"You want this owl?" Ah Yin frowned before shaking her head.
"Nevermind."
She turned around and her silky blue hair would wave in a pleasant arc. As she began walking away, Tang Hao and Tang Xiao looked at each other.
Despite all their differences, past pranks, and petty grudges, if there was one thing the two of them could agree on then it was their admiration for their grandfather! The strongest master to ever be born in their clan.
"How about you tell us about the owl and we tell you about the kid?" Tang Xiao proposed. His words stopped Ah Yin in her tracks and she turned around. Nodding.
"That is fine by me."
"But this isn't a suitable location to exchange information. Are you in a hurry? If not, we can chat inside the dining hall of the inn," Tang Xiao pointed at the inn next to them.
"The information isn't large. I don't want to go in only for exiting after a few minutes," Ah Yin stated. Her words made Tang Hao and Tang Xiao's lips twitch. She was far too dangerous with her tongue!
"Fine."
"You go first," Ah Yin gestured.
"The youth we are talking about was peddling goods on the street. What about you?"
"I was given this owl by a youth. Slightly lanky, tanned skin, and green eyes."
Tang Xiao nodded and continued, "He was peddling martial techniques that can be incorporated into the lives of ordinary men and women without the use of spirit energy."
"This Human-tongue Owl is tamed by that youth. How he found this owl is still a mystery to me but I do know the location where he might have discovered it."
Tang Xiao's and Hao's gaze brightened.
"The kid sold us all these techniques, including a few techniques written by his father which still don't make any sense for 9000 coins."
"I met him in demon pond forest," Ah Yin informed.
"He traveled in a wooden carriage pulled by a brown horse," Tang Xiao nodded.
"That's it." Ah Yin finalized.
"That's it," Tang Hao scoffed and turned around.
---
*Tuc*
"Wake..."
*Tuc*
"Wake..."
*Tuc*
"Wake..."
"Hnngh," Ja Sun groaned and opened his eyes. His carriage was set on the side of the patched road during the night so the horse and Ja Sun could rest. Then, it was the owl's turn to shine and keep watch. Before she slept, she also had the task of waking Ja Sun up which she did by pecking on Ja Sun's forehead.
"I need to give you a name," Ja Sun rubbed his head and sat up. His lips parted into a wide yawn as he felt completely refreshed.
"I'll call you Rooster," Ja Sun stated before shaking his head, "No, in the bird's world, it should be a masculine name. Hmm, fine, we'll call you Hen-ry... hehe, just joking. You'll be called Olivia the Owl!"
Smirking, Ja Sun saw Olivia nod before she perched on the seat. Her neck shrunk and she looked puffier than before.
Seeing that Olivia was already sleeping, Ja Sun stretched his limbs before carefully unlocking the door of the carriage. Peeking through the narrow slit, he failed to find anything and he finally walked out. His previous mission of scamming others would be completed the moment the 24-hour period passes which should be in a few hours. After that, he would be able to add another mission.
*Neighehehe*
Seeing Ja Sun, the horse huffed and stomped its foot while letting out a soft neigh. It was quite refreshed, too, the cause of which was in between its hind limbs that stunk. Sighing, Ja Sun jumped on the driver's seat and began riding the carriage.
"Only if there was a better way to travel," Ja Sun sighed and leaned back.
"I agree. This is too slow," A cool voice blew over to Ja Sun as he nodded, "Right? The carriage is comfortable but...
But..."
Ja Sun slowly turned his head. Sitting next to him was a beautiful woman. Her long blue locks covered the side of her face and her eyes from Ja Sun but his throat went a little dry.
"But... since when were you here?" Ja Sun finally inquired. Perched on her lap was a sleeping child Human-tongue Owl. It would let out soft hoots and was shrouded by spirit energy which didn't wake it up due to the sunlight.
"Just a few minutes ago," Ah Yin replied and pulled her locks back. Her blue eyes stared into Ja Sun's green eyes as she smiled, "I didn't tell anyone about your second martial soul."
"Thanks," Ja Sun shrugged. Even if she told others, what's the worse thing that could have happened to him? Get his chest pierced? Have his brains blown out? He had already lived those moments.
For a moment, the carriage fell silent. Only the soft hoots of the sleeping... Owl, Oliver— Ja Sun determined— could be heard.
"Where are we going?" Ah Yin inquired.
"Where's your team?" Ja Sun returned the question with his own as he looked back curiously.
"We were never a team. We met each other in the forest and decided to find out the mystery behind all the spirit beasts existing together."
"Oh. I wanted to meet all of you," Ja Sun sighed before shaking his head, "Well, I was going to Star Dou Great Forest."
"But you don't have a spirit ring," Ah Yin frowned.
