"Shit!" A large man with a nasty scar from the corner of his lips to his jawline. A kerchief loosely hung around his neck. There were two other men and three other women. Each of them had similar scars running from the corner of their lips and reaching their jaws. Everyone looked gloomy, their eyes revealing a hateful glare as they recalled the silver glare sweeping in and taking away their brother.
"Let's storm that Su Huo's mansion! I don't believe that he can defend us all. We have to save Little Lo!"
A girl expressed her indignance however, the burliest in the group growled and raised his hand to silence his brothers and sisters.
"We can't. We've fallen into their trap once, we cannot afford to make the same mistake again. This group is going to be strong... and losing this group match means losing our lives! For the kingdoms, this is a game, but for us, it is a real war through and through."
Everybody turned silent.
"We will make our move tonight. Little Ran, make sure you only use your spirit energy on Veil of Darkness."
A girl with pitch-black hair and slightly pale skin nodded.
The group slowly entered into a meditative state. All of them had their eyes closed and began to recollect spirit energy and gather their focus. They all stayed within the room of the inn. Through the window, the terrace of another building could be seen. On the brick ledge were perched several colorful parrots. There were merely ordinary parrots that could be seen everywhere in the Glazed Eye Town. Their feathers a mixture of green and yellow.
From between them, a colorful owl slowly stretched its body. Its originally wide body stretched up, it looked less puffy and more elegant. A coat of brilliant and colorful feathers with a pure yellow beak and a body slightly larger than the parrots. It was a strangely colored owl and though interesting, not many paid attention to the owl since it would fly and find various spots to rest. Soon, it reached the garden of the Commander's mansion and perched atop a black-cloaked individual.
"*Hoot* Medi... tating! No caution! Two floors!"
It was Olivia. Out of Caihong and her, Olivia could relay messages better and was more efficient than Caihong due to the difference in cultivation levels.
With an excited smile, Ja Sun stood up and found the Su Huo holed in his study. Making him mobilize his greatest force, he led the small group of soldiers while wearing full-fledged armor himself. His green eyes peeked out of the slits of the helmet. Olivia knew not to speak in front of others and only kept her beak pointed towards the direction. With her ability to even rotate her neck 180 degrees, locating the inn wasn't hard.
Letting the bird fly away, this time, Ja Sun didn't let it stay within the town. She would now stealthily return to her spot near Balak City. Meanwhile, Ja Sun and the group of soldiers reached for the second floor.
Though the owner grew furious due to the disruption of business, one look at the severity with which the soldiers carried themselves revealed that he shouldn't stretch his neck in front of their blades.
This situation was a little like the first time Ja Sun encountered Ah Yin with others. Back then, Jun'er had given up a clearly advantageous position in fear of Feng Long's safety.
Ja Sun wouldn't. Right now, the group was in an enclosed location, and from Olivia's recount, they all were meditating, clearly believing that for the moment they were safe. This was also the reason why Ja Sun didn't allow the soldiers to cause too much of a ruckus but reach the second floor directly. Spreading his formless mental energy, Ja Sun's expression grew a bit focused. The macro use of mental energy, despite having such a large amount of it, still felt a little strained for some reason that he wasn't aware of. However, he did find a group of six individuals cultivating in the third room.
The key here is surprise. The finishing move is death. He may have captured that youth because of the situation but right now, the soldiers would need to capitalize on the surprise and incapacitate the opponents as cruelly and quickly as possible.
All of the soldiers had slightly flushed expressions. Unlike ordinary men and women, the soldiers knew that in a specific situation, even a spirit master will die in the hands of an ordinary man.
They were trained for this and knew this particular moment to be one of the specific situations where the mortal can fell the spiritual.
Being alone never meant that Ja Sun couldn't use the men and women around him. He just needed to have the right approach.
His hands were slightly raised, two fingers extended out. Ja Sun's gaze was extremely focused. He wasn't waiting for an opportunity, but creating it. Within his mind, multiple needles continued to be formed but the longer he waits, the more likely it is for the spirit masters inside to find out.
The soldiers gulped.
Slowly by slowly, needles arose in Ja Sun's mental scape. A spirit elder should passively be able to defend against 16 needles each. But such a high number would benefit them after everything settles and that wasn't Ja Sun's aim.
