Chapter 0043

Aria Se Jivock and Xing Zhi Hui arrived a few moments after the Iron Clawed Wolf pack was chased off. Their timing was too perfect. They arrived right after the danger was over but before the mercenaries can regroup.

 

“Oh good. You guys are alive.” Aria Se Jivock’s offhand comment enraged the mercenaries.

 

“We’re alive no thanks to you.”

 

“What were you doing all this time? Sitting on your butt watching us die?”

 

“You’re no help at all.”

 

“What kind of overseers did the Brilliant Yin Sect send us. A pair of incompetents who does nothing but laze around all day?”

 

Amidst all the complaints and scolding dished out by the mercenaries, Aria Se Jivock maintained her sunny smile. “I can always kill you all and be done with it.”

 

Everyone immediately shut up. This is Aria Se Jivock. Before they set out Xing Zhi Hui had complained about Aria Se Jivock setting a man on fire because he looked at her wrong and she had to clean up her mess.

 

How much of it was actually true or a ruse to scare the potential new recruits the mercenaries didn’t know, but they do know Aria Se Jivock will kill without a qualm. It was the casual way she said the threat that convinced them. She mentions killing them or sparing them in the same manner a person buying cabbages, like it is part of their everyday life, not worth mentioning.

 

“The path to immortality is fraught with dangers, from both magical beasts and other cultivators. You can only depend on yourself. Do not expect complete strangers to help you in the middle of a life or death battle. It does nothing but destroy your determination and make you depend on the savior. Over time, your tenacity decrease and you will stagnate until you hit a bottleneck you will never overcome and can only wait to die.

 

“You think killing a wolf pack with level 2 and 3 magical beast is hard at your level. What a damn joke. Other mercenary groups enter the forest every day to hunt these low-level magical beast. Why can’t you be like them? Why can’t you survive like them? They have more experiences in the forest? They come prepared? Ha! Those excuses are nothing more whiny pretext for your incompetence.

 

“Let me spell out your mistake for you, so you can see how naive you are. Your first mistake was not doing any research about the test the Brilliant Yin Sect conducts. We always have led potential disciple through the forest to hunt level 3 magical beasts. With a little research, you’d know that. The second was coming unprepared. Taking a test to enter a sect isn’t easy. Why didn’t any of you bring any trump cards, and for those that did, why didn’t you bring more? Your third mistake was the incessant talking while journeying in the forest. What is this, a picnic? Did you come here to take a test or a stroll through the city? What’s worse, you were warned, but you still run your mouth off.

 

“With these obvious mistakes, you still think you have what it takes to become a cultivator? If you can’t take it, go home.” Aria Se Jivock destroys their pride and buried it six feet deep with her scolding. No one dare refute her because what she said was true. Everything was out in the open. They knew the test was hard, yet they still took it as a joke. Some even brought servants along with them!

 

It was obvious they didn’t take the test seriously.

 

Now they are aware of the dangers. A few had thoughts about turning back, but they’ve gone this far, it’ll be a waste to return. They can only grit and bear it.

 

Luckily Tempest ran off to a corner somewhere to hide or else she’d be laughing at the cowed mercenaries and start selling her charms right then and there for a high price because after the fight and the wake up call by Aria Se Jivock, they knew they needed her charms.

 

Sadly, Tempest missed out on a chance to earn money because she was wrestling with her conscience.

 

“Is everyone done complaining? All done. Good. Start clearing the area and make camp.” Orders from Xing Zhi Hui are easier to bear, yet it doesn’t make sense.

 

One of the browbeaten mercenaries asked, “Won’t other animals be attracted by the scent of blood and come to investigate?” then immediately hid behind the girl beside her. The girl beside her was not pleased to be used as a shield so she pushed the coward out to the forefront.

 

“Yes.”

 

“Then why are we making camp here?” another asked, as if she wanted to shake off the defeated atmosphere clinging the camp and rouse the spirits of the other mercenaries. They need all the help they can get to kill the Sundered Lion. They already lost a third of their fighters. They can’t afford to lose more due to low morale.

 

“Are you questioning my order?” Xing Zhi Hui stared at the woman in a blue dress who asked the question.

 

The questioner paled immediately, then gather her courage, “Yes I am. I want to know why we’re breaking camp here. I am willing to fight for benefits, for a cause or even for plain money, but I won’t throw away my life for the whim of another for nothing.”

 

Xing Zhi Hui continued to give the woman a blank stare, as if she was nothing to her. “Courageous but lack experience. This is the outskirts of Andival forest, where level 3 magical beast are the rulers. You’ve just killed a level 3 magical beast. Other weaker beast can sense the power of the Alpha Iron Clawed Wolf even if it is dead and won’t come near us. You won’t have to deal with level 2 magical beast if you make camp in the area. As for other level 3 magical beast, there aren’t any here.”

 

The mercenaries were satisfied by Xing Zhi Hui’s explanation. The woman in blue emboldens by her reception, asked the question on everyone’s mind, “Why did the wolf pack attack us?”

 

Xing Zhi Hui just shrugged her shoulders. She knew the superficial reason why the wolf pack attack them but not the underlying cause. Due to her lack of understanding, she’d rather not explain.

 

Aria Se Jivock had no such qualms.

 

“The Twilight Shadow’s Assassin guild decided to off their target during the test. They spread Attraction Powder on you and fed the Alpha Iron Clawed Wolf Mind Meld Confusion Grass so the two groups would fight it out and during the turmoil they can kill the target without arousing suspicion.” Aria Se Jivock raised her voice at this point, as if she was talking to someone other than the mercenaries in the vicinity.“I don’t care about the local grudges and gratitude, but don’t use the Brilliant Yin Sect as a cover up for your nefarious deeds. After the test is completed, I will seek out the leaders of the Twilight Shadow’s Assassin guild to have a little talk. Maybe.”

 

Jean understood Aria Se Jivock was giving a warning to the mastermind behind the shadow. Still, how does she intend to accomplish her task? Members of the royal family have always tried to either recruit an assassin guild to their cause or eliminated it. Recruiting has always been easy, eliminating, not so much.

 

As if reading their thoughts, Aria Se Jivock decided to explain, “Every cause has an effect, every action has a reaction. If you can’t see it doesn’t mean I can’t. Karma lines connect the cause to the effect, the action to the reactions. By creating the ruckus, a karma line has been connected between the ones responsible for the chaos and me. If it was any other person, their vision might stop at that, but I am different. I can see past the immediate cause to the origin. Unless they know a soul technique to get rid of the karma lines, I can find them easily.”

 

Everyone shivered at Aria Se Jivock’s explanation.

 

Her eyes.

 

Aria Se Jivock had a pair of silvery opaque eyes similar to a blind person. They thought she was using a special sensing technique to move around even though she was blind. Now they knew she was never blind to begin with.

 

Right now those eyes glowed with a special light, scaring everyone within its field of vision.

 

Most of the mercenaries here were from the Magus Alliance. They are familiar with cultivating the heart and the body. They know nothing of the power of the mind and soul.

 

Aria Se Jivock was using soul force but for what and how, they did not know, nor do they want to know. Given what they knew of Aria Se Jivock, they knew the perpetrators are going to suffer.