Wen Zedong : "Thankfully I made it in time." The ancestor-rank spirit-forger muttered once he held the entrance-token in his hand before entering the tunnel and quickly making his way towards his seat.

Since he arrived late, Zedong discovered afterwards that his seat is located at the far back in some tight corner of this arena but he doesn't mind it since he's here to hand his benefactor his weapon before returning to his smithy to create the rest of the boy's order, there's still the set of the full-body from the materials collected from the beast-lord, plus some extra spirit-tools which this ancestor spirit-forger plans to create to this kid who helped him make a major-breakthrough in his profession! however, whenever the old man tried to say anything he'd either be interrupted by the extremely loud crowd or would be unable to speak because he's going to be the rude one and interrupting others instead, and these individuals possess a much higher social-status and he doesn't dare cross any of them! until the closed-doors disciple of sovereign Jianhong looked directly towards him and said : "Senior Zedong. Congratulation on your successful breakthrough." The spirit-lord immediately smiled while sighing inwardly at how fearsome the abilities of soul-cultivators could be, even if he's a spirit-lord himself this Wen Zedong would never be able to stand in the boy's place and seem so in-control and aware of his own surroundings while being surrounded by such crowd despite the existence of so many protective-formations between them!

*****

"Master..." Lin sent the city-lord a transmission through the soul-link ability and the white-haired elder nodded.

*****

Lin : "Senior Zedong. Throw my weapon towards me."

Wen Zedong : "Eh! but, there's protective-forma-"

"Just do it, master is going to take care of the rest." The boy urged the old blacksmith in a calm and unhurried tone of voice.

"Alright... I hope that young-master Lin likes the spirit-tool that I specifically made for him." Zedong muttered the words at the end to himself before jumping upwards and throwing that cloth-wrapped and unbranded spirit-tool towards the fighting-grounds... specifically towards the boy.

*****

"Hmmm..." Sky-queen Hongtian, shadow-king Qiaoxing, volcanic-king Chenhui. They all noticed the spirit-tool that's being thrown by a spirit-lord from the audience towards the boy.

Then they noticed how the white-sovereign mercenary manipulated the protective-formations to allow that weapon to bypass the protective-formations and enter the fighting-grounds.

*****

The great-sage extended one of his hands to hold the weapon when it reached him however, the pure weight of this spirit-tool plus the momentum of the throw and the factor of gravity almost caused his knees to buckle beneath him when his fingers tightened around the handle.

Thankfully he reacted quickly and twisted his torso before using the circular motion of his body to negate the extra force and weight.

honestly... judging by the exaggerated-thickness of this handle and the extreme weight of the spirit-tool itself, it's a failed-product!

However, Lin slowly unwrapped the fabric from this spirit-tool under the curious eyes of this crowd.

Cultivators, demonic-beasts, and mortals.

They all watched the boy extract a black-colored sledgehammer which have a noticeably-thick handle for a kid around this age, and an extremely long handle that isn't in proportions-with the head itself which makes it seem like some crutch for a giant! not a weapon at all.

Then, the great-sage allowed his light-energy to enter this weapon for the first time, the process of branding a spirit-tool isn't that much different from the process of branding a space-ring anyway.

*****

Yi Mingxia : "Is that the spirit-tool of my junior-disciple brother Lin? it's a seventh-level spirit-tool of the peak-grade, not so bad but... I have a close friend who could do much, much better!" The female spirit-sovereign frowned while looking towards her master but she refrained from admonishing him in front of these guests.

Zi Yun : "Much better than my first spirit-tool, do you remember the wooden-stick that master gave each one of us before throwing us into that forest?" The dark-skinned spirit-sovereign sipped from his wine cup before asking his young sister.

"Humph. How could I forget how cruel master treated both of us? unlike how he's being so protective of little-brother Lin." The woman began to nag the white-haired elder like a mother-hen teaching her rooster how to treat their chicks equally.

*****

"Whoa!"

"It's so bright, I can't see anything at all! what happened? where did that black hammer go?"

"The shape and size of that spirit-tool could be altered so easily by him."

"Now it's nothing but a gold-bracelet around his wrist."

"These morons must be blind, it's not that simple..."

"Yeah. Just earlier this kid formed a shield, a sword, a blade, a spear, an axe, a hammer, a mace, an arrow, and a chain before causing this spirit-tool to shrink in size and become that gold-bracelet."

*****

"Does this "shrimp" think that these silly little tricks are anything special?"

"You're getting smashed for sure..."

"Roar! just let me go break all his bones, this little human is acting so arrogantly in front of her highness the queen."

*****

Hongtian : "I made-up my mind." Finally the sky-queen calmed herself and controlled her emotions however, unlike before where she really planned to take it slow and begin from the very bottom to exhaust this last-disciple of sovereign Jianhong, that way she'd be saving this city-lord's face when she take his disciple from him.

Right now this heavenly-beauty is planning to seriously seek the embarrassment of both this boy and his master, instead of throwing cannon-fodder at the kid before gradually increasing the difficulty of each challenge, this red-dressed woman plans to begin by sending demonic-beasts who ascended the tyrannical-realm lately!

"Xiaojin."

"Yes my queen. This servant is here."

Once sky-queen Hongtian mentioned that name a small fist-sized bird flew above the heads of the demonic-beasts in its surroundings before prostrating itself towards its queen while answering very respectfully.

"Go test this boy for your queen, don't get yourself dragged into a contest of speed because he's faster than Lantian about a month ago so he's probably even faster right now." This seductive woman caused the crowd to fall in a daze when she looked towards the boy in the fighting-ground and frowned.

"This servant would never dare to forget these commands." The fist-sized bird changed into a completely golden-colored bird that's about three meters tall and have a wing-span of about a dozen meters or so before flying towards the boy in the fighting-ground.

*****

Once that Xiaojin entered the protective-formation of the fighting-grounds it opened its long beak to say : "Arrogant little-fellow, since you dared to say such words then... you better be prepared to face the consequences." It kept circling the air above Lin and acted like a vulture stalking its exhausted prey.

The boy looked upwards before acting like his right-hand is holding some bow while the left-hand is pulling at the string! then he released while smiling at how the eyes of this golden-bird seemed to sneer at him from above before its golden feathers shined then duplicated in number before half of them flew downwards towards the boy like real huge-sized arrowheads which are made from some type of golden-colored metal, thousands and thousands of these arrowheads are being concentrated around the narrow circle where the great-sage is currently standing. The aim is the kid yet none of these arrows was aimed at his vitals!

Xiaojin : "Gold Rain."

Yet, Lin kept looking upwards after releasing the string of his imaginary-bow without moving a single step away from where he stood.

The crowd gasped and kept shouting while asking him to move away and dodge however, the boy just ignored them and smiled when the fastest of all these feather-arrows reached a few meters above his head.

Qi-vitality accompanied-by brown-colored earth weapon-intent practically exploded from within his body in a dome-like layer to block these arrowsheads.

The indestructible-fiend technique caused the great-sage feel like his every blood-cell in his body was being ignited and from his spine he felt like there's a string of active volcanoes spurting molten-lava and magma everywhere within his body! the weapon-intents within the tree-symbol joined all that qi-vitality and created a ball-like shape of aura that came-into effect afterwards in a second colorful-layer when all the vitality-acupoints in the lesser-circle were activated.

*Clang... clang...*

The sound of metal hitting the outer-surface of that ball-shaped aura of qi-vitality and earth-intent could be heard by everyone in the audience which suddenly became quiet and they all watched in silence and awe.

Finally this shower of golden-feathers ended and Lin appeared beneath it unharmed and still looking up with a smile on his face, the boy doesn't seem burdened at all after receiving this serious attack from a tyrannical-beast! even spirit-tyrants wouldn't be able to block this attack in such an unhurried-manner without being geniuses within geniuses or... without using some high-level spirit-tool to protect themselves.

*****

Mu Jianhong : "Lin'er is so naughty. He intentionally made that bow-releasing gesture to notify his opponent that he's already aware what their next move would be." The city-lord muttered and didn't seem to care that not only is his first and second-disciple able to hear him but also the two kingly-beasts and this sky-queen.

Zi Yun : "Sigh. This Xiaojin is really talented in the element of gold yet it doesn't seem to be really proficient in any other element, clearly it's ascended to that major-realm lately, maybe... if it had a chance to deepen its understandings of its main-affinity and compliment the penetrative-characteristics of gold-energy with other types of spirit-energy? then, this fight would've been much more interesting." The dark-skinned sovereign scratched between the locks of his braided-hair while giving his honest opinion.

Yi Mingxia : "Humph. He's still a little-monster, no spirit-apprentice should ever be able to resist such an attack from a tyrannical-beast... it's no-different from a demonic-beast blocking a serious attack from a spirit-tyrant so casually without having the need to dodge or even take the attack seriously because it's certain that it can breeze-through it without suffering a scratch! he just used his qi-aura and some earth-intent without relying-on the ability of energy-armor at all... which is something that little-brother shouldn't have to begin with! this is slightly vexing to watch, even for me." The female spirit-sovereign began to nibble-on her finger while thinking : 'Your seed...'

Sky-queen Hongtian listened in silence while feeling annoyed after hearing the truth.

Shadow-king Qiaoxing also listened in silence and nodded his head after hearing these comments from the three sovereigns while feeling some fear creep within his chest! since such a youth could become their enemy one day in the future... that's the type of enemy that nobody wishes to have.

