Within some secluded manor in the southern parts of mercenary-city.

The beasts guarding the gates and walls of this place are all in the king-realm, Xiaojin, Xiaohui, Xiaogang, and Xiaolin are the only demonic-beasts below that realm within this manor.

Hongtian, Chenhui, and Qiaoxing are sitting in the main hall discussing the events of today, especially... the case of why the shadow-king had such a strong reaction after getting to know about the special physique of sovereign Jianhong's closed-doors disciple.

Qiaoxing : "Since I'm planning to immediately go visit our brothers and the imperial-territories... let me give you the short-version," The shadow-king locked the fingers of both hands and leaned forward on his seat, "Before coming here and seeing that boy Lin for myself, I always thought that he only have something that's going to be of great importance to sister Hongtian and only her." Suddenly the black abyss-like eyes of this beastly-king glowed like a pair of torches before saying : "However, just because of his guiding-light physique... the existence of this Tai Lin is of paramount importance to us and the "Faithful-Coalition" in its entirety... every single faction of it. Simply because that boy's special physique is capable of stimulating the bloodline of every species of the demonic-beast races, and able to do just the same or more to those from the other factions within the coalition. Just being close to the kid could allow the bloodline of any demonic-beast to awaken and better yet... to evolve!"

Chenhui : "For real?" Volcanic-king did seem skeptical.

Hongtian : "Brother Qiaoxing. What are you planning to achieve by visiting the kingly-beasts and the imperial-clan?" Sky-queen Hongtian squinted her phoenix-eyes when she questioned the reasons behind Qiaoxing's sudden visit and his intentions.

"Like always... I only seek the benefit of our beast-race. When you requested my assistance, I accepted because my sister stands to gain something and my brother might gain something by helping you. Now there's an opportunity for us, the ten kingly-beasts and the beast-path guardians within the imperial-territory plus the imperial-clan itself, to strengthen our foundations," Shadow-king gave his sister a few seconds to understand his point of view before saying : "Please keep in mind that my title as an imperial-tutor isn't for show, I do have responsibilities of my own. Not to mention that... none of it is going to contradict or delay your main-agenda, certainly there must be a way for all of us to get what we want."

"Then I'm going to hold you true to these words when the time comes, brother should keep this in mind." Despite saying so with a lazy tone of voice, Qiaoxing and Chenhui understood that this sky-queen wouldn't hesitate, and reveal her explosive-temper, if her goals were neglected in any way.

Hongtian wouldn't give the "emperors" within the imperial-territory face if she doesn't feel like it, the same goes to high-rank members of the dragon-clan.

Certainly this gorgeous woman would "express" her opinion with all its might if shadow-king tried to play his cards in a way that doesn't achieve her goals or delay her aims.

"Please do so sister, please do so. Well... I better be on my way then, hopefully none of the juniors would beat that boy before I return." After saying these words, the imperial-tutor existed the southern-gates of mercenary-city in a hurry.

During the following week, Qiaoxing visited the remaining seven members of the ten kingly-beasts and more than twenty guardians of the beast-path before heading towards the imperial-territory at the center of beast-mountains.

*****

Meanwhile, Lin had to spend his days in the fighting-arena testing himself against the demonic-beasts.

The demonic-beasts below the tyrannical-realm learned their lesson during the second day and stopped trying to challenge the boy afterwards, and the tyrannical-beasts did their best every day afterwards to exhaust the kid with their tactics.

Indeed after this week there's signs of accumulated fatigue on the complexion of the great-sage however, the brightness and glow within his eyes never dimmed at all.

His methods kept on improving and the signs of inexperience were peeled-off from the boy, his opponents would discover the boy countering their moves slightly faster than his opponents expected. Sometimes... the great-sage would deliver his counter before any of his opponents could execute a skill! that annoying kid would beat them into action and deliver a perfect counter which prevented any of them from fighting at their best.

Despite how annoying that method is... all these tyrannical-beasts are currently capable of defeating their foes with much ease!

Yes... the fighting in the fighting-arena doesn't include the great-sage alone. As it would seem, these beasts are treating Lin like a "whetstone" which they use to improve their skills and fighting-ability.

Whenever there's no more opponents for him... the boy would return to his quarters to recover and cultivate.

The crowd would remain within the fighting-arena and watch the true show of every night, man against beast... clash after clash happened and the fatty took advantage of everyone.

Sun, Frostine, Liao Lai, Wang, Zhang, Qian Chi, and Rong Qing who kept improving his cultivation at a startling pace.

Not to mention that the former-assassin received his defensive spirit-equipment from Wei Zedong, relying on the help of his various affinities and his deep experience... this man is capable of crossing realms and suppressing beasts on a higher realm.

The merchant accumulated unbelievable wealth from his wide-variety of businesses and his pockets kept on swelling, this attracted the attention of others and all this "envy" blinded a few individuals. The ones who dared to act within mercenary-city were swiftly apprehended and locked in the dungeons, the ones who didn't dare act within mercenary-city began to formulate plans. These plans were mostly formulated with the scenario of seizing this Cheng Wei during his return journey to the sunrise-empire and taking all his wealth.

*****

During the time Lin and his friends were still recuperating after bypassing the beast-blockade on pearl-road.

Mia, and her beast-companion Xiaoxi left the seamless-sword sect with Dailong... the sect-master who willingly choose to abdicate his position and leave the sect while feeling disappointed at the high-ranking elders, grand-elders, and ancestors who choose to look the other side and accept the resources from the church.

First stop of their journey wasn't beast-mountains despite being their destination.

Her father took the saintess to "Dragon-Lair" the island ruled by the dragon-clan, the location of this mysterious island is known only to members of the dragon-clan and a few trusted individuals from the imperial-clan.

Some High-Elves occasionally visit this island since the faithful-coalition is mainly ruled by five members, one seat belongs to the dragon-clan, the imperial-clan, the Elves, the Dwarves, and the final-seat belongs to the beast-kin.

Dailong once belonged to a branch of the dragon-clan. Being a flood-dragon who surpassed his lightning-tribulation and choose the human-path since his love for the sword has always been his greatest motivation after witnessing his future wife in action, the former sect-master surpassed all expectations after cultivating spirit-energy and unlocking his sword-intent.

Halting his path as a demonic-beast in the primordial-realm and embracing spirit-cultivation and improving his sword mastery, sword-sovereign advanced in the realms with firm and steady steps.

Mia's mother noticed the rare ability of Dailong who kept pursuing her and gave her conditions in-order to accept him as her dao-companion, being the former saintess of the seamless-sword sect... Mia's father needs to succeed in joining her sect and become stronger than her mother.

And... to succeed in seizing the position of sect-master.

After striving hard for years and devoting himself to cultivation and seizing a lot of opportunities from the likes of Andreas, Tang Jianyu, Dong Peizhi, blind devil-sovereign, Kong Jiao, Mu Jianhong, and other leader-tier individuals of this spirit-world... Dailong crossed the true bottleneck for any human-path demonic-beast and managed to reach the realm of spirit-sovereign in spirit-cultivation while knocking all competition in the system of weapon-intent, especially in sword attainments.

The position of sect-master naturally fell in the hands of sword-sovereign after spending years and years contributing to the seamless-sword sect, and the saintess of the sect became his bride.

It is said that thanks to Dailong that the seamless-sword sect managed to become one of the five great-sects, specifically thanks to his amiable and close relation with the dragon-clan, imperial-clan, and the faithful-coalition. Plus his contributions and mighty cultivation.

The heart-seeking sect got taken-down a notch in the ranking and replaced by the seamless-sword sect.

Dailong : "Sister... sister Lanying. It's me, Dailong."

After using a special type of peak-grade space-talisman to reach dragon-lair island, without this talisman nobody would be able to cross the heavily-fortified location of this mysterious island since multi-layered space and elemental-formations are at work, sword-sovereign took his daughter and went to a secluded cave on some mountain and stopped before announcing himself.

Lanying : "Cough... go away brother, I don't feel well right now." From inside the cave came the grief-stricken voice of some woman.

*Sigh...*

The former sect-master descended towards the simple stone table in front of the cave with his daughter and took a seat while releasing a long sigh.

How can he not sympathize-with that sister of his? she basically raised him up and took care of him back in the days when he was just a junior of a lower ranking.

His big-sister Lanying lost her partner when he went on a journey to explore the spot of mindless-illusion and is yet to return, fortunately fate smiled on this gentle dragon after her companion left... she discovered the existence of a new life growing within her.

However, during one journey with Mia's mother and father in the outskirts of beast-mountains... Lanying lost that egg.

