After having his fun teasing and interacting with Lin for a while... Mu Jianhong handed the boy an ivory jade-token and told him that he wouldn't be able to return all the way up and back to his master's personal on-top of the white-tower without it... right now this jade-token is considered the great-sage’s identity-token since he isn’t a mercenary... yet! the white-sovereign mercenary also told Lin that he can go and visit his friends if he wants... only after eating until he he’s full... this condition was nonnegotiable. The city-lord must’ve allowed it out of consideration for Lin's feelings... especially since the boy clearly seemed to be holding himself back despite really wanting to ask for permission to go and visit his friends.

After seeing this kind gesture from his new master—which the great-sage doesn’t really know yet what kind of person he is and what he’s after by taking him as a disciple—and understanding that this sovereign isn't going to force him to live in some sort of  prison or restricted him from at least touring mercenary-city... Lin just smiled and moved closer to give the elder a strong hug a kiss on the cheek before giving him his heartfelt thanks then running towards the entrance of this conference-hall... the boy ignored the circular stairs that lead upwards and downwards on this white-tower then went directly towards one of the large windows of the wide hallway and jumped! immediately the great-sage crossed the layer of white-colored cloud-like fog and while free-falling towards the base of the white-tower and allowing gravity to do its work Lin guided himself away from the lower floors which take a bigger and wider space.

Seeing these actions from the excited boy caused Mu Jianhong to smile widely and laugh care-freely while feeling blissed... then the white-sovereign mercenary raised his goblet towards his mouth and began to slowly sip on his wine after falling into a state of deep thoughts! actually the city-lord wasn't expecting Lin to accept him as his master so quickly... especially when considering the boy’s tender age and the suddenness of of everything that happened... this white-haired and muscular elder just swooped-in and snatched the kid for himself and declared him his last and closed-doors disciple. This city-lord and leader of all mercenaries in this city was preparing himself for a rebellion-phase from Lin before he woke-up... that’s why he didn’t immediately appear in front of the great-sage after he woke-up and let him ease-into things by talking with the amusing and carefree winged-tiger... Mu Jianhong was expecting the boy to push back against him and disobey him a lot! especially in the period of time that he begins to stay mercenary-city... yet Lin mentally adapted to the circumstances so quickly once he understood that resistance isn't going to achieve anything or cultivate any fruitful results on the long-term... that mature behavior from the boy worked in adding more to extreme pleasure and joy of the white-sovereign mercenary. Simply because... this final pupil of his just proved that he’s "the one and only of his kind" not only is he extremely talented on many areas and levelheaded to a frightening degree but also he’s easy-going and simple to interact with... yet he’s not naive, gullible, or guileless... the brat is dangerously calculative and have a unique trait of farsightedness and a special way of judging things! Mu Jianhong smiled when he found Lin in a hurry to go towards the people of the Cheng clan first thing after being excused while leaving his two beast-companions behind in the custody and care of his new master... that action might appear to some like the boy being eager to meet with his friends or him being worried for their sake and after calming them... yet someone like this city-lord knows that this choice was intentionally taken by the great-sage to send a message. Lin's quick and natural acceptance of Mu Jianhong have much to do with these friends of his—which are still inside mercenary-city—are under the mercy and within grasp of this white-sovereign mercenary... maybe if the boy had refused the tutelage of this white-haired and muscular elder then... the lives of his friends would be under great risk or outright endangered! that's why the great-safe left his two beast-companions behind when he went to visit the ones he care about... it’s a sign of his trust towards this city-lord to express his acceptance of Mu Jianhong as his master... this means that Lin is not only loyal but also true to his words... while being perceptive to the deeper meanings that lay behind his actions and aware of what others around him must be thinking or worried about. Once he finished his goblet of wine... the white-sovereign mercenary stood-up and slowly walked out from the conference-hall... the muscular old man went upward on the circular stairs towards his floor while submerged in his deep thoughts... while ascending these wide, circular, marble-steps the city-lord would sometimes gaze downwards at the biggest, busiest, most crowded floor... the ground-floor where countless mercenaries are entering or exiting the white-tower and doing their thing be that accepting missions or requesting assistance from others to buy or sell materials, medicinal-ingredients, and spirit-resources. Some are recruiting members to their teams, some are seeking the help of craftsmen, alchemists, or others with special profession... or the other way around where some alchemist would be looking for a certain medicinal-ingredient or material to refine a special pills or some forger or who’s looking to create a spirit-tools or equipment and lacking a material or spirit-resource to finish it... or buying and selling young and immature demonic-beasts which they happened to somehow "acquire" during their dangerous missions in beast-mountains! the further he ascended on these circular-steps the more people would follow Mu Jianhong on each floor... this time the ones who gathered behind the white-haired elder are just his disciples... this group of disciples which this white-sovereign mercenary has spent his life tending to them and caring for them was entirely behind the city-lord and following him in silence until he entered the top-floor on the peak of white-tower where only he himself or his disciples could freely enter... others only does so after the city-lord allows them into his space.

“Eh! senior Jianhong... w-where did Lin go? who are these guys? t-they're all monstrously strong!” Sun was feeling so bored after being on his own since Frostine seems to be in a hibernation-state ever since Lin played with her earlier... then his buddy left in a hurry with senior Jianhong after giving him the "look" which means : "don't go anywhere, don’t cause trouble" the winged-tiger ate his fill and took a nap yet when he woke-up these two didn't still hasn’t returned... feeling bored doing nothing the orange-kitten took a stroll in this floor to explore the place and found many things which seemed so strange... but the red-tiger was quickly bored once again and decided to return to the balcony instead of going anywhere else and causing itself and its best-friend some trouble! once Sun heard the noise of chattering coming from the direction of the circular-stairs he became so excited about the idea of having Lin take him to play somewhere or take him around to explore this mercenary-city... after running towards the source of these sounds the winged-tiger found itself face-to-face with Mu Jianhong ahead of a group of really frightening and scary-strong people... the orange-kitten immediately tucked its tail between its legs and crouched down towards the ground while warily asking this question and looking at the many new and different faces of these newcomers... the red-tiger strongly felt the alarm bell of its danger-sense loudly ring inside its head which meant "run, run, run, run!..."

“What a cutie pie! come here you...” Before the white-haired elder got to answer Sun’s question Yi Mingxia had already noticed the cute-looking little kitten and squatted next to it to massage its perfectly smooth fur... seeing the little devil-beast remaining completely still like a frozen fish without daring to move because of fear! this female white-sovereign mercenary raised the winged-tiger up then naturally hugged it towards her chest while running her fingertips through its fur and caressing the red-tiger wherever she likes... Sun didn’t seem to care or notice at all when his whiskers got messed-up or when he received tummy-rubs without permission... the only reason this orange-kitten didn’t piss itself and struggled to keep its body-fluid in was... because this frighteningly-formidable woman might crush the winged-tiger into meat-paste if it happened to drench her or sprinkle a single drop on her.

“Little Sun. There’s no need to be on-guard, all of these men and women are the older senior-disciple brothers and sisters of Lin’er from this day onwards. Now go play Lin’s room or have fun watching the scenery from the balcony until Lin’er return, he’s currently outside visiting his friends but he should be back soon. We still have something important to discuss right now so don’t disturb us any longer.” Mu Jianhong noticed how Sun almost to shit himself from terror while being on the receiving-end of Mingxia's "loving-touch" and cuddling! the city-lord patted the head of the orange-kitten with a thick, rough, and callused-finger then told the winged-tiger to leave—which caused the red-tiger to nod repeatedly while feeling the deepest emotions of gratitude towards Lin’s kind master—then Sun escaped towards the balcony after giving the people in this formidable gathering one final glance... the sight of the orange-kitten in a hurry to flee earned it a few displeased looks from Yi Mingxia who frowned slightly and said : “Tsk. You could've stayed a little bit longer, at least give big-sister a kiss and say goodbye before you leave! I'm not that scary... am I?” Afterwards Yi Mingxia smiled when she noticed how this cute devil-beast began run away faster when it heard what she just said... the second-disciple turned to ask her junior-disciple brothers and sister but they shrugged, snickered, giggled, or kept their silence, “Whatever, there’s always time to play together in the future. The little thing is much to my liking already... he’s too soft to the touch. I’m afraid that I’m already addicted to how it feels.” The female white-sovereign mercenary smirked then muttered while following her master and senior-disciple to enter the spacious hall where her master usually sits with them whenever they’re gathered to discuss important matters.

At the deepest location of this hall there’s a bronze-colored essence-burner on a dais that’s slightly elevated from the floor... wafting from a couple essence-sticks inside it is a few tendrils of white smoke which spread a very thick yet lovely scent everywhere inside this extremely wide and spacious hall... not only could that smoke calm the minds and relax the thoughts of everyone who smells it but also it sped-up the flow of comprehension while smoothening and increasing the efficiency of applying spirit-sense by making it much stronger and a lot more focused and keener! “Sigh. Like always... I couldn’t help but sigh to myself after experiencing once again how calming it makes me feel. Master... every time I get to smell the scent of your dao-essence my admiration for you would go a step further.” Yi Mingxia grinned and complemented the white-haired elder while taking her seat on one of the many praying-mats on the floor... inside this hall she and her juniors are just disciples who are gathered around their master... the rules of mercenary-guild no longer apply in these special occasions! the other men and women smiled and seriously nodded to agree with their senior-disciple sister Mingxia while sitting cross-legged around the city-lord... admiration for the man who’s been mainly the most important reason any of them could become as strong as they're right now is focused and directed towards this hulk of an elder.

“En. Big-sister Mingxia really said it right, thanks to this dao-essence... the last time I was in this "Essence-Hall" I managed to push the last step within my major-realm and rise to the peak-stage! but I still think that master should lower the cost of contribution-points for us—his disciples—even if it’s a slight bit. Twenty-thousand contribution-points in-exchange for a chance to stay a month in this hall caused me to be on the verge of bankruptcy in the few years that followed afterwards, my pockets really can’t endure such an extravagant behavior I really need to be more prudent when allocating my resources.” One female in the realm of spirit-emperor puckered her lips and spoke while giving their master begrudging looks... yet Mu Jianhong just smiled and shook his head to refuse her naughty-proposition without giving a reason.

“Tsk. So stingy! why is it that you seem to favor junior-disciple brother Lin more? you’re not allowed to show him any preferential-treatment then. If master dares to do so? then... t-then all of us brothers and sisters should gang-up on you and bully you, humph.” Another female who’s a close friend of the earlier female that gave the previous suggestion tried to support the claim of her senior-disciple sister and mischievously said that to her kind and almost-adorable master without feeling any shame... soon afterwards it was a "riot" where most of the disciples inside Essence-Hall agreed by saying it aloud, nodding their heads, or "silently" agreeing... Mu Jianhong found himself facing these "brats" whom the majority of them he once protected under his wing shamelessly branding him a "bully" while agreeing to use the advantage of numbers against him! “You bunch of ingrates! pay-up if you want to exchange for it or just scram. I’m not making you little brats pay a single contribution-point this time, am I? tsk, at least be grateful for the opportunity and give your master the thanks that he deserves after receiving his generosity. Just like I thought... Lin'er is the only one among you who deserves my attention, he’s so thoughtful, he would hug me and give me kiss whenever I allow him to go and play for a while. Tsk, tsk, tsk...” Despite saying that... the city-lord is indeed feeling really amused and proud of himself while looking around him at the big happy family that he made after spending years collecting them one by one.

“Junior-brothers and sisters. Certainty master have his reasons when it comes to this "troubling-matter" and that's why he couldn't lower the price any more for all of us but, at least we pay way less than others... they have to pay double in-exchange for the same amount of time while we pay just half! now... honorable-master certainly didn't gather all of us here just to listen to some of us grumbling about their difficulties.” Zi Yun who kept his silence ever since he sat next to the white-haired elder finally opened his mouth to say something... his first words were to calm his junior-disciple brothers and sister and stop them from pulling the leg of their master because no-matter how joyful it’s to do so... this city-lord wouldn’t budge an inch on this matter! “Yes. Yun'er said it right, it isn't easy for me to have my sweet disciples gathered around all at once at the same time... that's why I took the opportunity... to make sure that your opinions wouldn't be contradicting one another. Honestly, this isn't the time for us to have any disagreements between us! some of you must've noticed that not all of our people agree with my suggestion of letting the demonic-beasts enter our city,” Mu Jianhong spoke and found the one-hundred and seven disciples of his exchange looks in-between themselves then nod to agree with their master... continuing the white-sovereign mercenary said : “Why do you think I allowed it?” This time the city-lord gestured for them to speak their minds and his disciples didn't shy-away from saying anything that’s on their mind if they felt the need to say it... some said that it’s because their mercenary-city is burdened with the annual-rent which they have to pay to the cultivation-alliance! some said that it’s because the death-toll of their members within beast-mountains alone every year is double the amount of death their members face anywhere else within the entirety of the southern-continent... some said that the nature of their organization doesn't encourage an association with other organizations or establishments who mainly focus on profitable affiliations like blacksmithing, apothecary, alchemy, tailoring, forging, talismans, spirit-winery, and trade... their only advantage over other cities around mercenary-city is the that the land in the territory that belong to the guild is rich with many lodes of different types of metal ores yet even after mining those locations they use it for their armors or sell them at cost-price without really making any profit from them... another argued that their mines aren't spirit-mines where they can extract spirit-ores but mines for mortal material like dark-steel, deep-silver, or heavy-gold... the high-quality ores are both rare to find and very few in quantity which means... it isn’t really an advantage for their mercenary-guild anyway.