Volcanic-king Chenhui didn't seem to listen to anything that was said at all and kept watching the ongoing fight while eating and drinking since his excitement is a bit too much right now, when the golden-bird changed its strategy after failing to achieve anything by fighting from a distance this little human boy didn't shy-away from the challenge and met it head-on in the middle of this fighting-ground... despite already having wings this kid choose to allow his enemy to engage him whenever and however it liked without chasing after it! despite being commonly-known to be faster than his opponent this boy didn't take advantage of his speed to suppress his enemy.

*****

Xiaojin : "Huff... just go down already!..."

Lin : "Maybe I'd do just that if your attacks were a bit stronger."

"Hateful human!..."

"You're just weak, if it's so annoying? then, it's simple really... just work harder and grow stronger," The boy said so before quickly ducking under one of Xiaojin's wings to avoid his slash-like attack which aimed to send the boy flying, "Why don't you stop acting like I'm planning to leave or go somewhere? come try again later... after you've become stronger... you'll find me right here." Again the great-sage had to avoid one of Xiaojin's talons before slapping-away the other one with a back-hand strike from his left-hand then, Lin's right-hand was swiftly extended upwards to snatch the throat of this tyrannical-bird before it got a chance to straighten its body! while dragging it downwards towards his level... the boy instructed it to surrender in a soft method.

Mu Jianhong : "This challenge is over. Winner is... Tai Lin."

The great-sage released the golden-bird's neck once his master said these words, Lin just stared back upwards at it when its pair of golden eyes glared at him from above.

The crowd on the other hand were causing the entire fighting-arena to shake after the result was announced by sovereign Jianhong.

Lin : "You went easy on me." The boy cupped his fist and gave a courtesy-bow to his opponent while saying these words.

Xiaojin : "Humph. It's good that you know... humph." The gold-bird must've been feeling too embarrassed during that moment because it refused to look towards the boy and kept looking away.

Hongtian : "Xiaojin."

"Yes my queen. This subject is here."

"Scram..."

"At once..."

The great-sage smirked after seeing the gold-bird leaving the fighting-ground faster than he entered after a single word from her highness, Lin turned to look towards her and waited in anticipation to see what kind of challenger this sky-queen is going to throw at him.

After glancing towards the boy in the fighting-ground this beauty opened her mouth to say : "Xiaohui."

"Yes." From the crowd of demonic-beasts a red-bird who's perched-on the head of a rhino-like beast answered sky-queen Hongtian in an almost lazy tone of voice, clearly this tyrannical-bird isn't interested in the whole fighting thing that's going-on in the fighting-ground.

Hongtian : "Go."

Xiaohui : "What if he burn to ash? I really don't know how to hold-back!"

"That's none of your business, you're told to fight so fight." Sky-queen seemed irate when it comes to this red-bird.

"His master is a sovereign, I don't want to get myself killed." The tyrannical-bird didn't take action and shook its head while pointing towards Mu Jianhong with one of its cute wings.

Finally the beauty in red glared towards the red-bird which caused it to flinch before saying : "He's also someone who's proficient in fire, he's faster than you, uses the same element like you maybe... he's your natural-enemy since he can counter all your abilities."

This time Hongtian gained a reaction from the red-bird who glared towards the boy in the fighting-ground before arrogantly saying : "This tyrannical-bird has no living natural-enemies, they're all dead or nonexistent at all. Boy!... don't blame me and blame your luck instead." Then it flew towards the protective-formation and before the red-bird entered them it transformed into a phoenix-like bird where the only difference is a white feather on-top of the crown on its head, its size is not even half Xiaojin's body-size after transformation and its wing-span isn't wider than Lin's wing-span.

Once Xiaohui entered the fighting-ground it began to accumulate strands of fire-energy, the rate of accumulation isn't any less than when Xiao Yan did a similar action back when he taught Lin his first lesson on how to control fire-intent.

The boy smiled then said : "Let me help you with that." Before using his soul-force to attract more strands of fire-energy towards the fire-bird.

"Hmmm..." The phoenix-like bird squinted its red-eyes before accelerating the conversion-rate of these fire-energy strands through its demonic-core to activate its inherent-skill, it didn't even move from the same position and acted like its enemy is some rock or training-dummy that doesn't know how to attack at all!

*****

On the platform.

Sky-queen Hongtian frowned after seeing this careless action from Xiaohui, the beauty felt like she just lost some face in front of all these experts when one of her followers argued with here in front of them then made such a glaring mistake in front of its opponent, honestly... Hongtian dotes-on this little-fellow more than she does to Lantian, the purity of its bloodline is the highest among all the birds she found sharing the same or similar bloodline to Hongtian herself.

The "phoenix-bloodline" is one of the rarest bloodlines to find, even among the four commonly-acknowledged "leaders" of the beast-race which are the azure-dragon, vermilion-phoenix, immortal-turtle, and celestial-tiger.

Mu Jianhong : "This little brat is at it again."

'Is this shameless old goat finally going to expose his true colors? did he notice Xiaohui's unique bloodline and is going to go after him?' Hongtian thought to herself after hearing what the city-lord just said.

Zi Yun : "Yeah. He's not only waiting for his opponent to deliver his perfect and strongest attack but also he dares to help this little-bird do it! anyone else would take advantage of this opportunity and attack this Xiaohui when it's exposing itself to great risk by abandoning defense and focusing all of its attention on offense."

'Humph. Bunch of morons! that's the inherent-skill of my phoenix-bloodline, "phoenix-dance" allows us to ignore damage to our physical-body while accumulating these fire-energy strands until we accumulate enough to unleash the skill itself, meanwhile our strong vitality and recovery-rate allows our wounds to heal faster afterwards. Most of the time our enemy would be long dead after we unleash this skill which allows us to peacefully recover without having to worry about a thing, the last time I had to use phoenix-dance was back in the eastern-continent when that annoying monk kept pursuing me, he almost died despite being a low-stage spirit-sovereign.' The beauty thought to herself without saying anything, she kept her red-eyes on the boy and like everyone else she watched in silence while the red-bird accumulated more and more... and more of the fire-energy strands.

Yi Mingxia : "That little-bird is still recharging itself with fire-energy, this attack isn't going to be simple at all... probably it would be in the lord-rank or at least in the pseudo-lord in power."

'That's why this master of yours should take this matter seriously, your junior-disciple brother might be in great danger soon.' Sky-queen Hongtian thought while preparing herself to take action and intervene once the boy is unable to withstand the attack, Lantian mentioned how this little human couldn't withstand one of her own attacks for longer than a breath worth of time.

*****

Sun : "Wow! this red-bird is so cool, its fire is much stronger than mine, how I wish if it was me confronting it instead of buddy."

Frostine : "Hoo'o't"

"What? you don't like him?"

"Hoot-hoot."

"Of course he's hot! he's a user of fire, just like me."

"Ei'hoot." The white-owl rolled her eyes at the orange-kitten before snuggling in the embrace of Mei who's sitting right next to Qiang Chi who's holding Sun.

"Y-you! you keep calling me an idiot, humph... whoever calls others idiots is the one true idiot. You're just jealous of us hot fire-users because your feathers are just as cold as your ice." The winged-tiger relocated himself to the other side of the bear-armored shoulder of this personal-guard before focusing on the fighting-ground instead however... when the ancestral-bird glared at him, the orange-kitten felt the chill coursing on its spine and shivered slightly before snuggling with Chi and hiding itself from the blue-eyes on its flank!

*****

Xiaohui : "Prepare yourself."

Lin : "Just make your move, can't you see how this audience is about to sleep after you cooled them off?"

Hearing these words caused the crowd to laugh and the fire-bird to feel so embarrassed before quickly fluttering its wings and flying circles around the boy, gradually it kept flying upwards after causing a cyclone of red almost-gold fire to appear.

The laughter within the crowd quickly died which caused the red-bird to nod after feeling satisfaction with this reaction, finally it ascended in its circular flight to the topmost of this fighting-ground before flipping and going downwards towards its target while being accompanied-by all this concentrated fire at its tail.

*Screech...*

The audience could hear the soul-grating voice of a bird before the partial-image of a bird's red-colored beak and half of its head appeared up in the sky above the great-sage before quickly following the red-bird and descending towards the location where Lin is standing.

"Phoenix-dance... I hope you like the taste of that." Xiaohui muttered these words after suddenly changing the trajectory of his flight and flying away to create some distance between himself and the target of his skill... this boy.

"It tastes like... an incomplete-skill." The great-sage appeared to the spectators after a while once the fire-cyclone began to scatter from around him, one hand is raised upwards towards the sky where that bird-beak landed and is still clearly resisting-against the compressed-fire of this demonic-skill! the remaining of the partial-image of this bird's red-beak kept shrinking by the second while contending with a triple-layered barrier of water-intent that's being augmented with both qi-aura and soul-force respectively.

To those who got to clearly see what happened, they noticed how on the outside above Lin's hands the first-layer of his block appeared... that one spread the furthest and it consisted of thick fog-like mist that Lin mutated from his own water-intent! when the skill-image of a red-colored beak and partial bird head passed-through that thick fog-like layer of mist, it lost the uppermost piece of the skill-image and the demonic-skill appeared afterwards... just the red-beak with a cluster of compressed-fire of the gold-color at its tip! by the time this red-colored beak passed-through the second-layer which is formed from commonly-known water-intent that's supplemented-by qi-vitality... the skill-image lost the upper-half of the red-colored beak and the lower-half did seem a lot more transparent which shocked the ones who knew exactly what type of fire that demonic-skill is made from and how special it is.

