Returning to the caravan while resisting the head-splitting pain resulting from the side-effect after forcefully using the incomplete ability of soul-lock with an already weakened soul-force at barely one-fifth of its maximum strength... Lin carried Lai by the armpit and moved ahead of Li Yang and Zan Shui who kept infusing more and more of their lightning and water-energy to the ice block that is imprisoning the assassin! not only was that ice block suppressing that person’s martial-spirit but also worked on completely restricting his body... Lightning-energy is the most effective element—amongst all elements graded at the high-rank—when used against soul-force... while ice-energy is already very famous for being capable of hindering and blocking the flow of spirit-energy within the bodies of the user’s enemies... only if... that ice-energy could manage to invade the meridian-system of these enemies and seal their energy-pathways.

Blood-Demon was unable to resist this invasive-suppression of spirit-energy from entering his body or shake it off from his system no matter how hard he tried to agitate the sin-energy within his dantian-space... while being transported back against his will to the caravan... the assassin’s bloodshot-eyes could only see the back of the boy flying in-front of him who’s the main reason he received his first failure after more than eighteen years of his career as an assassin! a few days before this man decided to make his move on the youngest princess of the Ling-empire... Blood-Demon was still patiently lying in wait and disguising himself amongst the group of loose-cultivators who joined Wei’s caravan after the crisis of the demonic-beasts became a thing of the past for the whole  convoy. Thanks to his "blood-metamorphosis" ability—which is a very formidable and extremely rare technique that only devil-incubators can use—the assassin witnessed the kid's confrontation with Lantian... despite having not personally faced this young-hero Ming in the sparring-matches a couple days ago... this Blood-Demon has nothing but a colossal amount of shock and disbelief within his chest when it comes to this little boy! of course... he also did witness the kid when he used that long-range ability in the first time and personally experienced the aftereffects of having to suffer almost the full brunt of it in the second time however... the regret this assassin is currently feeling is because of his own lack of "decisiveness" earlier. Why? because he actually had the perfect chance to escape after his ability of evil-reign was initiated... during the short duration of time when the evil-cloud of red-mist began to spread and give him an excellent cover... instead if using this opportunity to make a good deal of distance between himself and his target... Blood-Demon just... hesitated! honestly... it was because the assassin really thought that he still does have a chance to complete the mission while being aided by the evil-cloud of red-mist after these group of spirit-cultivators are influenced by sin-energy—amidst the ensuing chaos right after they’re covered by sin-energy and being contaminated by it—Blood-Demon could kill the youngest-princess and kill the rest to accumulate spirit-resources... doing the same to the young-lady of the Chentian clan would be a farfetched dream but... it doesn’t matter if he couldn’t because this assassin is confident that he can escape from whatever dao-protector she might have. However... the biggest part of Blood-Demon’s hesitation earlier is still the assassins-guild itself! why? because... that cruel organization doesn't tolerate failure just as much as it is generous in rewarding its members in success. If any assassin just returned without success after accepting a mission? then... their ranking within the guild would drop by an entire grade! in Blood-Demon’s case... since he’s just ascended to the ranking of spirit-pearl within the guild’s ranking after some really tough struggles to assassinate three spirit-lords then... this assassin is going to drop back to the ranking of spirit-gold again however... he wouldn’t drop so low as to have only one star within that lower grade like he had in the grade above it. The assassins-guild is cruel but it isn’t that devastatingly-cruel on its members where it would rob them of extra stars within the lower grade as well as their grade after someone meets failure... the demotion of a grade is guaranteed and the stars earned within said grade are wiped clean but... after the demotion every assassin becomes a nine-starred individual in the lower grade however... back-to-back failures afterwards are allowed in the case of said assassin seeking to brave the barrier of grades and improve their ranking again! but... it isn’t allowed whenever assassins are simply undergoing regular missions like this one here... fail regular missions means demotions until said assassin is a regular bronze assassin... another failure and that assassin is... exterminated by some upstart within the guild to clean house and set an example for the rest... this guild just doesn’t fuck around... it’s a really "serious" organization. So... having to revert back to being a nine-starred spirit-gold assassin means that Blood-Demon needs to struggle again... like really struggle! after searching and finding the best three targets for himself... he needs to take-out these three spirit-lords to earn back his previous ranking as an assassin graded in the spirit-pearl rank. The losses this assassin experienced and the price he had to pay just to reach that high rank—which is the fourth-rank within the assassins-guild—is a few of the best trump-cards that Blood-Demon managed to collect over the years... plus the sacrifice of an entire major-realm’s worth of sin-energy! that is the equivalent to nine whole stages of spirit-energy for spirit-tyrants in the system of spirit-cultivation... the last of these trump-cards was that nameless soul-talisman—which Li Yang's lightning-spike attack intercepted and redirected its soul-force away from its intended target—it’s really insane how much this assassin had to pay over these eighteen years to become what he’s today. But... after seeing the boy still capable of using spirit-energy and rely on his spirit-wings to fly after having just experienced that extremely short and extremely dangerous struggle with his own martial-spirit—little red-snake—Blood-Demon really began to doubt whether or not his nameless soul-talisman would've given this kid much trouble of a trouble at all... especially on the long-term! long before the three others could even do something to help this young-master Ming after killing the assassin with their spirit-abilities... that nameless soul-talisman should’ve caused enough damage... real permanent-damage on the boy... or so Blood-Demon thought it would become before the fight even began. 'Why did he stop them from killing me? is he after some information before getting rid of me... heh. Let's see, I kind of hope to see whether or not he does have both the method and the backbone to break my will.' The captured assassin felt some anticipation within his chest about the events to come... according to his own judgment on the character of this kid after witnessing him deal with others around him a few times is that... this extremely talented young-hero Ming is upright, wise, charismatic, very strong... like way beyond his age-group, and... really soft! yes that... soft. Why? because of how much care this boy has expressed towards weak mortals... that’s the reason why Blood-Demon specifically gave this kid that mediocre description! and that's why he’s anticipating the time when such a "soft" Ming would reveal his methods in the events that follow after the boy managed to capture him... is he someone who can he be soft when needed and cruel when needed? if this kid is able to do so? then... this assassin wouldn't feel any shame whatsoever after falling at the hands of such a once in a lifetime true... genius. Because life for someone like him—Blood-Demon—has already lost its "taste" since the incident of his kidnapping... this man’s only reason for seeking strength to begin with... was to avenge himself against the devil-cultivator who once forced the younger-version of himself towards the path of evil-incubation many years ago! yet... despite it being easier to ascend towards higher major-realms while relying-on the devil-dao compared to cultivators from any other dao or system of cultivation... the requirements are quite tasking when it comes to materials and resources. In his "unique" case it’s extra costly while being extremely demanding when it comes to the quantity of souls... and the quality kept escalating after every increase he made in the major-realms of his devil-cultivation! this increase is really... really ridiculous in its own sense.

“Seniors. I believe that I don't need to remind any of you to not blink even once after we return, three tyrants are to keep this... "prisoner" within an arms’ reach until it's time for his interrogation process. Make as many grandmasters as needed join you, the exact count would be left for you guys to decide. As for me... I really need a couple of hours or so to stabilize my soul-force, you all can see how out of shape I currently am.” Lin's words pulled Blood-Demon from his daydreams and the assassin was slightly surprised when he witnessed how these two spirit-tyrants just nodded seriously when this Ming gave them commands because... they're acting like they’re used to follow every order from to the boy exactly like any subordinate would their leader! it isn’t because the boy is stronger or does have a strong backing—like other geniuses around his age who would—like some sort of formidable clan, sect, or any other organization... it is because this kid has established some sort of extremely solid authority among this gathering of "riffraff" who come from all sorts of place.

“Young-hero Ming. Be assured and rest without any shred of worry, this Yang would rather die before this... "beast" gets to escape. I certainly can be cruel, if needed that is.” Mercenary-leader Yang gave Blood-Demon a side-glance—which is full of heart-felt contempt—before answering the boy while giving him a very appreciative look... if it wasn't for the kid activating that formidable soul-ability at the opening of the short fight and restraining this assassin's martial-spirit—which obviously could've given both himself and that fellow-cultivator who goes by the name Shui a lot of annoying troubles—because both spirit-tyrants could feel the extremely intense and dangerous amount of soul-force on it ever since Blood-Demon decided to make a stand against all of them? then... Li Yang and Zan Shui would’ve certainly suffered from this fight without a doubt! at once both men guarded their souls with extreme vigilance by intensifying their energy-armor around their bodies to prevent any intrusion of foreign soul-force within their bodies... that’s the most primitive method and basic technique when guarding against soul-cultivators but... it doesn’t work against strong soul-cultivators. The shell of spirit-energy nullifies and foils sneaky attempts to bypass their guard without them realizing however... when the soul-force is strong... then it needs an equivalently strong spirit-energy! in that case it means... spirit-energy of a higher grade... just to detect it. Otherwise... soul-cultivators would be able to access the bodies of their enemies with their soul-force without their enemies even realizing the danger they’re in... a catastrophic-failure and a massive advantage over their opponents is just... unfair! under all circumstances... at least spirit-cultivators would be... slightly prepared to receive some damage at some point when they do realize the plans of their enemy beforehand. Because... if their souls happen to receive any sort of sneak-attack during the fight? first problem any cultivator from any system would face is... a loss of focus! or... a delay of their reflexes... even the slightest of any of these two problems could be the end of their lives. Most frustrating thing is... these are just that... the first and least of their problems! stronger soul-cultivators can do a lot more... and of course... without even needing to disguise their attempts behind sneaky-attempts. Despite being clearly weakened after suffering the "apocalyptic-consequences" of the kid's long-range ability in the form of a blinding light-ray... this assassin here who goes by the name "Blood-Demon" is still a devil-cultivator who’s comparable to a spirit-tyrant of the eighth-stage! he’s stronger than Zan Shui—this current ally of theirs with his two companions who does have a mysterious background and a suspiciously low-key behavior that’s clearly related to them being attacked by such a strong assassin from the assassins-guild in the first place—by one stage and stronger than Li Yang himself by an entire four stages... which makes the threat to all of their lives realistically almost impossible to dodge. Then again—despite having these insane odds against them—once young-hero Ming shared some of his "encompassing-view" of the situation by sending them a live-transmission of his soul-link ability... they very easily coordinated their attacks together without exchanging any sort of "premeditated-signatures" between themselves or formulating a plan beforehand! by executing two spirit-abilities almost simultaneously they managed to counter and parry one visible attack from this Blood-Demon—thanks to Cheng Lai’s intervention—then... redirect the invisible attack when the assassin relied on some foreign and unknown soul-talisman—thanks to Li Yang’s Lightning-spike—before finally... immobilizing this man’s body and easily taking advantage of his momentary depletion of sin-energy with the third spirit-ability—thanks to Shui’s spirit-ability—they restricted Blood-Demon’s sin-energy back to his dantian-space! after unleashing two tyrant-lever spirit-abilities and just one more ability from a half-step spirit-tyrant they... actually did it. If this assassin was someone who does have strong physical-strength or some great attainments in the dao of body-forging? then... Blood-Demon could've just countered this imprisonment and escaped the ice with the strength of his body! thankfully... he wasn't that "scary" of an opponent... which is why they smoothly "bagged" him and they’re already on their way back to the caravan.

Clearly Zan Shui isn’t pleased since they’re allowing such a dangerous enemy to keep his life... it’s quite visible on his expression and from the look within his eyes! but... the water-cultivator kept his mouth shut and just followed in silence until he dropped Blood-Demon next to Wei's carriage... Lin didn’t comment or say anything to the strongest spirit-tyrant in this caravan and sat-down to meditate on the soul-strengthening technique. Right now the great-sage needs to stop the head-splitting headache from tearing his soul apart from the inside-out... after dropping Lai next to Wei the boy ignored everything around him.

Meanwhile the entire caravan was in a state of full alert... every spirit-cultivator—except for the three spirit-tyrants who are currently reinforcing the block of ice around the assassin with their spirit-energy to prevent it from losing any of its strength against Blood-Demon's corrosive sin-energy—is prevented from coming within the distance of five-hundred meters from the prisoner... mortals didn’t dare be anywhere near that forbidden-zone.

Li Yang, Zan Shui and Ning Xue are responsible of the first shift and guarding their captive while young-hero Ming is resting under the care of Zhang... Lai and Wang helped Chen Fu guard the caravan or oversee the search for anything that might have escaped the boy's keen eyes and soul-sense! since Zan Shui and Su Meiyin plus that assassin could do it then... who are they to say that others can’t do the same?

Su Meiyin remained next to princess Mei inside their carriage after placing quite a few sensory-formations inside the walls of the carriage as well as everywhere around it... the maid did all that to ensure that no other assassin is going to take them by surprise while they’re being stationary-targets! all it would take is a moment of her lowering her guard slightly and the youngest-princess would lose her life... certainly Meiyin can’t allow such a scenario from happening.

Bo An felt the situation outside the carriage from the very beginning and activated the isolation-formation to block the disturbance from distracting the three demonic-beasts—which are working very hard to become stronger just like herself—currently hibernating inside the carriage... the young-girl does have faith in Lin's capabilities and wants him to gain experience from this incident since that’s one of the boy’s flaws which he needs to work on mending them in the future! however... just to be on the safe side of things... the young-lady of the Chentian clan asked her grandpa's beast-companion—which is her grandma and currently her dao-protector—to watch over her little-lover... only intervene and rescue him... if things got dangerous during her absence.

The mortals within the caravan did see the five family-members who got murdered and panicked... then afterwards they learned about what happened after asking the "kind-looking" spirit-cultivators within the many guard-units! from the "scary-looking" yet "unexpectedly" easygoing young-man who’s called Qiang Chi... these mortals got to know the most detailed story about what young-hero Ming just did earlier... he personally led two spirit-tyrants and boss Cheng Lai out into the territories of beast-mountains and successfully captured the assassin... at the cost of injuring himself... of course. After spending hours waiting for their young-hero Ming to wake-up the worry started to fester within the chests of these fans of this kid... almost all of them began to give silent-prayers wishing for the safety of this young-hero Ming! especially the mortals from the young-generation... their prayers had no ulterior-motives behind them which caused quite a stir among the boy’s aura of faith when their pure strands connected with it.

One of the few people who really... really wanted to talk with Ming right now is Ning Xue herself! every now and then the long-legged beauty would click her tongue and pucker her lips while looking towards the boy before infusing some of her spirit-energy into the ice block... she kept giving the kid who meditated without any care for the whole world really impatient glances.

Zan Shui on the other hand resisted downright killing this imprisoned asshole who tried to kill the youngest-princess earlier right here and right now but... the spirit-tyrant intuitively-knew that doing so would just draw the ire of this little-genius... Ming! even when his youngest-princess is a "highborn" with quite an elevated social-status to back her up in the future and some amazing talents... if Zan Shui did or said something to annoy this little-brat? then maybe... the boy would make things difficult for the little-princess in the future... maybe the kid would do it in the future just to pay the water-cultivator for going against his direct orders years back in the past... many examples in the past went likewise and the spirit-tyrant doesn’t wish to be the reason why his princess might suffer... be that in the present or in the future.

Li Yang didn't mind the wait nor their delay from reaching mercenary-city... after experiencing what it feels to fight alongside this boy... the mercenary-leader wants to leave a good impression on the kid even more now! making any sort of connection—solid ones would be much better, if possible—with Ming feels like a great gain now... all he needs to do is be patient and obedient right now... hopefully the kid would appreciate his attitude and behavior then extend the welcoming hand.

Wei just beamed with smiles while eating and drinking without a shred of worry... why? because... this is already enough "propaganda" for his next business establishment! the capture of a devil-cultivator who’s equivalent to a spirit-tyrant of the peak stages... exactly at the eighth-stage... at the hands of no other than the youngest guards that his upstarting establishment has to offer. Would certainly give people the fake-impression of greatness and mightiness as well as grandeur... all these traits would be given to the fatty’s upcoming transportation business on pearl-road! 'Hehe. Coins, fortune, resources.' Wei thought while chopping another slice of the fruit on his fork with his teeth... the merchant’s smile widened and widened which caused his narrow-eyes to squint even further to the degree where his pupils practically disappeared behind the meaty eyelids.

.........