The three of them happened to discover the existence of some ancient-ruin after a series of events. Some juniors from the mercenary-guild fell in the trap of another group who clearly belonged to the cultivation-alliance, demonic-beasts were involved and the battle resulted in the death of all mercenaries except for a single young-man who didn't hesitate to enter the ruins once he noticed that there's no way out of his encirclement.

That ruins is a forbidden-location now because... Mia's mother almost lost her life there and Lanying lost her unhatched offspring.

"I left the seamless-sword sect." The former sect-master said while pouring himself a cup of wine then emptied it in his throat.

"Good for you little-brother... good for you. That place never deserved you or sister Aya. Sigh..." Again, the voice of this female came from inside the cave... sounding sad and disheartened.

Mia : "Aunty... I missed you." The former-saintess didn't sit and kept looking towards the cave while saying so, the woman couldn't suppress her emotions and began to cry.

She, herself lost a mother six years after that incident and this female dragon lost her egg on the very same day.

Xiaoxi : "Mimi... there's someone very strong inside that cave, there's strong ones everywhere around us. I'm so scared..." The tiny turtle shrunk its head into its colorful-shell after saying that and its eyes kept circling the island.

Xiaomi : "Tsk. Now she isn't so forgetful anymore, are you sure she isn't acting?" The violet-haired girl stood on the hilt of the sword and crossed her arms while squinting her violet-eyes. Clearly this awakened-soul is currently doubting this demonic-beast.

"You two be good. I don't want to see you doing or saying anything that might sadden aunty Lanying, alright!"

"M'kay..." The turtle said while ignoring the glare from the violent girl.

"Humph. That attitude of hers is always so infuriating..." The violet-haired girl raised her chin towards the sky while muttering these words.

Lanying : "Little-Mia has grown. You look exactly like her..."

Father and daughter spent the following month at Lanying's cave.

Doing their best to cheer her up and interacting with this sad dragon, finally they managed to convince her to go with them to beast-mountains.

Their goal is to search for clues.

However, after looking intensively around the forbidden-grounds of the ancient-ruins where the wounded Aya and Lanying found themselves being trapped by an extremely high-tier formation.

Dailong decided to take his sister and go visit some friends in the imperial-clan, his goal is to entrust his daughter to them where she could spend time there cultivating and improving herself.

Challenging the juniors of the clan could help her refine her techniques and advance her sword-intent which she just managed to materialize lately, doing so ought to help her stabilize her not so firm mental-state and consolidate her foundations in the tyrant-realm which she managed to quickly take a few leaps within it in too little time.

*****

Deep within beast-mountains. Specifically the imperial-territory.

This mighty chain of mountains is the holiest place for every demonic-beast.

Every peak contains, at least, a primordial-beast or two!

The imperial-city in the center of these mountains is home to two of the closest kin to two of the four divine-beasts, the white-tiger and the black-turtle.

The celestial-tiger and the immortal-turtle, two of the current rulers reside within this imperial-city at the moment.

Rumor is that after the primordial-era ended, blood-godfiend personally established this imperial-city for the fiends and descendants of four of his brothers and sisters.

Later afterwards the dragon-clan left and took residence in the mysterious dragon-lair island, and the phoenix-clan relocated to the phoenix-nest on the parasol tree within the eastern-continent.

That tiger-emperor and turtle-emperor are said to be in the peak-stages of the realm of origin-beast.

By relying on their bloodline, which is of the peak-purity, and their inherent-memories... these two "beast-emperors" could use their perfectly-matched skills to fight against the five leaders of the great-sects!

To be able to drag things into a stalemate while being disadvantaged in a scenario of five against two is... frightening really.

Especially when their enemies are the best there is.

The tiger-emperor is titled "slaughter-monarch" while the turtle-emperor is titled "immortal-monarch" because the first is widely-known everywhere in spirit-world for his savage, swift, and dreadful methods while the later is widely-recognized for being unmatched in his defensive-skills.

Qiaoxing : "Greetings slaughter-monarch, greetings immortal-monarch." Once shadow-king entered the throne-hall of the imperial-palace he prostrated himself by bowing politely.

Inside this hall there's four thrones, every throne is located in a cardinal-direction where murals of the divine-beasts are drawn on the walls behind them or engraved on pillars and statues.

The southern-throne and the northern-throne are occupied by two men dressed in royal attires of black and white, they're similarly crowned with an obsidian-black or a white-jade crown.

The embroidery on the sleeves and shoulders of their robes plus the decorating gems of their crowns are sufficient enough to give hints about who is the slaughter-monarch and who is the immortal-monarch.

Shan Shenyuan : "Oh! if it isn't the crown-tutor..." Immortal-monarch opened his ancient and wizened-eyes then muttered these words, afterwards the very old-looking man plucked a few grapes and threw them into his mouth.

He seemed amused and curious to know about the reason behind the sudden visit.

On the other hand, slaughter-monarch only opened his eyes a crack before closing them and nodding once.

The thin man beneath the black cloak shivered when his eyes met the gaze of this tiger-emperor, the killing-intent within them made him feel like the killing-intent of his brother Chenhui is a cool breeze while the killing-intent of that slaughter-monarch is a fierce and unstoppable storm.

Xing Zhiqiang : "All of you... leave us." Once the tiger-emperor gave that order with his eyes closed, the servants in the throne-hall quickly and orderly left without making any sound.

Only a single person remained in the throne-hall besides shadow-king and the two emperors.

A man in his late twenties who's wearing a purple robe with embroideries of a four-legged golden dragon and a similarly golden crown.

Long Yongliang : "Teacher." The crown-prince gave a courtesy bow to shadow-king.

"En. Your aura is stable and your breathe is steady, did you already consolidate yourself in the king-realm?" Shadow-king asked while studying the crown-prince with his eyes.

"All thanks to your guidance." Yongliang said while smiling.

The immortal-monarch sighed inwardly while shaking his head after seeing this crown-prince revealing some of his proud personality before saying : "Qiaoxing. What brought you back so soon? weren't you, Chenhui, and that little-girl Hongtian having fun causing trouble for Mu Jianhong in mercenary-city?"

The black cloaked man straightened his back before replying : "I discovered a frightening-junior there and spent the last week reporting the news to my brothers before coming to inform you about him. Hopefully monarchs would give this matter the attention it deserves."

The slaughter-monarch raised an eyebrow after hearing what the shadow-king said which meant... he's following this conversation and is slightly interested about it.

The immortal-monarch smirked and nodded once which meant that he wants to hear more about this junior since these dull days are boring this old-looking emperor very much.

The crown-prince frowned before saying : "Teacher. Is that junior more talented than the junior sect-master of the heart-seeking sect? besides Dan Pengfei... there's no one interesting among the juniors of the humans."

*Sigh...*

After sighing once he noticed the extremely proud-attitude of this Long Yongling, Qiaoxing shook his head and said : "My dear prince. I'm afraid that you're underestimating the juniors of these human-cultivators by far too much." Shadow-king, being the crown-tutor, seriously said to the crown-prince and received a shrug and ridiculing-smile from the man in purple robe.

Shan shenyuan : "Mm-hmm..." The immortal-monarch nodded again while chewing on these potent spirit-fruits which contain wild and extremely chaotic spirit-energy, refining this dangerous energy requires an insanely strong physique or, at least, an ancestor-rank alchemist to calm or separate their wild-affinity with the help of other medicinal-ingredients.

Xing Zhiqiang : "That human-junior. What makes him so... "special" in your eyes?"

Qiaoxing : "His physique."

The slaughter-monarch opened his eyes another crack to stare at the crown-tutor before closing his eyes and saying : "Elaborate."

The thin man below the black cloak nodded and began to speak : "Besides being extremely young and talented in body-refinement, weapon-intent, and soul-force... that boy is certainly going to become a powerhouse in spirit-cultivation soon in the future. One week ago I witnessed him in action against newly ascendant juniors from my territory as well as both the territories of sister Hongtian and brother Chenhui," Shadow-king seemed to be vividly recalling the events of that day... a bright and ambitious-glow could be seen within his abyss-like black-eyes, "The boy was already capable of perfectly fusing both the systems of weapon-intent and qi-vitality, by doing so he relied-on the help of his multiple natural-affinities in the elemental-section of weapon-intent and a unique body-refinement manual to project the qi-image of the Ashura-fiend. Afterwards he successfully assimilated that qi-image into his body before unleashing an ancient-formation, that formation was mentioned in the tomes of our ancestors and within my inherited-memories. It's related to the legacy of "thirty-three heavens" that Fuxi the godfiend created, the one that helped him establish himself within all the godfiends of the primordial-era."

Long Yongliang : "Teacher. Is this some joke? first you talk about the special physique of that human junior then... you completely ignore it and speak of that long-lost legacy." The crown-prince did seem awfully-dissatisfied and slightly jealous when his teacher began to speak so fondly and with great admiration about someone else... especially when it's a human-junior!