However, their shock reached the peak when the skill-image reached the third-layer that's made from ice that this boy also mutated from his water-intent and mixed with his explosive-aura of qi-vitality! the remaining and fading part of the bird's red-colored beak shattered into bits and suppressed the compressed fire-ball at its tip, after pushing upwards against the gold-colored flames of this demonic-skill for the final time and causing it to shrink noticeably with an increasing speed until it disappeared... the great-sage looked towards the red-bird who caused him to rely-on an energy-fusion between three different types of supernatural-powers to block this demonic-skill and said : "You don't happen to be a stingy bird who's intentionally withholding the complete skills from me... do you?" Then smiled when he noticed how the red-bird who reverted-back into its small form kept shaking its head from left to right then back and repeated it over and over while being seemingly panicked, "Good, good, good. Now... shall we continue our challenge then? you're welcome to use all your incomplete-skills." Lin nodded then took his stance while inviting his opponent to continue.

Mu Jianhong : "This challenge is over. Winner is... Tai Lin."

Lin : "Master! we're not done here yet..."

Xiaohui : "Thank you senior Jianhong... thank you sovereign Jianhong... thank you city-lord Jianhong... you're my favorite cultivator! I've always admired you! I never believed any of the vile-rumors others spread about you."

Before the boy could complain he heard the red-bird shamelessly escaping the protective-formation while throwing compliments.

*****

Chenhui : "Kakaka... this little-one escaped really fast, but it really seems like it broke the heart of your beloved-disciple. Sovereign Jianhong... want me to send a tough one to challenge the kid next?"

Mu Jianhong : "I'd appreciate you doing so volcanic-king, that disciple of mine is inexperienced and untested... that's the most glaring weakness in him so far."

The blue-eyed big-man looked to the side downwards towards his sister Hongtian before taking any action or saying anything, this is her event and he's here to enjoy the food and drinks while providing her with the strong juniors that she required, doing so would provide him with enough spirit-resources to nurture his followers! despite being somewhat of a simpleton... this loin-clothed kingly-beast knows his priorities very well.

Hongtian : "Do whatever you want, brother Chenhui doesn't need to worry about my face."

The almost naked man smiled and exposed his sharp fangs before nodding in excitement then looking towards the audience and saying : "Xiaogang. Go have some fun with this boy."

*****

"Whoa! that one is so fast and seems very agile."

"So cute too!"

"I-is that a little monkey?"

"These blue-eyes... is it a water-monkey?"

"Even the variants of the water-monkey species are all brown or partially grey, this one is black and its chest have a cloud-like patch of white-colored fur."

"Even the weapon is different, monkey species are famously-known for their marksmanship and how they prefer to use throwing weapons and keeping their distance instead of melee combat. This one is holding a wooden-staff."

*****

Xiaogang : "Since you've proven yourself to be a strong opponent then, I probably should introduce myself before we begin. My name is Xiaogang, I don't share any past grudges with you but, I won't be going easy on you either," The small-sized gorilla muttered while looking towards its opponent from the distance before pointing the tip of its wooden-staff towards Lin, "So... you better prepare yourself or I might end-up breaking all your fragile human bones!" Once the little-gorilla finished speaking it transformed into its original form and became two meters tall.

The crowd of demonic-beasts cheered so loudly and attempted to add emotional-pressure on this annoying boy who managed to shrug-away two elemental-attacks from two tyrannical-birds just earlier, surviving elemental-attacks could be done so effortlessly with the right amount and the right purity of spirit-energy however, physical-attacks are a completely different matter since some of its force tends to travel into the body of those who attempt to block them by relying-on spirit-energy alone... even more so when they try to block while using physical-strength!

Lin : "Then I won't be polite, you're going to be the first opponent to face me while I'm using this spirit-tool of mine, I just received it earlier and I'm still not proficient in using it so... you better not hold it against me if some of my blows seem heavy-handed because... I don't intent to break any of your bones! my intention is to win and learn from experience, I don't seek to harm... I seek to build a world where both of us can share without care, and enjoy ourselves together without worrying about what others might think." These words from the boy confused a lot within this audience be they cultivators or beasts however, at least two understood what he meant and these two are currently sitting next to one another at the platform.

The great-sage sent some light-energy within the gold-bracelet on his right-wrist to activate it and the level-seven spirit-tool transformed into a two meters gold staff, the audience quickly regained their excitement after seeing these two face-off within the fighting-ground.

The difference in size between both combatants and the similarity in their weapon of choice caused some demonic-beasts to become daring and confident of who's going to win before betting against the boy while thinking : 'Certainly the brat is exhausted by now after confronting two attacks head-on, Xiaogang is certainly going to win if this arrogant boy doesn't used his wings.'

"Take my staff." The cloud-chested gorilla twirled its wooden-staff for a few seconds before sending it downwards towards the boy's left-shoulder very quickly in a single fluid and uninterrupted-motion.

*Clack...*

"Heavy and sharp... you seem like a master when it comes to using the staff." Lin quickly raised his gold staff above his head to block and despite using both hands the great-sage still felt the extreme weight behind this strike despite being performed by Xiaogang with a single hand.

"Snort... this isn't over... ohoho! you blocked that too, have another..."

"Man, you really are fast... I can barely keep-up..."

*****

Qiaoxing : "Brother Chenhui. That junior of yours isn't lacking in strength, speed, and maneuverability compared to how you were centuries ago."

Chenhui : "No. He's even better than I was back then however, I don't think that he shares the same path like myself... he isn't ruthless enough and is still being careless in front of the boy despite knowing that this kid is strong enough to compete against him at full-power." Probably for the first time since he arrived, this volcanic-king spoke seriously while studying every exchange between the two of them in this ongoing fight.

*****

"Eek! he's keeping-up with that?"

"Physically at that!"

"T-this must be a dream, I'm just having a bad drea-ouch!"

"Better wake-up and share this reality with me, that's it... hug me tighter now because I'm feeling so afraid, young-master Lin better finish this challenge without any injuries! otherwise, my poor heart wouldn't be able to endure this burden, here... see how fast it's beating? y-you... scoundrel!"

The average-looking woman gawked after seeing the boy skillfully use the staff to parry, block, or counter the cloud-chested gorilla.

Qiang Chi looked towards her then towards his young-master Lin before muttering this answer.

Rong Qing who's the most knowledgeable person in this group is already aware of how extreme and superior is the physical-strength and sturdiness of the physique itself of this gorilla-species is compared to even the most advanced body-refiners, thankfully Zhenzhen awakened her big-brother and enjoyed the feeling of hypnotizing him with her eyes! however, when she teased him by taking one of his hands and placing it on her left breast for him to feel her heartbeats... the former-assassin revealed this devilish-smirk before teasing her back and gently squeezing then fondling it with his fingers. Seeing her big-sister Mei and that Chi looking towards them while smiling a very knowing-smile... the master-blacksmith buried her face in the chest of this man who caused her to lose face.

*****

*Clang... whoosh...*

After a fearsome collision between the two staffs, both combatants struggled to maintain their foothold against the explosion of pressuring-wind that resulted from their previous actions.

Lin had to take three steps backwards, his qi-vitality was circulating at maximum speed within his acupoints, from the look of it, the boy's lesser-circle is strained to alleviate all that pressure that burdened his body after each exchange with this Xiaogang.

Still, the great-sage didn't allow himself to back-down from this purely physical challenge with this cloud-chested gorilla despite being aware of his clear disadvantages in both speed and strength.

Lin's reaction-speed is his only advantage over his opponent, who seems to be enjoying this way more than he does.

The main reason behind the boy's "stubborn" and "unreasonable" choice is... he's profiting from this challenge way more than the two previous ones.

First is the "sweet" experience the great-sage is accumulating, second is... the dissolvement of the medicine-concoctions that accumulated lately within his body after soaking within them to train the Indestructible-Fiend manual.

The magma-river on his spine became restless and Lin sensed how both of his kidneys became affected and began to absorb the water-attributes of the remainders of the medicinal-concoctions!

The liver began to absorb more and more of the wood-attribute.

The stomach absorbed the fire-attribute.

The intestines absorbed the earth-attribute.

The bladder absorbed the gold-attribute. Honestly the boy was shocked that none of the basic five-elements took residence in the lungs.

However, now there's six abnormal-organs within his body right now!

Mainly the heart, liver, kidneys, stomach, intestines, and bladder.

They're being occupied by the light, wood, water, fire, earth, and gold-elements respectively.

These six organs are flickering on and off with the colors of gold, green, blue, red, brown, and yellow.

During the earlier ten minutes which the great-sage spent exchanging moves with this Xiaogang, the transformation within him was happening at an increasing pace.

Now the process is finally completed. 

"Graaah..."

The cloud-chested gorilla opened its mouth wide and gave an intimidating shout while exposing its fearsome fangs then drummed its chest.

"Come!..."

The great-sage hit the butt of his staff against the ground and invited his opponent to make his move without any fear.

From the gorilla's stumpy and thick legs the color brown shined. The onlookers felt like there's a layer of rocks and stones covering Xiaogang, afterwards the cloud-chested gorilla raised its hands and delivered a sweep with its wooden staff.

The boy got encased-with the colors of the five-elements then a layer of gold covered it all up. Just like before in the previous challenges, the great-sage only relied-on his qi-vitality, of course the different types of weapon-intent joined the fun since both systems seem like they're inseparable now.

The ones among the crowd, who could keep-up with the speed of these two, were shocked when they noticed how Lin aimed to smash his staff against his opponent.

"Haah..." The boy felt like his arms are pushing against a great mountain. He barely managed to maintain his hold on the golden staff without letting go.

Once again he managed to stop Xiaogang and prevent him from gaining the upper-hand. Both of them couldn't stop themselves from taking a couple steps backwards afterwards, the great-sage and the cloud-chested gorilla both had to suck a deep breath in while staring at one another with admiration. Yet, both of their eyes practically burned with fighting-spirit.

