some wounds and injuries of his soul-source but also the items itself is a natural-treasure which is of incomparable-value! because-of its mild-nature when healing soul-afflictions... and its renewability because after the water-pearl undergoes some submerging within high-quality spirit-water the powers of the treasure would be recharged and can be used again and again.

“L-... Ming is finally awake! hah... haha... good. I’m going to... uh, deliver Wang these good news.” After arriving at the doors of Lin's carriage with Lai and seeing the boy awake. Zhang almost spilled the secret in his excitement however Lai’s intervention saved the simple man when the blade-user elbowed him on his side! the action stopped the strong man in time before he got to say the boy's true name in front of a stranger. After a short-pause Zhang corrected himself while awkwardly laughing then turned on his heels and ran away from Lin's carriage after giving an excuse of wanting to tell his best-friend these happy and joyful news! it’s after the simple man left... that Lai and Wei wiped-out imaginary sweat from their foreheads.

Meanwhile once he was quite a distance away from the boy’s carriage. “You fool! you almost ruined everything.”  Zhang thumped his chest strongly with a fist while scolding himself about earlier. However... the strong man was very excited since Lin woke-up! during the past three months Zhang has been treating each day like... a "god-sent" opportunity. A chance where the simple man could work harder on shortening the gap between him and the boy! whenever he isn't on-duty the strong man would spirit-cultivate or train his physique like a... hell-bent maniac. During the fights with the beast-waves Zhang actually attempted using whatever techniques that he could learn from the sparring-match he had with the great-sage on the ship! and the simple man was practically stunned after experiencing how easy could he win these fights with the beasts... not even once during these fights has the strong man been exhausted of his physical-strength or spirit-energy beyond limit. Before learning from Lin... Zhang would just shower whatever enemy that’s facing him with mighty and forceful-attacks with complete disregard for his stamina or spirit-tank! such high expenditure was like speeding-object operated by combustion yet the throttle-pedal is always maximized... there’s no efficiency whatsoever in the simple man’s fighting-style. Yet now after a single sparring-match... Zhang would rely-on an advance which is sneaky and use whatever means to save his powers! while using the quickest ways possible to get rid or overcome his enemies.

.......

Back within the carriage. Bo An did notice the slight stammer when Zhang spoke and Lai’s action afterwards yet she kept her mouth shut and only gave Lin a knowing-look because the previous incident between the two men confirmed her speculations about there being a secret in this group which is related to the boy.

“It’s good that you're awake. Things are getting dangerous on this pearl-road and all of us are sick with worry.” Wei said that aloud and Lai nodded towards Lin when he noticed him looking his way. The blade-user actually smiled faintly while releasing a long-sigh of relief inwardly! simply because... if senior Ming the soul-keeper felt dissatisfied after discovering that his adorable—not!—grandson has been forced to drink the potion of thought-rebirth? then... this boy's grandpa might’ve ended their weakened five-clans in a heartbeat just to vent a little. The sad thing about this imaginary-situation of Lai is... nobody would dare speak for the five-clans or plead mercy for them in that scenario! not even the cultivation-alliance or any of the great-sects would dare offend such a formidable soul-cultivator.

“Is it that dangerous? is that why despite spending three months of travelling... your trade-caravan only managed to cross seventy-percent of the total-distance of this journey!” Lin asked while spreading his soul-sense at maximum-range. Towards the left-hand-side—which is the north direction—of the long convoy of carriages there exists an expanse of land which is covered in nothing but huge and massive trees! that strange forest does seem to extend and stretch endlessly from east to west within the boy’s view of soul-sense... the reason the great-sage found that forest strange is because Lin's soul-sense would scatter like some weak buff of smoke after moving fifty kilometers north within this forest. The boy couldn’t invade the forest any further than fifty kilometers inside the forest with his soul-sense? 'Since soul-sense wouldn’t work... soul-gaze,' The great-sage thought and immediately activated the ability of the third-eye. 'Hmmm! something is making it hard for me.' After attempting once... Lin stopped trying after confirming that he wouldn't lose any of the soul-force—which he spent on activating soul-gaze inside the forest—however... the troublesome thing is the feedback after activating the ability of soul-gaze because everything is so messy and chaotic! it feels like... as if something within this great-forest is intentionally jamming-out the boy’s beam of soul-sense and confusing him. 'I should probably check that odd forest later.' The great-sage thought while redirecting his focus towards the opposite direction. There towards the right-hand-side—which is the south direction—of the long convoy of carriages there’s a stretching-land which is composed-of mountains and hills mostly while there’s sporadic patches of land in-between mountains and hills which are filled-with trees or streams of water! the green spots do have thriving-foliage and trees which vary in branch-thickness and height or distance between main-trunks... meanwhile the branching rivers, streams, and small-creeks which are trekking through these mountains does seem to create a very confusing geography to those who wish to navigate that complex-territory. Thankfully Lin didn’t discover anything hindering his soul-sense when he sent it towards the south and south-west directions however there’s like... innumerable-beasts within these territories—which the boy just scanned with a sweep of soul-sense—the weakest of these beasts is in the realm of ferocious-beast! the numbers of beasts in that direction does seem uncountable say the least... while his soul-sense extended further towards the south... the earlier predictions of the great-sage were confirmed quickly when he discovered massive-number of demonic-beasts which resembled an army. Seeing these beasts standing orderly in rows and columns while far behind these demonic-beasts there’s more rows and columns which are made-up from much stronger beasts! just the sight of this huge gathering of devil-beasts by itself made Lin feel a cold-shiver on the lower part of his spine... when the boy sensed the collective beastly-aura of bloodlust he immediately felt some sort of dizzy spell. The great-sage immediately retracted his soul-sense to a safe distance away from the army of beasts and thought : 'These beasts are fully-gathered and mobilized! they’re on their way to stampede this whole caravan... nothing can withstand the full-brunt of such army without proper defense, the life of everyone here is already at great-risk,' Then the boy deliberated whether or not should he use the ability of soul-gaze towards the south, 'Maybe I shouldn’t... I might be at risk if I do! just being close to this army with my soul-sense made me feel dizzy, who knows? maybe if I choose to stubbornly and ignorantly push further within these mountains, I would just end-up being completely knocked-out. This situation requires me more to assist Wei and these people in escaping this crisis.'

“There's a huge-army of beasts about two-hundred and fifty kilometers towards our right and seems to be aiming for our convoy!” Lin warned Wei, Lai, and Bo An at once about the army of beasts that he just discovered then sent them a live-stream of what his soul-sense has revealed.

The faces of Wei and Lai immediately became pale-white from fear... meanwhile Bo An frowned upon seeing the enormity of this beast-wave! the previous beast-waves—which hit this caravan and failed to overcome the defenses of the cultivators in it—could only be considered attacks of a disorderly-militia and the fights can only be considered small-skirmishes if compared to what’s going to happen if this massive-army of orderly-beasts managed to hit the convoy. The previous attacks from the beasts had a few beasts who were in the demonic-realm to lead the ferocious-beasts—which the main-body of the small-scale beast-waves are formed from—and rarely was there one or two beasts within the beast-waves at the realm of a devil-beast! however... right now just a simple and glossary-glance at the number of demonic and devil-beasts within that beast-army means... there's a certainty of ancestral-beasts being within this massive beast-wave and tyrannical-beasts being within the higher ranks of the beasts’ army. Which means that there’s a higher ranked beast currently leading all of these beasts and directing the army towards their convoy! the young-girl suspected that this fatty’s actions of joining-forces with other caravans must’ve been the reason why this beast-wave targeted them in the first place however... the young-lady of the Chentian clan didn’t speak her mind because these matters didn’t matter to her. She only cares about the boy because she’s interested in him and curious about his background! plus... her grandfather actually choose to give the kid the potion of thought-rebirth—which she believed that it’s going to be hers one day instead—and that makes him some kind of junior-disciple of hers or... a clansman! or... a distant relative. Anyway... Bo An wouldn’t hesitate to rely-on the help of her trump-cards to assist her in escaping the attack of this beast-wave! or... directly ask for help from her grandpa's beast-companion—which has been left with the young-girl by her grandfather—to make sure that she's safe and sound during her journey all the way back to the Chentian clan.

“Is that the limit of your soul-sense?” Liao Lai asked while clenching his fists to stop his hands from shaking! the blade-user has never been one to shy-away from a fight before however... there isn’t going to be any fight at all if that swarm managed to close-in on their caravan. It’s simply going to be... a one-sided massacre that’s all.

“Actually I can. But, I won’t! maybe you noticed how the areas deep within these mountains seems to be very rich with some kind-of a "negative-aura" specifically bloodlust, that’s something which isn't pleasant for me to be around... especially so when I’m using my soul-sense to explore. Anyway... I doubt that my abilities wouldn’t have been sufficient to cover the whole army of beasts! from the look of it, it’s going to be a gigantic number of beasts gathered within that body. So... let me summarize to you what I managed to estimate before the aura of bloodlust beat me into retreating, from about ten-million beasts there’s about sixty-five percent of these beasts which seems to be in the realm of ferocious-beast,” The boy gave the two men a moment to think before continuing : “Don’t celebrate just yet, there’s about thirty-percent of these beasts which seems to be just as strong as Sun! or maybe they’re... just a tiny little bit weaker than him but, not by much. Meanwhile... the rest of the beasts which I got to see were stronger, much stronger actually! the weakest of them seems to be just as strong as Bo An's companion over there, so... there’s some serious threat coming our way. Imagine more than a thousand copies of Fang Bo... aiming for our lives, way more! you need to make these carriages move immediately and these mounts run like mad, just hope for the best because... if we delay things or happen to become delayed by the vanguard of this army? then... those who get to survive such an encounter should be thankful for their immense amount of luck.” The great-sage looked seriously towards Wei after sending this message to the audience of three.

“I’m sorry because I can’t stay with you any longer despite you just waking-up! I really... need to go! thank you Ming... the early heads-up and-”

“Just go! we can talk later.”

