When Ja Sau felt the tension increasing, he let out a sigh, "Come on, Ah Yin. Help me out. The stronger I am, the better the spirit ring I can absorb. This increases the chances of having another boost of cultivation speed."
Ah Yin continued to think deeply
"But we still cannot do it here. Similarly, Spirit Dou Great Forest is too dangerous with a large traffic of spirit masters in the outskirts and the aggressive spirit beasts."
Ja Sun also frowned. He wanted to give this mission a try. The rewards should be similar to rewards revealed for Revitalized Blood Qi Art where the techniques would be enhancement and application of blood energy. Similarly, the rewards this time will probably be the applications of mental energy to hasten mental Cultivation.
"The Demon Pond Forest is too far away. It doesn't make sense to go there, either," Ja Sun mumbled.
"Then... let's go to the Violet Waterfall Marsh," Ah Yin suddenly spoke up.
"That place..." Ja Sun frowned, "Your domain can truly be magical there since plant-type spirit beasts will be under your suppression and due to the treacherous environment, not many enter that location. But... didn't the Spirit Hall turn into a protected Hunting Ground a few years ago?"
Ah Yin smirked, "You are a lousy thief! You stole my coin pouch but you didn't even search us well."
Saying that, Ah Yin took out a token from her cleavage.
"Alright... this is not on me. You're a freak to put a token in your cleavage," Ja Sun instantly retorted and continued, "And you're... young. Maybe next year I'll properly pat you down."
Jason would be a fool to molest a minor. She may not be considered a minor in this world but once Jason turned 18 back in his real world and wanted to have a go with his first and most recent girlfriend, he was beaten up by his teacher to an inch of his life.
His words being— You're 18, and she's a few months from being 17. Control your dick, dickhead.
Of course, then the rebellion began, she turned out to be a traitor and ended up dying by his hand. And then he was killed.
But like Ja Sun once said— One's moral isn't their own.
Ja Sun's unwillingness to not pass his hand on a 17-year-old girl doesn't stem from honor but excruciating physical pain.
"I'm not that young," Ah Yin refuted, "And I won't let you touch me."
"Hey, you killed me. If I don't get to pierce your chest, then I get to—"
"Be careful with your words," Ah Yin threatened as her rings appeared around her.
"At least touch it... or pierce something else," Ja Sun completed his sentence without an ounce of fear.
"We're going to the Violet Waterfall Marsh. Cover yourself properly so that you don't get found out. I will use this token to get us inside."
Ah Yin snorted and walked out of the carriage.
Meanwhile, Ja Sun leaned back and stopped cultivating the Mental Acupuncture Technique. He'll have a go at it in the marsh now.
---
300 Kilometers to the west of Suotuo City is a humid habitat formed by the convergence of 6 branches of the river flowing from the north of the continent and eventually meeting with the Vast Sea Region surrounding the continent.
Due to the river passing through plateau terrain, multiple waterfalls of various sizes are formed that attract earth and plant-type spirit beast. This, after tens of thousands of years, grew into a natural marsh terrain with multiple waterfalls and countless plant spirit of various shapes and sizes.
The innate danger of this type of natural habitat is great but it mostly appears due to harsh terrain. The Spirit Hall could easily surround and restrict the habitat from being overexploited and a hunting town was formed around it named Violet Hall Town.
It was already night and the street torches were lit up to illuminate the town. Next to the Riverbound Inn of the town, one could see two individuals— a cloaked figure and a beautiful girl— walking towards the entrance of the marsh. Meanwhile, an attendant took care of the horse with a wooden carriage parked next to it.
Around the entrance of the marsh were groups of spirit masters calling out to team up with their needed spirit types and requirements. Since the Marsh was a specialized habitat, the main type of spirit master was the one with flame attributes or poison attributes to restrict the plant-type beasts of the marsh.
In front of the entrance that reached as high as 10 meters were armored men with steel spears in their hands. Their expressions covered by striking helmets.