Once they regained their balance, they leaned forward and thrusted their staffs at one another.

*Boom...*

Again, the result of their clash was a tie.

However, after every exchange there was a difference. A change began to happen within Lin's body once again, the source of this change is his own lungs. Every time he drew a breath into his lungs under these circumstances, a hint of the cyan-color would smear the inner-parts of his lungs, the key-point is that it kept happening whenever the flickering glow of the golden heart shined-upon the five-organs.

Exchange after exchange the boy and Xiaogang traded, their aim was the same... not the weak-points of one another. Their aim was to use extremely forceful methods to crush the defense of their opponent, clearly this approach is to the advantage of the tyrannical-beast yet the great-sage never relented an inch and persisted.

Opening his mouth to inhale felt like he could instantly attract all the air within the fighting-ground into his lungs, like a vacuum he sucked and gathered it all.

His chest swelled outwardly which frightened the onlookers, most of them felt like he's going to implode from the inside-out.

His cute and childish complexion reddened for a few seconds before strands of purple-colored lightning began to flicker on his black hair which wildly fluttered after standing on end.

The great-sage noticed that his brain also started to gain something from a certain attribute. That attribute is lightning, somehow once his brain-cells linked with these purple-colored strands... his spontaneous thought-process did seem like it's at least ten-times quicker than before!

Lin's spleen got occupied by the darkness-attribute, each of his blood-cells now carry nine different colors and nine different types of attributes.

Light, darkness, wind, lightning, fire, water, wood, earth, and gold.

Four of these attributes belong to the "High-tier" ranking while the rest are the fabled five-elements which belong to the "Basic-tier".

"Again..." The boy glared towards the excited Xiaogang and took the initiative to go on the offensive for the first time.

He felt like his blood is burning, like his bones are melting, like his muscles are metamorphosing, like everywhere on his skin there's a new crack and splinter happening!

Yet, not a single drop of blood came out.

Somehow he sensed like there's something seeping-into his bone-marrow from his bones, blood, muscles, and skin.

The great-sage's nose picked-up the scent of flowers and grass... for a moment there he thought that he's standing in the middle of a meadow that's covered with wild flowers and stretching to the end of sight.

*****

While Lin was experiencing this uncommon feeling and undergoing these physical changes.

Mu Jianhong, his two disciples, and his guests were watching with some interest and curiosity. Until that moment, none of them was feeling true shock or heartfelt surprise... at least not yet.

Now it happened!

Themselves, the audience, and Xiaogang himself. All of them could clearly see the image that appeared behind the boy and extended upwards for three-hundred meters towards the sky, amazingly enough... only the upper-body of this apparition was visible.

A red-colored humanoid creature with three heads and six arms glared at the three sovereigns and three kingly-beasts on the platform first then its three pairs of blood-red and savage-looking eyes circled the crowd for a couple seconds which instilled genuine fear into their hearts, the crowd which was on fire and rowdy with excitement just earlier suddenly became quiet like still-water.

Finally that humanoid apparition looked downwards towards the cloud-chested gorilla and... smiled to expose its sharp fangs!

*Raaah...* Apparently the tyrannical-beast in the fighting-grounds sensed the bloodlust from that apparition when it glanced towards it and its own fighting-spirit was clearly stimulated by its appearance, Xiaogang began to drum his chest and hit the tip of his staff against the floor while exposing his fangs as if to say : "Come-on... let's do this!"

Yi Mingxia : "Is that..."

Zi Yun : "Probably..."

Mu Jianhong : "I almost lost my composure just now, Lin'er just keeps being more and more mysterious lately. My poor heart can't take any more surprises."

Hongtian : "His Qi-image is a Fiend! just what kind of body-refinement technique is he practicing?"

The white-haired elder smirked so slyly after hearing what sky-queen just muttered and said : "Your highness can learn all about it from the boy after one of your subjects manages to win."

The beauty just scowled as an answer for the white-sovereign mercenary which caused the city-lord to chuckle and look away then continue drinking while watching his disciple and the cloud-chested gorilla resume their fight.

Chenhui : "Now that's the proper attitude. Xiaogang should've been this serious from the beginning, that big red-colored fellow is interesting. I really wish to go against it someday, unfortunately it isn't at full-power yet."

Qiaoxing : "According to the legend. Way before the myriad-races walked the surface of our spirit-world. There was a single race... Godfiends," Shadow-king gave the blood-red apparition another glance before retracting his gaze, "In many shapes and sizes they roamed in the primordial-era, they fought one another and consumed world-treasures as if they were mere snacks. It's said that the spirit-world at that time had a chaotic atmosphere and hundreds of small-sized continents all-over the place." While the black-cloaked king talked about this topic, his two friends and the three spirit-sovereigns listened while watching that Qi-image of the three-headed and six-armed Fiend, its head in the center did seem like it's looking towards the sky and... smiling!

"Each Godfiend ruled a certain territory. Their offspring were much weaker than their parents and incapable of controlling the elements with impeccable mastery like Godfiends, they were called Fiends." Qiaoxing raised one of his hands to stop the volcanic-king from asking before continuing to say : "Godfiends had an agreement. Since their power is beyond the limits of what this world could endure and any fight between them might bring an end to all of them, all of them would let their offspring decide the verdict for all their differences."

"A certain Godfiend among them had a clear disadvantage but, because the majority had already agreed... he couldn't go against all of them. Otherwise, they'd all unite against him and eliminate him first. Blood-Godfiend had the weakest offense, defense, and speed amongst all of the Godfiends. However, his survival-abilities were unrivaled. It's said that a single drop of his blood could enable him to recreate his body once again at full-strength even if the rest of his body was incinerated into ash."

The blue-eyed volcanic-king seemed really excited after hearing about this primordial-era and what kind of inhabitants roamed the surface of earth at that chaotic time.

Sky-queen knew some details about the primordial-era however, shadow-king seems to have a much-better and detailed-background about this topic.

After all... this beauty only got to know about the primordial-era during the time she spent in the eastern-continent, Hongtian happened to "acquire" a few old parchments from a certain "bald-donkey" who kept pursuing her.

Once she "beat" him into submission and scorched his monk-attire, that spineless-coward yielded and groveled beneath her feet while offering all of his wealth and belongings in-exchange for his life.

These parchments had lineage information about how the totem of their temple of transparency lord "Buddha" is in-fact a descendant of a certain "Mountain-Fiend", after gaining enlightenment he roamed the world and taught his Dao to weak and oppressed Fiends.

Among his disciples and the ones whom Buddha taught his teachings and groomed their malice-tendencies, seventy-two "Bodhisattvas" embraced his Dao despite the fierce opposition and ridicule from the other fiends.

Fiends were said to be a battle-loving maniacs by nature, lustful and greedy... many Fiends fell during the rule of Godfiends.

It's said that many Godfiends fell before they decided to refrain from fighting one another to prevent a catastrophic end where every one of them dies with their offspring in an all-out war.

Mu Jianhong drank in silence while listening and smoothening his beard, being one of the branch-leaders of mercenary-guild means that he's aware of some information as well.

It's said that "Ancestor Mu" himself is a direct descendant of a Fiend, some rumors exist about the "World-Tree" within the "Eternal-Forest" being an actual Fiend undergoing the long-term hibernation.

Zi Yun is a well-learned scholar since his area of expertise is formations, seeking ancient formations in his life made him able know a lot about the time before the legendary-era more than fifty-million years ago.

The forefather of the Dao of Formations and Talismans is a Godfiend with the name of "Fuxi", legend says that he was able to create Formations to refine Heaven itself! many hidden-realms that exists right now are said to be his creations, he would open pockets of space and thread his formations within them.

These hidden-realms could contain life and with time birth natural treasures.

Yi Mingxia might seem like a careless and a happy-go-lucky person all the time however, she's serious about three things in life... her cultivation, her profession, and her family.

Still, she naturally likes to gossip and hear fairytales about heroes. Among these heroes of the old were many maidens who grew to become heroines, many of her role-models are rumored to have ties to these Fiends and Godfiends.

One of them is "Nuwa" who's said to be the only female Godfiend capable of rivaling the king of Godfiends "Pangu".

The legend mentioned how Pangu was the first Godfiend.

He was born from Chaos-energy and spent countless years being alone surrounded by nothing except for the ocean-like Chaos-energy and its endless boundaries and its ceaseless waves.

After growing in that peaceful solitude and becoming strong enough he became bored of the restrictions of this ocean of Chaos-energy, using his bare hands like divine axes... he split the womb that contained him and sacrificed half his power to create another.

That's how his first companion came to being.

Afterwards... Pangu immersed himself in the joy of creating and refining items. Many Chaotic-tools, equipment, and items were made by him for unknown reasons. 

Nuwa and Pangu gave birth to nine Godfiends, the last of them was Blood-Godfiend himself.

The rest of the Godfiends were born later from the remainder of Chaos-energy albeit slightly weaker than how Pangu were during his peak, when united... none of these new Godfiends could beat Pangu and Nuwa.

When their offspring were born one after another, none of the Godfiends could go against the "Pangu clan".

With the diminishing Chaos-energy in the world and the constant struggles, none of the other Godfiends could give birth to Godfiends... except for Pangu and Nuwa, the rest of them always gave birth to normal Fiends.

Pangu, Nuwa, and their offspring. Suffered from being on the receiving-end of all this unreasonable hate and jealousy from these Chaos-born Godfiends who couldn't be like them and give birth to the strongest species in the world.

Nuwa. Being the kindhearted and compassionate Godfiend that she were... attempted to use world-treasures and try to fix that problem for them.