"That's why I'm going there," Ja Sun smiled.
"But you..." Realization flickered in Ah Yin's eyes as she looked at the owl in her hands, "That's why you wanted all of us to follow? To help you find a spirit ring? Why are you so confident that I will help in the first place? How will you compensate me?" Her expression was curious.
"I was hoping to lead the beast to you. After the fight, I would swoop in, take the spirit ring for myself. But, I did not know that you weren't a team, or else, I would have moved much faster," Ja Sun shrugged.
"As for compensation, I never thought of that. I would have immediately escaped... or at least, I hoped I would. But that's not possible now, is it?"
"No," Ah Yin shook her head.
"So? Tell me, what do you want?" Ja Sun smiled.
"I want to cultivate quickly. If you stay in your spirit beast enhancement and help me cultivate quickly, I will return the favor by assisting you in absorbing the spirit rings for your second martial soul," Ah Yin proposed.
"Hmm, let me think about it. Yes."
Ja Sun chuckled.
"Are you sure?" Ah Yin eyed Ja Sun with a bright gaze.
"Of course. It's beneficial to the both of us," Ja Sun looked at Ah Yin, "Besides, you have managed to kill and save me. I don't think you would want your efforts to perish away."
"I don't," Ah Yin smiled.
"But," she narrowed her eyes, "Do you think I'm crazy?"
"Why? Because we can talk peacefully after you attacked me and I attacked you?" Ja Sun inquired.
"No," Ah Yin shook her head, "Because you said that to this owl. I heard it. Why would you call me crazy?"
Ja Sun's eyebrow arched up slightly. He seemed confused and he looked at the owl sleeping in Ah Yin's embrace.
"I don't know. I say many things. But if Oliver recorded it then it must have been true. Besides, being crazy is a compliment. You get to do things that others are too afraid of accomplishing," Ja Sun sighed.
"I see. Now, tell me, what is an Oliver?" Ah Yin frowned.
"That's his name," Ja Sun pointed at Oliver.
"No, it's not. His name is Caihong?" Ah Yin refuted calmly.
"What? That's clearly Oliver the Owl, and his mother in the back is Olivia the Owl!" Ja Sun frowned.
"No, he is Little Cai and his mother is Mama Cai."
"I cannot believe this is going to be the focus of our fight," Ja Sun sighed softly before his expression turned stern.
"My owl, my name!"
"Caihong is clearly gifted to me. He also likes staying with me. Call his mother whatever you want but his name is little Cai. Caihong," Ah Yin glared at Ja Sun and matched his gaze sharply.
The two argued for almost the entire journey. But when the two were out of reason, Ja Sun frowned and entered inside the carriage.
"I want to cultivate a little. I'll activate my ability and it will only cover you and OLIVER. By the way, Ah Yin, you are crazy if you think Caihong, of all names, is a good one!"
With that, Ja Sun slammed the doors of the carriage shut while Ah Yin snorted and continued to drive. She still kept... Caihong in her lap with her refreshing spirit energy shrouding him and making him sleep without any issues.
Within a few seconds, Ah Yin's mood calmed down. She felt her body's passive nature to absorb spiritual energy increase. Even Caihong was affected by it. The horse pulling the carriage, however, was an ordinary animal. Even with the most primal potential, it couldn't enhance the cultivation speed by too much.
'This is good... at least, I can reach rank 60 quicker than my previous estimation,' She closed her eyes and meditated. Hesitating for a moment, she decided not to spread out her domain. Although she felt that despite their bickering, Ja Sun and she hit it off, continuously prodding his privacy may affect her negatively.
Inside the carriage, Ja Sun spread his meager mental energy and was, for the most parts, assured that he wasn't being spied upon. But this macro use of mental power was too great to be held for long and he stopped. His boots were placed aside as he sat down cross-legged. Closing his eyes, he began to cultivate the mental acupuncture technique once again.
As he continued to do so, he felt a familiar force nurturing his body, but mostly, his mind. After gaining the Blue Silver Emperor's Core, whenever Ja Sun cultivated the Mental Acupuncture Technique, his pace in cultivation was increased.
A human body holds spiritual energy, mental energy, and physical energy— also called, Blood Energy. An expert uses these three forms of energy simultaneously to achieve his goals so letting any of them lag behind means leaving a weakness to be exploited.
Despite the gradually increasing quality of his spirit energy due to the continuous breathing technique of the Concentric Spirit Technique, Ja Sun was simply a spirit scholar without a spirit ring. His body still didn't have a form of spirit energy. But that wasn't the case for his mental and blood energy.
