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***

1000-year-old Bright World indeed had a weakness. Unless the opponents actually 'see' the light, their mental locks on Ja Sun's body wouldn't disappear so, technically speaking, Ja Sun should still be getting homed in on by the arrows set loose because the spirit masters with related martial souls and spirit abilities had already covered their eyes and were protected by their teammates. However, instead of spirit rings, what Ja Sun actually had were spirit souls. Metaphysical beings that could cultivate alongside their contracted human and even absorb minute energy from spirit rings of the dead spirit beasts. 

A few months had already passed after Ja Sun's disapproving interaction with the White Tiger Imperial Family and now his spirit ability was enhanced. Although the effects were still the same, now, Ja Sun didn't necessarily need to blind his opponents. Bright World would remove the spirit and mental locks on the user regardless. Naturally, the Bright Goddess Butterfly wasn't only the most beautiful spirit beast to ever exist and her value now revealed itself once she grew past the rank of a thousand-year-old spirit beast to a 10000-year-old spirit beast. This was already the highest state most spirit beasts ever reach in their lives.

Similar to Bright World, Ja Sun's first two spirit abilities were also strengthened. The Silver Light Wings were more durable and each feather could be controlled as easily as breathing. Needless to say, however, Ja Sun valued the enhancement of his 3rd spirit ability the most. It was already a life-saving ability.

Finally choosing a landing spot, Ja Sun perched atop a large bag of garbage near a restaurant. Looking around, Ja Sun removed his spirit abilities and disguised himself as a carefree teen with a wooden staff in his hand, and walked out of the alley.

"He couldn't have run far away! Search the perimeters!" 

Many spirit masters with raging spirit pressure moved around the city without any regard for public safety. Right now, after Ja Sun's performance, even the soldiers of the City were filled with scorching desire to get strong and tried to compete and suppress the spirit masters using their authority and group tactics. Needless to say, soon, shops were closed and the windows of the houses were tightly locked by the civilians to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Ja Sun once again disguised himself as a scrawny bounty hunter and began to move around the city. To hunt in this chaos will be difficult for Ja Sun because anything can happen. One wrong move and he'll be chased down once again and his disguise ability will be exposed. What he wanted to do now was mark locations. Where the exhausted bounty hunters will rest in high numbers? Where will they rest in low numbers? And where are the Tang Siblings staying?

Although the six individuals from the Speed Clan were too quick to follow, they weren't moving discreetly. Soon, Ja Sun was able to locate the general area where the Tang Siblings might be present. But this is also where he stopped for rest. 

No matter what, being in his best condition was the highest priority.

---

*Plat*

*Khahh* *Khahh*

Constant and wretched coughing echoed as the Ground Devil's temples bulged with purplish veins and his eyes turned red with pain and anger. The bulging veins would throb every few seconds as if alive. Pulsating with a euphoria so great that Ground Devil could barely control his urges. Euphoria so great that he wanted to end all of it in its sweet embrace and let it all go. Continuously, his vision would change. He saw himself submerged in a deep pool of blood. Soft limbs floating as an all-you-can-eat buffet and clenching his teeth, Ground Devil couldn't help but stab his own fingers into his chest.

*Plat*

Purplish blood gushed from the gaping chest. With every splatter of his blood, Ground Devil would recall that dark-skinned bastard and growl. His sharp, bestial teeth would shock any spectator as a thick, viscous stream of saliva dripped from the corner of his clenched jaws— A beast more than anything— would be the perfect explanation for Ground Devil at this moment.

It was a moment of carelessness and strange dizziness that struck him when Ja Sun activated Bright World that allowed a mysterious entity to use Heaven's Descent and fade away alongside the Death Astral Combatant. Not only that, the mental attack completely melted Ground Devil's barely erected defenses and struck him similar to a Titled Douluo's mental attack... but he felt lucky. This entity didn't seem hell-bent on assassinating him because even though the impact of the mental energy was definitely atrocious, the quality of the attack itself, the origin of it, to be precise, was too low. 