Her eldest son Fuxi tried to help by opening "pocket-dimensions" and using his knowledge in formations to birth more world-treasures for his mother, with the passing of time her accomplishments in alchemy were unrivaled.

Some say that all these attempts from Nuwa were to help her youngest son fix his weak-points and disadvantages however, once the Godfiends discovered that Chaos-energy is dwindling from the world and that every strand being consumed is one strand less that's gone forever.

They accused Nuwa and Fuxi of being the ones responsible for it with their "witchcraft".

The first war between Godfiends ended after the Pangu clan was almost entirely annihilated.

Pangu, Nuwa, and Fuxi were the first to die! KunPeng, Taoti, Qillin, Azure-Dragon, Black-Turtle, White-Tiger, and the Vermilion-Bird died afterwards.

Thanks to his supreme survival-abilities... Blood-Godfiend survived the tribulation and managed to preserve his father's legacy and all the knowledge about tool-refinement, the knowledge about Alchemy and maintain his mother's legacy, the knowledge about Formations and Talismans which is the legacy of his oldest brother.

Scouring the battlefields he found the blood of his fallen brothers and sisters, using his own "unique" blood to reanimate them failed and the result of what the Blood-Godfiend "gestated" was the birth of many different Fiends with a clear resemblance of what his brothers and sisters used to be.

Some of these Fiends were born with excellent survival abilities while maintaining some abilities that once belonged to his brothers and sisters.

Within all these attempts the first humanoid Fiend was born, followed by many others however... "Ashura" was widely known for his three heads and six arms.

The number of living Godfiends after the war was no more than seven including Blood-Godfiend himself. The Chimera-Godfiend, Basilisk-Godfiend, Kraken-Godfiend, and Siren-Godfiend were confirmed to be alive after the first "Godfiend-War" yet details of their grievous injuries kept being found in historical-tomes and how these four succumbed to death soon afterwards.

Blood-Godfiend and Shadow-Godfiend survived because their abilities allowed them to weather the storm without suffering any major-harm.

However, both of these Godfiends shared a certain habit... they tend to seek the peace of seclusion.

The other Godfiend of that era was "Radiance". She was the complete opposite of these two, socializing and exploring new locations was her passion in life.

She had many followers of the Fiends and their descendants including the Fiends that Blood-Godfiend personally "gestated" with his abilities however, Radiance-Godfiend and Shadow-Godfiend never saw eye-to-eye.

The conflict between them extended to their followers and many small-scale battles happened during the years.

Meanwhile the three remaining Godfiends were busy using the Chaos-energy to do their thing, as it would seem... after a Godfiend falls, the Chaos-energy which they spent countless years submerged within before birth or accumulating after being born... return to the world while their enormous-sized bodies gradually become absorbed by the world itself which formed the first continent.

That continent is said to be the embryonic-form which the central-continent is now balanced on-top of it!

The second war happened and Fiends played the main rule in it while Radiance-Godfiend and Shadow-Godfiend led their subjects to battle, many of these followers didn't even belong to their Radiance or Shadow-faction at all.

Fiends belonging to the Blood-faction were included in that war for various reasons. One of the most famous "Generals" of the first "Fiend-War" was Ashura-Fiend. Being a thorough and thorough battle-maniac, that frightening Ashure-Fiend dived head-first into the skirmish.

His battle-sense was otherworldly, his techniques and methods were refined to the absolute limit, his bloodlust could cover the entire battlefield, his survival-abilities weren't so bad either.

The most annoying and frustrating point about his existence in that Fiend-war is that... Ashura didn't belong to any of the two factions! he didn't care about what kind of opponent that he may meet on the battlefield or how many.

He only sought "Slaughter" and "Carnage"... butchering and massacring his foes in great numbers, fellow members of the Blood-faction were slaughtered all the same.

Fables mention his fall at the hands of both the Radiance-Godfiend and the Shadow-Godfiend after killing a great number of their followers and how Ashura managed to grievously wounded both of them, how Blood-Godfiend went into maddening rage after the two angry Godfiends annihilated a great number of Blood-Fiends afterwards the balance the numbers between the three factions after the Fiend-War.

The fall of Radiance-Godfiend and Shadow-Godfiend happened afterwards at the hands of Blood-Godfiend who schemed against them to collect their Chaos-energy and blood, using Ashura's blood and the many types of blood that he accumulated during his life from the various Godfiends and Fiends plus his knowledge about Tool-Refinement, Alchemy, Talismans, and Formations from the legacies of his family.

Blood-Godfiend spent the following years accumulating resources from the various pocket-dimensions and experimenting, rumor has it that Beasts, Beast-kin, Elves, Barbarians, Dwarves, Humans, and every type of species or race currently walking the surface of earth were created thanks to the divine-abilities of Blood-Godfiend.

Probably the majority of cultivation-manuals and different techniques currently found everywhere in the spirit-world exist because of him as well.

Qiaoxing : "It's said that his proudest creation was "Ashura-Fiend" which was Blood-Godfiend's main source of inspiration... this Qi-image looks exactly like him in the ancient murals. Judging by what I can sense after seeing it, this projection does have some intelligence. Indeed... this isn't some normal Qi-Refinement manual." Shadow-King said these words then ignored the ongoing fight between the two juniors and kept studying the Three-headed Qi-image with his pair of abyss-like black-eyes.

Chenhui : "If you figure any weaknesses... never say them to me, hopefully in the future I'll get a taste of it myself." Volcanic-King glared at his fellow Kingly-Beast and warned the black-cloaked man while tearing a piece of the most delicious meat then drowned it with a jar-worth of wine.

*Snort...*

Hongtian : "He's just a junior yet he's causing the three of us to feel the urge of wanting to test ourselves against him, Sovereign Jianhong really snatched himself a little monster this time." Sky-Queen puckered her lips while muttering that however, deep within her red-pupils a sly glint shadowed them... she still hasn't forgotten about the incident with the Devil-Incubator and the "Mysterious" Dao-Protector.

That individual is yet to reveal their whereabouts, that's why this beauty choose to patiently wait without taking any "Extreme" measure to get what she wants.

Thankfully the deal between the two sides is "Fair" and her subjects stand to gain a lot of resources and valuable experience from it, biding her time is frustrating indeed but... at least she isn't suffering any loss at all.

Only when the boy loses to a follower of the Volcanic or Shadow-King might she suffer greatly however, her gain would outweigh the loss in that scenario.

Whether or not she decides to keep exchanging, trading, or doing business with mercenary-city afterwards is entirely up to her.

The longer this stalemate keeps happening the richer she and her subjects should become, or at least that's how she imagined it would be... the factor of a certain "Fatty" in the equation.

Mu Jianhong : "Heh. Personally I would love to go back in time and challenge Lin'er, certainly... it'd be a lot of fun." The white-haired elder smoothened his beard and smirked while imagining how embarrassing it'd be for him if such a thing really happened.

Zi Yun : "I would never seek such an opponent willingly, encountering someone like junior-disciple Lin would certainly give me an immense pressure. Prevailing against the heart-demons would be such an up-hill struggle, it's admirable that both Xiaojin and Xiaohui were able to accept their loss without being burdened with any heart-demons."

Yi Mingxia : "Your seed..." Somehow... that phrase became like a mantra for this female white-sovereign mercenary.

*****

*Howl...*

Xiaogang couldn't help but notice that the physical-strength of his opponent kept increasing after every exchange.

The Qi-image kept shrinking and being compressed towards the boy's body.

Meanwhile... from Lin's cracked skin, an intoxicating scent wafted and spread everywhere in the fighting-ground.

Maybe if it wasn't for the Protective-Formations... then that scent would've spread to encompass everywhere in the fighting-arena!

Despite his inherently-strong physique, the cloud-chested gorilla kept suffering internal-injuries whenever the boy pushed him backwards with his forceful strikes.

Despite blocking every single move with his wooden staff, Xiaogang wondered if he's facing one of the descendants from the Imperial-clan or a youngling from the four clans.

But none of these two examples is capable of assuming human-form at such a young age, never before.

Uttering this howl after sensing how his internal-injuries are worsening yet being healed at an increasing pace whenever the cloud-chested gorilla breathed the air that's accompanied-by that scent, not wanting to be bested by another... it greedily sucked more of that aroma to heal itself.

Even if it means relying-on the help from its opponents to continue the fight... Xiaogang became even more excited about this challenge and his actions became even more wild.

*****

Chenhui : "Hmm..." Volcanic-King suddenly squinted his blue-eyes dangerously while focusing on Xiaogang. He ignored the fact that this Qi-image of Ashura-Fiend has greatly shrunk in size while becoming even more concentrated, right now the thirty-meters Qi-image is no-different from a life-like projection that's about to materialize into the world.

Qiaoxing : "Congratulation brother Chenhui. Xiaogang has fully awakened his bloodline, who would've thought that he's blood-ties with the Jueyuan-Fiend."

"En. That's the first time I'm witnessing ancestor Jueyuan, no wonder many of you would say that there's similarities between us."

Hongtian : "You do look alike indeed."

The three Kingly-beasts conversed while watching the seven meters tall apparition that appeared behind the cloud-chested gorilla when its bloodline was stimulated to its maximum-capabilities because of the scent within the fighting-grounds.

A blue-furred humanoid with sly features was glaring at, the much bigger in size, Ashura-Fiend.

*****

That blue-furred Jueyuan-Fiend did embolden and empower Xiaogang however, the apparition itself lost its color after every attack delivered by the cloud-chested gorilla.

Still, it managed to allow him to continue fighting an keep-on being on the offensive for ten more minutes.

Lin had to endure that pressure and try to survive that onslaught of heavy-strikes from the wooden staff however, during that time... him, Xia, and probably Kai were the only ones aware of what's going within his body.