Closing his eyes, Ja Sun visualized a small vortex of light-blue energy. In the pitch-black scape of his vision, only this vortex provided light and warmth. This was his source of mental energy.
At his command, five slivers of energy slipped out of the vortex and turned into thin needles.
At the first stage, the cultivator must pierce one's source of mental energy in 16 points accurately. Each point of piercing proves to be highly painful as if something stabbed into one's mind through their eyes. But with each subsequent puncture, more and more mental energy is refined from one's spirit. There was no other way about it. Even with his quality of spirit energy, Ja Sun felt that rank 2 of the technique would be his limit if he doesn't break through.
Still, the heightened pain is compensated with quick progress. Although, a cultivator needs to spend some time to recuperate or the Cultivator's mind may be negatively affected. This disadvantage was covered by the Blue Silver Emperor's Core.
Taking a deep breath, Ja Sun waved his hand. The five needles pierced into the vortex of energy.
When the first four needles pierced the vortex and disappeared, Ja Sun didn't feel pain. Instead, he felt a refreshing current of mental energy being refined from his reserves of spirit energy and then connecting all the four points.
However, the moment the fifth needle pierced, Ja Sun's body shuddered. When the needle disappeared into the vortex, the energy accumulated in the four points struck the area of the vortex, and instantly, Ja Sun refined quite a bit of his spiritual energy. It was at this point when a misty blue energy, unlike his own starry blue vortex, covered his source of mental energy and soothed his mind.
"Huff," Ja Sun exhaled. 'Five points down, 27 remains,' he thought.
At this moment, he opened his eyes. He felt the beckoning of his trait.
The mission screen appeared in front of his eyes.
[Objective: Scam customers.
Mission Rank: E
Rewards: 5 Heaven Dou Gold Coins, 30 gram Deep Silver Tungsten.
Time Limit: 24 hours.]
[Status: Complete.]
Five gold coins and a fist-sized crude rock were formed in front of him which Ja Sun pocketed without much thought. He knew that the odd rock wasn't simple but he also didn't know its use so Ja Sun silently put his things away.
"Set Mission."
[Set Parameters.]
"Reach the third level of mental acupuncture technique. Additional Objectives:
1) Reach the fourth level.
2) Reach the fifth level.
3) Reach the sixth level.
4) Reach the seventh level.
5) Reach the eighth level.
6) Reach the ninth level."
[Objectives: Breakthrough into the third level of mental acupuncture technique.
Optional Objectives:
1) Breakthrough to the fourth level.
2) Breakthrough to the fifth level.
Mission Rank: D-B-S
Rewards: Yin Refinement— Mind Devour— Astral Combatant.
Time Limit: 12 hours.]
Ja Sun frowned. By his estimates, at least, the seventh level should be considered S-Rank but according to his trait, he had clearly underestimated the difficulty of his technique.
'But even with the Blue Silver Emperor's Core, I can't compete with the consumption of my spirit energy. Once the consumption exceeds my recovery, there will be no hope so only by relying on myself, I can never reach the fifth level. If that is so, then I must also rely on external sources.'
Future cultivation of the Mental Acupuncture Technique will only increase in difficulty so Ja Sun felt that the quicker he completes the S-rank mission regarding this technique, the better.
Sliding open the small divider, Ja Su looked outside and gazed at the meditating Ah Yin.
"Ah Yin, are you busy?"
"No. Why?"
"I want to learn more about you. You know my Martial Soul but I don't know yours. Tell me about it," Ja Sun inquired.
"Not like this," Ah Yin smiled, "Why don't we stop and rest a little. I will also show you my abilities so that we can work together more efficiently. Too bad there's no night tavern around here."
"Well, night tavern's greatest charm is the outfits the waitresses present themselves in..."
"And?" Ah Yin narrowed her eyes.
"Nothing. I like to think of various things," Ja Sun stated with a mysterious expression while Ah Yin stopped the carriage under the nearest tree.
Once Ah Yin entered the carriage, she placed Caihong next to Olivia and looked at the large sacs of dried meat and vegetables.
"Did you buy them?" She inquired.
"No, it was already within the carriage," Ja Sun smiled, "That group saved me from dying of hunger."
"I see. Well," Ah Yin's expression turned slightly serious. "I do know about your variant martial soul. Truth be told, I came across a Three-eyed Golden Lion and it was extremely dangerous. A hundred-year-old Three-eyed Golden Lion can easily compete against a thousand-year-old spirit beast and even survive the onslaught of a ten-thousand-year-old spirit beast. In terms of potential, your Variant Martial soul shouldn't lag at all."
"As you guessed, my Beast Martial Soul is called Three-eyed Silver Lion. The spirit beast enhancement boosts my speed, increases my passive affinity with Spirit, Light, and Spatial Attributes. These are also the attributes I want from my spirit rings."