"Believe me when I say that... volcanic-king, sky-queen, and myself. We all felt genuine-trepidation when that junior attempted to add his soul-force into that perfect-fusion of qi-vitality and weapon-intent! according to the historical-tomes... the barbarian-emperor and the witch-empress both died when they attempted to tame that very-special and extremely-wild type of unique energy." Qiaoxing looked his student in the eyes while saying that, these words finally managed to shake this student of his and awaken him to the reality of things.

The eyes of this old-looking immortal-monarch widened when he heard the shadow-king, a heavy and pressuring-air descended on the crown-prince and the black cloaked man when the slaughter-monarch opened his eyes completely and stared at the crown-tutor with a pair of blood-red and merciless-eyes.

Unlike Hongtian's pair of gentle and captivating red-eyes... the eyes of this Xing Zhiqiang naturally exudes killing-intent and could seemingly suck the soul of those who witness it!

Thankfully these two are slightly used to it and being in the presence of this tiger-emperor, they could maintain the clarity of their mind somewhat and act normally without embarrassing themselves in front of this monarch.

"Finally... "Paragon-Will" has appeared once again in spirit-world. Hahaha... great!" Suddenly the tiger-emperor looked towards the north and began to laugh.

"Sigh... and here I was complaining about the boring days as of late," The turtle-emperor rolled his eyes, "Looks like the peaceful days are over... I'm getting old for this."

"Monarchs. What is that paragon-will?" Crown-prince Yongliang sensed the gravity of this information and the great implications it's going to cause in the future since these two are acting like this.

Qiaoxing : "Something of incomparable importance however, it's like so only for those who stand at the peak... right now you and I aren't allowed to participate in this event. Just observing from afar would be of great help though. But, if you dare be impatient and attempt to get yourself involved in these matters I'm afraid that... your end would be near," Again the shadow-king instructed his student to tread carefully around certain matter since the seniors of his dragon-clan might fall after a single misstep, "However, the special-physique of that human-junior is of paramount-importance to every demonic-beast. He's blessed-with the guiding-light physiq-"

"Say what?" The immortal-monarch suddenly interrupted the black cloaked man by saying that then slammed the arm of his throne while standing up, "Are you certain that his physique is the guiding-light?" The old-looking man didn't seem any old or weak when he swiftly appeared before Qiaoxing and held him by the shoulder with shriveled and thin fingers, his complexion reddened and his smile widened when the "frightened" shadow-king groaned from the pain that's coming from his shoulders and hurried to nod repeatedly.

"Hahahaha... the heavens have eyes." Shan Shenyuan released the crown-tutor and raised his head towards the sky and began to laugh and talk to himself while clearly being overcome with heart-felt and genuine excitement.

Xing Zhiqiang : "Hmmm... we have visitors." Suddenly the slaughter-monarch looked towards the south and murmured these words after noticing the arrival of Lanying, Dailong, and Mia at one of the imperial-mountains.

Shan Shenyuan : "Let's keep this information between us, at least, until we get to know about the reason of their visit."

*****

Lanying : "Brother Zhiqing. Brother Shenyuan. My apologies for dropping-by without any notice in advance." This pure-blooded female dragon in the form of a tall and slender woman cupped her fist while greeting the two emperors who personally left their throne-hall and received her outside the gates of imperial-city.

Dailong : "Old turtle... how come you're still alive?" Mia's father smirked after seeing the immortal-monarch and teased this elder, clearly there's some history between the two of them.

Shan Shenyuan : "Tsk..." The turtle-emperor puckered his lips and glared at this rude junior. He really wants to kick his arrogant butt however, his speed and attack is inferior to this sword-sovereign which means that he can only dream about it happening.

Xing Zhiqing : "Sister Lanying... welcome back. Imperial-city is as much your home as it's ours, please come in." The slaughter-monarch ignored Dailong and Shenyuan then took a step towards the city and disappeared.

Yongliang : "Greetings elder Lanying. Greetings senior Dailong." The crown-prince politely greeted these two however, his eyes kept stealing glances at Mia who stood silently behind her father and aunty.

The sight of her beauty was further improved by how she gently hugged her pet-turtle and the sad look within her eyes... it took almost all his will-power to stop himself from engaging her in a conversation or outright embracing her. However, Long Yongliang already began to formulate plans in his head on how to approach her in the future.

"Hmmm..." The former sect-master frowned slightly when he noticed the way this junior is looking at his own daughter.

"Little-Yong has grown a lot since I last saw him, so handsome too." The tall lady nodded before pinching the cheek of this crown-prince, clearly she's approving of him since he's eying Mia, which is a good match, and slightly annoyed since he dared call her elder.

"Aunty!" After blushing and shaking himself free from this woman, Long Yongling quickly escaped the scene since he just lost face in front of Mia and Dailong because of this old dragon-lady!

Immortal-monarch glared at sword-sovereign one last time before leaving.

Qiaoxing : "Lady Lanying, sovereign Dailong, little-mistress... please." Shadow-king bowed before gesturing for the three of them to move ahead.

Dailong : "You're the crown-tutor of that little-dragon."

The man in black cloak nodded while feeling the dissatisfaction from this sword-sovereign, clearly this father is annoyed at his student after witnessing the shifty-eyes of the crown-prince. Since this lady Lanying is favoring Yongliang and encouraging his attempts to woo Mia, Dailong shifted the blame on Qiaoxing instead because he's the one responsible for guiding the crown-prince.

The matter, and fact, about dragons being extremely lustful by nature was completely ignored by sword-sovereign who knows all about it since he's considered to be almost a pure-blooded dragon himself!

Shadow-king sighed inwardly before nodding and cupping his fist then bowing once again while replying : "At your service sovereign."

The former sect-master glared before saying : "Humph. Your focus on manners is... admirable." Then he left with his daughter who didn't say a single word from beginning to end.

Feeling the moisture of cold sweat on the lower side of his back, the thin-man beneath the black cloak inwardly cursed his arrogant and prideful student who gave him headache-inducing troubles all the time.

Lanying : "Heh. My little-brother is being overprotective of his daughter, just like he once was of his wife. Sigh..." For a moment there... this lady did seem to forget about her sorrow and genuinely smiled which caused Qiaoxing to be struck in a daze while thinking 'So beautiful... as expected of the number-one beauty of the dragon-clan.' Thankfully it only lasted for a second before she shook her head while sighing then began to move towards the throne-hall.

Once she entered this hall, Lanying naturally took her seat on the dragon-throne and Dailong sat next to her with Mia on a slightly lower position.

Xing Zhiqing : "Prepare a feast."

Dailong : "No need," Mia's father raised a hand to prevent these welcoming-ceremonies from happening since he and his sister are here to entrust his daughter in their care before going back to continue their task of searching for any clues, "The reason of our visit was to leave my daughter in the care of old-turtle however, right now I'm not so sure that's the right thing to do." Sword-sovereign gave the crown-prince a fleeting side-glance at the end of his words.

Shan Shenyuan : "Humph." The old-looking immortal-monarch glared at this shameless Dailong before gritting his teeth.

Shadow-king sighed inwardly once again since his student is still keeping at it and stealing lustful-glances at the former-saintess right now, these actions from Long Yongliang are garnering more and more dissatisfaction from the former sect-master towards both the crown-prince and the crown-tutor!

Finally the man below the black cloak couldn't stand this pressure anymore and said : "Emperors if I may speak."

The slaughter-monarch relaxed in his throne while keeping his eyes shut and said : "Go-on."

Qiaoxing : "Lady Lanying must be here searching for clues about the incident near the ancient-ruins."

Lanying : "Indeed." Since she's fully aware about the usefulness of someone superiorly-intellectual like this shadow-king, this female dragon wanted to hear what he has to say on this matter.

"According to my sources. There's a bit of useful information within mercenary-guild but, that information is classified as blue-rank and the rules don't allow outsiders to learn these secrets. Actually, one can't divulge them after learning them... the guild seems to have a method of preventing others from forcing or coercing their critical-information." The man in black cloak seemed to be painting a picture of the situation to Lanying and Dailong.

The lady frowned because she's already aware about this truth however, she's helpless in this matter since her clan investigated the guild back then and, except for a certain individual of a high-ranking, they're also the victim of that evil plot!

Twisting the arm of mercenary-guild would only benefit the ones hiding behind the thick curtains and pulling the strings.

Shadow-king looked towards the two emperors and said : "Monarchs. I believe that sooner or later lady Lanying and sovereign Dailong would hear the news, why alienate them now when you're going to require their assistance later anyway?"

Dailong : "Hmmm..." The former sect-master raised an eyebrow and looked at old-turtle with a questioning-gaze.