"Halt!" One of the guards commanded and struck the base of his spear on the ground before moving towards Ah Yin and Ja Sun.
"Please reveal the pass to the hunting ground!" The guard stated and Ah Yin handed him the dark token.
On one side of the token was a broadsword pointing downwards. This was the emblem of the Spirit Hall.
Meanwhile, on the other side, a few words could be read.
"Feng Long, Spirit Rank: 30. Total Members Allowed: 4. Alright, you can enter."
The guard didn't return the token and the two were led through the smaller door built into the large gate.
"Now, we need to find an appropriate location."
Ah Yin took the lead. Wherever she stepped, the blue river grass around her would turn its blades towards her. The two of them had already discussed their needs. Since the mental acupuncture technique requires spirit energy to nurture more mental energy, Ja Sun wasn't going to enter his spirit enhancement and consume spirit energy for that. Instead, his protection will depend on Ah Yin entirely.
'Believe your enemies, and your trait... He never taught me about people who have accomplished killing me. Well, I still believe in teach that given another chance, he'll pull the trigger. What about her?' Ja Sun observed his surroundings. The ground was damp and the surrounding trees were crooked. Due to darkness, his vision was quite limited unless he wears his martial soul.
"There are a few spirit beasts around us. Most of them are ten-year-old and there's a hundred-year-old Lady Firefly potent in the light attribute."
"You have investigation skills?" Ja Sun inquired curiously.
"A little," Ah Yin nodded.
"Do you know more about the Lady Firefly?" Ja Sun inquired.
"Yeah," Ah Yin explained, "The Firefly has an extraordinary affinity with light element but that is its only redeeming feature. Speed, power, survival capabilities, all of them are at the bottom rank and many of these fireflies are consumed by other spirit beasts that are attributed to Light element."
"Oh... that's a shame," Ja Sun shrugged.
The mission's dialogue box still floated next to him. Until he accepted or rejected the mission, the dialogue box will remain the same.
"The banks of the waterfall are the most dangerous part of the forest. Even the Spirit Hall doesn't dare to stop the flow of the river into other regions but still, not many try to sneak into the marsh without a water-type spirit beast. Water-type spirit beasts are already rare and those that can fight underwater even more. So, there are many poisonous beasts hidden inside the marsh's region and locked out from the river by the Spirit Hall."
"You've been here before?" Ja Sun looked around curiously. The forest wasn't as dangerous as the Demon Pond Forest even without his spirit enhancement.
"Yes, I've been here before," Ah Yin nodded.
Finally, Ah Yin stopper. This area was particularly dense with trees, shrubbery, and wild grass. Violet flowers bloomed through the shrubs and on the nearest branch, Ja Sun saw an odd spider crawling around.
'That's a spirit beast, too,' Ja Sun smiled.
"This is the place. Here, I can provide the maximum support and combat strength."
"There's one condition," Ja Sun opened up.
"In a fatal crisis, escape while taking you along. I know," Ah Yin crossed her arms as her domain spread out. Instantly, Ja Sun felt warm and comforted.
"Accepted," Ja Sun whispered and the mission began.
"Accepted what?" Ah Yin leaned against a branch of the tree as the grass parted around her and bent inwardly, as if prostrating towards her.
"Nothing. I accepted your good wishes," Ja Sun smiled and sat down. Hearing him, Ah Yin only felt puzzled for a moment but after traveling with him for a day, she already knew that categorizing Ja Sun as a normal individual will be a fatal mistake. In fact, she did make such a mistake and ended up unconscious and defenseless.
'Although, I still wouldn't be dead.' She added in her heart.
Meanwhile, Ja Sun closed his eyes and spoke up, "Don't stop the influx of spiritual energy."
His voice was faint and he returned to his mental scape.
Pulling out six needles made of mental energy, Ja Sun struck the vortex of his mental energy.
