《The Hidden Myth of Ji Dara》


 Chapter 1 - Prologue

    Strong Warning:-


    MC''s POV--> [This first 2-3 chapters is about the first quarter of my sad life and how I got to be who I am, today!]


    [Yeah, I know¡­ Most of you want me to get on with my story, but the point is, most of you didn''t read my synopsis and you are going to skip this prologue again!? How do you expect to understand your MC that way?]


    [You have to start learning the English alphabets from ''A'', not start with ''M'', if you know what I mean? Yeah, that is azy ass dick move! Oh, you don''t like my choice of words, well then guess what fuck-face? This novel is Rated 18, you alien avocado!]


    Strong Advice:-


    [This is my storyteller''s second book and he is also very new to writing, so cut the boy some ck, alright! Yeah, you aren''t a genius either, Einstein!]


    [So where were we? Oh, right, the strong advice, yeah¡­ So, just basically support him also, okay!? and I am not here to beg for money; no damn way, that is too clich¨¦ amongst authors¡­]


    [Me, I am here to ''Demand'' not only for your coins and gifts and power stones and the likes¡­ I am also here for your feedback andments, and as a matter of fact, you need to drop ament per every chapter, and I don''t care if all yourzy ass can write is ''A'' for chapter one and ''B'' for chapter two and so on¡­]


    [But the point is; if I catch you lurking around here, you are gonna get burnt!]


    [Yeeaaahhh!!! Hehe he! I am nuts, but guess what? So is my storyteller and everyone else who is going to enjoy this book¡­]


    [So, go get afy sofa, ten cases of pizza, or a bucket-load of popcorn, and maybe a little bit of lotion and most definitely your rags, because I don''t want your guardians cleaning up all the gallons of mayonnaise you have spilled everywhere, even though I know they are all currently high as fuck¡­]


    [Finally, you need to sleep, don''t get addicted!]


    [Come on, it is just a novel and my story teller is snoring out of his butts right now! Phew! Finally, we are done with the warnings and advice, all of a sudden I feel like Martin Luther King Jr.]


    "Hey there!" "Yeah I know, you don''t know who the fuck I am or maybe you do¡­"


    "Funny thing is, I know you still don''t care, but I am here to make you smile,ugh, cry, infuriated, disgusted but finally dedicated to my story¡­"


    "So, let''s begin this journey together¡­"


    "Firstly, my name is Ji Dara, but that name is a secret and is not to be used until the third arc of my story¡­ But for now, you can call me; Sam!"


    "You see, my story began when I was born in this world which some bipedal, disorganized and na?ve group of advanced apes called ''Earth''¡­"


    "Yeah, I know¡­ I am also one of them, but I like to think of myself as--- ''Special!''¡­"


    "So, I was born into a family of six; two girls who were the first and second children of my loving and devoted mother and father; that I never truly got to meet¡­"


    "¡­Then four boys; with only two years separating each and every one of us, making me thestborn son of my mother, but the ''Seventh Son'' of my father who I really never knew¡­"


    "I didn''t know him, not because he was wayward even though he had three wives, but because he died before I was clocked one¡­"


    "But don''t feel bad for me yet, because shit is about to get much, much worse¡­"


    "You see, every form of wealth which my father left for us was embezzled by his brothers and family who were my uncles and aunts back then, all because his death was sudden; and though he left a will, he wasn''t able to notify hiswyer about it on time¡­"


    "But when his will was finally found, his family who numbered way more than us were able to save enough money to hire a big fat liar of awyer who finally found a way to convince the judge that the will was a fake, and thanks to our society which was so corrupt back then, that maggots of crimes were squirming all over the ce, the frog-faced judge epted their ims and guess what?..."


    "My mother and six children was plunged from being rich to being- ''Tragically poor!''"


    "But that was not all, we were sent packing from my own father''s house and into the streets, but as fate would have it, my mother was an adept believer in the saying; ''When life throws you a lemon, make a lemonade out of it''¡­"


    "I know right¡­ so clich¨¦¡­ But that was not all¡­ she also added;"


    "''Then pick that lemon peel and squirt that peppery water right in that bitch''s face!''"


    "Yeah¡­ Ha-ha ha¡­ I bet life didn''t see that oneing¡­"


    "In a nutshell, if my mother was Karma, then yeah, she was a massive, savage and pun-loving bitch!"


    "Come on! You weren''t expecting me to use the B-word so early in this well-mannered story right? Gad! So uncultured!"


    "Anyways, back to the story, so my mother gathered her savings and bought us a house where all her hatchlings couldy, and yeah, back then, I was still a fragile hatchling¡­"


    "I mean those annoying ones who would cry over to their mother at the slightest sensation of a breeze¡­"


    "You didn''t even need to hit me before I start bawling my eyes out, just sneezing around me was enough to get me scared as hell¡­"


    "So, after getting a conducive shelter for her cubs, my lioness of a mother went to her own family..."


    "Of course, what were you expecting? Like she fell from the sky, though that sounds nice and badass¡­ But clich¨¦; Nah, we don''t do that here¡­"


    "She found her beloved uncle who got her a job in an urbanized settlement but with the lowest ranked one either ways¡­"


    "Now I could have told you the secret recipe on how my ''Elon - of a mother'' grew that slip of a sry into a mountainous stack and racks of big cheddar, but that recipe is left for only the most dedicated, loyal and motivating of all my readers, so let''s get back to the story¡­"


    "Time skip- she created about three to four businesses from her ie which was just around two dors back then and could actually send all her kids to the best university in the country back then¡­ Of course, me included¡­"


    "Funny thing is, I was actually supposed to graduate by the age of 21, since studying Chemistry was a 5 year course back then, but the crippling corruption of our leaders ensured that our teachers, lecturers and professors were owed more than three months of their wages, which eventually led them to initiating a total but segregated period of 3 Year strike..."


    "This ensured that I graduated chemistry at the age of 24, and No! I didn''te out with good grades, in fact, I was lucky to even graduate at all, and I owe all that thanks to my Creator, because not only did I inherit the full ''Karma-gene'' of my mother, I also found out I was greatly blessed by my Creator..."


    "Thus in less than two to three additional years, I was earning much more than most of my lecturers back in school and even more than my professors..."


    "So, I would say I came out fine, even after the fucking government and its schooling system sliced hot pepper into my fruit sd; which was my education¡­"


    "So the point of this chapter, is to tell you that, even when life gives you a lemon--- you know the rest¡­


    "Then never allow the world to control or limit you with a simple piece of paper they call degrees or certificates; the world was created in just seven days, or so does my religion believe, but You--- You were created in nine months which means you are 36 times stronger, smarter, and more good-looking than this world which has already been fucked into aa by these bipedal, advanced apes¡­"

 Chapter 2 - Hostage Situation

    So, the point of thest chapter, was to tell you that, even when life gives you a lemon--- you know the rest¡­"


    "Then to never allow the world to control or limit you with simple pieces of papers they call degrees or certificates; after all, the world was created in just seven days, or so does my religion believe, but You--- You were created in nine months which means you are 36 times stronger, smarter, and more good-looking than this world which has already been fucked into aa by these bipedal, advanced apes¡­"


    "Plus majority of everything are just about my family and how we ended up in a fuck-hole of an environment¡­ But as for this chapter, it is totally about me¡­"


    "Yeah, let me tell you a little bit about myself and as your MC [and for those who don''t know what it stands for, it is Main Character], this is going to be the chapter that ushers you into the beginning of this masterpiece of a novel¡­"


    "What!?"


    "You thought we already started!? Dude! You haven''t even seen the true title yet¡­"


    "Yeah I know, you think it is the ''Hidden Myth of Ji Dara'', right!?"


    "Well, whilst you might be partially right, the title of this masterpiece would find its way into your mind; don''t worry, it won''t hurt¡­"


    "But I can''t promise you won''t cry either¡­ *Sobs*"


    "So enough of the chit-chat and back to the prelude¡­"


    "You see, after I got a job in onepany like that, which focuses on delivering fun and thriller to these ''advanced apes'' who were stuck at home due to the semen of a pandemic they have caused by how hard they have fucked the world, then my life changed¡­"


    "I became one of the ''Special Apes'' in the jungle of a society, and my job came with a lot of perks¡­"


    "I mean perks like the Minimum Gain System which allows you to have a very nice minimum wage you can receive no matter how bad or shitty the economy became, as long as you can work hard,- and work hard I did, whilst they also paid me hard¡­"


    "But the point is-"


    [Author] ¨C "Hey dick-face! The novel should have started a chapter ago!"


    "What the fuck are you doing!?"


    [Sam] ¨C "Oops! Hehe, gotta go¡­"


    "Duty calls... after all, with great power [which you guys will see a lot of],es great responsibilities [which I would be sadly seeing a lot of]¡­"


    "Anyways, bye guys, it was fun hanging out with you these few chapter and a half¡­ See you in y!"


    [Author] ¨C "Stupid brat, always looking for every opportunity to cause mayhem and mischief¡­"


    "Alright, sorry guys¡­ Time for you to get what you are about to pay for¡­"


    "Yes, he would still transmigrate or reincarnate and all that stuff¡­"


    "But most importantly, this journey involves the usage of a lot of superpowers like; frying hot dogs with tribtion lightning and grilling stakes with hell fire, or catching a fish with the threads of karma and finally, [wait for this one]; Yup, smashing girls within the void! Cool and badass, right¡­"


    "But enough of the spoilers and now for the real deal¡­"


    "Sit back and do every other thing he told you to do earlier¡­"


    [Director] ¨C "And¡­ Action!"


    "¡­!"


    "Err, sorry for the glitch¡­"


    "You!?"


    "¡­!"


    "Me!?"


    "Yes! You!"


    "What the fuck happened to the soundtrack!?"


    "Uhm, sorry boss, they said no sound¡­"


    "What!?"


    "How is it possible not to have a soundtrack in a movie?"


    "Erm, boss, this is not a movie, it is a novel¡­"


    "What!?"


    "Oh! Sorry guys¡­ My bad¡­ we are starting now¡­"


    "Read on, and; Psst! Shhh! Chapter three is a masterpiece¡­"


    "Alright¡­ Action!"


    -------------------------------------


    "Attention all units!"


    "Probable, domestic disturbance with a hostage situation¡­"


    "10-24, officer down! I repeat, officer down!"


    "Target is a 5 foot male, with no known priors!"


    "Considered extremely dangerous, so proceed with caution¡­"


    Cops surrounded a white and brown colored bungalow with a brown pick-up truck parked just beside it, as they scrambled around looking for the best way to enter into the building¡­


    "I am noting out¡­ Do you hear me, I am noting out!"


    "I want everyone gone¡­"


    "You and your snipers, and I mean everyone¡­"


    "If I don''t see tail lights in the next five minutes, you are not going to like what happens next!"


    A seemingly anxious but reckless panting male voice threatened loudly from the other end of the phone as the hostage negotiator that came with the police listened attentively...


    The frigid breeze and bone-chilling cold ensured that everyone was on edge, and whilst they were all anxious to get this over with and return to the warmth of their homes, they knew just how sensitive the situation was, and as cops, they were slightly ill-prepared¡­


    "Ben!"


    The female negotiator called out to the male on the other end of the phone but was only replied by the beep and static line of a hung-up phone¡­


    "Can you get him back on the phone?"


    A man dressed in a different outfit asked in hope, with a tone that ringly pinpoints him as the head of the local police department;


    "He is done talking!" The female negotiator dashed his hopes with a helpless sigh¡­


    Looking over to the third figure within the van which brought them here, he ordered;


    "Do it!"


    "Yes sir!"


    The third figure said as he urgently stepped out of the van¡­


    Krrr! Krrrr! Krrrrr!


    Several zipping sounds rang out as about six figures stealthily dropped down the snow capped mountain which was behind this white bungalow¡­


    These guys looked different, dressed different and moved different whenpared to the cops at the front of the house¡­


    With helmets on their head that held a single infrared scope, they dressed like they were going to infiltrate an enemy base as they moved tactically, and despite their bulky size, moved swiftly and silently, with each of their steps making the most silent of sounds in the deep, knee-height snow¡­


    Reaching the backdoor of the house, the bulkiest of them all who stood at seven feet and weighed what seemed to be about 250 pounds stopped the rest of his team by holding his fist beside his ears¡­


    Then after giving a brief hand sign, one of hisrades stepped forwards with was seemed to be a four piece belt of explosives, arranged in a square manner, which he silently ced on the back door¡­


    He looked over to their leader who nodded, and then bending away from the st zone to brace themselves for the rippling effect, he pressed the detonator in his hands¡­


    Boom!


    The door exploded as they tactically marched in; the leader at the frontline¡­


    Several scared screams erupted within the house;


    "Three!?" The leader called out to the explosive guy;


    "I''m okay!"


    "IMPD! Show me your hands!"


    The leader bellowed at the male figure who was within the house with ady, a little boy and a little girl¡­


    "Hands!" he repeated¡­


    "Turn around!" Number Two added when the man didn''t respond...


    "Oh... fuck!"


    Number Three blurted in fury and disappointment when he saw the man finally turn around, only to have a little 4 year old girl in his embrace, and actually used the little kid as a meat shield¡­


    "I got a clear shot boss¡­"


    "No, fourth! Hold your fire!"


    Lowering what seemed to be his [Heckler and Koch upgraded SA80] assault rifle, the leader or ''Trisk'' as he liked to be called extended his hand in a calming manner before softly speaking with a deep voice;


    "Ben¡­ Ben look at me¡­" He called the man''s attention...


    "It''s all over¡­" He said¡­

 Chapter 3 - Family [1]

    "I got a clear shot boss¡­"


    "No, fourth! Hold your fire!"


    Lowering what seemed to be his [Heckler and Koch upgraded SA80] assault rifle, the leader or ''Trisk'' as he liked to be called extended his hand in a calming manner before softly speaking with a deep voice;


    "Ben¡­ Ben look at me¡­"


    "It''s all over¡­" He said¡­


    "*Sobbing* I didn''t want it to end like this¡­"


    "It wasn''t supposed to end like this¡­"


    "Put your daughter down and step away¡­" Trisk calmly urged¡­


    "I am sorry!" Ben said sobbing softly¡­


    "It''s okay¡­"


    Trisk tried to calm him as he saw Ben turn to ce his little daughter gently on the ground, but it wasn''t until he turned around to face them, that they noticed he was wearing a suicide vest, and just before they could react, he pressed the trigger;


    "Noooo!"


    Trisk jumped towards him trying to contain the st radius and save everyone in the process, but was he toote?


    Boom!


    ...


    Creak! Kree! Skree!


    The sound of what seemed to be the fast moving wheel of a cart sted into Sam''s ears, and from the volume of this sound he could tell that he was in a hallway¡­


    Then he difficultly opened his eyelids like as if there was a hundred pound load ced over them, and the only thing he could make out were moderatelyrge squares of bright lights speeding across his face¡­


    Then he squinted a little lower and made out two figures who seemed to be running after him, but after taking another look, he noticed that their hands were attached to something he was currentlyying on, and that was when all these details clicked in his mind;


    "I am being rushed through an emergency hallway!"


    The moment this thought crossed his mind, his eventual deduction was then confirmed by the two figures who were yelling;


    "Coming through!"


    "Out of the way!"


    The voices of a male and female doctor sted through the hallway, scaring everyone out of their way¡­


    The noisepletely woke Sam up and it was at this present moment that several bouts of immense pain assaulted his senses, from the tip of his hair to the sole of his foot¡­


    [Feminine Voice on Speaker] - "Dr. McGoldrick, surgery room please!"


    Sam shut his eyes as they moved him from the trawley onto the surgery bed, as he came under a bright and nearly blinding circr light causing him to squint his pain riddled eyes¡­


    Then just as about some secondster, the shadow of a feminine head came over his face, blocking the bright light, and finally allowing him to open his eyes a little; and lo and behold, Sam saw one of the most beautiful faces he had ever seen in his life¡­


    Though her head was covered by a blue cap, the little strand that spilled out of the sides revealed a blonde, smooth, bone-straight hair...


    Smoothly nted eyebrows sitting atop two cat-nted eyes that were blue in color and finally, two ck painted lips which looked like a masterpiece that hung on the walls of a royal mansion¡­


    This face, was a face to behold¡­


    "Am I dead!?" He asked¡­


    "Nope. Not under my watch!"


    The doctor said with a sweet smile, one that made Sam wanna stay awake a little while longer¡­


    "Then why am I being tended to by an angel?" He spoke with great difficulty and revealed a pain-filled but sincere smile that showed his bloodied teeth¡­


    The doctor instantly revealed a subtle but muffled smile while her brows were arched revealing the current state of her pained heart, followed by a drop of water which entered Sam''s mouth and tasted a little salty¡­


    She looked at his current state and another wave of heartache struck her heart, but it only took a couple of seconds, a deep sniff and finally a single wipe of her left eye before the pained expression on her face was reced by a determined one;


    "He saved seven lives today, we at least owe him this one¡­"


    She spoke like a heroine talking to her army before entering a life-or-death battle¡­


    "Yes ma''am!" A male voice and two female voice echoed in unison¡­


    "You are gonna be ok¡­"


    She said as she pulled a blue mask over her face and prepared to begin his session¡­


    Something stabbed Sam on his leftp, but the cocktail of pain he was having at this point didn''t even make him feel it...


    Then about three secondster, he felt his heart slow down, the pains all over his body started to vanish and then began to feel sleepy, and then he finally fell asleep momentster¡­


    ...


    "Screens go off, shoes go on, and it''s school time¡­"


    A very familiardy switched off the TV in the front of what seemed to be her kids as she ced their shoes before them;


    "Where is Sam I need him toe fix myputer¡­"


    "He is in the bathroom¡­" The little girl replied;


    "He''s been talking to himself¡­" The little boy added¡­


    ...


    "Hi, my name is Sam¡­"


    "Good morning, I am Sam¡­"


    "Hi, I am Sam¡­"


    "Morning, my name is Sam¡­"


    "Ah, screw it, I''m just gonna high-five the guy¡­"


    A deep acape echoed out of a door, which from its pitch and volume signified that, behind that door was a bathroom¡­


    "You okay?"


    The female voice that just spoke to the two kids earlier drifted in from the side as the seven foot tall Sam looked over to the entrance and saw a face that made him smile every single day since he had been hospitalized¡­


    It was the same face he smiled at even when he was in deep pain¡­


    Yup, it was Dr. McGoldrick! Apparently, she had been utterly surprised that Sam could even make it, not to talk of stand on two feet; or more precisely, one and a half feet¡­


    After the surgery, Sam had been iplete on several front, his right leg from the knee downwards had been amputated, his left leg though was still functional, came with a slight difort, he had suffered a third degree burn on his right arm and finally, he had several internal injuries that were still healing¡­


    All in all, he was in such a mess that no one within the surgery room that day thought he was going to survive¡­


    But just like the big man he was, with a strong soul and will to live, he pulled through, and whenever he was asked how he was able to do it, he just kept repeating;


    "I needed to see Dr. McGoldrick''s face one more time¡­"


    Seeing that it was the doctor who kept their brave soldier alive, the military chose the same Dr. McGoldrick to be in charge of Sam''s rehabilitation, especially with his new prosthetic right leg, and as a result, this meant they spent many months together, and half of all that time alone, working Sam back to full fitness¡­


    Just the tenacity to get back out there and not to sulk behind closed doors made Dr. McGoldrick begin to take a liken to him¡­


    Then about six months ago when he heard that, the two kids he was able to rescue that day were gonna be shipped to a foster home, Sam refused to let them go and decided to take them in as his own since he didn''t even have a girlfriend not to talk of a wife or finally kids¡­


    This action became the hot knife through the ice which was Dr. McGoldrick''s heart, and the fact that she can get to live and sleep and bathe with a hero whilst taking care of the little ones he saved, which served as a testimony every time she looked at them, made spending the rest of her life with Sam a great idea, and as fate would have it, Sam was also interested¡­

 Chapter 4 - Family [2]

    This action was the hot knife through the butter which was Dr. McGoldrick''s heart, and the fact that she can get to live and sleep and bathe with a hero whilst taking care of the little ones he saved, which served as a testimony every time she looked at them, made spending the rest of her life with Sam a great idea, and as fate would have it, Sam was also interested¡­


    Thus, they moved into Sam''s mansion and began to live together as a family¡­


    A seven foot man with well shaved head and well-groomed beards, weighing about 120 pounds, tanned and bulky, alongside a five foot tall, lithe, slender, light and supple-skinned, blonde beauty, living together with two adorable and smart 5 year old boy and girl¡­


    What a dream team!


    Today, Sam was going to get a new job as a security head at a very massive and prosperous firm¡­


    Though they knew he was still recovering from his physical challenges, but no one couldpare to him when it came to security detailing andbat knowledge¡­


    Thus, they were hoping to put him charge of their overall international security head, and all he was going to do was to pinpoint ws in their security train their team and also oversee the headquarters which happened to be about three miles from where he currently lives, but the best of all was that, all he had to do was speak in training and point out ws from the security room over the radio¡­


    This was a piece of cake to Sam who had ten sessful deploys to the top five most dangerous ces in the world, and this was not including the several dozens of sessful missions he had taken within his country and several other little request from the local police department he had solved¡­


    He actually didn''t need any interview because the statistics on his resume of sessful missions and kills bore testimony to his skills, thus, all he was going to do today, was to meet with the owner of this massive international firm in person and discuss some minor work unrted topics¡­


    So, he was busy working on his greeting when his- well wife, I guess, walked in¡­


    He popped his recovery pill into his mouth and replied;


    "Yeah¡­ I''m just working on my first impression¡­"


    "Hmm, well you look very handsome in that sky blue shirt and deep blue tie of yours¡­" Lisa responded¡­


    "You think so?"


    "Hmm-Hmm!"


    "You don''t think I am trying too hard?"


    "No way, you look respectful!"


    "Really!? Or should I lose the tie?"


    "No, but you really need to start learning how to tie one¡­"


    Knowing that Sam being a soldier rarely wore cooperate outfits, Lisa walked forward and helped him out with it¡­


    "Come on, the kids can almost sense your worries, what''s going on?"


    "*Sighs* I just don''t wanna screw it up¡­"


    "No, that''s not going to happen¡­"


    "But, what if I miss something?"


    "Babe,e on! You have been working on this for over a week now, I have never seen anyone work on their first impression for that long¡­"


    "If everyone was like you, the world would have been a better ce by now¡­" Lisa reaffirmed his confidence whilst adjusting his tie¡­


    "I don''t know, Three stuck his neck out big time for me and I don''t wanna screw it up¡­ Jobs like these are given to massivepanies, and I have never even done this before¡­"


    Sam voiced out his worries and Lisa took it like a champ;


    "Well that''s your advantage, they have never met someone like you before which makes you unique and special¡­"


    "Moreover, thosepanies make their evaluations based on more theory and less experience, but you, you have it all in here¡­" Lisa pointed at Sam''s head before adding;


    "If you aren''t qualified, then no one else is¡­"


    "If they also don''t love you, just remember that you''ve got boatload of love back here at home¡­"


    "Then, for the record, three stuck his neck out for you because you saved his life, plus he is your friend and that''s what friends do¡­"


    Sam epted everything with a slumped head which Lisa knew was not custom to him so she added;


    "Hey! Look at me!" She said softly;


    "Look at me¡­ You got this!"


    Sam then heaved a relieved sigh as the smile that melted her heart the first time they met appeared on his face;


    "I love you¡­"


    "You had better!" Lisa replied with a sweet smile;


    "Come here!"


    Sam grabbed her by the waist with his manly arms and was about to kiss her, but Lisa ced her finger on his lips before adding;


    "Myputer is faulty, and I need you to help me fix it¡­"


    Samughed happily as he added;


    "So, the whole; ''Look at me!'' ''You got this'' was to get me to fix yourptop¡­"


    "Hmm, it was a distinct process, but did it work?"


    "You bet it did¡­"


    Sam responded as they turn around to leave but not before tightly tapping Lisa in the ass which she giggled at as they both left the bathroom¡­


    "90 percent of the time, you can solve the problem of any gadget by simply turning it off and then turning it on¡­ Have you tried turning it off and on?"


    Sam asked as they descended the stairs towards the living room where the kids were waiting¡­


    "Nah, I decided to leave that to you so you can have a strong sense of aplishment if it works¡­"


    Lisa joked as the kids giggled lightly at the joke¡­


    "Ah, so you left yourptop to me, so I can fix it for me¡­ Fantastic!"


    Sam replied as he gathered his documents into his office bag before Lisa brought a cup of coffee to him and Jim the little boy handed him his deep blue suit which matched the color of his tie, belt and trouser¡­


    Rubbing Jim on the head for being adorable as always, Sam took theptop and held the power button for about ten seconds and it came on¡­


    Seeing him stand up and reach for his bag, Lisa asked;


    "You fixed it?"


    "As always!"


    "Awn¡­ that''s why I love you¡­"


    "Meh!" Sam pretended to refute¡­


    "Come in here!"


    Lisa called as she hugged him tightly before nting a deep kiss onto his lips;


    "Eew!" Jim blurted¡­


    "Get a room!"


    Ivory added, as she bumped fists with Jim for theirments being smooth and consecutive¡­


    Just as they reached the elevator door;


    Ping!


    The elevator chimed as the doors slid open revealing a middle aged man who seemed to be about 6 foot tall, light inplexion, with smooth dark hair, cleanly shaved jaws and moderately bulky, giving him a sexy look that alldies would trip for, because they over-stared¡­


    "My brother!" The guy spoke through an annoyingly white set of sexy teeth¡­


    "Brother!" Sam replied as they hugged¡­


    "Lisa..."


    "Third¡­" Lisa replied as she gave him a hug too¡­


    Then third looked over to the kids and gave a stunned expression;


    "Right!?" Lisa saw his incredulous expression and smiled proudly;


    "Damn, you guys are doing a fantastic job¡­ I am starting to wish I came into this world a littlete, so I could have met you guys¡­"


    Third remarked when he saw the state the kids were inpared to how they were when they were saved¡­


    It was like seeing a piece of paper who had been in the dirt for ages and seeing another paper that just came out of the factory¡­


    Eons apart!


    "Good morning, uncle third!"


    "Unc-?" Third was stunned speechless once again as they allughed happily¡­

 Chapter 5 - Aeon Consults

    "Damn, you guys are really doing a fantastic job¡­ I am starting to wish I came into this world a littlete, so I could have met you guys¡­"


    Third remarked when he saw the state the kids were inpared to how they were when they were saved¡­


    It was like seeing a piece of paper who had been in the dirt for ages and seeing another paper that just came out of the factory¡­ Miles apart!


    "Good morning, uncle third!"


    "Unc-?" Third was stunned speechless once again as they allughed happily¡­


    "Alright I got you guys VIP bands to one of the top ten movies releasing this night at the cinema¡­"


    Third handed over two bands to the kids as well as the Main Character hat of the movie they were about to watch tonight¡­


    "Thank you, Uncle Third!"


    The kids jumped in utter delight as they thanked Third with that adorable smile every good uncle wants to see...


    "Awn¡­ Thanks¡­"


    Lisa thanked him too as Sam looked over to her and urged;


    "Get them to school, and drive safe¡­"


    "¡­I love you!"


    He added before the elevator door closed but Lisa still responded in time;


    "Love you more!"


    Third shook his head and gave a happy smile to third¡­


    He had also retired the moment that bomb went off within the house, and though Sam saved him, he still had a third degree burn scar on his neck that serves as a reminder of how he would have died that day had it been anyone else who chose to hide¡­


    But ever since he retired, he had been trying to settle down just like his best friend Sam, but his level of sexiness and handsomeness made every good girl he came in contact with think he is a yer who was just the CEO of a massivepany, whilst only those who are after his money gave him all their attention¡­


    Thus, when he saw Sam with his family who were not even originally his family, he wished he even had something like that¡­


    "Alright, let''s go!" Third said after he showed Sam just how lucky he was with a friendly jab¡­


    A blue jeep which looked like they took the performance of a G-65 AMG BENZ, and merged it with thefort of a ROLLS ROYCE CULLINAN, the gadget filled BMW and finally the artificial intelligence of TESLA, zoomed through the rain-soaked road¡­


    Apparently, winter was already receding and spring was already approaching and the ice are melting, all in all, it was beginning to rain and the season of abundant life was approaching¡­


    "Third¡­ thanks for putting in a good word for me¡­ I know my paperwork doesn''t meet the-"


    "Don''t¡­ Come on, it''s nothing¡­"


    "They are looking to expand to another subcontinent and they needed someone they could entrust the safety of their headquarters to¡­ at least, till they havepleted their next establishment¡­"


    Sam tried to thank Third, once again, for the opportunity he had given him, but Third simply downyed it with a brief, deeper exnation of how the job opportunity came about¡­


    Three minutester, they stopped ahead of a red light which indicated pedestrians were about to cross;


    "Look at them¡­" Third said with a nostalgic smile;


    "¡­Living within a simted world which is controlled by people who simply love to watch humans like themselves be effortlessly controlled with a single thought¡­" He continued with a smirk¡­


    "If they want people to move from location A to B, all they need to do is starve them of a necessity in location A and then create that same necessity in location B, and then amusingly watch them mindlessly migrate from A to B whilst they sit in thefort of their wealth¡­"


    Sam also watched as the 400 plus pedestrian walk through the Zebra Crossing as he shook his head with a deep sigh¡­


    "Human right and free will has long been taken from people, they just don''t see it yet, that their lives is dependent on the desire of a single person who has yet to wake up from his or her bed¡­" Sam added¡­


    "The lost are many-"


    "-but the awakened are few¡­"


    Third started a statement and Sam finished it, as the red light finally turned off¡­


    Vroom! Shraa!


    The tyres of Third''s futuristic SUV sshed through the water drenched tarred road as the structure of a three inch building came into view, and as they sped ahead, the building began to expand in size until it was standing tall at about 3,000 feet from the ground;


    "Wow!" Sam eximed when he noticed just how miniscule he was in front of this giant of a building;


    "Right!?"


    "You are going to be in control of this massive chess piece in about 20 to 30 minutes, so let''s get going¡­" Third smiled as he pat Sam on the back¡­


    [A.I Weing Visitors] ¨C


    "Wee to Aeon Consults, the biggest scientific development firm in-"


    "Scientific development?" Sam asked Third as they walked over to the security checkpoint¡­


    "These guys are in the business of simply supplying scientific ideas you cannot even get from an alien¡­"


    "They''re into every field of life; from Medicine to Architecture to Robotics, and even Psychology¡­"


    Third briefed as they arrived at the first security checkpoint;


    "Good morning Mr. Corvinus."


    A tanned bulky man greeted Third with a slight Pan-African ent;


    "Morning Adam, how are you loving with today''s weather?" Third replied with a friendly smile;


    "~Ah~ The fresh breath that apanies the descent of the spring and vibrant life force, I always crave it¡­"


    Adam; one of the twelve security personnel stationed at the first security checkpoint drew in a deep breath of fresh air before exhaling with a grateful smile¡­


    "That''s First, and we have a meeting with Mr. Hugo¡­"


    Walking through the metal detector as well as the face scanner, Third turned around and added as he picked up his daily log-in I.D which the scanning technology at the security checkpoint just printed¡­


    "Really!?" Adam eximed with an incredulous expression¡­


    "''The'' Mr. First that saved your life!?"


    Adam still couldn''t believe that the man he has heard so much heroic stories about was actually standing before him¡­


    After all, they all lived within the same county as Sam, and everyone within the county obviously caught a whiff about what happened a year ago, and Adam''s children were one of these people, except that, Adam''s kids deeply revered Sam and some have even portrayed him a superhero¡­


    So many kids will even draw him with capes and a mask over his face¡­


    But because Sam had been indoors for almost 95 percent of the past one year, recovering, healing and adapting to his new limbs, he didn''t know how much fame he had spurred up in the entire county, and as a matter of fact, the entire story had been covered by the local News Castingpanies who made sure that not only did Sam''s fame reached almost every corner of the country and even leaked internationally¡­


    "He is the one!"


    "No way! He hasn''t been seen in a little over a year, and you think our luck is that good that we will be one of the first set of people to actually see him¡­."


    Two tech-geeky boys with snorts nearly escaping their nostrils, dressed in their usual attires of a pull up sweater, a jean, a backpack, a converse [all star] footwear and finally the geeky ssed argued amongst themselves as they walked by, but when they eventually reached Sam''s position, they froze....

 Chapter 6 - Super Sam

    "He is the one!"


    "No way! He hasn''t been seen in a little over a year, and you think our luck is that good that we will be one of the first set of people to actually see him¡­."


    Two tech-geeky boys with snorts nearly escaping their nostrils, dressed in their usual attires of a pull up sweater, a jean, a backpack, a converse [all-star] footwear and finally the geeky ssed argued amongst themselves as they walked by, but when they eventually reached Sam''s position, they froze...


    "Damn bro, It''s truly him!"


    One of them blurted to his partner who walked over and looked at Sam''s face;


    "Are you Super Sam!?"


    He asked batting his eyelids unbelievably¡­


    "Super Sam!?" Sam looked at Third who simply stood there smiling¡­


    "Tim!" "Jim!"


    "Get your asses over here, you''rete!"


    Someone bellowed through the radio tied to these boys belt¡­


    "One sec!"


    Jim dipped his hands into his pockets and brought out a switch-de and handed it over to Sam before going down on one knee, presenting hisptop over his head as he spoke;


    "Can you please do me the greatest honor of carving your autograph on myptop!?"


    Sam who was still stunned by the entire charade that was going on held the knife in hand with a lost expression on his face;


    "Just give the kid your autograph, everything will make more sense when we the meeting begins¡­"


    Third smiled as he urged Sam, who thought was lost, still obliged and carved his autographs on theptops of both kids, who were so happy, they ran into the firm to continue their duties, which was to upgrade the security and prevent external hackers from hacking into the entire firm''s A.I algorithm¡­


    "Here, Super Sam¡­"


    Adam gave a wrist strip to Sam which seemed like some high tech bracelet, as Sam finally passed the first security checkpoint¡­


    But from then on, Sam didn''t see any other security guard, and just as he was about to ask, Third had already reached the massive double doors of the firm which had a panel to the right where Third ced his wrist¡­


    Then after scanning the bracelet on Third''s wrist, the A.I announced;


    Scanning Bracelet¡­


    Personnel Identified¡­


    Name ¨C James Corvinus Jr¡­


    Status ¨C Worker¡­


    Department ¨C Networking¡­


    Clearance Level ¨C Level 8¡­


    "Wee, Mr. Corvinus¡­"


    The A.I announced as the transparent, massive, ss double-doors, slid open soundlessly¡­


    Then the door closed just as he entered whilst he waited for Sam on the other side after gesturing him to do the same thing¡­


    Sam walked up to the panel and slid his wrist beneath it, and just like with Third, a redser-like light scanned the bracelet and the A.I announced once again;


    Scanning Bracelet¡­


    Unidentified Personnel¡­


    Beginning System Registration¡­


    Please, state your name¡­


    "Sam Richter¡­"


    epted¡­.


    Please, state your birth date¡­


    "20th January 1986¡­"


    Date of Birth epted¡­


    Age recorded at; 35¡­


    Scanning Height and weight¡­


    Sam was surprised by this statement and was really interested to see how the A.I measures his height and weight¡­


    Suddenly a thin strip of aluminum metal detached itself from the arc of the entrance and shined a light down on Sam, and after it was done, the thin strip returned to its position and melded with the entrance like there was nothing there¡­


    Then Sam found his body sink a little deeper into the earth, and being a veteran who had faced much life and death situations, Sam was able to easily tell the moment that happens¡­


    "You are really the Super Sam, Mr. Sam!"


    "Most people don''t usually feel it at all when we take their weight measurements¡­"


    "Jim is that you?"


    Sam found the voice that just spoke to him through a speaker than looked more like a dispenser for hand sanitizers and asked¡­


    But when he heard the voice whisper to someone very close to him;


    "He remembers my name!"


    It was subtle but Sam heard, and it was followed by a;


    "No way!"


    "Stop messing with me!"


    and then an;


    "I swear!"


    "Tulip please bring up the voice recorder data of thest twenty seconds..."


    Then after some additional ten seconds, a female voice could be heard whispering within the speaker;


    "Dude, that''s sick!"


    Sam then smiled but was still curious as to why these youths were behaving this way towards him¡­


    "Erm, guys!?" "I''m still stuck out here, can you do whatever it is you do to open the door?"


    Sam spoke gently but deeply through the speaker as the girl on the other sidemented again;


    "What a manly voice!"


    "You should have seen his muscles and bulk!" Tim, the second geeky boy added;


    "Where are men like him, when I need them!?"


    The teenage girl at the other end revealed her innermost desire as the two teenagers blurted;


    "Eew, don''t taint our hero with that lecherous thought of yours!" Height and weight measured; 7 foot and 350 pounds...


    The A.I recorded Sam''s details, as a tiny finger length strip of stic ejected itself from the panel where Sam ced his wrist followed by the quick jab of two extremely tiny needles which stabbed painlessly into the two veins present just beneath Sam''s wrist, where a pulse is normally taken¡­


    DNA and biometrics recorded¡­


    Assigning Status¡­ Status Assigned¡­


    Assigning Clearance¡­ Clearance Level Assigned¡­


    Restarting Scanning Procedure¡­


    Scanning Bracelet¡­


    Personnel Identified¡­


    Name ¨C Sam Richter¡­


    Status ¨C V.I.P Visitor¡­


    Clearance Level ¨C Level 2¡­


    "Alright Super Sam, can you allow me call you that!?"


    "It''s okay¡­" Sam replied¡­


    He was beginning to understand how these geeky teens think, and was starting to develop a likening to them¡­


    They were hardworking and talented coders who have been recruited right from whatever tech school they attended at a very young age and given the avenue to explore their passions to the fullest by bringing them to such a high tech firm¡­


    Moreover, they are always people who find it hard to have a romantic partner because they always thought on a different level and having contrasting views about everything inparison to an average person¡­


    Thus their only best friends are tech geeks like themselves, junk food and gaming, with their only hobby being Sci-Fi and Superhero fanatics¡­


    Thus, they were set of people who find joy in what they do and are very honest, and sweet once a person gets to know them very well¡­


    "Alright Super Sam,mand center normally grants new members or visitors of the firm an ordinary visitor tag which has only a Level 1 clearance identity¡­"


    "But since you are our superhero, you have been given a VIP status with a Level 2 Clearance identity, which means you can visit anywhere from the ground floor, up to the twentieth floor, which is where we work should in case you are interested in seeing some of the cool stuffs we do here¡­"


    Jim exined as the massive, transparent, ss double-doors slid open for him to enter¡­


    "What status level were you given?"


    Third asked curiously when Sam entered as Sam cleared his throat and adjusted his tie before saying;


    "VIP brother¡­ I was given a VIP status¡­"


    Sam bragged jokingly to third who jabbed him on the harm beforementing with a smile;


    "I see those little brats have grown to like you, after only a few minutes¡­"


    He said as they walked deeper into this massive firm that stood proud on a 49 Square miles patch ofnd¡­


    "What is there not to like about me!?"


    "I''m tall and handsome and hulky¡­ Just like a superhero!"


    "What status were you given on your first day?"


    "I almost kneeled and begged before they gave me the VIP status with a Level 2 clearance..."


    "You were given an ordinary visitor status, weren''t you?"


    "Tragically, yes... With a Level 1 Clearance..."


    "They didn''t spare me an extra look afterwards..."


    "Haha, didn''t you show them your sext white set of teeth..."


    Sam joked as their voice andughter became more distant as they both walked deeper into the ground floor of the firm which was like the mansion of an emperor from Ancient times¡­


    This entire weing area radiated vintage and luxury from every angle¡­

 Chapter 7 - Super Sam [2]

    "What''s there not to like!?"


    "I''m tall and handsome and hulky¡­ Just like a superhero!"


    Sam joked as their voice andughter became more distant as they both walked deeper into the ground floor of the firm which was like the mansion of an emperor from Ancient times¡­


    This entire weing area radiated vintage and luxury from every angle¡­


    Sam and Third walked deeper as every female personnel on the ground floor looked towards the duo with a flirtatious look, and it wasn''t until they got to the elevator that Sam understood that, in as much of an oblivious superhero he might seem, 80 percent of everyone he had seen so far seemed to be interested more about Third than they were about him¡­.


    But all these was just within the Firm¡­


    Outside the firm, Sam was like the Demigod of the¡­


    Almost every social media ount were making a broadcast of hi feats and heroics¡­


    But Sam didn''t know about that, and Third was nning to make that the best surprise of their encounter and presence at this multi-trillion dor firm, today¡­


    Before long the twoughed and chatted all the way to the elevator and when they got there, there were about five personnel waiting for an elevator; yup, that is how busy and tall and how much personnel were working in this massive firm that was about 120 floors high¡­


    Once the elevator goes up and you don''t catch it, then you have to wait a little while, and it is not like the high tech elevators that moves at almost 2 meters per second was slow or something, it is just that; like every elevator and people, the amount of stops is the issue here¡­


    But there were also VIP elevators that are always avable depending on every personnel''s level of clearance¡­


    Of the five personnel were one well-built man who wore the outfit of a cleaningpany [*] which was in charge of cleaning the ss the entire firm was built from; both inside and outside¡­


    As for thedies, they were all in the customer service section on the 12th floor¡­


    Thus, when Third got to the VIP elevator which was not too far away from the one these guys boarded;


    "Ladies!"


    Third said with a sexy smile as the youngdies who looked to be in theirte twenties, wearing their natural cooperate suits and zers that had a long slit in the chest area which revealed about 30 percent of their sexual maturity; which was already in full bloom, as well as the slit in their super short skirts which revealed 70 percent of their smooth thighs;


    All in all, wherever these girls passed, they were all head turners, in their different colored bone-straight hair¡­


    "Morning, Mr. Corvinus!"


    Thesedies chimed with sweet voices and it wasn''t until they looked over to Sam that they gasped in shock and flocked over to take selfies which before even half of the day had passed, were already going viral with thousands and hundreds of thousands of reactions¡­


    Making sure that Third was also in the picture, Sam grabbed Third by the shoulder and gave him a side-hug so that he was close enough to also be in the picture as they made silly faces to thedies amusement¡­


    "Alright, that''s enough¡­ You guys can always get more, some other time!"


    Third said as he entered the transparent ss made elevator, and just as the door was about to close;


    "Hey girls, I am looking to take this rocket and st into the space, you wannae!"


    Third asked smilingly as he pointed upwards¡­


    "Really!?"


    "I have been working here for 5 years and never boarded this elevator before!"


    Thedies eximed as they flooded into the spacious elevator, leaving only the cleaner guy outside, but Sam wasn''t having any of that;


    "Aren''t you going up?" He asked;


    "Oh no, thanks Mr. Sam, we are never to be found in the same space as other workers¡­"


    "They seem to fear the germs we carry on our outfits every time we clean¡­"


    The guy replied earnestly as Sam simply looked over to Third who was already getting to know thedies and asked;


    "He ising with us, right?"


    "Of course, step in here brother¡­"


    "Oh no, Mr. Corvinus, I am just going to wait for this elevator¡­" The guy humbly rejected as he pointed to the public elevator¡­


    When Sam looked up and saw that the elevator was still around the 20th floor and was still ascending, he shook his head;


    "Hey brother, what''s your name?" Third asked;


    "Michael, sir." He humbly answered;


    "Alright, Magic Mike, you areing with us today¡­"


    Third stretched his hands at the guy who quickly wore a glove and sprayed himself with a sanitizer spray before taking Third''s hand, seemingly scared of infecting the rest of the cargo¡­


    Then when the door closed, the ss disyed the image of a little girl who seemed to be around 10 years old, who spoke; Biometric Scanmencing¡­


    Then she raised her hand up making it look like she was outside the elevator cing her hand on the ss door, but it was just some high tech graphics¡­


    Third ced his hand over hers as the little girls hands scanned his palm before speaking;


    "Morning Mr. Corvinus!"


    "Morning Tulip, you are ever so adorable as always¡­"


    "Thanks Mr. Corvinus, you are not so bad yourself¡­"


    Then as if remembering something Sam asked;


    "Is she?"


    "Yup, that is the A.I that controls basically the entire firm, and her name is Tulip¡­" Third answered;


    "Oh, I heard Jim talking to her earlier¡­"


    "Well, Tulip takes the image of the CEO''s daughter and she was built by Jim, Tim and Kiki¡­" Third exined;


    "What!?" Sam eximed;


    "Right!?"


    "Who would believe that those little kids are capable of creating such magnificent A.I"


    Third said as he looked at Tulip who was skittling into the distance¡­


    Meanwhile whilst these VIP elevator was moving at bolting towards the upper floors of the firm at 5 meters per second, Lisa had just dropped Jacob and Ivory at school and was also enjoying the fame that came with living and caring for Sam¡­


    "Alright, my mushrooms¡­ Stay out of trouble and make mommy proud, okay!?"


    "Sure mom!"


    Jacob and Ivory chorused as they ran towards the caretaker of their ss who waved at Lisa from the school entrance¡­


    Waving back, Lisa blew a kiss at her kids and they both caught it and put it in their pockets, before blowing theirs in return as Lisa acted clumsy and pretended to almost drop the kisses, before eventually catching it as the kidsughed at her acting; that acting was something they would never get tired of¡­


    Getting into her blue jeep that looks like a 2021 model LEXUS LX570 Hyper-sport, Lisa drove off the as her car passed by a seemingly unassuming matte ck van which had the logo and details of a constructionpany printed on either side¡­


    The moment she left, one of the two figures in the van picked up a sat phone and called;


    "Hello!"


    "Yeah, they are in school now¡­"


    "Alright, you both know what to do¡­"


    "Don''t mess this up!"


    "Sure boss!"


    Then the guys began to dress up in a PPE overall, and after opening a small briefcase in front of them, two loaded pistols with spare cartridges could be seen, and so they began their operation¡­

 Chapter 8 - The Division Heads

    "Hello!"


    "Yeah, they are in school now¡­"


    "Alright, you both know what to do¡­"


    "Don''t mess this up, guys!"


    "Sure thing boss!"


    Then the guys began to dress up in a PPE overall, and after opening a small briefcase in front of them, two loaded pistols with spare cartridges could be seen, and so they began their operation¡­


    "So, how long have you been working here?"


    "Oh, me?"


    "Haha, we are the only ones here, right?" Sam replied when the elevator reached the 19th floor¡­


    "Oh, my Grand Pa and his father founded this organization¡­"


    "What!?"


    "Yeah¡­"


    Sam couldn''t believe that the grandfather of his junior or ''subject in battle'' would be the co-owner of the organization that was employing him¡­


    [How the rivers of fate flow¡­]


    "Howe the grandson of a business mogul is in the military?"


    Well, my grandfather taught my father that doing anything asides from being in the business industry is not fulfilling, thus I set out to prove two generations of belief wrong¡­


    "I wanted to show them that, one can be whoever they wanted to be, and still seed, and I did¡­"


    "Fantastic, you are a hero and a mentor!" Sam couldn''t help butpliment his junior¡­.


    Apparently, it seems the person he considers his junior had be more sessful in one aspect of life than himself¡­


    "Alright we are here¡­ How do I look?" Third asked when they reached the 20th floor¡­


    "You look so sexy, I wanna punch you in the face¡­" Samplimented like a bro¡­


    "How do I look?" Sam asked;


    "You are a superhero; Super Sam¡­ it doesn''t matter what you wear¡­"


    "Fuck you!"


    Sam muffled because the elevator door had opened and he didn''t want to alert people that he was saying a curse word¡­


    "Front yard or back yard?" Third asked;


    "Eww!"


    "Haha, that joke doesn''t get old with you¡­" Third joked;


    "Definitely¡­ We are bros¡­ Bros don''t say such to their bros¡­ it bes awkward¡­"


    Sam fell into Third''s joke pit¡­


    "Alright¡­ You''ve got this."


    "I have got this¡­"


    "We have both got this¡­"


    The two friends reassured themselves before they stepped into the conference room¡­


    "You arete!"


    An old man who looked like those business tycoons who uses money to wipe their assesmented;


    "We ran into the cleaner¡­" Third blurted a lie¡­


    "So!?" Another old man with simr vibe interrogated¡­


    That short statement stunned Third who had not prepared a counter-lie, speechless;


    "In our field, we believe they would be the people who would have the most detailed map of this ce in their head¡­" Sam gave a premature-truth¡­


    The reason why this happened was because he gave that exnation to the man as a lie, but the honesty in his spirit ensured that he said the truth¡­


    Thus, what he said was a logical lie that can be backed by fact¡­


    "Hnmmm!"


    The three old men who have never been plunged into that level of street-smarts, like Sam, bought his logical lie that could be backed by fact¡­


    "Alright¡­ May we begin?"


    "Sure¡­"


    "This meeting is going to be split in two parts, with this being the first, and the meeting with our CEO being the second¡­"


    "Mind you, if we are not impressed by what you have to offer in this meeting, you might not get a chance to meet with the CEO at all¡­" The third old man added¡­


    "So, let''s start with the introduction;"


    "I am Mr. Kent, the head of the technology division of these firm¡­"


    The first old man revealed as he folded his sleeves to reveal a prosthetic military gradebat level arm;


    "I lost my arm when I was working in a quartz mine, back when I was a youth¡­"


    "I am Dr. Tony, the head of the biological division of this firm¡­"


    The second old man who seemed to be a man of few words included;


    "I am Professor Bruce, I am the head of the infrastructural division, and you can also say I designed the structure of this building¡­"


    The third old man added with a sip of the coffee that had just been served to them by a small robotic coffee dispenser within the conference room¡­


    Third and Sam noted the mental inclination and tendencies of these three old men, and found something a little bit skeptical about this meeting¡­


    Sam introduced himself but he still felt there was something wrong about the arrangement of this meeting, because the firm was supposed to pick a single representative that will discuss the details of the Firm''s security protocols and test a little bit of his knowledge about it, and not these three old men who were the heads of the several divisions of this sect themselves¡­


    If the CEO was looking to have them familiarize or get to know each other better, then there was no point in setting this meeting up in this manner, and from the vibes he was getting, these guys weren''t her to discuss what they do, but actually interview him;


    which was strange because people in their positions shouldn''t be the ones doing the interview¡­ Except¡­


    Except whatever they were doing here was very vital, important and secretive that these guys couldn''t entrust anyone else with the security and protective details of their work¡­


    And what better person could it be other than a valiant and righteous soldier who knows none of them, has no prior ties with thepany in any way and was very unbiased¡­


    "So this is why I am here¡­ Toe and validate the trust issues between people¡­"


    "And here I was thinking I havended a politics-free job¡­"


    "Whereas I was already plunged into the political shenanigans of these immoral, powerful and wealthy animals..."


    Sam thought to himself as he profiled these division heads¡­ He was beginning to evaluate the level of aggression, pride and tactics this meeting was going to demand from him¡­


    "Very aggressive but subtle¡­ Very respectful but demanding¡­"


    Sam reminded himself mentally as the meeting began¡­


    After about thirty minutes of about thirty minutes of them trying to belittle Sam so as to appear like they were trying to help his life more than they needed an expert on security profiling, these three old men finally brought an end to their meeting¡­


    Then after about ten minutes of further discussing amongst themselves with hushed tones, the three old men finally walked up to Sam and shook his hands;


    "We have evaluated your responses and are very happy to tell you that you have the qualities we seek for this job¡­"


    Dr. Tony ''the man of few words'' congratted as Professor Bruce added;


    "You will meet the Head of the Business Division, who also happens to be the CEO of this firm in a bit¡­"


    "We are ecstatic to begin working with you, and I would also wish that our coboration works impably for years toe¡­"


    Mr. Kent said with a genuine smile before handing over a new set of bracelets to Sam and Third¡­


    This bracelet was much more technologically advanced than the one with Third, because this bracelet seemed to have a mind of its own as it automatically adjusted itself to Sam''s wrist size¡­

 Chapter 9 - High Tech Elevator*

    Mr. Kent said with a genuine smile before handing over a new set of bracelets to Sam and Third¡­


    This bracelet was much more technologically advanced than the one with Third, because this bracelet seemed to have a mind of its own as it automatically adjusted itself to Sam''s wrist size¡­


    "Superb, right!?" Mr. Kent asked;


    "Well that is what we do in the tech division and these are scrapspared to the actual stuffs we create down in the techb¡­"


    "Jim and Tim would exin the perks of this bracelet to you when you meet with them¡­"


    "I have got to go back to creating blueprints for new inventions, so I will be leaving first¡­"


    Mr. Kent grinned smugly as he stood up and left the room¡­


    Then after about five further minutes of doing basically what Mr. Kent just did, which was to initially tter Sam with what they do in their divisions, Dr. Tony and Professor Bruce finally left the conference room¡­


    Third took Sam to the other end of the room where there were two luxuriously sculpted statues of two mythical beasts ced on either side of a wall painting which looked like a masterpiece from Da Vinci himself¡­


    "He loves vintage stuffs¡­" Third said when he noticed Sam''s curiosity¡­


    Touching the forehead of one of these two statues which were guarding this painting, the sound of something scanning something echoed softly as the painting actually split in equal half giving Sam a very dramatic feeling, because the part of the painting that parted was the area where a massive sea was drawn, making it something nostalgic to religious minds¡­


    "How can the owner of a firm that is so advanced in technology actually be in love with vintage stuffs¡­?"


    "Isn''t that pretty contrasting...?"


    "Perhaps, it is the contrasting part of this that he loves the most¡­"


    Third answered Sam''s quick fire questions as the painting partedpletely, and it only then that Sam realized that the painting had been made at this specific location in the room to hide this secret door¡­


    Behind the secret door was a hidden elevator, and when they entered it, Tulip''s voice sounded once again;


    "How do you like your coffee?"


    "I hate coffee!"


    Third replied nonchntly as the A.I responded;


    Nonchnt tone detected¡­


    Password epted¡­


    "Wee Mr. Corvinus¡­"


    The A.I responded as the elevator doors closed before Third actually spoke to the elevator;


    "Penthouse. Please¡­"


    The moment his wordsnded, the elevator moved and ascended with insane speed¡­


    "So, you hate coffee?" Sam asked with a slightly surprised tone;


    "What are you saying?"


    "Of course, I love coffee¡­"


    "But the password to this elevator can only be imputed through the emotions in one''s voice¡­"


    "What!?"


    "Sick, right?"


    "A password that is actually not your speech or retinal scan or palm prints, but one that actually reads the emotions in one''s tone¡­"


    "I still can''t wrap my head around this, even after all these while¡­" Third said with a smile¡­


    "Isn''t this elevator a little too fast?" Sam noticed that they were already at the 80th floor after only about the quarter of a minute had passed...


    "Oh, this elevator is powered by maism, so there is no cables that can snap or anything, so we are safe¡­"


    "Tim, do you mind exining how this elevator works again?"


    Third spoke into his bracelet when he realized that it seemed Sam had not understood the logic behind the elevator speed¡­


    "Really!?"


    "This is my best work ever, so I live to tell people how it works¡­"


    Tim''s voice floated out of the blinking bracelet¡­


    "Enough of the chit chat, let''s know how it works¡­" Third interrupted with a roll of his eyes¡­


    "Alright¡­ You guys know how two opposite poles of a ma attract each other right, and how the same poles repels each other?"


    Without waiting to know if they truly knew about it or not, Tim continued;


    "So, at the top of this building is a giant metal coil we got from a secret facility, and any information about the material is also top secret¡­"


    "Alright, top secret metal coil¡­"


    Sam interrupted this time when he noticed Tim was about to begin rambling things he knows nothing about or isn''t interest in knowing about¡­


    "Alright, so what we do is that we pass enough electric current into the coil to give increase its maic properties a million fold¡­"


    "So if the coil is the south pole of a ma, the roof of the elevator you are currently in is made out of the north pole of a ma¡­" Tim exined¡­


    "So, the more electricity we channel into the metal coil at the roof, the faster it attracts the elevator as you go up, which leads to higher speed¡­"


    "And it is the same for going back down¡­" Sampleted Tim''s statement;


    "Actually, no¡­" Tim replied;


    "What do you mean?"


    "Actually, going back down is a free fall, but once you start approaching the ground floor, the mas at the base of this elevator shaft is charged with electric currents to have the same prity with the metal used to make the elevator floor you are standing on¡­"


    "Thus, the closer you approach the ground floor, the more the repelling effect of the ma acts and slows your descent, and when your speed of descent is weak enough to ignore the free fall effect of gravity, we simply control your speed of descent by altering the amount of current we pass into the maic coil in the ground floor¡­" Tim exined¡­


    "But if all these things are done by maism, what happens to anyone who walks around the ground floor with metal objects on their body like jewelries and stuffs like that?" Sam asked;


    "*Gasps* I told you he would be perfect as our security head, he even cares about the safety of everyone on the ground floor¡­"


    Tim whispered to his partner but didn''t know that he left the link open¡­


    "Er, will you please continue?" Sam asked bringing Tim''s attention back to his question¡­


    "Well, the mas are not always working which means, it is just a harmless metal coil when unused¡­"


    "But, the elevator you''re currently within as well as the entire shaft from ground to top floor are all made out of carbon fiber and military grade fiber ss, and mas, can affect metals if there is a barrier made of carbon fiber in between itself and the metal on the other side¡­"


    "Oh, so even if it''s working at full capacity, it cannot attract any metal object outside the elevator shaft¡­" Sam finally got the general idea of what Tim was exining;


    "You are a genius, Super Sam!" Tim said as the link finally closed¡­


    [Authors Thoughts: - I told you guys in the synopsis, that there would be several tips that would be shared within this novel¡­ We don''t do clich¨¦s here, and neither do we cap¡­ Thanks¡­]


    "Fantastic!" Sam blurted when he began to apprehend Tim, Jim and Kiki''s level of ingenuity¡­


    "Haha ha, wait till you see what those kids are truly capable of¡­ You haven''t seen anything yet¡­" Third added from the side with a proud grin¡­


    "Really¡­ you seem more stoked about this than I am¡­" Sam sneered jokingly at Third;

 Chapter 10 - Mr. Roy

    "Fantastic!" Sam blurted when he began apprehending Tim, Jim and Kiki''s level of ingenuity¡­


    "Haha ha, wait till you see what those kids are truly capable of¡­"


    "You haven''t seen anything yet¡­" Third added from the side with a proud grin¡­


    "Really¡­ you seem more stoked about this than I am¡­" Sam sneered jokingly at Third;


    "Well, Jim and Tim are twins and Kiki is my niece¡­" Third said with a proud and smug grin¡­


    "Howe none of us knew this side of your life?"


    Sam was still stunned and still found it a little too incredulous that Third''s family had such level of wealth and connection, but still ended up in the military, and though, Third had told him the reason why, and he believed it, but he just didn''t believe that there are some silk-pants in this life that actually have the confidence and determination to do such a thing¡­


    "Well, it is not like I will go around announcing to everyone within the entire base about my family and their wealth¡­"


    "Plus, I have told you why I joined the military¡­"


    "Yeah, I know¡­ It''s just that, I have never been in such a massive and sessful firm before¡­"


    "Furthermore, to actually even know the grandson of its co-founder!?"


    "Everything just seems too surreal at this point¡­"


    Sam voiced like a kid who was just finding out that Santa doesn''t actually live in the North Pole but only a few busses away from his home¡­


    Ding!


    The elevator swung open, and Sam''s socks were blown off into another multiverse by what he was currently seeing¡­


    "What!?"


    "Hehe he¡­"


    "There is no soul who has ever been here that didn''t have this same reaction¡­"


    "Even the CEO himself couldn''t believe what he was seeing when he first saw this ce¡­"


    Thirdughed at Sam''s expression which was like that of a poor orphan who was adopted by the wealthiest soul on the, and was finally seeing his new home¡­


    Except that, Sam could never live here even if he wanted to, because, this ce, was the abode of the current CEO of Aeon Consults¡­


    This ce was massive, vintage, luxurious, serene and finally, a blissful ce¡­


    It was like a masterpiece created from thebination of the top ten greatest minds on the¡­


    It''s idea was multidimensional, and its level of ingenuity was otherworldly¡­


    It was like they separated the three top floors from the rest of the structures and built a three story tall mansion within¡­


    Whilst it looked like a mall, because these three floors were joined together to form a single floor, rather than being separated into three levels by a ceiling, it was also like the outdoors of amazon due to the natural vibe this ce gave one¡­


    There were several flowers decorating everywhere and even beautiful and sweet smelling vines stretching and twisting all over the protective banisters on the indoor bridge¡­


    There was flowers and little trees everywhere, and there was even a fountain at the center of these structure that flows into an artificial river which ran across the room to the outdoor pool¡­


    That way, I someone wanted to pick up something on the inside and was at the pool, all they need to do is to have some ce that thing into this artificial river and the water would naturally carry it to the pool¡­


    In fact, it was like a massive jungle of beautiful and sweet-smelling flowers and the way they brought the jungle vibe and merged it with the idea of a futuristic, tech-filled mansion, made this ce a masterpiece artwork of the eon¡­


    "Are all these¡­"


    "Yeah, they are all natural... Shipped in from various parts of the world¡­"


    "Including some wild and dangerous jungles and forests¡­" Third exined when Sam asked about all the flowers and trees¡­


    "When we are returning, remind me to show you the 99th floor¡­" Third said with a smile¡­


    "Wait¡­ How many floors are there, and what is on the 99th floor?" Sam asked from a jumbled brain¡­


    It seemed like his brain had yet topletelyprehend what he was currently seeing, so it was having difficulties doing every other tasks¡­


    "There are 155 floors in total, with the top two floors madepletely out of sr panels, wind turbines, our satellite receivers and other stuffs¡­"


    A voice echoed from the corner, as a middle aged man in blue kimono, blue flip flops and a cup of coffee in hand appeared in view with a smile¡­


    He was tall, athletic but slim, 6 foot tall, light and supple skinned which bore testimony to his level of wealth, and finally wrinkle free¡­


    His figure radiated deep serenity, calmness, kindness and purity¡­


    "Hi, I am Roy¡­" The figure extended his hands to Sam before turning to hug Third;


    "Little James, how have you been¡­ It seems you havepletely forgotten your Uncle Roy and his family¡­" The man named Roy said with a smile¡­


    "That''s never true Uncle Roy... You know I like toe here every free time I get¡­ But I also have to work¡­" Third replied with a smile¡­


    "Oh, where are my manners¡­ Uncle Roy, this is Sam¡­"


    "The same Super Sam? Wow!" Roy blurted as he almost choked on his coffee¡­


    "Where are my manners too¡­"


    Roy said as he cleaned his hands on his robes to give Sam a proper handshake¡­


    "Don''t worry Little James, I will handle everything from here¡­"


    "Moreover, Tulips has not seen you in a long while, so you will have some exining to do¡­"


    Roy smiled as Third face-palmed himself, seemingly apprehensive of what he was about to face¡­


    "Are you the CEO of this firm?" Sam asked subconsciously¡­


    He was finding it hard to believe that the owner of such amount of wealth, respect and influence was this free living man¡­


    He was expecting a proud, arrogant and no-nonsense person who radiated fear and a bossy aura¡­


    Maybe because he was in the military for a very long time, he didn''t know, but this person in front of him looked like he couldn''t even swat a fly without puking¡­


    "Ugh, that''s just a title¡­"


    "Hmm hmm, a title billions would die for¡­" Sam snorted in his mind¡­


    "Please, may I request something from you¡­?"


    "I know it is rude to do that, especially since we are meeting for the first time¡­"


    "But I will owe you a favor if you can do that¡­" Sam was stunned speechless at first, but he still managed to force out; "Anything¡­"


    "Anytime you are around me, feel free¡­ talk freely¡­ walk freely¡­"


    "Just live your life the way you will live it if you were in thefort of your home¡­" Roy pleaded which only seemed to furtherly stun Sam¡­


    "Just that?" Sam blurted in surprise¡­


    He was expecting something ridiculous or impossible, like, take off your prosthetic leg and walk around the ce, or let''s do a staringpetition...


    But this¡­ He didn''t know what to make of Roy''s request


    "Yeah¡­ I am tired of being treated like a boss or something¡­ It''s exhausting¡­"


    "I like to be treated and seen as a normal person, and the only ones who give me that at this point are my family and Little James'' family¡­


    "I mean the family he was born into¡­" Roy said as he took a sip from his cup¡­


    "So, having a friend or anyone who could see or treat me as such would be a blessing to me¡­" He added¡­


    "Can you do that for me?"


    "Sure thing buddy!"


    Sam gave Roy his stance on the matter through his words and action which involved patting Roy on the shoulder as they walked forward and discussed on¡­

 Chapter 11 - Moment Of Truth [1]

    "So, having a friend or anyone who could see or treat me as such would be a blessing to me¡­" He added¡­


    "Can you do that for me?"


    "Sure thing buddy!"


    Sam gave Roy his stance on the matter through his words and action which involved patting Roy on the shoulder as they walked forward and continued their discussion¡­


    Sam was a little bit apprehensive of how Roy was currently feeling¡­ He also faced a simr dilemma when he was back at the base¡­


    The only set of people who referred, viewed or spoke to him like a normal person were his team¡­


    Everyone else referred to him like the Brigadier that he was, and it was also very exhausting back then¡­


    So, it didn''t take him too long to give what Roy asked of him¡­


    "What do you think of this ce?"


    Roy asked Sam as they walked by the little stream that led to the outdoor pool;


    "Honestly, I have never seen something of this nature before, so I really don''t know the word to use to qualify what it is¡­"


    "But there is something I''m sure about, and that is the fact that, I would rather forsake the world, if it means I get to enjoy the level of nature, peace and serenity in here¡­"


    Sam honestly gave his opinion about the ce¡­


    It looked like the royal botanic garden of Ennd mixed with the keukenhof of Lisse, created at over 2000 feet above the ground¡­


    Then with a top ss, five star mansion merged with it and finally built on the basis of the front runner advanced technological minds in the entire world¡­


    "Since you don''t have the words to qualify it, I will grant you and your family a free, unlimited ess to this ce for a week¡­"


    Roy gazed at Sam with a genuine smile, and just seeing his expression made him feel good¡­


    That was the sort of person Roy was; making everyone else happy makes him happy, which is why he founded Aeon Consults in the first ce¡­


    He was intent on making sure the best things about life is brought to those who aren''t privileged to afford it, and because of this goal, he made many enemies, especially from those who look to rip off these less privileged people¡­


    "So, what happened to your previous Chief of Security?"


    Sam asked as Roy scoffed and reply;


    "Come on! Don''t be so boring¡­"


    "I was looking to have a friendly conversation today, but it is understandable that you are a man that means business, after all, you were from the military¡­"


    "What does that mean?" Same asked with a frown¡­


    If this guy thought just because he is wealthy and was offering him a job that he could say whatever he wanted about Sam''s life then he has another thinging¡­


    "Nah, I simply meant, those in the military are usually serious about everything and rarely have any true or real sense of humor¡­"


    "That is why I am very close to James, he is the only one who rtes to me like a family and not a boss or business partner, and that is why my daughter loves having him around¡­"


    Roy looked over into the distance about 200 feet from their current position, there they saw James hugging a little girl who was only as tall as James'' waist in height¡­


    "If that''s truly how you feel, why don''t you give all this up for the life you so seek?" Sam retorted respectfully;


    "No wonder you were able to rise to the rank of a brigadier in just five years of joining the military¡­"


    "You sense of judgement and scrutiny is very astute¡­"


    "But to answer your question, in as much as I wanted to live the life of a normal person, I want normal people to have ess to this kind of life, even more¡­"


    Roy said open his arms wide gesturing to the entire residential penthouse they were currently in¡­


    "Moreover, I can''t trust anyone else with my dreams which is why I have to see to it, that I get it done¡­"


    "At least to a certain extent where theing generation can take it from wherever I stopped and not start from scratch, after all, I cannot save the entire world in a single lifetime¡­" Roy ended with a lightugh¡­


    "But that hasn''t answered my initial question¡­" Sam pressed on¡­


    "Oh, concerning that¡­ My current Chief of Security has served this firm for over 50 years, since my father and James'' grandfather established it¡­"


    "So, I felt it is time for a new and fresh start for my security details¡­"


    "Furthermore, the guys in the Department of Defense have been targeting me, my family and this firm for a while, thus, I really need someone who is more updated in military tactics and training¡­" Roy spoke like it was a given¡­


    "But, don''t you think that might be a hard pill to swallow for a man who has dedicated his life and energy to this firm for 50 years?" Sam asked with a frown¡­


    Taking this job away from the current Chief of Security would be like literally taking the man''s life away, and such a thing most often than not, backfire¡­


    "But that is the way life is¡­ everything is bound to change¡­" Roy said with an innocent expression¡­


    "Well, do you know why most soldiers still can''t have a life outside the military, even when they retire?"


    "I have never been too close to the military to know the answer to that¡­"


    "Well, that''s simply because they take the protection of their country to the very seriously and almost religiously¡­"


    "So they find it hard to get a life outside the military, just as it is hard for you to abandon this mission you have embarked on for a more peaceful life¡­" Sam exined;


    "So, what do you suggest I do about that?" Roy asked earnestly¡­


    "Well, I know you are building a new headquarter in the Western Hemisphere¡­"


    "Hmm hmm¡­" Roy confirmed with a nod¡­


    "So, I suggest you give him a contract with a wage rise and a very hospitable living terms, but make the length of the contract known¡­"


    "That way, he can have more than enough time to prepare for a new life after the firm¡­" Sam advised;


    "Hmm¡­ That sounds really wise¡­ So, how many years do you think I should specify the contract length to be?" Roy sought;


    "Well, it is not my firm, nor is it my money, so you will have to do that on your own discretion¡­ Sam replied;


    "Well, I get the fact that it is not your money, but I would like you to start treating this ce like your own too¡­"


    "That is the only way I can be convinced that you will put your heart and mind into the safety of this firm¡­" Roy spoke intently with a stressed expression which caused Sam to frown all the more¡­


    "Moreover, I was only seeking for your advice on the contract length, and don''t think I am questioning your loyalty or anything, I am just really intent on achieving this goal of mine that I need people that can have my back around me¡­" Roy spoke his mind¡­


    "Alright¡­ I have a duty to discharge, and just as you know us to be in the military; we don''t joke with our work¡­"


    "But before I do anything, I would need you toe clean with me on why you live within the firm, and why you are thinking of firing your Chief of Security¡­"


    "Though, I believe what you are trying to do here because I have made my research, I just don''t believe you wanted to change your full security details because a veteran who is in that position seems to look tired to you¡­"


    Sam paused and looked intently at Roy;


    "Alright... I guess the moment of truth is here¡­"


    Roy said before emptying his cup and gesturing Sam to sit under a Cherry Blossom tree¡­

 Chapter 12 - Moment Of Truth [2]

    "Though, I truly believe what you are trying to do here because I have made my research, I just don''t believe you wanted to change your full security details because a veteran who is in that position seems to look tired to you¡­"


    Sam paused and looked intently at Roy;


    "Alright... I guess the moment of truth is here¡­"


    Roy said before emptying his cup and gesturing Sam to sit under a Cherry Blossom tree¡­


    "So, where should I start from?"


    Roy sighed rhetorically before arranging everything within his head and finally speaking;


    "Well, ourpany hasn''t always been about helping the less privileged¡­"


    "My father was simply a full blown young man who was engrossed by everything outside our¡­"


    "He loved learning and reading about others gxies and extraterrestrial phenomenon, and as a result, science as a whole became his vice¡­"


    "Anything that can bring him closer to experiencing something otherworldly; from the science of technology, to biology and even the science of space itself¡­"


    "Then in the space of about twenty years, he had 3 B.Sc., 6 M.Sc. and 12 Ph.D.''s¡­ "


    "What!? How is that even possible?" Sam blurted in shock;


    "Well, he studied two B.Sc., 2 M.Sc. simultaneously back when he was young, because he wanted to see if he could do what no one else had ever done; run two different broad courses, simultaneously¡­"


    "My grandfather was rich and raised his kids with a free hand, so he had no problems funding my father''s passion¡­"


    "But after studying it all, he began to patent some new discoveries and before long, several the top tech, medical and extra-terrestrially inclined firms began to consult him on different problems situations and conditions, which he effortlessly solved for them in less than one percent the time these firms though he coulde up with a solution, and a result he won several Nobel prizes and became internationally famous¡­"


    "But despite all of this, the hole within him had yet to be filled¡­"


    "Then on the day my grandfather was finally going to pass away on his bed, his private doctor who my father hated with renowned passion called my father and told him he might not make it through the day, so my father flew over to see him¡­"


    "Why would your father hate your grandfather''s private doctor?"


    Sam asked seemingly confused and somewhat suspiciously;


    "Well my father wanted to find the cure too my father''s illness, it was a terminal hereditary disease that made every cell within one''s body to age almost thrice as fast as a normal being, therefore shortening his lifespan¡­"


    "My father back then wanted to create a cure for this, but my grandfather who was a very spiritual person believed that was how fate wanted it and he didn''t want to mess with fate''s grand n¡­"


    "Thus, my dad tried to coerce the doctor many times to administer the cure to his father''s illness, but the doctor had been explicitly instructed not to do so because my grandfather knew his son all too well that he never receives no for an answer¡­"


    "Not since birth, which was one of the traits that made him achieve everything he did in his lifetime, but at the same time, my grandfather also wanted to teach his son that he could not always get everything he wanted,, and what better way to teach him than to have him lose one of the things he cherished the most in his life¡­"


    Sam sighed as he wondered what wealthy people usually think in that crazy head of theirs sometimes¡­


    "On getting to my grandfather''s side, he found a middle aged man beside my father''s bed, someone he had never seen before in his life¡­"


    "That middle aged man who was in histe forties whilst my father back then was in histe thirties¡­"


    "The middle aged man was introduced by my grandfather to my father as Mr. James Corvinus, and he was a rising business tycoon¡­"


    "Apparently, James'' mother had died in a car crash when he was just 2 years old and his father being a wayward good for nothing wasn''t there to help, thus his grandfather stepped in and took care of him whilst James'' decided to take his grandfather''s name instead¡­"


    "James Corvinus Snr. who had learned personally from my grandfather for over half of his entire life then became the overseer of my grandfather''s wealth, and my father wasn''t at all concerned about it¡­"


    "He had just lost the only person that mattered to him the most in his life, thus, he focused on the next thing that could fill the gaping hole within him; his work!"


    "But a few yearster, he started to receive sanctions and warnings from the government because my father never wanted to involve himself with all these political strife and lies, and the government on the other hand were worried that should my father turn to their enemy nation and work with them, just two of his numerous inventions alone could cripple the entire nation so he was given only two choices; Work for the government or ¨Cyou know the ninja rule¡­"


    "But it was at that time that James'' grandfather came to my father''s rescue¡­"


    "Combining his wealth and that of my grandfather''s, he established Aeon Consults; a consulting firm that not only rendered help to the government but also to the world in general¡­"


    "His grandfather who knew the business and political part of life like the back of his own hands handled the government and every other part of the firm, whilst he funded all of my father''s research work¡­"


    "Being free of every other duties apart from doing what he loved the most, and on top of it all, being funded unreservedly, my father became a full blown scientist, creating inventions after inventions, some useful to the military, others to the environment, andstly to the people¡­"


    "Thus, Aeon Consults not only rose to be the number one firm in our country, it was also amongst the top three firms on the¡­"


    "Whilst our country enjoyed the economical and physical benefits of his invention, everything went smoothly and life was prime peaceful and enjoyable, up until the ''Great War'' began¡­"


    "Then the government began to pressurize my father and Mr. James Corvinus to abandon everything else they are doing and focus on providing for their military¡­"


    "But my father wanted a peaceful negotiation and Mr. James being the outstanding mediator that he was, was ready to mediate things between these nations, but the Department of Defense who relished in having international conflicts because it brings more money fame and power to them was having none of that¡­"


    "Two years into the war, my father was assassinated whilst Mr. James was threatened with the picture of his only descendant his safety would be guaranteed and the government wouldn''t be able to touch him then¡­"


    "But the grandson refused and was adamant on joining the military, not knowing that his grandfather was just trying to save his life¡­"


    "But luckily for him, joining the military made the Department of Defense ease their threat from being physically but subtly assaultive to being verbally assaultive, because even though they were the major controllers of the military, the military was not something to be trifled with¡­"


    "Furthermore, despite all their shenanigans, they were also scared of Mr.. Corvinus Snr. due to his level of influence and moreover, he had all the entire works of my father saved in a single sh drive he always protected with his life, thus, the DOD was also scared of forcing him to sell or give that drive to their enemy nation¡­"

 Chapter 13 - Ola & Michael

    "Furthermore, despite all their shenanigans, they were also scared of Mr. Corvinus Snr. due to his level of influence and moreover, he had all the entire works of my father saved in a single sh drive he always protected with his life..."


    "Thus, the DOD was also scared of forcing him to sell or give that drive to their enemy nation¡­"


    "But now, Mr. Corvinus has put me in charge of my Dad''s work and since the injury you guys sustained were life threatening, he instructed James to leave the military ande down here to assist me¡­"


    "James has the genes of a business man coursing through his veins, and he stands by his beliefs and is also very kind hearted and caring¡­"


    Roy stared into the distance where James and Tulip where ying hide and seek and continued;


    "It would be perfect if he can inherit all the knowledge from Mr. Corvinus and with his military past, he would grow to be just like his grandfather, unafraid of the government¡­"


    "But if that is how it is, then why am I here?" Sam sensed a gap in Roy''s exnation and asked¡­


    "Secondarily to take control and improve our security details, and primarily to assist him¡­ But the main reason why you are here is because of her¡­"


    Roy said as he became mncholic and his eyes began to redden¡­


    "I might not be around anymore¡­"


    "I can feel it anytime I shut my eyes to sleep, the malicious and deadly gaze of the government and their spies..."


    "That is why I couldn''t recruit anyone else from the military other than the best and most trusted friend of the grandson of our co-founder¡­" Roy spoke with a very sad and slightly scared tone¡­


    "Are you scared?" Sam asked¡­


    "Nah, I''m not¡­ it is my kitty tulip that I''m worried about¡­"


    Roy answered with a deep sigh as he raised his mug only to realize it was empty¡­


    "Alright, let''s go join them, and it is about time you meet the people you will be working with from now henceforth¡­"


    Roy picked up the mug-te as he and Sam approached the center of the floor where an adorable giggle was echoing from¡­


    "Daddy!"


    A little girl pounced out from behind a shrub as Roy caught her dropping the mug and the te, and all of a sudden it was like as if time slowed as Sam watched the ''mug and te'' fall slowly to the ground, and then;


    ck!


    The sound of marble grating another marble rang out as everyone looked to Sam and saw the mug te in his hands with the mug sitting upside down atop it¡­


    Third smiled at Roy who smiled at his wife who was just descending the staircase;


    "Daisy, Tulip, meet Sam; our new Chief of Security¡­"


    Roy introduced as his wife finally descended and walked up to Roy picking up Tulip from his hands¡­


    Then Daisy shook Sam''s hand with her left hand whilst she carried her daughter on her other arm;


    "We will be looking up to you for our safety¡­" Sam shook her hand and simply nodded with his best smile¡­


    "Alright, let''s get to work!"


    Third followed Sam and Roy as Tulip''s face turned sad, then he turned and made a clown face at her as she giggled once again before blowing her a kiss;


    "I''m going to be very much around, okay?"


    He winked at the little girl who fluttered her eyshes in return thinking that was how to blink¡­


    Ding!


    "Morning Dad!" Tulips A.I responded the moment Roy, Sam and James stepped in;


    "25th floor, please¡­" Roy spoke to his daughter''s projection with a smile;


    "Enjoy the joyride!"


    She responded as James looked to Sam and spoke;


    "Hang on to your pants!"


    Then the elevator mp released the coach which began to descend gradually, obviously the maic field from the coil still having its effect on it, but just in three seconds;


    Jiaa!


    The elevator free fell and Sam actually found himself floating on the floor until her waspletely upside down, then he turned around and saw Roy and James simply floating slightly off the ground with their body still upright having fun at the sight of Sam who was all over the ce, and after a few seconds ofughter, James finally extended his arm out¡­


    Sam swam his way towards James and grabbed his arm before he was finally settles down, and three secondster, they had already gotten to the 30th floor as the metal coil that made up the roof and floor of the elevator surged out with a maic field that started out strong but slowly began to strengthen itself as the elevator slowed its descent till it finally ground to a halt at the 25th floor exactly¡­


    The moment the door opened, the trio were greeted by two men in all ck; ck shirt, ck trouser ck belt, ck suit, ck shoes and even ck ties¡­


    Everything they were wearing were ck, and from their appearance and bob-cut hair, Sam knew they had intense military training but were not soldiers¡­


    Soldiers don''t wear suit and ties, no matter what the most casual thing they wear are either shorts or sweat shirt and joggers with sneakers, and the most cooperate thing they wear outside their military outfit, is to dress like SWAT¡­


    "Ah ha, they are here¡­ Allow me to introduce you to my head of personal security; oluwa Olukunle from Nigeria and our ambassador to the Department Of Defense of the federal government; Mr. Michael Atom¡­"


    "Very nice to meet you Mr. Sam Daniels¡­"


    "The feeling is mutual Mr. ¡­"


    Sam smiled as he shook his hands and then offered his hand to Michael who shook it with a smile also¡­


    "After your independent third assessment of our security details isplete, we will make the necessary changes and then work begins¡­"


    Roy smiled at the rest before adding whilst returning into the elevator;


    "I will give you guys some time to sort out everything and get along¡­ You know where to find me if you need anything else¡­"


    Ding!


    "Penthouse, please¡­"


    The four middle aged men watched the elevator ascend as they finally turned to face each other, smiles all faded, it is time to work and be blunt, thus there is no room for humor or fooling around¡­


    "So shall we begin?"


    "We shall¡­"


    responded to Sam before taking him to the inner conference room on the floor¡­


    "The security details will be be discussed in three major sections with two minor sections each¡­"


    "First is the security and safety of Roy and his family, which you will walk us through Mr. , and then I would see if there is any need to make some changes or not¡­"


    "Secondly, is the security and safety measures of the structure which I would need to discuss with the tech guys when we are done here¡­"


    "Finally, is the security and safety of all staffs which I would discuss with every squad captains andmanders working in here¡­"


    Sam defined summarized what their meeting today would consist of, before continuing;


    "The n A''s of these individual details would be discussed as well as their individual n B''s¡­"


    "Each n B will consists of two parts; the first part is to ensure that the n B by all means necessary ensures that our n A works out as nned¡­"


    "The second part of the n B would be a fail-safe should in case n A and its contingencies fail¡­"


    Sam briefed before urging  to exin the current n A''s and B''s they usually employ whenever the need arises, and as a result, the meeting began¡­

 Chapter 14 - Unrestricted Access

    "Each n B analysis will consist of two parts; the first part is to ensure that the n B by all means necessary ensures that our n A works out as nned¡­"


    "The second part of the n B would be a fail-safe should in case n A and its contingencies fail¡­"


    Sam briefed before urging  to exin the current n A''s and B''s they usually employ whenever the need arises, and as a result, the meeting began¡­


    After two solid hours of tactical discussions, upgrades and improvisations, the meeting finally ended, and with a single call from their ess band, Roy showed up in the conference room about 20 minutester;


    "How was the meeting and hope you guys are getting along?"


    Roy asked as Mr.  tried to offer him the highest seat in the room which Roy simply dismissed with a helpless sigh before sitting on a random seat¡­


    "The building''s anti fire measures uses a sophisticated sub-ceiling venttion system, with a 2 in 1 robotic water sprinklers and CO2 dispenser, arrayed at specific and precise locations, all over the structure and can put out any amount of fire in the fraction of a minute¡­"


    "All these are monitored by a secret control facility about a mile off the site of this structure¡­"


    "You hired me to inspect your safety and security systems and after two solid hours ofplete analysis, I can say it is 80 percent the safest super tall skyscraper in the entire world¡­"


    "Once I inspect the security systems of the offsite facility a third of my job would be done¡­"


    "Then, I will also inspect strength of the anti-hacking or firewall of the facility''s AI mainframe¡­"


    "And how do you n on doing that!?"


    Roy interrupted with a shocked expression, he didn''t believe Sam can be so tech savvy that he would be able to find ws within a project that took Tim, Jim and Kiki five solid years to create¡­


    "I will disclose that information to you after it is done and in private¡­"


    Roy nodded and Sam continued;


    "Then I willmence the training of the entire security squadron and personal guards, and then, all my active jobs would be done, putting me in a passive supervisory mode till my contract here runs out¡­"


    "I will also hold meetings such as this on random and abrupt date and times for additional safety¡­"


    "Thank you¡­ You were the right man for the job, just like James said¡­"


    Royplimented Sam as he stood up and walked across the long table, handing Sam a smart AI watch before adding;


    "This watch would grant you unlimited and unrestricted ess to the firms security and safetywork as well as Tulips mainframe¡­"


    "It will be linked to your biometric data and DNA¡­"


    "It''s one of a kind, and there is only one of it, and you will be the only one who can ess it¡­"


    Roy said as he handed the watch over to Sam who wore it, and looked at the screen¡­


    Instantly, he saw the watch use the tiny but concealed secret webcam to scan every feature of his face, followed by a retinal scan and finally a stab in the wrist which took a tiny sample of Sam''s blood for DNA logging¡­


    Then he saw the watch disy some things on it which was an instruction telling him to speak for Voice logging, for whenever the watch needs to be voice activated¡­


    "Then you will be given one of our Tulip model SUV''s that will take you to the offsite facility"


    Roy said before giving Sam and handshake and turned around to leave;


    "Tim or Jim would exin how everything works including your new SUV¡­"


    Roy said as he was walking towards the elevator, and when he stepped into it, he turned around and added;


    "If you can hurry, then there should be enough time to finish up today¡­"


    "Thanks¡­" Sam added with his best smile, as the elevator finally returned Roy to his penthouse¡­


    Since Roy had taken the secret elevator, Mr.  stayed behind whilst James, Sam and Mr. Michael who was the ambassador to the Department of Defense took the normal elevator down to the 20th floor, which was their tech station¡­


    James and Sam alighted at the 20th floor whilst Mr. Michael waited, apparently, he was done for the day and was following the elevator to the ground floor¡­


    The moment the elevator closed, Mr. Michael whipped out his phone and texted;


    "He has the watch¡­ I''m out after this¡­"


    Ding!


    A reply came in almost instantaneously;


    "Just make sure that you get his wife and kids, we will take it from there!" The reply read¡­


    "Jim look, it''s super Sam!"


    Tim yelled as Jim and Kiki also looked over in shock, and as Sam entered they were all smiling so hard, their lips nearly hung itself permanently¡­


    "Hi, I''m Kiki¡­"


    Kiki blurted before looking at James and with a bow from the waist, she greeted;


    "Asa, James ojisan!"


    James smiled and then gave Kiki a yful but light knock in the middle of her head;


    "English Akito¡­ Always greet me in English whenever you are not at home¡­"


    "Moreover, Aunt Akira can''t send you a knock all the way from japan for not speaking Japanese, but I can always hit you on the head for not speaking in English¡­"


    James joked as Kiki readdressed her mode of greeting;


    "Morning, Uncle James¡­"


    "Better¡­" James replied with a smile¡­


    "So, we were told you wereing her to learn more about your gadgets¡­" Jim went straight to business¡­


    "Yes, but first, I thought you guys would be the only one in here?"


    Sam said when he looked around and noticed the entire floor was divided into ten sections with an eleventh one looking like the conference room of the security station on the 25th floor, except that this conference room was at least twice its size, with three massive workstations within, which Sam guessed would be where Tim, Jim and Kiki usually work¡­


    "Well, wouldn''t that make our office a little too big?" Tim added from the side¡­


    "Section 1 handles the firm''s inte traffic through Tulip¡­"


    Kiki pointed to an area of the floor which had a que that read ''1'' hanging over it;


    "Why don''t you just write ''Inte'' on the que?" Sam asked seemingly bewildered;


    "Well, should an intruder or enemy manage to find their way into this ce, which is certainly impossible, then it would be easier to find what they are looking for, wouldn''t it?"


    Kiki replied with a smile as she skipped ahead like a happy little girl, whilst Tim simply stood and watched;


    "Eew dude!" Jim blurted;


    "What!?" Tim protested;


    "Are you going to tell me you weren''t just checking her out!" Jim snorted before catching up with Kiki with a fast pace¡­


    "You could just tell her how you feel, you know¡­" James added as he followed them up;


    "What¡­ No!" Tim blurted with a blush;


    "She is too good for me¡­ Moreover, she will never go out with me¡­"


    He added with an helpless sigh and a slumped shoulder as Sam finally patted him on the shoulder before encouraging him;


    "You guys have been cooped up in here, working together for over five years, she would have definitely caught you checking her out at least once or twice, and if she didn''t react negatively to it immediately, that means she loved it..."


    "Girls anddies never allow someone who they don''t like to check them out without giving that person a piece of their furious mind¡­"


    Sam then tapped his shoulders and walked ahead leaving Tim behind in thought¡­


    Then after spacing out for about three seconds, Tim''s eyes lit up in delight as he ran and caught up to Sam before firing several questions at him;


    "Are you sure about that!?"


    "You really think she loves it when i do that!?"


    "What if she was just enjoying the tease?"


    "¡­Whoa, whoa, whoa¡­ I''m the one who is supposed to be getting my questions answered here¡­"


    Sam protested jokingly before adding;


    "Just be calm, and tell her how you feel¡­"


    "I don''t think I can¡­"


    Tim slumped his shoulders in defeat once again as Sam charged;


    "I will give you five seconds and if you don''t tell her how you feel, I will tell her, you were checking her out, myself!"


    "What!?"


    "No! Wait!"


    Tim instantly became flustered as they caught up to Kiki and the rest whilst Sam held up five fingers and began to fold them one by one, obviously counting down for Tim¡­


    Then when the countdown ended Sam spoke grabbing everyone''s attention;


    "Kiki, Tim told me he always secretly checked you out¡­" He lied¡­


    "What!?" Kiki pouted with a fuming expression as she began to stomp her way toward Tim;


    "Oh, he is in for it!" Jim grinned happily¡­

 Chapter 15 - Bottled Feelings Explode When Poked

    "What!?"


    "No! Wait!"


    Tim instantly became flustered as they caught up to Kiki and the rest whilst Sam held up five fingers and began to fold them one by one, obviously counting down for Tim¡­


    Then when the countdown ended Sam spoke grabbing everyone''s attention;


    "Kiki, Tim told me he always secretly checked you out¡­" He lied¡­


    "What!?" Kiki pouted with a fuming expression as she began to stomp her way toward Tim;


    "Oh, he is in for it!" Jim grinned happily¡­


    "No, I didn''t say that!?" Tim nched when he saw Kiki approaching with a balled fist;


    "Are you saying our super Sam is lying?" Jim tried to fan the mes from behind, still with a grin stered on his face¡­


    But as Tim was about to reply, he realized Kiki had gotten to his position, so he closed his eyes and got ready to be pummeled, but instead, he felt a moist lips which tasted like strawberry press to his own lips before a moist tongue invaded his mouth¡­


    Snapping his eye open in shock, he saw Kiki''s face on his, with her eyes closed as she delivered a passionate, love-filled kiss to him, and before he could join in and basked in her love, Kiki had already stepped away, then she stopped and looked backwards with a yful smile and blush on her adorable face;


    "Instead of watching the trailer, you should try asking next time, then I can let you see the full movie¡­"


    Kiki said before blowing him another kiss and walking over to the area that had ''2'' hung above it¡­


    James, Jim and even Tim himself stared at Kiki with their jaws cked open, but Tim was still cing his finger over his lips feeling the touch of Kiki''s lips on his, whilst he could taste the strawberry vor of her lipstick, and he knew the kiss she just gave him wasn''t a tease or anything, she really meant it¡­


    She loved him!


    "How is that possible!?" was the thought running through his mind, and whilst he was thinking he was dreaming, Kiki''s next statement nearly made his knees buckle;


    "Are youing, babe?" She said with a blush still on her adorable cheeks¡­


    "Oh, unh¡­ I¡­ I''ming, I guess¡­" Tim stuttered nervously;


    "Oh¡­ I love it with when one of the greatest tech mind on the stutters just because of me¡­"


    Kiki winked and when Tim reached her position, she grabbed his face into hers and nted another kiss, but this time, Tim was able to react on time and grabbed her waist pulling her into him, as Kiki giggled into his mouth¡­


    "Hey lovebirds, I hate to ruin the moment, but¡­"


    I''m sorry super Sam¡­"


    Kiki apologized as she grabbed Tim by the hand intertwining her fingers with his as she finally reached the second section whilst Tim looked behind at Jim and gave him a gloating face with a bit of mockery within;


    "This is the second section and they are in charge of Tulip''s cuber security¡­"


    Kiki moved on still dragging Tim who was currently love struck and was just there staring at her, and from the level of blush on Kiki''s face currently, she knew he was, and it appealed romantically to her innerdy¡­


    "This is section three and they are in charge of Data cotion and storage¡­"


    Kiki continued before whispering into Tim''s ears;


    "How can you let me concentrate when you are staring at me that way¡­ It''s making me hot¡­" She confessed as Tim who was stunned managed to stutter;


    "Oh¡­ I¡­ I am sorry?"


    "Oh god, you are so sweet when you are nervous¡­"


    "Tell you what¡­ if you let me work, then I promise we would make out for an hour once they both leave¡­" Kiki dropped a bomb that sted Tim''s brains into oblivion¡­


    "You got it, babe!"


    Tim blurted and the rest who had finally caught up to them heard him and saw him unlink their fingers and letting Kiki go, whilst Kiki heaved a huge sigh which seemed to reduce her current level of blush¡­


    "You aren''t going to oppose their rtionship, will you?" Sam asked when he saw a slight frown on James'' face;


    "Of course not¡­ In fact, I am rather very happy¡­"


    "I have never seen or heard of her having a romantic rtionship before¡­"


    "Even her mother; my aunt, had once thought her daughter was gay, but what I can seem to figure out is why she is so PDA all of a sudden¡­"


    James replied still and the frown on his face began to ease up into an amused grin;


    "Well, bottled feelings explode when poked¡­"


    "I guess she had always wanted to show her feelings but was simply caught in the notion that a guy must always propose first¡­"


    "Or perhaps, she was just like him; afraid of being rejected, so they would rather not make their feelings known¡­" Sam gave his opinion;


    "I''m rather happy it was him¡­ Tim is a good and sweet guy¡­ I have known him for almost four years now, and I know he can''t even hurt a fly¡­"


    "Moreover, they both have a lot inmon¡­" Jamesughed lightly¡­


    "Well, Jim, I guess we are the only single ones around here¡­" James joked trying to find a partner in misery;


    "Um, sorry Mr. James, but I have a girlfriend¡­" Jim dashed his hopes;


    "What? Not you too!" Jamesughed self mockingly;


    "Bro, you need to get out there¡­ I am sure you would get one within a single hour¡­" Sam tapped his shoulder in constion¡­


    "Then this is the fourth section, and they are in charge of Troubleshooting Tulips at certain intervals to ensure that she''s prime and at full functionality¡­" Kiki continued;


    "Here we have the fifth section and they are in charge of transportation¡­"


    "Transportation?"


    Sam was bewildered, why was there a tech department for transportation;


    "Yeah, we have our self-driving trains and buses which moves through the entire state in less than three hours to ship all our workers from their doorsteps down to work¡­"


    "Wow!"


    "Right?" Kiki smiled, happy that she could wow one of her heroes¡­


    "Alright we will do the rest tomorrow¡­ I am in a bit of a hurry here¡­"


    "So, if these guys do the work, what do you guys do then, including your division head; Mr. Kent?" Sam asked;


    "Well, Mr. Kent simplyes up with an idea and the general function of the idea, and we are tasked with creating it; be it an App, AI, Software or Hardware¡­" Tim finally found his voice before adding;


    "Whilst we create these stuffs, they make use of it, and when they have a problem that they can''t solve, theye to us¡­" he concluded;


    "So, Mr. Kent is the mind, you guys are the brains, and they are the limbs¡­" Sam predicted;


    "Nope¡­ What we create are the limbs, and they are more like the person who gives tasks to those limbs¡­" Jim finished with a smug grin¡­


    "Cool¡­ About what we are here for?" Sam urged;


    "Oh, Tim is the tech-tech guy¡­ Jim is more of the infrastructural-tech guy, whilst I am the medical-tech girl¡­" Kiki said with an adorable smile;


    "Alright, Tim¡­ Let''s have it¡­"


    Sam turned to Tim who walked over and held Sam''s hand, looking over the AI watch and sighed;


    "I created this baby from several weeks of sleepless nights and hard work¡­"


    "So, what would you like to know?" Tim asked seemingly emotional;


    "It seems this guy really went through a great deal to make this watch unh?" Sam thought to himself but said something else;


    "I want to know what it can do, including the SUV¡­"


    "You got an SUV too? That''s so cool!" Kiki''s eyes were literally glittering stars at this point¡­


    "Well I made the watch to do everything and anything in the world¡­ It can literally make you smile if you are ever sad¡­"


    "What!?" Everyone blurted including Jim and Kiki¡­


    "Try it out¡­" Tim said with a slumped shoulder¡­


    "Err, what''s its name?" Sam asked;


    "Tim!" Tim replied¡­


    "Hey Tim!"


    Chu-Lom!


    The watch came alive with a slight vibration;


    "Hi Sam, how can I help you?"


    The voice that came out sounded 90 percent like the real Tim, and everyone stared at Tim to ensure he wasn''t the one speaking;


    "What betting oue has the highest prediction in the next Miami Heat game?"


    Chu-Lom!


    "Miami Heat defeats the Boston Celtics by a score difference of 19¡­"


    The watch replied as James took a remote control from a table and changed the channel on disy, and found out that the fourth quarter of the game was just about to begin and Boston were leading by 21 points¡­

 Chapter 16 - Monster Or Masterpiece

    "What betting oue has the highest prediction in the next Miami Heat game?"


    Chu-Lom!


    "Miami Heat defeats the Boston Celtics by a score difference of 19¡­"


    The watch replied as James took a remote control from a table and changes the channel on disy, and found out that they were just about to begin the fourth quarter and Boston were leading by 21 points¡­


    "Oh, that''s really urate!"


    Jim''s sarcasm nearly suffocated everyone within the room except for Kiki who held his hand and squeezed it to show her stance and support;


    "Don''t worry babe, I won''te short of your expectations!"


    Tim whispered into Kiki''s ear, but the way his hot breath brushed past her ear, had her red from that ear up to the tips of her hair as she subconsciously clenched herps together tightly, like an adulteress trying to keep the cum of her infidel from leaking down her thighs¡­


    Soon enough, a Miami Heat yer with a ''heroic'' name shot four 3 pointers back to back, and the point gap was reduced to twelve¡­


    Two minutes before the end of the game, the same yer shot another two 3 pointers reducing the lead to six points, before the strongest yer on the Miami side powered his way through the center circle before dunking another 2 points and winning a foul making it up three points¡­


    Twelve secondster, the heroic yer threw a 3 pointer before the foul whistle was blown, allowing him to shoot three free throws, gobbling up a total of six points at a go, meaning that the Miami Heats were now leading three points with about 55 seconds to go¡­


    Another two 3 pointer with two fouls afterwards ensured that the Miami heats were now 15 points ahead with only 15 seconds left¡­


    Now the entire room were stealing nces at Tim only to find out that he wasn''t worried in the least, as if having absolute faith in his creation¡­


    The Boston Celtics charged ahead with the ball as their star yer who had the name of a famous actor threw a sure 3 pointer, only to find a ck hand scoop the ball right from the entrance of the and countered quickly and after wriggling around, the strongest yer on the Miami Heat''s team ensured that he dunked another 2 pointer¡­


    Five seconds left and everyone in the room though were awestruck, had already written it off that the Miami Heat will extend their lead from a 17 point lead to a 19 point lead¡­


    This was because not only did the Miami''s have 5 seconds left, but ball was also in the possession of the Boston''s as the Miami coach called for a time-out, pausing the game and giving his guys a breather¡­


    "Coach, should we try out that tactic you suggested inst week''s training?" The MVP on the Miami side asked whilst taking heavy puffs from intense exhaustion;


    "That would really dim the spotlight on our win tonight if we get it wrong¡­"


    The Coach though appreciated that his yers were ready to risk a lot to make his dangerous idea work, but was also unwilling to allow their spotlight dim because of a stupid and risky tactics he came up with at their training;


    "We will allow the spotlight dim for now so that it can shine brighter in the future¡­"


    The Heroic yer who had been shooting impressive 3 pointers butt in, and being the joint MVP of the team, the rest of the squad pretty much followed his decision, as the referee ordered them back into the field;


    "Godspeed, my boys!" The Coach insinuated his decision as the guys went back into the court¡­


    Preee!


    The referee blew his whistle as the y resumed¡­


    The Boston''s who also had a very difficult but famous tactics in their mind found a momentarypse in the Miami defense andunched a rocket of a pass from end to end, as their point man jumped into the air and prepared to dunk the ball, Jim stood up and patted Tim''s shoulder as he muttered with a grin;


    "Sorry bro¡­ it''s over!"


    The yer who was about to dunk the ball was the best in that aspect in the entirepetition, but just as he was about to m the ball into the, a familiar ck hand p the ball of his palm cleanly¡­


    The ball fell into the hands of a Miami yer who subconsciously chose to replicate the same famous move as the Boston''s,unching the ball to the other end of the court, as everyone saw their heroic yer leap off the ground after the ball...


    He didn''t catch the ball, but simply nudged it a bit higher, as the game time ended whilst the ball was still in the air;


    Buuunn!


    Tch!


    The siren red the end of the game, followed by the sound of the ball entering the immediately after¡­


    Jim turned back just in time to see the ball enter the after the time rm had red signaling the end of the game as he smiled;


    "Damn, I can believe my back is sweating!" Jim realized after the time had red as he grinned widely¡­


    He was not an antagonist or a viin to his twin brother, but that was just his way of challenging his brother to surpass his best;


    "I''ve always told you to watch and understand basketball, but you never do..."


    That was all Tim said as they all saw the final score line change to [Miami 154 ¨C 135 Boston]¡­


    "How is that possible!?" Jim eximed as he rubbed his eyes;


    "That must either be a glitch or Miami is cheating!" Jim protested;


    "Nope, the rule says; as long as the ball has left the yer''s hand when the shot was made, it still counts¡­" Sam revealed;


    "What!?"


    "Are you telling me that, if I throw the ball high into the air, and it enters the ten seconds after the final re, my shot would still count!?"


    Jim''s head was currently spinning as he found it very hard to wrap his head around such an unorthodox rule¡­


    "As long as the ball leaves your hand before the final re, it doesn''t matter if it takes two months for your ball to enter, it would still count¡­" James subtly added from the side¡­


    "Tim, this is absolutely divine!"


    Chu-Lom!


    "Anytime, Sam!"


    The AI responded as Sam sped Tim on the shoulder clearly thepliment was meant for the nerd and not the AI;


    "I don''t know whether to call it a monster or masterpiece, but this is truly the best technology I know exist¡­"


    Sammended as he walked ahead, followed by James who had no choice but to pull Tim into his embrace, before patting his head and following Sam¡­


    "How did you-?" Jim asked but Tim simply shook his head slightly and exined;


    "Tim had long predicted the game even before it started¡­" He began;


    "He uses the real life personal experiences of every single yer and staffs of each team, and considers them before making his calctions based on the psychology of everyone¡­"


    "As for Hero, his wife just gave birth, and is in a very high spirits, and their MVP just divorced his toxic wife a while ago which meant his mind was at peace¡­"


    "Finally, the African who made those fantastic blocks finally had his family leave the refugee camp three days before the game, and all this came together to boost the entire team''s psyche¡­"


    Tim exined as Kiki, Jim and the eavesdropping duo of James and Sam found their minds blown by the intricacy, attention to details, and therge amount of information the AI would have to filter through to get all these values urately...


    But Tim simply spoke as a matter of factly with a simple shrug of his shoulder...


    "I heard when you prospected the idea, but I never believe you could actually get it to work!" Jim was impressed;


    "Well, you were one painful motivator, and I never believed it would work either¡­" Tim admitted;


    "Well I am sure of one thing that would always work from now on¡­" Kiki interrupted;


    "What?" Jim and Tim asked almost simultaneously, as Kiki replied;


    "Us!" Before nting the deepest and most erotic kiss Tim had ever gotten or seen¡­


    The kiss was almost something straight out of pornos, as Tim decided to find out if that was the caseter on¡­

 Chapter 17 - Damn!

    "Well, you were one painful motivator, and I never believed it would work either¡­" Tim admitted;


    "Well I am sure of one thing that would always work from now on¡­" Kiki interrupted;


    "What?" Jim and Tim asked, as Kiki replied;


    "Us!"


    Before nting the deepest and most erotic kiss Tim had ever gotten or seen¡­


    The kiss was almost something straight out of pornos, as Tim decided to find out if that was the caseter on¡­


    Afterwards, they all took the elevator down to the basement where the firm''s garage was located, and after maneuvering several corners, they finally got to a massive double door and when they reached entrance, a secret protruding camera on the top of the massive garage doors scanned all the figures at its entrance and after confirming their clearance level, it rumbled open¡­


    The sheer vibration that Sam felt told him that this garaged door was most likely made out of at least a fifteen inch steel and was very tough and heavy¡­


    Once they entered, they saw several exotic and futuristic looking cars parked neatly in rows and columns everywhere, and as they made a corner, they came to another set of cars parked in a circle with a bid gap in their middle and a single car sized space that led out of the encirclement¡­


    In the middle of this encirclement sat [yes, I mean sat!]


    [That was how intense and insane the bnce and the stance of this vehicle looked like¡­]


    Sam could see it was an SUV size, just a little bigger than the one He and James came with¡­ All these cars were covered by pitch ck covers with only their badges on it¡­.


    "And that is it!" Tim broke the silence as he rubbed his palms together¡­


    "So, where are the keys?" Sam asked, somewhat eager and curious to see whaty beneath that pitch-ck silk car cover;


    "What do you mean by keys?" Tim replied with a smug grin¡­


    "This is the product of Mr. Kent''s fantasy that the automobile sector of our Aeon Consult just birthed..."


    "I also personally created the AI software it runs on, and linked it to the Tulips mainframe¡­ Of course, it won''t use keys¡­"


    Tim continued whilst Kiki kept staring at him talk with a proud grin whilst Jim was there also taking the information as well as James¡­


    None of them knew this car existed, except from the people who created and installed it¡­


    "So, how do I operate it?" Sam asked his curiosity and eagerness ever increasing¡­


    He had never even driven an electronic vehicle before in his life, not to talk of one as high tech as this¡­


    Definitely, Mr. Kent''s fantasy would be nothing short of mind blowing¡­


    "It is voice controlled and has an insane amount of dust sensitive sensors that would respond to every single one of your gestures¡­"


    Tim continued;


    "You just have to tell Tim to connect to the car whilst pointing your watch at it¡­"


    Tim added as he swiped the silk cover off the car, and the car came into view;


    Hiss!


    The audience drew in a gush of cold breath through the slits in their mouths¡­


    "Whoa!"


    "Damn!"


    "Wow!"


    They couldn''t help butment as they saw this brain-stunning masterpiece in view¡­


    It was white with some of the most insane wheels and bnce¡­


    "What are its specs?" Sam eventually found his voice;


    "Taking only the motor aspect of it, then I would be proud to tell you that this gem right here is running on a V32, Quad Turbo, Nuclear Injection but electricity powered engine, with an output of exactly 3,000 horsepower, which can carry you from 0-200 in just about 3 seconds, with a top speed of about 1000 Mph¡­"


    "It also stands on an adamantium reinforced structural frame which is not only lightweight but the strongest and toughest metal on the¡­"


    "It is also supported by some patches of carbon fiber which not only contributed to its otherworldly shape, but ensures that it is lightweight and durable as well¡­"


    "All this things rest on a twin air and water pressured suspension system which means you can enter into a pot hole of about 10 inches at 150 Mph and not feel anything within the car¡­"


    "Then it is all carried by these adamantium crafted wheels and these carbon and steel streamlined tyres¡­"


    "The windshields and every other ss part of this car is made of abination of stic, rubber and fiber ss shards, all melted together and carved into this light weight but insanely strong bulletproof ss, which can withstand the bullet from an Arctic Warfare Magnum Sniper rifle¡­"


    "It has also passed the anti-tank test, which meant it had been shot by a tanker three times on the same spot yielding only a dent in the body that was 6 inches deep¡­"


    "For security, the interior of this car is packed with airbags from the roof, to the inside of the door to the floor itself, the seats and the steering wheel¡­"


    "This airbags don''t pop up, instead, a thin sheet of rock-wool streamlined, and carbon threaded cotton sheets have been ced, between the hard metal body of this car and the interior designs, and it is likewise for the seats, dash and every other thing..."


    "Thus, whenever this car hits something or is hit by something, the entire insides of the car inted like a balloon, making the car feel like a bouncing castle on the insides¡­"


    "There are no ss or sharp objects within as all the panels you are seeing are made of soft, bendable and flexible stretched rubber¡­"


    "With the rest being leathers and rugs, the steering wheel and the gear would only pop out of the confines when you want to disable the auto pilot and drive yourself¡­"


    "The sensors in this car can detect an object from a mile away and has ultraviolet enabled lenses to detect images on stealth mode¡­"


    "It is connected to Tulips mainframe, which means it can manipte traffic controls to its benefit, by calcting the amounts of green lights, and red lights all over the city to map out a specific route which will ensure you always run into a green light and thereby enjoy a continuous ride from wherever you are to your destination..."


    "Furthermore, this effect spans the radius of an entire city¡­."


    "Its head and taillights can be powered by kryptonite gas for when you want to see deep into the road at night which reaches a length of about 50 meters from your vehicles location, as well as LED which have been fine tuned to reach a distance of 30 meters..."


    "Finally, there is theser beams; located beneath the car which not only warms the car up during winter, but also melt the snow along the way at an inch per second¡­"


    "The span of thisser beams covers a ten meter distance¡­"


    Tim paused to catch his breath whilst the audience had long gone silent as they stared at the car in awe¡­.


    "There are also neonmps which had been used to not only decorate the entire interior, but also possesses over 1 billion color as well as taking different aurora shades, giving you the feel like you''re cruising within the auroras¡­"


    "There is also the deep space configuration which makes you feel like you are traveling through the gxies¡­"


    "It also has the firece configuration which not only surrounds you by a fiery disy but automatically reconfigures the air conditioning to also give you not only the temperatures of these conditions, but also the air pressure the scent which is produced by the inbuilt deodorant cases and density..."


    "This means that, in the deep space configuration, you will actually be given an oxygen helmet, and the interior of the car would be subjected by a zero gravity level, making you float just like astronauts¡­"

 Chapter 18 - High Tech SUV

    "It also has the firece configuration which not only surrounds you by a fiery disy but automatically reconfigures the air conditioning to also give you not only the temperatures of these conditions, but also the air pressure the scent which is produced by the inbuilt deodorant cases and density..."


    "This means that in the deep space configuration, you will actually be given an oxygen helmet, and then the interior of the car would be subjected by a zero gravity level, making you float just like astronauts¡­"


    "There are thousands of configuration to choose from; like the seasonal, which drops the temperature to -20 degrees Celsius for winter, but also the spring which keeps you at a cool temperature and sprays the garden influx deodorant which was a masterpiece deodorant developed by Kiki, which stimtes the smell of over 2000 flowers and trees¡­" Tim continued;


    "But most of all, I added a little bit of my touch to hit; the party mode which syncs with your music ylist and also the work mode which gives you an office vibe¡­"


    "You also have the yoga mode, sleep mode; which makes every single feature in the car automatic and auto pilot, and also syncs with your ylist, AC, converts the seat into a miniature bed and the scent capsules to help you sleep the best during your journey¡­"


    "You can also simply tell its AI how you feel and with its health care configuration, it would automatically tune all its features to a healthy solution for your current mood¡­"


    "Now that is all the lifestyle aspect of the car¡­ Now for its weapon system¡­" Tim continued;


    "Wait¡­ What!?" Everyone was stunned¡­


    "Why would I be given an SUV with a weapon system, and moreover, isn''t that a little bit too much for my job status?"


    Sam was finding it hard to believe that the firm could be given all this to him just because he was the overall chief of security of their headquarters¡­


    "There are three reasons why this is happening, of which I am only permitted to mention one; it is because of your smart watch¡­"


    "That watch not only controls everything about this building, from its security, to its AI mainframe, and even every single piece of technology it has, it is also the brain and the heart of this entire firm¡­" Tim exined after confirming that they were alone¡­


    "For such a sensitive and valuable piece of technology that must be in use 24/7, we obviously don''t want to keep it in one ce, or allow multiple ess to it, which frankly means the firm wants a single person to me and hold ountable for any mishaps that may arise due to its use¡­"


    "And who better to give ce such a responsibility on, if not you; Super Sam!" Tim exined;


    "But, because you carry such a vital and sensitive equipment, we also have to ensure your safety, hence the defensive capabilities of this car, but also be able to reach you or have you here in a moment''s notice, hence its performance qualities¡­"


    "Then in the case of being cornered by enemies and assassins, we also added some attacking qualities to it..."


    "Then finally, to make sure you live a life offort, we added the bestfort system one can find on the within¡­"


    "There is also enough space within it for as many as seven people you included¡­"


    "As for the other two reasons, our boss would tell you about them¡­" Tim finished¡­


    He was about to talk a bit when Sam stopped him with a finger;


    "Wait a bit¡­ This is truly a lot to take in¡­" He said, as he took several deep breaths¡­


    Sam was just beginning to understand his job description and just how much responsibility had been ced on him, and as he thought of that, he gazed at the high tech watch, and for some reasons, it started to feel like a cuff, rather than a multi-million dor piece of equipment¡­


    But, it took only three minutes, several calming breaths, the guts of a hardened soldier, and the valiance of one who had dined and danced with death on more than one asion for all that worry to melts like a candle in a furnace¡­


    "Alright, give me the dessert¡­"


    "Cool¡­ First of all, let''s start from the front¡­"


    Tim spoke as quad moved to the front of the car and finally took in the beautiful design on it, from the stencils, to the grills and the curves and streamlines¡­


    No matter what you look at, this car was one of its own kind¡­


    "Hidden within the turning lights of this baby, is an in-built rocketuncher which three lightweight, but nuclear powered missiles within each of them¡­"


    "These missile has the ability to destroy a tank and its explosion can cover a range of about 50 meter radius¡­"


    "Within its heamps are also two hi tech automatic gattling guns which uses its sensors to identify your target and fires at your voicemand¡­ " Tim began¡­


    "Hidden within the grills is also a very advance supersonic speaker, which can deliver a soundwave of up to 1000 decibels, decimating anything that might be in your path¡­"


    Phewphee!


    James couldn''t help but whistle when he heard the first set of this SUV''s weapon system;


    "I would give my brain, heart and two kidneys for one of this¡­" He blurted;


    "No worries brother¡­ we can both ride in it anytime¡­" Sam said with a smiley wink¡­


    "Also, there is a pop up logo of ourpany on its hood which can not only rotate at every angle, but also shootsers¡­"


    "So, if you find your self trapped in front of a massive wall or a 50 inch thick steel doors, there is no need to fret, theser can just the SUV''s exact size through that barrier and open up a path, and that would be all for the front¡­" Tim said before moving to the side¡­


    "Each of your window is an in built screen that can not only frost or tint at yourmand, but also disy false images of the content of the car from outside¡­"


    "You can make people think you have been shot in the head and was dead, or an image of the entire insides of the car being on fire¡­"


    "Behind you side mirrors are nanite cameras which records everything and everywhere you go, including everything that happens; whenpletely turned off, it records a video in 30 seconds interval and upload it to your watch¡­"


    "When in sleep mode, it records ten minutes intervals and also uploads it to your watch, and finally, when turned on, it uploads everything in real-time and saves it to your watch which has a cloud storage of about 50TB¡­" Tim said before they got to the back of the SUV;


    "Hidden within your tail lights are metal spikes of varied types; ranging from, adamantium to vibranium, iron, steel aluminum and the likes, just to ensure that whatever type of tyres areing behind you gets busted¡­"


    "But hidden within these back trafficators, are extremely poisonous and painful teargasses which also contains a bit of nitrogenughing gas, to incapacitate your enemies from the rear¡­"


    "Hidden within the twin exhaust pipes are ropes with arrow heads that can pierce through a 40 inch steel, should you have a need for an anchor¡­ "


    "Wait, don''t tell me this can also ride on water!?"


    Jim knew the answer to the question but he still couldn''t stop himself from asking;


    "Of course we have to think of the case of being run over the bridge, and when that happens, the underneath of this SUV curves slightly inwardly, while some airbags hidden beneath the door step pops out for added buoyancy, before you tyres bends and be propellers¡­"


    "The roof of the car also pops of and each of the chairs are actually military aircraft grade ejectable seats¡­"


    Tim took a breather and everyone also allowed him a few minutes, after all, he had been exining so many things to them and even a talkative would get tired from having to speak that long¡­


    "Finally, within this SUV is a blood-bank, sniper rifle, machine gun, rocketuncher, pump action, oxygen masks, a katana, switch de, army knife, taser, swim suit and emergency lifesaver jacket to keep you from drowning¡­"


    "There are other gadgets within and outside the SUV that can be essed through your watch, as soon as you connect it¡­ You can alsomand it to park itself around a corner or driveway¡­"


    "There are just so many things tied to it¡­"


    "It will be better if you just connect to it and go through them yourselves, but first, you have to rename the watch AI, because that is the same name this SUV will respond to whenever you are closeby¡­"


    Tim finished and stepped back for Sam to begin the connection process¡­

 Chapter 19 - Secret Control Facility

    "You can alsomand it to park itself around a corner or driveway¡­"


    "There are just so many things tied to it¡­"


    "It will be better if you just connect to it and go through them yourselves, but first, you have to rename the watch AI, because that is the same name this SUV will respond to whenever you are close-by¡­"


    Tim finished and stepped back for Sam to begin the connection process¡­


    Sam simply turned his wrist to check the time, and instantly Tim [the watch AI came online];


    Chu-Lom


    "Hey Sam, what would you like to do?" It asked;


    "Change your name¡­"


    Sam said in hope, he wasn''t sure whether that was the right way to rename the AI, but when heard another Chu-Lom sound, he understood he had been worrying for nothing;


    "Say my name¡­" [Damn¡­ This came out wrong¡­ LOL!]