“Unlike the three branches within the rest of the continents... this location of the mercenary-guild is the only branch where the land isn't ours by right, to make it that way we have to rely on ourselves since no one else is going to extend their hand and assist us in our time of need. The tactic of the cultivation-alliance is to slowly bleed us dry year by year, we know it, they know it, yet we’re in a passive, helpless-position and we can’t stop it... because we have no other choice but to pay the price they're asking for which is... too, too much! both us and them know that they're selling us their trash while proclaiming that it’s some "heavenly-gold" still we accepted, before we rented this kingdom it was nothing but a barren land that’s constantly raided by beast-waves and used as a buffer-zone against the beasts from beast-mountains and extends all the way in every direction towards the territories of Dou-empire. The high-ranking officials from the cultivation-alliance refused to take this piece of land even if it was for free... the advantage of creating a kingdom and establishing a royal family for their own descendants didn’t sway their decisions and they still refused this "hot-potato" throughout the generations of ancient times, yet when we lost our headquarters and had to branch-out from the mainland our predecessors asked for this land since it’s suitable for our line of work however, they were given two options... either pay the sky-high price to buy this kingdom or... pay the exaggerated price of annual-rent for it. Whenever we try to pacify our closest neighbors—the demonic-beasts—and make them accept our presence just like how they accepted the Elves before us, it’s either people from the cultivation-alliance who cause mischief and stir the murky-water from the shadows or... the spies that they planted among us would accept requests then enter the territories of demonic-beasts while masquerading as our people before poking the eyes of the beasts and draw their ire towards our guild and fuel their hate by directing their noses towards our city after intentionally leaving some hints. While the territories and cities of the cultivation-alliance are safe and sound from all this mayhem and profiting more than we do from their thriving trade-network and their flourishing organizations... we take the blame for their crimes and the enmity of the demonic-beasts towards us deepen, the worst of all is that they’re using us as a shield in this "chokepoint" where the south and west meet at the gate of the human-domain, towards the south there’s demonic-beasts glaring at us and towards the west there’s Elves completely blocking us... east and north there’s our fellow cultivators welcoming us with smiles on their faces while hiding poisoned daggers behind their back, the prices of everything are raised according to the wishes of the cultivation-alliance whenever they feel like suppressing our guild they don’t hesitate. While the occasional loss of some clients of the cultivation-alliance under by stomping-claws of beast-waves at pearl-road isn't low, it isn’t even affecting the gains of the cultivation-alliance at all and to top it off... they get to suck our blood every year while we lick our wounds and endure in silence while grieving the loss of our brave brothers and sisters.” Mu Jianhong spoke and his disciples listened closely while clenching their fists or sighing in helplessness... they all felt the burdens that their master inherited from the ones who held his position before him and sensed how weak and aged he felt judging by his tone of voice... most of them already knew the history of their mercenary-city and the price of establishing this branch of mercenary-guild and year after year they watched the city their master rules after proving his true worth in being a leader of all the mercenaries within the southern-continent... they watched it suffer under the constant harassment from the demonic-beasts on one side and suffer from the financial-suppression and hidden-schemes from the cultivation-alliance on the other side! meanwhile the Elves guarded against them by completely closing their borders and refusing any attempt to trade with them or even care to hear the terms of the proposition their mercenary-guild is offering... the Dou-empire and the rest of the empires and kingdoms within the territories of the human-domain do send their requests for the mercenaries and issue missions almost every day of the year... yet most of these requests and missions either end-up with the death of the mercenaries because the missions and requests are mostly extremely dangerous or... the missions or requests would be completed successfully but the majority of the reward itself has to be given to the brave mercenaries who deserve every single spirit-coin, crystal, jade, or essence from the reward. If the rewards from missions and requests aren’t high? then... this branch of mercenary-guild would've suffered from the lack of work-force long... long ago! still... that means that their master is almost working for free to keep things functioning properly in mercenary-city for long... long years now. Being his disciples these men and women help their master to the best of their abilities by personally taking requests and missions and contributing most of their rewards to mercenary-city where their master is free to allocate it wherever he sees fit yet... despite all their hard work they still can’t help this white-haired elder escape that revolting scheme from the cultivation-alliance... yet! being one of the current four main-headquarters for mercenaries in spirit-world... the mercenaries at the branch of the southern-continent are known for being the weakest link in the chain... simply because their position isn't firm or stable enough when compared to the other three branches. Their land and territory isn't their own but rented from the cultivation-alliance... the same sly cultivation-alliance which knows very well that there’s no other location in the whole southern-continent that’s more suitable for the mercenaries to settle in... other than this dangerous spot of the southern-continent that’s owned by the cultivation-alliance the mercenaries would never find a location that’s near the sea, beast-mountains, eternal-forest, and the human-domain at the same time! that's why the board of command within the cultivation-alliance has always been making sure that they do their best in-order not to let mercenary-guild stabilize its footing or plant any solid foundation within the territory or make any strong connections with any big force of the southern-continent... simply because... it’s their continent... at least the people from the cultivation-alliance have always seen it that way.

“Master don't worry, they wouldn't dare do anything within our mercenary-city... the hand they extend is going to be the one we cut, it’s going to be that way no-matter how many hands they have.” One blue-king mercenary said and the rest nodded after hearing the brave words from their brother... yet Zi Yun shook his head because he knows how their master usually thinks.

“Still. Why would sky-queen Hongtian be after our junior-disciple brother Lin? she really did seem a bit aggressive earlier! I can’t imagine myself being in his position... being a first-stage spirit-apprentice and all while being marked as a target by one of the ten kingly-beasts.” Another female remembered her cute, funny, and a bit mischievous little junior-disciple and asked while feeling confused... the whole reason Hongtian is bringing her swarm of birdies and flocking towards their city is to get a chance of laying her hands on Lin! many speculations and deductions were exchanged by the brothers and sisters after hearing this question from their sister and Mu Jianhong—like always—preferred-to hear what his disciples have to say on this matter first without intervening... gradually the group of disciples once again turned towards their master looking for answers when they couldn’t come-up with anything solid or reasonable... sky-queen being after their little junior-disciple brother to make him her boy-toy or partner were treated like silly jokes.

“First and foremost, that’s going to be the most important duty for all of you... it’s to always keep an eye on Lin'er. I doubt that these snakes hidden in the grass and the ones in the shadows would dare openly attempt anything... at least not until Hongtian is and her followers are already here, just so that they may dump the blame on her or her subjects which would let us lock-horns with the demonic-beasts once again and everything returns to what it once were. Get yourselves accustomed to closely watching-over him from now on, because when that little girl arrives I’d mostly be preoccupied by operating the protective-formation and keeping the strongest of our "friends" in check, that way I’d be able to tie their hands and restrict their freedom so that they wouldn't be able to cause any major disturbance within my city. If the spark of their rebellion is going to be lit within the city anyway? then... all of us have to be properly prepared beforehand and that's why I've brought all of you here, to be ready in-case it happens. Until the deal is confirmed and Hongtian with the beasts from her territory are at the southern-doors of our city... you're all allowed to stay here as long as you like and benefit from my dao-essence without having to pay a single contribution-point! as for the reason why Hongtian wants Lin'er? I can tell you why because it isn’t something that needs to be a secret at all but, that would ruin the fun of it. You can all learn about it and see it in-person if the boy couldn't overcome this challenge, and still know all about it if he manages to do so. Just understand this single point... if our united efforts enables us to weather the incoming storm? then the chances of our mercenary-guild gaining a solid-firm hold within the southern-continent would at least increase by two-times! but we have to make sure that these demonic-beasts wouldn't receive any unfair treatment during the short span of time that they're going to spend inside the walls of our city, that's the key to making this whole plan work.” Mu Jianhong still didn't give his disciples a clear answer yet he gave them a few hints plus a piece of valuable information... meanwhile the advantage of being able to freely stay within their master’s Essence-Hall until sky-queen Hongtian decides to visit their mercenary-city once again caused these kings, emperors, and sovereigns to wish if she’d take her sweet... sweet time coming back! watching over a first-stage spirit-apprentice? enforcing the laws and terms of the agreement as long as the demonic-beasts are staying inside their city? when it comes to this group of disciples—which the weakest individual among them is a low-grade spirit-king—having to do either of these two requirements in-exchange for the advantage of freely staying inside their master's Essence-Hall is just... too good to be true. This reward is extremely generous from the city-lord while the task in itself is extremely easy for this group to accomplish without breaking a sweat.

“Even if master didn't say anything about it... I would never ever allow anyone to harm my junior-disciple brother Lin, he made me laugh so hard to the degree where I didn't care anymore and almost forgot all about how that Hongtian was being rude to me just earlier! still, I’ll never forget how the little brat really dared to try and trick both big-brother Yun and me into betting with him, is he really only six years and six months old? he looks older and acts like he’s much, much older.” Yi Mingxia crossed her arms and beamed with a wide smile on her face... then the female white-sovereign mercenary looked towards her master and asked while feeling it not being normal to have such a weird mixture of characteristics in such a young junior! the city-lord nodded to confirm it once again while sensing some truth within the words of his second-disciple... the rest of the disciples didn't push for more answers from the white-haired elder about why Hongtian is after Lin yet... soon afterwards the hall became heated with chattering after these men and women curiously asked about the boy's origin, his natural-affinity, latent-potential, talent, etc.

Mu Jianhong had no trouble revealing a few things about his closed-doors disciple yet he refused to answer a lot of questions and kept that information to himself but... the white-sovereign mercenary clearly warned these disciples and told them to refrain from asking Lin himself about these things! the city-lord forbad them from trying to dig into the background of their junior-disciple because... sooner or later they'd get the chance to know all about it... right now this white-haired elder just wants his precious little disciple to feel being welcomed within this city and for all of them to give the kid some sense of belonging within this big family. After saying these final words to his disciples Mu Jianhong got up and left one-hundred and seven men and women within his Essence-Hall wondering about some things related to Lin... while he himself went towards the boy’s room specifically the balcony where the city-lord spent the whole night chatting with the kid’s cute beast-companion who likes to enthusiastically talk about the great-sage, their home—which Lin contributed the most in building and making it the way it became—and much... much more! while the winged-tiger talked like chatterbox without being bored... the white-sovereign mercenary was monitoring the actions of his closed-doors disciple very closely and carefully with his spirit-sense. Until Hongtian decides to visit mercenary-city again—hopefully while being surrounded by countless demonic-beasts and stacked-full with riches—this white-haired elder is capable of handling things on his own and keep the city calm... during that time his disciples can ready and prepare themselves however... if the guests really decide to visit? then... Mu Jianhong would be delusional if he ever thinks that he would be able suppress everything and everyone on his own! thankfully... this white-sovereign mercenary isn't alone... his group of loyal disciples—who wouldn’t hesitate to cover his back—are going to help in this matter... not to mention that they’re always more than happy to help whenever it means that these "brats" would get time to spend without cost within his Essence-Hall.

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

Lin surrendered to the power of gravity yet the boy vaguely felt his body being scanned when he passed through the thick-layer of white-colored cloud-like fog... during that short moment the boy also sensed the ivory-white jade-token that’s inside his space-ring which his master gave him earlier buzz faintly! then that layer of fog—which could be seen from outside mercenary-city if the point of view is ten kilometers high or higher—opened like the gates of heaven in legends and by spreading to the sides in front of the freefalling great-sage to reveal the view of mercenary-city from above... beside the white-tower that’s taking the center-point of this huge city and the wide plaza all around it... the second building to notice would be the round one that’s similar to the great sport’s stadium from his previous life... about a dozen more buildings around the plaza shared the same size more or less... the rest of the buildings are clearly in a much smaller-scale... beyond them within the streets further away from the plaza there’s a plethora of restaurants, inns, stores selling various types of merchandize, taverns, a pleasure-district, etc. Looking upwards to check the layer of fog from below... Lin found no trace of it all despite focusing and straining his eyes to the limit and the blue sky was the only thing there for him to look at! yet... once the boy used his soul-sense he clearly felt the existence of a barrier that prevented his soul-force from moving any further than a certain distance... the only reason it spread further upward is because the great-sage is the one falling downwards not the other way around. The city below him is clearly very lively while a very loud cheering-noise kept coming from the direction of that stadium-like monument of a great-sized building... many people below Lin in the wide plaza were entering or exiting the white-tower through its gigantic gates... each one of these gates is facing one of the eight streets that connect the city from every direction to the plaza... each one of these streets is more than wide enough to facilitate the traffic from different parts of mercenary-city and into the plaza or the other way around smoothly! the boy glided clockwise around and away the white-tower—which kept  getting thicker and taking bigger and wider space the closer it became to the ground-floor—Lin calculated that he's going to land in front of one of the eight entrances of this not so small establishment... slightly before when the boy spread his soul-sense into the city he noticed Chen Fu, Ning Xue, and little Tong moving ahead the members of their crushing-hammer mercenaries... they’re heading towards one of the entrances to the white-tower however... there’s another woman with the group who have a degree of beauty that’s comparable to Ning Xue... this foreign woman is walking next to Chen Fu ahead of the rest of the mercenary-group... the place where the great-sage choose to land is in front of these acquaintances of his.

The foreign beautiful woman : “Hmmm.”

Ning Xue : “Brat! it’s you... tsk.”

Chen Fu : “Little-Fan. This is the one that I told you about earlier, without young-hero Ming's help then... the loss our group might’ve suffered would've been... just disastrous. We really lucked-out by meeting him in this mission.”

Chen Fan nodded and said nothing to reply after hearing her big-brother however... her phoenix-eyes looked towards the little boy that’s wearing a cute aquamarine-pajama curiously... that kid adeptly scattered the force of his fall through quick acrobatic demonstration! once his legs touched the ground the great-sage tucked his knees towards his chest and flipped forward while supporting his body on his hands... for a moment there this woman mistook young-hero Ming for a very agile and strong small-sized monkey when stretched his tucked knees and spread his legs and pushed against the ground then flipped his body forward... then the boy did another high flip by jumping into the air to scatter the remaining amount of force of gravity away from his body then lightly landed and straightened his pajamas before walking towards their group without revealing any sign of feeling accomplished or proud on his expression at all.

“Young-hero Ming!”

“Amazing! amazing technique and control like always... young-hero Ming is so awesome.”

“First I thought it was some kind of bird up there in the sky and circling the white-tower, yet who would’ve known? it turns-out that it has been young-hero Ming all along!”

“Didn't you say earlier that he have wings? why didn't he use them to help him land then? had he missed a step... then he could've really hurt himself!”

“Yes. It seemed really dangerous, especially for a first-stage spirit-apprentice like him... it could be lethal you know.”

“Shut up! you haven't been around with us and boss Fu in the last mission, so don't go around running your mouth and spouting nonsense... you better stop before embarrassing yourselves and our crushing-hammer mercenaries.”

“Heh. Let them be, let them be... frogs in a well I say.”

“What was that?”

“Frog... in... a’well.”

“Bastard! you looking for a fight?”

“I don’t mind wiping the floor with your ugly mug later, I received the personal teachings of young-hero Ming before and it helped me gain enlightenment in my technique... not to mention that my spirit-cultivation has surpassed yours by two entire stages now. If you dare talk trash about my role-model then I’ll press your face in the mud and beat you up!”

“Tsk.”

“Thought so... more bark than bite, kekeke.”

Lin noticed the new faces in the group and the ongoing situation of back and forth arguments between the group—which began to attract the attention of other people in their surroundings, people who saw Lin's stunt from earlier—not wanting to waste time being the "exotic creature" for the people in the plaza... the boy cupped his fist to greet old Fu and the rest while saying : “Good afternoon everyone. Do you mind pointing me towards the direction of the residence of merchant Wei? sigh... little-Xue, there’s no need for you to bring-up the matter of my debt, I’m well aware about what I still owe your mercenary-group... have some patience, soon I’ll  knocking on your door to deliver it.”