*Snort...*

Shan Shenyuan : "This one is a troublemaker... he's going to make a mess of everything anyway. Sister Lanying could be of a great assistance indeed." After snorting while revealing a grumpy-face, the immortal-monarch glared at sword-sovereign then said all that without care.

Lanying : "Brother Zhiqing." The female dragon looked at the tiger-emperor and waited for him to explain.

*Sigh...*

"Promise to keep it all to yourselves and promise to keep Dailong in check, at least, until we get what we want." After sighing, the slaughter-monarch opened his eyes and looked at the beautiful lady while asking her to take this matter seriously since it's of deep importance to their beast-race and the faithful-coalition as a whole.

"I promise." The female dragon nodded and said so before saying : "I'm interested to know what is it that got you two acting so mysteriously all of a sudden."

Xing Zhiqing : "Listen to what the crown-tutor has to say first."

Seeing that all the eyes are directed towards him, shadow-king coughed faintly before saying : "There's two things within mercenary-city right now and both of them are of great importance to us, one of them is the information required to reveal any clue about the whereabouts of lady Lanying's egg. The other one can allow seniors and juniors of our faithful-coalition to take a step further and faster in their cultivation... including the ones at the peak, like you lady Lanying and sovereign Dailong."

Long Yongliang : "Huh! is it true?" The crown-prince gawked after hearing what his teacher just said, he figured that must be what this shadow-king meant earlier by being an opportunity for those on the peak of this spirit-world.

Dailong : "Humph." Sword-sovereign took this opportunity and taught this rude junior a lesson, his harrumph sounded like thunder in the ears of this crown-prince who dares to interrupt a conversation between his seniors.

The young-man in purple robe became so pale in the face after experiencing this punishment and lowered his head however, this former sect-master noticed the venomous-glare that he received from this junior right before he looked at his toes.

Lady Lanying shook her head once she witnessed how little-Yongliang refused to admit his wrong and dared to reveal such proud-attitude in front of her brother Dailong!

In a different situation this sword-sovereign would cut this crown-prince without care or cripple his cultivation if he's being merciful.

*Cough...*

While wishing if his student would just leave right now, Qiaoxing coughed loudly before saying : "There's a junior... a human junior that's blessed-with the guiding-light physique," After giving these two a few seconds to digest this information, shadow-king continued to say : "Sky-queen Hongtian and sovereign Mu Jianhong already have an agreement between them, since the boy is the closed-doors disciple of that stubborn white-sovereign... we can't use forceful methods to get our hands on the kid. Unless we're prepared for a fierce-opposition from their faction!"

The female dragon asked Qiaoxing : "What kind of agreement is that and what role do we play in it? how could it help me get the information that I'm seeking to know from the guild."

"The agreement between sister Hongtian and sovereign Jianhong is that juniors are the only ones allowed to participate to solve this dispute, being on the scene is more than enough for us to provide sufficient pressure on the mercenaries. Honestly... I doubt that they're going to renege on their part of the deal, and I doubt that these juniors would be able to beat the kid anytime soon anyway."

Dailong : "He's that great!" Sword-sovereign seemed interested to know more and asked : "Human-cultivators have a junior like that besides Dan Pengfei and Mia?"

Shadow-king cupped his fist towards the former sect-master of the seamless-sword sect and said : "I carry nothing but respect for you sovereign and admiration for your daughter's talent however, when comparing age and attainments of the dao... that boy simply surpasses both of them by a few grades. Even my student, the crown-prince, is lacking in comparison to this kid."

Lanying : "Oh!..." After uttering this breathe softly, this lady decided to change course and go to mercenary-city.

There she can take a look at that human-junior for herself and aim for a chance to extract the information she wants if a chance surfaces.

"Old-turtle. No need to bother yourself taking care of my daughter anymore." Sword-sovereign said while grinning at the old-looking emperor.

Shan Shenyuan : "I'd welcome your daughter into my city anytime but not you yourself, why don't you scram already? tut, tut..." The turtle-emperor uttered these words while looking at Xiaoxi in the embrace of the former-saintess, that descendant of his was snatched by this hateful-fellow years back in their junior years after Shenyuan lost in some competition and this immortal-monarch is still feeling shame about it whenever he remembers the events of the past.

While gesturing dismissively at Dailong, Shenyuan sent a stream of his purest dao-energy towards the turtle with colorful shell.

It fell on the center her forehead and sank in her skull, afterwards Xiaoxi closed her eyes and seemed to be hibernating.

Mia : "Thank you. Xiaoxi and myself are indebted to the immortal-monarch." For the first time she spoke after getting-up from her seat and giving a polite courtesy-bow.

Yongliang felt his belly heating-up when he heard her voice and couldn't help himself, the crown-prince snuck a few glances at the young-woman's body when she bowed then felt like there's some sword being pointed at the center of his eyes and uttered a muffled grunt while retracting his gaze.

The female dragon lady shook her head while feeling disappointment after noticing the silent exchange between her little-brother and this rude crown-prince.

Xing Zhiqiang : "Then it's settled. Myself, sister Lanying, Dailong, Qiaoxing, and Yongliang are going to mercenary-city. Brother Shenyuan... the imperial-city is going to be under your care when we're gone." Slaughter-monarch was long gone before his words faded from the ears of everyone inside the throne-hall.

His temperament is known to all, being solitary and hard to approach yet... his loyalty to his beast-race and his friends is unquestionable.

*****

Mu Jianhong : "Hmmm..." This white-sovereign was sitting next to Lin in the training-room and enjoying the unstable pressure whenever the boy attempted to mix his soul-force with the perfectly-fused energies of qi and intent.

Senior Mu the, awakened-soul of the everlasting-stone's replica, chameleon was perched on his wide shoulder and twirling its funny-eyes whenever the great-sage's paragon-will covered its body... clearly enjoying this feeling of being tempered.

It's like its very soul is being refined and further consolidated within the material-world. Matter of fact... it's benefitting more than Jianhong right now!

Mu : "A troublesome fellow has arrived." Naturally the chameleon noticed the arrival of Xing Zhiqiang since every formation within this city is being operated through or with its help.

The city-lord shrugged and said : "We expected their arrival ever since they got to know about Lin'er and his special physique, paragon-will is more useful for them than us anyway."

The awakened-soul extended its long tongue and lashed the cheek of this white-sovereign before saying while rolling its eyes : "You imbecile! this disciple of yours does have spirit-energy doesn't he? if you take good care of him and groom him right then there's a huge chance of him being able to unlock his "Hegemon-Manifestation" in the future," While crawling all-over the head of this white-haired elder this chameleon reprimanded him severely, "Maybe his attainments would be sufficient to unleash the legendary "Empyrean-Decree" one day! If he manages to succeed in assimilating this great-quantity of faith-aura into that empyrean-decree? Then your disciple would be able to create a "Dao-Illumination" whenever he feels like it. You should be laughing in your sleep right now! Especially since Lin is already capable of unleashing his paragon-will at such a young age."

"Well... I rarely sleep."

Ignoring the silly remark of its current inheritor, senior Mu continued to say : "Not to mention that he's been improving at controlling his paragon-will at a frightening rate! it makes me confident about his chances of unleashing the hegemon-manifestation, with the help of that ability... indeed his chances of accumulating more within the ancestral-dimension would improve greatly as well."

Mu Jianhong : "Not before we give the geezers a rude-awakening and a thorough face-slapping!" This time the lazy, old, and wizened-eyes of this white-haired elder glowed with a bright shine when he said these words, the city-lord seemed to be imagining how the event is going to play in the future and a smile began to form on his wrinkly face.

Mu : "You're being overly obsessed with this matter, you better be careful now. Otherwise... you might really be afflicted with heart-demons in your old age."

Mu Jianhong : "Well... I've been burdened with heart-demons ever since I attended the first mercenary-gathering as a branch-leader. But, ever since the day I first met Lin'er and I've clearly began to sense these heart-demons being slowly unraveling and loosening."

The awakened-soul of the everlasting-stone's replica gawked after hearing what this white-sovereign mercenary just said ever-so peacefully and calmly, the chameleon kept rolling its eyes for a short while before shaking its head saying : "You really are such a stubborn old fool, no wonder your cultivation stagnated ever since then. If it weren't for your attainments in wind-dao and how it kept improving, then... that Kong Jiao and his wretched faction would've replaced you long, long ago."

"That's because I kept being true to myself, I'm a stubborn old fool after all. Hahahaha... ouch! the pressure of his paragon-will just became twice as strong so suddenly, naughty boy startled me there." The city-lord stopped laughing after feeling the surrounding pressure and how it intensified however, despite seeming to be mildly-chastising his closed-doors disciple... this spirit-sovereign was smiling ever-so widely! Afterwards he walked towards the door of this training-room while murmuring to himself : "Maybe I'm already getting old, I should probably retire soon." Then the white-haired elder waved his hand and said : "I'm going to pay a visit to our guest, he's an old rival of mine after all."