Lin sat cross-legged at the center of the bright-zone within his soul-world... while following the instructions of the soul-strengthening technique to accumulate soul-force to bring his soul back to shape... the boy practically "reanimated" the events of the short clash of soul-force between his weakened soul-force when he used the incomplete ability of soul-lock against Blood-Demon's martial-spirit—thanks to Gang who witnessed the whole thing when it happened—that red-snake just hissed and caused a burst of soul-force! that explosion of soul-force managed to actually stop the ability of soul-lock from coming anywhere near the assassin really... the great-sage even felt how his soul-force was actually slightly losing against the soul-force of that tiny red-snake in the very beginning... the threat from that eruptive and berserk soul-force was quite dangerous and lethal. Why? simply because... that uncommon soul-force was actually corroding Lin’s soul-force! whenever both types of soul-force met... that "weird" soul-force from the red-snake would scatter some of the boy’s soul-force. It was both unexpected and surprising to the great-sage when that red-snake gradually managed to stop his soul-force from completely surrounding Blood-Demon like it should've! his most elite—even if it’s currently incomplete—soul-ability was actually blocked? by no other than a martial-spirit! imagine Lin’s sweet surprise whenever he’s met with the unexpected... that’s one reason why he doesn’t wish for this man to die... such a good material that’s well-suited for experiments doesn’t cross-path with the boy quite often. When both types of soul-force met it was like... two great-waves meeting head-on and slamming against one another with all the weight and force they can carry! the great-sage could only try and push that other wave of soul-force with his own in that situation... why? simply because... in such situations every inch of ground that he let go and surrender to his opponent would result in... Lin allowing his opponent the opportunity to unleash more soul-force into their own attack and a chance for their wave of soul-force to gain momentum and grow stronger in-exchange! not to mention giving the opponent the opportunity of focusing at the boy’s weaknesses instead of just letting soul-force clash blindly. However... let’s not forget that from that uncommon soul-force of that assassin... let’s just say that the great-sage just felt absolutely disgusted! disgust so deep that it practically reached deep down into his interior until his very own soul was touched by these emotions... these emotions were both uncomfortable and sickening—which Lin couldn't stand being touched by them more than he already has—and Lin felt like his soul-force might be contaminated by that "nasty" soul-force if both types of soul-force continued to clash a bit longer. Gang was the witness to the moment where both soul-bodies experienced some change... specifically the infinity-symbol on the left-hands it sent a silver-colored stream of soul-source that ran upwards on the left-arm through their back! once that silver-colored stream of intense soul-force reached the location of their spine it stopped for a split-second and the tree-like symbol of the leaf-less branches lit-up on its own... then that silver-colored stream moved up and climbed the spine towards the neck then down through the passage of the right-shoulder and moved directly towards the right-hand where the wings-symbol is located. When that link between three symbols happened... the boy’s soul-force was actually able to resist being pushed back any further than it already has and stop Blood-Demon's explosion of corrosive soul-force from gaining anymore momentum... the result of this change was both waves of soul-forces ending-up in some weirdly nerve-wrecking equilibrium! a draw between two types of soul-force where no side is being in a clear advantage... doesn’t mean that it would end well for the great-sage. Why? because... he only had one-fifth of his maximum soul-force at that situation! a drawn-out clash means that he’s more likely to lose instead of win. However... at the time where Lin felt like he’s at the end of his rope... his fire-intent just decided to join the struggle on its own! his glass-heart specifically sent the gold-flame directly towards the infinity-symbols on the left-hands of the boy’s soul-bodies... the gold-flame simply split itself into two rays of golden-colored fire before entering these two symbols... around each infinity-symbol two circles of the gold-color flickered once before disappearing. Afterwards the previous and obvious weakness of the great-sage's soul-force where the situation changed into a draw since the beginning of the three symbols being linked together... changed again and Lin’s soul-force gained clear superiority over that assassin’s corrosive soul-force once that golden-flame belonging to the system of fire-intent joined the struggle of soul-force! Blood-Demon's corrosive soul-force faced the same fate his ability of evil-reign faced when the boy's long-range ability in the form of light-ray attack it... right after the devil-cultivator unleashed the nameless soul-talisman the great-sage's soul-force augmented with the three linked symbols and assisted by the golden fire-intent collectively struck the tiny body of the red-snake after successfully scattering its explosive and corrosive soul-force into practically... nothing. It was a short but extremely dangerous... winning that clash of soul-force really happened because of pure and dumb-luck! thankfully Lin's mysterious symbols saved his butt and the fusion of soul-force and fire-intent managed to give him the win against Blood-Demon and his frightening martial-spirit... the only reason why the boy could swiftly conclude the fight is because of the "suppressive-advantage" where different affinities could counter one another. If that clash happened against someone with different affinities yet still have the same corrosive-characteristic in their soul-force? then... the great-sage actually winning can't be that assured... like at all! this is one of the points that he kept reminding himself with... to be always careful and not to get too confident in himself... especially whenever he’s facing an opponent of this world... underline this line a thousand-times if it’s an opponent that is stronger than him in any system of cultivation... in his case it would be... practically every single spirit-cultivator staring with those in the second-stage of the spirit-apprentice realm and ending with those in the peak-perfection of the spirit-sovereign realm. Why so harsh on himself? well... it’s simply because... there’s a chance that he might receive more surprises from such opponents... and a chance that he might not be so... lucky! that opponent did have the characteristics of corrosion when using his soul-force and the only reason the boy could counter it is because his natural-affinity has the ability to suppress that specific trait... which means? certainly there’s others out there who indeed can use methods and abilities that he can't counter... in addition to others who can counter his own abilities. When that happens... then the great-sage would be forced to struggle and fight up-hill or be dragged into prolonged fights! after confronting Lantian Lin got to learn the truth about just how short he can keep-up when going all-out against an opponent that’s compared to a spirit-lord in strength... even that opponent wasn’t taking him seriously in a fight and was just playing a game of tag with him! a single attack from that opponent—while not being serious about hurting the boy—caused both the deadly-sin of wrath and the boy to... give it their all just to... buy some time for themselves and to... widen the distance between themselves and their opponent. When facing an opponent who’s compared to someone in the pinnacle of spirit-tyrant realm like Blood-Demon... Lin discovered—the truth in a harsh way—that he still doesn't have much of an advantage against that opponent in prolonged fight... him being weakened doesn’t give the boy any excuses all the same! why? because... his previous-life taught him this simple lesson... when calamity come knocking on your door... it doesn’t matter what state you’d be in... all that matters is how prepared you’d be when you hear the knocks.

An example of that saying is that assassin which he managed to capture... first Blood-Demon used some devil-technique to temporarily gain strength and raise his devil-cultivation to be comparable to a spirit-lord in might! yes... that was that man’s initial-plan before striking and completing his mission however... it seems like Lin have interrupted these plans and caused the assassin to halt everything at a critical timing before it’s too late. Why? simply because... Blood-Demon just wouldn’t be able to stop an enemy from attacking him had his martial-spirit continued the evil-ritual of consuming the secret-formula of the demonic soul-ash! when he stopped the devil-ritual this assassin was comparable to a spirit-cultivator who’s at the quasi-lord realm or the half-step spirit-lord in strength... when the boy's long-range attack hit... it just happened to be just a few hundred meters away from the location of Blood-Demon—which is another stroke of dumb luck by all means and a bad decision from the assassin himself who got too greedy for success—who had to practically go all-out to block the aftereffects of that light-ray ability while fleeing the red-zone because his life depended on it. This devil-cultivator had to sacrifice some of his devil-cultivation—which he painstakingly accumulated in the first place—just to escape towards safety... and his basic devil-cultivation degraded into what would be compared to a spirit-tyrant of peak-perfection! then afterwards during the short interval when he tried to force the light-energy that managed to invade his body out from his system... every attempt from his martial-spirit cost him invaluable sin-energy—which lowered Blood-Demon's devil-cultivation once again—in the process... it dragged his devil-cultivation downwards until the assassin became comparable to a spirit-cultivator who’s in the beginnings of the ninth-stage of the tyrant realm.

Lin knows that he was indeed very... very lucky earlier! why? simply because when the great-sage aimed his long-range ability... in the beginning the boy aimed his forefinger towards the center of the evil-cloud of sin-energy however... in the end Lin pointed towards the location where he sensed the most concentrated feelings of pure hate and loathing coming from the countless tormented-souls that swam all-over the red-mist and kept screaming silently despite being visibly in unimaginable-pain! to answer the calling of these tormented-souls... the boy launched his light-ray towards where the majority of these tormented-souls looked... thankfully his decision proved to be the right thing to do and his action managed to weaken their enemy while removing the danger of the red-mist all in a single strike.

While meditating... the great-sage kept trying to see if he can do the fusion between fire-intent and soul-force... Lin believes that he was born with this fire-intent that he inherited from his previous-life... he gained it specifically in the incident of his death where he got burned by fire that could melt his most advanced skin-suit... which is... not a regular fire! when the boy drank the potion of thought-rebirth he understood the true intent of the element of light... that’s why he gained the variant of fire-intent that’s birthed from both his understanding of his basic natural-affinity and his scientific-understanding of fire. Sitting on-top of the golden water of his soul-world... the great-sage raised his left-hand upwards and from the infinity-symbol a silver-cloud of soul-force began to form on-top of it! then Lin called both of the gold and red-fire from his glass-heart towards his right-hand... very slowly and very cautiously... the boy sent a tiny wisp from both fires of his fire-intent and made them join the silver-cloud of soul-force in his left-hand. Quickly afterwards that silver-cloud began to change in shape and transformed into a glittering flame that kept dancing on-top of his left-hand while twinkling in the silver, gold, and red colors! in the beginning it was easy and the great-sage met no trouble whatsoever while infusing more wisps from the two fires of his fire-intent into that tiny amount of his soul-force however... the fusion between fire-intent and soul-force became a very straining and difficult task to complete... especially straining on his soul-force after Lin attempted to increase the intensity of fire-intent into the fusion. Currently the boy just can’t tolerate spending anymore soul-force... after all... he’s trying to stabilize his soul-source! even his soul-world has become small in size because its glowing and bright zone has greatly shrunk and became only three kilometers in range... from the look of it... a really major problem follows after the great-sage uses the ability of soul-lock while its inscription aren’t completed yet. After letting out a deep sigh that carries all his impatience and disappointment... Lin stopped doing anymore experiments with that fusion and just concentrated on regaining soul-force through the teachings of the soul-strengthening technique... after a short session of soul-meditation the boy managed to regain enough soul-force to his push the borders of the bright and glowing zone in his soul-world back to the mark of ten kilometers in range! that’s the current maximum-range of soul-sense this great-sage have and he decided that it’s enough for now... at least until the problem of the assassin is dealt with.

.......

Opening his eyes Lin found Zhang standing behind him being his guard while activating the ability of energy-armor and covering himself with the thickest layer of earth-energy that he create... behind the simple—and really cautious—man is Wei's luxurious carriage while the fatty and Lai are setting at the table towards his left currently in a heated-argument about how it isn't decided yet who might reach the tyrant-realm first between the two of them! the prisoner is still imprisoned within the ice-block ahead of him where the three spirit-tyrants are sitting cross-legged around the assassin and gathering spirit-energy towards their bodies to keep themselves in tip-top shape... after continuously spending their spirit-energy for many hours now to suppress this devil-cultivator whose sin-energy never stopped attempting to corrode the spirituality within the ice-block. If the assassin managed to remove himself from the imprisonment of this ice? then... Blood-Demon still has a very good chance to escape since Lin wouldn't be able to provide much of assistance anymore to these spirit-tyrants with his soul in such a weakened-state! after all... that man wasn't hurt at all in the previous fight... Zan Shui and Li Yang both clearly understand that their first win—despite how easy it was—doesn't mean that they’re capable of making another win without the boy being on their side to aid them. If that assassin managed to free himself and was really... really intent-on leaving? then... they'd have to go all-out just to keep him and prevent him from leaving! they really might suffer great loses just to achieve that result and things can get pretty dangerous when a devil-cultivator is an opponent... like very... very easily. One example of what this Blood-Demon can do is... how he increased his strength for a short duration earlier today! such an example does have a very high chance of happening once again or... something much worse. Yes... these secret and forbidden-techniques of devil-cultivation does have extremely harsh lash-backs and are capable of hurting the "foundations" of devil-cultivators... especially when used in a repetitive manner! but... if the alternative is death? then... the exchange of severely hurting their own foundation for a chance of living to see another day of freedom isn’t so bad! even the "sane" among the orthodox-cultivators would always choose the short life in freedom with a ruined foundation over a long life in captivity with an intact and solid foundation... not to mention one of the "suicidal-maniacs" from the assassins-guild who’s a practitioner of the devil-dao as well.

“Finally I get to eat something without interruptions or distractions, Wei I'm really, really hungry! tell them to prepare something for me.” Lin got up and said so while walking towards the three spirit-tyrants, “Lai. Bring me the guard that’s called Qiang Chi, please.” Lai nodded and went to get the young-guard without even asking why does the boy specifically want that person... earlier the blade-user did hear some members from the guarding-teams making jokes about what happened before young-hero Ming sniffed-out the assassin... the way Qiang Chi was begging for a few words in private with the boy while young-hero Ming was handling the young-captain's job of ensuring the safety of the passengers within the caravan tickled these guards.

“Zhang. Thank you for watching over me.” Lin looked towards Zhang who’s walking next to him then pushed him a couple steps to the side while smiling and gave the simple man his thanks.

“No problem, how's your meditation?” The strong man returned the boy’s gesture and pushed him after holding his tiny shoulder however... Zhang couldn't force the kid into taking a single step to the side! the simple man shrugged after discovering this small failure and asked while checking the condition of the great-sage with his eyes.

“Just some rest and something to eat every now and then is all I’d want, I’m going to be alright... no need to worry.” Lin said calmly while approaching the three spirit-tyrants with Zhang... the three of them immediately stood-up from their seats when they noticed the boy walking towards them and Ning Xue kept giving him looks which felt like the beauty is trying to scan his body with her eyes more than a few inches below the layer of skin! “Seniors. Thank you for your hard work, did you encounter any trouble with the prisoner during the past few hours?” The great-sage ignored the uncomfortable looks from the upstarting-tyrant and asked Li Yang and Zan Shui directly.

“His devilish sin-energy is firmly pushed within his dantian-space and his physical-body is completely restrained where the assassin have absolutely no chance for him to move a single muscle, it's just that... only if it weren’t costing us three-times the amount of our spirit-energy just to deplete some of his sin-energy. Which is making it extremely hard for us to exhaust his sin-energy, it’s practically impossible for us to do it in a short time now.” Li Yang patted the block of ice with his hand while giving his answer however... the way the lightning-cultivator said it made it sound like it would be much easier to kill the assassin instead of going through all that trouble! the spirit-tyrant said these words just to voice the worries of the restless Zan Shui and to give an answer to the question which never left the water-cultivator’s chest : "Just what exactly is this young-hero Ming is after? " Taking this assassin and making him his prisoner is... a really risky thing to do! if that Blood-Demon is—somehow—able to notify other members of the guild and request help? then... things might get out of hand faster than they can blink their eyes.

“Let's see if my light-energy is able to make a difference, senior Shui can I trouble you to remove the ice in this area?" Lin said then placed his palm on the freezing cold ice after activated his ability of energy-armor and covering himself with a layer of gold-colored light-energy... currently this is the only method that enables the boy to send his light-energy outside his body without losing control of it! the other method he just can't control it once the light-ray exits from his right-forefinger... the great-sage touched the assassin's body on his abdomen below the belly and focused on sending his pure light-energy through his right-hand towards the body of that assassin... fully aiming to invade Blood-Demon’s dantian-space.

Shui on the other hand just nodded in silence and followed the orders while enduring... the spirit-tyrant really wants to give this young-hero Ming his suggestion to kill this man right now and get it over with already! with a single gesture from his hand the water-cultivator removed the layer of ice exactly where the boy asked him and didn’t raise his hopes up... honestly Zan Shui expected the same or worse results from the kid’s light-energy... after all... three spirit-tyrants already worked together for many hours now and they only managed to scatter one-fifth of Blood-Demon's sin-energy. Just how much of an effect the light-energy in the gaseous-quality of this brat can cause? let him see for himself just how much of a difference exists between the grades of their spirit-energy since this young-hero Ming wants to find-out... the assassin's sin-energy is crystalized in quality like his own and Yang's lightning-energy! even the spirit-energy of this seductive-woman—which just began to crystalize a few days earlier—is already two whole grades higher in quality than Lin's gaseous light-energy... after the boy tastes how it feels to voluntarily drive himself into a "brick-wall" Zan Shui can get this farce of a situation done with already where this Blood-Demon is given the eternal rest of death instead.

“Sizzle!...” From the area of the assassin’s dantian a sizzling sound could be heard when Lin’s right-hand that’s covered in a layer of light-energy touched the body of Blood-Demon... red-colored vapor began to exit from the area where the man’s stomach is located and cover the blue-green ice surrounding it... that red-vapor began to melt the blue-green ice and thin its layer down considerably! gradually the red-vapor melted the layer of ice until the body of Blood-Demon was just covered by a really thin yet very sturdy shell of ice that’s so concentrated and condensed in an extremely narrow space... that shell of condensed ice made a very lifelike statue of the man.

The three spirit-tyrants misunderstood the phenomenon that’s currently ongoing under their eyes and mistook it for the assassin actually trying to escape his imprisonment from within the ice when the boy began using his light-energy... the three of them thought that this Blood-Demon is trying to use some devil-ability to melt the ice! they all quickly hurried to place their hands on the thin layer of ice and infused it with their strong and crystalized spirit-energy however... soon afterwards the three spirit-tyrants became so surprised when they sent their spirit-sense towards the thin-shell of ice to see the situation inside it... they discovered how the sin-energy within this man’s dantian is currently being depleted from his dantian at a rate that’s almost as twice as fast when compared with the speed the three of them managed to achieve previously after quite some struggle. When the three spirit-tyrants exchanged surprised glances after confirming the reality of their discovery... Li Yang gave Zan Shui a knowing look because the mercenary-leader didn't miss the haughty look deep within the eyes of this water-cultivator earlier! especially whenever this boy gave him any polite order... then the lightning-cultivator just smiled when he saw the strongest spirit-tyrant looking towards the thin shell of his own ice-energy while shock filled his eyes. Ning Xue just clicked her tongue again and gave this little-monster—Lin—a look of deep greed... Chen Fu had asked her again and again and again... to correct and fix her attitude while interacting with the kid because their mercenary-group really needs this young-hero Ming to favor them over Li Yang's mercenary-group since the boy is certainly going to—at least—reach the realm of spirit-lord with such a set of latent-potential! however... this beauty still has this deep urge to take advantage of this situation and... payback this naughty child for what he dared to do to her in public. Zan Shui looked towards the kid with fear all-over within his eyes! why? because... only light-energy of the highest grades of purity could easily affect the sin-energy of someone that’s four major-realms higher than the user himself... even when light-energy has the dominant advantage of affinity-suppression when its user is competing against sin-energy... that trait of affinity-suppression is supposed to be flipped in the opposite direction in such cases where there’s such a great difference between the grades of quality in both energies. This effect—which he's currently witnessing with his own senses—means... the light-energy of this young-hero Ming is extremely pure and strong enough to threaten a devil-practitioner who’s comparable to a peak spirit-tyrant in strength! because that light-energy has to—somehow—be of an extremely high purity within its gaseous-grade in-order to subvert or minimize the difference in grade that exists between both types of energy... with the assistance of the advantage of affinity-suppression over one another and the help of the three spirit-tyrants—who are currently restraining the devil-cultivator—it must be why the boy is able to quickly purify the devilishness of that sin-energy... it has to be.

The three spirit-tyrants actually misunderstood what is actually and truly going-on because... Lin wasn’t only infusing his light-energy inside the dantian of this Blood-Demon! had these three been told that this boy is not only using the same trick he just learned after his first fight with the assassin and that he’s already modified it and adjusted it slightly to accommodate his current need by fusing some of the gold-flame and sending his fire-intent with spirit-energy instead of soul-force to his right-hand where the light-energy is being transported outside his body through the wings-symbol? then... all of them would certainly gawk from extreme shock because such advanced-abilities shouldn’t be so easily accessible to anyone... especially not in their first attempt... even more so for such young cultivators. Certainly these three would feel like they’re stabbed in the heart with a cold and merciless dagger if they heard the kid’s opinion after using that fusion of spirit-energy and fire-intent against Blood-Demon... why? simply because... the great-sage honestly thinks that this fusion is much easier than soul-force and fire-intent! specifically because there’s the existence of the wings-symbol—which is helping Lin maintain perfect control over—the fusion between spirit-energy and fire-intent without placing too much strain on his soul-force... after all... it’s the intent of fire born from the element of light to begin with... yes that’s absolutely true... since that gold-fire originally does have such a very intimate relationship with the element of light... it means that even when he’s using fire-intent right in front of their eyes and from such a close distance... these three spirit-tyrants could only see light-energy being used and never noticed the fire-intent within the mix of light-energy. Even Liao Lai—who’s the person with practically the strongest and keenest senses towards soul-force and intent—never noticed the gold-flame currently at work and his heated-argument with Tang Wei about who's got better chances of reaching the next major-realm didn’t stop after he brought young-guard Qiang Chi.