After sensing that there's "something" currently being "sapped" from his skin, muscles, blood, and bones... and dragged from everywhere in his body towards his bone-marrow.

The boy was notified by his deadly-sin of lust, since he had to give the fight all his focus or rely-on soul-force to multitask which is considered "cheating", Xia told him that new blood-cells are being created at an amazing speed to replace the old.

Every one of these blood-cells is engraved with many runes, most of them belong-to the nine attributes of their organs... plus a few who, according to her own judgment, share the same characteristic with disintegration-shockwaves or similarities.

His cracked skin gradually fell of and got carried by the wind during his fight to reveal the moist skin below it, most of the females within the crowd sighed in envy once they noticed the special "shine" of the great-sage's skin when light reflected off of it.

Many of them wished if they could grab the kid and "question" him about his secret methods.

His muscles below that layer of skin felt like cords of refined-metal which he could effortlessly and seamlessly tighten to the maximum limit or loosen whenever he feels like it, every bone of his skeleton felt like they're sculpted from the sturdiest piece of stone, his bone-marrow glowed brighter than diamond.

Then every acupoint of his lesser-circle opened to the maximum to allow qi-vitality to swirl within them at ten-times the previous speed, meanwhile... the qi-image shrunk further until it fused completely with Lin's upper-body.

*Pop... pop...*

The sound of vitality-acupoints within the major-circle being unlocked sounded like popcorn... within a few seconds the great-sage heard it twelve-times before all the residue of the medicinal-concoctions within his body were completely refined.

This prolonged contest really did help him reach the peak of what his physique is currently capable of providing based-on the foundation which he spent two and half years working hard fortifying.

Pumma-manual allowed him to wash his impurities three times.

Snake-venom wine allowed him to unleash some of his latent-potential and experience the phenomenon of nature's-breath.

His contents with Liao Lai allowed his body to quickly refine the residue of that snake-venom wine from within his body and unleash the phenomenon of ruling-heart.

The potion of thought-rebirth was really potent and only with the help of the trial-formation plus his own determination was Lin able to unleash the phenomenon of bloodshed.

After cultivating the indestructible-fiend manual and following its teachings to thicken and congeal his blood, the main-point of that technique is for the user to infuse their power of qi-vitality within their blood.

Empowering the blood would in-turn increase the vitality and strength of the user, relying-on the assistance of spirit-pills and medicinal-concoctions would speed-up the process.

Having the basic five-elements being contained within the user's blood would cause the user to have five organs being practically protected by the qi-aura of a certain element all the time, the stronger the user's understanding of each element and their properties... the stronger said organ would be.

Having wider understanding about all the five elements and how to fuse them perfectly would render the user being far stronger than any user of the high-tier elements within the same rank, they could contend with ease against any user of the four superior-tier elements.

Not to mention how this unique energy of the five-elements would cause the user's blood to constantly improve the physique itself!

While his organs were choosing their preferred element, the great-sage couldn't help but notice how his weapon-intents were being seamlessly being fused-with his qi-aura.

Right now, his qi-aura and weapon-intent has become one and the same.

The magma-river has branched and connected the nine organs with his spine, now the magma-river really seems like a tree and the organs are the fruits that each branch carries.

Within each one of these organs is Lin's accumulated qi-aura and weapon-intent of every element in a perfect fusion.

Only his disintegration-intent and the other intent which is in the shape of the ark of salvation remain unattached to any of the organs.

These twelve acupoints which were just unlocked belong to the major-circle and are much harder to unlock yet... the boy achieved such a result thanks to his inherently-superior talent in the system of body-refinement thanks to his barbarian-lineage, his deep and firm foundations plus his rich accumulations.

Causing the qi-image to appear might not be rare among body refiners who cultivate decent qi-vitality manuals however, not many of them would be able to quickly condense and perfectly assimilate the avatar of their technique like the great-sage.

Especially not on their first try. His foundation helped, his accumulations helped, his different types of weapon-intent helped.

Now he feels like he was reborn anew. Lin's strength is clearly many times higher than the physical-strength of one-bull, his tight grip on the golden staff feels like it's about to deform it!

Mu Jianhong : "This challenge is over. Winner is... Tai Lin." Suddenly being awakened from his dream-like state of being too immersed in the joy of fighting this cloud-chested gorilla, the boy halted his next attack and clearly noticed the sorry state his opponent has fallen into.

Xiaogang's thick arms and shoulders has many bruises, his head has a pair of swelled bumps and the corners of his lips have two lines trickling red blood yet his wide-eyes still have fire in them. Unfortunately... this opponent clearly can't keep-on fighting anymore.

The great-sage quickly changed his weapon back into a bracelet on his right wrist before cupping his fist and saying ever-so politely : "Let's continue having some more fun later when brother Xiaogang is well-rested."

The cloud-chested gorilla transformed into its small and cute-looking form before wiping the blood on its lips with the fur of its right forearm, then it seriously looked at the boy's honest and genuine gold-eyes before nodding and hoisting its wooden-staff on its shoulder then turning to leave the fighting-ground.

*****

"Fuck! I lost once again."

"I still can't believe that even Xiaogang lost, some say that he once got ampushed by a pair of spirit-lords back in his territory yet still fought both of them to a standstill for about an entire day before having to retreat."

"Now he really lost under less than an hour! this little-monster isn't so simple... we really underestimated him."

"Humph. The juniors of the imperial-clan can still take him on."

"Tsk. I'm sure that the juniors of the four clans can do the same with ease."

"Kakaka... pay-up, pay-up, pay-up." Tang Wei cackled like a demon from hell which caused his fat to giggle everywhere, while smirking towards the beasts on the other side of the barrier he pointed at his sweet "victims" and demanded what he earned thanks to his beloved little-brother Lin.

"This damn fatty is being too full of himself, I really want to bite him and keep-on chewing until he's minced." One beast-king struggled inwardly while uttering these words to itself.

"My dear and respected clients, we had a deal... going back on your words would cause those of my kind to look-down condescendingly at those of your kind." While acting like he doesn't care... the merchant decided to play the part of being benevolent while hoping for the effect of reverse-psychology.

"Here... I hope you choke on them to death." The demonic-beast grinded its fangs while hurling the space-ring towards the fatty with force, others around it did the same.

*****

Qiaoxing : "Him being so talented in the system of body-refinement is something that I can accept. Being able to project, condense, and assimilate it in such a quick pace is something that I can also accept. What I can't understand is... how could this boy cause Xiaogang's bloodline-awakening?" The shadow-king looked towards the white-haired elder and asked : "Sovereign Jianhong. Clearly your closed-doors disciple is blessed-with a special-physique, it seems like the type of unique physique which is more than capable of eluding my eyes... care to enlighten this junior?"

The city-lord kept-on nodding while smoothening his beard, the smile on his face said it all... this elder is feeling very proud of his disciple so far.

"Well..." Mu Jianhong muttered before deliberating for a few more seconds then saying : "Honestly. I don't know as well, but... we can ask him. I'm sure that Lin'er wouldn't hide such a detail from us if he's aware about what type of physique he got." The white-sovereign mercenary looked towards the boy in the fighting-ground and beckoned for him to come join them on the platform.

"Master, first-brother, second-sister... greetings seniors." Once Lin stood before them on the platform he bowed towards his master then cupped his fist towards his senior-disciple brother, afterwards he bowed slightly and politely while cupping his fist towards the three guests.

*Snort...*

Hongtian : "Seems like you still hasn't forgotten about manners entirely," Sky-queen puckered her lips and looked away from the boy which revealed her proud side, "And here I thought that you never had any respect for this queen earlier."

The boy gawked after hearing this soft admonishment from this startling beauty and scratched his head while blushing, indeed... he was being rude to her earlier during his opening speech.

Clearly she's holding a grudge. Thankfully, the great-sage knows that any words being said right now would only aggravate the situation... that's why he choose to keep his silence while smiling sheepishly from abashment which was a cute and startling sight.

Qiaoxing : "Cough!..." The shadow-king looked towards the white-haired elder and broke the silence.

"Right." After nodding to himself since he's satisfied with his disciple's attitude, Mu Jianhong said : "Lin'er. Do you have any idea what kind of physique is yours?"

Lin : "Guiding-light physique." The boy nodded before simply answering with a direct reply.

The expression on the face of this volcanic-king did seem like it's only missing a few question marks on top of his head to complete the picture!

Meanwhile sky-queen squinted her beautiful eyes and frowned before resting her chin on her fist, seemingly deep in thought trying to remember something or scouring her own memories and her inherited-memories for any information related to that physique.

Maybe the great-sage was the only one to notice the thin and long fingers on the gloved-hands of the shadow-king when they shivered before he quickly hid them in the wide sleeves of his black cloak, his black abyss-like eyes widened before a glint of pure excitement flickered within them.

"Ah!... hmm?" Once Hongtian finally found the details about the guiding-light physique in her inherited-memories... she sensed Qiaoxing holding her shoulder to stop her from saying anything about it before quickly letting go since this sister of his hates experiencing any sort of physical-contact with others the most.

Mu Jianhong : "That would be all. Lin'er can go back to the fighting-ground, your next opponent would confront you once our guests decide it."

Lin nodded then gave his master another polite bow before returning to the fighting-ground.

"Xiaolin. Go have fun, better go all-out from the very beginning." Shadow-king didn't wait for his sister to decide and didn't ask for her permission either before telling one junior from his territory to challenge the boy.

Being aware of the personality and character of her brother Qiaoxing... sky-queen ignored the impolite gesture and waited for him to explain himself since it's commonly-known that this crown-tutor isn't someone who takes action for no reason.