Ning Xue : “Tsk.” The long-legged beauty was really disappointed of herself and slightly angry at this kid because the great-sage just spoke about what was on her mind.

Ning Tong giggled after seeing her godmother being blocked and prevented from saying any witty remarks... Tong has some bent-up feelings of frustration towards this water-cultivator! simply because... the mist-cultivator has been grounded by the spirit-tyrant who told her goddaughter that she isn't allowed to go visit Zhang... without her permission. However... the eyes of the young-woman lit-up after hearing young-hero Ming since this is an opportunity to reunite with her simple-man... and opportunity this boy just presented! little-Tong tried to speak and volunteer but... this peak-perfection spirit-disciple was a bit slow in her reaction because... the mist-cultivator discovered that she’s unable to move her body. The voluptuous-woman is already holding her by the shoulder and pressing on one of the acupoints on her goddaughter to stop her from saying anything.

'No!' Knowing what her godmother just did... Ning Tong felt despair when she witnessed young-hero Ming look towards her direction then away... the young-woman felt like her hope is gone and now there’s no chance of him helping her meet with her lover Zhang! the only way it can happen if the boy specifically choose her to be the one to lead the way for him... now that the kid has looked away... she’s going to be stuck with her godmother who’s restricting her and refusing to listen to little-Tong or believe that Zhang is really someone who deserves her goddaughter.

Chen Fu : “Young-hero Ming is jesting. Certainly we won't be haunting you or disturbing your rest no-matter the reason, the residence of the Cheng clan is located in the southeastern-district near the outskirts of the city. Oh! by the way, I didn't get the chance to introduce you to the advisor of our group... this is my sister Chen Fan.”

Lin—who was looking towards the southeastern-direction of this city and scanning it with his soul-sense and about to use the ability of soul-gaze after failing to locate the residence—turned slightly to the side and looked towards Chen Fu's sister Chen Fan then cupped his fist before giving her a serious nod and saying : “Advisor-Fan well met, it’s my pleasure to finally meet the one responsible for the great deal of the success of this group of crushing-hammer mercenaries, it’s all thanks to your wise recommendations and patient grooming of their unhealthy thoughts of self-satisfaction. Boss Fu... you wouldn't mind me taking little-Tong to show me the way, I really hope not, after all... I don't want to lose my way while looking for the residence all by myself in this big city, or to waste any time doing just that.” Chen Fan’s phoenix-eyes brightened after hearing this compliment from this cute kid but this beauty held her words back... she gave this young-hero Ming—who’s also a disciple of sovereign Jianhong—a scrutinizing gaze when she heard him say exactly what she has been doing for many years now! after giving the boy a nod this advisor-Fan alongside the rest of the mercenary-group looked towards Ning Xue... most of these people wondered why is the long-legged beauty holding her goddaughter by the shoulder? this time Ning Xue happened to be the one shivering when she heard the words this kid just said. 'Yes! young-hero Ming you're the best, I love you so much right now... just a tiny bit less than Zhang though.' Ning Tong was inwardly jumping from joy and performing a few cartwheels.

Chen Fu : “Not at all, not at all... young-hero Ming you’re more than welcome to take little-Tong with you. Girl, take young-hero Ming to the residence of the Cheng clan, remember... don’t come back unless young-hero Ming specifically tell you that. When you’re no longer needed you can return, you can always take your test and become a silver-mercenary later, when you're done come take the test,” Sensing something off from the posture of little-Tong... Chen Fu continued to talk while looking directly towards the young-woman that his wife if currently holding her and circling her shoulder with an arm and raised an eyebrow, “Litt-” However... before the earth-cultivator could say anymore the great-sage cut the spirit-tyrant off by saying : “Little-Xue. Can you let go of little-Tong now? after all... you've been pushing her paralysis pressure-point for a while now.” Lin looked towards Ning Xue and calmly watched her become shocked then reveal an embarrassed expression on her beautiful face... then looked towards Ning Tong who gave her godmother an annoyed look while gazing at the water-cultivator while squinting once this spirit-tyrant released the mist-cultivator... clearly there’s too many words left unsaid in this situation... maybe if they were alone then these two would’ve "wildly" screamed at one another in a heated argument! then the boy shook his head once he looked towards the leader of this mercenary-group and notice this man who’s "left in the dark" look at his woman and express befuddlement and confusion on his face... the great-sage shook his head while smiling faintly then cupped his fist towards the mercenary-group for the last time before walking towards the southeastern-direction of this plaza... his target is one of the eight wide roads that connect the outskirts of this mercenary-city with this plaza. Ning Tong stuck her tongue out towards her godmother then actually gave the beauty a tight hug before giggling and running after young-hero Ming... the young-woman left the long-legged and voluptuous Ning Xue stomping her feet and cursing faintly while feeling really annoyed! earlier today this first-stage spirit-tyrant had a long conversation with her goddaughter... their agreement was that Ning Tong wouldn’t actively seek Wang Zhang until the simple man personally come seek her out... then the long-legged beauty would test the conviction of that man and see for herself just serious he really is about the mist-cultivator. However... the frustrated beauty never expected young-hero Ming to allow the young-woman to exploit this loophole in their agreement! right now Ning Xue really wants to spank the brat who ruined her plan.

“Cough!”

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah. Must be little-Xue, I bet she’s cursing and condemning me to damnation right now.”

Ning Tong : “Thanks.”

Lin : “Don't mention it. I guess the earlier behavior from Xue means that she already knows all about the relationship between you and my brother Zhang.”

While blushing slightly yet smiling widely at the same time... little-Tong nodded then raised her left-hand up in front of her face and began to gently touch a ring on her ring-finger! it isn't a space-ring or decorated with some pieces of precious jewelry or anything... it’s nothing but a plain and crude-looking ring that’s made from rough-looking red-colored metal that completely lacks in craftsmanship and style yet... in the loving and infatuated-eyes of this peak-perfection spirit-disciple this ugly-looking ring is more precious than any other ring in the world.

Soon Lin and little-Tong left the plaza and took the southeastern-road... the boy wasn’t really walking but running because the distance is quite long... the residence of the Cheng clan is—at least—more than fifty-one kilometers away from the white-tower... both the great-sage and the young-woman had no trouble while moving southeast at such a high speed amongst the crowds despite the existence of many people shopping the stores on the main-street and every side-street! especially the ones located near the plaza... thankfully this congested-roads gradually became less trafficked after Lin and little-Tong widened the distance between them and the central-area of mercenary-city... the boy noticed how the mist-cultivator began to reveal signs of exhaustion after they ran forty kilometers or so and decided to give her a break... she’s wearing the full-armor of dark-steel and sometimes this spirit-disciple had to use her mist-energy to aid her in keeping-up with the great-sage’s speed.

Noticing how little-Tong was mostly distracted during this break and fondling the red-colored "abomination" of a ring with her thumb gently when they began to walk... every now and then this young-woman would giggle to herself—which made her look so adorably-silly and—Lin had to ask : “Is Zhang being good to you? he isn't bullying you, you can always come to me if dares do or say anything that might hurt your feelings. I want you to know that, my doors would always be open for you so... don’t hesitate. I don’t take sides, being fair is much better.” Tong nodded in the beginning while smiling even wider then... the young-woman shook her head strongly while frowning! Afterwards she smiled devilishly once the mist-cultivator heard young-hero Ming telling her that he would judge fairly without patting an eye... then the Ning Tong opened her mouth to say : “I liked him, I really like him a lot because... his heart is very pure! but I guess that you know all about that already, right? unlike his handsome-looking friend who keeps checking every woman or girl that his eyes happens to fall-on... Zhang is very strong yet he’s always trying to become stronger, he’s loyal, gentle, and simple. You really should've seen how devastated he was when he discovered that you're missing! hehehe... he looked very cute when I found him squatting in a dark corner of his room and hugging his knees crying while being in a complete loss of what to do.” When Lin noticed the rosy cheeks of this little-Tong blush even further he figured-out what must’ve happened afterwards between these two.

Lin : “Just take care of the big-guy and if you can... try and pay his family a visit, go with him or make the trip alone whatever suits you best. His mother has been very eager for a daughter-in-law and some grandchildren for a long while now, she wouldn't stop nagging him about it whenever he returns so... better save your man some stress! I believe the reason why Zhang has been delayed from some breakthroughs during the past few years has to do a lot with the circumstances of his family, at least the lack of understanding between them has caused the poor guy some setbacks.”

Tong : “But, the Sunrise-empire is very, very far from our mercenary-city! I don't know if big-sister Xue would allow me to leave, from yesterday until today she kept scolding me abou-” Suddenly the young-woman stopped and blushed very hard while thinking : 'That was close!' The mist-cultivator almost told young-hero Ming how she kept arguing with her godmother for many long hours about how she's free to surrender her purity to whomever she feels like it... and how her feelings for the muscular-simpleton are genuine.

Lin : “She does have a point you know, I understand how she must feel betrayed and is questioning her trust in you. Don’t get me wrong... even I was surprised by how fast things happened between you and Zhang, your relationship advanced so quickly to the degree where anyone would question if it’s some sort of a "fling" when I heard the news! still I believe that you probably did the right thing by being pushy, Zhang isn't the brightest-type of person and things wouldn’t go anywhere if he’s handled slowly however... you need to be really, really careful because his inherent-trait of stubbornness is a bit difficult to deal-with. That characteristic should never be met with an opposing-force of stubbornness from your side otherwise... things between you would become really complicated even for me to solve! he's both fire and earth while you're mist. Be calm and gentle with him all the time and you'll never find or see him as someone who’s hard to deal with, when he settles-down you can "cloud" and "bewitch" his judgment then direct him wherever you want without having to ague. Zhang is the type to follow but, if you ever lose your patience or let your temper flare on him? then... you'd be really lost trying to figure-out how his simple mind really works! that's my advice to you, as for his family being far away? well... it isn't going to be a problem at all trust me, just wait for the surprise.” Little-Tong blushed slightly when young-hero Ming spoke about her and Zhang... the young-woman already knows that men talk about such things just like how women loves to immerse themselves in such acts of gossip but... she didn't like it that her simple-idiot told a little-boy about their secret affair still... the kid did give her some valuable pieces of advice then assured her without disclosing much information yet... the mist-cultivator found herself believing each word he said which is so strange! simply because... according to what she experienced and according to Zhang who kept emphasizing this point over and over... this boy is very dependable and more than amazing... whatever little-Tong knows about the kid there’s much more still hidden and left unrevealed. Even after the mist-cultivator personally experienced and witnessed what this young-hero Ming capable of doing during their earlier journey together... little-Tong who already thinks of this boy like he’s some great genius of this world who’s certainly going to grow into some formidable figure under the tutelage of sovereign Jianhong... the spirit-disciple still can’t believe how easy-going the not so difficult to approach! most of the people who belong to that category and the genius-class would be... both aloof and proud plus being against the idea of mingling with the likes of her, her man, the fat-merchant, or her entire mercenary-group... little-Tong attributed this characteristic of his to the kid’s young age. Yet this young-hero Ming did indeed give her the opportunity to work things-out with Zhang without any hiccups then... once again he gave the young-woman the opportunity to meet with her man when her godmother was making things difficult to her! the boy could've just asked for anyone else to lead him towards the residence of the Cheng clan... he clearly chose her because the kid is intentionally helping the mist-cultivator and aiding her in becoming familiar with Zhang since he already knows about the strong man’s many troubles. Little-Tong looked towards young-hero Ming while feeling deep gratitude and found the boy looking curiously at everything around him... this look of excitement within the kid’s golden-eyes suited his age better and the young-woman felt happy for him when she noticed him enjoying himself and immersed in some sightseeing of the sceneries within mercenary-city! after smirking devilishly to herself Ning Tong leaned to the side and gave the boy’s cheek a juicy kiss... then the mist-cultivator just cutely scrunched her nose when she found the kid giving her a certain "look" before smiling then shrugging... this is the most genuine thanks from this maiden and the great-sage accepted it. Afterwards Lin walked with Ning Tong for about thirty more minutes on the southeastern-road before she led him into some side-road that branches from this main-road... they took many turns on the much narrower and empty roads for about thirty more minutes or so before they finally reached the residence of the Cheng clan... this residence is located in a slum-like area that’s quite near the city-walls! the land it occupies is a few acres worth of land where a dozen-story building is built right in the middle... there’s a garden in front of it and the stables are positioned on the right from the main-gate... a storage area on the left from the gate where the carriages of Wei’s caravan are orderly parked... meanwhile the area behind the dozen-story building is a training-ground surrounded by a few pavilions and behind them there’s an artificial stream snaking-about the area and circling a small fountain right in the middle. Above the main-gate of the residence Lin found the words "Cheng clan" and below them "Sunrise-empire" yet... there’s no guards standing on-guard inside or outside these walls! “There’s no one inside, it seems like we're going to wait for them until they return... I hope you don't mind waiting.” The boy retracted his soul-sense after finding nothing alive inside the residence besides the few beasts within the stables... the great-sage walked towards the main-gate while saying that then sat-down cross-legged in the shade then closed his eyes and began to meditate. Ning Tong was feeling pretty impatient because this maiden wants to be reunited with her beloved Zhang after spending over a whole day being separated... the young-woman kept tapping on the ground with one of her feet after leaning her back on the walls of the Cheng clan's residence... the mist-cultivator felt like every second spent without the simple man's strong arms around her is a second more gone to absolute waste! the boy could sense the general direction where both Qiang Chi and Rong Qing are located and somewhat estimate the distance between them yet... he decided to just wait here instead of going to look for them because he really doesn’t need them to help him with anything right now.

After using his inner-sight to dive deep and take a look at the inward-view of his physical-body... the great-sage immediately sensed the existence of a new, novel, and special type of "power" inside his physique! this power never entered the dantian-space, glass-heart, or the soul-world but... it moved freely and unrestricted inside and between the cells of his body... clearly that power favors the inner-organs especially the liver which already began to gain a shade of green-color to its brownish-red color.

“If I didn't know better? then... I would've said we're getting sick however, ever since that liver started to turn green and I'm feeling that we’re becoming more and more powerful by the second.” Gang appeared next to Lin and grinned while commenting about the ongoing change.