    "Orchid!"


    Sam said, and after telling him to repeat the name two more times for verification and confirmation, the watch AI finally adopted the name ''Orchid'', then Sam was about to approach the SUV, but the moment he turned around to face the SUV, he heard a Chu-Lom sound and then;


    "SUV has been discovered, would you like me to assume control over this it?"


    "Affirmative!" Sam responded like they did back at the base¡­


    Chu-Lom!


    Synchronizing User Data with SUV mainframe¡­


    Synchronization Complete¡­


    Assuming Control Of SUV Command System¡­


    2%plete¡­


    5% Complete¡­


    10% Complete¡­


    Then Sam watched as the process bar filled up and when it finallypleted, he heard another Chu-Lom sound;


    Merging System Mainframe & Algorithm¡­


    Merging Complete¡­


    Downloading User Life Preferences From Satellite¡­


    Download Complete¡­


    The moment all these finished, the SUV in front of all of them lit up with azure colored interior lights, and all led lights as the engine started without Sam having to do anything¡­


    Just the presence and proximity of Sam, or to be more precise, just the proximity of the watch on Sam''s wrist was enough to get it started as the door opened [Suicide Doors], and three floating bs [steps] arranged held together by what seems to be a maic field fell off from door trim¡­


    Sam watched everything with a stunned mind and cked jaws, then he walked up to the SUV and actually had to climb into it, because this SUV was like a medium monster truck due to its height, width and bnce¡­


    When Sam entered, he gestured for James toe in and the door actually stayed open, and once James climbed in, he sat across Sam who looked to these three nerds and spoke;


    "I''ll be back¡­ Gotta get to the offsite control center and do some security checkups¡­"


    Then the door closed seemingly sensing Sam''s intent based on his stance on the seat and sitting posture¡­


    The steps stacked over each other before returning to the door trim as both Sam and James once again watch it happen in awe, then the door closed, and an image of Sam''s favorite superhero character appeared, d in his usual superhero outfit, which was basically red with ck belts and straps everywhere, including a red mask and some touch of white¡­


    He looked ready to be up to no good; this superhero character was none other than Deadpool [all rights reserved to its trademark!]


    Chu-Lom!


    "Where would you like to go, Sam?" Orchid asked;


    "Aeon Consult Secret Offsite Control Facility, please¡­"


    Sam responded as he watched the SUV move, and they were just about to drive past the three nerds when Sam and James saw that Kiki and Tim were already at it, whilst Jim just walked away with slumped shoulders but determined expression etched on his face...


    He seemed to be thinking of something to create that would surpass what his brother had just done...


    Perhaps, that was his way of getting over the frustration of not only being single, but also having no girlfriend to share a romantic time with, but as it turns out, little did he know that he wouldn''t remain single for too long, not even up to three hours¡­


    "Tint the sses, please."


    Sam said as the windows of the SUV went pitch ck, so ck to the extent that, not even the daylight could spill in.


    Furthermore, it was so ck that, not only could people outside not see what was inside, even Sam and James who were inside couldn''t see what was going on outside, and just as they were about to start worrying over the situation, a projector projected a 2 kilometer radius, 360 degree view of the car and its environment¡­


    This projection settled down in front of both Sam and James, as Sam decided to test it out;


    "Zoom in on projection¡­"


    The moment he said that, the projection zoomed in so clear and urate, that Sam was able to make out the steamsing out from the subway lids along the sides of the road¡­


    "Woah-ho-ho!"


    James was ecstatic by what he was seeing as Sam finally rxed into his seat, followed by his favorite songing on and ying subtly in the background in a way whereby, he could actually converse with James without shouting and they were both still able to enjoy the music with the top grade, hi tech, surround sound system installed in the SUV...


    "One can even live within this gem and not even miss out on anything¡­"


    Sam said with a rxed tone whilst James added;


    "I could really get used to this¡­"


    "I''ve told you brother, we can ride together anytime¡­"


    Sam replied as he and James bumped fists before they both rxed and enjoyed the fast butfy ride, as they truly realized that it truly seemed like the traffic lights didn''t exist at all, because they never stopped or slowed down too much, even on sharp turns, as the handling of this SUV as well as its suspension and the grip of its tyres to the road made perfect sure of that¡­


    A journey that would have taken Sam about at least an hour or two using James''s SUV actually took only ten minutes for them, and they were so rxed to the extent that, when the SUV pulled into the offsite control facility which was more like a secret base, because all they saw at the entrance was;


    ''Sukky''s Beef''¡­


    But when they went around to the back, they saw a little gate with high tech electric fences and guard wielding advanced military grade weapons and armor, as they stopped them, and one of them came to the window area to check on the people within this SUV whose appearance was currently giving the guard the chills¡­


    He came to request for their passes, whilst his colleague took a Dog that looked like the hybrid of both an intense K-9 dog, but with the build of a tiger¡­


    The dog sniffed the car whilst the man holding it used his other arm to use the UVI mirror to scan the underside of the SUV for anything suspicious¡­


    Sam simply leaned towards the window with his face and the SUV window lowered itself automatically, as the guard with the gun passed something that looked like a POS machine into the car, which Sam took and scanned his watch with it, and the machine beeped before showing a green light...


    Then the Guard, Sam and James watched as some green bars began to light up on the machine, and it continued to light up until it stopped at nine bars, something which stunned the guard to the extent that his heart trembled immensely¡­


    "Wee, Mr. Sam, we have been expecting you¡­" The guard said with the curtest salute he could ever muster¡­


    Then the gates rumbled open by itself, apparently, the POS looking device was connected to whoever was in control of the gate, and after seeing the clearance level of the person within the SUV, Sam and James were allowed entry¡­


    The SUV entered and parked at the double-door leading into the control facility itself, and the doors opened, followed by the automatic bs [steps], as Sam and James descended, feeling a little underdress whenpared with the car they just stepped out of, as they both made a mental note to dress the part from now henceforth¡­


    The twodies at the entrance of the ss double-door were just able to catch a glimpse of the SUV interior as they opened the door and weed Sam and James like a 5 Star VIP visitors¡­


    The b-steps stacked once again and returned to its position, followed by the doors closing and the SUV parking itself perfectly at the indicated parking space a few feet in front¡­


    Thedies also saw this and they began to get the butterflies as they readjusted themselves with beaming smiles, and after they began to lead the way, they began to sway their hips enticingly¡­

 Chapter 20 - 5 Star Hospitality

    The b-steps stacked once again and returned to its position, followed by the doors closing and the SUV parking itself at the indicated parking space a few feet in front¡­


    Thedies also saw this and they began to get the butterflies as they readjusted themselves with beaming smiles, and after they began to lead the way, they began to sway their hips enticingly¡­


    If Sam wasn''t married, he wasn''t sure if his brigade level mental fortitude would keep him from raising thesedies skirts up and giving them what they needed, but James on the other hand was free, since he was single as thedies caught him on more than one asion checking out their round, fertile and sexy asses¡­


    "Being single is a bliss!"


    James mumbled to Sam whoughed it off, as they saw thediesughing coyly like the concubines or harem of an Emperor from ancient Asian times¡­


    Before long they got to a lounge which looked like the VIP area of a 5 Star club house, the only difference being the fact that there was arge office conference table in the middle, as well as the absence of shy lights and loud music¡­


    James took a sofa and the twodies sat with him on either sides, and it didn''t take too long before they began tough as James hands wandered all over the more appropriates parts of their bodies, with them leaning in and whispering some stuffs into his ears that made him gasp on some asions and mutter;


    "You want me to do all that to you¡­ You are such a bad girl¡­"


    "Oh yeah, you''ve been bad too, and you want me to spank you too!?"


    ...


    "Coffee, Mr. Sam?"


    "Sure, thanks¡­ Make it three mint leaves and three spoons of honey please¡­"


    "Here you go!"


    The attendant who just entered with a tray of coffee filled with various ingredients turned to James;


    "Coffee, Mr. James?"


    "I already have two hotdies here, and you still want me to drink hot coffee?"


    James joked as the attendant left and James continued to take turns with thedies as they both erotically teased each other¡­


    Thedies by now had pulled off their zers and the first two buttons of their shirts were already loosed, causing James to see the outlines of the red and ckcy bras each of them wore which not only squeezed their plump, smoot, fresh and fair breasts together, but also push them outwards like they were offering it to James¡­


    Not only that, with the way they sat and how they crossed one thigh over the other made their skirts rise above their mid-thigh as James saw the valley between their thighs which led to a destination he so wanted to venture into¡­


    James was already so captivated, that it was taking his mental fortitude as an ex-soldier to not turn these girls around and bestow his lower affections to them¡­ Sam simply allowed James to enjoy himself as he sipped his coffee whilst looking through thetest magazine the attendant had brought for him earlier¡­


    About fifteen minutester, the duo Sam came to meet were already on their way in, and because the ce where Sam and James were currently sitting was an elevated room, they could only see the back of James''s head and the heads of the twodies beside him¡­


    Thus, when these duo began to climb up the stairs, thedies noticed and quickly sat right before bothdies used their zers to cover up the ring and raging bulge on James''s trouser¡­


    The trio entered and exchange greetings with Sam and James whilst they were seating before taking the couch which was somewhat adjacent to the one Sam and James were sitting on¡­


    "Shall we begin?" Sam said as he dropped his magazine and the coffee in his hands;


    "You don''t have to rush, we are willing to let you at least finish your coffee¡­" One of the men said;


    "The reason why we took a little time was because we had to exin some things and hand over some stuffs to our assistants because we don''t know how long this might take¡­" His partner added¡­


    Sam who actually loved the taste of the coffee actually epted their gestures, but still he told the duo to tell him about themselves whilst he continued to sip what he thought was a ''Divine Brew''¡­


    From their exnations, he got to understand that the man who spoke first was named ''Bryce'' and the second man who seemed to be his partner was called ''Wilson''¡­


    They were both ex special forces who were honorably discharged after they lost every member of their team in a certain mission Sam heard about¡­


    These men were valiant and true heroes, because not only did their enemies surround them and cut off theirmunication path, their enemies had actually nned the ambush beforehand and understood the terrain so much that they couldb the entire two square mile radius of thick forest without tripping¡­


    But these men chose a direction and pushed through heavy gunfight until they were able to help these two escape, and not only did these guys had to first swim through a fast moving waters, they also had to thread to the knee deep snow that was on the other side of the stream, after being soaked in freezing water¡­


    They survived solely on their training and were able to take the intel they had gathered back to the base, before suffering from intense hypothermia that took them about two months topletely recover from¡­


    Thus, the moment Sam understood that they were who they were, they easily got off on the right foot and rapidly became friends, and James for the first time truly abandoned the twodies beside him and focus on the conversation¡­


    After several minutes of exchanging pleasantries and different mission stories, the entire conference room was then full ofughter, instead of the quietness of a serious meeting¡­


    Later on, they all showed each other their scars of war and Sam easily detached his legs which was more of a scar than every one of them bared¡­


    It wasn''t like Sam didn''t have scars in other parts of his body, but that was the fastest and the most memorable one he could show them¡­


    Then they got to find out that Bryce and Wilson were about to go meet a tattooist who was also an ex-soldier like them with more grievous scars, but had now perfected the art of turning these scars into masterpieces via tattooing¡­


    They were going to get the tattoos immediately after their shift, and thus invited Sam and James along which they duo didn''t hesitate to ept¡­


    The reason being the fact that, not only will that increase the bond between the four of them, it would also bring the camaraderie between soldiers into their work and make them discharge their duties happily and more efficiently, as Sam began to think that he might as well tell all the security teams and other workers to go get tattoos at the same ce in pairs, because he felt there is no better way to get the best out of a team than to make them have something inmon which they could joke and have fun about whilst at work¡­


    After all, the mental and emotional state of the employees basically determines how far that firm or industry will reach. Then after Sam had finished his coffee, he left with the two men, leaving James with the twodies with a wink¡­


    James who understood what Sam had just done for him winked back and told thedies to lock the door of the conference room from the inside before getting them on the floor and venting his pent up erotic frustrations¡­


    Sam followed the men to theirputer room where they controlled the safety system of the firm from, and after some hours of checking them out and pinpointing some areas of improvement, Sam and the two men returned to the conference room to get James who had about two lip stamps on his face, three hickeys on his neck, and a nted tie¡­


    He was still sweating and panting, whilst these twodies kept blushing and hiding their faces slightly as they cleaned their lips and buttoned their shirts¡­


    They got their zers and walked past the men to the entrance and paused slightly to look back at James for a moment before finally leaving the conference room¡­


    "Hope you had fun?" Sam asked with a mischievous grin¡­


    "I will definitely put in word for you guys¡­ I really got a 5 Star hospitality here today¡­"


    James managed to speak through his heavy panting whilst the two men behind Sam only gave him a knowing grin¡­


    They had nned this for him and Sam the moment they got word that they would be visiting, and though Sam didn''t get any one of thedies, but they were pleased James alone could please them both¡­


    They gave James a knowing thumbs up, before having some few minutes talk and sending Sam and James back on their way¡­

 Chapter 21 - The Three Mysterious Objects

    They had nned this for him and Sam the moment they got word that they would be visiting, and though Sam didn''t get any one of thedies, but they were pleased James alone could please them both¡­


    They gave James a knowing thumbs up, before having some few minutes talk and sending Sam and James back on their way¡­


    Few minutester Sam was already back at the firm, and in less than two minutes he was at the penthouse meeting with Roy once again;


    "So how did it go?" Roy asked wearing a kimono with wildlife embroidered on it;


    "I have done the necessary evaluations and assessments, we are solid!"


    "We! That''s fantastic¡­"


    "It is good to know that you are finally on board with us¡­"


    Roy added as he moved ahead, and after noticing Sam''s silence, he turned around and looked at him;


    "Is there something bothering you?"


    "Why was I given that SUV¡­?"


    "I know my level of clearance of job doesn''t evene close to ounting for why I would be given such a tank¡­" Sam voiced his thoughts;


    "Do you want me to be frank with you?"


    "Frank and veggies are my middle name, let me have it¡­"


    "The reason why I assigned that SUV to you was in case all ns fail and you have escape with your family and mine¡­"


    "I have made my peace with my enemies and their shenanigans, but Daisy and Tulip deserves none of it¡­"


    "So, if everything goes to shit, I want you to take my wife and my daughter and get as far away from civilization as you can¡­" Roy began;


    "I have also made some alternative identity for not only my wife and daughter, but for you and your entire family as well, as well as a lot of money tost you all for two lifetimes, and there is also a private jet which would take you all to an ind I know nothing about¡­"


    "All these preparations has been tied to an A.I mainframe which automatically activates the moment any mishap happens¡­" Roy continued;


    "You guys would be safe there and I purposely chose not to know about the exact values of these preparations as it is randomly selected by the A.I itself and it is also subjected to total changes at regr interval to ensure no one has any information concerning you guys¡­"


    "I have an acute feeling and sensation that this firm might no longer be as pretty as it seems anymore, and that feeling grows within me by the day, almost like a sixth sense¡­"


    "Furthermore, in recent months, that feeling has been intensifying, and as a man who had survived on my instincts for so long, this one is unmistakable¡­" Roy concluded;


    "Why are you being targeted so much¡­ Have you any of their top ssified secrets they don''t want you to leak out?" Sam asked with furrowed brows¡­


    If what this guys is saying is even half true, based on every security measures he had put in ce, it would be nigh impossible for even his own team to make it past the first ten floors of this firm¡­


    But here he was despite all that, his fears only seemed to be intensifying rather than being rest assured¡­


    "I think it is better I show you¡­"


    Roy said as he moved towards the center of the penthouse where the massive tree they built their apartment on was located¡­


    But instead of climbing up the staircase, Roy turned around the stairs to the base of the tree, there Sam saw what seemed to be the handprint of someone which was burnt into the base of the tree¡­


    But just as his imagination was about to run wild thinking of whatever mythical and mystical creature that left the palm print there, Roy ced his hand on the print and it fitted like a glove¡­


    Beebe beep!


    The sound of a scanner echoed subtly as the tree trunk slid open revealing a hollow space within that was about forty square feet in size¡­


    In here there wasn''t anything fancy and as a matter of fact, there was only an elevated tform right at the center, holding three objects encased within what Sam could make out to be a highly dense bulletproof ss casing¡­


    But just as he was about to enter, Roy stretched his hands to block Sam''s advance, then he took out a blue silky tape and threw it ahead¡­


    Sam watched as the silky tape floated downwards rippling along its way until it suddenly split into about ten different pieces¡­


    "I wouldn''t be shocked if you called it an invisibleser light¡­." Sam suggested;


    "Nope, anything that has to do with technology ends at this entrance¡­"


    "What we have here, is a high density vibranium and adamantium woven thread, which is so thin that it is almost invisible¡­"


    "Almost?"


    Sam interrupted, he could basically see nothing within this room asides for the elevated tform right at its center¡­


    "That is the effect of the lighting system of this ce¡­"


    "It is dark, and as a result, the nigh invisible metal thread bes invisible¡­"


    "Furthermore, it had been stretched in an uneven, random patterns that even I don''t know about¡­"


    "I only know about what to do to pass through to the other side¡­"


    "Asides that, there are also pressure sensitive tiles on the ground that give way the moment one steps on the wrong tile¡­"


    "Beneath these wrong tiles aren''t spikes or a swarm of crocs, nope¡­"


    "Beneath these wrong tiles are emptiness which means anyone who takes a wrong step here will fall down to the ground floor and inevitably meet their ends¡­" Roy exined;


    "Okay, that is pretty reassuring¡­ So how do we get there?"


    "Just follow my steps¡­"


    "The area around that tform is surrounded by two rows of stable tiles where we can stand on¡­" Roy exined as he took his first step into the room...


    The moment he did so, he looked to his right and saw a tiny slot on the tree wall that looked like the one on a Jukebox¡­


    Colom!


    Roy ced a coin into the slot and the random tacks of metal thread began to rise from the floor, and when the entire ce was clear, Roy added;


    "The coins I ce into that tree not only have a specific texture and size, but also a specific weight also..." He exined as he began to walk across towards the center of the room¡­


    On getting there Sam was finally able to see just what was inside these cases, and not only did they stun him greatly, but also changed his perspective about so many things¡­


    "What do you think?"


    Roy asked with a smile looking towards Sam who shook his head with an incredulous expression etched onto his face;


    "I don''t even know where to begin¡­ But how did youe across these things?"


    Sam asked without looking away from these three mysterious objects¡­


    "I always make sure that whenever aet or asteroidnds anywhere on the, I be the first person to ess it¡­"


    "We obtained this one from aet that came in twenty years ago andnded in Ijoko, Sango Ota¡­ A ce in Ogun State, Nigeria¡­"


    "When we got there, they were pretty oblivious about what it was, but it was how we were able to get our firm to where it is today¡­"


    "As for this one, we obtained it from aet thatnded in Ouagadougou ten years ago, and it was the first form of confirmation for us that there is a biosphere somewhere within the asteroid belt that was suitable enough to support life¡­"


    Roy continued and pointed to the item right in the center of it all¡­


    This object was extremely mysterious; it floated mid-air, and seemed to constantly change its structure into different shapes that has not been discovered by science, art or religion¡­


    It also seemed to be shing lights at several intervals¡­


    "This is our history''s most prized discovery, and it was obtained when a vessel of unknown source abruptly shed past the surface of the and grazed our satellite on its way across¡­"


    "When the residue of our satellite crashed back into the, we found this amongst the debris that was scattered all over the ce, and ever since then, I have been funding an expedition to our neighborings, where that vessel seemed to have crashed into¡­" Roy sighed at this point before continuing;


    "Apparently, the government space industry were also aware when the collision happened, and believed that there was no way, something like that would have happened without leaving something behind¡­"


    "¡­and that is the reason why you are being targeted..." Sam knew where the conversation was heading;


    "Why didn''t you just give it to them, or are you implying that this thing is more important than the lives of your wife and daughter?" Sam interrogated with a slight frown on his face¡­

 Chapter 22 - 50 Billion

    "Apparently, the government space industry were also aware when the collision happened, and believed that there was no way, something like that would have happened without leaving something behind¡­"


    "¡­and that is the reason why you are being targeted..." Sam knew where the conversation was heading;


    "Why didn''t you just give it to them, or are you implying that this thing is more important than the lives of your wife and daughter?" Sam interrogated with a slight frown on his face¡­


    "You don''t understand¡­" Roy said with a sigh;


    "Then make me understand!" Sam said with a tone that ensured that he was truly looking to help¡­


    "Well, I guess there is no harm in telling you, but it is something you must keep as a close guarded secret¡­" Roy urged;


    "Sure, not like anyone would ask me about what they don''t even know¡­" Sam assured;


    "The reason why ourpany has survived this long was because we always have something powerful in our secret possession, and the government knows that, and that is the reason why they have been unable to scheme or assault ourpany¡­"


    "Each of these possessions are hidden with their location a closely guarded secret that only specific trusted people know about¡­"


    "Furthermore, these things are not passed down, which means these are mine to keep and the ones before that are for James''s father to keep and I know nothing about them either¡­"


    "Thus, if thispany should survive for another generation then the next head would also have his and will never know that these three artifacts exist¡­" Roy exined;


    "They tried to get their hands on the one with James Snr. but couldn''t¡­"


    "After all, not only was he a powerful business man who influenced and had some extent of control over the government, he was also a master at scheming¡­"


    "But I am none of that¡­ I am just a devoted scientist who wants to make the world bearable for the least privileged inhabitants of this¡­"


    "Handing this over to the government would not only increase the amount of secrets with which they controlled this country; making their rich friends richer and causing their poor citizens to be poorer¡­"


    "If the level of wealth on this would be bnced, then the poor must also begin to have secrets of their own that creates wealth for them¡­"


    "I have mine, and that is why thispany is as huge and wealth as it is today¡­" Roy continued;


    "The government has gone two generations with us having multiple secrets of theirs in hand and also objects like these which could very much cripple their control over the citizens, whilst they on the other hand have nothing to show for¡­"


    "Thus, I can say, our firm has enough power to control at least 50% of the total citizens of this country, and the fact that we are also helping other countries which amounts to over twenty of them means that we have more international allies than they do¡­"


    "Thus, if we go into politics for the next tenure, ourpany has over 75% tendency to win at every level of governance, and that is a level of influence and power the government doesn''t want any other person to wield apart from them, hence the reason why I am being targeted¡­" Roy sighed;


    "And all these are asides the new technological, infrastructural and medical advances we have made which put our firm at the top of the global index in these three fields of study¡­"


    "They suspect we have advanced weaponry which could change the tide of the world power as we know it, and they want to get their hands on it¡­" Roy broadened;


    "Do you have such technology?" Sam asked, personally curious;


    "We built that SUV we gave you in just two weeks¡­ What do you think we would have created in 50 years since we were established?"


    Roy gave Sam the answer, but Sam has got to answer Roy''s question to get the answer to his own question¡­


    It didn''t take Sam too long to figure it out, and though, he didn''t know what the device might be, but just the fact that they were able to create such an SUV in two weeks, he wouldn''t be too surprised if these guys have developed a crazily and abnormally modified UFO¡­


    "My goal is to level the ying field of wealth and power, and having these objects fall into the hands of the government would be as good as handing the keys of your home to an assassin sent to kill you¡­" Roy ended with a sigh, as he gestured Sam that it was time to leave¡­


    Sam was still quietly deep in thought when they exited this secret storage room;


    "Do you have any suspicions about the people you are working with?" Sam finally asked;


    "I know there are several spies of the government within this building, but they are doing a hell of a job covering their tracks¡­" Roy sighed;


    "This is a lot¡­ We have to find a way to fish out these guys, or at least identify them, then we can find a way to set up a better secret security protocol¡­"


    Sam was absentminded in thought as he spoke, whilst Roy simply kept quiet and allowed him to do the thinking¡­


    After about thirty solid minutes, Sam''s eyes lit up;


    "I have an idea, but it would cost you a bit of money¡­" Sam looked to Roy as he spoke;


    "Like how much are we looking at?" Roy asked attentively;


    "About 20 billion¡­"


    Sam spoke stiffly sensing that the price he just called was a bit too much for a n he had just devised on the spot and was not even sure would fish out all these spies;


    "Haha ha ha ha¡­ What!?" Royughed hysterically;


    "20 billion!?" He asked with a scoff;


    "I am sorry, scrap that¡­ I should have thought of a more realistic idea¡­" Sam apologized;


    "No way! What are you saying?" Roy tapped Sam on the shoulder as he walked past him;


    "20 billion is not worth shit, it is basically the amount of budget we spend on the smallest innovative idea wee up with¡­" Royughed when he saw Sam''s stunned face;


    "Ourst security innovation cost us about 150 billion, and if yours can fish out spies with a budget as little as 20 billion, then I would really count us lucky, but the security team might think your idea is below par¡­" Roy said as he tapped his watch twice;


    "Transfer 50 billion to Sam''s ount!" Roy said to his watch before smiling at Sam;


    "You cane for more should you find yourself a little short on cash¡­"


    "*Clears throat* Alright then¡­"


    Sam manage to speak through his parched throat, as he saw his bank ount be credited with 50 billion¡­


    ''This is not a drill!''


    He thought to himself as the watch on his hand which was disying his bank bnce seemed to be heavy in his mind¡­


    He had nevere across this sort of money; not in his sweetest fantasy or most terrific nightmares¡­


    The highest amount of money he had evere across was around four hundred million; and it wasn''t cash but a certain amount of mined gold, his unit was ordered to escort into the country at one time¡­


    "Alright, I should get started then¡­"


    "I might be workingte, so I might need to rent an apartment close-by¡­" Sam said;


    "What!?"


    "After everything I have shown you and told you, you still think we will allow you live in a crappy 5 Star hotel or neighborhood?"


    "No way! I have told Jim to open up the apartment beneath this floor to you¡­"


    "It has never been opened, so even I have no idea how it looks, but I am sure it would be manageable¡­" Royughed as he began to ascend the stairs¡­


    ''Anything manageable to you will probably cost the president a huge chunk of his fortune¡­''


    Sam thought to himself as he left the ce with a smile¡­ He got to the elevator and spoke;


    "20th floor please!"


    Then the elevator just like before descended in its unique manner, but this time Sam was prepared, so he simply shifted all his weight to his feet, which ensured that, though he was still floating, it was only inches of the ground¡­


    Ding!


    Sam entered the tech office and sought after the three little nerds;


    "Tim, Jim, Kiki¡­ Join me in the conference room¡­"


    Sam''s voice reverberated across the entire floor as Tim, Jim and Kiki left their work station and hurriedly joined him within the conference room¡­


    Bam!


    Sam''s fist rested on the table as he looked to the trio who were slightly shocked by his serious and solemn expression, as well as his smoldering gaze;


    "We have work to do, and I am about to ask you three to do something quite impossible¡­" Sam spoke;


    "There is nothing we three can''t do¡­"


    "But, If it proves to be too difficult, we will simply seek our three division head and we are 100 percent sure that we will get it done"


    Jim grinned proudly, as Kiki and Tim also grinned confidently at Sam¡­

 Chapter 23 - Top Level Secret Plan

    Bam!


    Sam''s fist rested on the table as he looked to the trio who were slightly shocked by his serious and solemn expression, as well as his smoldering gaze;


    "We have work to do, and I am about to ask you three to do something quite impossible¡­" Sam spoke;


    "There is nothing we three can''t do¡­


    "If it''s too much we will simply seek our division head and we are 100 percent sure that we will get it done" Jim grinned proudly, as Kiki and Tim also grinned confidently at Sam¡­


    "Actually, the conversation of what I want you guys to do shouldn''t leave this room no matter what, not even if your lives depended on it¡­"


    Sam said with his smoldering gaze looking from Jim to Tim and Kiki and back¡­


    The nerds toned down their smugness and smile when they realized they were about to do something truly serious¡­


    "Kiki, have you guys everunched a medical health maintenance scheme for all employees before?"


    "Err, not really¡­ We just cure our staffs whenever they are feeling ill and its for free, so I don''t think there is any need for that¡­" Kiki exined with a curious frown;


    "Are you feeling ill, Super Sam..."


    "If you are, let me take you to theb and we will have you back at full throttle in no time¡­" Kiki said with a true concern stered on her face;


    "Hehe, no thanks¡­"


    "But what I am about to tell you to do will involve a lot of work and might take more than two weeks to a month of you times¡­"


    Sam grabbed their attention with that statement and now he was ready toy it down;


    "Kiki, I want you to start a mandatory medical health care scheme within the firm, and you have to make sure every employee, including your division head adheres to it¡­" Sam said;


    "Tim, I will need you to hack Tulips A.I¡­"


    "What!?"


    "That''s impossible¡­" Tim blurted instantly;


    "Nothing can get past Tulip''s A.I security system¡­" Tim reassured;


    "Can you bet on it with your life!?" Sam asked; "Good, because your life now depends on you seeding in the hack¡­"


    Sam spoke with a tone and gaze that made Tim really think Sam was going to kill him if he failed¡­


    After all, Sam can simply frame him or give any reason as to why he had killed him and no one would take it against him, as the Chief of Security¡­


    Just lying that he stole a piece of hi tech gadget and was about to sell it secretly to the government was enough to make most of all the employees in the firm believe him¡­


    Thus, Tim quickly grabbed hisptop and marched out of the conference room;


    "I''ll get right on it!"


    "Jim, I need the blueprints of the architectural ns of this entire structure, both secret and known, including every secret tunnels, elevators, whatever it is¡­"


    "I want all these blueprints in the next twenty minutes¡­" Sam ordered as Jim disappeared from the conference room with rapid steps¡­


    "Orchid, shut off every recording device in this room¡­"


    Chu-Lom!


    Shutting Down Recording Devices¡­


    Shutting Down Completed¡­


    Sam then finally looked towards Kiki who for some reason was growing ever so fearful and ufortable around Sam¡­


    The moment Sam noticed that, he dropped his intense approach;


    "I am sorry for causing you some difort¡­"


    "It''s just that, the life of our boss depends on what we are about to do, and I am not nning on joking with it¡­" Sam said as Kiki let out a huge sigh of relief, before turning to look at Sam in the face;


    "Tell me whatever you need, Super Sam¡­ I will get them done¡­" Kiki spoke with a strong sense of assurance¡­


    "Alright, I need you to sneak in a tracking device into every single employee within this firm as secretly as you can¡­"


    "You will work with Tim on this one and he will help you create a tracking device that can''t be picked up on any kind of scanner or radar¡­"


    Sam asked as he saw Kiki blush at the mention of working with Tim before she then frowned slightly and spoke;


    "Wouldn''t that be intruding on employees privacy¡­"


    "That will be viting one of the most important uses in every employees contract¡­" Kiki''s morale disposition showed itself;


    "We are neither going to be eavesdropping on their calls, nor reading their messages, nor watching them via secret cameras¡­"


    "I have just discovered that there is a spy within this firm and I want to fish out whoever it is, and I only need to know where they go to and their daily movement routine, for a bit of time¡­"


    "At least, till I am sure the life of Mr. Roy and his family are 100 percent safe¡­ I will not settle for 99.999 percent¡­" Sam spoke convincingly;


    "Well, Mr. Roy is a lifesaver and a good mentor and a good father to all of us because he truly cares about us¡­"


    "So, anyone who thinks they can take such a person away from our lives would definitely not even know what hit them by the time we are done with them¡­" Kiki snorted sneeringly at the spy they were about to catch¡­


    She then cracked her knuckles and nodded towards Sam;


    "Leave everything to me¡­"


    "Good!" Sam replied with a gratified smile as he watched Kiki step out of the conference room¡­


    Five minutester, Jim walked in with what seemed to be a box too big for him to carry, but despite the assistance being offered to him which he rejected every single one of, he still found a way to get the massive box into the conference room with a thus and a heavy sigh¡­


    "Alright, here they are, Super Sam¡­ What are we looking for exactly?" Jim asked after adjusting his spectacles...


    "Well, we are going to look through every single one of these blueprints together and not remove or alter, but add a new structural system which its true purpose would be a secret between you and I¡­"


    Sam responded as Jim stood there stunned and staring at Sam for a little bit¡­


    "This structure is going to be a secret escape route that no one knows about except from us both¡­"


    "That way, if the secret about this ce leaks, it would be only you and I that will suffer the penalty¡­" Sam revealed;


    "I will leave every other details to your discretion¡­"


    "You can also add everything you have ever wanted to create into it¡­ make it a masterpiece¡­"


    "Lastly, Mr. Roy told me to move into the apartment below his penthouse, and I heard you are the one to do that for me¡­"


    "That will also be the ce where we will be holding out secret meetings to check up on our progress, and any hups¡­"


    Sam spoke as he saw Jim''s eyes light up for some unknown reasons;


    "Yes!" Jim blurted;


    "Now it is my time to step into the spot light¡­ Can you please let everyone be present when I unlock that level?" Jim almost begged;


    "I will do anything you want¡­" He eventually begged;


    "Alright¡­ But in return, you must make sure this is the best work you have ever created¡­"


    Sam used the situation as a way to furtherly push Jim to do the assignment he gave excellently¡­


    "Alright, you can go gather the rest, and meet me here in ten minutes¡­ We will do the unlocking together then¡­" Sam said;


    "Will Mr. Corvinus Jnr be there too?" Jim asked;


    "Nope, he is on an assignment¡­ but I will make sure to give him a tour of the ce when he returns¡­ Now go!"


    Sam urged before sitting on the rolling chair and heaving a huge sigh¡­


    ''This is a huge project, and my first at that¡­ It must be 100 percent foolproof¡­'' Sam thought to himself as he waited for the super-nerds to return¡­


    About seven minutester, the trio returned about seven minutester and Sam took them to the secret elevator and ced his palm on the seemingly in and unassuming wall, and the beeping sound of a scanner subtly echoed before the wall parted and revealed a secret express elevator¡­


    "We are really going to use this elevator!"


    The trio seemed not only ecstatic, but also like country bumpkins about to enter an imperial pce¡­


    "You guys have never used this before?" Sam asked;


    "What!?"


    "No way¡­"


    Kiki and Tim blurted incredulously, one after the other;


    "It is only reserved for the division heads and our father; Mr. Roy only!" Jim finally added;


    "Well, not today¡­"


    Sam replied them with a smirk as the trio instantly became even more excited, the elevator appeared and they stepped into it¡­


    But just as the door shut, Sam''s watch began to re an rm¡­


    Looking at his watch, he could see himself and the three nerds from his watch with a sentence that read; Intruder Alert;


    Three unidentified identities within secret elevator, and then he saw two action options below; one red and one green¡­


    The read one read; Incapacitate, whilst the green one read; grant clearance¡­


    "Grant Intruders three moth temporary ess to secret elevator¡­"


    Chu-Lom!


    Temporary ess Granted¡­


    Instantly, the three nerds saw their watches disy; ''You Have Received Three Months ess To Secret Elevator'' in their notification tab¡­

 Chapter 24 - Jim’s Heaven

    The red one read; Incapacitate, whilst the green one read; grant clearance¡­


    "Grant Intruders three moth temporary ess to secret elevator¡­"


    Chu-Lom!


    Temporary ess Granted¡­


    Instantly, the three nerds saw their watches disy;


    ''You Have Received Three Months ess To Secret Elevator'' in their notification tab¡­


    "You will take this secret elevator anytime we are having our meetings¡­"


    "This is the level of secrecy and discretion I want you all to exhibit for the next three months till these projects are done¡­"


    Sam added as the elevator ascended with an even faster speed than the VIP elevator he had used thest time¡­


    Ding!


    The elevator door opened and all they could see was a dark corridor, then;


    Tan! Tan!


    Tan! Tan!


    Tan! Tan!


    The lights within the corridor came on one after the other before they stopped in front of a huge door at the end of the corridor¡­


    Sam took this ce in...


    It had never been unlocked before and would be his new home for the next [only God knows how long¡­]


    "These walls, floor and ceiling are made out of gesture, pressure and temperature sensitive panels which will record data about you, and use that data about you to identify an intruder and alert you when someone else is walking through this corridor¡­"


    "Lined along the edges of the ceiling are ultraviolet lights that kill the germs on you before you reach the end of the corridor, and these overhead lights can be changed to suit your preference; from this simple led, to halogen, to neon, and finally party lights¡­" Jim began his tour-guide duties as;


    "There are also hidden cameras, and extremely dangerous, precise and sensitive security measures; ranging fromser beams, to lethal gases and chemical, extreme temperature regtors, and shock pins¡­"


    "Shock pins?"


    Sam asked as Tim and Kiki also looked to Jim for exnation which caused a smug grin to stain his face¡­


    "Yeah¡­ They are three inch pins which would have been charged with about 1000 volts and can be shot from any random angle within this corridor, and once they stab into their target, they sink into their flesh before releasing all that charge into their target''s bodies, frying them from within¡­" Jim said proudly¡­


    "Luckily, they have all been disabled until the resident of this floor takes control of it¡­"


    "¡­and how am I gonna do that?"


    "Follow me¡­"


    Jim stepped forward and the moment his foot stepped into the corridor, each panel his foot touched lit up with a white light¡­


    The remaining trio tagged along and just like Jim, their steps also caused the floor tiles to light up with white light¡­


    On getting to the massive door, a system A.I spoke;


    "Wee, Voice Activation Required¡­"


    "Hey Jim, it''s me, Jim!"


    ess Granted...


    Tissshhh!


    The massive door opened like the door of an alien ship; with the gases and the sound of a space ship engine which was about to take off¡­


    "Wee Jim!"


    The lighting of this room ran from the entrance on the right across the walls of the room around to the left of the entrance, carrying everyone''s gaze along with it as it lit up with magnificent colors that ensured that this ce was neither bright nor dim¡­


    "Woah!" The trio couldn''t help but chorus in amazement;


    "In here, there are 360 motion sensors and projection panels, making this room the third wonder of the world¡­"


    "One which no one asides everyone within this room and anyone you wish to bring up here will know about¡­"


    Jim continued with one hand pocketed in his jogger pocket and another holding a seemingly tiny pointing device¡­


    Then he pressed a button and several panels began to pop out of different locations within the house, disying the image of everyone present in extremely fine details¡­


    Sam looked over to one of the panels which disyed only his own image and waved at it, as his mirror image waved back simultaneously with great details including his squint; then to his right, he could see the image of Tim and Kiki kissing themselves, and having fun with their mirror images doing the same thing¡­


    Sam shook his head, genuinely impressed as he looked over to Jim andmented;


    "Wow, this is magnificent¡­"


    "Thanks, but I am over there¡­"


    Jim pointed to the opposite direction and it was only then that Sam realized that he had just spoken to Jim''s mirror image¡­


    Jim simply smiled smugly as Sam also responded with a cool but slightly awkward smile¡­


    "In here, anything is possible¡­"


    Jim said as he clicked on the pointing device which converted into a tablet instantly as one side of the device detached from its frame and opened wide for about ten inches¡­


    The moment that happened all the screen panels returned to their hub¡­


    "There are also 30,000 ultra - high definition panels within this room¡­"


    As Jim continued, he tapped on one part of the makeshift high tech tablet, and instantly, everyone heard a dragon''s roar, followed by a huge shadow move past them, terrifying them to their bones, and even Sam himself felt a little shake, as the shadow of the dragon moved past them on the ground then crawled up the walls until it came to the roof and then coiled around the dangling decoration of a massive egg ced atop a giant nest like structure made out of natural hay, branches and leaves, making the dragon shadow seem like it was guarding the egg¡­


    It was only then that everyone knew there was no dragon and what they had just seen was just the panels built into this entire room, disying the image of a ck colored dragon moving from one screen panel to the other¡­


    "These panel alsoes with embedded 16k cameras on both sides¡­"


    "Both sides¡­ Why''s that?"


    Sam asked but Jim simply gave him the answer by pressing a single button on the tablet and everyone''s heart nearly leapt through their throat, Sam inclusive¡­


    This time he was really scared out of his wits because; everything panel within the room simply disyed everything happening on the outside, from a vantage point of over 118 floors off the ground¡­


    Sam looked beneath his foot and he was literally not only looking at the roofs of other skyscrapers that had the ''H'' sign of an helipad on them, but was also seeing the traffic down within the streets, as well as the people moving about and the several stalls and restaurants within the streets¡­


    "Wee to Jim''s Heaven, Super Sam¡­" Jim said proudly;


    "You can be within the streets without leaving your room¡­ You can check out thetest magazine at that coffee shop without leaving your room¡­"


    Jim made the statement and backed it up by pressing a button on the tablet that zoomed the entire disy above the head of a bald man drinking his coffee and reading thetest magazine with one leg crossed over the other and his ck suede long coat¡­


    Everyone could easily read what the man was reading and Sam had to clutch his chest slightly, due to the speed at which the disy was zoomed¡­


    After walking them through the remaining parts of the apartment which included a swimming pool that could be converted to an outdoor swimming pool by simply ejecting itself out of the firm''s building, there was also the kitchen which also had several panels which was linked to all the motion sensors, within the apartment, disying the footage of any part of the apartment that anything moved¡­


    That way, a mother could cookfortably in the kitchen knowing what her sixteen children are doing in sixteen different part of the apartment¡­


    There were also automated cleaning devices; which ranged from a simple automatic vacuum cleaner, to mud cleaner, dryers for wet floors and the top notch insect killing air freshener¡­


    The was a giant 300 inch TV which drops down from the roof, as well as in built surround sound system which gives fantastic listening experience from every single angle of the room to a factor of .005 degrees¡­


    It has an inbuilt garden, basketball court, gym, trampoline and an aquarium where several little unique and endangered species of fishes were swimming around¡­


    There was a yoga room with aroma therapy candles arranged in specific and intentional manner....

 Chapter 25 - Good… Now, Listen Carefully!

    It has an inbuilt garden, basketball court, gym, trampoline and an aquarium where several little unique and endangered species of fishes were swimming around¡­


    There was a yoga room with aroma therapy candles arranged in specific and intentional manner...


    This ce was indeed a heaven and there was enough space to house a family of ten without feeling cramped or bumping into one another in any way¡­


    "There are also many other features which I will dly leave you to discover and explore on your own¡­"


    Jim finished his tour guide duty and stepped aside as Sam connected his watch to the apartment, and just like with the SUV, he imed ownership of the apartment and afterwards they had their meeting and he released them to go begin their work¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Far away from the frim...


    A 2021 Lexus L570 Hypersport SUV parked out in front of a yoga/gym house...


    Lisa stepped out of the car in her yoga training outfit;


    "Hi Lisa!"


    "Hi Ben, how you holding up this wet morning?" Lisa conversed;


    "A mega sized umbre¡­ a raincoat¡­ and a prettyfy rain boots!"


    The security office at the entrance of this gym house pointed overhead at the massive umbre he had fixed atop his post, and then pointed to his nylon long coat and finally to the ground at his massive ck rain boots;


    "Reallyfy, don''t forget to add a cup of hot cocoa to the list!" Lisa said as she walked into the gym house¡­


    "You''rete, Lisa!"


    The masculine voice of a male yoga instructor boomed across the hall as the rest of the people exercising looked over to the door;


    "Come on ralph, she is the wife of the famous Super Sam, that should at least count for something, right?"


    The female yoga instructor said as she swayed her hips past the man called Ralph;


    "Fine¡­ That''s strike one¡­" He said trying to resist looking at the ass of the female yoga instructor;


    "Oh, does that mean I can still bete onest time?" Lisa joked at her yoga instructor with a smile;


    "Don''t mind Ralph, he is more muscles and less emotion¡­" the female yoga instructor joked back;


    "Thanks, Hannah¡­" Lisa said with a thankful sigh;


    "Anytime¡­ So, Super Sam got you up tillte at night?"


    Hannah asked with a mischievous wink which caused Lisa to blush slightly and then reply;


    "More like all morning¡­"


    She said as she followed Hannah to the female area of the yoga parlor¡­


    "Hi¡­Hi¡­Hi¡­" Lisa greeted every wife and girlfriend she saw in the area;


    "Damn girl, that is some morning yoga!" Hannah continued¡­


    She loved to see Lisa''s flushed expression every time they spoke about intimate things they have done with their partners; ording to Hannah, it would allow everyone to bond with each other faster and better, and she was right¡­


    "No, not that¡­" Lisa gave a naughty frown as she continued;


    "He has an interview today at Aeon Consults, so I had to help him with some stuffs¡­"


    "Whaaaattt!?" Hannahically eximed;


    "That calls for some celebration!" Hannah said as she called the attention of all thedies in the area;


    "Kim, would you please turn up the volume of that speaker¡­"


    "Ladies, we are celebrating Lisa''s husband; Sam''s new job¡­ So today, we are all going to dance all through¡­"


    Hannah''s contagious positivity got all thedies on their feet almost in an instant as they came together and began to congratte Lisa one after the other, and before long, a tray containing one mojito for eachdy came in¡­


    Lisa took hers and sipped it, and just as she did that, the attendant that brought in the drink turned around and left¡­


    The moment the attendant left the door, she pulled off her uniform revealing a sexy curvaceousdy in those kind of outfits modern hi tech assassins wore¡­


    She whipped out her phone out of only nowhere and texted an unknown number;


    "It is done¡­"


    About thirty secondster, her hone chimed and the message was from the unknown number that gave her the coordinates to some location;


    "Your payment lies here¡­" That was the other message that apanied the coordinates¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the kid''s school¡­


    Jacob and Ivory had just stepped outside of the school entrance when they abruptly saw two pairs of strong hands cross their faces and nted a white handkerchief on their faces, inhaling the potent odor from the handkerchief, their vision blurred and their legs weakened as they fell into the embrace of these unknown men...


    Then before the situation could grab the attention of anyone around the area, they were already inside the matte van which zoomed off immediately after¡­


    Two hourster, during the yoga session, Lisa began to feel groggy and a little winded¡­


    Hannah asked if she should get a doctor, but Lisa simply smiled as she reminded Hannah that she was a top ss doctor herself, before reassuring her that she just needed to take a little rest¡­


    Lisa got into her SUV and before she could touch the ignition, she felt the nozzle of a pistol silencer against her forehead before a very deep but scrambled masculine voice cracked;


    "Lock the doors, don''t make any funny moves and this might go well for yourself and your kids¡­"


    With one hand pointing the gun at her head, the other hand brought a phone across Lisa''s face where she saw Jacob and Ivory in an unknown room with their hands and legs duck taped, including their mouths, as they trembled in sheer trepidation, crying badly¡­


    "~Aww~" Lisa gasped in fear as she tearfully pleaded;


    "Please don''t hurt my kids, I will do whatever you want¡­" She began to sob through her blurry as she stuttered;


    "Good¡­ Take this and drink it¡­"


    The man offered her a vial containing some sort of potion¡­


    Lisa took it and gulped everything in a hurry¡­


    "That''s good¡­"


    "You really should check whatever you drink from now henceforth¡­ if you survive for that long that is¡­"


    The man spoke as Lisa looked to her rear view mirror and saw a masked face, and just from the head alone she could tell the man''s physical constitution, from weight, to height and muscle tone¡­


    "What you have just drunk is the antidote to the mild tranquilizer that your cocktail was poisoned with¡­" The man revealed;


    "In about two minutes, you should be clear headed enough to drive¡­"


    The man added as Lisa began to regret why she had her SUV windows tinted, because otherwise, at least passersby would have seen what was going on right now, and they were a lot of them walking past her car, but she couldn''t do anything but watch her only source of help tragically walk past her¡­


    Two minutester, the man gazed at his watch before urging;


    "Drive!"


    "Where am I heading to?"


    "No questions, just do as I say and you will be fine¡­" The man added before poking Lisa''s head with the silencer nozzle¡­


    Lisa started the car and drove off the parking area, and just as she left, Hannah who had been at the window of the gym house trying to see if Lisa made it down to the car safely, stood there wondering why it had taken Lisa almost three minutes to start her car and leave¡­


    When she saw Lisa leave, she simply shrugged her shoulders and returned to the yoga parlor¡­


    Whilst all these was happening, Sam was still within his apartment checking his new security n to confirm any ws within it¡­


    Thirty minutester....


    Sam receives a phone call from an unknown number which for some reasons came as a huge surprise to him, because not only did it mean that whoever was calling was elusive enough that not even Aeon Consults satellite had any information about him¡­


    He took a few minutes before answering the call¡­


    "Finally¡­ I was beginning to think I had the wrong number¡­"


    A scrambled voice on the other side of the call spoke with aical surprised tone;


    "Who is this!?" Sam spoke with a solemn tone;


    "That is the wrong question to ask, Super Sam¡­"


    Sam could sense a little bit of amusement from the caller''s tone, as he began to tap some buttons on his watch with rapid speed;


    "Now you have gone quiet¡­"


    "I suggest you try not to contact anyone as not only might you get them killed, but you might also get yourself and your family killed, due to what you call ''protocol'' and what I call ''stupidity''¡­"


    The voice said and Sam''s finger abruptly froze when he heard the mention of his family;


    "Do you know what happens when you threaten a man''s family!?" Sam raged through the phone;


    "Oh, so you think this is a threat or a simple prank¡­"


    "You are sorely mistaken Super Sam, and I suggest you check your notifications to understand just how mistaken you are¡­"


    The man said as Sam checked his notification and there was his family all bound up together, hooked to a chain, dangling above a reservoir of water filled with piranhas¡­


    "What do you want?" Sam finally toned down;


    "Good¡­ Now, listen carefully!"

 Chapter 26 - Oh My World!

    "Do you know what happens when you threaten a man''s family!?" Sam raged through the phone;


    "Oh, so you think this is a threat or a simple prank¡­"


    "You are sorely mistaken Super Sam, and I suggest you check your notifications to understand just how mistaken you are¡­"


    The man said as Sam checked his notification and there was his family all bound up together, hooked to a chain, dangling above a reservoir of water filled with piranhas¡­


    "What do you want?" Sam finally toned down;


    "Good¡­ Now, listen carefully!" The man began;


    "You will leave that apartment of yours and head down to the 75th floor¡­"


    The man ordered, and when he noticed Sam hesitating, he changed the footage being disyed on Sam''s watch, as Sam saw one of the kidnappers walk straight to the transparent tank filled with piranhas with a live chicken in hand¡­


    Throwing the live chicken into the tank, Sam saw the chicken suffer the most miserable fate anyone could ever wish for, and then, they lowered his wife about three inches, and instantly Sam got to his feet and moved¡­


    "Good¡­ I can see you are a very upright person, and would need many nudges today¡­" The man''s scrambled voice sounded a little ridiculing;


    "But the only thing I don''t know is how many of those nudges it would take before your wife or kids end up in that tank¡­"


    He added as his tone became very serious and intentional¡­


    Sam got into his secret elevator and reached the 75th floor which was actually an empty floor which seemed to have a purpose that was yet to be decided by the higher ups of the firm¡­


    "You have ess to thework that connects the secret offsite control facility at your fingertips¡­ Your first task today, will be to block all thatwork¡­"


    "From radioworks, to mobile phone, inte and every means ofmunications¡­" The man said;


    "You must be crazy if you think I will do that on my first day as the Chief of Security of this firm¡­"


    Sam knew what the man was trying to have him do; if he shuts down the secret control facility''swork, the entire defense and safety of this structure could as well be fifty percent down¡­


    The man said nothing as Sam simply saw them lower Jacob and Ivory by another 3 inches;


    "You-"


    "Shut the fuck up and do as you''re told, and maybe-... just maybe, you will get the chance to see them again¡­" The man interrupted;


    "Talk back at me again when I didn''t ask you to and you will have to watch your family being eaten gradually from their foot- up, alive¡­" The man continued;


    "I don''t know which wille first; bleeding to death, or the pain or perhaps just the fear¡­"


    "But trust me, I really want to find out, and I won''t mind using them as test subjects¡­"


    The man finished with no hint or remorse in his tone whatsoever¡­


    "Now do as you are told!"


    Sam quickly tapped some buttons on his watch and few secondster, something appeared on the watch;


    Network Terminated!


    Sam sighed in pain and frustration the moment he realized that he might have justmitted his first crime ever, just a year after he was acknowledged as a superhero to the entire nation¡­


    He didn''t bother trying to track down the caller because whoever it was that had the ability to slip into this firm''s high tech facility, gadgets and the A.I mainframe would obviously be watching his every move¡­


    There were numerous questions running through his head at this point, and only by answering them could he discover who it was that was doing this¡­


    He knew obviously that whoever that person was, was the major spy the government had nted within the firm¡­


    How did the man know that he was at the 154th floor; a ce he only got ess into less than an hour ago, moreover, the man had said;


    "¡­that apartment of yours¡­"


    How could he have known that he now owned the apartment?


    Could this be a test from the firm?


    But the firm wouldn''t have dared to put his family through such a dangerous situation just to test him?


    No matter how much he thought about the entire thing, he just couldn''t find the answer to any one of his questions, and that along with the urgency with which this man wanted him to get done with his tasks ensured that Sam was gradually beginning to buckle¡­


    Afterall, which Man would remain calm when his family are being strewn atop a tank full of famished piranhas?


    ''Fuck!''


    ''Calm down, Sam¡­ Calm down¡­ Clear your mind¡­ you''ve got this under control¡­''


    Sam calmed himself mentally as he asked;


    "What else do you want from me?"


    From the way he said it, one would think he was truly ready to sacrifice everything for his family;


    "For now, my men are at work¡­ wait for your next task, and like I said don''t try any funny moves¡­" Then the man hung up¡­


    Meanwhile....


    Within a tunnel which had the tag; ''Sub-basement Level 10'' etched on the walls....


    A seemingly hardworking Asian who was taking regr maintenance readings from the controls disying the conditions of whatever was passing through several pipes hung on both walls of this tunnel¡­


    The man walked from one disy control to the other taking vital readings until he got to the end of the tunnel¡­


    He had just taking thest reading and was about leaving the tunnel when he heard a little vibrating sound; being a diligent worker that he was, he turned to the wall that ended the tunnel and tried to find out what might be causing the vibrations¡­


    Then the man saw two crack lines spreading outwards, and instantly his attention was grabbed¡­


    cing the tablet on which he was recording his observations on one of the pipes, he moved closer to the wall which still had its cracks ever spreading out¡­


    Then he saw another crack line spread out from the center with an even faster pace, and then;


    Crumble!


    Rubble!


    Crash!


    The concrete wall tiles on the walls came crashing down as a hole of about 40 inch in diameter was left gaping on the wall, with the smoke of fine dust oozing out of the darkness beyond it¡­


    The man flicked on the shlight in his hands and began to cautiously approach the hole, shining the light into every dark corners within the hole as he approached it with caution¡­


    The man carefully reached the entrance of the hole and noticed that despite using his high LED shlight, he couldn''t still see the end of the hole¡­


    He reached the edge of the hole, looked inside, and after discovering nothing, he stuck his head into it to get a deeper look into what has happened, and then;


    ck!


    One of the tiny concrete stone at the edge of the hole fell to the ground, startling the man;


    "What the hell!"


    The man jumped in fright, and cursed after discovering what it was that gave him the fright of his life was;


    "And I told them no horror moviesst night!"


    The man shook his head, and just as he took away the shlight from the hole, an arm as thick as the thigh of this man himself stretched out of the hole and grabbed his windpipe¡­


    The hand was so thick and strong that, despite all the man''s struggles, he could barely even shake the hands sideways¡­


    Then just like a worm falling into a truck full of salt, the man trashed around aggressively, but that grip on his throat was like a vice¡­


    Then just like a rat sumbing to the poison of a ck mamba, the man''s struggling gradually became less and less aggressive, until the shlight in his hand fell to the ground, and he finally slouched¡­


    The arm dropped the dead man and a face wearing a breathing mask came out of the tunnel, opened the mask to reveal the face of someone, everyone reading this novel will be slightly familiar with [And, no¡­ It isn''t James!]


    The bulky man broke himself out of the hole into the basement, and then about five other men of simr size came out of the hole, as someone who was still left within the hole began to pass them some chemical containers that was of a simr size to a beer barrel¡­


    "Hurry up guys, we''ve only got fifteen minutes¡­"


    The killer who seemed like the leader of this team bellowed after setting up his stopwatch¡­


    Meanwhile, whilst all these was happening, two figures; a male and a female were giggling andughing erotically at each other, smooching, groping and kissing themselves breathlessly like hungry pack of wolves, as they entered, through a door that had the tag; ''Basement'' written on it...


    But the moment they entered, they locked the door behind them and the girl hurriedly pulled down the jogger shorts this boy was wearing, whilst the boy tucked a finger beneath her skirt and dragged down her white panties which she allowed it to fall off with a slight wiggle of her ass¡­


    The moment the panty fell off, she raised one leg up as the boy took his raging, massive sword, and pointed it at the chink in her amour;


    "Oh my world, Tim you are so huge¡­ Please be gentle, this is my first time¡­"


    The girl pleaded, but Tim simply plunged his sword deep into her deepest depths; "~Aannhh~"

 Chapter 27 - Oh My God... No!

    The moment the panty fell off, she raised one leg up as the boy took his raging, massive sword, and pointed it at the chink in her amour;


    "Oh my world, Tim you are so huge¡­"


    "Please be gentle, this is my first time¡­"


    The girl pleaded, but Tim simply plunged his sword deep into her deepest depths;


    "~Aannhh~"¡­


    "Did anyone hear that?"


    One of the men who had broke into this facility hushed to his partners as they all waved him off;


    "Come on men, we have no time for all this scary movie crap¡­ Let''s go, we''ve got work to do¡­"


    They men pushed their partner along as they all left the sub-basement level¡­


    Whereas within Tim''s workstation, there was a specific screen that was blinking ''Security Breach!'' on his screen, but he was currently downstairs, deep within the basement, screwing Kiki so hard that are legs were dangling in the air like an inted air dancer¡­


    p! p!


    Twat! t!


    Smack!


    Tim aggressively mmed into Kiki like his life depended on it, and of one were to look at the current Tim, one wouldn''t be able to link him to the previous nerd who was talking about an SUV he and some great minds just created, not in ten lifetimes, because he was currently like a hungry gangster who had just left the Juvie after being celibate for ten solid years¡­


    He plowed Kiki viciously, and all these while, she could only gasp, wide eyed, with an expression of apocalyptic shock¡­


    She felt Tim reach into the depths of her crevices that she never knew existed, and just like a passion-starved explorer, Tim dug her deep¡­


    It was like he was digging for thest diamond that existed in the entire milky-way¡­


    ''B-but, he was supposed to be an amateur!''


    Kiki stammered in thought as her eyes kept rolling backwards, like as if Tim was currently pounding on a string deep within her that was connected to her eyeballs; the more he pounded, the more her eyes dted in ecstasy¡­


    ''Tim... Jim, I really pray and hope you guys are getting my signal¡­''


    Sam prayed within his mind as he thought the signal he was sending to alert the three nerds got to them¡­


    He had lit up a lighter and threw it on the floor within his apartment as he was leaving, hoping to use that heat rm from the fire venttion system to alert Jim, but as if all heavens were against Sam; just like his twin brother, Jim was busy plowing a coworker in thedies room¡­


    So in terms of A.I breach, Tim has not seen it yet, because he was venting on Kiki, and as for Structural Breach, Jim also; like his twin brother was busy venting on a coworker, which meant Sam was on his own for as long as it took the two boys to erupt into their girls and return to their station¡­


    [Irony of Life: Imagine the life and death of an entire family, hanging on the bnce of how long it took one boy to shoot off his load¡­]


    Sam received another call from the man who told him to lock up all security personnel and every worker that was currently in their work station;


    "Why do you even need to do that?"


    The moment Sam was speaking, the man connected Sam''s disy to one of the cameras at the basement entrance, where onedy had just walked into¡­


    Then Sam saw thedy run into the man''s inside men, who all had masks on their faces¡­


    These inside men who were carrying chemical tanks shot the woman in the head from point nk range, then the man''s voice echoed;


    "Her brains- no I mean blood, are on you¡­ Now lock the doors!"


    Sam still in his stunned state, quickly ordered Orchid [his super watch''s A.I] to lock the doors, and just like that, every single personnel saw the main doors of their offices and cubicles lock itself up¡­


    They instantly went into full panic mode, but each offices was soundproof, which meant people panicking in one office didn''t know that their own neighbors were also panicking¡­


    The men walked their way towards an elevator and began to walk over to the elevator doors, and Sam watched with wide eyes as these men took the elevator and used some sort of hacking device to hack their way into the elevator which took them straight up and blinding speed, and from the speed at which they were moving, he knew they were going very high up the building¡­


    His eyes traced towards the higher part of the building and he saw the penthouse where Roy and his family were¡­


    ''Oh my god... No!''


    Sam bellowed in his mind as he began to panic real hard; if these men were to enter the penthouse, Rou and his family won''t even know what hit them before they are all killed¡­


    ''Damn you geeks, look at your damn screens!''


    Sam bellowed angrily within his mind as he watched all the doors get locked from the ground floor up till the penthouse which triggered its in-built emergency lockdown system instead;


    "What are you doing!?" The man bellowed through the phone;


    "Do you think I won''t murder your entire family and then let you suffocate to death in this room?" He continued;


    "No ¨C no ¨C no wait, I only did what you asked me to¡­"


    "Check it, see, I only did what you asked me to, I didn''t know the penthouse as such a secret in-built security maneuver¡­"


    Sam hurriedly blurted when he saw his wife and kids being lowered another six inches¡­


    "It seems you don''t understand why I told you toe here?"


    "Don''t worry, you will soon understand that you are in as much deep shit as the rest of your family¡­" The man went silent afterwards¡­


    Sam was currently panting in fear like as if the person who was threatening to kill him was in the same room as he was¡­


    The man just seemed to have an omni-sight; He could see every move Sam was making¡­


    Sam continued to fluster over everything that was happening; being in a situation where one was being controlled like a pawn wasn''t in any way appealing to Sam, and to top that off, he knew nothing about the person controlling him yet...


    He didn''t even have any means of identifying what was going on and the clearest way out was for one of those ''Fuckers'' to actually do the job they were being paid to do; but no¡­


    He had not seen anyone trying to hack away the control of his A.I from the tulip''s mainframe¡­


    At least that way, he would be able to find a way to make orchid leave some message within the codes that Tim would surely understand ande to his aid¡­


    The seven men within the elevator reached the floor before the penthouse where the gardenid, and they once again hacked their way into the garden atop which the penthouse stood¡­


    Then it was time to open the vault like door which was currently on an emergency lockdown mode¡­


    These men put down the chemical tanks they were carrying and opened it¡­ Instantly, the smoke of a sizzling and highly toxic chemical wafted out of the drum, as they wore some kind of heavy duty gloves on their hands before dipping it into the chemical and then bringing out some metal devices wrapped in some sort of foil that prevented the acidic chemical surrounding it from disintegrating their equipment¡­


    Then they began to set up some device that looked like something straight out of a sci-fi conspiracy movies¡­


    One of these devices actually had a metal reinforced tri pod stand, and if not for where they were, someone would actually think these guys were assembling theunch of a nuclear missile¡­


    Sam watched all these in his screen with an anxious and absolutely tensed expression, these guys set up the device and from what appeared before Sam looked like some sort ofser shooting device and just as that thought crossed his mind;


    Prrrinnnn!


    Tiissssshhhh!


    The device came to life as a redser beam hit this adamantium reinforced vault like door, causing the sound of metal being melted to suffuse the area¡­


    But from the way things were going it might take at least ten minutes before they are able to cut through the door and invade the homeowners¡­


    Jiang!


    m!


    Tim and Kiki who had dressed themselves up like nothing ever happened closed the door of the basement and took a right turn as they went over to the elevator, oblivious to the fact that if they had taken a left turn, they would have seen the sttered brains and leaking blood of one of their employees¡­


    But they took the elevator and went up to the ground floor, before taking the normal elevator to the 20th floor, because if they had taken the service elevator which ran from the depths of the basement up to the 100th floor, someone would have known where they wereing from, and furtherly put two and two together to know what they have gone to do at the basement¡­


    Moreover, the service elevator was already at the penthouse where a silent, secret assassination attempt was about to be hatched¡­

 Chapter 28 - A Mental Scar

    But they took the elevator and went up to the ground floor, before taking the normal elevator to the 20th floor...


    They knew if they had taken the service elevator which ran from the depths of the basement up to the 100th floor, someone would have known where they wereing from...


    From then on, it was just a matter of putting two and two together to know what they have gone to do at the basement¡­


    Moreover, the service elevator was already at the penthouse where a silent, secret assassination attempt was about to be hatched¡­


    Tim and Kiki got to the twentieth floor about some five minutester with flush faces...


    Just as they were about to enter their enter their workstations which had a service area configuration, they saw Jim and a co-worker stepping out of the restroom together...


    The duo were sweaty and flushed also, the only difference being that the coworker could barely walk normally, and it seemed like a fire had been lit beneath her¡­


    Sensing that they must have both been indulging in the same pleasure, they all entered the office and went to their workstations without saying a word to each other¡­


    "Hey, hey ¡­ Hey! What the fuck!?"


    Tim exploded in curses the moment he stepped into his workstation and he saw the ''Security Breach'' notification on his screen¡­


    Then he heard several rushing steps and by the time he rotated his seat around to see who it was;


    "Are you getting this!?" Jim said frantically before seeing what was on disy on Tim''s screen;


    "Get to work!" Tim yelled at his twin brother;


    "Find out who is responsible for this!" Jim left before disappearing into his workstation¡­


    "Tulips, run systems diagnostics and override all user ess!"


    Tim bellowed as he began to struggle for the control over Tulip''s A.I mainframe, but no matter how much he called out, Tulips never responded...


    It was as if she had been isted within a different program of some sort¡­


    Tim cracked his knuckles and went from being immensely anxious to full blown paranoid and began to hit every single button on his keyboard like every word would add a second more to his life¡­


    "Someone is trying to hack into the system and retrieve my control over the system A.I, do you know who it might be?"


    The man spoke with a more aggressive tone this time, and when he sensed Sam''s hesitation, he lowered his family by another 5 inches, and continued;


    "Is the life of this person more important than that of your family''s?"


    Sam trembled and began to regret ever taking this job for the first time today¡­


    "Speak!"


    The man bellowed as he rolled his family down another 5 inches causing Sam''s heart to skip a beat because, his family were now so close to the water, that the piranhas were beginning to jump out of the water in a bid to get a bite¡­


    "His name is Tim, and please don''t hurt him¡­ He is just a kid!"


    Sam pleaded to the man, but was only replied by a brief moment of silence;


    "I don''t like to kill people, and I am very sure I won''t be doing any killing today¡­"


    "But my pawns on the other hand, I can''t say much for them" The man spoke before ordering;


    "But now, I want you to give Tim a call, and tell him to stop whatever he is doing, and try to remind of how many lives are at stake here¡­"


    The man spoke as Sam quickly rang Tim''s watch;


    Vmmm! Vmmm!


    Tim''s watch vibrated and the moment he picked up the call, his second screen disyed another ring warning;


    "Danger ¨C High radiation overmunicationswork!"


    But it was toote because Tim answered the call the moment he saw who it was, and then;


    Boom!


    His watch exploded and took Tim''s left hand away with it¡­


    "Aarrghhh!"


    Jim and Kiki rushed back into Tim''s workstation only to see blood sttered all over his screen and keyboards and his decapitated wrist;


    "What happened!?" Jim asked in fear;


    "It''s Sam¡­ I don''t know how or why, but it''s Sam!"


    Tim blurted as he began to lose consciousness because of his loss of blood, causing Jim to look to Kiki who was absolutely stunned about everything that had happened in the span of thest five to ten minutes;


    "Snap out of it and help him!"


    Jim bellowed Kiki back to reality as she quickly removed her panties and wrapped it all over his wrists to stop the bleeding as she bolted to go get something from her workstation¡­


    [This was her new invention for everydies, a pant that has an in-built menstrual pads, so women won''t have to bother about being caught off-guard forever¡­]


    "The doors of virtually every room has been locked except the service doors¡­


    There is no way we can leave this building!" Jim spoke having checked everything back at his workstation;


    "Themunicationswork system has also been disconnected and blocked, so there is no way we can put out a call to the secret control facility either¡­" Tim added seemingly out of breath¡­


    His face was now pale and he was sweating bullets...


    Despite having his bleeding blocked by Kiki''s panties, the blood flow was just too strong to be contained¡­


    "Except we use- use- us-"


    Tim thought of a way out but was too exhausted toplete his sentence;


    "Hey, stay awake buddy!"


    Jim''s eyes were already swollen in tears as the thought of losing his dearest twin brother gradually began to grow more apparent with time, but despite all his encouraging words, it didn''t stop Tim''s eyes from gradually shutting until it eventually shut;


    "Noooo! Nooo!"


    Jim bawled his eyes out when he saw Tim''s eyes shut itself;


    "No, not now¡­"


    "Move your ass out of the way!"


    Jim was bawling his eyes out when he heard Kiki''s voice, followed by a vicious kick that had him tumbling out of his way;


    "What the fuck are you yelling at him for?"


    "Are you trying to kill him with your noise or something!?"


    Kiki raged before picking one of the syringes in her hand and plunging it into Tim, and the moment the piston of the syringe reached its end, Jim shot to life with a deep and heavy gasp¡­


    Without giving him any chance to rx, she plunged the second one into hisps, causing ever inch of Tim''s skin and muscles to be numb¡­


    Then she removed her heavy panties from Tim''s wrist who at this point couldn''t feel even the slightest pain when Kiki removed her heavy, blood soaked panties¡­


    Taking the third syringe, Kiki squeezed something out of it that looked a lot like liquid foam, which solidified the moment they came in contact with the air¡­


    After squeezing this new invention all over Tim''s wrists, the thing solidified into thick foam that stuck to the rest of Tim''s wrist, stopping the bleedingpletely¡­


    Tim stood up and hugged Kiki with one hand before turning to look at his brother whose face was still wet from the tears he had just shed;


    "I just saw you die¡­" Jim spoke with a quaking tone;


    "Really?" Tim looked over to Kiki for confirmation;


    "Well, I just allowed you down there, and it was my first time, and there is no way in hell I''m going to let it be myst!"


    Kiki spoke with a sigh of relief¡­


    [Irony of life: A boy''s life was actually hanging in the bnce of a girl''s desire to get fucked a second time¡­ Life is truly not bnced...]


    I owe you one¡­"


    Tim said as he began to rummage through his drawer looking for something;


    "Where are you¡­ you were supposed to be right here¡­"


    Tim spoke more to what he was looking for rather than the duo behind him, and after about thirty seconds, he finally grabbed a thick book out from behind his desk;


    "Found it!"


    He yelled before turning around to look at the rest;


    "I have a way to contact the outside¡­"


    "But you guys aren''t gonna like who I am about to contact¡­"


    "Do it!" Jim and Kiki blurted simultaneously;


    "First I need to get a service radio¡­"


    "The basement!" Kiki suggested;


    "Yes, this is about the time they run maintenance check¡­"


    "We should be able to find one of them down there!"


    Jim added as they rushed towards the service elevators; as the infrastructural tech guy obviously knew when the firm''s technicians ran their maintenance check¡­


    The trio stepped into the basement and ran towards the subbasement door, Jim being the most familiar with the area was in the lead, with Kiki right behind him¡­


    Jim opened the door, and the moment his foot stepped into the subbasement, he slipped to a fall as he slid down the stairs nonstop until hended beside another body which seemed cold to the touch, but because the ce was dark, he asked;


    "Tim is that you?"


    "I''m up here!"


    Tim replied as Kiki switched on the subbasement light, and instantly a gory image straight out of a horror movie appeared just in front of Jim''s face¡­


    It was the eyes of ady who Jim was very familiar with that was staring straight back into Jim''s life;


    "Arrrgghhh!"


    And it was in that moment that Jim became mentally scarred¡­

 Chapter 29 - Establishing Anderson’s Laboratory!

    "Tim is that you?"


    "I''m up here!"


    Tim replied as Kiki switched on the subbasement light, and instantly a gory image straight out of a horror movie appeared just in front of Jim''s face¡­


    It was the eyes of ady who Jim was very familiar with that was staring straight back into Jim''s life;


    "Arrrgghhh!"


    And it was in that moment that Jim became mentally scarred¡­


    Tim and Kiki quickly rushed to help him up, but Jim''s eyes were still wide and trembling with terror, as he brought his hand up and saw the blood of thedy on not only his hands but his clothes were drenched with it also causing him to faint on the spot¡­


    Tim and Kiki set him down on the stairs to rx and wake by himself;


    "Wait here with him¡­"


    "Where are you going?" Kiki asked in fear when Tim instructed her;


    "I have to go up ahead to check if any one of these service personnel is still here¡­" Tim replied;


    "No, don''t!"


    Kiki shook her head vehemently with a fearful expression;


    "What¡­ why?" Tim asked seemingly confused¡­


    He was going to search for a device that can make them call for help, and they also bought into the idea, but now that they were already this close, she was telling him not to go?


    "What if the person who did this is still here!?"


    Kiki gestured to the deaddy on the ground as she screamed silently¡­


    It was only at that moment that Tim''s brain actually thought of the possibility of the scenario, as he stretched his sweat drenched neck into the dark tunnel that went as deep as only Jim knows¡­


    But after fearing for a few minutes and finding no alternative solution to the currently grim situation of the firm, Tim decided he would still go ahead with the mission nheless¡­


    Grabbing a shlight and pick-axe that was hung on the wall in case of a fire breakout, Tim hung the red axe on his neck as he looked towards Kiki who was staring fearfully at her Viking-like boyfriend, with a quick but deep kiss, she cemented the approval of his conquest as Tim switched on the shlight which gave him a bit of relief because of the distance its beam could travel¡­


    Calcting the shlights range to about 10 meters, Tim looked to Kiki;


    "If I am not back in twenty minutes, I want you to stay as far away from this ce as possible¡­" Tim spoke as Kiki shook her head;


    "No, promise me you wille back¡­"


    She grabbed Tim''s shirt tearfully before squeezing him in her embrace, but Tim who realized that the more he wasted time here, the grimmer the fate of the firm would be, pushed himself out of her embrace and jumped into the tunnel that looked very much like that of a subway train tunnel¡­


    Tim walked slowly and quietly so as not to alert whoever it was that was within this dead quiet tunnel, as bullets of sweat ran down the sides of his face¡­


    But after about five minutes of nervy walking, Tim finally got to the end of the tunnel, and he saw some concrete rubbles on the ground, walking like he was within a field full of vipers, Tim turned over and saw the dead body of a choked personnel there on the ground with its mouth open and neck twisted¡­


    He gave a nervy but respectful bow as he took the man''s shlight and radio before bolting out of the tunnel in full flight, not even caring to inspect the man sized hole on the wall¡­


    In less than two minutes, Kiki jumped in fright when she abruptly saw someone jump out of the abyss looking tunnel¡­


    Tim looked over to Jim who was still unconscious with tensed up muscles, and pulled out the antenna of the radio with him¡­


    Plugging something that looked like a micro-USB cable to the walkie-talkie, Tim opened up the massive book in his hand and began to flip through its numerous pages looking for a particr index within it¡­


    After about three minutes of flipping through the pages, Tim finally found what he was looking for as he punched in a series of numbers and waited¡­


    Toou-Toou!


    The phone began to connect through and after a few seconds, someone picked;


    "Sukky''s Beef¡­ How may I help you?" A feminine voice answered from the other side;


    "Hi, can you kindly patch me through to David?"


    Kiki rolled her eyes in utter disgust when she heard the name Tim just mentioned¡­


    "Please hold on a minute¡­"


    Thedy''s voiced trailed off as it seemed like she was busy with something else, and after another three minutes, she retuned;


    "Identity or passcode please?"


    She requested, her tone more serious this time; this line was one which was called in extremely dire circumstances, and for it to be ringing and for the person on the other side to request for the head of their facility meant something terrible is happening within the firm, but first, she must confirm that it wasn''t a prank;


    "This is Shy Oak, there''s an ongoing assault within the firm¡­ I repeat; ongoing assault within the firm!"


    "Requesting full security support ASAP!"


    Tim spoke as quietly loud as possible as thedy on the other side responded;


    "One moment, please¡­"


    Then she trailed off once again, but this time, it only took her about half a minute to return;


    "Hold tight and out of sight, Agent Shy Oak¡­ Back up is on the way!"


    "Ensure this tform is open at all times, help on the outside would require your discretion on the inside to effectively perform the recovery mission!"


    Thedy added before the walkie-talkie began to hum a t line¡­ Tim and Kiki locked themselves within the subbasement, using the axe to bar the door as they sat and waited for help to arrive¡­


    About half an hourter, the walkie-talkie in Tim''s hand rang;


    "Hello, this is special agent Skywalker, am I speaking to agent Shy Oak?"


    The deep, curt and smart voice of a no-nonsense man came roaring through the radio speaker;


    "Yes you are¡­" Tim responded;


    "Good, we will need your help to ensure this mission is a sess, I will need you to exin everything you can remember about whatever is going on within the firm to me in full details¡­" Special agent Skywalker responded;


    "What!?"


    "Can''t you just barge your way in and take control of the situation?" Tim asked seemingly confused;


    "I''m afraid not agent Shy Oak, we don''t know if the culprit has any hostages, and until we can confirm that, we will not be doing any barging in¡­"


    "So, I will need you to stay calm and tell me everything you know¡­"


    Special Agent Skywalker spoke as calmly as he possibly could which worked wonders, because Tim heaved a huge sigh and began to recount the entire sequence of what transpired throughout the day, absolutely excluding the shenanigans between himself and Kiki earlier;


    "You say this Sam is still within the building!?"


    Special Agent Skywalker asked with a domineering tone, seemingly back to his usual self;


    "Yes he is¡­" Tim replied;


    "Good, I will need you to return to that tunnel and stand by the hole within the wall, my team would find the location of yourmunicating device and follow the same path into the building, whilst you will also be retrieved through the same path¡­"


    "I am not alone¡­" Tim spoke;


    "What!?" Special agent Skywalker seemed to have snapped;


    "Agent Shy Oak, you should lead with such information next time!" He chided;


    "Alright, I''m sorry¡­"


    "I am here with agent Fat Wolf and Sad Tailor¡­ agent Sad Tailor is currently unconscious¡­ I repeat; agent Sad Tailor is unconscious!" Tim said through the phone;


    "I will need verification of agent Fat Wolf''s presence!"


    Special agent Skywalker ordered as Kiki spoke and gave some information about herself;


    "Confirmed!"


    "Is agent Sad Tailor still alive!?"


    "What!?"


    The connections was now being scrambled and Tim could instantly detect that it must be Orchid hacking into Tulip and trying to cut off the connections;


    "Fuck the procedures just move in already, we are on our way to the rendezvous point!"


    Tim blurted and before Special agent Skywalker could respond, the connection disconnected;


    "Fuck!" Special agent Skywalker cursed;


    "Alright, Alpha team, bring in the chopper!"


    "Delta team with me, everyone else secure the area and be at full alert!"


    "Anything other than a verified personnel or uses out this building, I want you to take them down!"


    "Alive most preferably but not mandatory!"


    Special agent Skywalker snapped orders at his team as one of them brought out a radioactive detecting device, as they went to the back of the firm and tried to find the path which those mercenaries had taken into the building earlier; and thus the inevitable recovery mission began!

 Chapter 30 - Welcome To Hell!

    "Alright, Alpha team, bring in the chopper¡­"


    "Delta team with me, everyone else secure the area and be at full alert¡­"


    "Anything other than a verified personnel or uses out this building, I want you to take them down¡­"


    "Alive if most preferably but not mandatory!"


    Special agent Skywalker snapped orders at his team as one of them brought out a radioactive detecting device, as they went to the back of the firm and tried to find the path which those mercenaries had taken into the building earlier; and thus the recovery mission began!


    Tim and Kiki moved immediately as they went down the scary tunnel and before long, they had reached the hole, and the moment Kiki saw the dead Asian, she nearly tripped to a fall;


    "Was he here before or after-"


    Kiki didn''tplete her statement, but Tim knew what she wanted to say;


    "You are the doctor, what do you think?"


    But just as they were discussing, they heard the walkie-talkie began to make some scrambled sounds;


    Krrkkrrkkrrrrrkkrrr!


    Then what followed was the voice of Special agent Skywalker;


    "Down here!"


    "We are right here!"


    Kiki and Tim began to scream like their lives depended on it, and before long, the tunnel they were currently in was filled with over thirty war veterans who were dressed like they were about to go invade a Taliban base;


    "Alright you guys will be safe here, but we can''t allow you leave now because we would still need your help catching these sons of bitches¡­"


    Special agent Skywalker cursed in pure fury as some of his guys began to resuscitate Jim¡­


    His job till date had been the best in the world; their group were only required to take action when there is a very dangerous situation threatening the existence of the firm, and for the past ten years, they have been getting paid without having to do any work¡­


    But to then have themselves put to work when they could be enjoying themselves like they regrly did made Special Agent Skywalker extremely incensed¡­


    "Sons of bitches?" Tim was surprised;


    "Sure, there is no way he was acting alone, thus, we will need to capture him for more information¡­" Special Agent Skywalker revealed their true intentions;


    "Okay, so how do we help?" Tim and Kiki gave their undivided attention to the mission;


    "Good¡­ First we will need to shut down the electrical power of this building-"


    "No, no¡­ That''s not possible¡­" Tim interrupted;


    "Why''s that?"


    "The firm runs on four different power source, the wind turbine, sr power, hydro power and nuclear power, and they have all been programmed to run expressly and simultaneously, so that in case one of them fails, the rest would continue supplying power ensuring that the power doesn''t even blink for a second¡­" Tim exined;


    "So, you are saying there is no way we shut them down?"


    "Well there are two ways and they are both dangerous and might take a long time¡­"


    "We have got nothing but time, spit it out!"


    "The first way is to manually turn them off, but there is a risk of dropping from the 100th floor easily where the wind turbine is, and falling to one''s death¡­"


    "The Sr panels are too many to be able to turn off, the nuclear power is in a safe and secured vault which must have gone on emergency lockdown since every door except the service doors have been locked within the building..."


    "As for the hydroelectricity, it is not usible, because unless the underwater turbine is turned off, anyone who goes down there will be sucked in and shredded to pieces¡­" Tim analyzed;


    "Well what about the second option?"


    Special agent Skywalker asked after understanding how dangerous and time wasting the first option is;


    "Well that will involve me hacking into the Chief Of Security''s A.I ¨C Orchid¡­"


    "But the problem is, it is even more sophisticated than the firm''s A.I, and was created in case the Firm''s A.I; Tulips, got hacked or bugged¡­"


    "So?" Special agent Skywalker was now getting impatient;


    "What he is trying to say is that, he has less than 20 percent chance of sessfully hacking that A.I, and on top of that, it would taking him a while¡­"


    Kiki spoke up for Tim who seemed to be carrying all the grimness and solemnness of this recovery mission on his shoulders, and the attention these thirty army veterans were giving him weren''t helping either¡­


    Thus, she stepped u and helped him out, and it did work because Tim heaved a huge sigh of relief as a drop of sweat ran down his forehead to his cheek, causing him a slight itch;


    "Alright, how do we get you what you need?"


    "Well, firstly, I would need to get to my workstation on the 20th floor¡­"


    "Didn''t you say all doors were on emergency lockdown?"


    "Yes, except service doors, and out workstations were luckily enough made from them¡­"


    "Alright, Agent Guilty Cameo¡­ take two men and escort them to their work stations, and ensure that they shut of all elevators and turn off the power¡­"


    "We will move in when that happens¡­" Instantly Agent Guilty took charge of the other two;


    "Alright, trident formation¡­ Shoot first ask questionster... got it!"


    "On me!"


    Agent Guilty Cameo moved ahead as they moved through the tunnels with their night googles and before long, they got to the door where thedy was stillying with her eyes wide open staring at them, as agent Skywalker used two fingers to shut her eyes before moving on¡­


    Tim and Kiki carried Jim on their shoulders, as heter woke up after they had climbed up to the eight floor¡­


    "I can''t believe he would do that¡­" Jim said the moment he woke up;


    "Oh, apparently he is not working alone¡­" Tim replied;


    "I am still not sure if he is truly doing this¡­ what if he was being made to do it?"


    Kiki whispered as they picked up speed, since they didn''t need to carry Jim anymore;


    "You are too trusting, Kiki¡­ I hope it doesn''t cost you greatly in the future¡­"


    Jim shook his head as he began to regain subconscious control over his limbs which had been idle for almost thest thirty minutes¡­


    "Well, anyhow it is, he still has to be arrested, and then we can find out what is truly happening¡­"


    Tim spoke out and wasuded by Agent Guilty Cameo who called him ''shrewd and smart''¡­


    About ten minutester, they were already within their workstation as they each took to their post and began some work¡­


    "Wait!" Agent Guilty Cameo spoke;


    "Rather than hacking this sophisticated A.I of yours, doesn''t it have a self-destruct button?"


    The moment he said it, the three nerds felt like killing themselves with a blob of tofu¡­


    Anytime there is a problem, they always try to tackle it technically and professionally, forgetting that;


    ''The one true way is the old school way¡­''


    "Kiki, make them sleep¡­" Tim said;


    "Finally, I have always fantasized about doing this¡­"


    Kiki gave a wicked and mischievous grin as she attacked her keyboard, and before long every single room within the firm from the ground floor to just below the penthouse began to spray out some sort of gas¡­


    "~Sleep~ ~Sleep~"


    Kiki began to speak like a witch chanting a spell of some sort¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    At the penthouse¡­


    "Damn, this door would take about another hour before we can gain ess into it, and I just received word that the WTF are here, and about to regain control of the building¡­"


    "So, we are moving to n B¡­" The leader of the mercenary group spoke to his men;


    "Finally¡­"


    One of the men blurted as the others also gave a sigh of relief;


    "WE have been getting bored stiff here, and we crave some action!"


    The man who the group thought was horror crazy spoke as the rest of the group nodded their head in confirmation;


    "Well, we can give these WTF a very loud wee on our way out!"


    "Hell yeah!"


    Then they all tilted the chemical containers as the liquid acidic content within it poured on the ground releasing some toxic and choking smoke¡­


    Then the chemicals being liquid were able to seep through the door into the penthouse garden itself, and the moment these mercenaries confirmed that it had reached the other side of the door, their leader stepped forward with a lighter;


    "Wee to hell!"


    He said as he tossed the lighter into the chemical which was instantly set aze, as the mes quickly transferred through the liquid chemical on the ground and into the penthouse garden, setting the nts and trees there aze¡­


    Now, the garden which was a source of calm, happiness and serenity have now be a vital recipe for horror, death and absolute disaster¡­

 Chapter 31 - A Fucking AntiArtillery SUV!?

    "Wee to hell!"


    He said as he tossed the lighter into the chemical which was instantly set aze, as the mes quickly transferred through the liquid chemical on the ground and into the penthouse garden, setting the nts and trees there aze¡­


    Now, the garden which was a source of calm, happiness and serenity have now be a vital recipe for horror, death and absolute disaster¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    High up within the building¡­


    75th Floor¡­


    "Leave the building and head down to your SUV¡­ You will see the location to the warehouse where your family is being kept¡­"


    The deep voice ordered Sam who was stunned at the fact that the man actually wanted him to get to his SUV which he would obviously know was a moving safe house¡­


    ''So, you want me to rescue myself out of this ce and then continue controlling me when I am out of harm''s way¡­''


    Sam thought to himself, knowing that the person controlling him, most likely needed him awake and alive to get to his goal¡­


    He also predicted that the location of his family was probably a fake and a trap, but he had no choice but to go¡­


    He dashed out of the room which was now filling up with sleep inducing gases¡­


    He reached an elevator, and entered; but instead of going down, he actually went upwards instead¡­


    Jim, Tim and Kiki as well as the trio from the WTF were watching Sam head upstairs from the elevator cameras, as they quickly radioed the situation to Special Agent Skywalker''s team who were still waiting at the basement;


    "But why would he be heading up instead of downwards?" One of the WTF agents spoke in confusion;


    "If he truly is who we know him to be, then we must always treat every of his actions as a possible escape tactic¡­"


    "Thus, what do you nerds think he might be going after up there?" Agent Guilty Cameo asked;


    "Perhaps, he has a parachute and is probably trying to jump down from the top of the building¡­" Kiki suggested;


    "Nope¡­ He obviously knows they will be choppers out there¡­"


    "If he chooses such an option, then that would be the quickest way to die or get arrested¡­ Think guys!" Agent Guilty Cameo bellowed at everyone including himself¡­


    They were the eyes and ears of the entire WTF squad, both inside and outside, thus, they would be needed to give urate and precise information at all times¡­


    After a brief minute of silence, Jim suddenly blurted;


    "Oh no, no, no, no¡­"


    "What is it!?" Agent Guilty Cameo grabbed Jim by the shoulder with an almost vice like grip;


    "He is stopping at his apartment!" Jim added;


    "Fuck! The secret Elevator!" Tim blurted as he began to type faster than his only hand could carry...


    "Where does the secret elevator lead to!?"


    "All the way down to our top secret garage¡­" Kiki blurted;


    "He is going after his SUV!" Jim added;


    "An SUV!?" Agent Guilty Cameo was so furious right now;


    "Are you fucking messing with me right now!?" He snapped at them;


    "No fool! You don''t understand¡­" Tim stood up and bellowed into Agent Guilty Cameo''s face;


    "If he gets into that SUV, only a nuclear warhead can stop him from escaping!"


    "You know what that means right¡­ Agent!?"


    Tim added in sheer fury¡­ Then he punched the enter button on his keyboard, and it was then everyone realized that he had reached the self-destruct page of Tulips A.I, and has now begun the countdown of the self-destruct sequence which would take about sixty seconds, but Sam was obviously going to get there in half the time¡­


    Agent Guilty Cameo hurriedly radioed his boss in the basement and told him about the new development;


    "What!?"


    "A fucking anti-artillery SUV!?"


    "Who the fuck did they make that for anyway; the president of the fucking world!?"


    Special Agent Skywalker utterly snapped when he heard the new development and how hard his mission just became¡­


    This was the first time they had ever been called to action in a decade, are they going to fail their very fist mission?


    ''Hell No!'' Special Agent Skywalker revolted.


    The elevator was a secret elevator which meant there was no way they could ess it except through the A.I running it; and as fate would have it, it was about to self-destruct in about 45 seconds¡­


    Even if Tim had ten arms and fifty fingers, he still won''t be able to do so before the A.I self-destructs¡­


    Whilst they were busy fussing over everything, Jim instead began to switch on every defense system within the Sam''s apartment, from the high techsers, to the shock pins, temperature regtor which made the entire corridor bone-chilling cold, andstly, switching the patter of panels on the corridor floor which was giving him some sort of headache, because Sam was already there and also understood what was happening...


    As a result, he had ordered ''Orchid'' to regain control of the entire floor; and though ''Orchid was fast as fuck'', it still took some seconds for it to get past the dozen or so roadblocks Jim had put in ce¡­


    Jim smirked slightly as he watched Sam get dyed, but just as the smile came to his face, Tulips self-destruct and took Jim''s smile away with it...


    He had been using Tulip''s mainframe to gain ess to all these road blocks, and now that she had self-destructed, it barely took Orchid two seconds to clear out the rest of the roadblocks...


    Sam bolted for his bag, grabbed it and darted back out towards the secret elevator whilst writing something on his palm along the way, and when he got to the camera in front of the secret elevator, he smacked his palm at the face of the camera before pressing the call up button for the secret elevator which didn''t respond¡­


    "Fuck!" Sam cursed as he dropped his bags and found the service staircase¡­


    Picturing how many steps he would have to take from over a hundred floors to the secret garage in his mind, Sam sighed as he reminded himself;


    "Just like your training¡­ it''s just like your training!"¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the workstation¡­


    "Bring up the footage from the camera he just destroyed, I think he was trying to pass a message¡­" Agent Guilty Cameo ordered;


    "Really, we only saw him destroying the trails of his escape¡­"


    Jim who had for some reason lost all optimism of Sam still being the good guy blurted with a roll of his eyes;


    "And there are no better ways to take care of the camera than using not even one''s fists but the palm?"


    Agent Guilty Cameo spoke like he was a grandmaster being challenged by a child with autism¡­


    Tim bought into what the agent was insinuating, and using a normal I.T procedure, he was able to being up thest footage from the camera Sam had just pped into oblivion¡­


    [Note:- The A.I is just a program designed to make work easier by automatically processing some predesigned protocols¡­ But it doesn''t mean that the system will crash once the A.I is gone¡­ It is like a library and the person who arranges the books; if the person arranging the book dies, the library would obviously remain, and someone else would be able to ess it easily¡­ That is the case with Tulips, Tim and the entirework of data within the Aeon Consults¡­]


    Once the footage came up, it was somewhat blurred, but it was obvious something was written on it¡­


    Tim began to sort the image out frame by frame and in less than thirty seconds, he was able to reveal the information;


    "They''ve got my wife and kids!" That was the message passed along;


    "So, he was being used all along¡­"


    Kiki spoke with a disappointed and guilty tone¡­


    She would be lying if she said she hadn''t seen Sam as the bad guy on some asion, and it was the same for Tim and Jim;


    "Well, we can only be sure once we have got him!"


    Agent Guilty Cameo said as he radioed the new development to Special Agent Skywalker;


    "Finally, something I can work with¡­ I am starting to hate the musk down here¡­" Special Agent Skywalker blurted in frustration mixed with anger;


    "Alright, everyone on me¡­"


    "He is taking the service stairways which meant if we hurry, we can wee him midway¡­" He added;


    "Alright, it''s gonna be a very tough climb, but nothing as bad as our training routine¡­"


    "Remember, we want him alive, so switch to non-lethal and stun grenades¡­"


    "Move it!"


    Special Agent Skywalker bellowed as the 25 plus men bolted through the tunnel, not even sparing the deaddy another nce as they opened the basement door and began to head up the service stairways¡­


    Bang!


    Sam burst open the door to the of the 100th service floor whilst the WTF agents were already up the 40th floor as they hunter and the hunted drew ever so closer to one another, and thus began the chase between a cat and dozens of mice¡­

 Chapter 32 - The Chase

    "Move it!"


    Agent Skywalker bellowed as the 25 plus men bolted through the tunnel, not even sparing the deaddy another nce as they opened the basement door and began to head up the service stairways...


    Bang!


    Sam burst open the door to the of the 100th service floor whilst the WTF agents were already up the 40th floor as they hunter and the hunted drew ever so closer to one another, and thus began the chase between a cat and dozens of mice¡­


    Gradually the chasers and the chased were gradually approaching one another until they were about three floors away from each other;


    Bang-Bang!


    Two doors simultaneously banged open around the 74th floor and the two parties who mmed these doors open clearly heard the loud bang of the door up ahead being opened¡­


    Both parties looked towards the door being opened; one from above and the others from below, as Special Agent Skywalker bellowed;


    "Freeze! It''s the WTF!"


    But the Special Agent was only replied by another loud banging sound of the service door as Sam bolted back up the stairs;


    "Alpha Team we have him cornered¡­ He is headed towards you!"


    Special Agent Skywalker bellowed through hiss as he and his team continued their upward pursuit, catching up to Sam little by little¡­


    Sam mmed open the door of the 76th floor and heard another simr banging from up ahead¡­


    He looks up and sees about 7 agents rushing towards him with ferocious intent, and sensing that his two possibly escape routes had been cutoff, Sam cursed;


    "Fuck! If these guys catch me, my family is screwed!"


    His anxiety level rose and just as he was a second away from making a stupid decision, his military training kicked in as everything around him slowed to a crawl followed by the utter drowning out of sounds¡­


    His emotions also settled, and before the time it took a chicken to take a breath, Sam was now as calm and collected as a ten thousand year old well¡­


    He bolted into a random room followed hot on the heels by about thirty agents¡­


    Three of the agents threw in a smoke grenade as they wore masks on their faces, and the moment Sam saw that, he instantly understood what wasing next¡­


    Shutting his eyes and pressing his palms hard onto his ears, another grenade came rolling into the room;


    Bang!


    It was a stun grenade and Sam was slightly affected and the moment the first agent came in with his stun baton, Sam grabbed the agents arm from behind the door and snapped it¡­


    He grabbed the falling stun baton with his free arm and stabbed it into the neck of the agent¡­


    He ripped off the agents mask and wore it to give himself some fresh air, and in that same moment, he moved towards the other two and showed them that achieving the rank of a brigadier in the military is no joke¡­


    He smacked his stun baton on the back of the head of the second and slid on the ground to evade the taser bullet being shot by the fourth¡­


    Then he smacked the baton at the crotch of the third agent sending him clutching and gasping for air as pain wracked all his senses to hell, before rising up to meet thest agent who had shot the stun bullet earlier, and with just two blocks and one punch to the throat, Sam incapacitated the fourth agent¡­


    He tried to rush out of the smoke filled room and saw the remaining three agent who shot their stun bullets at him, as he dodged and dashed back into the room¡­


    He picked up the vest and stun gun of one of the unconscious men, as he darted back into the corridor¡­


    Bang! Bang! Bang!


    Sam shot the three agents on the head as they fell unconscious whilst he darted towards the end of the corridor¡­


    The moment Sam entered the corridor, Special Agent Skywalker also stepped into the corridor, seeing Sam in such a close range, the special agent chased with renewed vigor and energy¡­


    Bang! Bang!


    Click! Click! Click!


    Sam squeezed the trigger five times at the special agent, but thest three gave the sound of an empty cartridge!


    "Fuck!"


    Sam dropped the stun gun and took out one of the stun grenades in the vest he had just picked up and threw it backwards¡­


    Special Agent Skywalker dodged the grenade as it went off behind him, the twenty plus agent with him all felt their ears ring like they were standing right in front of a ship''s ring horn¡­


    The lights from the grenade assaulted their eyes like a deer in heamps on the darkest of nights Skywalker¡­


    But of all that, what slowed them down the most was theughing gas that followed¡­


    The moment these agents inhaled it, they began tough really hard, theyughed so hard to the extent that all the oxygen in their lungs were pushed out, and by the time they finally get the chance to get in a huge breath, they only seemed to inhale a great amount of moreughing gas, causing the nextugh to be louder and harder than thest, as an endless cycle of joker-likeughter wracked their nerves¡­


    Special Agent Skywalker heard his agents agonizingughter and his eyes instantly went red in fury as he picked up the pace¡­


    Sam bent through one of the corners and the moment Agent Skywalker appeared around the corner, the strong thick arm of Sam was waiting for him, as he mmed neck first into the steel like arm causing him to tumble head over heels¡­


    Sam instantly grabbed the opportunity;


    ''Now the path to the ground floor would be free!''


    Sam thought to himself as he jumped past theughing agents on the floor who now had about five to six of them unconscious with tears on their eyes as well as a wide smile¡­


    The moment Sam reached the stairs, he saw three specially dressed men chasing him with an insane level of speed¡­


    These guys were only wearing their Ker vests and were also in shorts and big boots¡­


    Their muscles looked like stones that were beautifully crafted by a grandmaster sculptor, and with ever move of their hands and legs, there was a certain whooshing sound that apanied it;


    "Orchid, who are these guys?" Sam shed his watch over his head whilst he was on full throttle as orchid replied;


    "These are soldiers from the APB unit¡­"


    "APB as in All-points Bulletin?" Sam asked despite being utterly sure his question was ridiculous;


    "Negative¡­ APB as in Advanced Physical Body ¨C unit¡­"


    Orchid replied as Sam mmed open the door to the 75th floor before bolting into its corridor...


    The three men chasing him were now only a few feet away from him and Sam could hear the grunting that apanied their high speed movements; it was like these guys have been injected with 50 gallons of morphine and an additional 50 gallons of steroids¡­


    They ran like cheetahs, heaved like tigers and their steps reverberated like a thousand elephants were marching across the corridor...


    Sam knew from these parameters that, should any of these guys grab a hold of him, they would snap him in half with one hand, and that was more than enough morphine and steroid for Sam who took his prosthetic leg into another level of workload, causing it to give out the chinking sounds of metal being bent through immense stress and strain¡­


    Seeing that these guys were already very close, Sam looked to the vest on him and saw that thest five mini-grenades in it were lethal, but after reassuring himself about ten times in one second that the guysing behind him would definitely make him wish he was dead, Sam threw the three grenades one after the other;


    Bang! Bang! Bang!


    A frag grenade and two stun grenade erupted one after the other within this corridor and as Sam looked back to see the effects of histest move, he saw the three APB guysing after him once again with renewed determination, but he was already lucky enough to have put about 5 meters between himself and them¡­


    There were bleeding cuts all over their body, and some metal shards could still be seen sticking out of their body, making them look like a bloodied monster creeping out of hell...


    But when Sam saw the wicked smiles stered on their faces and their normal teeth which for some reasons looked like dangerous fangs to him, Sam recalcted his situation with fear and utmost urgency¡­


    He quickly calcted how long it would take a smoke grenade to churn out enough smoke to hinder these guys vision, and when he got his estimate, he threw a smoke grenade about a few meters ahead of himself before running into it...


    Then just as he had calcted, before the APB guys could reach the grenade, massive plumes of smoke had already covered everywhere, but these guys weren''t giving up and they seemed intent on breaking some of the few good bones left in his body¡­

 Chapter 33 - Betrayal & Death

    Sam calcted how long it would take a smoke grenade to churn out enough smoke to hinder their vision...


    Then when he got his estimate, he threw a smoke grenade about a few meters ahead of himself before running into it, and just as he had calcted, before the APB guys could reach the grenade, massive plumes of smoke had already covered everywhere...


    But these guys weren''t giving up and they seemed intent on breaking a few bones in his body¡­


    Sam bolted for the service door at the end of the hallway and bolted into it; there he saw the electrical junction box controlling the electricity distribution of the entire floor, but he wasn''t just going to put off the electricity of this floor, he wanted the electricity of the entire building off¡­


    Taking out thest grenade on him, he gave it a quick good luck kiss before cing it in-between the electric cables that ran upwards towards the roof and downwards to the ground floor and dashed out of the room¡­


    Though all these took a while to write, they all happened simultaneously under about three seconds¡­


    When he got out of the room, he was just out of arms reach of the APB soldiers, and just as they were about to catch him, the grenade exploded distracting them slightly as Sam used that tiny window to put a miniscule distance between him and the trio¡­


    Power was instantly lost within the entire firm, and whilst the power generators were still running, the main cable supplying electricity throughout the entire building had just been severed, and for the first time since the firm had been created, there was no power; something that was almost as impossible as a man running around the earth in ten seconds¡­


    These trio chasing Sam could have had one of them take a look at the service room, but asides the fact that even whilst they were three, Sam was still making it very impossible for them to catch him, by hurling several distractions after distractions at them, then if they were reduced to just two, they could as well just allow him escape, because they would just be wasting their precious time...


    Moreover, the smoke grenade didn''t allow them see what happened exactly as they only caught sight of him the moment he stepped out of the service room¡­


    Sam kept running for his family''s life as he thought to himself;


    "I only have about five minutes before the alternative power supplyes online¡­ What do I do?"


    Sam saw a room up ahead and with a heavy m of his body, the door broke open with a loud bang reducing his speed slightly in the process, as the APB soldiers stretched their hands to grab him, Sam''s brain raced faster than ever as he look towards the only escape route left; The Windows¡­


    Without even as much as a second thought, Sam jumped through it;


    Bash!


    Sam jumped out and twisted mid-air looking at the APB soldiers who wouldn''t dare jump with him;


    ''I thought so too!''


    Sammented mentally as he saw himself approaching the 65th floor at break neck speed;


    "Orchid, do you have any strengthening serum avable?" Sam asked;


    Chu-Lom!


    I have about 2 milligrams of the synthesized APB serum, but it can''t save you from a drop like this¡­


    "Do it, and limit the spread to my left arm alone!"


    Sam blurted as he approached the fiftieth floor with insane speed, causing the rest of the onlookers and the few WTF agents outside looking stunned as one of them blurted incredulously;


    "What The Fork!"


    Pinch!


    A tiny needle delivered the dose of the serum from the watch as the dialer of the watch stretched out into a long metal string which tied itself around Sam''s left shoulder, preventing any drop of blood from leaving or entering the arm¡­


    Sam saw all his veins and muscles bulge as he ordered once again;


    "Open all windows from the 40th floor to the ground floor!"


    Chu Lom!


    Sam who was now at the 43rd floor stretched his hands out and grabbed the window which was made out of convertible reinforced steel, because the window converts into a mini verandah for workers who wanted to take a break and get some fresh natural air¡­


    But the speed at which he was descending was just too fast as the first windowplete ripped off its hinges falling along with him¡­


    Sam grabbed the second one, and a simr situation ensued, albeit reducing his speed significantly due to the abrupt jerks he sustained, but his hands were now swollen and slightly bleeding, but since he could only feel more power coursing through it due to the serum, Sam continued to grab at the windows and finally stopped at the 30th floor which was still and insanely massive drop to death for him¡­


    But now, the window he had caught was still holding and then he tried to climb into the 30th floor¡­


    It was now night time, and just as Sam was about to climb into the window, the bright lights of a very much advanced helicopter gave him a spotlight and could see him struggling to climb into the windows¡­


    But just as Sam looked behind to identify if the helicopter was one of the media or the WTF, he saw a sight that would forever shock him to death;


    There within the helicopter was his best friend; James, as well as the ambassador to the government; Mr.  and three other governmentmissioned secret service agents¡­


    James pulled out some sort of high tech newly developed weapon, ced it on his shoulders for support and aimed it at Sam;


    "James! You backstabbing son of a bi-"


    James didn''t let the statement end as he pulled the trigger;


    Boom!


    A massive and potent soundwave rippled out of the weapon and mmed into Sam and the building destroying everything as Sam began to free fall once again¡­


    He lost consciousness for a split second as he began to bleed from all his orifices, his brain quaked, his eyes stung and his ears rang with deafening pitches, and then, the windows that opened to serve as his source of survival became the source of his doom as his head mmed into one of the steel reinforced verandahs¡­


    Then was his ribs, and then the rest of his body, breaking uncountable number of bones in the process as well as a crack in the skull¡­


    His spine shattered, and his hands were now twisted in odd angles, then he mmed his head into another verandah, knocking him out and sending him spinning downwards in a cartwheel-like manner¡­


    Then hended on the road doing the splits, and his balls became paste¡­


    "Sir, what have you done!?"


    "We were only told to retrieve the watch, not kill him¡­" One of the pilots screamed at James when he saw what had just happened;


    "How will you exin this to the HQ!?" He continued;


    "Don''t fret over it, I will tell them that he discovered our agenda and since the APB was about to catch him, I decided to silence him forever to keep our motives a secret¡­" James replied with a nonchnt smile;


    "But that''s not the t-"


    The pilot wanted to refute but got a bullet in the skull instead as blood and brain matter sttered over everyone within the chopper, including James who was stunned;


    "Anyone else has any buts!?"


    Mr.  asked with his gun still smoking from its first shot, and after seeing that no one responded, he returned his gun back into its holster beforemanding one of the two spare agents to take over from the dead pilot¡­


    Then he took the high tech newly developed weapon and aimed it at the ground, and then;


    Boom!


    A massive ten meter wide and two meter deep depression was made into the ground as everyone standing and bearing witness to the incident was instantly sent to the realms beyond the physical¡­


    Flesh, organs, limbs and body part littered everywhere on the ground as blood flowed like a river;


    "I don''t want anything that happened here to be leaked in any form¡­" Mr.  spoke when he saw James'' questioning gaze¡­


    James didn''t reply, and simply closed the door of the chopper before ordering the pilot to descend quickly¡­


    He alighted from the chopper, grabbed Sam''s watch and bellowed;


    "Go! Go! Go!"


    Apparently, the chopper from the WTF was approaching and it was a war type helicopter;


    "Yes sir!"


    The pilot then sped off into the distance before the WTF chopper could even reach the site of the incidence¡­


    Sam''s consciousness returned for a split second and the moment he opened his eyes, he could see apletely burnt penthouse, and then all the pain from his injury assaulted his mind, and his vision blurred as he thought to himself;


    ''Just stay alive for a few more seconds and you will survive this¡­''


    But then, the penthouseplete burnt, and the everything atop the building fell to the ground; mast,work dish and all, they all fell atop Sam;


    "Shit! I jinxed it!"


    That was hisst words as he was instantly crushed to death¡­ And thus, came the end of Sam whose tale would go down as a valiant hero gone rogue!

 Chapter 34 - The Myth Begins Stages & Tiers

    All Cultivation Stages;


    1. Meridian Opening:


    ¡¤ Metal - 8 Great Meridians


    ¡¤ Bronze - 20 [8 Great & 12 Principal]


    ¡¤ Silver - 30 [8 Great, 12 Principal & 10 Peripherals]


    ¡¤ Gold - 40 [8 Great, 12 Principal & 20 Peripherals]


    ¡¤ Diamond - 50 [8 Great, 12 Principal & 30 Peripherals]


    ¡¤ Royal - 60 [8 Great, 12 Principal & 40 Peripherals]


    ¡¤ Sky - 70 [8 Great, 12 Principal & 50 Peripherals]


    ¡¤ Earthly - 80 [8 Great, 12 Principal & 60 Peripherals]


    ¡¤ Heavenly - 90 [8 Great, 12 Principal & 70 Peripherals]


    ¡¤ MC Level - 1000 [8 Great, 40 Senses, 96 Principal & 960 Peripherals ]


    2. Heart Cultivation:


    ¡¤ Mortal - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Sensory - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Awakening - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Heart Realm - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Enlightening - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    3. Mental Cultivation:


    ¡¤ Mortal - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Sensory - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Awakening - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Mind Realm - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Mind Pce - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    4. Soul Cultivation:


    ¡¤ Mortal - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Sensory - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Awakening - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Soul Realm - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ First Heaven - [Low, Advance, Bridge, High & Peak]


    5. Body Cultivation:


    ¡¤ Warrior - [One ¨C Nine Stars]


    ¡¤ General - [One ¨C Nine Stars]


    ¡¤ King - [One ¨C Nine Stars]


    ¡¤ Emperor - [One ¨C Nine Stars]


    ¡¤ Ancestor - [First ¨C Ninth Trials]***


    ¡¤ Samsara - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Ancient - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Divine - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Primordial - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Demi God - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    6. Qi Cultivation:


    ¡¤ Creation - [One ¨C Nine Stars]


    ¡¤ Gathering - [One ¨C Nine Stars]


    ¡¤ Sea - [One ¨C Nine Stars]


    ¡¤ Dan Formation - [One ¨C Nine Stars]


    ¡¤ Nascent Soul - [One ¨C Nine Souls]***


    ¡¤ Nirvana - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Saint - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Immortal - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Celestial - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Demi God - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    7. Bloodlines:


    ¡¤ Light - [0 - 25% = Descent]


    [26 - 50% = Strong]


    [51 - 75% = Original]


    [76 - 100% = Ancient]


    [Pure Bloods]


    ¡¤ Dark - [0 - 25% = Descent]


    [26 - 50% = Strong]


    [51 - 75% = Original]


    [76 - 100% = Ancient]


    [Pure Bloods]


    8. Beast Types:


    ¡¤ Wild Beast - [1 ¨C 10 Years] - Red


    ¡¤ Demon Beast - [10 ¨C 100 Years] - Orange


    ¡¤ Spirit Beast - [100 ¨C 1,000 Years] - Yellow


    ¡¤ Magic Beast - [1,000 ¨C 10,000 Years] - Green


    ¡¤ Ancient Beast - [10,000 ¨C 100,000 Years] - Blue


    ¡¤ Immortal Beast - [Immortal] - Indigo


    ¡¤ Legendary Beast - [Immortal] - Violet


    9. Weapons, Cultivation & Martial Techniques:


    ¡¤ White - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Grey - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ ck - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Bronze - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Silver - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Gold - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    ¡¤ Diamond - [Low, Advance, High, Peak & Bridge]


    10. Landscapes:


    ¡¤ Vige - Branch Families [Ruled By A Single n]


    ¡¤ Town - ns [Ruled By A Single Super n]


    ¡¤ Region - Super ns [Ruled By A Single Ancient n]


    ¡¤ Kingdom - Ancient ns [Ruled By A Single Sect]


    ¡¤ Dynasty - Sects [Ruled By A Single Super Sect]


    ¡¤ Continent - Super Sects [Ruled By A Single Tribe]


    ¡¤ World - Tribes [Ruled By A Single Autarch]


    Authors Vow:-


    Clich¨¦s ¨C


    Like I said in the earlier chapters, the total amount of clich¨¦s that would be found within this novel would be kept to a minimum of 25 ¨C 50% of the entire novel, and even the clich¨¦s that would be found within this novel would be exquisite, premium and extremely scarce ones¡­


    Volume ¨C


    I n on making this novel at least 2000 ¨C 2500 chapters long and every single filler within this novel would also be kept to a minimum of 25 ¨C 50% of the entire novel, and each of these chapters would vary between 1200 ¨C 1700 words.


    Quality ¨C


    I will be adding a lot of plot twists, suspense, arcs, adventures, challenges, ups, downs, heart breaks, deadly situations, intense battles, inheritance grounds [As much as one per thendscapes written above]...


    Then finally, I will also be selecting the top five readers who would be given the chance to decide whatever they want me to add into the novel [as long as they have made over 3,000 contributions into this novel], and their preferences will be added in a way that doesn''t break, deviate or disturb the reading flow of every single reader of this novel¡­


    *Frequency* ¨C


    Like I have said in the synopsis, I will be releasing two chapters daily¡­


    But If I get into top 20 trending ranks, then I will release three chapters daily¡­


    If I get into top 10 trending list, then I will release four chapters daily, and finally, if I make it into the top 5 trending lists I will release five chapters daily¡­


    [Note:- The Trending lists is determined by the total amount of coins spent on this novel¡­]


    *Content* ¨C


    If I get into Top 20 Power and Fandom lists, then I will release 1500 words per chapter daily¡­


    If I get into Top 10 Power and Fandom list, then I will release 1600 words per chapter daily¡­


    Then finally, if I make it into the Top 5 Power and Fandom lists, I will release 1700 words per chapter daily¡­


    [Note:- The Power and Fandom lists is determined by the total amount of powerstones spent on; as well as the total number of chapter and paragraphments written within this Novel¡­]


    *Schedule* ¨C


    All chapters within this novel would always be released between 11:00 AM and 14:00 PM [GMT +1] daily, except on days where the above targets are met, and the chapters have to be released earlier due to the increased number of chapters expected for that day¡­


    There might also be certain tech or server issues from WEBNOVEL themselves, but fear not that rarely happens, and whenever it does happen, it is always resolved faster than it can take you to uninstall and reinstall an application on your mobile phones¡­


    Author''s Note:-


    There are still more cultivation levels than this, but I stopped here because these are the levels that would be used from volume 1 [Chapters 35*] to volume 3 [Chapter 399] or Volume 4 [499]¡­


    All these cultivation stages would also be exined in the uing chapters¡­


    So kindly pay rapt attention because they wouldn''t be exined twice and any further changes that would be made to these stages would be urately altered, described and exined so as to retain smooth, consistent and continuous flow of the storylines¡­


    Thanks¡­


    Author ¨C ORIGIN_ESSENCE¡­

 Chapter 35 - EndOfLife Rally

    ''Just stay alive for a few seconds and you''ll survive this¡­''


    But then, the penthouseplete burnt, and the everything atop the building fell to the ground; mast,work dish and all, they all fell atop Sam;


    "Shit! I jinxed it!"


    That was hisst words as he was instantly crushed to death¡­


    And thus, came the end of Super Sam whose tale would go down as a valiant hero gone rogue!


    Sam Richter, a citizen of Irish Spring...


    Formally serving in the nation of Weindall''s International Military Police Special Unit, Military Division with a plethora of meritorious feats throughout his service...


    He partook in the Global Special Forces Tournament, winning the honor of the deadliest individualbatant and was acknowledged as "Iron Unicorn" due to his massive size, overwhelming strength and sess rate with assignments and missions...


    In a certain special forces mission, he had ignored his safety and sacrificed several limbs in order to save not only the lives of his men, but that of the package he was told to retrieve, and this resulted in him leaving the International Military Police Department [IMPD], and return to the life of a normal citizen...


    After being disabled to the extent of not being fit for any military roles whatsoever, he had decided to retire and left his position as a Brigadier to settle down with the person who saved his life...


    After retiring, heid low and simply focused on recovery and starting a family with the package he was told to retrieve [a girl and a boy]


    But little did he know that his desire to put everyone else before himself and also sense of deep responsibility had touched the citizens of the nation of Weindall...