Mu : "Alrig-" Suddenly the chameleon looked towards the south once again and said : "Maybe I should go with you, handling that tiger-emperor on his own is already difficult. Having to deal with these two on-top of that slaughter-monarch would be pushing things beyond the limit," After extending its long and curly tongue outside to give a few quick licks at the air this awakened-soul continued to say : "Not to mention how there's more than a dozen of primordial-beasts of both the beast and human-path currently following that dangerous group."

Mu Jianhong : "No need. My disciples are already spread a bit too thin while guarding the city, taking care of transactions, cultivating, supervising the operation of businesses, or taking care of deals by performing tasks in their own professions, or overseeing the operation of some of the protective-formations. Our opposing-faction is seemingly lying-low and obediently following the terms of the agreement however, the more they're acting like this the more we need to be extra vigilant. The best way to cause our mercenary-guild and the demonic-beasts to fall into the old pattern is... to either eliminate Lin'er or make him disappear forever."

"En. Don't worry about the kid, as long as I'm here nothing will happen to him. Unless they're capable of destroying my main body that is."

"Hahaha... that's why I kept insisting about you being with him all the time ever since the kid first unleashed his paragon-will, senior Mu gets to benefit from being basked in the pressure of the boy's paragon-will while he gets to peacefully cultivate and improve his skills under your protection." The city-lord said before leaving mercenary-tower.

*****

Xia : "Humph! that energy-fusion is just a big, fat trouble-maker," The deadly-sin of lust looked around her in the dantian-space while frowning at the state of almost complete emptiness! despite being assisted by the spirit-gathering formations within the highest-floor of this mercenary-tower and the high-grade spirit-crystals scattered around their body in the training-room, the dark-gold clouds of spirit-energy, which previously occupied this dantian-space after being branded by the spirit-wings and joining the ranks of either one of the two armies, are now no more than miniscule sand-like dark-gold grains or tiny mist-like dark-gold droplets of light-energy.

Their paragon-will is the cause of this uncommon state of extremely compressed and pure spirit-energy within the dantian-space and their physical-body as well, their blood, which the indestructible-fiend manual is focusing on strengthening, that Lin has been undergoing sessions of soaking himself in medicinal-concoctions and consuming spirit-pills specifically to stimulate has undergone a few stages of purification.

Every single one of their body-cells, layer of skin, muscle-fiber, grain of bone, or drop of bone-marrow... experienced this trial of compression and strengthening over and over! the process never stopped because her big-brother kept improving his application of that frightening fusion of three different energies from three "supposedly" different systems of cultivation.

Xia could clearly sense how the perfect fusion between the energies of qi-vitality and the elemental-section of weapon-intent has become, at-least, three-times smoother now.

The lava-river or the "tree" of qi-intent on their spine, its trunk has become thicker and more life-like since its root-system has begun to spread further towards the great-sage's lower-body.

The colorful inner-organs gained from this suppression as well, now there's what would seem like a barrier around each organ... clearly to protect the boy's vital-organs.

His weapon-intent or the "fruits" on each branch of the life-like tree, became easier to control yet twice as strong as they once were one week before this day.

The only noticeable gain this sin-sister witnessed within the dantian-space from the suppression of this paragon-will is... the dantian-walls themselves! the intense pressure on the blotches, splashes, and spots of light-energy on these dantian-walls caused them to leak downwards and cover the previously "unpainted" areas!

Now the dantain-walls of their dantian-space are officially completely painted with their light-energy, the borders of their dantian are officially completely outlined.

"Sigh... even the small puddle that began to form on the bottom got compressed to a few drops of liquid-grade light-energy, I wonder if what I accumulated so far is enough for me to strengthen what Ming, Gang, and Dai has unblocked and cleared of the first major-meridian." Xia murmured to herself while looking upwards towards the "hole" on the highest point of the dantian-space.

Afterwards she shrugged then gathered the few drops of liquid-grade light-energy from the bottom and surrounded them by the mist-like and tiny droplets of dark-gold light energy that she managed to accumulate in the past few hours with the help of the scattered spirit-stones and the operating spirit-gathering formation.

The first thing this deadly-sin of lust noticed when she commanded the light-energy to sink and fuse with the meridian-walls of this major-meridian is... the swift and quick change in color from the spotless white to the yellow-color before it settled on the gold-color, exactly like the color of the meridian-walls of his meridian-branch!

No-matter how much his sin-sister attempted to upgrade the color of the meridian-walls of his major-meridian afterwards to the dark-gold color, she kept failing.

Without letting her failure affect her momentum, Xia regrouped in the dantian-space and sat below the spirit-wings and watched the process of accumulation happen lazily while laying on her side and scratching her butt then gathered everything and moved further upwards within the meridian-tunnel.

His sin-sister moved beyond the point where any of her sin-brothers ever visited and began to make a quick work of removing the disgusting sediment from the cracks of the meridian-walls and repair those cracks before boosting their color to bright and shiny gold-color, within two days she kept repeating the process of going up and down the meridian-tunnel of their major-meridian.

Even when Lin stopped attempting to control the paragon-will and began to perform the motions of the indestructible-fiend manual or soak his body in the medicinal-concoctions, this deadly-sin of lust never stopped removing the accumulated impurities from this major-meridian.

Whenever it happened, the boy would exhale a breath of stinky and foul-smelling air before quickly willing his fire-intent to burn it into nothing.

"Hmm..."

"Uh!..."

'This!...' Even the awakened-soul, who's currently keeping itself hidden from the awareness of this kid, sensed the change in the atmosphere once Xia reached the end of the second meridian-branch and discovered the second hall, unlike the golden-hall at the end of the first meridian-branch where the wings-symbol is drawn at the wall... the walls of this one are completely silver in color and a there's a swirling portal at the wall in the end!

Xia, who's looking at the swirling portal from inside the silver-hall, could see through the transparent portal and see the other side clearly.

There's an ocean-like expanse of calm gold-colored water and her big-brother is sitting there on-top of it in a cross-legged position, the great-sage is looking towards his sin-sister with both confusion and curiosity on his complexion.

"Uwah!" Once the deadly-sin of lust attempted to touch that transparent and swirling barrier of that portal... the barrier separating both sides seems to suddenly disappear and Xia got swept by the fierce current of all this golden-water from the soul-world.

From the end of the second meridian-branch and all the way down to the dantian-space, whenever his sin-sister attempted to teleport back to the soul-world... she kept failing again and again.

Lin himself who was taking advantage of the time he spends soaking in the medicinal-concoctions to work on his soul-force, was looking at the infinity-symbol on the back of his left hand, which kept glowing on and off and whenever it flickered back on it seemed to glow brighter, then all around him in the soul-world which seemed to be crumbling on itself and getting pulled by a great force.

Relying-on his shared sense with his sin-sister, the boy could sense how all that gold-water or his "soul-force" is currently acting like a cascading great waterfall, from the hole on-top of their dantian there's an endless stream of gold-water that's splashing downwards and sprinkling hundreds of cubic-tons per second.

Their light-energy never attempted to stop or seize any of this gold-water at all.

Simply because, the one true leader of this dantian-space was gobbling it all and its dark-gold feathers were swallowing that soul-force like it's the best and most nutritious meal ever!

Then... a change happened, below the second pair of wings on the spirit-wings within the dark-gold barrier in the center of the dantian-space.

A tiny and very cute-looking pair of silver wings appeared, they looked so small, tender, and weak.

The deadly-sin of lust felt her heart melt at the sight of these wings, she began to imagine her big-brother having these wings the day he was born in this world and smiled ever-so charmingly and sweetly.

Finally the barrier of the portal's entrance got activated once again and the current of the great waterfall began to lose momentum and force, since the spirit-wings received their full of the golden-water then... it means that their subjects are free to take whatever they want from it!

The entirety of the dantian-space was submerged in this golden-water by the time this great waterfall ran dry.

Just previously, before this phenomenon happened, the largest in size of Lin's light-energy was the size of a small drop of water. Yet... when that soul-force completely drowned the dantian-space, one single drop of liquid-grade light-energy could swallow one-thousandth of that golden-water in less than a minute!

Afterwards the same drop of liquid-grade light-energy seemed like it just gained sentience and intelligence, a sight that reminded both Lin and Xia of how the two deceased cloud-generals used to behave.

However, a scene of chaos happened once the last drop of that golden-water "soul-force" was consumed by some mist-like tiny drop of light-energy.

