Ever since he learned the truth about the material that Rong Qing has been imprisoned in its red-shell... Wei appointed himself a "supervisor" of the three whenever they worked on removing the crippled assassin from the solidified sin-energy! the was very "meticulous" in this job and kept measuring the thickness of the red-shell whenever the three forced some part of its thin-layer to shrink with the energy of their weapon-intent... again and again the merchant would shout at Lai in a scolding tone of voice and tell the blade-user to be extremely "careful" while doing it because Wei doesn’t wish to see any of that extremely valuable material being wasted—which made Lai feel this need to use his wide-blade as some sort of a "heavy-cane" and beat the "living daylight" out of this fatty because the merchant kept nagging like a "frustrating bitch" all day long—until Wei’s personal-guard seemed about to really explode in his face any time now. 'Fuck! I'm not the only one working on this red-shell here, that fucking coward has really been getting on my nerves lately. Is he picking a fight with me? has the fatty been all-over my back lately because he doesn’t dare shout at Lin and old Fu!' Liao Lai thought while gritting his teeth and balling his fists then stifled his emotions before refocusing on his meditation after sending a glare towards the merchant who suddenly shuddered after feeling cold sweat on his lower spine.

Wang had to be the one to answer the four spirit-tyrants whenever any of them became curious and asked questions about the Rong clan... after all this trade delegation that’s led by Wei and them is supposed to be from the same empire... Zan Shui asked the least because the water-cultivator doesn't care about how strong the Rong clan is or how influential the Sunrise-empire can be within the eastern-heights! this spirit-tyrant only wants to find the perfect opportunity to take this young-hero Ming back to their carriage where he and Su Meiyin would convince the boy to join the youngest-princess in the heart-seeking sect where both of them can become new disciples and close friends however... the kid is either working with the two in removing the red-shell or... meditating to recover what he lost in soul-force and energy of fire-intent... if he isn’t doing either of these things? then... young-hero Ming would be eating huge amounts of food—which is a frightening sight to be honest—or... back in his carriage and spending time with the young-girl from the Chentian clan.

After five days where the three of them worked together their combined effort enabled them to succeed in removing the layer of solidified sin-energy from Qing’s left-arm and head alongside parts of his neck and left-shoulder while almost a half of the area on the man’s left-chest still require more work... Rong Qing can already move his left-arm and neck after they became free from the red-shell however... the former-assassin is apparently very weak and helpless because his very pale skin made him look sickly especially after his cultivation got crippled... Qing’s breathing is faint and his eyes kept staring at thin-air and he did seem to be in a daze almost all the time! according to Lin’s decision... this red-shell of solidified sin-energy is going to be distributed among them where everyone who participated in capturing or purifying the evil sin-energy is going to receive a share. Of course... Zan Shui and Li Yang are going to receive a slightly bigger share than Lai who could only participate in the mission of capturing Rong Qing but... his contribution to removing the solidified red-shell of sin-energy are not going to be neglected! Chen Fu didn't like it because... Li Yang is going to receive almost a double of what the earth-cultivator and Ning Xue are going to receive from that extremely valuable material however... the spirit-tyrant said nothing about since Ming is the one who’s going to take the rest all for himself. Each of Li Yang and Zan Shui are going to receive ten-percent of that material while Lai is going to receive half their share... five-percent! both husband and wife are going to receive seven-percent because none of them joined the mission of capturing the assassin... the rest—sixty-eight percent—of that solidified sin-energy belongs to the boy and no matter how much the fat merchant asked his so-called "follower" for share to be allocated to himself... the kid would simply and calmly refuse the man without caring whether or not any of these four spirit-tyrants might suspect his identity... the great-sage did so just to test Wei’s ability to control his greed. That's probably why the fatty was a bit too much and kept shouting or throwing commands at Lai almost all the time... the way this merchant bullied his personal-guard made it seem—in the eyes of the four spirit-tyrants—like this blade-user had murdered a family-member of his young-master once before! in truth... Wei wanted to pressure Lai so that when the blade-user receives his share of this material he would hand it over to him once he commands his personal-guard to give it... that’s why he’s been trying so hard lately to establish his authority over this follower of his because... that blade loving freak might exchange his share for some high-quality blade or... something like that.

The work that Lin pulled Lai and Fu into doing on that shell of sin-energy didn't exhausting the energy of their intent in-exchange for the profit they’re going to receive—which is a share of this solidified sin-energy—the gains these two gained during the process itself are much greater when seen from the perspective of how their control over their weapon-intent advanced... the blade-user and the mercenary-leader were relying on the use of the energy of their blade-intent or crushing-intent... previously both men would merely use the energy of their intent in its pure state and rarely would any of them attempt to mix that energy with a bit of their spirit-energy—in case they needed to use it during a fight or practice—however... after seeing the boy practically use the energy of his fire-intent almost all the time while mixing some of his soul-force inside his fire-intent it to control it easier while giving it another boost of strength—which caused the boy’s fire-intent seem alive—then again... when the kid told them that he’s already fusing some of his light-energy in the mix—which explains why the energy of his fire-intent is almost comparable to their intent in strength—it made these two very eager to try it too and fuse however-much of their soul-force they might have with the energy of their weapon-intent like the boy! just to see if it's possible to strengthen the power of their intent... whenever any of them faced some trouble or difficulty while doing so they’d ask Lin to check and see if the method they’re using is correct and the great-sage would patiently give them his honest and straightforward opinion on what he sees or feel being wrong in their fusion of soul-force and weapon-intent a leave them with a few hints on how to use soul-force... the boy thinks that both Lai and Fu should better focus more on the fusion between spirit-energy and weapon-intent while using their "undeveloped" soul-force to balance that mixture of energy instead of making their soul-force a major part of the fusion—since the total amount of their soul-force is a little bit less than any soul-seeker—but... unfortunately for the blade-user and the spirit-tyrant Lin doesn’t have anything to teach them when it comes to their spirit-energy or... how to manipulate the energy of their weapon-intent because their natural-affinity is different and the same goes for their weapon-intent. Any spirit-cultivator would experience a passive-increase in their soul-force just by increasing the major-realm of their spirit-cultivation... that's why any spirit-cultivator within the grandmaster-realm should be—in most cases—able to send a long-range ability much further than any spirit-cultivator in the master-realm while maintaining much better accuracy and control of said long-range ability! simply because... the base amount of soul-force between these two examples is very different... the soul-force of a spirit-grandmaster should be much stronger because... after each increase of the major-realm in the system of spirit-cultivation equals a free bonus of soul-force... especially beginning from the realm of spirit-grandmaster upwards in the major-realms. Chen Fu had it easier than Liao Lai—who seemed to be struggling to maintain his control over the three aspects—when using fused-energy but... that’s only because the mercenary-leader already has higher attainments in spirit-cultivation not because the stocky man is more of a genius than the blade-user. Still... the level of their soul-force level is between the realms of soul-wanderer and soul-returner—which isn’t so bad considering that none of them attempted to practice soul-cultivation before in their life—however... the mercenary-leader isn’t even close to reaching the realm of soul-seeker despite being already in the realm of soul-returner... Chen Fu says that he’s been a soul-returner for many years now yet... the earth-cultivator never managed to "expand" his "soul-world" or "materialize" his "soul-body" inside his body... because these "actions" never crossed his mind at all! actually... everyone—who got to hear what the great-sage said—felt "disbelief" and "amazement" after hearing these "descriptions" and became excited for the time they get to evolve their primordial-soul to such "high-level" and Lin felt sorry for all of them! because they all have so low-standards and aspirations when it comes to the system of soul-cultivation... the boy gave them the same advice that Jin Bao once gave him years back... to always soul-meditate and try to increase the base of their soul-force because from experience Lin knows the advantage of having a bigger and wider soul-tank. Had any of them revealed a small amount of talent in soul-cultivation? then... the great-sage would've sent that person the first few parts of how to soul-cultivate through the soul-strengthening technique yet... after dealing with Chen Fu and Liao Lai for a few days Lin understood that one of them is devoted to spirit-cultivation a bit too much and merely think of his crushing-intent like some aspect that can "supplement" his spirit-cultivation and reinforce his earth-energy! in Liao Lai’s case it’s actually the other way around because... the blade-user actually intends for his spirit-cultivation to be his secondary-aspect... the spirit-grandmaster wants to take the entire system of spirit-cultivation and a make it "supplementary" for his blade... if it can allow his blade-techniques stronger, faster, and lethal? then... Lai would gladly make the effort for it be that in spirit or soul-cultivation... despite having the dual natural-affinities for both the gold and earth-element—which is a very, very good combination that many spirit-cultivators would envy him about it he—is still single-mindedly seeking the blade-dao.

Meanwhile Rong Qing—who seems to have already accepted his fate—had the opportunity to watch this Ming during the past few days... the former-assassin completely ignored everyone inside this fat merchant’s carriage but... whenever the boy spoke to him Qing would answer in the same weak, feeble and emotionless tone of voice very slowly and quietly... even the man’s voice did seem like it’s filled with extreme exhaustion much like its owner! anyway—at least—the kid did seem "mindful-enough" to ask the "sensitive questions" through his ability of soul-link and that’s why the former-assassin didn’t mind telling this Ming about the background of princess Ling Mei who came all the way here after escaping her birthplace in the western-islands... the Ling empire. After his face got revealed and the "bloody annoying" hood of the assassins-guild famous "black-cloak" was finally removed... Qiang Chi brought the man some food to eat when the boy gave the order Rong Qing actually refused to eat in the beginning however... once the kid looked him in the eyes and commanded the former-assassin to eat... the man actually relented then grabbed a chunk of meat and put it in his mouth before chewing-on it slowly in silence much to the surprise of everyone who saw it happen! honestly... everyone in this carriage was expecting that Rong Qing to commit suicide once the first opportunity represents itself for him after the assassin had his cultivation crippled and got himself captured yet... they all sensed that there’s something going on between this man and young-hero Ming—which they don’t seem to wish to reveal it to any of them—still... no one asked the boy anything and all of them did their job of ensuring that nothing goes wrong during the remaining distance of their journey to mercenary-city and trusted the kid in handling the issue of this captive since Wei—who’s supposed to be the individual to make every decision in this caravan—doesn't seem like he’s planning to interfere with anything this young-hero Ming wishes to do despite the boy "supposedly" and "allegedly" being one of the fatty’s lowest-ranked followers... these extremely "passive" actions from the merchant were practically a "silent acknowledgement" of the kid’s "superior" social-ranking in this group and his own "inferior" position on the "hierarchal-classification" but... the four spirit-tyrants and the personal guard of young-hero Ming wondered in "frustrated silence" about the boy’s background because... in all honesty... this kid being some orphan that these four spirit-grandmasters happened to find on some island of the western-islands during their travel is... an absolute load of baloney that stinks from all the lies buried deep within it.

On the sixth day after the caravan began to move once again towards mercenary-city—to escape from a devil-cultivator who’s possibly going to find them if they don’t quickly hurry to safety within that city—Lin returned to Wei's carriage but... this time the boy wasn’t alone... he brought with him Sun—who successfully managed to consolidated himself within the major-realm of devil-beast—and... Frostine—who also successfully managed to consolidated herself within the major-realm of ancestral-beast—became very obedient after the great-sage warned her to behave herself or... else! “Buddy. Is that dude over here the one who tried to kill the little-girl while I was hibernating?” The orange-kitten directly jumped from Lin’s shoulder and used its pair of bat-like wings to fly towards Rong Qing's right-shoulder then... began to fearlessly and repeatedly poke the man’s right-cheek while asking its best-friend! the winged-tiger’s haughty-attitude of doing something so rude to the former-assassin without even looking the man in the face caused some annoyance to be birthed within Qing’s chest... the boy noticed some emotions finally appear within the eyes of this assassin besides despair—which never left the man during these past few days—and felt glad because... this means that this Rong Qing still have some "fire of life" left in him.

“Hoot!” Frostine looked around at this group of total strangers then flew a few rounds within the carriage before deciding to perch itself on Zhang Wang's shoulder... the white-owl kept looking at the handsome-man’s face for a few seconds before hooting curiously and she began to look him directly in the eye with her pair of beautiful and hypnotizing blue-eyes.

“He’s the one, his name is Rong Qing. When we purified Qing’s sin-energy it crippled his cultivation but, you should've seen how strong he was before. Just in-order to restrain him, we actually had to gang-up on him! and despite him being wounded that time, he came very close to causing us some serious trouble. We were actually very, very lucky back that things went as planned back then and nothing went sideways. Unfortunately, Qing wasn't a good guy at that time but... we’re certainly going to make sure that he’s going do his best for the rest of his life! if possible he’d be able to correct all of his wrongs in the past before it’s over however, he needs to meet his family first. They deserve an explanation, they deserve to know reason why Qing disappeared all these years.” Lin spoke while looking the former-assassin in the eye—which seem to quickly regain their state of being "lifeless" again after Sun riled the man up earlier—then noticed the deep and intense feelings yearning, longing, and desire for his kin burning within the eyes of Rong Qing when the boy mentioned that the former-assassin needs to get-together with his family.