35 needles appeared in his mind. These needles were one of the major reasons why he has been able to dominate the group battles. Spirit Grandmasters and Elders simply cannot face them easily!
Ja Sun's fingers beckoned forward. His needles flew out and instantly, the meditating group let out a simultaneous shriek. Within seconds, the soldiers broke through the door and rushed into the room. Swords and lances ready, they struck the trembling spirit masters who could barely open their eyes and with excitement, they continued to beat the six of them up black and blue! Men, women, they didn't care!
The chance of actually dominating a spirit master will be their glory in the taverns! They will sing of this night and let their grandkids know how being a spirit master isn't all the important!
Of course, the cause of this victory, Ja Sun, raised his hand and spread his chilling bloodlust to break everyone out of their fervor. Shivering, all of their weapons and fists stopped.
"Bind them with these," Ja Sun spoke coldly and threw six bundles of strange leather-like ropes. The group of soldiers nodded in a hurry and began to bind the spirit masters.
---
"For the next three days, all of you will stay here. Be nice and I won't be forced to use these tools. Be naughty and... your friend Su Huo will take care of you," Ja Sun calmly said in front of the bound opponents in Su Huo's sex dungeon. Even though he had clearly defeated the opponent, so much so that the other six had swollen faces and bleeding bodies barely bandaged up, he still wouldn't dare let these opponents out of his sight.
For Ja Sun, Douluo Continent is filled with supernatural forces. Anything is possible. And since he has nothing better to do aside from training, he can do all of it while standing guard to these spirit masters.
Each of them had a bitter look in their eyes.
"We will give you our tokens. Let us leave. We have offended the Spirit Hall and they will surely kill us."
One of them finally pleaded. In face of certain death, keeping composure is extremely hard. Even Ja Sun learned this the hard way.
"The moment you leave your tokens a certain distance away, the Spirit Hall will send forces after you. If you stay here quietly, you might end up living," Ja Sun replied with a casual smile and began going through their stuff. This team only had two storage tools shared by others.
'Little one, little two, little three... what a consistent set of nicknames,' Ja Sun placed the tokens in the belt he received from the one nicknamed Luo San Pao.
For the next two days, aside from the daily visit by Su Huo, Ja Sun sat in one location unless he wanted to go to the bathroom. As for those bound? Ja Sun did the same as previously. But this time, he would follow them to stand guard, too. The opponent team's condition had grown better but their moods grew worse. However, deep down, they had lost their wills, too.
On the third day, the burliest of the group gave a sad smile and whispered, "Brothers, sisters... although our father isn't something I can choose. In next life, I hope to be all of your eldest brother again."
His gaze was dim.
Ja Sun eyed him silently. What followed was a heartfelt confession from each of the siblings. From there, Ja Sun knew that all of them were half-siblings. Same father but different mothers and with the way they painted the picture of their father, he should be dead and his method of seeding such a great harvest of kids should be easy to infer, too.
In another hour, the doors of the sex dungeon were bluntly pushed open. Two Cardinals and a Red-robed individual followed soon.
"You may stay."
One of the Cardinals looked at Ja Sun and spoke calmly.
Not refuting either, Ja Sun stepped aside and watched everything with a calm expression.
He then saw the process as to how the Cardinal took out a bell, the same one that the Spirit Sage Lin Long who conducted his and Ah Yin's orientation. The cardinal then inquired their real names and all of them, unexpectedly, spoke with unconcealed venom in their eyes.
"The Scar Siblings. They collectively committed Patricide against a deacon of Spirit Hall. Judgment: Execution. Elder Yong, do you wish to interject?" The other Cardinal inquired calmly.
"Scar Brothers, eh? Do you want to join the Balak Kingdom's Army? We have a special female division, too." The red-robed individual had his face hidden by a hood. Although reluctant, each of them nodded and the man revealed faint traces of a smile.
"They will be pursued by Spirit Hall once again after a period of 10 days. Congratulations to Elder Yong for strengthening the Balak Kingdom."
Instead of fighting, the two cardinals were quite calm about this matter.
"Little friend, help me untie them," Elder Yong looked at Ja Sun and he moved, untying every one of the siblings. As Ja Sun had stated previously, for better or worse, the chances of staying alive were much better this way.