“A golden heart, another heart that’s a lot like glass and about to shatter from two types fire-intent inside it, then now it's a green liver. What’s becoming of us? I really can't understand... whenever I begin to adapt why’s everything keeps changing once again? it keeps throwing me off-balance!” Lin watched the blood coming from this liver and spoke while seeming to be in some sort of a daze... the blood filtered by this green liver similarly have a faint green-color to it because of the effects from the green strands that are mixed inside it with the strands of light-energy—which took residence inside the boy's body long ago after his heart became gold in color—when the great-sage tried to control this power... he’s quite certain that it’s the fabled qi-vitality! especially after his master notified him that Lin has already managed to successfully connected the final acupoint in his group of lesser body-refining after the "blood-shed" phenomenon happened... according to what Mu Jianghong said the boy now is a "minor body-refiner" yet there’s still work that needs to be done in that area. The great-sage felt the acupoints on his back—which were previously unblocked—suddenly come to life and "breathe" after being dormant and closed during his entire life then... some sort of stream-like flow began to connect these acupoints one by one with an increasing sense of lava-like "heat" that became very intense right before the circle between these acupoints became complete! that special type of power that body-refiners call qi-vitality began to race inside that circle and spread a sense of intoxicating-strength all-over the body... Lin and Gang very clearly sensed how every plant in their surrounding of one-hundred meters are willingly offering to share their life-force with them... attempting to get a feel of what it’s like to take the life-force from these plants shocked the boy and his sin-brother... simply because... that special type of power perfectly fused with the qi-vitality within their acupoints and strengthened it by a visible margin. The more the great-sage and the deadly-sin of wrath pushed further and sped the rate their qi-vitality moved within the lively circle of acupoints... the more life-force they were able to receive from the plants within the range of their sense! knowing that if they extracted any more life-force from these plants they’d cause them to die and wither-away... Lin and Gang stopped and immediately noticed how their simple experiment with qi-vitality has just helped their soul-force recover... the maximum-range of the ability of soul-sense received an addition of a few hundred meters. Then the boy and his sin-brother recalled the scene of the gigantic Eternal-Forest that’s just nearby and both of them exchanged a look while wondering... what would happen if they tried to attempt this method of recovery while being inside or close to it? after shaking his head to scatter this idea since his master clearly isn’t going to allow him to leave mercenary-city... at least not until the issue between him and sky-queen Hongtian is settled... the great-sage extracted himself from the state of inner-sight and willed for his view to enter the soul-world where he and the deadly-sin of wrath began to seriously meditate according to the teachings of the soul-strengthening technique. After spending such a long time where his soul-force is being in a weakened-state... Lin decided to work on it with Gang and recover their soul-world back into its optimum-state and refill it with soul-force until it reaches its maximum-capacity before working once again on the unfinished inscriptions and runes of the soul-ability of soul-lock.

Meanwhile just next to Lin in the material-world... the young-woman who’s called Ning Tong isn't impatiently tapping on the floor with her foot anymore but looking towards the boy with extreme apprehension inside her eyes instead... just earlier this spirit-disciple felt her heart-rate slow down almost to a halt! the mist-cultivator almost felt like her blood just froze within her veins after a sense of cold fear completely overcame her body... after taking a few more steps away from the great-sage little-Tong kept her vigilance and guarded her mind but... Ning Tong didn't experience that frightening sensation again and this young-hero Ming was like a small stone statue... incapable of motion.

When it was dusk and the sky began to darken two men appeared at the end of the street towards the north... both of them ran towards the bored young-woman who’s leaning against the walls of the residence of the Cheng clan and the young kid who’s sitting cross-legged on the ground a few meters next to her... Lin opened his eyes and got-up on his feet then calmly waited for them to arrive while patting his dusty clothes... the boy watched his two followers run towards him with wide, excited, and happy smiles on their faces! just like how these guys vaguely sensed the position of their young-master Lin because of the oaths they took... the great-sage has always been aware of their general-direction and is always able of making a close-estimation of their location because... like Sun before them Lin had left both of them with a soul-mark from his ability of soul-candle... it’s very helpful because it enables the boy to find his followers whenever they’re needed and that's why the great-sage was never in a hurry to find Chi and Qing before Wei and his two clansmen. Unfortunately these two weren’t with the fatty and the others however... their armaments and equipment are... noticeably improved by more than a few ranks! “Welcome back young-master.” Seeing an outsider standing next to the boy... the former-general and former-assassin didn't mention names and politely greeted Lin on a single knee... Qiang Chi is wearing a full-body armor that’s completely brown in color and the visor of his helmet is left open... that helmet is shaped in the style of a bear’s head with a slightly long snout below the visor! meanwhile on the young-man’s back is a great-axe that have wide blades on both sides and a sharp spear-like protrusion on-top... this weapon looks very heavy since it’s fully made out of black-steel and deep-silver... below that spirit-tool there’s a wall-like shield that’s much wider than the man who carries it while being about a head shorter and slightly curved on both sides. Rong Qing on the other hand is wearing a simple grey-colored robe and on his waist there’s a belt that’s half-black and half-gold... there’s two scabbards hanging from this unique belt and inside them there’s two swords where one of them have a gold-red handle while the other sword have a black-silver handle... besides the space-ring that this man originally owned he’s wearing three more space-rings! even the scarred young-man is wearing two space-rings which are of much higher-quality than the one he owned.

Lin : “I see. Did you two enjoy the shopping-spree that you two had while I’m away? I really hope that both of you managed to find whatever that you were looking for, are you satisfied with your choices?” Beckoning for them to rise... the boy found the two men nodding firmly and looking at him with gratitude filling their eyes.

Rong Qing : “We did, we’re really satisfied. Young-master... it’s all thanks to you.”

“really! how so?”

“The reason why didn't receive any unfair treatment while buying our items is because just mentioning that we're your loyal servants would cause these greedy merchants and shop owners to smile awkwardly while giving us the perfectly-fair price for what we’re after.” Qiang Chi said while laughing... the sight of his scarred face decorated with a widely-grinning smile could be a cause of nightmares to the majority of children... probably grown-ups too! thankfully the boy didn’t have any trouble seeing these centipede-like scars... even when they gave him the vague impression of actually moving sometimes... not at all.

Lin : “As long as you didn't give them any loss in-exchange for the items you took then... it's alright with me, later we can compensate these establishments by including them in a business opportunity with Wei later. Where's Wei?” This time before the great-sage got to sit on the dirty ground again... Lin found Rong Qing gesturing with his hand and a piece of carpet on top of it a praying-mat appeared underneath the boy!

Qiang Chi : “Young-master. Why don't you wait for merchant Wei inside the residence? yesterday he returned around midnight but he left again quite early before first daylight.” The former-general asked while pushing the doors of the residence... the slightly rusty metal-gates opened with a creaking sound to reveal the empty residence beyond them... a residence that’s devoid of any living thing other than the tame demonic-beasts within the stables.

Lin : “It's alright. Waiting inside wouldn't be better than waiting him here anyway, at least we can see some people come and go on the streets from here... meanwhile inside this haunted-residence there's nothing at all except some mounts munching on fodder. Oh! Chi... go bring my mule-deer, it's been quite a long while since I took it from Bo An, yet I never took care of my mount, groom it, feed it, take it for a stroll, or ride it at all during the whole journey here. I bet that it’s bored almost to death... I really did wrong the boor thing.” In about a couple minutes or so the young-man was out of the residence with the spotted mule-deer fully saddled and buffing... apparently in a bad mood! when the beast noticed the boy it raised its head proudly and huffed then made a snorting sound while pounding at the ground repeatedly with its hoofs... smiling after seeing this cold greeting—which he really expected—the great-sage gestured for the former-general to let go of its reins... afterwards Lin gestured for the angry deer to come over... after spending a few dozens of seconds in awkward and silent hesitation... the boy found the mule-deer lowering its head and move its ears before slowly moving his way. The great-sage inwardly uttered a sigh of relief because... it would’ve really been a big source of embarrassment for Lin if his mount disobeyed him in front of his two followers and Zhao’s woman! “Heh. Don't be sad. You know that I was very, very busy... right! so much for being my only mount... I know. But I have to say that it was very, very dangerous! I didn't want you to get hurt... that's why I'm trying to make it up to you right now when it’s safe, since it's safe right now... I’m here to take you in a stroll around this big wide city. Because you're precious to me—just like the one who gifted you to me, I need to take good care of you, come... let's take a long and fulfilling walk. Wei might take a lot longer before he returns anyway.” The boy kept patting and massaging the deer's long and muscular neck with his hand to coax it... afterwards the great-sage brought his forehead forwards and rested his head on the beast’s when he spoke... Lin kept looking directly at its huge black-eyes from a very close distance then... the boy jumped on its back and let the spotted mule-deer walk wherever it wants... the great-sage let go of its reins and next to him on both sides walked Qiang Chi and Rong Qing! noticing that little-Tong was about to follow him... Lin took a look backwards towards her and smiled widely before saying : “You... should go inside that residence and.. check if brother Zhang's room could be... refurbished! little-Tong... see you later.” Then the boy moved away carried by his mount and flanked by his two personal-guards... the young-woman smiled blissfully after receiving young-hero Ming's thoughtful offer then... the mist-cultivator didn't hesitate to enter the residence and head towards Zhang's room... the maiden used this chance to properly prepare herself for her man and began to take-off her black-steel armor, clean-up, dress-up, apply make-up, set the mood, etc. Thanks to Lin’s help... the simple man would experience one of the best nights in his entire life! his poor knees though... would suffer from it for a long while... not like the strong man would mind... the smug grin on his face would cause Wang to really... really miss his best-friend... the real one... the one whom the handsome-man knew all his life until entered mercenary-city with Lin for the first time.

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

Lin : “Easy now girl, easy... slow-down a bit you’re going too fast! I don't want you hit anyone of these pedestrians, I know that you want to let-loose and show me that I’ve been missing the joy of riding such a great mount like you... maybe later I’ll find a place for you to have that fun but, not now. So... be good, alright!” After holding the reins and tugging at them a few times to guide his mount... the boy kept patting the neck of this hyperactive mule-deer while telling her to slow down! it obediently listened to the one on her back after sensing the genuineness of his words and seeing the honest look inside his calming eyes... it waited for the other two—who follow the little-one on her back, these two are dangerous! that’s why she tried to ditch them earlier—to catch-up before beginning to trot-around the wide, stone-paved, streets of this black-colored place without aim. Then... its nose picked-up the scent of the fresh fruits and followed it towards the source where there’s many types of these delicious-looking fruits displayed on some shop front and stopped... the spotted mule-deer kept gazing at the fruits while drooling and licking its lips like some starved-wolf! this odd mule-deer salivated a bit too much and Lin gave her a bemused smile before gesturing for Chi to go and buy this "black-bellied" mule-deer a fruit basket... better make it two.

Rong Qing kept watching in silence while his young-master Lin kept doing his best to appease this really... really... really spoilt and terribly-cocky mount of his—which after eating ten-times the amount of fruits that Qiang Chi bought in the beginning—it dared to so royally stop in front of some blacksmith shop where it kept naturally patting the loose horseshoes on its hooves gently against the black-stones of the street and make clink-clank sound! again this patient, kind, and gentle young-master of theirs jumped from its back and led her inside the shop get these trotters fixed... the former-assassin—plus the great-majority within this spirit-world—would’ve just whipped this unruly demonic-beast back into order instead of going through all that trouble and wasting that time.

While one apprentice-blacksmith from that shop began to handle the matter of replacing the horseshoes and tending to the hoofs of the mule-deer... Lin strolled-into the main-area of the shop and began to take a look at the displayed weapons and armors on the walls and stands... after picking a hammer from one of the nearby stands the boy used one hand to swing it to check how heavy it’s and get a feel of its balance and weight-distribution. Then... the great-sage just calmly put it back in its place on the stand while having a slightly dissatisfied expression on his face because... despite being a well-balanced and well-made weapon with almost perfect weight-distribution it’s... just too lightweight! shouldn’t blunt-weapons like hammers, maces, cudgels, and clubs be a bit on the "heavy" side of things? such weapons being a bit too heavy would encourage strength-enthusiasts to pay more while buying them. While Lin was "innocently" having such thoughts however... the buzzing-sounds that a few of his careless-swings has made earlier caused the expression of the grandmaster-blacksmith and owner of this blacksmith shop to become so pale from horrifying-shock while thinking : 'The physical-strength of this boy is freakishly-great for someone around his young age! if only... if only she wasn’t a girl... if only she wasn’t so stubborn. Sigh.' The hammer—which this kid just swung around with ease like some wooden-toy—is by far the heaviest weapon amongst all the mortal-tier weapons within this display area! “Excuse me. Young-master... do you happen to be looking for a heavy-weapon?” Unable to hold himself back from asking... the grandmaster-blacksmith who’s in a hurry to reach the auction house—which is going to sell a precious brick of solidified and very pure sin-energy later—looked towards Lin's thin and small body while wondering : 'Where exactly is all that strength coming from? that hammer weighs five-dogs!'

After taking a good look at this old man who seems to be about as old as his own master while still being in the realm of spirit-lord... Lin cupped his fist and said : “Senior must've seen me embarrass myself earlier. Honestly, I'm not proficient in specifically using any type of weapon but... I’m built a bit too rough which enables me to carry lots of weight without sensing much burden, that’s why a hammer seemed like the best available option for me to apply all that force! after seeing one I couldn't resist to try however, that hammer was very, very lightweight. I feel like my brute force would ruin the weapon or I’d harm myself before I get to unleash the full-force on my target.” While the boy spoke the breathing of this grandmaster-blacksmith became so messed-up and the great-sage noticed it when the old man hid his hands behind his back to hide them... simply because they’re shaking! “Good call, good call... young-master made the right choice in not choosing that mortal-tier hammer. Nothing is worse than a weapon failing its user during battle by getting broken or critically damaged, the area over there does have a variety of spirit-tools—which should be heavy enough to suit your requirements—if you'll excuse me, there's a very valuable and very rare material being sold in the auction house... that material might help me surpass the grandmaster-rank in my profession and reach the ancestor-rank! one doesn't get the chance to use the most average and normal grades of sin-energy every day, not to mention the much higher grade and advanced rank of solidified sin-energy... a whole brick of it should do it for me.” The old man nodded and inwardly cursed his bad luck because... such an inherently-blessed individual could become a very promising blacksmith thanks to his monstrous amount of strength! yet... the man’s passion for his profession and his eagerness towards reaching the next rank and becoming an ancestor-blacksmith still won in the end... Wen Zedong pointed towards the next display-area for Lin to go and take a look.