"And?" Ah Yin inquired with a slightly expectant gaze.
"And? It increases the speed of cultivation," Ja Sun smiled and shrugged.
"By how much?" Ah Yin continued.
"Not telling," He wagged his index finger in front of her.
"I see. Then what about your other Martial Soul? Twin Spirits are already rare enough that the appearance of all the twin spirit masters in the history of the continent can be counted in one hand. But you have Martial Souls that may be coveted by the entire continent itself!"
"Jealous?" Ja Sun smirked.
"Hardly," Ah Yin stated with a plain expression.
"Fine. My other Martial Soul allows me to summon a catastrophe. But I'd be stupid, or a 6-year-old once again, to use it or even activate it until I'm at least a Spirit Sage. This is a body martial spirit so the mark doesn't disappear and is called Evil Title."
"What kind of catastrophe?" Ah Yin frowned.
"The kind that can leave scars on the Pope of Spirit Hall," Ja Sun smirked as if recalling some pleasant memories.
"Understood. My Martial Soul is also a variant," saying this, Ah Yin flipped her hand and a palm-sized willow tree appeared over her right palm. It had dark and thin bark with long-winded branches. Silver blue vines flowed down from the branches and covered the entire crown of the tree. An ethereal glow seems to be surrounding the tree.
"This is a variant of the most popular trash Martial Soul— Blue River Grass. My Martial Soul is Blue Silver Empress. It allows me to extend the vines of the martial soul to a distance of 200 meters. Aside from that, this Martial Soul grants me an innate domain— Blue Silver Domain. Of course, you have faced its prowess firsthand. Aside from controlling every blue river grass and associated plants in the domain, I can also recover one's energy. I won't explain any other effects since... we did fight against each other.
Maybe you'll get the chance to see all my capabilities next time," Ah Yin smiled.
"Your spirit rings?" Ja Sun continued without caring about her last remark, an act that made the corner of Ah Yin's lips twitch.
"I'm a rank 42 spirit ancestor and my martial soul can be considered as a control-type soul. My four rings directly enhance the quality and toughness of my vines."
Saying this, four small rings appeared around her raised index and rotated around it. The rings let out beautiful and hazy aura.
From top to bottom, there were 2 purple spirit rings and 2 yellow spirit rings.
Ja Sun looked quite enchanted by seeing the rings up close.
"Man... I really wish to get spirit rings soon," he mumbled.
"Of course, you will. Maybe with spirit rings, the enhancement of cultivation speed may increase!" Ah Yin's gaze glowed.
"Aye, aye! I'm just a piece of meat to you, aren't I?" Ja Sun scoffed.
"I don't eat meat," Ah Yin replied calmly.
"Ugh," Ja Sun revealed a slightly offended expression.
"If you're going to stop me from eating what I like then we'll have a problem," Ja Sun stated clearly.
"I won't. Your diet shouldn't affect me," Ah Yin shrugged.
'If only everyone was as chill as you, Crazy,' Ja Sun sighed internally.
"Say, Ah Yin, about the recovery of your domain. Can you explain it more clearly?"
"I can recover any form of energy. Physical, spiritual, or mental. This means, if you're supported by my domain, I can act as a natural auxiliary spirit master and a control-type spirit master."
Ja Sun blinked.
He then continued, "How long can you keep your domain activated?"
"As long as I want," Ah Yin crossed her arms.
"You mean... as long as you're conscious, right?" Ja Sun smirked.
Ah Yin's eyes twitched but she didn't comment on this apparent weakness.
"Help me," Ja Sun smiled, "I want you to activate the domain for the next 12 hours. I want to try something."
"This is too public to expose my domain in. Carriages may pass and there is a chance of bandits attacking. There is also a risk of spirit masters being mixed in the groups of bandits. Besides, I don't stand to earn anything extra from this," Ah Yin frowned.
"You're still talking about that?" Ja Sun leaned back with a curious expression. "Why do you need money, aside from obvious necessities such as clothes and food?"
"Money makes things easier. And I don't want to visit upper-level cities without being a rank 60 spirit emperor and rich enough to take care of any formality."
"Well, I have money. We stick together, help each other out, then, of course, our financial funds will also be shared. To a limit, of course," Ja Sun looked at Ah Yin, "How about it? If you agree, I'll even stop myself from pestering you in the future."
"What do you mean?" Ah Yin frowned.
"It's clear that you're lying," Ja Sun shrugged, "You might be in a situation where turning rank 60 will help you greatly."
Ja Sun observed Ah Yin with narrowed eyes while Ah Yin didn't shy away and pursed her lips.