“Too bad he’s a cripple now, I would’ve loved to test myself against him for a couple of rounds. Anyway, is that the material? the valuable solidified sin-energy looks no-different from ordinary red-glass to me! you sure it wouldn’t break no-matter what I do?”

“Positive one-hundred percent. Give it a try if you want but, be careful not to hurt Qing in your test.”

“Eh... no-freaking-way! buddy, my claws wouldn't even leave a scratch... even when I’m using my spirit-fire. This sin-energy is a material that is way better than the full-body armor that you once made fo-” Sun glared at this red-shell when his claws failed then used his teeth to bite at it and stopped when his fangs began to hurt... the orange-kitten did seem really amazed by the durability and resistance such a thin-layer have! “Yes, it's quite strong indeed. Don't get in our way now buddy, we still need to remove the rest of it from Qing’s other shoulder before we try to pull him out from this shell." Lin interrupted his best-friend before he could say anymore and gestured for Lai and Fu to come join him in this task... meanwhile Wei the "self-proclaimed" supervisor prepared himself focus on his job—which nobody asked or wants him to do—of watching them work on the red-shell like a hawk! “Heh. You're a lucky man indeed but, you should be very thankful to my buddy for the rest of your life. Someone else would’ve just killed you and be done with it already, now here’s a little advice for you... Qing! believe it or not, if you dare try and mess with my best-friend? then, you'll come to really regret it. Not because I would chew-on your bones and enjoy grinding and squeezing the life out of your body or anything like that! it’s because... he might appear like, what you humans would call a... "gentleman" all the time, well he isn’t a man... yet anyway. But, it doesn’t matter because my best-friend wouldn't hesitate to show you his "dark side" and I’m a generous tiger... do you know why? because, I’m actually going to tell you how summon the dark side of my buddy! now listen well, all you need to do is... try to outsmart him. Simple right? you should behave yourself from now on, you hear? Qing the cripple.” Sun stood on his two hind-limbs and placed one of his front-paws behind his back... then began to act like a wise-sage who’s teaching some foolish-mortal a lesson and entrusting him with a few pages of his wisdom! meanwhile the winged-tiger’s other front-paw never stopped poking Rong Qing on the right-cheek... then—after a final glare towards the helpless cripple—Sun spread his pair of cute bat-wings and flew towards Wang then stood on the other shoulder... now the handsome-man is so lucky—in the eyes of the only female inside this carriage—after having gained the favor of both Frostine and Sun.

“Hoot!” Frostine began to actively rub the feathers on her face in one of Wang’s cheeks while making a very lazy and very comfortable hoot! “Wang. Frostine really likes you, she says that you have a very calming aura and your scent is very good! you don’t smell good man, there must something very wrong with her nose. But, your martial-spirit makes me very excited though... whenever I see it I feel like, I should just jump it and make cubs you know.” Sun bit on the slap of meat that Qiang Chi offered him and told Wang who smiled—while ignoring what this "horny beast" just said about his ice-leopard—and looked towards Frostine then began to run his fingers gently through her white feathers! “Well... thank you Frostine, I really do like your feathers too! they're so soft and pretty, just like your eyes.” The handsome-man’s smile widened one he noticed how Ning Xue kept giving him such an envious-looks ever since these two very cute demonic-beasts favored him... he already knows that any woman does have a "soft spot" for cute-looking creatures and beautiful sceneries! 'If only Zhang would stop being so "dense" all the time and understand such a simple truth? then, he would’ve been married long ago. Humph... he keeps bragging about his confidence in his "stamina" all the time but, he isn’t even "tested" yet! what a load of nonsense.' Wang thought to himself while playing with Frostine.

“Careful now! Lai y-you idiot... stop! wait, wait, wait... let me measure this area here, I really think that you wasted some of this precious stuff.” Wei's face flushed extremely red from anger and the fatty leaned his round-head extremely close towards Rong Qing's right-shoulder to make a second check with his eyes... after the fatty finished measuring the thickness of the area that just shrunk with his tool he didn’t even bother to apologize to the blade-user! but these words from the merchant made Liao Lai frown deeply then grit his teeth to stifle all the anger in his chest.

“Wei. You're in the way, just go revise your accounts or... eat something to cool down a bit.” Lin just glanced at the fatty then told him to stop being a hindrance... after everything that happened since the boy woke-up after the side-effects of drinking the potion of thought-rebirth wore-off... these four spirit-tyrants had already noticed that he isn't just a "subordinate" to this merchant at all... after seeing no reason to keep this facade going any further the great-sage decided to save their group some time and remove this over-excited fatty from the picture... simply because this merchant seems to be insisting on being a constant pain in the blade-user's ass! “Eh! but, I already did... I memorized everything by heart-” Tang Wei began to panic and tried to argue with Lin to stay but the boy interrupted him, “Go rest or do something else... anything else would do, maybe... some spirit-cultivation could help erase all of your stress,” Noticing how his little-brother Lin isn't going to let him do whatever he wants anymore... the fatty revealed a pouty-expression on his face then retreated towards the table while dragging his feet and hunching-forwards with a pair of droopy shoulders before slumping lifelessly on one of the chairs with vacant and spiritless narrow-eyes! however... what the great-sage said next made the merchant shiver from excitement, “I can give you a portion of this material to sell later, if you did a good job and got me a good price then I don't mind letting you be... let’s just say that there’s an "opportunity" for you to become the... "spokesperson" of my "trade affairs" for a while! if you do a good job? then, all of my businesses, ventures, and projects in the future... I wouldn’t mind including you in them.” Lin said while trying to seek an even deeper and an even more intense fusion with the weapon-intent of both Lai and Fu... Li Yang and Zan Shui are like Wang, Zhang, Chi, Wei and Ning Xue... all of them are just a small and "exclusive-audience" with the boy’s two beast-companions... no one seems to care about the greedy-merchant and his troubles... that’s why nobody noticed the sly glint within Wei's narrow-eyes when he began to formulate another plan to make a great fortune! 'Heh, thankfully these seniors forgot about the storage-item of this Rong Qing... it certainly includes some valuable resources and tools.' The fatty thought to himself while munching on some biscuit then softened it with some herbal drink that he’s used to drink whenever he’s seriously thinking about ways to make some profit... especially the kind of profit that’s made effortlessly.

After releasing Rong Qing's right-shoulder it enabled the three of them to free the former-assassin’s other arm completely from that red-shell... since his boots, black-cloak, and layer of clothing beneath it gave the three of them enough room to pull the man out from that red-shell of solidified sin-energy however... despite Rong Qing being much skinnier after being crippled... they weren’t able to pull his skinny-body completely out from that red-shell without some tweaking! the former-assassin was only wearing his birthday-suit and completely stark naked after they had to remove the clothes on his upper-body one by one to make enough room for themselves when pulling the rest of him out then... they "unbuckled" the clothes on the man’s lower-body—which were in their way—thankfully... the pair of boots on Rong Qing’s feet are a spirit-tool which means... once the sin-energy of that former-assassin got crippled this spirit-tool lost its connection to the man’s body. Had this spirit-tool been still connected to Qing’s body? then... it being tight around his ankles would've forced Lin and the others to work on the legs of this former-assassin next! “Zhang. Rong Qing is going to be your full-responsibility until we reach the estate of the Rong clan, make sure that he eats all of his meals and daily take a walk.” The boy covered the body of the "dispirited-cripple" with a robe from his own space-ring then told the fighting and training-maniac while storing away all the belongings of the former-assassin including the man’s space-ring and the entire red-shell of solidified sin-energy.

“Okay. Listen, if you try to escape? then... I’m going to break both of your legs, if you try to do it again? then... I’m going to break your arms! so you better behave yourself, do you understand?” Zhang walked in front of Rong Qing and directly looked at him with a pair of ox-like wide-eyes while telling him his rules... after seeing the former-assassin silently nod his head the simple man continued : “Then, come with me.” Then turned away and walked out of the luxurious-carriage... once the crippled-man was at the doorstep of the carriage—which is currently going at its full-speed towards mercenary-city—and his shoulder-length hair got ruffled by the wind... the strong man held him by the arm and raised him up before jumping towards the roof of another carriage! Zhang carried Qing and ran towards the caravan’s-rear to find an empty carriage where he could accommodate this responsibility of his.

“Senior Shui. Now that Qing’s issue has been concluded, I believe there’s things you to say to me.” Lin patted Lai and Fu on the shoulder since they had to work so hard the past few days... then the boy turned to look towards the strongest spirit-tyrant who’s been very anxious to say something to the great-sage yet kept holding it in! “Uh! yes... cough, everyone here deserves an apology from me and my people. We almost implicated everyone in merchant Wei’s caravan and almost dragged all of you in our matters, we’re sorry to have put you all at risk and in harm's way... the identity of my young-lady is... really, really sensitive! her enemies don't want her to live another day beyond this day and wish if this hour would be her last, if it wasn't for young-hero Ming's timely-intervention? then, I'm afraid that with mine and my wife’s "limited abilities" we wouldn't have been able to stop this calamity from reaching the young-lady. Please allow this Zan Shui to give you all this deep bow to express his deepest apologies.” Not expecting such forthrightness from the boy once the kid successfully seized the assassin and took him under his custody... the water-cultivator regained his composure after spending a second feeling shock then gave a deep bow at a ninety-degrees angle while cupping his fist after he apologized to the people within the carriage! 'You still want to keep Ah Da’s identity hidden huh! well, it wouldn’t be for long I presume.' The great-sage thought to himself once he found this Zan Shui still refusing to say the youngest-princess’s name in public yet... Lin didn't expose the truth and decided to just wait and see.

Li Yang, Chen Fu, and Ning Xue weren't expecting this Zan Shui to suddenly become so polite yet... the three of them still accepted the man’s apology with a wide smile on their face... to have someone so strong who’s in the late-stages of the tyrant-realm bow to them isn't something that often happens to them! this matter shouldn’t have anything to do with any of them since they're hired escorts to this caravan... nothing more and nothing less. Being mercenaries... it means that their lives is constantly endangered and their missions only ends once they reach the safety of mercenary-city.

Wei, Lai, and Wang looked towards Lin with eyes that has another layer of admiration in it for this boy... he’s sharp and daring... despite wanting to say what the kid just said so calmly... they didn't dare do it simply because... when dealing with stronger individuals they should be extremely careful about what they say. It’s a... "commonly-known" and "unanimously-acknowledged" to be the safest approach! meanwhile Chi quickly brought a cold drink to the great-sage who lost a considerable amount of soul-force to the degree where his skin became severely pale in color after the previous exhaustion... the affairs of the strong had nothing to do with the young-guard... he clearly understands that the only reason why he's even allowed to stay in this carriage among this group is because his young-master is here.

“Young-hero Ming. My young-lady, she would love to thank you in person! is it possible?” Zan Shui finally gathered his courage to ask.

“I take it that... you want "that" to happen in, private! senior... you should go back and get some rest. Later I’m going to pay you a visit, hopefully... I’d have your reward prepared by that time. It wouldn't be polite of me to visit without an appropriate gift in hand, after all... I don't want to be frowned-upon by my host. Especially when they’re already treating me like... royalty.” Lin answered and clearly noticed how the eyes of this Zan Shui began to glow from delight then... the boy intentionally mentioned a few hints about the true identity of youngest-princess Ling Mei just to warn this middle-aged man! simply because the great-sage doesn’t want this spirit-tyrant nor his female-partner to try and play "games" with him... the water-cultivator became clearly shocked after hearing the last joke from this young-hero Ming... after lowering his head to hide his expression from his fellow spirit-tyrants... Zan Shui quickly excused himself and left the luxurious-carriage... he went to tell his wife about this unexpected update. “Seniors. This would be it, I'm afraid that your assistance is no longer required anymore. Your rewards are going to be handed to you, once I separate your portions from the shell... of course!” While cupping his fist... Lin simply dismissed the three spirit-tyrants who’re still sitting in the Wei’s carriage! “Why’re you in a hurry to throw us out? brat... I'm warning you! if you take a tiny bit from our share? then, I’m going haunt your dreams like... forever.” Ning Xue frowned which caused revealed another side of her beauty... Chen Fu attempted to shut this idiotic woman of his! yet... the long-legged woman kept looking towards the boy and glaring at him like a... fierce lioness. “So noisy! I've been fair enough from the very beginning, that’s why... I told you all what kind of material that red-shell is in the first place. Now they say ignorance is a sin and it’s true but, idiocy... could also be a sin! that’s why you should only throw threats, when you're—at least a little bit—capable of backing your own words. Did you ever think about what might happen... if I took your "empty-threats" to heart? go-on and obediently listen to your husband, or... I might really give you two more of "you know what" you better not test my patience now.” Without even looking towards the seductive-woman... the boy kept eating slowly while speaking in a lazy and unhurriedly manner... his words made Li Yang smile slightly after seeing Ning Xue’s face flush deep red in color and stomp her feet to express her silent frustration! finally this unreasonable-woman let her man drag her outside the carriage after the stocky man excused himself and gained permission from his employer Cheng Wei. 'Just you wait! little-brat... this "grandma" isn’t the type who easily "forgets" and hopefully soon, you’ll get to learn all about it.' After grinding her teeth for a while... Ning Xue began to laugh aloud care-freely after thinking about how much this naughty and annoying young-hero Ming seems to like to embarrass her in every chance he gets! While touching her belly... the long-legged beauty dearly wished for a son who’s steady and calm like this annoyingly staid Ming. Honestly... quipping and arguing with the boy has become some sort of a "sour-delight" for the seductive-woman who became addicted to experiencing it after spending days trading "word-duels" with the kid! their remarks and retorts kept going back and forth for many rounds at some occasions to the degree where it became kind-of... exciting to hear from the perspective of their small audience... and much more exciting from the perspective of Ning Xue herself.

