Ja Sun picked Olivia for the journey. She had the greatest sense of danger and could easily find a hidden spot for herself. The distance of the village stationed close to the border acting as a supply base for the Silvers Kingdom was 200 kilometers away. A distance that would have taken more than half a day to reach by an ordinary carriage but on wings, this distance was hardly worth three hours of time.
However, Ja Sun wasn't in a hurry. Instead, he slowly walked while thinking about his circumstances while Olivia would follow at her own pace.
His Martial Soul— Three-eyed Silver Lion— has three attributes: Spirit, Light, and Spatial. Ordinarily, if he absorbed a spirit ring or a spirit soul that has all the three attributes, the skill he would receive will belong to his own Martial Soul's major attribute i.e. Spirit.
Bright Goddess Butterfly has two attributes: Spirit and Light. Originally, Ja Sun wanted to use his combat techniques and supplement himself by being an auxiliary spirit master or a control-type spirit master. The skills he gained revealed that the most primal form of the evolution of his martial soul doesn't lie in these two factors.
Meaning, down the line, the ability to cultivate quickly won't be the major advantage of this Martial Soul and that made Ja Sun focus on his spirit rings.
Silver Burst.
Silver Light Wings.
Unlike regular 1st and 2nd Spirit Skills that are needed to be activated continuously and expend spirit energy at, his skills were continuous. There would be a connection of spirit energy and both the skills enhance each other's existence.
Silver Burst increased the capabilities of his limbs/talons by 30% and the second spirit skill adds two sets of limbs in the form of two pairs of wings!
He could move as he wishes, attack as he wishes. The path was straightforward. His combat techniques can be used alongside this path. But, this also reveals his back and exposes other weaknesses.
In a group fight, the moment I'm caught alone, I can be bombarded with spirit skills. Even if I use Mental Acupuncture, so what? At higher ranks, the rise of mental energy is exponential. This strength of mine will only benefit others' mental energy once they recover since, despite all the pain, it is acupuncture of mental energy. The opponents are bound to grow.
So the thought of actually having a solid team wasn't only in his mind due to Ah Yin's weaknesses. But also his own.
"The best way is to find spirit souls that can complement my current set of skills. Silver Burst increases close combat capabilities. Silver Light Wings increases evasion capabilities and can also be used to harass opponents. The third spirit skill... might be a defensive skill. And of the light attribute itself."
Ja Sun stopped for a moment as a small purple ring like a beautiful halo appeared around his left index finger.
Once a spirit master gets used to his martial souls and spirit rings, they can change the size of their spirit rings. Not only that, the spirit rings can be activated without the Martial Souls themselves. After all, the basic enhancement of beast spirits and the appearance and function of tool spirits are nothing more than their basic spirit ability.
While this ability to summon spirit skill is practically useless for tool spirit masters, since they need the martial soul itself to use the spirit skills, a beast spirit master can activate his spirit skill without his Enhancement.
Two pairs of beautiful silver wings with bizarrely patterned emerald wings made of light and energy appeared behind his back. Flapping his wings, Ja Sun began to fly through the forest and use this chance to get a better control of his flying ability. His speed wasn't extremely quick, just enough for Olivia to follow him.
---
Ja Sun stealthily appeared close to the village. He didn't expose himself but silently observed the soldiers wearing red armor with a silver sword insignia over their breastplates. The soldiers of Silvers Kingdom. Not to mention that the original villagers were still present in the village. To locate the storage unit acting as the supply chain would be a complicated task and destroying it would be even more difficult. But, there were ways to deplete the storage unit without destroying it.
With a Bandit's mind, the thought of Looting followed soon after.
Ja Sun retreated silently and returned over to the thickest of bushes. He had dropped Olivia ten kilometers before reaching the location. Softly pushing the bushes away, Ja Sun saw a black-clothed individual wearing a small turban to cover his head with dark gauze. Behind the dark gauze is a mask that only covered the top half and it was on the corner of the mask where the insignia of the Silvers Kingdom was etched. Ja Sun stripped the man before changing his clothes. The rolled-up turban was slightly tricky but overall, his identity had already changed.
These scouts of the army seemed specially prepared. Even if the youth in front of him did not have any spirit energy, his movement skill was surprisingly top-notch.
'Did they really only send soldiers and other members without any spirit energy?' Ja Sun couldn't help but think of this.
The two kingdoms, of course, have their own army of spirit masters. In Douluo Continent, there are simply too many spirit masters. But even the soldiers patrolling the village did not reveal a hint of spirit energy.
All of them in the village were expendable cannon fodder!
Ja Sun's gaze glinted slightly.
He loved this situation more than he could have imagined.
Why?
Because this meant that the two Kingdoms have higher scruples than they let on to the public!
If they can't even let a single soldier with spirit energy die then they surely wouldn't let a royalty die at the hands of a rogue spirit master.
Wearing the pair of clothing gloves finally, Ja Sun pushed a few other points of the youth and covered him with the bushes.
'Now, I need to think how to enter the village...' Ja Sun slowly retreated even further away from the village. His eyesight was great enough to let him fly in a distance then observe the situation and that's what he intended to do.
Since his true mission was to remain unscathed, he wasn't going to openly reveal himself. An S-rank mission is on the line, after all!
'That scout will be found in four hours. But his clothes are missing so the reasonable explanation in the mind of the army and the defending spirit master will be that an enemy spirit master has infiltrated the village. What level of caution and panic this will cause is unknown. But the most protected region will become the storage unit which makes it easier to locate.