A group of tiny mist-like droplets of dark-gold light-energy were surrounding a golden drop of liquid-grade light-energy and attempting to consume it like a pack of starving wolves who dared to hunt a ferocious tiger, the end result was surprisingly not the triumph of the golden drop of water but the opposite!

Another dark-gold drop of liquid-grade light-energy was chasing a big group of dark-gold droplets of the dark-gold color and swallowing them, after completing its task and achieving its goal... that much stronger dark-gold drop forgot to pay the tributary amount of the purest light-energy and got "swatted-away" by a lazy flutter from one of the two upper-most pair of wings.

Its fate was being swallowed by the smallest of droplets and these droplets fought amongst themselves or chased one another everywhere!

Xia had enough watching these events and teleported back to the soul-world to join her big-brother, once the barrier of that portal was activated... the deadly-sin of lust discovered that she's able to go back to the soul-world without any trouble.

*****

While Xia was getting "flushed" downwards by the soul-force, meanwhile on the outside there's someone watching everything that's happening to Lin with a pair of funny-looking yet very surprised and swirling-eyes.

'According to my knowledge about this special physique, the guiding-light physique is the slowest to advance among all the unique and rare special physiques of the spirit-world. However, there's balance in everything related to the dao and the heavens are fair. When there's a disadvantage, there's bound to be an advantage somewhere... everyone just have to look and search for it.' The awakened-soul thought to itself while sensing the pulses of light-energy that are being emanated from the boy's dantian, clearly none of these spirit-pulses is intentional... they're happening because the boy is currently being too absorbed in his cultivation.

'That explains why his advancement in the system of spirit-energy is so slow compared to the other three systems, however... it does seem like the kid doesn't have any barriers blocking his path when it comes to purifying his light-energy and improving its grade and rank. Despite being in the first-stage of spirit-apprentice realm he's able to use the ability of energy-armor, then when he entered the second-stage this boy revealed signs of being about to attain light-energy of the liquid-rank which is normally attained by other spirit-cultivators only after breaking through to the spirit-master realm. Now I can sense it very clearly, he already managed to quench his pure light-energy with soul-force, a step that shouldn't be possible to anyone besides those who managed to breakthrough to the spirit-grandmaster realm. what makes it even more unconceivable is... since the boy is a soul-cultivator already, and a very fine and frightening one at that!, then, the benefits that he managed to gain from taking this simple step is a thousand-times more than any other genius of the ones that I've seen take a similar step in my long life so far.' Senior Mu flicked its tongue once more at the great-sage's jugular-vein and extracted another drop of his blood, when it licked it and got a taste of Lin's blood... this awakened-soul felt like it's being burned from the inside-out when it sensed the potent amount of soul-force that's currently being stored in that simple and normal drop of blood.

Not to mention the extensive amount of qi-vitality and complex fusion of weapon-intents from the elemental-section!

Then there's the heavy and scorching light-energy, it seems like it's something alive that's refusing to be refined by this chameleon. This unique and lively light-energy seems like it's willing to fight both nail and tooth for its freedom and unwilling to be suppressed by this oppressor who snatched it from its home "Lin's body" and refused to be still or let itself go down without giving this fight its all.

Mu : "Sigh... that imbecile really doesn't this fine talent." Finally this chameleon sighed in surrender while muttering these words to itself and continued to watch in silence while trying to refine the drop of blood in its mouth, despite being a drop of normal blood from a fledgling-junior of the world of spirit-cultivation... the awakened-spirit sensed how the soul-force augmented the light-energy while the perfectly fused energy of qi-intent supplied it with what would seem like endless vitality! the elemental-section of weapon-intent gave the light-energy amplified support with their wide variety.

*****

Within the soul-world, both Lin and Xia were estimating the damages done to the soul-world and the shrunk range of the golden-water when they sensed the drop of their blood being stolen from their jugular-vein under seemingly perfect disguise.

If it weren't for the indestructible-fiend manual and its emphasis on refining and improving the blood of its user to the absolute limit, and its superiorly-improved senses for the user to have a much deeper connection with their blood. Then... the great-sage and his sin-sister would've never sensed the stolen drop of blood at all.

Let's not forget that this body-refinement manual is "supposedly" capable of enabling the user of reviving themselves from a single drop of blood being stored safely somewhere millions and billions of kilometers away!

Of course there's a strict requirement for a very deep and solid connection between the user and every single drop of their blood for this cultivation-technique to be held in such an elevated rank, otherwise it wouldn't be of the forbidden-grade while still being an incomplete manual for body-refinement.

The boy and the deadly-sin of lust immediately reacted and began to focus on controlling their different systems of cultivation to push against the suppressive-force that's seeking to refine their drop of blood from that invisible and sneaky enemy who's proving to be an adversary who's very, very tough to handle... and extremely difficult to pull towards the light and expose him.

Despite being able to suppress their attempts to retrieve that drop of blood and being able to continue refining that drop of blood, albeit very slowly, that invisible enemy is still capable of keeping their self disguised.

A sign to prove that they're beyond Lin and his little-sister's current level of ability and attainments!

Maybe, it's because the boy and his little sister's reservoir of soul-force just suffered a loss of about one-third their maximum.

But either way, they found themselves in a situation where they're in an exhausting stalemate with an extraordinary opponent.

Just when Lin and Xia were about to fall unconscious from extreme fatigue after this prolonged tug of war took its toll on both of them, Mu Jianhong arrived in the training-room after meeting with Xing Zhiqiang, Lanying, Dailong, and the remaining lot of demonic-beasts.

The great-sage and his little-sister finally felt release after seeing this white-haired elder, both of them released a mental-sigh.

Lin : "Master. There's an invisible entity in here, I suspect that it's an enemy. Earlier it took a drop of blood from me while I was meditating and is trying to refine it, quickly help me prevent it from doing that... huff... we don't know what it's capable of doing after refining my blood." The boy spoke in a hurry while focusing on his connection with that missing drop of blood, he doesn't want to lose his grip on it in a moment of distraction.

From his conversations with Rong Qing, the great-sage learned from the former-assassin and devil-incubator that some formidable devil-cultivators can do great harm to stronger foes. All they might need to accomplish such a feat is a wisp of their soul-source or a drop of blood! sometimes a strand of their spirit-energy.

Mia's pursuers within the land of forgetfulness used some medicinal-ingredient plus some of her blood to chase her through the help of a demonic-beast who could always follow her scent, devil-cultivators on the other hand... doesn't need to trace and follow their target everywhere.

They afflict their victims from extremely long distances, both methods are completely different and the results are worlds apart.

Mu Jianhong : "Huh!" The city-lord kept looking between his disciple and his senior Mu, who's indeed his master in a certain way, while feeling awkward.

The chameleon is making sure to keep itself invisible from his closed-doors disciple however, from its expression and the sense of amusement that's currently apparent in its pair of funny-eyes... it's enjoying itself while teasing his Lin'er and testing his limits!

Mu : "This little monster was able to prevent me from refining his blood, it's been more than two hours already yet he seems like he's able to hold this situation for a couple more hours. Don't let his pitiful appearance and puppy-eyes fool you." The awakened-soul muttered while exposing a gem-like drop of blood on the tip of its long and curly-tongue, when the white-sovereign mercenary focused on it he could clearly see the colorful formation on its surface and feel the different energies that belong to four different systems layered on-top of one another and forming the perfect defense to counter the chameleon's attempt to refine that drop of blood.

From the look of it, despite not taking this matter very seriously... this senior Mu wasn't taking it easy on the kid either!

If any spirit-king was in Lin's shoes? then... within these two hours no spirit-king would be able to survive that mental tug of war while preventing this awakened-soul from forcefully refining a drop of their blood, not to mention being capable of keeping the battle going for two more hours!

The mental-fortitude and ability to concentrate of his closed-doors disciple is indeed frightening.

"Y... you don't need to worry about that drop of blood anymore." The spirit-sovereign scratched his head and carelessly said that while taking his seat however, the boy was able to notice how his master was avoiding eye-contact with him... he's clearly feeling embarrassed.

"No!" The great-sage shook his head firmly while refusing to obey his master for the first time.

The white-haired elder gawked after hearing it and the expression on his face made him seem like a grandfather who happened to be met with disobedience from his grandchild for the very first time.

Lin seemed to understand how this city-lord must be feeling very well and continued to say : "Master. Please don't misunderstand me, I trust you with my life and there's no questioning that fact however... I don't trust whoever that is that took my blood without my permission in the first place. That's all." Afterwards the boy looked towards the location where the chameleon just relocated itself after the white-sovereign mercenary exposed its location just earlier.

The great-sage seemed to be ridiculing that senior Mu with his eyes and looking down upon that awakened-soul since its sneaky and elusive methods does indeed make it seem cowardly!