Since there’s no "strangers" remaining inside Wei’s carriage... Lin took out Rong Qing's space-ring and began to retrieve some of his belongings to inspect them! 'Brat. I did you the favor of separating that shell of solidified sin-energy into twenty bricks of equal size and weight, honestly... it’d have taken you months and years to be able to separate any part of it without the help of these two weaklings. Tsk, just a tiny shard or a fragment of what you’re planning to give them is... worth hundreds of high-grade spirit-crystals! you’re being such a wasteful brat.' Hearing the sarcasm within Kai’s tone of voice made the boy smile helplessly... after all... he and the other two men had to spend all that time during the past few days yet... they couldn't do anything except for making that shell of solidified sin-energy to shrink and fold upon itself! they attempted to sever a small part of it but... they weren't able to achieve their goal no-matter how hard the three of them tried after their weapon-intent with spirit-energy and soul-force. After retrieving one of the twenty palm-sized red-colored and brick-like object—which is the invaluable material of solidified sin-energy—the great-sage threw it towards Liao Lai... the blade-user didn’t believe his eyes despite having already confirmed the authentic-nature of the brick on-top of his hand! “This! Ming... thank you, really. Ugh! get-off me fatso, quickly now before I chop you to pieces.” After getting-over his initial-shock... Lai quickly stored his share of solidified sin-energy and hid the red-brick within his space-ring once he noticed that Wei almost succeeded in his attempt to sneak-attack him! the fatty tackled him to the ground because he wanted to snatch the brick away from his hand. “Don't mention it. Just, don't sell it cheap alright! the worth of a small fragment from that brick is... a few hundreds of high-grade spirit-crystals.” Lin rested his head on the back-rest of his chair and told the blade-user to be careful not to get scammed while selling it. “Lai. Give it here, I promise you that I’d get you a price that’s much higher than market-price for it... in exchange for a small fee... of course!” Wei slammed the table and kicked of the chairs away with his leg while standing-up at a hurry... the fatty completely disregarded the chair that went flying and almost broke one of the antiques if it wasn't for Qiang Chi's strong hand which stopped it... the merchant sounded like he’s almost begging in a very comical way because... he’s tiptoeing and leaning his very bloated and rounded-stomach that’s carrying many layers full of fat on the table and gesturing for the blade-user—who went to sit far away from him—to take the brick out and give it to him while glaring disparately with his pair of very narrow yet very bloodshot eyes! “Humph. Hey idiot... are you forgetting something? you're supposed to be very, very busy creating miracles! just to give me a good price for this one here, selling one should happen in-exchange for a considerably huge amount of high-grade spirit-crystals. Selling one is more than enough to finance many business opportunities indeed, or... you can be a tiny bit more smart and pawn the whole thing for in-exchange for a little-bit less spirit-crystals for a short time! some of you seem to be asking themselves this question... why would you do that? then, let me answer with an example... you use all of these spirit-crystals to bet on me winning when I fight in the fighting-arenas of mercenary-city. After investing all the spirit-crystals you have and accumulating more resources, you can go back later and retrieve your brick from the pawn-shop then... auction both mine and Lai’s brick. Who knows? you mightn’t need to sell any of it at all in the end!” The boy felt really disgusted deep down within his stomach when he witnessed Wei act like that... the great-sage got up to leave this carriage after placing Rong Qing’s belongings back inside his space-ring however... Lin left another brick on the table for the fatty anyway! he’s planning to share some items from Qing’s space-ring with this greedy merchant but... the boy decided against doing so in the last minute after witnessing how "different" Wei has become... maybe... the great-sage shouldn't allow the fatty nearby any wealth from now-onwards. Especially... when it’s too much wealth! because... this merchant doesn’t seem like he’s able to maintain his calm and cool-headedness around fortunes. Qiang Chi returned the chair to its position then followed after his young-master while carrying Sun and Frostine who both flew from Wang's shoulder to his shoulder... meanwhile Wang and Lai kept snickering while feeling amused after seeing the expression of extreme shock on Wei's face when the fatty heard these words from Lin... long after the boy left... the merchant kept looking down towards the red-brick within his hand in complete silence like an idiot.

........

After leaving Wei's carriage.

Lin carried Qiang Chi back towards the carriage where Bo An is staying alone and still cultivating.

“Chi. You should meditate until I return, we need to solve the problem of your slow advancements in spirit-cultivation. I want to see what it looks like when you’re at your best-form before we tackle this problem together,” After Saying that Lin patted Sun and Frostine on the head, “I know that you two are bored to death because I've always been so busy lately, I promise to do my best to change your mood once I tie some of these loose-ends. Alright!” Sun nodded and Frostine tilted her head towards the side yet none of the two wonderful beasts complained.

Once his young-master left the carriage Qiang Chi kept his eyes lowered and didn't dare sneak any peeks at Bo An who’s in the same carriage...  not even once! the young-man gave the young-girl her his back and sat cross-legged facing the carriage-door then began his meditation... just the cute-looking silver-puppy inside the carriage is enough deterrent to this ex-general and more than enough reason for the young-guard to behave himself and act like a blind person whenever he’s nearby this young-lady who have a great and formidable background. Not to mention... what this Chi already concluded after witnessing the interactions between his young-master Ming and this young-girl Chentian Bo An in the past few days... they’re... how to say it? right—according to the opinion of this ex-general—there’s a bit too much "intimacy" going-on between these two! after spending just a few day with the boy... Qiang Chi has already modified and altered his previous judgment more than a dozen times just to correct his faulted-opinion of the kid—which made the young-guard feel immensely-glad and proud of himself—while thanking his fortune after such a correct and quick response when he grabbed-hold of the opportunity once it arrived and latched himself to this young-master Ming... right now the young-man is more than one hundred-percent sure of his perfect judgment... the ex-general really made the right choice when he made the request and he’s certain that he would've regretted not "jumping ships" in the future if he hadn’t.

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

Lin went towards Li Yang and the lightning-cultivator was with Chen Fu and Ning Xue.

Once the boy handed the spirit-tyrant his share... the disbelieving-eyes of the mercenary-leaders spoke volumes about how shocked the three of them are once they confirmed that these two red-bricks are really made from solidified sin-energy! then... the great-sage gave the stocky-man a single brick—which caused his wife to frown deeply and she almost burst into another argument with the kid but her husband stopped her—and young-hero Ming said : “Little-Xue. I know what you're thinking, it isn't that I'm doing this on purpose... bullying you two is never my intention. The method used to divide the shell of solidified sin-energy only gave twenty equal-sized bricks in total, I still awe you two half a bricks’ worth of this material... believe me I already know all about how precious and valuable this solidified sin-energy is for your group! so, if you have a method to cleave this one in half? then, bring it to me and collect your full share. Otherwise, I'm afraid that I’m going to have to pay you guys in spirit-resources instead. That’s once I know the market price for a whole brick, worry not... I won't be leaving mercenary-city unless this debt is repaid in full. If you’re after some sort of insurance? then, I can swear an oath to guarantee your share,” Lin's honesty and forthrightness made Ning Xue swallow her words and look away while keeping her silence... Li Yang just smiled and stored the two bricks within his space-ring before cupping his fist to thank the boy who honored his promise... meanwhile Chen Fu felt ashamed of himself since he doubted this kid earlier! even if momentarily... it caused the mercenary-leader to shake his head from side to side to deny wanting any sort of insurance from this young-hero Ming... what a laughable and stupid decision would that be! just one brick is more than enough already... if the other half is going to be exchanged-for an opportunity to consolidate this "weird" relationship between the boy and his mercenary-group? then... the earth-cultivator wouldn’t even hesitate before agreeing without regretting the loss of such a huge amount of spirit-resources, “Let's hope fate brings us all together someday in the future, maybe in another voyage that is... let’s say... less dangerous. If that "mysterious-individual" doesn't fall-upon us like "Armageddon" itself that is! so... before we safely reach mercenary-city, we're all considered to be still dancing with the devil until we're there... I guess. If we do arrive? then, we all can consider ourselves really, really... lucky and really, really... fortunate! seniors, thank you all for all your hard work so far. You better sincerely pray for all your gods, pray that nothing happens again to the caravan especially... anything that might delay us during the rest of this journey. Because... if we're caught by this one? then, it's going to be game-over for all of us. This time... it’s for sure.” Seeing no reason to stay with the three spirit-tyrants any longer... Lin cupped his fist before flying towards the carriage of the youngest-princess.

“Tsk. I really couldn't scold him this time, I wanted to give him a piece of my mind. Hubby... how much is that one?” While puckering her lips... Ning Xue clung to the strong arm of her man and asked while leaning her head on his muscular shoulder. “Heh. Like a lot, and more to spare... just the brick that he gave us, can help our mercenary-group restock our treasury with spirit-resources and spirit-tools that are enough to sustain us for a few years without us having to do any sort of mission at all! finally we can push our plans forward and add some spirit-gathering formations while upgrading the training-grounds for our members—which would allow them—to grow stronger much faster, maybe we would have enough to spare after doing all that and our group might finally hire an alchemist and a blacksmith. Fan'er is certainly going to be very happy once she receives these news, after working hard for many years she can finally reap the fruits of her efforts.” Chen Fu hugged his woman tightly towards his chest and spoke softly while patting her back... the earth-cultivator didn't mind that Li Yang could him at all... compared to themselves...  the mercenary-leader of lightning-spear mercenaries is already taking another approach when it comes to the matter of how to strengthen his group—at least—that's what his sister Fan once told the stocky-man! since the spirit-tyrant trusts his sister... and since he only cares about his rivalry with the lightning-cultivator... all he wants is to keep the gap in individual strength between the two of them from widening even further than it already is... Chen Fu would everything he can to shrink that gap and aim to surpass the other mercenary-leader... after all... this mercenary-leader already understands that he's... the leader of the crushing-hammer mercenaries "in-name" only! while Chen Fan has always been the one responsible for controlling and supervising the development of the crushing-hammer mercenaries and manipulating everything from the shadows.

“You two... have fun. I still have my duty to guard the caravan for the rest of the day.” After winking towards the cute-looking couple... Li Yang smiled then left towards the caravan-rear to check on the teams since young-hero Ming specifically said that one spirit-cultivator in the tyrant-realm has to be responsible for a day-shift every day! while on-duty said-individual has to circle between the guardian-teams and check on them every thirty minutes... and said-individual has to constantly and personally scan every carriage every hour just in-case any dangerous-individual/s could still slip-through the guardian-teams unnoticed... once any suspicious-sign appears said-individual has to sound the alarm... immediately.

“Humph. Old Yang still profited more than we did in the end, tsk... no-wonder he’s acting so smug.” The long-legged beauty grumbled under her teeth before pulling her husband towards their carriage to... have some fun! “Old Yang still worked more than both of us but, it isn't too bad when one of our allies is going to grow stronger—at least—we know that... he isn’t going to ignore our group if we ever need his help. However, first things first... you're not allowed to rest tonight!” The stocky-man smirked like a sly fox then hauled his beautiful wife over his muscular shoulder while feeling excited about the future and slapped her perky-butt while kicking the carriage-door shut... soon outside the carriage there wasn’t any sound besides the sound of whistling wind yet... inside the carriage it seemed like there’s an entire orchestra playing the melodies of gasping, grunting, moaning, screaming, and laughing in a mixture of synchronized tunes! despite both spirit-tyrants already knowing that all of them might be encountering a very formidable senior devil-cultivator—which none within the whole caravan can resist—any second now... these two husband and wife completely disregarded the possible danger and drowned themselves within the embrace of one another then became so drunk from the extreme pleasure.

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

“Knock, knock... knock.”

