"Ow... ow... ow... ow..."
Ja Sun continued to gasp and struggle while he was held against a tree using a thuck vine. His blood-crusted pants covered his lowered body while Ah Yin continued to scrape the crust off of his eyelids that kept his eyes shut.
"I can just jump in the water and clean it!" Ja Sun tried to move his body while Ah Yin frowned.
"Your blood is different. I'm sure you know it. Its quality is high, this also means its various limits are higher than normal, too. It won't come off until you jump in boiling water. At least, this way, you can open your eyes and slowly scrape off every crust of blood from your body," Ah Yin continued to use a hardened blade of grass to slowly and carefully scrape it off.
"Is it noon?" Ja Sun inquired.
"It's evening," Ah Yin replied.
Ja Sun sighed deeply.
"Where are we?"
"Almost 400 kilometers from the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest, we need to find a village or an outpost town and take rest," Ah Yin sighed.
"And buy clothes," Ja Sun added.
"... that, too..." Ah Yin admitted with a mumble.
"Alright, it should be enough... slowly try to open your eyes," Ah Yin let go of Ja Sun's shoulder and instructed slightly.
"Hnngh," Ja Sun groaned as his eyes stung slightly when he tried to open them. But soon, his eyelids opened up and Ja Sun felt a light blue in front of him. Every color seemed mixed.
"It's itchy," Ja Sun shook his head.
"Well, you scratch it and you might just scratch your eyeballs with the crusts accidentally," Ah Yin shrugged.
"Ooh..."
'The most painful drug... Mission Junkie...' Ja Sun gritted his jaws and continued to blink. His eyelids were heavier and it felt uncomfortable to blink, or at this point, even have eyes, but his vision did return.
"Finally," Ja Sun sighed deeply and looked around. 'Colors, I missed you all so much!'
Ja Sun smiled and then looked towards Ah Yin standing by the side. The most prominent feature of her appearance was her entire right side bloodied and caked in the crust, including her clothes.
"Let me scrape it off of your clothes. You can be naked in the carriage, I promise I won't look," Ja Sun cackled while Ah Yin seemed rather indifferent as the vines on Ja Sun's body suddenly pulled him back and instantly launched him into the sky.
"Wooohooooo!" Ja Sun cheered loudly and Ah Yin's mood instantly turned gloomy.
Turning around mid-air, Ja Sun was ready to use Gentle Palms alongside Storm Steps but when he was his destination of landing being a substantial lake, Ja Sun instantly straightened his body and pushed his hands in front of him.
'I better get a 10 on this dive!'
*Splash*
Ja Sun's body entered deep into the lake. He fell into a daze the moment he struck the surface of the water but soon, he swam up and reached the bank of the lake close to their carriage. Ah Yin was already walking towards him with a foul expression.
"You were right about my blood," Ja Sun smiled as he pulled himself up and sat on the edge. His blood was enhanced using Revitalized Blood Qi Art so, to other users of the technique that absorb blood, his own blood flow can be considered as a minor Cultivation resource. But, absorbing other blood needs a refinement technique other than foundation skill. The blood pool techniques in Ja Sun's hands were just these refinement techniques.
However, to absorb his own blood, Ja Sun didn't need to go through such trouble.
As he began absorbing the blood over his body, the previous hard shell of blood turned moist and under Ah Yin's stunned eyes, the blood on his surface flowed and covered the ground underneath him.
"If you could have done this, why did you let me scrape it off of your eyes?" Ah Yin sat next to him, her legs within the water as she waved them gently.
"You said— I won't injure your eyes and remove it— I just wanted to see if you're really that delicate and patient," Ja Sun shrugged and placed his hand over her right shoulder. Once again, he absorbed the energy of his own blood and the dried crust turned warm and began flowing again.
"Anyway," Ja Sun removed his robes and jumped into the pool to wash his body. Ah Yin hesitated but seeing the water turning red, she ultimately decided to refrain from her instincts to wash up.
"My body is still hurt. Not to the point where I can't move but it slightly hurts my body when I move."
After scrubbing his hair, Ja Sun shook his head and pulled himself out of the pool. Not wearing his bloodied clothes and only bringing them into the carriage, Ja Sun found the two Human-tongue Owls pecking on dried meat. Next to the sacs were his other pair of clothes. His beautiful red robes were all bloodied and yes, he doesn't need to wash them, but he also did. Placing the wet clothes aside, Ja Sun wore a worn tunic and pants before going out and washing his gauntlets and boots.
Ah Yin still sat at the edge of the lake while looking towards the thicket idly.
Most of the continent was still uninhabited and full of such small forests. These forests either had no spirit beasts or too weak of them to be not considered a threat by others.
"You're not going to wash up?" Ja Sun inquired.
"No, I will bath in an inn," Ah Yin stated lightly.
"Oh, alright," Ja Sun nodded and started to carefully clean the gauntlet. The white-gold gauntlets finally revealed their luster and Ja Sun smiled in satisfaction. Even his shoes were flooded with blood and by now, the water of the lake, at least near the duo, had a slight crimson tinge to it.