"Is he being protected?" Ground Devil coughed, "Figures... Spirit Hall wouldn't easily let go of their outstanding juniors. Exile is just a term, after all. But, that attack didn't look like a warning shot. Instead, it was a full-blown attack to put me down for a little while. Maybe, the protector of that little shit is bound by regulations to not be open about the protection? Truly... sects and clans have the worst methods of teaching the younger generation."

Spitting out a globule of blood, Ground Devil felt his condition getting better. But the ever-present sense of 'rot' gnawing away at his sea of consciousness was the true source of trouble and it would need quite a bit of time to take care of it and expel it completely. At least, a week or two.

Snorting, Ground Devil flipped his soft-looking palm and produced a yellow token. If seen by anyone from Ja Sun's party, they would recognize this token in a heartbeat. But this one seemed better. The carving on the token looked lifelike and let out spiritual fluctuations.

"Send a support. There may be two or more Titles in the city hidden from public eyes."

With that, he kept the token away.

---

After noting down a few spots where the Spirit Masters frequented, Ja Sun returned to the courtyard silently. It wasn't that he was unwilling to 'reap' benefits but there were a lot of things on the line and one slip may lead to the chase of a Titled Douluo. He did his best in attacking Ground Devil. That was his second strongest method. Only second because he himself wasn't present to double the power. And yet, he could still feel his mental energy only barely corroding the sea of consciousness of Ground Devil. 

Usually, he would keep his strength in control. Having self-control was simply one of Ja Sun's greatest desires and every form of training he has gone through revealed this intention. But how could he willingly keep his strength limited when he cannot imagine the terror of a Titled Douluo and facts proved his decision of sneak attacking Ground Devil to be correct. 

He learned a rather stunning fact which finally shed light on why Qian Daoliu refused to interfere this time. Ground Devil, as he has revealed himself, isn't in his strongest state. There was something strange about his body and mind, something Ja Sun felt that he now knew. This is why his plans changed a bit. How did Ground Devil even become one of the Titled Douluo elders of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan is something Ja Sun couldn't understand at this point but his motives seemed more than just snatching the spirit bones in his hands.

"You're back," Ah Yin and Hu Lana were practicing in the courtyard and they noticed Ja Sun entering without his disguise. With wooden daggers in her hands, Hu Lana suddenly shot towards Ah Yin only to have one sneaky vine of Blue Silver King coil around her body.

"Oh, come on! You should also be using weapons!" Hu Lana scowled.

"Sister Lana," Ah Yin frowned, even a bit stern, "Enemies won't be fair."

"You're saying that because you aren't good with weapons yourself."

"Fine," Ah Yin smiled and instantly turned the beautiful Blue Silver Goddess into a long and haunting vine that she grasped from one end and swept her arm and struck the vine like a whip.

"Let's train with weapons," Ah Yin smiled.

Hu Lana glanced at Ja Sun indignantly as he shrugged. He would be happy to take her place but he was a bit tired.

"Did Teacher already set out to contact the Clear Sky clan?" Ja Sun inquired as Hu Lana hurriedly ducked before rolling forward and throwing one of the daggers towards Ah Yin.

"She just left a few minutes ago," Ah Yin calmly sidestepped and circled her arm as the whip followed. Of course, she was cheating. Ah Yin knew nothing about whips. She was just able to control her martial soul because of her connection. Should she grasp a true whip, she might end up smacking herself. But this also made Ah Yin realize that just as everyone else was trying to learn martial arts, she too, needed to learn a method for self-defense aside from her spirit abilities.

"Is Xie Xan and Erlong here? You two can train. I want to take the two of them to find and take care of some exhausted spirit masters," Ja Sun narrowed his eyes. Aside from bounty hunters, the trained soldiers of the city just made the list of getting hunted down. After all, the trait would recognize any pursuer as a viable target.

"They are inside, making each other miserable by playing slap poker."

Hu Lana huffed.