..........

These actions from Lin were completely hidden from the group but Kai clearly noticed everything from inside the ring of origin... the talking-raccoon nodded seriously for the first time after witnessing the boy’s perfect flow and ease of managing the mixture of light-energy and fire-intent.

“Heh. The brat is finally becoming impatient and began to link his aspects, let’s see how far his attempts would take him in unearthing the true potential of fusing these aspects. Meanwhile that little-girl is still keeping her distance and watching in silence, but... I’m sure that she's going to come have a closer look on the boy's "origin-rune" sooner than later. Since she already has a similar origin-rune that’s related to the element of fire, then it’s impossible for her to resist the temptation of another origin-rune... especially when this one is very compatible with the one she has. After all, the one she have did give her a great help while overcoming the lightning-tribulation, if she managed to refine this origin-symbol? then I'm sure that she can reach the realm of origin-beast in less than a decade of time.” Kai did seem amused while watching how Lin began to dabble in the fusion between his different energies... then the talking-raccoon looked towards the sky just a few hundred meters above the great-sage where sky-queen Hongtian stood and watched the boy with a pair of curious red-pupils.

...........

What did it feel for the man himself? well... Blood-Demon was like a great-sinner who got thrown in the depth of hell to answer for the evil that he committed in eighteen years of his life! the assassin felt like his body, soul, and spirit are being burned with the wildest of fires ever since this boy's light-energy touched his abdomen... in the beginning he did try to resist or to push that scalding light-energy outside his dantian-space and far away from his martial-spirit. Alas... that light-energy was very "annoyingly-clingy" and ate-away at Blood-Demon's sin-energy just like how fire doesn’t tend to let-go after catching oil! it began to spread and grow in a wave after wave of fire-like light-energy... the whole thing was outside of his control and the assassin was forced to endure in silence... just like how the many souls within the red-mist were greatly tormented yet unable to voice their pain. Blood-Demon continued to receive a pain that’s no less than these tormented-souls while his devilish-dao—which was forced upon him eighteen years ago—forcefully received a purification and cleansing from that relentless light-energy... while his base-cultivation and ranking within the major-realms of the system of devil-incubation are unaffected... the assassin’s sin-energy is being scattered continuously without stop... from the look of it... if this refinement of his sin-energy continues? then... Blood-Demon is going to end-up being an empty-husk that’s devoid of any type of energy for all that matter! since sin-energy doesn't allow any other type of energy—especially ones which aren't under its control—to remain inside bodies of devil-cultivators... Blood-Demon just didn’t have enough time in his short life to focus on having options when it comes to energy... besides his sin-energy this assassin only have access to the special-abilities of his rare martial-spirit with its soul-nature. The man was kidnapped at such a young age of his life then got operated-on by that devil-cultivator... that disgusting old man—which forced him into being hated by almost all, be they cultivators from different systems, mortals, demonic-beasts, elves, even the majority of dragons—made Blood-Demon hated by everyone just like "necromancers" who just loves to dig graves and disturb the rest of everything that’s dead! that's why except for the special-abilities of his martial-spirit and his attainments in sword-intent... the rest of his natural-affinities towards spirit-energy and his spirit-abilities either became completely useless or removed altogether after sin-energy entered and altered the meridian-system and dantian-space of the younger-version of himself... despite being tormented by the pain of this phase of purification... the assassin actually felt thankful to this boy. More than having revenge on that old man... Blood-Demon wants to go back into being a normal person who isn’t contaminated by sin-energy... deep down this man doesn’t care if he ends-up being a weak and helpless mortal or a spirit-cultivator afterwards... it doesn't matter if he ends-up dying... as long as he’s clean of that revolting sin-energy then everything is just fine with him! that’s how much this man really wishes for one of these scenarios to happen... practically with all his heart... even more than using these devilish-methods to grow stronger until he’s able to kill that geezer. The one who made the assassin personally watch from the shadows while his clan grieved his loss... watch from the shadows while his poor mother spent many nights later staring at the street which Blood-Demon last gave her his goodbyes before departing to do his last mission for the sect! "Blood-Demon, from now on that's your name. If you’re thinking about secretly going back to your sect or clan? then know this... I’m going to release the news of your fall from orthodox-cultivation into the devil-dao, this ought to spice things up in the eastern-heights. Certainly me doing so would bring a few high-ranked individuals from the cultivation-alliance to your hometown, them knocking on the doors of your clan and sect would be nothing but trouble because these people are trouble in itself with their greed and big reputation of slandering innocents. Anyway... if you want to kill yourself? then... you better do it soon because, there's no need to go and implicate innocents! Kekeke... but, if you want revenge? then... you better grow strong... and you better do it fast. Because... if I get bored waiting for you? then, I might just release news about your fate to entertain myself." The thin and short old man whose skin is so pale and sickly smiled such a wide and evil smile while saying these harsh words to Blood-Demon who just received his devil-incubation ceremony! then exited the cave once the eyes of the younger-version Blood-Demon rolled in their sockets and lost he consciousness.

“Seniors. I hope that none of you is in a hurry to leave just yet... because, this might take a bit longer than I thought. This task would require a couple more sessions from us in-order to remove all the disgusting sin-energy inside this man’s dantian-space.” Lin said after Gang notified him that only the two cloud-generals currently remain in their dantian-space... going any further would mean sacrificing these two! these words from the boy did awake the devil-cultivator from his daydreams... the assassin kept remembering the unfortunate events of his kidnapping and the ceremony where he got forcefully converted into another system of cultivation. Blood-Demon couldn’t even close his eyes after seeing the kid give him a look which made him feel like this young-hero Ming could see-through him... all the way until these pair of golden-pupils are able to peer at the man’s naked soul! the thin-layer of ice on the assassin’s body changed in color from the blue-green into blood-red after that single session of purifying such a huge amount of sin-energy with Lin's fusion of light-energy and fire-intent... all the red-vapor from the purification got sucked by that thin-layer of ice once it exited Blood-Deemon’s dantian-space. Thankfully the great-sage is already used to sacrificing a shitload of energy to his meridian-system... be that in clearing, fortifying, or upgrading the meridian-walls! that's why after Lin exhausted almost his entire energy-tank... the boy calmly called a time-out and went towards the table to eat his fill.

“Heh. Almost one-third of my spirit-energy has been exhausted already! well, as long as we're not delayed more than two days... then I have no objections at all.” Zan Shui nodded and was actually the first among the three spirit-tyrants to cup his fist in a polite gesture before he spoke... the previous actions from this boy really made this senior curb his pride and wholeheartedly surrender after witnessing the kid's brilliance! even when he spoke... the smile this water-cultivator had on his face was... self-ridiculing... just comparing the base-amount of spirit-energy within his own energy-tank and this young-hero Ming is... a really harsh blow to his confidence as a spirit-tyrant of the seventh-stage.

Ning Xue on the other hand kept looking everywhere around her for her man who returned later after completing his mission of sweeping the entire caravan in his search for any hidden-dangers and left the teams of guards in a mode of full-alert... Li Yang smiled when he saw Chen Fu return and what his old friend is after is no secret at all... sitting next to the boy and trying to have small talks with the kid! however... the lightning-cultivator wasn't worried at all and focused on doing what he was tasked to do and sat cross-legged to meditate and to regain the energy that he lost earlier... right next to this Blood-Demon of course.

Qiang Chi had immediately followed Lai once he was informed that young-hero Ming is summoning him and waited to the side until the moment where he gets to see what does this boy has in mind... the young-guard watched while the kid and the three spirit-tyrants kept infusing their spirit-energy into the dantian-space of this devil-cultivator! the most notable among the four different types of spirit-energy being infused inside the dantian-space of that assassin was the light-energy from the youngest and outwardly-weakest member... later when young-hero Ming sat and ate while exchanging topics of conversation with the stocky mercenary-leader... Qiang Chi just kept standing like a stone-statue in complete silence... after all... this young-man did live the life of a soldier... to him standing in attention in front of his superiors is the most normal and natural thing to do.

After sitting cross-legged and right before beginning to gather light-energy then returning to "torture" Blood-Demon with his accumulation of light-energy in another session of purification... Lin looked towards Qiang Chi and beckoned for the young-guard to come closer.

“What is your purpose when swearing fealty to someone like me? you made your point clear enough earlier today about your instincts and everything is confirmed already, so... you don't need to emphasize that "talent" of yours,” The boy raised his head to look Qiang Chi directly in the eyes when he spoke after covering the area ten meters around them in a cage of soul-force to give the young-guard some privacy... the only other person to hear what the great-sage just said is Zhang since he’s standing right behind him to guard him because he thought Lin would begin to spirit-cultivate when he saw him sit cross-legged! but from the look of it... the boy doesn’t mind if he gets to hear everything that this young-guard has got to say about himself, “You don't have to worry... nobody—except Zhang here—can hear us.” Lin assured Qiang Chi—whose hideous-crisscrossing-scars would frighten little kids into having nightmares for years to come—when he found him looking around him to look and check how many people could hear what the boy said.

“My attainments in cultivating spirit-energy are mediocre at best and below-average if I’m being judged fairly but, young-hero Ming... if I’m with you? then I certainly have much higher possibilities of achieving greatness and attaining my full potential.” While feeling unease because of the stares from boy's pair of golden-pupils and Zhang's wide ox-like eyes... Chi quickly gave this answer.

“That's just another reason that we can categorize as a "wish" beside the "talent" of your keen-senses and heightened-intuition but, you still left the most important reason... Qiang Chi. You leaving the ranks of merchant Wei and joining my ranks to become a subject of mine, doesn't particularly mean a... smooth sailing! being my subordinate means... to live and die while being restricted by my rules, yes... I generously reward obedience to the best of my abilities. However, the same goes for me when I’m delivering punishment. These scars all-over your body... they do give me this feeling that could be compared to the sin-energy of that assassin but, somewhat fainter. Now, let me ask you again : are you willing to relinquish your old ways and truly follow every one of my orders to the tiniest bits of detail? no matter what might be at stake... even if it’s your own life!” Lin noticed how the eyes of this Qiang Chi widened from shock when he mentioned the scars of the young-guard and how they give him an irritating feeling... seeing the young-man lower his head to hide the expression of being ashamed from his face... the boy asked him once again.

Raising his head up... the first thing Qiang Chi saw was Zhang's pair of wide ox-like eyes encouraging and practically urging the young-guard to quickly accept this opportunity which rarely comes to the rare few only once in a lifetime... the simple man has already made it his habit to spar with Qiang Chi ever since he joined the Cheng clan whenever there’s an available chance to make it happen! the strong man likes the tough and durable personality of this young-guard and admires his lack of arrogance when dealing with those weaker than himself... especially mortals... after seeing the way how this boy is respectful to mortals... Zhang immediately became certain that his little-friend would admire this young-guard. Yet before the simple man could even intervene or say anything... he was surprised when Lin specifically summoned the Qiang Chi! the strong man did mention recruiting this young-captain to their five-clans but... Tang Wei said that it’s too dangerous and risky... of course Zhang was saddened because his suggestion wasn’t met with welcome from his young-master however... when the fate of the five-clans is at risk... the simple man knows that he shouldn’t say anymore on this matter.

“M-my mother. She was... my only relative, the only family I ever had....” Qiang Chi fought with the tears inside his watery-eyes so that none of them would bypass the edge of his eyelids after remembering his mother then... the young-guard slowly narrated the short-story and described the memories of his childhood from the very beginning while the boy and the strong man quietly listened! the four spirit-tyrants and the three spirit-grandmasters of the peak-stages witnessed Lin and Zhang calmly give the young-captain their attention... the vision of these seven and everyone else would blur whenever someone tried to look at Qiang Chi’s face in a failed attempt to read the lips of this young-guard however... everybody could see him clench his fists until his knuckles turned white in color from how tight his fingers were folded.

Lin crossed his arms and didn’t say anything after Qiang Chi finished telling them everything... after a short duration of silence—which felt like years and years to the anxious young-captain—the boy began to speak and said : “I... see. First I would like to begin by saying that I'm terribly sorry for your loss, what happened to your mother was cruel and inhumane. Second I would like to clarify my opinion by saying that what you did was completely wrong and savage but, I’m glad that you managed to wake yourself up before it’s too late. Third I’m going to do my best to help you so that you’d atone for all these sins, I’m going to push you towards that goal of mine for the rest of your life and as long as you're able to move your body. Can you do that?” Qiang Chi kept nodding over and over because... honestly the young-guard agrees with every word this boy said with every fiber of his scarred-body.

“Young-hero Ming. I can only do my best to try.” The young-captain did his best to contain his excitement while cupping his fist and giving this answer—which made Zhang smile from excitement—and looking directly at the boy’s golden-pupils.

“That's the proper attitude. Now, by following me... you'd be searching for answers about your origin and ancestry to fulfill the wishes of your dear mother. Nobody would disagree when you’re attempting to achieve that goal, I’d personally give you my full support however... I don't like surprises! I don't like seeing the innocent suffer even more than that. Qiang Chi. Always remember, you’ll only get this one chance, if you fail me just once? then... our path in the future would split, and just like that... every one of us goes on their separate path.” Lin gave the young-guard a hard-gaze then extended his arm towards the young-captain to shake his rough and calloused-hand... while squeezing every bone of Qiang Chi’s hand until all of them groaned under this great pressure! that was a very... mild warning from the boy when he said these words because... the great-sage isn't going to babysit anyone in the future... if Qiang Chi can't find it within himself to be patient? then... Lin would immediately discard this "extra-weight" without a shred of hesitation. The boy already have very important matters currently burdening him... the goals of this young-guard doesn’t have anything to do with the problems of the great-sage—which come in the shapes and forms—of Kai, Jin Bao, and the six that remain of the seven deadly-sins! these are the sort of troubles which currently burden Lin.

“Young-master Ming. I hereby declare a sacred-oath on my dao... I swear on my body, spirit, and soul... let them fade-out into nothing and be forgotten within the dust of time if I ever disobey a single one of your orders. This Qiang Chi swears this oath of everlasting fealty and loyalty to you, young-master I'm forever yours to command.” The muscular young-man immediately kneeled-down on a single knee and cupped his fist while looking straight at Lin's pair of golden-pupils then swore this oath without any hesitation at all... this time the boy could feel the stirring of the strands of elements in their surrounding when the young-captain spoke... it did seem like these elements are bearing witness to every word the young-guard said! deep down within his soul-world... the boy could feel a sliver of attachment towards this young-man—whose body is full of scars—through his soul-bodies that might seem superficial yet... it goes into a much deeper level... right now the great-sage feels like he's already familiar with this Qiang Chi just like how he's already familiar with Sun... it’s just weird how fast this unbelievable "bond" happened between them after the young-captain said a few words.

“Zhang. You can go rest, meditate or... exercise, from now-on... Chi would replace you in such simple tasks.” Lin didn't talk anymore "nonsense" afterwards... just hearing these words assured his first follower that he's not going to be thrown to the side after the young-man swore such a nasty-oath! oaths to cultivators from every school of thought isn't an insignificant-matter that can be neglected at all... after what he said... within the eyes of a particular group of cultivators... the young-captain is considered to be no different from a lowly slave.

“En. Welcome young-Chi, work hard now... you won’t regret it in the future! I promise you that.” Wang Zhang directly squeezed Qiang Chi while giving him that bear-hug—which took the breath away from the young-man’s chest—then the simple man pushed the young-guard at arms’ length to admire him with a pair of wide—almost scorching—ox-like eyes... while clobbering the shoulders of the young-captain with two strong and rough hands because he’s very excited! the strong man gave Qiang Chi his congratulations and passionately welcomed him before walking towards Wei's table to sit next to Lai with a wide and blessed smile on his face... of course everyone did see what happened earlier between the boy and the young-guard but... they couldn't hear anything of what was said because of what the great-sage did with his soul-force.

Despite their great curiosity... Wei and Lai never asked Zhang anything and let him enjoy his meal while being in a joyful mood! meanwhile... the four spirit-tyrants kept glaring towards this fat and shameless merchant... why? because... they all wanted to know what just happened between Lin and Qiang Chi however... Wei merely smiled a sly smile while innocently ignoring the four angry spirit-tyrants and avoiding having to look any of them directly in the eyes.

Lin began to meditate and gather light-energy within his dantian-space while around the assassin the three spirit-tyrants were doing their best to recover the spirit-energy—which they lost earlier—before this "little-monster" manages to recharge his tank of spirit-energy... since Zan Shui—the strongest spirit-tyrant—has already lost almost one-third of the total amount of water-energy within his dantian-space then... the fate of someone like Ning Xue can be imagined! the long-legged beauty only has a small puddle of liquid-grade spirit-energy—which already began to crystalize—inside her dantian when the boy exhausted all of his light-energy on the assassin... that’s why these three began to take their spirit-cultivation seriously and focus on their meditation after they witnessed how fast can this young-hero Ming waste both his and their spirit-energy. However... these three tyrants were in for a pleasant surprise when they noticed how fast they’re able to recover and accumulate spirit-energy! for example Ning Xue... this impulsive-beauty immediately noticed how easy it’s for her to compress all the liquid-grade water-energy within her dantian until they crystalized... not to mention how her attainments towards the element of ice—which was practically laughable before this day—began to solidify and accumulate while her base-comprehensions towards that specific type of spirit-energy increased higher with every second this seductive-woman spent cultivating. Without any of them realizing their current state... the three spirit-tyrants were quickly submerged a bit too deep within their spirit-cultivation... Chen Fu noticed how the three of them practically forgot all about their captive! after gritting his teeth and rolling his eyes towards the three of them... the mercenary-leader walked towards Blood-Demon and began to infuse his earth-energy and crushing-intent into the thin layer of blood-red ice to suppress the assassin inside it on his own.