    But just after settling down; jobless, his best friend who was also one of hisrades and underlings at the IMPD was able to get him a job in what happened to be one of the top three firms on the globe as the Chief Security Officer of this prestigious firm¡­


    From then on, Sam''s life would forever change as he was exposed to some secrets and level of technology he had never thought he woulde across in ten lifetimes¡­


    The owner of the firm had treated him with the deepest respect, hospitality and regard¡­


    He made the decision within himself to discharge his duties without sparing any effort [which was to protect the three most valuable interest of the owner of the firm; His family, some extraterrestrial materials in his possession, and finally the firm itself] But after only working for what seemed to be a single day, everything turned upside down in Sam''s life¡­


    His privacy and safety waspromised, and the only set of people he cared about the most in the world were kidnapped and taken hostage, as the culprit and his entire team of mercenaries used the death of his family to ckmail him, forcefully making him their inside man¡­


    Sam tried every possible means to free himself from the strings he was being controlled with, but every time he tried such maneuvers it was the string that held up his family that was instead being lowered into what seemed to be their gruesome deaths¡­


    His actions also caused the death and severe injuries to those he was supposed to protect¡­


    He was thenbelled as an enemy of the firm he truly wanted to serve with all honesty and drive¡­


    He waster given the location to the safe house his family was being held hostage as a means of preventing the sects Special Secret Service Division from arresting him and finding out information about them through everything Sam understands about the hostage-ckmail-puppet situation he was in¡­


    But little did Sam know that the reason why his family were easily captured and why all his possible escape route were shut off was because someone he knew; someone very close to him had sold him out, but he didn''t find out until it was toote, and not only was this mole his best friend, it was also this best friend that killed him, for reasons he would never know¡­


    Sam died on the same day he was appointed into the post and it somehow felt like he had been a pawn in a scheme that was hatched way long before he was chosen or appointed by the firm¡­


    Sam failed at all his three duties, because not only was the sect taken over momentarily by the criminals, those he had sworn to protect also died tragic deaths and the three extraterrestrial materials he was charged with protecting should have been taken or stolen by those who schemed against the firm¡­


    But what caused the entire resentment, wasn''t just his failure to do the job he was appointed to do, but the fact that thest time he saw his family, they were strewn by chains above a tank full of purposefully starved Piranhas, and now, he couldn''t even tell if they were still alive or not, but he was sure the people who did this to him wouldn''t want to have any sort of loose ends¡­


    Sam didn''t even get the chance to clear his name, and despite the fact that some of the people he was working with understood the truth, the point was, there was no way they could help him clear his name either, because the watch that was supposed to serve as proof had been taken, and definitely, someone would be needed to serve as the scapegoat of the entire day;


    The one who all the me would be put on, and who better could be the perfect candidate for that other than someone who was dead and couldn''t defend himself¡­


    Then finally, was his best friend [or so he thought]¡­


    Someone he had sacrificed all he had at that moment to keep alive¡­


    The friend who they had spent over a decade together and be brothers¡­


    The same best friend who had got him what felt like the job of his life at the moment¡­


    It was this friend that ended up taking everything he had away from him¡­


    It was like he was given two feet only to have two miles taken from him instead¡­


    Sam felt resentment when he saw the smile on James'' face when he pulled that trigger, or the joyful voice he had used at the pilot when he took the watch from his hands and left him there in his own pool of blood without even looking back to say anything¡­


    Sam had been betrayed...


    Most tragically, by the person he trusted the most; His best friend/brother.


    "Why?!"


    Sam had thought as life ebbed out of his body slowly; breath by breath¡­


    Even till this moment, he couldn''t figure out why James would do this to him.


    "After many years of depending on each other and surviving dangerous missions together..."


    "James, for what great reason have you done this to me?"


    Sam mentallymented as he snuggled deeper into eternal darkness, silence and peace...


    It was at this moment that Sam remembered his primary duty, which was to protect the person who employed him, as well as his family, and out of sheer will and desire to simply check if their situation were salvageable, he saw the penthouse where these people livedpletely aze with all of them within¡­


    Sam had thought Roy would at least hide himself and his family within the me resistant massive tree, but he had misunderstood the nature of the mes that were burning¡­


    They were being fueled by specific synthesized chemicals which were designed to resist any form of fire resistance¡­ Water fueled these types of mes; just like pouring water into a boiling oil that had been set aze¡­


    Furthermore, these were flowing mes that would burn wherever their liquid fuel managed to enter, and that tree might be fire resistant, but he was sure that it would be helpless against the flooding of fluids, and thus, there was no way these guys could have survived¡­


    Then to confirm his train of thought, the penthouse itself and everything on it came crumbling downwards, and fell on his already dying self, sealing his miserable and tragic fate once and for all¡­


    Sam couldn''t even fume or get angry¡­


    He was never given the chance to, and as a result, all he could carry into death was sheer anger, regret, grief and all other deeply negative emotions, one which was against free spirits who dies and are sent to heaven, and as a result, there was only a single alternative ce Sam''s soul could go to if not heaven, and that ce was one that only piled upon Sam''s already miserable fate¡­


    A ce for the lost¡­


    A ce for the bad, worse and worst¡­


    A ce of punishment and eternal torment...


    A ce where status, talent and achievements meant nothing¡­ It was a prison; a prison where all its residents are being tormented, tortured and topsy-turved¡­


    It was a ce called;


    THE NETHERWORLD!

 Chapter 36 - Shangri La

    Swoosh! Swoosh!


    Voosh! Whoosh!


    ~Huff~ ~Huff~ ~Huf~


    The sound of several figures bolting through a dense jungle permeated the entire area¡­


    The heavy pants of a youth who seemed like he had been running nonstop for the past 30 years could be heard within this dense, wet jungle¡­


    He was only a little below six feet in height with an almost golden skin which had been put to shame by the vast amount of dirt that now covered his handsome figure from head to toe¡­


    If one didn''t know any better, one would think that these seven figures in bamboo hats and straw strewn cloaks were trying to kill this youth out of sheer jealousy of his handsomeness¡­


    These figures chased this youth like as if he had stolen their kidneys, and with the pace at which they were catching up to him, it was pretty obvious that should the youthnd in their hands, they were going to rip him into shreds¡­


    Jumping over broken tree branches and scattered rocks, the youth whipped out a blow-horn and gave it the blow of his life;


    Moooo!


    He blew so hard that his lungs became utterly devoid of any air¡­


    Roar!


    The figures chasing the boy heard the youth''s call for help as they roared angrily and renewed the determination with which they were chasing him with¡­


    The youth slid beneath a two feet thick tree trunk as he ran for his dear life, but the figures chasing him simply ran into the massive tree trunk and sted it into splintering shards¡­


    The youth saw this and almost cursed his predecessors for blessing him with the worst luck any living being had ever had, as he renewed the ferocity with which he fled for his life¡­


    He knew these people; they were the savage, beastly natives who inhabited this jungle¡­


    These humans who have turned beast, would asionally venture into human habitations, kidnap their females, both young and old, and used them to breed and multiply, before eating them and leaving their bones to their dogs¡­


    This youth''s name was Ji Dara; the greatest coward ever known in thend of the living¡­


    He was weak and had a negative talent value for cultivation, and over the years of being bullied and threatened, he had managed to develop a new superpower;


    Fleeing!


    Dara could basically flee faster than some of his mates who had started cultivating, and as a result, the vige head tapped into his strength and always used him as bait whenever they are out hunting for food or setting up ambush for the Oban''s¡­


    The forbidden Kingdom of Shangri La, was what anyone would call, the perfect destend, or as some of the citizens call it;


    The Abyss Of Hell¡­


    In this kingdom, they have four seasons, just like the modern day earth, except that, their timeframe is a hundred times slower than that of earth, which means a year on the modern day earth, is simply three days and a half in here¡­


    Their seasons are split into Famine, Pestilence, War and Death, and the reason was because the kingdom was situated in the worst part of the entire Jok¡­


    Contrary to what everyone believes, Jok is one of the most prosperouss in the world, and it was all because of a single reason, the entire was actually the eye of a fallen god¡­


    But the inhabitants of this didn''t know that, as they have never produced an expert strong enough to venture out into space and have a look, but if one were to do so, they would notice that every other part of the were golden [The Sclera of the god], except a continent sized part which was grey [The Iris of the god], and finally the Kingdom of Shangri La which was pitch ck [The pupil of the god]¡­


    There was never any sunlight in Shangri La, and the only time they enjoyed any brief moment of light is the month of light, a single month when the eye of the fallen god faces a bright star in the opposite end of the universe¡­


    As a result of this total darkness, there were limited food source as 99 percent of all nts in this kingdom had no sun to grow and die, but as for those which manage to survive, they were either poisonous, murderous or diseased¡­


    Since the day the overlord of Jok had discovered Shangri La, he had turned this specific kingdom into a prison ground; a ce where those who havemitted grave offences are sent to, or those with incurable diseases, and finally, those who were unlucky enough to be considered unworthy to live within the light [The golden part of the god''s eye]¡­


    Then since there was no food source, and even very sparse water source, every single inhabitant of this kingdom had resorted to eating raw flesh and drinking blood for water¡­


    Due to all this factors, their seasons were spread into Famine [which was almost all year round and caused by theck of sunlight to grow food];


    Pestilence [caused byck of nutrition which affects the poption''s immune system and makes them easily targeted by diseases];


    War [which urs during the month of light when food could be finally grown, and all tribes battle and kill each other toy their hands on the little food other tribes have managed to grow];


    Then finally, Death [caused by the eventual oue of the war¡­]


    The dead corpse from these war would then dpose and spread deadly diseases into every part of the kingdom¡­


    But deep within thisnd of terror, was the Vige of Sang; a vige which was lucky to have a knowledgeable expert who was banished by the Imperials of the Kingdom of Jok, who then fled to the depths of this darknds and began to help the few inhabitants of thisnds who were still sane¡­


    When this man arrived at the darknds, he gathered the few people he could find, some of which were cultivators who were termed too weak by their ns and banished to the darknds¡­


    He had these men dig a 300 feet deep, and 100 feet wide trench around the entire vige¡­


    After they were done digging, he had them fill in these pits with the corpse of those who had dies from the wars, and lit these pits on fire, giving the Vige of Sang a nickname;


    "The ind surrounded by fire¡­"


    The fire from this ever burning pit gave light and heat to the vige and its crops, whilst serving as a defense system against every single threat that was out there¡­


    Thus, the Vige of Sang became an oasis within the entire grey and ck region of the entire, and due to this, every banished individual and families who were still sane always sought for this oasis as their only means of survival¡­


    But being at the center of the ck region of the means that they would have to brave through difficulties, mishaps, and terrors just to reach the oasis...


    After setting up a full vige which was about 10,000 poption strong with more than 60 percent of them being in their youths, the [Man named Ji] set up a task force which would do a regr sweep of about ten miles around the vige to find any survivors which they could rescue and bring into the vige¡­


    This was the same mission Ji Dara and the rest of the scout group were currently on¡­


    They had arrived within this dead wet jungle and discovered a family of six who had been trapped by the Obuns [The human gone monster who have survived in this deathnd for ages by feeding on raw flesh and drinking blood¡­], and though, the man who seemed to be the head of the family was able to slightly fend them off with his little cultivation power, the Obuns simply outnumbered him, and this was where Ji Dara came into y¡­


    He was sent to distract these human-monsters away from the family which consisted of four toddlers, a husband and a wife¡­


    Ji Dara was to lead them as far away as possible, and when the family had been rescued to a safe distance, the rest of the group would find him as long as he kept blowing the horn in his hand¡­


    But they never made a n about what he should do, should he run into more Obuns, which was exactly what had happened¡­


    Crank! Crank!


    ng! Chang!


    Two of the Obuns chasing Ji Dara got within striking range and sent two long chains with a massive metal block at the end hurtling towards Dara from behind¡­


    These chains moved faster than Dara and before he could evade, the heavy metal block at their ends mmed into his back;


    Cough! Cough!


    Blergh!


    Dara was sent flying about ten feet ahead as he coughed intensely twice, before throwing up a mouthful of blood¡­


    For an ordinary mortal, such an attack from a vicious weapon as this could cause massive injuries, and when such an injury is thening from a cultivator, little needed to be said about how much injury Dara [who had no cultivation] had sustained at this point¡­


    But since there was still the probability of living up ahead, Dara picked himself up and continued to flee¡­


    But after fleeing from these dozen or so human-monsters, Dara came to a dead end; a cliff he never knew existed¡­

 Chapter 37 - Heroism & Grief

    For an ordinary mortal, such an attack from a vicious weapon as this could cause massive injuries, and when such an injury is thening from a cultivator, little needed to be said about how much injury Dara [who had no cultivation] had sustained at this point¡­


    But since there was still the probability of living up ahead, Dara picked himself up and continued to flee¡­


    But after fleeing from these dozen or so human-monsters, Dara came to a dead end; a cliff he never knew existed¡­


    Shraa!


    Dara who had been fleeing for his life had no choice but to stop for his dear life as his foot drew a five meter line on the ground before he stopped just at the tip of the cliff, sending several tiny stone debris falling down the cliff as he focused his senses on the sounds the stones were making as they tumbled down into the abyss looking pit¡­


    Tapow! Tapow!


    Dara heard two sshing sounds as his eyes shot up in shock;


    ''Water!''


    ''Flowing water!''


    He almost jumped in joy forgetting about the people who were hot on his heels, and just as he turned around, he noticed that he had been cornered at the cliff edge¡­


    "Eleven?"


    Dara made a quick head count of his pursuers until he saw them part ways to reveal a twelfth who seemed to be their leader, wearing a rag looking cloak with a simr bamboo hat¡­


    The leader simply growled and pointed at Dara as all of the rest of the Obuns moved in for the kill, the first of them all holding a scythe which had a long chain attached to its end¡­


    Dara nched in sheer trepidation; these human monsters all had cultivation and the only edge he had over them had been stripped off, he pushed his hand forward as he tried not to look at the iing Obun who looked like the grim reaper, with his ck colored, blood soaked scythe;


    "Get away from him!"


    A girl bellowed just as the scythe reach about two inches from Dara''s neck, and by the time the Obun looked over to check who the intruder was, its vision elevated slightly, before rolling thrice mid-air and finallying to a stand-still¡­


    The Obun had shock stered on its face as his body seemed to have grown about ten timesrger than before, but then he noticed that the body he was looking at was now headless¡­


    The moment that happened, the leader who had seemed uninterested at everything suddenly looked up with a deep growl¡­


    ng! Jiang!


    Puchi!


    sh! Splurt!


    Dara who still had his eyes shut, anticipating his death finally opened his eyes and saw three dead Obuns on the floor; one headless, one split in half, and thest still having ck blood spurting out of his neck like a fountain¡­


    Then he saw a 5 foot tall, light skinned girl, with a pony tailed hair, holding a ive with ck putrid blood still dripping from its de¡­


    "Head East¡­ Save yourself¡­" The girl said with bated breaths, obviously she was exhausted after rushing over to help Dara;


    "Big sis!"


    Dara spoke as his sister touched him in the on his chest and added with a smile;


    "Be a good boy, go¡­"


    Then she pushed Dara of the cliff;


    "Noooo!"


    Dara yelled as he tried to grab onto the shrinking image of his 14 year old sister, but after ten seconds of free falling; Kaboom! Dara sank into the flowing water¡­


    Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!


    The little girl swirled her ive as she prepared to strike the fourth Obun only to have her ive get tangled by its chains;


    nk! nk!


    The little girl tugged twice, but was unable to free up her ive, as two other Obuns sent shed their scythes at her nks, but with a massive tug, the little girl jerked the Obun with the tangling chain towards her as she jumped into the air andpleted a flip, causing both scythes to cut through the thin air, as the Obun with the tangling chains fell face first into the ground¡­


    The two Obuns who had just missed were instantly joined by two more of their partners as they all attacked the girl at once from every direction¡­


    Puchi!


    The little girl stabbed her ive into the fallen Obun''s chest and wielded it like a pole-vault, as she spun around mid-air, delivering four vicious kicks into the each of their faces, in one fluid move¡­


    Boom!


    Dara thrusted out of the water as he gasped for a deep breath of air before swimming frantically towards the foot of the 20 meter tall cliff with the intention of climbing back to help his sister¡­


    Roar!


    One of the Obuns swung his scythe upwards from below, as the little girl used the pole of her ive to block downwards, only to find out that it was a distraction¡­


    The curved shaped scythe hooked her ive as she saw the three other Obuns leap into the air with their scythes swinging downwards to chop her into pieces¡­


    But with an instant maneuver, the little girl aggressively pulled the Obun towards her as she moved about three steps backwards causing the des of the other three Obun''s tond on their partner instead, as she freed her ive and beheaded all three with a single, long, vicious sh¡­


    Three kicks, two stabs and another perfect 360 degree sh ensured that the rest of the Obuns joined their partners in death;


    Rooaarr!


    She heard a deeper roar that was stronger than that of these dead Obun''sbined and looked up ahead to see their leader bolting towards her with a level of ferociousness that bordered on total madness;


    Zoom!


    The Obun leader jumped into the air and shed his twin swords with umon fury;


    Boom!


    The little girl raised her ive over her head in a blocking stance, but was still sted about five meters backwards, tumbling head over heels by the sheer force behind that strike¡­


    But she quickly steadied herself and look to her opponent once again only to find him mid-air already descending with a simr move¡­


    Knowing that there was no way she could sessfully block an attack of such ferocity again, she rolled to the side, evading the attack whichnded on the ground and left a two feet deep gash¡­


    ~Ugh~ ~Argh~ ~Huff~


    Dara wed and pulled at the small stones protruding from the cliff surface as he climbed as fast as he could, but after that much fleeing and hard fall, he was left with little to no energy in his body, but kept climbing with the fear of the unknown and anxiety of his sister''s safety¡­


    "~Sister~"


    "~Sister~"


    The ten year old Dara kept crying as he climbed to the top of the cliff, and when he got to the top, the first sight that greeted him was the bloodied ive his sister was using to fight, only that his sister was nowhere near the weapon¡­


    Dara looked around in shock and saw the corpse of dead Obuns and just further ahead was his sister, crouching on the grounding with a bloodied forehead and total exhaustion written on her face¡­


    Behind her stood the Obun leader with his twin swords in hand;


    "Sister!"


    Dara cried as his sister looked at him with her ever present smile which she always wore regardless of the situation, something which to Dara was a beacon of hope that as long as she was around, things would definitely get better¡­


    But now, there was something about the smile; it had this tinge of exhaustion within it, an exhaustion that stems from the depths of her soul;


    "~Head East¡­ Run~"


    Dai; Dara''s sister managed to say as the Obun Leader kicked her, sending her tumbling forwards as she threw up a mouthful of fresh blood¡­


    Scrunch! Grunch!


    The sound of metal piercing through skin and the crushing of bones rang out as Dara gasped at the sight in front of him; the Obun Leader had just stabbed his sister from behind, before plunging its sword deeper into her body;


    "Sister!"


    Dara nched in trepidation as he rushed over to his sister with the little ounce of energy left in his body¡­


    "Sister!"


    The Obun Leader dislodged his sword from her back as Dai struggled to breathe, apparently, her lungs had been pierced and blood was rushing into her lungs, causing her to choke on her own blood¡­


    "Sister!"


    Dara was already shedding rivers of tears as he cried out to his only kin with a voicedced with agony;


    "~Run¡­ Quick¡­~"


    Dai urged slowly as her life force seemed to gradually ebb away, until she finally went quiet with the ever encouraging smile still stered on her face¡­


    ~Aargghhhhh!~


    Dara burst into uncontroble tears as he grabbed his sisters face;


    "Sister!"


    "Sister!"


    He called out in deep pain, but her body was already growing cold and be paler and paler by the second, as blood kept flowing out of her¡­


    "By the decree of Lord Ru, you both are to be beheaded¡­"


    The Obun Leader actually spoke as it struggled to sit down near a huge boulder, but Dara simply froze in shock¡­


    These human-monsters are said to have lost every sense of reasoning, but here he was standing in the presence of a live one who actually made a sentence¡­


    A correct one at that;


    "The dead cannot be resurrected little kid, ept my condolences¡­"


    "Now,e here¡­"


    The Obun Leader continued despite seeing the stunned look on Dara''s face;


    "Take this¡­"


    He threw the sword in his hands towards Dara, and it was only in that moment that Dara finally thought;


    ''Where is his second sword?''


    Then the Obun Leader turned around and added;


    "When you are done take me to see the doctor, and I will give you a painless death¡­"


    Then Dara who had been searching for the second sword finally saw it lodged into the Obun Leader from the back¡­


    Sharp! Shrap! Chrap!


    Dara vengefully stomped his way towards the weak Obun Leader, nted his foot on his back, and shoved out the sword;


    Shraa!


    "Argh!"


    The Obun Leader yelped in pain as he began to bleed from his back at a spot where his hands couldn''t reach¡­

 Chapter 38 - The Netherworld [1]

    "When you are done take me to see the doctor, and I will give you a painless death¡­"


    Then Dara who had been searching for the second sword finally saw it lodged into the Obun Leader from the back¡­


    Sharp! Shrap! Chrap!


    Dara vengefully stomped his way towards the weak Obun Leader, nted his foot on his back, and shoved out the sword;


    Shraa!


    "Argh!"


    The Obun Leader yelped in pain as he began to bleed from his back at a spot where his hands couldn''t reach¡­


    Then it was the Obun leader''s time to start choking as he looked up to see Dara''s crazed expression, and began to get flustered;


    "Don''t even think about killing me, I bear the mark of Lord Ru¡­"


    The Obun Leader growled as he stretched his left hand towards Dara and opened his palm to reveal some ancient rune which seems to have be burnt into his palm¡­


    But Dara simply ignored all the rubbish the man was muttering and drove the sword right through his heart;


    "Ahk!"


    The Obun Leader choked in pain, as Dara looked straight into his eyes and watched as life gradually ebbed away from the human-monster¡­


    After the Obun Leader died, Dara buried his sister right there at the cliff as he became lost in thoughts;


    Why was his sister the only person that came to his rescue even when they clearly understood that there was no way she could have managed to achieve that alone?


    Where are the rest?


    Why haven''t they showed up yet?


    Or could this actually be what the group had nned? But why?


    They had not offended anyone and neither have they ever done anything bad that would warrant this?


    Dara''s thought became really chaotic as he tried to wrap his head around the situation, but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn''t bring himself to understand¡­


    "Sister¡­ We have been faithful to the vige for so long, and this is what they repay us with¡­"


    Dara muttered as he stabbed his sister''s ive into her grave as a signpost, and then turned around to leave¡­ But just as he walked past the Obun Leader''s corpse;


    "Listen to your sister Little Kid¡­"


    A voice echoed into the area, as Dara stopped in fright, then he looked around, but no matter how much he looked and check, he was only surrounded by corpse, and after stopping for about a minute and seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Dara continued his journey, but then, it happened again;


    "~Hu~" The voice sighed;


    "Let''s see how far you can go within these Dark Lands without cultivation¡­"


    Dara froze once again, but this time, he turned his head as slowly as he could and suddenly looked back, looking to catch the owner of the voice, but despite all that, he could only see corpse everywhere that some Raven-like birds were already feeding on¡­


    He looked towards the Obun Leader as the voice seem to being from that direction, and he took two steps forwards, took a small rock and threw it at the Obun Leader''s corpse, but he got no reaction of any sort¡­


    Then just as he picked a bigger rock to smash the man''s head into a pulp;


    "Oi! Ha-ha ha-ha ha!"


    The voice scared the living hell out of Dara who fell backwards and saw the massive stone he wanted to use to smash the Obun Leader''s head fall on his instead, and that spelt Dara''s end;


    "Eh? Did I kill him?"


    The voice echoed out once again;


    "No, I would need to feed on his soul if I am to recover!"


    The voice grew agitated and; Boom! An explosion ensued as a massive dark colored formation appear on the chest of the Dead Obun leader¡­


    The formation twisted and turned as it began to spin and gather momentum, instantly a strong wind kicked up in the area as everything around began to surge towards the ancient runic formation, and after about five minutes;


    Kacha!


    The sound of something unlocking echoed in the area, as a massive dark colored soul of a figure broke out of the seal, and the moment that happened, the always dark sky in thisnds went even darker as a white colored lightning bolt as thick as a bucket, fell from the sky;


    "Have I been discovered?"


    "They are so quick unh?"


    "But it seems I still have some time¡­"


    The soul muttered to itself as it looked towards the descending bolt of lightning and jumped out of the Obun Leader''s body and towards Dara''s corpse, as the lightning descended and sted the Obun Leader''s corpse into smithereens;


    "Damn you, Luo!"


    The soul cursed at the sky with a loud bellow as it lunged towards Dara''s corpse, but just as he was about to enter, he saw a mysterious rune appear on Dara''s forehead, and the man nched in fear, as his level of anxiety rose to new heights;


    "Damn it, reincarnation!"


    The soul cursed his luck as he soul shed across the distance between him and Dara''s corpse as he left several afterimages behind;


    "Fuck you, King Yama!"


    The soul cursed as he jumped into Dara''s body at the same exact moment another soul popped out of the formation and entered Dara''s body, just minutes before him;


    "What the fuck!"


    "Who the fuck are you!?"


    An all too familiar voice bellowed out of the first soul which was white in color as the ck colored soul which saw another lightning descend from the sky attacked the white soul¡­


    The ck soul made some mysterious hand seals as he opened his palm at the reincarnating soul¡­


    Massive amounts of energy gathered into his palm as a massive cyclone whipped out of nowhere;


    "Unh?"


    The reincarnating soul was stunned as he whipped out a ck cup with blood red runes etched all over its body, some sort of yellow colored liquid was within it as the reincarnating soul poured it at the ck soul which had already reached his position;


    "Grandma Meng''s milk!?"


    The dark soul nched in fear as he quickly maneuvered his attack towards the iing liquid; Boom!


    The two collided and the liquid within the cup flowed right through the ck soul''s hand and mmed into his body as the dark soul gave a miserable shriek...


    But about half of the liquid and the cup was sent flying into the white soul who instantly got knocked out as the cup merged into the reincarnating soul whilst the liquid poured into the white soul and transformed into some sort of ancient formation that spun to a lock with a ''Ka-Ching!'' sound¡­


    Rewinding the timeline¡­


    The moment Sam shut his eyes finally and his consciousness went dark, he was jolted awake a few moments after when he heard a loud whipping sound and the miserable shriek of another person;


    "On your feet, maggot!"


    A loud voice bellowed at Sam who felt the force of that bellow m into him, dealing some damage as his eyes snapped open;


    "Argh!" Sam jumped and crawled backwards as he got the fright of his life...


    What he was looking at, right now, was something straight out of horror movies¡­


    Here standing in front of him and looking at him with purple ming sinister eyes, was a demon soul which had a six inch curled horn jutting out of its forehead¡­


    Then he looked around and noticed that there were other''s around, but there seemed to be something wrong about all the figures here; they were all having matching colors and were also transparent to some extent¡­


    Some of them were white, some were ck, some were red and so on, but they were all floating and human size;


    ''Are these souls?''


    Sam thought to himself as he felt a sudden gust of heat approach him, and from the corner of his eyes, he saw a ming whip magnify in his eyes;


    Whap-Pa!


    Onesh¡­


    Just onesh, and Sam could have sworn that the brightness of his soul dimmed by half;


    "Argh!"


    Sam screamed in agony as he looked into the demon''s eyes and understood that if he didn''t stand up immediately, this massive demon which was about thirty feet tall was going to give him another stroke, one he was definitely sure was going to kill him, despite the fact that he was still yet to understand why he was still alive, and more importantly, where this ce was¡­


    Scampering to his feet, Sam saw a long queue of souls that this demon was putting in order as they marched as long as his eyes could see¡­


    Just like sheep being led by its shepherd, Sam joined in line and began to follow the long queue of souls into wherever they might be going¡­


    Sam walked in thought trying to understand what had happened to him¡­


    He would hear asional whishes and some miserable cries, and on other asions, some didn''t make any sounds which meant only one thing; they were dead!


    But Sam, simply adhered to instructions and followed in a straight file;


    ''Is this hell?''


    ''Of course this is hell¡­''


    ''Where else would there be demons, uncountable number of souls being tortured left and right, with immense heat from raging mes burning in every direction I look?''


    Sam began to understand what had happened to him; he had indeed died but his soul was transmitted into hell, as he began to shake his head at the miserable fate that awaited him¡­


    Just like that, Sam walked as he got lost in thought, as days ovepped days, and weeks passed over weeks¡­


    Months repeated their cycle and before long it had been years since Sam had been in hell¡­


    He didn''t know how long had passed, but there was a part of him that was saying years had passed, and there was also another newborn instinct that was telling him he had barely been here for an hour; it was this timeg that Sam was still thinking about when he heard a deep voice boom across this massive ce that was sorge that he couldn''t even fathom its ends in every direction;


    "Sam?"

 Chapter 39 - The Netherworld [2]

    He didn''t know how long had passed, but there was a part of him that was saying years had passed, and there was also another newborn instinct that was telling him he had barely been here for an hour; it was this timeg that Sam was still thinking about when he heard a deep voice boom across this massive ce that was sorge that he couldn''t even fathom its ends in every direction;


    "Sam?"


    "Who amongst all of you is Sam?"


    This demon which was about one and half times the size of the demon that just whipped Sam, asked with a deep voice that boomed through this world, causing countless souls to look to him, floating there, in the sky with cked jaws¡­


    The other demons around also saw this demon and they all stopped whatever it was that they were doing, as they went down on one knee and bowed slightly¡­


    Sam also looked up to the massive demon riding on a floating ck patch of clouds;


    "Sam?"


    The massive demon asked for confirmation after seeing Sam''s soul body, and after seeing Sam nod towards him, he waved his hand as ck light shot out and wrapped around Sam, who stood there like an idiot, gazing at everything with a lost but extremely curious expression¡­


    Swoosh!


    The ck patch of cloud moved and vanished into the distance at blinding speed, as Sam and the giant demon left the rest of the souls behind with shock stered on their faces¡­


    The previously bowing and silent demon then gazed at the souls who have all stopped moving as they were still stunned by the situation, but with just one loud whip and a miserable shriek, they were all pulled back to reality as they all resumed their endless walk¡­


    Sam stood there, quiet and slightly petrified as the ck patch of cloud rose higher and higher into the skies within this dimension, and shortly after, Sam began to make out the shape of a massive golden mansion higher up in the sky¡­


    It started out with the size of an ordinary egg, but the more they approach with blistering speed, the more the little mansion magnified in his sight, and before long, the mansion was already three stories tall, as Sam could then full see the mansion in its full glory¡­


    It was massive, sturdy, grand and ancient, with a deep sense of vintage and schrly aura radiating off it¡­


    It gave no sense of power of any kind as everywhere was silent, calm and peaceful¡­


    The moment they reached its gates, Sam saw the ck patch of cloud they were standing on merge into the entire massive patch of cloud the entire mansion was standing on¡­


    He also saw other demons walk to the edge of this massive patch of cloud and then stood there, before the part of the cloud they were standing on detached and then carried them floating downwards just like an elevator¡­


    Pce of The First Order; this was what Sam saw written on the massive gates in front of them¡­


    The massive demon then got to the gates and stretched his palm towards it as the mark on his palm lit up, something which caused the massive gates to glow slightly before swinging open¡­


    They headed straight for the main building, because this mansion looked like it was three mansions merged together into one super-mansion, and the biggest of this three was the one in the middle which Sam felt must be the main building where the strongest or the most respectful person in this area resides¡­


    They entered, and just like he had expected, this ce was filled with several souls doing administrative works with several slips of papers, scrolls, and books all over the ce¡­


    Both in the shelves, and in the hands of these soul who were fleeting all over the ce, as silently and orderly as possible, as the massive demon maneuvered his was up the stairs and to the top floor which seemed to be residential area¡­


    When they reached this floor, Sam saw an open wooden double door with several souls moving to and fro within the room behind it, and it was just like the ground floor, but then, the massive demon went to the door, grabbed the handles and shut it¡­


    Then the demon waited for a while and open the door once again, and Sam had the shock of his life¡­


    The previous view of souls fleeting all over the ce had gone, and in its ce was now some sort of library¡­


    As Sam tried to wrap his head around the entire scenario, the demon walked in with Sam in tow, and within this ce was a quiet study; there were bookshelves all around, and a table and chair right at its center¡­


    A green robed, middle aged man sat at the table flipping through a book;


    "Your highness!" The demon gave a curt bow;


    "Thanks Valtak, I will take it from here¡­"


    The middle aged man waved his hand dismissively with his face still buried in the book in his hands¡­


    Sam looked towards one of the bookshelves and saw; ''Office of The First Order Supreme Judge'', and instantly it dawned on him that the person he was currently standing in the presence of, might as well be the person in charge of everything within this realm;


    "But why will the First Order Supreme Judge want to see me?"


    Sam tried to understand the situation, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn''t pinpoint one reason why someone on this level would want to see his insignificant self, after all, he was just an ordinary person here and had never been in any kind of acquaintance with the man before...


    Sam sneaked a peek at the man seated behind the table as his mind went full throttle, thinking about every possible scenario that might happened here today, but everything was fruitless as he couldn''t even predict a possible oue...


    This study was very simple and in; the bookshelves had an ancient scent to them and the table at the center of the study was a wooden one which had a dragon, a turtle, a tiger and a bird carved at its four corners.


    "Is that¡­?"


    Sam looked at these creatures curiously; the turtle was ck in color, the dragon jade-green, the bird was ming-red, while the tiger was white.


    "Are those...the four symbols of Feng Shui?!"


    Sam remembered Fifth, one of the soldiers in his squad was Asian and he had a knack for ancient traditional creatures, and every time, he would tell the group stories about all these creatures whenever they were on missions, one thing that the entire team were so into, and Sam could still remember him mentioning the ''Four Mystical Beasts of Feng Shui!'', and in the blink of an eye Sam had be utterly engrossed in the study of this carvings.


    "Hmm!"


    The green robed middle aged man raised his brows in surprise as he gazed at Daniel who was ncing at the table with an astonished gaze.


    "I never expected him to possess such powerful soul power¡­"


    "Wake up!"


    The green robed man spoke in a mysterious but soft tone which jolted Sam out of his wandering state of mind...


    His train of thoughts was instantly cut off as he totally regained his senses, only then did he remember that he was still within the study of the First Supreme Judge of the Netherworld Kingdom¡­


    "I''m referred to as ''First Yama King'' or the ''First Supreme Judge'' but you can just call me King Yama¡­"


    The green robed man softly introduced himself to Sam who was now clear headed. King Yama closed the book he was reading which had a green and grey cover and smiled towards Sam who had a shocked expression on his face...


    From his current position the words written on the cover of the book this middle aged man was reading were; [Book of Life and Death.]


    "I was just reading about the ending of your past life¡­" King Yama chuckled in response to Sam''s stunned expression...


    Daniel was truly terrified indeed;


    "The ending of his past life?!"


    "Your first life had been full of enacting justice and saving countless lives from different conspiracies of the greedy."


    "For one to be willing to sacrifice himself for the good of others is an extremely rare act nowadays"¡­ King Yama sighed in praise.


    "King Yama praises me too much, if I had another life, I might decide not to join the military¡­" Sam gave an honest reply


    "Your life was also short-lived, dying before the age of forty, and if one was to add your manner of death-"


    King Yama was unable to finish his statement, thus he simply sighed and continued;


    "-Ah! Greed does indeed drive humans to great lengths, even a friendship of 18 years wasn''t spared in the face of selfish greed¡­"


    King Yama exhaled as he slowly spoke with a detestable expression¡­


    King Yama then picked up the Book of Life and Death and grasped the air, and a golden scepter abruptly appeared in his hands...


    Immediately, a blinding golden light burst out of his body and enveloped him. King Yama who was now bathed in golden light then opened a new page and spoke;


    "I am a person that never allows anyone to suffer the level of injustice you have suffered in vain, and as a result I will let you reincarnate¡­"


    All of a sudden, words started appearing on the empty page as Sam watched everything unfold in front of him with a stunned expression...


    He could instantly tell, that this middle aged man bathed in golden light was doing something extraordinary to his life, but he didn''t know what specifically it was that he had done, thus he simply stood there and watched¡­


    Then the moment King Yama finished, Sam asked;


    "I believe there are others who umted the same merits as me and even more, but why did you pick me?"


    "Because¡­ you and I are from the same realm" King Yama replied¡­

 Chapter 40 - Who Am I?

    Then the moment King Yama finished, Sam asked;


    "I believe there are others who umted the same merits as me and even more, but why did you pick me?"


    "Because¡­ you and I are from the same realm" King Yama replied...


    "From the same realm?!" Sam asked looking adorably lost.


    "Oh right! ording to the mundane world; I also came from Earth, but that was over seven eons ago" King Yama exined.


    "All these souls; aren''t they also from earth?!" Sam curiously asked.


    "Not everyone in the Netherworldes from Earth..."


    "In the infinite universe, there are three major realms; the Heaven, the Netherworld and the Mortal realms." King Yama answered.


    "The Heaven refers to the Celestial or Divine realms of which there are seven, the Netherworld refers to the underworld of which there are nine hells andstly the Mortal realm where there are hundreds of millions of Major Worlds and countless Minor Worlds..." King Yama exined further.


    "Earth is only one of the minor worlds, the nines including their respective moons and the Sun make up a Major World. Earth has only a couple billion people..."


    "Every moment, people die in those millions of major world and countless minor worlds and their souls descends into the Netherworld!"


    "Can you imagine how many souls are present in this Kingdom?"


    King Yama asked as he looked at Sam whose pupils were already dted in shock.


    "Since you''re going to reincarnate now, let me tell you a bit about the six paths of reincarnation¡­"


    "The six paths of reincarnation refers to: Sovereigns (Devas and Asuras), Humans, Animals, nts, Vengeful Ghosts and Hell beings..."


    "The Devas and Asuras are called; The Sovereigns and are also considered as beings born directly out of immense power¡­."


    "They are regarded as the architects of all ne of existence, since they were the ones who built them in the first ce¡­"


    "The Humans and Animals are called; The Mundane, and are also considered as beings of the Mortal Realm, since they are born in the million major worlds and countless minor worlds..."


    "The Vengeful Ghosts and Hell beings are called; The Supremes, and are also considered as beings of theherworld as they exist in the underworld or hells." King Yama exined...


    "You''re going to be born in the mortal realm, but into one of the major worlds where there are cultivators, demon beasts and ancient existence..."


    "Since you and I are both from earth, I will give you the choice to either keep your memory or not¡­" King Yama spoke.


    "That will be my personal gift to you as a fellow earthling; allowing you to choose to either bypass Grandma Meng''s elixir of forgetfulness, so you can keep your memories or forget them all¡­"


    "But be warned, the world of cultivation is a ce where the strong eat the weak, a ce where power reigns supreme..."


    "This means that, it would do you a great deal of favor, if you cultivate quietly and subtly until you have enough strength to protect yourself."


    "Luck would only make youe in contact with divine items and beings..."


    "If the stronger experts in such world came to know that you possess such items, it might bring doom to you and all you will care about¡­" King Yama warned sternly.


    "Go!"


    King Yama waved his hands as a golden glow flew into Daniel''s soul, before he vanished out of sight.


    "By the order of King Yama, I havee to escort you through the path of the yellow springs, so you may enter the mortal realm tunnel."


    An alluring, blue robeddy spoke to Sam as they flew towards Sam who was still looking around in shock, as to how he suddenly found himself mid-air alongside a blue robeddy.


    Just a while ago, he had been in the King Yama''s study; ow did he suddenly appear on the road to the yellow springs?


    Sam and the youngdy flew through the yellow springs, bypassing many souls along the way before they arrived before Grandma Meng, an olddy who was all bones and skin...


    Behind her were three tunnels in which several souls were already filing into...


    Grandma Meng looked at Daniel before a golden glow flew out of his soul which was caught by the old woman...


    Shock shed across the old woman''s face before she gave the awkward looking Sam a mysterious pitch ck cup that had blood red runes etched onto it¡­


    There was also a yellow liquid within this cup, and Sam, just by looking at it, understood that, if he wanted to forget everything about his past till this present moment, all he had to do was drink whatever the content of that cup is¡­


    The old woman gave Sam the cup, and then waved her hands as an invincible force grabbed Daniel and ushered him into the tunnel to the mortal realm.


    "Hua!"


    Daniel felt a bone-piercing cold wash all over him, and felt the energy in the environment around him change as a golden light burst out of him, forming some sort of barrier around him as he sped through some sort of mystical tunnel¡­


    Then he felt himself arrive within a new world, and was falling at blinding speed as everything just kept magnifying in his sight, until he saw the figure of what might be the body of a handsome little kid with a bleeding forehead on the ground¡­


    Then just as he was about to fall into this little kid, he saw another ck colored soul going after the same kid, and though, he knew nothing about mystical arts, but Sam was very certain [for some strange reasons] that two different souls shouldn''t exist within the same body¡­


    Then he heard the soul actually curse King Yama who had just blessed him with an opportunity to reincarnate, something he found offensive and prompted him to curse the ck soul in King Yama''s defense;


    "What the fuck?"


    "Who the fuck are you?"


    Sam blurted, but then he saw the man make some mind-numbing hand seals and attacked him with the intent to kill, and being a newbie who knew nothing about where he was arriving into, Sam looked at the content of his cup and simply decided to use it to defend himself¡­


    He thought, if he poured the liquid within the cup on the soul, then the soul would forget everything, but then, a massive burst of energy burst out of the pitch ck souls arm and sshed some of the liquid back at him;


    "Oh, Snap!"


    That was all Sam could remember as the liquid fell on him and surged straight into his mind, and in that exact moment, Sam felt a huge portion of his memories locked, and then shortly after, hepletely forgot a portion of his memory had been locked, as he went utterly redundant¡­


    [What a way to reincarnate!]


    The empty brained Sam who didn''t even know his name anymore simply found himself within a dark ce, but it didn''t take too long before a slit of light appeared in his world of darkness, which only seemed to grow wider as time passed...


    Suddenly he felt some Kind of force pull him out of this dark space into the light, and then his world of darkness was transformed into a world of light; a light so bright that it was blinding...


    He adjusted to the influx of the bright light, he finally made out few figures around him, and the closest was a grey-haired corpse of an old man, who was so old that his wrinkles looked like floors of a skyscraper building¡­


    Then Sam felt a splitting headache, as he touched his forehead to scratch the itch there, only to feel something liquid there¡­


    Sam quickly brought down his hand and saw blood on his hands;


    "Unh?"


    Sam looked at his hand and was instantly stunned;


    "Who am I?"


    Sam [Or Dara] who had lost almost 95 percent of his memories looked at his hand, and wasn''t sure who he was, how he got to this ce, or even why he was here, and whilst he was trying to remember, Dara''s memories came cascading into his mind, bombarding him with ten solid years of torrential information¡­


    His name was Ji Dara¡­


    He lived within a vige surrounded by fire called Sang; a vige located right at the center of a Kingdom called Shangri La¡­


    He was the second child of his dead parent who left him with a single sibling; his sister, Ji Dai, whose burial mound was only about ten meters away from him¡­


    He was ten, and had no shred of cultivation even though lots and lots of his peers and even descendants younger than him had discovered their center¡­


    Lots of memories flooded into Dara''s mind


    [I am using Dara because what qualifies a human as a being is because of its sentence, and sine the only sentience Sam is having now belongs to Dara, then that means Sam is currently Dara¡­ At least, till he can unlock his memories¡­]


    Then after about one hour, Dara was done receiving the new influx of memories, and when he began to examine himself, he could sense [though not clearly] that there was more to him now¡­


    Like this sets of instincts, and an extraterrestrialnguage floating there within his mind, thus to confirm his suspicions, he decided to do what his sister had always told him to do whenever he was feeling out of sort; Meditate¡­


    "But what better way can one meditate, if not in front of flowing waters¡­"


    Dara told himself before he froze in his steps;


    "Wait, how did I know that?"


    Dara asked himself, not knowing that he had just essed a little bit of Sam''s unlocked memories¡­


    He found his way down the cliff, towards the rushing water his sister had pushed him into previously, and took a bath¡­


    After cleaning himself up, he changed into another outfit that was within the two bags he had just recovered; these were the bags he and his sister put all their supplies for today''s mission;


    "Speaking of missions; the rest are still yet to arrive¡­ Have I and sister been schemed against?" Dara finally saw the truth¡­

 Chapter 41 - Nighttime In The Dark Lands

    He found his way down the cliff, towards the rushing water his sister had pushed him into previously, and took a bath¡­


    After cleaning himself up, he changed into another outfit that was within the two bags he had just recovered; these were the bags he and his sister put all their supplies for today''s mission;


    "Speaking of missions; the rest are still yet to arrive¡­"


    "Have I and sister been schemed against?" Dara finally saw the truth¡­


    But he also decided that if that was the case, then he needed to thread carefully around the people he called family or friends¡­


    He sat cross-legged by the water bank and began to meditate as he began to breathe in some mysterious pattern¡­


    The stages to doing this was to first find inner peace, and once he was peaceful within, then he would be able to find his center [Something that was simr to a human ENT node¡­


    But instead of Ear, Nose and Throat joint, it was Body, Mind and Soul, for Dara]¡­


    This was the only technique his father had owned and protected with his life¡­


    His father had learnt it, taught his mother, and finally taught his daughter when she clocked ten; the year when anyone who is chosen by the heavens to cultivate would see their first meridians appear¡­


    He was supposed to teach it to his son also, but who knew he was going to die even before his son would clock seven¡­


    Thus, when Dara clocked ten, and his meridians still didn''t appear, he became the subject of ridicule in the entire Sang vige, and some even went as far as insulting his dead parent, saying that, they decided tomit suicide out of shame of their son''s mediocre talents¡­


    Dara got bullied a lot and mocked, until his sister actually opened her eight meridian at the age of just 12, something which meant she could now start manipting the natural energy of the with her thoughts, then the bullying stopped, as everyone began to fear his sister; Ji Dai¡­


    After clocking ten with no meridians in sight, Dara''s sister; Dai decided to still impart this meditating technique to Dara in hopes that should anything happen to her, he would at least still be able to cultivate whenever his meridians finally decides to show up¡­


    Dai knew she didn''t have much longer to live because she had been searching for the true cause of her parent''s death¡­


    Though, the vige head after a meeting with all the elders of the vige had decided tobel their deaths as suicide, even though they weren''t told how, or even presented with a body¡­


    But the moment she started to search for all this, she had begun to fell that someone was watching her at all times, and that person was strong enough to watch her without being discovered, something that scared Ji Dai on a daily basis, because she knew for sure that the person watching her would one day stop and finally attack her¡­


    Furthermore, she couldn''t leave her little na?ve brother alone, since he would just be like a helpless new born wildebeest who wouldn''tst a single day in the midst of all the wolves, lions, and vipers hidden within the vige¡­


    It was the same moment she thought about this, that she started receiving missions that took her farther and farther away from the vige¡­


    These missions also took longer, some takes days and even on some asions weeks, making her find herself most times alone and very far away from her only kin¡­


    Until one day when Dara was being chased by a Aridi; a ck boar looking beast who was very famous for its aggressiveness, speed and deadly bite, and Dara actually outran the beast¡­


    Since then, Dai had requested that her brother be appointed as he partner on all missions, iming that not only could it force out his meridians, but it could also serve as a learning experience for Dara, something the entire group of Elders agreed to, especially when they insulted him that his ''Passion For Fleeing'' could make him a perfect candidate for a bait¡­


    Then she had her brother very close to her in all cases, just an arm length away in most cases, where she could easily protect him from the wild beasts and monsters that roam these darknds¡­


    At least here, she would be sure that everyone around her were enemies and won''t need to exin why she killed some beast or anybody that gets too close to her brother¡­


    But there was no way a little 12 year old girl like her could match with the scheming experience of about six Elders who were at least fifty years old, and eventually, this happened¡­


    She was giving a very difficult mission that only elders were supposed to take, and then assigned ten extra people to assist her with the mission, only for these ten youths to desert her and her brother in the face of an Elder ss danger level¡­


    But all that were the regrets of the dead which can never affect much in thend of the mortal¡­


    Dara''s emotions calmed to tranquility after just about five minutes of his first try [Sam''sposure level being at work]¡­


    Then he began to search for his center, and soon enough, he found it¡­


    It was a massive tree, with no branch or leaves of any nature, just a simple tree trunk with three massive roots;


    one attached to his body, the second to his mind, and the final one into his soul¡­


    Then he found a white soul seated cross-legged beneath the tree in the same cultivation posture he was meditating in¡­


    He came closer to the tree and felt a deep sense of familiarity with the tree, but there was also something different about the tree; it felt like it was two in one, like he could feel two different vibesing from the same tree...


    But because he didn''t know much about trees [Damn, this came out wrong!], he simply pushed it to the back of his mind, as he focused on simply scrutinizing the tree and learning everything his little mind could understand about the tree for now¡­


    Thus he began to slowly walk around the tree, surveying every inch of it, until he roamed to the back of the tree and got the shock of his life; there in front of Dara was a pitch ck soul, with a bright light pulsing like some sort of beacon within its head¡­


    An instinct kicked in within Dara who suddenly began to fear if the pulsing light was actually calling out to something or someone stronger out there, won''t that mean a certain death for him?


    Out of anxiety of not knowing what or how to solve the perilous situation he was currently facing, Dara touched the soul;


    Boom!


    Instantly, this entire dimension trembled intensely as Dara saw the ck soul transform into a stream of energy that was absorbed by the tree before surging down the trunk into the root that was attached to his soul, before gushing and flooding into his snow white soul¡­


    But on entering his soul, just like water and oil, the soul forcefully separated themselves, as one half of Dara''s new soul was now pitch ck, with the other side remaining the same, but from what Dara could sense at this point, he knew he had just been granted tremendous power, because the ck part of his soul was radiating a power level that was infinitely stronger than the white part of his soul¡­


    He also felt that he could tap into that power, but he didn''t know how, or what might happen if he did, and since he couldn''te to a definitive idea about the situation, he decided to put it at the back of his mind, as he sighed at himself angrily;


    "It seems I wasn''t only weak, but dull and stupid as well¡­"


    "The least I could do since I can''t cultivate is to gather as much knowledge as possible, but here I am, with an empty brain, useless talent for cultivation and a dead sister¡­"


    "Could things get any worse than they already are?"


    Dara face-palmed himself as he suddenly jerked at a thought;


    "If the soul energy entered my soul, then where is-?"


    Dara had not even finished his train of thought when he saw the homing beacon of light head towards the roots that led to his mind, and he instantly felt chilly as deep fear gripped him totally¡­


    He bolted towards the beacon of light, but could never be as quick as it was moving, and instantly, the beacon of light entered;


    Boom!


    Dara felt as if several nuclear missiles just exploded within his brain as massive amounts of information he knew nothing about began to flood his head¡­


    "Arrghh!"


    Dara yelled as he felt a splitting migraine hit him point nk as he cked out almost instantaneously¡­


    Ssh! Crash!


    The roaring waves of water smashing into the banks was what woke Dara from his unconscious state¡­


    "~Ugh~" He blurted as he felt his head get giddy¡­


    There was this t line noise ring in his ears, as blood began to leak out of it¡­


    He was also bleeding from his nose and eyes¡­


    He was so weak, stunned and groggy that he couldn''t even bnce himself, as he struggled to keep himself steady enough¡­


    Ssh! Boom!


    This time, the rushing waters smashed into the bank so hard that Dara was jolted out of his giddy state, as he looked backwards and got a fright of his life;


    "What the hell!?" Dara blurted;


    "Fuck my luck!" he cursed as he began to flee from the aberration he just saw¡­


    It was already nighttime, and this was the most dangerous time of the day in these Dark Lands¡­


    This was the time where true evil walked and roamed about thends, a phenomenon that was always kick-started by another phenomenon; natural disasters of catastrophic proportions¡­


    Behind the aggressively fleeing Dara was a massive hundred meter tall and at least twenty meter wide tornado that was spinning at more than enough speed to shred him into pieces¡­

 Chapter 42 - Search & Rescued

    This was the time when evil walked and roamed about thends, a phenomenon that was always kick-started by another phenomenon; natural disasters of catastrophic proportions¡­


    Behind the aggressively fleeing Dara was a massive hundred meter tall and at least twenty meter wide tornado that was spinning at more than enough speed to shred him into pieces¡­


    Though it was still slightly far away, it was already on the water, and everywhere was already flooding, and if he didn''t get to a higher ground on time, then the only fate awaiting him was utter death¡­


    Dara channeled more and more power into his feet as the water pulsed towards him with immense momentum, as the massive tornado began to pull out trees by the roots and fling them in random directions¡­


    After about five minutes of desperate flight, Dara finally found a cave within the walls of the mountain he had fell from, and happily made a beeline for it¡­


    Ka! Ka! Crack!


    Dara heard the sound of branches snapping as he was about to enter this cave, and just as he looked back to check, he saw a massive tree, about ten times his own size shooting towards him with the speed of a bullet¡­


    Dara lurched to an abrupt halt, and the moment that happened, the tree mmed into the cave entrance copsing everything, as Dara was sent flying into the same river he was running away from¡­


    Tapa!


    Dara fell into the raging waters and was instantly flushed out of the valley alongside several rock debris, thick broken tree branches, and some other sharp objects...


    But just as expected, it didn''t take long for Dara to get hit in the gut by a massive rock debris, and finally get knocked out by arge tree trunk, as he floated unconsciously with the flooding waters¡­


    After about four hourster, five figures appeared at the vicinity of the cliff, where the intense battle had taken ce¡­


    "Damn! This is a total bloodbath¡­"


    One of the figures who was a 5 feet tall brown skinned kid blurted when he got to the area;


    "Shut up Lao, just search for both of them, and let us be on our way before the rest of these Obunse searching for a missing tribe leader!"


    Another youth who was about a tad bit taller than Lao ordered with an aura of person of authority radiating off his body, the rest began tob the area in search for the two people they were looking for, and after a while, Lao yelled;


    "Over here boss!"


    The boy who had just ordered them and the other three ran over to the edge of the cliff, and there they saw dead bodies strewn all over the floor¡­


    They all belonged to Obuns and there were no other normal person around except for a specific burial mound which was made to the side with the ive these figures were too familiar with;


    "That''s Ji Dai''s ive¡­" One of the other boys around revealed;


    "You think we don''t know?"


    The youth who seemed to be the leader of the group and looked to be about thirteen or fourteen years old, snickered at the boy who just spoke;


    "I''m sorry, brother Hai¡­" The boy apologized to the leader of their group named, Hai;


    "Hmph! I have no time for this¡­"


    "Kun, Me, Xie, dig that mound¡­ I want to know if it is Ji Dai or her useless brother¡­"


    Ji Hai spoke with a voiceced with hatred and disgust as he ordered the three boys behind him, as they all gazed towards him with a slight frown that signified reluctance;


    "Brother Hai, I''m sorry, but I think it is hical to dig up the grave of a buried person¡­" Xie was the first to speak up;


    "Especially considering the intent with which we are doing it¡­" Kun added;


    "It is a total vition of the rested ones, and the repercussions might be too dire for us to bear¡­" Me also joined in as Ji Hai gazed at them with a repulsive expression;


    "Bunch of useless thrash!" He blurted before looking to his sidekick;


    "Ji Lao, go dig up that grave, now!"


    "Yes boss!"


    Ji Lao who for some reason was more scared of the disrespecting the living than the dead went ahead and dug up the burial mound as the cold, pale and dirty corpse of Ji Dai was uprooted out of the ground, as everyone gasped in shock before the trio who refused to dig up the corpse looked away with a pained expression¡­


    Though they suspected something fishy going on with the mission they did today, but they couldn''t ask or say anything about it, considering the status of the person who gave them the mission¡­


    But Ji Hai simply stood there with a very deep frown as he thought out loud;


    "How can a useless thrash with no hope of cultivating survive such a massive battle between cultivators?"


    He asked as he went over to the edge of the cliff, but because it was too dark and the tornado had passed, the water was calm and soundless, thus the only thing Ji Hai saw was a dark abyss, as Ji Lao added from the side;


    "Could he have jumped over the cliff?"


    "Damn, you guys are so stupid¡­" Ji Hai cursed as he raged;


    "Then did Ji Dai bury herself and stabbed her own weapon over her burial mound?"


    "Does that mean it was Ji Dara?"


    Ji Lao asked once again, as Ji Hai almost exploded out of sheer rage, but he simply sighed and gave Ji Lao a vicious p; one that sent the poor sidekick tumbling head over heels about two meters away;


    "You all should think well before you speak from now on¡­"


    "I don''t know why the vige still give cultivation resources to dumb idiots like you¡­"


    Ji Hai angrily blurted as he walked past the exposed and defiled corpse of Ji Dai;


    "He has escaped, and should still be within this jungle¡­"


    "Find him, and being him back, dead or alive!"


    He yelled orders at the teenagers in front of him as he added furiously;


    "This is a mission and order from the vige chief himself, shall I report to him that you all refused his orders!?"


    The boys cowered at thest art of Ji Hai''s statement as they pick a partner and scrambled in opposite directions to search for Dara;


    "He couldn''t have gone far¡­ though he can flee, there is still a limit to how far he can go on empty stomach¡­"


    "After all, eating anything out here would spell his certain death¡­" Ji Hai muttered through gritted teeth;


    "I hope they find him, and I can retrieve the scroll father had been going crazy about¡­"


    He added as he picked the third unexplored path the four kids left for him¡­


    "You better be dead Dara, otherwise, you will suffer a fate worse than death in my hands!" Ji Hai thought as he increased his speed¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    About three hourster, when a bit of light reflected across these darknds...


    A middle aged man and woman were on a boat, with several fishing gears, as they looked to catch whatever this stream could offer them for food¡­


    "It''s been almost half a day, and we are yet to make any catch whatsoever, why don''t we simply return and manage what we have for now, and then return when it is exhausted?"


    Thedy spoke as the middle aged man who seemed to be her husband replied;


    "Chu''er, if we return now and eat thest food we have, we will basically spend the all the energy we get from it returning to this ce, and what would happen if we can''t find any catch by then, wouldn''t that mean starving to death¡­"


    The man replied as he caught the shadow of a figure moving about ten meters away from him, though he couldn''t make out what it was, but after spending half a day with no catch in sight, and their grumbling stomachs, the man didn''t care if what he was nning to catch was stronger and could kill him, he wasn''t going to pass up this chance¡­


    He grabbed his massives and hurled it over the figure, before reeling it in, and due to the sheer weight of the figure within his, he had to use a little bit of the power he had been conserving for emergency situations, as the muscles in his arms and legs bulged¡­


    Then with a violent tug, the unconscious Dara whose body was being carried by the steady moving streamnded into the boat, and just as the man fished out a dagger to kill his catch before it capsized their boat or kill anyone of them, thedy hurriedly moved over and grabbed his hand as she whispered;


    "It''s a human¡­ A little boy¡­ Look!"


    Then the man looked past his wife''s shoulders and realized that what he had indeed hurled aboard was no marine beast, but an actual human being¡­


    Then he rxed a bit, and after a while, his wife walked over to Dara''s unconscious body, but the man grabbed her arm;


    "Be careful!"


    He whispered as he took the lead with his wife just behind him, looking at Dara from behind¡­


    "Is he still alive?"


    She asked as the man ced a de just beneath Dara''s nostrils, and after getting some sort of weak haze on his mirror-like dagger, the middle aged man nodded his head and added;


    "But not for much longer¡­"


    "Please save him!"


    Thedy blurted as the man froze in shock thinking it was a bad idea to save a random kid who was unconscious in a flowing river within the darknds¡­


    Who knew if he had offended some strong expert who thought he had died and disposed his body into the river to clear his tracks?


    Who knew if he had just jump into the river to save himself from certain death which was more terrifying than jumping into the river at such an hour in the darknds which is when all the monsters, beasts and Obuns of the Dark Lands are most active?


    What if those people were still chasing him?


    Several logical exnations stampeded the man''s mind as he stared at the unconscious Dara, and just as he was about to refuse, he saw his wife''s facial expression and understood why she wanted to save him;


    "Damn it!"


    He blurted before paddling away as fast as his muscle-tensed arms could row, whilst his wife went over to Dara and covered him in thick furs to keep him warm¡­

 Chapter 43 - Where Are We!?

    What if those people were still chasing him?


    Several logical exnations stampeded the man''s mind as he stared at the unconscious Dara, and just as he was about to refuse, he saw his wife''s facial expression and understood why she wanted to save him;


    "Damn it!"


    He blurted before paddling away as fast as his muscle-tensed arms could row, whilst his wife went over to Dara and covered him in thick furs to keep him warm¡­


    Then about six hourster, five figures stood at the banks of the river where the middle aged couple had just reeled Dara in, and the one in the lead cursed aloud;


    "Damn it!"


    "The vige chief would be extremely pissed that we failed our simply mission¡­"


    Ji Hai thought in fright as he remembered how scary his father usually became when he didn''t get what he wanted which was a very rare asion;


    "We will all report to him that we found Ji Dai''s corpse and also saw a lot of blood leading towards the edge of the cliff, and that Dara had fallen off the cliff after he was killed by the Obun Leader¡­


    We will take the head of the Obun Leader home, and perhaps that would cate his anger a bit¡­


    Does anyone has any objection to that!?" Ji Hai more like threatened than asked as the rest actually cowered with a nod of ascent, before Ji Lao spoke;


    "But how would we manage to convince the vige chief that we were able to kill an Obun Leader who is stronger than the five of usbined?"


    "All of you, hit me in the face!"


    Ji Hai ordered as the kids all froze in shock like they have heard the most incredulous statement ever¡­


    In fact, if not for the fact that they had heard it themselves, and the expectant look on Ji Hai''s face, they would have believed if someone said a dragon bowed to them much more than the statement Ji Hai just made;


    "What are you waiting for!?"


    "Get on with it and let us leave this ce before it is toote!"


    Ji Lao was the first person to punch Ji Hai in the face, and he might as well have simply caressed Ji Hai''s face because Ji Hai felt nothing;


    Smack! Crash!


    Ji Hainded a worse p than the first to Ji Lao whose face instantly swelled up like that of a pig, before looking t two of his teeth on the floor through his bloodied, blurry eyes¡­


    "Go soft on me, and you will suffer a much worse p than his!"


    Ji Hai looked at the remaining trio and growled at them as Ji Xie pulled his arm backwards, and swung his fist towards Ji Hai''s chin with tant ferocity;


    Bang! Boom!


    Ji Hai was sent flying about three feet away with a swollen cheek, and just as he stood up, he was greeted by Ji Kun''s left cross which hit him on the other side of his chin, sending him tumbling head over heels for about another two feet¡­


    He stood up but was sent off the ground about a foot into the air by Ji Me''s uppercut, before the pig faced Ji Lao punched him squarely on the face, as he mmed back into the ground throwing up a mouthful of blood¡­


    "That''s great!"


    Ji Hai managed to stand to his feet as he whipped out a short sword and gazed at the four kids in front of him and spoke with a venomous tone;


    "You lot would serve as my stepping stone, to be the heir to the vige chief position¡­"


    Whoosh!


    Ji Hai moved faster than these kids couldprehend as he sent a sword sh straight at Ji Lao''s throat;


    Fissshhh!


    Blood sprayed like fountain into the air as Ji Lao clutched his throat and began to choke as life gradually ebbed from his body¡­


    Seeing that he had killed his sidekick, the three boys scattered in three different directions as Ji Hai tactically went for the fastest amongst them Ji Kun, and after about a minute of aggressive chase, he stabbed the boy from the back and his sword came out of his chest as Ji Kun grabbed Ji Hai with his bloodied hand and managed to utter;


    "You told us to strike you, why did you do this to us?"


    "I will return to the vige as the sole survivor of an attack by eleven Obuns and one Leader, and that would be more than enough to cement my ce as the future heir to the vige chief position¡­"


    "Thus, you lot should count yourselves lucky to be sacrificed for a cause greater than you wildest imaginations¡­"


    Swish!


    Ji Hai pulled out his sword as he left Ji Kun to bleed to death¡­


    He wasn''t scared that he might survive, after all, in about an hour or so, all the monsters and beasts that roam these Dark Lands would alle out to feed, and one of the strongest bait to them was blood...


    Thus, he was sure that in about two to three hours, even a strand of hair from the four won''t be found¡­


    He bolted for Ji Xie, and after about ten minutes of tracking, Ji Hai found him hiding behind a tree, as he simply stabbed his sword through the tree and pierced Ji Xie through the throat on the other side...


    Then without as much as sparing the fallen Ji Xie a single nce, he went after Ji Me, the slowest amongst them all, and he found him after tracking him down for about another ten minutes;


    "Please Ji Hai, I promise not to tell anyone¡­ In fact, I swear on my parent not to ever return to the vige again!"


    Ji Me knelt to the ground and pleaded for his dear life, as Ji Hai gave a defeated sigh and muttered;


    "Alright, let''s go, you must first help me bury those three, then you are to flee from the vige as far as possible!"


    Ji Hai said as he turned his back and took a step forward, whilst Ji Me also stood up to follow him, only to freeze in his step the moment he stood up¡­


    Fissshh!


    Blood spilled from his slit throat, and sprayed all over Ji Hai who stood there and let it bathe him¡­


    "Hmph! I am not stupid enough to cut a viper''s tail and then release it back into the wild!" Then he turned around and left¡­


    About ten minutester, Ji Hai arrived at the cliff, and cut off the Obun Leader''s head, ced it in his back pouch, and then gritted his teeth before shing himself in the eye, with his short sword;


    Argghh!


    Ji Hai cried out as he blinded one of his eyes, but he didn''t stop there; he also shed himself in the chest, arms and one of his thighs, leaving ring cuts all over them, before tying pieces of clothes on his wound as he made his way out of the jungle¡­


    He had spent 45 minutes already and had only about a quarter of an hour left before the jungle starts crawling with danger at every turn, nook and cranny¡­


    "Unh?"


    "Where am I?"


    Dara woke up to find himself in a strange room¡­


    The walls here were made of ck y, and managed to keep the little heat within the room from dissipating into away¡­


    The roof was made from tree trunks, branch and leaves, whilst the floor was just like the normal ground outside, all together making it look like someone just dumped the entire building in a part of the darknds¡­


    Dara found himselfying atop a makeshift bed made from simply stacking tree trunks and branches atop each other and finally lots of leaves¡­


    A thick fur was thenid on this makeshift bed to give it a bit of a cushioning effect, and that was all¡­


    No windows here, and only a single entrance without a door that led to a dimly lit room¡­


    Then he saw some sort of eerie ck smoke like substanceing out of the ground, billowing all over him and seemingly entering the pores of his body¡­


    ~Ha!~


    Dara screamed in fright as he jumped off the bed and ran out the entrance bumping straight into the middle aged man who was rushing in after hearing his screams;


    "Ow!"


    "Watch it young turd!"


    The middle aged man grabbed his stomach in pain, as Dara saw the man who look as malnourished as the word malnourished could get, and in fact seemed to be hanging between the life and death¡­


    Then behind the man through the little entrance, he could make out the image of ady who looked much better than the man; apparently, the man might have been going hungry so that thedy could eat¡­


    But of everything that was going through his mind, the only thing that came out of his mouth was;


    "Humans!"


    "You are both humans!"


    He blurted in shock as his eye widened to their full extents;


    "Keep it down boy or you will attract the hungry monsters and beasts roaming thisnds¡­"


    The man hushed Dara and truthfully, just as Dara kept quiet, they heard a rustling from the other side of the wall of the room they were currently standing in, followed by the growl of a beast Dara had never heard in his life...


    Then the smoke rising up the ground billowed with huge gusts and formed the shape of a tiger looking beast that was about 6 feet tall, and hideous looking, with a bony, severely malnourish body, and finally six inch long ws¡­


    ~Hmm!~


    Dara screamed in fear, but the man was faster and quickly covered his mouth with his hand as he muffled his screams, but the beast walking outside paused for a bit, and after a while, it moved past the house¡­


    After confirming that the beast had left, the man then released Min Hong and growled silently with a venomous gaze;


    "Are you trying to get us all killed!?"


    "If you feel like being eaten by famished beasts and monsters, I don''t mind kicking you out of the house!"


    Dara held his own mouth by himself and shook his head vigorously¡­


    Who was he kidding!?


    If that beast that just walked past was any way asrge and violent looking as the smoky image he just saw within the room, then he would dly allow these middle aged couple cut him into pieces and eat him up, than to face such a beast¡­


    At least, if he died that way, he would still rest easy knowing he had sacrificed his life to ensure that two human beings might live on¡­


    He looked to thedy and despite her smile, was drenched in cold sweat, and it was then that everything dawned on him as he asked;


    "Where are we!?" He whispered as softly as he could muster¡­

 Chapter 44 - A New Era

    At least, if he died that way, he would still rest easy knowing he had sacrificed his life to ensure that two human beings might live on¡­


    He looked to thedy and despite her smile, was drenched in cold sweat, and it was then that everything dawned on him as he asked;


    "Where are we!?" He whispered as softly as he could muster¡­


    "We are within the grey region of Shangri La¡­"


    Thedy answered as she led Dara towards the dimly lit room where they all sat like parents lecturing their son;


    "This part of the Kingdom is the most dangerous, and this is because of there are higher avability of food here, than in the darknds, thus, strong experts, beasts, and monsters have all moved here¡­" The man exined further;


    "The Land of Light have chased them over, and the Dark Lands offer almost no feeding method, leaving the slightly habitable grey region as the hub for every living thing that wishes to thrive¡­"


    Dara voiced his thought absentmindedly, as the middle aged couple looked at him in shock;


    "That is a very smart way to put it¡­ Which begs the question; how did you end up floating unconsciously in a river¡­"


    The man asked with furrowed brows, as the wife also chipped in;


    "But first you must tell me about yourself, I want to get to know you¡­"


    Thedy said with beaming smiles, as their bellies began to grumble¡­


    "If there is more avability of food in here, howe you are both starving?"


    Dara threw a question of his own rather than answering either of the two they have requested of him¡­


    "Well, I can''t leave Chu''er here alone whilst I go out to hunt¡­"


    "Moreover, the probability of me surviving out there hunting alone is also slim, thus, either go out to fetch some fruits and vegetables we can easily grab before the beasts and monsterse out, and we stay indoors, and quietly once they are out¡­" The man answered;


    "Now that I have answered, I think it is your turn to answer one of the two questions we asked¡­" He added as he paid rapt attention to Dara;


    "My name is Ji Dara, and I am from the Vige of Sang¡­" Dara revealed as the couples eyes lit up¡­


    If there was truly a vige within the darknds, then not only would they be able to live on, but they would finally have other people to associate with, but Dara''s next statement drenched their hopes in cold waters;


    "I and my sister fell victim to a conspiracy hatched against us by that very vige whom we had served all our lives¡­"


    "My sister died in a bid to ensure my safety, whilst I got caught in a massive flood that was caused by an abnormal tornado, which spun to life out of the blue¡­"


    Dara briefed and added some further minute details until the middle aged couple got a brief overview of what had happened to him¡­


    "I''m sorry to dash your hopes, but do you mind if Iy low for a while here¡­"


    "I can help with anything you need an extra hand with¡­" Dara quickly revealed


    "Your meridians haven''t even appeared yet, so there is not much you can do to actually help¡­"


    The man was already feeling reluctant to allow Dara stay, since he would only be a liability than a help;


    "For instance I can do something with this ce you leave in¡­"


    Dara interrupted the man''s thoughts as the man stuttered;


    "Wait-what!?"


    "I know this house isn''t much, but it is still at least one of the top ten in this greynds¡­"


    Dara simply shook his head slightly and sighed;


    "How many hours a day, is one safe to roam about in here?"


    Dara asked, as the couple looked at each other with confusion apparent in their eyes, they weren''t sure where Dara was going with this question, but they still answered;


    "About six hours¡­" The man replied as his wife added;


    "Why do you ask?"


    "Just give me three months, and I will transform your lives¡­"


    He added with a smile as the couple''s frown deepened, and the wife for the first time spoke a little unfriendly;


    "Have youe to mock out way of life, despite our efforts in saving your life?"


    Dara understood that they had simply misunderstood his choice of words, which he was finding hard to pinpoint how it had changed in the space of a day;


    "Alright, how about I start with this¡­"


    Dara said as he brought out a massive grilled hindp of a huge beast¡­


    At least, that is what the size of this grilled and dried meat was telling them¡­


    The couples took the meat from his hands and took a bite;


    st!


    Instantly, the taste buds of these couple was assaulted by the vein soaked vor of all the spices that wasbined to cook this meat, and after half an hour of wolfing half of the entire thing, Dara continued;


    "We will start tomorrow¡­"


    "We will all head out tomorrow, and whilst your husband search for food, you will search for any mountain or high ground where we can build our new home¡­" Dara added;


    "I don''t think it is wise to forsake our shelter just yet¡­"


    "What if we end up not getting a suitable high ground to build shelter, or get food?"


    "Of course we will still live here for the mean time, but we only have a week max to get a ce where these three aims can be met¡­" Dara cleared the man''s doubts;


    "We will leave two hours for our journey to and fro, whilst searching for our desired area for four hours¡­"


    "We will also be heading north for two days, then south for another two days, head west for two days, and the east would be a no-go area, since there is only the darknds or people of my vige who are most likely looking to kill me over there¡­"


    Dara exined his ns, as they did a more thorough introduction about each other, before Dara left for his room¡­


    Though, he didn''t trust the information these couples gave him 100 percent, but there were some of it which they couldn''t lie about;


    Like their names where the man was called, Kun Min, and thedy was called Chu Lin¡­


    They have been living together for about five years within this greynd, at a time where Kun Min was able to rescue Chu Lin from the grip of one stray Obun¡­


    Then he had treated her, took care of her, and giving her utmost respect, hospitality and shelter, something which sprouted the seed of love between the duo, until they finally reached where they were at this point¡­


    Dara had told them that he would simply call them; Uncle Min, and Aunt Lin, a name which the couple both agreed to, instantaneously¡­


    Dara sat atop his makeshift bed, as he rummaged through the little amount of information he could muster from the three memories he had within him¡­


    From Dara'' memory, he got the architecturalyout of how the ''vige of sang'' and its defenses were built, and from Sam''s memory, he obtained a way to build structures using brick and many other materials...


    Then, from the memories of the dark soul, he got an insight into how to quickly force his meridians to appear by doing basic body exercises which he grouped into nine parts;


    Endurance, Strength, Stamina, Speed, Blood, Bones, Tendons, Muscles and Flesh; a techniques that intends to build its user from this inside out¡­


    As for the endurance stage, Dara obviously understood how he was going to go about it, and Sam''s memories which had some exotic ideas had the perfect method to achieve it¡­


    Dara smiled in joy, at least, if he could achieve all these aim of his within three months, he would not only have established his safety and saved two others in the process, he would also have made every member of his dead family proud, and as a result, he was so ecstatic that his body found it extremely hard to summon or demand rest;


    ''This will usher me into a new era'' He thought to himselfid there lost in thought¡­


    Dawn the next day¡­


    Dara opened his red eyes and revealed a beaming smile¡­


    Today was the day he was going to start forcing his way into the path of cultivation¡­


    He stood up only to meet the couple already packed up, ready, and eager to hit the ground running¡­


    They set out, and as Dara had instructed, headed not in search for higher grounds¡­


    "Take this, just in case you find yourself in danger¡­"


    "That''s very thoughtful of you, Uncle Min¡­ Thanks¡­"


    Dara received the machete he was given and scrutinized it...


    It was just as long as his elbow to the tip of his finger, very light and not too sharp, but who cares, he would sharpen it once he gets the materials needed for that¡­


    Soon after, they reached a jungle area, and the man paused, looked towards the duo behind him and said;


    "Be careful¡­ We must all meet here in four hours, regardless if we found what we are looking for or not¡­"


    Then he looked to his wife and gave her a hug, then left like a hunter who would never return until he has found game¡­


    The wife also looked towards Dara and gave him a pat on the head before adding;


    "You too be careful, unh?"


    Dara shook his head like an obedient kid and parted ways with thedy whose task was to look for solid, and higher grounds within this jungle¡­


    After the duo left, Dara looked to his front, and was already satisfied¡­


    He could already see, many broken rock debris, massive trees that could be logged, and wet ck soil all over the ce, and since it is wet soil, that means they don''t really need water to build whatever it was they were nning to build;


    "All that is left now is to find beast carcass, and any source ofbustible materials¡­"


    He muttered to himself with a smile as he charged into the jungle¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the vige of sang¡­

 Chapter 45 - Combustible Blood

    He could already see, many broken rock debris, massive trees that could be logged, and wet ck soil all over the ce, and since it is wet soil, that means they don''t really need water to build whatever it was they were nning to build;


    "All that is left now is to find beast carcass, and any source ofbustible materials¡­"


    He muttered to himself with a smile as he charged into the jungle¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the vige of sang¡­


    "I tell you, she has the roundest and most fertile looking ass in this vige¡­"


    "I will definitely talk to her once my shift is over, she will make a perfect wife and mother¡­"


    "Well, I still stand on my opinion; the attitude of a woman is what matters the most to me, I don''t like nor want any form of stress¡­"


    Two men who seemed to be in their early forties were discussing at entrance of the vige, when one of them suddenly caught a figure approaching out of the misty jungle of the darknds;


    "Eh, what is that!?"


    "Is it a beast?"


    "It had a human structure!"


    "I-i-is that an Obun Leader!?"


    "Go¡­ Quick, sound the rm!"


    The two guards scrambled their words as intense fear crippled their thinking speed, if that was truly who they thought it was, then only someone in the ranks of the vige grand elders can take it down, they stood no chance of survival at its hands¡­


    "Hold your horses, it''s just me!"


    A very exhausted voice reverberated off the figure who then removed, the severed head of the Obun Leader he had used as a mask to scare away beasts that attacked him on his way back from their hunt¡­


    The guards were initially stunned at the sight of an Obun actually speaking [because ording to modern earth, it would be akin to a tiger speaking human tongue], but after the figure removed the mask away, they were plunged into an even deeper state of shock;


    "Y-yo-young master, is that you!?" One of the guards blurted in shock;


    "What happened!?" The other asked as Ji Hai growled at them;


    "Will you quit asking me stupid questions and let me in!?"


    "Oh-no, yeah, I mean sorry, young master¡­ You may enter now¡­"


    The guards lowered a long wooden bridge over the ditch of fire dug around the vigendscape, as Ji Hai staggered into the vige, chasing away anyone who tried to offer him a hand to help him walk¡­


    Meanwhile, the vige chief was still discussing with his grand elders within what seems to be their makeshift pce, when they suddenly heard innumerable sounds of murmurings and approaching footsteps;


    "What is going on outside?"


    The vige chief asked as he and his grand elders walked out of the pce and got the shock of their life; there, in front of them all, stood the battered and bloodied figure of the vige chief''s only son¡­


    Drop!


    Ji Hai dropped to the ground, unconscious, and face first into the dirt, as the vige chief bellowed angrily;


    "What are you all waiting for, take him to the vige healer at once!"


    Everyone scrambled about as two strongly built men came forward and carried him away;


    "Chief, is that the head of an Obun Leader!?"


    One of the two grand elders behind the vige chief gasped in shock at what they were seeing;


    "I believe so, but that is of little interest to me now¡­"


    "Alert me once he wakes up!"


    The vige chief spoke as he spun aggressively and returned into the makeshift pce, whilst one of the grand elders told a man to being the Obun head, and ce it in the pce¡­


    "How long would we have to wait before we can ask him about his mission?"


    The other grand elder spoke through quaking voice;


    "It is my unconscious son we are talking about here, and you are not even concerned about his health and safety, but a stupid cultivation technique!?"


    "Show some respect!"


    The vige chief retorted aggressively, but the grand elders simply rxed for a bit, and allowed him to cool down before continuing the conversation;


    "We have only had a meridian opening technique in the history of our vige, this would be the first cultivation technique we have evere so close to having, so forgive our anxiousness and insensitivity¡­"


    "Yeah, it is just as Left had said, this would usher the future of our entire vige into a higher level¡­"


    "What I and Left are looking at here, is the potential opportunity to actually be the ruler of the entire darknds, and even spread our territory as far as the greynds¡­" The other grand elder spoke;


    "Left, Right, I hear you¡­"


    "Sorry for yelling at you, but if I ever have to pick between my son and a cultivation technique, you know what I will pick¡­"


    The vige chief made a sentence with an underlying meaning, one the grand elders understood, and gave a sigh of relief as they reclined into their seats with a satisfied grin stered on their faces¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Dara had searched for the past one and a half hour and still couldn''t find and still couldn''t find anybustible materials or beast carcass, thus, he returned to their rendezvous point a little crest fallen¡­


    About thirty minutester, the couple joined him at the rendezvous point and it seems they must have ran into each other on their way back;


    "I can already see your good news¡­"


    Dara said when he saw the beast the size of an antelope that Uncle Min had on his shoulders, whilst his wife also added;


    "I found a very high teau about two kilometers to the east of this ce, and it is also deep within the jungle, with the huge trees around hiding its presence¡­"


    "What about you?" Uncle Min added;


    "I have good news and bad news¡­"


    Dara spoke as they duo saw their smile slightly dim in intensity;


    "We will take the bad news first¡­"


    Aunt Lin spoke first as Dara revealed;


    "I couldn''t find any beast carcass, or anybustible resources out here¡­"


    He spoke with slightly slumped shoulders, but was stunned when the couple in front of him burst out inughter;


    "Why didn''t you tell us you were looking for such materials?" The man was the first to speak;


    "Alright let us have the good news¡­"


    The wife added as Dara understood that the materials he had spent hours looking for might not be so hard to find after all, thus he gave them the goodies;


    "I was able to find ever other materials we will be needing for our new home¡­"


    "Really¡­ Good¡­ You did good¡­"


    Aunt Lin giggled in joy as she hugged Dara, squashing his face in between the two globes of boobs hanging on her chests¡­


    Then, as they were returning home, Dara asked;


    "Do you know a ce where we can get those materials, Uncle Min?"


    "Yes I do, and in fact, the two things you are looking for exists in the same location, in a ce I discovered about two months ago when I went out hunting¡­"


    "We will first head over to the teau tomorrow, and then I will take you to the ce where you will find these materials¡­"


    Uncle Min patted Dara on the shoulder as he spoke with a happy smile¡­


    He was very happy today because it had been a really long time since hest had a kill this big, and he was sure that it was because of the renewed hope Dara had given him¡­


    Not only did he have bright ambitions for them, he also backed it up with logical, and sensible tactics, and this was also including the fact that he gave them the first real meal they have had in thest five to six months¡­


    This enough was a morale booster for him and all that contributed to his ability tond this huge score today, and now, he was already learning that even Dara''s ambitions were already set in stones, especially now that they have found what was needed to make it happen;


    As if in sync with her husband''s thoughts, Aunt Lin joyfully added;


    "There is nothing truly as motivating as achieving one''s aims¡­"


    "What would even be better is if this happens on a daily basis¡­"


    Dara also grinned slightly at that thought as he felt it wasn''t something unachievable, provided they don''t set impossible daily goals¡­


    Soon enough, they returned home and Min Hong went straight to his room whilst Uncle Min and Aunt Lin prepared the kill¡­


    They would have to skin it for fur and leather, use its bones, dry roast the rest of the meat to make it easily storable for the future¡­


    About half an hourter, Uncle Min called Dara over, and on getting there, Dara saw a hand size bowl containing the blood of the beast they just killed, and two smooth stones beside it¡­


    "What are these for?"


    Dara asked thinking Uncle Min was about to do those integrating Viking rituals, where they use two or three fingers to smear the blood of a beast on the neer''s face;


    ''What in the world is a Viking?''


    Dara thought to himself not knowing where the term Viking came from, which was something that freaked him out a little, because these knowledge had been seeping into his mind gradually without him knowing, and it was gradually changing his perspective and orientation about everything around him¡­


    Then he saw Uncle Min pick up both stones and struck it against each other producing a spark that instantly died out the moment it sparked to life¡­


    Dara watched Uncle Min create a spark, and the moment the sparknded into the bowl of blood;


    Bam!


    Cough! Cough! Cough!


    The blood violently reacted to the mes and exploded on contact, as it went up in mes, causing the du to cough from the ensuing grey smoke that billowed out of the explosion¡­


    "Take¡­ ce it in your room to light it up, and give you a little warmth¡­"


    "It also works well when you are nning to keep away those eerie grey smoke that keepsing out of the ground¡­"


    Uncle Min handed what would be Dara''s makeshiftmp to him¡­

 Chapter 46 - A Rekindled Fighting Spirit

    Bam!


    Cough! Cough! Cough!


    The blood violently reacted to the me spark and exploded upon contact, as it went up in mes¡­


    "Take¡­ ce it in your room to light it up, and give you a little warmth¡­"


    "It also works well when you are nning to keep away those eerie grey smoke that keepsing out of the ground¡­"


    Uncle Min handed what would be Dara''s makeshiftmp to him¡­


    "That is thebustible substance I was telling you about¡­"


    "We will be entering the season of war in about three months, so we would have this in abundance, as well as more than enough carcasses¡­" Uncle Min added¡­


    "Season of war¡­ I have only heard about it, and never witnessed it before, even though our vige defenses had almost been defeated by one before..."


    "But back then I was part of the people they sent into shelter to protect, whilst my sister was the one who went out to do battle¡­"


    Dara responded but his tone saddened when he spoke about his sister¡­


    "Kid, the war in the darkds are nothingpared to the ones we have here¡­" Uncle Min exined;


    "Most times, we usually go about two straight months without fire, or stepping outside, because beasts and monsters roam the area every single minute of the day¡­" He added with a shake of his head and a deep sigh;


    "Are you saying we will have to face the same fate if we don''t finish moving before the season of war begins?"


    Dara''s eyes almost exploded out of his eyes socket, when he thought about beasts on the level of the one that passed by his roomst night roaming around their house every single time of the day¡­


    That means, they can''t go out to hunt, light up any type of fire, making any type of noise or sound, even coughing or breathing to hard might bring death upon them;


    "Yes, that is exactly what I am saying, only that this time, there is no food, which means we would have to choose between holing up in here and starving to death, or going outside to hunt and being eaten alive by wandering beasts and monster¡­"


    Uncle Min added as Dara swallowed heavily, he didn''t know how or when, but he felt a drop of cold sweat run from his forehead, down his cheek and drop off his chin, onto his cloth¡­


    "I had been thinking we had the entire three months to simply create a new shelter atop the teau, but it seems we will have to gather resources, build our shelter and also erect some defenses around our shelter all within these three months¡­" Dara muttered out as Uncle Min consoled;


    "Well, if one is determined and courageous enough, there would be nothing unachievable or impossible such a person¡­"


    "We need to work fast, and quick¡­"


    "Furthermore, we would need a serious change of n¡­"


    Dara spoke as he looked to Aunt Lin who just entered from preparing the kill Uncle Min brought back from the hunt¡­


    "We should get some sleep, and set out as early as possible tomorrow¡­"


    "We have tons upon tons of work to do¡­"


    Dara spoke absentmindedly as he had been calcting how much time it took the little amount of beast blood in the bowl to burn out¡­


    "Then we had better eat well enough to get enough strength for the task ahead¡­"


    Aunt Lin said as she removed the fur she used to cover the huge tray [More like a simple wooden b] of food she had brought in¡­


    They all dug into the food and went to sleep early¡­


    If they really wanted to survive the war season, then they must give their all in aplishing Dara''s n to achieving that aim¡­


    Dawn the next morning¡­


    It was still slightly foggy, and grey plumes of energy was still billowing out of the earth telling them that the beasts and monsters are just returning to hibernation or sleep¡­


    Dara and the couple set out with Aunt Lin in the middle carrying some needed supplies, whilst Uncle Min and Dara each held a machete as they protected her from either sides¡­


    Work began today, and they were not going to stand on any ceremony¡­


    In less than an hour, they reached the teau which Aunt Lin had found the day before, and Dara had to say;


    "This is perfect¡­ I am really impressed¡­"


    They had walked about 45 minutes from the nearest clearing through thick, high and heavy jungle to get to this ce, and luckily for them there was spring pouring out of the rock and was flowing down the other side of the teau far into the jungle¡­


    "First thing on the agenda, we have to disable this water from flowing down that channel¡­"


    "It is a recipe for life and death, since it would be providing us with an essential resource, but also be attracting many beasts, and monster who are thirsty¡­"


    Dara spoke as Uncle Min asked;


    "How do you suppose we do that?"


    "Well, we dig a massive trench around the entire teau, creating a ring of water around the teau¡­"


    "Won''t the trench begin to overflow after a while?" Aunt Lin added;


    "Don''t worry, I have a n for all that¡­"


    "So, how do we begin?" Uncle Min asked, seemingly raring to go¡­


    It seems eating good food over thest two days had really rekindled his fighting spirit¡­


    Min Hong picked a stick nearby and drew a circle on the ground;


    "This is the teau¡­" He began to narrate his n;


    "We start by digging¡­ We have to dig to contain the water first, and it should be at least, ten meters off the teau wall so as to prevent it from corrosion¡­" He drew another circle outside the first circle....


    Then after that, he drew another one;


    "Then dig another trench about 10 meters away from the ring of water and that would serve as our first line of defense¡­" Then he drew a third circle about ten meters from the first line of defense;


    "Then we dig another trench here, another 10 meters from our first line of defense and this would serve as our second line of defense¡­" Dara finished as Uncle Min chipped in;


    "Digging the trench is no problem, but how do we get to the get on top of the teau?"


    "I have a n for that also, but for now, and throughout today, we dig!" Dara spoke as Aunt Lin added;


    "But we only have one digging equipment¡­"


    Dara heard this and was slightly perplexed, he hadn''t even thought of the equipment they would need for thebor;


    "That changes nothing¡­"


    "I and Uncle Min would alternate between digging and logging, whilst you will roam about ten meters around the teau to find other resources we might need¡­"


    Dara said as he handed the machete in his hand to thedy, and collected the digging equipment which through wasn''t sharp, but the way it was created, made it more efficient that other sharp tools¡­


    "I will dig for an hour whilst you log, and we will swap ces at the hour mark and I will log whilst you dig¡­"


    "We will go at that pace, taking fifteen minutes break between each work time¡­"


    "Thest hour would involve us rushing back home, and tomorrow, we will resume the same schedule¡­"


    Dara exined as they all split into three different directions and began to work¡­


    For the males, it was more like a training session rather than work, whilst for Aunt Lin, it was more about learning about the herbs in the area, and knowing which one was edible, and which was not¡­


    As well as which one was good for healing and which one was poisonous¡­


    Thus, their work began¡­


    As for Dara, it was time to begin his first step into forcing out his meridians¡­


    He stood at the edge of the spring and moved about two feet away from the source, and started digging round in the opposite direction, otherwise, he might end up drowning in the pit and end up dying in the same pit he is digging for the source of life [What an irony!]


    Pa! Pa! Pa!


    The sound of a machete cutting into a tree trunk rang out as Dara looked to Uncle Min and bellowed;


    "Uncle Min!?"


    "Yeah!"


    "Can you start cutting from about ten feet high up the tree?"


    He asked but Uncle Min simply responded by putting off his upper clothes, rolling it into a rod like shape, and then tying himself to the tree, before climbing up to a ten feet height [See Palm-wine Tappers in action¡­] then he continued his work from there¡­


    Dara also looked to the spot he had chosen to start digging from and wondered how he was going to dig around this massive twenty meter radius teau¡­


    So he dug a ten feet wide pit that was twenty feet deep, and when he got to the bottom of the pit, he started digging from beneath it, like as if he was digging an underground tunnel, rather than a ditch¡­


    Then after about half an hour, he had already dug about a ten feet tunnel from his starting position, and then he wed himself out, and walked atop the tunnel, and then began to dig from the same ten feet distance, from the top into the ground¡­


    Uncle Min watched him with a confused expression whilst logging the trees, but then, the moment Dara dug about a foot deep from the top of the tunnel, the entire ten feet long tunnel caved in, and Dara then jumped back into the pit and began to pack the dirt to the side closer to the teau¡­


    Uncle Min saw this and was pleasantly surprised as he mumbled to himself;


    "This kid seems much wiser than he looks¡­ What an efficient digging method, allowing gravity to do a part of the work¡­"


    Then he look towards the tree he was cutting, and descended¡­


    Min Hong watched Uncle Min descend and wondered what he wanted to do¡­


    The trees here were densely packed and were just about 5 feet apart from one another, growing taller and taller since their branches could not spread wide¡­


    Uncle Min grabbed a long rope which seemed to have been made out of braiding lots of smaller vines together into one, and pulled it out of the supply sack Aunt Lin was carrying on their way here¡­

 Chapter 47 - Building Endurance Level

    The trees here were densely packed and were just about 5 feet apart from one another, growing taller and taller since their branches could not spread wide¡­


    Uncle Min grabbed a long rope which seemed to have been made out of braiding lots of smaller vines together into one, and pulled it out of the supply sack Aunt Lin was carrying on their way here...


    He looked towards the digging Dara and noticed that he was peeping out of the pit as he was digging;


    "My wife knows a lot about weaning, she weaned the fishing we used to save you, out of some vines we were able to gather from the river banks..."


    "She also weaned this rope from the same vines¡­"


    "She usually do this to pass time and relieve her boredom whenever I am out hunting¡­" Uncle Min exined;


    "She sounds like a very smart and supportive woman¡­"


    Dara praised as he descended back into the pit and continued his digging¡­


    Uncle Min took this vine, and climbed up about 40 feet of the ground reaching just about half of the tree, and then tied one end of the rope to the tree, and then descended and climbed the neighboring tree¡­


    Then he released his 8 Meridian cultivation base and pulled on the rope, and gradually the twenty inch thick tree began to bend, and when it had bent to an extent that satisfied him, Uncle Min returned to the tree and began to cut it from the opposite side of where he had bent it towards¡­


    The strain that was packed at the ten feet point of the tree, made the tree begin to crack slightly, and as a result, each of Uncle Min''s further chop began to speed up its cracking rate...


    Once there was no more girth to support the strain of the pull, the tree then snapped y itself, flinging splinters all over the ce, and then falling with a loud bang¡­


    Dara heard this and quickly peeped, and his jaws cked instantly;


    "This man seems much wiser than he looks¡­ What an efficient logging method, allowing tensile stress/strain to do a part of the work¡­"


    Dara thought to himself as he continued digging, and after about another thirty minutes when it was time to rest, Dara stepped out of the twenty feet long and thirty feet deep ditch that he had just dug¡­


    He was covered in sweat from head to toe, and had dirt all over him, as he saw Aunt Lin, and Uncle Min already seated in front of lunch waiting for him¡­


    Dara saw several washed edible fruits on the table alongside some of the dried meat Uncle Min killed the day before and some bowl of fresh water from the spring, and then looked further away to see that Uncle Min had actually fallen four massive trees already¡­


    He smiled at the amount of progress they had made so far, and for some reasons decided there were not going to swap, unless one of them really needed to;


    "I think we should stick to our currentbor distribution, it seems to be much more effective this way¡­"


    "That is unless you want to swap?"


    Dara spoke after returning from washing his hands by the spring before joining them to wolf down the entire meal, but Uncle Min simply agreed to his n¡­


    He was already getting used to tree logging, if her should quit at this point, he might not be as effective by the time he gets back to it...


    Five minutes of eating and ten minutes of rest, and Dara could feel within himself, that he could dig faster this time than his fist attempt¡­


    If one was to calcte the circr length of the teau, it was about 1300 meters around if one factors the fact that Dara was digging ten meters off the teau wall, that means he would need to dig a ten meters deep and about 3000 meter long ditch, and this was just for the water¡­


    There was still the first line of defense and the second line of defense, and all this work had to be done in about 600 hours, and he had spent an entire hour digging only about two meters long¡­


    But he wasn''t going to relent, he had a determination and instinct for survival, and now he had two partners who were sharing the same goal as his with equal determination and grit¡­


    Then they resumed work, and whilst Dara''s body could only endure digging two meters in the first hour, he ended up digging three in the second hour, and then four in the third and then five in the fourth hour and finally seven in thest working hour of the day¡­


    Uncle Min on the other hand fell four trees in the first, five in the second, six in the third, fourth andst hour, as it seemed like he got totally exhausted, whilst Aunt Lin was able to discover two edible types of fruit and one healing herb, as they began to rush home¡­


    Grey plumes of energy were already billowing out of the ground by the time they got home, which was about only a few minutes from the beast roaming time¡­


    They couldn''t light a fire since it was already toote, and the explosion from the beast blood might attract some monsters or beast, thus, the couple gave Dara all their furs to keep warm, whilst they simply cuddled one another through the cold, eerie and dark night¡­


    Dawn the next day¡­


    The trio were already at the teau once again and got to work instantly, there was no need for any other exnation since they all had specific tasks to aplish alongside their appointed daily quota¡­


    Today, Dara dug 10 meters in the first hour, 12 meters in the second, 14 in the third, 17 in the fourth, and 20 meters in thest work hour of the second day, bringing his total workload of the first day to about 20 meters long and ten meters deep ditch, but on the second day he dug about 75 meters long and 10 meters deep which was almost four times his work rate the day before¡­


    That was how strong and fearsome the meridian revealing training technique he got from the dark soul was¡­


    Uncle Min on the other hand fell a total of 27 trees the day before, and that was after using the natural energy [Qi] at regr intervals, but despite all that, his maximum output was a steady logging of seven trees per hour, which meant he fell a total of 35 tress today¡­


    The amount of long fallen trees were so much, that he had to cut them down in a circr path around the teau to create more space for more wood, and at the rate with which they were going, he might run out of space in less, than two weeks¡­


    Aunt Lin was a little bit on the low output side, since she didn''t know much about all the herbs and fruits in the area, and she couldn''t just go around tasting them, otherwise, if she should mistakenly ingest poison in the process, that would be the end of her¡­


    After all, Dara and Uncle Min knew nothing about medicine and herbs, and they were not even sure if the healing herb she gathered a day before could work against the specific poison she had ingested¡­


    Thus, she could only find one edible fruit, and a poisonous grey colored nt¡­


    The couples work was steady for the next two weeks, but Dara''s output was ever increasing, and in on the third week, he had finally dug around the teau, and it was time to flood the entire ditch¡­


    All he needed to do now was to simply dig a gutter from the edge of the spring to the ditch¡­


    Thus he gave the task to Aunt Lin, as an honorary way of opening their new dam or reservoir, but just as she dug a 5 feet deep and 10 feet wide gutter, the water from the spring gushed out into the gutter with insane force;


    Boom!


    It mmed into Aunt Lin with great force as she was flushed straight into the ten meter deep ditch, and because she had just done an intensebor [by her standards] she was too weak to swim and neither did she have enough energy to climb her way out of a 35 feet deep ditch...


    Water then began to flood the ditch, and in less than a minute, the water was already about three feet high, reaching her tummy level¡­


    Uncle Min rapidly dropped from the tree he was currently cutting when he saw the scenario, as he loosed the vine rope he had used to contort the tree, and ran towards the ditch before dropping it in, but the rope was about five feet short, and just as he was about to panic, he saw Dara jump into the ditch and then allowed her to climb onto his shoulders as she grabbed the rope and was pulled out by Uncle Min¡­


    But then, a new problem arose;


    Dara himself could barely swim, and though he had managed to w his way out of the moving water by the cliff his sister pushed him into back then, that river wasn''t as fast as this spring which was gushing out aggressively due to the pressure the weight of the teau was exerting on its pathway¡­


    Furthermore, that river wasn''t as wide and deep as this ditch also, and as a result, Dara found himself in a deadly situation, because he allowed his emotions rather than logic to solve the previous problem¡­


    Furthermore, the water was pushing Dara in circles around the teau because the ditch was round and the water needed a path to flow through...


    As a result that, Dara had to swim against the surging currents so that he can remain in position whilst Uncle Min found a solution to his condition, because should Uncle Min jump in at this time, they would both be carried in rounds trips around the ditch...


    Moreover, even if they could reach the rope due to the elevated waters, the force of the water and their own personal body weight might prove too much for the weak Aunt Lin to pull out¡­


    Dara didn''t know how, but he simply began to p his legs and thrust his hands forwards as he began to swim against the current¡­


    He didn''t know where this idea came from [Sam obviously], but it was working, and though, he was still being pushed back, it wasn''t as rapid as he would have been tossed if he did nothing;


    "Hold on!"


    Uncle Min bellowed to Dara as he looked around anxiously for a solution, but he couldn''t think of any¡­


    His wife had just escaped death by the fraction of a breath, and now, the person who had light a candle into their darkness was now in the same situation...


    "Calm down and think!"


    Pa!


    Uncle Min pped himself hard and instantly had an idea.

 Chapter 48 - Double Output In Half The Time

    He bellowed to Dara as he looked around anxiously for a solution, but he couldn''t think of any¡­


    His wife had just escaped death by the fraction of a breath, and now, the person who had light a candle into their darkness was now in the same situation...


    "Calm down and think!"


    Pa!


    Uncle Min pped himself hard and instantly had an idea¡­


    He looked around and saw a sizeable broken rock, and ran up to it¡­


    Activating his meridians to gather the natural energy in the atmosphere into his body; Uncle Min''s arm and legs bulged with bone-breaking muscles as he squatted and dug his hands beneath the boulder;


    "Hiiiaaaaahhhh!"


    Uncle Min groaned beneath the weight of the massive rock he was carrying¡­


    It weighed about 500 pounds, but he lifted it like it was weighed half the size, as he rushed towards the spring leak;


    Boom!


    The massive rock mmed into the spring leak, and partially sealed it up, just enough to reduce the force Dara was facing, trying to swim back to the center¡­


    Uncle Min then jumped into the water and raised Dara up to the rope height, as Aunt Lin finally pulled him out, and after catching their breath for a second, Uncle Min finally floated to the rope height before Dara and his wife hurled him out of it;


    "It is my fault, I should have put the water pressure into consideration, and I almost had you killed¡­ I''m sorry¡­"


    Dara said with an exhausted expression as the cold began to reach new heights due to the chilly evening that was descending, so they all decided to head home and call it a day¡­


    Moreover, that would give them enough time to light their fire and keep it burning before the monsters start roaming their house area, as they scoop some clean water along to boil, drink and bathe when they returned¡­


    Dara went straight into his room the moment they returned, and after brooding on his mistakes today, as well as the regr strange, alien ideas that keeps popping into his head, he began to check up on the effects of his training¡­


    Over these past few weeks of hard work andbor, Dara had managed to reach the Peak of Endurance Level, and the next stage, was building physical body power, and he knew the kind of job he was going to do to break into the Strength Building stage¡­


    So, the next day, as they arrived at the teau, Dara began to move each of the fallen trees from the forest area through a forty meter distance up to the bank of the blocked water reservoir, and though it took him an hour to move two trees, with the rate his strength was going, the couple were confident that his tally would keep rising over time¡­


    After all, they had noticed that he took this as training rather than work, and despite the fact that his meridians had not appeared- [A fact which people do not understand that he is still 10 years old by the way]- he trained like his life depended on it, and this was an attitude the couple took a liking too, and as a result they had decided amongst themselves, that whatever task Dara asks to do, they would amodate it¡­


    Just like they have predicted, Dara was able to move ten trees in the first day, by the smaller tip over his shoulder and then dragging it across the 40 meter area to the side of the water ring¡­


    The second day however saw Dara move about 25, and then 45 until Uncle Min''s rate of cutting down the trees couldn''t meet up with the rigorous determination of Dara, and in just two more weeks, which brought their work to a week over a month, Dara finally reached the peak of the strengthening stage¡­


    Now he looked more like a young man rather than the boy he was, and he was still ten years old¡­


    He was almost 6 feet tall, and weighed a little over 150 pounds¡­


    His muscles were toned from his neck down to his chest, to his arms, belly,ps and even legs¡­


    Almost every part of his body packed toned muscles, and if coupled with his fair skin which was a result of his training body heat fighting the cold eerie atmosphere of the grey and darknds, one would have thought he wasn''t from the Grey or Dark Lands¡­


    His hair had already grown up to shoulder length and he usually tie it up into a ponytail, and whenever his body was dripping with sweat due to hard work, and his toned body begins to glisten at the smallest reflection of light...


    Aunt Lin usually found herself staring longer than normal at Dara, and in some asions, she had found herself blushing due to straying thoughts, and on one asion, daydreaming¡­


    Though, she would always chide herself, and try to remind herself that Dara was still a child, and if she was just a couple of years older, he would be old enough to be her first son¡­


    She kept telling herself that every time she saw Dara from those special and unique positions or angles, and that was every single day they went out to work...


    She had been hanging around much longer for the past week because Dara and Uncle Min had decided that she should wean thick ropes from vines since they don''t want to tackle such a deadly situation of the water burst with a short rope ever again¡­


    Thus her duty for the past week was to wean a rope that was at least 10 meters long, and when Dara added that he they would also need more ropes when it was time to build their shelter, they decided to make the ropes 30 meters long, and she was to wean four separate rope all in one month, which would be their entire second month at work¡­


    Dara broke past the Strengthening stage about the middle of the second month due to hauling oversized and heavy trees across arge distance, with increasing quantity, and before long, it was time to build stamina¡­


    During this stamina period, Dara would dig the second trench which was even wider and longer than the water ring, and during his resting time, he would tell Uncle Min to help him lift the rock and swim against the bustling currents of the spring leak¡­


    On their way to the teau and back, Dara would run all the way, cutting their travel time by half, as well as improving not only his stamina, but that of the couple who didn''t want him to run through the jungle alone...


    As a result of this nonstop schedule, Dara dug half of the second ring in the remaining two weeks of the second month, and would even sometimes change between transporting trees and digging the ditch with an uninterrupted work output, all of which became possible because he had already reached the Peak of Stamina Building Stage¡­


    In the first week of the third month, Dara focused on speed, and he did that by doubling his work output of the previous month in half the time¡­


    This not only strengthened him, it also increased his endurance and stamina level, as his body began to be more ripped and fairer, and it was getting harder and harder for Aunt Lin to stop staring...


    What caused it was the reckless idea she had the week before when she initially thought it was a great idea to wean Dara''s hair into braids...


    Then they had spend most of their resting time together with Dara sitting in between her thighs with his back to her [Lol... Dirty Minds Everywhere!], and she would braid his hair, making him look devilishly handsome with a tinge of feminine sexiness; one of those which all women find irresistible¡­


    It was like he found the perfect bnce between being masculine and feminine, and if one coupled that with his rapidly increasing strength, maturity and wisdom, all poured within the body of a 10 year old, one would be able to understand why the ocean blue eyed Dara was bing irresistible to Aunt Lin¡­


    Pitch ck lush braided hair, on a handsome face, ripped body, fair skin, and muscles that contained immense power; he had not even seen his meridians yet, but he was already stronger than Uncle Min¡­


    They found that out when Uncle Min admitted that even whilst using the natural energy to strengthen himself, there was no way he could meet up with 60 percent of Dara''s work output¡­


    Now that was what they meant when they call kids and youths ''Young Man''¡­


    Dara finished his Speed training in a week, and it was up to his blood, which was managed by Aunt Lin who provided the best of herbs and had begun to cook their meats with several beneficial herbs and spices she got from the jungle, and if one was to add that to the amount of food they ate daily, it was no wonder Dara looked healthier


    His skin smoother and more tensile, despite appearing babyish¡­


    His blood coursed with essential vitamins, minerals and herbs, and as a result, the vitality of Dara''s blood increased by a whole lot¡­


    That was proven when he dropped a log on the rest of the pile, only to see it roll off the pile andnd on his legs, and the injury the couples had been worried might take weeks to heal, waspletely scar-less in just three days¡­


    Dara continued to eat well, train hard by digging, transporting logs and swimming, as he kept on doubling his work output in half the time, weekly¡­


    By the middle of thest month before the Season of War, Dara and Uncle Min finished logging an entire ten meters of jungle trees, and they had a lot of trees already to build everything they needed, as well as enough soil with unlimited water supply¡­


    Thus for the third week, Uncle Min and Dara- [who had broken past the Bone Refining Stage into the Tendon Refining Stage]- focused on digging theirst line of defense, whilst Aunt Lin who for some reason waspletely oblivious to Dara''s existence continued to wean at an unprecedented rate¡­


    The Season of War was fast approaching, and the fear it brought hastened them a lot, and as a result, Aunt Lin ended up making 10 ten meter long ropes which where sturdy and strong as the word themselves could get, whilst Uncle Min and Darapleted the digging of the third ring¡­

 Chapter 49 - The Three Line Of Defense

    The Season of War was fast approaching, and the fear it brought hastened them a lot, and as a result, Aunt Lin ended up making 10 ten meter long ropes which where sturdy and strong as the word themselves could get, whilst Uncle Min and Darapleted the digging of the third ring¡­


    [Time Skip]


    Dawn the next day¡­


    This was the final week of peace before the Season of War, a period of time when the light from a distant star finally shines on the Grey and Dark Lands, and everyone could finally farm, or harvest their crops, herbs and spices¡­


    A period of time when all the beast, monsters and humans of the Grey and Dark Lands could finallye out and bask in the sun, to gain some fairness to their skin color¡­


    But duo to this outpour of humans and animals, it also served as food source for the beast, monster and even the Obun''s, making it a time when they alle out of their hiding to hunt human settlements and feed on fresh meat; something they have not tasted all year¡­


    Thus, it is called the Season of War, because humans would fight other humans to plunder their resources, or fight back against beast and monsters to defend theirirs, whilst the monsters and beasts would also hunt themselves for food, or defend their caves, hives and nests from the humans whoe out in full force to hunt for meat that would suffice them till the next Season of War¡­


    Thus, this was a time where battles would be fought all over the Grey and Dark Lands¡­


    It is a time when you can be taking a dump behind a tree in the jungle and one would get snapped up and eating by giant serpents, spiders or even other beasts and reptiles¡­


    Even fishing is always extremely difficult in these times, since the sea and river monsters would alle out in their masses to join the continental bloodthirst¡­


    With the knowledge of that in mind, Dara, Uncle Min and Aunt Lin began to build their defenses first¡­


    Uncle Min chopped and smoothened the trees into six inch thick wooden bs that were about 20 inches wide, whilst the rest of them constructed the defense and other things¡­


    Dara had also heard the presence of ultraviolet light that would shine upon thends in this uing season, and he was not going to miss out on using that sunlight to create a farm of their own very close to the teau wall¡­


    They started at the logged area, as Min Hong drilled holes into the edges of the of this five foot long bs, and did the same to the ten feet tall height he had told Uncle Min to cut the trees from¡­


    He would then ce a wooden b on the tree, and put in a stick shaped exactly like the hole he had drilled to secure the b to the tree [See How Log Cabins are built without nails]¡­


    He used about seven bs of wood between two tree trunks which were only five feet apart, creating a fence¡­


    Min Hong repeated the same thing round the outermost ring of the area, which was where they logged, and with that, a third line of defense [The fence of wooden bs] were created in two days¡­


    Dara then ced wooden spikes in the gaps between two stacked wooden bs, and began to pour wet soil into the space between the outer and inner b than made up the fence¡­


    [Picture the fence as nailing a wooden b to both sides of two trees, and the pouring concrete into their middle to make a concrete/wooden fence which is way sturdier and can absorb more vibrations than concrete or wood only¡­]


    Whilst Dara filled the fence with wet soil, he drew the body parts of the wheel of an hydroelectric generator for Uncle Min and Aunt Lin, something which blew their mind when they saw¡­


    They knew whatever parts they were making out of woods, was to make something that doesn''t exist in the Grey and Dark Lands, and though they felt strange that a little kid can have all this construction ideas and creations of different shapes and sizes of parts¡­


    For instance, the wall of the ''Vige of Sang'' was made by simply burying logs of wood into the ground, and doing that all around the vige, using thousands upon thousands of trees in the process and insanely massive work load...


    But in Dara''s case, he simply used the existing trees around the teau as a natural fence, and smartly used bs of woods to join them together and create a fence...


    But to make their own fence even more durable, he was pouring wet soil in between the gaps to seal up every space within the fence and hold the wooden spike- [that were protruding outwards from the fence]- in ce¡­


    Since the wet soil would drain, and harden due to the absence of water, it would make it simr to having true concrete wall that was rock hard, but still flexible enough to withstand and disperse the vibrations into the ground due to the presence of the woods¡­


    It took Dara an entire day to fill the fence all around with wet soil, and by that time, Uncle Min and Aunt Lin were already done preparing the wooden parts needed for the construction of the waterwheel [Or Undershot Wheel]¡­


    Since the waterwheel was going to be toorge, the built it on the ground, and raised it into its rightful position over the water ring, by using the long ropes, Aunt Lin had weaned earlier from thick vines¡­


    Uncle Min wed his way up the teau with one end of the rope in hand, whilst the other end of the vine was tied to the top of the waterwheel, and whilst Uncle Min used the natural energy to develop enough power, he pulled on the rope, whilst Dara and Aunt Lin help pushed it erect from the ground¡­


    Their waterwheel wasn''t made out of single wooden bs, but three bs joined together to form a makeshift square bucket, which they sealed using the sticky liquid being ejected by a specific type of tree in the jungle; something Aunt Lin found out when she was out gathering vines to wean more ropes...


    As a result of that, by the time they erected the waterwheel, the fourth day of thest week of the peaceful month had been well spent, and due to having a protective fence around them, the trio decided to sleep in one of the empty ditches they had dug within theirndscape¡­


    Because it was ten meters deep, they were kept warm from the harsh winter on the outside which simply blew past the ground level¡­


    But there was one problem, the billowing plumes of grey energy was even stronger, thicker and more corrosive down there, but they were able to solve it by lighting fire warming fire within the ditch, something that was barely visible to anyone or anything looking towards the teau from outside the fence¡­


    The fire pushed back the thick grey energies, and kept them warm all through the night, so by the next day, they were able to work with as much time as possible, since they didn''t need to return back to their home anymore¡­


    The morning of the fifth day was about creating their second line of defense which was to simply bury some long spiky wood into the ditch, before they covered the top of the ditch by lining several log of wood across the surface of the ditch, covered them with leaves, and finally pour sand over it to make it look like a normal ground¡­


    Furthermore, because Dara dug the edges of this ditch, the trees were able to slot into this depressions and maintain an equal alignment with the ground level, thus, no one would be able to tell that a ditch filled with ten feet tall wooden spikes was present there until they have stood on it and fallen into it¡­


    The work was not much, so it took the trio half a day to finish it, as they looked at what they have created over the past eleven weeks¡­


    They now had a spiky, sturdy and flexible fence as the first line of defense, as well as an entire ten meter wide and ten meter deep ditch filled with lethal wooden spikes as their second line of defense...


    Furthermore, Dara had told them that the second ditch which was the one between the Ring of Life [water ring] and the Ring of Death [spike ring], was going to be filled with beast or monster blood and carcasses which were all explosive and mmable substance to create a Ring of Fire¡­


    Thus to get to the teau, one would first need to scale the spiky sturdy fence which is unbreakable because anything to barge through would face the threat of being impaled by the sharp spike protruding from the fence¡­


    Then after that, the person would need to survive the ring of death, which was the spiky ditch, and finally they would have to cross the ring of fire, before they then reach the ring of water, which they would have to swim through if they can, and then reach them atop the teau¡­


    But all that was already done, and they only had two days and a half of hard work to finish everything¡­


    Thus for the remainder of the fifth day, they ensured that the massive waterwheel was working, and they used it as a means to transport themselves to the top of the teau like an elevator, by simply standing inside one of its buckets¡­


    Since the waterwheel was so close to the teau, all they needed to do was to jump about a feet off the bucket they wouldnd at the top of the teau¡­


    Once the wheel was in ce, Uncle Min removed the massive rock he had used to block the spring leak, as the water gushed out ferociously, and surged into the bucket on the waterwheel with aggressive force...


    The buckets on the waterwheel would then scoop water, and get pushed upwards due to the neighboring bucket getting pushed by the aggressive water pressure¡­


    That way, a water fetching system, and an elevator system was born, and this gave the couple a lot of joy as they rode the bucket of the wheel over and over again to get themselves ustomed to transporting with it, but Dara had an even better n for the waterwheel;


    He was going to make it a ''Pulley System'', by building a smaller wheel at the top of the teau and using the thick vines to link it to the bigger wheel, using the resultant force to transport building materials from the ground to the top of the ten meter high teau¡­

 Chapter 50 - A Breathable Shelter

    That way, a water fetching system, and an elevator system was born, and this gave the couple a lot of joy as they rode the bucket of the wheel over and over again to get themselves ustomed to transporting with it...


    But the knowledgeable Dara had a better n for the waterwheel, he was going to make it a ''Pulley System'', by building another smaller wheel at the top of the teau and using the thick vines to link it with the bigger wheel, and using the resultant force to transport building materials from the ground to the top of the ten meter high teau¡­


    On the sixth day, Dara woke up from the pit feeling a lot freer from within, he felt like he could allow a load of at least 200 pounds dangle from his hand, and his arm would be able to bear the brunt of the weight effortlessly¡­


    He now had Internal Endurance, Body Strength, Lasting Stamina, Top Speed, Blood Vitality, Bone Girth and finally, Tendon sticity that surpasses two Uncle Minbined, and in fact despite not seeing his meridians yet, Dara could beat the snot out of two Uncle Minbined¡­


    His jump power, attack, nimbleness, defense and speed way ahead of his cultivating mates, and should Dara meet Ji Hai at this point, Ji Hai would wish he had never been born¡­


    This morning, Dara and Aunt Lin began to make shelter whilst Uncle Min was left with the task of transporting carcass, and beast blood from the location he had previously told Dara about¡­


    He will fill the ring of fire with thebustible blood and carcass, whilst Aunt Lin would be in charge of supplying Dara with the building materials for the shelter from the ground level¡­


    Dara escorted Uncle Min to the fence, and the moment Uncle Min check for the danger in the area, and left, Dara then shut the massive makeshift gates, they have ced by the fence¡­


    He found the secret path that avoided the Pit of Death, and returned to Aunt Lin, and after exining how to transports materials using the square bucket of the waterwheel, Dara took their makeshift elevator to the top of the teau and began to request for logs¡­


    He watched Aunt Lin carry this massive logs and positioned it in the bucket, and with a little bit of guidance and instructions from Dara, Aunt Lin was able to easily supply him logs on her fourth try¡­


    Trying the same method to each her how to supply wet soil, Dara was soon able to begin the construction of the shelter¡­


    He drew theyout of how the building would look like with on the ground, and then began to dig foundation holes all over the top of the teau¡­


    Then by the time he was done digging, Dara had dug three separate, 25 foot diameter holes, in a triangryout; He then ced a fourth 15 foot circle at the center of this triangryout¡­


    Then he began to bury the logs at the top of the teau around the hole in the center, and after he was done, he bored a hole into the bs and log as he had done with the fence earlier¡­


    Connecting the bs to the erected poles [Dirty Minds!], he then began to pour leaves gotten from the branches of the tree they logged, into the space within the two bs forming the wall¡­


    Then he would pour wet soil on top of the leaves, and from then on, it was like he was building the fence once again¡­


    Only that, this time, it was round, and he included leaves in its walls for some reason¡­


    Uncle Min came when the structure in the center was ongoing and from what he could see, he could tell Dara was building a round hut, and with the way things were going, he would probably finish erecting the structure before he returned from his second trip¡­


    About two hours into the morning, Dara had already erected the center structure, and though the rest didn''t truly know how it was going to look like, but the entire structure he was building was three roundpartments set in a triangr manner, then linked with a corridor each, the corridor being the lines that linked the three triangr ced circle together¡­


    Four hours into the day and hadpleted the second circle, and finally by the sixth hour, he was done with the third, and by that time, Uncle Min had filled about the front quarter of the ring of fire with beast carcass and blood¡­


    Unlike the previous times when they usually stopped working once it was time for the beast to roam, Dara and the rest didn''t stop this time around, after all, they were already safe within two lines of defense...