Lin landed at the doorstep of the princess's-carriage and lightly knocked on the door. Meanwhile the young-girl—little-Tong—who has the special and rare natural-affinity of mist-energy is amongst the nearby team of guards and was yawning widely like a lazy-kitten... apparently she’s feeling extremely bored right now... even the careless way little-Tong is holding the reins of her mount clearly gave away her current mood! “Young-hero Ming. Come in, come in... we’re all so pleased that you’re here, sit wherever you like.” Zan Shui opened the door and the spirit-tyrant clearly wasn’t expecting the boy to pay them a visit so soon... he and his wife Meiyin didn't even get to talk that long before the kid arrived! “Please excuse my sudden intrusion. Senior Shui, here's your share.” Lin retrieved two more red-bricks of solidified sin-energy and handed them to the middle-aged man however... before the boy even got the chance to sit down... the youngest-princess Ling Mei who should've been cultivating under the supervision of the thin-woman—who’s still wearing the same black-dress—opened her blue-eyes and smiled so cheerfully before quickly running towards the kid while being apparently so excited to see him again then sat right next to him! “Big-brother Ming. You're here!” Ling Mei held the great-sage’s left-hand with both hands and grinned so widely which revealed a cute dimple. “Princess Mei. Lady Meiyin. I hope you’re all well.” Lin nodded once towards the youngest-princess then another towards the woman in black and greeted them before keeping his silence... the boy looked at the husband and wife—who’re sitting right in front of him and the little-girl—with a pair of calm eyes because... the great-sage is waiting for them to speak first and say whatever that is troubling their minds since he isn't in a hurry anyway and he isn't someone who favors to be the one to speak first... especially in these sorts of situations! normally... Lin would take his time and listen first then speak later after formulating a picture of these situations.

“Is it true?”

“What is "it" princess?”

“That big-brother Ming is going to join me in the trials for t-” Ling Mei was the first to speak before the two adults... while shaking and swinging the boy’s left-arm since she’s clearly excited... the youngest-princess asked while staring directly at his face with a pair of blue-eyes that almost glowed brightly like Kyanite-gems! however... Su Meiyin glared at the little girl and interrupted Mei from saying more and said : “Your highness!”

“But!”

“Young-lady. Not another word from you, or... be prepared to say goodbye to everything that’s "sweet" until we complete what your mother—lady Yanmei—ordered us to do.”

“Big-brother Ming already knows my identity! by taking my sweets then, you're just bullying me. Uncle Shui... help me, your wife is being unfair.” Ling Mei hid herself—from this very "frightening" personal-maid of hers—behind Lin's back while complaining to her personal-guard.

“Humph! says the little-princess who’s been deceiving us and acting like she’s focusing on her cultivation while in-fact she’s been so focused on listening to what we’re saying instead.” Su Meiyin rolled her eyes at the little-girl who gawked like fool after being exposed.

“I... wasn’t!” Ling Mei’s blue-eyes became evasive and puckered her lips while murmuring this faint retort then shrunk herself even further behind the boy’s back.

“Princess Mei. Stop it with your naughty behavior, this is a really serious matter,” After mildly reproaching the little-girl Zan Shui looked towards the boy, “Young-hero Ming. Our princess is going to join the heart-seeking sect, the next entrance-trials—which happens only once every five years—are scheduled to happen in the next few months... other than the already accepted new disciples themselves, no one else is allowed entrance to the heart-seeking sect once the trials are over! we’re asking you to join our princess and enter the same sect, we’re going to help you and provide an opportunity for you to join the entrance-trials in-exchange for a simple promise from you. All we’re asking is... that you take care of our princess inside the sect, that’s all! you're a genius by all standards but, staying with merchant Cheng Wei is... such a great waste of your potential. The junior-sect-master of the heart-seeking sect is Dan Pengfei, he’s the number-one genius in spirit-cultivation and holder of the best achievement when mentioning the quickest awakening of martial-spirit.” The reasons of this sudden request are fair and honest... the water-cultivator explained everything openly while handing one of the red-bricks to Su Meiyin who wanted to personally see and feel this rare material... even now after receiving their share... the middle-aged couple are unable to comprehend just how exactly could this little-Ming do both—separate and mold—to that red-shell in such a short time! yet... when the three—Ming, Lai, and Fu—combined their effort they couldn't do anything but... cause it to shrink.

“Yes! big-brother Ming you should listen to me, if you consider this princess as your sister? then, join me... let’s enter the same sect. We can team-up then... bully the rest of disciples and snatch all of their resources! Tehehe... it’s going to be so fun.” Ling Mei smiled widely and seemed very excited after having this idea.

“I see... but I’m sorry, I just... can't. Our goals are different, our path is the same right now because our paths crossed right here but... inevitably they’re going to fork once we reach mercenary-city—that is if we ever reach it—however... who knows? maybe, sometime in the future we might meet again.” Lin nodded when he heard the reasons of this middle-aged man then apologetically shook his head towards the little-girl—who already skipped-ahead into the future and began to imagine herself suppressing the disciples of that sect with the boy by her side, after patting the youngest-princess Ling Mei on the head the middle-aged couple frowned slightly when the kid got up from his seat and headed towards the carriage door.

While walking away the great-sage continued to speak and said : “If... someday you guys happened to need my help, if I was able to assist? then, I promise that I wouldn’t hesitate to give you a hand. Seniors, I hope that none of you would bear a grudge against me after refusing this request but... if you do? then, I can understand where these feelings are coming from to some degree—at least—this loyalty of yours is something that I really respect. All it took me was one look in your eyes when both of you looked towards princess Mei, I immediately understood how much you both love and care for her! I’m sorry little-Mei, we can't be a team—at least this time—but, I promise to come visit you in the heart-seeking sect.” Lin told the husband and wife then both of the spirit-tyrants sighed while feeling deep regret before turning to look directly at the little-girl who seemed really disappointed and on the verge of crying because she’s really sad right now.

“Really!” Ling Mei suddenly seemed to cheer-up a lot when she asked young-hero Ming.

“Under one condition.”

“What is it?”

“You need to grow-up and become an amazingly-strong and famously-renowned woman! can you do that?”

“Good, good... it's a promise. Take care of yourself until then.” Before tears fell on the cheeks of the youngest-princess the boy closed the carriage door behind him after the little-girl gave him an innocent nod... honestly the great-sage has always been kind-of interested about that heart-seeking sect and its so-called junior-sect-master! however... all of his burdens and currently very urgent responsibilities are more than enough to fill his schedule entirely for many years to come... yes... he’s very curious about all the so-called geniuses of this spirit-world and Lin would like to explore all the sects especially this heart-seeking sect—which is able to recruit the number one genius despite not being within the ranks of the five great-sects—however... the boy would never dare allow himself to forget or neglect the oath that he made to Jin Bao’s primordial-source! the promises that he made to Lily, Mia, and Kai—especially the talking raccoon—can never be ignored. The great-sage could accept being disliked or hated by these three—the youngest-princess and her two companions—for eternity... if in-exchange Jin Bao gets to walk the spirit-world once again.

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

“Young-hero Ming. Are you looking for the assassin you captured?” Little-Tong—the lucky charm of the crushing-hammer mercenaries—shouted towards the boy once she noticed him exiting the carriage of the "mysterious three" who keep to themselves all the time.

“Yes I am little-Tong, which one is it?” Lin asked while helplessly smiling because the current amount of soul-force within his soul-world has been weakened so much after spending the past few days constantly exhausting a lot of it without getting much rest to recover the lost soul-force... even when Gang never stopped meditating all that time on the soul-strengthening technique they still ended-up with soul-force that could supply the ability of soul-sense only to extend it just two kilometers at maximum-range! “I saw Zhang take the captive towards the carriages where the heavy merchandise is stored, I bet he's going to use some of these heavy materials to train his physical-strength! honestly, this companion of yours is... different. He’s always thinking about things that he could do to become stronger, he's kind-of cool yet... he’s kind-of "odd" in the same time. Am I making any sense? that man is unbelievable really, the last time I tried to talk to him he... just gave me a muffled grunt then left without saying anything! it’s like... he was trying to completely ignored me. You're close with him right! sweet, now tell me the truth... is he single?” After pointing towards the carriages at the caravan’s-rear little-Tong spoke while leading her mount closer towards where the kid is standing at the doorstep of the carriage... after seeing young-hero Ming nod to confirm his friendship with the simple man the young-girl covered her mouth before whispering while leaning her upper-body towards the boy... the mist-cultivator seemed like she doesn’t want her team to hear about her interest in the strong man! “Actually... he’s indeed single but, that's a really difficult "nut" to crack. Now, are you really sure Zhang is... the one? because if you break his heart or happen to play with his emotions? then, you'd be answering to me.”

“I’m not! I swear.”

“Then. what are you after?”

“I’m just... interested.”

“Don't worry, I’m going to try and make it smooth for you to the best of my abilities however... tread carefully now! because, luck isn't going to always be your best-friend. When dealing with Zhang try to share his interests, and... you better be prepared to be extremely patient! because—despite being very simple—my friend isn't just brawn and no brain, actually... you'd be very surprised by his extreme devotion and loyalty to those who he considers close my dear.” Lin smiled and left after giving little-Tong his blessings and some hints... what comes next depends on her methods and the choice of the earth and fire-cultivator! whether or not he opens his heart to accept her is entirely up to the spirit-grandmaster to decide... while keeping himself stationary by floating in the air above the line of carriages the boy waited for the carriages at the caravan's-rear to arrive below him... the great-sage kept wondering during his wait. 'Is this curiosity from little-Tong towards Zhang is because of the influence Ning Xue has on the young-girl?' Lin shrugged this thought then landed at the carriage’s doorstep before entering... the boy smiled because little-Tong was correct and the simple man is really lifting some heavy-looking cubes of stone which look like metal on the exterior... meanwhile Rong Qing is huddled at the corner and staring at the ceiling in silence.

“You're not wasting any time huh, looks like I need to begin my training soon! otherwise you'd be able to catch-up with me, tell me big-guy... how's our guest?” The great-sage nodded when he found the strong man seriously concentrating on his physical-training to the degree where he didn’t notice Lin’s arrival until he spoke... then crouched in front of the former-assassin and asked while checking the man's dantian-space one more time! “Quiet, he didn't say a single word at all. Besides the sound of his breathing, only the sound of pure silence could be heard from this guy... I like this guy.” Zhang lowered the one cubic-meter of yellow stone back to the floor and said that then turned to carry a smaller cube of stone—which seemed even heavier judging by the expression on the simple man’s face and the veins that appeared on his muscles—and quickly the spirit-grandmaster refocused on his exercise.

“Qing. Your dantian-space has cracks and fissures everywhere, and your martial-spirit is still nowhere to be seen inside all of this chaos. Hey! I’ve seen you brooding for days yet, I’ve never seen you trying to meditate or attempt anything to regain your spirit-cultivation... why's that?” The boy asked while looking at the sight of this complete "mess" of a dantian-space... there’s many cyclones of the grey-wind rupturing the borders of this dantian-space and destroying dantian-walls everywhere they go! meanwhile the remaining shards and fragments of the black-marble that must’ve exploded after the great-sage lost consciousness are currently being carried everywhere by the grey-wind of these grey-hurricanes... these fragments look the same like particles of sand getting buffeted by wind in a barren desert during a stormy. “It's gone, gone... gone! Do you understand me?” Rong Qing suddenly spoke with a sharp edge to his tone of voice and heavy sorrow within his words.

“Alright.” Lin nodded.

“Little-one is...” The former-assassin suddenly paused when he noticed the look within the boy's golden-eyes.

“Is?”

“Forget it, you won't understand anyway. Sigh.” The man lowered his head and hugged his knees after sighing... obviously he’s feeling so depressed right now.