Ning Xue was the first to complete her main task and fill her dantian-space with water-energy... after having recently succeeded in a major-breakthrough this beauty can't simply push her spirit-cultivation any further without—at least—solidifying her comprehensions of her natural-affinity! the gorgeous woman can begin with learning the basics about the usage of different elements to expand and fortify her foundation—which would in-turn give room for her water-energy to grow in quality and strength—while allowing different types of spirit-energy to accommodate themselves within her dantian-space which has been normally used to only operate spirit-energy of the liquid-grade... the realm of spirit-tyrant is an entirely different level in both power and control over the spirit-elements. Beside the ability of being able to use the strands of spirit-energy in their surroundings to fly... any spirit-cultivator within the tyrant-realm could begin to safely experiment fusing different elements to seek the dao that’s most suitable and compatible with themselves... the fused-energy or the new elements—which these spirit-tyrants manage to harness after reaching the fifth major-realm in the system of spirit-cultivation—could be used in-order to strengthen and improve the pathways of the meridian-system so that they would be able to withstand having crystalized spirit-energy circulated within their tunnels without any issues! throughout the history of this spirit-world there’s too many examples of people who exploded from the inside-out... why? because... their foundations weren't stable enough to withstand spirit-energy of a much higher quality than what their spirit-meridians are able to take... that's why within most of the top-clans and sects they value the realm of spirit-tyrant greatly... they consider it the first and most important step for any genius who wishes to prove their worth in-comparison to the "ancients" who lived within bygone-eras. Seeing her husband sweating bullets while being under the extreme strain of having to keep suppressing the corrosive and devilish sin-energy of this Blood-Demon all on his own... Ning Xue hurried to help her man by placing her left-hand on his right-hand and infusing her water-energy alongside his earth-energy into the blood-red ice! this time the long-legged beauty felt a lot closer to the element of ice and understood a lot more about the methods this Zan Shui implemented within this technique of imprisonment... even though this ice-energy does seem like it’s about to shatter because it’s become so thin... the layer actually grows stronger and denser the thinner it becomes! turning to look back toward the kid who peacefully meditated without a care in the world... the seductive woman did seem even more certain that this Ming is the reason why everything has been so different for herself and everyone around her.

Soon afterwards Li Yang and Zan Shui completed their aims of filling their dantian-space to the top with spirit-energy... both of them—like Ning Xue—actually gained a considerable amount of comprehensions about spirit-energy which was a great-surprise for the two men! Lin on the other hand just kept filling his spirit-tank before personally overseeing the work of the two cloud-generals on meridian-tunnels twice... after these two journeys to the golden-hall at the end of the meridian-branch the boy noticed how the yellow-walls of this tunnel were almost about to completely change into gold in color... maybe all it would take to actually achieve this result is a few more rounds. However... the great-sage had to stop working on improving the pathways of the meridian-system after seeing the three tyrants being already awake from their meditation... Lin filled his third spirit-tank with light-energy before walking towards Blood-Demon to continue purifying this assassin for the second time! standing in front of the man and seeing his pair of pupils shudder before Blood-Demon hurried to close his eyes in a failed attempt to hide his fear from the boy who began to extend his right-hand towards the area where the assassin's dantian is located... once again the great-sage sensed the tormented-souls—which form the thick and major part of Blood-Demon's devilish sin-energy—and his basic-attempt to estimate their numbers made Lin grit-his teeth because... there’s a great-amount of tormented-souls within this man’s sin-energy. The boy clearly felt each and every one of these tormented-souls... celebrating their release as if... they're being currently pulled from the middle of hell's deepest and lowest parts the "seventh-level" and being thrown into heaven's upper-most and highest parts the "seventh-level" whenever the light-energy from the great-sage fell-on any of them and purified them! before each one of these souls dissipated and had their "primordial-source" scatter... they would bow and kowtow towards Lin then just melt to have their "eternal-rest" after joining the "laws" of this spirit-world. Blood-Demon's sin-energy shrunk to one-fifth of its maximum amount in the end of the second-session of his "purification" while his tiny red-snake—martial-spirit—kept trembling within the center of his bleak dantian-space after it gathered the remaining sin-energy around itself... during the third-session of purification—which happened in the afternoon—the assassin's sin-energy suffered the fiercest retaliation yet after being hit with spirit-energy from four spirit-tyrants and Lin’s fusion of spirit-energy and fire-intent! the man ended-up having only his tiny snake within the center of his dantian-space and being surrounded with a faint and thin layer of crystalized sin-energy... that sin-energy kept encapsulating the martial-spirit in a barrier of sin-energy that’s much similar to a silkworm’s cocoon.

It’s clear now... the next time these people attempt to purify his sin-energy... nothing would be left remaining to prevent that light-energy from purifying his "little-one" his martial-spirit is extremely rare to find since it does have the exceptional-trait of having the soul-nature yet... despite being very hard to find and much harder to understand... that tiny snake was—somehow—forcefully changed from the clean, pure, transparent, warm, and cheerful little-snake... to its current devilish, cold, cruel, bloodthirsty, and merciless version! 'Little-one. I guess this is goodbye then, you got to be prepared now because... it’s going to be your turn to try how it feels next. This boy’s light-energy really does hurt like an angry and vindictive-bitch from hell itself but, at least there’s something good her for us to look forward to... we’re going to die without sin-energy inside our body. Take care little-one, if there's a next life after this one? then... I really, really wish to have the exact same martial-spirit. Heh. How I miss the gentle touch of your original form! you used to always pat my cheek... just like how mother used to gently touch my cheek whenever I return home.' Seeing this young-hero Ming come towards him for the fourth-session of purification in such a short span of time... Blood-Demon just closed his eyes and thought while wishing if he could say these words out loud to his tiny red-snake! the assassin remembered how many nights he spent in the shadows hiding in front the estate of his clan just to watch his dear mother from the distance which felt so close yet worlds’ apart! that woman kept hoping and waiting for the day where her son is going to return... the years didn't weaken her "faith" that he’s going to return and day after day she would spend the nights in the same balcony... just waiting for her son to take the road that he prefers to take whenever he’s returning back home to his clan estate and to her embrace.

Blood-Demon's body was already invaded by Lin's light-energy all the way to the marrow then all sin-energy was chased-out and forced to enter the assassin's dantian-space... the only sin-energy left remaining inside this man right now is the thin shell that’s surrounding his martial-spirit! the four spirit-tyrants created some sort of spirit-enclosure around the sin-energy that remained to prevent any of it from escaping this session then... using their spirit-senses they just apathetically watched while that tiny red-snake hissed in false and empty voices and revealed threatening gestures... meanwhile this martial-spirit was actually looking for a "way out" from this really dangerous situation. All of its attempts to use soul-abilities and hinder the process of purification were stopped by Gang who’s long prepared for some resistance... Lin did stop meditating on the soul-strengthening technique for quite a while but... the deadly-sin of wrath just took-over and did the job instead since his big-brother is busy doing something else! after all... Gang was sent here to get things "done" by his five siblings who already tasked him with this goal.

After seeing his martial-spirit being swallowed by light-energy... Blood-Demon did feel the same kind of "release" just like how the tormented-souls did feel when this young-hero Ming purified them! for the first time in almost two decades... this man felt total peace from the deepest parts of his heart... the types of spirit-energy inside his dantian-space are earth, water, lightning, and light-energy... there’s just no way at all that his martial-spirit—which is currently fiercely suppressed—would be able to withstand all of them combined for much longer. Once the little-one gets purified and scattered—like what happened to all of the sin-energy within his body—this assassin certainly going to die.

For a split-second Lin felt like the martial-spirit of this Blood-Demon did experience some change... when the boy looked towards the tiny red-snake he noticed that there’s the shadow of a second snake behind its body however... the pair of eyes on that shadow weren't reptilian like that martial-spirit... they did resemble the murky-eyes of an extremely old human... these pair of eyes does have too much in common with the eyes of those who have one leg in the grave already! 'Junior. You better release my beloved disciple... now!' Immediately afterwards the boy did hear this aged and sagely-voice ring within his soul-world in a commanding and threatening tone of voice. “I’m not stopping, now what?” The great-sage didn't stop his process of purifying the red-snake for a single second and shouted back his answer while looking back directly at the second snake in the shadow of the original martial-spirit—which is already being shined-upon by light-energy and writhing in silent-pain—however... Gang guarded their soul-world and warned the other spirit-tyrants to just do the same! 'Sigh. BEGONE!' That shadow-snake glared towards Lin then he heard a deafening-shout—which made the boy feel like he just heard the most frightening war-cry ever—before his soul received such a severe blow... the blow from the voice of that shadow-snake is many-times stronger than Mia’s blow when she fused her crystalized time-energy and materialized sword-intent! “Bfff!...” The four spirit-tyrants coughed some blood and retreated a few steps away from the assassin while revealing shock on their pale faces after that shadow-snake attempted to push the great-sage back. 'Huh! you're actually able to resist my soul-ability? but, you wouldn't be able to resist being slammed with another attack of mine... junior, you better leave. Otherwise? I’m going to hunt you and capture your soul then, I’m going to refine it into one of my pet-ghosts and enjoy tormenting it with soul-fire for thousands of years. Kekeke.' Obviously shocked by the result... that shadow-snake had an extremely sly-glint pass fleetingly inside its murky eyes before it glared towards Lin’s apparel that never left Blood-Demon’s dantian-space. “Creepy asshole! you talk too much, soul-lock.” The boy understood that his soul was hurt by what this... "thing!" just did when he felt signs of the previous head-splitting headache returning after Gang resisted its soul-ability by going head-on against with all of their soul-force! but... deep down in his gut the great-sage sensed even more danger coming from that shadow-snake... especially whenever Lin began to deliberate the thought of actually beating a tactical-retreat then returning later to finish the job when he’s in a better soul-condition. Seeing no reason to keep being passive any longer and be the soul-version of a "punching-bag" for this shadow-snake or... give such a frightening threat the sight of his back out of pure fear... especially after seeing it achieve something so dangerous just by shouting at him! the boy doesn’t have any other choice other than to use his strongest soul-ability on this shadow-snake instead to take it by surprise... even if the great-sage knows that he might fail to damage this unexpected opponent... in the end it would—at least—give him a "speck" of "safety" when he’s retreating and getting out of Blood-Demon’s dantian-space... instead of just giving his back to the enemy from the very beginning... his enemy would be busy fending his soul-ability instead. 'No! I was so very close, damn you, damn you to hell. Argh!...' At once the slyness within the pair of murky-eyes of that shadow-snake was replaced with fear and panic before it exploded in a black-cloud that’s made from "uncommon" soul-force... that black-cloud began to resist Lin's attack... silver-colored soul-force from the soul-ability of soul-lock met head-on against that black-cloud and both sides began to push against the opposite! however... that shadow-snake was clearly taken by surprise when the boy released such a fierce, threatening, and quite advanced soul-ability and had to "passively" resist the great-sage's soul-lock—which is augmented by light-energy and fire-intent—while regretting not being decisive from the very beginning... grey-colored mist began to spread out all-over the dantian-space of Blood-Demon when the two vastly-different soul-abilities met slightly above the location of the red-snake. Under the baptism of that grey-mist... the assassin’s martial-spirit—which was previously red in color—regained its original color... better say that it lost it all colors—because it’s originally transparent—after the blood-red color got washed-away from its tiny scales! once this man’s martial-spirit regained its original-characteristics... the body of the shadow-snake shrunk in size and its shape began to distorted within the black-cloud until the blurred image of a black-marble was revealed... that’s the source of all the soul-force currently resisting the great-sage’s ability of soul-lock. Lin is aware that he's practically ganging by a thread from a cliff and on the brink of falling into the abyss of unconsciousness just two seconds after unleashing the ability of soul-lock... if it wasn't for the support his fire-intent gave this incomplete soul-ability? then... the boy would've lost the first-exchange and failed suppress that small black-marble that suddenly revealed its existence within the dantian-space of this man.

“Young-hero Ming. Please hold-on!” Li Yang ignored the fact that he coughed blood from his mouth just earlier and hurried to place both of his hands on the boy's back once the mercenary-leader noticed how pale the kid’s skin is and... how his small body is shaking because he’s doing his best to resist falling unconscious! while infusing his lightning-energy as gently as possible inside young-hero Ming's body... the spirit-tyrant checked for any sign of danger or malicious-energy before sighing in relief once he didn’t notice anything wrong... finally Li Yang gritted his teeth then sent his lightning-energy once again inside Blood-Demon's body while mentally-preparing himself to receive more lashes to his soul. Soon afterwards Zan Shui and Chen Fu overcame their troubles and did the same like Li Yang—first checking the current condition of the boy before sending their spirit-energy inside the assassin—however... the reason they couldn’t overcome the aftereffects of their souls being lashed isn’t because their souls are weaker than the lightning-cultivator! it’s just because the element of lightning does have some effect on soul-force because of its affinity-suppression... which means? Li Yang did suffer a much gentler lash compared to these two and that’s why he recovered much faster. Meanwhile Ning Xue didn’t react like any of these men and kept massaging her temples to ease the head-splitting headache while frowning deeply then... the long-legged beauty just decided to guard the boy instead after confirming that his body isn’t suffering from the invasion of any foreign-energy! since water-energy is the second-best basic-element when healing after the element of wood... the seductive woman began to use her spirit-energy to heal the kid instead because let’s face it... her support is "negligible" at best... the earlier incident proved that when the weakest spirit-tyrant confronted the strong soul-pressure with the rest of the spirit-tyrants... not only was Ning Xue the last to recover in this group but also the one in the worst shape.

Raising its—tiny-sized, arrowhead-like, and triangular-shaped—head up to look at the source of its own and its owner's sorrow in the past two decades... Blood-Demon's martial-spirit opened its mouth and quickly appeared next to the black-marble before its tiny, cute, and adorable upper and lower fangs bit-on the black-marble!

“Crack!... whoosh... sizzle...”

“No! stop, you little beast... what have you done?” This time... the sound of the aged person could be heard by everyone within the caravan! a voice that’s full of worry, anger, and extreme despair.

Once that black-marble was between the two pair of cute-looking fangs... two holes appeared underneath and above every pair of fangs... of course that swift and amazing achievement was made at the cost of these small fangs themselves actually breaking! then... a long and indirect crack ran down the middle of that black-marble before branching into many zigzagging branches like a web.

Feeling himself slipping from the edge of the cliff into the bottomless pit of unconsciousness... Lin focused on pushing all that he and Gang could muster of soul-force, light-energy, and fire-intent down that long crack on the black-marble and its web of branches! right before his vision completely blacked-out... the boy heard the sweet sound of his fire-intent and light-energy burning and igniting whatever that was inside that black-marble... thankfully the moment when that transparent-snake bit the black-marble there was a slight delay from the black-cloud of soul-force—which has been resisting the great-sage’s soul-lock ability—and Lin took advantage of this chance and went all-out in this situation. Just to be safe... before the boy used the ability of soul-lock again he warned Li Yang—which was the fastest to recover from that black-marble’s soul-lash earlier—to remove himself and the rest away and get away from Blood-Demon! then... the boy ordered him to quickly separate his young-body from the assassin once the lightning-cultivator discovers any signs of the young-hero being unconscious.

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

“Kakakaka... impressive. The brat really purified that one's sin-energy, and stuck his finger up that man's ass all the way to ruin two decades’ worth of his plans! that young assassin was supposed to be his next flesh-vessel after the one he’s currently using is corroded, I see, I see... that's why he forced that devil-seed on this man’s martial-spirit. The reason he was chosen by such a formidable devil-incubator who decided to overtake his body and spirit is because... the nature of his martial-spirit is purely and singularly pointing towards the soul, and because it’s very compatible with that person’s devil-techniques. But... now the precious devil-seed is already purified and no longer of any use to that person as well as the flesh-vessel itself—which is no longer useful—I bet that fellow is really infuriated right now because of what Lin just did! destroying things and killing for no reason huh, is that going to be the kid’s first-enemy? or... is that redhead going to beat him to it and take that honor for herself instead?” Kai was standing next to red-colored ice-sculpture of Blood-Demon and personally checking the mess... Lin is currently being carried away from the assassin by Ning Xue once the boy lost consciousness and Wei, Lai, Zhang, and Qiang Chi were frantically checking the vitals of this kid while Li Yang narrated what young-hero Ming ordered him to do... the talking-raccoon was practically invisible to everyone in this scene and kept looking up towards sky-queen Hongtian—who did seem to be hesitating about making her move to seize Lin—and smirked devilishly while squinting his eyes because... if she—sky-queen Hongtian—does have the courage to make a move? then... Kai doesn't mind seizing her back and giving this primordial-beast of the human-path a... round of spanking!

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

Deep inside the "restless-bogs" which is one of the "forbidden-territories" within the southern-continent... the restless-bogs is an environment that’s known to be for no one below the realm of spirit-king or of a comparable power! anyone who enter the restless-bogs without being—at least—a spirit-king would have a ninety-nine percent of facing certain-death... these are the "survival-chances" within that forbidden-territory.

At a medium-sized mud-lake—which looks to be peaceful without any signs of having any living creature in it—for a dozens of kilometers in range there’s only bubbles on the surface and it has been like that for years now.

Suddenly a stirring happened on the terrain of these parts and various creatures panicked after removing their perfect disguise... these demonic-beasts exited their lairs in a hurry then began to quickly flee by scattering in every direction while fear could be seen all-over their eyes! the weakest and slowest of the—currently fleeing—demonic-beasts is a... brown-colored mud-python which is already a beast-lord! yet... despite being almost about to ascend that major-realm and become a king... that mud-python kept looking back with despair while it escaped by fueling the tip of its tail with every ounce of spirit-energy it has within its demonic-core and executing spirit-skills just to move a bit faster.

“Die! humph...”

That mud-lake—which was calm like a mirror a few seconds earlier—experienced a black-colored explosion of devilish soul-force from its center... that soul-force is a lot similar yet much... much more stronger when compared to the black-cloud of soul-force that Lin had to face from the black-marble! when that explosion happened it threw thousands of tons worth of mud everywhere around it and up in the air then... a gigantic black-colored hand that’s completely formed from soul-force slammed down towards that unfortunate mud-python—which wasn't fast enough to escape the area—in the form of a titanic-palm.