"You're driving now!" Ah Yin shouted when she saw Ja Sun entering the back of the carriage.
"No need to yell!" Ja Sun replied with a shout himself.
Taking the three manuals and also picking up his pouches of coins, Ja Sun walked out with a meat jerky in his hand and settled on the driver's seat.
As he was prepared to learn the three new techniques, Ah Yin also walked up to the driver's seat and sat next to him.
"Why don't you go in the back and have rest?" Ja Sun inquired as Ah Yin revealed a disgusted expression.
"I'm never going back!" She glared at him sharply as Ja Sun sighed softly and finally drove the carriage.
"It's not that bad, you know," Ja Sun mumbled.
"You were naked inside!" Ah Yin leaned back and scoffed.
"Well, someone had to."
"You should cover up your right palm," Ah Yin frowned while Ja Sun smiled and shook his head. He was hooked on another S-rank Mission.
[Objective: Keep the back of your right palm exposed.
Optional Objectives:
1) For 2 days.
2) For 30 days.
3) For 365 days.
Mission Rank: F-E-C-S
Rewards: Legend of Evil God—Starry Black Majestic Battle Robe—Complete Observation of Bloodlines—Evil's Egg.
Time Limit: 1/2/30/365 days]
Since he just needed to be careful for the... entire year, Ja Sun was willing to take the risk!
He was already interested in the E-Rank Mission so he would at the very least persist for 30 days.
"In the next town, I'm going to wait outside with Olivia and Oliver," Ja Sun thought for a moment.
"I don't know who Oliver is but you can stay with Caihong," Ah Yin said without any hesitation.
"Would you stop that? His name is Oliver."
"It's not."
"It is."
"In your dreams!" Ah Yin spat.
"Whatever!" Ja Sun snorted and continued, "Buy me some clothes and if you want to exchange the carriage, go through with it. I'll be in the outskirts."
"You can just hide it with your gauntlets and follow me," Ah Yin frowned.
"No..." Ja Sun pursed his lips.
"You're being unreasonable. If we happen to cross paths with any spirit hall member, then what?" Ah Yin pursued.
"We run," Ja Sun shrugged.
"No, you will run. I will leave you then. The last thing I want is to face Spirit Hall without sufficient strength. Not to mention, I can't rely on you at that time."
Ja Sun nodded.
'That's why it's an S-rank mission. The longer the time passes, the more difficult the situation will be. Even if I hide myself in the Star Dou Great Forest, there is no guarantee that I won't meet any spirit master who won't recognize me.'
He frowned.
'But, there's no need to fret now,' Ja Sun shrugged, "Fine. We get in problem with the Spirit Hall, we go our separate ways."
Ah Yin agreed with a nod.
---
"What is this?" Ah Yin gazed at ten gold coins in front of her with a furious expression.
"What?" Ja Sun bit on a jerky and looked frowned.
"You have thousands of coins! And you're giving me ten?!" Ah Yin growled.
"Who told you I have thousands?" Ja Sun frowned.
"The two brothers from Steele Town. They said they traded a lot of coins for your techniques."
"Well, these are gold coins. They can help you buy multiple outfits, rent multiple rooms in an inn, and even pay up for the remaining amount when you exchange the carriage for a better one!" Ja Sun explained. He was taking the sacs of food and clothes out of the carriage with Olivia and Caihong perched atop a branch. They gazed at the bickering duo intently.
Ah Yin's lips trembled.
"We agreed to share the funds!" Ah Yin growled.
"And I'm sharing. Ten coins!" Ja Sun said with an upset look on his face.
They weren't far away from a settlement so the two decide to separate temporarily. Of course, with her coin pouch stolen by Ja Sun back then, she didn't have any money.
"Drop dead!" She hissed and snatched the coins from his palm before driving off towards the town. Meanwhile, Ja Sun leaned against the tree and sat down silently.
"Drop... dead..." Caihong hooted.
"Crazy... Crazy..." Olivia hooted and smacked Caihong's back with her wings.
Smilingly, Ja Sun took out the three manuals and began reading them. He wanted to know more about this world and the techniques of this world was a part of it. Not only that, the higher level of techniques had far more mysterious effects.
*Hoot*
*Hoot*
After an hour, the two owls flew off as if unable to stay in a single place for a long time and Ja Sun closed the third manual. Taking a deep breath, he started tearing the manuals, dug up a small hole, and buried the destroyed pieces of manual into the ground.
'In the earliest years of spirit masters, there weren't strong Titled Douluos that could face the apex monsters. So, most of them had to cover their weakness of relatively weak spirit rings by creating spirit techniques, mental techniques, and dangerous forms of physical techniques.
The Yin Refinement, Mind Devour, and Astral Combatant techniques are developed by a single Titled Douluo— Extreme Phantom Douluo. He could restrain violent spirit beasts with mental techniques and set a foundation for the younger generation to absorb the better quality of spirit rings. Extreme Phantom Douluo himself could only learn from his mistakes.
The three techniques were created once he reached the ranks of Titled Douluo. The Yin Refinement is his earliest creation where the technique reinforces mental energy by absorbing the portion of energy from a fresh corpse. This technique, however, can rot a person's mental energy if not careful and is full of holes.