The boy didn't ask this elder to stay or try to delay him since he's in a hurry to buy something that he already have in his possession and looked ahead towards the next display-area where the grandmaster-blacksmith suggested for him to check it... honestly the great-sage was about to go there anyway after failing to find anything interesting in this display-area! the next display-area doesn’t seem any different from the first one except for the existence of the two guards on both sides of the entrance and scattered inside the display-area next to each side of the wall... two cyan-warlord mercenaries at the entrance while about a dozen guards inside the display-area are wearing gold-color armor and standing there like bored-sculptures. Lin walked towards the new display-area and after a quick look around the place the guards found the boy move towards a nearby stand where there’s another hammer of different style being displayed... when the great-sage extended his hand towards its handle... one of the gold-armored guards looked towards him and seemed to smile in amusement! Lin shook his head and shrugged before his fingers held the grip of this hammer... meanwhile that guard who was expecting a funny show to watch because he really thought that this ignorant boy is going to embarrass himself... simply because... even he himself—a spirit-tyrant—can't raise that spirit-weapon without using spirit-energy... not to mention raising that heavy hammer with a single hand. However the impossible happened under the shocked eyes of these dozen of gold and pair of cyan-armored guards... it happened when the great-sage not only lifted that hammer from the stand with a single hand but also took a few quick swings with that spirit-tool without being thrown off-balance at all... it took their breath away because the kid never relied-on spirit-energy! all of them looked at one another in shock while having that single thought : 'That hammer is the same hammer that’s one-horse and five-dogs in weight... right?' Then after shaking his head from disappointment the brat—who seemed really dissatisfied with the hammer—returned it to the stand and began looking for another... such actions caused these guards to sweat from fear while thanking their fortune because... just earlier one or two among them were about to say something "funny" and tease this little-devil.

Wen Zedong was really surprised when he found the boy's personal-guard this blocking his way while shaking his head... the grandmaster-blacksmith thought to himself : 'Since when were cultivators in the realm of spirit-apprentice this intimidating and frightening? first the boy now it’s his guard! is he hiding his cultivation? judging by his life-force... this one seems much younger than me! but, why does it feel like he’s much stronger than me? I admit that I’m not battle-hardened like the rest of cyan-warlord mercenaries however... I’m still a spirit-cultivator in the realm of spirit-lord.' Feeling the pressure from the man which was no less than a lord's made the grandmaster-blacksmith hesitate whether or not should he call some of the guards to throw this man out of his shop... somehow the instincts of this old man kept warning him against trying to anything by himself! “Whatever that you're after from the auction house, my young-master can very simply give it to you... only if you prove yourself worthy enough to receive a brick. I won’t hide it from you, the one to sell that brick of solidified sin-energy to the auction house before was me... believe it or not is up to you. The fact is that you wouldn't get the chance to partake in that event, even if you stubbornly insisted on causing a scene right here right now, simply because... you'll only come to regret the fact that you choose to stubbornly ignore the last and closed-doors disciple of white-sovereign Mu Jianhong when he visited your establishment. Better go back right now before any foolish one among your team of hired guards say or do something to annoy my young-master, otherwise... all of you would terribly regret it for the rest of your lives.” Rong Qing spoke and Wen Zedong’s old bones shuddered from excitement when he noticed the confident tone of voice from the young yet intimidating guard when the man said that the source of the brick within the auction house is himself while the original source of that extremely-rare material is this boy... especially when he picked the hint between the lines which said : "There’s more bricks of solidified sin-energy with the kid!" then... this grandmaster-blacksmith sensed how the muscles all-over his body began to twitch and convulse uncontrollably from pure fear when the boy’s young-looking personal-guard told him that this little-ancestor in the form of just a little kid is... Mu Jianhong's disciple! knowing very well that such matters should never be risked... the old man nodded to express his agreement and thanks before turning by swiveling on one of his heels then follow after Lin into the display-area of spirit-tools and equipment. “Brothers forgive me for what I’m about to do. Everyone is dismissed! all of you can take a break for today, consider my smithy closed today, tell little-Zhenzhen to come see me... she’s been in the forge for a long while anyway.” Before Wen Zedong entered the display-area he cupped his hand towards the two cyan-warlord mercenaries who just nodded their heads to express their understanding after hearing the conversation between this grandmaster-blacksmith and the boy’s personal-guard earlier! afterwards the old man walked into the place where spirit-tools and equipment are left within reach for his customers and dismissed the golden-armored guards... then ordered them to summon his odd granddaughter. Despite being an accomplished blacksmith with the rank of grandmaster... Wen Zedong never liked it when his cute granddaughter took after him and became really obsessed with the art for forging... the old man’s opinion of his own profession always remained the same... this profession and craftsmanship is better suited for males : 'What use would it be for a beautiful girl like my granddaughter in having permanent blisters on her fingers, callused and rough hands, bulging back-muscles and thick neck, shredded shoulder and arm-muscles? ptooey! she’s always welcome to accept another profession like alchemy, tailoring, leather-craft, or jewel-craft.' Despite having these thoughts the grandmaster-blacksmith and spirit-forger still followed Lin obediently and kept sucking one cold breath after another while feeling shock... this little boy raised heavier and heavier spirit-tools—which were mostly blunt-weapons—to get a sense of feeling about their weight in his hand... two-horses worth of weight... two-horses and two-dogs plus five-chickens... two-horses and five-dogs... three-horses! 'Just how strong is this kid? even I—a spirit-lord and a grandmaster-blacksmith which means that I’m supposed to be someone with superior physical-strength—am not sure that I can raise that mace and that flail with a single hand then move them around without relying-on the assistance of my spirit-cultivation.' Wen Zedong thought when he witnessed Lin raising the flail that weighs three-horses and two-dogs plus five-chickens then twirl it for a while before putting it back on its stand then... immediately afterwards go for the next heavy weapon which is a mace that’s completely made from the essence of heavy-gold and raise it! that mace weighs three-horses and five-dogs then... once again this closed-doors disciple of sovereign Jianhong seemed clearly disappointed with the mace since it’s... lacking in weight.

“Grandpa. why did you call for me? I was just about to finish making my first spirit too-... i-impossible! t-this... this can't be true, I must've inhaled too much fire-toxins from the forge earlier and am seeing things.” A cute and adorable young-girl who seems to be no older than thirteen or fourteen years of age entered the display-area... her dirty clothes, dirty arms, and her face that’s covered in many black coal-like smudges, plus the yellow-colored bandana that’s covering the front part of her hair—which is gathered in some kind of a messy-looking bun on-top of her head—along with the pouty-expression on her face when she began to grumble about how close she was to achieve something if she wasn’t rudely-interrupted was a sight to behold! then the young-girl finally noticed Lin since his small body was previously hidden by her grandfather... words betrayed this youngster when she witnessed a kid that seems to be generally around her age twisting one of his wrists and causing it to agilely snap from this extreme angle to the next effortlessly... problem in these scene is... this boy is toying-around and playing with a single hand that’s swinging a short handled hammer... that spirit-tool is worth four-horses in weight. After stopping like she’s became frozen ice-statue for a few seconds... the young-girl began to rub her eyes—which caused some of the black smudges on her face to spread further on her cheeks and further concentrate around her eyes—it caused her to look like a zombie since her skin became so pale... afterwards she tugged at the clothes of her grandfather and found the old man frowning in the beginning since the brat just dirtied his robe before shaking his head while looking at her with kind yet shock-filled eyes just like hers then the grandmaster-blacksmith raised his shoulders then let them drop helplessly in an exhausted shrug... the spirit-lord seemed to be saying : 'I wish it was some silly dream little-Zhenzhen but, it can't get any more real than what it already is.' Then Wen Zedong pinched the soft flesh on his granddaughter’s waist to prove his point to her... an action that caused his beloved granddaughter to awaken to the fact of reality while grimacing from this harmless yet very annoying-pain! “Hiss! ouch... hey! what happened to the rule of being gentle around the ladies grandpa? tsk, haven't grandma ever taught you that simple rule?” After hissing and yelping from pain... Wen Zhenzhen frowned after receiving this "rude-awakening" from her grandpa and widened the distance between them while saying that... then she gave Lin a piercing glare that’s full of undisguised-envy! this young-girl always hated her own inferiority when it comes to strength because her gender restricts her a bit too much... Zhenzhen always does her best when it comes to spirit-cultivation and has always been thankful towards her fortune since her own martial-spirit is compatible with the profession of blacksmithing or spirit-forging... meanwhile her natural-affinities are towards the elements of both fire and wood—which makes this young-girl almost perfectly-compatible with the profession of alchemy more than spirit-forging—since perfect-compatibility with the profession of a blacksmith there’s a requirement for the blacksmith to have natural-affinity towards the elements of both fire and metal... while perfect-compatibility with the profession of spirit-forging has the basic requirement for the person to have—at least—the natural-affinities towards the elements of fire and metal plus another element from the higher-grades on the element-ranking. Still... despite how many times her grandfather begged her to mainly focus on alchemy and "play" being the blacksmith and spirit-forger however and whenever she wants or feels like it within his shop... Wen Zhenzhen still did things her own way and stubbornly refused to listen to anyone besides herself! when her grandfather threatened and told the young-girl that she needs to work like any other apprentice-blacksmith within his forge and would be treated the same like them within his establishment without any preferential-treatment... this stubborn-granddaughter didn't mutter a single complaint during almost a decade which Wen Zhenzhen spent working harder than any other apprentice-blacksmith to learn more about this profession until she's only one step away from becoming a master-blacksmith. Yet... when this young-girl was about to finally face the moment of truth and see if the fruit of her labor after working for years and years being a "blue-collar" apprentice-blacksmith would ripen this time... Wen Zhenzhen was rudely-pulled from her forge where she got to see this nonsensical-scene of some really... really annoying brat that’s handling very... very heavy spirit-tools and playing with these weapons like they're nothing but twigs! “Well... young-lady! I’m warning you, you better watch your loose-tongue because... that guest right there in front of your eyes is... sovereign Jianhong's last and closed-doors disciple. If you embarrass me today? then you can forget all about entering my forge for the next six months to come.” After crossing the distance between them with a single step and pinching the dirty cheeks of Wen Zhenzhen... Wen Zedong glared intensely at his stupid and stubborn yet precious and dear granddaughter while warning her to behave herself.

“So that's the one that’s being the main-topic and talked about in every restaurant, inn, tavern, store, and street of this city! I heard that he dared to make fun of sky-queen Hongtian and tease her right in her face when she visited our city. Hey... scary and serious-looking uncle, did he really do it?” After struggling for a while to remove the steel-plier-like rough-fingers of her grandfather that grasped the young-girl’s cheek with an expression of annoyance on her face... Wen Zhenzhen relocated herself next to Rong Qing where she would be able to use the man to shield herself from her grandfather if the need came to be... the young-girl only had the courage to do so after confirming twice that the intimidating sense of feeling that’s coming from this slightly-handsome yet very serious-looking man isn't compatible with his weak spirit-cultivation... Wen Zhenzhen even dared to poke the former-assassin with her elbow a couple times while asking that question! the young-girl kept her eyes glued to the boy who just discovered that there’s not a weapon within this display-area that’s heavier than the one that’s already in his hand... it’s was a brown-colored hammer with a head that’s as wide as the kid's waist at one side while the other side narrowed down to appear like a nail’s tip... the handle is of medium length and is created from some dark-purple metal and embedded with scaly greenish-red leather on the area for the grip... that same dark-purple metal from the handle is sticking-out from the center of the hammerhead where a jagged medium-sized blade that resembles a spearhead is reflecting the light because the sharp edges on both sides of this jagged-blade could cut flesh and the spearhead is more than sufficient to pierce bones... meanwhile the nail-like side of the hammer could pierce the thickest of armor while the blunt-side could destroy the firmest od defense.

“Don’t ask me... young-master was alone in that gathering.” After giving this dirty-looking young-girl a "strange" look... Rong Qing took a step away from her while answering her question! after spending years and years being used to being a "stranger" the former-assassin just wasn't used to talking to almost anyone! right now besides his young-master Lin and his little-brother Chi—who joined the service of this genius boy before him—this man would feel relaxed talking with the talkative beast-companion of his young-master and nobody else. “Tsk. I won't bite you know, keke... at least not much.” While revealing an evil-expression on her face towards the man who kept his distance from her... Wen Zhenzhen tried to tease him but Rong Qing only gave her a glance before shaking his head at how innocent and good-hearted person like this girl would've been crying her eyes and soul out just because she dares to say something like that to his previous-self! 'That isn't me, not anymore... I've already got my hand on two advanced space-talismans! I can go visit my clan and warn them, I’m going to warn them about the possibility of that senile fuck appearing at their door, he’s mostly either going there towards my Rong clan or towards my old sect to avenge the loss of his precious-vessel on my master. If they notify the cultivation-alliance or the branch of the temple of transparency? then... they can prepare a trap beforehand and ambush him, hopefully they’d be able to end him and exterminating his devil-dao once he dares go anywhere near my Rong clan or swift-sword sect! meanwhile in mercenary-city there’s white-sovereign Jianhong who’s young-master Lin's master plus a few more sovereigns... they’re more than capable of protecting us from that short and blind-geezer, but I doubt that he’d have the courage to try and annoy someone like sovereign Jianhong. I once heard that his dao is of the wind-affinity and that his dao-energy has almost reached the grade of purity of "chaotic-wind" many years back however, I'm not sure if it’s true or not.' While having these thoughts... the former-assassin noticed how the boy is looking towards him then smile while looking between the man and the dirty-looking young-girl.

“Senior. What material is this hammer made from? how heavy is it? what’s its grade on the ranking of spirit-tools? is it possible to make something a bit heavier? of course it has to suit my natural-affinities, since this one is suitable for earth and lightning-energy then it isn’t compatible with me... my natural-affinities are ligh-” While firing these questions like a machinegun the great-sage remembered his green liver and decided to confirm something first... after suddenly halting his words Lin said : “Do you happen to have a testing device in here? great! can I use it? thanks... I would really like to put a number on my physical-strength and to confirm another thing.” Seeing the old man nod his head to confirm the existence of that tool then again to agree with him borrowing it for a short while... the boy politely cupped his fist and requested permission from Wen Zedong after giving some excuse with half the truth.

“Eh. After asking all these questions, he just stopped at the most important and exciting part! this is so lame... right scary uncle. Poor guy, it must've been hard on you, you know... having to follow this weird-kid all this time and all tha-... whoa! what's up with the look in your eyes? do you want to fight? huh!” Once again Wen Zhenzhen moved closer towards Rong Qing and began to poke him with her elbow when she spoke... then the young-girl found this man looking at her and glaring towards her! this dirty-looking young-girl—who’s experienced in these situations—immediately reacted and began to pull both of her sleeves upwards... she's not afraid of this guy’s intimidating-aura because this is her "turf" and Wen Zhenzhen needs to protect the reputation of her smithy... there’s no need for the two cyan-warlord mercenaries to intervene in this scuffle... she got this.