*****

"Whoa! what the hell is that?"

"Careful... that green cloud is poisonous! even the protective-formations are being corroded by it."

"Hiss... I think..."

"What is it? your complexion is awfully pale... didn't you just win three times earlier? you should be smiling from ear to ear, tsk."

"I probably know what kind of creature is lurking within that poisonous cloud."

"For real? come-on! tell me already."

"That's a... "wood-venom" I don't think young-master Lin would be able to get away unscathed from this challenge, if he isn't being extra careful then... I'm afraid that he might really suffer this time."

*****

'Ouch! this green-cloud is thorny, my soul-sense was prickled about two-billion times before I could take a close look at the creature inside it... thankfully our soul-force is strong which enabled me to prevent that gas from corroding it. But I don't recommend long-term exposure to that green gas, unless you're willing-to shrink the range of soul-sense to one-hundred meters that is.' Xia's voice carried a touch of irritation in it still, his sin-sister gave her verdict about this green-cloud and Lin wouldn't dare underestimate it after hearing her opinion.

Lin : "So... what kind of demonic-beast is it?"

Xia : "Some sort of arachnid, green in color and small in size... it's quite agile though. Some people in the audience called it wood-venom, you better be prepared to deal with it's thorny and corrosive poison then." The deadly-sin of lust did seem amused and excited to see how her beloved big-brother is going to deal with this opponent.

"Time for me to get serious then." The boy murmured while recalling the teachings of the indestructible-fiend manual.

So far the great-sage was working on the introductory-phase of the body-refinement method, during this stage the user is required to prepare their physique. Their blood gets branded with the runes according to their natural-affinities, afterwards and only afterwards could the user be able to use the abilities of this manual. In the later stages after many more refinements and further adjustments of the user's physique... they could really become indestructible-fiends.

Thanks to his wide-variety of affinities and his nine "elementally-soaked" organs... every single cell of Lin's blood is already branded with many complicated runes. Among these runes, nine of them are already activated and interlinked in some multi-dimensional and extremely complex formation! within that formation, which exists in every blood-cell, is all the remaining "dormant" runes.

From the outside... these active-runes are acting like some sort of cocoon. The dormant-runes might seem like weak larvae being shielded from the elements however, the boy sensed how these dormant-runes, which resemble disintegration-intent or share some similarities with it, are being isolated away from his body-cells.

The great-sage is having a vague sense that his current physique, despite being improved greatly just now, isn't strong enough yet to withstand the dormant-runes in his blood-cells!

'Maybe when I unlock and fully connect the major-circle. I should at least be able to activate one or two of these dormant-runes, right now I have this "interesting" challenge to tackle.' Lin thought while focusing on the green-cloud that landed in the fighting-ground, specifically at the faint shadow in the center of this thick green-fog.

*****

Zi Yun : "Huh!..." This spirit-sovereign, white-tier mercenary, and ancient-ranked expert in formations seemed like he just got struck by lightning once he witnessed his junior-disciple brother Lin activate his qi-refining manual for the first time after assimilating the qi-image into his body.

Being the oldest, strongest, and first-disciple of sovereign Jianhong, this dark-skinned sovereign is aware of the teachings and the benefits this indestructible-fiend manual for body-refinement offers its users.

Simply put... after the user brand their blood with their affinities and further improve their physique, they gain the ability to manipulate their qi-aura fused with said affinities to... grow an extra pair of arms and another head! going further... grow another set of arms and the third head.

The later stages of this incomplete-manual for body-refinement details how to use the blood to refine these four arms and two heads into indestructible weapons.

Afterwards all the information is missing, clearly this body-refinement manual isn't so simple.

Despite being incomplete it's bordering the forbidden-tier in the rankings.

Right now Zi Yun and everyone else are witnessing a frightening scene, below the boy's two feet... some formation is spreading outwardly with complicated runes flickering between the lines.

Within the inner-circle of that formation there's a five-pointed star, the five-elements of the basic-tier are glowing and each of them is sending a stream towards the middle where the great-sage is standing.

These five-elements are balanced perfectly and fusing at a fast and increasing rate! on the outer circle there's an addition of four more elements and they're located on the cardinal directions where light is directly in-front of Lin and darkness behind him, wind towards his right and lightning towards left.

Wind and thunder were the first two elements to send streams towards the fusion of the five-elements at the center then light and darkness followed their lead and sent their own share.

The craziest of it all is... these streams of energy don't belong to the systems of spirit-energy, qi-aura, or even weapon-intent! yet... to the clear and keen senses of all six people within this platform, this "unique" type of energy is... much, much more stronger than any of them on its own.

There's what seems like the spirit-ability of energy-armor covering the boy's body however, unlike any "normal" ability of energy-armor where the user is regularly covered with a single type of element or in the extremely rare cases two elements.

The great-sage have nine perfectly-fused elements protecting his skin, the unbelievable thing is... he's still not using any spirit-energy at all!

Yi Mingxia : "Even if I'm going to face lightning-tribulation once again... your seed is most-definitely going to fall within my fertile land." The eyes of this ancient-tier alchemist reddened and the sovereign began to think about how to set-up the plan and get it into motion ahead of schedule.

Mu Jianhong : "Hehe... careful now little-girl, you might get yourself strangled once again." The white-haired elder smirked while teasing his disciple.

*Snort...*

"Humph. I'm not giving-up on him, my little-brother is a monster indeed but... at least he's a polite one. Certainly my poor descendant wouldn't be mistreated by him." The beautiful woman didn't seem like she minds the "mistreatment" that might be involved in this deal, the gain far outweighs the loss... by way too much.

The city-lord nodded to approve his second-disciple before saying : "It depends if these juniors in your family could sway him right now and hook his interest, your little-brother Lin is way too focused on his cultivation. Maybe later... when puberty hits-in."

After deliberating for a couple seconds, Mingxia shook her head and said : "No! the wings of this one were already strong before meeting us, I can't risk it... he might fly away before it happen. It has to be soon or it might not happen at all."

Mu Jianhong : "Then you better work fast. Because... I do plan to take him away, he needs to see the world from high-up before going back down to walk all the way back to the top." This time... the white-sovereign mercenary sounded like the ruler of all mercenaries in the southern-continent.

*Sigh...*

Zi Yun : "You all don't understand..."

Hearing the formation-expert sighing ever-so deeply interrupted the pair of master and disciple, seeing him shaking his head in regret then scratching between the locks of his braided-hair and falling into deep thought seemingly focused on something that's extremely important caused them to raise an eyebrow.

This fellow is rarely interested in anything besides formations, yes this formation below Lin's feet seems interesting but... it's way too simple.

A five-pointed star surrounded by a circle and a square, the five basic-tier elements on the five points of the star and the four high-tier elements on the four points of the square.

They're no experts on formations but, both of them are able to draw and activate a similar formation with the help of spirit-crystals of similar affinity!

The dark-skinned sovereign shook his head after seeing the reaction of his master and sister, Chenhui and Hongtian were looking towards him and Zi Yun could see similar puzzlement within their eyes.

Only this mysterious Qiaoxing was different, the shadow-king does seem like he noticed something after seeing the formation below the feet of his junior-disciple brother Lin.

Zi Yun : "Just watch. This formation might seem simple to the naked-eye of the onlookers but it could do frightening things when manipulated by the hands of an apprentice-tier practitioner of formations, let's see how much of its potential is my junior-disciple brother going to expose." After slumping in his chair, this white-sovereign choose not to reveal much details since this is actually an ancient formation that he once searched far and wide for it.

The name of this formation is "Nine-Firmaments" and it certainly is the most sought-after formation for every single sect or organization within the spirit-world. Why? well... it's because it's a one of a kind among all formations.

Defensive, offensive, elusive, and the most important point... capable of stabilizing the fate of its location.

When it comes to defense... nothing is more difficult than overcoming a barrier that's made from the five basic-tier elements. Especially when they're fused perfectly.

When it comes to offense... nothing is more difficult to block than the element of lightning or wind, both are fast and deadly. Especially when they're being used together.

When it it comes to elusiveness... nothing is capable of mesmerizing or ensnaring than the element of light and darkness. Especially when illusions are perfect when light and shadow could affect the soul and cause heart-demons.

When it comes to fate... nothing is needed more than chaos-energy by cultivators from every system!

These nine elements create the nine-firmaments formation and the result of perfect fusion is the accumulation of chaos-energy, moldable and tame chaos-energy... unlike the wild types which could be found within extremely high points of elevation within the sky above their head.

*****

Lin : "You've been awfully silent ever since you arrived." The boy said after spending about two minutes inspecting this formation and his body, each blood-cell does indeed have the exact same formation and through their aid he could project it around him.

Forty-two acupoints are operating at maximum-speed, thirty-linked and another twelve are yet to connect with one another.

His first goal is almost attained and the five-elements are almost fused-perfectly according to his wish, on-top of them there's a layer where the wind and lightning are joined without any problems... these two don't reject one another yet, they aren't fusing either.

The element of light and the element of darkness are both acting like a pair of magnets who share the same polarity, pushing them towards one another is met being met with resistance and a swirling force.

These aren't composed of spirit-energy, each one of these elements is made-up from the perfect-fusion his own qi-vitality and the different types of elemental-oriented weapon-intents.

Honestly it's somewhat comical since despite all of them belonging to the system of intent... none of them is purely related to any weapon!

The key-factor is the infusion of soul-force to this very special type of unique energy, once he attempted to do it... Lin felt like there's some sort of uncontrollable and mighty power being unleashed from within him.

That tree-like magma-river seemed like it's about to combust and explode!