    Thus they spent the entire day building their shelter, and by the time Uncle Min joined in to assist Dara, their output was nearly doubled, meaning that by the end of the sixth days, these four rooms were already erected, but they had no roof whatsoever¡­


    Dara also didn''t rush it because he wanted the walls of the room to and corridor to dry up first, so they can bear the weight of the roof and not copse, thus, after sleeping in a part of the ring of fire that had yet to be filled with blood and carcass Dara and Uncle Min this time went to gather the blood and carcass, whilst Aunt Lin went to look for herbs, spices and fruits¡­


    Tomorrow was the beginning of the season of war and from this morning alone, it was apparent, because the day was already brighter than it usually was normally, and they could already see the shape of the light-bearing star in the distance¡­


    Thus they had to rush their work, and assisting Uncle Min to get carcass and beast blood meant that Dara and Uncle Min were able to fill the entire Ring of Fire in six hours¡­


    Then afterwards they both focused on roofing their new shelter which looked like a Benz logo, with the circle around it being the corridor that linked the three rooms together, whilst each point of the Y-shaped logo being three rooms, with one extra roundpartment at the center of the entire structure¡­


    Dara ced three massive tress across the roof of each room, and linked them together to act as a base or pir on which the entire roof would stand¡­


    Afterwards he added many tree branches with their leaves still on them, and after covering the entire ceiling in about three differentyers of leaved branches, he then poured wet soil on the entire roof, before adding another threeyers of branches, and finally, anotheryer of wet soil¡­


    Whilst the wet soil ensured that the roof would remain sturdy for a very long time, the leaves would ensure that both the walls and the roof of this rooms and ceilings could breathe, regting an average temperature within the rooms at all times¡­


    By night of this final day, all the rooms were already roofed, and Dara ced many wooden bs which had been coated in that sticky liquid, and used it to pave the entire floor within all the rooms except the once in the center which had a bowl shaped pit dug into it¡­


    Now the shelter were standing and done, and whilst it hadn''t been furnished yet in anyway, it didn''t change the fact that they have done an inhumane amount of work over the past two days, and in fact, Dara could have sworn today was the day he worked the hardest and most since they started everything three months ago, and that is byparing the workload on hourly basis¡­


    "What is this central room for?"


    Aunt Lin asked after she was finally able to join them at the top of the teau, and Dara simply responded by taking a big bowl of beast blood that he had reserved, and poured it on some logs he had ced within the depression at the center of their homes, and then lit it on fire;


    Boom!


    A loud explosion ensued, and whilst it would have drawn much attention if they were in their former home, this new ce was about sixty meters long from the wall of the teau to the fence, and if one should consider how dense the jungle outside the fence was, it would be no surprise that the sound from the explosion was muffled¡­


    "It is to keep the entire shelter, and even the entire top of this teau warm at all times¡­"


    To truly confirm the use of this round firepartment at the center of the shelter, Dara took Uncle Min and Aunt Lin to what would be their new room, and because it was already nighttime...


    They could feel the cold that was already descending on this swampy jungle area that they were, but just as they were about to start shivering, the warmth from the zing fire burning in the central fire room began to billow out intense heat which traveled though the walls of the entire shelter and supplied heat simultaneously into all the rooms and corridors through the breathable nature of the walls¡­


    It was not until now, that the couples knew why Dara had added leaves when he was making the walls, but that was not all; the roof also served to contain the heat within the room and kept it from escaping too fast, but also maintained a steady temperature level, by allowing the heat escape bit by bit through the breathable roof¡­


    Before long, the floor also began to warm up, since the fire that was burning was from within the earth on top of the teau, and in less than half an hour, then entire shelter became extremely cozy¡­


    "We don''t need to step out for the next one week, so we can take our time making our beds, chairs, cupboards and setting up the restroom, baths and kitchen¡­"


    Dara exined as they all picked their rooms, ate dinner, and went to sleep for the day, knowing that they are now save from the harsh weather, as well as roaming dangers all around the area, and all these was done in three months under the guidance and wisdom of a ten year old kid¡­

 Chapter 51 - Season Of War First Encounter

    "We do not need to step out for the next one week, so we can take our time making our beds, chairs, cupboards and setting up the restroom, baths and kitchen¡­"


    Dara exined as they all picked their rooms, ate dinner, and went to sleep for the day, knowing that they are now save from the harsh weather, as well as roaming dangers all around the area, and all these was done in three months under the guidance and wisdom of a ten year old kid¡­


    There was no way Uncle Min and Aunt Lin who had not touched each other in a long time due to fear of attracting beasts would miss out on this opportunity, as they both went down on one another in the first truly cozy home they have ever lived in¡­


    ~Aannhh~


    ~Aaahhhh~


    ~Aaiiyy~


    Dara could only hear pping and smacking sounds as well as Aunt Lin''s virgin moans and Uncle Min''sbored grunts as he powered through the youngdy¡­


    They spent about two hours per session of rigorous sex, and they had four of those all through the knight, on a wooden floor that was cushioned by beast fur¡­


    The next day, Dara who couldn''t sleep all night was already up with red eyes, and once the couple came out and saw his haggard, sleep deprived state, they felt a little apologetic; as for Uncle Min he gave a wry smile, but as for Aunt Lin, she seemed shy for some reason and blushed almost all through the first day of the Season of War¡­


    Dara was already making three massive square shaped boxes, that were about ten feet in length and breath, and once it was done, they used the water wheel to transfer it to the top of the teau and into the rooms¡­


    Dara had one in his room, whilst he ced the other two side by side in the couples room, then he filled it with leaves first, before pouring wet soil on them, and then filling thisrge square open top boxes with anotheryer of leaves, and after it dried up, they thenid their furs on top of the leaves creating a veryfortable bed that could absorb heat from the ground and warm up the people sleeping on it¡­


    Whilst the wet soil made the structure of their new bed sturdy, the leaves underneath ensured that once someoneid on it, it would absorb their impact bypressing the air within the leaves, then the leaves on top ensured that it would not be too hard on the body, whilst their furs simply cushioned the bed¡­


    This was the first time the couple were going to be sleeping on an elevated tform, and they couldn''t be any happier¡­


    Dara did the same thing for his own bed, made some other box like structures for housing their clothes and even dining tables and kitchen wall sets which he held in ce by making these handing cupboards rest on sticks that he had buried through the 20 inch thick walls of this breathable shelter¡­


    The couple were seeing different alien structures Dara wasing up with and most of them appeared bizarre to them until Dara exins what they used for¡­


    He also made two square baths out of their logged woods and sealed it with the sticky tree liquid to prevent it from leaking before filling it with hot water, and making them take the first warm bath since they have both met each other¡­


    The entire day was somewhat peaceful as they didn''t get any intruders except for the asional howls, growls and miserable shriek of several weak beast who had been preyed upon¡­


    But the next morning, just after having their hot bath, they had their first contact¡­


    It was a fat pig looking edible beast that was being chased by a predatory beast who looked like the mixture of a lion and a wild dog¡­


    The pig was big and fat and could provide meat for the trio for at least three solid weeks, if they had a buffet daily, or an entire month, if they ate normally, and the trio were intent on having it; but first they had to deal with the beast chasing it, and from what they could see, the beast was strong, and it seemed to be toying with its food before killing it, unknowing to both beasts that they were going to find a human settlement within the dense jungle¡­


    Dara and Uncle Min took their machetes, whilst Aunt Lin grabbed one thick long vine rope¡­


    Then on rushing to the fence area, Dara and Uncle Min opened the gates and allowed the pig looking beast to enter their home as Aunt Lin caught it with the vine rope in her hands, before tying it to a wooden pole and then look at the two men in her life about to battle a fierce looking monstrous beast¡­


    Dara and Uncle Min looked at each other and could both sense the level of wariness within each other¡­


    They had reacted on instincts to gather the food, but weren''t given enough time to analyze the danger that brought it to their doorstep, and from what they could see, they seemed to have slightly bitten off more than they can chew¡­


    This beast was not only as tall as their chest region, it also packed much more muscles power than them, bringing his attack and speed level almost equal to that of Uncle Min, but Dara had already broken past the tendon level yesterday and started working on his muscles, he still had not opened up his meridians yet¡­


    But since he could defeat two Uncle Minbined, and this beast was just as strong, the extra power than came from Uncle Min had to count, otherwise, they might end up dying because they took someone else''s breakfast...


    Should that happen, not only would Aunt Lin also follow shortly after them, but this beast would have made a massive overhaul by not only eating three humans, but also preserving a fourth source of food, and a well-made fortress of a home¡­


    Dara knew he would obviously curse himself to hell if he let that happen, thus with a long wooden spike in hand made out of cutting logs of wood into small long sticks and then smoothening it into a rod via friction and sharpening the tip, Dara approached the beast;


    Bang!


    The beast smashed its sharp 8 inch ws at Dara who tried to block with his wooden spear, only to be sent flying about three meters to the side with two halves of a broken spear in hand...


    But just as the beast was about to seize the advantage andunch a follow up strike, it suddenly jumped backwards as a long wooden spear bolted into the spot where it had just jumped away from, as the spear plunged about two feet into the ground¡­


    Before it could think of approaching the now weaponless Uncle Min, Aunt Lin had already two more spears over to the boys¡­


    Though Dara had insane levels of strength, but he didn''t know how to fight and neither did he know any form of martial arts, because he didn''t have any sort of cultivation to be given the opportunity to learn one...


    Moreover, he was always amongst the weak who they sent into shelters whenever a danger befell or knocked on the vige''s door, thus, all the power he had at this point were pointless, since they weren''t effective in battle¡­


    Uncle Min on the other hand was still better off in terms of fighting beasts, after all, he was a seasoned hunter, and fisherman, but his low power level ensured that the advantage they had thought they would be able to hold over the beast was nullified¡­


    Dara had good strength and could throw something so fast that the beast wouldn''t even know what hit him, but he had no aim or precision or uracy of any kind, since he had never practiced with weapons before, Uncle Min on the other hand who had all that aim and precision didn''t have enough strength tond a hit on the nimble, quick and somewhat intelligent beast¡­


    Thus they reached a stalemate, or so the beast thought, until Aunt Lin went to fetch a massive she had made from thick vine ropes, and joined the fray¡­


    Sensing that the newer was somewhat more of a threat than these guys, the beast headed for Aunt Lin who immediately jumped behind her husband who sent a spear flying towards the beast''s forehead¡­


    Having no choice but to break its attack to be able to dodge the iing spear on time, the beastnded to the side, forgettingpletely about Dara who it already knew had no aim. But even if Dara had no aim, he could still stab something at close range, and his level of strength was more than enough to deal a fatal blow as Dara expertly targeted one of its hind legs;


    Puchi!


    Splurt!


    Dara''s spear went halfway into one of the beast''s hind legs, as it responded by kicking forcefully with its second hind leg, mming straight into Dara''s chest, and sending him tumbling head over heels until he mmed into a massive tree trunk and fainted...


    Dara could only hear some sounds and screams from two different people, but he couldn''t make out what was going on whilst he fainted...


    Meanwhile, the moment he went unconscious, Dara once again appeared before the massive tree within himself. Its roots were still connected to his Body, Mind and Soul, and from what Dara could see, these three forms of existence were radiating power at least ten times stronger since thest time he was here...


    He saw the golden beacon of light attached to his mind and though it was about one percent dimmer than the first time he saw it, Dara could guess that it was because of the memories of the Dark Soul he had previously essed, and that was when he came upon the meridian revealing techniques and some other information he had no clue about...


    But in that same moment, he saw the light dim by another percent as a splitting headache hit him like a tsunami, sending him unconscious and out of the dimension as he woke up in the outside world with a massive migraine¡­

 Chapter 52 - The Numen Of Ancient Scholars

    He saw the golden beacon of light attached to his mind and though it was about one percent dimmer than the first time he saw it, Dara could guess that it was because of the memories of the Dark Soul he had previously essed, and that was when he came upon the meridian revealing techniques and some other information he had no clue about...


    But in that same moment, he saw the light dim by another percent as a splitting headache hit him like a tsunami, sending him unconscious and out of the dimension as he woke up in the outside world with a massive migraine¡­


    ~Haa!~


    Dara cried out after the migraine hit him hard in the outside world¡­ He opened his eyes and felt a stabbing pain in his chest area; looking down at his chest, he saw four deep, one inch wide gash on his chest, and thought the blood had stopped flowing and there was some herbal leaves on his wound, it still hurt a lot¡­


    It was day time and the entire area was lit up like a summer days, whilst the room was warm and he was slightly sweaty, as he tried to stand up only feel his hand hit someone on the head by mistake¡­


    The head had long flowing hair on it, and when Dara looked to his side, he saw Aunt Lin, basically snoring by his bedside and from what he could tell on her deep-set eyes, she looked like someone who has been sleep deprived for an entire month¡­


    Min Hong''s touch woke Aunt Lin who hurriedly spoke;


    "Your wounds are too deep, you shouldn''t be moving at this point¡­"


    Aunt Lin carefully pushed Min Hong back onto his bed as she tied her unkempt hair into a ponytail¡­ Dara looked at his wounds and at himself and gasped at what he saw;


    "How long have I been asleep?" He asked;


    "About two weeks now¡­"


    "What!?" Min Hong eximed with a gasp as he quickly added;


    "Where is Uncle Min?"


    "He is on the ground looking out for any more troubles that mighte knocking¡­"


    "How did I get into a change of clothes?"


    "Erm¡­ I had to take care of your wounds, so I had to change your bloodied clothes and find you a new one amongst your things¡­"


    Aunt Lin exined apologetically as she didn''t know if she had crossed her boundaries or done something she shouldn''t have, but Dara simply touched his wounds to feel it, and thought it still hurts, the rate at which the pain subsided peaked significantly as he began to feel all the energies and power he had umted all through his training days explode within him, and instantly his clothes were ripped to shreds as Aunt Lin was pushed to the wall by the sheer momentum with which the power was released in a massive burst¡­


    Aunt Lin wasn''t hurt since the power wasn''t overly strong, but she was now stuck in the same hot room with a Dara who she could barely take her eyes off being butt naked, and absent minded¡­ She tried to look away, but as the devil would have it, the corners of her eyes caught the figure of some sort ofid tree branch between Dara''s thighs, and her face went tomato red instantly¡­


    She had just seen the second cock of her entire life, and she had to say, whenpared with Uncle Min''s type which had been in and out of her only twice, this one dangling in front of her was twice as long and thick, and it was stillid¡­


    Dara who had new found information surging through his mind was utterly unconcerned about his current physical state because he was currently seeing and remembering information about things that wasn''t his own but still brought him boundless joy¡­


    He seemed to be unlocking the part of the memories of these people when they were kids, and from what he was seeing from the dark soul; the man seemed to be from very ancient but extremely high ranked background, but Dara wasn''t interested in any of those information but the meridian opening technique he just found, as well as two cultivation techniques which ording to the memories of the man was cultivated simultaneously¡­


    He opened read through the cultivation technique and realized that it wasn''t a fully-fledged cultivation technique but rather someone else''s insight into the path to cultivation, and the title of the cultivation technique was titled;


    [The Numen of Ancient Schrs] and there were two volumes to it, and whilst he could ess the two volumes, he could only see information about the first chapters of these two volumes, and from what he could sense, there were others chapters avable, but there was no way for him to ess it at this point, so he chugged everything to the fact that the person who owned these memories perhaps learnt this cultivation technique in the same pattern¡­


    But despite all that, he also had another set of memories but this was about some aliennguages, scripts and ideas, but none of these other memories said anything about cultivation, thus he paid little to no attention to them for the time being¡­


    Now Dara was in the muscle stage of the meridian revealing technique, and all he had to do was to cultivate his flesh before his meridians would then be revealed, then he can start unlocking them to be a full-fledged cultivator¡­


    But the energy that was still coursing through his body was not only healing his wounds at a speed visible to the naked eye, it was also driving his current power level towards the peak of the Muscle Strengthening stage, and just as his woundpletely healed; something Aunt Lin was paying attention to as her eyes drifted from Dara''s inhuman cock to his rapidly closing wounds¡­


    The rest of the energy then surged into his muscles causing his muscles to swell and shrink in a mysterious but steady rhythm that Dara himself knew nothing about¡­


    After about half an hour, Dara was finally healed and his migraines had also subsided, and it was only then he looked to his side to find Aunt Lin staring at his cock causing him to nche in shame whilst Aunt Lin bolted out of the room in a much deeper shame because she knew how much she had not only thought, but fantasized about Dara''s endowments¡­


    After she left, Dara was a little perplexed but apprehensive as he went to soak in his bath, and after an entire hour of soaking and developing a way to quicken his training stage so as to begin cultivating, Dara whipped on another set of clothes before heading out of the room¡­


    He walked outside and saw Uncle Min at the edge of the teau looking into the distance where massive plumes of smoke was billowing into the sky;


    "What is that?"


    Dara asked as Uncle Min turned around in shock and gasped in shock;


    "You- you shouldn''t be out here!"


    "You should be resting at this point!"


    "Where''s Lin!"


    Uncle Min went from surprised to stunned, and then furious when he saw Dara;


    "I''m fine, Uncle Min¡­"


    "Aunt Lin went to prepare some herbal tea for me¡­"


    Dara covered up for his Aunt Lin as he tried to take Uncle Min''s attention away from Aunt Lin and back to the billowing smoke in the distance, but Uncle Min was not ready to back down, and just as he was about to go look for his supposed wife, Dara raised his clothes up and revealed his chest to Uncle Min who instantly froze in his steps;


    "How- how is that even possible!?"


    Uncle Min blurted in shock when he saw Dara''s smooth and tender chest;


    "No scars even!?"


    He pressed his head forward and squinted his eyes like as if he was trying to uncover some secrets buried on Dara''s chest, but no matter how hard or carefully he stared at Dara''s chest, he couldn''t just find anything wrong with him¡­


    "I also don''t understand, but I simply felt a gush of energy burst out of the depths of my bodies and surged into my wounds then everything closed up in about one hour¡­"


    Dara exined whilst Uncle Min used his fingers to pinch the part of Dara''s chest where the injury should have been, and shook his head in wonder with his mouth agape before muttering;


    "So mysterious¡­ So unbelievable¡­ To heal from such a deadly wound¡­"


    Uncle Min kept muttering as he kept pressing Dara''s chest trying to find anywhere blood might leak from, just to justify that everything he had known and believed up to his current age was true, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn''t find any part of Dara where the wound might have perhaps shifted to¡­


    "Why are you so surprised?"


    Dara who had never cultivated before obviously didn''t know how things worked or should be, but Uncle Min still shook his head in wonder and responded;


    "Firstly¡­ The head of the tribe from where I was banished had a cultivation in the 2 Star Qi Creation stage, and even at that, it would have taken a miracle for him to even survive such injury on the level of the one you just survived¡­"


    "Secondly, even if he managed to survive, it would have taken nothing less than half a year for him to be healthy enough to walk as leisurely as you are currently walking¡­"


    "Lastly, was the fact that, the wounds would have at least left some scars on him, but with you I can''t even seem to find the slightest scratch or change in color on your skin¡­"


    "Now you tell me, is it worth me being stupidly dumbfounded about?"


    Uncle Min asked, but Dara''s response almost made him jump from the peak of the teau andnd neck first on the bare ground;


    "What is a Qi Creation level- or what did you call it just now?"


    "¡­!"


    Uncle Min was speechless, and after trying so hard to keep calm in the face of the mystical and supernatural phenomenon he had just witnessed, he simply sighed and sat at the edge of the teau with his legs dangling from the edge as he tapped the ground beside him;


    "Come sit and let me exin¡­" Daraplied joined him at the edge....

 Chapter 53 - Mortals, Natural Laws & The Heavens

    [Strong Advice: This chapter was written to give everyone a true picture of what cultivation is all about, and as a result, I would be exining most of it using terms that are extremely rtable to the modern day earth, so keep that in mind¡­]


    Uncle Min was speechless, and after trying so hard to keep calm in the face of the mystical and supernatural phenomenon he had just witnessed, he simply sighed and sat at the edge of the teau with his legs dangling from the edge as he tapped the ground beside him;


    "Come sit and let me exin¡­" Daraplied joined him at the edge of the teau...


    "You see, the road to cultivation is a very mysterious and deep path¡­ One which less than 0.0001 percent of the entire word know about¡­"


    "But I am not telling you to sit here to teach you about what I have read, or what I have heard; no¡­ I want to tell you what I know and what I have experienced about cultivation¡­"


    Dara who already knew much more than Uncle Min knows still listened on out of the hope that he might get an information about what he doesn''t know about yet, or a simpler insight into what he had already learnt from the Dark Soul''s memories¡­


    "They say cultivation is about the same as going against the heavens themselves, and the major reason why people feel this way is because of the level of difficulty involved in the path to cultivation¡­"


    "First of them all is the fact that there are extremely few resources avable for cultivation whenpared to the amount of cultivators that exist out there¡­"


    "This is not to say there are many cultivators out there, but because the resources needed to cultivate are specific and scarce¡­"


    "Secondly, it is an extremely dangerous thing to involve oneself with¡­"


    "As a matter of fact, contrary to public belief, it is much safer to be a mortal than to be a cultivator¡­"


    "This is because there is an unspoken rule amongst all cultivators that mortals are not to be harmed, and though, we still have some bad fruits who attack and kill mortals, they would usually do it in secret¡­"


    "But once you be a cultivator, all bets are off, and then you will begin to witness the strong prey on the weak type of life¡­"


    "A stronger expert might decide to kill you just because he hates your hair style, and you will meet some that would ughter an entire n or nation of cultivators just because they possessed a resource he needed which might actually be the size of your pinky fingernail¡­"


    "Lastly, is because of the mysterious, strange and mythical heavenly phenomenon that interrupts ones journey into cultivation¡­ Now this is where people think the heavens are against them¡­"


    "Cultivation in actuality is taking power that mortals are not meant to wield¡­"


    "So, once a mortal tries to wield or use that power, he or she would look like a virus trying to upset the natural bnce, rules andws that governs the universe¡­"


    "As a result of this anomaly, these rules andws would try to solve that anomaly so as to restore the bnce of the universe back to its normality¡­"


    "Then most times, the rules andws would use a bottleneck to limit the rate at which this anomaly grows in strength and finally stop it, but in cases where the anomaly proves stubborn, then they use a much more forceful and violent manner to restore the bnce, and in this times, they might use Tribtion Lightning, or in other case scatter the process by which the anomaly grows¡­"


    "The bottle necks are the ones people face when they reach the peak of one stage and are about to enter another stage¡­"


    "An example is a cultivator in the 1 Star Qi Creation stage who must face a bottleneck whenever he or she is about to enter the 2 Star Qi Creation¡­"


    "This bottleneck the person wants to ovee was put in ce to keep that cultivator from reaching the 2 Star Qi Creation Stage by the natural rules andws that govern the universe¡­"


    "Then once that person ovees this blockade, that person would be deemed to have challenged the heavens, and then these rules andws would respond with aggression, and that is where they bring Tribtion Lightning into the picture¡­"


    "The tribtion lightning was also put there to keep the person in that same 1 Star Qi Creation Stage, and most times, people die from the attack¡­"


    "Some who managed to survive by the skins of their teeth might have their cultivations damaged, never to be able to progress further in life¡­"


    "Then we also have those who were destined to cultivate; these one would not only survive this attack, but also use the attack to nurture themselves and cleanse the limits of mortality out of their bodies¡­"


    "It is these ones that would enter into the 2 Star stage, and after meet another bottleneck, and the entire process would also be repeated once again¡­"


    "But the thing about this is that, the more that expert ascends towards the heavens, the more thesews and rules would heighten his threat level, and that in returns means; tougher bottlenecks, and stronger Lightning bolts¡­"


    Uncle Min exined whilst Dara who was engrossed into the minute insights he was gaining; kept listening one attentively¡­


    "Thus, what people feel to be hatred from the heavens is just the heavens trying to regain the bnce and natural order of things¡­"


    "Thus, anyone who cultivates wishes to enter into the heavens, and that would mean viting the rules andws that separates the mortal from the spiritual; so, thesews would do everything it takes to retain bnce and order¡­"


    "Thus, those who aren''t mentally prepared for the hardships in the path of cultivation should just not bother beginning, because they might just end up wasting years of their lives¡­"


    "Then because mortals are not supposed to cultivate, the resources needed for such a journey is almost close to none, and the little amount of resources avable have been fought over for generations and split amongst the most powerful; and this means anyone who needs these resources have to go to war with the major powers who possess them¡­"


    "An example is the segregation of the Dark Lands from the Lands of the Light¡­"


    "For those of us who are here and wish to cultivate, they would have to fight their way into the Land of the Light to obtain them; and the more they need, the higher up the food chain they would have to climb, which means; discing people from their ranks by either killing them, or scheming against them, or any other means necessary¡­"


    "Even the Season of War we are currently facing is because of mortals fighting for resources amongst themselves to survive; then how much worse would you think the resources that can make a mortal ascend the heavens be?"


    Dara shook his head deep in thought has he began to figure out where the true dangers of the cultivation path lurks¡­


    A friend would bepelled to betray you when one has what they needed the most to breakthrough into the next level¡­


    A family member might kill one if they were told it would make them breakthrough into the next level¡­


    "People feel they can control power; but once they obtain it and begin to use it, they feel ted, thinking they were the ones who made it happen, not knowing that what was given can also be taken¡­"


    "When they have basked in the false tion brought by their self-pride on a power that wasn''t initially theirs, the get intoxicated, and before they know it, the power has taken over their mind, and they will now begin to serve what was meant to serve them in the first ce¡­"


    Dara didn''t know how or when, but he realized at some point that he had drifted away from the conversation and sunk into his thoughts, and that was when Uncle Min said;


    "And there goes the first two obstacles; the tribtion, and the resources¡­"


    "The source of the third and final hurdle of the path to cultivation is living with those who had been intoxicated by power; those who canughter an entire kingdom just to bed a single damsel¡­"


    "Those who can ughter millions of innocent kids just to ensure that they keep getting stronger, and those who give in to their fetishes and vices, and even go as far as to fuel them with the power they think they have¡­" Uncle Min continued;


    "When you see what humans and mortals be once they have the slightest taste of power, you would not be too bewildered by the reason why thews governing the universe didn''t create them with one in the first ce¡­"


    "But I am not here to tell you all these just to scare you away from cultivating; rather, it is because I want you to cultivate to the peak, and show these people that the cultivation world and the path to achieving infinite might doesn''t have to be that perilous and evil¡­"


    "But once your 8 Great Meridians reveal themselves, then you will then borrow the natural energy in the atmosphere to unblock your 12 Principal meridians..."


    "And from then on continue to unlock the rest depending on your luck, your cultivation technique, and the quality of natural energy around you¡­" Uncle Min continued;


    "From then on, you would then be able to absorb the natural energy into your body through these meridians and store it within yourself¡­"


    "Is that the Qi Creation stage?"


    Dara who had been silent and attentive all these while finally asked his first question;


    "Yes and No¡­"


    "NO in the sense that, the first stage after opening all your meridians is the Qi Sensing Stage¡­"


    "Then after thates the Qi Maniption Stage and finally the famous Qi Absorbing stage; It is at this final stage that one would be able to absorb the energy around them and use it to nourish their body, do battle and finally store it within them¡­" Uncle Min exined¡­

 Chapter 54 - Uncle Min’s Story

    "Yes and No¡­"


    "NO in the sense that, the first stage after opening all your meridians is the Qi Sensing Stage¡­"


    "Then after thates the Qi Maniption Stage and finally the famous Qi Absorbing stage; it is at this final stage that one would be able to absorb the energy around them and use it to nourish their body, do battle and finally store it within them¡­" Uncle Min exined¡­


    "The moment that person ovees the hurdle and is finally able to store Qi within himself, then such a person would face their first tribtion, and if by luck he ovees it, then such a person would have been said to have entered into the Qi Sea stage¡­" Uncle Min added;


    "But I have only known one person who has ever entered the Qi Sea stage, and he is the current leader of my tribe¡­" Uncle Min revealed;


    "Unh?"


    Dara eximed in surprise before asking one of his most curious questions;


    "I''m sorry Uncle Min, but why were you banished from your tribe?"


    Dara asked with the most respectful tone he could muster, and after sighing deeply and thinking for about a minute, Uncle Min finally spoke;


    "Well, you could say I was na?ve, stupid and entitled¡­"


    "Would you believe if I told you that I was the next in line Tribe Leader of my tribe?"


    That question was not meant to be answered and neither was it rhetorical, but for some reasons, Dara felt he wasn''t supposed to answer or speak and he was right;


    "My father had been the tribe leader for about 30 years; basically ever since I was a little child¡­"


    "Being the only son of my father, I had always felt entitled to the position of the tribe leader¡­"


    "I unted my father''s status wherever I went¡­"


    "I rubbed it in other''s faces, and when I find it hard to get my way with things, I also use it to threaten my way into getting whatever I wanted¡­"


    "I neglected cultivation which my father so much as begged me to take seriously, and instead focused on the affairs of the flesh, and before I knew what was going on, I had made so many enemies within my own tribe due to my stupidity¡­"


    "But if that was all, perhaps my life would have been salvageable, but nope, instead things decided to turn for the worse, and it all happened when my tribe went to war with another tribe who had been trying to take over our Min Tribe¡­"


    "My father led his men into battle and won, but that victory came at a very gigantic cost; my father was fatally injured during that battle and was stabbed in the heart¡­"


    "Initially he was able to use his QI Sea stage cultivation to keep himself alive for much longer, but everyone within the tribe knew it was only a matter of time till they lost their tribe leader¡­"


    "Let me guess; then you began to see the true colors of the entire tribe?" Dara chipped in;


    "You are almostpletely right¡­"


    "Though I truly saw their true colors, but I knew then that was the effect of my wayward living back when my father was still ruling strong¡­"


    "But if that was all, then I wouldn''t have resented my tribe¡­"


    "But those of them who had been eyeing the position of the tribe leader came into my father''s home and killed him in his weakened state¡­"


    "Then I began investigating; wondering where my father''s guards were when it all happened, or where his retainer was¡­"


    "I also checked for his healer, and questioned her aggressively, and it was then that I found out who did it; my father''s right hand man¡­"


    "His best friend of 40 years; and though, I tried to tell everyone the truth, but who would believe me; especially with the way I have lived up till that moment¡­"


    "Apparently, my father''s healer was sleeping with my father''s best friend, and it was in that moment that she was introduced into their n; she was to give my father a sleeping potion, and his guards, potentxatives¡­"


    "Thus, all three of my father''s guards were not on duty when everything began to happen, and because my father was in deep sleep, he was just like a defenseless new hatchling in the presence of a famished viper¡­"


    "But then, I understood that even if I was telling the truth, it was obvious that the entire tribe would definitely object to me taking my father''s position¡­"


    "Then I simply ceased my efforts and decided toy low within the tribe, and then I tried to start focusing on my cultivation, but my father was no longer around to teach me; but I did learn something from that, and that is to cease every opportunity once it crosses your path¡­"


    "In a bid to get rid of the festering danger which was me, my father''s friend; the new tribe leader, schemed against me and framed me with a crime punishable by banishment from the tribe, and that was how I was sent packing out of the tribe¡­"


    "Then I had thought that was the end of it all; to me, it appeared like the man was trying to kill me by sending me out here, so that when the news about my death returns to the tribe, everyone would think it is the doings of the beasts in here; or so I thought¡­"


    "It wasn''t until about a week after I left the tribe and came into the greynds that I began to feel like I was being stalked, and without thinking too much about it, I figured that these people weren''t nning on letting me die by the hands of the beasts, but instead wanted to do it themselves just to ensure that every potential threat had been cleared out of the way¡­"


    "But luckily for me, they were much stronger than I was and as a result they attracted the attentions of the beasts within these Grey Lands; and thus, those who were sent to prey on me, became prey to something else within thisnds¡­"


    "But it was also during this fleeing period of my life that I met Lin''er, who also seemed to have been a victim of some sort of simr scheme, and thus we hit it off right from the start¡­" Uncle min revealed¡­


    Dara couldn''t say much, or more like he had nothing to say¡­


    He had already had this notion earlier on, and thus, Uncle Min''s story didn''t shock him that much, but then he asked the second most curious question he had in mind;


    "Uncle Min, you have spoken about yourself, Aunt Lin, your tribe and even your father, but I have never hear or seen you mentioning anything about your mother, why is that?"


    Uncle Min looked over to Dara and ruffled his hair before speaking with a mncholic expression;


    "You are very keen and intelligent, do you know that?"


    "Well the reason why I don''t mention her is because there is nothing good to truly mention about her¡­"


    "She was an embodiment of bad memories and sorrow to my father who was always depressed whenever she crossed his mind¡­"


    "Though, my father wouldn''t tell me most of these things, but I was able to find some of them out myself¡­"


    "All in all; I would say she was the one who made both I and my Dad end up this way¡­"


    "I know it is a bad thing to me someone else for one''s inability, but I can''t just seem to shake the feeling that there is a possibility there that she might have made things different if she hadn''t abandoned us to rot in the lowest reaches of the Land Of Light whilst she fled to the central hub of the Land of Light to marry a royal¡­"


    "We will discuss much more about herter on as she is not as important to me anymore to be a topic for discussion; let''s talk about you now¡­"


    Uncle Min said as he looked towards Dara with a seemingly doting expression¡­


    "About me?"


    "But I already told you everything about myself¡­"


    Dara was a little uncertain about what exactly Uncle Min was referring to;


    "No silly¡­ Of course, I know we are both rejects of what was supposed to be our family, and I don''t think it is ordinary coincidence that three people who had been cast away and banished by their kin would meet one another in this specific part of this dangerous and vast Grey and Dark Lands..."


    Uncle Min ruffled Dara''s hair once again before he reced his smile with a serious expression as he asked once again;


    "I know you have been training hard to force out your meridians, and whist I don''t know when your meridians might reveal itself, I might have some ways to ensure that you cultivate just as much and fast as those at the center of the Land of the Light¡­"


    Uncle Min revealed with hushed tones as Dara gasped in shock before slightly turning his head towards Uncle Min with ck jaws and a nod that sought confirmation of what he''d just heard, and when he saw Uncle Min reaffirm his statement with a nod of his own, Darapletely turned to face him and asked;


    "How!?"


    "You see, my father was a man who sought to understand things before jumping into it¡­"


    "No matter what you do in his presence or whatever he had heard, or read or experienced, until he gets to the root of how that thing truly worked, my father would ever indulge himself with it¡­"


    "He usually repeated one quote to me, time and time again, and it said;


    ''One who understands the behavior of a fish to its most familiar level won''t need to fish before he catches one, but those who on the other hand do not know much about the fish would spend ages by the river bank and end up not catching the sight of a single one¡­''


    "He told me that, for the fisherman who has studied the behavior of the fishes, all he needed to do was to act it, and the fish wouldn''t know any better and flock towards him to mingle..."


    "But as for the other fisherman, he would forever appear as an anomaly to the fishes whenever they see him, and they would bepelled to stay as far away from him as possible¡­"


    "My father was someone who knew the secrets of the Kingdom of Shangri La¡­"


    "He discovered how the natural energy of the entire was distributed, and how one could use that knowledge to their benefit."


    Uncle Min paused at this point and allowed Dara to open his mind to what he''s about to reveal¡­

 Chapter 55 - An Extremely Valuable Secret

    "But as for the other fisherman, he would forever appear as an anomaly to the fishes whenever they see him, and they would bepelled to stay as far away from him as possible¡­"


    "My father was someone who knew the secrets of the Kingdom of Shangri La¡­"


    "He discovered how the natural energy of the entire was distributed, and how one could use that knowledge to their benefit."


    Uncle Min paused at this point and allowed Dara to open his mind to what he''s about to reveal¡­


    "ording to my father, the entire Jok has a core of extremely dense natural energy, and this energy permeates the through the entire, even into the Dark and Grey Lands¡­"


    "You see, except from my father, I believe everyone thinks the ck and grey energy that billows out of the earth was actually death Qi, and that the only ce with the energy to cultivate was the Land of the Light, but they couldn''t have been more wrong, and the reason is because, the very energy that billows out of the ground is actually true Qi and the purest and most potent type on the¡­"


    "What!?" Dara was truly bbergasted¡­


    If it wasn''t that he had known Uncle Min for at least a quarter of a year now, he would have thought he was insane¡­


    Because not only does the grey and ck energy corrode things, it also makes people sick, and he had seen many people like that in vige of Sang, and some of them had even died because of it¡­


    But here was Uncle Min telling him that it was the purest and most potent form of the''s natural energy¡­


    But Dara still gave him the benefit of the doubt by allowing him continue to exin;


    "The only reason why the Grey and Dark Lands are this way is because of theck of light and heat, thus, the entire ce bes chilly almost all year round, and do you know what would happen to a ce where there is no light, heat and even scarce water sources?"


    "It would die!?"


    Dara gave an obvious answer but also left the gap for any anomaly by making it sound like a suggestive question than an outright answer [This helps a lot in our modern day earth]¡­


    "Yeah, it begins to die, but do you also know why it has notpletely dies after existing for so long?"


    Dara shook his head signifying that he had no idea;


    "It survives because it is being nourished from directly from the core of the¡­"


    "But because the Death Aura on the surface of thend is so thick, when this natural pure and potent energyes out of the core, it gets masked by the Death aura on the surface making it seem more like a potent Death Qi rather than a Potent Qi wrapped in death aura¡­"


    "There is a difference between the two¡­" Uncle Min continued;


    "My father was even able to devise a technique that can help get rid of the death aura around this pure Qi¡­"


    It was at this point that Dara began to get skeptical about Uncle Min''s story;


    "But if that was the case, why haven''t you used the technique to cultivate?"


    He asked doing well to mask the interrogation within the seemingly harmless question;


    "That is because of the method required to do so¡­"


    "To use my father''s methods, one would have to absorb the Qi with the Death aura, and when it is within them, they would have to sacrifice an organ where all of this death Qi would store once they are within the user''s body¡­"


    "Because of the nature of the Death Qi, it would find any part of that person''s body that is filled with life and seek to feed on that life and thereby kill that specific body part..."


    Dara frowned deeply when he reached this part;


    "Are you trying to tell me that I would have to kill a part of myself just so I can gain more power?"


    "No silly, just let me finish exining, and when I am done, you willpletely understand my father''s theories¡­"


    Dara decided that this was hisst straw, and should this entire theory and stuff end up being an unfiltered bullshit, he would simply part ways with these guys¡­


    "The reason why I couldn''t use the technique was because I was born in the Land of the Light¡­"


    "Only those who are born in the Land of the Light would face the danger of killing a part of themselves in order to cultivate using the energy within the Dark and Grey Lands¡­"


    "This is because being born and living for so long in the Land of the Light had altered most of our human configurations, and for us to inject something other than that into our body would be like exposing oneself to a chronic disease¡­"


    "But what about those who were born within this disease, and had even lived long enough within it?"


    "Have you ever wondered why the Death Qi doesn''t corrode you?"


    "You dug over thirty feet into a ground extremely rich in potent Death Qi and you didn''t get infected even once¡­"


    "You even dug around the entire teau, not once or twice but thrice and still you didn''t even catch a cold despite how chilly thesends were¡­"


    "You built a shelter with a zing fire at its center to provide warmth from the cold outside, but instead whenever you are inside this warmth, you sweat so much like a melting candle, and you still don''t understand why?"


    "Are you saying-"


    "Yes; that is exactly what I am saying¡­"


    "The potent Death Qi in thesends cannot affect you¡­"


    Dara''s frown had already began to transform into a pondering expression, and after a while of pondering, the smile returned as he asked;


    "But I am not the only one born within the Dark Lands in my vige, howe I am the only unaffected by the Death Qi?"


    "Naturally, because I have never been to the Dark Lands, I don''t know why, but I can give two possible theories on why that is the case¡­"


    "Firstly, there might be others like you, but you simply haven''t taken not of them yet, after all, you are just learning about this now¡­"


    "But can you tell me how many of the younger generation of your vige gets infected by this diseases?"


    Dara thought about what Uncle Min just said and after a while, his frown gradually began to change into one of incredulity;


    "It''s true, there is almost no case of the younger generation of our vige getting affected or sick, and even when they manage to fall sick, they usually recover in little to no time¡­"


    "My sister was obviously not affected, and neither were all of us who go out on scouting missions outside the vige¡­" Dara revealed;


    "I think your vige head had found out that the younger generation weren''t too affected by the Death Qi, and that was why you guys were chosen to scout the outskirts of the vige, rather than the much elderly ones who all came from the Land of the Light¡­"


    "Moreover, I already told you that the possibilities of someone else knowing about this energy secret other than my father might not be more than two at most, and that is including me¡­" Uncle Min continued;


    "Furthermore, you always said your vige is surrounded by fire and a lot of heat, and these two things work well to drive away the Death Qi as well as the Pure Qi within them¡­"


    "Thus when your people try to forcefully cultivate using these techniques, they end up killing themselves, because the Death aura around the Qi overwhelms them¡­" Uncle Min revealed;


    "But for you, that is not the case, and that is why I suggest that, if you are intent on cultivating with this insanely pure and potent Qi, then you will have to be very deep underground to allow the Death Qi purge all that heat and warmth your vige had infused within your body, and when that is done, you will find yourself more attuned to the energy within this part of the¡­"


    "After you have managed to achieve that, then you will have to return to the Dark Lands where a much more potent and pure version of this Qi is condensed within¡­"


    "There not only will your cultivation speed surge through the roof, you would also possess purer Qi than those within the Land of the Light¡­"


    "In fact, the purest Qi in the Land of the Light would look like dirt in the presence of your Qi¡­"


    Dara frowned once again but not as deep as before as he asked; "Why is that!?"


    "Well, that is because billions of people are within the Land of the Light and are all using the Qi from the Land of the Light to cultivate, and as a result, there is only so much Qi each person can get to cultivate at any point in time¡­"


    "But in the Dark and Grey Lands, you might as well be the only person who is basically cultivating using the masked Qi in here, which means basically a fourth of all the energy on the; to you, is for the taking¡­"


    Uncle Min revealed and this time, Dra really had his mind blown to bits¡­


    "But why are you doing this much for me, even to the extent of sharing this extremely valuable secret with me?"


    Dara knew there was no free lunch in this world, or at least that is the first lesson he had learnt from Uncle Min today;


    "Well asides from the fact that I know detest the entire Land of the Light with their underhanded means of cultivation, I also still want to continue cultivating which means I will need to return there sooner orter¡­"


    "Thenstly, you not only saved the life of I and my wife, but you also created a better life for us within a ce that was meant to make us experience the worst way of life possible¡­"


    "Thus, I feel giving you this secret is the least I could do, and it would have been much moreplete if I had a cultivation technique for you to cultivate this energy but I don''t¡­"


    "The one I use was made with the mindset of cultivating within the Land of the Light¡­"


    Uncle Min sighed in self-ridicule and shook his head in defeat;


    "You gave us aplete life, but I can''t even give you aplete method to cultivate; I guess even after all that''s happened, I am still incredibly useless...." Uncle Min muttered absentmindedly¡­

 Chapter 56 - Severing Ties

    "Thus, I feel giving you this secret is the least I could do, and it would have been much moreplete if I had a cultivation technique for you to cultivate this energy but I don''t¡­"


    "The one I use was made with the mindset of cultivating within the Land of the Light¡­"


    Uncle Min sighed in self-ridicule and shook his head in defeat;


    "You gave us aplete life, but I can''t even give you aplete method to cultivate; I guess even after all that''s happened, I am still incredibly useless..." Uncle Min muttered absentmindedly¡­


    Dara simply looked at him with a smile, but he was crazily bursting with joy on the inside¡­


    This was because the technique he had gotten from the Dark Soul''s memories had the perfect solution to the problem Uncle Min thought he had¡­


    The Numen of Ancient Schrs technique had two volumes, and they were termed;


    [The Testaments of Ancient Devas] and [The Testaments of Ancient Asuras];


    and from what he could understand, the Asura part of this cultivation technique involved using unholy and unorthodox Qi gotten from either Demonic Qi, Death Qi or Dual Cultivation and many other unorthodox means¡­


    Then the Deva part of this cultivation involved using Holy and Orthodox Qi gotten from nature or treasures¡­


    Furthermore, the Asura part of this technique was a body cultivation method whilst the Deva part was Qi cultivation method which made this technique a perfect Body and Qi cultivation technique¡­


    But the only drawback for now was the fact that Dara could only still ess only the first paragraphs of both paths of this cultivation technique, and from what he could tell, this first paragraph must refer to the Qi Creation realm¡­


    But Dara still wasn''t overly bothered because he could sense that the rest of the techniques were present, and perhaps he would simply need to get strong enough to a level where he can withstand the strain of getting the second chapter from the Dark Soul''s memories¡­


    ''I would simply start cultivating in the body path first then¡­''


    Dara thought to himself in delight, but he managed to disy aposed expression so as not to give away his secrets¡­


    "I can feel it within me; that my meridians would reveal themselves soon enough, and by then I will use your method and try cultivating as you have spoken¡­"


    "If I can luckily find a way to cultivate the technique, then that means the luck of my parents and sister is with me, and if not, the worst that could happen is that I might ruin my meridians, but I would still be alive though, since the Death Qi cannot kill me¡­"


    Dara spoke as Uncle Min brought out a patch of beast skin where some scribblings were written atop;


    "That is the technique; I want you to memorize it because I am going to burn it in the next one hour¡­"


    Uncle Min handed the patch of skin to Dara and stood up as he prepared to return into the apartment;


    "Then as for the smoke in the distance, it looks like a battle between humans, or perhaps humans and the beats and monsters that roam thisnds, and since only your vige can produce such vast amounts of manpower whilst also being close to the Grey Lands, then I strongly predict that they might be the one there¡­"


    He said as he walked away, leaving Dara to memorize the contents within the beast skin¡­


    Dara began to read the technique with which he could cultivate the Qi of thesends, and he had to say, Uncle Min''s father was a really wise man¡­


    Though, he didn''t describe much about how someone born within the Grey or Dark Lands should cultivate this Qi, he only had the insinuation that since they were born here, they should not face the danger of having a part of their body die just to obtain the purest Qi on the¡­


    But as for Dara who already had a cultivation technique which used the exact type of Qi, he only needed to separate the Death aura when opening his meridians, but after that, he would simply directly absorb the Death Qi directly¡­


    "The naturalws of the universe that maintains bnce¡­"


    "In and filled with death, hopelessness and terror, it still managed to supplement it with the purest form of energy that keeps supplying life to it anyways¡­"


    Dara shook his head in wonder as he gained a deeper understanding about bnce¡­


    "I better keep a very solid bnce between my cultivation paths in the future¡­" Dara soliloquized and took a mental note of it¡­


    "I am already in the final training phase; the Flesh Strengthening stage, which not only strengthens my flesh but also expands the pores in every part of my body to allow a much freer and better exchange of natural energy between me and nature¡­"


    In less than half an hour, Dara was done reading and then went to find Uncle Min who had already found Aunt Lin and they all gathered together in front of the ring of fire;


    "This is thest thing that ties me with my father and everyone and everything I have known within the Land of Light¡­"


    "I severe my connections with all of them by burning this secret here today¡­"


    Uncle Min spoke with a tone drenched in mncholy as he dropped the patch of beast skin into the ring of fire and watched it burn¡­


    "The Land of Light¡­"


    "Filled with so many cultivators and very few amount of energy, and as a result, those with power kill and banish their own kin just to reduce the amount of mouth being fed by the natural energy¡­"


    "They believe that, by eliminating thepetition, they would have much more energy to cultivate with¡­"


    "They believe they are searching for power, not knowing that the power they so much crave for had begun to control them already¡­"


    "Otherwise, why would one''s own father banish his little girl into the Grey Land?"


    "Why would the leaders scheme against innocent people just to add the little resources they own to their own pockets?"


    When Uncle Min that first statement, Aunt Lin had water well up in her eyes, threatening to spill out at the slightest shake of her head, causing Dara to understand that she was the daughter whose own father had banished into the Grey Lands all in the name of gaining strength¡­


    ''What a useless world!''


    Dara almost retched in disgust when he began to understand how things worked on Jok¡­


    Then after having about another half an hour of silence and reflection on their pasts, the trio returned to their shelter whilst explosions continued to echo from every direction within the Grey and Dark Lands, apanied by roars and growls of different beasts albeit very far away from the teau¡­


    The entire day then passed silently with no one saying anything, as they simply had their dinner and slept off¡­


    The next day however, Aunt Lin saw Dara once again and apologized for her previous behavior as they eventually began to talk once again, and it was then that Aunt Lin exined what happened after the Lion/Dog looking beast gave him a solid kick, and how they had feared he had died because he was neither breathing, and not was his heart beating¡­


    They had dug a grave for him already and ced him into it after about 12 hours of finding not even the slightest pulse¡­


    She told Dara that theyid him within the grave and wept at his loss, and it was in the same moment that they started pouring sand on his supposed corpse that they saw him twitch slightly, and after wards, they removed him from the pit and ripped of his blood soaked clothes and applied some of the herbs she had gathered from within the jungle to help him faster¡­


    She also exined that they had no choice but to resort to chasing the beast away with fire whilst they killed the massive pig looking beast for food¡­


    ''So I was practically dead for some minutes back then?''


    Dara thought to himself as his desire to possess enough strength and fighting prowess surged within his heart¡­


    After a bit of more talk, Dara went to the base of the teau andplimented himself for being wise enough to put a ten meter space between the ring of water and the base of the teau, because now, he had a ce to stand whilst he began his work¡­


    He went to the opposite end of the teau and dug about three meters into the base of the teau itself, before he then began to dig downwards, deep into the earth¡­


    Just like that, Dara began another digging process; one that would serve as his cultivation spot, whilst the process of digging would serve as a training process to further increase his flesh strengthening process¡­


    This also served as a means to further improve the rest of his physical features because; the deeper he dug into the ground, the colder, darker and wetter the pit felt whilst the air also grew thinner because the rate at which he released CO2 was much more than the avable oxygen that was present deep within the pit¡­


    Dara''s life went on this way for the next few weeks until the first month of the three month long season of war had passed¡­


    Within that time, not only did Dara dig a 50 meter deep and five meter wide hole beneath the teau, he also managed to reach the peak of the flesh strengthening stage¡­


    The one morning, something strange happened, several plumes of grey energy began to hover around Dara''s body, sticking to his skin but not entering, making them look like illusory images of numerous leeches on him¡­


    He rushed over to Uncle Min who was basking in the light with Aunt Lin on the makeshift reclining chair Dara had made the previous week¡­


    When Aunt Lin saw him, she was a little stunned, but Uncle Min on the other hand erupted in a roaringughter as he tapped Dara on the shoulder;


    "Soon little kid¡­ Very soon¡­ Your meridians are only a tad bit shying away from appearing now; but if you do some more training, they should reveal themselves in three days max!" Uncle Min blurted¡­

 Chapter 57 - Unlocking The Eight Great Meridians

    When Aunt Lin saw him, she was a little stunned, but Uncle Min on the other hand erupted in a roaringughter as he lightly tapped Dara on the shoulder;


    "Soon little kid¡­ Very soon¡­ Your meridians are only shying away from appearing now, but if you do some more training, they should reveal themselves in three days max!" Uncle Min blurted¡­


    Dara''s eyes widened to its extremes when he heard Uncle Min''s statement, whilst Aunt Lin finally snapped out of her daze and joined them in merriment¡­


    "You need to head over to your cultivation spot, using such a pure Qi would help you set up a very strong foundation¡­" Uncle Min advised as they all left for the base of the teau¡­


    "Lin''er, you stay up here, light up the fire ring and help keep a look out, whenever anything happens, just call to me and I will rush out to help¡­"


    Uncle Min ended his speech with a kiss as he took Dara down the pit to provide guidance, help and protection throughout his meridian opening process¡­


    On getting down there Dara eagerly sat cross-legged and prepared to enter a meditative trance;


    "The death Qi down here is much less potent giving you the opportunity to harvest more natural energy¡­"


    Uncle Min began to give his advice as Dara prepared to begin his first ever cultivation process;


    "You also need to take it easy¡­"


    "If you open your first meridian carelessly, all these potent energy around you might surge into them at once, and should your meridian be unable to absorb that much energy, it might burst and that ends your cultivation before it even begins¡­"


    Uncle Min tried to give the eager Dara some sound warning before he jumped into an abyss, thinking it was a shallow pit¡­


    Dara shut his eyes and entered a meditative trance, and just about ten secondster;


    Boom!


    The energies within the pit began to billow out with insane momentum and force as they all began to whip around Dara, forming a massive whirlpool of energy around him¡­


    Dara tapped into the meridian opening technique he had gotten from the Dark Soul''s memories [which was a bajillion times better than the one his sister passed down to him]¡­


    Since he was going to be cultivating the [Testaments of Asuras] first, it was only reasonable that he used the meridian opening technique that was focused around physical body cultivation, and the [Numen of Ancient Schrs] technique gave him just that¡­


    The meridian technique was attuned towards the; Brain, Heart, Abdomen, Blood, Bones, Tendons, Muscles and Flesh and these are the main physical organs of any Body cultivator¡­


    But just as he was about to begin, Dara realized that there was no instruction on the best meridian to open first, and he also knew that there was no way Uncle Min could have any idea about that since the technique he was using to cultivate might as well be far better than that of the ruler of the entire Jok¡­


    But using his own discretion, Dara decided to begin with his brain first¡­


    Then he gradually and slowly opened the one leading to his brain;


    Zoo! Zoo! Zoo!


    The energies within the pit surged towards Dara violently like a dragon who had just had its eggs stolen¡­


    It was like working ss Asians waiting for a train to arrive, and the moment the train arrived, they all squeezed into it just so they could get to work on time¡­


    It was the same scenario with the workers being the Death Qi and Dara''s meridian being themuting subway train¡­


    He opened the meridians leading to his brains first, and the energies surged into it rapidly like an inversely broken dam¡­


    "Hmm!"


    Dara felt the sheer amount of pressure the iing energies were exerting on the meridians leading to his brain¡­


    But with the OP cultivation technique, Uncle Min''s warnings, and his desire to cultivate, Dara ensured that he kept his cool at every point in time¡­


    He controlled the influx of death energy and though his brains felt the effect of the death aura, but because he was very deep underground where the death aura was faint and the fact that he was born in the Dark Lands; a ce which was infused with a more potent Qi than the Grey Lands, Dara was able to cope with its pain for the moment¡­


    Dara took less than ten minutes topletely open his cranial meridians which granted him an enhanced mental thought speed, andprehension power, and as a result, the amount of time it took to open his next meridian which was the one in his flesh was halved...


    Thus, after just five minutes, Dara was done opening his flesh meridian as he began to feel the amount of tensile strength and resistance radiating all over his entire body, and with this level of power, he was sure that if the Lion/Dog looking beast attacked him once again, his skin wouldn''t be pierced, even though he might suffer some internal injuries¡­


    But this was not the time to be thinking about all that, thus, he moved on to muscles, and whilst he was absorbing these energies at an insane momentum, Dara began to transfer all the death aura within his body into the flesh on his right arm and stored them there¡­


    Then he continued with his muscles and this time, it even took lesser amount of time to actually finish unlocking his muscle meridian because he didn''t need to factor the death aura effect anymore and simply sent all of it into the flesh surrounding his right arm, thus it took Dara three minutes to actually unlock the meridian linking to his muscles¡­


    He moved on to the Tendons, then Bones, and after resting for a little bit because the next meridian he was about to unlock was extremely delicate;


    The Blood Nourishing meridian, and as a result, Dara took about half an hour opening this meridian, and whist that felt like a lot of time to him, Uncle Min was busy staring with his eyes almost popping out of his sockets and his jaws almost leveling the floor¡­


    It had taken his wife who was much more talented than he was a full week to open her first meridian; even himself had taken almost two weeks to open his first and about four months in total to open his 8 Great Meridians¡­


    But here was Dara, with six opened and the he had barely spent even 45 minutes, but he was still feeling everything was slow, and this was without considering the fact that he was currently cultivating his physical body which was multiple times harder than just cultivating their Qi which simply involves opening the meridians...


    Uncle Min felt like dipping his head in a pile of beast dung out of frustration, but he managed to keep his cool so as not to disturb Dara¡­


    At the end of the hour mark, Dara hadpletely unlocked the meridian leading towards his abdomen, meaning, the major parts of his outer physical body had been channeled through to the natural energy of the of Jok¡­


    But after everything, it all amounted to seven meridians, and then he spent the an entire half an hour to carefully and delicately unlock the meridian leading into his heart, and after that was done, Dara then began to fully absorb these energies to first strengthen these meridians by increasing their thickness to increase the strain of absorbing Qi at an insane speed, and also increase sturdiness to help improve the rate at which he discharge energy in battle...


    Then finally, the pores to help increase the volume of Qi he absorbs or discharges at any given moment in time¡­


    After doing that, Dara then channeled all the death aura to his right arm until they turned pitch ck from the elbow to his fingers¡­


    The more he absorbed these Qi, the darker his hand became, and the more Dara felt the amount of death energy coursing through his arm, and he was sure that should he touch anything with this arm of his, that spot he had touch would definitely die and decay¡­


    Dara grinned to himself at the thought of this, as he felt he just created his first fighting ability, and whilst he was grinning to himself, Uncle Min was also seeing all these changes and was very sure of what Min Hong was thinking;


    "We should go hunt some beasts once you are done; that way you will be able to test the effect of this ability of yours and its power¡­"


    Uncle Min mentioned as Dara nodded his head happily before he began his first true cultivation session of the day, and that was strengthening every part of his body which he had just linked a meridian to¡­


    Since he was done unlocking his meridians and it seemed like he had a good cultivation technique, Uncle Min allowed Dara to continue his cultivation peacefully as he returned back to the surface¡­


    Dara spent the rest of the entire day which amounted to about 14 hours to strengthen these body parts of his, and from the way everything was, he had barely scrapped 0.00001 percent of the Qi avable within the Grey and Dark Lands, so he also returned to the surface after Uncle Min, feeling like a container which was filled to the brim with pressurized gas ready to explode with insane momentum and power¡­


    He bent towards the ground and found the center of his body gravity, and began to gather all his strength at that point, and as he did that, the entire area of about 10 mere began to vibrate s the stone literally began to elevate about a few inches off the ground, and then;


    Boom!


    Dara erupted of the ground leaving about a twelve inch deep crater on the ground with a spider web of cracks spreading about a foot outwards as he leapt up to about 10 meters of the ground before flipping and descending with a magnificent superheronding¡­


    Bam!


    p! p! p!


    Uncle Min who was watching the entire scenario from the top of the teau couldn''t help but p in joy andmendation¡­

 Chapter 58 - Meridian Tiers Explained

    Dara erupted of the ground leaving about a twelve inch deep crater on the ground with a spider web of cracks spreading about a foot outwards as he leapt up to about 10 meters of the ground before flipping and descending with a magnificent superheronding¡­


    Bam! p! p! p!


    Uncle Min who was watching the entire scenario from the top of the teau couldn''t help but p in joy andmendation¡­


    The couple hurried over to Dara as Uncle Min ruffled his hair once again;


    "You have barely begun cultivating, and you already have the strength of a 1 Star Warrior Stage expert, it would be no surprise if you manage to unlock the legendary Gold Tier Meridians¡­"


    "Gold Tier Meridians!? What are those?" Dara obviously never heard of such a term in his life;


    "Well, what you have just opened are your 8 Great Meridians, you still have to unlock the 12 Principal Meridians, and the other peripheral meridians after that¡­"


    "Everyone are always able to unlock the peripheral meridians at some point in their lives, but the highest I have ever seen was the Silver Tier which is a person who has unlocked the 8 Great Meridians, 12 Principal Meridians and finally 10 peripheral Meridians, and that person is our current tribe leader¡­" Uncle Min exined;


    "But there were stories, rumors and myth about an expert who once opened the Gold Tier meridians¡­"


    "What does these Tiers signify?" Dara asked;


    Though he understood what meridians were used for, but their ssification into tiers was something he had no idea about, after all, even his sister; Dai, who was said to be very talented within the Vige of Sang had only unlocked her eight great meridians, and even the strongest expert within their vige, their vige chief has only unlocked 5 more than she has because of the tragic scarcity of cultivation technique within thesends¡­


    Moreover, people who have been banished into thesends were sent here so that the resources that was supposed to be shared to them can be given to other talented members of whatever family they came out of...


    Thus, to these families, it would be a total waste to give someone who was being banished a meridian opening technique, not to even talk about any other type of cultivation resources¡­


    In the entire Vige of Sang, there are only two meridian opening techniques, and one of them is in the general library where people who have been given the permission based on their meritorious deeds can go and use it for cultivation...


    The second one on the other hand, was always in the possession of the vige chief, since it was the only one which gave helped someone unlock their 12 Principal meridians as opposed to the first one that can only help its user open their 8 Great Meridians alone¡­


    But obliviously to Dara, the reason why he and his sister was being plotted against was because the meridian opening technique being passed down through their family could actually help one open the 8 Great Meridians, 12 Principal Meridians, and even 10 Peripheral Meridians...


    Though, this technique was currently there in his mind, evenpletely useless because the meridian opening technique that came with his [Testaments of Asura] cultivation technique was like the sun,pared to the match stick of the one he got from his sister¡­


    "The higher the tier of ones meridians, the faster that person can cultivate, and the farther the person would reach on the path of cultivation¡­" Uncle Min continued his exnation;


    "For instance, the tribe leader of the tribe I was banished from had a Silver Tier meridianwork, and as a result, he was able to reach the Qi Sea stage, and it was the same for my father, but others who only have the Bronze or Metal Tier meridianwork can only reach the Qi Creation stage in their lifetime¡­"


    Uncle Min looked into Dara''s eyes and could sense that he was still a little confused, so he continued;


    "The reason why this is the case is because, the amount of natural energy needed for someone to break through the final bottleneck of the Qi Creation stage into Qi Sea stage is sorge that even if an expert with a Bronze Tier meridianwork cultivate all their lives, it wouldn''t still be enough, because the meridians are just too weak, small and few¡­"


    "Then since the maximum lifespan of a Qi Creation stage expert is only 100 years, they usually dies without breaking into the Qi Sea stage¡­"


    "If I were to simplify it, then I would put it this way; Imagine if all you had to do to step into the Qi Sea stage was to finish the pig looking beast we captured back then within the span of five minutes, you know that would be practically impossible right?" Dara nodded his head in affirmation;


    "But that is just because you have a single mouth¡­"


    "Now imagine if they were ten of you; though it would still be impossible, but all of you will still consume the beast much faster than if it was only you¡­"


    "Now imagine if there were a thousand of you, it wouldn''t even take up to that five minutes before the entire beast would be gone¡­"


    "That is the corrtion between cultivation and meridians¡­"


    "The more mouth you have to eat the beast the faster you can cultivate¡­"


    "Meridian Tiers are also graded by the total amount of meridians an expert have unlocked¡­"


    "Thus, let''s say it takes an expert with the Bronze Tier about 120 years to move from the start of Qi creation into the QI Sea stage, then he would obviously die before he is able to do so, because he would be three yearste¡­"


    "Three yearste!? How do you figure?" Dara asked;


    "Well for each breakthrough within the Qi Creation stage, three years would be added to that expert''s longevity, and as for the Qi Sea stage, it is five years each¡­."


    "Thus, when you factor the fact that, the maximum longevity for any mortal on the Jok is 100 years, then that means an expert at the Peak of the Qi Creation stage can only live up to 127 years max¡­"


    "Then if you then include the fact that meridians only appear from any age of 10 and above, then that means such an expert has only 127 years to enter into the Qi Sea stage, and the energy required to cultivate into the Qi Sea stage would take about 150 years at least for anyone with a meridianwork below the Silver Tier¡­"


    "All these are subjected to environments on the level of the Land of Light, and there are other exceptions which are only based on luck¡­"


    "The luck that one finds a meridian opening technique that was high tier enough to open meridians of the Silver Tier level and above, or if that person was lucky enough to find an extremely pure source of Qi like the one in thesends which only you can know about and ess..."


    "But thest method is a closely guarded secret of the family that rules the entire Shangri La¡­"


    Uncle Min looked towards Dara and realized he had already grasped his exnation;


    "But what Tier of meridians do you guys have?" Dara asked out of curiosity;


    "Your Aunt Lin has a SiIver Tier meridianwork whilst I have a Bronze Tierwork¡­" Uncle Min revealed;


    "So, you are saying you only have a 127 year lifespan at best whilst she has a maximum lifespan of 172 years?" Dara was shocked and for some strange reasons, he was also worried and sad;


    "Give or take¡­ If luck is on our side then I might be able to reach 130 and she might live to clock 175, but sadly that is only if we can cultivate to the peak of the cultivations stages¡­" Uncle Min sighed and shook his head;


    "But sadly, we both do not have any cultivation technique which means we might only get to live up to 100 years if luck is on our side¡­" Uncle Min added as his wife grabbed his arm in constion¡­


    "How old are you both at the moment?"


    Though they look only a little over thirty, but Dara knew looks might be deceiving;


    "I am 56, and she is 52¡­ Why do you ask?" Uncle Min replied;


    "Nothing much¡­ But there is no way you both are dying on my watch¡­"


    Dara responded with a level of conviction that stunned both Uncle Min and Aunt Lin;


    "Which meridian opening is the strongest on the?"


    Dara asked further stunning Uncle Min and Aunt Lin once again;


    "Um¡­ My father once made mention of the Shangri La Family possessing a Gold Tier meridian opening technique, and he said the other part of the ruled by the Jok Family also had one of theirs¡­" Uncle Min answered;


    "Jok family?" Dara reacted to thetter part of Uncle Min''s statement;


    "Yeah¡­ But I also don''t know much about the story, but my father told me that the Shangri La Family were initially not from this, but how, why and when that happened, no one knows, and I think it would be one of the closest guarded secrets on the¡­"


    "Except if one managed to travel long enough to cross the borders of Shangri La into Jok, but should one do so, then they would be killed on sight because of the bloody war that had been ongoing between both families for about 500 years now¡­" Uncle Min answered;


    "That recent!?" Dara was stunned;


    "Like I said, I have no idea¡­" Uncle Min responded before asking;


    "So what do you want to do now that you have opened your 8 Great Meridians?"


    "I initially thought of going out to hunt and develop fighting techniques since we don''t have one, but at this moment, I think it that would be a total waste of time¡­"


    Dara spoke whist looking in the direction of the vige of sang;


    "I will continue cultivating, and when the time is ripe, you guys would stay in here and activate all defenses whilst I go to somewhere to get some answers¡­"


    Uncle Min and Aunt Lin obviously knew what Dara was thinking but couldn''t object to it¡­

 Chapter 59 - Discovered

    "I was initially thinking of going out to hunt and develop a few fighting techniques since we don''t have one, but at this moment, I think it that would be a total waste of time¡­"


    Dara spoke whist looking in the direction of the vige of sang;


    "I will continue cultivating, and when the time is ripe, you guys would stay in here and activate all defenses whilst I go to somewhere to get some answers¡­"


    Uncle Min and Aunt Lin obviously knew what Dara was thinking but couldn''t object to it¡­ There was no way for them to even do so¡­


    Dara alone can take on both of them and kill them three times over with his current strength, and whilst he hasn''tprehended any fighting techniques yet, the littlebat experience he gained from the little information he got from Sam''s memory still had some basic Taekwondo, Karate, Kung Fu and Tai Chi skills within...


    Then if one coupled that with his current physical body power and the hand of death, then it is at least safe to say that even if Dara was left alone, out here in the jungle, he still had the ability to survive ande out unscathed¡­


    Thus, with no possible leverage with which they could change his mind, the couple watched Dara return to the pit and his cultivation¡­


    Dara was determined not to step a foot into the light until he hadpletely unlocked every single meridian possible¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the Vige of Sang¡­


    This morning, a tanned looking boy could be seen walking his way towards the vige chief''s office, and wherever he passed, everyone around him looked towards him with the gaze full of fawn and respect;


    "Young Chief!"


    "Young Chief!"


    "Young Chief!"


    Many of these people would greet the youth and make way for him to pass, whilst most kid were simply too scared, because of the long scar that ran across his face, which seemed to have blinded one of his eyes


    The youth had a smug grin stered on his face, as he walked towards the vige chief''s structure with a kind of swagger that was radiating intense pride¡­


    "Young Chief!"


    One of the two guards stationed at the entrance of the apartment saw the little kid and bowed, whilst the youth simply replied with a simple nod;


    "I have something to discuss with father, announce my arrival¡­"


    The youth said as the second guard went in to do as he was told¡­


    About ten minutester, the guard stepped outside and spoke softly;


    "The vige chief will see you now¡­"


    He said with a respectful bow as the youth raised the curtain in front of the entrance with one hand and poked his head into the room¡­


    Ji Hai saw three old men who seemed to be in his fifties from their physical appearances alone seated in a triangr manner facing one another as if he had interrupted a secret meeting;


    "Congrattions Hai, I just heard a while ago that you have managed to unlock your fifth peripheral meridian¡­"


    The vige chief who sat in front of the other two spoke with a proud smile as he looked towards his son who everyone within the vige now believed to have fought, killed and survived an Obun Leader¡­


    "It is all thanks to father''s meridian opening techniques, I barely did nothing much with my mediocre talent¡­" Ji Hai replied, as the Elder on the left of the vige chief responded;


    "Not only do you have a sessor who is valiant, but he is also brave, respectful and humble¡­" The man said before adding;


    "Young one, it is not only your father that is proud of your recent aplishments, the entire vige is also proud of you and even my niece won''t stop recounting the stories of your heroic deeds to me¡­"


    "You tter me too much, Left Elder¡­ I was merely lucky" Ji Hai replied;


    "If that killing an Obun Leader and living to tell the tale is being merely lucky, then what might we ssify as true heroic deed?" The other elder asked with a smile;


    "Perhaps, when I have taken the entire Dark Lands in the name of my father; the vige chief, then I can count that as a heroic deed¡­"


    Ji Hai responded with a tone dripping with humility which was a stark opposite of the way he behaved before he came in here, showcasing the extents of Ji Hai''s pretentious and scheming nature;


    "Speaking about conquering territories, what news do you have for me?"


    The vige chief brought everyone''s attention back to the matter at hand which is very vital to their grand n¡­


    "Yes father, we have already purged everything lurking within a 2 mile radius towards our East, South and North, but the west is the reason why I am here¡­" Ji Hai spoke after he had given these trio a respectful bow¡­


    "What is wrong with the west?"


    The vige chief asked whilst the other two elders also paid close attention;


    "Well one of our scouts which I sent into the area seemed to have discovered a well fortified structure about 5 miles deep into the jungle¡­"


    "Isn''t that ce on the Grey Lands territory?" The vige chief turned to his partners;


    "Yes I believe so¡­"


    "It is just a little past the Dark Lands, but it can still be considered part of the borders¡­" The Left Elder confirmed;


    "But if that is the greynds, then we should not venture out there yet¡­"


    "The Obuns are more concentrated within the greynds, and from what I can suspect, their base would most likely be in there¡­" The Right Elder chipped in with fear a little apparent in his tone;


    "Perhaps, we could use that opportunity to sweep out the Obun''spletely, or capture some of them and torture them into servitude¡­" Ji Hai suggested;


    "Hai, there things are humans who havepletely lost all sense of morality, ethics and civilization¡­"


    "They have be monsters, and whilst wemend you for killing one of their leaders, there are many more leaders out there, and even the poption of the ordinary Obuns are very close to half of what we have now¡­"


    "If we go to war with them, the vige would suffer too many casualties, and that might not be healthy for the progress of the vige¡­" The vige chief exined;


    "I know that might not be enough reason for you, that''s why he also told me that crops are easier to grow there since the death aura in the soil is much weaker, and there are more edible games on can hunt also, and from what he said, the wetness in the area signified the presence of water¡­"


    The three reasons Ji Hai just dropped was so lucrative, that the three men had to stop what they were doing and turn over to him;


    "Are you sure he is telling the truth?"


    "My scout would never dare lie to me, especially when it is an information of this magnitude¡­"


    Hu!


    The vige chief let out a huge sigh of frustration as he began to ponder two different scenarios within his head¡­


    "He also told me, he must have heard Dara''s voice¡­"


    Bang!


    The vige chief smacked the table in front of him out of reflexive shock;


    "Did you just say, he found Dara!?"


    The vige chief stood up and approached his son like a crazed human being;


    "Though he didn''t get to see him specifically, but he said the only way that voice would belong to someone else is if Dara had a twin¡­" Ji Hai added;


    "Left!-"


    "Vige Chief!"


    "Right!-"


    "Yes Chief!"


    "-It is time we stepped out¡­"


    The vige chief spoke with a sharp tone as the aura of old age surrounding him began to transform into that of a hardened warrior who have survived so many bloodbaths and bloodsheds;


    "Hai, go and prepare 500 men, we set out at dusk¡­ Even if it''s just a 3 percent chance that it might be Dara, I am taking it!"


    The vige chief spoke with a deep tone as he gazed towards the west before waving Ji Hai away¡­


    "Left, right¡­ I will be back, there is something I must take care of before we set out¡­"


    "Don''t worry chief, we would make sure our men are all well prepared¡­"


    The left Elder said as the Vige Chief stepped out of the room and headed in opposite direction of Ji Hai who headed towards the vige gates¡­


    The Vige Chief went to the back of the entire vige, as houses and many other structures became sparser and sparser, the deeper he went, until he came to a massive wooden structure, and from within, one could hear loud growls and nging of chains within, and the moment he reached the gates, two elderly men came out to meet him;


    "Vige Chief!"


    They greeted with their most respectful bow as the vige head responded;


    "Is there progress?"


    "They have still refused to reveal the technique, and they also im not to know where their son is, no matter how much or hard we interrogate them¡­" One of the two elders responded;


    "Have you used the ive?"


    "Not yet chief¡­"


    "Alright, let''s go in¡­"


    "V-vige chief, you mean-"


    "Yeah¡­ Perhaps this would push him to reveal everything¡­ Lead the way!"


    The vige chief harried the two elders who opened the gates and went in¡­


    The first thing they encountered were several massive cages containing about five different chained beasts, but they didn''t stop there, instead the moved deeper into the dark corners of this structure, and before long, they were standing in front of another door, and the two elders paused¡­


    Hu!


    The vige chief seemed to readjust his mental state and put on a determined expression before he then looked towards the two elders and nodded affirmatively at them¡­


    The first elder opened the door whilst the second elder grabbed a very familiar ive from the side and handed it over to the vige chief;


    Jia!


    The massive door opened, and the other elder grabbed two ming torches and handed one to his partner as they led the vige chief through a winding downward tunnel¡­


    This ce was extremely humid, chilly and eerie, especially when one considered the asional plumes of ck smoke pouring out from every angle¡­

 Chapter 60 - Approaching Danger

    The first elder opened the door whilst the second elder grabbed a very familiar ive from the side and handed it over to the vige chief;


    Jia!


    The massive door opened, and the other elder grabbed two ming torches and handed one to his partner as they led the vige chief through a winding downward tunnel¡­


    This ce was extremely humid, chilly and eerie, especially when one considered the asional plumes of ck smoke pouring out from every angle¡­


    Most times they would take form the agonizing faces of a man and a woman with a screaming expression before dashing towards the iing trio, but the elders would simply point the zing torches in their hands at these smoky and ghostlike images, and they would disperse once they came too close to the mes¡­


    After about ten minutes of a seemingly endless descent into the ground, the trio were finally standing in front of two separate cages ced beside each other, but far apart to ensure that nothing physical could be swapped between the two prisoners within them;


    "Ah, you two¡­" The vige chief sighed;


    "You both are still not willing to talk¡­"


    "Why are you being so selfish?"


    "The vige took you in, gave you shelter and a secure ce to raise a family after you were both abandoned and banished from the Land of Light, but yet, you have something in your possession that could help improve the entire vige as a whole, but you kept it from the vige to use for yourself¡­"


    "Though, your actions are enough to see the vige banish you into the darknds and never to return, but how would we possibly recoup our loss of resources you have gotten for cultivation, the food you have eaten and fed your family, and finally, the shelter we could have given to others who are genuinely willing to help the vige grow?"


    The vige head spoke with a persuading tone and also added some asional pitiful sigh, like he was being forced to do what he did not intend to; trying to appeal to the emotional state of these two prisoners and perhaps break their will to get what he is after¡­


    "Spare us yourpassion you two faced beast!"


    A middle aged female within the right prison caged yelled weakly;


    "You are life force is slowly eroding, how long can you go without eating; it''s been almost three years since you have been down here, eating only once in a week, aren''t you scared of starving to death!"


    One of the elders positioned a chair and a table in between both cages whilst the other one brought in a strongly deliciously smelling dish and ced it in front of the vige chief who waved them off and began to eat, whilst the starved duo simply frowned in hatred...


    Then the shriveleddy who was still very pretty despite her physical condition rushed to the edge of her cage and spat into the chief''s food;


    "We have survived for three years already, do you think another three would kill us!?"


    "Pathetic!"


    Pa!


    Thedy added another fry spit thatnded on the vige chief''s face;


    "We know who you are, pretender!"


    "You will get the technique and then hoard it to yourself like the rest of the good ones, and still send weaklings who have little to no cultivation into battle to die just because you want to umte more resources to yourself!"


    "Even if we have to suffer the same fate in ten different lives¡­"


    "But there is one thing I know for sure, we have unlocked more meridians than you ever will in your lifetime, and whilst your poison prevents us from absorbing any form of natural energy, we can still hold on for another three years¡­"


    "By then I am very sure someone would stumble upon this hell hole, and then your secret despicable deeds would be revealed to everyone!"


    The shriveled man in the other cage also raged exhaustedly through gritted teeth;


    "Haha ha!"


    The vige chief erupted with a roaringughter as he gazed at the shriveled couple with a ridiculing gaze and added;


    "Firstly, I have pronounced both of you dead shortly after I had you both secretly kidnapped three years ago; and as far as I am concerned, this ce doesn''t exist to anyone asides from the seven of us you have seen down here over thest three years so no one woulde finding you¡­"


    "Secondly who do you think wille save you? Your kids?"


    "Haha ha¡­ Just so you know, your daughter is already dead, and her cops has been vited in search of the technique you refused to share¡­"


    The couple''s eyes zed with murderous intent as they heard the vige chief''s statement;


    "Though, your son ran away and we didn''t find it on your daughter''s uprooted corpse, but we haven''t stopped search-"


    "Gu Ya! You will burn for what you have done, and your entire lineage will waste their entire lives searching for this technique and never find it¡­"


    The man rushed towards the cage wall but was restricted by the chains he was being bound by as thedy began to shed dry tears, since she has been dehydrated for a very long time now¡­


    "Oh, about that, I am really sorry to tell you, but one of our scouts has recently found the whereabouts of your son¡­"


    "Apparently, he had built a mini fortress for himself and is now living in the Grey Lands, but we will set out tonight and capture him¡­"


    "Then we will bring him down here and torture him in more ways than your wildest imaginationsbined, right in front of you¡­"


    "I will be here also, because it would be really fun to see who breaks first amongst the both of you..."


    "But know this; one way or another, I will get my hands on the technique, even if I have to skin your son alive in your presence and have his bare wounds infested by disease¡­" The vige chief said as one of the elders walked in;


    "Chief, the five hundred men you told us to prepare are ready¡­"


    "They are waiting for you at the vige square with some of the residents who are curious about the reason we have summoned so much force¡­"


    "Ignore them, they would gather around for anything as much as a bug bite!"


    "Arm the men, we are going to catch a big fish!"


    The vige chief spoke as he rose up and then looked back at the couple before adding;


    "They spat on my food, reduce their weekly dish by half for the next six months!"


    He ordered the elder before leaving, whilst the elder who was stunned by such gruesome punishment managed to stutter;


    "A-a-as you wish, vige chief¡­"


    Then he turned around once more to the couple and spoke;


    "Why don''t you just give him what he wants, and you will be set free..." The man asked with a pitiful expression;


    "After how much we have suffered!?"


    "What are the guarantees that he will let us leave¡­"


    "He has said it himself, out punishment warrants us to be banished, but here we are, for over three years, about a hundred feet deep into the earth, eating only one a week for three years straight¡­"


    "Do you still think he is the type that keeps his words?"


    The shriveled man spoke resolutely, whilst thedy simply sunk to the ground with her back against the cage and wept;


    "He killed my daughter, and now he is going to kill my son too¡­"


    Her eyes poured out the little bit of liquid left in her body as the man looked towards the elder once again and shook his head, then the elder bolted towards thedy and knocked her out¡­


    "Thanks a lot, she would need all the energy she can summon once our opportunity to escapees¡­"


    The elder heard the man''s statement and shook his head with a helpless sigh before leaving the prison¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    At the surface within the vige¡­


    500 men had gathered around with weapons on their hands as they stood with vigor in front of the vige chief;


    "Vige chief, which vige are we going to plunder today?"


    One of the men asked with a huge grin, he had the expression of one of those lecherous people who will see a 3000 pound gold on one side and a virgin young girl on the other, and still choose to take the girl;


    "You will find out when we get there, but first-"


    "We will set out in an arrow formation with a hundred heavy men being the arrow head, and a hundred fleet-footed men being the feather, whilst the rest would surround the three of us and make up the shaft!"


    The vige headmanded whilst gesturing to the Left and Right Elders respectively;


    "Open the gates!" He bellowed;


    Jia!


    Bang!


    The three middle aged men who were there when the bloodied Ji Hai came into the vige lowered the vige''s massive pole gates;


    "Advance!"


    Shrap! Shrap!


    Shrap! Shrap!


    The five hundred men formed an arrow looking formation and marched out of the vige, with Ji Hai marching in front of his father and the two elders who were riding a rhino looking wild beast as they marched towards the location of the teau;


    "Our timing is perfect, we shall arrive at the location by tomorrow at dusk!"


    The vige chief spoke to both elders on either sides whilst Left replied;


    "Then we can use the cover of the dense jungle and the darkness of the night to advance without being detected¡­"


    "Hmm¡­ Your tactical thinking ability never ceases to amaze me, chief!"


    Right chipped in as the vige chief grinned to himself;


    "He will never see using!"


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the teau¡­


    Dara was already past opening his right great meridians and strengthening his physical body, and had just begun to unlock his principal meridians when he suddenly gave a heavy sneeze;


    Achoo!


    "Who could be thinking of me this much!?"


    He mumbled before sniffing and wriggling his nose, then he continued cultivating, but just as he closed his eyes, it was as if a cord snapped in his mind as his body shrugged intensely;


    "Unh, approaching danger!?"

 Chapter 61 - Battle Preparations [1] Training

    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the teau¡­


    Dara was already past opening his right great meridians and strengthening his physical body, and had just begun to unlock his principal meridians when he suddenly gave a heavy sneeze;


    Achoo!


    "Who could be thinking of me this much!?"


    He mumbled before sniffing and wriggling his nose, then he continued cultivating, but just as he closed his eyes, it was as if a cord snapped in his mind as his body shrugged intensely;


    "Unh, approaching danger!?"


    Dara sensed a foreboding aura descend upon him and though he didn''t know where the feeling came from but he knew it was a warning sign and instantly he sprang to his feet, bolted out of the hole and ascended the teau;


    "What happened, why are you breathless?" Uncle Min asked when he saw the frantic Dara;


    "I think there is an approaching danger¡­ I don''t know how but I can sense it¡­ it''s like an uneasy feeling that keeps pestering me¡­"


    "Go get your aunt¡­ I have to put out the ring of fire¡­"


    "Wait, what, why?" Dara fired several back to back questions;


    "We need to make them think this ce is deserted, that way we can hold the initial ground with the element of surprise¡­"


    "But anyoneing all the way here to get us would definitely know someone is here, and since we didn''t know when or how the person found us out, I think we should have the mindset that our surprises have been found out as well¡­"


    "Well- alright, how do you want us to do this¡­"


    Uncle Min realized that his idea was truly wed and since he couldn''te up with any new ideas, he had to dump it all on Dara;


    He didn''t know why, but for some reason, he just felt that whatever idea this kid came up with, no matter how insane it might be, it would still yield better result than his, thus, he trusted whatever n Dara came up with¡­


    "Firstly, how adept are you at archery?"


    "On a scale of one to ten, I would say a 6¡­ But your aunt Lin would at least be a ten¡­"


    Dara heard this but wasn''t sure if this old man in front of him truly understood the level of archery he was inkling at, thus he decided to give them a test¡­


    "Alright, go get Aunt Lin, I will start making bows and arrows; meet me at the base of the teau as soon as possible¡­"


    Dara instructed as he hurried down the teau, as he went to take some of the wood they had managed to mill out of the numerous trees they had fallen earlier¡­


    He had no tools, thus he could only make a simple bow, but since he only had vines around which weren''t stic enough, he opted to make thin flexible bows which could bend well enough to give each of their arrows the momentum they require to hit and at least immobilize their target¡­


    He brought out the little dagger he had with him and began to carve out flexible bows from the wood, and just as he carved out the tenth bow, the Uncle Min and Aunt Lin duo arrived at his position¡­


    "I need ten more of this exact type of bow¡­"


    Dara spoke before they even reached his position before picking up a wooden square bucket beside him and heading for the ring of fire;


    "Why do we need all these bows?" Uncle Min asked;


    "We don''t have an stic string since we are only stuck with vines, thus I n on using the bow itself as the flexible part¡­" Uncle Min nodded, but that still hasn''t exined the need for 20 bows;


    "Over time, the stress on the bow itself would be too much and snap, so we will need recements, otherwise we will be sitting ducks against them¡­"


    "Them? Who are the ''them''?"


    Aunt Lon asked in a confused manner but Dara didn''t even deign her with any response leaving Uncle Min to do that;


    "Eight of those bows would be for our archery training, the remaining 12 would be split amongst us; 4 each¡­" He added;


    "They are that many unh?"


    Uncle Min muttered and though he was slightly skeptical about the danger Dara imed to have sensed and was only believing the possibilities that it might be true, but he still decided to make the bows anyways¡­


    If his ominous suspicions turned out to be a simple case of paranoia, then they can simply save the bows for future use; but if it turned out to be true, all the better for them¡­


    Uncle Min had Aunt Lin begin to tie the vines to the bow to make taut bowstrings, whilst he continued with the process of carving out new bows¡­


    Min Hong brought back the wooden square bucket he had taken earlier, and when the duo saw it, they were once again stunned, but Dara simply picked up another wooden square bucket and went straight into the ring of fire to fetch out another bucket full of beast blood¡­


    Then he sat and left the duo to their tasks as he began to carve out thin strips of long sticks which had the girth of a baby''s pinky finger, and when Uncle Min saw it, he was once again surprised, though he wanted to tell Dara that the arrows he was carving out were too thin, but was there anything Dara had done so far that didn''t turn out good, urate or to their advantage?


    But out of sheer curiosity, he decided to ask;


    "Why are you carving such thin arrows, wouldn''t they break before they can prate to deep?"


    "When we are done, you should understand why I made them this way, and if you still don''t, then I would exin furtherly..."


    "But for now, we still have a lot of work to do and a very little time to do them all¡­"


    Dara added as the do got back to their immediate tasks, and after about four solid hours which brought the entire day to its close, they were finally done¡­


    Though, there was no sunlight descending on the horizon, but since the little natural light they had seemed to be fading more and more plunging them into the darkness, it was a no-brainer to figure out that the dusk was approaching, and this was perfect for what Dara had in mind¡­


    By now they already had twenty bows, about a hundred arrows and then Dara took 80 of these arrows and dipped their sharp edges into the beast blood as he took the remaining 20 clean arrows, buried ten poles on the ground where he had marked several spots on their body using the beast blood¡­


    Dara took the Uncle Min duo to the base of the teau which about twenty meters from the poles he had buried, but that was not al, then he had them ascend to the top of the teau before having both of them hit the center of the targets he had marked earlier¡­


    He had Uncle Min go first, and out of ten tries, only two hit the target at its exact spot whilst another two hit the target but not at the exact spot Dara had marked and the otherspletely missed the target altogether¡­


    Dara had Aunt Lin repeat the entire process, and truly she was much better than her husband since she scored 3 on precise target, another 4 on the log of wood and another three hit the target in other areas, whilst four of them missed her targets altogether¡­


    Then Dara used this little training exercise to rank their archery ability and he scored Uncle Min ten percent whilst Aunt Lin had a 20 percent sess rate;


    "Where the issues with your archery lies is that; previously you have been very reliant on the force behind the arrow rather than intricate uracy¡­"


    Dara added as he picked up a bow and arrow, looked towards his target and;


    ~Suo!~


    He fired one arrow in a single fluid motion, and instantly the arrow bolted of his bow as the duo beside him lost sight of the arrows movement and trajectory, but then;


    Tack!


    The arrownded on the target, hitting it squarely at bull''s eye, then Dara looked up and lectured;


    "You didn''t ount for the humidity and wind speed of the environment, and neither did you ount for the weight difference and speed of these new arrows which were utterly different from the ones you were used to practicing or hunting with¡­"


    Dara added before looking at the duo who seemed to be slowlyprehending the angle he wasing from¡­


    Dara had always been fascinated about archery and though he couldn''t fire one because he had no cultivation, that didn''t stop him from focusing all time into the intricacies, secrets and quirkiness of archery...


    Then when one coupled that with the fact that Sam was actually an expert sniper from the military [Though not world ss, but wasn''t too far off either] it woulde as no surprise that Dara was able to hit his target with such great ease and little preparations and little to no visibility;


    "I want you both to be able to double your current sess rate by noon tomorrow¡­"


    "I will be deep underground cultivating, I also aim to have opened all my meridians by the same time you guysplete your training¡­"


    Dara gave them training routine and target to aim for whilst he returned to his cultivation¡­


    "But we have no arrows left, how do you expect us to keep practicing?"


    Aunt Lin asked surprisingly stunned, but Dara simply looked over to Uncle Lin who sighed and nodded;


    "No honey, we would have to fetch those ones we have used or carve new ones¡­"


    He said and before Aunt Lin could look back at Min Hong to confirm if that was truly his intention she was greeted byplete silence which stunned her greatly, because the Dara she had just spoken to in less than five seconds ago was nowhere to be found¡­


    Dara left them to their training and went to continue his, and though he had made the little preparations he could make for the time being, the feeling of danger that woke him from cultivation only grew ever closer and stronger as the time passed, and Dara began to feel really unsettled because he wasn''t sure if the preparation they''ve made would be enough and he was also thinking about the duo practicing archery should in case they had to flee for their lives¡­

 Chapter 62 - 96 Principal Meridians!

    Dara left them to their training and went to begin unlocking his Principal Meridians, and though he had made the little preparations he could make for the time being, the feeling of danger that woke him from cultivation only grew ever closer and stronger as the time passed...


    Dara then began to feel really unsettled because he wasn''t sure if the preparation they''ve made would be enough and he was also thinking about the duo practicing archery should in case they had to flee for their lives¡­


    Though he might be stronger than all of the younger generation members of the Vige of Sang, Dara wasn''t so impetuous to think he was infallible by the slightly older generation members, not to talk of those of his parents age bracket and finally the vige chiefs who even his father would have to call uncle in terms of age bracket¡­


    Thus, he began his cultivation with renewed vigor and diligence;


    It was night time, which meant it was the time where the Dark Qi within thesends are at their most abundant and potent, and Dara sat within his pit having opened his eight great meridians¡­


    Then he shut his eyes and found the first of them all; the one channeled into his brain, and then he began to trace deeper from there until he found his first Principal Meridian...


    Then in just about two minutes, he had opened it through as the potent pure Qi from the Dark Qi he absorbed surged straight through it, fully opening it, just like a clogged drainage pipe which had just seen the dirt within it removed¡­


    Potent and pure QI gushed through this meridian and bathed Dara''s brain with it as his thinking speed overclocked like the CPU speed of the strongest gamingptops on the, whilst the dark and deathly part of the Qi surged into his hand of death¡­


    Dara found the next principal meridian, and there after he found the third, then finally, at thetter part of 10 minutester, Dara found the twelfth and then he began to unlock them all simultaneously¡­


    Brain, Heart, Abdomen, Blood, Bones, Tendons, Muscles and Flesh;


    Dara added twelve Principal Meridians to each of them bringing his total meridian number to 104, and at this point, he could handle anyone native within the Grey or the Dark Lands in a one on one or group battle, except they use sheer numbers to overwhelm him¡­


    "If I go by what Uncle Min has said, then I should perhaps be in the 2 Star Qi Creation stage by now, almost as strong as the vige chief of his tribe¡­"


    "The Dark Qi here is still potent and abundant, should I-?"


    Dara thought of continuing to unlock the Peripheral Meridians, but he decided against it for two reasons;


    Firstly, he really nned on using the extra potent Dark Qi in the Dark Lands to open them, and since they were going to be weaker than the Principal meridians and much weaker than the Eight Great Meridians, that meant he would need a much more potent Qi if he was to bring them to the same strength as his Eight Great and 96 Principal meridians¡­


    Secondly was the fact that he felt he had cultivated to fast and if he wasn''t careful, something might go wrong, after all, nothing ever goes so smoothly in life, most of the residents of the Dark and Grey Lands barely manage to open their 12 Principal Meridians, and here he was having an orthodox 96 Principal meridians instead¡­


    Furthermore, the world as he knew it only knew about an expert having 12 Principal Meridians, and since he doesn''t have any idea on how this technique he obtained from the Dark Soul was created, he felt using it carelessly mightnd him in a very chaotic quagmire which might end his cultivation journey if he wasn''t careful...


    Thus, as a result of that, he decided to strengthen all 104 of his meridians instead¡­


    He expanded them to their maximum stic limit to increase the rate at which he absorbed Qi, and also strengthened them to increase their flexibility, so as to cope with excessive pulsation or force of Qi output when doing battle¡­


    Thus, after about six solid hours, Dara was done cultivating, and since he still had a bit more than three hours before it was noon, Dara decided to sort through the two strange memories in his mind and see if he could obtain any information on battle tactics or maneuvers that might perhaps help them with their uing battle...


    Then he shut his eyes and sent his consciousness into his mental space¡­


    There he found the tree which had its root connected into his body, soul and mind; and from the changes he could see on the tree, he realized that the tree most definitely grows as he gradually cultivates and gets stronger;


    ''Perhaps, a fraction of the pure Qi I use in cultivating is being absorbed by this tree roots and used to nourish it¡­''


    ''Though the tree looks very important since it is attached to my body, mind and soul, but I really need to get more information about it to determine if it is as important as the amount of Qi I lose to it¡­''


    Dara thought to himself before sending his consciousness towards the golden beacon of light where he usually obtained that information from and approached it;


    ''I really need to control the amount of information I receive so that I don''t fall unconscious again¡­''


    ''Otherwise, if I fall unconscious for too long this time around only to wake up to find myself captured, or never wake at all, then all these efforts I have made over the past five months would have been for naught¡­''


    Dara then connected to the golden beacon of light, and just like it had done in previous times, lots of information surged into his mind, and after about five solid minutes when he felt his consciousness getting strained, Dara stopped;


    He had just assessed the Dark Souls memories, but he had no idea about the information he had just received, and thus decided to push them all to the back of his mind¡­


    He understood that over time as he begins to umte more knowledge and experience about the cultivation world and its intricacies, all these information would begin to show their usefulness...


    Thus he rested for a bit, before looking to his own soul which was seated in a meditative posture and then for the first time sent his consciousness into it, and then Dara discovered something that truly stunned him speechless;


    In there, within his own soul, was another beacon of golden light, but for some reason, this one seemed to have several mysterious scripts etched onto it, and just by looking at them, he found his mind grow befuddled and almost began to forget what he had learnt from the Dark Soul just moments ago;


    ''Such mysterious power!?'' Dara eximed in shock when he felt the effects of this ancient scripts;


    ''If I can tap into the powers of these scripts and be able to weaponize them, it would birth one of the most overbearing abilities in existence¡­''


    Dara thought to himself as he began to fantasize himself in battle and then hitting his opponent with the power of these scripts, and then the enemy forgets their battle techniques or martial arts...


    Or even worse, they forget the reason why they were fighting him in the first ce....


    Or for the sake of his fantasies see his enemy forget who he/she is entirely; that would definitely make him be the most fearsome expert within his battle ss, or even a bit higher¡­


    But all that was for another time; currently, he simply wanted to gain some basic tactical battle skills and knowledge, and without dwelling on too much ceremony, he approached this golden beacon of light whilst trying not to pay any attention to the ancient scripts scattered all over it¡­


    The he tapped into a part of the golden light where the ancient script had not reached, and once again, his mind received a dose of information once again, and this time, he could slightly rte to the information he obtained and a little of his worries were eased, and with a thought, his consciousness retreated from the mental space as his eyes opened¡­


    He looked up to the entrance of the hole and realized that it was already getting as bright as this ce could get which was like the amount of light we get around 7pm in modern day earth¡­


    He stood up and exited the pit and walked to the front of the teau just in time to see an arrow whiz past and hit the wooden target he had erected the night before, and on the wooden target he saw four arrows on target and another four around the pole with only two on the floor;


    ''Only a two percent increase unh?''


    Dara who had yet to see the person who fired the arrow thought it was Aunt Lin who was on target practice session, but when he looked up to see who it was, he was shocked to find Uncle Min just stepping away from their shooting spot whilst Aunt Lin was just grabbing her bow;


    "Eh?" He blurted in shock¡­


    This was the same Uncle Min who could barelynd five hits on the entire polest night, but was now hitting the target four times out of ten, with another four hitting the rest of the pole and only two misses?


    He was really impressed;


    ''If Uncle Min has improved this much, let''s see how much Aunt Lin has improved¡­''


    He thought to himself as he stood out of their sight and watched Aunt Lin step up to the shooting spot¡­


    She nocked an arrow to her bow and with less than five seconds in dy, she fired it;


    ~Doosh!~


    Chomp!


    The arrow moved with blinding speed which was the reason why Dara had made them so thin and light, and without Aunt Lin even looking to see if it hit or not, the arrownded right at the center of the target, and Dara couldn''t help but nod mentally inmendation of her efforts¡­


    One had to know that these arrows had no feather''s to aid their flight or trajectory as the tail itself was wooden and one with the entire arrow, thus, being able to retain such uracy despite the inadequacy of the weapon was a truly incredible feat, and Dara was impressed by it.

 Chapter 63 - Strong Temptations

    ~Doosh!~


    Chomp!


    The arrow moved with blinding speed which was the reason why Dara had made them so thin and light, and without Aunt Lin even looking to see if it hit or not, the arrownded right at the center of the target, and Dara couldn''t help but nod mentally inmendation of her efforts¡­


    One had to know that these arrows had no feather''s to aid their flight or trajectory as the tail itself was wooden and one with the entire arrow, thus, being able to retain such uracy despite the inadequacy of the weapon was a truly incredible feat, and Dara was impressed by it¡­


    "I was hoping toe get you once she was done with her target practice¡­" Uncle Min said when he saw Dara¡­


    Aunt Lin who was about to fire her second shot saw Dara and abruptly released the arrow in her fingers causing it to miss the entire pole;


    Dara at this point had grown about three inches taller, and whilst Uncle Min couldn''t notice it, she discovered it the moment sheid her eyes on him¡­


    His muscles had toned up a little, his skin were actually brightening unlike theirs which seemed to darken as the days pass¡­


    His skin looked supple and fresh like that of a new born and his hair were now bing lush ck and longer, falling over his face, and all that appearance apanied with his kind, innocent and smart nature was bing too much for the young Aunt Lin to ignore¡­


    Her dted eyes finally refocused and she noticed that Dara was looking back at her with a brilliant smile on the his face, she shook her head rigorously and turned to face her target pole, but despite her bow being pulled taut, she noticed she couldn''t focus nor could she aim the target perfectly;


    She kept thinking about the little boy and despite knowing it was unorthodox or at least shameful, she found herself unable to get rid of him from her thoughts, and the more she tried, the more her thoughts about him became stronger and stronger until she could no longer take it¡­


    She dropped her bow and rushed into their apartment, before going straight into her room where she slumped to the floor with her back to the wall¡­


    She was heaving and her heartbeat was rapid;


    "Oh no, I would end up causing problems for myself if this goes on¡­"


    She muttered to herself as she ced her arm between her bent thighs and locked it tightly with herps, and after about five minutes of shivering, she steadied herself stood up and noticed her skirt were wet¡­


    Whilst she was chiding herself for losing control to her immoral desires, she heard Uncle Min and Dara entered the dining area, and if they simply looked to the side from their current position, they would be able to see her and the skirt she was wearing which had been soiled by herher regions...


    In realization of that, she dashed to the corner of the room where she quickly swapped her skirts for a clean one before stepping outside¡­


    She tried her best not to make eye contact with Dara as she sat beside her husband grabbing his hand;


    "Your n is simple and precise and I believe it would work¡­"


    Uncle Min continued the conversation he and Dara were having outside whilst Aunt Lin was inside earlier;


    "Alright, I will leave you to it then¡­" Dara responded as he stood up;


    "Good, I will go gather some beast carcass then¡­" Uncle Min added as he also stood up;


    "What? You''re leaving?" Aunt Lin blurted frantically when she heard thest statement;


    "Eh?" Uncle Min was puzzled by the youngdy''s sudden surge of anxiety;


    "Yeah, I need to gather some carcasses for Dara''s ns to be effective¡­" he exined;


    "You changed?"


    Uncle Min added when he noticed his wife had changed from her long free skirt into a much shorter one that was higher than her knee, but equally as free;


    "What?"


    "Y-yeah, I um, I was finding it hard to move freely in the previous one so I had to change it¡­"


    She lied to her husband for the first time since they had known each other;


    "Oh, cool¡­ I like it¡­"


    Uncle Minplimented and she was about to sigh in relief when Dara added;


    "You look ravishing, Aunt Lin¡­"


    The oblivious Dara meant it as apliment and Aunt Lin knew it, but her mind simply yed tricks on her causing her to think he was being teasing, naughty and dirty, especially when she saw his innocent smile, but her mind tranted it to a mischievous one¡­


    She didn''t know when but she noticed that she was beginning to sweat, and she could have attributed it to the time which was noon, but it was currently winter, and there was no sun in sight, except for the little to no reflection of light it casted upon thend;


    "I will leave Dara in your care¡­ He will also discuss our n with you¡­"


    "Eh?"


    Aunt Lin almost choked in hear when she heard that not only would she be left alone with Dara, but she would have to stay close to him and have to listen to a battle tactic;


    "Dara, you don''t mind do you?"


    "Not at all, Uncle Min¡­ I have unlocked all my Principal Meridians already so I have enough time left..."


    "Good¡­ If you don''t mind, you could help her with her archery, she seems to have almost grasped the intricacies of the featherless arrows and I believe all she needs is a little nudge from behind and she would be able to achieve mastery¡­"


    "I will try my best Uncle Min¡­"


    Dara responded as Uncle Min finally left to grab his gears¡­ In less than ten minute, Uncle Min could be seen leaving through the secret entrance that was camouged with the fence around the settlement¡­


    Dara had purposely set traps around the fence should anyone go through the wrong part of the fence, then they would be skewed meat before they could even enter the cleared grounds within the fence¡­


    "Where would you like us to begin, Aunt Lin¡­"


    Dara walked around and sat just beside Aunt Lin who pulled herself away from his path out of instinct, but that action exactly caused the opposite to happen as her skin grazed past Dara''s skin and just the sheer smoothness and tenderness made her shiver from within;


    This was basic unadulterated temptation, and it was one she didn''t want to face¡­


    But Dara simply began to narrate his ns;


    "They don''t know we know they areing for us, thus, they would think they still have the element of surprise, and with that in mind, we must y along with their thoughts¡­" He began;


    "We would have Uncle Min act as the bait, and he would simply be moving around between the ring of fire and ring of death, and act oblivious to their arrival¡­"


    "The goal is to get as much of them as possible to enter our grounds, and then we shut the entrance and rain hell on those who have entered¡­"


    "The amount of men we can kill on their side from our initial contact would determine how the entire day would go down, thus, it is very paramount that your archery on that day is at peak, because our very lives would be in your hands¡­"


    Dara''s n was truly precise and simple; bait the enemy, lure them in, trap them and rain hell on them¡­


    "If there is anything you don''t understand about the n, you can tell me now, so I can make it simpler?"


    Dara sked but Aunt Lin who had been lost in thought whilst her eyes feasted all over his body had long lost interest in whatever it was that he was saying;


    "Eh?"


    "Um, yeah¡­ can you summarize it once again, I didn''t seem to get itpletely¡­"


    She stuttered when she realized she had spaced out and had been most likely caught in the act;


    "Nevermind¡­ Whenever I give the order, just kill as much enemy as you can, the more the better¡­" Dara exined;


    "But what would the sign be?"


    "A whisper?"


    "Or would you be close by when that happens?"


    Aunt Lin fired rapid questions at Dara;


    "Don''t worry, it is not subtle at all, and you will know it when you see it¡­" Dara replied;


    "Alright, since you are going to be our support through archery, then I suggest we get started on your target practice¡­"


    Dara spoke as Aunt Lin who had spaced out once again like a celibate who had been sex starved for 700 years came back to reality and followed him out to the shooting area¡­


    She picked up her bow and aimed at the target whilst Dara told her to pause, he wanted to be sure she was doing everything right; it was going to be dusk anytime soon and based on the ominous feeling he was getting, Dara knew they would arrive in about 5 to 7 hours trying to use the cover of darkness and wide trees to mask their approach¡­


    He stood behind Aunt Lin very close that though their bodies weren''t touching, she could still feel his presence ever so close, and Dara did that because he wanted to urately see what she was seeing, so as to better show her how to aim¡­


    After about two minutes of calibrating himself to a simr field of vision as hers, Dara looked into the sky and stretched out his arm, he felt the wind speed and the direction it wasing from just by simply sensing the way the hairs of his body moved and the direction with which they flowing through, and after getting all those parameters, he began his teaching¡­


    He ced his hands on Aunt Lin''s shoulders and pressed her back at a certain angle, then he raised her elbows and told her to stand in that pose without moving for ten minutes¡­


    He wanted her body to get ustomed to that pose, and after ten minutes he said one word;


    "Fire!"


    ~Psium!~


    The arrow went as fast as lightning, almost twice as fast as Aunt Lin''s best shot and hit the bull''s eye¡­


    "To make an arrow fly faster, you have to ensure that it does no other job other than to hit its target¡­


    Gravity can be ovee by simply knowing the weight of your arrow and shooting it in a specific path in air that would have little to no effect on gravity, and that is by using the wind to power its flight¡­"

 Chapter 64 - Grandmaster

    "Fire!"


    ~Psium!~


    The arrow went as fast as lightning, almost twice as fast as Aunt Lin''s best shot and hit the bull''s eye¡­


    "To make an arrow fly faster, you have to ensure that it does no other job other than to hit its target¡­"


    "Gravity can be ovee by simply knowing the weight of your arrow and shooting it in a specific path in air that would have little to no effect on gravity, and that is by using the wind to power its flight¡­" Dara exined;


    "Why would the breeze affect gravity?"


    Aunt Lin was really interested in Dara''s concept and theory that for the first time she found herself actually thinking about something else other than having him bestow his affection on her;


    "Why do you think things float longer in the wind than when there is no wind?"


    "Because the wind is moving fast?"


    "Yeah, you would be half correct¡­"


    "It is because it doesn''t oppose gravity directly which would be suicidal, since that would mean opposing the maic force of the entire, rather the winds seeks to cancel out the gravity as close to the ground as possible¡­"


    "Picture it like this; a giant is easier to be tripped to a fall, rather than actually carried to a fall, because when carrying the giant, you would be opposing his entire weight which is nigh impossible, but by cing an object in front of its feet at a specific angle, we use the weight of the giant itself to trip it to a fall¡­"


    Dara exined and though it was still a bitplicated, Aunt Lin showed her talent in learning;


    "So basically, gravity is easier to manipte the closer one gets to the ground?"


    "Exactly¡­ That is why anything within the wind falls at a slower pace than normal¡­"


    "So your job as an archer or when trying to fire anything to kill a long distance target, you must make sure that your shot follows the direction of the wind, thus the wind acts as extra power or fuel to cause your shot to travel a longer distance¡­" Dara exined;


    "Doesn''t that mean the wind can also alter the trajectory of the arrow?" Aunt Lin frowned in confusion as she chipped in;


    "Yeah, but that is why I made adjustments to your stance, and that is also why I am going to make another one¡­"


    Dara added as he walked behind Aunt Lin, but because she was slightly taller than he was and her arm slightly longer, Dara had to clinch to her tightly to make the exact adjustment he wanted¡­


    It was then, that Aunt Lin felt hisid shlong through his trouser and it stuck to her butt in a way that she could measure the length through what she was feeling, even in itsid state, it was still bigger than Uncle Min''s at full throttle, and she began to wonder how different it would feel, if Dara could fill her up with it¡­


    "The angle of your height trajectory determines how far your arrow will go, and the strength you put behind it when firing it determines how fast your arrow will reach its destination¡­"


    Dara spoke into her ear from behind which was more than erotic given her state of mind, and she found herself bing hot all over, but she tried her best to listen¡­


    "The angle of your width when firing the arrow would determine how much the wind would affect the trajectory of your arrow¡­"


    "Thus, where the true intricacies of archery lies is understanding your elements of nature and finding the specific spot and direction with which you can harness its power¡­"


    Dara spoke as he stepped back and Aunt Lin held her position, then Dra asked her;


    "What if I told you, you could hit that bird on our fence from here?"


    Aunt Lin looked at the distance between her current position and the fence, and then she saw the bird which was just about 6 inches in size, and she thought Dara was being ridiculous¡­


    Shooting a 6 inch bird over the distance of about 40 meters?


    She thought he was just trying to give her a confidence boost and should she fail, he would simply give her those speeches about it being her first time and all, but Dara simply told her;


    "Hold it, and fire when I tell you to¡­"


    Then Dara stepped in front of her, and Aunt Lin could finally see him from behind¡­


    His posture was as straight as a spear thrusting into the heavens in defiance and his hands held behind him like an Aztec Grandmaster of Zen appreciating nature¡­


    Dara meanwhile was simply feeling the flow of energy, breeze and humidity of the forest through every one of his senses;


    Ever since he unlocked his 96 Principal Meridians, he had be more attuned and sensitive towards the energy flow of nature and after just about ten seconds he blurted;


    "Fire!"


    ~Toof!~


    ~Swish!~


    ~Biuuu!~


    The bow which had been stretched to its limits sprung back to its normal state, catapulting the arrow which tore through the air with blitzing speed, but just as it got within the hearing range of the bird, a little breeze blew past the bird hiding the sound of the arrow, and just like an Owl on the prowl, the arrow silently reached the bird¡­


    Just like the bird cried in shock of abruptly finding an arrow beside it, the arrow impaled it cutting the cry extremely short before carrying the bird itself and impaling it on another tree just outside the fence¡­


    Aunt Lin froze in her firing position for a solid half a minute unable toprehend that she just aplished a feat that basically no one in the Dark and Grey Lands could ever aplish, and she did it with a Silver Tier Meridian power level, and that was bordering on supernatural by the standards of the Dark and Grey Lands¡­


    "Where did you learn your archery skills from?"


    "How can you do that?"


    Aunt Lin couldn''t believe her eyes and her brain was in utter chaos because it was one thing if Dara had shot the arrow himself...


    But to be able to make another person who was below average to achieve the results of a seasoned grandmaster just by adjusting their posture and telling them the right time to fire was something even seasoned grandmasters wouldn''t be able to achieve...


    Not to talk of the fact that it was on their first try!


    She looked at Dara and several natural mixed emotions surged within her;


    The fear of Dara actually dying from that beast kick and being possessed y something else;


    The sexual inclination from having someone so good at many things being around her, the joy that the person was actually close to her, and the happiness that she could be more than she actually was if she could learn archery skills from him¡­


    Dara himself didn''t learn the archery, it was like he had always been a grandmaster in terms of archery, and all the experience, feeling, equations, theories, intricacies all came to be part of his very being the moment he took that information from Sam''s memory¡­


    Then Sam who had been thought archery through advanced mechanics due to how technologically advanced his generation was, would definitely be godlike in a world where the very first technology is more than innumerable light years before being created [if it ever would]¡­


    Dara turned around and saw the shocked Aunt Lin who was looking at him like he was some king of monster and her rosy cheeks which reminded him that, if this aunt in front of him wasn''t affected by theck of light and heat within the Dark and Grey Lands, she would have been a stunning drop dead gorgeous beauty, if her skin was fair and not dirty due to the environmental effects¡­


    She was sexy, as she was well proportioned in the right ces, her waist was so small he could wrap his arm around it, and she was just at an average height¡­


    She was a truly enviable beauty, and the mesmerizing colors of her eyes was a constant reminder of that, but the nature and weather of the area had just tainted her skin so much that it would take a lot of purging, before her skin could be light again, just like himself¡­


    The reason why Aunt Lin was so attracted to him was because of his extremely athletic body, big shlong, but most especially his skin¡­


    Not only was Dara extremely fair due to the fact that he was able to split the dark and poisonous part of the Qi he absorbs during cultivation away from the pure one, and since he was using clean and potent Qi to cultivate, it would surely affect his appearance which became clearer and clearer¡­


    The meridians are channeled into every structure of the body; the brain meridian made his mind clear of unimportant and unproductive thoughts giving himrger mental capacity to think about important things logically, and there was also added boost in terms of thinking speed¡­


    His Flesh meridian as it is stated not only causes him to look more irresistible, handsome and gorgeous; it also causes his skin to be extremely resistant to natural effects like fire, cold and other harmful things, and as a matter of fact, Dara''s skin at this point couldn''t be pierced by any weapon wielded by anyone within the Warrior/Qi Creation realm¡­


    The heart meridian gave him more endurance and stamina, since it was nowrge and strong enough to pump more blood into every part of his body to increase their strength and functionality abnormally;


    The muscle meridian built his muscles and thenpressed it into itself to make it more tensile, tough and thick which made Dara''s figure very structured and toned;


    His blood meridian provided him with an insanely pure and rich blood, and one doesn''t need to exin the advantages of having an extremely pure, potent and mineral rich blood;


    The rest of his meridians all had self-exnatory abilities, only in an inhumane level¡­


    Thus, if Aunt Lin could be smitten when he only unlocked a few 8 Great Meridians, one could imagine the difference of an additional 12 Principal Meridians whichpounded the all these effects by twelve fold¡­

 Chapter 65 - A Domineering Arrival

    His blood meridian provided him with an insanely pure and rich blood, and one doesn''t need to exin the advantages of having an extremely pure, potent and mineral rich blood; The rest of his meridians all had self-exnatory abilities, only in an inhumane level¡­


    Thus, if Aunt Lin could be smitten when he only unlocked a few 8 Great Meridians, one could imagine the difference of an additional 12 Principal Meridians whichpounded the all these effects by twelve fold¡­


    Then if one should consider the fact that Dara actually had 96 Principal Meridians; that means the changes his body was experiencing at the moment was 144 times the normal [12 X 12 = 144]¡­


    Thus, Aunt Lin''s temptations weren''t baseless, because of three reasons;


    One, no one would be able to easily adjust to a 12 fold increase in another person''s beauty without being dazzled;


    Two, Dara was an opposite sex which wasn''t overly younger than she was, and that was not mentioning the fact that he was single;


    Finally, his level of smartness, intelligence, ability and finally sexuality was something that makes Aunt Lin grow instantly hot when she thought about it¡­


    Dara was obviously oblivious to all these since the only thing he was concerned about was his strength and it was the same for Uncle Min also which was why he didn''t noticed all these physical changes in appearance or else he particrly focuses his mind on them¡­


    But they were in the jungle filled with deadly beasts all around and there was an impending waring ording to Dara, thus, as a man, he would definitely not care about looks in this scenario, but women on the other hand who are drawn to pretty and shy things [which respectfully is in built into their nature], it was a no-brainer that Aunt Lin was currently in a sticky quagmire¡­


    "Should we try it again?"