On the other hand both Lin and Wen Zedong ignored these two completely... the two spirit-lords did the same because... honestly it feels like this young-girl has been flirting with this dunce from the very beginning however... he’s a bit too much of a blockhead to notice it! once the grandmaster-blacksmith retrieved the item this boy requested he retreated and the kid immediately took action... the great-sage already knows the way of using such tools and directly held the central-pillar and let the neutral-strand of spirit-energy enter his body because he understands that such tools mostly test bone-age first... like Lin estimated a day or two earlier during the event of his trial... he’s six years and six months old.

This delinquent of a female blacksmith-apprentice—which is Wen Zhenzhen—forgot that she’s currently in the most important phase before any fight happens... that critical-phase is the "face-off" where both of them pressure their opponent with their "aura" to gain momentum before the fight begins! yet... the young-girl stared at the bone-age that’s being clearly indicated by her grandpa’s measurement-tool and gawked from disbelief... the dirty-looking female blacksmith-apprentice was dazzled after having the shallowest of thoughts about the amount of potential this—much younger than expected—kid must have... just like Wen Zhenzhen her grandfather and the two cyan-warlord mercenaries were struck-silly by shock. Then a flick on the young-girl’s forehead from Rong Qing caused the female blacksmith-apprentice squeak from pain after being rudely-awoken from her daze.

“You lose. Never take your eyes from an opponent that’s standing right in front of you, otherwise you're going die long before you get a chance to regret it. Had this challenge happened a couple months earlier? then... I’m afraid you would've been dead and going cold by now.” Rong Qing said while ignoring the hatefulness within the glare from this dirty-looking and naive young-girl. “Humph. Stinky-uncle! y-you... you're just a cheater, who would listen to you, you sly-cheater. I’m ignoring you.” Wen Zhenzhen fervently massaged her stinging forehead—which caused the black smudges to cover almost all of her cute face—then she uttered through puckered lips while looking towards the boy on the platform... the young-girl decided to ignore this... idiot! his serious-attitude attracted her and this apprentice-blacksmith kind-of liked teasing him however... cheaters are not on her list.

“Rong Qing... apologize to the young-lady! young-lady, you really should take this lesson to heart... someone like Qing speaks from experience after spending decades balancing on a thin-line between life and death, the number of dangerous encounters this loyal-guard of mine has weathered is... more than two-times your age and mine... combined. That intimidating-aura of his isn't just for show, young-lady... despite having his cultivation crippled and his martial-spirit being practically wiped-out, Qing managed to rise from the ashes like a phoenix experiencing nirvana! now this unique follower of mine have better natural-affinities and a much, much stronger martial-spirit. Even I only have less than half the number of his natural-affinities, while most of my natural-affinities being of a lower-grade! had he been my age and sharing the same generation with me? then... calling this guy my rival would be inappropriate and unreasonable, it’s unfair for both of us to share the same category... unfair for him not me. Because... Qing does have a clear superiority in spirit-cultivation, not to mention that you, me, and everyone else should never underestimate this man’s vast experience or... judge him based on his current spirit-cultivation. Last time we sparred Qing effortlessly suppressed me despite my clear superiority in physical-strength, he didn’t even have to use spirit-energy sometimes to achieve that result! had that training-session been public? then... I would’ve been really, really embarrassed to show myself anywhere around people who might think of me as a "genius" anyway... my point is... don’t judge a book by its cover.” After Lin noticed how Zhenzhen is able to naturally communicate with Rong Qing... of course he wouldn’t let this chance of increasing the pace of social-recovery for this former-assassin! that’s why the boy spoke in-detail to get these two better acquainted with one another... as for the difference of age between these two? years do fly-by and in about five or six more years this young-girl would be "ripe" for Qing's plucking. As long as that block of social-ice thaws and disappear from this follower of his... the great-sage wouldn’t mind the wait because... he himself is still too young! after six more years Lin would only be twelve of age anyway... still too young according to his own standards.

“Apologies my lady... this Qing has been rude to you and seeks your forgiveness.” The former-assassin patiently waited for the boy to finish speaking then... without a shred of hesitation in his actions, the tiniest feelings of discomfort, or the slightest sign of embarrassment on his expression... Rong Qing immediately bowed very deeply and spoke in an extremely polite and apologetic tone of voice while cupping his fist towards Wen Zhenzhen! judging by the intensity and seriousness of his motions... the three spirit-lords that witnessed what happened understood that after his young-master orders him to do something... this Qing wouldn’t hesitate to cross a sea of magma, crawl an entire continent that’s made from sharp daggers, or climb the tallest and frostiest-mountain barehanded while being naked and endure the cruel chaotic-wind with his exposed skin all the way to the top. The three of these old men clearly sensed the maniacal-devotion and loyalty from this man after a single order from his young-master... they really envied the kid on having this follower.

Meanwhile while her grandfather and the two cyan-warlord mercenaries were busy being impressed by the "cheater" Wen Zhenzhen—who didn't believe the words of praise from Lin on how great this scary-uncle is—kept her eyes focused on the measurement-tool and watched the color change from red to orange then... it slowed-down slightly at yellow-color before finally the ninth and final segment on the yellow-pole was fully lit-up in yellow-color... afterwards the color on the central-pole changed from yellow to green-color... indicates that this boy—at least—have the physical-strength of one-bull or... ten-horses! on the green-pole the ascending green-light stopped after reaching the height of one-tenth of the second-part of the first-segment... after calculating the worth of his physical-strength the great-sage understood that his average strike should have the weight of one-bull and one-horse plus some stray-dogs and scattered-chickens... that force translated into kilograms would mean—at least—eleven-thousand kilograms plus a few hundred kilograms.

When Lin asked which type of test this testing-tool is going to measure next... the grandmaster-blacksmith’s voice seemed husky and gruff when he muttered the words : “S-s... cough... spirit-affinity.” Clearly this old man was really feeling the shock because his eyes seemed dreamy and the sound of his voice seemed like it’s coming from a deep, dry-well! during the test of spirit-affinity the element of light appeared once again on-top of the central-pole in an accumulation of the dark-gold color and the size of a basketball yet... the boy felt like it isn’t pure or intense like the one from before—which appeared on Wei's ship—then that accumulation of light-energy was gone soon afterwards it returned towards the great-sage’s dantian-space... the appearance and disappearance of that dark-gold light-energy was followed by another basketball of fire-energy that appeared on-top of the central-pole however... this time the accumulation of fire-energy was gold-red in color instead of the previous color of red-orange... the fire-energy itself seemed—at least— four or five-times stronger compared to before. Lin—who was about to remove then place his hand once again on the central-pole to take the next test—discovered yet another basketball-sized accumulation of green-colored spirit-energy appearing on-top of the central-pole... this green-colored spirit-energy seemed to revitalize and nourish every living thing around it! honestly... the boy was really hoping for such a scenario to happen during this round of measurements yet... when it did happen the great-sage felt a huge headache-inducing problem coming his way when the thought of him having to constantly adapt and tweak his plans whenever he "somehow" manage to "attain" another natural-affinity... it means that Lin would be forced juggle his priorities by studying all these different elements while growing-up... not to mention the not so small issue of having to fuse five different types of supernatural-powers to become stronger... the correct and right way. After the accumulation of green-colored spirit-energy disappeared the boy waited for a few seconds while hoping "not" for another surprise... then the great-sage sighed deeply and thanked his luck since nothing happened afterwards! before placing his palm on the central-pole once again Lin asked the grandmaster-blacksmith : “Senior. What aspect is going to be tested next?” The boy has long noticed some clear differences between this measurement-tool and the one that belongs to Zhang however... he kept his silence because doesn't want to reveal too much of his ignorance! “Soul-force, then the number of opened acupoints within the system of qi-vitality, finally the last measurement this tool could read... the timing when the martial-spirit awakened.” Wen Zedong muttered practically soullessly before looking towards Rong Qing with dread in his eyes... this old man and the two cyan-warlord mercenaries had the same thought : 'If this boy have less than half of the natural-affinities of this amazingly-loyal guard? then... doesn’t mean that this man—at least—have access to seven different types of spirit-energy? that’s... unheard of!' Earlier when the kid revealed that Rong Qing was crippled of his cultivation once before and had his martial-spirit wiped-out then somehow this man managed to regain his spirit-cultivation... honestly Wen Zedong believed every single word from it! simply because... that intimidating-aura from this Qing is so strange and very incompatible with his young age and weak spirit-cultivation... certainly it must've resulted from these years experiencing many life and death encounters like the boy said before. “Senior. Please guide me, I never measured my soul-force with a similar tool before.” Lin asked the grandmaster-blacksmith and the old man quickly explained the working of measurements during this test... the aspect of soul-force is measured like many other aspects by this measurement-tool the nine-poles like some of the other tests are separated into nine-segments each... the first red-pole being fully lit-up means the person have a soul-force that’s comparable to a soul-cultivator who could spread the ability of soul-sense at a maximum-range of... ten meters! the orange-pole fully lit-up means the capability of spreading soul-sense at a maximum-range of one-hundred meters or... what equals it in soul-force. The yellow-pole fully lit-up means one kilometer of soul-sense or what equals it in soul-force... the green-pole fully lit-up means ten kilometers of soul-sense or what equals it in soul-force... the cyan-pole... one-hundred kilometers maximum-range of soul-sense or what equals it in soul-force... blue-pole maximized means a range of one million kilometers... purple-pole maximized means a range of ten-million kilometers... black-pole maximized equals one-hundred million of kilometers while the final pole the white-pole maximized means the maximum-range of soul-sense at a whopping one billion kilometers or what equals it in soul-force! this time the mouths and eyes of Wen Zedong, Wen Zhenzhen, and the two poor cyan-warlord mercenaries gaped really wide and they almost forgot to breathe from shock when they witnessed the red, orange, yellow, green, and more than half of the cyan-pole become fully lit-up in the span of time it took a few seconds to pass them by... honestly all of them expected this really frightening boy to perform the least in this round of soul-measurement however... now they probably need to collect their jaws from the floor and catch their eyes before they fall from their sockets more than thinking about this "little-monster" and what he’s capable of doing.

Then Lin placed his arm again on the central pole while sighing at how his soul-force should've filled the cyan-pole completely then fill a quarter of the next... the blue-pole! the next measurement-test should be the final secret the boy reveals to these four strangers... he can always warn them to keep their mouths shut since they're already under the control of master but... the great-sage wouldn’t do it. Sooner or later these secrets would come out anyway... with sky-queen homing-after him and haunting his origin-symbol and that challenge that is yet to happen... Lin is certainly going to be forced some way or another to reveal some of his cards! the details the boy exposed here today are within the limits of what he might expose...

“Senior. How is this test calculated? like before with my soul-force... I never tested how many acupoints within the system of qi-vitality I’ve opened.” Lin asked while watching the nine-segments on the red-pole lit-up one by one. Wen Zedong : “Y-yes... each segment being lit-up on these nine poles means an opened acupoint on the system of qi-vitality, if the light is flickering after the measurement is completed, then it means that these flickering-acupoints are connected, linked, and operational.” The old man wiped some sweat from his forehead while watching the nine-segments on the orange-pole become fully lit-up then... along with his two cyan-warlord mercenaries forgot to breathe once again when the yellow-pole followed after it and became fully lit-up! their vision kept swimming from dizziness until finally on the green-pole out of the nine-segments three were lit-up however... before these three spirit-lords got to sigh a breathe of relief since this measurement-test only stopped at thirty acupoints... these thirty lit-up segments began to flicker on and off in a light show on the platform.

“T-thirty! he opened all of these acupoints and fully linked them despite being only six years and six months of age! hey sca-... I mean Qing... big-brother Qing. Is it true? you really have double his natural-affinities! what affinities are they?” Wen Zhenzhen gasped from shock after seeing Lin's measurement-test with her own eyes then... the young-girl remembered what the boy said earlier about this "cheater" and how he’s "superior" compared to this "petrifying" kid when it comes to spirit-cultivation! the dirty-looking female blacksmith-apprentice asked this cold-fellow that’s called Qing while being obviously really curious about the answer to her questions. On the other hand... Rong Qing was feeling really shocked by the improvement of his young-master Lin in the system of qi-vitality and how quick his advancement happens when it comes to body-refinement... especially after the former-assassin sparred with the boy a couple days ago and personally made a rough estimation of the physical-capabilities of the kid... Lin was weaker than what he currently is by—at least—ten acupoints’ worth of pure physical-strength! yes Qing have much better life-and-death experience... have the specialty of controlling both the element of darkness and the special-capability that his martial-spirit have in applying soul-attacks without him having to be a soul-cultivator... the difference between a minor qi-refiner and any spirit-cultivator in the realm of spirit-apprentice is... practically the difference between heaven and earth. Even is said spirit-apprentice is blessed with the natural-affinity towards the element of destruction itself... the wide degree of capabilities a minor qi-refiner has is very hard for anyone within the first three major-realms in spirit-cultivation to surpass... even Rong Qing himself with his many years of field-experience! of course... with his lately attained natural-affinity towards the element of chaos—thanks to Lin himself—and with the help of that chaos-energy that’s of the lowest rank on the purity-rank... despite being just a gaseous-grade this man feels like he might have a chance against Lin in their future sparring-matches... even if the boy clearly managed to make the first step towards stability in the system of qi-vitality.

Lin : “Qing... Rong Qing! you’re being rude, this young-lady is talking to you... sigh,” The boy left the small platform while reminding the dazed and daydreaming former-assassin to be mindful of his manners, “Senior. Thank you, now I'm done with this measurement-test so... after seeing my over-all potential. Senior, my natural-affinities are light, fire, and—if I’m not mistaken that green-colored spirit-energy is—wood-energy but, right in this moment I only know how to use light-energy... fire and wood-energy still lack an appropriate cultivation-techniques. My physical-strength is above the point of one-bull, while my soul-force currently isn’t in its top form, let’s just say there’s aplenty yet to recover but... that’s not the main-point here today. My requirements are a handy, sturdy, and durable heavy-weapon. Hopefully, one that has the unique-potential for further upgrades... that way I can still use it after becoming stronger down the road in the future! meanwhile the main-point is... that heavy-weapon should be capable of withstanding the burden when I try to use it while fusing the energies from different systems, I don’t want to have separate weapons that rely-on energy, force, or qi-vitality to use according to whatever situation I find myself in. Having just one weapon where I can use any type of energy or all of them combined in a fusion when I learn how to do so would be... a lot more practical and convenient.” Then the great-sage began to tell the grandmaster-blacksmith his requirements.