Its narrow system didn't seem like it would be able to hold such rabid-flow. The great-sage immediately retracted his soul-force after having this dreadful and foreboding sense however, he feels like he just exhausted himself, during this little experiment of his, way more than his fight with Xiaogang earlier.

Xiaolin : "I was about to do just that. It's just that..."

"What?" The boy tilted his head slightly and continued to say : "Is something troubling you?" He shined the energy belonging to the element of light at green-cloud in attempt to look at his opponent who got such a feminine and soft voice.

Again, the answer came from inside the shroud of that green-fog : "Just earlier... what did you do? your aura suddenly intensified and became explosive, it resembled his majesty's back in the days before he underwent his lightning-tribulation." The owner of that soft voice is clearly intimidated, the shuddering-fear is clearly noticeable in their tone of voice.

Lin : "Uh... my bad, earlier I was attempting to experience something but clearly I'm not up for it yet. Go ahead and try attacking, it won't happen again."

Xiaolin : "You should be careful... being exposed to my wood-venom isn't some pleasant experience, or so they say."

"Might as well try and get a feel for it. You see... I'm slightly distrustful when it comes to the opinions of others, sometimes they get emotional and tend to exaggerate things out of proportions."

"Now you sound like someone who's full of himself."

The boy smiled when he heard this sarcastic remark before saying : "And you sound like someone who's in the mood for satisfying battle."

The soft and feminine voice replied : "Indeed."

*Whoosh...*

Suddenly the green cloud of poisonous-fog stirred and became restless before elongating in tentacle-like forms and shaping a bowl-like domain that's a lot like spider-webs but in multi-layers and connected in an impermeable and complex formation.

In the center of the fighting-ground within these green-webs, the great-sage could be vaguely seen standing there calmly inside his own version of the nine-firmaments formation and its protection.

The area thirty meters around Lin and above him is free of any of these green-webs and their poisonous-vapor.

*****

Qiaoxing : "That kid... when he unleashed his presence earlier I really got the vague-impression that he's some king in disguise."

Chenhui : "My skin is still tingling from it, no-wonder... that junior of yours wasn't wrong when he said that he was reminded of you brother."

Hongtian : "He can't control that power yet. Clearly Lin's physique can't withstand the burden of that ability but, what kind of ability was that? just activating it... caused this wood-venom to freeze from fear."

The black cloaked shadow-king nodded before saying : "Don't forget that he's capable of passively repelling Xiaolin's "soul-corroding" poison thanks to this formation of his, these defensive-capabilities are practically unheard of."

The blue-eyed loin-clothed volcanic-king grinned savagely while exposing his lethal and sharp fangs before saying : "This junior is really interesting, now I'm itching for a fight."

The beauty crossed her arms which accentuated her bosom and enamored countless individuals among the audience before saying : "I've been anxious to see the performance of that formation after seeing sovereign Zi Yun's reaction and hearing his opinion about it, it's defense is acceptable but... what about its offense."

"He's about to begin. Why isn't he using his weapon?" Chenhui said while feeling excitement then frowned when he noticed how Lin began to form signs with his hands.

*Sigh...*

"Because he's manipulating the formation itself." Zi Yun sighed before answering the volcanic-king.

*****

*Ching...*

With a single move from his right-hand forward, a yellow-colored strand of gold-element in the shape of a short-sword severed the green tentacle in half before it could cross a few inches inside the outer-perimeter of the square-shaped formation.

That green-tentacle did have a cone-like tip and Xiaolin made it spin. The force was strong enough to penetrate the passive defensive-capabilities of this formation, an admirable feat and a satisfying accomplishment since it is just a probing move.

However, upon being severed... that green-tentacle emitted a screen of thick almost-liquid poison that began to spread towards the boy.

"Nice." Lin praised his opponent while forming another hand gesture with his left-hand and pressed it down.

This time it's a blue-colored strand that spread above the screen of poison like a sheet of fabric, these blue drops of water quickly mixed with the poison and fell towards the ground.

Before that blue-green mixture touched the floor... all of it was frozen into a layer of ice.

Another tentacle arrived by the time the first one was overcome by the great-sage, honestly... many among those within the audience couldn't even tell what happened since everything happened so fast.

Actually Lin isn't using any method for formation-controlling at the moment and still doesn't know how to properly use any formation, he's moving according to the teachings of the indestructible-fiend manual.

These actions are meant to stimulate the blood and quicken the rate of improvement, since these elements once belonged to the system of weapon-intent, all he needs to do to manipulate any element within the nine-points of this formation is... picture using this element or that in a certain way.

Right now he's attempting to connect the first acupoint of his major-circle with the rest of unlocked acupoints. Yes... the boy is daring enough to cultivate his body-refining system during battle!

The second tentacle was blocked by a brown-strand of earth-element that formed a few walls, then another red-strand of fire-element incinerated the poisonous fog for a couple seconds before a strong gale of azure wind blew the residue outside the formation.

An encirclement of roots appeared and began to grow in both length and thickness which created a defensive barrier around the square formation then another circle of fire appeared within it, while the fire ate away at the roots of that encirclement... wind buffeted and battered the fire which caused it to blaze fiercely, lightning struck the roots and scorched them.

Below that circle of roots and fire... a layer of earth appeared, within this earth there's various types of metal which the thick roots spread freely and deeply within and around them to hold it together while absorbing nourishments from these metals and rich soil of the earth itself.

Meanwhile the fire melted the earth and began to burn at a much higher degree, the components of metal within the layer of earth below it thickened the molten-magma.

Beyond that circle of magma there's another circle of water however, that water-circle is split into two parts one of them is frozen solid by the effect of the fierce wind, the other part is constantly forming high-waves which are constantly crashing towards the frozen part... clearly it's thickening and fortifying it to balance against its neighboring-circle of molten-magma.

The alternating visual-effect of light and darkness on this "miniature-world" which the great-sage just created to act as a barrier against his opponent... caused everyone currently watching to feel like they're witnessing the birth of a new dimension!

On the other hand... Xiaolin was really feeling like she's confronting an impregnable fortress. None of her attacks are working, and close-range fights isn't her specialty.

Concentrating her "webs" into a single point didn't work, spreading them and attacking from multiple points failed.

The most vexing point is that she never managed to reach the inner-circle of this formation, beyond that point is the five-pointed star and beyond that is the boy's main protective-measure... that nine-colored energy-armor.

Now she's exhausted herself greatly while trying to break some blockade this Lin created seemingly at a whim, afterwards he got himself busy while performing that weird movement routine of his.

*Snort...*

Xiaolin : "I give up." After snorting to express her dissatisfaction, this wood-venom retracted its webs and green-cloud and revealed its form to the audience... like Xia said before it does belong to the arachnids and every single one of its legs is like its cast from refined-metal.

She could continue but she didn't feel like doing so anymore. She could use his trump-card but it would harm her and delay her cultivation plus... Xiaolin isn't confident that it would give any useful result, this boy's defense is too annoying and the methods he's using are perfectly and efficiently countering hers practically effortlessly which is driving her mad.

Since when are juniors this difficult to handle? juniors are supposed to be easily bullied... this one is just too broken.

Lin : "Huh! I thought-"

"What?" While glaring at the great-sage with its many eyes, this ancestral-beast questioned him with its soft and feminine voice... clearly annoyed with him and unsatisfied with her performance.

"That I should stay on the defensive and let you try everything in your arsenal first before we switch roles," Lin said while scratching his cheek, "But you kept attacking and I thought that you were enjoying your time and refining your abilities. The speed you executed that swirling-tentacle attack of yours increased by two fragments of a second, that needle-like projectile became faster..." The boy began to awkwardly explain his point of view then his sage-personality took-over, Xiaolin was listening while feeling amazed by all these details which she didn't notice because of her anger.

*****

Mu Jianhong : "Tsk. This brat..."

Zi Yun : "Now I'm sure of it. Junior-disciple brother Lin is beyond the shadow of doubt... "unbeatable" below the lord-realm thanks to that n-... formation."

Yi Mingxia : "That's good to know." Nodding her head while chewing on one of her fingers she continued to say : "I think that's probably enough fighting for the day, most of these juniors were intimidated by the performance of my junior-brother so far. Maybe we should give them time to come with the perfect strategy to counter his abilities." The sly glint within the eyes of this female sovereign said it all... she's clearly eager about introducing the kid to her granddaughters and great-granddaughters!

Hongtian : "I agree. Looks like I greatly underestimated the closed-doors disciple of sovereign Jianhong, well played." Sky-queen said that then stood-up, clearly planning to leave.

The white-haired elder smirked while ignoring the scalding glare from the queen's pair of red-eyes then said : "Lin'er is just so-so. Your highness can certainly go pay a visit to the imperial-clan and invite a descendant from them to win it all without breaking a sweat or... beckon for a descendant of the three clans or one of your relatives to solve your issue, yet here we are." These words caused the incomparable beauty to sneer, clearly not intending to do any of that... especially not the later option.

*****

"Humph." After waking-up from her daze, Xiaolin left the fighting-ground while ignoring the pleading-eyes of this boy who wants to make her his target for practicing his offensive abilities.

Leaving him hanging did vent some of her frustrations, it brought some joy to her heart.

Lin : "You're being cruel to me."

Xiaolin : "You deserve it."

"You're throwing me away after using me." The great-sage smirked while saying that.

"You better hope that the day I use you never comes, my kind eats the ones we use... silly human jokes. Tsk, tsk, tsk..." The human-sized arachnid stopped and said so before resuming her walk, she kept shaking her butt though... seemingly amused when the boy and almost every male within the crowd looked at her with fear in their eyes.