"Tsk. There's no need to provoke a reaction from me, I never meant you any harm to begin with. And that's not the first time I'm refining some of your blood." The chameleon revealed itself while swallowing it tongue back in its mouth then said so while refining Lin's blood at a much faster and unstoppable rate.

Lin : "This is?" The boy asked his master while looking at this chameleon with some apprehension in his eyes, it was able to avoid all of his senses when it disguised itself which means... if it really meant him any harm? then, the great-sage would've been passively receiving its venomous and back-stabbing attacks long ago.

Judging by how close it was capable of keeping itself from him, then... this chameleon is more than capable of taking his life if it so wanted!

Mu Jianhong : "Lin'er don't be rude. Senior Mu has treated your injuries more than once before and has been protecting you in my absence, the one who's been responsible of guiding all that spirit-energy through the spirit-gathering formations of this tower to assist you in your cultivation is also no one other than senior Mu himself. The reason he occasionally takes a drop or two of your blood is... to keep track of your improvement in-order to operate the formations in a manner that suits your current state."

Mu : "Humph."

"This!... please accept my sincerest of apologies, this junior has been very rude and mistook your good intentions. It was very wrong of me to let my thoughts wander and I hope that you would be the magnanimous party in this misunderstanding." The great-sage blushed and bowed deeply while cupping his hand and said so, he felt like slapping himself across the face after this situation happened.

Maybe it's because after dealing with the challenges from the demonic-beasts for the past week, and the following incident of losing a whopping one-third of his soul-source in the "quenching-phenomenon" where the light-energy consumed all the soul-force and themselves!

Then the mental-strain from the exhausting tug of war with this disguised chameleon for two hours became like the straw that broke the camel's back.

Lin snapped at it without getting to the bottom of the situation and received a backhanded slap across the face which awakened him to the reality of things.

"Lin'er. Maybe you should rest and recover as best as you can, it'd be for the best if you're able to do so before noon tomorrow." The spirit-sovereign felt his heart become soft after seeing the bashful expression on the boy's face and tussled his hair while telling him to go get some sleep.

The great-sage nodded once then dragged his feet towards his room where he took a very quick bath then jumped in bed where Yingtai took him in her embrace a few minutes later after he was deep in his sleep.

*****

Back within the training-room.

Mu Jianhong and senior Mu looked at the tired and weary-looking back of the kid until he left the long corridor before looking at one another.

Mu : "You spent two days negotiating with them?"

Mu Jianhong : "What can I do? a few of them are old rivals or acquaintances."

"Stop beating around the bush, we both know that you overstayed your visit to drink their wine." The awakened-soul rolled its eyes at the muscular elder.

"Senior Mu knows me the best." The city-lord answered while scratching his cheek.

The chameleon finally resorted to the best method when dealing with this white-sovereign mercenary, it slapped him with its tongue be fore saying : "Out with it already!"

"Alright. It went like this...."

*****

Within the most famous manor at the southern area of mercenary-city, inside the main-hall sat only four people while the other three remained standing.

Xing Zhiqiang, Lanying, Dailong, and Hongtian were seated, meanwhile Qiaoxing, Long Yongliang, and Mia stood behind their respective pillar of support.

The crown-tutor stood behind the slaughter-monarch while the crown-prince stood behind his aunty Lanying, Mia on the other hand stood behind her father and Hongtian sat proudly on her chair seemingly lazy and without care for this meeting and its reasons.

Xing Zhiqiang : "Sky-queen." The tiger-emperor frowned slightly when Hongtian didn't give him any answer when he called her, this beauty merely graced this monarch with a fleeting side-glance before puckering her lips! however, this ruler is well aware of her temperament beforehand and that's why he didn't take any offence in her lack of reply.

Especially when her backing is the phoenix-nest itself.

The slaughter-monarch smoothened his whiskers before saying : "Mu Jianhong's brat... what is it that you're after exactly?"

Hongtian lazily leaned toward the side to support her cheek on her right palm after planting her elbow on the armrest before saying : "His origin-symbol. It's on the back of his right-hand, perfectly matches my own in shape yet differ in affinity."

"Nothing else?" The tiger-emperor asked once again to clarify while a few waves of killing-intent began to spread in the main-hall, the few guardians outside the hall are all beast-path primordial-beasts yet they kept shivering from fear when they sensed this potent killing-intent.

Yet, Hongtian didn't seem like she's affected by it at all... her gorgeous complexion remained the same. Lazy and... bored!

"That's the only reason. However, the main reason for me when I accepted that deal with that Tai Lin-"

"Huh!" Suddenly Mia's pair of green-eyes widened after hearing the name Tai Lin and memories of the few days that she spent with the kid struck her heart like a speeding train.

Of course this noticeable reaction from the former-saintess interrupted the conversation between sky-queen and slaughter-monarch.

Hongtian frowned while keeping her silence and Zhiqiang raised an eyebrow while looking towards Dailong with a pair of merciless red-eyes, clearly seeking an explanation.

The former-sect-master shrugged and looked towards his beloved daughter who blushed slightly before gathering her courage since every pair of eyes in the main-hall is silently waiting for her to explain herself, the only reason everyone is being polite to her right now is because her father is with her.

If it were in another scenario where Dailong and Lanying aren't with her? then... Mia would be suffering the wrath of a beast-monarch and a couple of kingly-beasts.

The young-woman wanted to ask this pretty and attractive woman in red dress like... a thousand questions!

However, Mia understood that this situation isn't appropriate for that and she knew that she has to make herself clear with the minimum of words. That's why she pulled her chaotic-emotions together and took a deep breath to calm her racing heart before looking at Hongtian and saying : "Your majesty sky-queen. Is the one you just called Tai Lin a kid who's no older than seven yet seems like he's about twelve of age?"

When the former-saintess noticed how Hongtian squinted her beautiful red-eyes before nodding once slowly, Mia felt faint at heart and tasted a sour taste on the back of her mouth but she knew that she has to confirm the identity of that person.

Mia : "Does that boy have a weird way of introducing himself?" Again the young-woman asked and the sky-queen just nodded once while feeling confusion in how did this saintess know this weird trait of that annoyingly-brilliant boy.

"Is that way of introducing himself : "I'm Lin... son of Tai the mighty and Tian the beauty?" This time Mia sighed after seeing the glow within the eyes of Hongtian before the stunning-beauty nodded once again.

"Does that boy have a beast-companion that belong to the tiger-species?" Finally the young-woman asked her last question while feeling like her knees has become so weak and the world spinning around her, if it wasn't for her father noticing her strange state of being dazed and supporting her with a strand of his dao-energy? then... Mia would've fallen on the ground unable to stand straight on her own.

Hongtian : "He does have a red-tiger and a snow-owl as companions indeed. Now that I've answered all your questions... it's about time that you answered ours." Sky-queen looked towards the saintess then her father Dailong.

The man nodded while looking with worry filling his eyes at his only daughter who seems like she's about to faint.

Mia looked down towards the hand that held her martial-spirit once and severed the boy's manhood in an act of complete madness that she still can't figure out how could it happen without her feeling like she was the one in control of her body at that time? she felt like she's being driven by something... something that took-over her then left without her being able to notice anything at all.

The young-woman uttered a long sigh before looking up towards her father who seems like he managed to pick a few hints from her reaction and glean a few answers about Lin and his connection with Mia from her questions, afterwards the former-saintess looked towards her beautiful aunty Lanying and gave her a comforting smile before looking towards the tiger-emperor and sky-queen.

Mia : "It all began after the trials of the drowned-realm. Katherine the holy-daughter of the church of light plotted a scheme against me..."

The young-woman began to calmly tell the story of how she spent the past two years when she disappeared, how she met Lin and how they... separated.

Dailong understood why his beloved-daughter insisted on keeping the identity of her savior to herself, he's a child of seven! sword-sovereign felt like he got smacked on the head with a mallet after learning the truth. However, his curiosity actually swelled and his anticipation to meet the boy doubled.

Lanying sensed the sorrow within this goddaughter of hers and hugged her after hearing about the way she separated with this little-lover of hers, especially when she picked the complete loss and confusion from her tone of voice when the young-woman mentioned how she can't understand the circumstances of that event even now after she spent months mulling it over in her head over and over!

Qiaoxing's abyss-like eyes widened after learning all about the background of that little boy and began to formulate plans to gain his favor in the future to better achieve their aims.

Hongtian seemed to understand why that young-woman is feeling at loss right now, after dealing with the boy a few times and getting a feel for his extremely radiant charisma... sky-queen understands that she probably wouldn't be any different from Mia if she happened to experience living alone with the kid for more than a week.

'He still needs some spanking though, that little brat is so full of himself.' Hongtian thought to herself while puckering her cherry-lips, the mere thought managed to cheer her up.