Rong Qing seemed to hesitate slightly after being brought back to attention by his young master Lin then... the man took a step towards Wen Zhenzhen and leaned downwards slightly before whispering something in the ear of this dirty-looking and very clingy young-girl... afterwards he took a step back and looked her in the eye seriously! seeing the excited expression on the face of this female blacksmith-apprentice and her nodding repeatedly to agree before beckoning for him to come closer... Wen Zhenzhen wiped her hand—that got dirtied after she touched her face a couple of times—clean in the inner fold of her apron before using it to hold Qing’s neck for more balance when she tiptoed to whisper back in his ear : “I promise.” unlike the former-assassin who’s capable of using some ability to cover his voice... what this young-girl whispered was heard by three spirit-lords and a spirit-apprentice! her grandfather rolled his eyes and acted like he didn’t see his granddaughter and that guard "flirting" so naturally a few meters right next to him... if that man wasn’t the personal-guard of sovereign Jianhong’s disciple? then... this old man would’ve thrown him out of his smithy and forbad him from coming anywhere near his beloved granddaughter ever again... even is that man’s intimidating-aura is a bit too frightening and his potential is extraordinary.

This time it was Qing’s turn to lean downwards once again next to the ear of Wen Zhenzhen and whisper... the man told her about three of the five natural-affinities that he can already use and apologized about not mentioning the rest because... he needs his young-master’s permission to reveal them! “Uh-huh... I see... that's still very amazing for someone who once had his cultivation crippled and his martial-spirit wiped-out! big-brother Qing you must’ve had an unbelievable journey so far,” Wen Zhenzhen kept ogling the former-assassin from top to bottom with her eyes when she spoke after naturally holding both of his hands and swinging them back and forth from excitement, “You must tell me all about how it happened, the places you visited, the things you’ve seen!” The female blacksmith-apprentice was really... really pushing her luck with this man.

“Ehm! young-master Lin. First allow me to introduce these old bones to you, my name is Wen Zedong and this "young-lady" is my precious granddaughter... Wen Zhenzhen, it’s really a pleasure making your acquaintance.” Zedong coughed slightly to awake his foolish granddaughter to the fact that she's embarrassing both himself and herself in front of their guest and the two cyan-armored old men that he’s hiring to guard his smithy by publicly holding hands with a person which she was about to go into a fistfight with just a bit earlier.

Zhenzhen : “Greetings young-master Lin.”

Lin : “Young-lady Zhenzhen. Grandmaster Zedong... well met, well met indeed.” The boy politely cupped a fist towards the young-girl then towards the old man... afterwards the great-sage just looked at the blacksmith in silence.

Zedong : “Now... let’s talk business.”

Lin : “By all means, please go ahead.”

Zedong : “Young-master. Honestly, creating the spirit-tool itself wouldn't be a problem at all if all I had to do is make it heavy but, there’s still the matter of your natural-affinities, your cultivation of different schools of thought, and... the materials required for that spirit-tool to properly conduct—and hopefully withstand the fused-energy between—three different systems! plus the issue of leaving room for further improvements and upgrades in the future, all these points needs to be properly considered for the spirit-tool to be perfectly created according to your wishes. Earlier fellow-cultivator Qing said that you're in possession and that you’re the source of the brick of solidified sin-energy that’s currently in the auction house, right now I'm seventy-percent certain that with the help of that extremely-rare material this old man would be able to take the final step and make it to the ancestor-rank in my profession as a spirit-forger, when it happens the spirit-tool that I’m going to make for you young-master would be—at least—a weapon of the seventh-level on the ranking of spirit-tools.” After properly making his introduction and finishing exchanging pleasantries with Lin... the old man told the boy his aim and Rong Qing became impressed since this Wen Zedong seems to really be at the peak of the grandmaster-rank in his blacksmith profession however... after looking around at the hundreds of spirit-tools and spirit-equipment currently on display in this display-area the former-assassin accepted the reality and looked towards his young-master Lin who kept his silence.

Finally after a spending about a minute in silence—which seemed like eternity for the nervous poor old man—the boy nodded then retrieved the boots, gloves, chainmail, cape, pendant, and vest of fire-crystal from his space-ring... these are the welcome-gifts from Xiao Yan’s close friends, his wife, and the goatee-man himself! then... the great-sage  retrieved one red-brick of solidified sin-energy and held it in his hand before saying : “Senior Zedong. These equipment are in a need for further improvements as well, see what you can do after completing your breakthrough into ancestor-hood, oh! I also have the intact body of a fire-eating dark-lizard that was a beast-lord before its death... would that be of any help to you? I possess a fire-tulip, a yuan-fruit, a yang-ginseng, a branch of the dark-wood tree... well it’d be much easier for you to see for yourself. Senior needn’t be polite, take whatever you want... these items have been taking space in my ring for a long while without being of any use really.” Remembering all the things inside his space-ring which already began to take a lot of space... the great-sage began to count on his fingers the items—which he thought that they might be of use to this spirit-forger—then Lin felt like he might miss something and decided to take everything out from his space-ring and retrieved them all at once! Rong Qing noticed that some of his items, old tools, and equipment are included yet... instead of feeling anger the former-assassin just felt extreme disgust deep-down inside himself after just taking a look.

Wen Zedong, Wen Zhenzhen, and the two cyan-warlord mercenaries felt like going crazy when such a great amount of valuable raw-materials, spirit-resources, medicinal-ingredients, spirit-tools, and equipment suddenly appeared in front of them from the ring of a kid who’s no older than seven! had these four known that Lin kept the spirit-crystals, cultivation-resources, eleven red-bricks of solidified sin-energy, the poisonous pills from Weisheng’s space-ring, the pills for devil-cultivation from Qing's space-ring, the cultivation-techniques, cultivation-manuals, and the three capes which assassins from assassin-guild wear. Certainly... the four of them would be shouting at the kid’s face and saying : "You better tell us exactly in details... how the fuck are you so rich while being so young?"

After awaking from the prior shock... Wen Zedong sighed then began to check every metal-composition of these spirit-tools and equipment to see if he’d need to melt them later to extract certain type of metal-alloy... identify the quality of the materials, spirit-resources, and medicinal-ingredients since some of these herbs could be useful in the quenching-phase of creating spirit-tools and equipment and greatly help make the final production become extra more conductive to spirit-energy, durable, sharper, and sometimes have special-effect if the process is conjoined-by the application of certain spirit-formations! for example... this beast-lord fire-eating dark-lizard is treasure-trove of raw-materials that would be great for creating spirit-tools and equipment... be that its bones, scales, spikes, leather, demonic-core, blood, even its marrow. Only its flesh is useless for a blacksmith and would be returned back to this young-master however... since the meat of a fire-eating dark-lizard is a delicacy with great benefits to fire, wind, and darkness-cultivators then... the flesh of this beast-lord could be made into quite the banquet or... be sold for quite the exaggerated price everywhere in spirit-world! just the small detail about these creatures having inherited the bloodline from dragons could... make many spirit-cultivators, body-refiners, soul-cultivators, users of weapon-intent, etc... go crazy betting for it in any auction house within this spirit-world.

Zhenzhen : “The raw-material from his fire-eating dark-lizard should be used to make a full-body armor for big-brother Qing, his spirit-tools and equipment are of a very high-quality already however... his defense seems to be slightly lacking behind his offense! if we make a full set with it? then... he wouldn't have to worry about changing his gear until he reach the king-realm.” The young-girl felt like she has to mention this point since this young-hero Lin doesn’t have the natural-affinity towards the element of darkness while her big-brother Qing does... meanwhile both of them lack the natural-affinity towards the element of wind anyway.

Lin : “Right. Even if his robe could help him defend himself, the safety of this guy means my own safety, this idea from young-lady Zhenzhen is... spot-on! en. Qing... it’s good to see that there’s someone else besides me that cares about your future.”

Qing : “Young-master. I’ll always do as you command however, I personally think that this gift is too precious and is wasted on someone who’s talentless like myself.”

Zhenzhen : “Tsk. I’m really, really going to spread your secret if you keep saying that you’re talentless! since your young-master Lin already agreed to it then... you should just accept it and be grateful about it, humph. Big-brother Qing can be very annoying and longwinded, it’s making me so frustrated.”

Lin smiled when he found this young-girl and the former-assassin "click" so well together and gradually become closer after every second they spend together... just like what Wang was trying to do with Zhang before... the boy is laying-down the foundations for a relationship between these two in the future but... if this relationship were to ever work? then... the great-sage already knows very well that he needs to be very patient because... right now this Rong Qing has nothing else inside his head other than years’ worth of worry about his clan and sect! he’s clearly so impatient about going back to confirm their safety... if his clan and sect are safe? then... this man needs to warn them about the danger that might come their way.

Finally Wen Zedong collected all the raw-materials, spirit-resources, medicinal-ingredients, spirit-tools and equipment plus the different items this young-master Lin left in his smithy... thankfully this old man’s smithy does have a space-node lesser-formation installed within this display-area... once inside it any person would sense the inner-space growing in size whenever more people or items enter... this display-area seems like it’s ten-times wider and spacious right now! still... when this expert grandmaster-blacksmith held some of these devil-tools and equipment he sensed some similarities between Rong Qing's aura and the devil-aura that’s being emitted from these items. After Zedong confirmed it by checking Qing's aura once again the old man noticed that there’s some difference and that is... one aura is extremely dark and devilish... it’s filled with a vibe of deranged-malic! meanwhile the other aura is extremely pure and righteous... it’s filled with a vibe of intimidating-superiority... a clearly sensed superiority that dominates everyone and everything in existence around this young-looking man.

Zedong : “Young-master Lin. Just as promised, once I reach the ancestral-rank in my profession these spirit-resources, raw-materials, and medicinal-ingredients plus some of these spirit-tools and equipment would be used as supplementary-materials and turned into the items you requested to be created or be used to improve the rest. The meat from this fire-eating dark-lizard would be sent to you in the white-tower once the de-boner finishes his work dissecting the body but, I'm afraid that the rest of the raw-material on its body are going be used alongside some of these devil-tools and equipment to make the full-body armor for fellow-cultivator Qing! of course the help from young-master Lin would be required during the purification-phase of some of these devil-items, the devilish-energy within these devil-tools and equipment needs to be purified however, I believe that with the assistance of the pure light-energy from young-master this matter would be concluded and over-with in practically no time at all.”

Lin : “Good. Let me be the first to congratulate you on your breakthrough senior Zedong, I wish you the best of luck in the near and far future, just don't worry if this attempt is met with some setbacks and ends-up in failure, I believe that this guarantees that you'd be assured success in the second-attempt. Young-lady, please do take care of my personal-guard whenever I send Qing towards your smithy in the future, I’d always be grateful if you do. Now I have to bid you all farewell, I believe that my poor little mule-deer must be already on the verge of dying from boredom, I just hope she likes her new set of horseshoes on her trotters.” After saying that to the grandmaster-blacksmith... the boy retrieved another red-brick of solidified sin-energy to erase all negative-thoughts from the mind of this old man who clearly seemed worried about failing to ascend to the ancestor-rank in his profession more than failing to create the spirit-tool and improve the equipment that he’s required to work on! after seeing Wen Zedong beaming with a wide smile on his face after being assured by the great-sage... Lin looked towards the young-girl and cupped his fist while requesting her to warmly welcome his follower then left the display-area and went towards Qiang Chi who’s currently brushing the hairs of the spotted mule-deer just like how the apprentice-blacksmith taught him earlier... the sight of such a big-sized man in a bear-styled brown-armor taking care of Lin's spoilt mount was... a strange sight indeed.

Rong Qing nodded towards the grandmaster-blacksmith then looked towards the young-girl for a few seconds without knowing what to do or say before following after his young-master Lin... the former-assassin seemed to be escaping from this display-area! behind him Wen Zhenzhen smirked like a huntress after locking-on her target after seeing how this awkward personal-guard of the disciple of sovereign Jianhong is acting uncomfortable around her before moving to help her gramps who began to shout at her and tell her to : "Stop wasting time daydreaming like a fool." and to follow him to the forge already... this old man was in a hurry to go to the auction house and was prepared to fight many others from many factions, organizations, and establishments in-exchange for a single brick of solidified sin-energy yet... young-master Lin gave him one in-exchange for his service then... eased his worries and erased his "unhealthy" thoughts by revealing another brick. The word "generous" can never be enough to express how kind this treatment from the boy is... right now that kid is like a "benefactor" who gave the grandmaster-blacksmith the most timely-assistance when he needed it the most... Wen Zedong who never liked to feel indebted to anyone not only feels like he has to succeed in his breakthrough but also that he must give this "startling-genius" the best spirit-tool and equipment! the old man knows that he has to make a... masterpiece for that boy because... only by doing so can this grandmaster-blacksmith feel better about himself. Otherwise he’s going to always feel indebted to this young-master Lin

...........

Lin : “You seem to really like your new shoes,” The boy asked and the mule-deer gently nudged him with its head to express its gratitude, “Good, good, good... go-on let's take another stroll, the city is still lively and bustling with activity.” The great-sage patted the neck of his mule-deer and told it to move wherever.

“Now that I think about it, you still don't have a name yet. Hmmm... want me to come-up with one for you? or... you do have one that you already like!” Lin used the ability of soul-link to connect his thoughts with this mule-deer and asked it. 'Shuang. The woman who took me from the family I once had was called Shuang, she met me then got herself killed later afterwards, the people who killed her captured me and forced me into their ship along-with many others then sold me in the place where we met! since that woman was beautiful and has always been so kind to me then... I don't mind being called Shuang like her.' After hearing what his mount just said the boy really wanted to let this beast-companion of his know that he's never going to bully her but... the great-sage decided to let his actions prove that instead! “Good name. Shuang it’s then, I believe that you already know my name but, Ming isn’t my name... I'm actually called Lin. This is Qing and I believe that you already know Qiang, don't go making troubles on your own and no one would dare bully you, if someone tries to bully you or dares to provoke you? then, just come to me little-Shuang and I’ll vent-out your frustrations for you to the best of my ability... alright!” While patting the neck of his mule-deer... Lin told his mount his name and the names of his followers and promised her his protection while personally feeding her another fruit! cheerfulness and liveliness could be sensed pouring-out from this spotted mule-deer after hearing these genuine-words promising her safety... Shuang who’s easily attracted by strange scenes and easily distracted by the faintest disturbance in atmosphere or variation in noise thanks to her timid-nature... that inherent-characteristic of hers provided Shuang the best senses and ability to pick-up the smallest of changes within her surrounding... in-case there’s danger nearby or approaching this spotted mule-deer could immediately flee the scene before these predators attempt to pounce on her.