The boy interrupted the merchant’s message and Wei nodded then bowed slightly before hurrying to leave the carriage while being overcome with feelings of gratitude to this brother of his! meanwhile Lai silently followed after Wei and left the carriage however... the blade-user gave the great-sage one final look before exiting the carriage... he seemed too distracted by his own thoughts because he forgot to close the door, had they kept arguing with each and every one of these caravan owners for a day or two more? then... that dreadful beast-wave would've greatly shrunk the distance between them and charged the union of caravans while everyone is unaware. Liao Lai thought while releasing a sigh and gazing up at the sky... within the live-stream—which Lin shared with the three of them—these sneaky and sly beasts has been moving and advancing slowly and carefully! had their army maintained such a quiet and discreet approach towards the north while keeping the ranks in an orderly and organized shape? then... almost everyone within the convoy would certainly be doomed once they’re successfully encircled or cornered. Everyone within these caravans can only escape by going towards the east direction or backwards towards the west direction! towards the north there’s the eternal-forest and the unwelcoming and unforgiving elves who don’t like intruders within their territories... while towards the south is the beast-mountains where beasts rule everywhere and welcome every little "snack" that enters their lairs. Lai who took a few firm steps within the ninth-stage of the grandmaster-realm and managed to mend some of the flaws which he discovered hidden within his blade dao during the past few months... isn’t scared or frightened by any devil-beast or ancestral-beast at all because the blade-user is confident that with his current abilities—which has been refined and honed more than ever especially with him being so close to the tyrant-realm—he can handle confronting a low-grade tyrannical-beast! however... while Lai can individually stop a tyrannical-beast or a few ancestral-beasts by himself when a fight actually happens with the beast-army... there’s many other beasts which could steamroll the convoy or disrupt his rhythm. What comes afterwards is the blade-user being trapped within a circle of death and bloody fangs! then... the beasts would cut-off all of his ways towards survival and sever any chance he might’ve for a successful retreat which would practically insure that Lai is never going to leave the place he ever meets the army of beasts... alive. Beast-waves of the large-scale are frightening because of the innumerable amount of beasts inside the swarm—which resembles the waves of the ocean, when facing the formidable-dread of such army? the opponent would need to be at least two major-realms higher and stronger than the commander of the beasts to be able to protect themselves! because the suppressive aura of bloodlust could possibly affect the enemies of the beast-army and suppress their cultivation by a whole major-realm in most cases or... by two major-realms in rare-cases. Not to mention that... the main goal of whoever encounters such lethal-threat is to survive or escape! there’s no room for resistance in these situations because... doing so would equal throwing precious lives away. People would be required to be three-times faster than the vanguard of such army... just to escape these frightening and ghastly stampeding-limbs and hoofs or paws! especially when they’re... united.

.........

Back inside the carriage. Bo An smiled widely once the carriage returned to being vacant of strangers and devoid of intruders—which are in this case the friends of this boy, the young-girl closed the door of the carriage with a simple wave of her hand despite being far away from it! the great-sage sensed during that action of hers the girl actually sent a strand of transparent spirit-energy—which is somewhat weak and hard to be differentiated from neutral-energy—to push the door shut. Afterwards the young-lady of the Chentian clan squinted mischievously while looking at Lin from above because she’s currently firmly pressing his paralyzed-body underneath her own! then Bo An leaned further down slowly with her neck then rested her forehead on the boy’s own and stared deep into his eyes from as close as possible. “Hmmm... "L" huh!... let’s see. Are you... some kind of lord? no... that doesn't seem like it, the "L" here seemed like it’s more related to your personality. Like... uh-huh! I think I already got it.”

“You did!” The boy sent while admiring the girl’s beauty.

“Yes. It’s... the first letter of your true-name, you're no Ming, you’ve been disguising your identity from everyone all this time huh! you... naughty little thing. Quickly say it now, or else? I’ll take your precious first-kiss! then do more naughty things to you.” Bo An is taller than Lin and the boy's feet ended-up around her calves in that very intimate-position however... the young-girl is sure that the kid did grow a few more inches taller within these few months which he spent asleep! still... the mischievousness within her eyes didn't fool the great-sage because... the look inside these pair of eyes did reveal the fact that this young-lady of the Chentian clan has already took his "so-called" first-kiss many times before in his sleep.

“My fair lady... wait! at least wait until... I regain my control over my body, I bet it would feel awesome to kiss these delicate lips of yours. En... indeed! I think it would be like so much better than tasting the ripe-strawberries while enjoying the cool breeze on my neck in a calm night of spring, imagine hugging such beauty after spending a long day working hard... that’s the best kind of reward in my books. To press and squeeze... to lock and do sweaty stuff.” Lin sent Bo An while glancing slightly downwards at her rosy lips then lower towards the exposed skin of her chest! his words bold and filled with meanings... it seemed like he’s not only without care if Bo An took advantage of him during this state of being paralyzed and helpless but also the boy is feeling like dying from regret because he wouldn't feel a thing if some "action" happened between them.

Meanwhile Bo An was honestly taken-aback after receiving such blatant and straightforward dirty teases from the great-sage! simply because she didn’t expect such a flirty-attitude from Lin—which is too sudden and unexpected, the young-girl blushed red and she felt so happy and her heart began to dance and flutter inside her chest. Yet the young-lady of the Chentian felt some frustrations and annoyance at this kid because she sensed that Lin is intentionally aiming to distract her so that he wouldn’t have to tell her anything personal about himself! however... the more this kid acted secretive the more Bo An couldn’t stand the thought of it and felt like she should just open his chest to see for herself.

“Humph. Since you like it that much... then, I’m not giving you anything. Serves you right for keeping secrets from me. Humph, humph, humph! didn’t I give you a free mount the day we met? should I take that spotted deer-mule back? huh!”

“Wasn’t that a gift because you wanted to apologi-”

“Y-you... shut-up! didn’t I save you from elder Qiu’s storm-pressure? is that the way you repay me after saving you? should I’ve let him bully you back then? huh!”

“Wasn’t it wrong of him to bully a junior in the firs-”

“Y-you... sigh! I give-up. I’ll just stop asking.” Bo An’s act might seem perfect but the great-sage is seeing a lot of flaws! however... she’s doing quite a good job actually he’s honestly entertained by the theatrics.

“My fair lady... how can I make it up for you? how can I atone for my sins? the sight of your frown is breaking my heart into fragments! I fear for whatever is left of it... the wheels of emotion are grinding the shards into smithereens.” Lin revealed a panicked-look and swiveled his eyeballs within their sockets.

“Humph. Let it be grinded to oblivion then... I’m not forgiving you! not until you... stop hiding things, and tell big-sister everything, only then... will I forgive you and... give you a k...kiss.” Bo An flipped on her side next to Lin on bed and supported her head on her hand then puckered her lips while speaking which made it seem like Lin is the one who’s intent-on making advancements on her! not the other way around.

“Oh-no! only kisses? big-sister Bo An should be my dao-companion like... right now! that’s the least of what you should do, then you’re obligated to give me lots of small and cute babies in the near future. Just so you would know... I will not accept the ones who doesn’t look just as... adorable and charming, like you, yourself.” Lin felt like teasing Bo An some more and gave her a sad look which made him seem heartbroken! then rolled his eyes at the young-girl while wishing if he could pucker his lips too.

“Bfffft! I... never took you for a joker, but... so what if I become your dao-companion? just prove it to this lady with strength. Listen here silly... once you’re stronger than m-” Bo An laughed aloud and care-freely for a short-while before her daring-personality revealed itself when the young-girl refused to budge in the face of this boy who’s many years her junior! then... the young-lady suddenly realized that she missed something very important from the previous conversation—which Lin had with Wei and Lai—according to what Ming said earlier... not only is he able to use soul-sense but also that ability could extend to two-hundred and fifty kilometers of range. The unbelievable thing about this whole matter—which is unbelievable in itself to begin with—is that... according to what the boy said himself, this isn’t the maximum he could extend his soul-sense! however... Bo An is mistaken here because Lin meant that he could use the ability of soul-gaze and replace the ability of soul-sense to scout the beast-army. The young-girl missed the shocking truth about the powers of the great-sage because this beast-wave is great in size indeed. A moment later—after her words became choked within her throat—Bo An stared wide-eyed in silence at Lin who gave her a calm and confident look with these pair of golden-pupils.

“What if? I’m actually much stronger than you despite of my current condition! what if? I’ve always been stronger than you, like... from the moment we met. You never thought about that scenario, tsk... I’m being underestimated by my fair lady.” Once Lin noticed that Bo An has realized her simple mistake he wanted to tease her some more! however... when he asked these questions the boy sensed how the young-girl became seized-with some feelings of anxiousness and pure emotions of innocence. The great-sage began to worry slightly while thinking that he might’ve pushed his luck a bit far in this game. After all... between him and this young-lady of the Chentian clan there’s no feelings involved or a strong bond of friendship! they merely met once and—somehow here she’s sharing his private-space—after waking-up this is the second time they ever spoke! but... the "chemistry" between them could be sensed clearly by themselves... even the two tamed-beasts—which are sharing the same carriage—could feel it too despite not being included in the conversation between these two.

“A-as if! J-just so you know, I-I'm strong too, alright. Humph. Not only do I have Fang Bo with me which makes me very, very, like... extremely strong! but also I’m a spirit-grandmaster of the seventh-stage, let’s not forget here that I managed to achieve all that despite still being younger than sixteen years.” Bo An became like a kitten whose tail got stepped-on after hearing the boy’s haughty words! the young-girl immediately jumped from her reclining-position and straddled the great-sage’s waist beneath her body then leaned closer to his face while talking about how great she’s... her tone of voice sounded like a kid throwing a tantrum while waiting for others to compliment the "good work" that’s being done from the goodness of their pure heart! especially in the way this young-lady of the Chentian clan kept pinching Lin’s cheeks until they became so red in color.

“Please accept my sincerest of apologies my fair lady, I was blind in not noticing your bright splendor.” The boy blinked over and over then gave the annoyed girl a glamorous-look of admiration.

“You’re damn right I am! I know of less than thirty names, people who could do the same like me are rare, do you understand? so rare like... phoenix-feathers! or even more so rare like... dragon-scales!”

“Amazing. Amazing. My fair lady is so amazing! I’m in awe.”

“Humph. If you understand? then... d-don't you dare be all so cocky around me again!”

“I won’t. I won’t. My fair lady is so mighty! I’m in acclaim.” The great-sage felt thankful that he isn’t able to move or express anything on his face right now! otherwise... he would be laughing loudly in terrible amusement.

“Mm... en, good that you know, just because you have a—somewhat—strong soul-force? look at you... you b-brat! Y-you're like... ten years too early, at least. Yet... you dare ask for the hand of this princess? You even dare to ask for her to be your dao-companion? such audacity! You even asked for it the second time we met... who does that? nobody! Do you hear? nobody! At least wait after the third meeting to ask a woman that... it’s such a huge step for us!”

“I will. I will. My fair lady is so knowledgeable! I’m in reverence.”

“Of course I am! I bet that you're not yet able.”