When that lord-python received this sudden attack directly with its body... it immediately exploded into a red-layer of minced-meat and blood! the faster demonic-beasts burned the spirit-energy within their demonic-cores like mad once they witnessed what happened and began to escape even faster... if Blood-Demon was here to see this old man? then certainly he would've recognized the person—who came out from this hiding place and killed a peak-grade demonic-lord just to release some steam, the same person—who forced the younger-version of himself into becoming a devil-incubator in the past. That old man’s chest was heaving up and down because it’s filled with extremely pure rage... no expression could be seen from his pair of eyes because... his two eye-sockets only has a pair of completely white eye-balls... they’re pupil-less! that old and short man—which seems to be blind—that senior to most of the devil-cultivators in this spirit-world... looked towards the general-direction where both his devil-seed and the much expected flesh-vessel were "forcefully" separated from his control before taking an advanced space-talisman from his storage-item then activating it without a shred of hesitation! one second later... the old man’s "terribly-threatening" presence was gone just like that... the demonic-beasts—which were scared shitless ever since that frightening presence revealed itself—were finally able to release a long sigh of relief. Only the crushed body of the mud-python that’s left inside the great indentation of earth—which looks like the palm of a heavenly-titan—is still leaking more blood from the bits and pieces of its minced body... its glittering demonic-core—which that senior devil-cultivator didn’t want—is left untouched within the aftermath of that old man’s short episode of rage! every single detail in that scene is... bearing witness to what just happened here in the restless-bogs.

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

“Heh. Looks like he’s  the impatient-type, he wants to get revenge after what happened to his little prize... if you want to bully the brat? then, you can come back later when the boy is a little bit ready and a little bit capable of defending himself. Now... should I send this fellow to the territories of Andreas or, the eastern-continent to cause havoc within the land of monks. Hmmm...” Kai sensed the element of space stirring and space-energy accumulating few thousands of kilometers away from Lin’s location and smirked like a sly fox before waving one of his hands... that simple gesture from the talking-raccoon stopped the space-formation from fully completing—which initiates the teleportation—and began to scratch his jaw while talking to himself because Kai is currently deliberating where to send this senior of devil-incubation! the way this awakened-soul of the ring of origin is handling this issue is making it seem like... it’s just a minor matter and the talking-raccoon didn't even seem to be in a hurry to handle it at all... why would he be in a hurry when space-energy is like Kai’s "fifth-limb" a limb which he can control however, whenever, and in whichever way he wants.

..........

The space-formation—which was about to be completely formed and initiate the teleportation—was sensed by sky-queen Hongtian right when she was about to make her move and take this "Ming son of Tai the mighty and Tian the beauty" from the hand of these juniors... she kept having this "intuition" before even hearing about the boy... once Lantian told her queen about what happened when the bird-lord got to meet the kid Hongtian just wanted to confirm something first before personally making her move to snatch the little-boy! later Hongtian can seize his origin-symbol for herself or... give the little-kid some sort of compensation in-exchange for it... only if it isn't possible for the sky-queen to take it by force... Hongtian wanted to confirm whether or not her intuition is correct and her unease during the past few months is really because of this... Ming. Even when this origin-symbol is of "incomparable-value" to sky-queen... especially right now when the symbol itself is on a weak and helpless junior... sky-queen didn’t allow her emotions to get the best of her or act impulsively because... the "unease" she’s currently feeling is no less frightening than the period of time in the past when she had to struggle with "world-laws" before facing her lightning-tribulation! "heart-tribulations" are no less dangerous than lightning-tribulation to any pinnacle-cultivator... be that beast, human, devil, or ghost... cultivators are all the same in the eyes of world-laws... they don’t differentiate between species. Reaching the realm of beast-king or any similar-realm of comparable strength within other schools of thought or systems of cultivation... every cultivator is bound to discover and face the truth about the world they live in... then they’d glimpse the boundaries of cultivation and sense its pinnacle! for example... the name of spirit-energy when it’s in a grade higher than crystallized-energy is... "law-energy" however... it isn’t a simple matter of purifying and condensing energy. If the energy coursing inside the meridian-system of the user isn't infused with his deep understanding and comprehensions about the world and its workings? then... they'd be merely using some thick and pure energy which is like a hundred-times weaker than the weakest type of law-energy! any "king" is ruling with the power of laws... "laws" which they received after getting the approval for from the world itself and the recognition to use these laws inside its borders... after the major-realm of spirit-lord—or any realm of comparable strength—they’re not only required to accumulate pure spirit-energy of greater and higher strength but also they’re required to understand the rules of the spirit-laws in this spirit world... that's why there’s not a single cultivator who would respect any one being titled "king or queen" without having some laws to back their words. That's why ever since she reached the realm of beast-king Hongtian never ignored the teachings of her dao and the warnings from the inherited-memories of her ancestors... that’s why sky-queen is always attentive and careful especially when signs of heart-tribulations reveal themselves to her! every "tribulation" is an "opportunity" where there’s "fortune" lying in wait behind it... if they manage to pass the test with whatever means they got? then... they’d be a step closer to the limits—which they once managed to glimpse in the beginning after gaining their kinghood title—of peak-cultivation... right now Hongtian is at the halfway-point between the beginning of that journey of seeking understanding of world-laws... and there’s an opportunity of "great-fortune" right underneath her nose however... how could there be fortune without tribulation? that’s why when the signs of this heart-tribulations revealed themselves to the sky-queen it was like a... glaring red-light that’s shining so brightly over an empty crossroad. Deep inside her chest... Hongtian sensed the warning from these signs and hesitated whether or not should she use the forceful-method or take what she wants while relying-on the soft-attitude... then the stirring of space-energy happened and distracted sky-queen who directed her attention towards this "visitor" that... visitor is suddenly and coincidentally planning to make their appearance at such time is slightly expected after what Hongtian witnessed earlier! an explosion of devilish soul-force from such a weak devil-incubator is impossible... certainly there’s an unsatisfied-party that’s on its way to make some trouble after these juniors started it and gave it trouble first however... that might actually be sky-queen’s chance to get what she wants. The granddaughter of Chentian Ao is there and Hongtian is certain that the young-girl does have some means to protect herself but... actually sky-queen doesn’t care about the safety of anyone within this caravan except for the boy’s because... she wouldn't hesitate to sever her relations with the entirety of the southern-continent if it’s in-exchange for the opportunity of getting her hand on another origin-symbol—which for someone like Hongtian—actually equals a fifty-percent chance to increase her cultivation and reach the next major-realm! however... the sudden arrival of this visitor happened in the exact moment—which happens to happen in the same time sky-queen was about to make her move on Lin—alerted Hongtian and she decided to wait and see for herself who is it first... then she witnessed how the workings of that space-formation was halted—somehow—it just stopped right before its completion! following that a bigger and much more complicated space-formation covered the smaller and simpler space-formation... in the moment when both space-formations naturally linked and fused into a single space-formation... beyond this huge space-formation sky-queen was able to see a place that she knows by heart. The "temple of transparency" was right there inside the entrance of the first space-formation—which Hongtian originally thought that it’d be—the place this visitor is coming towards them from however... she’s been clearly mistaken in her first assumption because... beyond the image of the strongest sect in the eastern-continent there’s the image of another location—which Hongtian also happened to visit once before—and that place is... the restless-bogs! 'Is that... some space-tunnel? the user of this technique can actually fuse three different locations within two different continents!' Once sky-queen had this thought she immediately removed the previous thoughts from her head... especially when Hongtian witnessed the look on the face of the old and short man when the space-energy within his advanced space-talisman was completely depleted and he discovered where exactly that space-talisman actually teleported him! right before the great space-formation disappeared and this space-tunnel technique ended... sky-queen witnessed the massive gold-colored hand that’s completely formed from energy falling from the sky towards the short man like a palm from an angry titans then... the face of the old and blind man darkened before he reacted and punched with one of his hands straight up towards the sky... his action sent a similarly gigantic black-colored fist to meet the gold-colored palm. 'I should wait, something isn't right here in this sityation.' Feeling a shiver on her spine and cold sweat at her lower back after seeing such a clash of energy between two "sovereign-class" opponents of the highest grade... Hongtian immediately moved away from Lin and kept her distance because the space-formation from earlier did give her quite a few hints about this situation! a senior devil-incubator who’s in a realm of strength that’s equal to a high-grade spirit-sovereign and a junior devil-incubator who’s comparable to a high-grade spirit-tyrant... the later had his devilish sin-energy and all of his cultivation purified by this little-boy and his friends which caused the senior to become enraged and rely-on the use of an advanced space-talisman to come here and bully these stupid juniors because of what they did however... somehow everything might appear to be so simple yet it just isn’t. During that single use of that advanced space-talisman—which should've given that blind old man a "one-way" trip to this location all the way from the restless-bogs—everything changed and the teleportation became some kind of space-tunnel technique... that space-tunnel—which linked the restless-bogs to this place faraway within the "western-depths" of this southern-continent—led the short old man directly towards the doorsteps of the strongest school of thought when it comes to the dao of "Buddihism" in the whole world... simply his worst enemies in the entire spirit-world! that senior devil-cultivator didn't even get a chance to use another one of the advanced space-talismans that he got inside his storage-items... a high-grade sovereign-level fight already began before the three-sided space-tunnel technique disappeared... certainly if his true-intentions were to seek trouble with the monks? then... that devil-cultivator would've—at least—swung first and used the element of surprise to his advantage to succeed in landing the first hit. They—monks of the path of Buddihism—do share a really complex love-hate relationship with devil-cultivators... they enjoy hunting them for the "karmic-benefit" which they gain after every successful ceremony of devil-purging however... in the same time they never wish for devil-incubators to be completely exterminated from the whole world! that's why Hongtian wasn't surprised at all after witnessing some "highly-authoritative" person from the temple of transparency directly confronting that devil-cultivator immediately after the old man arrived at their doorstep however... the look on the old man's face didn’t go unnoticed by sky-queen also... probably that's the greatest reason why she decided to adapt a wait and see approach in this case... Hongtian wants to know what kind of person is that... the individual who could do that trick to someone who’s already stronger than herself or—at least—comparable to her in strength. In the beginning sky-queen thought that this short and old blind-man was Lin's dao-protector... just that he choose to arrive and check on the boy after the kid lost consciousness however... the short man turned-out to be a devil-cultivator in the end... which means? there’s no chance that he’s related to this little-Ming! then... the following circumstances made Hongtian worry about the individual who sent this devil-incubator who’s indeed an enemy of the boy and holds a massive grudge against the kid... just who is it? at least sky-queen now knows this... this boy’s mysterious dao-protector is capable of—at least—manipulating the element of space to unbelievable extent... that’s why this dao-protector was able to alter the space-formation of an advanced space-formation and play such a "genius-trick" on that senior devil-cultivator. These events confirmed Hongtian’s earlier hypothesis... there’s actually someone nearby who’s been able to hide from both her eyes and senses... that individual is this boy’s dao-protector! if such a dao-protector can work underneath sky-queen’s nose and achieve that much without her being able to sense anything at all? then... her first plan of kidnapping the kid should just be... abolished.

...........

“Kekekeke... such a smart little-girl. Even when I kept my presence hidden she still pieced the puzzle together, still... the temptation is so great already! I’m certain that she wouldn't be able to resist for much longer,” Kai looked towards Hongtian who began to move away from the caravan after witnessing some events of what the talking-raccoon just did to the devil-incubator, “I got to admit though, this brat really played his cards in the correct order right from the beginning until the end! had he retreated under the false-threat from that blind-fool? then... he would've been the one to be attacked first instead, tsk, tsk, tsk... his primordial-soul is already showing signs of cracks. If he keeps being that reckless then he's bound to really hurt his primordial-foundation beyond repair, I probably should give the kid the water-pearl to help him recover a little bit faster since the soul of that thief has already stabilized after using it for three months.” Opening his right-hand... the blue-colored water-pearl appeared on-top of Kai's hand and he held it between two sharp-claws while speaking to himself... then this awakened-soul carelessly flicked it towards Lin’s body and the water-pearl got stuck in the center of the boy's forehead... right between his eyebrows! seeing that he no longer needs to oversee things here... Kai simply took a step forward and returned to his ring and birthplace... from start to finish nobody could notice him or what he just did... even that water-pearl—which he left behind—wasn't noticed or felt by anyone whenever they touched the great-sage's forehead... it seems like that water-pearl is in an entirely different dimension.

...........

The people around Lin were relieved when they couldn’t find any signs of the boy being physically hurt or having any spirit-wounds.

However... whenever one of them scanned the kid’s dantian-space with their spirit-senses they’d be so shocked by their discovery! Zan Shui was stunned into speechlessness after witnessing the width of this young-hero Ming's dantian-space and the boy's light-energy inside it... despite being a gaseous-energy it’s of a very high-grade in purity and density as well as great in quantity. “Uh!...” Zan Shui is the strongest individual around here after this Blood-Demon got turned into this "husk" of flesh and bone that’s devoid of sin-energy... he’s no different from any mortal if a mortal got imprisoned by a similar shell of thin ice that got polluted by a great amount of "residue" from different energies while purifying sin-energy! the blood-red ice is devoid of the "negativity" which is a characteristic that all devilish sin-energy share in common yet... it’s still not an energy which could be attributed to the "orthodox" type of energies like... the elements of water or fire and any other element that’s higher in rank among the list of elements. That’s why once this spirit-tyrant covered his palm with the purest type of water-energy from his dantian-space and used the gentlest method to use his spirit-energy and circulate it within the kid’s body without harming or discomforting this unconscious young-hero Ming... when the water-cultivator got to look inside the boy's dantian-space with his spirit-sense he was met with the brightly-glowing dantian-walls of the kid's dantian-space! countless suns—of many shapes and sizes—as well as numerous stars everywhere... there’s too few areas on the dantian-walls of this young-hero Ming currently left "unpainted" with his light-energy. The contrast between the black, white, yellow, gold, and dark-gold colors in this dantian-space is a... sight to behold! the boy’s martial-spirit... his spirit-wings are isolating themselves within their barrier of light-energy... meanwhile the well-organized armies which are entirely made from dark-gold clouds are peacefully maintaining their distance... down below there’s the "flooring" of this dantian-space which is almost halfway-painted all the way up to the line that’s separating the dantian-space from the middle. These scenes made Zan Shui blush deeply in shame because... when he was in the first-stage of the spirit-apprentice realm like this kid... this spirit-tyrant had nothing within his dantian-space except for his martial-spirit—the seahorse—and a few gaseous-clouds of water-energy! his martial-spirit kept swimming happily within these sparsely-few gaseous-clouds despite them being of the lowest-quality among water-energy of the gaseous-rank... on the other hand... the light-energy of this Ming is... aplenty... and is of the highest-quality and purity among the gaseous-grade when it comes to light-energy... the boy already have a dantian-space where its walls are almost saturated with light-energy and its boundaries clearly outlined. Zan Shui himself only had a dantian-space of similar comparison in the total-amount of areas on dantian-walls that are completely painted with water-energy when the current spirit-tyrant was in... the fifth-stage of the spirit-disciple realm! his water-energy however... wasn’t even comparable in purity to Ming's light-energy... the water-cultivator only had gaseous water-energy that’s comparable in purity when he was... at peak-perfection of the spirit-disciple realm. Just this simple comparison between the two of them caused Zan Shui slowly remove his palm from the boy's abdomen while feeling thankful for his fortune... had this spirit-tyrant ignored the orders of this kid and took matters according to his own narrow-minded judgment and killed this assassin once he had the chance? then... the water-cultivator would've planted the seed for his own ruin in the future! there’s a huge possibility that his princess would face some troubles from such a startling-genius in the future... probably his full wrath... Zan Shui was greatly underestimating the latent-potential of this young-hero Ming before and now he clearly understands that this boy indeed have an amazing future ahead of him. 'Meiyin really needs to know about this unbelievable discovery of mine, if this kid agrees to join the heart-seeking sect with the youngest-princess? then—judging by his character—he’d certainly watch-over her, little-Mei’s safety within the sect would be guaranteed and we can be assured since he would never allow her to neglect her cultivation.' Zan Shui had these thoughts circling inside his head while telling the worried merchant Wei and the rest how the kid is only exhausted after this Blood-Demon used some devil-technique in a vain attempt to stop the process of purification from engulfing his martial-spirit.

The actions of Blood-Demon's martial-spirit when it helped Lin bite the black-marble were not seen by any of the four spirit-tyrants because during that time they were all pushed away after the attack of the blind man struck their souls and were busy coughing blood... when they recovered one after the other and re-injected their own spirit-energy in the assassin to suppress him—because they thought it was an attempt to escape from Blood-Demon—it was all-over! there’s no sign of the man's martial-spirit or... sin-energy anywhere inside Blood-Demon's body and dantian-space.

Lin is left unconscious and the state of mass-panic only remained for a very short time until Zan Shui assured the group of the boy's safety... the imprisoned-assassin is the only evidence left to all those who witnessed the events of what happened here today! night slowly descended on the caravan that stopped for the second time after the danger of the beast-waves was avoided... the mortals smiled widely once they got to hear the news and their kids cheered loudly while exchanging childish promises in excitement... their dreams of becoming strong like their young-hero Ming in the future were sweet aspirations in the eyes of their parents who smiled helplessly before shaking their heads in silence... they hope to witness the time where their children gets to achieve these dreams... they really do.

...........

Blood-Demon was still in a state of dazed-disbelief... even after night descended and everything calmed down around him.