Soon it became midnight and Lin who expected the city to sleep when it’s dark... found-out that a city that’s ruled-by cultivators doesn't seem to actually know the meaning of rest! despite it being the middle of a freezing winter back in his village... the boy didn’t sense a single sign of the weather changing at all... looking upwards towards the sky the great-sage witnessed the moon not bothered at all by a single cloud anywhere in sight... his keen and inherent-sense from the previous-life towards cold didn't warn Lin about the temperature dropping. Previously in his life back on earth and in this one during the first few winters and autumns of this life... the boy would shiver, shudder, and shake after experiencing the slightest and quickest encounter with a cold or chilly- breeze from dawn or dusk! even if it’s the middle of summer or spring... the great-sage would tuck himself in his clothe and "bend" through the whole experience while cursing his own vulnerability.

“Did you hear?”

“Did something happen?”

“The auction house was extremely rowdy today.”

“Why’s that?”

“Heh. This time the event was truly grand, the brick of solidified sin-energy was fought-for by a few blue-king seniors from the guild! go-on and guess, guess how much it was sold for?” One mercenary in a gold armor entered a shop then started speaking with the owner which is one of his childhood-friends.

“I heard the amount of that precious solidified and purified sin-energy within that one brick is more than sufficient to make a young seedling-monk who just joined the temple of transparency reach attainments comparable to an ascending-monk with time, that’s practically the equivalent to another spirit-lord made from scratch... with a guaranteed result! plus how valuable it’s for forgers and alchemists when used to create spirit-tools, equipment, concoct spirit-pills, talismans, and even when creating spirit-formations. It can be used to boost the quality and grade of already finished tools, equipment, pills, talismans, and strengthen spirit-formations! not to mention how useful such energy is when helping those with these professions increase the rank of their craft. One mercenary of my clients told me earlier that this solidified sin-energy is not any less valuable than faith-energy itself! that’s the type of energy which those fanatic people from the church of light covet so much, so... I think it should be sold in-exchange for spirit-essence not in-exchange for high-grade spirit-crystals, better yet if that spirit-essence is middle-grade spirit-essence not low-grade.” The owner scratched his cheek when he spoke then sighed at how expensive such raw-material must be then said his assumption.

“Hah... wrong, you’re wrong my friend. It’s been sold to one of the three white-sovereign seniors in-exchange for low-grade spirit-jades, not the ones that we buy which contain information about techniques, comprehensions, and such but... the type of spirit-jade that contain the supreme dao-energy which only spirit-sovereigns can use!” The mercenary smirked and exaggeratedly waved his arms around when he spoke to his friend.

Rong Qing on the other hand became so shocked after learning about the price his brick was sold for and felt like he was still scammed despite doing his best to push the price higher than what he thought the market-price would be... looking towards his young-master Lin the former-assassin bowed to express his apology after wasting some of the resources that once belonged to this boy.

Lin : “Heh. Tell me Qing, was it a lesson learned?”

Qing : “Yes young-master. A harsh lesson... a very harsh lesson indeed.”

Lin : “Then you didn't lose by much, in the end it’s the experience that matters. So... when do you plan to go back to your clan?”

Qing : “Once young-master Lin allows it, I’d leave Immediately. I already bought two advanced space-talismans to make sure that it’s a quick journey there and back.”

Lin : “Then go.”

Qing : “Eh!...”

The boy just smiled after seeing this man being excited yet hesitant despite being given the permission to depart on his journey and said : “Isn’t Chi already here to take care of me in your place while you're away?”

Rong Qing was shocked by the ease of receiving the great-sage's agreement and blushed after hearing the dismissive tone of voice from his young-master Lin... after bowing deeply towards the boy to express his heartfelt-gratitude the former-assassin patted little-Chi's shoulder and the serious look within his eyes sent the message to this former-general... it told the scarred young-man : "Be careful little-brother, even when you feel like it’s unnecessary to be on-guard." Then Rong Qing quickly ran towards the nearest gate to exit this mercenary-city before activating one of the advanced space-talismans while sensing how his heart is practically burning from the fire-like emotions of longing to his family... especially his mother and his master. Just the release this former-assassin felt once his feet touched on the terrain of the eastern-heights and he confirmed his location in being somewhere within the territories of his Sunrise-empire once again was making him feel lighter with every step he took towards his clan... this time he’s not restricted by devilish-energy and can openly meet his loved ones! Qing felt like he can finally breathe again after many years spent being submerged in absolute-darkness.

.........

While Rong Qing relished-in the feelings of joy and release on his way back home... Lin took Shuang and Chi back towards the residence of the Cheng clan after spending some time strolling-aimlessly and shopping here and there... mostly the boy was buying his mount the glutton mule-deer whatever she felt like eating until she couldn’t eat anymore! Wei and the gang were back in the residence... right at that moment he’s together with Lai and Wang in the main-hall of the lowest-floor in the twelve-story building... they’re discussing how to sell the red-bricks of solidified sin-energy after experiencing what happened today in the auction house.

Lai : “Lin said to pawn them and bet on him later, that's what we should do.” The blade-user seemed to change a lot since his very first encounter with the great-sage.

Wei : "Are you messed-up in the head? has the blade in your skull finally chopped every last brain-cell of your brain into onion-rings? Lin is the freaking last and closed-doors disciple of a white-sovereign mercenary and the city-lord of this mercenary-city, what do you expect me to do here? just waltz my way up into the peak of the white-tower... disturb the peace of sovereign Jianhong and say : "Oh! excuse me, can I borrow the disciple that you didn’t hesitate to shamelessly snatch from one of your followers—who’s a cyan-warlord by the way and very close to becoming a blue-king mercenary by the way—not to worry, I’m just going to throw him into the biggest fighting-arena." Do you think someone like that is ever going to allow his last and closed-doors disciple endanger himself in the arena?” The fatty slammed the table with his hand while saying that... unaware that these words of his has caused a certain white-haired elder to suddenly cough and frown while rolling his eyes since he’s going to do just that! before redirecting his attention back towards the orange-kitten that’s currently narrating the boy’s first mission with the bald-monks and their encounter with the mammoth.

Wang : “Since you two are in disagreement and refuse to accept the suggestion of one another then, just wait until Lin return and personally ask him all you want. Now... please stop butting-heads and arguing like little kids, you’re giving me a headache.”

Lin : “Uh-huh. So my life is really endangered within the fighting-arena! hmmm... I see, I see. Looks like someone has been planning on making me some pawn of his little scheme to make fortune or... lose it all, maybe I should use the item that grandpa Ming gave me and tell him all about this situation.”

Tang Wei's face immediately darkened and the fatty coughed after being choked then tried to cover his expression of extreme panic while covering his face with the huge glass of wine that he emptied into his throat which suddenly felt so dry like desert sand.

Wang : “Finally you're here at last, besides Zhang—who’s currently riding unicorns across the rainbow—all we did all day is only argue, argue, and argue some more.” While pointing upwards towards the direction of Zhang's room where the simple man and little-Tong are currently connected at the hips-area... the handsome-man shrugged while pointing at his two clansmen who kept trying to influence the opinion of each another for whatever reason that they think is the right reason.

Lin : “No problem. Chi bring me something to eat... plain bread and butter is good, olive oil and a salad would make the meal much better add some peeled-fruits and would be perfect, I don't feel like eating any meat right now since there's such a huge prey right in front of me, that fat piece of meat that’s waiting for me to tear it apart must be juicy,” Wei shuddered when his little-brother Lin started to speak about some huge prey... the fatty thought that this boy is about to get "physical" with him and toss him around like some bouncy-ball when the kid mentioned the word "fat" and his vision began to blur from dizziness, “Wei... Cheng Wei!” The great-sage noticed how unfocused the eyes of that merchant were and brought him back to attention snapping his fingers in front of his face, “How nice of you to finally honor us with some of your attention, back to topic then... do you know where you’re lacking? sigh. Wei remember this advice well, in these sorts of situations it isn't going to be your experience, wits, financial-situation, or market-sense that’s going to help you make the right choice, what you should be relying-on the most in these situations are your means of gathering information! how dependable and varied are your methods of collecting news not spirit-resources... that’s where you’re lacking, and that’s the area which you should've been more focused on right now.” Tang Wei felt released since instead of beating him up Lin began teaching him a valuable lesson and gave him a precious and timely-advice... the fatty quickly adapted to the change in the situation and entered his well-mannered persona... the merchant listened with rapt attention to each word the boy said to him.

Lin : “Had you known what happened in the meeting that master had with the higher-ups and the ones who truly hold authority within this mercenary-city and sky-queen Hongtian? then, you would've understood that my fights in the arena aren't going to be against humans but against demonic-beasts from her territory instead! of course this information needs to be kept between us for now otherwise... another slimmer, faster, and much stronger bird would beat you to this worm. The plans should proceed like before and your family should do its best to use that wealth from pawning one of the bricks and seize the majority of business establishments within the southern-part of mercenary-city as quickly as possible, the other brick you should pawn and use the wealth to bet on me when my challenge begins.”

The three spirit-grandmasters began to stare at Lin while wondering if he’s sick or confused about this whole situation... they should pawn one of the two bricks yes! bet on him when he fights? no problem but... they shouldn’t waste half their wealth on acquiring businesses in the worst place, least popular, slums-area, and poorest district of this mercenary-city. At most they should acquire some businesses that’s located in the better parts of the southern-area! if they're really venturing-into these murky-waters and competing-with business-tycoons and organizations within mercenary-city for real? then... they should try and take the places that’s located near the plaza or... if they’re confident about the depth of their pockets? then... they should go after the places that’s located in the northern-area or the ones located at the far north of mercenary-city. That’s where the majority of the big, wealthy, and strong spirit-clans are located... they’re monopolizing the hot-locations and areas where the traffic never stops, lowers, or dies! the southern, southeastern, and southwestern-areas of mercenary-city has already experienced many attacks by demonic-beasts before... it happened many times and in some of these occasions entire districts were ruined or razed all the way to the ground. That's why Wei was capable of buying a whole residence and a few acres worth of land at such a low cost... if the worth of that residence and plot of land is exchanged for a piece of land that’s located in the northern-area of mercenary-city? then... the price they paid might be sufficient to rent some room for a year or two... the only way for poor Zhang to fuck his woman in that situation would be if... she agrees to lean her back on Wang's back for support while her simple man spears her! simply because... the room they might manage to rent after really... really making the effort searching and haggling with the owner to lower the price would be... way too tight and cramped-up to accommodate Wei’s sweaty butt... not to mention four grown-ups living together.

Lin : “I can explain but, I won't! do you know why merchant Wei?”

Wei : “En. It’s because it's your wealth, it’s because it’s your choice where to invest it.”

Lin : “Exactly. The demonic-beasts are coming and mercenary-city would open its gates to welcome them in, when your businesses in this southern-areas aren't serving humans but demonic-beasts instead, now your first advantage is that you can choose the location for your businesses and seize them at low cost however... choose your workforce and staff very, very wisely! think long and deep about the genre of business that you’re going to introduce to these "special" customers, don’t forget that your prices are going to be twenty-percent lower than the market-price that’s one of the nonnegotiable-rules, the quality of the service in your establishments and the price of these services are going to be closely and constantly monitored so... don't try to needlessly seek the short-gain in-exchange for the long-term profit. The prices are going to be low for your service but, these demonic-beasts aren’t going to pay with mortal-coins, spirit-coins, or spirit-crystals! some of them might pay through the regular means of us spirit-cultivators however, the majority of them are going to pay for the services within your establishments through the means of exchanging spirit-resources, raw-materials, medicinal-ingredients, spirit-tools, spirit-equipment, natural-treasures, unique metal-ores, cultivation-techniques, cultivation-manuals, movement-techniques, special-techniques, and forbidden-techniques. Practically expect everything from these guests however, whatever they bring into our mercenary-city would mostly be rare everywhere else, these rare-fortunes would be decorated with a price-tag after being processed and managed by a special board of administration that’s going to be a coalition of demonic-beasts and cultivators! now tell me... if you hoard all these rare, unique, and varied spiritual-items at market price in-exchange for low-cost service within your establishments? then... sold them within much-further cities for sky high prices, better yet if you do it within your own establishments that you seize like you did in mercenary-city at low-cost then publicize and spread the news about your rare merchandize. What could happen merchant Wei?” The boy smiled when he noticed Wei's eyes glowing with the light of understanding and his face flushing with the colors of excitement... then frowned when he witnessed the flappy chest of this fatty giggle whenever it raised or fell and the great-sage thought : 'This money-grubber really needs to lose weight, look at him gasp as if he just ran a freaking marathon!'

“Three birds one stone! excellent... just great.” Wei banged on the table when he said that while imagining himself winning from countless different business-establishments within the southern-area of mercenary-city that he could effortlessly get his hands on them... while these businesses serve the beasts everything at a price where twenty-percent is discounted from his profits... the fatty would be seeking to make some connections with these demonic-beasts where he could buy their raw-materials and unique-products if possible then... he would resell these merchandize later within the different cities of the Dou-empire and the-Cai empire to help them flourish! that way this merchant would be repaying them the favor of secretly assisting his five-clans all these years and show them his gratitude... all the while betting on Lin who’s certainly going to win in the arena... certainly he would since this frightening-boy isn’t one to overconfidently proclaim things without being one-hundred percent confident of the results.

Lin : “Heh. Wrong! they’re four birds not three, after establishing your network within the different cities we could spread the news through these establishments to attract the true "whales" and "leviathans" of this spirit-world, after selling one or two of these bricks within the most famous auction houses to establish credibility and weight behind your organization... we can seek the chance to negotiate with the ones we trust for an exchange where we give some of the bricks in-exchange for what I want! if possible we can talk about cooperation and joint business-venues with these selected few but... that’s for later.” Then the boy stuck his fork into the salad and slowly brought it towards his mouth and began to chew slowly.

Wei, Lai, and Wang felt like they're facing a unique and rare type of humanoid-species that’s so intelligent to the degree that it’d someday control the flow of this world's economy to the degree of being capable of shifting the market with but a single word... the chill that tickled their spines isn't out of fear but out of deep and heartfelt-inferiority! Lin only asked the fatty about two of these items a few months back when they were still on the ship and the fatty thought that his little-brother has already forgot about getting his hands on them—at least for the time being until he grows stronger—yet the great-sage only clearly revealed that he’s still after these soul related world-treasures when he told the merchant his plans and gave him a few hints... once again the boy managed to grow much deeper and a lot more mysterious in the eyes of the three spirit-grandmasters... this time none of them felt like the kid needs to wait or be careful anymore because... other than some "suicidal" lot... nobody would try to bully Lin. The backing that he managed to acquire where Mu Jianhong took him and made the great-sage his last and closed-doors disciple... it means that the "fortune" and "wealth" this boy has acquired after encountering Rong Qing isn’t enough to satisfy the kid... that’s why he’s planning to expand his financial-capital through four different means almost at the same time! he’s either very insane and extremely stupid or... very confident and extremely terrifiying.