“It's normal to grieve and be saddened after losing your cultivation for the second time, and especially so when your martial-spirit is gone. Believe me, I felt how close attachment between you two especially from that little-snake when we fought however... you once reached the pinnacle of the tyrant-realm in strength! even if it was through the devil-dao, staying the way you’re right now isn't sitting alright with me. What good are you the way you currently are? your life doesn't belong to you until you wash-away your sins and purify yourself with good deeds... remember! the same goes for your body and whatever power you have within it, they aren’t yours anymore. Do you understand? being slightly stronger means, being able to do slightly more than a cripple! which means you’d be free from the burdens of your past slightly faster, free to... return to your clan without having to leave again. Being strong means, being able to protect your loved ones. If that devil-cultivator is going to pour his wrath at them? then, don’t tell me that you’re going to stand to the side and watch! isn’t being prepared for the worst-case scenario from this moment much, much better than regretting doing nothing at all in the past when misfortune strike in the future.” Rong Qing looked up towards the kid with despair in his eyes when the former-assassin remembered that the "old dog" already knows everything about his background... the man seemed to be overcome with feelings of fear and worry for his clan and Lin could see all of them within the eyes of Qing! “I’m going to send my light-energy inside your dantian-space, tell me if you still can't use your inner-vision to see the inside of your own dantian so that I can help you by sending a live-transmission through my ability of soul-link.” The boy seized this moment when the former-assassin is undergoing some sever "emotional turmoil" and gave him this command then—like the great-sage expected this man to react—Qing sat proper position and cross-legged before regulating his breathing to calm himself... after closing his eyes the former-assassin tried to get a feel for the light-energy that’s entering his body through his abdominal-area however... after getting tortured by this light-energy once before both the man's body and soul seem to remember what it felt when it happened and Qing felt a cold shiver of absolute fright on the lower area of his spine! when the former-assassin finally gathered all of his courage and tried to trace the source of his fear—Lin’s light-energy—within the absolute darkness... his "mind-eye" still wouldn’t work and the man’s desperate-attempts to take an inner look within his own body failed. Still... Qing isn't some "fledgling-cultivator" of the spirit-world... after spending years and years accumulating invaluable experience while administering cruelty to all of his enemies and coming out alive in the end despite being dragged by the circumstances into countless encounters within forbidden-areas and foreign-lands where life and death is decided by who’s more decisive and cruel when making a decision! the former-assassin has enough mental-fortitude and intuition to know that the fear he’s feeling right now isn't because of danger... it’s a naturally-expected reaction after his body, soul, and spirit experience a purification from the boy’s energy... that’s why he should take these feelings and make them a "beacon" for him to follow... it’s just a mental-demon that got birthed within him after getting the purification from the kid's light-energy. After trying his absolute best to calm his restless mind... Qing followed his sense of fear and gradually—after being in the dark for a while—he found his inner-vision landing within a stormy and chaotic location that’s full of grey-hurricanes! the former-assassin inwardly uttered a deep and helpless sigh while suppressing and containing his emotions of disbelief and despair. “Took you quite a while to finally get here but—at least—you made it on your own, don’t deny yourself that credit. My light-energy is able to stop this tumultuous-storm however, everything is going very... very slowly. Since it's your own dantian-space then, let me asking you this... do you have any advice for me? like—for example—where should I start? honestly, I think these "rampaging" grey-cyclones shouldn’t be left unattended for much longer. Simply because, I don’t think these dantian-walls are able to hold strong under all that destruction.” Lin stood in front of the small wisp of soul-force—which Rong Qing's feeble mind-eye could conjure—and covered it within a barrier that’s made from his own soul-force to separate and prevent it from being affected by these grey-hurricanes... the grey-wind from these dangerous cyclones could slash like any sharp blade and cut with such a heavy force like any great-axe! the boy asked the owner of this dantian-space for help while showing the man what happens whenever the great-sage infuses the dantian-walls with his light-energy... the cracks and fissures on these walls would mend back and regain their solid-shape in every area Lin’s light-energy would touch but... once the grey-cyclones sent their grey-wind towards these locations afterwards... the lacerating and destructive grey-wind would begin affecting the areas the boy already fixed—which means the great-sage has to redo all his work from the very beginning—if these hurricanes are left to wreak, break, and destroy? then... Qing would’ve almost zero chance of having a dantian at all. Seeing his dreary-looking dantian-space being on the verge of completely crumpling upon itself made the former-assassin sigh again and again while being taken towards every corner of his own dantian-space by this assiduous, diligent, and dedicated young-hero Ming—who didn't stop fixing the broken and cracked dantian-walls, not even once—the boy kept working like a laborious and active bee that’s full of dedication, liveliness, and energy. “Qing. Still nothing? I see, then... maybe you should get some rest instead. Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure that I can handle things here in your absence.” Lin asked the man's soul-wisp and Qing seemed slightly ashamed of himself after being unable to do anything to help despite this being his own dantian-space... the boy comfortingly patted the soul-wisp while pushing the former-assassin out from the dantian-space and the man became even more surprised since the great-sage didn't leave after encountering such a huge difficulty... Lin willingly choose to stayed inside the Qing's dantian-space to try and stabilize it to the best of his ability.

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

“Gather all pieces of this devil-seed and burn them with your light-energy and fire-intent, don't add soul-force in the mix until I tell you to do so.” Hearing Kai's voice caused Lin to smile and the boy quickly followed the command... despite the great-sage not knowing what this talking-raccoon have in mind currently and what kind of point behind the whole idea... the awakened-soul of the ring of origin just isn't the type of individual who likes to play "games" with Lin... at least... not in these sorts of situations! every time Kai said or did something... it has always been when the goals, interests, and benefits of the boy exists. Still... most of these grey-hurricanes have the majority of the fragmented devil-seed within their cyclones... whenever the great-sage tries to pull one of these fragments from the center of the cyclones while just using his soul-force... these shards seem to refuse to budge! after failing a few times Lin had to resort to a different approach and began to stretch his light-energy inside a grey-hurricane to grab the fragment from its center. 'Eh! the wind from that grey-hurricane tore-up my light-energy like a hot knife through butter... what kind of spirit-energy is that? it’s so... potent.' The boy was really surprised after discovering that his gold-colored light-energy—which should be quite pure and of high quality already—is just like a... little-kid who’s being confronted with a very healthy and strong adult! the light-energy received a complete and thorough beat-down from the very beginning until the end and everything happened in a very short span of time at that... the great-sage only managed to succeed in snatching that fragment after the grey-hurricane successfully demolished, tore, and scattered a considerable amount of the Lin’s light-energy... the sacrifice of such an "exaggerated amount" of their light-energy caused Gang to frown while watching from the soul-world... right now the deadly-sin of wrath is already more than busy with its task of "re-collecting" the lost soul-force... his big-brother being such a "wasteful-sage" like... all the time! is making Gang’s most important mission—which is speeding things up and creating more chances for more and more of his sin-siblings to be born—extremely difficult. “Honestly, just how foolish can you be? brat! are you feeling confident in your miniscule-abilities since you were able to catch this little-assassin—with the help of others—and barely being able to move faster than some silly and dumb bird-lord? that’s chaos-energy, it’s the weakest chaos-energy in purity and quality-ranking though, this is chaos-energy in the gaseous-grade... now keep collecting these fragments anyway. That's already an acceptable and reasonable price to pay, considering that your element of light is facing an element that’s already three entire-ranks higher than itself on the element-ranking! you better understand this, your light-energy... doesn’t have many advantages over other types of spirit-energy. So... it’s no surprise that you’re already disadvantaged here really, especially when your light-energy is at work outside your dantian-space... you’re relying-on gold-colored not dark-gold light-energy.” Kai seemed to really enjoy this... teaching Lin with the same ridiculing and mocking-attitude then watching the boy silently take all these words and extract the valuable information while ignoring the ridicule... seeing the great-sage lose a lot of his light-energy and really struggling to grab-hold of these fragments and wrestling with the twisting grey-cyclones of chaos-energy is... kind-of a really amusing sight to the talking-raccoon who’s been feeling bored lately! after spending the whole day exhausting his light-energy on this task... Lin is almost done gathering all the fragments. Meanwhile Gang had to halt his soul-cultivation and begin spirit-cultivation instead to gather strands of light-energy in-order to balance the great expenditure of spirit-energy... he needs to supply his big-brother with the light-energy he demands when snatching these fragments one by one... thankfully the great-sage became—somewhat—better during the process and resisting the gaseous-grade of chaos-energy with their light-energy showed some improvements! when he began... the boy’s light-energy would be utterly and completely helpless while confronting the grey-wind of these hurricanes then... Lin had to use some "tricks" to snatch his target—the fragments—from the grey-cyclones before his light-energy is... wasted. But after a while the great-sage noticed a few "characteristics" of this grey-energy—which have nobody controlling it—and the first point is... the "restlessness" of the chaos-energy itself! it seems like chaos-energy normally have this "tendency" to wreak absolutely "irreparable-havoc" everywhere it goes then... just leave complete-destruction and confusing-chaos behind it. The second point is... the ever calm center of these grey-hurricanes... the location is always staying the same like they’re rooted to these positions while the main-body danced and twisted everywhere like a ribbon in the hand of a rhythmic-gymnast! however... there’s no beauty at all in this scene because Qing’s dantian-space is literally "falling apart" because of these cyclones... somehow this chaos seems like a... "front" and these hurricanes are protecting something that’s hidden inside their bodies. Unfortunately Lin couldn't send his light-energy far deep into that "safe area" to take a good look... because before the boy could take an extensive-look inside these grey-hurricanes his spirit-energy would be shredded to tiny pieces then stolen from him after being ripped-out from his control. The third point is his light-energy—which the great-sage had to watch these grey-cyclones wring-out from his control whenever Lin tried to steal the devil-seed fragments from their center—itself... it would be broken and literally assimilated into the grey-hurricanes! however... before these clouds of gold-colored light-energy were forcefully added into the grey-wind of chaos-energy... the boy witnessed these clouds light-energy being compressed further into a much smaller size to become dark-gold in color then... further compressed even further until a thin hair-like line of grey-color appeared on the much smaller and microscopic-sized bodies of these clouds of light-energy... finally the light-energy got compressed further and the great-sage lost sight and sense of his own light-energy. Certainly after vanishing within the grey-wind of this chaos-energy... his light-energy either got completely absorbed like food by the grey-wind or... these clouds simply changed their basic-affinity and became the new recruits of chaos-energy within these grey-hurricanes... cloud-generals must be calling these clouds—who changed sides—"traitors" and such right now! the fourth point is... Qing's dantian-walls—which managed to hold-on strong for days despite being devoid of spirit-energy or sin-energy—why’re they still almost completely intact? is it because these dantian-walls are used to contain energy of a high purity and concentration? or... is it because the foundation of this former-assassin were already solid enough within the system of devil-cultivation? if so? then... why would the old man who kidnapped Qing go through the trouble of creating such a mighty devil-cultivator in the first place when there’s a highly-likely chance of creating a foe for himself? finally—after failing to find a proper answer to his questions—Lin had to begin concentrating his own light-energy within Qing's dantian-space and begin upgrading it to a higher grade... the dark-gold in color! despite knowing that doing that now is going to consume a lot of soul-force—which he and Gang both—wish that it would never happen... since the boy wants his soul to recover to its peak—and stays that way for a while!—again... the great-sage had to use that "annoying option" because... the chaotic grey-wind is "mercilessly" gobbling-up his light-energy a bit too fast and... the deadly-sin of wrath seems like it’s about to... snap. That action from Lin resulted in—a bit of—improvement in the situation when compared to how things were going slowly and costly before but... these grey-hurricanes seem to insist on making things harder for the boy... simply because... these cyclones began to combine and fuse their roots together! deep within the greyness of color on the grey-wind... the great-sage witnessed the appearance of a faint glow... these thin lines kept flickering and alternating between the black and white colors. Thankfully when that change happened... Lin had already succeeded in snatching the majority of fragments of this shattered devil-seed... the few remaining fragments are inside the fused and much stronger grey-hurricanes... there’s a dozen of those remaining right now inside Qing’s dantian-space. Focusing on his target... the moment when the boy was about to make his move and snatch one more of the fragments... he noticed two of the cyclones sweeping everywhere their upper-ends moved and—by the looks of their trajectory—they’re homing towards his location! “Brat. You should be really careful now, the final will of that little-weakling’s martial-spirit seems to be... to protect these fragments and keep them and to keep them always separated! looks like both this man and his martial-spirit hated that blind old-fool a bit too much, causing the old-man’s devil-seed to explode into countless fragments and helping you completely purify the whole thing doesn't seem enough. Heh. Go-on and use a stronger and purer light-energy, the ones who always command the strands of light-energy inside your dantian-space would do... don’t look so surprised now! when facing anything that’s much stronger than you, you should never think of playing any tricks because... just a single move or action from such a superior-opponent is more than sufficient to break countless of your—much weaker—moves. At-least by going all-out and head-on from the very beginning is much better, it would save you the shame and regret of not being able to use your full-force whenever your strong opponent decides to suppress you! the other available option for you would be to... immediately escape, escape while hoping for a chance where you get to see another day.” Kai spoke and Lin listened closely while avoiding the path of these two crisscrossing grey-hurricanes... honestly... the boy—and his sin-brother—don’t want to see the two cloud-generals being sacrificed! especially since these two have been accompanying him for quite a while now... while deeply sighing inwardly... the great-sage sent his two cloud generals outside his body for the first time ever while being accompanied by the remaining of their two armies of dark-gold cloud-soldiers.

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

Within the carriage of heavy-merchandize.