Ja Sun nodded and entered the living room, finding Xie Xan and Liu Erlong sitting in front of each other with a table in between them. Xie Xan's right cheek was red and puffed up and so was Erlong's. Clearly, the two opponents respected each other to at least not go easy and must have wanted to slap the opponent real bad.

"Oh, I thought you'd be drenched in blood," Liu Erlong looked behind Xie Xan. The instant Xie Xan turned around, Erlong's gaze turned ferocious and she struck from her behind.

*Pah*

"Motherfuc—!"

Xie Xan howled and looked back only to find that Erlong wasn't even seated in her location and had long since disappeared.

Instead, she had moved past Xie Xan and walked around Ja Sun.

"Get back here! I owe you a slap!" Xie Xan growled and stood up.

"I just ended the game, you big baby," Erlong scoffed and Ja Sun glanced at the two of them with a frown, "Are you two not hurt enough to help me take care of some bounty hunters?"

He inquired and got to the point. It was already evening, the prime time where most bounty hunters would be truly defenseless and recovering. He needed to strike now before they returned to their residence and set up their defenses to recover and cultivate for the night.

"Yes! Let's go!" Erlong agreed hurriedly, rushing out of the living room and into the courtyard while Xie Xan scowled.

"Why'd you turn back, man," Ja Sun sighed and shook his head.

"Just... shut it, ass," Xie Xan groaned and walked out with Ja Sun, rubbing his cheeks only to be infuriated by the sight of Liu Erlong already having her cheek healed by Ah Yin.

---

"Is this the best form of threat the Clear Sky Clan can indicate?"

Unmasked, Bibi Dong inquired with a light smile. Despite her situation, the seemingly harmless expression didn't fade away. Instead, the men surrounding her, heck, the men almost thrice her size surrounding her couldn't help but frown. Clenched fists with similar beast transformations. A team of spirit masters with an Orangutan and Rhinoceros that focused on extreme physical quality kept the tight guard. In the middle of the ring of men within the courtyard, Bibi Dong gazed at Tang Xiao. Silently waiting. All she had to do to get out of this situation is to release her poisonous miasma, something that the young leader of the Clear Sky Clan was well aware of. 

Even if Bibi Dong's martial soul has been a source of gossip in the higher world of spirit masters, one thing was undisputed and that was her ability to face a group of strong spirit masters using a highly lethal control-type attribute: Poison.

"This is no threat," Tang Xiao frowned, "Why have you come here, Bibi Dong."

"I'm sure that my student's display this morning must have... ruffled quite a few feathers. Nothing we aren't capable of handling," Bibi Dong gave a soft smile that dazed those around her. Even Tang Xiao wasn't immune to the charms of a beautiful woman but his heart wasn't the one to be swayed easily. "I'm here to see if you are interested in 'healing' Tang Yuehua. Ka-ul is interesting when it comes to these subjects. I dare say, that unlike him, no one in Spirit Hall has similar authority in the younger generation to digest every recording of knowledge of the Hall."

This was a lie. Bibi Dong herself only knew that Ja Sun was confident with Tang Yuehua's condition because of how he murdered Yu Xiaogang's martial soul for the sake of curiosity and being able to brag— Have you ever killed a martial soul?

Still, she understood that if she couldn't lay a foundation for Ja Sun to support his atrocious methods then they might really not be able to get their seventh team member now. The longer this drags on, the higher the chance of their last teammate to be quite weaker than them and less in sync with the team. Not only that, the chances of not being able to participate in the competition itself grew.

Tang Xiao scowled, "What do the members of Spirit Hall know about this condition? Tell me or else I'll have your life."

Bibi Dong chuckled but didn't reply. For a moment, everyone felt cold. Even Tang Xiao. A ring of white light flashed from Bibi Dong's body and the surroundings turned cold. It was as if something vile and depraved from within Bibi Dong took a physical form— her lust for blood and death.

Her killing intent.

"This..."