After that devil-seed appeared inside his dantian-space the man really wanted to shout... he really wanted to curse at that abominable old-geezer and only stop after he reached all the way down to that revolting person’s seventh-ancestor! alas... the pain this assassin was experiencing isn’t something that he can just "tolerate" even if it was for a brief moments... while the light-energy from this Ming purified his body... Blood-Demon wallowed in silent-pain. Once then twice followed by a third and a fourth-session of purification... during that time the man gradually became used to the extremely intense pain and was able to focus a little on other things besides the pain his body, soul, and spirit are currently experiencing! the assassin became capable of delving deep into his dantian-space and use his inner-sight again... after seeing the devil-seed appear Blood-Demon wanted to shout and tell the boy to watch out and be careful... he wanted to scream towards the kid and warn him of that shadow-snake... to cautiously guard his soul with all he got because... after personally experiencing the disgusting-methods of this obnoxious old-man just once he fully understands that this young-hero Ming isn't a foe who can threaten that shitty geezer... not yet. When the assassin witnessed how the boy and the tyrants received a direct-attack to their souls from that shadow-snake... he really felt sorry for the kid! 'Just like me and the little-one eighteen years ago, Ming is either going to be changed into a devil-incubator by the geezer or... this is going to be his ruin.' Blood-Demon thought and sighed while watching the kid’s light-energy refine the last strand of sin-energy inside his body, 'Ming was so close, just a little bit more and the little-one would’ve been completely purified. That asshole actually never left huh! he was always hiding some part of his soul inside little-one's body within a devil-incubation seed, hadn't this boy revealed him? then... I might've never got a chance to know about it at all. Thankfully, the kid and his friends attempted to purify my sin-energy! now that I know about the geezer’s "master-plan" then... he’s never going to get this chance. I’d rather die at the hands of my clansmen instead, at least I’d be giving them the "honorable-reputation" of being the righteous-clan to execute the infamous Blood-Demon.' The assassin had these thoughts while looking towards his martial-spirit—which still does have some sin-energy left inside its tiny body—deep down... Blood-Demon wished if his martial-spirit was purified like his body—at least when its scattered and useless for the geezer himself—it can be counted as the man helping this Ming against the old man’s devil-seed! then... this assassin was surprised once again by the boy’s resilience when the kid actually managed to resist that soul-attack from the devil-seed before answering the old man’s "rude welcome" with a swift and unexpected counterattack... by sending a soul-attack of his own. Blood-Demon witnessed the silver-colored wave of soul-force being assisted with golden-colored light-energy clash head-on with the old man's black-colored wave of soul-force in the sky of his dantian-space above the little-one... the clash was short but unbelievably frightening yet the owner of this body and dantian-space never felt worried about his life or looked forward to a chance for his own survival! ever since the black-marble appeared within his dantian-space... the assassin immediately recognized the devil-seed and fully-understood what that old and short man is after... from the moment he forced him into the devil-ceremony and turned him into a devil-incubator. 'Want to use me as a flesh-vessel? want to take-over my body? humph.' Blood-Demon had these thoughts while wishing for nothing more in this world other than the destruction of this devil-seed... even if it would cost him his life! at least that would result in the old man's soul being delivered a severe blow... that’s the best result someone as weak as him should wish for... after all... that person is a few major-realms above him in strength. Once the assassin’s martial-spirit became showered by that grey-colored energy—which resulted when the two different waves of soul-force met above it—it regained its original characteristics... being all-too clean, pure, and transparent! Blood-Demon was able to once again feel a somewhat faint-connection with the little-one... before the tiny transparent-snake began doing just what its owner was just thinking of doing a little bit earlier... the assassin felt like he was really about to drown then happened to encounter a bubble of air... fresh air of... power! of course this man was dancing inside from joy when the little-one attacked that devil-seed... why? simply because... as long as that devil-seed remains in existence within his dantian-space then... Blood-Demon can’t be really considered as... truly being completely free from the control of that old man. After the little-one bravely cracked the devil-seed at the cost of breaking its fangs... the boy managed to send his soul-force and light-energy inside the devil-seed before his presence disappeared the man’s dantian-space! afterwards the transparent-snake entered through the cracks of the devil-seed too and the assassin lost connection with his own martial-spirit... soon afterwards Blood-Demon lost the ability of inner-sight and wasn’t able to see his own dantian-space any longer... the man felt no different from an ordinary mortal and immediately understood that... he could no longer be considered a... cultivator. Through the thin layer of red-ice the assassin could vaguely see the world outside... Blood-Demon watched how this group of spirit-cultivators began check the vitality of this Ming while revealing expressions of panic, worry, and... fear! 'Am I free? free, free... free!' All of the chaotic-emotions within this man’s chest circled around this single thought... the word itself free kept over and over echoing inside his head... the assassin just couldn’t believe it despite being almost certain that he’s free at last! Blood-Demon can finally speak about his background and say his true name... without having any fear for his clan or sect... after all... the man spent almost two decades being afraid of implicating them because of his circumstances. Becoming a weak and helpless mortal is fine for the assassin... he’s alright with being alive since he expected death right from the beginning! just the mere thought of him being able to meet his kin again is a... dream come true for Blood-Demon after having to spend two decades’ worth of time yearning for the comfort of home and family yet... he was never able to meet with them without endangering their safety... that’s why he’s feeling extremely grateful for this boy after what he did... this kid was really able to practically scatter the worst "nightmare" of Rong Qing’s life! however... this Rong Qing is feeling sorry after implicating this Ming in his troubling matters just the same... certainly that "senile-asshole" wouldn’t let the actions of this boy just go like that... unpunished. The devil-incubation seed isn’t some worthless grain of rice... it’s an "invaluable" creation that requires a lot of precious-treasures, materials, and resources as well as "sacrifices" to create! while he himself was the next fleshly-vessel in the plans of that geezer... both components are practically ruined. The old man now needs to find another candidate to be his fleshly-vessel... create another devil-seed then... force that candidate to the devil-ritual! that’s why Rong Qing is so certain that the old and short man is going to "retaliate" soon... he’s going to target this kid and pour all of his fury on him after Ming ruined his plans. However... hours passed and Rong Qing could only see the people in the caravan being all too peaceful... there’s no signs of that geezer at all! 'That mother fucker must—at least—have an advanced space-talisman on him, right! was that soul-fragment inside the devil-seed his last hope of survival? did he get himself killed in the past two decades?' Rong Qing began to wonder to himself while hoping that old man never comes anywhere close to the boy in his life.

..........

“Amitabha Buddha. Let me guide your sins to the cycle of reincarnati-” Some old and bald monk who have a pair of very long and completely white eyebrows on top of a pair of squinted-eyes flew right behind a black-colored cloud that’s formed from extremely thick and dense sin-energy... the senior devil-cultivator... the same blind old man is currently located in the center of that black-cloud and doing his best to flee from his pursuers! that dark-skinned monk clasped both of his palms and behind him appeared a phantom-like image of a gigantic-tree where a golden-Buddha is peacefully sitting cross-legged beneath it apparently chanting scriptures... because the old and short man could clearly hear them and once he did it made him feel nauseating-dizziness before he quickly reacted by sealing his senses. One of the hands of that golden-Buddha within the image is holding two jade-marbles... one white while the other marble is completely black! the golden-Buddha kept twirling them in his hand with his agile and dexterous-fingers... meanwhile his other hand kept maintaining some strange and complex gesture while holding a small-sized bronze-bell between his—the golden-Buddha's—thumb and forefinger. However... before that old monk who’s attired in simple and tattered clothes could finish his words... the devil-cultivator in front of him gritted his teeth while feeling furious about how things turned-out for him after he exited his hiding-place within the restless-bogs before burning almost one-tenth of the dao-ranked sin-energy within his dantian and using a very special and secret movement-technique! "blood-escape" is a forbidden-technique because it sacrifices some of his base-cultivation... but no-matter what he has to escape this "predicament" because... behind that dark-skinned monk is a another team of about a dozen or so other monks... all of them have been moving in some sort of formation and quite likely they’re about to unleash some restrictive-formation of their Buddhist-cultivation to stop him from escaping these territories—which are very close-by—to their temple of transparency. “Bald-donkeys, I’m going to forget this humiliation... wash your necks and wait!” Leaving these words behind after suddenly accelerating almost a dozen-times faster... the black-cloud completely changed into the red-color while that blind devil-cultivator escaped further and further from the dangerous monks.

“Senior. Shouldn’t we keep chasing after him?” Seeing their temple-master and high-monk just stop and cancel his karmic-technique... the oldest of the dozen monks who wear either yellow or blue-robes asked while vigilantly scanning the area... who knows? there might be more "unexpected-visitors" knocking on their doors today! “No need. Just activate the sensory-formation and notify all of our disciples within and without the temple to be extremely careful, after leaving the temple every one probably should hide their identities... especially when they’re nearby the temple. I’m going to visit the ancestors, meanwhile send the news about the blind devil-sovereign appearing at our doorsteps... make sure to clarify that his soul is injured and his devilish-foundation is unstable! he's currently fleeing from our territories after accumulating wounds on-top of his previous wounds, earlier he had to sacrifice a huge part of his sin-energy to use that movement-technique and escape. That should draw the blind-fool’s attention away from our disciples for the time being and keep him busy enough with the others—who would certainly seek his bounty—until we’re fully prepared to make our move.” After giving these orders to his subordinates the high-monk left them to deal with the rest and moved towards the forbidden-area where the ancestors are spending their time in seclusion... within a single second that temple-master was already outside range of both sense and sight of these dozen monks! pure white-colored lotuses bloomed beneath the areas where the feet of this temple-master touched thin-air after each step he took and these lotuses began to gradually fade a few seconds later... a sight which caused most of these highly-ranked monks sigh after witnessing once again how high the attainments this temple-master of theirs have in the lotus-step movement-technique... they all did learn it—and kept learning that movement-technique—since the first day they joined the temple of transparency yet... none of them is their temple-master’s match in speed while relying-on it! even when their temple-master kindly proposes to suppress his base-cultivation to match theirs. The group of monks scattered to do what they were told and followed the orders of their temple-master... all of these monks agree that their eastern-continent is going to experience a "tumultuous-phase" very soon after the appearance of such a "pinnacle-cultivator" of the devil-dao such as... blind devil-sovereign himself! however... all of them just can’t understand why would that person make such a stupid decision... after all... the eastern and northern-continents are quite "merciless" and "unforgiving" when it comes to unorthodox-systems of cultivation.

Dong Peizhi the temple-master of the temple of transparency—which is one of the five great-sects—smiled cheerfully like a little kid despite his very advanced and old age... he does seem like he’s an excellent-mood despite being usually famous for his extremely stern and serious-personality! the monk increased his speed and began to move even faster towards the forbidden-area while thinking : 'That must be the karmic-fortune of our great-temple, such a fat and juicy yet extremely unexpected and rare chance for me to reach even higher in my karmic-cultivation really did appear on my doorstep! I can't let that one escape, otherwise... "karma-strings" would "knot" after our "fates" has entangled. The workings of "destiny" has turned, instead of being the "observer" of other’s "life-trials" now it’s my turn to face the "wheel" indeed. Amitabha Buddha.' The shine within the eyes of this dark-skinned temple-master did reveal how full of determination this old monk is currently feeling... temple-master Peizhi retrieved a wooden-token then injected his spirit-energy inside it before entering a white-colored dome—which is the protective-formation surrounding the forbidden-area where his ancestors rest—and vanished inside it... besides Dong Peizhi himself... only three others from the temple of transparency have a similar wooden-token that allows them to enter that forbidden-area! any and all outsiders or trespassers would suffer from the strongest and fiercest retaliation from the entire temple of transparency... if they dare to try... even Andreas and DaiLong... two of the strongest and most influential-individuals in spirit-world... don't dare to do it and... probably won't even try in their life.

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

Lin woke-up past midnight.

Opening his eyes the boy found Qiang Chi sitting next to his bed however... this isn’t his own bed... he’s in Wei's luxurious-carriage. Except for Liao Lai, Zan Shui, and Wang Zhang... everyone else is inside this carriage... they’re sitting at the table and currently discussing the assassin’s fate.

“We should hand that Blood-Demon to the mercenary-guild. Certainly there's a bounty on his head there, en... that’s our the safest option.” The fatty's narrow-eyes glittered with a glow that’s much too similar to spirit-crystals when he said that... only to find Li Yang frowning slightly and Chen Fu completely ignoring what he said while thinking : 'Greedy fatso.' Before deciding to give his attention to his beautiful wife instead of bothering himself with their employer.

“Honestly I think we should wait—at least—until Ming wakes up, he’s the one to discover and help us avoid the danger then lead some of us to capture before overseeing the operation of crippling this man's devil-cultivation! he’s the only one who has any right when it gets to deciding what to do with his prize, so... let’s wait.” Wang argued while shaking his head because he knows that Wei is only seeking profit... this time Fu, Yang, and Xue nodded their heads to agree with the handsome-man much to the fatty’s distaste—who frowned his round-face and puckered his lips then began to curse these stubborn and short-sighted idiots—but... the merchant didn't argue or retort anymore and kept his silence while venting his frustration on the food at the table instead of wasting his breath on some stupid fools who don't appreciate the whole point of... becoming rich! his little-brother Lin isn’t someone who wouldn’t listen to the opinions of others... maybe Wei can convince him to let him handle this after they discuss their plans within mercenary-city.

Habitually... Lin extended his soul-sense to maximum-range and was pretty surprised when he discovered that this soul-ability could reach almost twenty kilometers in range already! not only did he recover a huge amount of soul-force in such a short time—which is currently almost double what it was when compared to before he blacked-out—but also the boy could sense a flowing stream of cool, gentle, and extremely reinvigorating soul-force constantly feeding his soul from the location at the center of his forehead. After his previous experience when using the incomplete-ability of soul-lock... the great-sage was expecting his soul to be very weakened since he used it a second time while having much weaker soul-force however... Lin found that his soul-force has recovered beyond its normal recovery-rate! “Brat. You're forbidden from using that shitty soul-ability, unless you complete it. Know this, until you give me what I require from you... you’re not to use any incomplete-ability! don’t you know that such reckless behavior might harm your foundations? tsk, am I making myself clear? you... stupid boy.” Hearing Kai's voice ringing inside his soul-world caused the boy to ruefully smile because he immediately understood that this grumpy talking-raccoon is certainly the reason why there’s this very contradictory-result. 'Yes senior Kai. I understand, your timely-assistance makes me feel very grateful and ashamed of my incompetence.' The great-sage answered before retracting his soul-sense. “Tsk. As long as you understand then it’s alright but, since you do then... you better work hard! hurry-up become strong already, I'm sick and tired of babysitting a brat like you.” These words from Kai were dripping both cynicism and ridicule... and the great-sage sensed how the source of that gentle-stream of soul-force disappear from the center of his forehead after the awakened-soul finished admonishing him! while sitting-up on the bed Lin extended his right-hand towards a glass of water to quench his thirst and everyone inside Wei’s carriage immediately noticed that he’s already awake.

They stopped their conversations and almost all of them gave the boy looks of both shock and disbelief because... the soul usually takes longer to recover and this young-hero Ming had practically pushed himself so far earlier today until he reached such a sorry state where he fell unconsciousness from extreme exhaustion of soul-force... they all expected him to sleep for a few days... not a few hours! their initial visual-diagnosis of the state this boy is currently in... he’s already out from the critical-state—which Lin was in when he fell unconscious—and safely recovered to the degree where he have the ability to move his body without any showing any trouble in doing so.

Qiang Chi quickly snatched the glass of water and brought it near the kid's mouth while helping him sit steadily by supporting his back... the eyes of the young-man kept scanning the body of his young-master Ming... clearly he’s looking for any signs of extreme fatigue or exhaustion on the boy! the aftereffects after being pushed beyond the limits is a condition—which this former-general—he’s very familiar with it after spending years experiencing the battlefield. “Chi. I'm not exhausted to the degree where I’m not able to sit or have a drink on my own! relax a little my man, you’re too tense all the time.” Lin didn't open his mouth to drink but to speak... the boy gave the worried young-man a helpless-glance while taking the glass of water from his hand. “Yes young-master Ming. It’s good to have you back.” Qiang Chi smiled while taking a couple of steps back to clear the way for the rest of the worried senior-cultivators who came towards the boy's bed in a hurry.

“Tsk. How would he know? honestly in don’t know exactly how should we deal with "little-monsters" such as yourself! you should've seen how worried your personal-guard—and everyone here—after you... humph.” Ning Xue clicked her tongue and said while crossing her arms at the level of her bountiful chest and Wang couldn't help but sneak a quick and fleeting glance towards that "squishy-area" when it began to distort in shape.

“Chi. Thank you, everyone... sorry for making you worry about me but I assure you... I'm alright now.” Lin nodded and thanked this devoted-follower of his while smiling at how calm and collected that young-man was when he received this gesture of gratitude from his young-master... his personality is a lot like a... rock! unlike Wang's shifty-eyes... Qiang Chi merely nodded just once without giving any of these seniors a single glance... his eyes kept staring towards the ceiling at an angle of forty-five degrees... it seems like he’s used to maintaining this attitude from his days of being a foot-soldier.

“Ming. This assassin, Blood-Demon... what do you want to do with him?” Wei—being as impatient as ever whenever there’s an opportunity to put an additional amount of wealth in his pockets—asked while hoping that his little-brother Lin would let him to deal with their captive however he see fit.

“Tell Zhang to bring him here. There’s a few things that I have to ask that man before I decide.” The boy said while remembering how Blood-Demon's martial-spirit had actually helped him against that shadow-snake in the most critical moment... hadn't that transparent-snake broke its tiny fangs while helping him in his attempt to purify that black-marble? then... the great-sage would've lost in his previous-confrontation with that anonymous-individual—who calls himself the master of that assassin—and Lin doesn’t even want to think about what kind of "repercussions" would’ve happened once he fell unconsciousness! 'Why did that man’s martial-spirit even help me defy the master of its owner? was it done because Blood-Demon intended for it to happen? or, is it the transparent-snake being "rebellious" after its skin lost the red-color!' Lin had these unanswered questions troubling his thoughts... the three spirit-tyrants noticed how absent-minded young-hero Ming has become and choose to keep their silence while Wang nodded and left the carriage to do what the boy asked bring the assassin—which they left Zhang on his own to guard—meanwhile Qiang Chi went towards the table and was quick to bring a tray full of food to the kid then gave a silent and fleeting-glance to the group of senior-cultivators—who evidently followed the commands of his young-master Ming— before returning to his usual mode... which is... being a granite-statue! despite the lack of expressions on his scarred-face... the young-man was actually feeling extremely proud of his young-master Ming who have such a "charismatic-personality" that enables him to naturally command and influence the opinions of a group of people—who’re supposed to be—much stronger than the boy because there’s a huge gap of seniority... and feeling even more proud of himself because his lack of hesitation—and extreme shamelessness—enabled him to join the ranks of the kid and become the first to follow him... certainly in the future he’s going to enjoy the fruits of this decision.

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

Su Meiyin was in their carriage with Zan Shui when Lin awoke.