“To do what exactly?” This time Lin asked directly without any compliments to soften the young-girl’s fall.

“To do the deed. Uh!” Bo An answered without thinking and understood that she said something indecent and completely inappropriate for a girl to say later afterwards.

“Uh-huh! my fair lady is very naughty deep down... I see.” The boy gave the young-girl a very lecherous gaze.

“Cough! I’m not... I just wanted to teach you—because you’re my junior—how doing such things would hurt your primordial-foundation.” The more the young-lady of the Chentian clan said... the greater the embarrassment she felt when speaking about such topic with this little kid. 'Just how did our conversation turn change this way?' Bo An thought while hoping that this little-bastard would stop venturing deeper into these matters.

“Oh! my fair lady is instructing me... I see, then I shouldn’t do the deed at all. Problem solved, thanks to my fair lady... of course.”

“When did I say such a thing? it’s only so... if done in an early age. Ugh! You moron, I hate you.” Finally the young-girl buried her face in the pillow next to the boy’s head to hide her face while whispering this last line of words.

“My fair lady.”

“What?”

“What about what I said before?” Lin felt so amused while teasing Bo An and just didn’t feel like stopping! Because... the boy didn’t get enough satisfaction yet of this girl’s innocent reactions.

“Humph. You scoundrel still dare to ask? such a stubborn and inquisitive person, I said... you’re ten years too early, didn’t I? that’s at least!” The young-lady of the Chentian clan snuck a quick peek at the great-sage’s face from the side before burying her face once again on the soft pillow.

“But... years do go by! sometimes... without us even noticing how quick it happens.” The boy’s thoughts dived back with time to his previous-life and remembered how almost thirty years of his life went by in a blink! he didn’t truly-sense how fleeting these years were until he was already departing from life itself.

“What’s your point here? you’re not aiming to tease me again... are you? because if you’re! then... I’ll take advantage of you.” Bo An raised her head and looked at Lin with a half-serious half-playful expression.

“What if? after ten years I become some sort of baddie! would you still accept such a dao-companion as well?” The great-sage could hear how frantic the young-girl's heartbeats seemed after he sent that message! these quick heartbeats seemed like a... frightened "little-rabbit" who’s running in blind-panic while getting chased by a big bad wolf! then after he asked—what Lin felt like it should be the last question in this conversation—the boy waited for Bo An to answer and didn’t try and "push" for any specific answer. Lin wanted to hear what this young-girl thinks of him... what she honestly sees him as! that way he can interact with her normally without there being some gap or void between the two of them.

“Well... jokes aside?” The young-lady of the Chentian clan asked while leaning her head to the side slightly.

“Serious talk.” The great-sage answered without delay.

“A promise is a promise... I’m not one to go back on her words, if a candidate is stronger than me? then I accept without complaint, only if... said candidate isn’t older than me, of course! even if such a dao-companion is, still refusing to tell me his true-name and keeping secrets from me.” Bo An entwined her arms around Lin's chest from below the armpits then fiercely hugged him tighter while closing her eyes to enjoy the moment! the young-girl wanted to take as much as possible of that peaceful and calming feel to recharge herself. After all... when the boy regains the ability to move his body she wouldn't get so much opportunities to make him her pillow anymore! meanwhile... Lin felt bad in having to keep secrets from Bo An—especially after hearing the young-girl’s serious-confession just earlier—however... his first-hand experience with Mia reinforced the boy’s convictions and made him keep his silence in the end after some hesitation.

“Do you feel it? the convoy is about to move, unfortunately... some people refused to join Wei's group! they’re preparing to retreat all the way back towards pearl-city,” The great-sage sent to distract the young-lady of the Chentian clan, “By the way... how did this convoy manage to cross all this distance only in three months? the best mounts—within these caravans—can only cross like... one-thousand and one hundred-kilometers per day... at best! so... even if we down-grade the top-achievers of these mounts and consider it the "average-standards" for all mounts, then... it would still be practically impossible for these beasts to cross two-hundred thousand kilometers in three months. Yet here we’re after three months... these mounts crossed one-million and four-hundred thousand kilometers! from the conversations of some people and according to the way which they keep complaining about it, it seems like their journey have been delayed behind schedule, instead of being already ahead of schedule.” Once again the boy changed the subject and inquired from Bo An how is it done.

Bo An gave Lin one last look which is filled with half-joy and half-disappointment. Her joy is because the boy didn't push her for anymore answers and respected her moment of shy weakness earlier... the disappointment is because this bastard is still refusing to open-up to her—some why—for unknown-reasons even after she practically confessed her feelings! after three months of being like... always together. The young-lady of the Chentian clan already feels very close to the great-sage and the "intimacy" and moments—which she secretly shared with him—are already very strong and real! however, all of that is—unfortunately—one-sided from her part in the end. Meanwhile... Lin only knows Bo An as the "impulsive-girl" which he met in a strange encounter and her strong-headed actions almost led to a fight! honestly... the young-girl is unlucky in having met the boy after he went through a very sad and much stranger encounter with Mia. Because the great-sage wouldn't allow himself to become the helpless-receiver and to experience such feelings of confusion and self-sorry ever again... last time his life was endangered after Mia’s plunder! the same went for old Jin Bao and Sun. So maybe... in the future Lin would tell Bo An everything about his background however, right now? while he’s being paralyzed? the young-girl practically have no chance in hearing anything about the boy's background in this situation.

“The reins which strap the beasts together have basic-wind runes and formation-inscriptions, that works in enabling the strapped-beasts to run faster like a single-unit—which makes the mounts much stronger, faster, and durable—meanwhile... each of the caravan carriages does have some wind-formations engraved on their foundations! it helps decrease the weight of the carriages to help the units of beasts run with ease, the whole convoy becomes like a huge wind-formation which can be moved without losing its effect. Someone smart like you might ask, what happens if that wind-formation is fed with spirit-energy from spirit-cultivators or spirit-crystals? well... the answer is simple, the units of beasts can go even faster.” The young-lady of the Chentian clan helped the great-sage flip on his side then rested his head on her chest while telling him how this convoy could cross all that distance in such a little time. From her actions Lin felt a loving and motherly touch—which caused the boy to feel much worse in keeping secrets from her—however, to distract himself from what’s going on between him and Bo An... the great-sage closed his eyes and began to try and see if can regain control over his body back. There isn’t even the slightest of feelings from any of his limbs! still... he tried and tried without wasting a second... meanwhile inside the soul-world Gang has been focused on the manual of soul-cultivation ever since Lin left.

..............

“The caravans of the Cheng clan, Hao clan, Zhao clan... would be moving-on after ten minutes, hurry up and quickly make your preparations within that time, to those who wish to join us... get ready fast! because our convoy will not stop and will not wait for anyone.” Someone with a loud and rough voice announced the departing-time to everyone in this union of caravans. Afterwards many people became busy taking and making last minute checks of their merchandise and mounts or carriages. Certain carriages left the long line of the convoy after the orders—which came from some arrogant-looking people—uttered while sneering at the face or glaring with anger at those who joined Wei's party! meanwhile Wei ignored them—who’re soon-to-be dead and mutilated-corpses scattered on the dirt of pearl-road—and felt great sort that he wouldn’t get a chance to loot the wealth off of their cold limbs... Lai was throwing orders left and right to reorganize the convoy into a single line after kicking out those who wish to separate from their caravan. The fatty gritted his teeth then handed Wang some fresh spirit-crystals to be redistributed and replace the old spirit-crystals at the cores of every important wind-formation cores in each carriage of his caravan! afterwards the merchant ordered for every able spirit-cultivator "himself included" to ride right—south—of the caravan or... ahead of it—east—with the vanguard. Just in-case their convoy gets caught-up with the first wave from that beast-wave. Wei wants to ride ahead to safety before the beast-wave crashes all the way to the eternal-forest and block the final ray of hope! the fatty is fully prepared to punch-through whatever beasts—which dares to stand in the way of his precious caravan—and take this train as fast as possible to the territories of mercenary-city a few hundred-thousand kilometers east.

Tang Wei gave the signal for the caravan to begin moving east and unhesitatingly ditched the procrastinating-merchants and mercenaries—which wanted to return to pearl-city while unaware that they’re seeking death—of course the fatty and the blade-user told no-one of the incoming beast-army and choose to keep the information to themselves instead! their confidence in the boy and his abilities is a "fueling-force" by itself... as long as the kid is with them then there’s still hope for survival. Once the convoy began to move... the merchant casually entered his huge, comfortable, and luxurious carriage. Wei ignored the piercing-glares—which were directed towards him from practically every one of the guards—and protected himself by relying-on his "thick-skin" ability! then the fatty sent the great-sage a message through the soul-link while enjoying munching on a few fruits : “Brother Lin. All of our lives depend on the news you deliver next, see if you could maintain a close watch on the whereabouts of the beast-army for us, report to me or Lai after every fifty-kilometers these beasts gain on the convoy. Oh! it would be great if you could help us avoid anything on the road ahead—which might delay or waste our time— after all... we can’t just keep watching south and ignore the east.” Of course the fatty have one trump-card which can assure the survival of himself and the rest of his companions however, why should he waste his own trump-cards? That Chentian girl have been lodging for free and keeping herself terribly close with his little-brother Lin all the time! maybe she should be the one to use one of her trump-cards instead... certainly one of her esteemed status is packing a few of these! meanwhile Wei finally received a single safety-measure personally from ancestor Jianyu after the merchant almost and came so close to death while busting his ass to help the five-clans thrive... without it the fatty would be left with nothing to protect himself. The survival of his personal-caravan is what Wei is really after here! after all... this merchant wouldn’t be able to withstand the effect of another hit right now. Especially the effect which follows hearing "bad news" because after the fatty just managed to pull himself up from a long period of time—which he spent haunted by constant nightmares—after hearing the news of how many people within pearl-city and pearl-harbor managed to make great amounts of fortune so easily just by betting on Lin winning a ridiculous-race! Wei felt true devastation and lack of appetite then couldn’t make correct decisions because of his inability to get any sleep... if it wasn't for the danger of the small-scale beasts-waves on his—wealth—caravan? then... the fatty wouldn't have been able to quickly overcome the sadness of receiving these news back then. Somehow... the greedy-merchant’s fear for his precious-merchandise and valuables made him overcome a long phase of depression.

