"Hahaha, so that's the herbal thief from the quest!" Jason said laughing at Mo Zuo's comical expression.

Ji Yan could also be seen using her sleeve to hide the fact she was giggling, 'This Mo Zuo guy...'

Mo Zuo smiled at the guards and answered, "And so? You didn't know I ordered him to inspect how weak the Mo clan security was, and as I expected, you are all trash!"

"If even I, the son of the first elder could be robbed so easily, what does that say about the rest of the occupants of this great clan! I will be speaking with my uncle and let's see how he deals with your incompetence." Mo Zuo snorted, and looked at Ji Yan, "Ji Yan let's get out of here as soon as possible, I don't want to be near these incompetent losers any longer."

Ji Yan laughed and followed after Mo Zuo, the guards that were just berated were utterly confused and didn't even know how to counter Mo Zuo's harsh words. 'This... he is obviously lying, right?' They each wondered, but seeing how Mo Zuo didn't even bother chasing after the thief they began to even doubt themselves...

Mo Zuo and Ji Yan walked back to the house, and Ji Yan couldn't help but ask, "You obviously didn't hire anyone to test the security did you?" She said as she slightly tilted her head.

"Of course not, but the security is really loose, I wonder how he got in?" Mo Zuo was in deep thought.

"Why aren't you worried about the thief then?" 

Mo Zuo looked at her smiled but didn't answer. This caused Jason's curiosity to be piqued, "Why aren't you bothered?" Even he had to ask.

"You see the quest says we should go into the town and find the herb thief and for 50 points, not stop him at the gate. You have to follow the quest!" Mo Zuo explained.

Jason nodded his non existent head in realisation, "True, true..."

Mo Zuo walked up to the stairs, and went to the top of the roof to check the herb stash, there were hundreds of herbs still present but Mo Zuo could tell it was a bit lighter.

"How are you going to track the thief?" Jason wondered what Mo Zuo was doing by searching through the herb stash, case by case.

"I'm trying to identify which herbs were stolen, that would be my first clue!" 

"You want to spot the stolen herbs out of these hundreds of herbs?" Jason asked shocked.

"Yup, my memory is pretty good... alright! they took 14 herbs! And they were mainly of the ice type, but two were quite rare and expensive... hmm.." Mo Zuo said after a while.

Jason was utterly shocked, could Mo Zuo remember every single herb? 

---

Back in the brothel

Jason woke up and saw a man with heavy make-up sleeping in a corner of the room. Remembering what had happened the night before, Jason felt chills run up his spine.

*

 He had gone to the lady in charge, and told her he needed one of the best rooms with a soft bed.

She led him to one of the top rooms, and asked him what sort of girl he'd like to accompany, and Jason told her that he wasn't interested in any women, he just came here to sleep.

The lady opened her mouth slightly in realisation, and nodded her head and left.

And a while later, Jason who had already drifted to sleep woke up to see a man with heavy make up entering his bed.

Jason looked up at the man in shock, and then instantly understood what had happened, 'These damn people and misunderstanding! How does me not wanting any lady mean I want a man?' 

Too tired to argue, Jason kindly explained to the man he didn't need his services tonight, and that he could leave.

But the man refused, and told Jason that if he left so early, he wouldn't get paid and he urgently needed the money to pay off his sister's heavy debt.

Feeling slight pity for the man's situation, he had let him stay, but of course he refused to share his bed, that bed was for Jason and Jason alone!

*

Getting up that morning, he took a quick shower and headed out the room, there he met the head lady waiting for him.

"I trust you enjoyed your night?" She smiled at him.

Jason, didn't feel the need to explain, so he just nodded his head, and continued walking out.

"Cough* Emm I think you are forgetting something sir?" The lady said as she stretched out her hand.

Jason looked at her a bit confused at first, then realised he forgot to pay! He reached into his back pocket to pull out his debit card, as a former flamboyant millionaire, spending money didn't mean so much to him.

Except this time, his trusty wallet and credit card weren't there! 'S#%+!' Jason peeked into the storage ring he obtained and prayed that there was any amount of money to be found there!

The lady had a slight frown on her face as she noticed Jason's panicked face, "Is there a problem sir."

'Oh there's a problem alright, this guy's ring is broke!' Jason thought silently. "I seem to have misplaced my storage ring with all my gold in it...."

"Sir this is a very serious problem. Not only did you use our most expensive room, you also ordered such an expensive service..." 

'The F#$& I never ordered it!' Jason thought infernally, he smiled at the lady and asked, "How much is it in total?"

"Sir, the room is worth 250 gold per night, and that special service ... is worth 750 gold!"

'750 gold?!!' Jason felt his body growing numb, everything he had on his body including the storage ring was only worth 150 gold. 'God, I've got to take care of my reckless spending habit.'

He looked the woman and smiled, "Madam, you may not know, but I'm very powerful... is there a way we can work things out?"