“Hmmm...” Zhang stopped his physical exercise once Lin became so concentrated on his work at the dantian of this captive... even when it seems like this Qing is already asleep... since his friend isn’t guarding himself while being so close to this man then... this former-assassin might suddenly awake and try something that isn’t funny like for example... hurt his little-friend! who knows? whatever that’s going inside the head of this cripple... the simple man doesn’t even care to know... that's why the strong man immediately went to stand next to the boy and seriously guarded him—while covering his muscular body with the strongest ability of energy-armor, of course!—because... if that former-assassin dared to attempt to harm Lin? then... Zhang wouldn't hesitate to kill this Qing at all even if it meant that his little-friend would be dissatisfied with him later afterwards because... if it means the boy would be safe? then... it just has to be done since Lin’s life is more valuable than anything... after all... every soul of the five-clans is at stake. Seeing the color of Lin’s ability of energy-armor change from gold to dark-gold really surprised the simple man because... being so close his little-friend the strong man could distinctly feel how strong that dark-gold light-energy very clearly... exactly... the earth and fire-cultivator felt like he's sitting so close to the sun itself! for the first time in many years... the spirit-grandmaster felt his natural-affinity to the element of fire stirring-up from deep inside his dantian and the simple man sensed how the fire-energy pushed-back against the earth-energy—which always dominated the majority of his dantian-space—and both natural-affinities began to become a lot more balanced... while feeling great delight by this pleasant and unexpected surprise... the strong man watched while all that light-energy kept amassing inside the dantian of Qing who's still asleep. However... the former-assassin seems to be experiencing some sort of a "nightmare" because... a lot of sweat appeared everywhere on the man’s body and his lips kept muttering faint and incoherent words.

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

Inside Rong Qing’s dantian-space.

Lin is feeling so sorry because his pure light-energy is currently falling at the hands of these grey-hurricanes whenever the boy stole their precious fragments however... the great-sage almost cursed aloud when quickly after he began to accept his loss... another change actually began to happen within the dantian-space! in his possession is the great-majority of the devil-seed’s fragments already but... Lin is still missing the last one... this final fragment is the largest of them all—which the boy has been avoiding its hurricane from the very beginning because—the great-sage felt like it’s... "bad news" for his miserably-poor and weak light-energy. Especially when this cyclone already had a deeper tinge of grey-color to its cutting and destructive-wind way before these grey-hurricanes began to fuse in the first place... it was already like four-times bigger than the other cyclones around it! after the first change when the mass fusion happened this hurricane became like six-times larger than the eleven remaining cyclones around it yet... once Lin stole the earlier fragment and left the eleven hurricanes around it devoid of any fragments... that monstrous-sized and dangerous-looking hurricane suddenly began to stir and it rammed the closest cyclone then swallowed its grey-wind before doing the same to the rest of the ten hurricanes. Within a single second that large grey-hurricane successfully consumed and assimilated all the grey-wind within its body which caused it to grow bigger and apparently much stronger too... now Rong Qing's dantian-space has nothing remaining inside it other than ruin and complete destruction plus a gigantic grey-hurricane that’s heading towards the boy's apparel of soul-force with its swirling end in a swooping smack that’s aiming to completely annihilate the great-sage for daring to steal the fragments in the first place! “Heh. Brat. You look like you’re about to shit your pants, but I can’t blame you because... this one is really out of your league. Quiet-down, can’t you see that the great Kai is talking? now, where was I? oh, brat... come here. Begin roasting these fragments with only the light-variant of your fire-intent, remember... don't add spirit-energy or soul-force in the mix until I tell you to do so.” Once Lin was about to escape from this enormous grey-hurricane by severing his connection to retreat from Qing’s dantian-space... Kai miraculously appeared in front of the boy and from the look of it... doing so is so simple for this "great Kai" and with the same ease and simplicity... despite his almost lazy-movements... the talking-raccoon just glared towards the incoming gargantuan hurricane that’s so deep in grey-color then... ordered it to quiet down! when the great-sage was about to say something he—much to his shock—discovered that the biggest hurricane actually froze almost immediately and maintained its twisted shape! afterwards the awakened-soul of the ring of origin gestured with one of its thin and clawed fingers and the final fragment flew from the center of the final cyclone towards Lin's hand on its own... while giving the boy these orders... Kai gestured again with both of his hands like he’s compressing that massive grey-hurricane and it really began to shrink until the talking-raccoon held it on-top of one of his hands! it’s now only a miniature-sized grey-hurricane that’s still swirling inside some transparent-cube the size of a small toy in the hand of this awakened-soul. 'Thanks senior Kai, is that... space-energy?' While Igniting his gold-colored fire-intent on these fragments like Kai asked... Lin expressed his gratitude while looking at that small hurricane which caused Qing's dantian to become such a "sight" to behold within less than a week! “Space-time energy, don’t you see how this grey-hurricane is still spinning like it is still outside my ability? that's because the dao-energy of my space-time is merely coating this chaos-energy, it isn’t restraining the chaos-energy inside it... meanwhile inside this small cube is a world with enough space that’s no smaller than the entirety of this dantian-space, while still having an exact same replica of every type of law. That's why I'm able to control this chaos-energy with such ease to begin with, first it’s because this is the natural-effect of space-energy... since the element of space does have the affinity-advantage over chaos-energy and can naturally and easily restrain or contain it. When the energy of the element of time is added to the mix then, let’s just say it's like... "giving wings to a ferocious tiger" and the procedure becomes a lot easier. And the result is, chaos-energy becomes so simple to manipulate. Second, it’s because the energy from both of my elements—space-time—are ranked in quality at the "dao-grade" so... since my energy of space-time is ranked a lot higher in quality in-comparison to this chaos-energy—which is only of the gaseous-grade—then... despite the fact that my natural-affinity is towards two elements—which are two entire grades lower in the "element-ranking" compared to chaos-energy—the restraining-factor of the affinity-advantage between these three different elements plus my dao-energy actually being much higher in quality specifically the point of "purity" so, it’s safe to say that... my attainments could more than "fill the gap of difference" between these elements... and that’s a way to erase the existing void between the upper and lower-realms of element-ranking. Honestly, I didn't even waste much space-time energy to trap this grey-cyclone... thus! beings able to hold-on for this long against this chaos-energy with just your light-energy of the gaseous-grade—which doesn’t give you any advantage over these grey-cyclones at all—makes you... not so bad yourself—since you're still just a brat and all that—but, don’t get so full of yourself. You’re still a brat.” Kai threw this new toy—the cube—from on hand to the other while explaining to Lin but... his black-eyes never left the fragments which began to melt and change color from being transparent like shards of glass and turn gold in color after being burned with the boy’s golden-colored fire-intent! the great-sage kept his silence while feeling sorry for the generals—who seemingly got sacrificed for nothing—and burned the globe of melted fragments with his gold fire-intent until that globe became completely golden and resembled liquid... afterwards Lin began to wonder when would it be the "time" that Kai tells him to add soul-force! because... his intent-tank is already below the mark of five-percent... still the talking-raccoon kept giving that golden liquid a silent look while maintaining a calm smirk on his face... the obsidian-black eyes of the awakened-soul resembled two torches brightly burning with a gold fire when he gazed at this melted liquid and the boy sensed how much Kai seems to be enjoying this moment. Suddenly without the great-sage expecting anything like this to happen... Lin felt a prickling pain from the center of his forehead and the talking-raccoon flicked a single drop of blood that’s so rich and deep in red color within that golden liquid! then Kai placed that golden liquid inside the center of the currently small and tiny grey-cyclone that’s inside the cube on-top of his hand... finally the talking-raccoon threw that small cube towards the boy and said : “Add however much of your soul-force inside it. Now!” From the tone of his voice and the look on his expressive-face... the great-sage sensed how this awakened-soul must be experimenting on something that must be really fun for it! before the Lin even started to inject his soul-force inside this little-cube... once again the boy sensed the constant and gentle-stream of soul-force coming directly from the location at the center of his forehead... that gentle-stream kept feeding both soul-bodies inside the soul-world more and more soul-force. Meanwhile Kai has already—somehow—conjured two basketball-sized formations around the little-cube... these two very complicated formations would constantly change shape and position of their formation-inscriptions and runes! the great-sage suspects that one of these two formations is a soul-formation while the other one is a spirit-formation however... the purpose and use of these two formations remains a... complete mystery to Lin. Still... the boy did like he’s asked and sent his soul-force inside that little space-time cube after holding it in his hands. “Now! begin sending your light-energy as well as your fire-intent inside the cube.” The talking-raccoon brought his snout closer to the cube the great-sage is holding between his hands while giving that order... the awakened-soul is looking at the golden liquid in the canter of the swirling grey-hurricane... once Lin pushed his spirit-energy and fire-intent inside the cube as well as more of his soul-force... Kai gestured and the two formations entered the cube then sank inside the golden liquid! “Eh!...” The boy felt something sucking at his soul-force, light-energy, and fire-intent—very greedily at that—from within that golden liquid! “The blind old-fool wanted to make this little-weakling of a devil-cultivator his next fleshly-vessel, now... if he comes searching for this prize? then, he's going to find a huge surprise waiting for him! brat... listen well, this man has been branded on his soul, body, and spirit... even his blood-essence has been marked by your soul-force, fire-intent, and light-energy. So, it's practically impossible for him to become a devil-cultivator... ever again! if you give this former-assassin any order? he wouldn't be able to go against it, unless... he's stronger than you in soul-cultivation by an entire major-realm. That doesn’t mean that he would be able to rebel once he’s attained such achievement, it means that... he can stop himself from obeying that order. But, he would never be able to extract himself from your service as long as he’s alive because... you’re his lifeline from now-on. What you felt before is the connection forming between you two, this new lackey of yours... if he wants to visit his clan? then, send him without worry but... don't even bother wasting your time going to the eastern-heights. There's nothing interesting there anyway, there’s other things that you should be looking for instead of going to that godforsaken place... kekekeke.” Kai cackled while watching the large arrowhead-like, triangular, and scaly-head come out and reveal itself from the top of the grey-hurricane inside the cube the kid is holding between his hands... while curiously looking everywhere around it this snake began to stretch its forked-tongue out over and over to smell this weird and new yet very familiar environment! Lin became so amazed once he saw it and despite the clear difference in size and color... this snake looks no different—at least in his eyes—from the finger-sized red-snake that once occupied Rong Qing’s dantian-space as the former-assassin’s martial-spirit once before. 'Just now... did it lick and swallow some of the chaos-wind of this hurricane?' The boy asked while watching this snake exit the center of the grey-hurricane while being completely unaffected by the—supposedly very dangerous—grey-wind... the grey-scales on its body were practically unblemished despite passing-through the destructive and cutting-wind! the long gold, red, silver, and black lines on its back are a contradictory to the common color of its scales—which is a bleak grey-color—certainly... this snake shouldn’t be called "little-one" by its owner anymore. “Why else do you think I would endure all this trouble to help this little-weakling? this martial-spirit has both the soul and spirit-natures now and it’s able to use light, fire, darkness, and chaos elements... plus soul-force! that’s way more than yourself so, between the two of you... who’s the genius now? it received the natural-affinity towards the light and fire elements from you, while both of your martial-spirits originally had the soul-nature... his advantage over you is that his martial-spirit naturally allows him to use soul-attacks without having to be a soul-cultivator at all. I guess he got the darkness-attribute from the old man who once forced him towards the devil-path or, the weakling learned all about the element from scratch later after achieving his tyranny... I don’t even care how he’s able to use it. Chaos-energy comes from my f-” Suddenly Kai stopped from saying anymore and glared at the grey-snake which took a deep breath to suck the entire grey-hurricane through its mouth after sniffing the aromatic smell of this... delicious meal! while flicking its forked tongue in and out repeatedly... the grey-snake kept looking at the great-sage directly with a pair of vertical and intelligent eyes while trying move towards the edge of the cube where it can reach the hands—which held the cube—however... inside this space—that the awakened-soul made with its dao-energy—it’s practically pointless to seek the borders because... no-matter how fast that grey-snake tried to move within the cube... it practically never left the same place it began to move from in the very beginning. “Tsk. What a gluttonous little-worm.” After scattering the space-time cube... the talking-raccoon held the grey-snake—which suddenly became huge in size—directly from the most vulnerable spot on its body right below its head and licked his lips while showing it his set of sharp fangs! panicking extremely... that martial-spirit kept looking towards the boy seemingly pleading for help with its eyes... its entire body kept shivering from absolute fear while being intimidated by the threatening-aura of Kai. 'Sigh. Senior Kai don’t tell me that you made me waste all this time and go through all that effort just so you would kill it again! since we seem to be done here, I think it’s time for me to go back.' The great-sage rolled his eyes towards the awakened-soul then looked towards this snake—which is a few dozen times bigger from how it was once before—again to admire the great difference. “It’s child's play for me, I don't mind killing it again just to have fun watching it die.” Kai never looked away from Qing’s martial-spirit and kept his eyes on the snake's forked eyes... meanwhile despair is already all-over the eyes of this revived-snake which kept looking towards Lin with the same pleading and begging look! 'little-one. I’m so sorry, I don't dare go against the wishes of this senior... you should be begging him not me.' Lin shrugged then left the dantian-space of the former-assassin after apologizing to the unfortunate grey-snake who just got revived only to be confronted with the extreme threat of being killed once again.

..........

When the boy opened his eyes he could still feel his connection with Rong Qing's body, spirit, and soul.