"It is too bad you couldn't complete 15 missions. No worries, follow me," Elder Yong didn't stay further and moved out of the insidious dungeon. The seven followed hurriedly, afraid that staying here a single second would threaten their lives. Before leaving, each of them stared at Ja Sun's mask with burning intensity but Ja Sun didn't even look at them as he started storing the spirit-blocking ropes.
The Cardinals looked at him and the one who produced the bell-like essence tool spoke up. His tone pleasant.
"It is refreshing to see the same name climbing the ranks. In case, you aren't on the bounty of the Spirit Hall, remember that while the Empire can make you official, or a noble at best, we are the only force who focuses on the cultivation of spirit masters and not armies."
Saying that, both of them left with large strides and Ja Sun closed his eyes for a moment. Issuing a deep sigh, Ja Sun collected his proof of success from Su Huo and left only after giving a word of caution: If this mission can happen once, it may occur again.
---
"Really, Commander?" The attendant looked at Su Huo strangely.
"I have to show those bastards that I have changed. You said one time that most of the men leave the sweeties, right? Invite all of them. I'll make their lives better!" The chubby flesh of Su Huo's chin trembled and the attendant left with a sigh.
'Lord, there are better ways to die and you just happen to invite all your past victims at once. If this isn't foolish, what is?'
But he still completed the order.
---
Ja Sun returned to the city once again. By now, he felt that the only reason why the mission of remaining unscathed was an S-ranked is due to extreme factors of probability. During the scope of the mission, any external injury will change the situation. Any. So the main factor of completing this mission was to simply keep a lookout. Compared to this, the other S-rank objective was quite tedious. Even now, Ja Sun didn't get any mission that can help him end the war.
From the looks of it, completing five extreme missions will only give him a chance for a high-stake mission.
Finally, the main objective was based on earning merit points so the greater the number, the better his score.
This time again, the main reason Ja Sun picked a group mission is now that more often than not, the teammates tend to be each other weaknesses. Removing one of them will fluster the remaining members not only because their tactics break apart, but also that the team members get dependent on each other. Their emotional status is affected by such a loss. This strategy allowed Ja Sun to save mental energy most of the time but after seeing how dangerous a team of seven spirit elders can be, he felt that using his extremely vast mental energy to bully them wasn't beneath him.
At least, his earnings were too great!
The base reward for competing against a single spirit elder is 360, thrice the merit points in competing with the same rank. And against a group mission, the reward is multiplied by three times each! So, Ja Sun earned a hefty sum of 3240 merit points in a single mission!
Adding the merit points from his enemy's tokens, Ja Sun's total reserves reached 3788.
With a sigh, Ja Sun took his leave. He would only be able to exchange his preferred rewards next time.
Over the next two weeks, he calmly completed the remaining extreme missions one by one. By now, he Ja Sun understood that his speed had attracted many forces and with Yu Suntao's persuasion and the soft encouragement of the Cardinals, Spirit Hall seemed to be one of them but the moment Ja Sun completed all the extreme missions, he exchanged almost all of his merit points but he didn't use the extremely large amount to purchase the spirit bones.
It wasn't done out of caution.
A spirit bone is an extremely covetous item, sure. But Ja Sun valued the six slots of his own body more. With none of these spirit bones being useful to him, his eyes followed every practical essence tool that was actually useful and used the remaining portion of his merit points to finally purchase a 100-year-old Violet Cloud Poison Stump.
Although poisonous, the foot-long dark-purple wooden stump is actually extremely precious to the body. The poison laced on the wood, when interacted and refined with spirit energy, enhances the quality of the body. The stump itself wasn't enough but it did serve to bring Ja Sun's body closer to the ranks of Spirit King while his blood slowly improved his foundation.
For the remaining time, he would either go out with Ah Yin or gain further proficiency in completing two tasks separately. However, this time, Ah Yin and Ja Sun did not encounter Zhao Wuji's team at all.
He even closed in on the act of completing three tasks separately that is also known as Three Heart Governing Aperture.
***
A/N: If you like the fanfic, please leave a review stating your experience or expectations.
Oh, and Please Vote! So the novel can reach high in rankings and gain more exposure.