There are three elements at play. The villagers, the soldiers, and the spirit master.
If I were an employer setting such a stage, I would make sure to understand each of my strangest selection's abilities in due time so maybe... hidden within the villagers or the soldiers is a reporter.
I cannot kill them, it's not worth the following burden. I cannot expose my entire capabilities...
But given that the army will be facing the direct threat, the higher-ups would have infiltrated the reporter as a villager.'
Ja Sun's mind continued to make basic deductions based on his thoughts and approach. Any one of these deductions can be incorrect but Ja Sun didn't mind failures. These deductions would serve as a silent guideline for him to act on.
'Aside from the villagers and the soldiers, the greatest issue is the spirit master. How to remove the threat without directly facing it?'
In the end, the lack of information didn't help and Ja Sun couldn't find the more appropriate approach.
He silently hid far away from the village to escape a wide search before it even happened. There may be a chance that someone can easily find out if the traitor was with them or not. After all, each trained batch of army has its own methods to point out infiltrators.
As Ja Sun had expected, in four hours, the paralyzed unconscious scout suddenly leaped out of the bushes and without looking around, shot towards the village to report the situation.
The Captain instantly called for every single unit of his and started to carry a thorough search while the unknown Spirit Master grew cautious within the unknown Storage Unit.
After much deliberation, the captain sent one team of eleven soldiers to search the area around the village while thinking that the infiltrator was already hidden in the village, another team started to carry out a search in the village. The remaining soldiers gathered around a particular structure in the village and even positioned themselves in different regions according to their weapons.
---
Hue Village.
It was an ordinary village situated close to Balak Kingdom's border that was created after separating from their main village due to the shortage of resources. Right now, all of the villagers trembled as the soldiers from the 'enemy' kingdom slowly searched their homes.
If not for their duties and orders, with the way these soldiers looked at their daughters and wives, the men of the village felt that they would have already been completely destroyed. This was even more so after the appearance of the spirit master. The mysterious spirit master kept himself hidden but his existence gave tremendous pressure to the villagers.
"There's nothing here. Let's go," one of the soldiers beckoned and the group left, allowing the small family to sigh in relief.
Instances like this occurred all around the village while high above the settlement, hidden by clouds, a figure continued to observe everything with a pair of pale golden pupils surrounded by eerie green irises.
"I may have overestimated the situation a little too much," Ja Sun had a wry smile. The soldiers didn't seem to be aware of the situation and every single villager of the settlement was terrified by being held hostage. His gaze then condensed over the chief's house acting as the supply point. Ja Sun instantly flew to the west and descended before landing dozens of kilometers away from the settlement.
He had seen the position of each and every scout hidden along the way and this path was relatively weaker compared to others.
His wings disappeared and the lone purple ring vanished.
'If only I could set more missions at once,' Ja Sun's body disappeared with a flash. His speed shocking as he traversed through branches with the slightest rustle.
'The world will be so much more colorful!' The image of the scout over a branch expanded in his eyes. Ja Sun could see the man's eyes expand through the mask further hidden by the veil.
*Thud*
Despite all the speed, Ja Sun softly knocked on the man's neck, and instantly, a powerful force traveled through his body.
This was the fusion of Gentle Palm Technique and Tremble Combat Tactics— Gentle Tactics.
To use the external force and propel the internal shock before controlling both the shock forces throughout the body and causing them to explode at the user's will!
Just a single knock paralyzed the man as Ja Sun shot past him. What followed next, in the eyes of the small number of scouts spread around was that everyone got knocked out. (No homo.)
Not just the ones in Ja Sun's line of action. He moved around the village, slowly knocking out every single scout and then focusing his efforts on the soldiers. Even if they wore thick armors, their defenses were meaningless since Gentle Tactics focused on the vibrational force.
The thing to look out for, in this scenario, was the sound. After knocking out every soldier, he had to slowly let them down and then move ahead.
Even though Ja Sun didn't reveal it, it was easy for him to see that even amongst the Spirit Grandmasters, his quality was almost divine. Two purple spirit rings. Spirit Energy of extremely condensed form that can easily compete with the reserves of a rank 30 or slightly higher spirit master and as his own reserves grow, this particular advantage would only heighten. His body's quality equal to any ordinary Spirit Ancestor and his Mental Energy equal to that of an ordinary Spirit Emperor.
But when it came to the spirit master that he could observe from a distance, Ja Sun still decided to use nuclear arms to completely crush a dangerous-looking yet innocent cockroach.
Condensing eleven needles of mental energy, Ja Sun continued to observe the silent spirit master from afar. The man wore rather plain maroon robes. He looked old. Almost a middle-aged man.
'Can't judge the man by appearances. I'm a 20-year-old Spirit Grandmaster myself,' Ja Sun shrugged internally. Regardless of the circumstances, it was true.
'Hmm, cautious. He will probably move if he doesn't hear from the soldiers,' Narrowing his eyes, Ja Sun flashed through the tiny passages of the village to remain hidden.
The chief's residence was at the center of the village. Although the soldiers were made to guard the location, it was during the day. At night, they had to perform a round of patrol which gave Ja Sun quite an easy catch.
Instead of entering through the main door and accidentally triggering some sort of trap, Ja Sun made the needled shoot through the window, sniping at the exposed spirit master.
This was the advantage of having formless attacks. Easy assassination. The needles proved overbearing for the middle-aged man as he collapsed suddenly with blood trickling from his ears and froth collecting over his trembling lips.
'Well... this was easy. Time to loot.'
***
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