“I’ll do my best to make sure that nothing takes you by surprise.” Lin sent Wei then refocused on his work of regaining his feelings of his body. This current-state felt somehow-familiar to the boy once he focused on himself! simply because... there’s huge similarity to how the great-sage felt during his first day on this spirit-world... the only difference is that he isn’t a newborn-baby right now. 'If so? then... neck comes first.' Lin thought while remembering how he worked hard for days and weeks just to be able to raise his head from the floor for a few seconds! how that small-achievement of his felt like a huge accomplishment at that time—because the boy was competing against what he thought was his own bipolar-consciousness—and how that small-achievement enabled the great-sage in avoiding some unnecessary-bullying from the primitive-version of Tai. Now that he thinks of it... the very first couple years of his life have been so simple yet very peaceful! nothing which is unrelated to his family or their survival ever made it on the boy's "list of priorities" yet now... Lin finds himself obligated—because he’s tied by a debt of honor and a pair of oaths to the dao of spirit and soul—to flip this spirit-world and search for four of the extremely rare and hard to find "natural-treasures" and revive Jin Bao. Then afterwards... comes Kai’s turn and whatever the talking-raccoon is going to demand from the boy! meanwhile... Lily can't be left on her own for too long... otherwise she’s going to do something to make life harder on the great-sage or... worse! Ming and Gang and the rest of the deadly-sins have to be separated from him—somewhere in-between while Lin is juggling all these priorities—then given "independent-bodies" of their own... what comes next if such critters were successfully removed from the boy’s system? he keeps them in check! that’s a... must. Whenever Lin imagined Lily, Ming, Gang, and the rest of the deadly-sins walking the surface of this spirit-world together... he would be scared by the prospect to the degree of dread! right now the great-sage experienced having a twin-sister in the flesh... and two different twin-brothers in the shape of a soul-clone... within the soul-world it’s much easier to contain the damage these deadly-sins could make... them being on the material-world and so free to do whatever the hell they want is... the definition of "end-day" being repeated all-over again in this life! while swimming through nostalgia of the past and the uncertainties and worries of the future... the rested head of the boy on Bo An's chest made him hear clearly and loudly every one of her heartbeats. Somehow the sound of her hear made him sense that she’s currently... unsettled! by pure reflex... the great-sage wanted to look up at the girl’s face with his own eyes instead of relying on his ability of soul-sense. Surprisingly... it worked! Lin finally managed to move the muscles of his neck and slightly move his head. Yes... he barely moved it a few inches! however... that was enough for Lin to look at Bo An directly. The small and unexpected motion surprised the young-girl! then... when the protruding area of her right-breast got caught in this motion and rubbed gently through the fabric of her clothes by the boy’s soft skin on left-cheek... it became a surprise on-top of... surprise! “Mmm!...” A small moan escaped Bo An's mouth. Then the face of the young-lady of the Chentian clan blushed deeply in a red-color before she began to glare at the great-sage who caused her to make such an "obscene-sound" in the first place! the sight of the young-girl is a mixture of expressions between shyness and anger. After seeing Bo An's face blushing deeply despite the "unusual" expression which she’s giving him... the boy decided to do this task later when he's not hugged. “My apologies, it won’t happen again.” The great-sage apologized and looked away because he felt embarrassed after making the young-lady uncomfortable! yes... nothing was intentional however, that doesn’t mean that his intentions wouldn’t be misunderstood by the young-girl. Especially after having just flirted and teased her earlier! but even if she did misunderstand him and consider him a "little-pervert" Lin’s current feelings of joy wouldn’t diminish at all... the boy is currently very relieved after discovering that his body is responsive to his commands. Which means... that it would only need some time and some effort from the great-sage before he regains control over his body. “You can already move your neck, so... why stop now? go ahead and try! let’s see if you can move normally before the caravan makes its next stop.” Bo An smiled sweetly when she noticed how embarrassed Lin became after her silent-gaze of admonishment! seeing the boy drop the whole matter of moving his body because he’s being hugged by her... immediately caused the young-girl to taste some sweetness within her mouth and feel warmth spread within her chest. That’s one of the main-points which the young-lady of the Chentian clan wishes to exist within her future partner and dao-companion! to be considerate of her feelings and to tolerate her mischievousness while when she’s having one of her anger-bursts... he ignores her provocation. Bo An hugged Lin and squeezed his head against her chest tighter than before while encouraging him to keep trying.

“My fair lady. Are you sure?”

“Uh-huh. You want to be back on your two cute feet once again, don’t you?”

“Thanks big-sist-”

“From now-on... you’ll call me directly by my name, the title of "fair-lady" isn’t so bad! En, you’re allowed to use that one too.” The young-girl interrupted the boy while using one of her fingers to twirl one lock of his hair.

“Yes. By the way... what was that turquoise-liquid?”

“What turquoise-liquid?”

“You know, the one which your grandfather told me to drink three months ago! the one which made me become this way... stiff like a frozen-log of wood and all that.”

“Oh! you mean the potion of thought-rebirth?”

“So that’s its name huh! what use does it have? you know... besides making people sleep.” While focusing on his physical-body and concentrating on every body-cell and fiber of muscle-tissue... the great-sage began conversing with the young-lady of the Chentian clan.

“Telling the absolute-truth to whoever hands the potion, however... the interrogation has to happen before the eyes are closed! otherwise the effect would dissa...” While Bo An began explaining the effects after drinking the potion of thought-rebirth... Lin’s thoughts began to wander around the events before he went to a state of an "involuntary-sleep" and the boy thought to himself : 'Senior Kai said the truth and her grandfather did too, which means... Ming really did take a bullet for me! however... I wonder, if pride didn’t martyred himself? would I have been the one to get cast-away towards whatever "realm" or "dimension" within myself where the seven deadly-sins always live before getting a chance to surface within the soul or the material-world! was it intentionally done so that I wouldn’t invade their private-domain? or... was it done because of some other reason? unfortunately, Gang’s character seems too balanced and extracting such sensitive-information from him wouldn’t be an easy task at all, I should wait for the opportune-moment before making my move, doing so too early would alert him of my true-aim and would make it impossible to gain anything when he’s on guard.'

Lin chatted with Bo An meanwhile Gang has been given full command of the entirety of soul-force along-with the responsibilities of soul-cultivation, scouting the surroundings of the convoy, and periodically notifying Tang Wei of the current distance between the caravan and the incoming beast-army. However, the young-girl honestly felt like she’s currently hugging some giant and restless-baby! because... the majority of the movements—which the boy is currently making while trying to regain control over his physical-body—are not always going according to what the great-sage intended. Sometimes—for example—Lin would want to bend one of his knees, simple right? well... not so! because the boy would end-up—somehow—slipping one of his hands inside Bo An's clothes... finally after three hours of taking care of the boy—which felt like a very long and extremely-exhausting marathon to the young-girl, the young-lady of the Chentian clan was about to lose her patience on this "naughty and perverted little-brat" who’s currently pushing and folding her soft-body underneath his much stronger-body! right now there’s two of his hands tightly and directly holding and squeezing her breasts... while his upper-body is bent "chest stuck to thighs" with Lin’s face deeply buried on her navel-area... the boy’s breathing is tickling her privates and making her feel "strange" down there. All it too for this embarrassing-situation to happen is a series of awkward motions—which seem a lot like primordial-reflexes to the great-sage—to make Bo An and Lin a tangled mess! However, the sight of the boy groveling before her while stuffing his face on her privates and squeezing her small and undeveloped-breasts is comical enough for the young-girl—who’s been doing her best and concentrating on not laughing or moaning—the great-sage’s polite words of apology which endlessly followed every transgression he reflexively and unintentionally-made... has been the only point to frustrate the young-lady of the Chentian-clan.

“My apology-” Lin was about to tell Bo An another apology for... who’s counting? at what number beyond nine-hundred and nine was that apology?

“Your apologies, your apologies, my ass! J-just shut-up already... that attitude is making me mad. If I wasn't already sure that you're not intentionally doing so to take advantage of me? then... I would've given you the "panda-eye" like long ago.” Bo An removed Lin's hands—with some difficulty—from her breasts with a red-blush on her face! then the young-girl helped the boy correct his posture by pulling his head closer towards the area of her chest from the area of her navel before hugging him tightly with both arms... even if they've been tumbling in bed for three hours now where the great-sage has groped and touched her body directly or indirectly everywhere—unintentionally that is, of course—the young-lady of the Chentian clan still sensed with clarity how her heart would gladly dance inside her chest during and after every and single touch from the great-sage and how a huge kaleidoscope of butterflies would flutter inside her belly whenever the skin of their bodies directly rubbed against one another! the momentarily-friction would leave a lingering effect on the inexperienced-girl... once she got a taste of this "pleasure" the aftereffect of the gentle "sting" of "electrifying-passion" left Bo An gasping and craving more. While growing up and maturing through the years during her decade of experiencing this spirit-world with her grandfather... the young-girl would hear every now and then—from both mortals and cultivators—about the extreme-pleasure of passionate flesh-to-flesh experiences and intimate-actions between people! however, the young-lady’s character has been always both hard and unyielding... her decision is final on this matter. Only someone of a similar age or younger than herself could ever be allowed a chance to seize her! of course... said-candidates have to be actually stronger than Bo An while not being older to have any hope of grabbing her attention to begin with... those who fit these very elevated "standards" of the young-girl are—judged by the young-lady of the Chentian clan—just "idiots" who come from certain top-tier big and famous sects or... strong spirit-clans of firm and solid foundations plus deeply-consolidated connections with strong factions and organizations. These "useless" candidates only seek Bo An’s favor because... they either wish to have the young-girl like some sort of "possession" to be added to their many "accumulations" and "luck" or "fortunes" a mere "asset" to bolster their "attainments" during the long journey of cultivation to come! or... they’d be after the support of her Chentian clan or an alliance through the bond of marriage. However, this situation is different because from the very first moment after they met... Lin's unique-brilliance has always been a captivating-sight which fascinated and intrigued Bo An! in the beginning... the boy was soft then slippery—when he willingly handed his tamed-beast to her then snatched it back and refused to let her touch either of them no-matter how much she tried—which fueled the young-girl’s interest in the kid because... Lin’s pair of golden-pupils never lost their pure-glow. But... when elder Qiu tried to suppress the great-sage—for the sake of saving his young-lady some face—Lin fearlessly expressed a hard and defiant-stance while maintaining his calm and most importantly the pure-gaze within his eyes! such straightforward, calm, and extremely balanced-character from someone at such young age... did cast many "unanswered-questions" about how many secrets are hidden underneath that cute-face and tolerating-attitude... the proof of Bo An’s intuition—which she sensed during her first encounter with Lin—is when boy’s identity became a much bigger question and him being the main-topic of almost everyone within pear-city and pearl-harbor just one day later after she met him. Even after three months... the young-girl still can’t forget how calm Lin's golden-pupils were during that time when he spoke softly to elder Qiu! it made the young-lady’s heart skip a beat from fright and the alarm-bells ring loudly and repeatedly within her head when the young and fragile-looking boy ignored the spirit-pressure of a high-stage spirit-lord who’s one of the Chentian clan’s famous "autumn and spring" duo.