Even after the great-sage removed his hand from the man's abdomen the connection still exists... it’s a connection that’s on a much deeper level when compared with his connection with Qiang Chi's who swore an oath of eternal servitude to Lin! “Zhang. Look after him and be careful, big guy... be very careful because he’s no longer a cripple!” Lin said while looking towards his friend and the simple man deactivated his ability of energy-armor and sat cross-legged to rest while nodding once. “Good, bring him to me once he wakes-up.” The boy patted the strong man on the shoulder then walked towards the carriage's door... whether Qing would be a cultivator or a cripple when he visit him next has nothing to do with the great-sage because this matter is going to be personally decided by Kai himself! “Oh! big guy, you have a secret admirer by the way... if you're interested to know more? then, don't forget to tell me later.” Spinning on his heel right at the carriage’s door... Lin gave Zhang a wink and a double thumbs-up gesture then left the simple man very shocked after hearing these words from his little-friend because—quite frankly—the strong man doesn’t have any "self-esteem" like... at all! especially when it comes to matters that are related to the opposite-gender... hearing what the boy just said means that everything is true because the earth and fire-cultivator completely trusts the kid's honesty yet... the spirit-grandmaster felt like there’s this weird and "strange pressure" cover his body all-over when the thought of a female actually liking him crossed his mind and his thoughts raced faster than they ever did before in his life. 'What does she like about me? what does she look like? what...' Many questions about that "mysterious female" and many more questions that began to doubt if she'd still like him when she gets to know him better were birthed inside Zhang's mind and these questions kept causing more questions to sprout... had Wang knew that all it took Lin is a single line of words to grab Zhang's attention while the handsome-man had been trying for a couple years now without gaining any sort of positive-reaction from his best-friend? then certainly... the ice-cultivator would immediately seek solitude to have a few drinks just to vent-out the frustration that accompanies these "terribly good" yet very "annoying" and disturbing-news however... sadly for Wang... he—and almost everybody else—won't know until rice is already cooked!

...........

After returning to his carriage.

Lin found Bo An feeding the "kids" just like how she likes to call their beast-companions.

Qiang Chi quickly began to organize the table for the boy once he noticed the arrival of his young-master then filled the bathtub with water and heated it until it became steaming hot.

“You're here at last, I almost began to think that I won't be seeing you again before we reach mercenary-city.” Bo An jumped towards Lin and gave him a fierce hug while speaking with a sad tone of voice that’s very noticeable in her words.

“Hmmm... you broke through?” The great-sage felt the strands of spirit-energy stirring around Bo An's body and—according the fragmented-memories from Jin Bao he—understood that’s a sign of someone having just raised a stage in their spirit-cultivation.

“Humph. Good of you to notice.” Despite her act this young-girl was feeling very happy right now.

“Congratulations Bo An! you’re just like Wang now huh.”

“Are you looking for a beating? you’re comparing this lady to some man now! of course I’m much, much... much better.”

“Yes you are, you're a spirit-grandmaster of the eighth-stage now... while being more than a whole decade younger.”

“Of course! I’m so great among all spirit-grandmasters, I’m shining so brightly like the sun itself... silly boy comparing tiny meteors to a celestial-body. Humph, humph... humph.”

“Hahahaha. I bet that he'd hide himself from us for a long while once he gets to hear these great news, come-on! you should be happy, smile for me” Holding her hips and raising her high up then twirling her in the air... these actions from the great-sage brought a wide smile on the face of young-lady of the Chentian-clan.

“We reached the borders of mercenary-city’s territory a couple hours ago, in about two days we're supposed to reach the city itself but... I don't want to leave you just yet. This is so unfair! it feels like we just met, now we're going to be separated... I don’t want to do that.” Bo An stuck her cheek to Lin's own and grumbled weakly while leaning her head on his shoulder.

“Should I kidnap you then? I bet this scandal would be the best-selling news for months to come for many "shady organizations" it would go like this : "The Chentian-princess, breaking the hearts of her admirers by choosing the "frog in the well" and taking him to be her sweetheart", "Who is this boy?", "Is there a deeper scheme at play here.", Hehe... I bet Wei wouldn’t hesitate to fund such an organization if we do.” Lin shiftily looked around like a scouting burglar while hugging Bo An's slim waist towards him when he spoke... the young-girl snickered when she found the boy trying his best to cheer her up then hugged him tighter while putting her complaints on mute! “I’m going to miss you in every second that you're away from me.” After saying that in a faint whisper the young-lady of the Chentian-clan pushed the great-sage towards the bathtub to get some rest... his pale skin already spoke volumes on how much the kid is burned-out right now! he’s always like this... never complaining about a thing... being serious when needed and easy-going when needed yet... silently taking the thoughts of everyone around him into consideration.

After soaking in the tub for a while then eating a good and satisfying meal... Lin was about to take a look at Qiang Chi's spirit-cultivation however... the young-man himself kept politely refusing and asking his young-master to delay doing so—at least—until the boy gets some rest first! Bo An—who turned into some kind of "witch-mode" which is so scary and very frightening to be honest—shouted at the boy and ordered him to get some sleep first... these reactions made the kid smile helplessly while surrendering to the young-girl—who hugged him tightly in bed—plus Sun and Frostine who snuggled-up with the duo then Fang Bo who got caught by the scruff of his neck and forcefully got included by Bo Bo into this "mess" of skin, feathers, and fur.

Once he closed his eyes... Lin instantly got pulled into a state of deep and calming sleep.

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

Back inside the carriage where Zhang and Qing are staying.

Exactly at the time when Lin removed himself from Rong Qing's dantian and left Kai to do his own "thing" with the martial-spirit... the eyes of the grey-snake—which were full of fear and panic just a moment earlier—suddenly became murky and aged in a split-second... soon they became exactly like the eyes of blind devil-sovereign! “Heh. You really believed that you could fool me? you have such an amazing appetite there you... little-runt! the brat ruined your fleshly-vessel and that martial-spirit helped him ruin the devil-seed, for a moment there even I thought that you were after the body of this... little-trash. Yet, you're still here... with a soul-clone that’s completely pure and devoid of sin-energy! trying to steal my hard work and retake this martial-spirit? hmmm, the only reason I can think of right now—to explain these actions of yours—is that... you're not after this man’s fleshly-vessel but... the soul itself. But why go through all this trouble just to possess the soul of this junior?” Kai said while looking directly at the white-eyes of the grey-snake that he’s clutching with his claw... the talking-raccoon doesn't seem threatened at all by this blind old man’s presence yet... the awakened-soul seems so curious about the reason why this formidable cultivator—who’s already a senior of the devil-dao—is so "adamant" on seizing the soul of this former-assassin.

“Release me and give me back my disciple, I promise not to seek troubles with the boy in the futu-” The grey-snake began to speak but... Kai tightened his claws around its neck even further while glaring at the soul-clone that’s hiding itself deep inside the body of the martial-spirit! the other hand of the raccoon—who’s much shorter than the snake—was suddenly shot right between the eyes of the martial-spirit and as quickly as the hand entered the grey-snake’s skull the claw exited while holding the pure soul-clone of blind devil-sovereign being tightly gripped by the neck.

“First some brat—who’s many realms your junior—successfully damaged and destroyed your devil-seed, you really should've been tactful enough to understand when to stop while dealing with juniors yet... you still decided to be a stubborn and sore-loser by coming here to pour your wrath on the boy! however, I decided to be merciful and gave you a small warning instead and sent you to the temple of transparency while leaving you a chance to escape but... now it’s completely different. Heh. You threatened me, so before I annihilate this soul-clone of yours let me tell you something you... cute fool, please, please, please... don't hesitate to come seek troubles with the kid. I’m desperately waiting for the time it happens, I’m bored out of my mind here so... hurry the fuck up!” The talking-raccoon seemed very amused by blind devil-sovereign’s attitude and released the grey-snake to go play somewhere else then... the awakened-soul of the ring of origin pulled the soul-clone with his other hand closer to his snout and spoke derisively while intentionally letting all the flying-spittle from his mouth land at the face of this soul-clone! before the soul-clone of this blind devil-sovereign had any chance to do anything like attempt to escape this predicament or... talk its way out of this situation... maybe try and resist this strangely-formidable fellow—who just admitted that he’s the reason why devil-sovereign’s fleshly-vessel is currently stranded within the eastern-continent—Kai closed his free hand into a fist and the pure soul-clone of this devil-cultivator got forcefully placed within another space-time cube! the movements of this talking-raccoon were lazy which caused everything he’s doing to seem effortless just like when the biggest grey-hurricane of chaos-energy got trapped in the cube before... the fate of this pure soul-clone was the same entrapment... afterwards the awakened-soul waved one of its fingers and sent the new cube towards the "refinement-node" of the time-lock soul-formation. From beginning to end... that soul-clone never had a chance to say a single word to Kai... from start to finish that devil-sovereign misjudged the situation he’s in and kept regretting it until the last wisp of soul-force within that soul-clone got sent towards the primordial-source of Jin Bao’s soul to feed it with more soul-source.

...........

At the lands of the eastern-continent.

Within some chain of mountains nearby the eastern-borders of this vast continent.

This area is very famous for being always lacking in high-quality spirit-resources... besides a few low-grade medicinal-ingredients and some scattered species of demonic-beasts who’re at the lowest realms... there isn’t anything that could be of  any real-value to any cultivator beyond the tyrant-level of strength! in here... blind devil-sovereign is hiding himself after suffering one setback after another from the stubborn-donkeys of the temple... the borders of the eastern-continent are already under extensive-surveillance by quite a huge gathering of pinnacle cultivators. After all... the gain when delivering a devil-cultivator of such a high-quality to the temple of transparency is so great... that’s why so many sensory-formations and space-solidification formations are being erected ever since the news of this man’s appearance got spread! once he succeeded in hiding his tracks blind devil-sovereign began working on healing the wounds to his soul while keeping discreet taps on Rong Qing's current condition with the only soul-clone that’s pure and untainted by any sin-energy... in the beginning the old man was just greedy and wanted to take the extremely valuable shell of solidified sin-energy for himself when he takes his revenge on the little-brat and retrieve his fleshly-vessel then... once the boy and that "beast" harnessed that much valuable chaos-energy and successfully revived the martial-spirit of Blood-Demon while giving it an "unbelievable" amount of potential. Not only is that martial-spirit still able to use soul and darkness—like before when the short old man operated-on Rong Qing and altered his most basic-foundations—Rong Qing's martial-spirit is much more formidable now after it inherited both natural-affinities towards the elements of light and fire from the kid's drop of blood-essence... in-addition-to the ability to use chaos-energy—which is still very precious and amazing—even when it’s just of the gaseous-grade! since the soul-clone that he left hidden—just in-case an emergency requires it—isn't tainted by the devil-dao... blind devil-sovereign decided to swoop-in and possess this martial-spirit once the brat and that beast—kindly—finish arranging everything for the pure soul-clone of the old man... yet he still got himself discovered by the beast and he failed to bluff his way out from this dangerous situation. Before he got any chance to negotiate or say anything to appease the beast... his pure soul-clone was forcefully refined and blind devil-sovereign lost almost twenty-percent of his soul-source just like that! the power of his soul dropped by one-fifth all at once and when the injuries that he accumulated previously after the boy and the transparent-snake destroyed and purified the devil-seed are added then... his use of blood-escape the movement-technique that allows an insane increase of speed in-exchange for a price of sacrificing base-cultivation just to escape Dong Peizhi the temple-master... to sum-up all these losses... blind devil-sovereign lost almost half of his total soul-source plus a few valuable years of painstakingly accumulated dao-energy... there’s a few dozen of years' worth of vitality and lifespan lost—which is even more valuable—not to mention the spirit-resources and world-treasures the short old man has to exhaust if he wishes to regain his strength back to its peak or to recover from all these wounds that he accumulated during a very short period of time... the most disgraceful feeling is how blind devil-sovereign didn’t even get a chance to personally confront his opponent yet... he’s already battered and in a very sorry shape. His face flushed and his chin covered in blood that’s still dripping towards the ground after coughing a few mouthfuls of blood... blind devil-sovereign grinded and gritted his teeth until they almost cracked while balling his fists in a very vain-attempt to control himself and stifle his emotions of extreme fury! after closing his pupil-less eyes the short old man seemed like he finally got a firm hold over his emotions and finally decided to hold-back—at least until he’s really prepare—to confront these two who gave him his worst loss ever since his days of being just a junior.

...........