    Dara asked when he reached Aunt Lin, but she didn''t even reply him, instead, she dropped her bow and hugged Dara tightly¡­


    This wasn''t a friendly hug, as she buried his face right within her sulent and plum boobs, something which initially caught Dra off-guard, but one which he couldn''t deny was a pleasant and refreshing feeling as all his worries seemed to flee like darkness at the slightest presence of light¡­


    Dara basked in the fragrance of her sexual maturity and it assaulted his brains to the extent that when Aunt Lin finally separated, his lower regions had already bulged beneath his shorts whilst Aunt Lin herself was feeling her thighs moisten by just hugging him, and when she saw the bulge in his shorts, they both blushed furiously and ran into their rooms¡­


    Aunt Lin didn''t mean to make Dara that way, every single nerve in her brain at that point just told her to hug Dara or she might die of overthinking, but Dara on the other hand who had never been so intimate with anything in his life was also finding it weird as to why he would be so hard just at the touch of someone old enough to be his aunt


    [Perhaps that was the edge MILFs had over teenage girls ordies; the alluring sexual maturity¡­]


    After about half an hour, they both came out after they have calmed themselves, for Dara, he simply channeled his thoughts into another tactics he could use in the uing battle, but for Aunt Lin, she took the more sexually matured way [I will leave that definition to your wildest imaginations]¡­


    Aunt Lin was more calmed and collected and was less affected by Dara at the moment which was a testament to how she relieved herself;


    Dara on the other hand came out with a cloak which Aunt Lin had made for him out of beast skin which had been dipped in ck beast blood to camouge their presence and scent¡­


    He was with four bows; one in hand and three worn on his back like a one armed backpack, he also had a quiver filled with what seemed to be 100 arrows¡­


    "Where are you going?" Aunt Lin added;


    "I have taught you all I can for now, you should ruminate on it and keep practicing your archery¡­" Dara didn''t answer her questions specifically¡­


    Moreover, the way he spoke to her was t and without any shred of emotion, and it really hurt Aunt Lin who taught she had pushed Dara further away from her emotionally just because she couldn''t deal with her urges and she felt sad and guilty¡­


    "Uncle Min should be here anytime soon, I have given him the role he would be ying in this fight, and I have given you yours as well, I am heading out to do mine¡­"


    Dara spoke as he stepped around Aunt Lin and headed for the water wheel they use as elevators, but just as he walked past Aunt Lin wanted to go after him but Dara stopped and tilted his head slightly towards her with a gaze that looked like an aggressive warning for her not to step any closer¡­


    Aunt Lin froe in her tracks and felt even guiltier as she finally managed to speak;


    "Be careful out there¡­"


    But Dara didn''t even allow her to finish her statement before leaving, causing a huge cloud of mncholy, guilt and fury to cloud Aunt Lin¡­


    She was so pissed that she took her bow and arrows, went to the shooting spot, pictured the target pole as herself, and began to shoot herself with boiling rage¡­


    "Why did I do that?"


    Doosh! Tack!


    She hit the bull''s eyes;


    "You are so stupid!"


    Doof! Piark!


    The second arrow went straight through the first piercing it in half;


    "Are you happy now!?"


    Poosh! Sck!


    She fired another one, piercing through the second arrow she had fired, and at this point, her eyes were already muddled up with tears and she couldn''t see anything anymore, but the sheer hatred she had for herself at this moment was directed at that pole¡­


    Then in that moment, nothing else existed in the world except herself, herself [the pole], and the hatred she had towards herself [the pole], and that was more than enough guidance to help her fire her arrows, as they kept hitting bull''s eye, piercing one arrow after another¡­


    Dara who didn''t know he had just awakened a monster, left the residence and after walking about 50 meters off the residence, he met Uncle Min who was just returning from his trip to gather beast carcass, and Min Hong had to say, this Uncle of his was really efficient, because the amount of beast carcass he was carrying was more than six times the size of his body¡­


    "You are already heading to your post?" Uncle Min asked in bathed breath when he saw Dara;


    "Yes¡­ You remember what I told you to do, right?"


    "Of course¡­ Just don''t forget to alert me the moment you spot them¡­"


    "Sure¡­ Remember, every ming arrow I fire indicates a hundred people¡­" Dara responded;


    "Keep safe, and if they seemed to be more than you can handle, return home quick¡­ Our defenses should be strong enough to ward them off¡­" Uncle Min advised;


    "Sure, but if I don''t return on time and they overwhelm you, you remember our get-away method;


    Use it to escape, I will find you¡­" Dara spoke before moving ahead whilst Uncle Min returned home¡­


    After walking another 50 meters putting him 100 meters away from their fence and 150 meters from their residence atop the teau, Dara stopped and found a very tall tree with lush and abundant leaves which could provide a perfect cover for himself, and then he climbed to the top and hid within the dense leaves as he prepared himself for what was about to ensue¡­


    Dara arrived at his post about two hours earlier than he thought the battle would have begun, but strangely after just half an hour of climbing the tree;


    Creak!


    Crack!


    Trash!


    Dara heard the sound of branches and thicket snapping as well as leaves rustling, and since there was no wind around, Dara knew something was moving right below him at the bottom of the tree, he quietly peeped downwards, trying his best not to rustle the leaves and give away his spot, but what he saw caused his eyes to dte¡­


    There was over 500 men spread out over 10 meters in three C shaped formation approaching their residence¡­


    The ones in front were strong, huge and burly with massive weapons in their hands which ranged from battle axes, to war hammers and there were about two hundred of them¡­


    The middle ring however consisted of smaller and thinner men who looked fast on their feet and they held weapons ranging from swords to daggers and they also numbered about 200¡­


    Then the final line of people consisted of mainly archers and they were about 100 of them, and Dara understood their battle tactics instantaneously¡­.


    The burly men would act like the shield and simply ram and hack through anything in their paths, destroying the avable defenses their opponents might have, causing a chink in their enemies defense...


    Then the fleet footed men behind them would exploit instantly by tearing through them with blinding speed, and finally the archer would support their blind-spots from afar¡­


    But if they knew the people living in this settlement weren''t more than five at best, why would they bring 500 plus men to fight them¡­


    It couldn''t be because they wanted to take over their residence either as that would also be an overkill, not to mention that they might destroy parts of the structure which meant they would have to start rebuilding again¡­


    Then that meant the reason they were here was to collect something important;


    "Could it be uncle Min''s father''s secret about the dark energies!?" Dara thought to himself;


    That was the only probable reason someone would send out a troop of this magnitude since it was a very powerful secret...


    But just as he came to that conclusion, he saw four people at the very back of the entire troop and he scrapped all that thought within two seconds....

 Chapter 66 - Chaos!

    Then that meant the reason they were here was to collect something important;


    "Could it be uncle Min''s father''s secret about the dark energies!?" Dara thought to himself;


    That was the only probable reason someone would send out a troop of this magnitude since it was a very powerful secret...


    But just as he came to that conclusion, he saw four people at the very back of the entire troop and he scrapped all that thought within two seconds¡­


    These four figures made Dara''s expression really solemn and dark; in fact, it was like he was looking at his mortal enemies;


    "Ji Hai¡­"


    Dara almost growled like a beast out of pure hatred for Ji Hai whom he still med for his sister''s death after he abandoned her to rescue him alone and also faced all the Obun''s that chased them¡­


    "They are obviously not here for me out of goodwill, otherwise, they wouldn''t need to sneak around like rats, and I wouldn''t have felt that sensation of deep danger either¡­"


    Dara mumbled to himself, and allowed the entire troop to move past him first, and then he whipped out his bow, picked an arrow which had been stained by beast blood as well as two rocks which he had picked along the way here¡­


    He struck the rocks together and as a flint touched the arrow tip, it was set aze and Dara turned towards the direction of the teau and aimed¡­


    He shut his eyes and tried to attune himself with the elements of nature as well as he could, and after about three seconds, one of the leaves on the ground got moved by a slight breeze, and instantly, it was like everything around Dara slowed down;


    Then the moment the leaf got flipped, Dara opened his eyes, and just as the leaf fell on its front, Dara released the taut bow;


    Toosh! Psium!


    The moment the arrow left his bow, the little wind which blew past simply hit the arrow slightly at the bottom and changed its position to nt upward a bit, and that was all the arrow need as it tore through the air towards the teau¡­


    By the time the arrow was to pass overhead the invading troops, the wind had reached their spot and rustled all the leaves on the ground, and as a result, the sound of the rustling leaves masked that of the passing arrow¡­


    Uncle Min had only just finished rolling all the beast carcass he brought back into a ball and filled it with beast blood when a ming arrownded just inches beside him¡­


    He initially squealed in fright but the moment he saw that the arrow waspletely wooden, he knew they were the only ones probably on the entire using a featherless arrow, and he instantly understood the meaning;


    "They are here unh¡­ Honey!"


    Uncle Min called out to his wife who came out still boiling with intense fury;


    "What is it!?"


    She asked almost aggressively which didn''t surprise Uncle Min because she had been grumpy ever since he returned and he didn''t know what happened between her and Dara, and he had nned to ask when Dara returned, thus, he didn''t bother to think too much about it;


    "They are here¡­"


    He said as he leaned a little backward for her to see the ming arrow which had justnded beside him;


    "¡­ and then seem to be only one hund-"


    He had barelypleted his statement when another ming arrownded two inches closer to him¡­


    Dara lit up the third arrow, and after about another three seconds, he let it loose, and the arrow went off like a happy free bird with so much grace and stillness that made it travel like a bullet;


    In a total of fifteen seconds, Dara had let all five arrows loose which in itself was extremely fast, and that was also including the fact that he had to calcte the movement of the wind to mask the sound of his outgoing arrow¡­


    Uncle Min felt like the arrow was directly shot into his heart when he realized that his initial thought of them having to defend against 30 to 50 men was a pipe dream sorge it could fit an airne¡­


    He quickly finished his preparations and had Aunt Lin stay at her post which was inside one of the buckets of the water wheel¡­


    She would have to lie within the bucket and hide, and it was from there that she would be doing all her real life target practice, and based on her current mood, one can only feel sorry for anyone who would be on the end of her raging arrows¡­


    Uncle Min went down to his post which was between the ring of fire and the ring of death, and just started doing any random chores, but the one Dara had picked for him was to actually sweep since that would keep him busy long enough¡­


    He was supposed to back them and stay aware of any iing potential threat¡­


    Dara had opted for a unique battle tactic, Aunt Lin was going to start the attack from the front and whilst all their attentions are being drawn to that forward attack, Dara was then going to start getting them from behind, and once their formation has been split, it would be time for they mayhem which is where Uncle Min himselfes in¡­


    Dara descended from the tree and ran faster than most wild beast in this jungle;


    He was literally shing through the jungle, and for someone who had a godlike superpower in terms of fleeing when he had no cultivation at all, there is little that could be said about his speed now that he has 104 unlocked meridians¡­


    He reached his destination in less than 5 minutes, and whilst still on motion, Dara whipped out apletely ck arrow which had been soaked in beast blood topletely meld it with the night darkness and fired it with aggressive force;


    ck!


    Aunt Lin nearly saw her heart leap out of her throat because of the abrupt loud sound of something hitting her hideout bucket with insane force...


    The moment she realized it was the sign which Dara had promised wouldn''t be subtle, she whipped out her quiver filled with arrows poisoned with beast blood, and whilst Uncle Min was still sweeping and the rxed group from the Vige of Sang where waiting to see how everything would pan out;


    Piiuu!


    A homing sound which was almost silent rang out, and just like everyone looked up to see what it was, two men suddenly fell lifelessly to the ground stunning everyone...


    But just as they looked at the duo, they noticed the left of the first man was bleeding like a fountain and his eyes was 99 percent popped out of his skull;


    They looked to the second guy, they saw an arrows which had sunk half way through his neck, and he was now clutching his neck and choking on his own blood;


    "What!?"


    "What is going on!?"


    These experts exploded into a frantic hubbub as their voice gave away their position within the wood;


    "Shit, we have been spotted!"


    The elder they call Left was the first to blurt out with a solemn expression;


    "Chief, we should advance now, and take that man as a constion for this¡­" Right added from the side;


    "We know nothing about their territory and we have lost the element of surprise, we would be at the mercies of their familiarity with thendscape if we advance carelessly, and that would result in a muchrger casualty¡­" The Chief analyzed calmly as he held his stance and waited¡­


    It was dark and they could barely even see Uncle Min in the distance and it was also windy, something which rustled all the fallen dry leaves in the area which served as a perfect cover for the nigh invisible arrow that was fired earlier, but whilst they were still debating on what to do, another six expert fell lifelessly to the ground;


    Aunt Lin was obviously raging due to her emotional frustrations at this point;


    "Chief, we can barely see them, but they can obviously see us, we will obviously keep suffering much casualties if we just stood here and nned when they pick us out in twos and sixes!" Left added frantically;


    "It is the useless Dara, and two other experts ording to my spy father, if we overwhelm them with our numbers, then we should be able to finish this in less than a quarter of an hour¡­" Ji Hai added from the front;


    "Chief your son has analyzed wisely, you should consider his suggestions¡­"


    Right added from the side; but the chief simply called one of their archers;


    "Kill that man¡­" he said, and the archer aimed and targeted Uncle Min...


    But just as he was about to fire, another arrow hit him right in his forehead, and he went straight to the ground lifelessly as his hands loosened firing the arrow straight at another one of their men who also joined him in death¡­


    It had barely been 2 minutes and they had already lost ten men, and they haven''t even seen the person who was shooting the down¡­


    The chief instantly got pissed off; "Archers! Get us a clear vision!"


    Instantly about 50 men set their arrows aze as Aunt Lin tried to bring as much of them down as possible, and this rapid firing led the Chief and his elders to think they were getting frantic;


    But she was only able to kill five of them who then killed three others before over forty ming arrows took to the skies, purposely heading straight for Uncle Min;


    "Are you all insane!"


    Uncle Min nched like a frightened cat when he saw over forty ming arrows headed for him...


    He sprung like Tom [Tom & Jerry] and sped off towards the teau as arrows began to fall on either sides of him, creating a small explosion that scattered mes across the entire field, until he crossed the ring of water which the light couldn''t reach¡­


    "Kill them all and I want Dara alive!"


    The Chief bellowed as these men roared battle cries before bolting towards the fence, and they were barely two meters off the fence when one of them had his leg catch a trip wire;


    Instantly, the massive spikes lined at the fence which they thought was there to ward beasts away abruptly catapulted towards their stunned group....

 Chapter 67 - Dara Initiates A Massacre

    "Kill them all and I want that Dara alive!"


    The Chief bellowed as these men roared battle cries before bolting towards the fence, and they were barely two meters off the fence when one of them had his leg catch a trip wire;


    Instantly, the massive spikes lined at the fence which they thought was there to ward beasts away abruptly catapulted towards their stunned group¡­


    Puchi! Splurt!


    More than a dozen massive spikes, the size of an entire branch with the girth of an adult humanps stabbed through these men, impaling them like a wild boar on a roast¡­


    Each of these spikes impaled at least four expertspletely taking over 50 of these men in one fell swoop as the rest of them had the first inkling of fear seep into their very souls;


    "March on!"


    The Vige Chief bellowed from a safe distance as the men forced themselves to follow the orders and run into the residence, and that was when the arrows began to target them one after the other¡­


    It was like 400 american football yers chasing a single opponent who was about to make a touchdown;


    But just as they ran ahead, some of them began to fall lifelessly, but it was at a very slow rate because they were now more prepared for the arrows and as a result, only one or two fell every other minute¡­


    The moment the Vige Chief and his two elders crossed Uncle Min who was now atop the teau pushed a crane like wooden structure out of the apartment, and loaded it with a ball of beast carcass which had been full to the brim with beast blood¡­


    The moment he noticed the vige chief had entered their residence, he brought up his dagger and shed down at a vine, the moment the vine snapped, the wooden structure catapulted the massive ball of beast carcass into the sky;


    But just as it was about hit the entrance of the settlement, Dara fired another ming arrow which hit the ball of beast carcass¡­


    Instantly, thebustible beast blood ignited, and the massive ball which was the size of a massive wine barrel exploded, scattering mes all over the entrance, leaving the Vige Chief and all his men with no way to escape through except to run ahead¡­


    Uncle Minunched another massive ball of beast carcass into the air and Dara fired once again causing the mes to scatter in every direction this time as several of these experts caught fire¡­


    Dara who was still about 20 meters from the fence of the residence was running over at full throttle, and once he got to the ten meter tall fence, he stomped on the ground with one foot as the muscle in that stomping leg expanded drastically¡­


    They bulged to almost twice their size, and catapulted Dara about 15 meters into the air and over the fence; Dara didn''t even wait tond before whipping out about five arrows and killing another five experts¡­


    Hended with a roll and stood to a kneeling shooting stance beforeunching three quick fire salvo, taking down three more experts again¡­


    The experts who were running ahead didn''t focus on the situation behind them because they wanted to get out of range of the archer, and in order to do so, the needed to reach the base of the teau and light a fire for them to be kept out of the dark and prevent being picked apart by the savage archer¡­


    But just after taking three more steps, the ground beneath them gave way and about a dozen experts initially fell into ring of death; they were instantly impaled by the beast blood coated spikes within the pit which slowly poisoned and corroded them¡­


    The next set of experts behind the fallen ones were just able to stop right in front of the pit, but the onesing behinds these experts couldn''t see what was up ahead and couldn''t stop in time, and as a result, they ended up pushing theirrades into their death¡­


    Since the battle had begun, over 60 burly men from the Vige of Sang had perished, with 25 of them dying to the ring of death alone¡­


    About another 20 fleet footed men had died to the archery of Dara and Aunt Lin; but the nimble, fleet footed men, simply didn''t stop and instead used the momentum of their approach to jump over the pit as the Vige Chief smiled at his troops quick thinking, but after running for about 10 seconds, the floor beneath the fleet footed men once again gave way as they all fell into another pit¡­


    But shockingly, these fleet footed men simply found themselves, fall into a pool of beast blood;


    "We are alright, it''s just beast blood!"


    They yelled to their counterparts to carry on with their advance, but just as the word beast blood entered the Vige Chief''s ear, he looked behind himself and saw the mes which were still burning over the scattered blood of the beasts, and instantly he came to a realization;


    "No, wait!"


    But it was toote as Min Hong had lit up another arrow, and fired it¡­


    The vige chief and the elders watched the ming arrow fly past overhead in slow motion and with cked jaws they saw it enter the pit, before an explosion the magnitude of 50 hiroshimas rocked the entire residence;


    Kaboom!


    mes of over 50 meters burnt out of the ring of fire and stood tall like a wall of mes¡­


    The experts within the pit were blown to bits of blood and gore, and those of the experts who were in the process of jumping over the pit when the explosion happened,nded on the other side of the pit dead, but still burning as the scent of burnt air wafted all over the area¡­


    The rest of the men halted in their tracks after seeing about 30 of theirrades'' die in the most gruesome way possible, but the arrows kept raining down and they were still 30 meters away from the teau base, blocked by a 15 meter tall wall of blue and ck mes¡­


    The more the mes burned, the greater their fear of being here rose, as the mes looked ghostly and billowed searing heat, making it feel like they were standing at the entrance of the devil''sir¡­


    Experts kept falling, and Min Hong also kept shooting them down¡­


    Now they were all trapped between two rings of fire, one in the front and the other one behind them, but the one towards the entrance was still jumpable, and as a result, the vige chief made a quick decision;


    "Retreat¡­ Retreat!"


    He yelled at his 300 or so men who were still alive, but just as he turned around, he saw the cloaked figure of a kid behind him who had just crossed the wall of mes towards the entrance;


    "None of you will be leaving her alive, today¡­"


    Dara growled in rage as he stared at the vige head with red eyes; these were the despicable schemers who caused the death of the only kin he had left in his; his elder sister Ji Dai¡­


    "Dara, you''reing with us today!"


    Left was the first to speak¡­


    He was sure that if they had Dara in their hands, the others who were attacking them would have to stop, but then Dara simply gazed towards him and with a ridiculing expression, he replied;


    "You haggard lousy mouthed fools,e get me if you have the ability¡­"


    Dara cursed and it really hit these old men like a hot p to their face as the vige chief ordered;


    "Men, seize him!"


    He waved his hands as about 100 men attacked Dara simultaneously, whilst the remaining 180 or so provided cover from them against Aunt Lin and Uncle Min''s archery¡­


    These men who were about 30 burly men, and 70 nimble experts bolted towards Dara with the desire to incapacitate him as revenge for their fallenrades; after all, the vige chief only asked them to seize him, he never mentioned if he should be in one piece or not¡­


    But Dara simply shook his head in pity as he stretched both his arms downward and two daggers slid out of his sleeves, straight into his hands as he grabbed them tightly;


    "Alright, let''s see what 104 meridians can do¡­"


    Dara mumbled to himself, and just as these men reached about five meters from his position, heunched himself towards them;


    Boom!


    Dara''s feet left a 12 inch depression on the ground as the experts saw a blur stab into their ranks, falling four of theirrades instantly¡­


    Dara''s eyes danced from side to side, up and down, calcting the speed and strength of his opponents as well as the trajectory of their attacks, as his 20 brain meridians pumped Qi into his brain putting him in a state of peak mental awareness and thinking speed¡­


    Stab! Splurt!


    sh! Sprrrtt!


    Dara stabbed one burly man in his abdomen and his guts spilled out as he threw up a mouthful of fresh blood;


    He dodged the sword strike of another expert who was so slow in Dara''s sight, that he could actually slit the expert''s throat before his arm couldplete the full arc of his sword strike¡­


    In Dara''s eyes, these men were at least twice slower than normal, and he capitalized on it perfectly, as these men began to feel like Dara had known their moves before they could even make it, because none of their strikes even managed to reach within 3 inches of any part of Dara''s body before the person attacking would fall to the ground lifelessly;


    This wasn''t a fight, it was a massacre!


    Dara stabbed, shed and even kicked one expert in the nuts with a leg which was about 8 inches in girth and the expert kept puking for 15 minutes nonstop before fainting¡­


    He just shed from one expert to the other like a specter or the grim reaper, reaping souls for the god of death¡­


    Even the vige chief and his elders could barely catch up with his level of speed and the fluidity with which his attacks were made¡­


    The randomness and irregrity in his shes, stabs and hits, and in less than 2 minutes, Dara hadid waste to over 35 experts, as he danced between their midst covered in the blood of his arch enemies¡­

 Chapter 68 - Death Palm!

    He just shed from one expert to the other like a specter or reaper, reaping souls for the god of death¡­


    Even the vige chief and his elders could barely catch up with his level of speed and the fluidity with which his attacks were made¡­


    The randomness and irregrity in his shes, stabs and hits, and in less than 2 minutes, Dara hadid waste to over 35 experts, as he danced between their midst covered in the blood of his arch enemies¡­


    An expert stabbed towards Dara''s ribs and Dara simply opened his armpits and caught the experts arm within it, and rotated across the experts body before causing the experts stab to stab into the chest of hisrade before Dara then stabbed him in the back;


    He bolted towards another burly man and jumped up sending his knee directly into the expert''s face shattering all the bones in his face;


    Daranded on this expert and dashed in a crouching stance in between two experts and came out behind them with his hands crossed in front of his face but his daggers dripping blood, and those two experts fell to the ground lifelessly;


    Dara was nimble, agile, aggressive, calctive and precise as the battle knowledge of both Sam and the Dark Soul floated into his mind, and the more Dara synced these battle tactics with his body, all his limbs became more familiar with the intricacies behind every movement in these moves and Dara''s kills per minute continued to increase until he was ughtering two experts every three seconds...


    Instantly, some of the experts protecting the vige chief and the elders began to take several steps backward in fear as they kept looking at the blood soaked Dara; a ten year old kid who was ughtering grown men like he was simply cutting grasses¡­


    He had no good emotions in his eyes; no fear, respect, humility or morals were left in those eyes...


    The only emotions they were reflecting was deep hatred that came from the depths of one''s soul, unquenchable rage that burned ever brighter the more he killed, and a specific knack for bloodthirst that told them the only way Dara was going to stop is either if they were all dead or he could no longer move anymore¡­


    Even Uncle Min and Aunt Lin who were initially awed by Dara''s fighting prowess were now getting worried at the way his eyes seemed to grow dead to killing as time passed;


    "Something is wrong with that kid¡­" Uncle Min muttered to himself but Aunt Lin heard clearly;


    "Archers!" The vige Chief called out;


    "Fire!" He added;


    "But vige chief-?"


    "I no longer care about collecting anything from this kid, I will force his parents to talk¡­"


    "I can no longer allow this kid to live on¡­ It would be akin to cutting the tail of a viper and then releasing it into one''s own home¡­"


    The vige chief exined as about 70 archers lined up to turn both Dara and the people he was fighting into moving hedgehogs, but just as they gathered together, Uncle Min loaded the wooden crane once more and fired it towards these archers specifically as Aunt Lin rose up and blurted;


    "Ignore us at your own detriment!"


    Toof! Shchuk!


    Kaboom!


    Aunt Lin fired a ming arrow at the massive ball of beast carcass which was overhead the distracted men, as a rain of sticky mes rained down on these archers who saw their arrows fire in random directions;


    Psiu!


    Dara dodged a random arrow just split seconds before it stabbed into his eyes as he looked to the screaming experts who were running around in mes;


    "Hyah!"


    The vige chief urged the beast he was riding which began to charge towards Min Hong with heavy stomps that made the entire ground rock and vibrate¡­


    Dara looked to the oing vige head, and with two rapid kicks to the guts, Dara flipped backwards as he sheathed his daggers mid-air and then firing three quick shots at the vige chief who dodged the first, and then used his massive sabers to block the other two, but just as Daranded, he saw left approaching from his left on foot and right doing the same¡­


    Left wielded a chain and right wielded a, and with a swing of their arms, theyunched these weapons towards Dara who frowned deeply;


    This was veryrge and the chain was also long and heavy, he could not allow himself to get trapped because that would spell the end of everything, and as a result the only option he had was to go head to head with the vige head and the charging bull¡­


    But just as these three shrewd men smiled at them cornering him, Dara simply revealed a smirk of his; he nocked three arrows at once and fired it at the vige head from three tight but difficult angles, and whilst the vige head was distracted from the iing triple salvo, Dara bolted towards him as he quickly pulled out another arrow and shot it with ferocious strength as the arrow went faster than the three he had fired earlier¡­


    The vige chief was stunned by Dara''s tactics; thisst arrow he just fired was heading straight for his beast''s left eye, and should he choose to defend the beast, he would definitely get stabbed by two of the three arrowsing at him;


    "Hmph!"


    The vige head snorted in disdain as he stood on his beast, stomped on it and jumped into the air to evade to of the arrowsing at him whilst using his sabre to block the third one¡­


    Buiheeheehe!


    The beast carrying the vige chief got pierced in the eye as it squealed in agony before falling and sliding towards Dara who was busy smirking mischievously at the vige chief who was mid-air, and it was then that everyone realized Dara''s true motives, but it was already toote¡­


    Dara ran ahead and stepped atop the iing dead beast before stomping on it and jumping into the air to greet the vige chief who was just descending from his jump earlier...


    Furthermore, due to the fact that he was mid-air, there was little to no room for him to maneuver himself, and as a result Daranded first, followed by several drops of blood and finally the body of the vige head whonded lifelessly on the ground with his mouth still agape and his eyes wide in shock¡­


    Dara had known the vige head would have chosen himself over the beast, and had also predicted that he would obviously jump upwards since he was already cornered on both sides by two of his three shots, and it was the inability to maneuver oneself mid-air that Dara had nned to capitalize on, and as a result, he simply finished off the vige chief mid-air beforending¡­


    It was a quick, simply but efficient tactic, and it was in that moment that the two elder''s attacksnded on the spot Dara had jumped off earlier, and without wasting the openings they have gifted him, Dara whipped out two coated arrows and fired it into the nks of both elders in a quick fire move;


    Puchi! Puchi!


    The and the chain were heavy, thus, the moment the two elders casted their weapon with both hands, it left their nks open and Dara fired his arrows at those spots exactly, and half the length of both arrows sank into the side of the ribs of both elders, as blood leaked from their mouths¡­


    They both pulled the arrows out, after all, they were stronger than their men as they have also unlocked their 12 principal meridians, but it was at this point that they noticed the ck liquid substance within their bodies which was corroding their organs, it was the poisonous,bustible beast blood; they had been poisoned and there was nothing they could do¡­


    The about 120 experts left all watched their vige elders spasm on the ground like earthworms in a bowl of salt; these old men convulsed aggressively before they began to bleed from all their orifices and then dying with their eyes wide open and an expression full of agony¡­


    But just as Dara turned around;


    Puchi!


    The sound of something stabbing through flesh and blood dripping rang our across the entire area which had been silent due to the death of the three elders;


    "Nooooo!"


    Aunt Lin screamed from her position as she tried to run towards Dara only to be grabbed by Uncle Min who restricted her as tears billowed from her eyes¡­


    Dara looked down to the person who had just stabbed him, and his eyes suddenly zed over in pungent hatred, he looked down at his chest area, and there it was, a dagger through the center of Dara''s ''Death Palm''¡­


    Dara had turned around to abruptly see Ji Dai stabbing towards him, and though he was caught off-guard, Dara was still at least twice as fast as Ji Dai, thus, the only option he had was to put his hand in front of the spot where his heart was, and the dagger sunk through the palm,ing out on the other side¡­


    But since it was the death palm and everything within the hand was dead, Dara didn''t feel any paining from it, and only plumes of ck smoke [Qi] came out of the spot where Ji Dai had stabbed;


    "Backstabbers!"


    Ji Dai raged as he fisted Dara in the face, removed the dagger from his palm and with a swift rotations, he yelled;


    "Death Palm!"


    Boom!


    Dara mmed his pitch ck palm straight into Dara''s chest before pumping all the Dark Qi within his palm straight into his chest;


    Ji Dai''s chest sunk in about 7 inches before he blood sprayed out of his mouth as he was sent flying over 20 meters, straight into the raging ring of fire¡­


    Dara looked at his palm, and the hole in the middle closed up right there in front of everyone''s eyes¡­


    His hand returned to normal since he had pumped Ji Dai full of all the Death Qi within it¡­


    Dara then stood to his feet and looked around at the remaining 120 experts who all dropped their weapons in slow motion before going down on their knees as they surrendered¡­

 Chapter 69 - Night Invasion

    Dara looked at his palm, and the hole in the middle closed up right there in front of everyone''s eyes¡­


    His hand returned to normal since he had pumped Ji Dai full of all the Death Qi within it¡­


    Dara then stood to his feet and looked around at the remaining 120 experts who all dropped their weapons in slow motion before going down on their knees as they surrendered¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Whilst all that battle was going on¡­


    Back at the Vige of Sang¡­


    Three figures abruptly appeared at the edge of the jungle close to the vige entrance before the clearing, and looked towards the vige¡­


    Then one of these three figures brought out one mouse looking beast which sniffed the air before squealing something back at the figure who was holding it¡­


    These three figures were all donning ck outfits which seemed to have been made from the carcass of a beast which seemed to have been dead a long time before they came across it, but after the rat squealed at them, they returned deep into the jungle before meeting up with a massive army of simr looking figures¡­


    They went past all these figures to the center of the army where three shriveled figures mounting three shriveled wild beast and dropped to their knees, before speaking in foreign tongues which wasn''t native to any human tribe or vige within the Grey and Dark Lands;


    One of the figures brought out the same mouse they had brought out earlier, and after the mouse squealed a simr message to these shriveled figures;


    Hoaaah!


    These figures howled furiously through their hoarse throat before all the army of ck figures got to their feet and began to invade the Vige of Sang¡­


    "I can''t wait for the spoils of war the Chief would bring back from their conquest¡­"


    "Hopefully they bring back a lot of young girls¡­ My loins have not seen action in a long while and might be growing stiff!"


    Two experts who guarded the entrance of the vige gates were busy chatting with one another¡­


    It was deep into the night now, and the ck Qi as well as grey fog were already billowing out of the jungle and towards the vige, but the ring of fire pit around the vige held these ck Qi and fog at bay, and as a result, these experts couldn''t see anything from the pit of fire outwards, which was where the jungle began¡­


    ~Hoooo!~


    A hoarse howl suddenly echoed out of the jungle as one of the two middle aged man abruptly stopped hisughter;


    "Wait!"


    "What!?"


    "Did you hear that!?"


    He conversed with his colleague but despite straining their ears, they couldn''t hear the initial howl the leader of those figures in the jungle had made earlier¡­


    "Are you getting paranoid again?"


    The guard''s partner joked as they prepared to return to their conversation, but then;


    Rumble! Rumble!! Rumble!!!


    "Is that an earthquake?"


    The partner asked, but the guard listened a little more intently, and that was when his eyes widened in horror;


    "No, they are footsteps, we are being invaded!"


    He yelled at his partner who took picked up a string which had a ball tied to its end;


    He gathered every ounce of strength in his body and threw it way into the jungle before the partner lit up an arrow and fired it;


    Whoosh!


    The arrows whizzed through the air;


    Tack!


    It hit a tree as a flint dropped from the mes at the tip of the arrow and onto the ball his partner had slingshot earlier, which apparently contained beast blood;


    Kaboom!


    A massive explosion that woke the entire vige ensued in the jungle as plumes of fire and smoke that were over 20 meters tall erupted from the jungle and instantly, the two guards saw the people who were invading them;


    "Obuns!"


    He yelled but just as he tried to look at his partner he noticed that a dart of some sort had impaled his partner''s throat...


    Then from the way some ck veiny pattern spread from the point of the dart all over his convulsing partner''s face, the guard knew he had been hit by a poison dart from the poison immune Obuns¡­


    He instantly grabbed a different sort of arrow and aimed straight for the sky before firing it straight into the sly and after reaching a certain height, the arrow exploded into a massive plume of mes that floated in the sky for over 5 minutes before leaving a thick cloud of smoke which was left floating due to the humidity of the atmosphere turning it into a cloud of smoke¡­


    This smoke could be seen as far as Dara''s settlement, and when the surrendering experts saw this, their faces nched in fear as they erupted to their feet;


    "Obuns are invading!"


    They all scrambled to their feet, took their weapons and ran towards Dara whose face darkened and braced for another battle, but just as they got to his position, they simply ran around him and continued on to the entrance of the settlement and left¡­


    Dara managed to grab a young expert amongst the fleet footed men and asked, what is going on;


    "Obuns are invading our vige, and our families, and loved ones would be helpless because the chief brought 90 percent of our total manpower here¡­"


    "I''m sorry, but I really have to go; my four year old sister is the only family I have left and she is within the vige right now!"


    The expert was already shedding tears as he continued his run, but just before he could move, Dara grabbed his arm and pulled him back;


    "My route is shorter!" He told the expert before he ran deeper into the settlement before calling out;


    "Uncle Min, Aunt Lin, I need you down here right away¡­"


    The duo heard their names and didn''t waste any time before riding the water wheel down to the base of the teau, and before they could even descend to the ground, Dara had already dished out instructions;


    "Pull off the boulder blocking the spring!"


    "What!? There would be catastrophic burst and the pressure might kill anyone in front of it¡­"


    Uncle Min frantically replied as he jumped out of the water wheel bucket before it could even touch the water;


    "Do it!" Dara bellowed without sparing a nce at Uncle Min;


    "Use the boulder to block the ring of water; that would prevent the ring from flooding!"


    He reached the front of the boulder in no time before looking at the expert and saying;


    "Do you trust me!?"


    "I guess¡­"


    The frantic expert blurted the first statement that came to his mind;


    "Do it!"


    Dara bellowed once again as Uncle Min wrapped a vine around the boulder and then connected it to the moving water wheel¡­


    Creak! Creak! Creak!


    The water wheel squealed under pressure as the weight of the load it was trying to pull was heavier than the momentum the flowing water could provide¡­


    Uncle Min instantly jumped into one of the buckets to add extra weight to the water wheel¡­


    Aunt Lin also did the same and eventually they were able to keep it moving and then the vine was able to simply shift the boulder by half a foot;


    Then the extremely powerful force from the pressurized spring pushed the boulder out of the way as a massive wave of water burst out of the spring...


    The gush mmed into Dara who shielded the expert and took the hit from the wave of water, bearing the brunt of the collision as he and the expert were flooded down the initial river which the water initially flowed through¡­


    They were being flushed at almost thrice the normal speed which Dara could move as they cut through the jungle using the same channel with which the water flowed through the entire jungle which cut their distance by three fold¡­


    If one coupled a threefold decrease in distance with a threefold speed, then the amount of time it took the experts to travel from the vige to Dara''s teau was then reduced by nine fold, as Dara and the expert traveled through the jungle with breakneck speed whilst maneuvering themselves to avoid the asional boulders or rock that were jutting out of the river channel¡­


    Aunt Lin and Uncle Min watched the duo as they were being flushed out of their sight, and when they looked at the general direction of Dara and the expert, they were able to see the massive plume of smoke in the sky, and they didn''t need to be a genius to couple it with how frantic the rest of the experts fled the scene;


    "There is trouble in the enemy''sir!" Uncle Min announced whilst Aunt Lin frowned before asking;


    "But why is he rushing into the enemy''s base?" Uncle Min then went deep in thought before a realization hit him;


    "We rescued Dara from a flowing river which was flowing through the valley which came from that direction¡­"


    Uncle Min used his hand to trace a point from the smoke plumes down to the ce they were previously living in;


    "¡­ and ording to him; he said he was being chased by members of his own tribe who were looking to kill him-"


    "-Are you trying to say that the ce being invaded is the vige Dara grew up in?" Aunt Lin didn''t even let Uncle Min finish before chipping in;


    "Yes, I believe so¡­"


    "Moreover, from the way he kept ughtering all these men; especially those three old men and that kid, it wouldn''t be farfetched to say these people were the tribe members he was referring to¡­" Uncle Min continued;


    "But why would he be helping those who are trying to kill him?" Aunt Lin asked in confusion...


    "How am I supposed to know that? But one thing I know for sure is that, there is always a bit of good in a ton of bad and vice versa¡­"


    "Maybe the vige still holds a ce in his heart, after all, he grew up there¡­." Uncle Min added;


    "I think we should tag along just in case-"


    "-That wouldn''t be needed, we would just be an extra burden if we do that¡­" Uncle Min begged to differ;


    "Moreover, he was able to kill their head which I believe is the strongest expert in the vige, so I don''t think there is anyone in that vige who can possibly defeat him¡­"

 Chapter 70 - Two Battles In One Day

    "Maybe the vige still holds a ce in his heart, after all, he grew up there¡­." Uncle Min added;


    "I think we should tag along just in case-"


    "-That wouldn''t be needed, we would just be an extra burden if we do that¡­" Uncle Min begged to differ;


    "Moreover, he was able to kill their head which I believe is the strongest expert in the vige, so I don''t think there is anyone in that vige who can possibly defeat him¡­"


    "Alright, we should clean up this area before the beasts around here get drawn by the blood¡­"


    Uncle Min added as he began to repair the damages done to their defenses, including the fence, its entrance whilst recing the spikes¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the Vige of Sang, the Obun''s were already running rampant all over the ce¡­


    They brought a long wooden structure which they fell over pit of mes and used to cross into the vige of sang¡­


    Many homes were already up in mes, and the corpse of men, women and children were already littering the entire area¡­


    ~Howl!~


    The Leader rallied all of them as they began to barge into every settlement searching for something, until they eventually found what they were looking for, but when the Obun who saw it presented it to the three elders he was instantly beheaded;


    "H- Ho- Howl!"


    One of the Obun elders cried into the sky in extremely agony like it had just lost its closest kin;


    Roar!


    It roared and pointed to the deeper parts of the vige which is where the main settlements were located, and instantly, all the Obuns rushed towards the area, ughtering everything that has breath on their path¡­


    The vige was weak, and the residents of the vige were simply no match for them, not even in a 3 to 1 battle¡­


    Parents had crawled under their tables and furniture with their children in a futile bid to hide from the Obuns, but it was no good as they all began to hear their neighbor''s screams and the sound of something munching aggressively and humans choking in what appeared to be most likely their own blood¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Dara had just exited the jungle when he noticed that the vige defenses had already been breached, but before he could even blink, the expert that came with him ran across the wooden structure the Obuns brought;


    But unluckily, it had been scorched by the fire pit and as a result, the moment the expert crossed to the other side, the wooden structure finally couldn''t endure any longer and broke, falling into the pit of mes¡­


    Dara looked at the expert with a furious frown;


    "I obviously can''t head over to the jungle now to start hacking trees and start building a bridge to cross this fire pit¡­" He spat through gritted teeth¡­


    But then he looked at the bridge the vige guards usually lowered whenever they wanted to go in and out of the vige, and saw that it was broken into three separate parts¡­


    But whilst the fire pit was about 20 meters wide, Dara could only jump about 10 meters at the longest¡­


    ~Argghh!~


    Dara heard the screams of the vige residents;


    "No¡­ not my baby¡­ Please spa-"


    A woman who was obviously begging for her baby''s life didn''t even get to finish her statement before an Obun plunged its fangs into her neck, ripping out the veins there and chomping over and over again on the open wound as the woman choked to her death¡­


    Then Dara''s keen eyesight was able to make out an Obun taking the new born baby over to one of their elders who was already licking its lips with an evil grin¡­


    "Shit, I need to do something fast!"


    "I need to take their attention away from these helpless vige-"


    "That''s right¡­ Distraction!" Dara''s eyes widened as he came to an abrupt solution...


    He whipped up one of his blood coated arrows and aimed, whilst the expert that came with him kept looking at him like he was wasting his time, but despite all that, he couldn''t continue on into the vige by himself, and thus he had to wait for Dara toe to his aid once again¡­


    Dara himself was feeling a bit skeptical about this shot; the Obun elder he was trying to target was over 100 meters away from him, and whilst he had once helped Aunt Lin shoot down a bird about 60 meters away back home, 100 meters did pose a little bit of a challenge to him¡­


    Dara aimed and calmed himself as everything around him slowed to a crawl;


    All sounds were drowned and every other image in his eyes went pitch ck with the Obun elder he was targeting appearing in a reddish color;


    He had pulled the bow more than possible and it was already at its stic limit; He had one shot to do this, and time was running out since the Obun carrying the baby was almost at the elder''s position;


    Boof!


    The bow instantly straightened itself with more than three times the amount of power Dara pulled it with, catapulting the blood coated arrow with almost 5 times the power of his pull¡­


    The arrow passed through the pit of fire and came out of the other side with its tip burning with blue mes;


    Ssuuuiiii!


    It was chaotic within the vige and there was noiseing from every direction camouging the sound of the arrow as it traveled faster than a humming bird¡­


    The Obun Elder abruptly looked towards the direction of the iing arrow, but it was already toote to do evade as it ced its arm in front of its face but the arrow simply went through its arm and lodged itself into its throat;


    Bam!


    The Elder was actually sent flying more than ten meters across the ground capturing the attention of every Obuns in the area, and when it finally came to a halt, the mes at the tip of the arrow reacted with its blood and then; Kaboom! The Obun Elder''s head popped off his neck and flew into the sky before exploding about 15 meters over the neck it just popped off¡­


    Instantly, al the Obun''s looked towards the entrance of the vige and saw two figures standing there; one on their side of the fire pit, and the other at the opposite side of it, holding a massive bow that was almost a third of his height;


    ~Howl!~


    The second Obun Elder; the one which howled in pain earlier, howled once again before pointing towards Dara and the expert as over 90 percent of them began to bolt towards the expert and Dara like a school of sardines rushing toward a single bait thrown off a fishing boat¡­


    The expert nched in utter fear as he now began to wish he had never crossed the bridge in the first ce¡­


    The Obuns came bustling over, but just as they almost reached the spot where the expert was, a massive axe abruptly flew past Dara''s head from behind, only about some inches away from his head as it hurtled towards the expert who ducked and mmed into the forehead of the fastest Obun bolting over;


    Roar!


    A war cry rang out from behind Min Hong as he saw the rest of the experts from the vige who left them behind earlier run out of the jungle towards the pit of fire, but when they noticed there was no bridge to cross the pit of fire, they ground to an abrupt halt¡­


    The slower burly mening from behind having seen the situation up ahead branched for three separate trees;


    Then as if being coordinated by some mysterious forces, the first burly man mmed the axe in his grip into the base of the tree, sinking its de a third through the tree, before another burly man with a massive hammer popped his muscles and mmed the hammer straight into the base of the tree where the axe hadnded earlier sting itpletely off its lower trunk¡­


    Crack! Craka!


    The tree shifted off its lower trunk and nted itself to the ground whilst standing before falling towards the wrong direction, and it was at this point that a third burly man rammed his body directly into the tree;


    Bam!


    The falling tree was abruptly jolted towards the pit of fire, falling across it and creating a bridge which these experts ran across onto the other side to meet their fellowrade who had followed Dara over¡­


    At this point, the Obuns had reached a position of about five meters from their position, and then the second battle began¡­


    Dara stood behind the entire battle and supported these expert with the remaining 30 or so blood coated arrows in his quiver, which at the end of hisst shot had fallen 30 Obuns, never to rise again¡­


    Then he whipped out his twin daggers and bolted through the battle itself, tearing across it like hot knife through butter, and everywhere he moved through left not only a trail of ck blood behind, but also choking Obuns who were still grabbing their throats or veins in a bid to stop their spraying blood¡­


    Dara was by no means concerned about the battle ongoing at the entrance of the vige as he killed his way from the front of the battle to thee back and continued on to the center of the vige, his attention not leaving the Obun leader who had finally received the baby from its subject¡­


    His muscles contracted and his bones condensed as he exploded with insane speed;


    Whoosh!


    Dara dashed past an Obun without actually attacking it;


    "Eh?"


    The scared Obun who had seen this little 10 year old boyy waste to hisrades on the way to him appeared stunned as to why Dara didn''t even pay him any attention;


    But just as he returned its attention towards the battle at the entrance, its vision floated into the air, rotated 360 degrees before abruptlying to a halt, and now, the Obun was seeing things sideways, and the ground was also pretty close¡­


    But just as it tried toprehend what had happened, it saw its own headless body fall just in front of its face, and that was the moment it hit him; he had just been beheaded, but by who?


    Dara behind him and found the expert he came with following directly behind his with a massive sword that was now coated in ck Obun blood, he then gave a slight smirk before speeding up.

 Chapter 71 - Dara Battles 2 Qi Creation Opponents

    But just as it tried toprehend what had happened, it saw its own headless body fall just in front of its face, and that was the moment it hit him; he had just been beheaded, but by who?


    Dara behind him and found the expert he came with following directly behind his with a massive sword that was now coated in ck Obun blood, he then gave a slight smirk before speeding up¡­


    The Obun Elder was just about tond a bite on the supple skinned recently born baby in its hands when it saw Dara bolting over with pure hatred in his eyes;


    Howl!


    The First Obun Elder who was obviously incensed by the troubles and pain these humans had brought him today dropped the baby on the ground before nodding too its partner the Second Obun Elder as they both wielded what seemed like twin shabbily made ck swords that was actually rough all over with serrated edges and bolted toward the advancing Dara;


    "Leave these two to me; rescue that baby and then go find your sister!"


    Dara blurted at the expert rushing that came with him as he saw the two Obun Elders leap into the air before descending with a vicious hacking towards Dara from different difficult angle¡­


    Dara saw four bad serrated swords headed for hi from four different angles and instantly knew that there was no way he could evade these strikes, as he opted for using a soft style fighting technique with the difference being the fact that he wasn''t bare handed¡­


    Dara side stepped from the angrier First Obun Elder who he was sure had more power in his attack, but that simply ced him in the direct path of the Second Obun Elder''s attack;


    ng!


    Dara took the attack head on with a block, but the disparity in length, girth and durability between his dagger and the Obun Elder''s twin swords was very apparent as Dara was sted backwards, tumbling over twenty meters, whilst the angry First Elder leapt into the air once again and without waiting for Dara to stop or bnce himself, it hacked down at him viciously¡­


    Dara in his tumbling motion caught a glimpse of this First Elder''s attacks, and instantly, he stamped both hands into the ground and borrowed the momentum of his tumble to do a backflip that simply pushed him about three meters further than where he was supposed to stop; Luckily for him, those three meters proved vital as the First Elder''s twin swordnded just about a meter from his legs;


    But the moment he escaped from the First Elder''s attack, the Second Elder abruptly appeared from behind the First Elder, stomped on his partner''s back and hack towards Dara once again who quickly rolled to the side;


    Bang!


    The sword lodged itself into the ground, and as if expecting Dara to make such a move, this Second Elder abandoned the twin swords instantly before kicking aggressively at Dara who could only cross his arms in front of his face to prevent it from being smashed by an aggressive kick;


    Boom! Howl!


    Though, the Second Elder kicked Min Hong, sending him tumbling about another ten meters, it still howled in agony as it felt like it had kicked a 1000 ton rock, except this one felt like pure lead¡­


    Its foot twisted in an odd angle, and Dara himself sustained a heavy injury since the bones in his arm had now cracked slightly;


    "One star Qi Creation Stage!?"


    "How!?" Dara blurted in shock;


    The power behind the Second Elder''s kick was almost as powerful as his strongest blow, and he had a battle prowess equivalent to a 2 Star Qi Creation stage, and if the Second Elder was this strong, then what about the angry First Elder?


    Dara thanked his stars for opting to evade the First Elder''s attacks and blocking that of the Second Elder''s because, if he was to follow the power trend, then the First Elder would definitely be stronger than the Second Elder which meant he should be in the 2 Star Qi Creation stage or 3 Stars¡­


    Furthermore, with the First Elder being in such an incensed state, then its vicious attacks would obviously be equivalent to the power level of a 3 or 4 Star Qi Creation stage¡­


    Dara rapidly weighed his options since these two Obun Elders were ying tag on him, and from the way things were looking, it was efficiently working as they had already used him to mop the vige ground almost three times now in the timespan of about two minutes;


    He was clearly at a disadvantage and Sam''s military battle tactics weren''t doing SHIT!


    "Damn! My hand hurts like hell!"


    Daramented as he felt a level of pain he had never felt before in his life;


    ''But how can these guys possess so much power in such a ce!?''


    Dara almost had a question mark hanging over his head as he was still befuddled by these Obun''s level of power¡­


    "Ha-ha ha¡­ Y-yhu peoshple kilshed muy shon¡­ Hai shll bleedsch theesh vigshe drai!"


    [Ha-ha ha¡­ Y-you people killed my son¡­ I shall bleed this vige dry!]


    The First Elder who impressively still had the cognitive capability of speaking stunned Dara and despite speaking in unclear tongues, Dara could still understand, after all, this was the kind ofnguage he was also speaking about 7 years ago¡­


    "Killed your son!?"


    Dara was stunned once again, as he remembered the Obun Leader he had killed thest time that was rambling something about Lord Ru ordering them toe gather their head and stuffs¡­


    "Was that your son!?" "And how in the hell did you know I killed him!?"


    Dara fumed towards the First Elder, trying to get more information out of him, if he could¡­


    But the First Elder simply stretched his left hand towards Dara and opened his palm to reveal some ancient rune which seems to have be burnt into his palm, and with all intent and purposes, it was the exact replica of the one the Obun Leader he killed back then had in his palm¡­


    Then to Dara''s dismay, the First Elder bit its finger and shed the blood across that mark, and instantly, the area around this rune rippled and then Dara could see a clear video of not only his face, but the way his demeanor was when he shot the arrow that killed the Third Obun Elder a while ago appearing on the First Elder''s;


    "My face sure looks handsome in that clip, but that was that guy, not your son!


    Dara pointed at the Third Elder as he continued to push his luck, then the Second Elder stepped forward and pointed at Dara, made a killing motion with its thumb across its neck, before pointing to himself, then the palm and then the Third Obun Elder;


    It then shook its head sideways before pointing at himself and nodding¡­


    Dara frowned in curiosity, he seemed to understand these guysnguage as he reyed the Second Elder''s actions to decode the message;


    "I kill you, your palm not your Third Elder, you Yes!?"


    Dara decoded the message but they still sounded wrong in his head and mouth, as he rearranged the message once again;


    "I kill you- oh the video!"


    "The video is not the Third Elder but you!?"


    It sounded a little more usible this time, but Dara still decided to simplify it more as he wracked his brain;


    "If I kill you, the video isn''t the Third''s but yours!?"


    "Oh snap, I got it!"


    "If I kill you, the thirds image wouldn''t appear in that scene but yours, which meant only thetest death amongst you ranks would appear!"


    The he saw them nod their heads as Dara realized that the moment he killed the Obun Leader back then, it must have intentionally stretched its palm for him to see it well, so that his own people would see the face of the person who killed it¡­


    "Fantastic technique, but that only brings me more question and no answers;"


    "How are you people who are presumed to have no intelligence even develop a technique?"


    Dara asked but the First Elder only got angrier;


    "Oh, that hurt your feelings!?"


    Dara asked tauntingly as he looked to his side and saw two swords beside a dead random viger; he rolled to the side, grabbed it, looked up only to be greeted by four diagonal sword shes aimed towards his nks;


    ng!


    The attacksnded simultaneously with as Dara''s arms were pressed inwardly since he was using the sword on his left hand to block the attack from the First Elder, whilst doing the same to the Second Elder with the sword on his right hand¡­


    The two elders then pressed their swords downwards, withal their strength, pressing it onto Dara, whose arms were resisting more force than they can handle, and in that light, the bones in his arms cracked further about another half an inch, meaning the bones in Dara''s arms were only an inch away from breakingpletely¡­


    But luckily for him, the First Elder seemed to find a decent opening as in Dara''s exposed chests, and sent a vicious kick into it;


    Bang!


    Dara tumbled like a barrel that fell on a highway, his figure punched several holes and gullies on the vige ground to the extent that when he eventually ground to a halt, the center of his ribcage was already an inch away from splitting apart, he rose his heard up and;


    Blergh!


    Coughed out three mouthfuls of fresh blood, and now he was winded¡­


    He looked up through his blurry eyes and saw the figure of the two elders dashing over once again and the only reaction he had was to lie t on his back, as the sword sh from two Obun Elders shed past the empty air, only inches away from his forehead¡­


    Dara''s vision was greeted by the fall of some strand of hair which he realized were actually his own, because the sword sh which the Obun Elders had decided to use for beheading him ended up taking his hair instead¡­


    Then he sprung to his feet and turned around to look at them with a mischievous grin;


    "You two have done enough- Now it''s my turn!" He bellowed at them....

 Chapter 72 - Unexpected Turn Of Events

    Dara''s vision was greeted by the fall of some strand of hair which he realized were actually his own, because the sword sh which the Obun Elders had decided to use for beheading him ended up taking his hair instead¡­


    Then he sprung to his feet and turned around to look at them with a mischievous grin;


    "You two have done enough- Now it''s my turn!" He bellowed at them...


    He dropped his hands before standing on one leg, and hanging the second one just in front of him, with both of his hands outstretched into a palm with one ahead of the other;


    Then he made a e over'' hand gesture with his furthermost palm, as the Obun Elders became more enraged and bolted toward him with two blunt, but sturdy and serrated swords in hand;


    Then just as they reached a certain distance to Dara, he instantly bellowed;


    "Tenketsu!"


    The he bolted towards these Obun Elders in a zigzag pattern trying to disorient them by swapping between whom to attack first¡­


    When they all got within striking range, the First Obun Elder struck in a vertical downward hack, looking to split Dara into three different parts, whilst the Second Obun Leader also struck in a diagonal horizontal arc, trying to cut out all of Dara''s escape route...


    But despite that, Dara saw a slim window with which he could evade their attacks and took it;


    He jumped off the ground and spun on the same axis more than several times, and just like a bullet flying through a hole in wall, Dara was able to exploit a tiny gap between the First and Second Obun Leader''s attack, as hended behind them¡­


    Due to the abrupt evasive technique Dara had just used, the two Elders were slightly stunned and therefore unable to react on time, as Dara joined the index and middle fingers in both palms and jabbed them towards the spine of these two Elders;


    Bam! Bam!


    The two Elders were sent flying about 3 meters across the ground before grinding themselves to an abrupt halt and then turning around to find Dara back in that weird stance of his¡­


    ''Damn, their armor is tough!''


    Dara thought to himself, as he stab his hands into the ground whilst the two Obun Elders watched him absorb Qi directly from the ground¡­


    His arms began to turn pitch ck at a speed visible to the naked eye¡­


    "Eh?"


    The two Obun Elders were stunned by what they were looking at; this was something no one within the entire Dark and Greynds would think is possible¡­


    But shockingly to Dara, rather than these guys attacking him, he saw the Obun Elders drop their weapons in shock and fall to their knees, and then began to shed tears down their eyes¡­


    Now it was Dara''s time to get stunned by what he was currently looking at¡­


    Howl!


    The First Obun Leader howled into the sky as Dara saw all the Obuns within the vige lurch to a halt before dropping their weapons and gathering behind their two Elders, before they finally went down on their knees with their hands up in the air in surrender¡­


    Dara looked at these half beast half men with skepticism; he was obviously not going to let down his guard just because they seemingly surrendered¡­


    The First Obun Elder then abruptly stabbed his hand into the Second Obun Elder''s chest, exactly where its heart was and then, Dara saw a very shocking sight;


    There, in front of him, and spilling out from the Second Obun Elder''s heart was actually pure, fresh, red colored human blood¡­


    "What!?"


    Dara eximed in shock, and he was not the only one who was greatly shocked by the turn of events¡­


    Then he saw the First Obun Elder use the fresh blood to cross the seal on his palm as a searing sound rang across the entire area;


    Sssss!


    The sound of skin searing or roasting was apanied by a power ripple that began to spread out from the Obun Elder''s palm¡­


    Then the First Elder coughed up a mouthful of blood himself before blurting;


    "Help us!"


    This time, his voice was clear and he was very much speaking in human tongue;


    "Eh?" Dara was once again stunned;


    "Quick¡­ I don''t have much time left!"


    The First Elder said like as if he was using every shred of power and will he had to hold back himself from transforming back into a mindless Obun¡­


    "You monsters! After ughtering countless of us, you dare ask for our help!?"


    One of the experts in the area began to rage as he rushed and bolted over towards one of the Obuns;


    "Wait!"


    Dara yelled whilst raising his hand up to stop the expert, but the expert didn''t heed his words at all a he continued to move;


    "Hmph! Who are you to-"


    Schweein! Bam!


    The man didn''t evenplete his statement before the sound of a sword unsheathing rang out, followed by the sound of something heavy dropping to the ground;


    "Is there anyone else who is getting impatient!?"


    A voice bellowed over the entire crowd as most of them took a step backwards, but those who didn''t swallowed their next words with a gulp¡­


    The person who had just beheaded the man who just lost his cool was the second strongest expert in the vige at the moment, and it was the expert Dara had brought over to rescue his sister¡­


    Then he looked towards one other burly man who had a short hair and a massive X patterned scar on his chest¡­


    The man simply stood there with his arms folded on his chest and simply stood there with an expression that didn''t reveal if her was actually interested in what was going on or not, but after not getting any form of reaction from him, the expert looked back at Dara before adding;


    "You can carry on¡­"


    He said as Dara gave him a nod of approval despite being almost 12 years younger than the expert;


    "Why would you need our help?"


    Dara squat down to the First Leaders height, but from a safe distance; one safe enough to give him ample reaction time should in case these guys tried something funny¡­


    "It is a long story, but we don''t have enough time¡­"


    "I can see that you can absorb that energy directly without having any side effects, thus I would need you to absorb out of my body instead, so that I can possess enough time to tell you everything¡­" The First Obun Leader pleaded;


    "Wouldn''t that be akin to me weakening myself and strengthening you?" Dara frowned skeptically as he responded;


    "Our cultivation Qi is within that energy; which means, the more you absorb from our body, the more our cultivation reduces¡­" The First Elder revealed;


    "But why would you want me to do that?"


    Something was off with the Obuns sudden surrender and until he found out just what it was, Dara was not ready to help anyone;


    "We would rather be human once again without cultivation that be stuck with this life they have enforced on us¡­" The First Elder blurted¡­


    "Unh?"


    Many experts amongst the crowd gasped, not at the fact that an Obun was speaking theirnguage clearly, but rather, want implications the statement had on everything;


    Argh!


    The Second Elder yelled in agony as the First Elder quickly removed his hand before looking to Dara;


    "We don''t have much time, the secret I am about to tell you is one that can change thedder of power within the entire of jok¡­ So, I would need three things from you¡­" The First Elder said;


    "Firstly, I will need us to take me to a private ce where we can discuss this¡­"


    "Secondly, You will support me by absorbing that energy out of me throughout the duration of my narration¡­"


    "Lastly, after I have given you this information, you must help us all¡­"


    The First Leader looked to the over 500 Obuns left and gestured to all of them whilst Dara frowned in thought, but after about 5 minutes, he looked to the expert he helped and made a permissive face;


    The expert then looked towards the burly guy with folded arms, and then the burly guy shrugged his shoulders, looked to one of the experts around him and spoke;


    "Stay¡­"


    The he led Dara, the Expert and the First Obun to the back of the vige after the pen where they keep their mounts [beasts]¡­


    When they got to the area, the First Elder then stretched out his hand in a thrusting manner;


    "No need¡­ That won''t be necessary¡­"


    Dara simply stretched his hand and shook the First Elder and then began to absorb the dark energy within him, and in just less than ten minutes, Dara was able to reveal the man''s true face based on the amount of the Dark Qi he had absorbed, but he on the other hand had his entire arm turn pitch ck¡­


    He staggered a few steps backwards and threw up a mouthful of pitch ck blood, before looking to a nearby tree and then mming his palm into it, pumping the tree full of Dark Qi as the tree began to decay at a speed visible to the naked eye¡­


    But despite all that, Dara was only able to dispel a little of the Dark Qi as the rest of it was still as much as his elbow length¡­


    The burly guy looked at Dara and began to feel some level of threating from him; especially from that left arm of his which was now pitch ck¡­


    He had witnessed Min Hong use that palm to end Ji Hai who he could at most duel to a draw¡­


    "Start talking!" The other guy spoke as the First Elder began;


    "Everyone thinks those who are banished into the Dark and Grey Lands are people who havemitted heinous crimes that the Imperials have deemed guilty of¡­"


    "But whilst that is true to some certain degree, it also served as a perfect opportunity for the Imperials tomit the most heinous crimes you could ever think of¡­"


    "Genocide?" The burly guy spoke once again;


    "That would have been better; at least those people would have died¡­"


    "ughter them for sport?" The other guy added;


    "That is bad, but doesn''te near to what I am talking about¡­"


    "Then what is it?" Dara asked¡­

 Chapter 73 - Obun’s Origins

    "But whilst that is true to some certain degree, it also served as a perfect opportunity for the Imperials tomit the most heinous crimes you could ever think of¡­"


    "Genocide?" The burly guy spoke once again;


    "That would have been better; at least those people would have died¡­"


    "ughter them for sport?" The other guy added;


    "That is bad, but doesn''te near to what I am talking about¡­"


    "Then what is it?" Dara asked¡­


    "They turn us all into these monsters you people hate so much¡­"


    "Eh!?"


    "What!?"


    "No way!?"


    The trio were absolutely bamboozled when they heard this;


    "Yes way; and as a matter of fact, there are still more of us being made in that prison¡­" The First Elder continued;


    "ording to what I know and have found out; this all started from the pce of the Imperials of the Kingdom of Shangri La¡­"


    "There wasck of cultivation resources within the kingdom, and it was already beginning to affect the Imperials themselves, and as a result, there was an absolute need to source out for alternative means to obtain Qi¡­"


    "As a result of this new problem, they called out to all the top experts and wise men within the kingdom toe to the Imperial Pce and give a solution or at least an insight into any kind of solution that can save the kingdom from internal copse¡­"


    "Furthermore, because of the desperate situation the kingdom was in, and the fact that the Imperials knew that anybody who stumbles on any abundant source of Qi had the capability to take away power from them, the King actually allowed both orthodox and unorthodox experts toe into the pce back then¡­"


    "Then from one side, someone suggested that the flow of cultivation resources be regted with stricter conditions, but the Kingdom of Shangri La was too big to be able to efficiently do so; after all, even the Imperials have been unable to efficiently do so within their pce, not to talk of an entire Kingdom, and as a result, the notion was rejected¡­"


    "Furthermore, the Imperial were looking for new sources of cultivation resources, and not to regte the ones that was already thinning out within the kingdom¡­"


    "Then another, person suggested that, only strong and talented people should be given cultivation resources, and that others should remain mortal and take on menial homing upations with which they could be earning ies in terms of cultivation resources from these talented people¡­."


    "Won''t it one day cause massive unrest?" The other guy chipped in;


    "It might create a massive riot one day; one that could eventually doom the entire kingdom¡­" He added;


    "¡­That is nothing but an indirect way of telling the Imperials to delve the Kingdom into very¡­" Dara interrupted with an ugly expression;


    "But out of increasing desperation, the Kingdom decided to try it out, and as a result, decrees were issued to every tribe leader within the vige..."


    "It told them that due to the massively spiking shortage of resources, that less talented people, criminal and anyone who they deem surplus within every n should be cast away so as to free up more resources for those who were actually talented..."


    "This was when the initial chaos began¡­"


    "Tribe leaders started sending people away for any reason, and in some cases no reasons at all¡­"


    "Some have even been plotted against, falsely used and casted away¡­"


    "But then things were still hard but seeing some level of relief, and when everyone thought life was already hard and there was nothing they could do about it, they epted their fate as some went to start doing menial works for these cultivators to obtain the little resources they can¡­"


    "Then one day, an abrupt decree came from the Imperials that ten percent of every tribe''s resources must be donated to the pce every month¡­"


    "This decree came as one to be really enforced and the Imperials moved out their military might to ensure that the citizensply, and it was then that the real chaos began¡­"


    "Tribe leaders who were now forced to donate ten percent of their monthly ie worth of cultivation resources began to find ways to ensure that theyply to the decree and also get enough for themselves, and then their level of shamelessness began to show up one after the other¡­"


    "There were some tribes which their leader and his family simply ran away with all the cultivation resources¡­"


    "There were some who put impossible cultivation criteria on their tribe members, causing some parents to lose their children and some children to separate from the parents on that day¡­"


    "There was even a certain tribe that took every female in their tribe, both married, unmarried, old, young and even children, and began a prostitution business, but the tribe families were exempted¡­"


    "These tribe members were only allowed to see their females an hour a day, and most of the time, their beloved females would either have been beaten ck and blue by the abusive people who frequent this ce, some would have been used to exhaustion that they wouldn''t even be able to spare their loved ones a single minutes before copsing out of exhaustion¡­"


    "But whilst the tribe made lots in their time, it ended up dying because there was one day, an eight year old little girl was gangbanged by twelve fully grown men, which eventually resulted in her gruesome death¡­"


    "Her father had cried for months on end before he nned out revenge one day, but not on his killers, but the entire business because he felt sooner orter, others would start having their only kin taken from them just like they did to him, and thus, he took up a job at the whorehouse¡­"


    "Then on one day, he poisoned all the wine and water within the whorehouse before stepping outside to carry the barrel of beast blood he had arranged earlier, and then poured it all around the inn, and set it on fire¡­"


    "That day, hundreds of people died, and with them was one of the Imperials; the wayward and lecherous son of the current King, and one can only imagine how the King reacted to this¡­"


    "He wiped out, not only the tribe, but three others within the vicinity and looted all their cultivation resources¡­"


    "But after seeing the rate at which the poption decreased and what the fate of the kingdom would eventually be, the King was forced to look for unorthodox means¡­"


    "Like the one he had been using wasn''t unorthodox!"


    Dara was already getting angrier and angrier by everything he was hearing;


    "The unorthodox expert then came up with a secret n; there was lots of cultivation resources and abundant Qi within the Dark Lands, and the only difference was that, they were all poisoned by death aura¡­"


    "Thus, they decided to begin to find ways on how to tap into this endless reserve of energy¡­"


    "The king asked if it was possible, then one certain tribe brought out a humanoid monster¡­"


    "This monster was so brutal that the King was forced to name it an Obun which in itself was coined from two different meanings;"


    "One which is simply; a sensitive, inspirational and idealistic person who has a certain unique fascination with mystery and the supernatural¡­"


    "The other meaning however was a stark contrast, and was simply a festival for the dead!" The First Elder continued;


    "These men then fed a beast to this so-called Obun, and after cannibalizing the animal right in front of the King and drinking all of its blood, the Obun receded into its true form; a human¡­"


    "What!?"


    Though they had predicted what wasing next, the Dara trio still couldn''t believe it would actually be real;


    "Then from there, they ced a certain rock on the human''s head, and all the Qi in his body was sucked into it, and thus, the Qi Gu was born; a certain type of Gu which sucks out all the Qi in a human..."


    "When they die, they transform into rocks which could then be used to cultivate through the same mouth with which they sucked out the QI in the first ce¡­"


    "Then to cap this all up, the expert didn''t die, and was then used once again to harvest Qi, and after getting the second Qi stone from the same expert, the greedy King had already endorsed this new wicked and dark method of harvesting cultivation resources¡­"


    "Thus after about three months of harvesting QI from him, the expert was eventually killed after the fifth Qi stone was created, because his body could no longer withstand the process¡­"


    "Just five Qi stone for a human life, how evil!" The other guy blurted in disgust;


    "Each Qi stone has its tiers and it depends on the cultivation of the Obun they get it from, which means if a Bridge Qi Sea stage expert was used, the Qi Stone gotten from him would contain enough Qi to take an ordinary mortal to the Peak of Qi Sea stage¡­"


    The moment the First Elder made this statement, the Dara trio who were abolishing these experts before turned mute as they were absolutely stunned by the results of this groundbreaking innovation¡­


    Though, it was sinister, the feat of having the entire Qi of a Peak Qi Sea stage expert within a stone was too big of a deal to go unnoticed¡­


    "Thus, they started these experiment and began to expand it until a factory of Qi stone was created¡­"


    "If there is a factory of Qi stone, why hasn''t the citizens demanded that some of it be circted within the Kingdom?" Dara asked;


    "That is because it is hidden within these Dark Lands, and is a secret that no one must ever know¡­"


    "They have numerous farms within the Dark Lands where Qi stones are being harvested from..."


    "The one I came from, has over 2000 humans there; and there is a supposed 300 Qi Sea and 200 Qi Creation farms all over the Dark Lands..."


    "They are called the Tier 1 and 2 Qi Farms; all filled with innocent adults and children" The First Elder revealed¡­

 Chapter 74 - The Enemy Of My Enemy

    "That is because it is hidden within these Dark Lands, and is a secret that no one must ever know¡­"


    "They have numerous farms within the Dark Lands where Qi stones are being harvested from, and from the one I came from, we are over 2000 there, and there is a supposed 300 Qi Sea and 200 Qi Creation farms all over the Dark Lands called the Tier 1 and 2 QI Farms; all filled with innocent adults and children" The First Elder revealed¡­


    "It''s alright, there is no use in telling me anymore than you have already said; after all, it''s not like you truly expect me to help one million people such as yourself from such a predicament¡­" Dara interrupted;


    "Even healing such sheer amount of people on its own would definitely kill me, not to talk of the fact that we would obviously have to battle the experts protecting these farms and for all I know, they would be as strong as you are¡­"


    Dara continued and the First Elder shook his head to confirm thetter part of in Dara''s statement;


    "Furthermore, I am not so impetuous to go against the Imperials of an entire kingdom with my mediocre strength, and I don''t want to live all my life on the run either¡­"


    "My tribe just abandoned me and my sister to our deaths about 6 months ago, and I am not ready to squander the life she died saving¡­" Dara added;


    "Hu! I''m sorry about your sister and actually trying to lure you into helping us¡­"


    "I have simply lived this way for too long, and I would rather die than continue on to kill whatever has fresh blood just to keep myself alive a bit longer¡­"


    "They would even have us kidnap and bring over humans back to the hideout which they would abuse before turning them into one of us¡­"


    The First Elder finally realized that he was actually asking too much from a ten year old and bunch of experts who have at most opened only their Eight Great Meridians; after all, even a Peak Qi Sea stage experts would not dare make such an outrageous statement¡­


    "Can we talk?"


    The burly guy with folded arms whose name was Ji Chen signaled to Dara and the other guy who happened to be named Ji Wang, as they all moved deeper towards the back of the vige;


    "What did you mean by what you said earlier?" Ji Chen asked;


    "I said a lot of things earlier, which one in particr are you referring to?"


    "The part about the tribe abandoning you and your sister to die¡­" Ji Wang also paid attention to the discussion;


    "I see¡­ So you all didn''t know about the heinous deeds your vige chief and his son did to I and my sister¡­"


    Dara frowned in hatred when he remembered everything that happened, as he began to narrate everything that happened from the mission the vige chief had given them, to the entire n, and as well as the betrayal from Ji Hai and the possible conspiracy that might be behind the entire situation;


    "That''s impossible!"


    Ji Chen refused to believe that the tribe he had so much belief in would actually do such a horrible thing to one of its members, and even little tribe members as well;


    After all, it was one thing if it was happening amongst the elders, or perhaps bad blood amongst the younger generation, but from the tribe chief to simple kids like Ji Dai and Dara was something worse than ugly¡­


    "You think it''s impossible¡­"


    "Then why would your vige chief mobilize such a massive amount of force against someone as simple as I am?"


    Dara asked and Ji Chen once again went deep in thought¡­


    If it was just to bring back Min Hong, then they didn''t need to send that much manpower;


    "What about the other two that were raining arrows on us?" Ji Wang asked;


    "They were the ones who saved me when I drowned within the valley, and the two of thembined aren''t even as strong as me¡­"


    "It doesn''t make any sense; why would the vige chief then personally lead such manpower against you?"


    Ji Wang couldn''t get a grip on a usible exnation on what was going on with theirst mission which had felt a little off since the beginning, because not only did the vige chief refuse to tell them where they were going or what specifically they were going there to do¡­


    "I guess you don''t intend to return to the tribe again right?" Ji Chen asked;


    "No I don''t¡­"


    Ji Wang on the other hand felt a little disappointed because he really wanted to be close friends with Dara especially after all he had helped him save his little sister just in time, but here he was telling them that he wasn''t going to be returning to the n¡­


    "You all had better leave this ce, because we were told not to return empty handed; which means, if we don''t return, those people would probably send another batch of Obun''s toe check out what is going on here¡­" The First Elder spoke from the side in the distance;


    "We cannot return empty handed either, otherwise, they would send another batch toe raid this ce once again¡­" He added;


    "What do you mean?" Ji Chen asked as he looked to the First Leader;


    "We were sent here not to only feed, but to bring back people who could be used for farming Qi stones, and if we don''t return on time, they would know something has gone wrong, and in a bid to keep everything secret, they might probably return to raze this ce¡­" He exined;


    "Can we move over to your resident instead?" Ji Wang asked;


    "What!?"


    "No way!"


    "I barely know you guys and how do I know if you all won''t stab me in the back just like they did to I and my sister a while ago!?" Dara rejected their idea instantly;


    "They would dare not do that as long as I and the rest of my men are around!"


    The First Elder chipped in once again as the Ji trio were stunned¡­


    Was this Obun Elder just trying to insinuate that he also wanted to join Dara''s group?


    "Nice move, hateful beast!" Ji Chen bellowed;


    "You have grown calm enough to talk when we humans are discussing¡­ It''s like you want us to ughter you all!" Ji Wang added;


    "Based on what you guys did to him and his sister, I would say your all are not so different from us, and mind your tone, if he was not here, all of you would be on the way bac to the farm by now!"


    The Obun Elder blurted back in return as Ji Chen and Ji Wang noticed Dara wasn''t speaking, and seemed to be lost in thought;


    "Don''t tell me you are really considering it!?"


    Ji Wang bellowed as if that would jolt Dara back to his right senses, but Dara didn''t even bat an eyelid at his noise as he kept brooding over it¡­


    He had rushed over here because he didn''t want the innocent children and toddlers in the tribe to die gruesomely or turned into a resource factory, and if he decided to return, then himing down here would have been useless, and whilst he had no issues with the children, he didn''t trust anyone amongst the grown ones either¡­


    He also couldn''t take all the children whilst leaving the grownups here, asides from the fact that they might not trust him enough to let him leave with them, he would also be undertaking a massive workload and responsibility by doing so, and he didn''t think only him, Uncle Min and Aunt Lin would be able to care for all of them¡­


    Thus, the only option he had left was to take all the remaining tribesmen back to the teau, and that would be surrounding himself with potential enemies, and the Obun''s weren''t safe either, because who knew if all they were doing now was just to trick them into believing they were truly unfortunate before ughtering him and his saviors¡­


    ''The enemy of my enemy is my friend¡­''


    ''I''d rather have both of them around; that way both parties would be busy keeping tabs on each other and have little time for I, Uncle Min and Aunt Lin¡­''


    Dara thought to himself before making a decision;


    "That''s the only wat this can work, is either everyonees with me or no one does¡­"


    Dara revealed his intentions as the First Elder revealed a sneering grin which not only caused Ji Wang and Ji Chen to fume, but also feel disappointed that everything hade to this, due to their vige chief being an inept ruler¡­


    "Alright, so how do you n on doing this?"


    Ji Wang asked; they had no choice in this matter because not only was their vige defenses wrecked, their adults have all died also leaving only them the youths, and their younger siblings, who have never even held a single weapon in their lives;


    Thus, staying there would just be akin to cing their own heads on a chopping block themselves¡­


    "First, we do the numbers¡­"


    Dara replied as they all returned to the vige square where they have all gathered, and after about five minutes, the total numbers were already determined;


    There were only about 50 teenage humans, and that was also including Ji Wang and Ji Chen;


    Then about 100 hundred toddlers who were between the ages of 4 and 12¡­


    On the Obun''s side however, they were all simply counted as a whole since they are all adults turned monsters; and there were about 200 of them left, and that was including the First and Second Obun Elder''s¡­


    Dara calcted everything and realized that if they expanded the resident, then it should be able to amodate them all, after all, they were only about 350 people¡­


    "Alright, we are moving out right now!" Dara announced as they all began to march out of the vige¡­


    They made a t tform with all the wood they could find within the vige, as they all moved out of the vige with all the food and resources left in store as well as the remaining three wild beasts that were in their pen¡­


    But just as they all left; a little distance from where Dara, Ji Wang, Ji Chen and the First Elder had just discussed was a right turn, and at the end of this turn was a door, and this was the same door that led to where his father and mother was;


    But since the only ones who knew the ce existed are dead, it couldn''t be helped that Dara was just less than ten meters away from finding his real parents¡­

 Chapter 75 - A Big Challenge

    Just as they left; a little distance from where Dara, Ji Wang, Ji Chen and the First Elder had just discussed was a right turn, and at the end of this turn was a door, and this was the same door that led to where his father and mother was, but since the only ones who knew the ce existed are dead, it couldn''t be helped that Dara was just less than ten meters away from finding his real parents¡­


    "Ji Chen, I would need you to be in keeping the Obun''sposed and organized¡­"


    "No problem!"


    The massive Ji Wang who was almost twice the size of Dara epted his role with a very supportive intents despite being almost half his age older;


    "Ji Wang, do the same to the tribesmen¡­"


    "Got it¡­"


    Dara ryed their pattern of migration to efficiently maximize their migration speed, as they all set out towards the teau¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the teau, it was currently the first hours of dawn and of the four living spaces in the resident atop the teau, three were dead quiet, but the fourth however was serene with the voices of a hushed bedroom discussion;


    "Honey, do you think I''m a bad person?"


    "Eh?"


    "Of-course not, I would never think that¡­"


    "Do you think I might be a disloyal wife?"


    "No- why are you asking me all these questions¡­ Are you okay?"


    "Yeah, I''m fine- I guess¡­ I just don''t know what has been going on with me recently¡­"


    Aunt Lin confessed as her finger traced a specific pattern on Uncle Min''s chest as her nakedps spilled out of the sheets whilst rubbing it across Uncle Min''sps which was in a simr state¡­


    They were both bare chested with the shape of Aunt Lin''s twin mountains visible from the sides, but pressed against Uncle Min''s chest, and from the type of conversation they were having, it was a no-brainer trying to figure out what had happened not too long ago;


    "Hu!" Uncle Min sighed;


    "It''s Dara, isn''t it?"


    Aunt Lin shivered slightly when she heard that name, an action that caused her to feel guilty and Uncle Min to smirk instead;


    "No need to be so frightened about it, everything you are going through is perfectly natural¡­"


    "In fact, I would have been worried and depressed fi you didn''t¡­"


    "Eh?"


    "Why is that?" Aunt Lin asked in confusion;


    "There is no one that wouldn''t feel attracted towards the kid, especially with all the feats he has managed to achieve, at such a young age and impossible environment¡­"


    "I noticed it but decided to let thepetition fuel me into being better than myself¡­"


    "It''s actually a great phase, because not only will his presence here test our rtionship, but I could also use thepetition to improve myself, and perhaps, we will both be able to live long enough to be the strongest on the of Jok¡­" Uncle Min replied;


    "So, you want me to go with my feelings whenever he is around?"


    "What if I do something I''m not proud of?"


    "I trust your personal instincts would set a natural limit concerning that¡­ But I love the challenge¡­" Uncle Min replied as Aunt Lin sighed in relief;


    She had thought he was going to take the situation worse than it already was, but apparently, her man was instead going to use the pressure to step up his game¡­


    She was happy and gave him a deep kiss and her hands was already sliding down the sheets across Uncle Min''s abs and was moving towards the south, but just as she was about to grab the meat;


    Crap! Crap! Trap!


    The sounds of several organized footsteps began to vibrate into their ears of the Aunt Lin duo, and the sheer tandem with which these vibrations were made sounded very much like a trained military march, and they hurriedly burst out of their rooms grabbing whatever it was they could put over their body as they rushed to the entrance of the apartment atop the teau¡­


    "¡­!"


    "¡­!"


    The duo were stunned speechless at what they were looking out and thought it was for two to three contrasting reasons;


    "He brought all of them over!?"


    "Obun''s!?"


    Aunt Lin with the first thought process was a bit stunned because she wasn''t expecting this from Dara, especially when considering his past with this tribe of his; but Uncle Min on the other hand was awestruck by the fact that he was actually seeing an Obun for the first time¡­


    These monsters were native to the Darknds and rarely roamed the Grey Lands, thus they were nothing but things of stories and tales they grew up with in the Land of the Light, but never go to witness yet within the Grey Lands¡­


    They returned to the apartment to dress properly before rushing down to let them all in and wee them, and whilst everyone was walking past the Uncle Min and Aunt Lin duo, they suddenly looked towards each other with a unique expression and sighed simultaneously as if they were thinking the same thing;


    "This is a big challenge!"


    They thought simultaneously and seemed to realize that from the looks in each other''s eyes¡­


    Uncle Min was the first to approach Min Hong and was stunned at the fact that he was standing right at the center of the entire crowd, and with the people that were around him and the way they seemed to be awaiting his decision on something made hum understand that the youngest person in this entire group seems to be its undisputed leader¡­


    "Uncle Min, like the gift I brought back?" Dara spoke with a massive smile as he approached Uncle Min;


    "You little brat, always thinking big and thinking expansion¡­"


    Uncle Min replied with a helpless grin and seemed to have understood Dara''s intentions about this group he just brought over¡­


    "Where are we moving to now?"


    "Eh, what are you saying, Uncle Min?" "They are here to stay and are not moving anywhere¡­"


    "I was wondering what we could do with the rest of thend around us, and thought why not?"


    Dara exined with a smile and whilst the rest of everyone around hadn''t understood what was going on, Uncle Min was understanding Min Hong''s scheme from the hints in his statements¡­


    Aunt Lin finally joined them after taking two unnoticed extra minutes to prepare herself to meet with this kid whose mere appearance could make her thighs shiver and drool in want¡­


    "How did it go?"


    She asked not looking at him directly and instead shivering in the morning cold in the atmosphere which signified that their days of light was descending back into its dark times, whilst Dara who seemed to be in a happy mood for some reasons failed to notice anything as he looked towards the group her brought and beckoned at Ji Wang and Ji Chen to move over;


    "Aunt Lin, Uncle Min, meet Ji Wang and Jing Chen, the oldest member of the Ji Tribe¡­"


    Dara introduced as the duo gave warm greetings to each other, after all, they are probable going to be neighbors and partners from now henceforth;


    "They are here to make all of our lives more conducive and wouldn''t encroach on our previous lives, which means, they would be in charge of ensuring that there are no conflicts or any form of disarray between both our interests¡­" He added before looking to Ji Wang and Ji Chen;


    "They would be your superiors as long as you all live here, and they can be considered the head of our new establishment¡­"


    Dara added as he quickly helped Uncle Min and Aunt Lin cement their position in whatever this new project of theirs was going to pan out as¡­


    Then he beckoned to the First Elder, and the moment Uncle Min and Aunt Lin saw the massive monster which was even huger than the already huge Ji Chen, they felt their knees lose power and turn to jelly, as they managed to keep themselves standing by sheer willpower¡­


    This was the stuff of nightmares;


    "First Elder, meet your Grand Elders and the rulers of this ce and everyone that would live within it from now henceforth¡­" Dara once again set up the hierarchy amongst them;


    "Call the Second Elder over and let us head to the teau to discuss where we are going from now henceforth¡­"


    Dara said as they elected someone to get both the tribesmen and the Obun''s clean water to quench their thirst after their long arduous journey whilst the seven of them worked well to arrange these massive number of people to fit the avable space by cing all the Obuns in the patch of space between the entrance and the ''Ring of Death'';


    The tribes men however were ced between the ''Ring of Death'' and the ''Ring of Fire'' thereby separating the two groups from each other by the ''Ring of Death'' so that there won''t be able to cause trouble with one another whilst they discussed on how to move forward from where they currently were¡­


    After organizing everything, the seven leaders moved over to the space between the ''Ring of Water'' and ''Ring of Fire'' as Min Hong nned to make the teau a private and holy ground for himself and the Aunt Lin duo, so that it would not only set a mental picture of superiority over everyone else but also prevent any further arguments on decisions or order of importance¡­


    "So, I called us all her to discuss what goal and future I have for our current group, and it will be done in three phases within which everyone would have to contribute on how to make that happen¡­" Dara began the meeting;


    "Firstly, we would have to not only have to create spaces so wide enough to amodate three times our current poption to create enough space, but also give them an improved living experience based on what we have here¡­"


    "Secondly, everyone must grow stronger which is another essential part of what we are about to build¡­"


    "Lastly, all this has to be done within the next three months!" Dara announced¡­

 Chapter 76 - Development, Military & Resources

    "Firstly, we would have to not only have to create spaces so wide enough to amodate three times our current poption to create enough space, but also give them an improved living experience based on what we have here¡­"


    "Secondly, everyone must grow stronger which is another essential part of what we are trying to build here¡­"


    "Lastly, all this has to be done within the next three months!" Dara announced¡­


    The rest of the six looked at him like the unofficial but official leader of the group as they all began to crack their heads of how to solve the entire puzzle, now that they have the picture their trying to form in mind;


    "Well, we would have to split this discussion into simpler terms to be able to tackle it¡­"


    Uncle Min subtly pushed the task to the Ji duo to find out what they could bring to the table, after all, they were on thetter side of the teen age, and they have to start stepping up for the entire tribe if they were to thrive in any way;


    "Well that''s true, and I thought we could break it down to the; Development Axis; which involves building and of-course transforming the entire area to suit and support our requirements¡­" Ji Wang contributed almost instantly;


    "We should also have the; Military Axis; which would handle the protection and the personalbat improvement of the entire group in general¡­" Ji Chen added showing hispetent side also;


    "Yeah, that''s vital, and we should also add an axis that deals with sourcing out resources, and also the cultural development of the group¡­"


    Aunt Lin who was very brilliant in these aspects when they were building the resident also chipped in wisely¡­


    She had been the one who not only found the teau in the first ce, but also discovered what were edible to eat or used for healing, and also the person who weaved thick ropes from vines which greatly helped in the building of the area, thus, she was a very resourceful person and it is understandable why that would be the her own take on the issue¡­


    Ji Chen was burly and naturally a fighter, and it was obvious as to why military might was his own input on the situation, whilst Ji Wang was able to not only trust Dara almost instantaneously but also helped him when he was trying to speak to the Obun Elder''s and a tribesman wasn''t trying to reason with him;


    Thus, he was a person who can sustain amicable peace amongst people through viciousness and act of kindness, and as a result, it was understandable as to why he thought of developing the area first¡­


    After all, one can do all sort of things together but would still need a certain level of privacy and collective originality to their roots, which means the Obun''s would likely still behave like Obun''s even after their healed;


    But even though they might stop feeding on human blood, but would still retain a certain level of their years of being wild amongst them, which might not be take too well by the filial lifestyle of the tribesmen...


    Thus, the ce must be constructed in such a way that both group would have enough space to live and never have to mingle too early and risk an irreparable conflict¡­


    Thus, they must both own a personal patch of vast area where they could call their own, but also create an avenue by which they could alsoe together to mingle under onemon goal, and that would be perfect when they start issuing jobs to both groups in a way that one can''t really function without the other¡­


    Under such atmosphere, one group would be forced to help the other improve, so that the group itself can perform better;


    Apetition that helps and benefits themon goal of the entire group despite the oue of the productivity of either group¡­


    "Alright, let''s start with the ce; Jin Wang what are your goals for this expansion?"


    Dara asked intently, as Jin Wang found out that he had just been given a sort of responsibility that would determine the progress of an entire 250 man strong group¡­.


    "Well, since all thend in the area is for the taking, we would take 5 acres outward in every direction and create our wall there¡­"


    "It would have a 25 meter wide and deep ditch outside then ce a wall 25 meters high, and 10 meters thick wall above the ground; which means anyone trying to invade ournds would have to climb a height of 25 meters and risk the drop¡­"


    "Then we will keep the circr nature of this ce and build bigger rings around this teau where each group can live in¡­"


    "Fantastic!"


    "Great!"


    Uncle Min and Aunt Lin were happy that Ji Wang nned on keeping the structure they had used their blood and sweat to create and simply expand it, which to them is a big plus, because everyone who visits this ce would point at Jin Chen for being industrious and them for being creative¡­


    "As for the military, we have some basic fighting techniques that was previously in our library and teach it to all of them but would have to wait on cultivation for a while¡­"


    Ji Chen spoke in a thick voice which grabbed everyone''s attention; he was like the human monster in the room, and the only person they felt would be able to hold back the Obun Elder other than Dara who can obviously kill them if he intended to¡­


    "We also have some techniques too..."


    The First Elder spoke causing Uncle Min and Aunt Lin''s skin to tingle intensely¡­


    This was their first time meeting an Obun in person, something that was a big deal in the entire of Jok, and one that can talk like a human was simply unheard of to them¡­


    The rest were born in the Dark Lands, so they don''t really know how much Obun''s are feared all over the or how they came to be, but they had been raised in a time where the word Obun was used to discipline children whenever they are behaving immorally;


    "Obun''s only eat liars, and they have been said to eat the heart of people who lie, because they believe liars have a heart too weak to speak the truth¡­"


    Statements like these were being made all over the Land of the Light to scare their children into speaking the truth always¡­


    But now they were in thepany of one and to some extent they felt superior to those living in thend of the light because to a certain extent, this was something they don''t even know is possible;


    "We were previously humans banished by our families and then left to be picked up by the imperials toe and serve this fate we currently find ourselves¡­ of-course we have human techniques¡­"


    The First Elder spoke as a matter of factly whilst the Second Elder who seemed to have fallen deeper into the darkness [due to having his vitality sucked by the First Elder] simply nodded in support¡­


    "Oo-kay, so now that we have that out of the way, what do we do about resources?" Dara asked as everything fell back to Aunt Lin;


    "Well, I have discovered 5 healing herbs and 12 edible herbs for feeding and also 8 poisonous herbs for defense, but the problem we are having is they are only few in quantity¡­" She responded as fast as possible;


    "So what do we do about that?" Dara pushed further;


    "Well, if we still had the meat from the Vige Chief''s mount here, it could at leastst the everyone for a month, and we would then pick one of the fast growing edible food she has discovered and nt them in a farm¡­"


    "We can begin with eating meat for a month, and then nting a herb or fruit that can be harvested monthly, and then use that to supplement the meat, to bring a fresh taste and hope to the entire group as to what we are nning to achieve¡­"


    "Then we can take than extended time to nt more herbs and fruits that would help serve as a change of taste and influx of variety to what people can eat, and once people are fed, they would surely work harder and well¡­" Ji Wang continued as Dara nodded in support;


    "Alright, which of them all should we start with?"


    Dara was more concerned about the action because they might as well discuss everything for the next three months and still not pick a piece of log...


    "We start with shelter which mean we have to begin the development, and this has to start tomorrow¡­" Ji Chen spoke;


    "We will feed them well today and have them take a long nap so that they can possess enough strength to work at dawn¡­"


    "Great!"


    Dara was excited that work could start the next day and the fact that he could now focus on a more important aspect of the group''s development made him happy and gave him a huge sigh of relief¡­


    They all discussed some other slight matters before they all split apart and got to work;


    The First and Second Elder went to trante the situation to their people, whilst Ji Wang and Ji Chen also returned to do the same to the tribesmen, leaving Uncle Min and Aunt Lin with the job of preparing the meat for feeding....


    Then finally, Dara was given some hours to rest because of all he must have been through over thest four to five days, and as fate would have it, Dara didn''t know he needed it more than he actually thought, because not long after he rested on his bed, he got off to a snoring doze¡­


    Everything went on as they had nned and the people were given time to settle into the area, and once dusk began to descend, they were all given at least twice the portion of what they normally ate; For the Obun''s, their share of the beast was served to them raw whilst the rest had theirs cooked and swerved¡­


    Everyone had their fills, and luckily, the tribesmen were able to find some funny bunch amongst themselves who started telling stories and making jokes, something that helped the rest of their kin settle well a bit into their new lives, and when Ji Wang and Ji Chen saw this from afar, they were pleased¡­

 Chapter 77 - The Boy Named Ji

    For the Obun''s, their share of the beast was served to them raw with blood, whilst the rest had theirs cooked and swerved¡­


    Everyone had their fills, and luckily, the tribesmen were able to find some funny bunch amongst themselves who started telling stories and making jokes, something that helped the rest of their kin settle well a bit into their new lives, and when Ji Wang and Ji Chen saw this from afar, they were pleased¡­


    Dawn the next day, Ji Wang didn''t even wait for Dara or anyone toe calling before putting all the tribesmen to work;


    This was a massive project, and they needed to tackle it with real intent¡­


    The First Elder also didn''t rest on hisurels, and as if he was trying to prove the worth of the Obun''s to Dara just so his people can be the more favored ones between the groups¡­


    He gathered his 200 man strong Obun troop and headed over to where the development was going on about 5 acres from their current spot; Uncle Min also decided to move over to the site to dissolve any probable conflict that might arise from having two people with opposite culture work together¡­


    Aunt Lin on the other hand was stuck with 100 kids between 4 and 12 years of age, and after finding the slightly mature ones amongst them, she took the rest towards the direction where the development was ongoing and began to gather edible fruits and herbs...


    They also gathered the ones that were used for healing whilst identifying the poisonous ones also, and in this manner, she taught the kids about herbs and spices¡­


    Dara was also up and was already racking his brain on what to do about the military aspect of the people, especially when it came to cultivation...


    But whilst he could modify the meridian opening technique his father gave him and try to merge it with the one he obtained from the Dark Soul to ensure the people could unlock perfect sets of meridians, they would still need a source of energy to do so¡­


    Moreover, even though he might be able to cultivate the Dark Qi in thisnds, he wasn''t going to allow the little innocent kids that were around to do the same as not all of them might be able to handle the corrosion like he does;


    Thus, they had to source for an external, unnatural source of Qi, and he had a daring and suicidal idea in mind, thus he went to look for Ji Chen¡­


    "Morning¡­"


    Dara greeted when he found Ji Chen at the development site and just as expected, he was with Ji Wang which to Dara was even better;


    "Morning Ji¡­"


    The duo responded as they decided to call Dara by the name of their ancestor [The Man Named Ji] since he had done the same thing Dara was doing back in his own time¡­


    Dara was also surprised by the manner of address, because he had also heard of the valiant tale of the man that came from the Land of Light toe and give life to the dying people of the Dark Lands¡­


    Then Dara went on to remind them about the situation of the cultivation of the people;


    "It''s a shame that we don''t know where the Vige Chief stored that meridian opening technique¡­"


    "Yeah, Uncle Min has shown us everything he found on them, and other than some nice weapon, piece of clothing and few treasures, there was nothing else on his person¡­" Ji Wang and Ji Chen voiced out;


    "Oh¡­ About the meridian opening technique, I might be able to help, but we stillck resources and need a source of Qi for cultivation¡­"


    "So, what do you have in mind, Ji?"


    Ji Wang seems to understand people a lot faster, and could suspect that, if this boy called Ji could have great ambitions such as this in mind at such a tender age, then he would have obviously nned how to gather enough resources to support his ambition¡­


    "Well, I was thinking about those farms the First Leader was telling us about that day¡­"


    Dara didn''t finish his statement, but the duo in front of him already knew the destination of his words;


    "Don''t you think that''s too dangerous?" Ji Chen finally added;


    "I know, but you will have to listen to my n first¡­"


    Then Dara began to exin everything he had in mind to the duo, and the more he spoke, the more amazed the duo in front of him became¡­


    They were finding it hard to believe that a kid that is only ten years of age might be having these sort of grand ns and schemes, but whilst everything looked scary but usible to Ji Wang, Ji Chen on the other hand had his blood boiling in excitement and anticipation;


    "But first, all five of us must return to the vige and try to find some more resources we could gather along when we wereing¡­"


    "We will also ransack the houses of the vige chief and the elders for some secretpartments and resource stashes they might have¡­" Dara continued;


    "So, when do we begin?" Ji Chen who could barely contain his excitement blurted;


    "Well, all five of us that are going are the strongest within our group, thus, we must first ensure the absolute safety of those we would be leaving behind¡­"


    Dara replied and they both understood what he meant, and as a result, Ji Wang went back to work to hasten the work rate¡­


    The Obuns were the one doing the brawns of the work whilst the teenage humans were the ones doing the brain part of the work; for instance, the human teens would cut down a massive tree and the Obuns would be the ones to carry it where needed...


    Or, the human teens would dig a one foot deep ditch just to reveal the outline of what they wanted, whilst the Obuns would be the ones to dig 25 meters into the ground following the outlines the human teens have created¡­


    Moreover, whilst the Obuns were proving themselves in terms of strength and ridiculing the weak looking human teens, the human teens were also proving themselves in terms of intelligence and smartness whilst also ridiculing the Obuns for being one-thought beings¡­


    As a result of all these, apetitive spirit was sparked up between the two groups and whenever the Obuns showed their strength, the teenagers would also show their level of intelligence, just to cement their spot as the superior people in the group...


    Butwhilst this might look like a problem to those who don''t know any better, it was the perfect recipe Dara and the others needed to ensure that the development goes on efficiently and perfectly¡­


    It took them a month topletely dig the first ditch around the entire settlement; it was 25 meters deep and wide and they were going to be filled with spikes and beast blood [Combination of both the Ring of Fire and Ring of Death]¡­


    After that, they dug 10 meters deep holes into the ground, only a meter from one another and began to nt the trunks of the massive trees they had cut down, creating a wall of trees around the vige¡­


    The soils that were umted when digging out the trench were gathered at the settlement, just outside the existing fence, and they were used for constructing houses for living¡­


    Now the new settlement was about seven acres wide from the teau in all direction with a wall of trees which would grow into a forest in the future¡­


    Then, if one sessfully invaded past the trees, they would be met with another 25 meter wide and deep ditch once again which was also filled with wooden spikes, sharp rocks and beast blood before they would be able to finally enter the new settlement¡­


    When one passed this second ''Ring of Death'', then they would find themselves on the Land of the Obuns; this was a 2 acres ring ofnd dedicated only to the Obuns, and after that, there was another massive wall of trees, about three times smaller than the one making up the giant wall at the outskirts of the area¡­


    Then if one moved past these barrier, they would then enter thend of the humans which was another 2 acre ring ofnd, and then another demarcation of an even smaller sized trees, before one would then enter the Farm which in itself was a one acre ring ofnd¡­


    In summary, the former residence was dedicated to Min Hong, Aunt Lin, Uncle Min, Ji Wang, Ji Chen, and the two Obun Elders; it was kept the way it was, with the only difference being that, after one leaves the fence of the old residence, they would find themselves within a vast farnd, and after that, was thend of the humans, and then the Land of the Obuns¡­


    The water spilling from the spring moved through a gully which was the only way one could move in and out these rings, and it had a massive gate which was managed by both the Obuns and the teenagers to enable movement and coexistence between both parties¡­


    About 100 dome houses were built within both the Obun area and human area¡­


    Several tree houses were also built very high into the foliage of the massive trees that formed a wall around this new residence; each of these tree houses were manned by two Obuns each who would serve as sentinel [Watch] that would alert the entire group in the case of any invasion or trouble, and this was done all around the entire settlement¡­


    Then after shelter and security had been provided, the people were then able to safely focus on developing the internal area of the settlement; creating pools which were warm all year long to battle the harsh frigid atmosphere of the Grey and Dark Lands¡­


    Training areas were also erected, where everyone from the Dara''s age and above were made to learnbat skills which would help them survive¡­


    Though most of them hadn''t unlocked their meridians, but they were still given many physical exercises; like lifting, sprinting, and falling from heights, which would serve to increase their physical durability and mental fortitude, and all of this took about another month before it was allpleted¡­

 Chapter 78 - The Forbidden Kiss

    Training areas were also erected, where everyone from the Dara''s age and above were made to learnbat skills which would help them survive¡­


    Though most of them hadn''t unlocked their meridians, but they were still given many physical exercises;


    Like lifting, sprinting, and falling from heights, which would serve to increase their physical durability and mental fortitude, and all of this took about another month before it was allpleted¡­


    What came next was the farming which was an essential part that would determine how long this new settlement wouldst¡­


    Edible spices and herbs were nted, as well as those needed for healing and also poisonous ones which were handled by selected few of the children who were handpicked by Aunt Lin herself¡­


    All the children made vines into ropes which would enable them pass time¡­


    They also made bows, arrows, spears, and even wooden staffs, this was basically every weapon that could be possibly made out of wood and vines¡­


    They even managed to make whips, which was just thick, flexible vines fastened into a hole bored into a light weight wood, and this whip could actually do some real damage;


    Aunt Lin was able to put five, six inch long gashes into the ground when she tested it out, and everyone within the settlement were perfectly pleased with her innovations¡­


    The two beasts that came with them were also made to work and everything was going smoothly and fine which was pleasing to everyone within the settlement, after all, this was the result of their relentless hard-work, and it was a pleasant sight¡­


    Every night, they would set fire into the ring on the outside which not only provided a little ambience for the sentinels to see iing enemies, but also warmth for the entire settlement, and served to ward away the Dark Qi that usually permeate out of the ground at night¡­


    Dawn the next day¡­


    It''s been more than two months that the settlement had beenpleted, and the Obuns and Humans have been coexisting¡­


    But this morning was going to be different as Dara was quickly woken by Aunt Lin who brought a little kid over to him¡­


    They have tried all they could but were unable to diagnose what exactly was wrong with the little girl;


    She was seven, and fair skinned [-thanks to the environment and the kind of food she''s been eating] but now, she was burning up, and her skin seemed to be rosy red, whilst she had also been said to be writhing in pain¡­


    Thus, after being unable to identify what was wrong, not to even talk about curing it, they instinctively turned to Dara who had been given little sleep throughout thest two month, despite all their promises to let him rest;


    "What is it again?"


    Dara frowned slightly when he heard footsteps and an anxious knock on his door; ''This better be good news'' He thought to himself;


    ''Who am I kidding, they have never woken me with good news since ''


    Dara sighed in frustration as he finally opened the door only to see Aunt Lin carrying a little girl in her embrace;


    "We don''t know¡­"


    "We were simply out picking herbs to grow on our farm when she found a new kind of herb and plucked it¡­"


    "But the moment she did, a little fume was ejected from the flower and got into her lung, and that was when it all started¡­" Aunt Lin exined;


    "That means it is poisonous¡­ But why is she unconscious?" Dara asked;


    "She was in so much pain, so we decided to knock her out to ease the pain¡­" Uncle Min answered;


    "What about the healing herbs you have found?"


    "I tried that already but it only seemed to heighten the effects of the poison¡­" Aunt Lin added;


    "I would have told you to try the method of curing poison with poison, but there are two major drawbacks to such methods¡­"


    Everyone traced the origin of the voice and realized that it was the First Elder who suggested it, and whilst they were very disgusted by using such a technique on a little girl, Dara was instead very interested;


    "What are the drawbacks you just mentioned?"


    "Firstly, the only type of poison that can be effective is any one that is stronger than the one afflicting her¡­"


    "And then secondly?"


    "Secondly, we have to be able to cure this stronger poison¡­"


    "But judging from the way she had responded to those antidotes, I don''t think there is a poison strong enough in here, and I don''t think there is an antidote of that level either¡­"


    Everyone brooded over it but after a long while ofing to no usible solution, Dara suddenly suggested;


    "What about the Dark Qi, can it work?" He asked;


    "Well, it should be able to, but it has to be very potent, and you should know also know that if you n on dispelling it the way you dispelled mine earlier, then you must understand that you would be absorbing not only every shred of the Dark Qi you put in her, but also all the poison that is currently afflicting her¡­"


    Dara heard the First Elder''s warning, but as he looked to the innocent girl who still had a frown of agony on her face despite sleeping, he decided to give ti a shot¡­


    "Alright, I would give it a try, but I only need one person here with me should in case I need anything, everyone else can go back to work¡­"


    "Well, we are all busy, and the only free person at the moment is Aunt Lin, so I suggest she stay behind¡­"


    Ji Wang spoke and everyone agreed and thus, the trio were left alone as Dara finally looked to the girl and wondered how he was supposed to begin the procedure; though, the Dark Qi he was nning to use was the one in his hand, but he wasn''t sure how he should administer it¡­


    He couldn''t dip his finger into the girl''s nose, and neither could he dip it into her mouth, also, he didn''t want to touch any of her body part, and thus, a new dilemma began¡­


    Aunt Lin also watched along quietly trying to see how Dara nned on administering the Dark Qi into the girl;


    But after thinking about it for a while and the girl started twitching once again and sweating, Dara simply pushed the Dark Qi towards his head as the veins in his neck became ck whilst he was also frowning in pure agony;


    Then the moment the Dark Qi reached his face, he drew it into his lips and nted it on the little girl''s lips¡­


    The Dark Qi surged into the girl through her throat and straight into her lungs and that was when she began to twitch intensely like someone who was having seizures; Her face went pale white and so did the rest of her body that wasn''t covered in clothes¡­


    Dara and Aunt Lin could barely watch on, but they knew it was the Dark Qi going to work within the little girl, whilst Aunt Lin was wondering how Dara could have such a poisonous substance within him and still act like it was nothing serious...


    Dara was instead wondering how long he had to wait till the Dark Qi had finished its process of eroding whatever poison it was that was ailing the little girl¡­


    After half an hour, Dara decided it was time and simply kissed the girl to suck away all Dark QI within her as rosiness returned to the little girl''splexion whilst Dara on the other hand began to burn up and sweat...


    After he was done, and whilst the girl was sleeping perfectly fine, Dara wanted to step outside to get some fresh air and stop sweating when he felt a sudden jolt within himself, and instantly, Dara knew what kind of poison he had just sucked out of the little girl;


    "Eh?"


    "What''s going on?"


    Aunt Lin asked when she saw Dara looking at her with true, unrestrained lecherous intent, as a matter of fact he was visibly ogling every inch of her body without trying to subtle about it in any way;


    But rather than answering her directly, Dara simply stood up and what Aunt Lin saw, not only made her jaws ck open, but she also blushed so furiously that her whole body felt like it was on fire;


    "Aphrodisiac!?"


    Aunt Lin couldn''t believe what the little girl had found was an aphrodisiac¡­


    "Take her away!"


    Dara almost growled as every single fiber of his being felt like letting loose on anything female around him, and Aunt Lin didn''t need him to say any more before quickly grabbing the little girl from his bed and bolting out of the area¡­


    She got to the human residential area and dropped the girl with Ji Wang before heading back to the teau where she met Uncle Min¡­


    They could both hear Dara''s growling as he was almost going insane;


    "What''s happening in there?"


    Uncle Min met Aunt Lin on his way to checking up on him, and she exined everything to him, something that caused Uncle Min to nche in terror¡­


    If the girl had inhaled aphrodisiac directly from its source, she would still be able to handle such a potent stimtion because she had yet to fully develop her sexual urges, but for someone like Dara, it was going to be a total nightmare;


    "What should we do?"


    Aunt Lin asked her husband, but he only had one solution in his mind and Aunt Lin knew what it was;


    "No way!" She protested;


    "But this wasn''t his own doing¡­"


    Uncle Min retorted, and to some certain extent was speaking the truth, because they had not only deprived Dara of a good sleep with their ineptitude in many asion, but today when he was finally going to get a good sleep, they brought him another problem, and one he was unjustly suffering for at the moment¡­


    So, both of them felt guilty to a certain extent, and since everything happened during Aunt Lin''s watch, it was attributed to her carelessness and thus her fault¡­


    "Is there really no other way?"


    Aunt Lin asked trying to avoid the problems she was about to cause Dara;


    "Argh!"


    Dara''s groans once again echoed throughout the living area from his room;


    "You have to do it, or he might hold this against us!"


    Uncle Min blurted and left the teau, leaving Aunt Lin behind to solve the problem¡­

 Chapter 79 - Peerless Pleasure [R18]

    [Strong Warning ¨C If you do not like SMUT or feel you don''t like sexualizing the characters of this novel, then please do not read the next two chapters¡­ Any negativements of any kind won''t be tolerated and would be replied to based on how it is being perceived by the author and other readers; Hence, heed the above warning and skip to the third chapter¡­ Thanks¡­ Author¡­]


    [Strong Advice ¨C If you are none of the aforementioned type, then I suggest you also use your wildest imaginations to trante everything within this chapter, and you might as well mentally change their ages, style and manner of approach to suit whatever fetishes you own¡­ Suggestions on how to improve my SMUT writing would be weed¡­ Thanks¡­ Author¡­]


    "Is there really no other way?"


    Aunt Lin asked trying to avoid the trauma she was about to cause Dara;


    "Argh!"


    Dara''s groans once again echoed throughout the living area from his room;


    "You have to do it, or he might hold this against us!"


    Uncle Min blurted and left the teau, leaving Aunt Lin behind to solve the problem¡­


    "Damn! I really don''t want to do this to you, dear¡­ I guess you will have to forgive this old hag of yours in the future¡­"


    Aunt Lin mumbled to herself whilst ruffling her clothes, putting of her beast leather sandals so as to approach the source of the agonizing screams as silently as possible¡­


    Dara was currently in within his tub with cold water everywhere trying to make his sexual urges die as quick as possible as he shivered, but contrary to expectations, the cold water only froze all the muscles in his body at their current state which meant, not only was Dara''s seven inch long and palm size thick cock standing and poking out of the cold water with veins bulging all over it...


    It was so strong that he was even suffering some sort of cramp from it, and that was the source of his agonizing screams¡­


    He tried to step out of the cold bath, but his muscles just won''t let him, and now he had no choice but to suffer through the consequences of his decision until it naturally subsides, and the scary part of this thought was that he didn''t know when that would happen¡­


    Aunt Lin peeped into Dara''s bath, and she couldn''t lie, what she was seeing on disy was not only making her blush, but also making her hot and her loins quake with urge¡­


    It was just like a natural beastly instinct, and perhaps living in the wild for so long had sort of shaped her that way, but every inch of her body craved what she was looking at¡­


    She stepped into the room, and knelt by the bath giving the massive rod poking out of the water a look longer than normal, before actually looking at Dara on the face who had momentarily ceased his screaming, but still had an agonizing expression etched on his face¡­


    Aunt Lin touched the water and felt how freezing cold it was;


    "First, we need to change this water¡­"


    She said, as she left the room to go get a bowl to scoop out all the cold water within the bath and once Dara got exposed, the cold actually spiked as his raging cock cramped once again, followed by another bout of agonizing screams which resounded out of the teau this time around, causing Uncle Min to look back with a pissed frown;


    "What is she doing keeping that kid waiting for so long!?"


    He blurted through gritted teeth before snorting and moving on towards where the farm works was being done¡­


    Aunt Lin returned after five minutes with a lot of steamy water as she poured it over Min Hong''s chest to calm him a little and then over his raging cock to calm that down also, and after Dara med a bit, she left the teau entirely and headed towards the farm;


    ''I can''t handle all that cock on my own, otherwise, I might not be able to have another one in six months¡­''


    Aunt Lin thought to herself as she sped through the dense foliage of the massive farm towards a corner where only few people were allowed into, and on getting here, she saw what she was looking for;


    "There you are!"


    Aunt Lin blurted with a sense of relief and slight urgency, and then she knelt down beside a specific flower and took a tiny sniff, before turning around and bolting for the teau like her life depended on it¡­


    She had barely entered the house atop the teau when she already took off her clothes and flung it to the side on the ground¡­


    She got to the Dara''s bath just in time for him to see her pulling off her skirt and flinging it to the side of his bath, and when she was finally in full view, she was already panting hard, and her own body was also burning up as she was already getting sweaty, causing her adult scent to waft over to Dara who inhaled it and subconsciously craved for some action too¡­


    "I took only about two percent of what you took and I am as horny as a celibate beast, please let''s help each other¡­"


    She said and without waiting for Dara to reply, she got into the hot, steamy bath and flung her underwear away beforeunching herself towards Dara¡­


    Then the kissing and smooching began; this wasn''t making love, nope, they wanted to mate really badly like their life depended on it¡­


    Kissing sound rang out within the bath as Dara subconsciouslytched his hands on Aunt Lin''s butt and gave it a good squeeze;


    "~Hmmm~"


    Aunt Lin let out an erotic moan which only seemed to send the craving Dara over the edge as he plunged his finger into her butt crack and searched for the slit in the area, and once his fingers found it, he traced it up and down to part the lips a little bit before plunging his finger into it, causing Aunt Lin to raise her head up and moan into the heavens¡­


    She had never had forey before in her life, and this new pattern of having sex was really appealing and euphoric to her, and it wasn''t like Dara also knew how to do all these things, but it was just like he was being guided by the God of Lechery¡­


    Aunt Lin sat on hisps and leaned on his chest, as they both kissed like they were illicit lovers who hadn''t seen one another in years¡­


    Their tongues invaded the corners and crevices of each other''s mouths as they exchange saliva without abandon¡­


    Veins were popping out all over Dara''s body whilst every single inch of Aunt Lin''s body became extra super sensitive to touch¡­


    A little touch here, and she was already as wet as a tea-soaked bread¡­


    They kissed and groped, whilst Dara got her wet cave ready for action, and it was then that Aunt Lin grabbed Dara''s massive raging cock and began to stroke it up and down softly but rapidly as she also prepared him for what was toe¡­


    Aunt Lin raised her chest up a little and before she could even do anything, Dara plugged his mouth on her left nipple and sucked hard causing Aunt Lin to howl another moan into the heavens like a sensitive wolf beneath a full moon, as herps began to tremble intensely¡­


    She spilled the third love juice she had ever spilt in her life, and being that Dara was the only cause of all these love juice spige, her body gradually began to register and engrave every single one of his touch into her mind, and Aunt Lin began to embark on a journey that would forever change her life¡­


    She craved for more of his touches as her eyes zed over with pure lust and unadulterated lechery¡­


    She forced more of her boobs into Dara''s mouth and hugged his head to her chest like she was trying to suffocate him, then Dara nibbled on her nipples before sucking hard, and then alternated the technique once more, as Aunt Lin''s pussy pulsed with cravings, needs, and desires¡­


    She could no longer take it again, and thus, she grabbed Dara''s massive cock and guided it to her pussy lips, before tracing it around like he did with his fingers earlier, and then ced it at the entrance of her pulsing pussy, then they dup both stilled in anticipation;


    This was going to be their first time together, and for some strange and mysterious reasons, they both wanted to remember how it felt, and then Aunt Lin began to lower herself little by little, inch by inch, as Dara''s dick stretched her pussy to their possible extremities...


    But the moment the tip was engulfed and the pussy rxed beneath cap, Aunt Lin''s pussy which had been lubricated by her love juices earlier made the rest of the raging cock glide in seamlessly¡­


    "~Unh~ ~Hmm~"


    The duo moan simultaneously as Aunt Lin continued her descent, feeling the way every single nerve endings within her pussy transmitted the intrusion of Dara''s dick into her brains, causing her to shut her eyes in ecstasy whilst Dara rxed his back into the walls of his tub¡­


    They let out another breath of steamy breath as the water got a little hotter, causing the du to want to meld every part of each other''s body together¡­


    Aunt Lin reached the five inch level and then they both felt some sort of barrier; one blocking the tip of Dara''s raging cock and the other poking the base of Aunt Lin''s womb...


    But under the influence of the pure, potent and natural aphrodisiac, Aunt Lin forcefully sat on hisps causing her butt to p Min Hong''s groins she let out a forceful moan of pained mixed with a sprinkle of pure pleasure¡­


    Aunt Lin felt weak on having something invade the deepest depths of her insides as she fell weakly on Dara''s chest and took several difficult, deep and dreamy breaths...


    She looked up into Dara''s face and noticed that he had rxed his head, letting it face upwards with his eyes shut whilst he savored the feeling of having his virginity taken by a matureddy who knew the right way to do it with no hassles whatsoever¡­

 Chapter 80 - Cravings & Desires

    Aunt Lin felt weak on having something invade the deepest depths of her insides as she fell weakly on Dara''s chest and took several difficult, deep and dreamy breaths...


    She looked up into Dara''s face and noticed that he had rxed his head, letting it face upwards with his eyes shut as he savored the feeling of having his virginity taken by a matureddy who knew the right way to do it with no hassles whatsoever¡­


    Aunt Lin felt proud and happy in that moment that she could finally get what her body has been craving for and without any consequences for that matter, because obviously, Dara was enjoying every bit of it with a relieved and pleased expression¡­


    Aunt Lin rose up slowly allowing Dara to enjoy every bit of the pleasure as well as herself¡­


    Then she gradually began to pick up pace;


    Tapa! Patou!