Tang Xiao lost his breath for a moment and so did everybody. While the men around Bibi Dong were barely Spirit Kings, hardly one or two of them Spirit Emperors, Tang Xiao was a genuine Spirit Douluo!

Yet, he felt suppressed until a similar ring of light flashed from outside the ring of men. This killing intent didn't bring the men a feeling of dread but instead heightened their own bloodlust that finally allowed them to breathe.

Two domains. Yet, when one suppressed the group, the other could also support them to balance the situation. However, Bibi Dong willingly revoked her domain. A moment of display of strength was enough for her because, unlike others, she knew that a Titled Douluo was after them, and attracting a possible demonic spirit master who eats thighs for breakfast and calves for lunch wasn't in Bibi Dong's to-do list.

"If I knew you're the same, I wouldn't have bothered setting such an extravagant display," Tang Xiao sighed. He didn't have any plan to kill Bibi Dong.

Exile?

What a blatant spit on the public's face!

If Bibi Dong happened to die, the murderer would be chased by the Supreme Pontiff. And Ka-ul? Does he even need protection? He could disappear from the eyes of countless experts. No, his opponents needed protection. And the worst part was, even if the knowledge of Bibi Dong's other students was soon found, it didn't make the pursuers feel any better.

A variant of Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, Liu Erlong who wielded Fire Dragon so proficiently that her notoriety of bloodshed and slaughter was known to every upper clan. Those who face her in a battle of death may only win or at least, lose a limb. Especially the unfortunate spirit beasts she used to hunt before calming down a bit now.

Then came the mysterious Ah Yin. A few records of her could be found but as a favor to other Sects, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan did hint that she may be the most troublesome of the students after Ja Sun's third spirit ability.

Xie Xan and Hu Lana?

In reality, they were stars in the world of young mercenaries. A couple who used to live by hunting spirit beasts and evil spirit masters for bounty. One used her charm to stall and the other finished battles with cold and quick attacks. They hardly ever missed. Their talents already enviable. Should others come to know that the couple could also perform Spirit Fusion then they might grow even more jealous. 

Such a team was too dangerous for young masters and talents participating in the coming completion with Star Luo's side of an additional form of challenge instilled within.

This question was truly an apt one.

Did this group need any protection aside from Titled Douluo level monsters?

"Come in," Tang Xiao waved his hand. The men surrounding Bibi Dong were already covered in a cold sweat. All their natural desire for a beautiful woman melted away like snow under the cruel sun. Seeing this, Bibi Dong sighed. It was hard to come across men who wouldn't be intimidated easily when she released her domain. One of them was Ja Sun, who could actually suppress her intent and the other one was the spirit master publicly known for his similar acquired innate domain...

The man stood near the entrance of the living room with a dignified expression. His features rugged but his pupils still menacing, signifying that unlike Bibi Dong, who could refine her intent and gain proper control due to Ja Sun's interference, Tang Hao was still in the phase of controlling his desire for murder. Ordinarily, it would be suppressed, and even when facing Ja Sun, he kept it quite within the limit. But now, momentarily, Tang Hao let it all out and now faced the consequences.

"Will you be alright? Or does the successor of Clear Sky Clan requires other forms of venting as others do in that city?" Bibi Dong inquired and Tang Hao snorted.

"Just because I like Ka-ul doesn't mean I have to bear your insults."

"You must be mistaking me for someone who cares," Bibi Dong chuckled. If her past version heard such careless and provoking words, she would be shocked. Bibi Dong herself hadn't realized how much she changed over the period.

"Enough, Hao'er. Let's discuss whatever we want inside. Will you accompany Dai Mu?" Tang Xiao inquired.

Although hesitant because Bibi Dong had truly guessed it right, Tang Hao needed some time alone, he still ended up nodding. Being close to Dai Mu and Tang Yuehua did act as a way to restrain his surging killing intent.

The group dispersed. The other members stood guard in the courtyard. Tang Hao entered a different room and Bibi Dong followed Tang Xiao to discuss what the group had planned in the morning.