Gradually with time Lin became better when moving the stiff-limbs, rusty-joints, and lazy-muscles. From the way it looks... the boy seems very close to gaining a resemblance of normal control over his body. Bo An experienced the feeling of being molested for the first time in her life! thankfully it has been caused by someone who’s cute and favored by her like Lin... still, her face is still flushed in a deep red-color because things are getting out of hand here. The young-girl’s breathing is disorderly and rugged while the look within her eyes has become dreamy! these pair of eyes seem lost in the moment and without any care for how—what’s left of—her clothes are disheveled or misplaced which exposed more of her skin... the young-lady seems without any care for her hairstyle which became a mess of disarranged locks and strands. The pieces of her clothes which were removed has been taken-off either with Lin’s assistance or by Bo An herself! because... these articles of fabric were a "hindrance" to the girl’s freedom whenever she wanted to hug the boy... meanwhile the great-sage whom the young-lady has been taking care of him and attending to the duties of cleaning his body and changing his clothes for him during three months... currently only have his trousers on. The heat which has been ignited within Bo An's belly whenever their skin touched... was met by a similarly intense heat which kept growing from the small body of Lin who’s on-top of her! during the heat of the moment... the boy suddenly sensed a "foreign-existence" which forcefully attempted to switch control over his body. It felt very similar to what the great-sage experienced when he flirted with Mia... what happened once happened again! Lin felt like there's "something" or... some "monster" that’s inside his chest which wants to enter Bo An’s body—somehow—through the touch of the boy’s body.

“Is lust the one who’s doing this?” Lin asked Gang while trying to suppress the feeling within his chest.

“En. It’s certainly her doing, probably some of the rest are joining her to enjoy pulling your leg, however... this time, I sense Ming’s involvement clearly. Which means that he must’ve fused with lust, he really does hate that inspector Huang very much after all, and pledged to have the "seven-pleasures" while toying with the "old-fuck" that’s how he calls the man these days! let’s not forget that... Ming is holding a grudge against Bo An’s grandpa as well. Why? because... he’s the one who gave the old-fuck that potion of thought-rebirth to begin with, I totally understands how Ming would go all-out to pay the girl’s grandfather back some by letting you hump the poor girl for him! they might think that I’m the most frightening one because I’m able to almost-completely control my anger now, they may be true... however, Ming is a whole other level of craziness when his switch is flipped. When these two men banished him back... the dude became a lot to deal-with, even for a long-winded person such as myself.” Gang grinned widely like a careless Buddha after answering then resumed his meditation on the soul-strengthening technique like a cool block of permafrost! so far... the deadly-sin of wrath feels like it’s just beginning to be familiar with the cultivation-manual.

“I can—sort-of—understand Ming’s rebellious-behavior, however... why’s lust and the others are making things difficult for me? especially lust! didn’t she—deliver the message through Ming and you—say that "I should save myself for her!" what’s the meaning of this? would she be okay if that young-girl took my first? that "little-member" of ours is almost half-way developed already! I’m telling you... she’s playing with fire here, all of them are! damn-it.” Lin’s soul-clone spoke with Gang’s soul-clone within the soul-world while gritting its teeth... the boy was feeling so mad at these five "idiots" who seems to like it very much whenever they’re making things difficult for him! the frustrating thing is... all of them—Lily included—mostly love doing so just for the fun of it. In the end Lin understood that he’s being restricted by his own deadly-sins when he sensed how his arms moved outside his control! then the fingers on the boy’s pair of hands began to expertly play... roughly sometimes and gently sometimes, quick sometimes and slow sometimes. The "dangerous-game" of teasing or pinching Bo An's skin began... meanwhile the great-sage along-with the deadly-sin of wrath became mere bystanders.

“Dangerous is good for us, it means excitement, and exciting events makes us feel slightly alive when we’re within that place. However... what we want more than anything is your attention! think of it like this, in our world... they just won the perfect-jackpot. They’re experiencing the danger of being minimized by you—which means less power and authority for them like... everywhere, and less love and care from you—in the future! whilst when the five of them are driving our material-body... they’re experiencing what it feels to be alive, at least for a while. Finally there’s your attention—which is currently mainly directed—towards them, the way I see it... our brothers and sisters played their cards in the right and in the exactly correct order! while you were distracted by the fatty and this girl, they’ve been already spreading their webs of control ahead of you, their only chance of seizing-control over our body was that tiny window.” Gang shrugged then explained to the great-sage what he missed to notice from the earlier events.

Meanwhile... Lin grimaced while watching his own mouth lower slowly at an angle towards Bo An’s mouth until both of their lips completely linked! the following motions of their heads and hands gradually became lit with a burning-passion—which seemed to flow so naturally and fluidly between the boy and the girl, their kisses gradually took longer and became prolonged by the effect of entwined tongues which made the two of them seem a lot similar to two lovers which have been deprived from the company of one another by the cruel-separation of far-distance and the long and harsh-years of solitude! they deeply kissed and tightly hugged. Soon afterwards... one arm of the great-sage's snuck upwards towards one of the young-lady's small and undeveloped-breasts then kept fondling at and around the target—which is in the middle—meanwhile Lin’s other arm expertly pressed a pressure-point on Bo An’s body which made her reflexively spread-open both of her legs! then a group of five dexterous and nimble-fingers found the young-girl’s "sacred garden" then the boy’s intrusive and trespassing-fingers gently felt their way... inside. Quickly the great-sage’s five-fingers and all-of his hand became drenched-with the young-lady’s "precious-moisture" then each pushing or pulling-movement from Lin’s arm would make a... squelching and erotic-sound which is accompanied by a lark-like moan from Bo An's parted-lips! or... a stifled moan when the lips of the young-girl are locked with the boy. Then the maiden seemed to be at the end of her "ropes" when she began gasping for breath between each moan! the young-lady buried her face in the great-sage's chest to hide her embarrassment and lewd-expressions from the boy... who’s giving the young-girl incomparable-pleasure despite how much Bo An is being under such a "fierce-assault" from Lin... she’s loving every single bit of it.

Meanwhile Sun kept giving Fang Bo sly smirks and side-glances while both beasts watched the buddy of the winged-tiger pleasure the human-companion of this little annoying and arrogant "grey-mutt" however, the grey-wolf just rolled its eyes at this little stupid and gullible "red-weakling" then closed its eyes after resting its head on its front paws to get some sleep.

“Ah!...” When Bo An reached the peak of her pleasure and shivered with ecstasy she dearly hugged Lin towards her completely naked body... both of them understood that this moment here right now is announcing the beginning of a different-kind of relationship between the two of them! all it took to confirm the agreement from both sides is a single exchange of eye-contact then... the boy and the girl smiled at each other. From now-on... they can no longer just be a kind and caring big-sister who’s looking after some boy which she considers her little-brother. Honestly... the young-lady of the Chentian clan is very happy right now! because... Bo An wholeheartedly-believes that Lin is someone who’s worthy of her. Meanwhile... the boy is feeling really angry right now! not at the young-girl of course... the great-sage is mad at these five deadly-sins—which dared to hoodwink him then gang-up on him—because they trapped Lin within the seclusion of the soul-world with Gang then hijacked his body like teenagers undergoing some "rebellious-phase" against their parents and drove his "vessel" into the open arms of "foolish-passion" to enjoy a session of naked-intimacy with Bo An. Yes... the duration which the five-sins forcefully controlled his body has only been for a short-while however, the effect is already... beyond what could be repaired by words alone. Knowing that there's no turning back from what happened already... Lin waited until he regained control over his body once again then calmly rested his head on the pillow and retrieved a soft blanket from his space-ring to covered himself and Bo An with it. The boy kept staring at the ceiling of the carriage in silence while holding the young-girl’s waist with his arms in a gentle yet firm circle... while lying on his back on bed with a young-beauty hugged towards his chest the great-sage began to deeply think because... right now Lin have both Lily and their sibling the deadly-sin of lust—which are both fully-intent on possessing his sweet body in a life-long sexual-relationship, add to these two catastrophic and major-troubles... how Lin still have issues with Mia which needs to be resolved—Whether he liked it or not—because... the whole pack of seven deadly-sins wouldn't let the matter of when the saintess castrated him just go... unpunished! now the boy needs to reorganize his relationship-chart since Bo An has been "forcefully" included on that list... which was an action of impulsive-madness made by the five "rebels" which live somewhere inside him... a choice taken with complete and unreasonable disregard for the rights and opinion of the great-sage. “Y-you... villain! who taught you to pleas-.... T-treat a woman like that?” Bo An snuggled deeper into Lin's embrace and asked very-faintly in a whispering voice... the young-girl merely raised her head from the warmth of his chest momentarily and used her eyes to give the boy a quick-glance before lowering her head again and hiding the expression of shyness which covered her face. “No-one. You're just too beautiful, which is why I couldn’t resist your charm even while being a cripple, did you believe that I would do absolutely nothing? just sit back and watch! while every one of your smiles is lighting-up my world. No... my fair lady, I’m terribly-sorry... I can... not! do so.” The great-sage used his vocal-cords to speak for the first time and whispered softly in the ear of the young-lady of the Chentian clan—who felt ticklish and shrunk her neck inwardly between a pair of exquisite-shoulders—while gently patting and rubbing the skin of her back! hearing these words immediately added another layer of adoration towards Lin from Bo An who giggled blissfully and extended her neck to give the boy a quick kiss on his cheek before the young-girl relaxed her head on his shoulder again then closed her eye to enjoy these sweet feelings of affection.

........

While Lin and Bo An were naked and hugging on bed within the carriage.

A muscular person redirected his mount from the vanguard of the speeding-convoy towards the rear carriages and began to shout to warn everyone to be prepared.

“Beasts!” The man’s stentorian-voice entered the ears of every guard within this convoy and felt like... mountains’ worth of burden just fell on the shoulders of everyone.

“Where?” One captain of a team of guards looked towards the oncoming rider and asked.

“Beasts!” The muscular man didn’t seem to hear the woman and continued to announce the bad news.