After her husband told her of his suggestion to recruit Ming to join the youngest-princess and undertake the trials of the heart-seeking sect... Meiyin immediately agreed that having such a genius watching-over little-Mei would be another guarantee that she wouldn't bullied by her fellow sect-members or... worse! since the extreme-rules of that sect actually allows its disciples to... go a bit far. Ling Mei getting her monthly-allocated resources taken away by another while being left alone and helpless within the heart-seeking sect would be a... really cruel fate for an amazing talent that should have great-prospects in the future! meanwhile that boy has already proven that he’s very capable of taking care of himself and others while dealing with seniors... certainly he would be able to suppress all of the juniors within that sect and take their young-princess under his wing while being there... who knows? maybe... the two of them would become a match when they grow-up and their little-Mei would find herself with a backing that could allow her to seize the throne of the Ling-empire. Looking towards the princess—who is currently sitting cross-legged on the bed and meditating for the first time after more than three months now—Su Meiyin nodded and tightly held her man's hand before saying : “Shui. We need to talk to the boy but, we got to do it in private... it has to be done alone! that way we could convince him to leave that greedy-merchant. Otherwise, I’m afraid that man would try and influence the kid and make him misjudge or suspect the intentions behind our request.”

“Actually—after interacting with them—I honestly don't think that Ming is a "subordinate" to that merchant of the Cheng clan, judging by the way the boy carries himself around them and the way he speaks with them... I really don’t know if I’m correct or not, it’s just... different! however, I completely agree with you... talking with him in private would be best for us.” While scratching his head Zan Shui voiced his thoughts to his wife after remembering the way that kid kept ordering them to do this and that like he’s used to commanding others... meanwhile Cheng Wei and the rest of his men silently followed Ming’s every order without interrupting the boy—who’s supposed to be their underling—not even once! Zan Shui would—at least—roll his eyes at the kid if he’s in their shoes but... not a single one of them did even that... it’s a crazy thing to believe really because... it’s either they’re a group of men who does have perfect control over their emotions... like every single one of them! which is far from the truth after the water-cultivator personally interacted with them or... they don’t care at all if this Ming causes a huge amount of troubles for all of them with his actions.

“You should go back and join the rest of them in the merchant's carriage, wanting to terminate the threat on our daughter’s life should be enough excuse for you to be with them. Take the first opportunity and bring the boy here to talk with me but, be discreet when you do... don't alert any of them to your true intentions! if it doesn’t work? then, ask openly while making Ah Da your excuse... say she wants to personally thank the kid for saving her life or something like that. Hide lies within the truth to make it work, mention that our identities is a really sensitive-topic and can't be revealed in public that’s why we seek privacy.” Meiyin was relieved after hearing how that boy Ming isn't under the thumb and control of that merchant Wei... patting her man’s hand the woman spoke while looking towards little-Mei with such a gentle gaze in her eyes! just that look already spoke volumes in how much this personal-maid loves the youngest-princess.

“En. I understand, the boy is polite and his character is so refined. I don't see any reason for him to refuse our invitation.” After getting up from his seat Zan Shui leaned towards Su Meiyin and kissed her cheek then left towards Wei's carriage... when the spirit-tyrant exited his carriage he could see the two spirit-grandmasters Wang and Zhang walking towards the merchant’s luxurious-carriage while the simple man is carrying the imprisoned assassin! the water-cultivator quickly followed after the two of them and entered the same carriage however... once he was inside Zan Shui became so shocked after seeing something unbelievable with his two eyes. 'How exactly was this boy able to awake so quickly? he’s eating slowly like before without any visible issues in his motions!' The spirit-tyrant thought while judging the kid’s current condition with his eyes... judging by the texture and color of Ming's skin... the water-cultivator is almost certain that this boy is alright! without any severe-aftereffects following the process they underwent together while purifying the sin-energy of that assassin. 'Nothing surrounding this kid makes any sense.' Zan Shui thought while inwardly raising the hands of surrender.

“Senior Shui, welcome. Since you're already here, can I trouble you to remove that ice? I want to free that man before I hear my answers, he isn’t going to be a threat to any of us after losing his cultivation anyway.” Lin used a piece of clean silk to wipe his hands then got-up from the bed after handing Chi the tray of food and walked towards Blood-Demon before asking while tapping on the thin layer of blood-red ice with his fingers... the boy can say that this ice is "cool" at best! its temperature isn't cold to the degree of freezing the man inside it to death... the great-sage really admires the fine-control that spirit-tyrant have over his abilities indeed. The temperature of that ice is like lukewarm water and Lin sensed how the assassin could breathe through it normally like it doesn’t exist... inside that thin shell of red ice Blood-Demon is unfortunately still wearing that revolting black-cloak—which could block the boy's ability of soul-sense—that’s why the great-sage can't get a clear-enough picture of the man’s current condition! however... from that faint and irregular-breathing the boy could hear coming from within that shell thanks to his heightened-senses... Lin understood that the assassin inside it isn't alright at all... and probably wouldn’t be able to survive for much longer if it stays this way.

Zan Shui shook his head after hearing Ming's proposal then shrugged his shoulders before saying : “That layer of red ice isn't under my control at all really, to be exact... it has been that way ever since that sin-energy began to pollute my ice-energy! honestly, I don't even know how he's still alive after his sin-energy and martial-spirit got purified. Even when his martial-spirit got wiped-out and his cultivation crippled, he’s—somehow—still hanging-on to dear life! it’s either this man is a human-cockroach who refuses to die no-matter how many feet steps on his back, or... death itself is disgusted with his wicked-soul and refuses to collect it,” Despite his cruel words... the water-cultivator is clearly feeling helpless about this unexpected situation and—in his opinion—the only thing they can do here is to just destroy that thin layer of red ice! since the boy wants to free this assassin—who’s currently no more than a weak mortal who should only have an above-average physical-strength since he was a cultivator at some point of his life—it shouldn’t be an issue at all, “While we were being distracted by you—after you fell unconscious, the hole in the ice—which all of us used to inject our spirit-energy into that man's body—just... covered itself, by itself! and now he’s entirely covered with the same layer of red ice... well, I guess we shouldn’t call it "ice" anymore. I really don't know what to even call that red... thing!” While knocking on that shell with his knuckles and making a helpless expression on his face... the strongest spirit-tyrant in this caravan explained to the kid what he missed from the events after he got knocked-out! how he takes it from here... is entirely up to him to this Ming to decide.

Lin wasn't expecting that answer from Zan Shui at all because... earlier when he heard Wang speak about the assassin and mention how he’s crippled... the boy thought the handsome-man meant the purification of Blood-Demon’s sin-energy not his martial-spirit! because the last thing that the great-sage witnessed during his struggle with the shadow-snake was... that transparent-snake helping him by biting-on the black-marble and cracking it right before he lost consciousness however... that transparent-snake was still in the man's dantian-space when Lin sent all of his soul-force, light-energy, and fire-intent inside that mysterious black-marble through these cracks.

Unbeknownst to the boy is that after he blacked-out the tiny and transparent-snake followed his onslaught of different energies inside that devil-seed and its presence completely disappeared from the dantian-space... even its previous-owner couldn’t sense its existence anymore! within that devil-seed... both snakes fought to the death and one of them had the backing of three types of energy from the great-sage.

“Break it then. But, don't hurt his vitals. I want him alive, so... be careful. Judging by the way he’s breathing, I don't think that he's going to live for much longer. Especially if he’s left cocooned within this red-shell.” Lin pinched the thin layer of red ice on one finger of this assassin and gradually began to increase the pressure until he reached the maximum of his physical-strength yet... the red ice in that area remained completely intact without any fissure appearing on it! the boy turned and gestured for Zhang—who would be very happy to complete this "fun" task—to do it before moving away to give the simple man some space.

“Pointless.” Kai said this single word and Lin discovered the strong man failing to break that red ice indeed... Zhang used fifty-percent of his spirit-cultivation to kick the thin layer of red ice on the thigh of Blood-Demon... that side-kick was coated in earth and fire-energy from a physically-strong spirit-grandmaster who’s about to reach the high-grade yet... that ice-like red-shell was completely unaffected and the simple man's kick almost sent this assassin flying outside the carriage through the walls! if it wasn't for Yang's timely response by grabbing Blood-Demon by the arm to stop him? then.. Tang Wei would be wailing tears while feeling his heart breaking into fragments and cursing simpleton-Zhang over and over for ruining his carriage... the fatty would’ve certainly deducted the repair costs from the wages of the strong man. Even Zan Shui—the one who created that ice block in the first place—kept wondering to himself how could his ability of frost-imprisonment become so... formidable! honestly the spirit-tyrant was stunned by the sturdiness of this red ice... if only... just imagining all of his techniques being so refined and of such high-quality... if it happened? then... it would make this water-cultivator the first person ever to die from... amazement.

“Kakakaka. What a bunch of ignorant little fools! the sheer audacity of it makes all of you the laughingstock of this world, to think that you can affect anything that contains all of this amount of sin-energy... with such weak attacks. Humph. Even if it’s a dry and crumpling leaf... when it have this amount of sin-energy stuffed inside it then, everything changes completely! this ice is—somewhat—similar to the previous example however, this sin-energy is a different-version of sin energy because... it has been purified by light-energy and stored within ice-energy then showered with soul-force, lightning-energy, earth-energy, water-energy, and light-energy once again before finally being grilled with your variant of fire-intent. Even if its ignited with extreme "spirit-fire" for days and nights it’d be a futile attempt because... that red-shell of sin-energy wouldn’t burn! you all already helped it become immune with your spirit-energy earlier, four spirit-tyrants crystalized the red-shell with their spirit-energy and helped it simply exist someplace else except the dantian-space of some devil-incubator and you... you purified all of it! your energies gave that sin-energy the perfect-method to gain the approval of the "laws" of this spirit-world, now it’s become some "special" type of sin-energy and can exist forever in that solid form without being forced to gradually dissipate like any other type of sin-energy. That blade-user can use his blade-intent to "scratch" that red ice, only if... the man kept chopping at it for a while... I guess it wouldn’t take him much longer than a week to achieve that result. Meanwhile that spirit-tyrant—the one who uses earth-energy—can break some parts of this red ice with his crushing-intent, only if... he kept bashing at it for... a month or so! however, that solidified shell of sin-energy would regain its original shape if one of them stops midway. You on the other hand... you should be capable of melting that red ice with your fire-intent however, since your fire-intent is weak, unrefined, and used in such a crude-way then... it’d take you too long to actually do the same! simply because, this red-shell is basically solidified while relying on a form of energy that’s supposed to counter fire... and fire-intent isn’t so different really from the element of fire in the system of spirit-energy. That being said, it means that even after you succeed in fusing the energies of the two fires of your fire-intent and become able to melt that red-shell... that devil-incubator brat would be... long dead by then! does that mean that all three of you would fail to save that assassin no-matter what you do? no, you still have your gigantic-aura of faith. Faith is the only energy in this spirit-world that can directly affect all types of sin-energy, after all... both energies of faith and sin are like the two faces of the same coin! both systems counter one another perfectly, that’s why whenever the perfect balance between them is disturbed... humph. Tsk, tsk, tsk... didn’t I tell you to use your head once before? well, brute force isn't the right answer in this situation. Brat. That’s the last thing I’m going to tell you today... now, figure-out the rest on your own.” Kai ridiculed Lin and everyone else with his words because—in the eyes of this talking-raccoon—they're all a bunch of... clowns! however... within these words is a lot of extremely valuable information for the boy who listened carefully and memorized everything that he just heard from the formidable awakened-soul.

“Zhang. Just... stop, pure spirit-energy attacks wouldn't work against this red-shell! go call Lai over here, his help is needed. Senior Fu. I’d be needing the assistance of your crushing-intent next.” After holding Zhang—who was feeling over-excited and about to deliver another spirit-attack—and stopping him from sending the next punch towards the red-shell which carries his full-power after his previous spirit-attack—the "half-assed" side-kick failed—Lin looked towards Wang and ordered him to bring the blade-user... like always the spirit-tyrants within the carriage watched in silence how the handsome-man simply nodded and left to replace Lai on his task of overseeing the teams of guards! Wang never looked towards his young-master Wei to check if he’s okay with him leaving his side... and the fatty himself didn’t seem like he cares if one of his officers leave his side without his permission... everything did seem... natural.

Chen Fu obviously wasn’t expecting the boy to specifically choose to ask him for help when he requires an assistance... especially when there’s Li Yang and Zan Shui who’re available and standing right next to him! however... none of these two strong spirit-tyrants could use the special-energy of intent... only the stocky man could use intent among the four spirit-tyrants in this carriage. After seeing the wide smile on his woman's face... it became the earth-cultivator’s source of encouragement and Chen Fu raised his head while feeling proud like a peacock then gave Li Yang a side-glance while smirking before going to stand next to the kid and waiting! this spirit-tyrant patiently waited for the kid to tell him what to do next.

Just satisfy some of his maniacal-love, undying-passion, and unsatisfied-attraction towards the joy of failing through trials while experimenting... Lin walked towards the assassin and decided to try using his own fire-intent on that red-shell of sin-energy! on-top of his right-hand the boy held the baseball-sized red-fire—which exited from the area where his right-chest is located—and started to roast one of Blood-Demon’s pinky fingers yet... after ten seconds the red-shell was still completely unaffected by the fire-intent... just like Kai said it would be earlier.

However... the four spirit-tyrants within this carriage became so shocked after witnessing this young-hero Ming using the energy of fire-intent—which the boy is revealing to them for the first time right now—all four of them already know that this kid is both a soul and spirit-cultivator... while already having great and amazing attainments within the system of body-refinement which is already unbelievably-insane—especially for someone around his age-group—yet... right now they’re seeing this young-hero Ming using energy from the system of intent too! from the look of it... the boy is able to use that fire-intent quite effortlessly. Unfortunately before any of these four got any chance to get-over their shock... the spirit-tyrants became so amazed when they saw another fire exit from the area where the kid's right-chest is located! that gold-colored fire-intent joined the red-colored fire-intent and together they began to burn that strange and extremely-sturdy red-shell after the baseball-sized red-fire grew in size to become a handball-sized fire of the gold-red color... the gold-red fire-intent caused that red-shell to show signs of moistening after another ten seconds of being roasted by the fusion of two types of fire-intent.

Lin—who’s ready for this result after hearing what Kai said—reacted without hesitation... Gang—who’s sitting cross-legged in the soul-world, right in the center of  the twenty kilometers wide-area—fused the energy from both types of fire on-top his right-hand first before fusing the gold-red fire-intent with the cluster of soul-force on-top of his left-hand and remade the three-colored fire once again—which Lin had to forgo once before because his soul was in an immediate-need for some rest to recover itself—while wondering how is it possible for both of them to use their so-called energy of "faith" because... honestly neither this deadly-sin of wrath nor the great-sage could sense its existence to begin with! let-along manipulate the "gigantic-aura" that awakened-soul mentioned earlier however... there’s still an option available for them to use here and his big-brother used it without Gang having to remind Lin about it.

The four spirit-tyrants frowned when they noticed how the boy activated the ability of energy-armor and covered himself with a layer of light-energy however... before any of them got to comment about the oddity in this situation—since this young-hero Ming said earlier that spirit-energy would be useless against this red-shell, which makes his current actions quite contradictory—once again... all of them became so shocked after seeing the third type of fire—which appeared on-top of the kid’s hand—because it began to slowly push-back the thin-layer of that red-colored ice! none of it evaporated but that mysterious and sturdy ice began to retract backwards much like any "living-organism" would respond after being exposed to extremely hot fire... the tip of the pinky-nail of that assassin was gradually revealed in the end—which is a great achievement already considering how tough to handle this red ice has been so far—however... all of these spirit-tyrants are unaware that this young-hero Ming is already fusing not two but three types of energies from three different systems of cultivation right under their noses... within one system in particular—weapon-intent—the boy is already using two different types of energy within that three-ways fusion... the boy himself wasn’t even aware of the immensity of this feat.