Xing Zhiqiang was more curious about the boy's beast-companion since it belongs to the tiger-species, it originates from the land of forgetfulness which is suppressed by chaos-energy! certainly there's something "interesting" in that little cub.

Of course the boy's physique and his relation to godfiend Fuxy's legacy of thirty-three heavens is still of paramount-importance to this slaughter-monarch.

Long Yongliang felt a sense of discomfort and extreme jealousy once he witnessed Mia's current state of being emotionally-vulnerable, Lin was immediately categorized as an enemy that need to be immediately removed from the picture!

"Hahahaha..." From the sky above the manor this laughter could be heard and it interrupted the thoughts of those within the main-hall, "Old friends. Welcome to my mercenary-city, today I've come to join you and celebrate your arrival... and to drink all of you under the table!"

*****

Dailong : "Old ghost Jianhong. You're still no match for me in a drinking contest... hiccup... I can still go-on for two more days no problem." The former-sect-master had a pair of unfocused eyes and an intoxicated blush on his cheeks when he said that, even the cup in his hand didn't seem steady at all and a few drops of wine splashed on the table, his clothes, and the floor next to his feet!

Mu Jianhong : "Nonsense! this sovereign is still in his prime... hic... come, come, come... bottoms up." The muscular white-haired elder refused to surrender and insisted on continuing the contest.

Xing Zhiqiang rolled his eyes at these two and their careless attitude before saying : "Mercenary-sovereign Jianhong."

"Hmmm... iz zomething z'madder monarch?" With his unfocused eyes and heavy tongue, city-lord Mu answered the annoyed tiger-emperor.

"Isn't it about time that we discuss business?" The killing-intent from the slaughter-monarch intensified by a layer when he spoke these words.

Knowing that he shouldn't press this guy's buttons any longer than what he already has, this white-sovereign mercenary frowned before using the energy of his wind-dao to scatter every vestige of intoxication from his blood while thinking : 'This guy is still the same after all these years, Tsk... he's no fun at all.'

Mu Jianhong shook his head before looking towards his drinking-companion who simply shrugged and continued to drink at his own leisure then looked towards Hongtian who seemed to enjoy seeing him being pressured by the tiger-emperor, finally the white-haired elder looked towards Lanying who didn't speak much after giving him a polite greeting when he arrived then at the young-woman in her embrace.

This mercenary-sovereign heard all about what happened between this saintess and his closed-doors disciple from Sun, that time the white-sovereign mercenary became so frightened that he immediately and personally confirmed the intactness of the boy's manhood!

"Each and everyone in here arrived to my mercenary-city with a goal in mind," This mercenary-sovereign began to speak then looked towards the prettiest woman in the hall before continuing to say : "Sky-queen Hongtian's aim was the origin-symbol on Lin'er however, once that boy convinced her that there's a possibility for both sides to gain from that exchange... she changed her mind."

"Once her fellow brothers from the kingly-beasts answered her summons and witnessed the potential of my closed-doors disciple... the crown-tutor quickly spread the news about my disciple's special-physique and, just like I expected, the next thing that happened afterwards is... tiger-emperor is personally paying my city a visit."

Mu Jianhong merely smirked towards the frowning slaughter-monarch then looked towards this dragon-lady Lanying and resumed his speech by saying : "The reasons differ for lady Lanying though. She's aloof and reclusive by nature and wouldn't allow herself to be embroiled these matters unless... she's here seeking to get her hands on a certain piece of "information" that's related to an incident that happened more than two decades ago."

Afterwards the white-haired elder looked at everyone while revealing the majesty of the leader of every mercenary within the southern-continent at full before saying : "Am I making myself direct enough?"

This time the slaughter-monarch, dragon-lady, sword-sovereign, sky-queen, crown-tutor, and the crown-prince looked towards this muscular old man while having different thoughts. However, none of them dared not take this city-lord seriously now because... once they do? then, they might just end-up being used by him without even noticing.

Meanwhile Mia looked towards this famous mercenary-sovereign and thought to herself : 'So that's that person who took Lin as a disciple...'

Afterwards the negotiations began between these higher-ups from both factions.

Mu Jianhong clearly said it to these "guests" before any terms of the deal were set.

"Lin'er is never going to leave this city without being accompanied by myself and sufficient protection, not a single piece of information is going to leave my guild to anyone who isn't approves as a mercenary." However, while saying that later condition this city-lord was looking Dailong directly in the eyes!

His intent clear to all those who heard it : "If you want that information? then, it's very simple really... join my guild." Then the following smile on the mercenary-sovereign's face meant : "Last thing I heard was that you don't belong to any faction anyway, since your daughter and my disciple have 'issues' to solve between them... why not join me on the fence and watch the fun together. This old man still have fine wine and delicious meat."

During the following conversation Hongtian sighed inwardly since her deal with this sly as a fox old man still stands and she's welcome to defeat his disciple through the method of throwing however as many juniors as she can get in the face of little Lin.

Tiger-emperor doubted his ears when Mu Jianhong said that he doesn't disagree in letting him have as many audiences with his closed-doors disciple as he wants in the future... as long as he gives him his oath not to try and play any "tricks".

Only Lanying and Dailong were the ones who didn't give their opinion at once and decided to convene and discuss their options in private before making any decision.

Maybe making that decision would be easier for them after witnessing the next challenge tomorrow and seeing that boy Lin in action.

Mia's poor heart was fluttering and her feelings were a mix of confusing emotions, once she heard that she's going to meet Lin once again tomorrow and much sooner than she expected... the former-saintess felt like her heart is about to leap outside her chest!

*****

"You Imbecile! how's that any different from agreeing to all their terms without gaining anything in return?" Senior Mu, the awakened-soul of the everlasting-stone in the form of a small chameleon smacked the white-haired elder once again on the face after hearing about what went in that meeting with Xing Zhiqiang, Lanying, and Dailong.

"Heh. It might seem like we're the ones taking a few steps back and giving these beasts all the advantages without taking much for our own indeed however, once Dailong joins my mercenary-guild and with one of the four beast-emperors almost permanently taking residence in my city plus that dragon-lady owing us a favor. Then... our opposing faction would either be stupid and extend their necks for me to pluck and get rid of them once and for all or, they'd learn their place and be suppressed all the way. Their third-option would always be to leave the guild and scram back to their masters from the cultivation-alliance! no-matter what choice they choose to take in the end, the thorn in my side would be gone for good." The city-lord just retrieved a jug of wine and began to drink while apparently being in a very good mood.

Mu : "That doesn't mean that we should get the short end of the stick!"

Mu Jianhong : "That's only one side of what we stand to gain from all this." The mercenary-sovereign shook his head while a bright and ambitious glow could visibly be seen from his old and wizened-eyes.

"How so?" The chameleon began to alternate between colors which is a sign of it being excited.

"Besides getting rid of that thorn, we still stand to gain from the countless demonic-beasts who are certainly going to visit mercenary-city in the near future and so far these transactions with the beasts have enriched the coffers of our citizens despite it being an operation that began a few days earlier. However... the most important gain is still yet to come but, I'm about fifty-percent positive of it happening now that this tiger-emperor is staying in my city." The white-sovereign mercenary said so while looking towards the west, his eyes seemed to reflect a sea-like of green canopies.

"The Elves?" This time senior Mu was shocked yet eager for the time it actually happen.

"Indeed. These neighbors of ours are difficult to gain their trust and extremely difficult to approach yet, they're famous for being the ones always seeking methods to bring joy to themselves in their long, reclusive, and dull lives within that eternal-forest!" The white-haired elder nodded before continuing to say : "Not to mention that having these parties as allies would finally allow me to sever the venomous-tentacles from the cultivation-alliance and hopefully consolidate the status of our guild within that continent."

*****

Yingtai : "Lin... Lin. Wake-up! time to wake-up... you need to bath and eat your breakfast before your challenges." This former-slave has gotten used to her role of being a maid to this great-sage whenever he's staying in this room, then whenever he's away she would go down to the lower floors and join a few artisans and participate in crafting jewels.

The only reason she's doing so is because she, like any other human, would like to make herself useful by contributing to the community.

Jewelsmithing is nothing but a hoppy for her right now, taking care of Lin is her main-mission. Queen-Lily specifically gave her this task and honored her with it! certainly Yingtai wouldn't let the current minister down... especially when this "legendary" minister is not only the twin-sister of the great-sage and the only one sharing all of his past memories from the previous life but also... the youngest minister ever!

Which is a title that causes the great-sage to cringe on the face whenever she "reminds" him of it... just like how queen-Lily "taught" her to do!

Lin : "Alright. I'm awake... I promise." The boy stretched his arms and legs lazily before gently rubbing his eyes while muttering these words.