“Boss Zhang! Which way?” Someone seemed slightly annoyed at the simple man yet asked patiently once again because... that person is his superior! he can’t lose his patience on his boss after all... even if he’s—and everyone on this convoy are—currently "on-edge" and fidgety because of the danger which surrounds this "misfortunate-journey" from everywhere. Had she knew? Then... this person—and everyone on this convoy— would never have applied for this job! Maybe... their death is inevitable.

“Huh! oh right... ahead of the convoy, mere dozens of kilometers that’s all.” The answer to the mercenary’s question was a shout augmented with spirit-energy and everyone within the union of caravans could hear the news! to avoid panic or disagreement between the various forces—which are bonded-together within the current huge-sized convoy by the danger of the beast-waves—Tang Wei waited for the right time before impact with the blockade of beasts before giving the order to the strong man. That way... every one of the caravan-owners would have too little time to think "selfishly" about their own benefits! "survival" would be everyone’s only concern... overcoming their foe would be their only goal.

.........

Within Lin and Bo An’s carriage.

Zhang's voice became the signal of the end to this intimate-experience with the young-girl... the boy used one of his hands to raise her head so that he could get a better and long look at the young-lady’s beautiful face! the great-sage smiled when he noticed expressions of shyness on Bo An’s face when his gaze of admiration took too long... Lin made-up for it by moving his lips closer and kissing the young-girl’s tempting-lips then locking them gently with passion. After a few seconds of kissing the young-lady of the Chentian clan... the boy separated himself slowly from her eager-lips and rested his head on hers then looked within her eyes before saying : “I need to go, I can’t leave my friends face danger alone and watch from the side.” This time Bo An frowned slightly after hearing what the great-sage just said before nodding and saying : “Go help them if you want, I wouldn’t try and stop you from going, however... if you’re in any kind of danger? I would intervene immediately! so... don’t you dare blame me if the situation forced me to take you and escape on our own.” Lin just nodded and gave the young-girl a tight and squeezing-hug before getting up from bed then wearing his clothes in a hurry.

Before leaving the doorsill of the moving carriage the boy stood at the door to take a quick-look around before gesturing for his buddy to ask if he wants to come... Sun quickly moved and jumped on the shoulder of his best-friend! honestly the red-tiger was "sick to the stomach" of this cage-like carriage—which it had to spend three-months within it already—if it wasn't for the sake of watching-over Lin? the winged-tiger would've used this "excellent chance" of being within a "foreign territory" to go have some "fun" like long... long ago.

........

Meanwhile inside the soul-world... Gang grinned widely after witnessing how great-sage Lin opened-up and accepted—despite being forced to accept—the choice of another "partner" which their five-siblings made! the deadly-sin of wrath have been notifying Wei about the beasts east and south... Gang was actually the one who informed Wei of the danger ahead and the "hidden-danger" of "disunity" between the ranks of those with "authority" to "decrease" the "protective-force" of this convoy. Since the blockade of beasts towards the eastern-direction is closer to the speeding-convoy while being way fewer in number—that’s if compared to the beast-army in the southern-direction—then... the convoy should redirect its trajectory deeply towards the north and stick itself closely next to the territories of the elves and keep their left-flank protected by the existence of the eternal-forest! the guards should tighten their guard and push-through forward while hoping to bypass the blockade of beasts quickly before the beast-army catches-up to their right-flank because... such massive beast-wave is certainly going to cause extreme havoc and destruction everywhere it hits on the pearl-road... even the surrounding areas are certainly going to be affected too. Tang Wei immediately changed the course of the convoy because he thought these were Lin’s directions! while the boy was thinking about the "women of his life" everything went... according to Gang's well-planned directions.

..................

The guards—which were already deployed entirely towards the right-flank and vanguard long before the convoy began to move—began to tighten their formations and prepare for a clash against the beasts.

Meanwhile... the sly-merchant took advantage of the following panic after the news spread everywhere within the convoy to... discreetly relocated the valuable-merchandise within his private-carriages towards the carriages at the rear of the convoy! then... moved the least-valuable items from the carriages at the rear of the convoy towards those carriages near the vanguard—where the action is going to be the most active and hot between cultivators and beasts—the fatty only relaxed once the job was completed... Lin's carriage is located within the middle of the convoy—which allows Wei and the rest to react once the situation gets out of hand—anyway... the boy still have the young-lady of the Chentian clan with him to take care of him. According to Bo An... she’s going to abandon them once there’s a threat to hers or the boy’s life. Wei—who just returned to his carriage—tightened his grip on the arms of his seat while watching nervously as the convoy maintained a rushing-speed towards the blockade of the enemy... the distance is still too far for both sides to actually lay-eyes on one another! however... being on the very-front ahead of the convoy doesn’t seem like an "honor" anymore to this terribly-frightened merchant.

...........

While standing on the carriage’s door... the incoming danger caused the acute-senses of Lin to ring the alarm-bells with increasing-urgency! despite the blockade of beasts actually consisting mostly of weak beasts from the ferocious or demonic-realm... the boy understands how the numerical-advantage of these weak beasts could allow them to succeed in killing like... more than ninety-percent of the humans within this convoy. The condition of success is? if the beasts actually succeeded in besieging and encircling the convoy! that’s why... the aim of the convoy is to seek opening a passage by force before the worst-case scenario actually happens.

After checking the current-state of both soul-bodies within the soul-world... the boy confirmed the vague-runes and incomplete silver-inscription around the third-eye of both soul-clones then sighed! because... within these three months—which the great-sage spent sleeping like a polar-bear in hibernation—could've been more than enough to finish the required-preparations for the next soul-ability from the soul-strengthening technique... "soul-lock" which could be used on a single-target or on a group if needed would’ve been a very helpful method in this situation. The option where the great-sage goes personally and join the teams of guards and fight these beasts while relying-on the strength of his physique or... by relying-on the use of some weapon is completely out of the question! because... Sun is certainly going to do something reckless if Lin did so and something unexpected happen afterwards because the boy would find it impossible to control a whole battlefield. Not to mention... Bo An said if there’s danger to his life then she’s going to extract him and leave Wei and the rest to fend for themselves! the great-sage doesn’t know how the young-girl could do something like that actually however, the young-lady of the Chentian clan does seem very confident in being able to do so which is more than enough to convince Lin. He needs to assist without exposing himself to danger because... doing so would force the young-girl not to act. Now that he thinks about it... the boy’s spirit-energy should be "so much better" after drinking that potion of thought-rebirth! his senses towards spirit-energy should be "so much keener" yet... ever since he woke-up the great-sage didn’t feel anything "out of the ordinary" within himself or from the surrounding light-energy! was that potion—somehow—faulted? maybe... right now the only weapon—which is left available for Lin to use—is the tiny red-fire within the glass heart... that’s an option that he can use from a "safe-distance" to prevent the young-lady from taking action. However... before taking anything for granted without confirming with experience first... the boy has to see if there's any difference within his spirit-wings after he drank that potion.

“Meow!...” Sun made a very surprised voice when the martial-spirit of his buddy was activated! because... there’s another set of small white-wings underneath the much larger and darker set of wings... two sets of wings are sprouting from the great-sage’s back... a pair of the dark-gold color—which have on them four symbol-feathers all in all—and... a pair of the white-color—which have nothing on their cute-sized feathers at all—the new wings does seem like a shy and bashful kid who’s hiding behind the leg of their much older sibling to seek protection from the eyes of the world! however... that’s not what’s important here in this situation because Lin immediately noticed how different his spirit-wings felt like... a completely different version of his marital-spirit—one which is very improved and balanced—right now the boy felt like... almost completely sure that he could use his wings while relying-on the assistance of the minimum amount possible of soul-force to restrict the freedom of his spirit-wings without losing control of his movement-speed or maneuverability. The great-sage smiled widely after sensing how his connection with the surrounding light-energy and the light-energy within his own dantian seems to be much better after his martial-spirit was activated! such a huge benefit plus how his direct-control—which means without relying-on assistance from soul-force to rein-in the wings—over his spirit-wings is on a whole new level.

..............

Inside the carriage in bed is Bo An who followed Lin’s every movement with a pair of loving eyes ever since the "naughty and perverted" boy left her side to go and help his friends. The young-girl became momentarily blinded by the bright glow—which followed the great-sage’s activation of his martial-spirit—before she protected her eyes for a couple seconds until the light faded and became tolerable for the eyes of the young-lady to normally see! once Bo An saw what kind of martial-spirit this "partner" of hers does have the young-girl thought : 'Grandpa Ao told me that Ming’s martial-spirit should be capable-of allowing him to fly, I really thought that’s the only advantage he got over those from his generation, his martial-spirit is of the elemental-nature, meanwhile his main-affinity seems to be for the element of light. These are two more advantages! speed and adaptability, maybe... there’s even more.' Then the young-lady of the Chentian clan touched her space-ring and transmitted a message with her spirit-energy inside a special beast-medallion and said : “Please grandma! watch-over the boy... I don’t wish for any harm to come to him.” Soon afterwards a kind and elderly voice of a woman answered Bo An and said : “Little-BoBo. You already know why you’re going back to the clan... right?”

“I do.”

“You... sigh. Alright, I’ll protect him-”

“Grandma you’re the best!”

“Don’t celebrate just yet... you’re supposed to take care of the boy until he’s awake, I promised little-Ao that I would take you back when it happens. However, after seeing what I... cough! saw... I’ll allow you to keep the boy’s company until this convoy arrives to mercenary city, or... until I personally take both of you there, that’s if something wrong is about to happen.” The words of the old woman made the young-girl frown slightly before nodding in silence and that announced the end of this secretive-conversation between the young-lady of the Chentian clan and that mysterious beast which is within that special beast-medallion.

When Lin took-off towards the sky while letting his long hair dance by the effect of air... the boy left the carriage where Bo An seemed daydreaming about something and in complete disregard for the incoming clash with the blockade of beasts or the much bigger threat of the beast-army! the young-girl hugged the soft blanket towards her naked body in bed... this young-lady of the Chentian clan really seemed to have nothing currently going-on within her head except for... countless images of the boy—which caused her to giggle repeatedly to herself with no end in sight—and Fang Bo felt slightly jealous after hearing her laughs then joined Bo An in bed and began to tickle her neck. The young-girl snuggled with the grey-puppy then within a few seconds she was quick to fall asleep while a wide-smile never left her face.

...............

In the air above the convoy.