    Tapoon! ppa!


    Ssh!


    The water within the tub were making several sounds as Aunt Lin held her body against Dara, pressing her breasts into his throat whilst she pped only her waist up and down, bathing Dara''s cock in a mix of hot tub water and her love juices;


    "~Anh~"


    "~Urgh~"


    The duo began to let out several pleasurable groans and moans as the intensity of their hot sex began to pick up speed¡­


    Aunt Lin tilted her back and face the heavens as she vigorously gave Dara a full view of her smooth, tan and glossy body, which was now glittering due to the hot water within the tub¡­


    Dara beheld the beauty in front of him who was humping up and down; her wet hair clung to her skin, giving her a very sexy, mature but young look¡­ Her body glistened, and her water draped off her skin like her skin was made of an oily, waterproof material¡­


    Her boobs bounced up and down as she continued to hump him; they were slightly saggy, but that was not due to age or anything, but due to the sheer weight of what they contained¡­


    He saw her t tummy with her navel which shrunk in just deep enough for the tip a person''s tongue to lick into¡­


    Then he look down her waist;


    "My maker!"


    Dara blurted absentmindedly when he saw those waist¡­


    They were slender, and all the skin around it were firm and tight, but there was also a bit of flesh to it to fully portray that she was well fed and healthy, and the way Aunt Lin was rocking that waist like she was rowing a boat prompted Dara to subconsciously grab them...


    This instantly caused Aunt Lin to fall deeper into her lustful and lecherous desires, as she optimized her pace in a way that was neither slow or fast¡­


    She was clearly enjoying every bit of the euphoric feeling her lower lips were giving her, and because her body was now oversensitive due to the potent aphrodisiac she inhaled earlier, Aunt Lin was already past her third shower of love juices and her brain was already approaching the point of no return¡­


    She wanted to enjoy this feeling for as long as she possibly can and that was why she slowed her pace to prevent Dara froming too soon...


    But Dara on the other hand wasn''t even thinking about whatever the tip of his cock was feeling, instead, he was busy exploring every inch of Aunt Lin''s body, and despite the fact that Aunt Lin was in herte twenties, her body sure still looks extremely young which Dara mentally attributed to two reasons;


    One, Aunt Lin really took good care of her body always¡­


    Two; Uncle Min simply wasn''t using her body enough for it to show signs of aging¡­


    This then caused Dara to begin to wonder why he hadn''t noticed all these qualities of Aunt Lin''s physical appearance, and whilst her face was very pretty but dirty, due to being exposed to the bad environment they were living in before, the rest of her body which she covered in long and thick outfits really maintained their beauty to a certain extent¡­


    And now, he was beholding everything in such close proximity, and he had to say; on a scale of his wildest fantasy, the current Aunt Lin was a five out of ten; which made him begin to wonder what scale she would be on if she returned to her prime beauty¡­


    Then he looked down the transparent water and saw the action, of her lower lipspletely devouring his cock, and then he began to really feel the impact of the sex as he began to release a deep, but low grunts¡­


    Aunt Lin caught him all throughout the time he was ogling her body, and the way he was so engrossed in all the details really appealed to her innerdy, and her heart couldn''t help but tug slightly at the level of appreciation and desire that Dara showed every single part he looked at¡­


    Then as if trying to drive Dara crazy, she turned around and turned her back to Dara, and tilted her head slightly to watch him ogle her body once again¡­


    Dara''s brains almost exploded when Aunt Lin activated this style, and he could see the full view of her plum, firm but jiggly butts as Aunt Lin continued to ride him like a stallion¡­


    She bent forward giving Dara the full view of her back side, and her smooth, long, fair back¡­


    The rest of her wet hair clung to her back, Dark, curly and smooth, and Dara couldn''t help but subconsciously stretch his hand towards the back of her neck, grab it, and then slide his hand down the valley of her spine, down to her bouncing butts, which he ended with a light spank¡­


    Dara knew that the current him, wasn''t him, and whatever mysterious force was guiding his actions at this point was a very lecherous one¡­


    He grabbed Aunt Lin''s waist from behind and saw the red handprint of his light spank on her fair ass, before looking to the other ass cheek and sending another spank towards it; Pa!


    Aunt Lin shivered intensely as the inner walls of her wet cave gripped the mushroom tip of Dara''s cock, and the moment she mmed down on his groin, Dara prematurely spilled his mayonnaise into her, and the feeling of ropes after ropes of hot cum spilling into Aunt Lin cause her to release her own shower...


    She arched her back and cried into the heavens like an enraged phoenix, followed by the intensive shudder of her entire body, before she then rxed weakly on Dara body, bringing her face closer to his, with her plump boobs visible to Dara from behind as they moved up and down enticingly with every single heave of breath she took¡­


    Dara grabbed both tits and squeezed them firmly but also gently like he was iming them to himself, whilst Aunt Lin rocked her body against his, with his raging cock still lodged into her¡­


    Aunt Lin looked to the side and was met with Dara''s face which she instantly fell into the temptation of kissing him on the lips once again¡­


    Dara''s young mind was telling him that things were awkward and wrong, but his heart was in heavenly bliss at the moment;


    Then as a person who prefers heartfelt approach to all things, Dara tilted Aunt Lin forwards and had her holding the rails of the tub before kneeling behind her and showing her how it feels to be dominated by a man who truly wanted to im her pussy to himself¡­


    His groin pped, smacked, ttered, and mmed into Aunt Lin from behind as she ced her hand on her lower abdomen to prevent her insides from tearing to shreds with the vigor with which she was being fucked at this point¡­


    The aphrodisiac zed Dara humped her like a horny horse that had been forcefully denied of sex all its life¡­


    They have made love earlier, and now it was time to get rid of the aphrodisiac in their systems, and Dara was seriously fucking the shit out of Aunt Lin¡­


    Aunt Lin''s moans of pleasure turned into screams of pleasure as her pussy felt like it was being invaded by an hotrod over and over again¡­


    Dara plowed her thoroughly, and cleaned every inch of her insides with his raging cock, and fucked her with abandon;


    No feelings, no ogling, no admiration, just pure, sheer unrestricted and unadulterated fucking...


    "~Anh~ ~Anh~ ~Anh~ ~Aiiyyy~"


    Aunt Lin kept screaming in pleasure as she was being vited from behind by a emotionless beast who kept grunting heavily signifying that he was already drop his second load...


    But just as he was about to eject himself this time, Aunt Lin gripped his waist with her legs and shoved him back in, deeper than he already was before, as Dara exploded into her once again;


    "Go on!"


    Aunt Lin almost yelled in plea as she gave Dara the go ahead to empty his balls into her, and that more than tipped Dara over the edge because the load he thought had finished once again exploded into Aunt Lin who showered him nonstop¡­


    They both came intensely whilst shivering like they were dipped into ake in Antarctica butt naked¡­


    Then Dara rxed on her back and the duo rxed in that position with his softening cock still deep rooted into Aunt Lin''s leaking pussy¡­


    They stayed that way for a solid half an hour allowing themselves to feel the tingling and jittery sensation of the aftermath of their workout¡­


    Then Dara rose up first and stepped out of the bath, but just as he tried to leave, Aunt Lin spoke;


    "I know this might never happen again, and you might never forgive me for what we have done, but can I selfishly ask you to stay in the tub with me for another hour?"


    Her tone was somewhat pleading, but Dara knew answering would only spoil the mood, so he simply shut the door to his bath and turned around, as Aunt Lin quickly changed the water she had excreted all of Dara''s mil into a clean one¡­


    The Daraid into the new hot tub, whilst Aunt Lin simplyid on his chest, and rxed that way¡­


    She had never felt this way before in her life, she had never seen any man want her so badly, and she would be lying if she said she wasn''t caught in some romantic feelings for Dara¡­

 Chapter 81 - The Missing Piece & The Perfect Fit

    Her tone was somewhat pleading, but Dara knew answering would only spoil the mood, so he simply shut the door to his bath and turned around, as Aunt Lin quickly changed the water she had excreted all of Dara''s milk into a clean one¡­


    The Daraid into the new hot tub, whilst Aunt Lin simplyid on his chest, and rxed that way¡­


    She had never felt this way before in her life, she had never seen any man want her so badly, and she would be lying if she said she wasn''t caught in some romantic feelings for Dara¡­


    After about two solid hours of feeling each other out with Dara groping any part of her body he so desired at freewill, Dara stepped out of the tub a changed person¡­


    This was the charm of being with mature women, not only do they make you grow mentally by losing interest in childish things, they also make you direct your goals better; just like the famous Biblical quote which says;


    ''When I was a child, I thought, spoke and acted like a child; but now that I am a man, I have put away childish things¡­''


    Now picture a ten year old having sex with a 20 year-old maturedy, he would definitely have the mental boldness on the level of people who are double his double is lifespan, and that was how Dara felt and thought at the moment¡­


    He looked back at Aunt Lin who was smilingly looking at him, and more importantly, towards hisid cock which was already bigger than Uncle Min at full throttle, and she could not help but smile a little wider, almost at the brink ofughter, and then Dara said something that shocked her to the core and made her scared for her life;


    "You cane get it whenever you want¡­"


    Dara said with a straight expression and a tone that brood no takebacks nor argument;


    It was like he was ready for the challenge thates from screwing with this soft bodieddy in the tub; Hu! Aunt Lin sighed as she tried to protest¡­


    Though she had had a fuck of her life and she would be lying if she didn''t want another one, but she had to think for Dara about the overall and bigger effect having such a rtionship might pose to their current group¡­


    Should Uncle Min take it offensively, and whilst he might not be able to battle Dara, he could still leave altogether, which for the current group would be losing a vital member, because just Aunt Lin and Dara alone can''t handle all this massivendmark and poption on their own...


    They could as well promote Ji Wang and Ji Chen, but asides the fact that these two already had their own roles to y and the situation was still proving too much a responsibility to everyone involved, these duo were also new and couldn''t be blindly trusted to the extent to which they trust Uncle Min for now¡­


    This means that they need Uncle Min not to only y his role and also as an added form of protection because even if Dara can defeat everyone in a one on one battle, he won''t dare to say he could defeat Ji Wang, Ji Chen, the First and Second Obun Elder simultaneously¡­


    Thus should a rebellion begin, Aunt Lin would be at best able to dy Ji Wang for a short period of time, and it would be the same for Uncle Min if he faced Ji Chen, and Dara still isn''t strong enough to defeat these two Obun Elder''s in short a short amount of time they could buy from holding back the Ji duo¡­


    Thus, should Uncle Min leave in such situation, it would be very easy for the Ji duo and the Obun Leader duo to band together an take over the entire mini tribe they were building at this point¡­


    Furthermore, wouldn''t that make the rest of these experts like the Ji Duo feel like they could take their chances at bedding her too?


    After all, they would feel like, since a ten year old could bed her, then we that are over six to seven years older should stand a chance too, especially when they duo in question are stronger than both Aunt Lin and Uncle Min respectively¡­


    Should one couple this aforementioned reason with the fact that there are no females amongst the current batch of the Ji tribesmen who were old enough of sexual age...


    Moreover, it would feel odd if the Ji duo actually make sexual advances towards these 12 year old little girls because they were blood rted to some certain extent, unlike Ji Dara and her that were only rted by words and responsibilities alone¡­


    Thus, Aunt Lin thought about all of this and felt like it would be better if they stopped the affair within the bath on that same spot, because it would be extremely difficult to hide such a rtionship with Dara who had just begun maturing mentally¡­


    The pussy he tasted today was too good, and that was why Dara had made such a statement, and should he start showing intimate signs with her in public; that might be the trigger point of all this aforementioned potential problems¡­


    This public disy of affection might be as tiny as looking at her some type of way when they are all gathered together for any event and these people would catch the hint, which begs the question;


    Can Dara actually keep hitting her in secret without allowing the joy and euphoria thates with it spill out of his natural mental privacy?


    Even Dara wouldn''t be able to definitively answer this question himself, and though he might be able to learn how to keep it a secret over time, but such a sensitive topic needs just a split second of carelessness to spiral into a major disaster for the mini tribe they were bing¡­


    Just the sheer desire to have sex alone can drive the Ji Duo to rebel over time, and since the Obun Elder''s weren''t trustworthy enough to believe that they won''t join such a rebellion, then it would be stupid to risk their entire hardwork; the product of the lifeblood and sweat because of a one hour pleasure or euphoria¡­


    Thus, Aunt Lin thought it was a bad idea for them to start such a rtionship, and was about to reject the idea when Dara made a bold im;


    "If it would cause trouble, then we can both leave to start another life on our own¡­"


    "Whilst these people can boast of taking over thisndscape, all of thembined can''t stop me if I decide to take you with me, because should an all-out battle spark up, they would be the ones suffering the damages because I only have you to protect¡­"


    "I won''t need to fight them, I will simply hold them back by threatening to harm the kids, and at that stage, they would be forced to reconsider their priorities;"


    "Lose tens of tribesmen and Obuns to keep only you, or save their people and let you go; I am sure they would make the right choices¡­" Dara finished speaking and blinked in confusion;


    That was not him speaking; He was very sure of that, and since the golden soul within him had never given him such ideas, that would mean only one option left would be the Dark Soul where he got his cultivation technique from¡­


    Aunt Lin on the other hand was shocked that Dara could have such a Dark side to his naturally kind, easy going and shy self, and instantly, her lips curled up into a very sly smile¡­


    If she could find a way to help Dara strike a bnce between this two personalities, then she might have a man who isplete and would go further in the path of cultivation as her man, and that way, the fact that she could have a potential expert though not as her husband but a simple fuck partner alone was something appealing to her;


    Though this was her natural female opportunistic instincts speaking;


    Imagine a peak Qi Sea Stagedy, having a Peak Nascent Soul fuck partner who would do anything she wants for her as long as it was within his limits of rationality;


    This means that the Peak Qi Sea stagedy could go and find a tribe or n whose strongest expert is a 6 Star Nascent Soul expert, then tell her Peak Nascent Soul fuck partner toe take over the n for her, probably for a week of being together¡­


    One should remember that even the Kingdom of Shangri La supposedly only have a Peak Qi Sea stage cultivation, thus, one could imagine how massive a n run by a nascent Soul expert would be...


    This was what Aunt Lin thought about, and if she is in luck and could still hold on to her husband; Uncle Min...


    She could make him the Leader of the entire n, and then, she would have seeded not only as a woman, but as a wife and Queen too; because what makes a female a woman is to help a boy be a man¡­


    What makes a wife is to make a man be a good husband, and what makes a Queen is the ability to make her husband be a King¡­


    That was Aunt Lin''s goal, and she wouldn''t mind if she could use such a method to achieve this goal of hers, especially when considering the fact that Uncle Min had developed a level of fondness and respect for Dara, even to the point of making him a challenger with her being the winning prize, so as to help improve himself...


    Then there''s the fact that he''d just told her to literallye involve herself in a sexual act with Dara a while ago¡­


    But since everything else benefits this goal of hers already, all that is left is to find a way to motivate Dara to be the expert she think he could be, or else, if Dara fails to be a strong expert, then all of her efforts would have been for naught;


    This means, she would end up losing on all sides; Fail at keeping Dara or Uncle Min, since they would obviously be disgusted with her methods once they find out in the future...


    She would also lose the opportunity of being the Queen of a n, and finally also lose the opportunity of having both a n Leader as her husband and a super strong expert as her bang-bro¡­


    But Dara was already motivated enough since he had an unorthodox but godly cultivation technique, and the only thing that might affect him was someone to fix his mood swings whenever theye...


    So, to have someone with the sexiness, beauty and maturity of Aunt Lin do that for him was an opportunity too good for him to miss out on; and he clearly would not let such opportunity go....

 Chapter 82 - Let The Challenge Begin

    But Dara was already motivated enough since he had an unorthodox but godly cultivation technique, and the only thing that might affect him was someone to fix his mood swings whenever theye...


    So, to have someone with the sexiness, beauty and maturity of Aunt Lin do that for him was an opportunity too good for him to miss out on; and he clearly would not let such opportunity go... Thus, Aunt Lin suddenly smiled and replied;


    "You want me so bad unh?"


    "You should have thought about that before giving me such level of pleasure¡­"


    "Alright, let''s make a deal¡­"


    Aunt Lin spoke and Dara walked back to the tub and sat beside her head with hisid cock, gaining more girth with every single moment he spent with this seductress in front of him;


    "If you possess enough strength to defeat our entire poption, then I will be do whatever you want me to and at whatever moment you want it done, and whatever ce you desire, and however you want it done¡­"


    As she was busy saying this, Dara''s cock [Not soid anymore] was beginning to erect itself just based on the sheer imagination of what he was thinking of doing to her at this point, and the moment she realized that, she even sweetened the deal;


    "I will give you total submission and let you dominate and use me however you want¡­"


    "But all that would only be on the basis that you have enough power to protect me against the rest of the tribe; make me feel safe despite whatever difficulty I might face¡­"


    Then she saw Dara frown and knew that he was somewhat doubting if he could achieve such power, because not only will these people''s power also be growing, he will also have to stay a step stronger than all of thembined at this rate¡­


    Even at the moment, he would have to possess at least a 5 Star Qi Sea stage before he can boast to be able to do so, and he had not evenpletely unlocked all his meridians yet¡­


    Though his 104 Meridians already makes him as strong as a Peak Qi Creation stage expert which is the power equivalent of the First Obun Leader alone, due to the purity of the meridian opening technique he used and also the purity and abundance of Qi avable to him¡­


    Dara was also sure that should he finish opening his meridians, he might as well be as strong as a Peak Qi Sea Stage expert before he even begins to use Qi itself...


    Then by the time he actually cultivates to the Peak of Qi Sea stage which would be a long time form now, he would obviously have the ability to crush the entire poption of their current tribe even if they keep improving their abilities because;


    One, their cultivation techniques are Leagues apart;


    Two, the amount and purity of Qi avable to both of them are also worlds apart¡­


    Thus with all this in mind, Dara looked to Aunt Lin and spoke;


    "Give me five years¡­" He spoke with a spot on and confidence that shocked Aunt Lin¡­


    Because what Dara was trying to imply is that he could possess at least a Peak Dan Formation battle prowess in five years; none of the Imperials are capable of such cultivation speed, and as a matter of fact, there is no one in the Kingdom of Shangri La capable of doing so...


    Though, whilst they have never been to the Kingdom of Jok [The natives of this], Aunt Lin knew that even such probability would be less than three at maximum¡­


    Thus, if Dara could actually achieve such an aim, then it would even be better than what she had predicted;


    "Alright, but during this period, I will onlye to your chambers whenever you breakthrough; thus, the amount of time you spend with me would determine on how bad you really want me¡­"


    "Just don''t back out of your deal¡­" Dara responded leisurely;


    "Why don''t you allow me show you if I am truly going to back out or not¡­"


    As she was speaking, Aunt Lin was already stroking what seemed to be Dara''s brand new raging cock, as she stepped out of the water, ced her hands on his shoulders, before sitting on his rod, impaling herself till her wombs were thrusted through¡­


    They took another half an hour of tant hardcore sex, before Dara finally bathe and left; but Aunt Lin left the teau itself before him as she found Uncle Min within the Farm and without even stopping to speak to him, she announced to him;


    "He said he''s going to obtain a Peak Dan Formation battle prowess in five years¡­ Your challenge has begun¡­"


    Aunt Lin walked by Uncle Min as she left; She was now a trophy which meant before anyone of them cold even think of touching getting too close to her [not to talk of even touching her] then they must both best one another¡­


    Uncle Min stood there with wide eyes and mouth agape in shock; he was the one who had proposed the challenge, telling his wife that he loved thepetition, and now that the target is set, he had only two choices;


    One, cower away from it and lose his wife, as well as his face and pride altogether;


    Two, face the challenge and have a chance of not only getting his wife back, but also cementing his position as the true leader of this new mini tribe of theirs¡­


    "Tch, this kid is a monster¡­" Uncle Min blurted to himself with a fanatical grin;


    "Though, I havee up with a way to cultivate using the Qi within thesends, but I don''t have a good cultivation technique; after all, mine only stops at the Peak of Qi Sea stage, whilst I am sure his is better¡­"


    "I knew the Qi within thesends were cultivatable, but I didn''t want to be the test subject, and now that I am sure it is usable and adaptable, and he doesn''t know that there is more to the information I gave him, then I can as well trade more of these information for his cultivation technique and that would give me a fighting chance, he he¡­"


    Uncle Minughed cunningly as he looked to the teau to find a Dara standing there atop the teau, overlooking the entirends that was now at his disposal and his current control, then their eyes met, and for a moment there, apetitive spirit was sparked up within the duo¡­


    To Uncle Min, it was more like the feeling of having a monstrously talented rival, but to Dara on the other hand, Uncle Min was going to be his first stepping stone into the person he looks himself to be...


    But whilst it wasn''t a big challenge in the sense that Dara could achieve this goal almost effortlessly and even almostzily, he decided within himself that he was going to personally make this challenge much more difficult for himself so as to test his limits¡­


    He nned on giving Uncle Min the previous chapter to the chapter of the cultivation technique he was currently using, which meant that, should he unlock the second chapter of ''Asura Volume'' of his cultivation technique;


    [The Numen of Ancient Schrs], he would give the first volume to Uncle Min which though was a Tier lower, but would still be much better than any other cultivation technique on their current¡­


    But all that would only happen till he obtains his Peak Dan Formation battle prowess, and it would also ensure that Uncle Min was always hot on his heels in their cultivation progress¡­


    Thus, he simply smiled at Uncle Min and nodded whilst thetter also responded likewise¡­


    The duo seemed to have their own specific pattern and tactics to best each other, and thus, the prospect of beginning the challenge was exciting and had battle intent coursing through their veins¡­


    But the advantage they refuse to discover was that, this rapid surge in their power would not only ensure that they left the likes of Ji Wang and Ji Chen behind when it came to power scuffle, but a certain point woulde when the Obun Elders would have to bow to them and serve thempletely, unlike now where their rtionship look more like a codependent factor¡­


    The Obuns had the manpower to do all the work and also serve as protection for their group, whilst Ji Wang and Ji Chen possessed the intelligence on how to set up the necessary factors that could help a tribe run smoothly after spending years under the dead vige chief and his elders, whilst Dara and the Uncle Min duo were simply owners of thend¡­


    Thus, this makes the Ji duo and the Obun Elders have a level of say in the major matters, but once uncle Min and Dara obtains such a level of power, no one would dare give an opinion in their presence except when explicitly asked¡­


    Thus the future of their new mini tribe was going to be a bright one regardless of however their challenge pans out, and of course they would have a little bit of trials and tribtions along the line, but it would be interesting to find out how they both adapt and inject some dynamism into the tribe to enable it ovee these trials and tribtions...


    But for now, it was still at a very early stage, and so was thepetitive duo¡­


    Aunt Lin on the other hand, moved over to the farm and took inventory of the variety they have and which would be needed and in what specific quantity to help improve the well-being of their mini tribe¡­


    There were also poisonous nts to grow to improve their military might, and of-course the aphrodisiac also which she ssified as a poisonous nt, just in case the mini tribe decides that it was time to increase its size to that of a normal tribe;


    Obviously she didn''t n on being useless either whilst her menpeted for who has her custody¡­


    Dara looked towards the wall of the tribe which stood about 7 hectares from his current position, which was approximately 265 meters in length; he wasn''t present throughout the building process as he was busied with other matters, and thus, he felt it was time to check them out¡­

 Chapter 83 - Troop Division

    Important Notice: - I just figured out there was a gap in the updated chapters, thus, I will employ all readers to read once again from chapter 81 to chapter 84, so that you can re-immerse yourself in the storyline and plot flow...


    This was an error that was just brought to my notice by my content editor and proof readers, and we are absolutely sorry for whatever inconveniences we might have caused you all... Thanks... Author...


    ....


    Aunt Lin on the other hand, moved over to the new farm and took inventory of the variety they have and which would be needed and in what specific quantity to help improve the well-being of their mini tribe¡­


    There were also poisonous nts to grow to improve their military might, and of-course the aphrodisiac also which she ssified as a poisonous nt, just in case the mini tribe decides that it was time to increase its size to that of a normal tribe;


    Obviously she didn''t n on being useless either whilst her menpeted for who has her custody¡­


    Dara looked towards the wall of the tribe which stood about 7 hectares from his current position, which was approximately 265 meters in length; he wasn''t present throughout the building process as he was busied with other matters, and thus, he felt it was time to check them out¡­


    After about thirty solid minutes of walking, Dara finally arrived at the wall, and he had to say; he was truly impressed¡­


    Not only was the idea of using the tree stumps to create a natural wall sublime, but the idea of digging a ''Pit of Death'' both outside and inside the wall made the tribe a more impregnable fortress as one wouldn''t be able to even dig underneath the wall to invade the tribe...


    Then if they even managed to put out the fire outside the wall, they would have find a way to dig through the fire within behind the wall¡­


    Then there was the turrets or watchtowers erected 50 meters apart, but each turret had two floors, the first floor which was taller than the fence but lower than the trees, giving the watch on duty a full vision of the entire jungle beneath the trees¡­


    Then there was the upper floor which was even taller than the jungle trees, giving the watch on duty a vision of the entire jungle from above the trees, and even the ability to spot things farther than anyone else within this massive jungle¡­


    These 50 meter apart turrets were erected all around the entire tribe, erecting almost 25 all around the tribe in total with two turrets standing at the entrance to the tribe where the Vige Chief had invaded through, and now there was even arger gate which used the two turrets at the entrance as its pir¡­


    Each of these turrets were manned by two experts, one from the humans and the other from the Obuns¡­


    Then Dara went to each of their residence and was nothing short of impressed also; the houses within the tribe now numbered 1,000 in total, with built all around the teau in rings, 500 for the Obuns and 500 for the humans¡­


    He saw the wall separating the Obun tribe from the human tribe and also saw the massive gate on water which allows both tribes to mingle with one another¡­


    He went to the farm and it was muchrger than he could imagine; a single harvest from this massive farm was enough to feed 500 full grown men for 5 years straight without any hups¡­


    Though, the farm was just in its sprouting stage, but Dara could already envision its bright future¡­


    Furthermore, they had also expanded the river trail where he had taken Ji Wang through when they wanted to save his sister and made it big enough to at least ensure theplete escape of 200 men at once¡­


    After seeing all these and nodding in satisfaction, Dara also spotted some things they needed to improve on and then called out to everyone within the tribe except for the kids who were younger than 12¡­


    Asides from these kids and the experts on security watch, Dara was only greeted by 120 Obuns, and 24 able tribesmen who could so battle, then there was Aunt Lin, Uncle Min, Ji Wang, Ji Chen and the two Obun Elders, and if one added Dara into the equation, that would mean they have a 150 man strong experts¡­


    "I have called us here to discuss three matters¡­"


    Dara spoke out one these men gathered within the space between the ''Ring of Death'' and ''Ring of Fire'' who gave him their total attention;


    "First, we have to talk about rearing wild beasts¡­"


    The moment Dara said this, everyone looked at him strangely¡­


    They had only two beasts that they had been using to transport materials during their building and they were both male, and though, they are strong beast which could also be used to battle and edible to eat, but before they could think of rearing beasts, they would need a female beast in the least¡­


    "Secondly, we would speak about getting resources for cultivation¡­"


    "Then finally, we would be discussing battle tactics, and troop division¡­"


    "But before we begin speaking about rearing beasts, we would have to talk about troop division, because that is what everything we are about to discuss would hinge on¡­" The moment he said that Ji Chen stepped forwards;


    "How do you want me to divide the troops¡­"


    He asked Min Hong whilst the rest were also keen as to how he nned to divide them all¡­


    "We would split into three different troops¡­ Each of these troops will have 40 Obuns, and 8 tribesmen as well as 2 leaders each¡­" Dara announced;


    "Whilst the Obun''s would be the vanguard and in charge of truly engaging the enemies with a melee approach, the tribesmen would be in charge of support with ranged approach¡­"


    "All tribesmen would also be in charge of carrying all the resources we manage to find in each of the troops missions¡­"


    "Alright, you heard him, move into position¡­"


    Ji Chen bellowed and shockingly, everyone including the Obun''s heeded hismand, and this impressed Dara as he felt positive with his decision to appoint Ji Chen and the two Obun Elders in charge of military matters, and then, Ji Wang, Aunt Lin and Uncle Min in charge of development affairs¡­


    120 Obuns split into three groups and eight humans joined them each as well making each group 48 man strong¡­


    Then he looked to the First Obun Elder and assigned him to the first troop and the Second Obun Leader to the Second group, whilst he put himself in charge of the final group¡­


    Then he partnered Uncle Min with the First Obun Elder; Ji Chen with the Second Obun Elder, and finally picked Ji Wang to be the assistant leader of his group¡­


    Thus, the group had this kind of lineup;


    Troop 1 ¨C First Obun Elder [Leader] Uncle Min [Assistant], and then 48 experts of 40 Obuns and 8 tribesmen¡­


    Troop 2 ¨C Ji Wang [Leader] Second Obun Elder [Assistant], and 48 experts, and then finally;


    Troop 3 ¨C Dara [Leader] Ji Wang [Assistant], and then 48 experts too¡­


    This means each troop were 50 man strong and then Dara continued;


    "Every tribesmen must undergo intense physical training with Ji Chen and archery training with Miss Lin¡­"


    "The Obun Elders would teach both battle tactics and techniques with the assistance of Ji Chen¡­" Dara added before gesturing Ji Chen to exin their pattern of training;


    "Everyone must begin each day with training archery with Miss Lin in the morning for two hours, and this would be followed by a one hour break for breakfast¡­"


    "Then another two hours of intense and rigorous physical training in the afternoon, followed by another one hour of rest for lunch¡­"


    "Then finally, there would be a two hour tactical and technical battle training in the afternoon, followed by another one hour rest for dinner¡­"


    "These training schedule would be strictly adhered to, and anyone who fails to meet up would be punished severely¡­"


    Ji Chen continued to bellow at these men before Dara stepped forward and Ji Chen kept mute¡­


    "This would be the training scheme for the next ten months, and since the season of War would begin afterwards, we must be fully prepared for it¡­"


    "After the end of the daily training sessions, each troop would take a mission and then everyone can return to rest for the same routine the next day¡­" Dara continued;


    "A specific day would also be chosen for basically rest and learning cultural values, rules and regtions, and finally penalties for breaking these rules¡­"


    "These rules and regtions would be subjected to everyone including myself, and some exceptional conditions would also be given to the Leaders and Assistants¡­"


    "We have begun a new journey and adventure into developing a tribe, which may as well be a family, and finally who knows we might just expand and fill up the entire Dark Lands¡­"


    "Thus, the number of our troops would increase based on the amount of survivors we manage to save, and those whoe to us for shelter, and the number of experts in each group would also increase depending on the same condition¡­" Dara announced;


    "That is all concerning the matter of our troop division, if anyone has anyments or addition to the situation, now is the time toe forward and make it known to everyone¡­"


    Dara and the leaders all looked around but no one came forwards and just as he was about to move on, someone asked;


    "How long will we keep up these daily routines?"


    Ji Chen instantly frowned when he realized someone was actually somewhat objecting the intensity of their trainings, but Dara raised his hand to stop him as he answered;


    "This would be done every day except from the day of rest we choose which would be used to learnnguages of both the Obuns and the tribesmen so as to enable better and smoothermunications amongst us all¡­"


    "Furthermore, as I said earlier, we would be looking to expand asrge as possible which means there will be steady missions to go on every single day¡­"


    Dara finished his exnation and noticed that the expert liked his exnation and to some curtained extent preferred it as he was a man who loved working and heading out to fight or search for anything¡­


    He was a man who hated being idle and would rather keep running around the entire tribe if that is what it takes to keep him on the move¡­


    Dara looked to the Obun Elders to ask if they had any objection, but they didn''t and also seemed to be happy that the tribesmen would also be learning theirnguage and way of life, because not only would that increase the understanding between both parties, it would also increase the level of harmony in the entire tribe¡­

 Chapter 84 - First Mission

    He was a man who hated being idle and would rather keep running aimlessly around the entire tribe if that is what it takes to keep him on the move¡­


    Dara looked to the Obun Elders to ask if they had any objection, but they didn''t and also seemed to be happy that the tribesmen would also be learning theirnguage and way of life, because not only would that increase the understanding between both parties, it would also increase the level of harmony in the entire tribe¡­


    He looked to Aunt Lin and Uncle Min also, and just like the rest, they seemed to have noints or takebacks either, except for Aunt Lin who lingered her gaze a little longer than expected¡­


    "Alright, then we move to the next topic on the agenda¡­" Dara began¡­


    "This would be the first missions for our three troops;"


    "Troop 1, under the assistance of Uncle Min, would go to the main river that separates the Dark Lands from the Grey Lands, and they are to capture three different species of edible fish from the river¡­"


    "Each specie must have a male and female, and the time limit for this mission is three hours, which means Troop 1 must be back by noon¡­"


    "Troop 2, under the assistance of Ji Chen would head out to find four species of wild beast within the jungle, and all four must be female, and all four must be eatable too, and like Troop 1, you also have three hours toplete these tasks¡­"


    "Now we will move onto the next agenda¡­"


    Everyone instantly looked to Dara with a confused expression, they obviously were wondering why a mission wasn''t assigned to Troop 3 which was the one Dara himself was on...


    But they weren''t alone either, even Uncle Min and Aunt Lin were also curious about the situation, but none of them voiced it out and neither did Darament on it despite clearly knowing how they felt¡­


    "Concerning the issue of cultivation resources, I have decided to start with raiding a few Tier 1 Qi Stone Farms, and after testing their strengths, we will be able to determine if these guys are potential sources for our cultivation resources¡­"


    "This mission would be carried out by Troop 3, and is to bepleted within three hours¡­"


    "This means every one of us must gather here by noon to give a positive feedback on our missions¡­"


    "Failure isn''t an option, and for each troop that fails, the consequences would be borne by all the members of the troop, up till their leaders, thus, I advise everyone to look after everyone within their troops and support one another¡­"


    "Lateness would also not be tolerated, and all missions are to be abandoned whenever time seems to be running out¡­"


    "This is the Dark and Grey Lands, it is fraught with unpredictability and fraught with danger, and as a result, no one would be dispatched to go search for other troops¡­"


    "You meet with a life threatening danger, you return to base immediately, and then we can rally two troops to go face the danger or even all troops if the danger proves to be too difficult to resolve¡­" Dara instructed;


    "Leave no man behind, bodies of dead members must be returned to the base for a proper and worthy burial ceremony¡­"


    "Stay calm and calctive; assess any situation logically before making decisions¡­"


    "This is the Dark and Grey Lands, and your mistakes would definitely be capitalized on by your opponents and enemies¡­"


    "If you meet any wandering person, either Obun or Human, if they are not mischievous or mean bad, rescue them; we are nning on expanding if stronger than we are at the moment, thus, every single extra hand would be appreciated¡­" Dara continued;


    "If the Qi Stones from these Tier 1 Farms are genuine and good, then we might have to raid these farms for cultivation resources, until we can devise a way to manufacture our own with an orthodox and humane approach¡­" Dara continued;


    "But first everyone would take two hours each for preparations, whilst I will move out with Ji Wang and return to the vige of sang to see if there any other resources we can gather from there, and we will be back before you move out¡­"


    "First, Second, I want you to map out the most probable location of all these Qi Stone Farms, both for the Tier 1 and Tier 2, the very potential and future of this tribe depends on it, thus, make it as urate as possible¡­"


    "We have never truly been to other farms except ours which is a Tier 2 Farm which is much closer to the borders of the Land of Light, but we have heard so much about these ces and can draw a map of all their general locations¡­"


    "Good, that should be enough, we will also do some scouting based on your map, and then be able toplete them with more details¡­" Dara announced before asking once again;


    "Is there anyone who would like to add to this or suggest a different approach to this?"


    When he saw that no one answered, Dara looked to Aunt Lin and assigned her own duties to her;


    "You will be in charge of not only looking after the tribe when we are away; you will also be in charge of feeding the entire tribe, and grooming those kids to help the tribe¡­"


    "Also, you and the kids would also be in charge of taking care of the beasts, the farms, cleaning the environment, and finally, entertaining the entire tribe when resting¡­"


    Dara obviously nned on making use of all the 100 some kids to do one thing or the other that would help reduce the workload and efficiently relieve the group of some responsibilities and duties¡­


    Aunt Lin looked towards him and smiled, but Dara on the other hand simply looked to Ji Wang;


    "Get everyone ready for my return¡­"


    He said, before dismissing everyone when he returned, whilst Uncle Min went to discuss tactics with the First Elder¡­


    Aunt Lin followed after Dara and when he entered his residence, she followed him and watched Dara pack all his necessary gears to prepare for their own missions;


    "Why didn''t you tell me that you will going on such a dangerous and potentially deadly mission?" She asked;


    "If I did, would you have gone in my ce?"


    Dara replied leaving Aunt Lin stunned by his response; It was true, no one would have taken the mission if Dara had exined what they were going to be doing during the mission, and that was why he did it that way¡­


    Aunt Lin moved closer to him before hugging him tightly and speaking into his ear;


    "That ce is too dangerous and I can''t afford to lose you yet, otherwise who woulde take care of me?"


    Aunt Lin grabbed Dara''s hand and slipped it beneath her robes and into the spot between her thighs and by the time Dara removed his finger, they were all coated in her love juices;


    "Can you see that¡­ Promise me you woulde back to deal with this for me?"


    She asked before burying Dara''s face in between her two boobs;


    "You cane into my room tonight, and I will be ready for you¡­"


    Dara said and walked away from her, but just as their held hands were about to free themselves, Aunt Lin grabbed it and held him back; "Won''t you a least give me a goodbye kiss?"


    Dara paused and sighed, before turning around and then grabbing Aunt Lin by her waist, as he pulled her in and then nted a good kiss on her lips, and just as Aunt Lin began to get aroused and into a sexual mood, Dara broke the kiss, walked away this time, but not before standing at the entrance and replying;


    "When I return tonight, you cane relieve your frustrations."


    Then he left, and Aunt Lin had no choice but to sigh with a helpless and craving frown as she sat on Dara''s bed and saw one of his shirts to the side which she grabbed, and headed into Dara''s bath before squirting and squishy sounds began to float out of Dara''s bath alongside the moans of ady experiencing optimum pleasure¡­


    Dara on the other hand had to leave on time, or he might as well be moving with a metal pole in his pants all through the day, but after reaching his troops, his mind switched gears and entered full mission mode;


    "Are you ready?" Dara looked over to Ji Wang and asked;


    "Yeah, we all have our weapons and are ready to move out anytime¡­"


    "Good, we move out now¡­"


    Dara spoke before walking through his men, inspecting them in the process;


    He had carried a bow and quiver along since none of these men have begun training in archery yet, which in turn means he would be the one to do the support through archery whilst engaging in melee battles where necessary¡­


    Dara spent about another thirty minutes discussing their manner of approaching the mission with Ji Wang before they then began to move out with Ji Wang by his side and his men in a lineup of six each behind him¡­


    But just as they almost reached the massive gate that now serves as the entrance to the tribe, he saw Aunt Lin with a slight smile with almost 100 kids lined up on either side of the road, giving the troop a good ovation to boost their morale as they head out on missions;


    "This is a really good idea!"


    "You don''t say¡­"


    Ji Wang and Daramented as they moved through the rumbling apuse of these little kids who were beaming with smiles all through the time it took the troop to reach the massive gates¡­


    Then when they got to the gate, the tribesmen on the first floor of the turrets, pulled a rope from within their turrets which pulled the gates wide open with a loud rumble¡­


    These gates were extremely heavy and were made by simply stacking about a dozen massive tree trunks atop each other, as everyone within the tribe saw Dara''s troop leave the tribe on what is to be their first mission¡­


    "It''s kind of nostalgic heading back to the vige after four months now, albeit on a different circumstance¡­" Ji Wang added¡­

 Chapter 85 - Dara’s Tears

    These gates were looked extremely heavy and were made by simply stacking about a dozen massive tree trunks atop each other, as everyone within the tribe kept watching Dara''s troop leave the tribe on what is to be their first mission¡­


    "It''s kind of nostalgic heading back to the vige after four months now, albeit on a different circumstance¡­" Ji Wang added¡­


    "Well, if it helps, we would not be spending much time there¡­"


    "No that''s not it, it''s just that, I don''t know how to confront the situation¡­"


    "Well, you have a new tribe now, and a new home, and also several of your tribesmen whose survival depends on what we find here and how fast we can dispatch this mission¡­"


    Dara relieved his mind off the pressure as they picked up their marching speed¡­


    Just as they left, Uncle Min''s troop led by the First Obun Elder moved out next in their task of going to the river and fishing out some beast for food¡­


    Thenstly, was Ji Chen''s group led by the Second Obun Elder, and they went to capture wild beasts within the deepest recess of the jungle where these wild beasts are as frequently seen as the sand of the ground¡­


    Just about six hourster, Dara''s group arrived at the vige of Sang, as he raised his hands and instantly, several Obuns took down three massive trees that they would use to cross over the pit of fire...


    Then once they crossed over, these Obuns moved out andbed every single inch of the vige for any possible danger as Dara whipped out his bow and quiver and scanned the entire area with his keen and extremely sharp eyesight;


    "See anything strange or out of the ordinary?" Ji Wang asked;


    "No, but I can sense somethinging from that area¡­"


    Dara replied, and instantly, Ji Wang waved his hands in a circr motion as about ten Obuns followed him towards the area where Dara had just pointed at, and in less than five minutes, Ji Wang and the rest of the Obuns came out dragging two elders who had been bound by vines on the ground;


    "You were right¡­ We found these cowards hiding beneath the decayed corpse of our dead tribesmen¡­" Dara heard this and frowned;


    "Why are you hiding beneath the corpse of your dead tribesmen instead of burying them all and allowing them to rest peacefully¡­" He asked;


    "Eh¡­ Why should we answer to a kid like you?"


    One of these two elders spoke with a ridiculing tone and a sneering expression, but Dara simply looked over to Ji Wang and nodded¡­


    Ji Wang took several steps backwards, whilst the Obuns in the area also retreated about three steps, then Ji Wang tucked his hands into his sleeves and pulled out a whip of vines¡­


    He spread the whip to the back and brought it forth with immense power;


    sh!


    Arrgghhh!


    The other elder who hadn''t said anything screamed in agonizing pain; his clothes ripped to shreds from his back to his shoulders as blood spurt out of the wound left behind by the vicious whip¡­


    Instantly, the sneering elder broke out in cold sweat as he began to tremble from within whilst thanking his stars that Ji Wang hadn''t swiped him with that whip, but before his stars could ept his thanks,


    Patash!


    Splurt!


    A strike twice as hard as his partnernded on his head, towards the back of his neck and down his spine;


    Gaaahhh!


    The Elder pissed himself out of pain as he bowed his head to the ground and wept like a noisy baby;


    "I don''t ever want to repeat myself, and I also hate it when people waste my time¡­" Dara responded nonchntly;


    "Now, I would ask again and for thest time, why were you hiding beneath the corpse of your dead tribesmen?"


    Dara asked once again and the Elder was still weeping and twitching from the vicious strike Ji Wang just served him, but then he saw Dara look to Ji Wang once again and he instantly bellowed in fright;


    "Wait¡­ wait, I will talk I will ¨C ~Aah ha aah ah~"


    The Elder''s sentence ended with an agonizing cry because Ji Wang had struck him once again, as he began to writhe and twitch on the ground tears;


    "We were both stationed within the prison ground of the vige by the Vige Chief¡­." The other Elder began;


    "Prison Ground?"


    Dara was surprised that his own vige had a prison ground, but he thought maybe it was recently built after he had left the vige, and thus, he looked to Ji Wang for confirmation, but Ji Wang simply tore another strike at the other Elder''s back;


    Twack!


    Argghhh!


    "No, I am not telling you to strike him¡­ I was simply trying to confirm form you if what he said was true¡­"


    Dara chuckled helplessly at Ji Wang, whilst the seemingly emotionless Obuns showed fear in their eyes when they saw the way the elders were writhing on the ground like worms in a bucket of salt;


    "He is lying¡­ We have never had a prison before, not before, and not now¡­"


    Ji Wang replied as he spread the whip to the back once again;


    "Wait, wait, wait! I am telling the truth and I can show you!"


    The elder spoke faster than the fastest rapper on earth when he saw Ji Wang getting ready to serve them another dose of his whip¡­


    Dara held up his hand to stop Ji Wang as he looked to elders and spoke emotionlessly;


    "Take me there¡­"


    The Obuns in the area walked forward and grabbed the bleeding elders hoisting them to their feet, before pushing them in the back as the two elders wept and walked towards the back of the vige, where Dara, Ji Wang, Ji Chen and the First Obun Elder had discussed previously¡­


    Ji Wang looked to Dara, whilst Dara simply gave him a facial expression to wait till they reach wherever they were going¡­


    The Elders walked to the endpoint of the vige backyard, and just as Dara was about to tell Ji Wang to give them another dose, he saw a shocking sight; There on the ground was a massive gaping hole that led underground¡­


    This hole was at least ten feet wide and tall, and there were two broken wooden door frames which signified that the door that was here before had been destroyed;


    "Move on¡­"


    Dara spoke as the Obuns shoved the elders forward, and they began to move underground¡­


    Dara had two of the ten Obuns stand guard at the entrance whilst he and Ji Wang went with the remaining eight Obuns to ensure that they were at least ten man strong going into this underground which they knew nothing about¡­


    They eventually reached the end of the underground tunnel and came into an open area where two cages with broken cage doors could be seen¡­


    There were chains within this cage and from the corner where they were tied to, it was obvious that whoever the people who were in here was, they were either people who the Vige Chief didn''t want to ever see the light of day¡­


    "When did this happen?"


    Dara asked about the destruction of the underground, because if it was already destroyed before they were here, they was no way they would have missed such a gaping hole in the ground, when they were having a chat with the First Obun Elder¡­


    "It happened two days ago, and it was caused by the Obuns¡­"


    "We were stationed here to torture the prisoners in this cages because they refused to give the Vige Chief what he wanted¡­" The Elder began;


    "Who were they?" Ji Wang asked;


    "They are the parents of the dead Ji Dai and Ji Dara¡­"


    Boom!


    Ji Wang''s mind was blown to pieces by the shocking news, and if Ji Wang''s brain could be blown to bits, there was no metaphor that could exin what Dara was currently feeling¡­


    Ji Wang looked over to Dara and simply saw him staring at the cage with not only red eyes zed with rage, but also dripping with intense loss;


    "Don''t think about it, they might be lying¡­"


    Ji Wang tried to cate Dara, but he knew it wasn''t going to work, because the way these Elders spoke just now signified that they didn''t know it was the same Dara who they thought was dead that had been questioning them since¡­


    "We do not have any reason to lie and that is the truth¡­"


    The sneering elder contributed after several minutes of adjusting his mind to the intense pain his back was burning with¡­


    Ji Wang tried to whip him for speaking at such a sensitive moment;


    "Ji Wang!"


    Dara bellowed at Ji Wang who froze in shock by the level of energy within that bellow and fear gripped him instantly as Dara was now looking like someone who would snap his neck if he went out of line once again;


    "Unh? Ji Wang?"


    "Are you all members of our tribes?"


    "What are you doing with these disgusting Obuns?"


    "You two are a shame to-ahk!"


    The sneering elder began to rant when he realized that Ji Wang and Dara were from the vige of sang, but before he could continue ranting on, two arrowheads popped out of both of his eye balls, as Dara retuned his quiver, before looking to the other elder who had finally begun to shit himself and spoke solemnly;


    "I would advise you to choose your next words carefully¡­"


    The elder bobbed his head up and down like a scared kid;


    "Now tell me¡­ Why were these people in here?"


    Dara spoke slowly and like the growl of a prowling monster¡­


    The elder began to shiver when he saw Dara looking down at him from the bridge of his nose with a menacing gaze;


    "It was the vige chief; he wanted a meridian opening technique that was in their possession and thus he told us to torture and starve them until they give it up¡­"


    "But even after 5 years, they still refused to give it up, until the vige chief realized that their daughter; Ji Dai, had cultivated and used the technique, because when she had only unlocked her 8 Great and 2 Principal meridians, she could already defeat, others 6 Principal Meridians stronger than her¡­" The Elder revealed as teardrops filled Dara''s eyes¡­

 Chapter 86 - Windfall

    "But even after 5 years, they still refused to give it up, until the vige chief realized that their daughter; Ji Dai, had cultivated and used the technique, because when she had only unlocked her 8 Great and 2 Principal meridians, she could already defeat experts 6 Principal Meridians stronger than her¡­" The Elder revealed as teardrops filled Dara''s eyes¡­


    "It was at this point that the Vige Chief realized that she must have been using the Superior Meridian Opening technique he was trying to obtain from the couple, and thus, he shamelessly schemed against the couple''s kids; A girl and a boy¡­"


    "They were both supposed to be killed and then searched, for the meridian opening technique, and at first we never knew what the oue of the situation was until the vige chief returned one morning and came to interrogate the couple once again, and it was then that we realized that he had failed¡­"


    "He stationed us here till the couple divulged the location of the technique, and we were only given a single day off every three months¡­"


    "He also threatened to banish our families into the Dark Lands if we ever divulge the location or the content of this prison ground¡­"


    "But about three months ago which was our previous off day before three days ago, we came out only to find out that the entire vige was not only empty, but there were also the corpses of several of our tribesmen and women all strewn all everywhere, as well as the corpses of some Obuns¡­"


    "Even till this moment, I don''t know how this happened, and neither have I been able to figure out the whereabouts of the Vige Chief and the rest of the capable men of the vige¡­"


    "The only thing I can rte it to was when the Vige Chief told the couple that their daughter was dead and that he had also figured out the whereabouts of their son, and back then, I had even tried to convince the couple to save their son and divulge the existence of the meridian technique¡­"


    "But since they had lost so much already, and were not sure if the vige chief would keep his promise, they decided against it¡­"


    "So, I felt that perhaps they have all gone to capture the little kid, and the Obuns had seized that opportunity to attack the vige¡­"


    "But because we were too scared to face the vige chief''s rage when he returns to find out all the destruction that had gone on within the vige, we both decided to hide within the prison grounds, and thus, when the chief returns, we would tell him that we were just emerging out of the prison since thest time he was here¡­"


    "But about four days ago, we heard somemotion within the vige, and thought the vige chief had returned, thus, we decided to wait within the prison till the chiefes for us, but after an entire day, no one showed up, and thus, we decided to emerge and that was when we ran into two Obuns¡­"


    "We killed the two Obuns thinking they were the only ones, but when we realized they were too many of them within the vige, we decided to flee, but they just kept popping out of every corners and majority of their forces were blocking the entrance¡­"


    "So, instead of running around till we are caught and ughtered, we decided to fake our deaths, and it worked, but as they searched through the entire vige, they came upon this prison door we had left open when we emerged, and then, they captured the couple within the cage and took them away¡­"


    "Thus, when you all came in and we caught sight of the Obuns in the distance, we faked our death once again by using the corpse of our dead tribesmen to mask our fresh smell¡­" The Elder ended his conversation with a deep sigh¡­


    He looked extremely exhausted and starved, and though his wounds had stopped bleeding, the pain had yet to subside;


    "Where kind of torture were the couple subjected to?" Dara asked as he wiped off the tears in his eyes;


    "For the nine years they spent within this prison, they were only fed once a week¡­"


    "But that was until thest visit of the vige chief where thedy spat into his food when he was trying to torture them by eating in close proximity, and then he told us to only feed them once every two weeks till they divulge the location of the technique¡­"


    "Furthermore, they were also poisoned by a powder that seals one''s meridians for an entire month, and we had to administer it to them monthly, so after surviving on their cultivation for a little while in the first year, then the hunger began to settle in¡­" The Elder added;


    "Alright, for the final three questions which would determine your life or death; If you can answer two, then I won''t kill you, but if you fail two, then I will kill you here and now¡­" Dara revealed before asking;


    "Firstly, where did the Obuns take the couple?"


    "We couldn''t leave our hiding spot, so I don''t know¡­"


    The Elder slumped his head and shoulders in defeat;


    "Second question; This poisonous powder of yours that seals the meridians, do you know where the rest are stored?"


    "I''m afraid I don''t know where the rest is, but I do know the ingredients for making them and the specific quantity of each ingredients¡­"


    Dara nodded to Ji Wang who came forward and shove the man;


    "Spit it out!"


    He yelled as the elder quickly began to count the types of poisonous nts, beasts, and substances which was required to make this poison as well as the right quantity with which to mix them with, whilst Ji Wang noted everything down to the slightest detail¡­


    "Lastly, do you know where the store of the vige is, as well as its main reserve and the secret stashes of the Elders and Vige Chief?" Dara asked;


    "Yes I do¡­"


    Dara nodded once again to Ji Wang who in turn nodded to the Obuns who pulled the elder to his feet and shoved him;


    "Move it!"


    Ji Wang bellowed as the Elder took them to a corner of the vige where their store was, and after rolling away a massive stone boulder, they saw a ten meter deep pit where several resources could be seen...


    These resources ranged from beast leather to furs, sharp ws and talons, some digging and cutting tools, some daggers, swords and a few bows and quivers could also be seen within the pit, as Ji Wang ordered the Obuns to pack everything into the leathers, and furs within the pit and carry them out¡­


    After that, the Elder took them to the main reserves of the vige which was a small shed that looked more like a library when they entered, and here, there were swords, axes, hammers and bows that were of true quality, and Ji Wang could not help but whistle at the windfall¡­


    After that, they moved over to the two Elders apartments; and in the left elder''s apartment, they saw many clothes belonging to men, women, children and adults as it seemed like the left elder had a thing for fashion, because all the clothes in here, were very nice and must have been plundered from the other viges the tribesmen must have invaded¡­


    Then in the right elder''s residence, they saw a chest which Dara broke the lock like it was tofu, and within it were jewelries of all sorts [Diamond, Gold and some rare stones], and there was also two ninjatos [Short Swords], as well as several shuriken, little daggers and needles¡­


    The two chests from the left and right elder''s which contained clothes and resources were given to one of the Obuns to carry alongside Dara which meant Ji Wang had given both chests to Dara to do however he pleased¡­


    Dara knew why Ji Wang had done so, and he simply nodded back to him, but there was no amount of treasure that was going to alleviate Dara''s sadness at this point¡­


    Then they went to the vige chief''s residence, and there they found a chest which contained some even more expensive clothes than those of the left elder''s, as well as several gemstones that were more valuable than the right elder''s, and they also saw a great sword, and a book, which was actually the meridian opening technique the vige chief was using¡­


    Then they looted all of that as well, and finally, they were about to leave when Dara stopped, turned to the side and looked at the wall of this residence, as he stared at a specific spot of the wall which didn''t flush with the rest of the wall¡­


    Dara grabbed his palm into a fist and threw a punch at the wall, and instantly, it crumbled to pieces, and within it, they found a smaller box which Dara gently took out and opened, and within this box were five scrolls¡­


    Dara locked the boxes as he walked past the stunned Ji Wand who was trying to figure out how Dara was able to notice that there was apartment within the wall which none of them wouldn''t notice even if they were tob the residence ten times over¡­


    They left the residence and rendezvous with the rest of the Obuns as the tribesmen that came with them carried all the load the Obuns brought back, except for the Obun who carried two chests and followed behind Dara, whilst Dara also kept hold of the box with five scrolls¡­


    "What should we do with him?" Ji Wang asked;


    "What are you good at?" Dara asked;


    "Forging master¡­" The elder quickly kissed ass;


    "We don''t have the tools for a smithy, thus you are useless to me¡­"


    "No master, I have my personal smithy tools, and with these metal ingots within the loads you just recovered, I could really make some valuable tools and weapons for you¡­" The Elder blurted like his life depended on it¡­


    "Alright go get them¡­"


    Dara added, and stopped anyone from following the elder as he tested him to see if he would flee, and then he could guiltlessly murder the elder¡­


    But about ten minutester, the elder came dragging a sac on the ground as Daramanded an Obun to carry it for the man;


    "Alright we are returning home¡­" Dara announced....

 Chapter 87 - The Black Smith Elder Smith

    "Alright go get them¡­"


    Dara added, and stopped anyone from following the elder as he tested him to see if he would flee, and then he could guiltlessly murder the elder¡­


    But about ten minutester, the elder came dragging a sac on the ground as Daramanded an Obun to carry it for the man;


    "Alright we are returning home¡­" Dara announced...


    "Home?"


    "Yeah, we have already run out of time, and would have to continue with the other part of our mission tomorrow¡­"


    He exined as they all set out on a return trip to the tribe, with fifteen Obuns leading the way, five on either side of their group, and another fifteen guarding the rear;


    Then the seven human who were carrying all the loads, Dara, Ji Wang and the Elder were at the center of the group as they marched back to the tribe with excitement except Dara and the Elder¡­


    Half an hourter, the three hour deadline of Dara''s group had alreadye to an end, and the other troops led by the First and Second Obun Elders had already returned from sessfullypleting their tasks, and they were all waiting for Dara''s group to return¡­


    After ten minutes of waiting and not seeing the silhouette of a single strand of hair not to talk of a human body, the troops went to their respective residential area, whilst the leaders waited behind¡­


    Then another twenty minutes passed before the silhouette of Dara''s group popped up in the distance, and the moment word got around the tribe, all the experts as well as children within the tribe all rushed towards the gate, including Aunt Lin who smiled bashfully when she heard of their return, as she left the farm she and the kids were tending to¡­


    The kids waited within the gate on either sides of the road, whilst the experts actually went out to receive Dara''s group; after all, they were the ones with the most vital and dangerous missions of all three troops¡­


    Once Dara''s troop came in, everyone could see some level of excitement on their faces and just like a contagious pandemic, this excitement quickly spread into every corner of the tribe, but only those with keen senses could tell that Dara was anything but excited nor happy;


    "You wait behind and move all these stuffs into our store for now¡­"


    "I will call another meeting with the leaders tonight and we shall discuss what and how to efficiently make use of these products¡­" Dara instructed Ji Wang;


    "Take the chests from him and follow me¡­"


    Dara ordered the elder [cksmith] who received the two chests from the Obun that was carrying it and then followed Dara towards the teau¡­


    All the Leaders and Assistants, including Aunt Lin gathered around Ji Wang as they began to ask what went wrong or happened to Dara during their mission that could make him cut such a sorry figure¡­


    Ji Wang proceeded to exin everything that had happened and there was no single one of the group that was stunned speechless by the news of Dara''s parents being somewhere within the entire Dark and Grey Lands without any hint as to if they were dead or alive¡­


    He also spoke about the prison and the torture they had put Dara''s parents through, and finally Aunt Lin and Uncle Min could then piece all the puzzles that had been in their head together, whilst the rest of the group simply felt sorry for him¡­


    On the request of Aunt Lin, no one was allowed near the teau as they wanted to give him a little bit of breathing space, privacy and time to actually get over the shocking news¡­


    But even when dusk fell and the sun was nowhere to be found on the horizons, Dara had yet to surface from his room, and some were beginning to worry, and this was because they had previously sent someone to go check up on him, but they were warded off by Elder Smith [Allow me to refer to the elder from the vige as Elder Smith];


    "Master would see no one at this time¡­"


    Elder Smith had repeated at least thrice already, and after another hour, the elites finally told Aunt Lin to go check up on him, but just as Aunt Lin was about to leave, Ji Wang held her arm and tendered his bloodied whip to her;


    "What is this for?" Aunt Lin asked with a frown;


    "It would ensure you meet with the Leader¡­"


    Dara simply stated without trying to reveal the reason for his gesture, but Aunt Lin took the whip and the moment she became visible in the distance, Elder Smith jolted in shock as he saw Aunt Lining over with a bloodied whip...


    When Aunt Lin got to the teau, Elder Smith didn''t even breathe too loudly as Aunt Lin walked past him whilst leaving a sneering snort behind, an action that caused Elder Smith to sigh and shake his head in self-ridicule¡­


    Aunt Lin got to the top of the teau, and went straight into Dara''s residence, and after checking everywhere and not finding him, she went straight to the hot tub in the bath, and found Dara therepletely submerged within the steaming water;


    "Dara!?"


    Aunt Lin rushed over in fear as she lifted his body up and quickly checked his pulse but found nothing¡­


    She ced her finger beneath his nostrils and felt nothing also, and at this point, Aunt Lin was already entering full panic mode as she ced her head over his chest to check for any heartbeat;


    "What are you doing?"


    Haa!


    Aunt Lin jolted in fear, but not before sending a swift punch at Dara who immediately began to bleed from his nose where the fist hadnded;


    "You almost scared me to death!"


    "What in the world is wrong with you!?"


    Aunt Lin bellowed angrily at him, but Dara''s emotionlessly replied;


    "I told him not to let anyone in¡­"


    He added an helpless but disappointed sigh at the end of the statement, as he stepped out of the tub and pulled on a dry silk robe which he had chosen from the Left Elder''s stash of clothes¡­


    He let his hair fall over his shoulders as he refused to band or tie it, as he left the bath with the stunned Aunt Lin in tow¡­


    Dara didn''t even pay her any attention as he walked down the teau;


    "Leave, you have failed at your first task¡­"


    Dara spoke softly and calmly, but the aura of disappointment was evident as the Elder walked forward a bit before he began hesitating;


    "I will send someone toe arrange an apartment for you¡­"


    Dara added before moving towards the patch ofnd between the Ring of Death and Ring of Fire, as this was the area where the Leaders and assistants were all waiting for him¡­


    "Leader?" The First Obun Elder was the first to speak out when Dara reached their spot;


    "Did you take an inventory of everything we managed to gather?" Dara didn''t even reply as he spoke directly to Ji Wang;


    "Yes, I did¡­"


    Ji Wand added, before they all sat on a massive log of smooth tree trunk, as Ji Wang took a stick and began to draw on the ground¡­


    "We managed to find 200 leathers and 300 furs¡­"


    "As for weapons there were 70 Swords, 40 bows and quivers, 20 Spears, 20 Sabres, 10 hoes, 10 machetes, 5 Axes and 5 hammers¡­"


    "We also found 40 ingots of metal which weighs about 50 pounds each, and about 20 ingots of three other ores we have no idea as to what they do or their properties, and they weigh 10 pounds each¡­"


    "We also found 50 different spice, fruit and herb seeds¡­."


    "We also found 10 poisonous herb seeds, and finally 200 pounds of Diamond crystals, 500 pounds worth of gold ores, 100 pounds of gold dust, and finally the meridian opening technique which allows one to unlock their Eight Great and 12 Principal Meridians¡­"


    Ji Wang recounted everything and drew them on the ground as all the Leaders including Uncle Min, Ji Chen and Aunt Lin who joined some minutes ago looked at the inventory n ground and couldn''t shut their cked jaws¡­


    "We have 100 kids within this tribe, make them one set of leather outfits for when it is hot and fur outfits for the cold nights; then whatever is left should be used for the rest of us¡­"


    Dara began to assign these resources to where he felt their use would be efficiently maximized¡­


    "70 swords, 20 Spears, 20 Sabres, that is enough to go round for all the Obun''s within the tribe; let them pick the weapon of their choice¡­"


    "Share the rest of these weapons and the 40 bows and quivers, between the tribesmen and those at the watch towers and have them begin to familiarize themselves with it¡­"


    Dara continued as Ji Wang began to jot down his words;


    "The machetes would be used for farming, the Axes would be used for falling trees, and the hammers would be used for construction¡­" Ji Wang noted with a nod;


    "You will grow the 10 poisonous seeds within the area of the farm where the aphrodisiac is being grown, and the 50 different edible seeds would be grown with the few we already have, and once they have been harvested, we will then determine how they would be incorporated to our meals¡­"


    Dara didn''t even deign Aunt Lin with any attention, but everyone within the group including Aunt Lin herself knew, she was the one he was talking to;


    "As for the diamonds, golds and other gemstones, we will build a vault that would be inessible except with certain keys, and that is where we will keep all the gems, till we are strong enough to venture out and trade them for other resources and necessities we might have¡­"


    "The metal ingots should be taken to the Elder''s home, and a full workshop needs to be constructed for him where he can turn these resources into weapons better than the ones we currently have;"


    "Then when he has made enough weapons to go around, we will then tender all the ones with us for him to recycle and create another sets of weapons¡­"


    "Give him the ores as well, he should know what their purposes are for¡­" Dara continued¡­

 Chapter 88 - Outstripping Endurance

    "The metal ingots should be taken to the Elder''s home, and a full workshop must be constructed for him where he can turn these resources into weapons better than the ones we currently have;"


    "Then when he has made enough weapons to go around, we will then tender all the ones with us for him to recycle and create another sets of weapons¡­"


    "Give him the ores as well, he should know what their purposes are for¡­" Dara continued¡­


    "Then finally, that meridian opening technique is to be stored and not used; I have a much better one which I will release to everyone once I have found a source of energy required for cultivation¡­" Dara highlighted;


    "All these constructions should be done by Troop 1 and 2, I will take Troop 3 out with me tomorrow to begin scouting the area for any possible Qi Stone Farms out there¡­"


    "Ji Wang you will wait behind to ensure everything I have said ispleted before I return from the mission tomorrow¡­"


    "You will be taking his ce alongside me tomorrow¡­"


    Dara looked towards the First Obun Leader this time as he ordered and ushered their tasks to them;


    "Alright, that is all, if anyone has any other idea about how to efficiently use these materials, they cane forward and share their ideas now¡­"


    "Anyone who also has objections on the workload on ground can also signify¡­"


    Dara voiced as the rest of the experts looked towards each other and once no one had any objection, Ji Wang finally spoke;


    "I already have an idea of how this vault would be like, but if you can allow me study those chests and that box, I should be able to devise a worthy lock system for the vault¡­" Ji Wang chipped in;


    "Have someonee fetch it for you once we are done here¡­"


    Dara replied, and after a bit of more instructions and advices, Dara finally left the group and none of the experts said anything about what they have heard as the perfect moment to do so never showed up...


    Thus, they could only helplessly watch his lonely back which was made even more mncholic due to the soft ambience of night sky¡­


    The moment he left, everyone looked to Aunt Lin once again to go help settle Dara''s mind; Aunt Lin rolled her eyes and sighed before standing up and following in Dara''s direction, but not before taking a little 6 year old girl along¡­


    She was able to catchup to Dara before he could return to his tub, as she picked up pace;


    "Give the girl the chests and let her take it to Ji Wang whilst I help you change your tub water¡­"


    She grabbed Dara''s hand and stopped him, whilst she walked past him into the bathroom, and Dara went to empty the chests and boxes in a corner within his room before giving the little girl the three safes...


    Then after ensuring the little girl was at the base of the teau safely, Dara returned to his room and simplyid on his bed before sinking deep into his thoughts¡­


    He still couldn''t believe that his parents who he had been toldmitted suicide virtually all through his life would turn out to be a total lie;


    "Your bath is ready¡­" Dara had his thoughts once again interrupted as Aunt Lin spoke softly¡­


    Dara stood up and moved over to the tub, undid his robes and stepped into the water, but just as he was about to rx his head on the edge of the tub, a hand held his head in ce;


    "Wait for me¡­"


    Aunt Lin softly spoke once again, as Dara heard the sounds of three different clothing drop to the ground¡­


    Aunt Lin then stepped in, and Dara who hadn''t looked back when Aunt Lin was undressing could finally feel her naked body against his¡­


    Aunt Lin sat behind Dara, and allowed him to rest on her; her boobs cushioning his neck and head from behind whilst she slowly, softly, and gently caressed his shoulders, an action that caused Dara to melt beneath her touch¡­


    His body rxedpletely and his mind became slightly clearer and his mood lightened slightly;


    "Thanks¡­" he said;


    "If you really want to thank me, then you will tell me what''s on your mind and allow me to help¡­"


    "After all, we share a deeper bond than anyone else within this tribe; so talk to me¡­"


    Aunt Lin continued to unknot all the knots within his muscles as Dara kept getting more and more rxed;


    "Do you know your parents?" Aunt Lin stiffened slightly when she heard that question;


    "Yes I do¡­"


    "Do you know how they are doing and where they are?"


    "They both died when I was seven, trying to protect me from my tribe¡­"


    "Unh?" Dara was stunned by Aunt Lin''s response;


    "I wasn''t born within the Land of Light you know?"


    "I and my parents were naturally from the Jok Kingdom, and I also haven''t been able to figure out how we got here either¡­"


    "But all I know was, citizens from the Jok Kingdom are archenemies of the Land of Light, and when a certain tribe within the Land of Light came across our tribe, they ughtered everyone within the tribe, and my parents died protecting me in that battle¡­"


    "Then the leader of the tribe that invaded us took me away and let me live out of respect for how my parents fought to keep me safe at all cost¡­"


    "But after years of living within his tribe with nothing extraordinary about me in terms of cultivations or anything else, I was simply shoved into the ranks of his ves, and that was when I met your Uncle Min; a banished tribesman who had been captured by another tribe and turned into a ve¡­"


    "But due to some unfortunate series of event, we found ourselves in the Darks Lands- - -anyways, I am not here to talk about me, I am here to talk about you¡­"


    Aunt Lin slipped her hands across Dara''s front and hugged him tightly from behind;


    "I found out today, that my parents, who I have been made to believemitted shameful suicide, were actually alive and were being imprisoned just a few meters away from the house I grew up in with my sister for about ten years¡­" Dara sighed before he continued;


    "And for ten solid years, I never knew they were there, being starved and tortured withoutmitting any crime¡­"


    Now it was Aunt Lin''s time to sigh;


    "Ji Wang exined everything to us¡­"


    "Did he also tell you that the previous time I went to the vige, we also reached a spot only about two feet away from the pit they were imprisoned, and I never even looked, but was instead discussing how to save other families when my own were being tortured in a pit less than half a meter from me¡­"


    Dara''s head slumped downwards, but Aunt Lin raised it up with her hand as she consoled him;


    "What defines a man is not his ability to avoid tragedy, rather it his ability to rise after falling into one¡­"


    "You might call it jokes on me because you are still a young boy who has yet to even enter his teen age, but to me, you are more than most men I havee across out there¡­"


    Aunt Lin hugged Dara tighter and kissed him on the neck as Dara replied;


    "But all hope is not lost, and as long as there a slight chance that they are still alive, somewhere out there, I will not rest until they are found¡­"


    "Even if they are gone, I would like to bring their bodies back here and give them a proper burial¡­" Dara added;


    "And we will all support you in whatever way we can¡­" Aunt Lin reassured Dara;


    "Thanks¡­"


    "It''s nothing¡­ Don''t forget you still have to im me to yourself also, so you have a lot of hard work ahead of you¡­" Aunt Lin slipped in a reminder;


    "Does that mean we don''t get to help each other tonight?" Dara turned his face and kissed her on the lips;


    "Well, I guess I can make an exception for you this once, on the fact that we have both had a frustrating day¡­"


    Aunt Lin answered as her hand glided down his chest and his abs till it reached the newly blooming flower between Dara''s thighs¡­


    Dara on the other hand didn''t stay idle either and his hands had already dribbled its way to Aunt Lin''s lower cave, and from her uneven breaths, one would have figured that Dara''s fingers weren''t neglecting their duties either¡­


    ~Hmmm~


    "Take it slow, we have the entire night to ourselves¡­"


    Aunt Lin spoke in between her moans whilst Dara''s lips finally curled upwards before giving a lewd response;


    "Well, why don''t we find out how many orgasms you can have in one night then?" Aunt Lin gasped bashfully, but she was so down for it;


    "Alright, you''re on, let''s see how many times you can resurrect that pole of yours¡­"


    "Challenge epted¡­"


    Dara replied with a grin as the duo began an entire night of nonstop, unadulterated and euphoric intercourse¡­


    The duo went on for about 6 hours which in real time was over 24 hours with the briefest of rest in between; it was like they wanted to have a lifetime worth of sex in one day¡­


    Aunt Lin was already sore all over, but it wasn''t from pain, but the tingling sensation of the back to back orgasm she had experienced which she had lost count of but was extremely sure numbered more than 30 times¡­


    Dara on the other hand, had a semiid cock visible in sight and Aunt Lin had to look at him like he was a monster of some sort;


    "How long can you even keep that going?" She asked in amazement;


    "Not anymore, but if you did that thing you did once again, then I am sure I should be able to get at least three more rounds out of it before I am totally spent¡­"


    "You level of endurance sure outstrips mine¡­"


    "That''s what happens when one has opened the amount of meridians that I have¡­" Dara added;


    "We still have a bit more time till daybreak, do you want to nap?"


    "Sure¡­"


    Dara responded as they washed themselves and finally left the bathroom for his room where Aunt Lin cuddled him naked till he fell asleep¡­


    Four hourster, it was dawn and the duo woke up full of life, vigor and very much graduated¡­

 Chapter 89 - New Development

    "You level of endurance sure outstrips mine¡­"


    "That''s what happens when one has opened the amount of meridians that I have¡­" Dara added;


    "We still have a bit more time till daybreak, do you want to nap?"


    "Sure¡­"


    Dara responded as they washed themselves and finally left the bathroom for his room where Aunt Lin cuddled him naked till he fell asleep¡­


    Four hourster, it was dawn and the duo woke up full of life, vigor and very much graduated¡­


    They took another bath and didn''t forget to smooch each-other, but just as they were about to step outside, Dara smacked Aunt Lin in the ass causing it to jiggle and p against one another whilst a furious blush spread across Aunt Lin''s face;


    "Come on, we are at the entrance¡­ What do you want them to think if they see us stepping out and I am blushing this way?" Aunt Lin chastised lovingly as she smoothened Dara''s hair;


    "I don''t care, you are mine¡­" Dara responded nonchntly, like him iming Aunt Lin was a forgone conclusion;


    "If you think your Uncle Min would simply let you win this challenge, then you have got another thinging¡­"


    Aunt Lin replied with a smile as she bent slightly to kiss Dara on the forehead, revealing the upper half of her sulent boobs to Dara who coughed slightly before turning towards the entrance and stepping outside;


    "Damn, that didn''t work¡­"


    Aunt Lin grinned mischievously; she had nned to make Dara step out of the house with a blush as well, but he was able to control himself¡­


    Dara was on the ground in no time as he saw Ji Wang and some experts waiting for him at the gate of their residence¡­


    He hurried his steps, opened the gates and locked it behind him whilst they walked towards the tribe''s gate;


    "We have the six marine beasts, of three different species; one male and one female each¡­" Ji Wang spoke whilst nodding at Aunt Lin who had finally caught up to them;


    "We also have the four female beasts of different species also¡­ The fishes are within the river and the beasts are ced with the other two males¡­" Ji Wang added;


    "What would you have me do with them?" Aunt Lin asked obviously realizing what they were conversing about;


    "Feed all of them an aphrodisiac flower each and lock them all together¡­" Dara answered whilst Aunt Lin felt her body heat up for some reasons;


    "It seems to be mating season because it didn''t take us too long to find all these beasts, so I believe they were all gathering together for the mating season¡­" Ji Chen and Uncle Min added as they approached the group from up ahead;


    "Good¡­ Then add two aphrodisiac flowers into their meals every time and lock them up immediately after for the next three weeks¡­" Dara upped the stakes;


    "But wouldn''t that be dangerous to their health, we have seen what a single whiff of it can do to humans¡­" Aunt Lin spoke out with a blush apparent on her face;


    "Well they are beasts, so they should be able to handle it¡­"


    "Furthermore, they are all different species and I want some hybrid beasts to result from theiring together, and there is no better natural way to do that than to have them figure it out by themselves¡­"


    "The aphrodisiac is just there to ensure that they are driven by their libido and lust that they be willing to mate with other species¡­" Dara exined;


    "Then that way we would be able to have 12 different adult beast species and 17 different hybrid offspring; eight from the beast and nine from the fishes, right?" Ji Wang asked with a smirk;


    "Our thoughts are aligned in this matter, Ji Wang¡­ Very aligned¡­" Dara praised with a slight smirk¡­


    "Once their offspring have grown to an extent where they can leave their parents, then the parents would be our source of food, and the little ones would be allowed to grow till they can mate¡­"


    "Then when the timees, we will search for anotherpletely different female and male species for them to breed with¡­" Dara exined;


    "What would your aim of doing that be?" Aunt Lin asked;


    "Isn''t it obvious, he ns on having so many beasts with different bloodlines¡­"


    Uncle Min smirked smugly at the fact that he couldprehend what the seemingly iprehensible Dara was thinking;


    "He he, I have to hand it to you Uncle Min, your experience is indeed unmatched¡­"


    Dara praised as the smug Uncle Min bloated his chest proudly whilst the others also nodded at his intelligence;


    "¡­But you are wrong¡­" Darapleted his statement;


    "Eh?" Everyone was stunned;


    "You mean that was not your reason?" Ji Chen was also stumped;


    "Then what is it?" Aunt Lin added;


    "Crossbreeding all these bloodlines together would mean each generation of these beast would be stronger than their predecessors due to having the genes of more than a single beast within them¡­" Dara began;


    "But what I am aiming for is a beast with the ultimate gene which I can turn into my personal war beast, and who knows, nature might just surprise me with something more monstrous¡­"


    Dara continued with a mischievous grin on his face, and at this point that grin appeared very evil to everyone around;


    "When that happens, I will then seek the top ten beasts of this jungle and let my ultimate beast mate with them all until the ultimate monster I seek is finally born¡­" Dara finished;


    "Ahem!" Uncle Min coughed and cleared his throat awkwardly;


    "It''s true, no one canprehend the scale and depths of your thought process¡­" Uncle Min helplessly admitted;


    "Yeah, we can only understand the surface, or at most the general scope of what you are trying to aplish¡­"


    Ji Wang added with a smile, whilst the rest of the experts around also looked towards Dara with adoration and deep respect pouring out of their eyes from their hearts¡­


    Aunt Lin also smiled at him before looking at Uncle Min and winking towards him¡­


    Uncle Min understood what the wink was all about and sighed helplessly before mouthing quietly at her;


    "How am I gonna defeat this monster?" "Well that''s the challenge isn''t it?"


    Aunt Lin mouthed back, and Uncle Min frowned in thought a little, before snapping his finger in enlightenment, as everyone gazed at him, but he simplyughed awkwardly¡­


    Then when they took their attention away from him, he mouthed at Aunt Lin;


    "Thanks love¡­"


    "Call me that after you have defeated him¡­" Aunt Lin mouthed back¡­ Uncle Min smiled as he began to ruminate his thoughts¡­


    He had always been thinking Dara himself was the challenge and all he had to do was to find a way to better his achievement which was why he was initially happy when he was able to capture the six aquatic beasts they brought back whilst Dara could only fulfil half the mission he set out to aplish; but that was before he heard about Dara''s parents¡­


    But now, Aunt Lin had just revealed to him that he had been thinking about the challenge the wrong was, and that was why he would always be a step behind, because, letting Dara make an achievement before bettering it means Dara would most likely win the challenge whilst he was still busy trying to better his results¡­


    But if he used Aunt Lin''s idea and instead figure out what he could do that Dara couldn''t and channel all his energy into that, he might end up bing much more important than Dara within the tribe even if Dara ended up being stronger than he was, and with that, he would have won the challenge¡­


    The challenge wasn''t about cultivation base power; that was the path Dara chose to show his level of value, and he had blindly followed this insurmountable challenge without trying to figure out his own path to bing very valuable, and that was what Aunt Li had just made him realize;


    The challenge was like a race with between two cars, and he had jumped on the same track as Dara which means his car would forever be behind Dara''s¡­


    But the point was, no one said he could create his own track, and that was the only way he could have a chance at catching up or even beating Dara¡­


    Now Uncle Min was very happy and now he had more confidence at giving Dara a run for his value, and the thought of having a mentally matureddy like Aunt Lin beside him was like a nitro boost to Uncle Min''s car¡­


    Just a single sentence from her could put him off his wrong path onto the right one; if she could give him such idea in less than a heartbeat, then how better of a man would he be if he had such a woman by his side forever?


    All these thoughts began to fall into Uncle Min''s mind like back to back avnches¡­


    "Alright, Ji Wang take your group and begin the constructions¡­ Make sure Elder Smith is also with you so he can tell you the most suitable Forge to build¡­"


    Dara ordered as Ji Wang took the entire Troop 1 and 2 to begin the development of the tribe¡­


    Uncle Min, Ji Chen and the Second Obun Elder also joined in the work, whilst Dara and the First Obun Elder gathered troop 3 and prepared begin the mission of finding a good cultivation energy source¡­


    "If they are going to be doing a lot of construction, then wouldn''t they need the two beasts in the den?"


    Aunt Lin asked referring to the two beasts of burden which Dara had now decided to use for breeding;


    "They have enough manpower, so they don''t need those two¡­ Just go on with the n, and if you have any other ideas that can make my ns better, then do it¡­"


    Dara advised as Aunt Lin called onto the kids to go prepare food for the beasts whilst she headed over to the farm to harvest some potent aphrodisiac leaves¡­


    He then looked to the First Obun Elder and added;


    "It''s time for us to begin our mission also and you will be leading the way¡­ We will be heading for the Qi Stone Farm you were all enved;"


    "It''s time to figure out what is truly going on in there and setting your people free¡­" Dara promised the Obun Elder who mmed his fist onto his chest and gave a curt bowed;


    "On behalf of all my people both here and still in captivity, I thank you Leader!" The First Obun Elder showed some emotions;


    "It''s alright¡­ Since freeing your people happens to be achievable whilst undergoing our missions, then it is only normal that we kill two birds with one stone¡­"


    Min Hong spoke like it was simply what anyone would do, but the Obun Elder obviously knew that wasn''t the case;


    "Alright, let''s move out!" Dara ordered as the entire troop began to march out of the open gates;


    "Godspeed, Leader!"


    "May mother nature guide you, Leader!"


    The human tribesmen who were guarding the gates pumped the morale of the troop as they marched out of the tribe straight into the jungle¡­

 Chapter 90 - The Min Tribe King Tian

    "Alright, we''re moving out!"


    Dara ordered as the entire troop began to march out of the open gates;


    "Godspeed, Leader!"


    "May mother nature guide you, Tribe Leader!"


    The human tribesmen who were guarding the gates pumped the morale of the troop as they marched out of the tribe straight into the jungle¡­


    The moment the gate of the tribe mmed shut, Dara''s group knew they were on their own as their level of caution rose to its peak;


    "Alright First Elder, where are we heading to?" Dara asked as heid the map before the First Obun Elder as they marched along;


    "Here¡­" The First Elder pointed to a spot deep into the recess of the jungle;


    "There unh?"


    "That ce is so far away from civilization, it would make the perfect spot to hide something that sinister indeed¡­" Dara muttered as they marched on¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Leagues away from their current location¡­


    Right at the center Land of Light¡­


    Thisnd mass could only be describes as ''As far as the normal eyes could see'', and right in the center of thisndscape was a massive residence which covered at least 100 acres ofnd¡­


    This 100 acrend was actually in the middle of a massiveke, and within thesend were numerous residences in the form of over 40 different houses¡­


    Each of these house were massive on their own and were by all standards worthy of being called mansions, except that these mansions themselves were joined together or separated by a fence each¡­


    The mansions were built with one facing the other from the left to the right and vice versa¡­


    On the left was another mansion even grander and bigger than the rest of the 20 some mansions on its wing and it was the only mansion which was detached from the rest on its wing, standing alone with a fence of its own and a gate¡­


    Just atop this gate was a que that read; ''Left Grand Elder''¡­


    On the right side was an exact replica of this left wing, and it also had a separate mansion which had a que that read; ''Right Grand Elder''¡­


    These gated mansions were position in a way that they were situated at the deepest end of this entire 100 acrendscape, and both of these gated mansions were facing a castle right in between them, like a person trying to separate a fight between two people by standing in between them¡­


    This castle took up all the gigantic space between the residence of the Left and Right Grand Elders of this massivendscape;


    They all had roofs made out of y but dried into thin bs of stones, with the buildings themselves being white in color, bringing out the grandeur and intent of a menacingly wealthy tribe¡­


    This castle was two stories high, and because of its unique size of this castle which looked like two mansions stacked atop one another¡­


    Due to this structural uniqueness, the top mansion of this castle not only overlooks the entire 100 acres ofnd effortlessly, but it also gives a good view of the entirend owned by the tribe¡­


    Moving from this castle towards the normal gateless mansions, there was a massive garden separating the first ten mansions on both sides, as well as a massive library that radiated a very unique feel of ancientness separating the eleventh to the fifteenth mansions from one another¡­


    Then finally, there was a massive academy which [though was small with respect to its name] was reserved for the best of the best talents in the entirendscape which was as vast as a normal eye could see¡­


    A massive red steel gate closed this entire 100 acres ofnd, and it also had a grand and massive que hung over it that said; ''Min Tribe''¡­


    Yeah, the name of the tribe which rules the Kingdom of Shangri La is the Min Tribe, and this is where they all resided, whilst the rest of the tribe in the Kingdom of Light resides at the shore of the Lake itself¡­


    The family of the Tribe Leader or the King of Shangri La, and that of the two Grand Elders of the Min Tribe and their families and some other high ranked officials and elders of the Min Tribe all resided here¡­


    The top mansion of the castle belonged to Min Tian; the current King of Shangri La, his wife and three children; and it also contains a training area, cultivation spot, library and a Vault¡­


    The ground mansion on the other hand contained a Throne Hall where important meetings are being held, and the other necessities in every home, but today however, he was in his cultivation spot meditating when a calm and serene elderly voice drifted past the curtain;


    "Your highness, the Left Grand Elder is here and would like to have a word with you¡­"


    "Should I show him to the Throne Hall or tell him you are in seclusion?"


    The olddy who seemed to be the king''s personal servant spoke in a tone that wasn''t interruptive or disturbing, but still audible enough, and that would signify the reason why she held such an important position in the entire kingdom¡­


    "It''s alright Fu, I will be down in a minute¡­"


    A middle aged voice floated out of the meditation area, and the figure of the elderlydy retreated from the room;


    "His highness will be with you shortly¡­" Maid Fu told a middle aged man when she got to the Throne Hall before retreating altogether;


    "Left, why have you summoned me?"


    The King''s voice floated into the Hall as the middle aged man standing in front of the throne held his bow till King Min Tian sat on his throne;


    "His highness, I am here because I just received news of a new development from one of our Qi Stone Farms¡­"


    "Eh? What happened!?" King Tian abruptly leaned forward on his throne as he stared at the Left Grand Elder;


    "Nothing has happened with the stones, it is the Obuns that is the source of this problem, your highness¡­"


    King Tian rxed back into his seat a bit but was still having an expression of concern etched all over his face;


    "What happened to the Obuns?"


    "Are they rebelling?"


    "That shouldn''t be possible right?" He fired several back to back questions at the left Grand Elder;


    "No your highness, they didn''t rebel¡­"


    "Then what is it!?" The King wasing on so strong it was bordering on aggressive;


    "Greetings your highness, we simply sent a troop of Obuns to go fetch some more humans from the Grey or Dark Lands, and up until this moment, we have only ounted for only a hundred of their 252 man strong troop¡­"


    Another figure walked into the Throne Hall;


    It was a actually a pretty young man who was too pretty to still be ssified as a man, especially when one factors in his feminine tendencies;


    ''Tch, hateful fellow¡­'' The Left Grand Elder''s face darkened as he red at this new figure;


    "Elder Yun, aren''t you supposed to still be in the Dark Lands?"


    King Tian looked to the fair, tall and slender young man, who looks to be about 35 years from his appearance at least;


    "Yes, your highness, but I decided toe in person because I want to highlight the severity of the problem to you¡­"


    "Alright, so you are here, and I am listening¡­"


    King Tian was still disappointed but this feminine Elder Yun in front of him was one of the pirs behind his rise to royalty and the reason why he has still kept his ce till date...


    But whilst he might be unreliable sometimes, with some weird fetishes, he was still one of the top ten most important figure in his Kingdom, thus, no matter the situation, King Tian has to entertain whatever he had to say;


    "Your highness, about four months ago, one of my Obun scouts discovered a new tribe which had set roots within Dark Lands, and as a potential Qi Stone source, I dispatched about 50 Obuns station themselves a fair distance away from the vige and report with me whenever there was any new development¡­"


    "Then about two weekster, word got to me that this tribe were actually going out of their vige rescuing stranded people within the Dark Lands, thereby increasing their numbers and power, and in a bid to limit their power so that our Farms don''t get stumbled upon and invaded, I ordered these Obuns to capture anyone who might be approaching the vige in a bid to seek asylum¡­"


    "But the after another two weeks, I received no report from the Obun I put in charge of this dispatch who was supposed to report to me every two weeks¡­"


    "Thus, just to be safe, I sent out an entire Obun troop to go investigate what was going on, and if found bring the 50 Obun spies back to the farm¡­" Elder Yun continued;


    "The troop I sent consisted of 250 Obuns as well as two Obun Elders, and I also gave them a two week time limit for the mission, but after the two weeks psed, the entire troop and the spies I sent beforehand never returned¡­"


    King Tian himself frowned after hearing that 300 Obuns and 2 Obun Elders have gone missing in a single month without any trace whatsoever;


    "Why didn''t you send a messenger to the pce the moment that happened?" King Tian questioned;


    "Your Highness, I felt there were more important matters for you to attend to, and moreover, I never thought anything would happen to a troop that was 300 Obun and 2 Elders strong, thus, I wanted to wait till I had definitive cause and evidences to worry you, before bringing the matter before you¡­"


    King Tian nodded seemingly epting Elder Yun''s reasons before beckoning him to continue with his exnations;


    "After another two weeks of not seeing any one of these Obuns, I thought that perhaps they were searching for my spies¡­"


    "When it clocked two months of not hearing from these Obuns, I took three Obun troops myself and marched over to investigate the situation, and I found traces of the 50 Obun Spies being ughtered within the Jungle of the Dark Lands¡­"


    "Eh?" King Tian was stunned by the news;


    "There is actually someone or people out there who could ughter 50 Obuns?" He blurted unbelievably;


    "Not only that your highness¡­ I also moved over to the vige my spies had told me about, and there I found about 100 of the troops I sent to look for my spies dead along with the tribesmen of this vige¡­"


    King Tian was already fuming as his hands curled into a fist;


    Bang!


    The table in front of King Tian was sted into smithereens as he growled;


    "Left! Yun! Are you telling me 150 Obuns are dead, and another 100 including 2 Elders are missing and I am just hearing about it four months after it all began!?"


    King Tians robes and hair began to flutter without wind as he began to leak a profound aura of some sort;


    "Unh?"


    "7 Star Qi Sea Stage!?"


    Elder Yun and The Left Grand Elder were stunned by this revtion, because thest time they were here, King Tian was only on the verge of breaking into the 6 Star Qi Sea Stage, and that was four months ago¡­

 Chapter 91 - The Political Genius

    King Tian''s royal robes and hair began to flutter without wind as he began to leak a mysteriously profound aura of some sort;


    "Unh?"


    "7 Star Qi Sea Stage!?"


    Elder Yun and The Left Grand Elder were stunned by this revtion, because thest time they were here, King Tian was only on the verge of breaking into the 6 Star Qi Sea Stage, and that was four months ago¡­


    But in that same time frame, not only did he enter the 6 Star Qi Sea stage and stabilize his cultivation there, he also managed to progress into the 7 Stars and from what they were currently sensing, he seemed to have also stabilize his current cultivation¡­


    "Congrattions on your breakthrough your highness!"


    "Congrattions Your Highness, may your efforts continue to yield such good fortune for you and the Kingdom as a whole¡­"


    The Left Grand Elder and Elder Yun both bowed and said nothing else as King Tian found himself being unable to keep up with the abrupt change in conversation, and as a result, his billowing aura lurched a bit before dispersing altogether¡­


    Understanding that the duo in front of him had intentionally done this to dete his rising fury, King Tian released a huge sigh before frowning andmanding;


    "Continue!"


    Knowing that their lives had at least been spared momentarily, Left and Elder Yun also released a sigh of their own, but they still knew the King intended to punish them which was why he hadn''t responded to theirpliments;


    But they also knew whatever punishment they would get now can never bepared to what would have happened if the King''s fury had been allowed to soar¡­


    "It is just as you have determined your highness, we haven''t been able to locate the rest of the Obuns as well as the two elders and it is because they had taken too long that I have decided to bring this to your attention¡­"


    "Then why have youe, Left¡­" The king turned to his left hand man and asked with a frown;


    "I havee for the same reason your highness¡­."


    "Then are you both trying to tell me that you''re both here for the same reason whilst all our Qi Stone Farms in the entire Dark Lands are not under supervision!?" King Tian raged once again;


    "Uh¡­Erm¡­Um¡­"


    The Elder Yun duo realized at this point that the situation they wanted to avoid was now unavoidable, and it might spell more than an ordinary difort for them¡­


    Naturally, once reports on the Qi Stone Farms were to be given to the King, Left was supposed to get his reports on Qi Stone Farms where he was assigned to supervise and give it to Elder Yun who was simply in charge of ensuring the rtive safety and secrecy of these Qi Stone Farms within both the Dark Lands and those in the Grey Lands being supervised by the Right Grand Elder [or simply Right]¡­


    It is Elder Yun who would then receive these two reports, reorganize them ande report to the King himself, but because the Left Grand Elder felt that the roles between him and Elder Yun was meant to be the direct opposite, he was always looking for a way to cause trouble for Elder Yun, so that the King can find fault with him and remove him from that position¡­


    Elder Yun on the other hand knew the reason why the Left Grand Elder was doing all these was because of sheer greed;


    He had noticed that Left wants to be stealing Qi Stones from the Kingdom by taking little quantities of Qi Stones from every batch the Farms send back to the Kingdom every six months, but since the production numbers had to be run by Elder Yun, there was no way the Left Grand Elder could steal the amount of Qi Stones he wants to steal¡­


    This doesn''t mean the Left Grand Elder couldn''t steal some for his cultivation, but Left was simply too greedy and was looking to amass enormous wealth from it, and Elder Yun was a giant obstruction to him¡­


    But King Tian knew that if their roles were swapped, he would simply be opening the door of his henhouse at night whilst going to bed, because once the Qi Stones from both the Dark and Grey Lands have been gathered, Left would just remove his chunk away from the total and send the rest to the Kingdom since he was the one taking the overall records¡­


    Furthermore, King Tian had realized that giving this role to one of his Grand Elders might cause a friction with the other, thus he gave it to none of them, and whilst the Right Grand Elder was extremely loyal and Elder Yun was a freak for developing the Kingdom;


    [because he imed he wanted to takeover the entire by just developing the kingdom to such an extent that the entire wealth of the has to pass through Shangri La];


    it was a no brainer to put such a person as Elder Yun in charge of the overall development of the kingdom which also includes the Qi Stone Farm¡­


    Thus, King Tian had known that Left only came here to use the situation of the missing and dead Obuns toe and deface Elder Yun in front of him, and that is why he was furious; because the Left Grand Elder was simply neglecting his duties to cause chaos¡­


    But he was also furious with Elder Yun because Elder Yun was wiser than Left, but he had also put himself in a mess which he allowed to fester so long that even Left caught wind of it, thus he had to be a little aggressive with them so that they can take their important and sensitive jobs very seriously;


    "Scribe!" King Tian called out;


    "Your words are thews of Shangri La, Your Highness¡­ State yourmand!"


    The voice of an old man resounded from somewhere within the Throne Hall that no one except the King himself knows;


    "Have the royal ountant convert the monthly ies of the Left Grand Elder and Elder Yun into hourly wages, and for every Qi Stone that misses from those farms, one hour worth of ie should be deducted from their monthly sries¡­" King Tian bellowed;


    This is the way he gave his judgement; it was always public for everyone to hear, whilst the scribe from a hidden room within the Throne Hall jots hismand down, and it was always enforced if it is a neww or any punishment¡­


    The Elder Yun duo nched in fear whilst King Tian simply smirked internally;


    ''Causing trouble for me every now and then, this would at least keep the two of you serious¡­ Hmph!''


    He added a mental snort before dismissing them with a fake raging expression and a wave of his hand¡­


    The duo rushed out of the Throne Hall, and after confirming that they have left, the old man''s voice resounded once again, but a lot quieter this time;


    "Your Highness, do you truly want me to enforce this Law?" He asked;


    "You are a wise one, Scribe¡­ Thanks, there won''t be a new decree today¡­"


    King Tian replied with a smirk; He had known this old man since he was a young captain of a small army, and the man had always been his advisor in everything he had done and achieved up till the point of stripping the control of the Shangri La from the previous tribe¡­


    The people and tribes of the Land of Light had always imed him to be a ''Political Genius'', and it was all because he was being directed by this old man, and even till date, no one knows the old man¡­


    Even when he eventually took over the Kingdom of Shangri La, the old man had slipped into the pce under the guise of being appointed as a butler within the pce, and since then he had never stepped out of the ind¡­


    When he came in everyone within the pce including the King''s family and the Elders paid him no shred of attention, since he was going to be a simple butler, and thus they easily forgot his face, this made it easy for the Old Man to assume two personalities;


    He would be the unknown, mysterious Scribe during the King''s working hours [which is when everyone usually brought matters to the King], and every other time, he would be a simple elder of the academy on the ind, but only himself and King Tian understands themselves¡­


    King Tian knew within himself that, though he was the one who wanted to keep going on conquests, it was the Scribe that was the brains behind his achievements, and this was how true politics works¡­


    A good, stable and sessful Kingdom would have a powerful warrior or expert as its ruler, loyal subjects, and finally an old, experienced and wise advisor; these are the three main qualities that makes a good Kingdom or Government¡­


    But whilst all that was said and done, Dara was currently heading towards one of the Qi Farms within the Dark Zone that was closest to the tribe¡­


    "It took us one solid hour before to arrive here, and I am sure we might take a little longer due to the amount of load we might be returning with¡­"


    "This means we only have 30 to 45 minutes give or take, to invade this cave and gather everything we can¡­" Dara liaised with the First Obun Elder who nodded twice to confirm his spections;


    "Alright, but we can''t simply jump into the cave without knowing how many guards are there, so how do we do this?"


    Dara racked every shred of intelligence he had as well as the ones he obtained from Sam''s soul and that of the Evil Expert, mashed them all together before formting a master n;


    "Here is how we are going to do it¡­"


    "I will reduce my heartbeat and make myself look convincingly unconscious, then you will take me in and hand me over like I am just another meat sac for Qi Stones¡­"


    "Five minutes of acting and then we will begin to scout the area; if I am nearer to the Qi Stone storage, I will scout that area, whilst you go cause a distraction to draw the guards away, but if it happens the other way around, you will scout the Qi Stone storage whilst I cause a massivemotion to distract the guards¡­"


    "Then you will tell your men that if we are not out in twenty minutes after we go in, then that means we have cleared the farm and they can all move in to start gathering the stones..."


    "But if we rush out of the Farm before the twenty minute mark, then everyone should scatter in different direction and rendezvous at the tribe gate¡­" Dara exined;


    "Whatever we do, we must not spend more than 25 minutes dealing with the enemy troop, the remaining 5 to 15 minutes would be foe gathering as much Qi Stones as we can and the remaining time would be for our journey back to the tribe¡­"


    The First Obun Leader instantly went to exin the n to the rest, and after confirming that the now understood what the n was, he returned to Dara who settle his mind before slowing down his heart ratepletely as he fell limp on the First Elder''s arms; he had a muscle meridian, thus, controlling his heart rate was a piece of cake¡­

 Chapter 92 - The Tier 1 Qi Stone Farm

    The First Obun Leader instantly went to exin the n to the rest, and after confirming that the now understood what the n was, he returned to Dara who settle his mind before slowing down his heart ratepletely as he fell limp on the First Elder''s arms; he had a muscle meridian, thus, controlling his heart rate was a piece of cake¡­


    The First Obun Elder carried Dara and approached a little cave that was located beneath a mountain hidden within the dense jungle, and the moment they got to the entrance and were about to enter;


    Sheen! Schweein!


    The sound of des cutting through the air resounded all over the area as the First Obun Elder saw two different glints pointed at his head and neck;


    "Who are you?"


    "State your intentions foring here?"


    Two expert guards who abruptly appeared beside the First Elder asked as the Obun pointed towards Dara before replying;


    "Meat sac for Qi Stones¡­"


    "Eh?"


    "Aren''t you the leader of the First Obun Troop?" One of the guards asked whilst the First Elder simply nodded;


    "Why have you returned alone after all these while?"


    "Where are the rest?" One of the experts interrogated but luckily the second guard interrupted;


    "Chen, let him go inside, once the Left Elderes around, he will settle all these matters¡­"


    The guard; Chen, was obviously slightly skeptical about the First Elder, but since it has been proven over the years that Obun''s think of nothing else other than the orders they have been given, he decided to reluctantly let the First Elder in;


    "Calm down Chen, your nerves are making me nervous¡­ It''s just an Obun in the end, stop fussing over it¡­"


    "I know Liu, but something just keeps poking my suspicions about this Obun Leader¡­"


    "Well, thest time I checked, I heard they simply gave them the mission of investigating and finding the initial Obun spies our supervisor had sent out previously¡­"


    "But it was supposed to report back every two weeks and this is basically the second month since he had been sent out¡­"


    "I know Chen, but we can''t really do anything either ways, that''s why I am telling you to leave that decision to the supervisors¡­"


    "Alright, I hear you Liu¡­ Let''s return to our posts¡­"


    The guards conversed before shing back to their hideouts at a speed barely traceable with the naked eyes¡­


    Hu!


    The First Obun Elder released a huge sigh as he continued into the dark cave which was growing brighter and brighter the deeper he moved in, and after walking for about ten meters into this cave, the First Obun Elder finally came into an open area within the mountain¡­


    This ce was huge and was almost like aplex¡­


    These Qi Farms were basically caved drilled into the foot of specific and unique mountains, and then a long ten meter tunnel that gets one to the center of the mountain where a 100 square meter area was carved within the mountain, with another 10 meter deep pit, making then entire space about 20 meters in height and 100 square meters in size¡­


    It was huge and there were many cages within this cave and within each of these cages were several humans who from their physical appearance alone appeared to have been starved for weeks¡­


    There were about twenty cages in here and each of them contained 100 chained humans each;


    Both adult and children, and currently, spine tingling screams could be heard from one of these cages which consisted of 10 human soldiers who were forcefully cing a palm sized b of rock on the chests of the humans within the cage¡­


    The moment this palm sized stone b touched the body of these humans, a pure bluish white energy was being drawn out of their body and was being absorbed by these stone bs, whilst the humans became leaner and a shade darker inplexion¡­


    There was even one of these humans who simply sat there unmoving with eyes wide open as they took all of his Peak Qi Sea stage cultivation; he had a lost look in his eyes, and it was one of those look a person who has lost every shred of hope and will to live within them always have¡­


    "Another Obun is about to be born¡­" One of the human guards who was farming Qi out of these humans smiled towards his partner when he saw this man¡­


    "Hehe, yeah¡­ He should consider this opportunity to serve the Kingdom, an honor bestowed by His Highness¡­" The other guard sneered¡­


    There were about ten of them within this cave, and they all had Peak Qi Sea stage cultivation, and whilst these human ves all had Peak Qi Sea stage cultivations just like the human soldiers, they were being bound with a chains made out of Qi Stones which makes it impossible for them to fight back¡­


    This is because once they try to use the cultivation within themselves, the chains glow and absorb whatever QI they have left in them, and this meant that once they rotated their cultivations, it would be absorbed by these chains¡­


    Thus, they were just like peak Qi Sea stage cultivators who can cultivate but can''t use their cultivations because of the chains¡­


    The Obuns on the other hand, were humans who, just like the man who had lost all hope earlier; were created by starving humans to their breaking point and on some asions isting them for months in a dark pit where all their will to live is broken¡­


    Afterwards, they are then forced to cultivate and once they have reached the Peak Qi Sea stage, they are then stripped off their cultivation over and over again, till this pattern of living bes a norm to them and finally grow mentally redundant¡­


    With all hopes of escape and being rescued dashed, these humans ves then be mentally unstable and spiral down one of two different paths of reasoning; Some transform into human monsters who are driven by rage to kill and get vengeance;


    But before their rage is allowed to fester too deep, they are captured and tortured until they are made to realize that even after bing human monsters, they still have no hope of breaking free from the nightmare they were now living in¡­


    This finally breaks their will and force them to sumb to the rule and control of the human soldiers within the cave, and as a result be true Obuns¡­


    Others on the other hand, simply be docile, redundant and empty which makes them useless since they can''t be used to Farm Qi anymore and are then fed to the Obuns who are known to regain a little bit of their human consciousness whenever they feed on living flesh and blood¡­


    It is the crave to feel these human emotions that keeps the Obuns from living the cave because they are made to believe that the cave is the only source of living flesh and by product, human emotions¡­


    Thus they never want to leave even if the doors were left wide open; this is how dark and sinister this ce was¡­


    They capture innocent humans and break their will to continue living, and when they eventually lose their minds and be monsters, they are then tortured even further till the monster in them sumb to the rule of the soldiers controlling the Qi Stone Farms;


    It was all forms of crime happening within a single mountain, and there were over 500 of these mountains scattered all over the Dark Lands¡­


    But there were also special cases in terms of this Obuns, and these are the ones who do not spiral down one of the two path of the aforementioned reasoning, but instead spiral down both paths¡­


    An example of these ones are the First and Second Obun Elder;


    They are the ones who have control over this nature of theirs and can tune it on or off, but their level of control is determined by how potent the Dark Qi within them are, and in the case of the First Elder, Dara had previously helped him absorb a lot of this Qi and when one adds this to the fact that they have been fed raw meat throughout their stay within the tribe;


    It wouldn''t be a unthinkable that the First and Second Obun Elders as well as all the Obuns within the tribe could control this monstrous side of them to a certain extent¡­


    They can turn it off when they are within the tribe and turn it on when they are about to battle;


    These Obun types were the perfect weapon, and not only does the Tribe have 150 of them who were in the Peak Qi Creation stage, but they also had two Elders who were in the 3 and 4 Star Qi Sea Stages¡­


    Though Dara did not move and his heartrate had been slowed considerably making appear unconscious, he could still hear the screams of these humans and theughter of the soldiers¡­


    He could also sense the number of people within this cave, as one of the soldiers approached the First Elder;


    "Oi, who is that?" The soldier asked as the First Elder acted like a mindless Obun once again;


    "Meat sac for Qi Stone¡­"


    "Eh? Hehe¡­ Meng, look at this¡­"


    The soldier called out to his partner who threw the 10 Qi Stones he was carrying into a four-wheeled container which looked like those carts which were used in mineral mines¡­


    "What is it, Kang?" "An Obun has just brought back a meat sac for Qi Stones¡­"


    "That''s great¡­ Let''s quickly get him to start cultivating so that we can get one or two Qi Stones out of him before the supervisores to add him to the roaster¡­"


    Soldier Meng replied with a greedy smile as they both carried Dara off the First Elder with Meng carrying him by the legs and Kang carrying him by the armpit;


    "You!"


    Kang called the First Elder before looking towards the wheeled container which contained about 100 Tier 1 [Peak Qi Sea stage] Qi Stones;


    "Take this container through tunnel 3 and pour all the stones in it with the rest you will find over there¡­"


    Hemanded whilst the First Elder continued his acting and began pushing the container through the third tunnel from the left;


    "Oh, so he is not an impostor¡­" Soldier Meng said when he saw the First Elder enter the third tunnel from the right;


    "Yeah, and I am starting to like this one¡­"


    "Not only did he bring us an opportunity to get a Qi Stone of our own, he can also aplish simple tasks, and that would reduce a lot of our workload¡­" Soldier Kang added;


    "Yeah unlike these useless bunch who only know how to eat and kill¡­"


    Soldier Meng added as he looked to the two troops of Obuns ced in two separate cages which were on opposite side to that of the ves¡­


    Dara kept listening in on the conversation as he enjoyed being carried towards one of the cages; everything so far had been working ording to their n¡­


    "We only have this cage left to farm and we would be done for another six months!" Meng was excited as he secured Dara with the chains¡­

 Chapter 93 - Escape Plan

    "Yeah unlike these useless bunch who only know how to eat and kill¡­"


    Meng added as he looked to the two troops of Obuns ced in two separate cages which were on opposite side to that of the ves¡­


    Dara kept listening in on the conversation as he enjoyed being carried towards one of the cages; everything so far had been working ording to their n¡­


    "We only have this cage left to farm and we would be done for another six months!" Meng was excited as he secured Dara with the chains¡­


    He mped the chains to Dara''s hands and secured his legs also before leaving the cage...


    Then the moment the cages were locked, the lights within them went off as the Dark Qi of the Dark Lands began to get absorbed by the glowing chains which bound these ves before it was being transported into their body where it would be purified by their meridians into pure Qi..


    It is this Pure Qi that would then be harvested with the Qi Stones which were mined from within this Qi stone mountain which were very rare within the Dark Lands as only 500 of them have been found so far...


    The moment these soldiers left, Dara opened his eyes and sat up¡­


    Though this area of the entire cave was now extremely dark due to being at the center of the mountain whilst the soldiers have moved over to the outer area of the cave which was closer to the entrance, to chat, eat and hangout till it''s time to harvest Qi once again¡­


    The reason why they left the depths of these caves extremely Dark and cold was so that the Dark Qi of the Dark Lands can billow out in veryrge quantities which results in massive amounts of Qi, and this was the reason why these ves could be filled with Peak Qi Sea Stage amount of energy within six months¡­


    They are only fed twice a year, and it is so that they don''t copse and die once all the Qi within them have been sucked away, and it was the same for the caged Obuns as well¡­


    But despite how dark the ce was and how much the billowing Dark Qi hindered everyone''s vision, Dara who had unlocked all his meridians which influences his eyes could see as clear as day, and anyone whoes into this cave depths at this moment would only see glowing cages and chains everywhere, and then a pair of glowing eyes that were gazing all over the ce¡­


    The First Elder on the other hand had arrived at the end of the third tunnel; he knew the soldiers had tested him earlier because they simply told him to enter the third tunnel, and there were seven tunnels within the cave¡­


    Normally he should have taken the third tunnel from the left because that was how things were counted, from left to right, but if he had done that, he would have been killed on the spot, and most likely Dara also because within this cave, the tunnels were counted from right to left instead, and the third tunnel from the right was the only one that led to this storage cart¡­


    The remaining six tunnels all led to a dead end where the soldiers can easily corner and ughter the intruder, thus, these soldiers usually use this to test any face they don''t find familiar within the cave, but luckily during his time here, the First Elder had seen the soldiers go through this tunnel every time and since they thought all the Obuns were mindless, these soldiers never felt the need to keep it a secret¡­


    Furthermore, every single Qi Stone Farm within these Dark Lands have their own unique tunnel to their main storage cart, and thus, it was easy for a soldier of any Qi Stone Farm to predict which Farm an Obun was from just by the tunnel they choose to move through, and no one else other than the soldiers and the supervisors knew about this¡­


    This means that, whilst this cave is using the third from the right tunnel, the next cave or Qi Stone Farm might be using the First tunnel from the right or left¡­


    The First Elder then turned over the Qi stones into therger carriage and could make out about 1400 Qi stones within this massive carriage from first nce alone¡­


    He checked the weight of each Qi Stone and realized that each of them could only carry ten of the Qi stones at most, and that is if they were to move at the speed required for them to return to the tribe within 1.15 hours¡­


    ''How are we going to carry all these stones?''


    The First Elder thought to himself as calcted that even if everyone was to carry ten each, they would only be able to leave with 500 Qi stones, and whilst that was more than enough for the entire tribe at this point, they couldn''t have possibly gone through all this trouble and put themselves in such level of danger only to leave with one quarter of all the QI stones avable to them;


    ''I better go back to him¡­ He would have better method to take everything¡­'' The First Elder thought to himself as he quickly made his way back to the cage area;


    "Is it safe to leave that Obun roaming all around the farm?" Meng asked his partner;


    "No, leave him¡­ It is fine¡­" Kang replied before adding;


    "There is only one way out of this farm and we are standing within it, and since we can search him before leaving, there is no need to worry about that¡­" He reassured his partner;


    "Moreover he is an Obun and they don''t reason, thus he might as well be standing at the store, staring dumbly at the walls¡­"


    Soldier Mengughed in ridicule as they went on with their ''Game of Go''¡­ The First Elder returned to the cage area before whispering;


    "~Leader, where are you?~"


    "~Over here~" Dara replied as the First Elder froze in terror when he saw the glowing eyes;


    "It''s an ability I just developed¡­ Now open the cages!" Dara whispered back as the First Elder looked for something hard to break the cage lock;


    "~Wait!~" Dara whispered just as the First Elder was about to shatter the lock;


    "This is a cave with only a single entrance, any noise we make here will echo through the tunnels, and the soldiers might hear it ande rushing in¡­"


    Dara exined as the First Elder nched in fear at the fact that he almost got both of them killed, whilst Dara sat back on the ground as he began to think about how to further their n¡­


    If he had known the detailed structure of this cave, then they would have made another n to infiltrate this ce, but since it had already happened, there was no need dwelling on unproductive thoughts anymore, thus he looked to the First Elder and instructed him¡­


    "First, you will bring me that sword lying beside that rock¡­"


    Dara spoke, but the First Elder was just looking around everywhere, and could see nothing other than glowing chains and cages¡­


    The ce was so dark that he couldn''t even see his limbs, and had been speaking to a glowing eyes who was speaking in Dara''s voice but had yet to see if it was truly Dara or not¡­


    "Don''t worry, I will instruct you on how to get to the sword¡­" Dara added whilst the First Elder nodded in affirmation;


    "Alright, take twelve steps away from this cage, take another seven steps to the right and turn East and pick up whatever is beneath you¡­"


    Dara instructed as the First Elder fumbled around slightly but ended up stepping on the sword which he picked up and brought over to Dara¡­ Dara collected the sword and looked to the side before whispering;


    "If you guys want to leave this ce then you can stop pretending now¡­" Dara spoke to the people within the cave before a thick voice replied;


    "Thinking of getting out of here is a fool''s dream¡­"


    "Yes, not only are we bound by these chains which prevents us from using our cultivation, but there is also this cage that basically have simr effects on us¡­"


    "There is also the fact that even if we are free from this chains, it would at least take us about half an hour before we can wield our cultivation properly..."


    "Then there are the Peak Qi Sea stage soldiers who are out there with weapons and techniques that could take out five of us simultaneously even with our cultivations in full throttle¡­"


    Other ves from the cages also added whilst Dara could understand where they areing from¡­


    Firstly, they have lost all hope of escape and being rescued and thus there were already resigned to their fate and might perhaps not leave the cave even if the doors were wide open, out of fear that it might be a plot by the soldiers¡­


    Secondly, they could tell from his voice that he was a little ten year old kid, and there are even people who were his mate and also twice his age within the cage but they have all lost hope just like the rest¡­


    Finally, even if they could be freed, how are they going to deal with the chains and the cages, and what if the soldiers were able to release the caged Obun troops against them; it would be a one sided ughter, thus, they preferred to stay put rather than attempt any escape¡­


    But since Dara had decided he was going to rescue them, he had to find a way to pique their curiosity and offer them a glimmer of hope, thus he smiled slightly before replying;


    "You mean these chains?"


    nk! ng!


    Though these humans couldn''t see Dara himself, they could only see the shadow of a hand being bound by the glowing chains and two glowing eyes looking at them with a determined vibe, and then momentster, they saw the glowing chains on this person''s hand break apart and fall to the ground¡­


    "How did you do that?"


    The thick voice blurted in shock as he saw to glowing eyes approach him before lowering towards him;


    "Then let us go outside where there is light or how do you expect me to show you in the Darkness of this filthy cage?"


    "Kid, I don''t know what tricks you are ying, but life in here isn''t funny, so stop with the tricks¡­"


    The thick voice replied as Dara walked over and snapped the chains in the man''s hands and adding;


    "Now that you are free, this is how we escape from here¡­"


    Dara exined to everyone within the cage and once he saw them sitting up and looking at him, he knew he had piqued their interest, and thus he exined the n to them and the First Elder;


    "Your n seems simple and usible, but do you have any contingencies should in case everything goes south?" The thick voice responded;


    "My contingencies are waiting outside and would rush in here in the next half an hour¡­" Dara replied;


    "Then why don''t we simply wait for them toe get us?" One of the ves asked;


    "That is because the soldiers are stronger than them, and thus, we have to create a distraction from within to split their attention and numbers, and that way we would have a higher chance of sess¡­" Dara exined;


    "Alright, I am with you¡­ But if we are going to join you on this n of yours, then we have to free the others too?" The thick voice replied;


    "I didn''t n on leaving this ce functional by the time we are done¡­" Dara replied with a confident smile¡­

 Chapter 94 - Trapped!

    "Then why don''t we simply wait for them toe get us?" One of the ves asked;


    "That''s because the soldiers are stronger than them, and thus, we have to create a distraction from within to split their attention and numbers; that way we would have a higher chance of sess¡­" Dara exined;


    "Alright, I am with you¡­ But if we are going to join you on this n of yours, then we have to free the others too?" The thick voice replied;


    "I didn''t n on leaving this ce functional by the time we are done¡­" Dara replied with a confident smile¡­


    Then after finalizing some other details of their n, they all waited and when it was about three minutes for the troop outside to barge into the cave;


    ng! Bang! Chang!


    The sound of heavy metal hitting a sturdy metal resounded within the entire cave as two soldiers ran over and yelled;


    "The ves are attempting an escape!" Meng and Kang sprung to their feet as their Go board scattered all over the floor;


    "You two stay here and kill anything thates through this ce that isn''t us!"


    "The rest of youe with me!"


    Meng and Kang dished out orders simultaneously as six experts followed them into the depths of the cave with blinding speed whilst the remaining two waited within the tunnel¡­


    ng! Bang! Chang!


    The sound of many metal object banging on another metal object began to vibrate throughout the cave as the soldiers picked up their pace with several ming torches in hand, and the moment they arrived at the open area, they bolted for thest cage which was where the noise wasing from;


    "Captain Kang, their chains are still on!" One of the soldiers bellowed;


    "What about those two at the back!?"