---
"I already miss Caihong..." Ah Yin looked towards the bright moon, "Four hours have already passed," she mumbled. She didn't have much to do so she counted all the time.
Before entering the City, the duo knew that they would have to leave Olivia and Caihong behind so instead, they let them find their own hiding location close to the city. In terms of hiding, none could beat Human-tongue Owls even in the ranks of ten-thousand-year-old spirit beasts.
She then gazed at Ja Sun. Right now, his condition was more than wretched.
He had his hood on so without moving it, Ah Yin wouldn't have been able to 'see' him but her domain was special. Its pure attacking capabilities were limited but in the support and control department, she felt that her innate domain was on the top of the list.
Around Ja Sun, every blade of grass let out wisps of blue energy that moved around him and entered his pores, filling his rapidly depleting reserves at a pace even quicker.
'In my domain, I can observe anything. Even the tiniest detail cannot escape my observation. Out of four pouches strapped on Ja Sun, there are coins in two of them. Too many coins, in fact... 9567 coins... an unrefined ore... Ahem, a beautiful crimson crystal necklace... it's so beautiful... ahem, and in the last pouch, there is definitely something. In fact, it is seeping with reinforced mental energy and is probably the reason why Ja Sun hasn't physically lost his mind.
But what is it?'
Ah Yin's domain failed to observe this object. Meanwhile, like usual, Ja Sun had already destroyed the skill manual of Fiery Golden Pupils after learning it once.
Right now, several veins were popping out of Ja Sun's forehead and it felt like they would burst at any moment.
'Not only that, the technique he is practicing is quite strange itself. It feels like one of the cheaper methods that sacrifices foundation but it clearly doesn't. All that mysterious object is doing is healing Ja Sun's mind. This means, if Ja Sun takes rest periodically and uses this technique, his mental energy will grow exponentially.
But if he had this technique all this time why hasn't his mental energy reached a monstrous stage?
Ah Yin felt that she knew the answer.
'He is held back by his bottleneck of spirit energy. This, along with the fact that he asked me to continuously replenish his spirit energy means that this technique utilizes spirit energy at a pace that Ja Sun cannot provide.
So, this is a strange technique that doesn't sacrifice foundation, quality, or speed. With enough resources, anyone will be able to have a great pool of mental energy but such a good thing doesn't exist. His body is being physically impacted. This technique probably etches pain far greater than imagination...'
Ah Yin puckered her lips.
"Poof!" Ja Sun's lips parted and he suddenly vomited an atrocious volume of blood. His cloak was instantly drenched and he entered a coughing fit.
Ah Yin frowned silently but didn't interfere. Or, in this case, she couldn't interfere. Ja Sun's consumption of spirit energy had already surpassed his reserves. If she converted the spirit energy into blood energy and heal him, the sudden exhaustion of spirit energy might have an even adverse effect.
'This is...' Ah Yin's nose scrunched up.
'His blood is... different...' That's the only thing she could understand. Theoretically, each absorption of the spirit ring provides great benefit to the body but Ja Sun didn't have any spirit ring. The strength he revealed while managing to successfully ambush Zhao Wuji could be credited to his strange spirit technique. 'But his body seems slightly stronger than the norm...'
---
"Fuck me! Finally reached stage four of the technique!" Ja Sun's mental avatar rolled in the dark space. His entire being was filled with unimaginable pain and he was completely aware that the pain now negatively affected his body, too. The pressure on his body was increasing!
He had successfully punctured his pool of mental vortex 64 times and now, a great change was taking over his mental energy.
Instantly, Ja Sun felt the mental energy from the Blue Silver Emperor's Core increasing, and his quality of mental energy was upgrading.
'By every right, the reason why the mission is ranked higher is due to the pain itself. Even with all the resources, only a mission junkie like me would want to attempt an S-rank mission.'