“Young-master... Young-master Ming. Cheng Zhang is waiting outside with the Qing and is requesting to meet you.” Qiang Chi stood next to bed and patted Lin on his shoulder gently while calling him... the eyes of this young-guard never left the boy's face despite Bo An's developing chest being right next to the kid's face and slightly exposed. “How long was I asleep for?” Lin asked while sitting-up then covered his mouth while yawning and stretching his core. “Almost a day now, mercenary-city is but a few thousands of kilometers away from our location... the people in the caravan were so delighted when they heard the news and are eagerly expecting the safety of mercenary-city.” Qiang Chi stood in-attention like the "perfect soldier" and reported the recent and most important updates in this journey to his young-master. “Alright send them in, would you be so kind and bring me something to eat. I really haven't been eating or training properly for a long while now, I need to fix that.” After carefully removing himself from Bo An’s embrace... Lin quickly replaced himself with the three beasts and smiled while watching the sight of the young-girl snuggling with them then told the young-guard to bring the simple man and the former-assassin inside the carriage before covering the bed with a layer of his soul-force just to ensure these four wouldn’t be bothered by his conversation with his guests... afterwards the boy went to wash his face while remembering the events of the last time that he had a really satisfying exercise.

“Ming. This guy wants to speak to you, well... so do I, I have something to say but we better do that—cough!—in private.” Zhang revealed a completely different expression on his face when he demanded privacy in his conversation with his little-friend... for a whole day now the strong man has been struggling and unable to focus on his meditation or training because he’s feeling burdened by the extreme curiosity about the identity of that "secret admirer" of his! even when the simple man attempted to force himself to train or meditate... the boy's action of giving him the double thumbs-up gesture while smiling so encouragingly kept being constantly repeated inside Zhang's mind.

“Young-master Ming. Thank you, I really had lost all hope in being able to manipulate spirit-energy ever again many years ago yet you... I can feel it so clearly now! I'm bound to you for the rest of my life, I’m here to say that I am willing to make amends and vow to do my absolute best to cleanse the sins of my past. Please allow me... let me visit my mother just once, I really need to explain myself to my clan and sect before I return to your service! I’ll never complain even if you—young-master—worked me like a mule or treated me like a dog until the final day of my life, because... I know and completely admit that I deserve such treatment after what I did. Young-master, please allow me just this request... it’ll be the only request that I ever ask of you.” After kneeling... Rong Qing began to plead guilty while kowtowing again and again! however... tears of joy kept trickling down on his cheeks and scatter on the floor whenever the man spoke... who blames him for it? after waking-up the former-assassin felt the existence of his martial-spirit inside his dantian-space once again... when Qing activated his martial-spirit he became so shocked when he witnessed a completely different version of the little-one... this one isn’t red or transparent but... much more upgraded! not only is this grey-snake still able to control his previous affinities from the times when he practiced both orthodox and unorthodox systems of cultivation but also this martial-spirit is able to control the boy's dual natural-affinities of light and fire-energy... plus one more grey-energy—which is only in the gaseous-quality—and the man is the suspecting it to be the frightening, dominant, and unbelievable chaos-energy. Unable to believe what he's currently seeing with his own eyes and sensing from inside his dantian... the former-assassin asked Zhang who kept looking at the grey-snake while feeling confusion... "Ming" is the answer the simple man gave Qing since all he saw before was only Lin doing his own "thing" and being focused-on infusing his light-energy inside this man's dantian. “Well... I already said that you'd be visiting your clan, so... there’s no need for you to kneel or kowtow either! just prove your dedication to this cause with your own actions, from mercenary-city you can take-off directly to the Sunrise-empire by using one of the teleportation-formations. Sit, Qing... I meant you too! now... being a former-assassin and all, I trust that your information-network is... top-class,” Lin took his seat at the table then gestured for the three to sit... Zhang and Chi naturally took their seats without feeling any reservations at all then Qing followed suit and sat after being ordered to do so while feeling slight hesitation but the man didn't dare take a single bite from the food on the table or sit in a relaxed posture and merely sat at the edge of his chair while keeping his spine straight... the former-assassin seems like he’s intentionally keen on never letting himself be comfortable even if that comfort is so simple like leaning his back backwards to rest on the backrest of his chair! once young-master Ming asked him Qing quickly nodded then waited for the boy to shoot his questions, “First, in my presence you're not to be so stressed... otherwise you’ll end-up making me—and everyone else—feel stressed! try to eat and relax in your chair or—at least—act normally like everyone else, as long as you're not slacking in your duty—which is to absolve yourself from the heavy-debt that you accumulated over the years committing evil deeds—then... you're not going to see me mistreating you or treat you any different than a friend.” The boy calmed the man then looked towards Zhang—who seems very impatient already—because the simple man wants to ask : "Who’s my fan?" very much right now yet... held himself back—somehow—and silently ate to ease his frustration and impatience. “Young-master Ming. This servant understands.” The former-assassin nodded then took a piece of fruit and threw it in his mouth before chewing-on it after the kid instructed him... from his posture and breathing Qing seems to have relaxed a bit and not so stiff like a rock on his seat anymore! “What do you know about the saintess of the seamless-sword sect?” The great-sage asked and the man began to gather details by squeezing his memory for a few seconds to extract all and every piece of information about what he knows or heard once before... then began to answer and narrate what he knows while the rest listened and ate in silence.

Lin learned about what happened after Mia returned to her sect... the imprisonment of Katherine the holy-daughter of the church of light and the visit that followed from one of the four high-cardinals—who’s loaded with lots and lots of precious gifts for the seamless-sword sect to apologize for what their church-member did to the saintess—plus three cardinals and a dozen of the archbishops... according to the news... saintess Mia never met any of these messengers from the church of light and most of her fellow sect-members didn't see her at all after the day she returned... sword-sovereign DaiLong is said to have publicly scolded the entire group of messengers from the church—including the high-cardinal himself—after what their holy-daughter tried to do to his beloved daughter and things almost escalated to him actually drawing his sword! then... the sect-master took his precious daughter and the current saintess of the seamless-sword sect to leave the sect under the pretense of being a journey for her to earn experience however... the rumor has it that this is just a "guise" since the vice-sect-master and the sect-master of the seamless-sword sect have always had some "bad blood" between them. Dailong seems to finally have enough with the seniors and people who have authority within the sect and decided to sever ties with them... especially because the majority of its highly-authoritative members are lusting after the spirit-resources and favor from people who come from another great-sect.

While listening to this report the boy supported his chin on his fists while leaning on the table with his elbows... even after Rong Qing has long finished filling up the gaps on what happened to the young-woman after each one of them went his own way... the great-sage thought about this situation between two of the five great-sects in silence—from the look of it—if things continue on this direction? then... the church of light actually have a good chance of being in-control of the seamless-sword sect from behind the shadows or... these two titans of the spirit-world would end-up in open confrontation with one another very soon! “Most of the belongings you previously owned are not suitable for your current natural-affinities, this should be enough to cover your expenses for a better set of spirit-tools that’s suitable for you... I’m confident that you’d be able you to unleash the full-potential of your abilities once you do! being a former dweller of the devil-path and all, I believe that you’re aware of the true worth of such material... right?” Halting his thoughts on Mia, her sect, and the affair they once had... Lin looked towards Rong Qing who’s only wearing the same robe—which he gave him after squeezing-out the former-assassin from the red-shell of solidified sin-energy—then threw one of the red-bricks towards the man who caught it in his hand... Qing merely gave that brick a disgusted smile then nodded to confirm the boy's question. “Good. Here's your space-ring, I already emptied it and took everything that was inside it... even your clothes! so, if there's anything inside it that has an "emotional" value like a family-heirloom or anything of these sorts? then, I’d allow you to have it. However, your twin-swords, equipment, tools, pills, and spirit-resources alongside everything else—that you used to use in your day-to-day life—should be completely changed with another just to remind you of who you really are now... you’re like a phoenix that’s rising from the ash! however, you’re not only changing on the exterior... you need to change from the inside-out.” While flicking the level-seven space-ring towards the former-assassin... the great-sage told the man what to expect when opening it before Qing even got the chance to gather a small amount of his spirit-energy to brand the storage-item and look inside it! “Any such item was long destroyed by the old dog when he kidnapped me, since you took them then it's alright. Young-master Ming. I was planning on destroying these devil-tools anyway, with half this amount of solidified sin-energy... I'm sure that I can fill my space-ring with enough spirit-resources to help me regain my cultivation at the peak of my strength! I can be a high-stage spirit-tyrant and get all my spirit-tools, spirit-equipment, spirit-weapons "custom-made" according to my taste. I’ve always dreamed of having everything I’m using being suitable for my natural-affinities! this generosity, I... I promise not to forget it as long as I’m able to draw a breath into my chest.” The former-assassin is—at most—a few years older than Zhang yet... all his years living and practicing devil-cultivation while undergoing an assassination after an assassination gave the man a certain aura of intimidation! even when Qing solemnly swore to be the boy's helper and servant Qiang Chi felt like there’s a swarm of ants crawling under his skin and the alarm bells rang inside his chest when the young-guard locked eye-contact with the former-assassin’s pair of piercing snake-like eyes. 'This Rong Qing is... a really dangerous person.' The spirit-apprentice thought while translating the message that his own keen-instincts are trying to give him. “My name is Lin... not Ming. But, both of you are to keep calling me that in front of strangers. To define "strangers" to you, besides Zhang, Bo An, and our beast-companions there’s only Wei, Lai, and Wang... these are the ones who knows my true name. so—until I say otherwise about someone—everyone else is a "stranger" now, if you two understand? then... go cultivate, meditate, or... exercise together if you feel like it.” Lin said and his two new followers were surprised after hearing that Ming isn't his true name however... both men complied and quickly got-out of the carriage... they left the boy who kept smirking strangely while looking at the simple man who felt like he could finally speak without having any fear of getting embarrassed.

“Lin. You're intentionally hiding the identity of the a-... "admirer" that you mentioned before, I want to know... tell me more.” The strong man still stuttered despite how much he tried to sound firm and maintain his composure! “It's alright for me tell you but, I need you to promise me something first. You need to be extremely polite when dealing with her, if you don't like staying with her any longer after meeting her? then, it's alright to leave! just say : "I have something that I need to do." or ask her : "Can we continue our conversation later?" before you leave. Don't you dare ditch her and leave without saying anything! I’d really be angry at you if you did, can you do that?” Lin told Zhang his simple term before waiting for the strong man to give him his answer... after the big guy failed to discover anything "tricky" or slightly hard for himself to do within what the boy just said he simply nodded to agree! meanwhile the great-sage smiled when he noticed signs of curiosity on the expression of the simple man—judging by his body-language alone—Zhang is already consumed by his feelings of interest... Lin continued to say : “She’s little-Tong. You don’t remember? Ning Xue! the spirit-tyrant who broke-through about a week ago, you know... the beautiful lady who’s always been trying to pick a fight with me for no reason,” The boy rolled his eyes at this big guy then began to ignite his memory and finally the strong man seemed to remember, “She’s her closest friend and god-daughter, that’s what she looks like so don’t forget it.” The great-sage sent Zhang a picture through the ability of soul-link. The simple man itched the face into his memories before saying : “I won’t.” And Lin grinned when the big guy began to avoid direct eye-contact with him and said : “Tong stopped me earlier and asked me if you're single, oh! I believe she said : "That you're kind-of cool." but, when she tried to approach you and talk to you... hehehe... you completely ignored her and just gave her a grunt before leaving her. Big guy. Are you sure you're not playing hard to get? no! then... go spend some time with her, who knows? maybe, she isn't even your type. Just remember my only condition, and... don't be in such a hurry to take her to bed—at least—wait until she enjoys the meal first. Hahaha... big guy, you're blushing! oh wait. Tsk, he ran before I had any chance to tease him enough.” The boy smirked to himself after Zhang ran away from him while covering his ears then began to enjoy his breakfast until his stomach was topped... extending his ability of soul-sense out to maximum-range the great-sage sighed at how slow the recovery of soul-force—which is going at a snail’s pace—after the constant exhaustion during the past few days... be that for inscribing the formation-inscription for the ability of soul-lock or... what followed after when he had to use the incomplete-ability itself... when he had to use his—already weakened—soul-force to work on the red-shell of solidified sin-energy then... when he had to operate by himself and ended-up reviving Qing’s martial-spirit! “Finally the day arrived where I wake-up without having to run-around doing this or doing that! it won't be long now before we reach mercenary-city, I really wish that there's a green-stem of the white-lotus there... it doesn’t matter where or how much it’s going to cost me, what matters is for me is that there’s somewhere where I can buy it. Maybe... if I'm lucky? then... some earth-mercury would appear too.” While sitting cross-legged to meditate and cultivate some light-energy—to make-up for losing the two cloud-generals and the majority of the cloud-soldiers—Lin muttered to himself because he’s feeling hopeful towards a peaceful future... before deciding to work on appointing two new generals in-exchange for the two whom Kai "heartlessly" ordered him to sacrifice! the great-sage wants to get his hands on these two world-treasures quickly before time runs-out for Jin Bao... it that scenario happened? then... the boy would be forced to personally go and search the eastern and northern-continents for the two remaining spirit-resources yet... Lin isn't aware that his visit to mercenary-city is going to take much... much longer than he ever expected.