Lin used his much improved spirit-wings to slowly move towards the location above Wei’s luxurious and huge-sized carriage at front... honestly the boy wasn’t focused on the blockade of beasts ahead towards the east or the beast-army towards the south! the great-sage kept looking at the symbol of wings—which is on the back of his right-hand—because... because that symbols has been glowing in a bright gold-color ever since Lin activated his martial-spirit. The boy feels like... there's "something" which has been affecting that wings-symbol and filling it with more and more light-energy without stop! all of that accumulated light-energy is just... "begging" the great-sage for a chance to be... released. Lin really wanted to release this ever-increasing and escalating-force of accumulated light-energy! he’s someone who always loves to experiment and try after all... however, this time the boy just doesn’t know how. What’s making it frustrating in this situation is that... there’s simply no time for him to experiment at all! the blockade of beasts is getting nearer and closer towards the vanguard of the speeding convoy... this gathering of beasts ahead of the convoy won't be removed easily without these people suffering some great-casualties to open a path forward and beyond this point of this dangerous pearl-road... the great-sage is almost certain on that point. It was then while Lin thought about how much struggle is bound to happen next for the people of this convoy! if things remained going in the way they’re going? then... there’s so much sacrifices and losses—which are bound to happen—coming for the people of this convoy. The boy found himself reflexively raising his right-hand at shoulder-level then folded three fingers and locked them in-place with his thumb tightened on-top... the right-forefinger of the great-sage was straight and pointing slightly behind the blockade of beasts which is a just a few kilometers ahead... when Lin attempted to lower his hand he discovered that he can’t! the boy couldn’t move the shoulder-joint on the right-side of his body... same goes for his elbow-joint and the wrist-joint on that side! metacarpophalangeal-joint?—also called the knuckle, which is at the base of the finger where the finger-bone meets the hand-bone(MCP)—still no good... the first joint on the forefinger is rebelling-against the great-sage like the rest of the right-arm. Honestly... Lin thought that this might be some lingering aftereffects from the time the five-sins hijacked his private meat-suit! however, Gang within the soul-world didn’t seem aware of the cause behind this odd situation... proximal-interphalangeal-joint then?—the joint in the middle of the finger(PIP)—nothing is moving... the blockade of beasts is even closer now! is he going to assist these people when the clash actually happens? or... is he going to be looking for a way to fix this right-arm? distal-interphalangeal-joint then?—which is the joint closest to the finger-tip(DIP)—the boy tried while thinking : 'That’s it! if these five-idiots turn-out to be the cause of this malfunction? then... "so help me god" I would intentionally do everything, practically everything that’s within my powers, just to delay their arrival to this world.' “Om!...” Light-energy moved from the wings-symbol on the back of his right-hand towards the tip of his forefinger once the DIP-joint moved downwards slightly which caused the great-sage’s finger-tip to point directly towards the blockade of beasts ahead! it was then that all the cultivators which are responsible for guarding some people specifically or some merchandise or the convoy itself... these people had already noticed the young-boy who suddenly used his martial-spirit to fly up from somewhere on the convoy then flew ahead of them towards the vanguard-unit—which is being led by boss-Lai and boss-Wang—most of those who saw Lin thought of his as some "curious-junior" who doesn’t know his place then ignored the matter completely because... there’s a tough challenge just a head. Everything was going like these nervous-people expected it would be before a fight during one moment then... during the following moment everyone became blinded by the golden-beam of light-energy—which came-out from the boy—once the great-sage moved a tiny-joint of his body and repositioned a tiny-part of his hand to "unintentionally" target the blockade of beasts! by the time these people did regain the ability to see again... be that normally or by activating their spirit-energy or relying on their special-abilities to scatter the negative-effect from their eyes. All these cultivators could see ahead of them while being just a kilometer or so next to the territories of the elves is... a huge-dome of light-energy which kept enlarging outwardly and upwardly until it reached a dozen kilometers upwards in both height and width! before suddenly... vanishing just like that. Then... a massive-shockwave began to spread everywhere from the location where that dome of light originated! these shockwaves carried destructive-winds chaotically everywhere to upturn the surface of the earth then... carry that flying mass of weight to slam and condemn—whoever is unfortunate to receive the gift—to the mercy of death.

“Quickly activate the barriers! maximize the output of energy inside every wind-formation, full-speed ahead. Everyone! use this to your advantage, forge a path to our survival and be rewarded with an additional chance in life.” Wei threw his commands to the group of shocked cultivators once the fatty witnessed the boy's using a long-distance spirit-attack for the first time! the merchant casted away his own confusions about how is it possible for a spirit-apprentice of the first-stage to be able to use long-range spirit-techniques to begin with? after all... when they met more than three months ago... Lin wasn’t able to use the basic of the basic of spirit-techniques which is—energy armor—yet here he’s skipping something basic and already using an advanced spirit-technique! however... after spending a few days with the boy and personally witnessing his attainments-test... Wei’s tolerance for unbelievable achievements by this boy has long been raised to supreme limits. Which means? nothing that this great-sage does is going to surprise the fatty anymore... that’s why the merchant quickly got-over the surprise and gave orders to the fools who seemed too deeply shocked and gawking after seeing the action yet didn’t seem to notice that the aftereffects might really kill all of them instead of the beasts if they don’t do anything to protect themselves! not to mention that there’s still beasts left alive however... maybe none of them would be left after the shockwaves subside and things calm-down within this area. The guards awoke from the shock—which Lin gave them—then quickly moved to follow the orders however, this time... the eyes of every cultivator kept moving towards this frightening boy who never left his position and floated atop the first-carriage! because... this strange boy does have some scarily-destructive spirit-abilities. Meanwhile... the same question—which Wei asked himself earlier—is all over the heads of these guards and mercenaries! just how did this kid do it? was that some sort of talisman? some high-quality spirit-tool maybe? it doesn’t seem like one of the external-methods really.

The beasts which could manage to luckily survive within the area where the great-sage’s light-beam hit were extremely frightened and panicked... they quickly retreated back towards the south direction as fast as they could! all of the survivals from the beast-blockade completely ignored their orders of stopping everyone and everything from heading east from that point on pearl-road despite seeing the convoy which is coming their way and fled... the beasts fled for their lives because the shockwaves are wreaking havoc everywhere.

Up in the air. Lin looked at his right-hand with dread in his eyes! especially towards the wings-symbol on the back of his hand... what if he wasn’t pointing his hand towards the beasts but towards the people of the convoy instead? this is some seriously-dangerous and deadly-lethal ability. 'I really should be careful about where I’m pointing my right-hand forefinger in the future! at least until I’m capable of control that... whatever that ray of light-energy was.' The boy thought and began to look around with his soul-sense.

The beasts which died from the explosion of light-energy did number in the tens of thousands! from the look of it... this beasts-blockade succeeded lately in besieging another caravan in this location... because some beasts instantly died while enjoying their "last meal" sadly there’s nothing left alive of beasts or humans.

“Whistle!...” Gang whistled softly while watching the complete destruction which the great-sage’s action caused on such a wide area.

..............

Inside the ring of origin.

“What a brat! this attack can indeed mortally-wound a tyrant. Heh, he better grows-up strong fast, because... now even I am beginning to feel impatience, I can’t wait to see it actually happen.” Kai muttered while giving this new-version of Lin an approving-look. The smirk on the talking-raccoon’s face revealed how very eager it currently is... Kai threw a few pieces of meat towards a small owl which have beautiful white feathers and is perched on a low-branch of a tree nearby his path because... right now the talking-raccoon is in a good mood.

“Hoot!...” The white owl moved its head a few times up and down—which made it seem like it’s giving its polite thanks to the raccoon who gifted her food—before latching on the pieces of meat with her beak and shredding it with the help of its small talons.

“Heh. Don't get used to it little-one, Kai only keeps useful pets around him. Maybe... if your bloodline was very-pure or fully awakened.” Kai was amused by the owl's polite actions indeed yet he blocked its attempts to befriend him anyway.

“Hoot!... hoot.” The owl twisted its head upside-down in an awkward and unbelievable angle when the master of this world refused to accept her... again! ever since its birth... the top commander of this world has always been this short-fellow of black and white. Which means? if she gained his favor? then... others everywhere within this world just wouldn't dare bully her... again! however... he never warmed-up to her... sometimes he would just laugh and ridicule her for being weak... sometimes he would just ignore her... sometimes he would just give her treats like this time here... which is very... very rare to happen.

“Stop nagging and hooting at me! hmmm... he'd take you, if you want... that is. Since you can't be my pet—because I just don’t want you to be my pet, you’d annoy me to death with all the hooting—maybe... you can be the pet, of my pet! Hehehe... go have some fun outside, but don't cause troubles for the brat, or... I’ll really put you in a cage for eternity.” Kai almost swatted the noisy-hooter when the bag of white feathers began to beg... she always groveled whenever he refused to take her under his wing and the talking-raccoon never liked it! then... Kai stopped at the last moment and looked towards Lin who seems to be undergoing a downhearted-state which is... much similar to this annoying-owl. Light-bulb! why not? let the two of them gloom in the company of one another... so what if that little-one does have some blood of the silent-owl of eternity running through her veins? wise-harbingers of doom or... whatnot. Kai never cared about dragon or phoenix! same goes for the likes of the boy's pet... the winged-tiger which have a very rare bloodline from both a celestial-tiger and a fire-dragon... such rare examples of beasts all amount to... mere pets in the eyes of the talking-raccoon. Everything that’s weaker than Kai is a mere ball in his path! which the talking can kick left or right... that’s if Kai felt like gracing these lowly-creatures with his kick to begin with. Before the white-owl even got a chance to hoot again to express her opinion on the matter... she was perched on Lin's left-shoulder outside the ring of origin! meanwhile inside the ring... the talking-raccoon snickered to himself because it felt amusement once it saw Sun's reaction to the arrival of this owl.

.........

The hairs of the tiger—currently in a cat-form—stood on end from the surprise and the orange-kitten snared threateningly at this stranger while revealing its fangs and glaring fiercely at this newcomer! “Meow!...” Clearly the winged-tiger was saying : "Leave! now." To this white-owl.