Ja Sun gazed at his starry mental energy slowly developing a beautiful mist around itself. The mist was then absorbed into the vortex before the swirling pool of mental energy revealed a bright glow that momentarily filled the dark scape with its light.
When Ja Sun looked around, he found that aside from the bright vortex, the darkness was illuminated by an ever-present mist that would peacefully keep the vortex in its shroud.
'Well... I only have a few hours left. Time to puncture my head 128 times...'
Ja Sun created the first needle again.
---
"Hmm?" Ah Yin frowned.
'Enemy...' Ah Yin's vision blurred and she seemed to be visualizing something from a worm's point of view. She saw two spirit masters crouched in a low position. Their backs had pairs of thin insectoid wings.
Although her domain didn't expand, her influence and use of mental energy were much grander and delicate. It went by unnoticed by the two spirit masters.
'Insect-type beast spirit masters. From the looks of it, their Martial Souls are flying insects. Their abilities might include sucking blood or poisoning but that is the most basic of abilities. Stronger Insects can spread fast-acting diseases...'
'But... they are waiting. My back should look completely exposed to them but they still didn't attack. They either understand domain-type ability or they are waiting for reinforcement to be sure. Either way, being passive now will greatly trouble me later.'
Ah Yin's gaze flashed and her domain expanded. The pace of expansion was actually brought by thin strands of spiritual energy connecting to every blade of blue river grass and the trash weed around the spirit masters instantly coiled around them violently.
The domain receded just as quickly and returned to its previous magnitude but aside from Ah Yin and Ja Sun, there was a pair of martial spirit with thick vines coiling around the entirety of their body. They looked like a pair of vine mummies.
'Spiritual Pressure, not greater than 30... no, one of them probably broke into the Ranks of Spirit Elder. Anyway, they won't die if stuck here for the next... there's still around 8 hours remaining...'
Seeing that she was already discovered once, probably due to the light exuding from her domain, Ah Yin sighed and made a decision and the surrounding grass grew higher than three meters!
This wasn't the effect of her domain but instead, a yellow ring appeared around her and affected the growth.
This was a temporary measure but this way, she was harder to notice due to darkness and even if she's noticed, her situation would remain a mystery while her opponent would be in the open.
Before Ah Yin could relax, she gazed towards Ja Sun with a stern expression.
"You're bleeding from your eyes," She crouched near him and fell into a dilemma. Ja Sun didn't lose his consciousness so there's a chance that he's letting all of it happen on purpose.
'Maybe... bleeding from eyes isn't a bad thing? Could it be that he is pushing out impurities?' Ah Yin blinked and felt that she wasn't too off the mark.
"But it looks painful..." Ah Yin mumbled.
---
"It looks painful," Jason gazed at the chair used in mental facilities to give shock therapy.
"What's the rank of the mission?" Young Jason had short black hair and he looked relatively disheveled. The man in front of him had a calm expression as he inquired so.
"A..."
"Is the reward worth the pain?" the man inquired once again.
Jason hesitated before nodding.
"Then go. Pain is everywhere, learn to accept it and you'll become stronger."
---
"Teacher... there is a tiger in the cage... you want me to play fancy martial arts with a tiger!" An adolescent Jason glared at the calm middle-aged man.
"What are you afraid of?" His teacher inquired curiously.
"The fucking tiger biting my arms off! That's what I'm afraid of!"
"What's the rank of the mission?"
"A..."
"Are the rewards worth it?"
"Yeah... I know... accept the pain. I should just hug the tiger while it chews my legs," Jason snorted and entered the ring.
---
"Woah!" Jason gazed at the giant pool with a single shark.
"What?" The man inquired calmly.
Even before he could complete, Jason had already removed his clothes, grabbed a knife, and jumped into the pool with an excited smile—
"My first S-rank mission!"
The middle-aged man standing at the corner looked at the cheerful smile with a narrowed expression.
***
A/N: If you like the fanfic, please leave a review stating your experience or expectations. It will also help me reach an official rating.