The Mind Devour Technique is slightly better. It allows the user to devour the mental energy of the living or the dead. But it doesn't refine the energy at all and must only be used in extreme cases. This is both a killing technique and a cultivation application.
Finally, the Astral Combatant is the essence of both the previous techniques fused into an astonishingly monstrous technique. The Astral Combatant is the way to create a mental avatar that defends the mind of the user from a mental attack. It raises the perception of the user once the mental avatar is formed and allows it to devour the mental energy from a fresh corpse and refine it to pure streams of mental energy. Not only that, the mental avatar can be used to create and enhance the effects of mental attacks. This actually works well with Fiery Golden Pupils.'
Ja Sun closed his eyes.
The creation of a mental avatar isn't easy at all. In fact, a mental avatar can only be created once there is a pool of mental energy comparable to the essence of a Titled Douluo. Of course, this also meant that Ja Sun could use an external source for that.
He touched the Blue Silver Emperor's Core in his pouch.
'It should be enough... right? But I received this as a reward for defeating Ah Yin and she is only a spirit ancestor...'
Ja Sun huffed.
"Man, it's boring being alone once again," he stretched his hands.
He wasn't going to train in this technique anyway. Instead, he stood up and began practicing Storm Steps alongside his Gentle Palm Technique.
---
"Ah Yin?"
Ah Yin, who just picked a light green dress from a stall to inspect it froze slightly before her expression returned impassive. Tilting her head back, the blue-haired girl saw a dark-haired woman with thick brows and a slightly petite body gazing at her with lips parted in shock.
Both of them fell silent before Ah Yin turned and placed the green dress over her body.
"How does this look?" She inquired.
A half-bitten piece of tofu fell on the street as Jun'er gazed at Ah Yin with a surprised expression.
"It... looks good... but doesn't suit with your hair," Jun'er mumbled and Ah Yin nodded. She placed the dress on the stall and patted the already selected stack of clothes.
Meanwhile, Jun'er observed the slightly bloodied side of Ah Yin and locked her brows.
'She is already so strong... It couldn't be that she met with that evil cultivator and lost to him, right?'
"Young Miss, the total is 21 silver coins," The slightly older seller of the stall gave a humble smile but the moment Jun'er heard it, she almost blew her top!
"21?!" Her nostrils flared and she stepped next to Ah Yin, "You blind bandit, all these clothes have slightly worn texture! You probably sell the defective clothes taken from upper cities! Look, this lining is all crumpled. Ah Yin, no need to pay more than 5 silver coins for all these."
"Miss, you can't say that!" The old man pouted, "Besides, these clothes suit this young miss so well! No doubt you're jealous and want to stop her from wearing pretty clothes."
"You!" A hint of fury flashed in Jun'er's gaze as she looked at Ah Yin, "I don't have such intentions."
"I believe you," Ah Yin nodded as she took out two gold coins, "But I'm rich," she shrugged and placed them on the stall while wrapping the clothes in a bundle.
"This... young miss... there's still one silver coin left," the old man gulped.
"Yeah, what about it?" Ah Yin narrowed her eyes and glared at the man.
Seeing that the seller didn't have any rebuttal, Ah Yin picked the bundle and walked away.
"Bleh!"
Jun'er stuck her tongue out at the seller and followed Ah Yin.
"Why are you here? Why is there so much blood on your clothes?" Jun'er inquired.
"This?" Ah Yin gazed at her right sleeve and shook her head.
"Is your entire team here?" Ah Yin glanced towards Jun'er.
"Yes," she nodded and seemed to hesitate for a moment.
"Ah Yin, if you're not doing anything, follow me to meet with Boss Zhao. We can use your help to get our spirit rings. Don't worry, we will pay you!" Jun'er stated hastily.
"Don't worry," Ah Yin smiled, "I'm rich."
"And why are you going to Star Dou Great Forest for your spirit rings? Didn't Feng Long have a pass from spirit hall for the hunting grounds? He should be able to find another one, right?"
Jun'er shook her head with a bitter smile.
"Boss Zhao offended a Bishop of the Hall. Now, they won't even let us enter the hall, much less give a pass. If... you still have Feng Long's pass, we can pay you for it."
"I used it," Ah Yin replied.
"So? Ah Yin, will you meet with Boss Zhao?"
"No, I have to buy inner garments."
"Oh... then come with me," Jun'er said, "I just bought my clothes again after that evil Ja Sun stole our carriage. It had all of our clothes. Anyway, the stall I purchased from is handled by a young woman and she was better quality stuff!"
Ah Yin's eyelids twitched.
"You said... that your clothes were inside the carriage?"
Jun'er nodded.
'That... incorrigible fool! Did he throw out Xiao Jun's clothes after he took the carriage?'
Ah Yin's mood turned foul once again.
"Let's go... after that, I will meet Zhao Wuji. But I'm only doing this as a repayment for you leading me to a good stall. My assistance is not guaranteed.
---
"Achooo!" Ja Sun snorted and sniffed while covering himself with a blanket.
***
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