The lady looked at him, and his muscular toned body, he did seem quite 'powerful', just what the boss needed! "Alright that can work."

"Ah, you didn't even ask me for my cultivation level? Can you already tell?" Jason's raised eyebrows showed how shocked he was that she agreed so easily.

"Oh... of course, yes, of course! My boss has been looking for people to help him carry out a mission, he'd be glad to have you sir."

Jason carefully nodded his head, though the Earth Serpent had lost quite a bit of strength due to all it was subjected to, in its root it was still a very powerful beast! Handling any mission should be a piece of cake.

---

At the top of a high cliff near the border of the Mo clan....

Mo Fen tilted up his bow as he aimed towards the sky, Ji Yue was sitting on a nearby tree stump and quietly watched him. 

This Mo Fen fella had surprised her even more! On the very night that Mo Zuo had entered the Foundation stage, the Mo Clan was in an uproar! Mo Fen had entered the core formation stage at just 16 years of age!

Dense blue Qi wind swirled up around Mo Fen's body and wrapped around the arrow, his eyes glowed blue as his vision increased. He pumped his bow with more blue Qi, and pulled back the string, the Qi had made the bowstring harder to pull back, the muscles on his left hand became tenser as he stretched the string farther and farther, till he could no longer hold it.

*Pang*

Ji Yue heard a loud sound, and a flash of blue, but looking at Mo Fen he was still in the same position with the arrow still in between his fingers.

*Pang*

*Pang*

*Pang*

*Pang*.... 

Ji Yue became puzzled as she kept hearing this sound over and over, but Mo Fen was still in the exact same position! The Qi around him seemed to be getting a bit thinner though.

*Pang*

This time Mo Fen's hand finally dropped from the bow, and the arrow was nowhere to be seen. 'What's going on?' Ji Yue was utterly confused, this was the first time she had met him training after so many days, but this... this was just bizarre!

She looked up at the sky, and her mouth opened in shock, looking at the clouds, they were filled with enough holes, that it looked like swiss cheese!( Yup, swiss cheese)

Ji Yue took a glance at Mo Fen's quiver, and to her surprise the quiver that was always full, was entirely empty!

'How fast did he reload the arrow? And I didn't even see a thing! What!' Ji Yue thought flabbergasted, this reload speed was insane!

Mo Fen's eyes were still glowing blue, and he zoomed into a distant region, he spotted something and slightly shook his head. Mo Fen glanced towards Ji Yue as the blue glow slowly dissipated from his eyes, and lazily said, "Come let's go." 

After several days Mo Fen had already gotten used to Ji Yue's presence, and even if he didn't want to admit having her around was....

"Where are we going?" Ji Yue tilted her head to the side and asked. Mo Fen brought out a bowl from his bag, if Mo Zuo was here he would have noticed that this was the same bowl  he left for the hidden guard the night the Earth Serpent appeared!

Mo Fen looked down at the bowl and recalled what had happened that night! 

*

He had still been on his search for that rare flower, but hearing such a loud commotion, he soared to a higher vantage point and activated his innate blue eyed falcon spirit! 

His eyes could slightly make out the Earth Serpent's figure, and watched as it saved the Ji clan's hidden guard, and even saw it transform into a human and run into the woods! A beast that could morph into human form? Chills ran through his normally dead heart, as he didn't dare guess how powerful the Serpent was!

He hastily formed a note describing all he saw, and with his powerful bow he had quickly sent the information to the Mo clan's quarters. 

He then slowly watched the Earth serpent run out of sight, when he saw that it had gone several kilometers away, he started heading at top speed towards where the ground caved in search of Mo Zuo!

He arrived there, and noticed the massive hole created by the Earth Serpent, he slid down and noticed Ji Yan knocked out unconscious, a giant blood cocoon was glowing in front of him. 

Seeing Mo Zuo seemed to be alright he had planned to leave, till his bird innate spirit began to draw him to something, curious he moved closer and noticed the broken beast core, emitting a strong snake Qi!

This snake Qi that was normally toxic to Ji Yan, was a delicacy to his bird spirit as it jumped out of Mo Fen's body and pounced onto it as it hastily begun devouring it.

Mo Fen was shocked, his spirit had never done such before! He wanted to let his innate spirit continue drinking this Qi, but seeing that Mo Zuo apparently needed it, he summoned his will power and dragged it back!

It was a fierce tug of war between him and his own spirit! Mo Fen hastily fled the area and left the underground cave.

As the spirit re-entered his body, the mighty influx of Qi triggered his breakthrough into the Core Formation stage! 

After a sudden breakthrough, he felt a pang of hunger, and managed to see the bowl of food Mo Zuo had left behind.

*

Looking down at the bowl, he slightly smiled, 'That cousin of mine can really cook...' He gathered his thoughts and looked back at Ji Yan.

"Want to follow me to the nearby town?"