But... the cost is proving to be extremely high already! the amount of soul-force Gang exhausted to achieve that simple achievement—of affecting that red-shell of solidified sin-energy and pushing it back this insignificant-distance—is the loss of... almost five-hundred meters of range within the soul-world! now the bright and glowing area they have within the soul-world has shrunk in range and became less than before by half a kilometer and the total of its current maximum-range is nineteen kilometers and a few hundred meters while the rest of their soul-world is a... pitch-black void-like zone of empty space that’s lacking the brightness of the water beneath the feet of their soul-bodies and the shining sky over their heads. Thankfully—for that Blood-Demon—the great-sage isn't seeking to harm him otherwise... just from within that tiny and narrow-gap in this red-shell of solidified sin-energy Lin could’ve sent a few wisps of his fire-intent to burn the assassin to ash if he wants! once his soul-force could access the insides of that red-shell successfully the boy—and his sin-brother both—deactivated the energy-fusion... after touching the revealed-tip of that man’s pinky-nail with his soul-sense then... sending his soul-force directly inside the body of that Blood-Demon to check on his current condition and more importantly to... take a look for himself and confirm the situation inside the assassin’s dantian-space. Unfortunately—like the spirit-cultivators in this carriage said before—there’s nothing left within this energy-drained and terribly-bleak dantian-space... except for the broken black-marble—devil-seed—which seems like it actually exploded after the great-sage lost consciousness! because... there's bits and pieces of it currently swimming within the aftermath of destruction—which this dantian-space experienced—however... the fragments of that black-marble are no longer black in color anymore... the dark-color within these fragments got completely wiped-out and right now they appear no different from normal "glass-shards" and they’re scattered all-over this dantian-space. This dantian is currently extremely cracked everywhere on its boundaries and there’s many small and zigzagging-fissures between the wide-cracks... there’s grey-colored "cyclones" and each cyclone is formed from the same grey-energy—which appeared when Lin's incomplete-ability of soul-lock met the dark-colored wave of soul-force from the black-snake—before the transparent-snake broke the black-marble and the boy lost consciousness soon afterwards without getting the chance to witness what happened! 'Sigh. Hey you... Blood-Demon! answer me this, why did you help me against that black-snake? that... "thing" was your master, right! why do you hate your master so much? he did seem quite desperate to protect you.' Lin felt slightly saddened because... that tiny and transparent-snake is nowhere to be found within the assassin’s dantian-space indeed! the boy sent that man his questions with an ability of soul-link while intentionally mentioning the black-snake who asked the great-sage to release Blood-Demon because he’s its disciple. “Snort. Don’t make me laugh, I’d rather prefer if my master was my own ass! and my name isn't Blood-Demon it's Qing... Rong Qing. I’m from the Rong clan of the Sunrise-empire in the eastern-height, the last disciple of the sect-master of the swift-sword sect. That name... Blood-Demon was the name that "mother fucker" gave me after he emasculated my dao and erased my orthodox-foundation, he kidnapped me eighteen years ago then forced me into a path of no return... either live as a devil-incubator or... die! from that day my only true goal in live was to seek more strength, my only reason for doing so was... to become strong enough so that I would the chance to enjoy tearing that wicked old-geezer from limb to limb with my own hands. If you're going to seek revenge after what I tried to do to the youngest-princess? then... do your worst! humph, I’m not a cowards and I never was in my whole life... I always knew that I’d die a "nasty death" after all the "atrocities" I committed in my short life. I only regret not being able to execute that old piece of shit before death finds me but, I’m thankful to you anyway... at least you gave me the opportunity to die with a body that’s pure and clean of sin-energy. Ming. Promise me that you’d see to it that my body would be sent to my Rong clan after my death, a short message to explain why I disappeared all these years would suffice... you owe me—at least—that much after my little-on-... uh! after my... martial-spirit helped you against that ancient and disgusting old-creep. Without the help of my martial-spirit you could never possibly dream of even destroying that devil-seed with your current abilities, certainly that old man would've turned you into one of his "toys" or... you—and everyone in this caravan—simply would've been just the next-victims of that evil-person and join countless before you on a very, very long-list of his evil-schemes! maybe he would’ve made you one of his candidates for a fleshly-vessel like he planned to do to me but, I really doubt he would’ve chosen you because of your natural-affinity to the element of light... plus how he seems to favor the martial-spirits of those who have the soul-nature and yours doesn’t seem to have that. Oh, how could I forget something so important? Ming. Hurry, you all need to leave this place! quickly now before the old geezer arrives here... you all are already very lucky that he didn’t find you long ago. First seek safety within mercenary-city, he would never dare enter it so... live the rest of your lives there if you have to—at least—it’d be much better than living in the shadows being frightened of having your identity as a devil-cultivator revealed! because if you have a clan or sect that you care for their safety? then... they can always be harmed just because you got yourself forced into the path of devil-cultivation... you’ll always be an evil-person in the eyes of the majority of  this world's population. Unfortunately... that "awful-reputation" tends to spread into everyone that you care about in this world, in most cases your fate would be their fate in the end... even if they’re undoubtedly innocent! heed my advice Ming I'm not bluffing here, people like that old-geezer are well-outside of your league—at least—you got nothing to lose if you listen to me, mercenary-city is your destination after all so... you’d be getting there a little bit sooner instead of wasting a few more days on pearl-road waiting for a fate that would be way worse than death itself.” Rong Qing answered—like Lin hoped he would—however... what the man said made the boy really annoyed because—just like he thought—that martial-spirit really was helping him! that mysterious black-snake is an individual who spoke to the great-sage through the so-called "devil-seed" and that evil-person is some "old-freak" who likes to choose certain-people—who have specific-talent—and kidnap then force them into the evil-path of devil-dao. 'Death... isn’t a choice that you can have, Qing. The tormented-souls your actions in the past have caused are... countless! I can still clearly hear each and every cry every one of them made before I got to purify them, thankfully they’re now released from the suffering you gave all of them. Now it's your turn to be on the receiving-end of all that suffering, you say that you were a "victim" of that evil-person who kidnapped you back then. Honestly, I sympathize with you really. But, before you get the peaceful-rest of death, you need to redeem yourself or... simply die trying! otherwise... you're just a coward—at least in my eyes—because the man who once tried to kill me was an evil-person from my perspective just the same. Yes that assassin was like the reincarnation of the "devil" itself! but—at least—he fearlessly held his two red-swords to confront me and a couple spirit-tyrants without hesitation at all and fought until the last moment despite his wounds. I bet even your  martial-spirit would scald you with scornful-words if it could speak, alas it’s not here to witness the sight of its owner who became a defeatist! even that tiny martial-spirit took action against that evil-person and courageously stood-up for you until it was wiped-out from existence... at least it was able to do something and saved you. It changed your fate, it left you able to die clean from that wicked-energy.' However... Lin could sense absolute surrender in that man's tone of voice when he heard his answer and understood that he’s actually longing for death more than life... since he shouldn't let this person die—at least not just yet— otherwise... the boy would be disappointing all the tormented-souls—who bowed and kowtowed to him before vanishing—that's why the great-sage attempted to rile-up Rong Qing with his words! Lin was trying to reignite the "fire of life" within the chest of this assassin. “Heh. What can a mortal like me do? throw a pebble at the geezer?” The levity in Rong Qing's quick and short answer almost made Lin burst in laughter. 'You're not the one to decide what to do, just sit tight and... prepare yourself for a lifetimes’ worth of hard and honest work! maybe... if your conviction is firm and your heart is clear enough? then, someday you'd get to experience things that you never knew that they exist or... imagined. I’m looking forward to how you’ll preform when the time is right, life is going to test your character. All you need to do is ask yourself this : "Are you really up for the challenge? or... not." We’ll talk more later, hopefully... you’d already have your answer by then.' Lin sent then removed his connection of soul-link before turning to look towards the long-legged beauty... since both Xue and Shui are users of water-energy then any one of them is capable of healing the man inside this red-shell however... after Rong Qing mentioned something about Ah Da actually being youngest-princess the boy immediately understood why that Shui has been so eager to kill Rong Qing before! having Zan Shui help heal the one who actually tried to kill his "princess" is... unlikely to happen at all and the spirit-tyrant might swiftly exterminate the weak assassin instead. The second-option currently available for the great-sage is... that Ning Xue the... annoying beauty who’s always trying to pick a fight with him because of her own justified-reasons.

Lin directly spoke to the seductive-woman in the same commanding tone of voice—which he always use when giving orders to Wei, Lai, Wang or Zhang—and said : “Heal him. Do everything in your power to keep him alive,” The boy ordered Ning Xue then turned to look towards Wei, “You should move the caravan and hurry towards mercenary-city now, there's a huge possibility that some formidable senior devil-cultivator is going to pay us a visit if we don’t! if we’re found? then, we're—I apologize to the lady because of my inappropriate-language—well... simply fucked in the ass.” Ning Xue was about to begin another nonsensical-squabble with the great-sage who dared order her around like she's some kind of servant of his! but... Chen Fu held her by the waist to stop her from saying anything however... when Lin began to speak the four spirit-tyrants were stunned after hearing what he said.

The long-legged beauty was different from the three men... Ning Xue was stunned when the boy suddenly looked towards her and suddenly apologized very politely—which was a completely unexpected action from the haughty young-hero Ming—then the woman blushed slightly after hearing the kid say that really vulgar expression... him being able to say such expressively-immoral words was just... shocking.

Wei's round-face suddenly lost all color when his skin became so pale and the fatty immediately ran towards the outside of the luxurious-carriage like wind itself! 'My baby is in danger, how many times are they going to come to destroy my baby? when someone like Lin say something like "that" then... that senior devil-cultivator must be formidable beyond our recognition! my caravan is endangered, my wealth is endangered, and my life is endangered. Any senior-cultivator from an orthodox-dao is one thing but, a freaking senior-cultivator from the devil-dao is a "complete-catastrophe" for everything that’s dear to my tender-heart! an "absolute-crisis" of an entirely different level is coming our way... we need to pack our shit and get the fuck out of here right now. Fuck, fuck, fuck... bloody pearl-road isn't giving me any chance to even rest! how the fuck is my transportation-station going to generate profit under all of these variables.' Since all of his thoughts are oriented around his wealth... the merchant completely ignored Lai—who just returned after swapping places with Wang—and ran towards the handsome-man... even if he's in immediate need for the blade-user right now—to help Wei speed things around and move the caravan faster—Wei knows that Lin needs Lai for something and that’s why the fatty has to make-do with what he got and rely-on Wang's help.

“What's wrong with Wei? he completely ignored me earlier! did something happen?” Lai asked Lin once he entered the carriage... the blade-user did seem really confused. Why wouldn’t he be? especially because he never got to see the fatty run this fast ever before without relying-on the use of his lightning-energy! it did seem hilarious though.

“Really bad news. But there's no need for us to worry about something that we can't stop from happening, anyway... I need your help with something. I need you to use the energy of your blade-intent with senior Fu’s crushing-intent to weaken that red-shell, don’t underestimate this ice! all of us need to work together if we want to quickly melt this thin-layer of solidified sin-ener-” The boy shrugged and was about to tell Lai and the spirit-tyrant what they need to do however... once the great-sage mentioned the true name of that glass-like red-shell... the four spirit-tyrants, the blade-user, and the young-guard just gasped from shock! Ning Xue was the first within the luxurious-carriage to overcome her surprise and react... the beauty abandoned her task of healing Rong Qing and practically jumped towards Lin then held him by the shoulders before she began to strongly and roughly shaking him back and forth while shouting in his face despite revealing extreme excitement and some disbelief on her expression! the boy could clearly notice the "dangerous glint" within her eyes : “What did you just say? s-solidified sin-energy! are you... absolutely certain that this red ice is solidified sin-energy?” While blocking the spray of spittle that’s been coming out from the mouth of this "screaming mad" woman with his soul-force and noticing that the same "uncommon-expression" is practically on the face of everyone of those who heard him—who doesn't seem to know or care about what this material at all—except for Zhang... the simple man only wants to try again and give that red-shell a few more hits just to see if it would really remain intact! the strong man wonders if little-Lin would allow him another try to break it... one chance isn’t enough... after all Zhang is very confident in his... stamina. “Why? do you... have some kind of serious "allergy" to solidified sin-energy?” The great-sage felt like teasing the beauty to lighten-up the serious mood inside the carriage... meanwhile the seductive-woman blushed in shame after hearing what he said because... here she’s losing her composure despite being the grown-up while this annoying brat is able to remain calm and composed in this situation which is much to Xue’s frustration! “That I do! to snotty-face brats that is, humph.” While pinching both cheeks of Lin... Ning Xue grumbled under her teeth while glaring at him from beyond the mountain that her bountiful-chest created above his head! “Yet here you are... still touching me! congratulations you’re one of these, an ignorant-stupid, stupidly-courageous, impulsively-stupid, reckless-stupid, or just stupid. Listen to me lady, because I’m going to say this once and I won’t repeat myself again! you’re going to do one of these two orders, either go help merchant Wei or... help this man recover. You really should be thankful here and I’m going to tell you why, at least you do have the "liberty" to choose what to do! meanwhile a "brat" in your eyes—like myself—has been worrying about every single life in this caravan ever since I woke-up to find a massive-scale beast-wave attacking all of you.” The boy gave this really idiotic and silly-woman a helpless look then removed both of her hands from his face and walked towards Rong Qing while gesturing for Liao Lai and Chen Fu to come help him.

Meanwhile the beauty began to feel like she's the one who’s been acting like "brat" among the two of them actually... especially after the kid gave everyone inside the carriage a glimpse of what he's been thinking since the moment he opened his eyes! after stomping her feet against the ground to vent some of her stress... Ning Xue went towards Rong Qing and began to send a gentle stream of water-energy to help the man heal the internal-injuries—which are practically all-over his body—while being fully determined to succeed in making this assassin survive this ordeal no matter what. Even after she witnessed the degree of chaos that resulted inside the body of this Blood-Demon after he got all of his sin-energy purified and his martial-spirit disappearing... even after seeing the severity of that man’s internal-injuries and the current condition of his physique that’s been left in a very sorry state... Ning Xue is going to complete this task because... it would make her look bad in front of this brat if she couldn’t do—at least—that much.

Whatever greed that got birthed inside the hearts of any of these four spirit-tyrants—who know the true worth of such an amount of solidified sin-energy—was quickly scattered... maybe it’s because of the easygoing-attitude of this young-hero Ming which could deceive anyone who didn’t witness the boy when he’s in action or when he’s serious! maybe it’s because each one of these spirit-tyrants has his own plans in the future... every one of the two mercenary-leaders already knows that the other mercenary-leader wishes to recruit the kid to his group... or—at least—get the opportunity to reserve a spot closer to the heart of this young-hero Ming for themselves—which is certainly going to be a huge gain in the future—after planting the "seed of affection" right now. Ning Xue wants to prove her worth to this boy and change his opinion about her... this lady wants to show with her actions that she isn’t just fun and games or beauty and charm... she’s an experienced mercenary and a veteran much like her husband and... more! after all... despite spending years seeing the true-face and the ugliness of this spirit-world... this woman was able to preserve his personality through it all. When it comes to Zan Shui and his hidden-agenda... the man is aiming to convince this kid to be the "backer" of the youngest-princess inside the heart-seeking sect! if it does happen? then... this "fortune and wealth" certainly is going to rub on Ling Mie sooner or later because... the little-girl does seem really interested in the boy... these types of emotions just need to be "nourished" with time spent together until the opportune-time in the future where both of them "cultivate" everything and tie the knot... right now him and his wife just need to convince the kid to join the same sect with their beloved-princess.

Liao Lai smiled while listening to every order from Lin with Fu while imagining how should he gloat in the face of the fatty! 'Humph. Shitty merchant left in a hurry and treated me like thin-air earlier but, wouldn’t he receive a heart-attack when he hears what kind of material that red-shell really is!' Then the blade-user shrugged without care for the fate of his young-master and began to carefully control his blade-intent to work in-tandem with the spirit-tyrant who's using his crushing-intent to weaken the same area on that red-shell... whenever Lin discovered a certain location on the red-shell actually weakening... the boy would use the fusion of his soul, spirit, and intent! the three-colored fire would melt another tiny part on that layer of solidified sin-energy... it kept shrinking backwards and the exposed part of Rong Qing’s body increased. Within twenty minutes the three of them managed to reveal the entire left-hand of the man inside the red-shell yet... Lai, Fu, and Lin were completely exhausted! “Huff... this material is just demonic, it’s like a bottomless-pit that keeps-on sucking our intent yet... it isn't affected at all! to completely remove this skin-tight red-shell from the body of that Blood-Demon with us going at this rate... I reckon it’d—at least—take us a week.” The blade-user wiped the sweat from his forehead and sat at the table then began to drink and eat... this always happened to him whenever the energy of his blade-intent energy is depleted by such a huge amount within a short duration of time! “His name is Rong Qing, like your Cheng clan he’s from the Sunrise-empire... his Rong clan must be famous in the whole domain of the eastern-height if it could offer such talented individual at such a young age. Oh, I almost forgot there he’s... the last disciple of the sect-master of the swift-sword sect as well sect. Blood-Demon was the name given to him by the same old man who kidnapped him almost two decades ago, that wicked and evil-person forced Qing into the path of devil-cultivation after—somehow—manipulating his foundation and removing the orthodox-dao and placing the devil-dao instead... devil-ceremony or something like that happened and he became a devil-incubator! that same wicked and evil-person is the one who’s going to—possibly—pay us a visit.” The boy joked about their situation while taking a large bite from the roasted thigh of the unknown yet... very delicious-animal that Qiang Chi specifically chose to offer him however... despite how composed he usually is... the young-guard's hand shivered slightly when he was placing the plates of food in front the great-sage and—of course—Lin noticed it and smirked like a little-devil in the face of his scarred-follower... the young-man looked towards his young-master then rolled his eyes before retreating a few steps back while shaking his head.

“Tsk. You're still in the mood to joke around when our lives are in danger, don’t ask! his body is severely wounded with internal-injuries all-over the place, all I could do... I already did. The rest is up to... Rong Qing himself, that’s if... he wants to survive. What's with that look? I'm not an "alchemist" alright!” Ning Xue clicked her tongue and messed the boy's hair up before naturally sitting on the thigh of her stocky man then circled the thick and muscular-neck of her husband... seeing the kid staring at her and directly looking in her eyes while straightening and fixing his hair with his hands... the beauty fearlessly stuck-out her chest while stuffing some pieces of meat from the table in the mouth of the earth-cultivator who worked so hard so far! “Little-Xue.Thank you... you did good, now that I remember! you never answered my question.” The great-sage asked while looking straight into the eyes of this woman... Lin did seem like he could see the depth of Ning Xue's soul. “What question?” Feeling fidgety all of a sudden after speaking her mind without thinking... the long-legged beauty remembered the day when this young-hero Ming mercilessly spanked her butt in public then Fu took her body for a really long "bouncing ride" afterwards... a ride which Ning Xue enjoyed very much! however... this annoying little-brat dares to call her "little-Xue" so naturally? he really needs to be taught a lesson from his seniors... that "senior" is going to be none other than herself... of course. “That day when we sparred, what did you plan to do to me? you said that "if I win you'd tell me" but, when I won you gave a lame act to drag your husband into the mess to defend your honor before escaping the scene without respecting our prior agreement.” Lin began to speak and the seductive-woman really wanted to just go and... stuff his filthy-mouth with a huge-sausage or something! her two eyes kept threatening to devour the boy with the fire of their scorching-glare however... the stocky man held his wife by the waist with one of his arms to restrain the beauty and keep her on his lap.

“Huff... wheeze!...” The door of the luxurious-carriage door opened and Wei entered while gasping for air with sweat trickling down from his face... apparently the fatty forgot to use his lightning-energy to move until the preparations were over! the long-legged beauty used this opportunity to "disengage" from the conversation with that nasty little-brat.

After taking the glass of water that Lin offered him and emptying it all at once within his throat... Wei rested his back on one of the chairs and his extremely big and soft-mass gave others the misconception that this fatty seems to melt in the chair! only his chest kept rising and fell rapidly! a couple seconds later everyone in the caravan felt it when it began to move again... the conversation shifted and Lai began to tell the merchant what he missed. Miraculously... Wei made a full recovery in the span of time it takes a person to wink... the fatty ran towards the statue of Rong Qing and began to hug and dance with it twirl it in the air! as if... the merchant isn’t holding some—formerly—very dangerous assassin but as if... he's holding his beloved-bride instead! the sight of Wei doing so while practically smiling from ear to ear... made everyone inside the carriage pity this fatty.

Meanwhile inside the red-shell... Rong Qing wanted to puke his guts! not only because he’s feeling extreme nausea but also because this situation is making him feel... well... let’s just say that... he’s sick to his stomach.

Lin gave Ning Xue a "knowing smile" and enjoyed watching the beauty snare her teeth towards him like a cat who got its tail stepped-on... meanwhile Chen Fu just smiled because... he knows exactly what his woman actually planned on giving young-hero Ming that day when the event of sparring matches happened! a full-round of hot-spanking is what his wife wanted to give the boy... a couple of extremely well-placed and extremely well-measured spanks is what she got in the end... well... the long-legged beauty received more than a couple spanks that day... the earth-cultivator made sure it happens.