    Kang bellowed when he saw Dara and a burly figure facing the wall of behind the cage;


    "You heard the captain¡­ You two, turn around!" Another soldier bellowed;


    "Oi! Are you both deaf!"


    The soldier flew into rage when Dara and the burly figure refused to show any response whatsoever;


    "Go grab the keys¡­ Everyone, grab a baton, let''s remind these two filthy animals why they''re here!"


    Kang bellowed as Meng and the rest of the soldiers went to grab a metal bat before lining up in front of the cage like a SWAT team trying to break into a cartel;


    "Open it!" Kang bellowed from the back of the group;


    Kachink!


    The cage doors opened and instantly all eight soldiers swarmed into the cage but the 98 ves within the cage clogged together and gave them a very hard time passing through, and that was when the beating began;


    Kum! Bang!


    m! Bam!


    The sound of metal mming into human flesh resounded within the cave as the soldiers tried beating their way through the crowd, but then;


    nk! nk!


    The sounds of chains falling to the ground echoed within the cage as the soldiers looked to the back of the cage only to realize that the two figures they wereing for were nowhere to be found and seemed to have mixed with the crowd as well;


    "Where are they!?" Meng bellowed;


    "I can''t find them!"


    "Their chains are broken!"


    "Everyone be care-"


    The soldiers flew into panic and just as one of them which was crowded by more than 20 ves tried to warn the rest, a hand covered his mouth and just as he looked to see who it was, his eyes widened before a snapping sound rang out and he fell lifelessly to the ground¡­


    "Po!"


    "Po, where are you!?"


    One of the soldiers who heard his partners statement cut off midway yelled but suddenly his leg kicked a body on the ground, and the moment he looked to the ground, his eyes widened in shock¡­


    There, on the ground was his partner with his neck snapped in a very odd angle, and just as he was about to rage, he saw to little legs stand beside the corpse of his partner...


    Then just as he traced the legs upward to find out who its owner was, he saw a Dara who was looking back at him with a sinister smile, but just as he was about to shout;


    Schweein! Splurt!


    Prrsssstt!


    The sound of a sword cutting through the air, and liquid falling to the ground followed by the sound of spraying water rang out as everyone went quiet, except for the choking sound of the other soldier;


    "Captain, they have a weapon!" Another soldier bellowed as the entire cage descended into chaos once again;


    "Captain, should we fall back!?"


    "Fall back??? No way¡­ Kill them all!" Kang bellowed angrily as the soldiers brought out their sword;


    Schweein!


    Sheen! Shink!


    The sound of sword unsheathing rang out from several positions within this massive cage before a stabbing sound followed;


    Argh!


    One of the ves got stabbed in the chest as he went to the ground lifelessly, but just as he fell to the ground, the soldier looked up and saw a very big hand magnifying in his eyes, but before he could do anything, the hand grabbed him by the face and smacked the back of his head against the cage;


    Bang! Crack!


    The sound of bone cracking rang out as the soldier fell lifelessly to the ground, bleeding from his four orifices¡­


    Swipe! Splurt!


    Prssttt!


    Another fountain of blood erupted within the cage as another soldier fell lifelessly to the ground;


    "Kang, we have lost four men and the culprits seem to be hiding within these crowd of ves, I think we should fall back, lock the gate and kill them all from outside the cage!" Meng quickly warned his partner;


    "Tch!" Kang gritted his teeth in fury;


    "Alright, fall back!"


    He bellowed but just as they were about to leave the cage, Kang turned around and saw the First Elder grinning devilishly back at him;


    "Eh?"


    Kang was stunned, an Obun showing emotions is super rare, and a smiling one at that is simply unheard of, but not like his current situation was funny, as he saw the First Elder begin to close the cage as slowly as he could afford to whilst Kang and Meng tried to force their way through the horde of ve bodies;


    "You-!?"


    Meng almost had a heart attack seeing the First Elder tauntingly lock the cage;


    ''At this rate, we might not make it out of here in time!''


    Kang thought to himself before bellowing;


    "ughter a path through!"

 Chapter 95 - Threats!

    "Eh?"


    Kang was stunned, an Obun showing emotions is super rare, and a smiling one at that is simply unheard of, but not like his current situation was funny; as he saw the First Elder begin to close the cage as slowly as he could afford to whilst Kang and Meng tried to force their way through the horde of ve bodies;


    "You-!?"


    Meng almost had a heart attack seeing the First Elder tauntingly lock the cage;


    ''At this rate, we might not make it out of here in time!''


    Kang thought to himself before bellowing;


    "ughter a path through!"


    Then he raised his sword and brought it down on another unfortunate human who fell straight to the ground lifeless, but then another choking sound rang out from behind before Meng and Kang realized that another soldier had fallen, and it was right at this time that the First Elder locked the gate and removed the key¡­


    Then the crowd within the cave stopped and then five other sounds of chains falling to the ground rang out before the crowd parted, revealing five unchained Djangos [Burly men] with swords which belonged to the fallen soldiers in their hands...


    Then there was a tall, bare chested, burly man amongst them who held no weapon, and then Dara who had a sword in his grasp and a very sinister smile on his lips¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Outside the cave¡­


    Within a dense foliage just beside the entrance of the cave, the two guards who stopped the First Elder earlier were both munching some edible fruits when the nging sounds of metal rang floated out of the cave;


    "Wait!"


    "Stop Munching!"


    Guard Chen alerted Liu who ceased his munching instantaneously;


    "Did you hear that?"


    "Yeah, it sounds like metal hitting an hard object¡­"


    "Are you thinking what I am thinking?"


    "What are you thinking Chen?"


    "Yu have been nervy and paranoid all day; they might just be mining more stone bs from the mountain¡­" Liu sighed as he continued his munching;


    "But what if-"


    "That''s enough!" Liu interrupted Guard Chen;


    "You seem a little off your game today, Chen¡­ If you are feeling too stressed you can go rx, I will handle things here¡­"


    "No, I''m fine¡­ Everything just seems so odd and coincidental for some strange reasons¡­" Guard Chen replied;


    "I don''t know why you''re edgy, there are 10 Peak Qi Sea Stage experts in there, what can a bunch of people who can''t even wield Qi do to them?" Liu patted his partner on the shoulder;


    "Oh, that''s true¡­ I guess I''ve not been having enough rest recently, and it is starting to affect me¡­"


    Guard Chen released a huge sigh before pping himself twice to force himself to focus, but just as he did that;


    Crack!


    The weak sound of a branch or twig snapping floated into the duo''s ears as they sprung to their feet and brought out their swords;


    Schweein! Schweein!


    Then they slowly approached the origin of the sound and found a very bushy tree ahead of them as the duo approached the tree from opposite directions looking to pincer-attack whatever or whoever might be moving behind the tree...


    Then when they got close enough, Liu brought raised up three fingers and lowered one, and then the other, and the moment the third finger dropped, the duo pounced at the tree and shed at it;


    Cha! Cha!


    The sound of sword cutting down branches full of leaves resounded within the area, as a little rabbit like beast flew out of the bush and sprinted off into the distance; Hu!


    "It''s just a game¡­" The duo simultaneously released a relieved sigh;


    "It seems I am not the only nervy one around¡­"


    Guard Chen softly mocked his partner, but just as the both began tough, they heard another sound of rustling leaves, and just as they looked up the tree they had just attacked, they saw two ck faces with reddish eyes looking back at them;


    "Unh!?"


    "Eh!?"


    That was the only thing the duo could say before the figures they were looking at within the tree dropped over them like SWAT;


    Snip! Snip!


    Bam! Bam!


    The sounds of des cutting flesh softly drifted through the air before the sound of two bodies hitting the ground followed suit;


    "To think there were Obuns lurking around this area¡­"


    Guard Chen swung his sword to put off the ck blood stain on his sword whilst Guard Liu advised;


    "Let''s look around, there might just be more¡­"


    But just as they tried to move out, several approaching rustling sounds rang out, and by the time they could react, the duo saw themselves surrounded by over 45 enemies, but shockingly to them, there were humans amongst them;


    "What!?"


    "How is this possible!?" Guard Chen blurted in shock as the duo''s faces became solemn;


    "Chen, this is not the time to be thinking about what is possible or what is not¡­" Guard Liu pointed out;


    "Back to back!"


    Guard Chen quickly strategized as he had Guard Liu ced their back against one another as they faced the over 45 enemies in front of them;


    "Chen, do you have that thing with you?"


    "Yes, I always keep it on me at all times¡­"


    "Good, use it!" Guard Liu instructed as Guard Chen dipped his hands into his robes¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    About 50 miles off their current location¡­


    Two carriages which were being pulled by two bloodthirsty looking beasts slowly cruised along a path which only less than 10 people knew about on the entire Jok...


    The vices of two middle aged men could be heard floating from one carriage to the other, whilst the drivers of these carriage [two Peak Qi Sea Stage soldiers] did their best not to eavesdrop or pay any attention to;


    "I am not against whatever you are doing, Left Grand Elder¡­"


    "Nonsense, just do your job and let me do mine¡­" The angry voice of the Left Grand Elder floated from the other carriage;


    "Alright then, if that is how you want it¡­ I will reduce my inspection time from monthly to weekly then¡­"


    "Hmph! Be careful young man, it would be tragic if His Highness were to learn that you have fallen prey to the many predatory beasts within this jungle!"


    The Left Grand Elder threatened with hidden meanings as the two drivers who clearly heard everything nched in fear¡­

 Chapter 96 - Leaf Cutter!

    "Alright then, if that''s how you want it¡­ I will reduce my inspection time from monthly to weekly then¡­"


    "Hmph! Be careful young man, it would be tragic if His Highness were to learn that you''ve fallen prey to the many predatory beasts within this jungle!"


    The Left Grand Elder threatened with hidden meanings as the two drivers who clearly heard everything nched in fear¡­


    But whilst the duo were throwing threats at themselves, an explosion suddenly sounded high up in the sky as they both peeked out of their carriages and saw a cloud of red smoke high up in the sky;


    "A red re!?"


    Elder Yun looked towards the Left Grand Elder who blurted in fear;


    "The Farm is under attack!"


    Whoappa!


    The sound of a whip aggressivelynding on tough flesh resounded within the jungle as the beasts pulling the carriage cried and burst with blitzing speed, trying to run away from the deadly whip that justnded on them;


    "Hurry!"


    "Faster!"


    The duo who were previously threatening themselves had forgotten about their previous grievances as they rushed towards the cave which sadly was still a little bit far from their current position;


    ''Damn, I have already spent all my saving on buying books to read, I cannot afford to lose my any dime from my next ie!''


    ''Shit! I have already spent all my savings to purchase that special technique, I cannot afford to lose any dime of my next ie!''


    Elder Yun and Left thought to themselves respectively as the carriage ran as fast as its wheels could carry, but the duo were still feeling like it wasn''t fast enough, thus the Left Grand Elder was the first to move;


    Boom!


    The roof of the carriage on the left exploded scaring both drivers and Elder Yun as they saw the Grand Elder take to his feet and jump on a tree branch;


    Tap! Whoosh!


    Pak! Whoosh!


    Tap! Whoosh!


    They watched with stunned gazes as the Grand Elder leapt from one tree branch to the other with blinding speed as he left both carriages behind in no time at all;


    "Hmph!"


    Boom!


    The other carriage also exploded as Elder Yun also took to the trees chasing hotly behind the Grand Elder''s heels, as they both rushed towards the cave¡­


    Meanwhile...


    Back within the bush just outside the cave¡­


    "Damn! To think they had such a tool at their disposal, we have to hurry and leave here at once!"


    One of the tribesmen blurted before rallying the rest of the group as they rushed into the cave¡­


    Whereas¡­


    Within the cage, Min Hong and the burly guy as well as the five free men with swords in hand stood face to face with the trio of Kang, Meng and thest soldier who was already trembling at first nce¡­


    "Can you take on that guy?" The burly guy asked in his thick voice referring to Kang as Dara nodded in response;


    "What about you, can you handle him?"


    "No sweat, but I will need a weapon¡­" The burly guy replied as Dara handed him the sword he was wielding;


    "What will you use?" The burly guy asked, stunned by Dara''s actions;


    "He might think he has an advantage because he is wielding a good sword and I am wielding none, but I will have to show him just how mistaken he is¡­" Dara replied before looking to the five men behind them;


    "All of you will take on the third soldier but don''t kill him¡­"


    "He will being along with us to a ce where you all can safely vent on him for as long as you want¡­"


    Dara instructed as the eyes of these men gleamed with a special glow and the third soldier almost lost all the strength in his legs, as Dara bellowed;


    "Now!"


    Boom! Boom! Boom!


    The soldiers exploded with their respective cultivation base power with Kang billowing an aura equivalence of a 5 Star Qi Sea Stage, whilst Meng was radiating that of s 3 Star Qi Sea stage and finally thest soldier who was pluming with the aura of a 1 Star Qi Sea stage cultivation¡­


    Swish! Swoosh!


    ng! Cling!


    Schweein! Sheen!


    Both sides dashed towards each other as the sound of sword striking sword echoed from two of the three fronts whilst the sound of sword cutting through the empty air resounded from Dara''s side¡­


    The moment Dara dashed towards Kang, Kang who had initially taken the samurai stance stepped on the ground leaving cracks behind as he bellowed;


    "Leaf Cutter!"


    Schweein!


    He shed his sword in a clean arc towards Dara''s stomach looking disembowel him on first contact, but Dara simply fell to his knees and slid beneath the strike;


    Sheen!


    Dara saw the clear image of his face on the sword as it swept past his face, severing a part of his hair before he then clenched his palm into a fist and acutely threw a simple punch towards the elbow of Kang''s hand which was wielding the sword, also looking to incapacitate his opponent at first strike¡­


    Kang saw Dara slide past his offence into his unprotected region, and the moment he saw Dara throw a fist towards his elbow, he nched in fear before using his free hand tounch a fist strike of his own;


    Bam! Bang!


    Both their fists mmed into one another as Dara was stopped in his tracks whilst Kang had to retreat about four steps before stabilizing himself with the fifth¡­


    Kang''s face then instantly went solemn as he gazed venomously at Dara beforementing;


    "I have to hand it to you¡­ That fist strike of yours really carried a level of power that rivals a 3 Star Qi Sea Stage, and considering the fact that you must be barely twelve years old, that in itself is another monstrous feat¡­"


    "If we weren''t on opposing sides, I would have loved to have such a talented kid like you as a brother or at least a friend, but it seems the world is about to mourn the loss of another young genius¡­"


    Kang gave a venomous chuckle at the end of his statement before dashing towards Dara who didn''t even show any sort of response;


    "Branch Breaker!"


    This time around, Kang''s sword strike wasn''t as graceful and floaty as his previous move, instead it came towards Dara looking heavy and forceful as Dara''s mind spun at full throttle;


    "This attack can''t be dodged¡­ It''s slower speed means he would be able to easily redirect it even if I manage to evade it¡­"


    Dara thought to himself and instead of advancing, he retreated with a gentle backward float, and just as Kang reached his previous position, Dara''s foot abruptly touched the ground before kicking two of the broken chains that were already on the floor, forcing Kang to use his attack to instead defending the onught of the iing heavy chains¡­

 Chapter 97 - Branch Breaker!

    "This attack can''t be dodged¡­ It''s slower speed means he would be able to easily redirect it even if I manage to evade it¡­"


    Dara thought to himself and instead of advancing, he retreated with a gentle backward float, and just as Kang reached his previous position, Dara''s foot abruptly touched the ground before kicking two of the broken chains that were already on the floor, forcing Kang to use his attack to instead defending the onught of the iing heavy chains¡­


    This was because Dara had predicted that since Kang was using his Qi to strengthen his body, attack and defense whilst also fueling his stamina and speed, he wouldn''t want the chains to touch him, otherwise once they momentarily absorb his Qi, weakening and slowing him down, Dara could take that opportunity to inflict damage¡­


    But simrly, Kang also understood what Dara was nning, and being a seasoned soldier himself, he maneuvered the tactics to his benefit;


    Chang! Chang!


    Kang smacked these chains back towards Dara, who stopped in his tracks and abruptly charged towards Kang despite the onught of the iing chains¡­


    Dara approached and twisted in a 180 degree angle, managing to slip into the space in between the two chains, and the moment he slipped past them, hepleted his 360 degree rotation with a heavy fist strike aimed at Kang''s jaws¡­


    Kang was caught off-guard and his strong momentum meant there was little he could do to nimbly evade the attack...


    But he still managed to pull his head backwards on time, causing Dara''s fist to drift past his face, but just as he thought he had evaded the attack, Dara abruptly grinned mischievously, and in one fluid motion sent his elbow straight into Kang''s face;


    Bam! Bang!


    Kang was sent flying this time around as he mmed into the wall of the cage, a little far from Meng who looked over in shock to see the strongest amongst them being flung around like a piece of rag, twice in the span of a single minute¡­


    "Are you sure you should be looking elsewhere at this point!"


    A thick voice floated into Meng''s ears as he saw the burly guy swing down his sword with a heavy momentum;


    "Branch Breaker!"


    Meng used the same sword art technique as Kang as their swords made contact;


    ng! Kacha!


    "Leaf Cutter!"


    Swoosh!


    Meng followed up his attack with another swift sh at the burly guy who jumped thrice in retreat before looking at what used to be a sword but was now a hilt;


    "To think they would have such a low grade sword lying around¡­" The burly guy sneered as Meng finally found a renewed confidence;


    "Hehe, you can only me your miserable luck¡­ Now do you want to experience pain or a swift death!"


    His opponent''s sword has been broken which meant he now had the upper hand, but just as he was about to attack, Dara''s voice drifted over;


    "These are pretty high grade¡­"


    Dara threw two of the broken chains towards the burly guy who took it and wrapped it all over his hands before revealing a sinister grin to Meng who broke out in cold sweat;


    "I choose pain!"


    The thick voice of this burly guy sounded more like the trumpet of death to Meng who summoned the remaining ounce of courage in his body with a raging yell before dashing towards the burly guy once again¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Just as the troop rushed into the cave, they were met with two soldiers who were already fidgeting and engrossed in the fight that was echoing through the tunnel that they didn''t notice two of the invading troop sneak up on them from behind them until it was toote;


    Snick! Snick!


    Prrrssstttt!


    Blood spurted from the soldiers'' necks like fountain covering the humans who just ughtered them in blood;


    "Go, go, go!"


    The two humans who just killed the two soldiers ordered the rest of the troop to go in whilst they stood behind to lookout for any reinforcements¡­


    Whereas¡­


    Back within the cage, Meng was having the most miserable and unfortunate moment of his life¡­


    One of his eyes were already swollen half closed, whilst blood was leaking from his mouth like weak streams¡­


    He was barely keeping himself upright with his sword whilst the burly guy was looking at him with a sinister smile still stered on his face¡­


    The other soldier on the other hand was already on the ground, unconscious and bleeding from numerous shallow cuts all over his body¡­


    Seeing that this might as well spell their end Kang screamed;


    "Huan! Yuan! We need help!" But Dara simply chuckled sinisterly;


    "Hehe he, don''t bother¡­ Huan and Yuan won''t being anytime soon!"


    "Finish him off quickly and let''s free the rest¡­" The Burly Guy spoke quickly, as Dara''s troop finally arrived at the open area¡­


    Kang and Meng saw this and their face darkened in terror as their heart began to race wildly¡­


    The First Elder gathered the 500 Obuns and took them all to the depths of the cave where the Qi Stones were being stored, and right in the presence of Meng and Kang, they saw these Obunse out of these tunnels with three Tier 1 Qi Stones each as a deep sense of hopelessness surged into their hearts;


    "Yes¡­ Feel it¡­ Relish in the feeling of hopelessness and despair¡­" The burly guy raged at Meng;


    "You feel that¡­ Multiply it by 10, and you will get the level of despair and hopelessness you have made us suffer for the past ten years¡­"


    Meng looked into the eyes of the burly guy and realized that he had no intention of making him leave here alive¡­


    Thus he looked over to Kang and nodded;


    Aaarrrgghh!


    Kang and Meng roared to the sky and exploded forth with every shred of cultivation they had as their hair and clothes began to whip about without the presence of any wind¡­


    Then they ced the hit of their sword to their chest and bellowed simultaneously;

 Chapter 98 - Trunk Splitter!

    Thus he looked over to Kang and nodded;


    Aaarrrgghh!


    Kang and Meng roared to the sky and exploded forth with every shred of cultivation they had as their hair and clothes began to whip about without the presence of any wind¡­


    Then they ced the hit of their sword to their chest and bellowed simultaneously;


    "Trunk Piercer!"


    "Be careful!" Dara tried to warn the burly guy but it was toote¡­


    Kang and Meng shed across the cage, thrusting their swords ahead with all the energy they could muster;


    Chink! nk! Puchi!


    Meng''s sword pierced towards the burly guy''s chest, and due to his shing speed, the burly guy could only manage to raise his left arm to provide any little form of defense¡­


    The sword pierced into the chains, broke past the chains, stabbed into the burly guys arm, came out through the other side and lodged itself deep in the center of the burly guy''s chest¡­


    Cough! Cough! Splurt!


    The burly guy coughed twice and the third cough was apanied by a mouthful of fresh blood as he winced in pain¡­


    Beads of sweat poured out of his forehead as his face lost a bit of color¡­


    "Argh! Haha- haha!"


    Mengughed in joy when he realized that his attack was actually a hit, but just as hisughter reached the peak, he suddenly saw a big wide hand magnify in his face till its mped on his face and squeezed tighter than a vice...


    Then what started as a battle cry, that turned intoughter, now returned into a scream of agony¡­


    The burly guy then showed a lethargic smile;


    "I might die and I might not, but you will not live to see which one of the two oues pans out¡­"


    m! Crack! Splurt!


    The burly guy mmed Meng''s skull straight into the cage bars, and everyone saw Meng''s brain matter spill out the corner of his head whilst his eyeballs popped out of his skull as his head squeezed straight between two cage bars¡­


    Lurch!


    He then removed the sword from his chest and began to bleed out as he staggered to a fall, but just as he was about to hit the ground, two slender arms and a chest cushioned his descent as he looked up to see the face of Dara smiling back at him¡­


    "It''s alright, I''ve got you¡­ you can rest now¡­" Dara soothed the guy as he finally sumbed to exhaustion¡­


    "Leader, we need to leave, one of the two guards outside managed to shoot up a re, and we don''t know how much time we have till reinforcements arrive¡­"


    The moment Dara heard this, he instantly gave the burly guy to three tribesmen who went on to form a make shift sick bed by simply tying the ends of a sheet of cloth to two wooden logs¡­


    Then he freed the rest of the people in his cage whilst the five experts who were wielding swords earlier picked the keys to the rest of the cages and freed the rest, smashing their swords with all their strength onto the chains till they all broke apart¡­


    They carried the unconscious soldier whilst Dara had the Obuns give the Qi Stones they were carrying to the freed ves¡­


    Then the 500 Obuns and the rest of his troop surrounded the group in protection as they speedily marched out of the cave with Dara being thest that left the cave, but not after falling the me torches and setting fire to the entire cave¡­


    The entire group marched ahead of Dara as quick as possible whilst Dara broke a branch full of leaves and used it to sweep their tracks off the ground¡­


    About ten minutester, two figuresnded in front of a burning cave with mes billowing out of the entrance like a hole had been poked into the barrier that separated hell from the mortal realm¡­


    "No¡­ No, no, no, no, no!" The Left Elder fell to his knees as his face paled in terror;


    If the cave had been left the way it was, then at least they could have resumed their Qi Stone farming and would simply strengthen the defense of the cave by bringing in more soldiers from the royal capital...


    But now, the entire cave had been set aze which meant they just lost a source of ie, and the King might get deadly pissed at him if he hears about it;


    "Hehe, His highness will have your head for this¡­" Elder Yun mocked with a ridiculousughter;


    "Like you will escape unscathed too¡­" The Left Grand Elder growled back;


    "Eh¡­ Bit I am not as stupid as you¡­"


    "All I have to do is return to the royal capital tomorrow and report this to the Emperor telling him that it was when I came for inspection that I found the entire cave already burnt to ashes¡­" Elder Yun jeered;


    "Hmph! Like the drivers won''t testify against you¡­"


    "Oh, I wouldn''t worry about them¡­ They will keep shut as long as I have something they deeply care about¡­" Elder Yun spoke as he turned around to leave;


    "Who would have thought I wouldn''t even need to lift a finger to get rid of you for good¡­"


    He said as he walked away whilst the Left Grand Elder realized the gravity of the matter; If everything turned out the way Elder Yun predicted, then if he was lucky he might end up losing his position whilst Elder Yun would be fined a maximum of a months'' worth of wages...


    But if he was unlucky, then he might actually die whilst Elder Yun would still only walk away with a maximum of three months of wages, and this meant that he would lose tragically to Elder Yun in both instances¡­


    Instantly, a desperate thought seeped into his mind as the Elder Yun who was whistling happily off the scene abruptly saw the tip of a sword pierce through his heart from behind;


    Ahk! Splurt!


    Elder Yun thre out a mouthful of fresh blood as he fell to his knees whilst the crazed Left Grand Elder looked down on him through the bridge of his nose;


    "Now, no one would know about what happened here today¡­" The Left Grand Elder grinned evilly;

 Chapter 99 - Elder Yuns Death

    Instantly, a desperate thought seeped into his mind as the Elder Yun who was whistling happily off the scene abruptly saw the tip of a sword pierce through his heart from behind;


    Snick! Splurt!


    Blergh! Ssh!


    Elder Yun threw up a mouthful of fresh blood as he fell to his knees whilst the crazed Left Grand Elder looked down on him through the bridge of his nose;


    "Now, no one would know about what happened here today¡­" The Left Grand Elder grinned evilly;


    "Y-y- you fool¡­ Do you think His Highness won''t investigate the cause of my death¡­"


    "Never mind, we have another month before we turn over the new Qi Stone batch, I will simply force other farms to mass produce so I can regain all the ones we lost here today, and that would give me enough time to think of how I will stage your death¡­"


    The Left Grand Elderughed mischievously as the sound of carriages approaching echoed over as Elder Yun looked towards the direction they wereing in a bid to warn them...


    But just as he was about to do that, the Left Grand Elder pulled out his sword from his heart and stabbed the back of his head causing the sword to pierce out through his mouth;


    "Hmph! The farm had already been invaded and set aze before we arrived, and whilst both of us desperately made chase with our carriages, we unfortunately entered their trap, and our carriage was assaulted from all sides¡­"


    "You were killed along with both our drivers¡­ I managed to fight my way through entrapment with my new technique, but was grievously injured as I escaped¡­"


    "The King would obviously believe that, and I am sure he wouldn''t be too harsh with his punishment either¡­"


    It was the Left Grand Elder''s turn to jeer at the Elder Yun who found the Left Grand Elder''s lie to be almost wless that he puked blood out of frustration and died on the spot¡­


    The Left Grand Elder then jumped into the surrounding bush and waited for the two drivers to alight from the carriage and rush towards Elder Yun''s corpse before bolting out of the bush and slitting the duo''s throat with a single fluid sword technique¡­


    "Now, all traces and witnesses have been eliminated¡­ Time to go stage the scene of my report¡­"


    The Left Grand Elder then carried the bodies of the dead trio and pulled the two carriages far away from the cave before he began staging the ambush scene¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Dara''s group were already halfway home as he found a little spot toy low with the group to ensure that no one was following them, and also to make sure that they could not be traced back to the tribe¡­


    He then looked towards the group and asked for anyone who knew a little bit about healing, then a middle ageddy and three young girls stepped forward as he told them to patch up the burly guy at least till they can return to the tribe where they can finally treat him appropriately¡­


    They waited for about an hour, and whilst thedies were patching up the burly guy, Dara began scouting the area from atop the trees and the Obun Elder and about a dozen Obuns scattering around tob a decent area of about ten meters from all directions¡­


    Then after they were all done, they resumed their journey back to the tribe an hourter than they should have¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the tribe¡­


    Ji Wang had carved an area of about 700 square feet and they had begun to mold a house like structure using the concrete like y of the Dark Lands¡­


    It was like a simple bungalow, but with a chimney, a kiln, a tall table and bench, all made out of y¡­


    The smithy was then roofed by threeyers of thebination of leaf full branches, with the concrete y poured atop it¡­


    Elder Smith was also with them throughout the process describing how he wanted every part of the smithy to look like with intricate precision, and Ji Wang delivered everything just as he wanted...


    Then when they finished building the structure they set the entire insides of the structure aze, as the water contents of the entire structure and its humid interior were vaporized, speeding up the rate at which the entire structure dried up¡­


    In just about the three hours which it took Dara''s troop to finish their entire mission, the structure was already dried and was ready for the next phase of development¡­


    But strangely, Ji Wang was stumped by how they would forge the tools he needed like the all-important anvil and the likes, thus he seceded to take the matter to the cksmith himself;


    "Elder Smith, we are done with the structure, but how do we build your implements and tools?"


    "Oh, I already figured a way to do all that¡­" Elder Smith replied before taking Ji Wang into the structure they just finished building¡­


    The entire ce was dry and thus the fire had been put out, but the earth on which they made their fire was now extremely dry and brittle, and thus, Elder Smith told them to dig about a feet into the ground, and when they did that, Ji Wang watched and learnt as the Elder told one of the tribesmen to carve out a deep bowl into the earth¡­


    Then once that was done, he ced some wet y into the ground, and pressed the wooden bowl into it, shaping the wet y to the exact structure of the bowl before he then poured beast blood into the hole and set it on fire...


    Then once the mes began to intensify, he removed the hilts of all the ordinary steel swords they looted from the vige and ced the swords into the pit one after the other¡­


    He added another sword once the first one melted, and because the liquid beast blood mixed with the molten metal, the mes kept burning and then he added another sword...


    Then once the pit was filled up to a third of the hole, he then took one of the ores they brought back from the vige, smashed it into pieces and have the Obuns grind it with the hammer until it was as fine as dust...


    Then he poured these ore dusts into the hole, and stirred everything with a wet wood, and once that was done, he lowered the wooden bowl into it and told them to fill the entire hole with sand¡­


    Then after waiting for about another hour, he then told the Obuns to dig everything out, and the moment they did, they uprooted steel bowl stuck to the bottom of the wooden bowl¡­

 Chapter 100 - The Smithy & The Vault

    Then he poured these ore dusts into the hole, and stirred everything with a wet wood, and once that was done, he lowered the wooden bowl into it and told them to fill the entire hole with sand¡­


    Then after waiting for about another hour, he then told the Obuns to dig everything out, and the moment they did, they uprooted steel bowl stuck to the bottom of the wooden bowl¡­


    "Wow, that''s really creative¡­" Ji Wang had no choice but to whistle; he was really impressed;


    The Obun broke the mold and they separated the new steel bowl from the wood and gave the bowl to Elder Smith;


    "Alright, what next?"


    "I will need tables made out of wood¡­" Elder Smith replied;


    "Like how many are we looking at?"


    "About five would do¡­"


    "Alright, you heard him¡­ Get to it!" Ji Wang ordered but one of the tribesmen stepped out with a helpless and tired expression;


    "We are out of logs, Master Wang¡­"


    "Unh? Out of logs?"


    "How is that even possible?"


    "Master Min and the others have taken a few to go build the storage and the vault¡­" The tribesman replied;


    "Well, lead the Obuns and go cut more!" Ji Wang harried all of them;


    "We have to be at least 75 percent done before the tribe leader returns!"


    He added as the tribesmen led some Obuns out of the tribe gates to go log more woods whilst Ji Wang himself moved over about 50 meters to where the storage and vault were being constructed¡­


    The store was a very massive barn looking structure and its sheer size alone were able to testify as to why they had run out of wood;


    It was a massive store and the food area alone was about 400 square meters, and it was the same for the weapons area as well as other tools and necessities, and all in all, this ce had fivepartments and each of thesepartments were 400 square meters big¡­


    The vault on the other hand was actually dug underground with about 15 stairs deep before one would then find themselves in a 100 square meter room;


    Then on one side was a weapons rack for high grade weapons, on another side was an inbuilt wooden shelf which would obviously be for the techniques and arts which would be written in scrolls and manuals¡­


    Another side had a three massive containers that were as long as the length of the wall and there were three of them stacked atop one another but hung to the wall¡­


    Then thest face of the wall was where the entrance was;


    "How did you manage to do all of this?" Ji Wang asked in amazement when he saw what Uncle Min had done with the ce;


    "Well, rather than building everything from scratch and then fixing them here, we simply carved them out of the wall¡­"


    "So you mean these three stacked containers were not built and hung on the wall, but are actually the wall itself?"


    "If that makes it simpler for you toprehend, yes¡­"


    "Wow, and what would they be used for?"


    "The bottom container would be used for storing Qi Stones, and the one in the middle would be used for storing precious gems and ores that we might find, whilst the one at the top would be used for materials, gems or ores we know nothing about¡­"


    "Then you lined their interior with wood and made a wooden cover which would preserve whatever are within these containers¡­"


    "I have to hand it to you, this is truly imaginative and peculiar¡­"


    "Thanks, how about you, have youe up with a lock system for both the store and the vault?" Uncle Min walked Ji Wang out of the pit as he asked;


    "I have the designs but I would rather have them be steel doors rather than wooden, thus, I have to finish the smithy first, and let Elder Smith build me some steel vault doors¡­"


    "And how is that going?"


    "Well, we have been dyed because you guys used the rest of the avable woods, but I have sent them to log more¡­"


    "That''s fantastic, now if you don''t mind, I have to finish up this ce¡­"


    "Alright, I will be on my way, keep up the good work¡­" Ji Wang added before leaving the site altogether¡­


    But just as he walked halfway over to the smithy, he saw the tribe gates open and massive flood of heads filling into the vige;


    "Whoa! Whoa!! Whoa!!! That''s a lot of people¡­"


    Ji Wang eximed in shock as he began to feel a headache brewing in his head¡­


    He walked over and could already count about 250 Obuns at first nce, and little by little, all the tribesmen and Obuns within the tribe all began to pop out of different corners of the tribe when they noticed themotion¡­


    Aunt Lin and Uncle Min also stepped out and were stunned by the size of what they were seeing, Aunt Lin who was atop the teau could roughly count over 1800 people from her vantage point as she rushed down to the tribe square which was just outside their residence¡­


    "Ji Wang, where is Ji Chen?" Dara asked when he noticed the group weren''t as much as he had left them;


    "We ran out of wood, so they are out logging¡­"


    Dara nodded and simply turned around to face the entire crowd whose whisperings alone was almost deafening;


    "Alright, those with the stonese forward!"


    Dara bellowed as the crowd parted and about 700 men stepped out of the group with loads in their hands wrapped in some piece of cloth;


    ~Ah!~


    Aunt Lin gasped when she saw what they brought forward, and even Uncle Min just kept starring, unable to believe his eyes¡­


    There was no mistaking it, is it by the change in atmosphere?


    Or the sudden freshness of the air around them?


    Or the abrupt humidity that spiked just now?


    Or the glow that was spilling out from several crevices in the clothes?


    This was unmistakable and they all knew what they were;


    Qi Stones!


    Dara relished in the gazes of the entire tribe as did the First Obun Elder who was shaking the hands of his former assistant¡­


    "Is that what I think it is!?"


    Ji Wang abruptly squealed in delight as he slowly approached each of these cloth wrapped loads, looking at all of them almost adoringly¡­

 Chapter 101 - The Lifegiving Stone

    Dara relished in the gazes of the entire tribe as did the First Obun Elder who was shaking the hands of his former assistant¡­


    "Is that what I think it is!?"


    Ji Wang squealed in delight as he slowly approached each of these cloth wrapped loads, looking at all of them adoringly¡­


    This is what was going to determine the prosperity of their tribe, and it was right here in front of him;


    "Have you guys prepared a ce where we can store them?" Dara asked but was met with silence;


    "Uncle Min?" Ji Wang had to blurt out before the stunned Uncle Min realized that he had missed the question;


    "He is asking for where to store them¡­" Ji Wang repeated;


    "Oh! Erm¡­ Um, this way¡­"


    Uncle Min turned around and led the group back the way he came through, as Dara walked past Aunt Lin who smiled and winked at him¡­


    Dara returned a smile of his own as she tagged along with him¡­


    Dara reached the store and had no choice but to whistle in wonder; it was indeed massive;


    "There is still a lot to be done, but we should finish up everything by dusk tomorrow¡­"


    Uncle Min tried to regain a bit of face, and he really did, as everyone who came in here were just whistling one after the other in wonder of how intricate everything within here was¡­


    He led Dara''s group who were just looking at everything like a tourist, down the vault and brought them to the containers hung on the wall¡­


    Uncle Min then gave them the same kind of description he had given Ji Wang, before Dara then told the men to pour the Qi Stones into the container, and by the time they were done, the container was about half filled;


    "Whoa, I had thought this container would be able to fit every Qi Stones we will ever have, but it seems we need to do more construction¡­" Uncle Min muttered when they were done pouring all the Qi Stones¡­


    The effects of the presence of these Qi Stones was instantaneous as the dark walls of the cave ¨Cwhich was the testament of the billowing dark Qi of the Dark Lands¨C instantly turned white as all the Dark Qi''s fled like darkness in front of light¡­


    Life bloomed from the surrounding soil and it stunned everyone as fresh, beautiful yellow, white, pink and purple flowers bloomed out of the rich green vines which sprouted from all sides¡­


    The wood which lined the container which these stones were ced into also sprouted some vines which made the interior of the container look like a cushiony nest with the stones looking like eggs in them¡­


    The air within the vault became fresh and the humidity and temperature became as natural as during the spring season, but the effects did not stop within the vault; it also spread out throughout the store as Uncle Min blurted absentmindedly;


    "The presence of this Qi Stones alone can already provide a preservative atmosphere for anything we keep in this store¡­"


    They watched at glowing vines and flower bloomed across the roof bringing natural and mesmerizing light into the Dark Vault, but just when they thought it was over, these flowers bloomed and many fragrant dust poured out of them and floated to every part of the vault bringing a very soothing and refreshing smell to the environment;


    "It seems this stones would be great for farming and beautifying the entire tribe¡­" Aunt Lin blurted with a strong blush as she savored the scent the vault was now giving¡­


    "What do you mean?" Ji Wang asked;


    "What do you think will happen if we bury about a dozen of these stones all over the tribe and let it grow trees that smells this nice, wouldn''t that improve the overall health and mental wellness of the tribe?"


    Though the group understood where she wasing from, but all of them felt they should use them for cultivation rather than beautifying the entire tribe, but before anyone of them could object, Dara spoke from the side with a smile;


    "Do it!" Aunt Lin blushed bashfully as she turned to three of these men;


    "Alright, each of you carry four each and bring them with me¡­"


    She turned to these experts and spoke, but the experts on the other hand simply looked over to Dara who then gave them the go ahead with a nod¡­


    Aunt Lin dashed out of the vault and the first ce she nted a Qi Stone was right atop the teau, in the middle of their residence, and just like earlier, vines bloomed across the entire residence making it look pixie or elven like¡­


    The glowing flowers bloomed and gave natural light to the room as Aunt Lin put of the torches they hung on the wall, as the vines continue to grow and its flowers bloom, before the fragrance started to spread all over the entire residence¡­


    She left immediately to go nt the rest of the Qi Stones at specific ces within the tribe, and the one she nted at the square, grew into a massive tree which grew up to about 25 meter in height in less than three minutes¡­


    It spread its trunk wide in all directions before flowers began to bloom all over it as its fragrance began to disperse into every nook and cranny of the tribe¡­


    The breeze also carried most of it to parts of the tribe where it wouldn''t naturally reach, and just like nt pollen, whenever these fragrant dustsnded, green lush vegetation bloomed from these spots and in little to no time, the entire tribe which was usually a ce of darkness, wet soil, ck billowing Qi and arid atmosphere began to turn into a paradise¡­


    Life spread through every part of the sects and bloomed abundantly, as all the flowers brought bright light to the entire tribe, and by the time the spread had covered the entire ce, it was already nighttime, and Ji Chen and the rest who went to log woods in the forest were just in time to witness the most mesmerizing sights of their lives¡­


    The moment night came, all the glowing white and yellow flowers suddenly lost all their light leaving only the purple and pink which brought out the romantic ambience of what nighttime would look like in a paradise¡­

 Chapter 102 - Morning Moans

    Life spread through every part of the sects and bloomed abundantly, as all the flowers brought bright light to the entire tribe, and by the time the spread had covered the entire ce, it was already nighttime, and Ji Chen and the rest who went to log woods in the forest was just in time to witness the most mesmerizing sights of their lives¡­


    The moment night came, all the glowing white and yellow flowers suddenly lost all their light leaving only the purple and pink which brought out the romantic ambience of what nighttime would look like in a paradise¡­


    It was a truly stunning sight, and one which the entire tribe was sure they would behold till the end of their lives¡­


    "What would happen when all the Qi in those stones get used up?" Ji Wang asked;


    "Firstly, all those stones contain the energy of a Peak Qi Sea Stage expert, and it would take close to the life span of a Qi Sea Stage expert before it can run out¡­"


    "Secondly, since it is a Qi Stone, it would naturally keep absorbing Qi from the atmosphere and earth albeit in small quantities to refill itself gradually¡­"


    "Finally, all that means, these things you can see and smell wouldst for at least 700 ¨C 1,000 years before it can start withering, and all we need to do to keep this going is to rece the exhausted Qi Stone about a year before it starts withering¡­"


    Dara exined with a smile and Ji Wang couldn''t help but grin widely as he was pleasantly satisfied by this oue; in actuality, none of them knew this could happen¡­


    "How long would it take for the constructions toe to an end?" Dara asked from the side;


    "At this rate, we should be done by tomorrow at dusk¡­"


    "Good, we need to do something about shelter¡­ It seems we didn''t think things through when we decided to rescue people and bring them home¡­"


    "It''s fine¡­ We are a new tribe, things like this are bound to happen¡­ But about the shelters though, we need to find how to build a new type of shelter¡­ One that can house multiple persons simultaneously¡­" Ji Wang responded;


    "Don''t worry, I will try to think of a solution to that, just give me a few days¡­"


    Dara replied before moving back to the square to address the about 1900 people and 500 Obuns he brought back from the Qi Stone Farm...


    Then the moment the people saw himing, they gathered around him with Ji Chen and Uncle Min standing on either sides of Dara, in case anyone of amongst them had any funny intentions or ideas...


    The First Obun Elder also mobilized all the avable 100 Obuns that came with him, whilst Ji Wang brought the 50 tribesmen;


    "This is the Ji Tribe, and it would be your home from now henceforth, but because we are new and are still in the developments phase, the amount of houses we havepared to our current poption is about 10 percent¡­"


    "This means about 15 people would have to manage a single shelter before we provide the necessary amount of shelters needed to house everyone before the week runs out¡­" Dara exined and all of them heard him clearly due to the quietness in the area¡­


    "But other than that, everything else we have are more than adequate and enough for everyone¡­"


    "A tribe that grows is a tribe where each and every single one of its members contribute to ensure it grows and develops at steady increasing pace¡­"


    He continued, hinting at the neers that they would have to work to get what the kind of life they wanted to live;


    "Anyone who feels they could do better on their own or have another personal solution in mind is wee to leave¡­"


    "I rescued you all to set you all free, and thus, you are likewise free to leave¡­" Dara paused and looked over the entire group¡­


    But even after about ten minutes, none of them moved a single muscle as Dara smiled before adding;


    "Good¡­ Eat and drink tonight, work begins tomorrow¡­"


    Min Hong didn''t need to exin to the existing tribesmen that they would need to share their homes with strangers since they were all present at the square too¡­


    Dara returned to the teau after he finished speaking whilst Uncle Min and Ji Wang split all the people and Obuns into the residences whilst the First Obun Elder and Ji Chen maintained order throughout the process¡­


    Aunt Lin and the 100 kids within the tribe brought roasted meat and water to the people before the night finally descended and everyone went to sleep, with Aunt Lin of-course sharing the bed with Dara who unfortunately fell asleep straight away;


    "Too exhausted unh?"


    Aunt Lin looked at the dozing Dara before kissing him and snuggling him naked to give him some sort of warmth¡­


    Dawn the next day¡­


    Aunt Lin was woken by something poking its way into her lower cave when she opened her eyes;


    "~Hmm~"


    She moaned when Dara''s cock finally slipped its way into her as she adjusted her waist so he could get better prating ess¡­


    Dara slowly glided in and out of Aunt Lin till her cave was wet enough to lubricate both of their sexes as they finally began to enjoy the morning sex¡­


    ~Hmm~


    Dara was slow and gentle, and as a result, Aunt Lin could feel every single inch of him drilling straight into her depths, and after about an hour of slow lovemaking, Dara finally reached his edge, but not before Aunt Lin had showered his cock about five times with her love juices¡­


    Ah!


    Dara exploded deep into Aunt Lin who felt his milk stter all over her insides, triggering an orgasm of her own, and after their body stopped tingling, Dara fell over Aunt Lin, and she instantly plugged one of her nipples into his mouth as he began to suck, nibble and y with them however he wanted¡­


    "I snuck in herest night, but you were already passed out¡­ What happened back at the Qi Stone farm?"


    "Nothing much, other than some unexpected development and life threatening battle¡­"


    Dara briefed before plugging his mouth back on her tender nipples whilst she lovingly ruffled his head and eroticallybed her fingers through his hair....

 Chapter 103 - Hallucinations Or Initial Symptoms?

    "I snuck in herest night, but you were already passed out¡­ What happened back at the Qi Stone farm?"


    "Nothing much, other than some unexpected development and life threatening battle¡­"


    Dara briefed before plugging his mouth back on her tender nipples whilst she lovingly ruffled his head and eroticallybed her fingers through his hair...


    Ten minutester, her breath gradually became irregr, and when she began to writhe beneath Dara, Dara sent his finger to her lower lips and noticed it was ready for another set of action¡­


    Thus, without further ado, he plunged his rising cock into her once again, but this time, Aunt Lin rolled Dara to his back and smiled;


    "My turn¡­"


    Then she began to ride him like a matured stallion, caressing his chest as she rode him, whilst Dara''s hand kneaded her ass as they bounced on and off his groin whilst watching her two round globes wiggle and m into one another over his face¡­


    Aunt Lin bent down a little allowing Dara''s mouth totch onto her nipple whilst she was slowly grinding him¡­


    After another hour of audible orgasms from the two of them Dara spilled another milk into Aunt Lin, before they then went to the bath to clean up, but not before smooching one another for about half an hour¡­


    By the time it was morning, all the purple and pink glowing flowers slowly went to sleep whilst the white and yellow ones slowly bloomed once again providing bright day-like light into every corner of the tribe¡­


    Dara sat cross-legged on his bed as he tried to concentrate on what he was doing whilst Aunt Linid in bed beside him, already clean and dressed up as she wanted to see how Dara cultivated for the first time¡­


    Sheid there, staring at him with a proud smile with her gaze somewhat engrossed on him and simultaneously lost in fantasy¡­


    Dara finally had time to ess more knowledge from the two souls within him since he had finally unlocked all his 900+ meridians and haven''t been able to do so previously¡­


    In less than a minute, he was able to attain inner peace, and was finally able to enter the dimension where the mysterious tree was, and since he was already used to it, it didn''t take long before several strange knowledge and experiences came flooding into his head once again¡­


    Aunt Lin watched for about ten straight minutes until she noticed the first bead of sweat fall off Dara''s forehead, before she was snapped out of her daze¡­


    Then about three minutester, she saw him begin to frown in pain but didn''t know if disturbing him would cause him more harm or put him out of his current pain, but in the end she chose to hold herself back, calm down and wait¡­


    If things began grimmer than it already was, she was prepared to snap him out of it, and after another ten minutes, Dara finally opened his eyes, and Aunt Lin crawled away from Dara in fright; For a moment there, she could have sworn that the moment Dara opened his eyes, he had three pupils¡­


    These three pupils were linked to one another like when drawing Sets in Maths, but the moment Dara blinked, it was gone, like it was never there in the first ce, and thus, she thought she might have been hallucinating or overthinking things;


    "What happened?"


    Dara was stunned when he saw Aunt Lin cower away from him like she just saw a monster;


    "It''s nothing¡­ I thought I saw something, but I guess I was simply hallucinating¡­"


    "Hallucinating?" Dara was getting even more surprised, and after Aunt Lin exined, Daraughed ridiculously;


    "Three pupils?" Heughed once again;


    "Stopughing at me, I could have sworn I saw it¡­" Aunt Lin pouted before hugging herself and looking away¡­


    Dara then stood up, walked over to her side of the bed, hugged and kissed her, before adding;


    "Perhaps, it is because our eyes are trying to adjust to always having light around¡­" Dara exined and Aunt Lin found it somewhat possible before she then returned his hug;


    "Be careful when cultivating, and don''t rush it else you go down the wrong path¡­" She warned as she hugged him tighter;


    "Don''t worry, I don''t n on leaving the tribe for the next three days, I will be helping with the development of the tribe instead¡­" Dara eased her worries before kissing her on the forehead;


    "Alright, it is time to get to work¡­"


    Dara helped her up as they shared another kiss before Aunt Lin scuttled off to go being her tasks; Preparing Breakfast, Taking care of the Farm andstly, checking up on the results of feeding aphrodisiac to all the beasts within the tribe¡­


    Dara on the other hand met with Uncle Min and Ji Wang;


    He had searched for any residential blueprints that could be of help to their current situation, but after going through the amount of knowledge he could withstand, he didn''t get anything¡­


    Thus, he had to strain himself and push himself past his limits before he could finally get two blueprints of a secret military base Sam once came across¡­


    But this new blueprints meant they would have to restructure the entire tribe as they knew it and it was a project that would have taken about another three months if they didn''t have the new extra 2400 people who would ensure that they only save 90 percent of that time, cutting the project duration to a little over a week¡­


    Dara picked up a stick and drew what the new tribe would look like after including the benefits the entirendscape had to offer whilst Uncle Min and Ji Wang looked on¡­


    He drew three circles and divided the innermost circle into three with one line facing the North, and the other two facing the East and West respectively;


    "These two lines are ditches filled with water separating this lower half from these two upper halves¡­" Dara exined pointing to the two lines that were facing East and West of the tribe....

 Chapter 104 - Who Said We Cant Expand?

    Dara picked up a stick and drew what the new tribe would look like after including the benefits the entirendscape had to offer whilst Uncle Min and Ji Wang looked on¡­


    He drew three circles and divided the innermost circle into three with one line facing the North, and the other two facing the East and West respectively;


    "These two lines are ditches filled with water separating this lower half from these two upper halves¡­" Dara exined pointing to the two lines that were facing East and West of the tribe...


    Dara drew what one can consider a Benz logo, with the two lower hands being their new waterway and the one pointing up and north being the way that led to the tribe gate¡­


    The teau was in the part that was demarcated by water on both sides, as well as the farm, the store and vault¡­


    Then on either sides of the road that leads to the tribe gates, the human settlements would be to the left and the Obun settlements to the right¡­


    "Then what about the tribe defenses?" Uncle Min asked, and Dara drew two circles outside the logo;


    "This first circle would be the outside Ring of Fire, and this second one would be the Ring of Death with the tribe wall being in-between the two¡­" Dara exined as Uncle Min and Ji Wang nodded;


    "As for the new type of shelter, they will all look like this¡­"


    Dara began to draw the structural blueprint of a type of residence by drawing seven curved bs stacked atop one another, then he split each of this bs into a dozen smaller boxes;


    "The new shelter would be seven stories high, and each of the floors would be divided into twelve segments¡­"


    "The first ten segments would be on either sides of the building, ten facing the tribe walls and the remaining ten facing the teau¡­"


    "Thest two segments would be a room full of baths andvatories that run straight through inbuilt channels on the wall, and down into a massive underground pit alongside the bath water which would then help prevent the tribe from stinking or maggots from festering within the pits¡­"


    Dara exined as he drew a curved rectangle on the ground, and within this rectangle, he drew ten smaller boxes one either sides of the rectangle before drawing a line through the middle;


    "This would be a pathway with rooms on either sides, and then when we reach the end of the tenth rooms, there would be a bath area that closes the entire width of the structure¡­" Dara exined as Ji Wang and Uncle Min nodded inprehension;


    "This bathroom would be asrge as the length of the entire structure with four walls that divide them into five bath hubs¡­" Dara added;


    "Then we can put a door behind these bathroom and have it lead into this twelfth box which would serve as avatory of the same sizes¡­" Ji Wang caught up on time whilst Uncle Min nodded at the idea¡­


    "We should also add a reception or rxation area, where people can hang around without having to leave the building¡­" Uncle Min suggested;


    "Yes, I n on using the ground floor for exactly that¡­ We would have the men take the rooms that faces the wall while thedies would stay within the rooms that faces the teau¡­" Dara added;


    "If we pair two men and women per room that would mean the structure would be able to only amodate about 240 people in total¡­" Ji Wang did a quick calction before pointing out;


    "Yes, and we will have ten of these structures built in both the Human area to the left and the Obun are to the right¡­" Dara looked to both of them for contributions;


    "But that would mean the human area to the left would only be able to house 2400 people, and if we calcte everyone in the tribe at the moment, we are almost 2100¡­"


    "Wouldn''t that mean that we won''t be able to rescue everyone we find in the next Qi Stone Farm we hit?" Ji Wang and Uncle Min chipped in respectively;


    "Well, no one said we couldn''t expand the tribe, after all, all these jungle grounds doesn''t belong to anyone, and the only ones who cany im to it detest the ce and see it as hell¡­"


    "So, that means we can take as much of it as possible¡­"


    "You read my mind Ji Wang¡­" Min Hong smiled slightly;


    "But where would these people stay before we finish the expansion?" Uncle Min asked;


    "They would have to manage in the reception areas of each structures and even temporarily share with the Obuns till the expansion ispleted¡­"


    Dara responded and whilst that didn''t sound too pleasing, the trio felt it is a necessary but temporary sacrifice the people will have to make¡­


    After all, they had no hope of escape or living, and if all they had to do was temporarily share residence with the Obun''s till the expansion was done, then they should have noints about it, and anyone of them who feels otherwise would be free to leave the tribe¡­


    "Good¡­ Now that we have the blueprints, do you know how we will manage to build such a tall structure and ensure that it would be safe to withstand heavy damage?" Ji Wang asked;


    "I know the foundation and the skeletal structure of the building has to be made from the hardest steel we can find or manage to forge¡­" Dara exined;


    "We will also need concretes since the soil here would crumble under such weight¡­" He added as he looked towards the duo for their contributions once again;


    "I think I might be able to help with that¡­" Before the duo could go on any longer, a thick voice floated over from up ahead, and Dara smiled in relief when he heard the voice;


    "I was really getting worried about how long you will stay unconscious¡­"


    Dara responded as the trio looked ahead to see a burly guy walking over with his entire chest wrapped and bandaged with strips of precisely cut soft clothes, and though, there were bits of blood stains on them, the burly guy was looking much more healthy than expected¡­

 Chapter 105 - A Leader?

    "I was really starting to get worried about how long you''ll stay unconscious¡­"


    Dara responded as the trio looked ahead to see a burly guy walking over with his entire chest wrapped and bandaged with strips of precisely cut soft clothes, and though, there were bits of blood stains on them, the burly guy was looking much more healthy than expected¡­


    "I am a Qi Sea Stage expert, the moment you freed me from those chains, I have begun to try moving my cultivation once again, and the past half a day had given me enough peaceful time to do so¡­"


    The burly guy responded when he saw the looks on Ji Wang and Uncle Min''s face since they saw him when they towed him into the tribe and heard how badly injured he was¡­


    Furthermore, from first nce, he seemed to be half healed already;


    "To heal halfway through such injury in barely a day, is that the power of a Qi Sea Stage expert?"


    Ji Wang blurted absentmindedly as he kept staring at the burly guy like some mad scientist who had just found a new specimen for a new research;


    "Well, though I have regressed to the 3 Star Qi Sea Stage because I couldn''t efficiently utilize all the Qi in my body..."


    "Then the fact that I have also been using it to heal myself, I suspect I might regress back into the Qi Creation stage by the time I''m fully healed, or perhaps to the 1 Star Qi Sea stage if I''m lucky¡­" The burly guy responded;


    "I didn''t actually get your name?" Dara asked;


    "Long¡­ Sha Long¡­" The burly guy answered;


    "Dara¡­ Ji Dara, and this is Uncle Min and Ji Wang¡­" Dara introduced;


    "Since you are going to be joining our tribe, then I guess your name should be Ji Long from now on, don''t you think?" Ji Wang added;


    "That does have a nice ring to it¡­" Ji Long replied after about a minute of thinking it through;


    "Alright, you said you might have an idea on how to help with the concrete¡­" Uncle Min brought their focus back to the topic;


    "Slow down Ji Min¡­"


    Ji Long simply blurted not knowing if that was Uncle Min''s true name or not, but no one decided to say anything about it as they simply listened to what Ji Long had to say;


    "The idea I''m proposing is actually a little dangerous and but could yield us a lot of benefits if we manage to pull it off¡­"


    Ji Longid down the criteria and waited for their consent before going on, and once he received it, he began;


    "Qi Stones¡­" He blurted;


    "Qi Stones?" Ji Wang blurted;


    "Are you telling us to waste more Qi Stones after we have spent twelve on bringing nature into the tribe?" Uncle Min added;


    "You two slow down a bit and let him finish¡­" Dara softly added from the side;


    "I am not referring to the Qi Stones which are already filled with Qi, I meant the raw unused ones¡­" Ji Long exined;


    "Wouldn''t that be dangerous to the people?" Dara questioned;


    "Naturally, Qi Stones simply absorb energy from natural sources, tame the energy and store them in a way which would be absorbable by any cultivator¡­"


    "But howe they were used to drain Qi from you guys?" Dara pushed for more understanding;


    "Well, it was because those hateful monsters were able to devise a way to reverse the effects of the Qi Stones¡­" Ji Long exined with a furious expression;


    "So, if the natural Qi Stones are safe, where can we get them?" Ji Wang chipped in;


    "Well, then entire mountain we were rescued from is made entirely out of Qi Stones¡­"


    "Once we can get past the earth that had covered it after existing for so long, one would find these Qi Stones¡­"


    "Those monsters let us mine the QI Stones ourselves and they sometimes use the Obuns, before using the product of ourbor to drain out future¡­" Ji Long reminisced with gritted teeth as he exined;


    "But if the Qi Stones are rocky, how do you expect us to build entire settlements out of it?" Uncle Min added;


    "Actually, they were able to fashion cages and chains out of the Qi Stones but I have never truly realized it was from the same Qi Stones that they mined within the mountain; or more like I never even knew they mined the QI Stones within that mountain¡­" Dara chipped in;


    "Yes, but there is one downside¡­"Ji Long pointed out;


    "What is it?" Ji Wang asked seemingly over interested in the possibilities that could bring;


    "The Qi Stone absorbs anything natural and converts them into natural energy, but when there is an artificial me, like mes being fueled by beast blood, then one can safely melt these stones and remold them into any shape of one''s choice¡­"


    "They usually bring in cksmiths from the Royal Court toe remold these Qi Stones, but another downside is, we don''t have any here¡­"


    Ji Long sighed, but after noticing that there was no reaction except for a smug grin on the trio''s faces, Ji Long realized that he might have missed something;


    "You don''t happen to have a cksmith lying around here, do you?" He asked with an expression of intensifying shock;


    "Follow me¡­"


    Dara simply spoke as they all walked over to the structure Ji Wang just constructed yesterday, and there was Elder Smith standing in front of the half done smithy, pacing up and down with his hand beneath his chin in thought¡­


    He then heard several approaching footsteps, and when he saw who it was, he bowed slightly to Dara and greeted;


    "Leader¡­"


    The rest of the group were slightly stunned by his mode of address because they only regarded Dara as the tribe leader because he was the Landlord of their new home and was also the one who brought about the idea of creating a new Ji Tribe;


    But they have never really thought of him as someone they had to serve or be subservient to; at least not the human adults¡­


    The kids maybe, the Obuns also might have as well made that decision, but this is the first time they would be seeing one of the human adults actually act subserviently and ept a metaphorical ten year old as his own leader....


    But right in that moment, the rest of them began to entertain the idea; after all, no matter how they looked at it, Dara had excelled as a true leader and that really stifled Uncle Min who knew he was already losing the battle if he doesn''t prove his worth anytime soon, as Elder Smith''s next statement ended all their thoughts¡­

 Chapter 106 - The Properties & Potentials Of Qi Stones

    But right in that moment, the rest of them began to entertain the idea; after all, no matter how they looked at it, Dara had excelled as a true leader and that really stifled Uncle Min who knew he was already losing the battle if he doesn''t prove his worth anytime soon, as Elder Smith''s next statement ended all their thoughts¡­


    "I have been waiting for you since the white and yellow sun bloomed¡­"


    Elder Smith directed towards Ji Wang who realized that he was referring to the flowers which was now providing daylight for the entire tribe;


    "What is it? You came up with some new ideas?" Ji Wang hit back with a smug grin;


    "Alright, that''s enough, you two¡­" Dara stopped the two from bickering;


    "Elder Smith, meet Ji Long¡­"


    "Hello¡­"


    "Morning¡­"


    "So, why have you brought him here, Leader?" "You will love what he has to say¡­"


    Dara mystified and allowed Ji Long to exin everything they had just discussed earlier, and he was rather stunned because after their first discussion, not only was Ji Long able to urately summarized everything;


    Hey were also so detailed that each and every one of them began to get new ideas about the Qi Stones;


    "Whoa, if I can melt this Qi Stones and add some molten steel and ore dust to it-"


    Elder Smith paused as his brains almost short-circuited from thinking about the possible endpoint of such an experiment;


    "Shit, my old beardse alive simply thinking about the endless possibilities this Qi Stones can have in forging¡­"


    Elder Smith blurted with a heavyughter and his beard did tremble from such exciting and heavyughter;


    "Yeah, and imagine if we could build entire residences out of it, that would mean all out tribesmen would be able to cultivate naturally, and that way the Qi Stones we have would be focused on other important things¡­"


    Ji Wang was almost biting his fingers out of sheer excitement; he was truly the ambitious one, and everyone liked him because of that, which is why he was loved by most of the tribe....


    But Ji Chen on the other hand was simply respected as he was the one in charge of ensuring that every single tribesmen were able to fend for themselves whenever they ran into trouble¡­


    "I was just think about what would happen if we were to stick a 20 meter long Qi Stone beneath each building and link the end to the foundation of each building, that long Qi Stone rod would be able to reach deeper into the earth where it would be able to transmit stronger, richer and thicker energy to the rest of the building¡­"


    Dara imputed and the rest of the group actually looked at him like he was some sort of monster, and that was because what he just suggested was way ahead of their best ideas;


    "That would definitely increase the amount of QI generated by the building by almost five fold, and if we can ce four of those rods per building and link it to the four edges of the building, the building should be able to generate normally¡­" Ji Long added;


    "But the question is, would we be able to get as much Qi Stones from that cave as we need¡­" Elder Smith brought them back to the logical reality;


    It is good to dream and fantasy was great, but they could only benefit one if they can find a natural and logical way to bring those dreams and fantasy to reality¡­


    "How many of those buildings are we nning to build?" Ji Long asked;


    "About 25¡­" Ji Wang quickly chipped in before anyone else could reply...


    Furthermore, despite being 5 more than they originally needed Dara decided not to say anything because he knew the only reason why Ji Wang would do that was if he had something he needed to use the extra five for...


    Adding to the fact that it would be something to benefit the entire tribe, there was no point in stopping him¡­


    "Well, I don''t know about 25 buildings, but if we excavate all the possible stones within that cave, we should be able to get for about 15 to 20 buildings¡­" Ji Long added as Dara''s eyes expanded in delight¡­


    "Then let''s do it!" Elder Smith blurted even though he didn''t know the sizes of the building in question¡­


    "Not yet¡­" Dara abruptly blurted;


    "Eh?"


    "Why?"


    "What are you thinking, Leader?"


    Ji Wang and Uncle Min blurted simultaneously, whilst Ji Long who knew Dara must have a valid reason asked thest question respectfully;


    "We just ransacked the entire area, and I also set mes to the cave, and whilst I know that the mes can''t destroy the entire mountains, we still have to be very careful about going back there¡­" Dara exined;


    "It''s true¡­"


    "That ce was one of the Royal Tribe''s main source of strength and ie, and now that it had been invaded, and they also know the benefits of the Qi Stones left in it, they would obviously send reinforcements to guard the area whilst they excavate every other useful Qi Stones from it¡­"


    Ji Long added as the excitement within the group went down the drain making them feel like they had been poured cold water on a windy winter night in Antarctica¡­


    "But we can send a small group of people to scout the area and bring back word on what they find, if there are no one there yet, we can start excavating all we can as fast as possible whilst we send people to lookout for any sight of reinforcements¡­" Dara added as their excitement grew once again;


    "That''s fantastic!"


    "Nice idea!"


    "You thought well, Leader!" They allmented happily as Dara simply smiled instead¡­


    "Alright, let''s finish up here first¡­"


    "Ji Wang, stay here with Elder Smith and finish up everything he might possibly need¡­"


    "Uncle Min, you can continue with the construction of the vaults and store¡­"


    "When both of you are done, I will join you to go look at thendscape and how the structures and buildings will be positioned to maximize the entire area perfectly¡­"


    "Ji Long, you are very familiar with everyone within the QI Stone Farms, thus I will need you to help me sort them out¡­" Dara dished out one order after the other as Ji Long cut in;


    "Most of them would most likely lose their cultivations, but not to much, but you might end up with a whole load of experts in the Peak Qi Creation stages¡­" He exined....

 Chapter 107 - Excavating The Qi Stones [1]

    "When both of you are done, I will join you to go look at thendscape and how the structures and buildings will be positioned to maximize the entire area perfectly¡­"


    "Ji Long, you are very familiar with everyone within the QI Stone Farms, thus I will need you to help me sort them out¡­" Dara dished out one order after the other as Ji Long cut in;


    "Most of them would most likely lose their cultivations, but not to much, but you might end up with a whole load of experts in the Peak Qi Creation stages¡­" He exined;


    "It''s alright, just gather as much Qi Sea Stage experts as you can find, as for the rest, have them reveal what they are good at¡­"


    "Those who have any sort of idea about cksmith should be brought to Elder Smith to test their experience, teach them and have them as student assistants¡­"


    "Those who know a thing or two about farming should meet with Aunt Lin who will do the same ad have them as student assistants¡­ "


    "It is time for the children to focus on learning, if we could develop some talented ones, we might have to send them back to the Land of the Light where majority of my next ambitions are centered around¡­"


    "Others who know a thing or two aboutbat should also join Ji Chen¡­"


    "Those who are knowledgeable about constructions should be brought to Ji Wang and Uncle Min¡­"


    "Others who have good eyes for spotting treasures, and resources should also meets with Aunt Lin, and you will be assisting them in terms of protection whenever they go out in search of treasures¡­"


    "I will gather the able bodied experts we currently have and go out to scout the area¡­"


    "After we havepleted our ns and the developments ispleted, we will then discuss how the administration of the tribe would go from the Leader to the workers¡­"


    "Once that is also in ce, we will then set out to hit another Qi Stone Farm farthest from the vicinity¡­"


    Dara blurted out one after the other and he was lucky the people around him were smart enough to note everything he had just said¡­


    "But why the Qi Stone Farms farthest from us?" Ji Long asked;


    "It''s simple¡­ If we hit those closest to us, and the Royals decide toe investigate, then they will find us in no time, and out tribe isn''t one percent as strong as the Royal forces, and that would spell disaster for us¡­"


    "But if we attack the farthest ones, if we are lucky they will keep investigating further off our tribe, and if it goes the other way, then with the help of our scouts, we would at least have a little time to figure out how to solve the situation¡­"


    Dara exined as the group was once again stunned by his level of insight and ability to snuff out problems and their solutions¡­


    Then after some further discussions, the group dispersed, and since there was now enough log from the ones Ji Chen''s group cut down the day before, they went back to work;


    "Alright Elder Smith, what great idea have youe up with?"


    Ji Wang asked as Elder Smith picked up a stick from the ground and began to draw several squares on the ground, and on each of this squares, he drew different types of weapons, tools, and shapes, and when he was done, Ji Wang asked;


    "Alright, what are all these about?"


    "You still haven''t figured it out?"


    Elder Smith shook his head slightly, seemingly forgetting that Ji Wang was still a teenager despite his outstanding achievements since the tribe had been created;


    "They are molds¡­" He finally revealed before exining;


    "Let''s take this box for instance-"


    "You mean the one you drew a rod on?"


    "Yes, but it is also a staff, a weapon that could be of good use¡­" Elder Smith rified;


    "This square can contain at least five sizes of this staff molds, which means I can add an arrow head to this rod and make it a spear mold, and if this square alone can contain two of each weapons-"


    "Wait¡­ I think I know where you are going with this¡­"


    "Are you saying we should construct a table which can contain four rods, and use them as mold for both spears and staffs?"


    "You are a bright one¡­ that is exactly what I meant; We can have a staff and spear mold that is six and five feet long respectively¡­"


    "Then we can have other table molds, for hammers, axes, swords, bows, arrows, daggers, chains, shurikens, stealth des and so on and so forth¡­"


    "We can also build a mold right into the ground where we can mold long huge steel bars that would be used as a pir system for the buildings we are about to construct¡­"


    "You are very smart indeed¡­" Elder Smith and Ji Wang continued with a little more conversation before Ji Wang asked;


    "But would the mold be able to handle the temperature of the molten ores and steels?"


    "Well, that aspect of the entire n depends on you, so I think it is time to start riling up that creative mind of yours¡­" Elder Smith added with a cunning grin as Ji Wang responded with an impressed smirk;


    "Leave it to me¡­ It''s time for me to blow your mind to bits with my creative skills¡­"


    He said before he went on to fetch some tribesmen and Obuns to begin the construction, they all had three hours before Dara returns and then begin somend surveying¡­


    Uncle Min on the other hand was already at the underground vault they built earlier and it was time to do some expansion as it seems he was a little bit short sighted about the amount of space they might end up needing in the vault in theing future¡­


    He also nned to expand the store as well, and then when they are all done, he and Ji Wang would then begin the project of expanding the farm since they would be needing more food due to the influx of future tribesmen¡­


    The den where the new beast cubs would live would also need some expanding because of Dara''s intentions to breed several fearsome monstrous battle beast¡­

 Chapter 108 - Escaping A Tragic Fate

    He also nned to expand the store as well, and then when they are all done, he and Ji Wang would then begin the project of expanding the farm since they would be needing more food due to the influx of future tribesmen¡­


    The den where the new beast cubs would live would also need some expanding because of Dara''s intentions to breed several fearsome monstrous battle beast¡­ They also knew they would need a miniature academy, a library, and a massive training area where the experts can let loose with abandon¡­


    But they were really short on time which means they have to finish everything before the main construction of the new residences begin, but whilst that depends on how long it takes the troops to excavate the Qi Stones within the caves, their current manpower tells them they might only have about five to six weeks¡­


    Furthermore, Uncle Min took this as some sort of challenge, and should he fail to finish up in time, he might as well hand over Aunt Lin to Dara in person, thus, there was a lot at stake and he had toe out on top this time¡­


    Aunt Lin on the other hand had just left the den where she noticed that the beasts had ploughed one another for nonstop for the past two days as she moved over to where the marine beasts were to check on things¡­


    Ji Long on the other hand had gathered everyone who was rescued from the Qi Stone farms and was already going about his tasks and was relieved to find out that they really took to everything he said and seemed to see him as a their representative within the tribe¡­


    In less than twenty minutes, they were already sorting people out in different batches and after assuring them that they were not going to be separated, the group instantly began to move by themselves, each one of them moving towards the upation group they knew they were most adept at¡­


    There were Healers like thedy and those two girls who were joined by about another 50 people who were mostly females¡­


    There were others who knew a thing or two about farming and there were about 100 of them; there was also about 50 people who knew a thing or two about cksmith¡­


    There were others who felt they could easily and quickly detect danger due to how sensitive their eyesight and ear was, and many even demonstrated by cing their ears against the ground and were able to roughly detect the amount of people moving from one part of the tribe to the other based on the vibrations of the earth...


    These ones would be sent to the wall to serve as patrols and watch guards; there were those who were physically fit and could be used for constructionbors, and just like that, Ji Long went about his task with a happy smile¡­


    Min Hong on the other hand had gathered troop 3, but this time, he also included, the Second Obun Elder and Ji Chen, just in case they run into the Royal Guards who were sent to protect the destroyed cave¡­


    In less than twenty minutes, they were all ready and out of the tribe as they marched stealthily taking another route entirely so as not to leave retraceable tracks which could lead the Royal Guards back to the tribe¡­


    They started scouting about a mile before they reached the cave and when they arrived, they realized that the cave entrance was billowing with aggressive and intense heat...


    But after several attempts to investigate, they realized that they couldn''t even stand about ten meters from the entrance of the cave without being roasted¡­


    Thus Dara stood at a safe distance with a frown trying to figure out how to excavate the Qi Stones, and after a while of guessing, he decided to walk around the mountain, and after passing through thick bushes and thickets, he finally arrive at the opposite end to the entrance of the cave¡­


    Dara cleared the area, and began to inspect their alternative method of excavating the Qi Stones as three men stood guard around him, watching for any iing movements or threats¡­


    After about half an hour of inspection, Dara clenched his palm into a fist and gathered every ounce of power he could muster as well at the remainder of the Dark Qi within his body into his fist, before sending a vicious punch at the mountain wall;


    Bang!


    Crack! Cracka! Gragra!


    Boom!


    A chunk of the mountain surface broke off and crashed to the ground as a bright but somewhat translucent ck surface appeared, then Dara touched it, and other than the feeling of a warm energy seeping into his knuckles repairing the slight bruises on it, nothing else happened as Dara smiled and mumbled to himself;


    "This seems like a good spot¡­" Then he returned to the front of the cave;


    "Alright, it''s time to head back home¡­" Daramanded as the entire troop gathered around and left in a random direction¡­


    But just as they left, the leaves of a tree around the area where Guard Chen and Liu were stationed, as a figure stepped out into the open;


    "Good, now I have further proof to back up my theory¡­ Who would have thought humans and Obuns could actually coexist without tearing each other apart?"


    The figure said with a mischievous grin as he looked towards the path Dara''s group just left through; this person was none other than the Left Grand Elder who hade to check if anyone would return to the cave as he has done yesterday and today¡­


    But luckily for Dara, his position within the thick bush only gave him a view of the cave entrance and nothing else, and as a result, he didn''t know what Dara had gone to do behind the mountain, and perhaps he went to take a shit or pee, he didn''t know and didn''t want to know¡­


    The mere proof that people actually lived within this part of the jungle and that they had the nerves to attack the Qi Stone Farm was more than enough proof for his scheme¡­


    Dara''s group who had luckily escaped a tragic fate took their random route back home despite being an entire hour longer than normal, but they didn''t mind; they had discovered what they were after, and it was time to go reinforce themselves and return with a lot of manpower and tool to begin excavation the next day¡­

 Chapter 109 - Mysterious Visitors

    The mere proof that people actually lived within this part of the jungle and that they had the nerves to attack the Qi Stone Farm was more than enough proof for his scheme¡­


    Dara''s group who had luckily escaped a tragic situation took their random route back home despite being an entire hour longer than normal, but they didn''t mind;


    They had discovered what they were after, and it was time to go reinforce themselves and return with a lot of manpower and tool to begin excavation the next day¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the Royal Court¡­


    Behind the Royal Mansion itself stood a courtyard with a beautiful garden decorating the entire outdoor area, which was built on a slightly higher ground than any other structure within the Royal Court...


    Then right in the middle of this garden and at its highest point was a perg, and rather than being a rxation area, the floor were at first nce looked like it was beautifully designed by a sculptor¡­


    But with deeper scrutiny, one woulde to realize that these lines on the ground were meant for several things but decoration was not one of it¡­


    It was a massive formation filled with ancient runes, and right at the center of this formation was a slight depression the size of a palm which seemed to be a slot where some energy ore or material could beced to power up this formation¡­


    But strangely, today, the formation was lighting up and no one was anywhere around it...


    But that was not for long as soon enough, King Tian burst out of the Royal mansion at top speed seemingly afraid of whatever it was that wasing through the formation, and soon enough, strong wind began to whip about in the area...


    Some veteran Royal Guards also came out to protect their king who seemed to be waiting expectantly for whatever was going to result from all these supernatural phenomena¡­


    All of a sudden the runes began to glow with bright light that kept intensifying as the moment progressed, and when this brightness got to a point where everyone in the area had to shield their eyes from it, it abruptly vanished with a soft Bang!


    Whoosh!


    All the wind which had gathered around this formation dispersed with a considerable force, pushing some of the guards of their feet whilst King Tian for some strange reasons was able to keep himself upright¡­


    Now, after everything was back to normal, three figures in ck hooded cloaks had appeared right in the middle of the formation and as soon as King Tian saw them, he went straight to his knees and bowed till his face were touching the ground;


    "You may rise up, ant¡­"


    The figure on the left of the three spoke, and it was the voice of a girl in herte teens who was covered by the cloak, but from the curves visible on the wide cloaks, one could tell that the body underneath this cloak would be the sexiest so far...


    King Tian scrambled to his feet whilst bowing every now and then like a devoted worshipper who was finally given the opportunity to meet their god¡­


    He led these figures into his personal chambers where no one but him had the permission to enter except otherwise given, and not even his scribe coulde in here as it was like a sacred holy ground;


    "Our lords anddy, hope your journey didn''t take too much toll?"


    "Let me call some servants to arrange a very nice hot bath for you, with some good food afterwards, and a nice rxation area¡­"


    "After you have rested up, I wille find you and receive your next set of orders¡­"


    Though, they didn''t say anything, their silence and change in disposition after King Tianid down all this little refreshments showed that they were all empty people who relished in being treated and called Lords and Lady;


    These were extremely fickle attitudesmon with people who are deemed powerful in lower realms but extremely weak where theye from, all to the naivety of the rulers of the lower realms by the way¡­


    King Tian really showed that he was efficient because everything he had said was carried out in less than ten minutes, and soon enough three empty mansions which were reserved for visitors and emissaries around the Royal Court entrance was rapidly cleaned up and in one of the mansions, there was a guy in a hot tub, surrounded by seven naked youngdies who were tending to his every needs¡­


    Each hand and feet were being tended to as he received a nice hot manicure and pedicure¡­


    Anotherdy was massaging his shoulders, whilst two were within the tub with him, one feeding him small fruits whilst the other supplying him with wine as all thedies giggled coyly anytime he gazed at any one of them some kind of way¡­


    In another mansion was another guy, but this one was instead within the courtyard of his mansion and was currently with a wooden sword in hand and about 30 Royal Guards whom King Tian trusted the most¡­


    Apparently, he seems like someone who uses ever single free time he had to train, and knowing that he had better fighting prowess, experience and techniques than anyone on the of Jok, King Tian usually sent his most trusted Royal Guards to serve at sparring partners¡­


    Though, they usually get broken limbs and this guy usually dispatched them with rtive ease, all these Guards still love sparring with him whenever he came because it greatly increases their fighting prowess by tremendous leaps;


    Ka! Ka! Pa!


    Zoom!


    m! Bang!


    Crash!


    Tak! Pok!


    Different sounds of flesh hitting flesh and wood hitting wood and several other cross sectional sounds rang out from the courtyard, as these people sparred, some Elders and even King Tian was present at this time and they were all watching with creased forehead pouring out buckets of perspiration;


    "He is a monster!" One of the Elders around couldn''t help but mutter in sheer amazement....

 Chapter 110 - Sword Concept Initial Release!

    Ka! Ka!


    Zoom! Sam!


    Bang! Crash!


    Tak! Pok!


    Different sounds of flesh hitting flesh and wood hitting wood and several other cross sectional sounds rang out from the courtyard, as these people sparred, some Elders and even King Tian was present at this time and they were all watching with creased forehead pouring out buckets of perspiration;


    "He is a monster!" One of the Elders around couldn''t help but mutter...


    "True¡­ Whenever hees around, he doesn''t even need to use his greatest techniques to dispatch our strongest warriors¡­"


    "I concur; he also never spends more than three minutes before defeating all 30 of them¡­"


    Three of the Elders around muttered amongst themselves whist King Tian looked to the time and realized that it was almost at the three minute mark, and there were still about 5 Royal Guards standing;


    "Surpassing the three minute mark alone would count as a massive victory for us¡­" King Tian also joined in the conversation whilst watching the stage and time simultaneously¡­


    But just as the three minute mark was about to pse, the aura around this guy suddenly vanished and a new vibe descended all around the area, causing all the elders, King Tian and even the Guards themselves to almost squeal in delight; they knew the guy was about to use another one of his true techniques¡­


    The guy took the stance of a samurai who was about to draw his sword and paused as everything in the area seemed to quiet down around him, except from the ticking from the timer¡­


    Then he abruptly raised his head up and all the Elders subconsciously shifted to the edge of their seats in anticipation whilst the Guards braced for impact;


    "Sword Concept ¨C Initial Release!"


    Whoosh! Tak! Kraa!


    The speed with which the guy move was so fast that everyone watching only saw him here in one moment and there by the time they blinked, but the scary part was that, the sound that came from his attack came after the sound of him sheathing his wooden sword;


    Perhaps, the sense of the onlookers were too sluggish and perhaps, his attack was just blitzing, but there was one thing that proved thetter to be true, and that was the fact that the senses of a 7 Star Qi Sea Stage expert [King Tian] was more than 7000 faster, sharper and sensitive than that of mortal¡­


    All the soldiers fell to the ground unconscious as one of the Elders quickly rushed over to check on them;


    "Don''t disturb yourself, they are simply unconscious and should return within the next half an hour¡­"


    "Nhh!"


    The Elder who rushed over was stifled and speechless with how nonchnt and leisurely the guy spoke;


    He was like indirectly telling them that he was actually still holding back a lot, and that alone served to further prove that he was indeed simply stronger and faster than King Tian;


    "Is this the power of a Dan Formation Stage expert?"


    King Tian thought to himself as his eagerness to reach the Dan Formation stage peaked to an all-time high¡­


    He had cultivated to the Peak of Qi Sea Stage years ago, but the first time he ran into these people, this guy who just rendered his guards unconscious was at the 5 Star Qi Sea stage, and back then he mopped the floor with King Tian over and over and over again¡­


    Strangely, not only did his QIst longer than King Tian throughout the duel, his QI also seemed to pack more punch than King Tian''s and when everyone considered the fact that King Tian was actually 4 Stages stronger than him, they became even more stumped by the result¡­


    It was then that they decided to serve these trio and in return, the trio were to pass down everything they have learnt to them, and the first thing they did was to show King Tian that his cultivation technique was super inadequate, and thus, they told him to begin do away with his cultivation, and actually start from scratch once again, using their top tier cultivation technique¡­


    But despite the difficulty of these technique, King Tian was still able to cultivate it to the 7 Star Qi Sea Stage in six years, and that could have been seven years in reality but he did it in six, and that was the reason why the Left Grand Elder and Elder Yun were stunned when he lost control of his cultivation on theirst visit¡­


    King Tian scurried over to the expert to try and coarse him into teaching hi the technique, but as if knowing what he wanted to say;


    "I need to cultivate in silence, we wille find you tomorrow at dusk¡­"


    He said stopping King Tian in his tracks before he could even ask the question whilst also insinuating that the King and his Elder''s should grab their unconscious Guards and show themselves out¡­


    It was tant, overbearing and somewhat disrespectful, but he had the power and prowess to back it up¡­


    "Tch¡­ Too arrogant, and despising¡­ I can''t believe he will speak to you that way, your highness¡­" The stifled and speechless Elder seemed to find his tone as heined to King Tian;


    "What loss is it if he says all that and we get to receive a better technique from him¡­"


    "Even if he wants to step on my face, as long as he is willing to give me more techniques and arts, I have no qualms with it¡­"


    "Everyone always bootlicks someone else no matter how strong, wealthy or powerful they think they are¡­"


    "If I get to rule over the entire at the cost of being insulted by a higher power, then it is justifiable¡­" King Tian replied as the Elders nodded their head, concurring to his logic¡­


    "Alright, send people over to retrieve the unconscious guards¡­"


    "They will begin training tomorrow and show me how he did what he did, or at least tell me the experience they had¡­"


    "Watching up close isn''t the same thing as suffering it in person, and I want the first man perspective¡­" King Tian muttered before leaving the experts behind and leaving for his chambers¡­


    "Worm, where have you been all this while keeping me waiting like that!?" The voice of an angry female greeted King Tian the moment he entered his private chambers;

 Chapter 111 - Rapid Changes

    "They will begin training tomorrow and show me how he did what he did, or at least tell me the experience they had¡­"


    "Watching up close is never the same thing as suffering it in person, and I want the first man perspective¡­" King Tian muttered before leaving the experts behind and leaving for his chambers¡­


    "Worm, where have you been all this while keeping me waiting like that!?" The voice of an angry female greeted King Tian the moment he entered his private chambers;


    "I''m sorry, your partner was sparring with my Guards and I went to check if I could learn a thing or two¡­" King Tian replied with an awkward smile as he began to undress;


    "Hmph! I must punish you by teaching you a thing or two in here¡­"


    The feminine voice spoke with anger which no one knows if was genuine or fake, but King Tian indeed rushed into his king sized bed with gusto as he came up on what seemed to be the girl that came along with those guys;


    "Hmph! You are lucky that I simply have a thing for older men¡­"


    "Back where Ie from, it is an action of shame, but since they are not here, I want to enjoy myself to my heart''s content¡­"


    "It''s been three years, and I am way at my edge¡­" The girl seeminglyined pitifully, as King Tian tried to appease;


    "Don''t worry my queen, you can have me for as long as you want now¡­" He said as the coy giggling of the girl and moans started resounding all over the chamber¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the tribe¡­


    Dara had just returned with his scout team and was stunned to find out that 70 percent of all the work they had nned before leaving [Pre-residential development] was alreadypleted, and currently, the farm expansion was at its end¡­


    The den and the fishery had also been expanded; Uncle Min was finally done with the vault and store, and was currently busy scouting the perfect area where the library and mini academy would be built¡­


    Ji Wang was already done with the smithy, and all the needed materials were being shipped into the forgery as per Elder Smiths request and preference, and Ji Wang was already focusing on the three safes and chests with him trying to configure the mostplicated lock which would have a single but easy to use unlocking system ever¡­


    Aunt Lin was out with about fifty Obuns for protection and 30 new recruits as they expanded their search and scout area for new herbs, spices and other types of resources, poisonous ones included¡­


    Ji Long however was currently with Ji Chen, and whilst Ji Chen was drilling the tribesmen and Obuns, Ji Long was currently teaching the people who escaped from the Qi Stone Farms a simplebat style; Brawling¡­


    Since they already had cultivations, they didn''t need to get physical training at the moment as the tribe needs strong military hands as soon as possible¡­


    Furthermore, since their cultivation is at the Peak Qi Sea stage, now that they are free of their chains, the Qi in their body would naturally restructure and strengthen all their malnourished body parts making them easily achieve the same level of body strength as the others who were currently undergoing rigorous drilling, albeit in less than 1/100 of the time¡­


    Dara entered and found Ji Chen who was currently overseeing the tribesmen and kids who were sweating profusely as they were currently standing still in odd angles with only the tip of their toes on the ground and every other body parts in the air and at several unique postures;


    He told Ji Chen to gather all of them at the tribe square which was located some distance off the tribe gates¡­


    Then he went to check up on Elder Smith and the first thing that weed him the moment he reached the entrance was the intense heat wave, and though, it was nothingpared to the one he just felt at the cave entrance a while ago;


    It was still considerable hot for anyone who had not begun to cultivate, and even Elder Smith who had opened some meridians was currently wet with sweat like someone just pushed him into a river a while ago¡­


    But he was still all about his work though, creating steel bars which would be used to restructure the new tribe...


    Furthermore, there were already about a dozen steel bars which were arranged just outside the forge so as to cool down whilst some of the escaped experts were just carrying a bucket load of molten metal out of the kiln;


    Then right there in front of Dara, Elder Smith walked up to the bowl and poured some glittery dust which he had heard was from the ores they managed to scavenge on their return to the Vige of Sang¡­


    He mixed the new solution and had the people poured into the three b holes on the ground, whilst another set of hands picked up a water soaked wooden log, about the same size as the b holes and ced it on it, an action which was followed by a ''~Tisssshhh~'' sound,


    But even though the wood should have been set aze, it was just so soaked with water, that it was unable to do so, and the only thing that happened was hot steam billowing out of the wood which added to the humidity in the air and finally exined why the workers and Elder Smith were soaking wet¡­


    He looked up to the ceiling and realized the problem, there was simply not enough venttion, and as a result he went looking for Ji Wang whom he found after asking several people who were all busy with one thing or the other;


    "Hey Ji Wang¡­"


    "Eh?" Ji Wang was initially wondering who snapped him out of his thoughts, but was then surprised that it was Dara;


    "You''re back¡­" He responded with a grin;


    "Yeah, I just returned from the forge and I noticed everyone was all wet and sweat with hot steam, and I think that would be really bad for their health on the long run..."


    "So I thought I would ask you for a way to increase the overhead venttion, since all the walls are already taken up by weapon racks¡­" Dara said¡­

 Chapter 112 - Who Are The Elders!?

    "Hey, Ji Wang¡­"


    "Eh?" Ji Wang was initially wondering who snapped him out of his thoughts, but was then surprised that it was Dara;


    "You''re back¡­" He responded with a grin;


    "Yeah, I just returned from the forge and I noticed everyone was all wet and sweat with hot steam, and I think that would be really bad for their health on the long run..."


    "So I thought I would ask you for a way to increase the overhead venttion, since all the walls are already taken up by weapon racks¡­" Dara said¡­


    "I also thought about that, but the problem is that we cannot have too much space in the roof¡­" Ji Wang replied with a frustrated and tired demeanor¡­


    "Since we are approaching the Season of Pestilence where there is always abundant rain, it might affect the forgery if water keeps putting off the mes or drenching the workers or even falling into their products effectively weakening it¡­" Ji Wang expressed his frustration;


    "Well, I have an idea about how to solve that, if you will follow me?"


    "As long as it''s about new innovation, I will go anywhere in search of it¡­" Ji Wang replied as he followed Dara back to the forgery¡­


    On getting there, Dara took Ji Wang inside and looked to the roof where a 50 square feet hole was left in the roof;


    "I was thinking about taking the top off, and recing it with wooden bs arranged beside one another, and each of these wooden bs would then be attached to a vine which can be pulled¡­"


    "That way, whenever they are working, they can pull these vines and all the bs of wood will stand sideways providing an extremely ventted roof, and whenever they are done, they can simply pull on the vines to make the bs lie t, thereby covering the entire ceiling¡­"


    Dara exin with the aid of drawings as Ji Wang whose eyes were glittering throughout the entire time finallymented;


    "That is one extremely smart and ingenious solution¡­ How do you manage to think about all these things?"


    He asked as Dara chuckled awkwardly to himself, these were notplete thoughts of his own, but ideas he gleaned from Sam''s memory, and it was iprehensible to people on their part of this world who don''t even have matches yet¡­


    After some exnation on how to get everything started, Ji Wang waited for the currently hot bs to cool down to a handle friendly temperature, before telling everyone to vacate the forgery, and it took 100borers only about an hour and the new upgrade waspleted; one which deeply pleased Elder Smith¡­


    Dara then moved on to the den and realized that the beasts were currently having an orgy so he left straight for the fishery where he found the same situation, and there within the waters, he could still find some aphrodisiac leaves floating around in some parts¡­


    Then he went to the farm and saw about 500 experts tilling the fertile, healthy grounds where Aunt Lin had buried one of the Qi Stones and they were currently nting several seeds ¨Csome of which they got from scavenging the Vige-;


    Some stems were also being buried into the ground in an upright position, and all other strange stuffs were being nted into the ground, and neither did he care as it was not his primary duty¡­


    Then after inspecting everything and realizing they were now going perfectly ording to n, he returned to his residence atop the teau to take a nap, or so he thought¡­


    But by the time he was woke up, it was already in the middle of the night, and the entire tribe was silent as the purple and pink glowing flowers were in full bloom, providing fantastic scenery and low ambience that was both romantic and also supports sleep¡­


    He looked to his side and found Aunt Lin on his bed, as he pulled the covers off her to realize she was stark naked beneath, in deep sleep, with her sumptuous ass protruding in his direction like dinner which a wife left for her husband who was workingte¡­


    As a brilliant kid, Dara would obviously not decline such a delicacy as he grabbed his cock which was now hung from seeing such a sexy body in full bloom;


    He lubricated himself with his spit before sliding into Aunt Lin''s cave which wasn''t dry but not wet either and his shlong glided like a snowboarder on a snowcapped mountain¡­.


    A sexy ''~Hmm~'' was the response Dara got before Aunt Lin adjusted her waist to give him a better and morefortable ess, as she mped herps and butt to give him a much stronger friction which almost made Dara pop his cap¡­


    ~Urgh~ was the moan he gave trying to hold back his close call, as Aunt Lin smiled before returning to sleep;


    "Make sure you go back to sleep once you''re done, because you told people to gather at the square but dozed off and left them hanging¡­"


    "I had to exin to the Elder''s that you were exhausted and sleeping, and you are not to be disturbed¡­"


    "Then they went to exin to the people, and so as to not make their gathering in vain, we instead opted to do an election, and allowed the people pick the Elders and Tribe Leader¡­"


    "Who are the Elders!?"


    "Eh?" Aunt Lin fake eximed with a smug grin as she revealed;


    "Well, The First and Second Obun Elders, as well as Elder Smith, Ji Wang, Min, Ji Chen, Ji Long and I¡­"


    "But you were instantaneously elected as the Tribe Leader¡­"


    "That was what we did whilst you were asleep, but if you wish to change things tomorrow, then you are free to do so¡­" Aunt Ling added;


    "So, am I to call you Elder Lin now?"


    "~Hmm~ If you ~Ah~ want to ~Unh~"


    Aunt Lin was beginning to moan in between words as it seems like Dara was really plowing her whilst simultaneously hitting her sweet spot¡­


    Dara kept ploughing whilst talking to her, and the moans she was giving mid-sentences was not only turning Dara on, but was also turning Aunt Lin herself on¡­


    Their sweetmunion continued on for about an hour in that position where Aunt Lin showered and pissed twice, before Dara eventually busted a nut, but he had made Aunt Lin feel so good that she wasn''t ready to let him sleep just yet;


    Thus, some sucking and lickingter, Dara''s shlong was once again erect like the gs of Birmingham Castle before Aunt Lin straddled it like a horseman and rode him aggressively like the stallion that he was....

 Chapter 113 - Tribe Hierarchy

    Their sweetmunion continued on for about an hour in that position where Aunt Lin showered and pissed twice, before Dara eventually busted a nut, but he had made Aunt Lin feel so good that she wasn''t ready to let him sleep just yet;


    Thus, some sucking and lickingter, Dara''s shlong was once again erect like the gs of Birmingham Castle before Aunt Lin straddled it like a horseman and rode him aggressively like the stallion that he was...


    Her jiggling tits and moaning face also provided Dara with some good view and began to make him feel some type of way;


    After another half an hour of nonstop straddling where Aunt Lin came and peed once again, Dara finally busted his second nut, and since he seemed to cum really hard for some reasons, he emptied both nuts in both asions bringing their duet to a close¡­


    They couldn''t sleep on Dara''s bed anymore because it was covered in several different unique fluids, sweat included, and it was toote in the night for Aunt Lin to do some cleaning, thus, after locking his room up, they moved over to Aunt Lin''s room where they both took hot showers and finally continued their sleep¡­


    Dawn the next day¡­


    Aunt Lin had just finished cleaning up his room as she tried to quickly send Dara out of her room to prevent Uncle Min from seeing hime out of her room and begin to feel some type of way;


    But as fate would have it, Uncle in was also trying to do the same with ady [One of those who escaped from the Qi Stone Farm] who wasn''t half as bad as Aunt Lin, but considerably older and almost the same age as Uncle Min¡­


    The four met themselves in the passage, and the most awkward atmosphere descended on the teau;


    "Morning Uncle Min¡­ Hi¡­ Hope you both had a nice night?"


    Dara greeted the duo with a genuine smile before pulling Aunt Lin along into his room whilst Uncle Min and the Lady went about their business and when they got back to his clean room, he turned around and apologized with an awkward smile;


    "I''m sorry I messed that up, that was the quickest thing that came to my mind¡­"


    But contrary to his expectation, Aunt Lin shoved his face right into the valley of her chest as she thanked him;


    "You did great¡­ Thanks¡­"


    She said as she shoved his face deeper, whilst Dara''s handle didn''t stay stupidly idle either, as he grabbed her plump ass and gave it a nice firm squeeze, one that was romantic and non-irritable but also iming to some extent¡­


    They opted to stay in the room for a while whilst groping and kissing one another until the Uncle Min duo had left the teau to avoid another awkward encounter¡­


    Then they showered and got back downstairs where basically the entire tribe was waiting for them¡­


    All the so called Elders were having a girl at close proximity which signified that they seemed to have celebrated their coronation with each of thesedies, all who were part of the people who escaped from the Qi Farms;


    But since the females were more than the males, they could all partner each other without issues and still have some singledies within the tribe¡­


    Dara and Aunt Lin stepped down the teau together like a King and his Queen, as they both approached the group who were looking at them with a kind of smile that made the duo blush and feel embarrassed¡­


    Dara was standing only a few inches shorter than Aunt Lin and despite being double his age, their physical appearance begged to differ, as Dara being a person with over 900 meridians meant every part of his body had grown and improved way beyond his years;


    Aunt Lin on the other hand, who had been shedding off the dirty botches in her appearance was now looking younger than she was before, and was also looking more like ady in herte teens, who had just begun to bloom to full beauty¡­


    They both reached the square before they all turned to face the mass; who began to scream and whistle;


    "Tribe Leader!"


    "Tribe mistress!"


    "May Nuwa bless you with many great descendants!"


    Several embarrassing but genuinepliments flew all around as the crowd were all cheering the duo and the newly appointed Elders and their new partners, but Dara didn''t mind, as that would help both groups merge with one another seamlessly till they see one another as rtives¡­


    Then Dara addressed the mass of about 2100 people as they spoke about their progress in the past day [which was like 240 hours], as well as how grateful he was at the teamwork they all disyed and how effective it was to their development speed¡­


    He also spoke about the new expansion and development the tribe was about to undergo and charged the crowd to do more so that the tribe can be more, which in turns affects them more positively,


    Then he also capped the entire speech with the excavation of the Qi Stones, whilst allowing all of his Elders to take part in the speech and exin things in more details to the crowd¡­


    Ji Wang and Ji Long were able to exin the possibilities and potential of the Qi Stones, and there and then, the entire crowd arranged the hierarchy of the Elder''s ording to their level of importance and value to the entire tribe, and it all went this way;


    Dara > Elder Lin > Elder Wang > Elder Smith > Elder Chen > Elder Min > Elder Long > First Elder > Second Elder > Elder Ting who was the Elderlydy in her forties who was now the head healer of the tribe...


    As a result the tribe hierarchy of ten Elders were was created, and the major reason why they put Aunt Lin so high up the rank was because she was the one taking good care of their Tribe Leader as well as the entire tribe in terms of nutrition¡­


    Aunt Lin saw all these and was moved as she stared lovingly at Dara whilst she thought to herself;

 Chapter 114 - Excavating The Qi Stones [2]

    Dara > Elder Lin > Elder Wang > Elder Smith > Elder Chen > Elder Min > Elder Long > First Elder > Second Elder > Elder Ting who was the Elderlydy in her forties who was now the head healer of the tribe...


    As a result the tribe hierarchy of ten Elders were was created, and the major reason why they put Aunt Lin so high up the rank was because she was the one taking good care of their Tribe Leader as well as the entire tribe in terms of nutrition¡­


    Aunt Lin saw all these and was moved as she stared lovingly at Dara whilst she thought to herself;


    ''I was thinking telling him to defeat a n where I''ll rule as a queen, but it seems he''s already creating n from scratch in which I am already their queen...''


    She then praised and thanked herself for the decision to split from Uncle Min and eventually end up with Dara without anyplications to the rtionship the three of them shared from the start¡­


    It was a good decision, nice feeling and also personally relieving as that decision might as well have gone awry, but since that was not the case, she was ready to make itst for as long as she possibly can¡­


    After they ended their speech, 50 native tribesmen and 500 Obuns were left standing at the square alongside Ji Long, the First and the Second Obun Elders¡­


    Dara had opted for this line up because he felt it would be detrimental and traumatic if he decided to take the people who just escaped the Qi Stone Farms back for excavation in a ce where they have not only experienced nightmares and terror, but also extreme hopelessness¡­


    Moreover, should the Royal Guards be waiting for them or meet them there, it would be preferable to have Obuns suffer the casualties than the human tribesmen, and it was not like he hated Obuns or anything, it would just be better to have much more humans than Obuns in the tribe than the other way around; at least till they find a less dangerous and permanent way to turn Obuns back to the human they once were¡­


    They all set out with all 500 Obuns carrying massive woks made out of weaned vines [which was made by the kids Aunt Lin taught]¡­


    It was massive and had two straps, so that it could be carried like a back pack whilst the remaining 50 human experts carried their weapons from swords, spears, axes, hammers and even the whips Aunt Lin had made back then since the forge had yet to start producing weapons¡­


    Dara carried his usual wooden bow with arrows variety of arrows in his quiver which ranged from the ones dipped in beast blood to the ones sipped in liquid aphrodisiac and other poisonous substances¡­


    Then they marched out of the tribe gates with their regr ovations from the tribe kids as they headed for the cave¡­


    Taking another random route meant the group had to spend about an hour and a half before arriving at the cave, and the moment they did so, they could feel the heat billowing out of the cave from afar, although it wasn''t as hot as when Dara''s group came earlier, but was still unapproachable¡­


    Dara then took Elder Long to the back of the cave where he had punched the earth off earlier, and told him to control the Obuns whilst they began to break, dig and excavate Qi Stones from¡­


    Dara then returned to the 50 tribesmen that came with him and look to two of them;


    "Both of you will head in the same direction and anytime I yell ''where'', you will whistle, and when I say stop, I want both of you to put a ten meter distance to the sides of one another¡­"


    The duo nodded and began to walk in a straight line whilst Dara kept yelling where every ten seconds or so, and when they reached a distance of about 30 meters from their position, Dara yelled;


    "Where?"


    Oouuhhweee!


    The duo whistled and though it was soft and a little low, it was still audible enough for everyone in the area, and as a result he yelled;


    "Stop!"


    Then the duo separated from one another and put a ten meter or 33 feet distance between each other¡­


    Then he did the same for the rest of the group and in about half an hour, he had set a 30 meter perimeter around the cave with each of these 50 men about ten meters from one another¡­


    These people were to hide themselves and alert the group whenever they see anyone approaching by whistling to the group, and 30 meters was more than enough for Dara to regroup the 500 Obuns and prepare them for a fight or flight¡­


    The First and Second Obun Elder too the positions of Guard Chen and Liu back then, guarding the front area in the case of any intruder, whilst he went to the back of the cave and had Elder Long focus on the excavation as he personally began to guard the rear from atop a tall tree which gave him a very high vantage point where he could turn around and see a longer perimeter around the cave¡­


    The Obuns were efficient and since they feel little to no pain, they were able to work till they actually developed blisters;


    They excavated at a rate of 100 Qi Stones an hour, filling each wok with ten Qi Stones each, and after 50 hours of nonstop excavation [which is about 5 normal hours] all the woks were finally filled with 5,000 human head sized Qi Stones¡­


    Then Dara climbed down and had the Obuns carry a wok each whilst he called all the scouts he had spread back, as they surrounded this 50 Obuns protecting them on all sides¡­


    The First and Second Obun Elder acted as vanguard and went ahead to search and clear a path whilst Dara and Elder Long brought the rear, with the rest of the experts guarding either sides of the Obuns as they marched via another random direction back to the tribe¡­


    By the time they returned, the existing developments and expansions had all beenpleted and even the stores and the vault had been locked¡­

 Chapter 115 - Powering Up The Tribe

    The First and Second Obun Elder acted as vanguard and went ahead to search and clear a path whilst Dara and Elder Long brought the rear, with the rest of the experts guarding either sides of the Obuns as they marched via another random direction back to the tribe¡­


    By the time they returned, the existing developments and expansions had all beenpleted and even the stores and the vault had been locked¡­


    The Vault had only a single key which was a tag the size of a child''s palm, with the flexible branches of the glowing flowers strewn to it to enable it to be worn on the neck like a jewelry¡­


    This single key was given to Dara whilst the store on the other hand had five keys in total; One was given to Elder Smith for storing the products of the smithy, another was given to Aunt Lin for storing the farm harvest;


    Another was given to Uncle Min for storage of building materials and other resources, whilst thest two keys were given and held by Dara and Elder Wang respectively simply for ess to everything within the store as well as the vault which was located beneath the store itself¡­


    The farm was being watered when Dara returned and the excreta from tribe members, the beasts and as well as other weeds were used to developposts for fertilization of the nts¡­


    The beast however had been drugged to sleep by one of the herbs they managed to scavenge from the vige, and were currently being washed and groomed, and such was being done with the marine beasts¡­


    The smithy was now in full operation and since there was no Qi Stone properties in the steel bs they have managed to forge, Elder Wang had decided to use it for the tribe walls instead, and since the smithy was now running at full throttle with no danger of heat due to the extreme venttion and natural humidity and temperature of the Dark Lands, the production rate had now sped up and they were now producing four steel bs an hour, unlike their previous one an hour¡­


    Elder Min had managed to build a training area which consisted of five training circr stage of ten meter radii each, surrounding a center stage that was twice the size of the smaller ones [20 meter radius]¡­


    On the five training areas, some people were doing basic physical exercise on one; some were learning archery on another; some were learning basic brawling skills [Boxing, Kickboxing, etc.] on another; and thest two were used for training basic Sword and Spear moves¡­


    Thus, the entire tribe were currently focused mainly on three fighting types; Taijutsu [Acrobatic], Kenjutsu [Swords and other weapons], and Jujutsu [Melee]¡­


    Then the center stage as Elder Min exined was for dueling, exchanging pointers and anypetition the tribe wishes to organize, which Dara responded would be the basic criteria for grading their military forces¡­


    A library had also beenpleted and from the guards that were killed in the cave [Qi Stone Farm] they were able to get the sword art [Deforestation Sword Technique] ''which was a technique given by the three figures currently residing within the Royal Court'', and within these technique were three moves; [Leaf Cutter, Branch Breaker and the Trunk Piercer]¡­


    Dara had made the technique avable to the public and ced it within the library for everyone to learn¡­


    He also added a temporary cultivation technique [True Energy] which was the cultivation technique the Vige Chief tortured his parents for, whilst he had devoted some time to editing the ''Asura Testament'' of his body cultivation technique [Numen Of Ancient Schrs]¡­


    He created a technique [Warrior Body Technique] for physical body strengthening which had 9 volumes in the same pattern with his own training;


    Endurance [1], Strength [2], Stamina [3], Speed [4], Blood [5], Bones [6], Tendons [7], Muscles [8] and Flesh [9];


    A technique that intends to build its user from this inside out¡­


    Then he ced a strictw and rule that anyone who wishes to learn them must follow the processes ordingly and must also be tested before being allowed to move onto the next manual¡­


    This means no one is allowed to jump from one to the other and must follow the numbers in increasing order; this technique with the meridian opening technique [True Energy] would ensure that not only are the tribesmen extremely physical but would also be cultivating Qi, and if they like, they might choose one over the other, or if they luckily find someone talented enough to cultivate both paths, then that would be an added bonus¡­


    But for the moment, the tribe was set for a rapid progression in terms of military power as there is a preparatory technique for body cultivating, a meridian opening technique for Qi cultivating and a rtively nice sword art avable to them as well as the blunt brawling techniques and archery they were bring taught¡­


    After doing an in depth supervision and inspection, he finally had all the Obuns take the nk Qi Stones to Elder Smith where they did the experiment of the Qi absorption and the results were tremendously impressive;


    Instantly, Elder Smith was given another set of one hundred Obuns whose job was mainly to crush these Qi Stones into fine dust¡­


    Elder Smith would then did a quick experiment of his own and had two workers being out a bucket of molten steel, then he mixed it with a bowl full of Qi Stone dust, before sprinkling another handful of ore dusts into it¡­


    He then mixed everything together evenly before pouring them into the mold meant for rods and staffs, and after about half an hour, these rods were already cooled and they were handle friendly¡­


    Elder Smith took the staff, and immediately he could spot a few but enormous difference between them; Firstly, due to the addition of these other two ingredients, the amount of molten steel needed to make any weapon was halved¡­


    It might not seem too extraordinary but it was extraordinarily efficient and cost effective in terms of resources¡­

 Chapter 116 - Testing The New Weapons

    He then mixed everything together evenly before pouring them into the mold meant for rods and staffs, and after about half an hour, these rods were already cooled and they were handle friendly¡­


    Elder Smith took the staff, and immediately he could spot a few but enormous difference between them; Firstly, due to the addition of these other two ingredients, the amount of molten steel needed to make any weapon was halved¡­


    It might not seem too extraordinary but it was extraordinarily efficient and cost effective in terms of resources¡­


    Secondly, this staff was about ten times lighter than the normal steel staff, and all the Elders who were present during this testing had their socks blown out of the¡­


    The other series of tests were deemed to be figured out in a duel, and thus, two men who were in the Peak Qi Creation Stage were to battle with it, and from first nce, the speed of the man wielding the new staff was more than five times faster due to the rtive weight difference between the two staffs¡­


    As the Qi Stones was ss like and was extremely light and sturdy as it could be seen that it took Dara with the strength of a Peak Qi Sea Stage expert to be able to break it apart, and that was the Qi Stones alone which weren''t made strong because the expert who made them didn''t think the weak experts bound by them would be able to break them¡­


    But when one recalled how strong and sturdy the cages were, they would understand the rtive strength of the Qi Stones¡­


    Then if the steel added was now factored in, one would realize that not only would the new staff be lighter, but also stronger too, and that was even excluding the effects of the ore dust which would be realizedter on¡­


    But during their battle, there was one thing Dara noticed, and that was the fact that the new staff glowed during several shes with the other staff, and he wasn''t the only one who saw it, but he was the first to discover the probable reason for the phenomenon and its probable consequences¡­


    "Elder Smith?"


    "Yes tribe leader¡­"


    "I will need you to make a sword from both materials¡­"


    "Unh?" Elder Smith was stunned by the request;


    "Make it your finest pieces¡­" Dara added;


    "As you wish, tribe leader¡­"


    Elder Smith added before they all returned to the smithy where he took about four hours to make both swords with the normal steel sword taking about three hours due to is difficulty to bend at will, unlike the new sword which took only an hour to make due to its ability to be bent at will as a result of its ssyponent¡­


    Every Elder as well as some normal tribesmen were also looking on anticipating what Dara was about to do as he took all of them outside the tribe and looked for two massive trees with impossible thickness, and before long they found two of them as he picked the sword and gave the steel sword to the man who was wielding the steel staff earlier and told him;


    "Strike that tree using every ounce of power you have got¡­"


    "Yes, tribe leader¡­" The man took the steel sword and stood in front of the tree; Hyah! The swung the tree with everything he had;


    Chomp!


    The sword sliced into the massive tree trunk but stopped about ten percent into its girth;


    "Alright go take a rest¡­"


    Dara told the man who then sat on a tree stub [The smooth t surface of a tree trunk which had been previously cut] as Elder Wang looked at howfortable the man felt before nodding to himself¡­


    After about half an hour, the man was ready to go once more, and this time, Dara handed the new sword to him, and took him to a very simr tree and told him;


    "Now, strike this one with the same amount of power¡­"


    "Everyone stand back!"


    He quickly ordered as everyone put a considerable distance between themselves and the man who headed straight for the tree;


    Hyah!


    He bellowed once again as he gathered all the energy within his body, but just as he was about to strike, everyone saw the sword glow about ten times brighter than the staff and then;


    Swish! Whoosh!


    The sword sliced straight through the tree''s girth, cutting through it as cleanly as the word clean could get¡­


    In fact, it was so clean that the tree didn''t fall, there were about two smaller trees which had about half the girth of the tree which fell to the ground instead with a clean cut on the trunks as well¡­


    But the man on the other hand saw his face went deathly pale;


    "What did you feel?" Dara asked as everyone rushed over in anticipation, they had seen what had just happened and thus, they wanted to know why and how it happened;


    "I tried putting in all of my strength as you said, and I don''t know how or why, but the sword sucked a chunk of my Qi and put it into the sword¡­" He paused as he took a breath of fresh air;


    "Then the moment I swung the sword, it felt like the power of my strike was amplified by 20 fold and thus when itnded on the tree it went straight through¡­" The man said as Dara put his index finger below his lips in thought;


    "So the sword draws Qi from its wielder to amplify the attack by twenty fold¡­" Dara muttered as Elder Min quickly blurted excitedly;


    "Then what if we added more Qi Stone dust to the mixture or make onepletely out of Qi Stones!"


    "That won''t work¡­" Dara cut in because the conversation was interrupting his thought process;


    "But how will we know if we haven''t tried it yet?" Elder Min was not willing to back down as he wanted to im an de for his idea;


    "Tribe Leader is right, if we did that, not only will the sword we make be more brittle, but it might break, after all, ss is still ss and steel is still steel¡­" Elder Smith added;

 Chapter 117 - Rewards & Bonuses

    "That won''t work¡­" Dara cut in because the conversation was interrupting his thought process;


    "But how will we know if we haven''t tried it yet?" Elder Min was not willing to back down as he wanted to im an de for his idea;


    "Tribe Leader is right, if we did that, not only will the sword we make be more brittle, but it might break, after all, ss is still ss and steel is still steel¡­" Elder Smith added;


    "What are you thinking about, tribe leader?"


    Elder Long asked as he seemed to be the one who easily suspects when Dara is thinking about something the rest of them know nothing about, and he was right because Dara looked up and chuckled in mixed amazement andpliment;


    "I was just wondering why the sword strike took so much Qi from him¡­"


    "Perhaps, it might be because the Qi Stones are not pure¡­" Elder Chen suggested;


    "Or perhaps too pure¡­" Elder Wang added;


    "I think it should be thetter because I hammered out as much impurity as possible from the product, so it should be considerably pure, and perhaps too pure¡­"


    Elder Smith added, not because he was trying to boast, but because he was simply stating the fact, and everyone agreed because they witnessed the entire forging process¡­


    "But that''s not your conclusion is it, tribe leader?"


    Elder Long spoke once again, and caught everyone by surprise when Dara nodded his head in concurrence¡­


    Even Elder Lin was now feeling somehow that someone who Dara had barely known for three days now knew more about his thought process than her;


    "So what do you think it is tribe leader, because one would be barely able to fight in battle after striking twice with this sword?"


    The exhausted man who was still panting spoke as his partner who sparred with him earlier was thanking his stars that he wasn''t the one who tested the new sword¡­


    It wasn''t like Dara did it on purpose, but the reason why he told the expert to test the sword was because they would obviously have the same power output, as no two people ever have the exact amount of power in their strikes, which when considering that they are testing weapons would be a major w in the results¡­


    "I think it''s because you didn''t measure the amount of Qi you allowed it to take¡­"


    Dara voiced his thoughts and everyone almost smacked their head in frustration; that was definitely the answer, and it was simple, but they felt so dumb being unable to think about such a simple exnation as those who didn''t speak were counting themselves lucky, whilst they looked at Elder Long like he was some wise old man¡­


    "But controlling Qi output is something one can do when they have begun using adequate cultivation technique, and we have none, because the only things we have are meridian opening techniques¡­"


    "Those guards had none on them either¡­" Dara voice out to everyone¡­


    It was simple, since nothing happened to the sword in the test, then that means there is nothing wrong with the sword, especially when it transmitted the exact amount of Qi it took from the man out of the sword strike¡­


    Thus, where the problemid was between the man himself, and the moment of Qi abruption, and Dara had figured it out astutely, but now, he was already thinking about the solution to the problem whilst the rest were stillmenting as their inadequacy to stay logical at all times¡­


    "The sword is fantastic Elder Smith, and for that, along with your monthly stipend of One Qi Stone every six months, you will get a single bonus Qi Stone as soon as we return to the tribe¡­" Daraplimented Elder Smith who got to his knees and bowed to Dara;


    "You are the most generous, tribe leader¡­ Three generations from today will wish you well for the magnanimity you have shown today¡­" Elder Smith was almost in tears as his beards trembled intensely¡­


    Few months ago, his life was hanging on the bnce of his usefulness, and since everything he held there was gone, he decided to forge a new path for himself by giving his all to the tribe¡­


    He had previously been awarded as everyone rted with him like he was part of their family, a level of closeness he never got even when he was at the vige of sang, especially when considering his job description back then¡­


    But here, he was also giving an Elder title, and a well respected one to boot...