“Eh! where did this owl come from?” Lin muttered to himself while looking at the wide-eyes of the deep-blue-color which resemble a calm-sea in each eye-socket! meanwhile... there’s two round islands down the middle of each sea... obsidian-black pupils which give these pair of eyes a calming-beauty. These pair of eyes drained the sadness from the boy’s chest just by staring directly at them! the great-sage was very annoyed because his actions—despite being justified—caused the death of so many beasts... without being emotionally-prepared beforehand then... Lin is the sort of person to suffer from direct-impact with his own feelings. During that internal-struggle the boy would mostly seclude himself and work-out these nasty clogs of emotions through the rough terrain of his bottom-lines! yet... right before he could do so... the boy discovered this white-owl—which appeared from thin-air—on his left-shoulder. It didn’t just cross the distance of two-hundred and fifty kilometers—which is the range of Lin’s ability of soul-sense that’s currently activated—did it? it can’t be. After all—according to Lin’s acute-senses—that white-owl does indeed seem stronger than Sun! like... almost as strong as Bo An's grey-wolf which seems to be at the peak of the major-realm... the realm of devil-beast. Anyway... the great-sage has been ready to use his soul-force to protect himself and Sun ever since the white-owl appeared on his shoulder! if that small bird really tried to assault them? then... Lin would just vent his current frustrations on it and teach the white-owl a lesson.

“Brat. I’m leaving that little-one with you, take care of it.” Kai's voice made the boy be at ease and stop trying to dig-out the background of this white-owl anymore.

'Yes. Of course! senior Kai. May I ask about that ray of light fro-' The great-sage accepted without hesitation then tried to take advantage of this rare situation—where the talking-raccoon is the one to initiate the conversation—to collect valuable-information from the experienced and formidable awakened-soul.

“Heh. What’s there to ask? it’s just some weak ability from a weakling. Tsk, tsk, tsk... are you looking for some praise? perhaps,” The sarcastic answer interrupted Lin, “You shouldn’t think about such silly things, the beggar’s short life is three months shorter... he have fourteen-years and nine months left. Kekeke.” Then Kai reminded the boy of what’s important before his heavy-presence left the great-sage’s awareness.

“Hoot...” The white-owl hooted towards Lin then lowered its head a couple of times to greet the boy who calmly looked towards her without making any fuzz—like the little-one on the other shoulder—while completely disregarding Sun who dared to threaten her and be openly-rude to her! if the "great" Kai hadn't told her to not make any troubles for the boy? then... she would've gave this weak-cub a lesson long ago. Honestly... this white-owl is quite eager to use some of the tricks which those from her world used against her before like... more than once actually! maybe later then... she shouldn’t give that rude "little-idiot" her attention anyway.

“Can you speak?” The great-sage asked the small white-owl and received a quick answer when it shook its tiny head from left to right... that confused Lin slightly because within this spirit-world... beasts of the devil-realm are said to be able to speak the common-tongue normally like humans! the boy continued, “Do you have a name?”

“Hoot!...” The small white-owl gave the same answer.

“Would you like me to choose a name for you?” Lin asked while descending to stand on-top of Wei’s carriage. The spirit-barrier of the speeding convoy is about to be hit by the shockwaves from the explosion—which he caused—and the boy didn't want to do anything else to help! out of fear because... he might actually end-up causing more trouble for Lai and Wang. Before knowing what he's really capable of... the great-sage shouldn’t intervene anymore unless it’s absolutely-necessary that he does! this time the white-owl kept nodding its head before looking towards Lin with such an adorable expression of huge expectations. “How about... Frostine?” The boy asked once they entered the safety of the barrier and found the white-owl nodding again before taking a few sidesteps closer towards his face then rub the soft feathers of her head on his cheek cutely.

“Hehe thanks Frostine... this is Sun, he’s my best and oldest friend. Sun... this is Frostine, don't annoy her or she'd bully you! I won’t save you if you’re the one who starts causing trouble.” Lin held Sun closer towards Frostine and introduced the two while telling them his rules for a perfect and healthy relationship between the three of them! the orange-cat blinked its yellow draconic-eyes a few times then nodded after extending its neck to sniff the white-owl.

“Meow...”

“Hoot...”

“Snort...”

“Hey you two! what did I just say?”

............

While the two beasts got to know one another! well... Sun and Frostine did it in their own special and beastly-way. Lin was—like everyone else within the convoy, especially whose who’re on guarding-duty—looking at the devastation everywhere around him in silence while the caravan passed the area.

Every one of the cultivators on this dead-silent convoy sucked a long and cold breath of air while exchanging fearful-looks with their friends and partners while thinking : 'Is that... really caused by a junior? he isn’t some formidable-senior in disguise is he? the attack from before, wasn’t some rare and formidable ancient-talisman... was it? the wings on his back and that glowing symbol of golden-wings at his right-hand—which is very noticeable especially in this dark night—are clearly emitting the same type of light-energy! everything feels so similar to the light-beam in their senses.'

Zhang sucked a breath of air... not because he was afraid or anything! the simple man simply became... very excited after witnessing how strong Lin has become. The boy’s improvements are just another motivation and reason for the strong man to work harder in the future that’s all. Meanwhile Lai just frowned after seeing the great-sage in action while thinking : 'Shit! the "monstrous-kid" just became something "insanely-scary" even for a "freak-of-nature" like the boy himself this is... "next-level madness" is it because of the damn potion of thought-rebirth? city-lord Huang made a "fabulous-creature" from a "monstrosity" by pure mistake indeed, I really hope this boy is feeling offended by the cultivation-alliance after what happened. En, it would be best if Lin complains to senior Ming about it as well... though, I doubt it would be needed if the boy matured into... whatever "that" should be called!' Honestly... it isn’t that Liao Lai didn’t see stronger abilities or people than this boy! it’s just that... he never seen such strong abilities from someone who should be... so weak. Once and again the blade-user tried imagining himself actually blocking Lin’s ability or... at least parrying and diverting that beam of light-energy! however... every time—within that imaginary confrontation—Lai would be instantly consumed by the ray of light instead then... torn to pieces. That’s when the blade-user imagined blocking or parrying the boy’s ability! what happens when Lai imagined confronting that ability with force? like for example... cutting the beam of light-energy in half with his blade... or something more hardcore like pushing it back towards its source with an energy-fusion—which he doesn’t have yet—of blade-intent plus perfect-mix of both gold and earth spirit-energy! the blade-user couldn’t imagine himself actually being able to unleash the full-force of that imaginary-power of his future-self before being overpowered by the terrifyingly-quick ray of light-energy... Lai is sure that these imaginary-losses within the many scenarios are because his imaginary-self... just isn't fast enough to react. Maybe... he should return to the basics of blade-techniques and see if there’s a solution to this problem! or... if there’s something that he neglected along the way. Wang on the other hand completely expected "at least" that much from someone who’s got such "immense" and "history-shaking" amount of latent-potential like this boy here! the handsome-man didn’t compare "sizes" with the kid like the blade-for-brains or... become hot in the head and burn with excitement like the stubborn-ox. Wang just thought about how many beauties could he attract in the future just by flaunting some talents from the surface—which should be enough—to amaze and provide sufficient-options and allow the handsome-man to hook his best-friend with a dao-companion already! otherwise if he couldn’t succeed during this journey? then... Wang is seriously beginning to think that maybe he should go and look for some well-fed and perfectly-healthy "cow" instead to offer as a candidate in being the eternal-partner of Zhang. Tang Wei danced in joy inside his carriage while indulging himself deeply in the fantasy of uncountable-wealth and endless-fortune! such unbelievable-riches could only fall in the fatty’s lap and fill his pockets... when the boy fights in a smart yet valiant way within the biggest fighting-arena of mercenary-city. Then create history by making a winning streak which no-one could break or... make! while his little-brother is crushing the competition... the merchant would be accumulating mountains’ worth of spirit-resources and speeding-up the revival of the five-clans. A return to Tang-city would declare the beginning of such life-long dream for his clansmen... maybe old Tao’s return to the clan would be sooner than expected! much... much sooner.

.............

Within the carriage.

Bo An was deep in her peaceful sleep and dreaming about Lin—who’s much older and manlier—holding her on-top of his strong arms and coaxing her with soft and loving words to pamper her while flying high in the sky like shooting-star... it’s the day they’re officially married! meanwhile... down below there’s countless eyes watching them leave the wedding-party while feeling various emotions after witnessing the departure of the bride and groom. The amount of envy within these eyes is honestly of a frighteningly-high scale within the female-audience! especially the young ones... amongst the attendees is her big-sister Mia—which is expected since their relationship is close like real sisters—however... the amount of envy within her green-eyes is quite... noticeable! the sharp and sword-like gaze—which the slightly old yet still incomparably-beautiful woman—gave her... caused a cold-shiver all-over the young-girl’s back.

“Huff... Huff... w-what was that?” Bo An woke-up covered in sweat and muttered that to herself.

“The boy... he just did something unbelievable outside.” The elderly voice of the woman entered the ears of Fang Bo and Bo An... the young-lady’s mysterious guardian mistook the reason for the young-girl’s unnatural-state with what’s going outside.

“Really! what did Ming do? grandma, quickly tell me.” Bo An quickly became distracted from the sweet dream—which oddly transformed into something weird and uncomfortable—after hearing that voice... the young-girl became too excited that she began to kiss and rub Fang Bo’s belly.

“Matriarch. Don’t exaggerate things for her... she’s already swooning-over whenever the boy is mentioned, little-BoBo is sick... first-love makes human that way.” Fang Bo enjoyed the good treatment from the young-lady of the Chentian clan yet said such things without fear.

“Tsk! you shut-up, your mouth is so filthy... how dare you judge this fair lady? you know nothing about love because you never truly loved. You’re just a baddie, you mate with ten... sometimes twenty partners every year! when did you ever hear me complain about it?” Bo An began to glare back at Fang Bo while retorting to defend herself... then she began to fold his pointy-ears and twirl his cute tail with her finger or stretch his lips to expose his canines.

“Growl!...”

.............

Outside on-top of the first carriage of the speeding convoy.

The great-sage witnessed the mutilated-bodies and the exposed or buried carcasses of the dead beasts bleed their last and cover the land! beasts from a wide-variety of species perished and are half-buried or half-burned... bodies everywhere! bodies spread everywhere towards the right of the convoy... bodies spread everywhere towards the left of the convoy. Still there’s lots and lots of more beasts which are... about to die because they’re gravely-wounded! within this cruel-mixture of soil—from the upturned-earth—and huge amount of fresh-blood plus the very high-quantity of big-sized beast-carcasses... there’s the remains from the humans and their merchandise—poor slaves—which fell under the stampeding legs of the beast-blockade before Wei’s convoy arrived. Everything around him is very shocking to the people which are currently watching it live while passing through the aftermath! however... Lin's heart hurt him and he felt like it’s being squeezed within his chest by the cold and emotionless hand of the "devil" himself. Seeing the result of himself destroying instead of building or creating it felt like... the boy just defied his nature for the first time! great-sage Lin felt like he just entered "uncharted-territories" within his character.