    He had yet to descend from his level of euphoria and happiness and now, he as being rewarded a Qi Stone again, and this wasn''t the nk one, but a Qi Stone containing Peak Qi Sea stage worth of pure, untainted Qi¡­


    They had previously agreed that everyone within the sect would be paid one Qi Stone based on the amount of time they are able to finish absorbing it without wasting a single ounce of it¡­


    Then bonuses would be distributed to some people afterpleting a certain level of task and workload or done exceedingly well in some perspectives of their fields like the current Elder Smith¡­


    "No, we have decided that people be rewarded for doing exceedingly well, and as a matter of fact, since everyone here have done something extraordinary over the course of our development, everyone will get a Qi Stone extra today¡­"


    Dara added and everyone also thanked him; Elder Lin had been able to tend to the farm, den and fishery extremely diligently and that was excluding going out to gather new resources, and the normal services she rendered to Dara on some sweet nights¡­


    Elder Min had been able toplete the expansion of not only the farm and the fishery but alsoplete the building of the training area, the library, the store and vault, so he was also deserving of a bonus reward¡­


    Elder Wang, developed the locks to the store and vault, as well as the development of the smithy and other ideas he had imputed over time¡­


    Elder Chen had been drilling not only the kids but other experts continuously and it was showing in the amount of workload they were able to do on daily basis; after all, stronger tribesmen means faster construction, farming and development of the tribe overall, and thus, he was also deserving of a bonus for his efforts¡­

 Chapter 118 - Six Months Later

    Elder Wang, developed the locks to the store and vault, as well as the development of the smithy and other ideas he had imputed over time¡­


    Elder Chen had been drilling not only the kids but other experts continuously and it was showing in the amount of workload they were able to do on daily basis; after all, stronger tribesmen means faster construction, farming and development of the tribe overall, and thus, he was also deserving of a bonus for his efforts¡­


    Elder Long told them about the Qi Stones in the first ce, thus he also deserves a bonus, and he was also able to specialize the entire tribe and Obuns to where their talents would be efficiently needed¡­


    Then there was the fact that he was like the intermediary between the people and the Elders which saved all the Elders a lot of stress because if each tribesman were toe make theirints and issues individually, it would definitely weigh on the Elders and thus prevent them from thinking at their highest capability¡­


    He also teaches them basic boxing, and sumo skills, and thus, he also deserves a bonus¡­


    Elder Ting was a healer and she had been tending to everyone who had any level of difort even before she arrived within the tribe and she had also been doing some experiments with some herbs and was able to develop a concoction that helps reduce pain when people get injured and are about to be treated¡­


    She had also managed to mix the glue like wax from the trees which Dara used to seal the seams in the water wheel with some natural healthy herbs and use them as coagnts to stop bleeding or seal any poked or open wounds, and due to that, she had developed a strong teamwork with Elder Lin, and all these were also bonus worthy¡­


    The First and Second Obun Elder were also given some bonuses for creating a means ofmunication between the Obuns and humans which actually helped both group rte better, mingle better and regard one another as colleague rather than humans and monsters;


    Then they were also in charge of teaching the humannguage to the Obuns, so they were also Oscar worthy, and were each given bonuses too¡­


    The two experts who tested the weapons were also given a Qi Stone each, and thus, when they returned to the tribe¡­


    The kids were to be given a Qi Stone every two years as that was the estimated amount of time it was calcted that they would be taking before they canpletely absorb all the Qi within a Qi Stone, the teenagers on the other hand were given yearly, whilst the youths and adults were to be given a Qi Stone every six months¡­


    Dara on the other hand would be given one percent of every Qi Stones [filled] they manage to plunder whenever they went to raid any future Qi Stone Farm which he had calcted would be between [10 ¨C 20 Qi Stones]¡­


    But since there was no cultivation technique yet, no one was to be given any Qi Stones yet, and they were also required to open their meridians using the natural Qi in the atmosphere which had been purified by the nature around them [The pink, purple, yellow and white flowers] which grew out of the Qi Stone in the ground that absorbs Qi from the ground and purify it within themselves before releasing the pure Qi into the atmosphere whenever they bloomed¡­


    The group returned to the tribe as Elder Smith began mass producing building materials which were of utmost importance, whilst Dara''s troop kept going back to the cave to excavate more Qi Stones¡­


    Elder Lin continued her tasks giving Dara the sex of his life every single night, and since Uncle Min now had ady, there was no point in her hiding anything anymore;


    So she mostly spent her nights with Dara in bed, except whenever he wants to take a stroll in the ambient romantic nights with her or simply cultivate solidifying his meridians whilst trying to open the next volume of the [Asura Testaments] of the [Numen of Ancient Schrs] technique;


    But no matter how hard he tried, he was simply getting other information which he didn''t know what to use them for¡­


    Elder Min and Elder Wang went about their infrastructural upgrades and construction began the next day after the sword testing; they started by using the nk steel bs Elder Smith had forged earlier to begin building a new wall around the entire tribe, but they also used numerous logs of wood and wet-soils which bes stronger than concrete once they dry¡­


    Elder Ting was already continued her research on how to rehabilitate the Obuns and turn them back to humans, whilst Elder Chen and Elder Long continued to train the tribe in different but specifiedbat styles;


    Elder Long was able to grasp the sword art [Deforestation] after about six months of learning it, whilst Elder Chen became adept at archery but that was still basic as they have yet to obtain a technique in archery or any other weapon, but he also became adept at melee, and soon enough, the tribe produced about 100 Peak Qi Creation experts who were as good as using the sword art as Meng and Kang¡­


    Then they were all given steel swords as Dara still opted against the new sword which could affect them in battle, but the Qi Stone dust was already being used in other development tools, like machetes and axes for cutting logs, hammers for driving the steel bars into the ground, spades and shovels for farming;


    Furthermore, the people wielding them were warned not to use their Qi to prevent injuring others, but that was after two Obuns already fell prey with one losing his arm and the other unfortunately losing its life¡­


    The First and Second Obun Elders on the other hand, joined Dara every time he went out to excavate more Qi Stones, and just like that time passed, and soon enough six month had gone by, and it was only a week away till the season of war woulde again¡­

 Chapter 119 - 300 Peak Qi Creation Experts

    But that was after the two Obuns already fell prey with one losing his arm and the other unfortunately losing its life¡­


    The First and Second Obun Elders on the other hand, joined Dara every time he went out to excavate more Qi Stones, and just like that time passed, and soon enough six month had gone by, and it was only a week away till the season of war woulde again¡­


    Now the vige was already well developed, and an extremely sturdy and well equipped wall which had enough room for three people to walk side by side with was already built around the tribe with 50 watch towers arranged all around it, but instead of having two trenches one both sides of the wall; one inside and one outside, they now built both trenches on the outside¡­


    The ring of fire came first, and then after that was the ring of death which was covered by weak tree trunks covered with bushy branches covered in earth, and thus, to others who know nothing about the tribe, they would think they were walking on normal grounds, until it was toote¡­


    The turrets where the watch guards were staying was also extremely sturdy, and they all worked in shifts with the next shift arriving an hour before the current shift leaves¡­


    200 experts in the Peak Qi Creation stage had been chosen for this job; two per turret in all fifty turrets and at half a day shifts¡­


    The residence atop the structure had been remodeled, thought they kept original to the overall n as per Dara''s requests, they still made it slightly bigger, grander and Dara had an extra room builtpletely out of Qi Stones for his cultivation, whilst others simply had a mat sized b of Qi Stone ced in a specific area of their private room where it could be linked with the massive pir of Qi Stone that linked the entire building from the ground up¡­


    This was when Elder Wang exined why he had added Qi Stones worth of five extra buildings the day Elder Long asked how many they would need¡­


    Dara''s room of Qi Stone alone took the amount of Qi Stone it would take to build an entire residence, whilst the rest of the residences had one Qi Stone b each in all rooms where they will be cultivating from; thus, there was pure Qi being supplied by the pirs of the entire building, and there were also pure Qi in the air from the blooming flowers¡­


    Out of all the twenty residents they decided to build only ten waspleted and they were currently building the eleventh and Dara''s group was still at the cave excavating theirst batch of the year until the season of war passes¡­


    Elder Ting had made some progress and some Obuns were already capable of single sybled human speech whilst others were also showing signs of improvement from their natural behavior¡­


    Elder Chen and Long also churned out another 200 experts within this timeframe bringing their total number of expert soldiers to 300 man strong¡­


    Elder Lin on the other hand was the one with the biggest news as they realized that the all the female beasts they had were now pregnant with cubs, and also today was their first harvest as their crops grew every six nine months during other seasons and three months during the season of war because they were native nt species of the Dark Lands and due to the influx of light¡­


    But they had decided not to make the harvest until Dara''s group returned safely from their mission, and it was tagged missions instead of task because of their high tendency toe across reinforcements from the Royal Guards which would most definitely result in an immediate battle¡­


    Fortunately, Dara also turned eleven the next Day as he was a child born during the Season of War, which was proof of why he was much more light skinned and fresher than most of the other tribe members back when they were within the vige of sang¡­


    Three hourster, Dara''s group returned safely at the new steel reinforced tribe gates and they came in to find the entire area rowdy, people were discussing with beaming smiles on their face whilst others were also moving from one ce to the other, and in a nutshell, the entire tribe was looking as lively as a true prosperous tribe should¡­


    Expectedly, there were kids too wee Dara''s troop back from their missions which was a sight they could never get tired of as it made all of them feel they were doing something valuable for the tribe and it motivated them to do more¡­


    All the Elders came out to greet Dara, and they allowed him to go take some rest but not before telling Elder Lin to follow him to make sure he doesn''t oversleep and miss the harvest, but neither did they know that their tribe leader wouldn''t be getting any form of rest as moans began to resound within their new soundproof residence¡­


    Within the bathroom they were, and there Dara smashed and ploughed the living hell out of Elder Lin, but no matter how hard or high she screamed or climaxed, a single decibel of that sound never left the bathroom due to the soundproofing properties which was added by sealing every single seam within the house with tree wax¡­


    Dara decided to ploughed Elder Lin before taking a bath, as she imed it turns her on whenever she inhaled the scent of his sweaty body which makes him appear to her like a warrior rather than a boy or tribe leader¡­


    After two solid hours of plowing, Dara was dressed up by Elder Lin in leather which they had obtained when two huge stray beast thought they could take down the tribe, only to find themselves on a chopping block ten minutester¡­


    Dara came looking slightly exhausted from ploughing Elder Lin, and refreshed busting two nuts in a quickie and taking a nice soak in steaming water shortly after¡­


    People saw Aunt Lin''s rosy cheeks and thought maybe it was because she was the one in the spotlight today, but they were bound to never know any better¡­

 Chapter 120 - The Harvest Celebration

    After two solid hours of plowing, Dara was dressed up by Elder Lin in leather which they had obtained when two huge stray beast thought they could take down the tribe, only to find themselves on a chopping block ten minutester¡­


    Dara came looking slightly exhausted from ploughing Elder Lin, and refreshed busting two nuts in a quickie and taking a nice soak in steaming water shortly after¡­


    People saw Aunt Lin''s rosy cheeks and thought maybe it was because she was the one in the spotlight today, but they were bound to never know any better¡­


    Then shortly afterwards, everyone including the watch guards headed over to the farm for the harvest, they would be only gone for an hour, and they didn''t think anything extraordinary could happen before then;


    After all, it would take at least more than three to five hours for any invader to get past the ring of death or break down their twenty meter tall steel reinforced gates¡­


    The harvest ceremony was as grand as they could make it, and the first thing they did after gathering around the farm was to have the Tribe Leader and Lady pick their most favorite crop of all the thirty different nts they have grown so far, and as the Tribe Leader, Dara came forward first and plucked the leaf of a healing herb and spoke;


    "May this bring health and wellness to the entire tribe for generations toe¡­" The entire crowd burst into series of cheers and whistles¡­


    Then it was time for Elder Lin''s turn to pick one, and she went towards a certain healing herb, and just as everyone thought she was going to pick a herb of the same ss as Dara, she abruptly took a left turn and plucked an aphrodisiac leaf as she alsomented;


    "May the tribe be abundantly fruitful and multiply endlessly¡­"


    She said with a meaningful look and grin towards Dara who was slightly embarrassed by the open disy of affection¡­


    The crowd once again burst into series of cheers as the rest of the Elders also went one after the other too pick a crop of their preference, and Elder Wang actually picked a pink sweet smelling flower which apparently had a sweet smelling puss which could be applied to the body as a perfume and gave it to the girl he came with¡­


    Elder Chen chose a fruit instead which apparently helps cleanse the entire system, and the same thing went on with the rest of the Elders picking several different herbs with Elder Ting picking an healing herb;


    Then the First and Second Obun Elder each picking two poisonous herbs each, and when they were done, the 500 tribe members who had been allocated to farming then entered the farm and began to harvest everything¡­


    Then when they were done, they packed everything in heaps and gave the numbers to Elder Lin who was very happy by the product of her hardwork before looking to Dara and then whispering seductively into his ears;


    "We have ten thousand pieces of each of the thirty separate crops species¡­"


    She said as Dara looked to her and found out she was already heating up and her eyes were already zing over;


    "Did you eat the aphrodisiac leaf!?" Dara asked looking at her like he was staring at a reckless being;


    "Do you expect me to throw away what I have picked?" Elder Lin asked with a pout, feeling somewhat wronged by Dara''s behavior¡­


    Dara sighed and then apologized before looking at the entire crowd and then spoke;


    "To celebrate our harvest, ten percent of our total harvest shall be distributed amongst the entire tribe today¡­"


    "Eat, drink and be merry¡­" Dara announced before leaving with Elder Lin and returning to the teau¡­


    They had barely entered when Elder Lin was already stripping off and tugging at Dara''s clothes who managed to enter the room before giving in, as he seemed to have inhaled a bit of the aphrodisiac properties when she whispered to him at close proximity¡­


    The rest of the Elders understood what had happened and could only shake their head and helplessly chuckle at Elder Lin whilst feeling pitiful for their Tribe Leader¡­


    There was abundance of food and drinks and even the Obuns for the first time mixed with the tribesmen to also celebrated the harvest, and this went on till the yellow and white flowers closed up and the purple and pink ones bloomed¡­


    Then the tribe calmed as those with partners hung around quietly with their partners in the romantic dim ambience, whilst the single ones who weren''t interested in finding a partner all retired to their residences for the night¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the teau¡­


    Dara and Elder Lin on the other hand were in the tub, and were both looking utterly exhausted which was a testament to how many times they had humped themselves today¡­


    They were currently within the hot tub with Aunt Lin sitting Dara''sp with all his entire shlong lodged deep within her whilst they were simply sharing kisses and whispering sweet nothings to one another¡­


    Elder Lin was looking prettier and sexier than ever and perhaps it was because she was very happy; her hair stuck to her body causing her to radiate the allure of a subus as Dara became engrossed in her beauty¡­


    This was no exaggeration, but her beauty was so heart tugging that Dara couldn''t help but keep staring, and the resulting blush she gave from being stared at so much only seemed to make her more irresistible as she began to feel somewhat shy from being starred at so much, and that behavior was starting to make Dara''s feelings for take firm root in his heart¡­


    After her face went bright red from being coyly shy, she finally kissed Dara to break the stares before hugging him tightly on the neck whilst Dara simply held her sulent fit waists which was a result of her hardwork at the farm¡­


    She had burnt a lot of fat working at the farm and was now slender with her body full and bubbly in the right ces such as her boobs and butts whilst slim and curvy in other ces such as her waist and neck;


    But overall she was very fit and athletic standing at about 5''10" and weighing a little over 150 pounds, with some faint traces of masculine muscles in her arms and calves¡­

 Chapter 121 - Brewing Storm

    She had burnt a lot of fat working at the farm and was now slender with her body full and bubbly in the right ces such as her boobs and butts whilst slim and curvy in other ces such as her waist and neck;


    But overall she was very fit and athletic standing at about 5''10" and weighing a little over 150 pounds, with some faint traces of masculine muscles in her arms and calves¡­


    Her hair was full, long and curly as they stuck to her porcin like pale skin¡­


    Her eyes were full and bright and her pupils was very much entuated standing out whenever she looked here and there, and every single color on her being was contrasting, bringing out the best of the other colors, from her pale skin color, to her brte-ck hair -which was the only part of her yet to fully recover to its former glory- and finally, her brownish ck pupils¡­


    She was almost glowing and the droplets of water and those streaming down her skin reflected herplexion perfectly;


    "I am very lucky to have you to myself¡­"


    Dara blurted his feelings as Elder Lin smiled dotingly behind his back before nting a kiss on his neck and then looking at him in the eyes, and when she confirmed that he was serious about his words, numerous butterflies fluttered in her tummy, before she then replied;


    "I feel the same and more, honey¡­"


    Then she kissed him, and then the kiss turned into making out with extra groping, before she then began to move her waist once again whilst releasing some moans in between kisses, as the water in the tub began to ssh due to her picking up pace until she could no longer hold in the feelings within her anymore and began to moan;


    "~Ahh~ I love you baby ~Unh~ ~A-ah~ ~Mmm~ ~Aiiiy~"


    Then she suddenly began to spasm whilst Dara also began to frown as he trembled an began to twitch as well


    "~Hmm~ ~Eiiy~ ~Ugh~"


    They both grabbed and hugged one another as tight as possible as the intense orgasm racked their nerves and aggressively pulsed through their bodies, until the aphrodisiac effects finally wore out of their body and left the two of them panting like they just ran several marathons;


    Then another wave of kisses ensued before they finally ended their harvest celebration for the day¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Whilst all this celebration and good fortune was descending atop the Ji Tribe, it was the exact opposite at the Royal Court and currently, there was an edgy atmosphere of some sort of petrifying aura on the Royal Court and as a matter of fact all the Elders have refused toe out of their homes;


    "Tian! Thest batch of the Qi Stones was supposed to arrive six months ago, but we saw nothing!"


    "You told us to give you two more weeks and we gave you two months instead telling you to have them ready before our return, and now that we are back again you still have the effrontery to tell us that it had yet to be delivered!?"


    "Are you looking to die that badly!?" The girl that followed the three figures about six months ago bellowed at the sweaty King Tian;


    "Junior Sister Su, calm your nerves¡­"


    "I know Senior Brother Fu, but we were the one who suffered the consequences of thatst missing batch¡­"


    "I know, we all shared part of the suffering, but master had already given us ess to recover our losses from the missing batch¡­"


    "Filthy worm, where is that hateful Elder you call Yun?"


    The calmest amongst them which was the one who sparred with the Royal Guard thest time he was here calmly asked King Tian, but despite asking calmly and in a low voice, there was something life threatening about his calm andposed nature, as it seems like he was a seething volcano¡­


    "I''m truly sorry, venerable masters and mistress, but I haven''t heard from both Elder Yun and our Left Grand Elder¡­"


    "I have even sent an entire troop of Royal Guards to go investigate, but since theirst report, they haven''t been able to find the both of them, b-but-"


    King Tian began to stutter at the end of his statement before the third guy bellowed at him;


    "-But what!?"


    "B-b-but, they reported that the entire cave was billowing so much heat that they were only able to proceed about two meters into the entrance before they were forced to go back¡­"


    "Eh?" The Lady was stunned by the report;


    "What do you mean by heat?" The lecherous guy asked with a frown;


    "We don''t know either, but from what they could gather, they said it seems the cave was set on fire not too long after you left¡­"


    Bam! Boom!


    "You useless worm! Do you take us for a fool!?" The calm guy couldn''t take the situation any longer as his fury red up;


    "N-n-no venerable master, I dare not do that¡­"


    "Ten of my generations won''t be able to atone for my sins if I do that¡­"


    "Tch, ten generation of worthless people like you would definitely drive us insane¡­" Thedy was also getting frustrated and pissed off at the same time;


    "Do you know which Qi Stone Farm it was that failed to deliver?"


    "Y-y-yes, my lord¡­"


    "Then why are you still kneeling there!!?"


    "Gather 5 troops, we are heading over ourselves to see what went wrong¡­" The Calm guy blurted as King Tian scrambled to his feet and bolted out of his Throne Hall¡­


    "Cheng, do you think those two rebelled and stole the stones for themselves?" The Calm Fu asked the lecherous Cheng;


    "That is what everything seem to look like, and I can say they purposely set the farm on fire to cover their tracks¡­"


    "But if that is the case, then what do we do?"


    "I can''t go another month without my monthly cultivation resources¡­" Su [the gerontophile] was almost crying as Cheng added;


    "You''re not even thinking about him sending us to that forsaken ce as punishment¡­"

 Chapter 122 - Eleventh Birthday

    "Cheng, do you think those two rebelled and stole the stones for themselves?" The Calm Fu asked the lecherous Cheng;


    "That''s what everything seem to look like, and I can say they purposely set the farm on fire to cover their tracks¡­"


    "But if that is the case, then what do we do?"


    "I can''t go another month without my monthly cultivation resources¡­" Su [the gerontophile] was almost crying as Cheng added;


    "You''re not even thinking about him sending us to that forsaken ce as punishment¡­"


    "Calm down guys, we will never know what truly went down until we get down there and investigate¡­" The Calm Fu tried to ease their fears;


    "Then we had better get to it quick so we can have enough time to prepare for the worst case scenario, and what master would most likely do to us¡­" Cheng added;


    "Speaking of leaving where is that Old Geezer!?" Su asked through gritted teeth¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Outside the royal chambers, King Tian was currently bellowing at hismander;


    "Have all of them ready to leave within the next 10 minutes!" "Absolutely, your highness!"


    The Commander blurted with a sharp bow before turning around and fleeting off into the distance at his fastest pace whilst King Tian returned to the royal chamber reluctantly;


    He would prefer not to return if it was possible, but he knew there was no way that was going to happen, and as a result, after hesitating for a few breaths, he pushed the double doors open and saw the furious, heated and repulsive gazes of the trio and he almost wet himself;


    "My lords anddy, I have prepared the troops you have ordered and they are all waiting for us at the entrance of the Royal Court¡­"


    King Tian bowed with his forehead to the ground whilst making his report as he seethed;


    ''Left and Yun both of you will get it after all this is done!''


    "Alright, lead the way!"


    Fu ordered as King Tian scuttled to his feet and led the group to the prepared carriage as they rode over to meet up with all five troops and head over to the farm¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the Ji Tribe¡­


    Today was Dara''s birthday, and he was woken by something wet and slimy covering his entire cock, and without opening his eyes, he simply grabbed the back of Elder Lin''s head before thrusting his waist allowing it to reach deeper into her throat as they spent the next ensuing hours ploughing and straddling one another;


    "Happy Birthday¡­"


    Aunt Lin spoke as they rxed in the hot tub, allowing the tingling sensation rocking their body to calm itself;


    "How did you know my birthday was today?"


    "Well, Elder Wang had figured it out by asking majority of the kids your age within the tribe, and we happen to find one who knew about it¡­"


    "Oh, well as improbable as it might sound, the vige of sang was actually an open vige;"


    "One which every member of the tribe treated one another as their kin, except for the useless leaders we had back then¡­"


    "So, it is not totally impossible for one of them to know of my birthday;"


    "After all, I can still recall celebrating my seventh and eight birthday with my sister, and she had called a handful of her friends toe celebrate with me back then¡­"


    Dara exined as Aunt Lin snuggled into his embrace within the hot tub, and she could sense the aura of bitterness that descended on Dara the moment he mentioned his sister;


    Thus, she leaned upward and kissed him before soothing him;


    "Don''t worry, you have me and the rest of the tribe now, and we are not going anywhere¡­" She said as Dara looked down at her in his embrace and hugged her tighter;


    "Alright, we have spent more time than we should''ve, it''s time for you to go take control of things outside¡­"


    "But it''s my birthday, don''t I get a day off?"


    "Well, leaders never do¡­ That''s why they are leaders¡­" Dara released a somewhat tired sigh, before Elder Lin added;


    "But if you can finish everything you''re supposed to do on time, I could let you hit me twice tonight¡­"


    Elder Lin fluttered her eyshes coyly, and Dara''s cock couldn''t help but twitch slightly¡­


    She then gave his cock a nice, sleek shag before stepping out of the tub, as Dara sighed once again before he then cleaned himself up, changed his outfits and then stepped out of the residence¡­


    But the moment he stepped out, Dara was greeted by the most surprising sight he had ever seen since he was born¡­ Outside¡­


    In front of his residence were heaps and piles of different goodies which ranged from treasures, to gems, to trinkets, jewelries, furs, resources and gifts of all types;


    "Eh, what''s happening?" Dara was stunned as Uncle Min came out of the building beside his and answered;


    "You have been working so hard, and because the tribe was so noisy yesterday, we decided that your birthday should be as calm and quiet as possible but still enjoyable nheless¡­" Uncle Min smiled;


    "The tribesmen have been delivering several gifts since first light, and they wanted you to have a little bit of privacy and extra rest, thus, they did it quietly¡­" He added;


    "Oh, so that was why Elder Lin made sure she exhausted mest night¡­"


    Dara had already spoken before he realized that it wasn''t the best he could have done as he looked apologetically to Elder Min;


    "Oh no worries, I have found something simr to what I shared with Elder Lin in her¡­"


    Elder Min responded as he looked into his room where ady rested almost stark naked if not for the sheets covering some parts of her body;


    "I''m really happy for you¡­" Dara revealed;


    "I am too, for you that is¡­" Elder Min replied;


    "To think my first work today would be to sort all these piles and heaps of gifts¡­" Dara sighed;


    "You don''t need to worry about that, you both can leave it to yourdies¡­" Elder Lin spoke as she stepped out of Dara''s residence;

 Chapter 123 - The Clinic

    "Oh no worries, I''ve found something simr to what I shared with Elder Lin in her¡­"


    Elder Min responded as he looked into his room where ady rested almost stark naked if not for the sheets covering some parts of her body;


    "I''m really happy for you¡­" Dara revealed;


    "I am too, for you that is¡­" Elder Min replied;


    "To think my first work today would be to sort all these piles and heaps of gifts¡­" Dara sighed;


    "You don''t need to worry about that, you both can leave it to yourdies¡­" Elder Lin spoke as she stepped out of Dara''s residence;


    "Elder Min¡­"


    "Elder Lin¡­" The duo greeted one another as Elder Min looked to Dara;


    "Give me a few minutes and we will head over to the smithy together; Elder Wang and Elder Smith said they both needed to see you for something really important¡­" Elder Min reported;


    "Oh¡­ alright then¡­"


    Dara replied as Elder Min returned into his residence whilst Elder Lin walked up to Dara the way a wife would to her husband;


    "These are one of the perks of being the tribe leader; you get to receive loads of gifts whenever you are celebrating anything¡­"


    She said as she moved closer to Dara, adjusting his outfits perfectly, before a fully leather d Elder Min stepped out;


    "Alright, be careful, and enjoy your time with the boys¡­"


    Elder Lin ended her statement with a deep kiss despite being in the presence of Elder Min which made Dara feel slightly awkward whilst she smiled in response¡­


    The duo left and thedy within Elder Min''s residence stepped out, wrapped in Elder Min''s robes, one which brought back some memories to Elder Lin who made it in the first ce;


    But after a few seconds of reminiscing, Elder Lin looked to thedy and nodded whilst thedy also reciprocated the gesture with a bow;


    After all, despite being an Elder''s woman, she herself isn''t an Elder,pared to Elder Lin who was not just an Elder, but also the Tribe Leader''s woman;


    Thus there was a significant gap in hierarchy between them, and it has to be respected and upheld which was why she had to greet Elder Lin with a bow¡­


    The duo watched their men leave home from behind in deep thought, each thinking different things which made them happy from the grins on their faces;


    "Tribe mistress, do you need some help with all these?" The Lady asked;


    "Sure¡­ Thanks¡­" Elder Lin replied as thedy moved over and the duo began to sort out all the gifts into several categories and tiers¡­


    As Dara walked through the tribe on his way to the smithy, several tribesmen who passed by would pause and bow to him before moving along after he nodded back at them with his best smile¡­


    There were also some girls in the tribe who were all in tight fitting outfits and some revealing ones to who will show more than they needed whenever they bowed to him, but Dara had tasted a maturedy, and that had really taken a huge chunk out of his interest in girls within his age bracket¡­


    Though, he still found them attractive, but there is just thing that they alwayscked that Elder Lin had too much of, and that was the reason why he didn''t think too much about them, whenever they came around;


    Thus, he would simply look straight at their faces, smile convincingly, and nod whilst these girls would blush furiously;


    Some in embarrassment of their intentions, others because they failed, and the rest was simply because they were in such close proximity with someone within their age bracket, but was out of their leagues¡­


    Dara kept waving and pausing to actually talk to some of the Elderlies, especially when he saw the new tribe clinic and decided to branch and see the way the ce was setup, which was one of the few ces he had never been to since it had been built about three months ago¡­


    The clinic was a massive three story structure, with the ground floor being the reception area where all the sick are waited until there is an avable healer to attend to them, whilst the second floor was the treatment area and the sick bay¡­


    The top floor however was a restricted area with a steel door that had a unique locking system which only Elder Ting had the keys to; except for the mater key with Dara which had been engineered to open all the locks within the tribe¡­


    This floor was their research area, and where Elder Ting and her two assistants [the two girls who helped treat Ji Long on their way to the tribe] did some research on how to help the Obuns recover back some of their humane qualities and attributes¡­


    But currently Dara walked into the reception area and saw Elder Ting who was just performing a final check up on Elder Long''s injuries;


    "It sure took you too long to recover from your injuries¡­"


    Dara said when he entered as the rest of thedies working within the clinic stopped whatever they were doing and bowed respectfully to Dara;


    "Tribe Leader!"


    They chorused as Dara nodded in satisfaction, these were the first set ofdies he would see since he left the teau that were decently dressed¡­


    He nodded towards all of them as they went on with their work whilst Elder Long covered his scarred chest with his robes before bowing slightly to Dara;


    "Tribe Leader¡­" He said respectfully, same as Elder Ting as Dara nodded back at them;


    "I never thought it would take you so long to recover from that injury¡­" Dara resumed his previous statement;


    "Oh, I needed to do that so I can remain in the Qi Sea Stage¡­"


    "Oh?" Elder Min was shocked whilst Elder Ting jabbed his shoulders lightly;


    "So, you made me go through all these trouble because you want to stay in the QI Sea Stage?" Sheined slightly;


    "I''m truly sorry Elder Ting, I know I had taken out of your research time, but I did it for a valid reason¡­"


    "~Hu~ It''s fine¡­ It''s something thates with the job, and I was at fault forining¡­"


    Elder Ting also apologized as Dara looked around to observe everyone working within the clinic, and he realized that; hidden beneath their care and hardwork was total and absolute exhaustion, thus, he looked to Elder Ting and asked;


    "Why are your workers so few?"


    "They were the only ones we could find that knew a thing or two about healing¡­" Elder Ting replied with a sigh¡­

 Chapter 124 - Elder Smiths Gifts

    "It''s fine¡­ It''s something thates with the job, and I was at fault forining¡­"


    Elder Ting also apologized as Dara looked around to observe everyone working within the clinic, and he realized that; hidden beneath their care and hardwork was total and absolute exhaustion, thus, he looked to Elder Ting and asked;


    "Why are your workers so few?"


    "They''re the only ones we could find that knew a thing or two about healing¡­" Elder Ting replied with a sigh¡­


    "The rest are either too young to see blood or too old to be taught¡­" She added;


    "I will speak with Elder Lin and have her send some teens to you, even if they don''t know anything about healing yet, let them do every other miniscule tasks within the clinic so everyone can focus on the more important job whilst they gradually integrate the kids into healing¡­"


    "I am sure that within a year, you will have a handful of new healers in here¡­" Dara promised as Elder Ting sighed in relief;


    "Thanks a lot, tribe leader¡­ You are truly a considerate one¡­" She thanked him whilst Dara turned to the rest of the healers and addressed them;


    "Thank you all for your hardwork, and I want to assure you that the tribe sees how much sacrifice and effort you put into your jobs, and I promise you that all your hardwork would be duly rewarded¡­"


    He said as all the healers within the building sighed happily as they pped their hands before chorusing;


    "Thank you Tribe Leader, you are too kind¡­" They thanked Dara as they began to smile and return to their tasks with increased motivation;


    "Thanks a lot, Tribe Leader, I have been trying for the past few months to keep them going, but it seems the motivation they needed was some word of encouragement from you¡­"


    "I have never seen them smile so much or be this motivated at their jobs¡­" Elder Ting added;


    "You have also been doing a lot, and I n on getting a cultivation technique as soon as possible so everyone can get their promised Qi Stones¡­"


    Dara added and after a few more conversation and words of encouragement from both Elder Long and Elder Min, they finally left the clinic and head in the direction of the smithy¡­


    Before long, they arrived in front of the smithy where Elder Smith and Elder Wang was waiting for them;


    "Tribe Leader¡­ Elder Min¡­" Elder Smith and Elder Wang greeted when they saw Dara and the reste over;


    "Morning, Elder Smith¡­ I heard you were looking for me?" Dara spoke to Elder Smith whilst Elder Wang and Elder Min greeted one another as well as Elder Long¡­


    "Yes, I have been looking for a gift to give Tribe Leader, and couldn''t find a very suitable one; so I decided to make one instead¡­" Elder Smith spoke with a smile as he gestured Dara into the smithy;


    "Please ept these humble gifts¡­"


    Elder Smith said with a bow as Dara stood in front of a neatly arranged table which was decorated with a white fur which had several sweet smelling flowers ced atop it¡­


    But that was not what blew Dara''s mind, instead it was the bow and quiver which was currentlyid in between these flowers that blew his mind, but that was not all¡­


    Beside the bow and quiver was a dual sword scabbard with a twin short sword within it, and all these weapons were made from the advanced ingredients of steel, three different types of ore dusts and finally crushed Qi Stone dusts¡­


    Dara grabbed the twin scabbard first and studied it from every angle, and not only was it extremely lightweight, it also felt handy and easy to wield¡­


    Dara then grabbed the hilt of one of the swords and drew it, and there it was, a short sword¡­


    So clean and straight that Dara could see his image and it was like he was wielding two sword sized mirrors as light reflected off the sword just like a true mirror¡­


    He grabbed with all his strength and began to feel his energy gently flow through the sword as it began to give long and subtle humming sounds¡­


    Dara dropped the scabbard and tapped the t side of the de and a very deep ''Keein!'' sound resounded through the entire smithy as all the smiths working within the smithy kept staring at Dara, savoring the expression of sheer happiness and delight that was etched on his face¡­


    Those weapons were the result of their hardwork and they were extremely pleased to see that Dara loved them¡­


    Dara sheathed the sword and then grabbed the bow, and just like the sword, the bow was overly lightweight making him feel like he grabbing onto a feather¡­


    He then aimed and pulled the string attached to it;


    "Those were made from the tendons of the two beasts that attacked us a while ago¡­"


    Elder Smith exined as Dara pulled on the bowstring and felt the firmness as well as the amount of energy required to pull it taut and the sheer tensile strength that was behind the pull¡­


    He then dropped the bow and grabbed the quiver within which there was a set of 50 arrows of the same ingredients¡­


    "That is the gift from the entire member of the smithy, and now for my own gift itself¡­"


    Elder Smith exined with a smile as he waved his hands towards the workers seemingly telling them to bring out something¡­


    A few minutester, a worker carried out a little 3 foot long and one feet wide case which was only as high as a grown man''s ankle from the ground and presented it to Min Hong as Elder Smith walked over and flipped the cover of the box open; Dara was once again stunned by what he was looking at¡­


    In there within the case was an armor made out of entirely out of leather, and then there were vambraces and shin guards made out of the same material as the twin swords¡­


    There was also a rear guard and front guard made out of the same material which was there to guard his front and back¡­


    There was a hooded cloak made out of pitch ck fur that seemed to blend into the shadows provided by the roof slits overhead¡­

 Chapter 125 - Qi Stone Armor

    In there, within the case was an armor made entirely out of leather, and then there were vambraces and shin guards made out of the same material as the twin swords¡­


    There was also a rear guard and front guard made out of the same material which was there to guard his front and back¡­


    There was a hooded cloak made out of pitch ck fur that seemed to blend into the shadows provided by the roof slits overhead¡­


    "We got that fur from the second beasts which had the unique ability to camouge itself in the shadows and dark areas¡­" Elder Smith exined as Min Hong ran his fingers across it and nodded with a smile¡­


    Then at the foot area of the armor he saw a pair of diator sandals with long slender ropes made out of thick vines that were stronger than the leather of the beasts they ughtered a while ago¡­


    Then after that was a mask that depicted the face of a furious masquerade with pointed nose, and all with holes for breathing his eyes and mouth¡­


    Dara looked at everything with beaming smiles whilst nodding his head;


    "You have done good Elder Smith¡­ I will forever remember and cherish these gifts¡­"


    "Thank you, and thank you all¡­" Dara spoke as Elder Smith quickly interrupted once again;


    "There''s one more thing¡­"


    He said as he raised his index finger insinuating that Dara stayed a little longer and in about three minutes, another worker came in with what seemed like weapon holders which ninjas use to hold multiple weapon type¡­


    "Now it isplete¡­ This weapon hoister can hold the twin scabbard, the bow, the quiver, a whip and is also slender and light enough for you to carry all day¡­" Elder Smith exined;


    "We are still working on your whip, but it is proving a little bit tasking, but we should be able to get it ready before your next mission¡­" Elder Smith sighed helplessly as Dara ced his hand on Elder Smith''s shoulders as he tapped it thrice and nodded;


    "You have done really good Elder Smith, and you are proving me right that you are worth more than I bargained for when I brought you here¡­ Thanks¡­"


    Daraplimented with a wide smile as Elder Smith nodded thrice before cing all the weapons and the weapon hoister into the case that held the battle armor before telling one of the workers who Dara told to take it to the teau and hand it over to Elder Lin specifically¡­


    Then Min Hong left and Dara turned to see Elder Wang who was smiling back at him as he put his hands behind his back and brought out a belt of soft ck cloth and tied it around Dara''s eyes before leading him towards a certain area, and after walking about a few meters, Dara stopped as Elder Wang spoke;


    "Now to see my gift, you can pull of the blindfold¡­"


    Dara did as he has heard and was shocked when he found out that two more Qi Stone residences had been built in addition to the previous ones and now they were thirteen new residences with seven more to go, as Dara nodded and patted Elder Wang on the shoulder happily¡­


    Thing were going ording to n and what they had previously considered a theory was now standing in front of their faces and fully functional¡­


    The people who were to live within the structures were already there and were waiting for Dara to see and approve the building before they moved in, and the moment Dara raised a thumbs up, all these experts happily took some kids with them and moved into these residences¡­


    It was Elder Wang''s idea that each of the tribesmen living within the tribe should adopt a kid or teen to make the entire tribe feel closer and more familial with one another and not only did that made the tribesmen closer;


    But it also ensured that the spaces the kids were living before could now be upgraded into a Qi Stone building to serve as extra amodation space for the next set of ves Dara was going to rescue from other Qi Stone farms¡­


    But after they left the area, Elder Min finally brought up the situation to Dara;


    "We are running out of Qi Stones once again, Tribe Leader¡­" Elder Min revealed as Dara asked;


    "How many days would the ones we havest for before running out?"


    "About five days max¡­"


    "Aright, have the workers take the next two days after the Qi Stones runs out to rest¡­ "


    "By this time next week, you should have more Qi Stones to work with¡­" Dara promised;


    "Yeah, as well as more Qi Stones for cultivation¡­" Elder Long added from the side;


    "What would be left by then would be a suitable technique for cultivation¡­" Elder Long added as Dara nodded his head¡­


    "About that¡­ Perhaps, when you get the new batch of Qi Stones, we might as well head out to the borders of the Land of the Light and trade some Qi Stones for some cultivation techniques and martial arts¡­" Elder Min suggested;


    "That seems like a nice idea¡­" Elder Wangplimented as Elder Long also nodded his head in concession;


    "Alright then, I will leave that to you¡­" Dara answered;


    "Long, assign some capable experts and some tribesmen for him to setup a trading caravan¡­" He added;


    "That way we would be able to trade for needed resources with our Qi Stones¡­" Dara ordered as they all mentally noted¡­


    Then after a few more conversations about the next development strategy before going on about the Season of war and how many smaller tribes had already been wiped out by otherrger tribes...


    There was also a new tribe which their spies have just discovered who were basically bandits who invade other smaller tribes, plunder their resources, rape the children and enve the adults, and force all of them to work loyally for the tribe¡­


    Then Dara inquired about the security of the tribe and Elder Long exined that asides from the watch guards on the towers, that Elder Chen had stationed many scouts in the form of Obuns outside the tribe in secret locations to serve as sensor units that detect any intruders or invaders who have managed to avoid detection¡­

 Chapter 126 - Good Luck Charm

    Furthermore, that there''s a new tribe which their spies have just discovered, who were basically bandits who invade other smaller tribes, plunder their resources, rape the children and enve the adults, and force all of them to work loyally for the tribe¡­


    Then Dara inquired about the security of the tribe and Elder Long exined that asides from the watch guards on the towers, that Elder Chen had stationed many scouts in the form of Obuns outside the tribe in secret locations to serve as sensor units that detect any intruders or invaders who have managed to avoid detection¡­


    After doing a bit more inspections and greeting the rest of the Elders within the tribe, Dara returned to the residence as construction, farming and forgery continued within the tribe, and like that time flowed past within the tribe like rivers around a rock¡­


    A week passed¡­


    Today was the first day of the season of war¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    About 40 miles away from the Qi Stone Mine [The Qi Stone Farm which Dara had now turned to a mine], a troop of about 100 Peak Qi Creation royal guards were marching towards the Qi Stone mine, and in the middle of these royal guards were five figures;


    Three of them were donning a ck hooded cape and one of them was wearing a full body armor all made out of gold and steel, and finally there was another male figure with a crisscrossed scar on his cheek¡­


    These group all had solemn aura all over them which indicated that the slightest provocation might break out in an all-out war, and their expressions were also unfriendly and a little furious¡­


    These were naturally the entourage of the three mysterious figures, King Tian, Commander Zhao and an entire troop of Royal Guards, and they all came here to investigate the reason why the Qi Stone farm hadn''t supplied its regr batch of Qi Stones thest time around which was over six months ago¡­


    But back at the tribe¡­


    Dara had just stepped out of his teau all d in his new battle armor as with a weapon hoister that had a quiver, a bow, twin swords and finally a whip that had been rolled up into a circle attacked to it¡­


    As he stood at the edge of the teau, he looked into the distance and saw that his 500 man troop was already waiting for him¡­


    Today was the Season of War and they were going to be mining as well, thus they had to take extra men along should they run into any attacking bandit group, thieves, tribes or anyone unfriendly¡­


    "Look at you, all looking like the hero of my fantasies¡­"


    Elder Lin''s voice drifted over from behind Min Hong as she walked over to him in an elegant manner with a hooded cloak with leather exterior but furry interior in her hands;


    "Eh? Really?" Dara was slightly taken aback;


    "Un Un¡­"


    Aunt Lin nodded her head in affirmation before covering Dara with the cloak which she had worked painstakingly to adorn with several jewelries they got from their gifts, eventually making the cloak look like one befitting of a Tribe Leader¡­


    "What do you think?" Elder Lin asked referring to her handiwork;


    "I can see you have put a lot of love into it¡­" Dara replied;


    "Un¡­ take this¡­"


    Elder Lin stretched her hands to the back of her neck beneath her hair and brought out a rtively simple ne which was made out of vines and what seemed like the limb of a small beast;


    "My mom gave this to me before she died¡­ She told me it would keep me safe and that it is also a good source of luck¡­"


    Elder Lin said as she wore the ne on Dara''s neck with a joyful expression and beaming smiles;


    ''Why is she acting all lovey-dovey this morning?''


    Dara thought to himself in bewilderment, but was also pleased by the affection Elder Lin was showing eitherways;


    Elder Lin adjusted the ne perfectly whilst standing about 2 inches away from Dara, looking at his face like a proud mother sending her child off to school for the very first time¡­


    Dara then wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into his embrace as Elder Lin giggled coyly, and then they shared about five solid minutes of kisses, before Dara managed to break the kiss as Elder Lin seemed to want to glue herself to his body;


    "Alright, it''s time to go¡­" Dara then released her from his embrace;


    "Come back to me¡­ This body won''t touch itself, you know¡­"


    Aunt Lin added before turning around and walking seductively back into the house causing Dara to develop the urge to follow her into the house and ram her into the wall before ploughing the nonsense out of her, but he resisted the urge and bottled it up forter in the night, where he would be able to take his time to dish out the appropriate punishments for her actions¡­


    Dara decided to jump down from the teau to test out his strength and the reliability of the amour;


    Whoosh!


    Dara erupted from the ground into the air before doing a triple flip mid-air and then capping it all with an urate and fluid superheronding¡­


    He then rose to his feet and moved over to the troop who saw his entire acrobatic disy and were all grinning with respect and pride¡­


    A troop of 500 soldiers [400 Obuns and 100 tribesmen] who were all at the Peak of Qi Creation stage; The First and Second Obun Elder who were both at the 2 and 3 Star Qi Sea Stage, and finally Elder Lon who had managed to keep himself at the 1 Star Qi Sea Stage¡­


    Dara looked over all of them and addressed them, telling them about their mission which was to mine more Qi Stone, but also reminding them of the high possibilities of them having to do battle because they were already in the Season of War¡­


    Then after charging them, the crowd roared in motivation before Dara pointed his fingers towards the Tribe Gate and the entire troop began to march out, heading for the Qi Stone mine, oblivious to the fact that an entire troop of Royal Guards as well as several other overpowered experts were marching towards the same destination¡­

 Chapter 127 - The Element Of Surprise

    Dara looked over all of them and addressed them, telling them about their mission which was to mine more Qi Stone, but also reminding them of the high possibilities of them having to do battle because they were already in the Season of War¡­


    Then after charging them, the crowd roared in motivation before Dara pointed his fingers towards the Tribe Gate and the entire troop began to march out, heading for the Qi Stone mine, oblivious to the fact that an entire troop of Royal Guards as well as several other overpowered experts were marching towards the same destination¡­


    Dara put on his mask as Elder Long brought the male beast which they just bred with four different females over to Dara to use as mount, and unlike what Dara thought would happen, the beast didn''t rebel or be aggressive but instead allowed Dara to mount itfortably¡­


    The two Obun Elders stood on either sides of Dara whilst Elder Long Walked in front of the beast¡­


    "Scout team move out!"


    Elder Long ordered as 100 experts [80 Obuns and 20 tribesmen] broke out of the troop and ran ahead before spreading out in every forward direction in pairs, scouting for problems or ambushes before the troop arrived¡­


    "Soldiers, defense formation 1!"


    Elder Long bellowed again as the remaining 400 soldiers formed a protective square around Dara; 100 on each sides as well as the front and the rear, as they all began to march out of the tribe in that formation¡­


    These soldiers were all equipped with battle amours, swords, spears, bows and quivers made out of steel and several ore dusts with the exclusion of the Qi Stone dusts, making Dara the only person wielding battle equipment made out of Qi Stone dusts¡­


    The gates of the tribe was mmed shut as per Dara''s request as all the watch guards manned their turrets with bows and quivers as well as spears and staffs at their disposal, should they need to repel any invasion whatsoever¡­


    The troop moved very fast as almost all of them were already familiar with the route, and in just about an hour, they were already a few kilometers off the Qi Stone mine, and as they marched onwards with extreme caution, the sound of something rapidly rushing over from the dense bush up ahead floated into the ears of the alert troops;


    Whoosh!


    Graa!


    Shing! Schweein!


    The moment the figure bolted out of the dense foliage, the entire troop marched to a halt with a single step before drawing their weapons in the direction of the approaching figure, but Dara quickly rose his hand into the hair and the entire troop halted but still kept their weapons pointed at the invader¡­


    Dara had spotted the figure from about thirty meters away, and it was one of the tribesmen who went out as part of the scout team who hade bearing a report¡­


    The figure finally came into view and when the troop realized it was one of them, they sheathed their weapons but remained utterly alert of their environments, and whilst the scout was giving his reports the rest of the troops scanned the area they were protecting for any movements;


    "Just as I feared¡­" Elder Long who was stopped the scout and received the reports muttered to himself as he walked over to Dara and ryed everything he heard from the scout;


    "There is no reason to be scared¡­ Not only is the situation unavoidable, but we also outnumber them¡­" Dara eased Elder Long''s worries as he looked up ahead with a smirk;


    "But, what about those five figures?" Elder Long asked;


    "What about them?"


    "One of them has been identified as King Tian of the Land of Light, as well as the generalmander of the Royal Guards with his 100 man strong Peak Qi Creation cultivation and outstanding battle experience and techniques¡­"


    Elder Long voiced his worries as he felt they should retreat, perhaps out of fear of the fact that, the three mysterious figured looked like shady people who gave him creeps just by their description alone;


    Or perhaps it might be due to the mental trauma they had made him experience when he was captured and throughout the time he was enved at the Qi Stone Farm¡­


    But Dara had utmost confidence in victory;


    "Firstly, even though they have more battle experience than us as well as better techniques, we have the Obuns who almost do not feel pain, and we also outnumber them by about five to one¡­"


    "Secondly, the quicker we deal with this the better it is for us to gauge their strength should we have to fall back and fight this battle another day¡­"


    "Thenstly, there is also the strong possibilities of getting a cultivation technique and outstanding martial arts from these guys, and if we can achieve victory and also take back as much Qi Stones as we can carry, not only would we be killing two birds with one stone, but this would by far be our most sessful mission, ever¡­"


    Dara spoke and the excitement in his tone was apparent as he felt the need to motivate Elder Long;


    "Moreover, don''t you want to get revenge for what they did to you?"


    Dara manipted Elder Long''s emotions and used it to motivate him as Elder Long''s face instantly became disgusted and solemn before nodding his head at Dara who then told them to approach as quietly as possible¡­


    Then when they were just about ten meters from the Qi Stone Mine, they could finally see the troops the scouts had reported about, and everything was exactly as the scout had reported, the troops from the Royal Court were currently standing in front of the cave entrance looking straight into it with King Tian also watching on, as well as the three mysterious figures¡­


    Then a figure ran out of the cave whilst sweating and panting heavily with almost all of his body bright red from being in close proximity with the immense heat that was within the cave;


    "It is as we have heard, your highness¡­ Someone really did set fire to the cave¡­"


    The generalmander spoke as King Tian felt three pairs of murderous gaze lock onto him from behind as he broke out in cold sweat¡­

 Chapter 128 - Bite Onto My Arm, This Will Hurt…

    Then a figure ran out of the cave whilst sweating and panting heavily with almost all of his body bright red from being in close proximity with the immense heat that was within the cave;


    "It is as we have heard, your highness¡­ Someone really did set fire to the cave¡­"


    The generalmander spoke as King Tian felt three pairs of murderous gaze lock onto him from behind as he broke out in cold sweat¡­


    Then in that moment at which they were all distracted, Dara and Elder Long abruptly rose his hangs into the sky before bringing it down halfway, as all 100 archers within his troop nocked their bows and took aim, by the time Dara''s hand descended to the ground, these archers let loose;


    Toof! Toosh!


    Doosh!


    The sounds of bowstrings returning to their length after being pulled taut resounded within the bush as hundreds of arrows took to the air approaching the troop of Royal Guards with the momentum of a heat seeking missile and the menace of a incensed viper;


    "Ambush!"


    One of the Royal Guard managed to blurt as all the Royal Guards expertly gathered themselves together in the blink of an eye...


    Then those with shields amongst them moved over to the front; but was a little toote to put the shield in position as some of the arrows slipped past their defenses taking down some Royal Guards¡­


    The moment the first arrow which managed to slip past the shields hit its target, Elder Long brought his hands down as well, as 300 Obuns burst out of the bush and rammed into the shields with hammers, staffs and other heavy weapons¡­


    Some even used their bare physical body to ram into these shields, and the fact that they feel no pain meant that they could ram the shields with abandon;


    Bang! Bam!


    m! Dang!


    The sounds of heavy object mming aggressively into sturdy barriers resounded within the area, until the barrier abruptly gave way¡­


    But the moment it did, several Royal Guards burst out from behind the broken barrier with sword strikes that decapitated some Obuns on contact as the First and Second Obun Elder cringed with pain when they saw their kin being ughtered by these Royal Guards, as they looked to Dara who abruptly leapt atop his mount and pulled out his bow, before nocking a single arrow;


    "Alright baby¡­ Impress me¡­"


    Dara whispered to the bow and arrow as he pulled with all the strength he could muster¡­


    Instantly the bow and arrow glowed slightly, but unlike during testing when they glowed only white, this time, they glowed with white and ck light as Dara felt all the Dark Qi within his body surge into the bow which then transferred it into the arrows before it then rested at the arrow head;


    Hu!


    Skadoosh!


    The arrow left a sonic boom behind as the archers around were pushed slightly away from the sheer sonic boom the arrow left behind before it almost teleported towards its target, arriving in front of the unsuspecting King Tian almost instantaneously¡­


    Catching everyone in the battle off guard, the only person who could manage to help the stunned King Tian on time was the General Commander who was the closest to him, as themander simply jumped in front of King Tian before crossing his sabre right in front of his chest, but he was bound to be unluckily disappointed;


    Kian!


    Puchi!


    Tia! Stuck!


    The General Commander watched with wide eyes as the white glowing arrow with pitch ck head pierced right through his steel sword, stabbed through his heart and out through his back before stabbing into King Tian''s dominant right arm¡­


    Blood sprayed like fountain as the three mysterious figures who were busy killing Obuns like as if they were chasing pests away looked in shock at the source of that arrow, and there, they found a little kid on what seemed to be a mount, donning a leathery fur hooded cloak, with a bow in his hand and a wailing mask on his face¡­


    Then they looked back at the General Commander who was choking on his own blood as blood kept spraying like a fountain out of the human eye sized hole in his chest¡­


    Then their gazesnded on King Tian and his arm which had been impaled by a unique type of arrow¡­


    Then whilst the battle between the Obuns and the Royal Guards raged on, one of the hooded figures rushed over to King Tian, and spoke, but whilst Dara and the rest couldn''t hear, King Tian could hear very clearly;


    "Baby, are you alright!?" The anxious voice of a girl floated out of the hood;


    "Hmmm¡­ Hmmm!" King Tian could only grunt as he coughed out a mouthful of ck blood;


    "Unh!?"


    The girl was stunned as she yanked out the arrow and looked at the tip to find what seemed to be the remnants of a ck smoke which she inhaled, and instantly her head went giddy as the image of King Tian blurred in her eyes before she released three heavy coughs which came out with a little plumes of ck smoke;


    ''So potent!'' The girl nched in shock as she mentally noted¡­


    She then looked at King Tian''s arm and realized that there was a deep ck hole in his arm that was rotting and spreading the rot to other parts of King Tian''s arms, as she quickly threw the arrow away, before whipping out a little dagger;


    "Bite onto my arm, this will hurt¡­"


    She said as King Tian bite onto her clothed arm as she sliced the rotten skin that was spreading the effects of the poison out and then poured some sort of ointment into the hole, and then tore a patch of King Tian''s garment which she used to wrap the wound and bind it tight to prevent blood loss¡­


    But despite all that, some of the poison had managed to seep into the King''s veins and he was now sweating bullets and panting heavily as his core temperature rose to new heights¡­


    She thenid King Tian to the side, and then stood up to look in Dara''s direction; "So it was you!"

 Chapter 129 - Demon Thumping Vs Branch Breaker

    Then she tore a patch of his garment which she used to wrap the wound and bind it tight to prevent blood loss¡­


    But despite all that, some of the poison had managed to seep into the King''s veins and he was now sweating bullets and panting heavily as his core temperature rose to new heights¡­


    She thenid King Tian to the side, and then stood up to look in Dara''s direction;


    "So it was you!"


    One of the other figures spoke as he lifted his hood and happened to be the calm Fu who looked towards Dara''s direction and spoke;


    "To have ughtered amander under our watch, you must atone with your life¡­"


    Cheng growled with red eyes at Dara, before Su who couldn''t hold herself back anymoreunched herself in Dara''s direction;


    "He is mine¡­ To have injured my baby that grievously, I must rip your heart out and hang it on a spike for the beasts to eat!"


    She spat through gritted teeth as Dara simply looked at the approaching trio with an emotionless and nonchnt gaze¡­


    But just as they got within range Dara simply spokezily;


    "Archers!"


    Shraa!


    100 archers stepped forward and aimed at the trio who nched in terror;


    "Let them have it!"


    Min Hong brought his hands down as the archers let loose; Fu was the first to regain hisposure as he tookmand of their group and bellowed to his partners;


    "I''ve got it!"


    He said as he moved in front of their group, put his hands behind his back and whipped out two hand fans before bellowing;


    "Wind Scythes!"


    He aggressively waved the hand fans at Dara''s group as a strong wind abruptly kicked up out of nowhere before mming into all the arrows sending them scattering all over the ce, with some even killing some of the archers and the rest stabbing into tree trunks and the ground¡­


    Dara and the rest were stunned as they looked at the hand fans in Fu''s hands;


    "A treasure!?"


    Elder Long blurted in shock as Cheng and Su emerged from the dispersing wind with swords in their hands, looking to catch everyone off guard¡­


    But Dara who was still standing atop his mount jumped to the ground and crouched as he gathered momentum;


    Boom!


    Dara erupted from the ground leaving his furry cloak hanging in the air as he bolted towards the iing duo;


    Instantly, Elder Long caught the cloak before it touched the ground and ced it back on the mount;


    "Hmph! You dare toe at us; two 2 Star Qi Sea Stage expert with such a mediocre cultivation!" Cheng bellowed as Su gave a devilishly venomous smirk;


    "You must be screwing death!" The duo brought their swords into the air as they struck down aggressively at Dara¡­


    Screeen!


    Dara whipped out his twin short swords as all the muscles in his body contracted and bulked out with abnormal ferocity, rippling with steel snapping power as Dara greeted the duo mid-air;


    ng! ng!


    "First Elder¡­ Ji Long, I will leave these two to you, the rest of you help out yourrades!"


    Dara bellowed as he deflected the duos strike to the side before moving past them to go attack the panting Fu at their rear¡­


    Screeen! Schweein!


    The First Obun Elder and Elder Long whipped out their swords and moved to greet the iing Su and Cheng who bothunched an even more aggressive sword sh at the duo with a rigorous bellow;


    "Leaf Cutter!"


    But just as they were about to make contact;


    "Branch Breaker!"


    Ji Long and the First Obun Elder abruptly bellowed as they opted for the more forceful move from the same sword art¡­


    Cheng and Su were caught off guard as their attack faltered slightly; They were absolutely stunned that the people they have never met before could used the same sword art as theirs, albeit with such fluidity..


    ng! ng!


    The duo smashed into themselves and separated as Ji Long duo taking about nine steps backward before stabilizing it with a tenth whilst the First Obun Elder only stabilized himself with the seventh step but Su and Cheng on the other hand only used five steps¡­


    The rest of the men that came with Dara instantly moved over to the battle between the Royal Guards and Obuns before the stalemate over there was then breached¡­


    Dara and the Ji Long duo saw this and sighed in relief that the battle over there was in their favor, and as a result they could focus on their own fight¡­


    Daranded and approached the sweaty Fu who seemed to have been slightly drained from using the technique earlier as he whipped out two des of his own, giving Dara the shocker of his life that there was actually someone asides himself who could nimbly wield two des;


    Fu crossed the des in front of himself before jumping at the iing Dara before shing out;


    "Branch Breaker!"


    He bellowed and unlike his teammates opted for the strongest move of their sword technique;


    "Demon Thumping Strike!"


    Dara bellowed as his twin swords glowed with white and ck lights before mming into Fu;


    ng!


    Kaboom!


    A shockwave with the duo at its epicenter as they flew back a few meters with Daranding on his feet with a strong stomp, whilst Fu alsonded on his feet but drew a 2 meter long gully with his feet as he skid backwards¡­


    "Sword Art?" Fu was stunned as he felt all his bones and muscles vibrating intensely like he had dildos for bones¡­


    ''Damn that hurts!'' He thought to himself as he saw two ring scratches on his des;


    "Damn! To think the attack would do this much damage to my des¡­" Fu cursed beneath his breath as he stared at Dara who wrist was aching intensely¡­


    ng! ng!


    Boom! Boom!


    Crash! Crash!


    The First Obun Elder and Ji Long mmed into tree trunks as Su and Cheng looked towards Fu and bellowed;


    "Senior Brother Fu, are you alright!?"


    "What sword art was that!?"


    Cheng also added as they looked towards Fu who was already half exhausted and then looked over to Dara who seemed like he had only warmed up earlier;


    ''How''s that possible!?'' Su''s heart trembled as she watched Dara slowly walk over to Fu;


    ''He should only be at the peak of Meridian Formation Stage, how can he stand up to senior brother who is at 4 Stars!?''

 Chapter 130 - One Vs Three

    "Senior Brother Fu, are you alright!?"


    "What sword art was that!?"


    Cheng also added as they looked towards Fu who was already half exhausted and then looked over to Dara who seemed like he had only warmed up earlier;


    ''How''s that possible!?'' Su''s heart trembled as she watched Dara slowly walk over to Fu;


    ''He should only be at the peak of Meridian Formation Stage, how can he stand up to senior brother who is at 4 Stars!?''


    She thought in bewilderment before bolting towards Dara who was focused on Fu trying to catch him off guard;


    "Look out!"


    Fu bellowed as he saw Dara who had pretended not to have noticed Su''s approach abruptly turn around and bolt towards her;


    Stomp! Whoosh!


    Fu had taken damage from Dara''s sword strike earlier and he knew if he replicated the attack at Su, then she might as well get grievously injured or at least lose a limb as he stomped his feet before bolting towards Su with an even faster speed than Dara¡­


    Cheng also saw this and followed suit as he also approached from behind, and the moment that happened Dara knew that Fu would definitely catch up to him before he gets to Su;


    After all, he had yet to begin cultivation at all whilst these trio were all in the Qi Sea Stage, thus, there would always be disparity in their speed which is powered by Qi and his which is only powered by sheer physical power¡­


    Dara''s brain meridians pulsed with energy as his mind reached a new level of thinking speed;


    He suddenly threw both of his des with immense force towards Su, knowing that she would dodge which she did, but then caught Cheng who wasing from behind her off guard;


    But Cheng managed to rx his muscles as the gravity caused his body to take a quick plunge casing him to manage to dodge both swords, but they left a scar on his cheeks before stabbing into the tree trunk behind him, sting the tree trunk and falling the tree before stabbing into the ground¡­


    With a continuing motion, Dara''s left hand moved to his back and grabbed the new whip they made for him which was vines intertwined with steel which held Qi Stone shards;


    Whoppa!


    Dara swung the whip as it snaked nimbly through the air towards as an unavoidable attack whilst Fu stabbed towards Dara from behind;


    "Trunk Piercer!"


    He screamed as he pierced towards Dara''s lungs from behind, plunging Dara into a situation where he can either forgo his attack and dodge the iing stab, or go on with the attack and get stabbed in the process;


    Crash!


    Shrrrr!


    Bang!


    Cheng crashed miserably into the ground before rolling along the ground and then mming into a tree trunk which broke some of his ribs¡­


    "Ahk!"


    He groaned as he curled into a ball of immense pain¡­


    Dara on the other hand simply yelled as the meridians connecting to his tendons, muscles and bones, pulsed with renewed vigor, pouring more power into his left arm as he shook his hand;


    That little actions sent an abrupt kic energy rippling through the whip which moved like a snake swimming through a river, before coiling around here and binding her like a log¡­


    The whip bind her whilst the ss shards within the whip stabbed into her body as the Qi Stone shards sucked some of her Qi into them before transmitting it into Dara in an instant;


    Dara used the transmitted energy to yank Su over and borrowed the momentum to pull himself further off Fu''s iing stab¡­


    That tactics bought Dara a few breaths as he caught up with Su mid-air and gathered the remainder of the Dark Qi within his body into his palm;


    He rotated mid-air, cing Su in the path of Fu''s iing stab before nting a vicious palm strike into her back;


    "Death Palm!"


    Bang!


    Blergh!


    Whoosh!


    Dara mmed his palm into Su''s back as she instantly threw out a mouthful of blood which sshed into the face of Fu who could no longer disperse his attack, but manage to tilt his swords sideways;


    Puchi! Puchi!


    Fu''s iing attacks stabbed straight into Su''s shoulders, utterly damaging her shoulder de and cor bone, as Dara borrowed the momentum of the palm strike to move even further away, but not before retrieving his whip¡­


    Shrrr! Shrrr!


    Daranded and drew a 5 meter gully between himself as the sound of his feet pushing back soil resounded into the area, whilst the Fu duo who simply plunged to the ground one ontop of the other;


    Bam!


    Dara looked at the miserable trio as he stopped just beside both of his sword which stabbed into the ground¡­


    All these took too long to write but it all happened in less than five seconds¡­


    Dara then looked to the side to find Ji Long and the First Elder unconscious on the ground, before he grabbed both swords from the ground and darted towards the injured trio once again;


    "Su, get up!"


    Fu bellowed when he saw Daraing to finish them off, but when he looked up to Su''s face, he realized she was unconscious;


    ''Screw me sideways!''


    He cursed before rolling on top of Su and then putting one of his hands into the small fanny pack behind him as he whipped out a knife which he threw at Dara¡­


    Dara saw the knife from a mile away, and the moment it was within range, Dara shed his sword towards it looking to smack it away;


    But then Fu''s face abruptly disyed a cunning but venomous grin, as Dara looked closely at the knife only to realize that there was a yellow kind of paper wrapped around its handle with several ink ck scribblings on it¡­


    He then looked back to Fu who then ced two fingers in front of his face and muttered;


    "Katsu!"


    Dara nched in fear but was toote;


    Kaboom!


    A loud explosion wrecked the entire area as a body abruptly flew out of the explosion leaving a trail of blood in the air before mming into a nearby tree trunk with abandon, smashing the tree trunk into bits as the tree fell to the side;


    Cough! Cough!


    Blergh!


    The explosion woke Ji Long and the First Obun Elder in time to see the blood spraying Dara fly out of the point of detonation and smack into the tree which fell to the side as they quickly jumped to their feet and rushed over;


    "Tribe Leader!"

 Chapter 131 - Mysterious Figures

    Kaboom!


    A loud explosion wrecked the entire area as a body abruptly flew out of the explosion leaving a trail of blood in the air before mming into a nearby tree trunk with abandon, smashing the tree trunk into bits as the tree fell to the side;


    Cough! Cough!


    Blergh!


    The explosion woke Ji Long and the First Obun Elder in time to see the blood spraying Dara fly out of the point of detonation and smack into the tree which fell to the side as they quickly jumped to their feet and rushed over;


    "Tribe Leader!"


    Meanwhile¡­


    Within the battle between the Royal Guards and Ji Tribe troops, about 200 Obunsid on the ground without their heads as the Royal Guards finally figured out that it was the only way to stop them froming at them once again after being attacked¡­


    But on the Royal Guard''s side, there were only thirty experts left with about half of them significantly injured and bleeding, whilst some were just taking out the arrows from their limbs¡­


    They have been trying so hard to reach the Ji Tribe archers, but the Obuns simply kept getting in their way like nuisances whilst the archers inflicted damage on them from a safe distance, and there was the Second Obun Elder who had managed to kill about 6 of them already despite all of them being in the Peak Qi Creation Stage¡­


    But just as the archers were about to rain another load of arrows on their enemies, the explosion happened distracting all of them, as three of the Roya Guards grabbed the unconscious King Tian, threw out a smoke screen and fled, leaving the rest to buy them some time¡­


    Fu realized that they were being left behind and looked to Dara who raised his hands at the approaching First Elder and Ji Long before pointing back at Fu and his partners, as the First Elder and Ji Long grabbed their swords and bolted towards Fu with caution as they have seen what that exploding knife had done to their Tribe Leader¡­


    Fu saw this and was also scared as he threw another explosive knife towards the iing duo and another towards the archers who were abruptly caught off guard before following it up with two smoke bombs;


    The First Elder and Ji Long split apart as they dodged the knife only to see itnd in front of Dara as Fu smiled;


    "Katsu!" [It means detonate or explode¡­]


    Kaboom! Kaboom!


    The knife exploded at point nk sending Dara hurtling about thirty meters away with blood all over the ground, as the First Elder and Ji Long gritted their teeth and jumped into the smoke screen;


    But by the time they reached Fu''s location, they were nowhere to be found, except for two ck fanny packs that were left in the ground¡­


    Meanwhile in the other battleground, more than fifty archers who were tribesmen had lost their lives with their limbs, gores and intestines sttered all over the ce as well as another 100 Obuns who jumped towards the exploding knives to contain the explosion and prevent the human tribesmen from getting hurt but was toote eitherways¡­


    The Second Obun Elder also reached King Tian''s location but he was also nowhere to be found, and the rest of the Royal Guards were also gone¡­


    He looked back and realized that there were only about 100 Obuns left and they were all not in good shape and the rest of the fifty archers were also covered in blood of their tribesmen and injured as well;


    But their eyes were somewhat lost as they looked at the remains of their brothers andrades sttered all over the ground with wide eyes¡­


    The First Obun Elder and Ji Long on the other hand ran towards Dara who was beneath dusts and debris, unmoving and battered as they took away the debris over him to check on his injuries¡­


    His mask was cracked and there was blood leaking out of the wailing mouth, but his amour still held intact without as much as a scratch;


    The only injuries they could find on him was his broken arms and legs which were now twisted in odd angles, as well as the brunt marks and the bleedings on the few parts of his body were the amour could not cover like his neck, joints and hands¡­


    Ji Long quickly ced his ears on his chest and heard a fading heartbeat as he screamed for the First Obun Elder who bellowed instructions to the Second Obun Elder to gather the rest of the troops and bring them back to the tribe;


    Then he grabbed the two fanny packs Fu''s group left behind, picked up Dara''s weapons and followed behind Ji Long who had already hoisted Dara onto the mount and was now bolting back towards the tribe¡­


    The Second Obun Elder and the rest of the 150 men left in the troop all rushed after them creating protection as they rushed their Tribe Leader back to the tribe¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    The moment they left, a figure covered with bushes and branches came out of the bush and walked across the battle ground and when it confirmed that everyone was gone he muttered to himself;


    "To think they would choose to resolve the matter this way¡­"


    "Luckily for me I had anticipated this and captured that kid''s parent before forcing him to go deliver my message to the Royal Elders¡­"


    The figure spoke as he walked around the area, bending to pick some debris on the ground and even using a stick to poke some other substances as it kept looking at the entire battleground with beaming smiles as he looked over the craters and bloody remains of experts that decorated the entire area¡­


    "Now, everything else is in their hands, if they like, they should seize this chance I have given them to ughter those three idiots and destroy the teleportation formation like I have advised, and if they like they should mess everything up¡­"


    "As far as everyone is concerned, I am already dead, and now I can move on with my ns without the fear of being found out by anyone¡­" He spoke to himself;


    "But what will you do when you do get found out?"


    A voice abruptly floated towards the Bush Covered Figure who was so calm like he had been expecting it as he turned around to face the owner of the voice and responded...

 Chapter 132 - Massive Unrest Within The Tribe

    "As far as everyone is concerned, I am already dead, and now I can move on with my ns without the fear of being found out by anyone¡­" He spoke to himself;


    "But what will you do when you do get found out?"


    A voice abruptly floated towards the Bush Covered Figure who was so calm like he had been expecting it as he turned around to face the owner of the voice and responded...


    "Then we simply leave take some souvenirs along with us which we will use to point the entire situation towards those guys¡­" The First Figure replied the Second Figure who was just stepping out of the dense foliage;


    "I believe Master will be pleased with how things have panned out so far?"


    The Second Figure who just stepped out of the bush turned towards another part of the bush as a Third Figure stepped out and replied with a feminine voice;


    "Hmph... I am not interested in a petty little throne..."


    "My ambitions is to rule over this, and that idiot had to swear allegiances to mypetitions¡­"


    The First and Second Figure saw their hearts tremble slightly as the conviction and confidence with which the Third Figure just made that statement;


    It was like he was absolutely certain that it was something achievable


    "Well, neither of us is also interested in the throne, the only thing that concerns us are the Qi Stones¡­" The First Figure replied;


    "Tch... Speak for yourself, and don''t lump me together with you..."


    The Second Figure blurted at the First Figure before turning towards the Third Figure;


    "Tch, after stabbing me to your hearts content, you dare bargain with me again?"


    "Are you courting death!?"


    The Third Figure bellowed at the First Figure before letting out two potent coughs;


    "Master, I am very much interested in the throne and i am willing to sacrifice the 50 Tier 1 Qi Stones you have promised me..." The Second Figure sped his hands in front of his head before giving a little bow...


    "Alright, you can have the ''Land Of Light'' when everything is over..."


    The Third Figurer epted the Second Figure''s terms as the First Figure nched in fear of being left out and quickly offered his own terms;


    "Master, I am also willing to trade the fifty Tier 1 Qi Stone mine you promised me for a simr position..." He made a simr bow as the Second Figure who sneered at him for being so shameless;


    "Eh, didn''t you say you weren''t interested in the throne earlier?"


    The Third Figure who the duo referred to as ''Master'' asked with a frown, but the First Figure couldn''t find any excuse so he smartly chose to keep quiet as the Third Figure sighed and added;


    "Alright, it would be unfair to give him the opportunity and deny you of the same, and thus, I will give you an opportunity as well..."


    "I will take the fifty Tier 1 Qi Stone farms and you will be given control over all the Dark Lands, and that is final..." The Third Figure added as the First Figure nched in terror...


    He had thought that since his master had given his partner the Kingdom of Shangri La [Land Of Light] that he would most likely give him the Jok Kingdom, but apparently, he was sorely mistaken, and his master is someone who doesn''t like bargaining with others...


    "Alright, I have left the Kingdom of Shangri La to you two; You will control the Dark Lands and you will control the Land of Light¡­" The Third Figure stated;


    "Then in addition to that, both of you will take the Tier 2 Qi Stone Farms [Qi Creation Stone Farms]; 100 each aspensation"


    The Third Figure more likemanded than stated as the First and Second Figure chorused;


    "Master is truly considerate and benevolent..."


    "Alright, you two should take care of things here, I need to go and take some rest¡­" The Third Figure ordered before he actually vanished from the duo''s sight...


    "Tch, already bossing us around like he owns the already¡­" The First Figure spat through gritted teeth as his partner warned;


    "You had better watch your tongue... Master is benevolent and powerful, and despite suffering such level of damage, he still has the ability to wipe us out with a fart of his, do not trespass if you want to live long..."


    "It''s easy for you to say; after all, you were given the Land of Light and I am stuck with this useless terrain..."


    "Well, you can only me yourself and your luck; after all, I am not the one to scared to state his intentions..." The Second Figure bickered back;


    Then after a bit more discussions, the duo then walked across the battleground to begin their tasks;


    They began to pick up remnants of the battle that just ended which included some arrows, swords and bows which the dead tribesmen had used¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Three hourster¡­


    Rumble! Grumble! Crumble!


    The sound of rushing steps resounded within the bush just outside the tribe gates, as the Second Obun Elder rushed ahead and bellowed for the watch guards to open the gates;


    When the guards saw the state of the handful of men that returned as well as someone being hoisted atop a darting wild beast, they quickly sounded the emergency rm which was one of the horns from one of the two beasts they had ughtered back then¡­


    Instantly, the tribe gates swung open as the tribesmen as well as every other Elder rushed over to the tribe square;


    Elder Smith abandoned his forging and came over leaving his workers to carry on with it, whilst Ji Wang also did the same...


    Ji Chen and Uncle Min also abandoned their tasks as they all rushed over with deep frowns etched on their faces whilst Aunt Lin who was a little far off within therge Farm also rushed over but was bound to arriveter than the rest¡­


    But the moment they got to the square and saw an unconscious Dara being strapped to the back of a wild beast whilst the rest of the troop were also significantly injured, Elder Ting immediately bellowed at her two assistants who rushed back to the clinic to bring a carrier which was made from two steel poles and beast hide¡­


    "Tribe Leader!"


    Some of the tribesmen blurted with extremely mncholic and deep concerns etched on their faces as they all watched Dara being strapped off the beast and then rushed into the clinic;


    "What''s going on here?"


    "Why are you guys injured?"


    "Where is everyone else?"


    "Where is my husband?"


    Aunt Lin who was just rushing over got therete and didn''t see Dara get rushed into the clinic, hence her quick fire questions....

 Chapter 133 - State Of Emergency

    "Tribe Leader!"


    Some of the tribesmen blurted with extremely mncholic and deep concerns etched on their faces as they all watched Dara being strapped off the beast and then rushed into the clinic;


    "What''s going on here?"


    "Why are you guys injured?"


    "Where is everyone else?"


    "Where is my husband?"


    Aunt Lin who was just rushing over got therete and didn''t see Dara get rushed into the clinic, hence her quick fire questions....


    Moreover, the sorry state that the few numbers of the rest of the group were currently in, told her that, nothing went great, right or lucky about the mission;


    "Elder Lin, He is in critical condition and being treated in the clinic at this moment..." Ji Long revealed as Aunt Lin tried to rush over but was stopped by Ji Wang;


    "Elder Wang, what are you doing?"


    "Why are you stopping me from seeing my husband?" Aunt Lin blurted as Ji Wang simply sighed and replied;


    "Elder Lin, we would like you to think things through¡­"


    "Firstly, you will be of no help within that clinic and might even be a distraction that can slow them down, and the repercussion of that action is what we are not willing to tolerate at this time¡­"


    "Secondly, it is not safe for you to also see him in that state as we all need to carry on with our tasks¡­"


    "The enemies might want to use this opportunity to invade out tribe, and if we are all down in morale we would crumbles easier than porous rocks¡­" Ji Wang calmly stated as Aunt Lin saw the rest of the group nod their heads;


    "Then what are you all standing here for!?" She blurted; "Do something or get back to your stations and to your tasks!" Aunt Lin yelled her frustrations at them as all the Elders bowed slightly before replying;


    "Yes, Tribe Lady!" They understood that they weren''t the cause of her frustrations but she simply needed to vent and did it on them and they were d to be able to let her blow of some steam...


    Ji Wang on the other hand was the first to recover hisposure and assume control of the situation;


    "You¡­"


    He called out to the Second Obun Elder;


    "You are the least injured amongst them¡­"


    "You and Elder Chen would take the remaining 1500 soldiers within the tribe and set up a tight defensive perimeter around the tribe¡­"


    "Everyone is within the tribe at this moment, thus, if a mere insect flies past this tribe, I want it dead and want to see its corpse as proof!" Ji Wang ordered;


    "Yes, Elder Wang!"


    Hierarchy has to be respected and since Ji Wang was the third in charge after Dara and Aunt Lin, they took his orders like it was from the Tribe Leader himself¡­


    Ji Chen and the Second Obun Elder moved quickly and in little to no time, the store was opened and all the 1500 soldiers [1000 Obuns & 500 Tribesmen] were all armed as they marched out of the tribe and surrounded it on all sides;


    The watch guards were also on full alerts and the gates were shut tightly leaving the troops outside to defend any possible invasions to their deaths¡­


    The Ring of Fire was set aze and once the entire tribe was on full security mode, Ji Wang looked to the tribesmen in the area andmanded;


    "Take all the injured to the clinic and have the rest of the nurses suspend their works for the moment and treat them!"


    "We''re on it, Elder Wang!"


    Ji Wang then sent every other tribesmen that wasn''t a worker or in security duty back into their residences and warned them to keep their doors shut until they are told to step out, and in little to no time, the entire tribe was eerily quiet like a deserted and deste area¡­


    "Elder Smith continue with your work and have another stronger battle amour ready for the tribe leader!" Ji Wangmanded;


    "I would love to Elder Wang, but I would need to study the extent of the damage on the amour as well as what caused the damages before I can get an idea on how stronger I need to make the next one¡­"


    Elder Smith replied and they didn''t need to wait for too long as a healer brought Dara''s bloodied amour, as well as his cracked mask over, and Ji Long finally added;


    "I saw what happened¡­ I can tell you everything you need to know¡­"


    "Sorry for troubling you, Elder Long¡­" Elder Smith spoke as the panting Ji Long waved his hands to signify that it was no problem before he then left with Elder Smith back to the forgery¡­


    Then the First Obun Elder looked to the sobbing Aunt Lin and approached her;


    "Tribe Lady, these were all we could obtain from our battle with the Royal Guards¡­"


    He said as he tendered the Dara''s weapon as well as the two fanny packs to Aunt Lin who looked at him in shock;


    "Did you just say Royal Guards!?" Ji Wang blurted in fear as he looked to Uncle Min who also looked back at him with just as much shock as he was experiencing;


    "Alright, go get yourself taken care of¡­" Ji Wang ordered the First Obun Elder who was then led towards the clinic by the healer that brought the amour over¡­


    "We will discuss the issue of the Royal Guards once the Tribe Leader is fit to move around..." Ji Wang added speaking to Aunt Lin and Uncle Min


    "I want you two protecting the clinic at all times till he is fit to move around safely..."


    "Allow no one in or out¡­" Shemanded as Ji Wang and Uncle Min bowed;


    "Yes, Tribe Lady¡­" The duo bowed slightly before moving towards the clinic to begin their guard duty whilst Aunt Lin took the mount back to the den where she fed it water and some food before leaving it to rest¡­


    She then returned to the teau to bring a new set of outfit for Dara who she believed would have been stripped naked at this point¡­

 Chapter 134 - But What!?

    "I want you two protecting the clinic at all times till he is fit to move around safely..."


    "Allow no one in or out¡­" Shemanded as Ji Wang and Uncle Min bowed;


    "Yes, Tribe Lady¡­"


    The duo bowed slightly before moving towards the clinic to begin their guard duty whilst Aunt Lin took the mount back to the den where she fed it water and some food before leaving it to rest¡­


    She then returned to the teau to bring a new set of outfit for Dara who she believed would have been stripped naked at this point¡­


    But the moment she entered his residence, she first staggered and fell to the wall before sliding down to the ground and then breaking down is fearful tears¡­


    With the way they prevented her from seeing Dara and initiated a ''state of emergency'' told her that Dara returned in an extremely bad shape, and after a few minutes she managed to return to her feet and entered his room where she rummaged around to grab some outfits for him¡­


    She also gathered some food and fresh water as she rushed back towards the clinic¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Within the Clinic¡­


    "Master, his condition is currently stable¡­"


    "Good¡­ You, administer some pain resistant to him as well as that sleeping potion¡­"


    Elder Ting received report from her senior student and gave orders to the junior who simply turned to the other part of the room where a shelf which was as long as the entire 10 meter wall filled from top to bottom with several kinds of potions stood¡­


    Her eyes darted around the shelf as she found the two potions she was looking for, and quickly rushed over to the unconscious Dara before opening his mouth which instantly leaked with blood that poured into her hands as she froze¡­


    "Oi! Little Kin, what''re you doing, get on with it!"


    The senior student saw her junior staring at her bloodied hands and trembling in fright as she snapped her out of her daze with a shout;


    "Aye!" The little girl replied in a fearful, trembling, timid tone as she ced the potion bottle on Dara''s lips before tilting it slightly¡­


    "Don''t forget to prop his head up a little to allow the liquid flow into him quicker¡­" The senior added as she moved over to Elder Ting who was preparing some bandages and ointment and whispered into her ears;


    "He seemed to be suffering from grievous internal injuries¡­"


    "Should I prepare ourtest invention?" She asked;


    "Yes¡­ Use it!" Elder Ting replied;


    "But we haven''t been able to test it on internal injuries yet¡­" The disciple reminded;


    "It doesn''t matter, we have to do whatever we can to keep him alive otherwise we are doomed¡­" Elder Ting replied but still saw some hesitation in her disciple''s eyes;


    "We have tested it on external wounds already and they seem to work out fine, so there is a greater chance it will work!"


    She yelled at her disciple who also flurried over to the other side of the room where several wooden jars were ced¡­


    She dipped her hand into one of them and took it out, only for her junior to see her seniors hands filled with numerous gooey worms squirming around¡­


    "It doesn''t matter, we have to do whatever we can to keep him alive otherwise we are doomed¡­" Elder Ting replied but still saw some hesitation in her disciple''s eyes;


    "We have tested it on external wounds already and they seem to work out fine, so there is a greater chance it will work!"


    She yelled at her disciple who also flurried over to the other side of the room where several wooden jars were ced¡­


    She dipped her hand into one of them and took it out, only for her junior to see her seniors hands filled with numerous gooey worms squirming around¡­


    Then the Senior Disciple took it to the Younger Disciple and mixed the works with the anesthetic potion they were about to feed Dara;


    "Senior Zhao, I thought those were for sealing external wounds!?" The Younger Disciple asked in terror;


    "Why are you feeding it to the Tribe Leader?"


    "Those arerva who needs a little of human blood before evolving into a new species of wild butterfly we just discovered¡­"


    "They suck a little blood and excrete some sort of coagnts that is actually healthy to humans themselves¡­"


    "They will seek the parts of the human body where blood ising out of the most and that it where they will feed¡­"


    "I have mixed some of them with the potion to allow them ease of ess to wherever in his body is bleeding internally¡­"


    "They will find it, feed on those spaces and excrete the coagnts over this tear, rupture or cut like they are trying to save their food source from wasting¡­"


    "Then that way, our patient''s life could be saved, and once he just awakens, we will feed him something that would make him excrete the all¡­"


    The Senior Disciple Zhao exined as the Junior Disciple also nodded signifying that she gets the point¡­


    Elder Ting also saw this and she could not help but give a smirk of pride;


    These were her disciples and not only were they shrewdly intelligent and eager to learn, but they are also good girls with decent morals¡­


    It was this atmosphere of relief that Aunt Lin walked in to find;


    "Tribe Lady!" Elder Ting instantly greeted;


    "Eh? Un?"


    The Junior Disciple seemed stunned and forgot to greet on time as her Senior Sister Zhao pinched her arms;


    "~Eiy~ No Fair¡­"


    She cried out in pain as the Senior Disciple bent her heads towards Aunt Lin and that was when she realized that there was a third party within the room;


    "Eh? Tribe Lady!" The Junior Disciple nched at first before throwing her head into a bow as she greeted¡­


    "How is he!?" Aunt Lin asked with a quaking voice which indicated how much she had been crying;


    "He is stable, mydy¡­"


    "We just applied an antidote that would help stop the internal bleeding¡­"


    "Do you think he would survive this?" Aunt Lin asked with pleading eyes;


    "Do you want the truth?" Elder Ting asked as Aunt Lin nodded her head;


    "We are not sure..."


    "But the best we are hoping at this point is to at least get him intoa; at least by then we will still have a hope of him recovering¡­ But-"


    "But what?"

 Chapter 135 - Negative Energy

    "How is he!?" Aunt Lin asked with a quaking voice which indicated how much she''d been crying;


    "He is stable, mydy¡­"


    "We just applied an antidote that would help stop the internal bleeding¡­"


    "Do you think he would survive this?" Aunt Lin asked with pleading eyes;


    "Do you want the truth?" Elder Ting asked as Aunt Lin nodded her head;


    "We are not sure.. But the best we are hoping at this point is to at least get him intoa; at least by then we will still have a hope of him recovering¡­ But-"


    "But what?"


    "But he has an extremely slim chance of even slipping intoa..."


    "Whoever it was that attacked him obviously used some sort of explosion, because we found some yed flesh, scorched skin, and there was a lot of internal bleeding¡­"


    "But we figure the next seven hours would determine his fate; by then, if he manages to stay alive, we will do everything in our blood and sweat to make sure we save him¡­" Elder Ting revealed;


    "Can I see him?" She asked as tears began to roll down her eyes again;


    She felt really awful and a little guilty about everything;


    Not only as she dressed him today, but she had also imed he looked a lot like the heroes of her fantasies, and she had given him what her mother imed was a good luck charm whist telling him toe back home, else she touches herself;


    But not only did was he currently stark naked here, he was also looking nothing like the heroes in her fantasies, and the charm only seemed to have brought him potent bad luck, but finally, she gets to touch herself tonight;


    Everything she did when he was leaving seemed to have done nothing other than to jinx him and almost take his life¡­


    She felt guilty to some extent;


    How would he feel when he awakens and realize these things she was currently thinking?


    Would he flee for his dear life?


    Or would he simply break up with her and forever ignore her?


    All these were questions running through Aunt Lin''s mind as she wept, and to add fuel to the fire; with the way everyone had been denying her from seeing him, it made her feel more like a criminal being prevented from a crime scene she had been suspected to havemitted, and it was not a good feeling at all;


    "He is in a critical state at the moment and we don''t want disturbance around him, or any form of negative emotions and energy¡­"


    Elder Ting sighed as she politely declined Aunt Lin who had to drop his clothes in there before leaving with rippling tears¡­


    "~Hu~" Elder Ting sighed as she walked up to Dara''s bandaged and strewn body;


    "Young Lord, for the sake of the tribe, please return to us, we still need your protection in here¡­"


    "We might seem like adults and even more so with our Elder Title, but that''s only on the surface; we all draw our strength from you¡­"


    "Your very deeds and aplishments at such a tender age is why we all believe in you¡­"


    "It is from the thought of having you on our side that makes us believe in the bright future of this tribe; you are the one who we draw our mental and emotional strength from..."


    "You are the water to this sprout of a vige; If you leave us now, the tribe would have no chance of reaching its peak potential in the future¡­" Elder Ting spoke softly at the unconscious Dara¡­


    The two disciples on the other hand have be mncholic, thinking of the sheer sadness they would get to lose someone of his character, caliber, aplishments and talent¡­


    There are few people on the that could achieve all that Dara had achieved in the space of three years [since he left the Sang Vige], not to mentions holding the survivors from the vige back then together and ensuring they do not wander off or get lost within the Dark Lands¡­


    He had also saved them from Obuns whilst strangely doing something to get the Obuns on his side¡­


    Then there is the people he saved from the Qi Stone Farms, and the fact that the transformation he has brought to this tribe in terms of infrastructure, power and value alone is beyond the limits of most men, and he did this all at a tender age of ten¡­


    What would happen if such a person managed to stay and lead the tribe for another ten more years; when his potential would be soaring to his peak¡­


    Or if they are lucky and he managed to lead them for 20 years?


    Though they might not be in the same vein as the royalties, but they were sure the tribe would be controlling the entire Dark and Grey Lands by then; and bothndsbined are even greater than the Land of Light¡­


    Thus they all felt a sense of strength whenever they see Dara, and if he was to die at this point, it would be an absolute morale breaker, because even the next most talented Ji Wang was also being inspired by Dara''s presence¡­


    It was even Uncle Min and Aunt Lin that felt it the most because they knew how his past was, the condition he was in when they first met him, the quality and value he had added to their lives when he started living in their lives¡­


    They have seen him improve himself, themselves and everything around them; hell, the entire tribe had a 2000+ poption and a ten year old was the managing the entire thing well;


    "No, he is more talented than all men¡­"


    This was the sentence every tribesmen arrived at as they thought of the possibilities of losing their source of hope, strength and happiness; Dara¡­


    It showed just how bad Dara''s condition was when they brought him in, and one can only imagine how they would feel when Elder Long or the Obun Elders reveal that a bomb actually went off at him from point nk range¡­


    Meanwhile¡­.


    Several Miles away from the Ji Tribe¡­


    A carriage was currently speeding towards the Royal Court as the guards at the main gate began to hear not only the sound of galloping beasts, but also human footsteps; Instantly, the guards took to their positions, readied their minds and look towards the source of the noise, preparing for battle¡­

 Chapter 136 - His Last Words

    It showed just how bad Dara''s condition was when they brought him in, and one can only imagine how they would feel when Elder Long or the Obun Elders reveal that a bomb actually went off at him from point nk range¡­


    Meanwhile¡­.


    Several Miles away from the Ji Tribe¡­


    A carriage was currently speeding towards the Royal Court as the guards at the main gate began to hear not only the sound of galloping beasts, but also human footsteps;


    Instantly, they abruptly took to their positions, readied their mind and look towards the source of the noise, preparing for battle¡­


    Whatever was invading the Royal Court, they were ready to fight it to their deaths¡­


    "Captain, what is it?"


    One of the soldiers on top of the wall asked his superior who was a bald headed man with a crisscrossed scar at that bald point which would make one to believe that it is the scar that caused theck of hair on the man''s head;


    "I don''t know but it ising from the jungle up ahead, and it seems like we might be having a beast horde in our hands¡­"


    "Beast horde?"


    "But we have never had that in our time¡­ I have only seen it once in our history books, but that was a long time ago¡­"


    "Well, how am I supposed to know, it''s not like we were given a special training for it¡­ But we will just treat it like we are having an invasion from enemies¡­"


    The scar head captain blurted at his vice as they drew their sword and prepares themselves mentally for a fierce battle, but all of a sudden;


    "Pen-, ¨Cee gades!"


    "Unh!?"


    "Did you hear that?" The Vice Captain abruptly blurted at his captain who squeezed his face and strained his hears in a bid to hear whatever it was the vice was asking him;


    "Hear what!?" He asked;


    "Pune -ee -gades!?" A somewhat distant voice floated over as the captain frowned;


    "Pun the gades!?" He asked his vice whose eyes widened into extreme shock;


    "Open the gates!" He bellowed as he ran towards the gates to push it open;


    "Ah- Vice Mo, are you out of your mind!"


    The captain nched in shock as he tried to grab onto his Vice Captain who for some strange reasons wants to open the gates just when the rushing roar of invading footsteps was being heard;


    But before he could grab his assistant, the yell came again;


    "Open The Gates!"


    "Oh? Who is that idiot giving us orders from outside the- Un?"


    "Isn''t that the Royal Carriage!?" The Captain was stunned when Royal Carriage finally spilled out of the jungle in the distance;


    "Open the gates!"


    He heard again, clearly this time as he realized that not only was it a Royal Carriage; it was actually the King''s Carriage!


    "Open the gates! Open the gates!"


    The Captain yelled to the sky in quick session as all the soldiers in the area, rushed down the wall to the gate before helping Vice Captain Mo to push open the massive iron gates;


    Jia!


    Galloping! Galloping! Galloping!


    The sound of the galloping mounts pulling the King''s carriage kept increasing until it enter through the gates and without as much as a greeting bolted towards the main mansion¡­


    The soldiers guarding the Royal Court''s gates were all stunned when they saw the way the carriage sped past them as well as the panic that was on the face of the Royal Guard driving it¡­


    Then a handful of Royal Guards who were bleeding from different parts of their body managed to drag themselves through the gates of the Royal Court which mmed behind them, before they then gave a sigh of relief and slumped to the ground;


    Bam! Dam! Gam!


    They were utterly exhausted as their adrenaline finally wore out and they began to feel all the pains in all the wounds in their bodies;


    "Get us to the Healers!"


    The Royal Guards pleaded as they were utterly exhausted from running nonstop whilst being injured for the past three hours in the fear that they were being tailed...


    The guards at the gate instantly took the injured guard towards the Royal Court Clinic¡­


    Along the way to the clinic, they found no form of obstruction or hindrance since the entire road was devoid of any humans, but probably because they were just too worried about their injuries or the intense battle they just had, no one truly paid any attention whatsoever to the fact that the Royal Court were devoid of people or why all the gates of all the houses on either sides of them had their doors and windows locked, but they kept moving on into the clinic¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Within the Left Grand Elder''s Mansion¡­ In here were about a dozen elders gathered together around a young boy who had the que on the Left Grand Elder in hand; One of the Elders looked to everyone in the room before looking towards the young boy with a cid expression;


    "Alright, we are all here¡­ So what is the message that the Left Grand Elder have for us?" The Elder asked;


    "Hisst words; Destroy the formation¡­ Kill them all¡­ They are injured¡­ The three intruders¡­" The boy answered;


    "What?"


    "What formation?"


    "Who are we killing?"


    "Who is injured?" Several Elders began to whisper amongst themselves as they neither knew what the Left Grand Elder was trying to convey;


    "Elder Tun, what do you think Left is trying to say?"


    "How am I supposed to know?"


    "He might as well be the only one who could trante it¡­"


    "That would be impossible, didn''t you hear the id say those were hisst words?"


    "No wonder it sounds like a puzzle; after all, whenever one was dying and has a lot to say, they would simply summarize everything into a few words and expect everyone else to figure it out¡­"


    Other Elders were busy passing words to one another and failed to notice the three other Elders who were quiet in thought, and about a few minutester, one of these three Elder''s moved over to the other two and asked in a low tone;

 Chapter 137 - Intense Brainstorming

    "No wonder it sounds like a puzzle; after all, whenever one was dying and has a lot to say, they would simply summarize everything into a few words and expect everyone else to figure it out¡­"


    Other Elders were busy passing words to one another and failed to notice the three other Elders who were quiet in thought, and about a few minutester, one of these three Elder''s moved over to the other two and asked in a low tone;


    "Do you know about any formation?"


    "There are formations everywhere within this Royal Court from protective to energy gathering and all sorts which one are we supposed to destroy?"


    "If these were is dying words, I don''t think he''d be referring to ordinary formations¡­"


    "But the question still remains; which formation are we destroying?"


    "How am I supposed to know¡­"


    "Perhaps, if we decode the rest of the message we''d be able to get an understanding of what he was about to say¡­"


    The trio discussed amongst themselves, but not long after, someone abruptly barged into the room and froze in shock when he saw about a dozen Elders gathered together inside the house of a Grand Elder¡­


    All the hair on the guards body rose to their roots as he began to abruptly feel like he had just barged into a conspiracy meeting, and the way the Elders expressions were one of deep thinking, scrunch brows, contemting looks only served to buttress his thoughts, but what really broke the egg was the angry look they were all currently giving him¡­


    The looks made him believe one hundred percent that he had barged into a conspiracy meeting and this made him fail to realize that he had been kneeling at the entrance for a few seconds too long without speaking and that only made the Elders'' frowns deepen and was now spurring their rage because the guard had interrupted their thoughts at the point where they were just making breakthroughs in decoding the message¡­


    But one of the Elders bellowed the guard to reality and angrily asked;


    "Don''t you have manners at all; barging into a Grand Elder''s home without announcing your arrival first!?"


    "I-I''m Sorry Elder Wong¡­ I didn''t mean to barge into the Grand Elder''s home-"


    "But you have done just that, and you know what the penalty for that is¡­ So, how would you like to die!?"


    The Elder lifted his head a bit before staring down at the Guard with a murderous and venomous gaze, causing the Guard to break out in cold sweat as he began to feel the aura of a guillotine hanging over his neck;


    "Unh¡­ Venerable Elders, please forgive my impetuousness¡­ I will never barge into a Grand Elder''s home if it is not for an important matter¡­"


    The Guard quickly mmed his forehead into the ground as he pleaded for his poor little life; The one of the three Elders who were calmly discussing amongst themselves earlier stood up and walked towards the guard releasing his 4 Star Qi Sea Stage cultivation, stunning the rest of his colleagues to the core;


    "What!?"


    "When did Elder Jin reach the 4 Star Qi Sea Stage?"


    "I don''t know¡­ This is the first time we are seeing him outside in thest six months¡­"


    "But doesn''t that mean he is now qualified to be a Grand Elder?"


    "I guess so¡­"


    "Then now that the Left Grand Elder is dead, doesn''t that mean?"


    "Are you saying what I think you are saying?"


    "Yeah, I think so¡­ The three of them have been discussing secretly amongst themselves, and I believe teamwork could also be regarded as a form of formation¡­"


    "You don''t mean the three of them conspired to kill the Left Grand Elder and then have him take over the seat?"


    "That''s what I think, ande to think of it, the other two are already at Peak 3 Stars for about 5 months now, and should they also break through, they could remove the Right Grand Elder from the way and thenbine to take out his Highness who is only at the 6 Star Qi Sea Stage thest time I checked¡­" About 7 Elders gathered around as they whispered to themselves;


    "You have spoken reasonable Elder Tun, perhaps it is the teamwork amongst the trio the unlucky Left Grand Elder was telling us to destroy¡­"


    "Perhaps, he had figured out their ns and they decided to silence him for that; after all the 4 Star Qi Sea stage Left Grand Elder wouldn''t be able to handle two 3 Stars and one 4 Star Qi Sea stage expert all by himself¡­"


    Whilst these people overthought their theories and whispered amongst themselves, the Elder with the 4 Star Qi Sea stage cultivation finally arrived in front of the Peak Qi Sea stage guard who was already sweating bullets, with almost all of his muscles bulging and straining as he tried all his best to keep himself from lying t on the ground¡­


    The aura of the Elder pressed down on his weak 7 Star Qi Creation stage like an elephant stomping on a cicada, it was grueling and gruesome, but he endured;


    "So, for what good reasons have you barged in here?"


    The Elder was now about ten steps away from the guard who was currently feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders;


    "I -tss -out -is -ness" The guards words were breaking as the Elder took another step forward, doubling the pressure the Guard was feeling;


    "It''s his highness!"


    The guard yelled under the pressure and the moment the Elder heard the word ''Highness'' his aura vanished with a puff as the Guard broke down lying t on the ground facing upward as he saw the Elder standing over him looking straight down at him;


    "What is it about his highness?" The Elder asked, calmly this time;


    "His highness and three mysterious figures have returned from their conquest¡­" The Guard panted severely;


    "Okay?"


    "But they are all severely injured, and of all the Royal Guards that left with them, only about ten returned, and they are also grievously injured¡­"


    All the Elders gasped in shock when they heard what the guard had just said albeit for different reasons;


    "To think they have also taken down his highness¡­" The seven overthinking Elders continued;


    "But if they were all here when this happened, does that mean they have outside help?" One asked¡­

 Chapter 138 - Deciphering The Message

    "His highness and those mysterious figures have returned from their conquest¡­" The Guard panted severely;


    "Okay?"


    "But they''re all severely injured, and of all the Royal Guards that left with them, only about ten returned, and they are also grievously injured¡­"


    All the Elders gasped in shock when they heard what the guard had just said albeit for different reasons;


    "To think they have also taken down his highness¡­" The seven overthinking Elders continued;


    "But if they were all here when this happened, does that mean they have outside help?" One asked¡­


    "That is most likely the case¡­" Another answered;


    The Elder in front of the Guard looked over to his other two partners and saw them nod back at him;


    "Alright, you may leave¡­"


    "But the next time you do not properly announce your presence before barging into the house of even an Elder, that same day would be thest you will ever witness, am I clear?" The Elder asked;


    "Crystal, venerable Elder¡­"


    The Royal Guard responded before bolting out of the residence with wobbly feet which had lost their strength from sheer trepidation¡­


    The Elder walked back to his partners;


    "Could the invaders Left was talking about be the mysterious figures?" He asked as he returned to his seat;


    "Most definitely¡­ There are no one else within the Royal Court that we do not know about and that leaves only those three¡­"


    "Yeah¡­ Though, we might know them in person, we don''t really know their origins or their motives, and if they were the one who ughtered the Left Grand Elder, then that definitely makes them invaders¡­" The other two partners chipped in with their thoughts;


    "Moreover, the fact that they are currently injured, and the Left Grand Elder also stated it means that he most likely caused them to suffer significant damages before they could kill him¡­"


    "Sure¡­ I believe he is trying to tell us to kill them all before they recover¡­"


    "Perhaps, we might not be any match for them when they have fully recovered¡­"


    "But what is it with the formation though?"


    "Perhaps, we will find out when we get there¡­"


    "Yeah, they would most likely beying low within the King''s Chambers, biding their time till they fully recover¡­"


    "Alright, then¡­ I guess we should go check things out¡­" The three Elders discussed amongst themselves before the Elder who met with the Guard earlier cleared his throat to get their attentions;


    "Everyone, please can I have your attention¡­" He said as all the Elders finally looked towards him as he began to exin everything they understood about the message from the Left Grand Elder¡­


    Furthermore, the more he exined, the clearer the situation became, but for the Elders who had already overthought everything; though, they considered his exnations, but didn''t fully believe it as they still held the belief that the three Elders were working in tandem towards a certain purpose which to them seems shady¡­


    "So, that is the conclusion we arrived at afterparing and contrasting the message from the Grand Elder with the news the Royal Guard just brought to us¡­"


    "But just to be sure, Elder Bai, Elder Du and I would head over first to confirm our suspicions, and if it happens to be false and the King uses us, then you can bear witness for us and help us out of our predicament¡­"


    "But if it happens to be as we have suspected, then I will create a massive explosion to notify you all, so that you cane provide support for us¡­"


    The Elder finished his exnation as the rest of the Elders nodded their heads inpliance, whilst the seven overthinking Elders discussed amongst themselves, before Elder Tao spoke for the group;


    "Alright Elder Dong, but I and Elder Fei follow you in whilst the rest wait outside the King''s chambers and not any farther off¡­" He added as Elder Dong nodded his head;


    ''Hmph¡­ You want to go in alone so you can finish up everything before we know right?''


    ''Like we will allow you to do that, Hmph!''


    Elder Tao thought to himself whilst the Elder Dong trio stepped out of the Left Grand Elder''s residence, armed themselves with their swords and finally marched towards the King''s mansion¡­


    On getting there, they met some guards who tried to stop them, but the Elders who have been chosen to stand outside the chambers simply moved ahead and pinned the guards down whilst Elder Dong and the remaining four Elders entered the mansion, and arrived at the Throne Hall¡­


    "Can you hear that?"


    "Hear what?"


    "There''s nothing here¡­"


    "That''s exactly my point¡­ No guards inside, no healers, no servants hurrying around¡­"


    "So that begs the question-"


    "Where did all of them go and what are they doing?" Elder Tao was the one whopleted Elder Dong''s sentence;


    "Alright¡­ Elder Bai and Elder Fei, check the rest of the residence¡­"


    "Elder Tao, Elder Du, follow me to the King''s courtyard behind the residence¡­" Elder Dong spoke as they split up and headed in different directions¡­


    In less than a minute, the Elder Dong trio were already at the courtyard, and as fate would have it, there were just in time to see a mysterious figure they had never seen before activating a massive, mysterious formation within the perg in the courtyard;


    "Is that the formation we were told to destroy?" Elder Tao looked to Elder Dong and Elder Du who just heard the voice of King Tian from a corner iin the courtyard;


    "Scribe, why is it taking too long?" King Tian asked lethargically;


    He was lying on the ground with his head propped up with a small stone as his bloodied robes stuck to his body, and the gaping hole in his chest still trickling out blood as the Dark Qi Dara infused into the arrow prevented the blood from clothing, the wound from healing, and the King from recovering¡­


    "It is done, your highness¡­ We have used a total of fifteen Qi Sea stage Qi Stones¡­"


    The old man replied as wind began to whip around the area and the runes on the mysterious formation began to light up one after the other;

 Chapter 139 - Mass Damage!

    He was lying on the ground with his head propped up with a small stone as his bloodied robes stuck to his body, and the gaping hole in his chest still trickling out blood as the Dark Qi Dara infused into the arrow prevented the blood from clothing, the wound from healing, and the King from recovering¡­


    "It is done, your highness¡­ We have used a total of fifteen Qi Sea stage Qi Stones¡­"


    The old man replied as wind began to whip around the area and the runes on the mysterious formation began to light up one after the other;


    "My Lords and my Lady, the formation is prepared¡­ Safe Journey, we will be awaiting your return when you have fully recovered¡­"


    It was in this moment that the Elder Dong trio realized that there were other figures present within the courtyard as well;


    Then they saw three cloaked figures walk out from behind a patch of tall flowers, approaching the formation with two of them barely able to walk, hanging their arms around the necks of the third figure amongst them, who was trying all his possible best to continue moving;


    "So it''s true¡­" Elder Tao''s eyes widened as they all stepped into the courtyard;


    "Your Highness, doing such shady things behind the backs of all your Elders and Grand Elders is unbing of the King that you are supposed to be, don''t you think?"


    Elder Dong spoke as he gazed at the formation which was still greedily absorbing the Qi in the QI Stones ced at its center whilst the wind in the area continued to increase in intensity;


    "Tch¡­ Worm, will this be a problem!?"


    Fu asked with a lethargic but solemn expression as he looked towards the Elder Dong trio who already had their hands on the hilts of their swords;


    "Elder Dong, what do you think you are do-!? *Cough!* *Cough!*"


    King Tian bellowed but before he could finish his statement, his internal injury abruptly ruptured as he coughed out two mouthful of fresh blood before blood began to rapidly trickle out of his wound¡­


    "Your highness!" The Scribe frantically called out as he tried to rush over before King Tian held up his hand, halting the old man in his steps;


    "Scribe, please settle things here¡­" King Tian managed to add before losing consciousness;


    He had lost a lot of blood during the battle and there was a hole in his heart which made it extremely difficult for him to breather, not to even talk of speaking or making unnecessary gestures, and he was trying to ensure the safe return of the Fu trio, but his bellow earlier had made matters worse hence his falling out of consciousness¡­


    "Elder Tao, we will leave the destruction of that formation to you¡­"


    "Oh, I guarantee that¡­" Elder Tao replied Elder Dong;


    "Elder Du, use everything in your power to hold back those injured trio and try to buy as much time as possible for Elder Tao¡­"


    Elder Du didn''t say anything, but the manner with which he drew out his sword spoke volumes as the duo moved towards the formation and the Fu trio, whilst the Scribe who just finished checking up on King Tian to ensure that he was still alive tried to dash towards the formation, but Elder Dong appeared before him;


    "I don''t know who you are, and neither do I know what you want with or are doing with him, but for now, I am not allowing you close to that formation¡­"


    Elder Dong solemnly spoke as the old man gave a slight chuckle before bringing out a small dagger that glistened with a unique mysterious color which seemed to be the blood residue of whatever or whoever fell prey to that dagger prior to today¡­


    Then the old scribe chuckled;


    "Hehe¡­ You think you have what it takes to stop me?"


    "Hmph!"


    Elder Dong snorted as he appeared in front of the old scribe in two slow but mysteriously fast steps which slightly caught the Old Scribe off-guard;


    "Frostbite sh!"


    Elder Dong bellowed as the Old Scribe followed suit;


    "Shadow Piercer!"


    Whoosh!


    ng!


    The duo collided ferociously sending sparks flying all over the ce as Elder Tao arrived in front of the formation;


    "Tch! Su¡­ Cheng¡­ Lie there for a bit, everything would be over in a sh!"


    Fu was almost growling with red eyes as he drew his twin swords and bolted towards Elder Du who leisurely watched him advance, and when Fu got within range, he grinned and swung his hand forward;


    "Hmph! Of course I am not so stupid to fight you head on¡­"


    Elder Du chuckled as Fu''s eyes widened in shock as he saw five lit dynamites heading for towards him;


    ''Tch¡­ I can''t even dodge them, and neither can I block them all¡­''


    ''Damn you lowly worms!''


    Fu cursed in his head as he sheathed his swords, lurch to an abrupt halt before whipping out a fan;


    "Die!"


    He screamed as he aggressively waved the hand fan;


    "Wind Scythes!"


    He bellowed as fresh blood burst out of his mouth;


    Whoosh!


    Skreein!


    Wind des burst forth from the fan as it mmed into the dynamites sending them back towards Elder Du who was absolutely caught off-guard;


    Kaboom!


    Splurt!


    Elder Du was sted several meters away from the point of explosion as he threw out mouthfuls upon mouthfuls of fresh blood before mming miserably into the wall of the King''s chambers, with scorched clothes and several third degree burns on his face and exposed body parts¡­


    Another one of the also dropped right beneath the squatting Elder Tao;


    Kaboom!


    Elder Tao wasunched about fifty meters into the air;


    "Ahk!"


    He spat out a mouthful of fresh blood and as he was dropping back to the ground, he saw one arm and one leg descending just above him, and from what he could see, they looked pretty much like his, and it was in that moment he looked at himself and realized that the acrobatic limbs he was seeing were actually his¡­


    ''Am I truly going to die here?''


    The unfortunate Elder Tao thought to himself, and in the next instant, all the pain from the massive st caught up and assaulted all his senses as he instantaneously cked out, beforending with a loud ''Bang!''

 Chapter 140 - Chengs Sacrifice

    "Ahk!"


    He spat a mouthful of fresh blood and as he was dropping back to the ground, he saw one arm and one leg descending just above him, and from what he could see, they looked pretty much like his, and it was in that moment he looked at himself and realized that the acrobatic limbs he was seeing were actually his¡­


    ''Am I truly going to die here?'' He thought to himself, and in the next instant, all the pain from the massive st caught up and assaulted all his senses as he instantaneously cked out, beforending with a very loud ''Bang!''


    Meanwhile¡­


    The third dynamite dropped just between the thighs of the unconscious King Tian, and just as the Old Scribe saw this, he managed to narrowly extricate himself by jabbing his dagger towards Elder Dong''s face;


    Then as Elder Dong raised his sword to block the attack, he saw the leg of Old Scribes heading straight for his groin, and since he could not maneuver in time to block the iing shameless attack, he was forced to leap backwards about four steps¡­


    The Old Scribe quickly used that opening and bolted towards King Tian, or to be more precise, the dynamite between his thighs whose wick had almost burn out;


    Chink!


    The sound of metal cutting into concrete floor resounded within the courtyard as the Old Scribe sighed in relief whilst looking at the dynamite wick in his hand which he had managed to sever on time, but just as his sigh ended;


    Krruuu!


    The sound of something rolling on the concrete floor floated into the Old Scribe''s ears, and just as he looked down at what it was, he instantly nched in fear when he realized that it was a dynamite that the wick just burnt out right in front of him;


    "Next time, make sure not to forget your opponent except if they are already dead¡­" Elder Dong spoke with a grin as the Old Scribe bellowed;


    "You-"


    Kaboom!


    The dynamite gave him no time for long speech as blood and gore was sent flying into the air before sttering to the ground like rain; but strangely, when everything came down, there were two left arms and pieces of two different cloths on the ground;


    "Eh¡­ Did that old goat wear one cloth on top of another?"


    Elder Dong asked himself in bewilderment as he made to head over to the formation, but just after he took a single step, his leg froze to the spot as he fearfully turned his head to look behind him where only the lower half of what was formerly King Tian sat, with blood spurting out;


    ''What did I just do!?''


    Elder Dong''s mind was in chaos as the rest of the Elders waiting outside and the guards they were holding back all rushed in and were also stunned silly when they saw the sheer amount of blood and gore sttered everywhere;


    What used to be a very serene, rxing and peaceful courtyard was now looking like the very bowels of hell;


    "Is that King Tian!?"


    One of the Elders that just stormed in blurted as his colleagues also looked over and all of a sudden;


    Blergh! Blergh! Blergh!


    Several of these Elders bowed their heads as they retched their guts out shooting projectiles disgust ion the ground;


    "Who did this!?"


    Vice Captain Mo of the Royal Guards asked with a solemn expression as Elder Dong instantly realized the repercussion of what just happened as he instantly pointed to Fu who was just helping hisrades into the formation which was just only about three seconds away from activating;


    "Hmph! Get them!"


    Vice Mo bellowed as he led the way byunching himself towards Fu who gazed towards the iing Vice Mo with a murderous expression;


    "Hmph! Lowly worms¡­"


    "When I return to master, I will surely have my revenge!"


    He spat through gritted teeth as Vice Mo realized that he might not get to them on time, but then a smirk crept onto his mouth as he plunged his hands into his robes and swung his hands towards Fu just in time for the formation to activate;


    Fu nched in fear as he saw about six dynamites heading for them and with the way things were panning out, he was sure the teleportation wouldn''t happen before the dynamites arrive¡­


    Thus, he took a quick nce at Chen and gritted his teeth as he decided to take one for his team, but just as he took his first step, a hand grabbed him from behind and yanked him backwards;


    Then the figure who yanked him bolted towards the iing dynamites; Fu''s eyes widened in terror as he screamed;


    "Cheng, noooo!" But Cheng simply looked back with a smile and winked back;


    "Team leader, you have always been the one to take one for the team, let me also shine this time around!"


    Kaboom! Boom!


    The first dynamite blew a hole into Cheng''s chest as the rippling explosion set of the remaining five tearing Cheng into chunk sized bits that could be fed to a newborn child¡­


    Fu sat beside Su with his eyes wide in shock, terror and innumerable other emotions as the teleportation finally initiated, cocooning the duo in a bright white ball of light before vanishing with a ''Swoosh!'' sound¡­


    Vice Mo arrived at the teleportation formation and saw that a part of the rune had been burnt off¡­


    Pata! P!


    Paka! Pata!


    The sound of rushing footsteps floated into the courtyard from the chamber area as the group of Elders saw the Royal Maid rushing in with three other figures in tow, all dressed in white cheongsam¡­


    They were all women and just as they arrived at the courtyard, they frantically asked;


    "Where''s his highness, we need to treat him now!?"


    They were all women and just as they arrived at the courtyard, they frantically asked; "Where''s his highness, we need to treat him now!?"


    The Elders didn''t want to say anything because they didn''t want to be the first to speak of the King''s death;


    But at the same time, their eyes kept moving from the women to the unmoving torso on the ground;


    Suspicious of their odd gazes, the women traced the Elders'' gazes to the corner of the courtyard beside a huge flower vase where they saw something from their wildest horrors¡­

 Chapter 141 - Dead?

    They were all women and just as they arrived at the courtyard, they frantically asked; "Where''s his highness, we need to treat him now!?"


    The Elders didn''t want to say anything because they didn''t want to be the first to speak of the King''s death;


    But at the same time, their eyes kept moving from the women to the unmoving torso on the ground;


    Suspicious of their odd gazes, the women traced the Elders'' gazes to the corner of the courtyard beside a huge flower vase where they saw something from their wildest horrors¡­


    Instantly, the four women fell to the ground and fainted, but in that exact same moment, within the Ji Tribe, Dara screamed to life;


    "Arrggghh!"


    Instantly, everyone within the clinic, including the healers, the disciples and even the Ji Wang duo, but it was Elder Ting that arrived first, as she saw Dara panting hard with his bandages now soaking with fresh blood [His sutured and stitched wounds tore open due to his abrupt movement and scream]¡­


    But just as Elder Ting saw him and his currently soaking bandages, all the pain from the ruptured wounds and broken stitches assaulted his senses and he instantly fell back to the bed, unconscious¡­


    "What happened!?"


    The Senior Disciple asked with bated breaths and heaving chests, she seemed to have ran her heart off up the stairs;


    "Stop standing there ande help me!"


    Elder Ting yelled at her Senior Disciple as she used her hands to block the fountain of blood spurting out of Dara, but her hands did nothing to cover it as it still kept leaking from the sides of her hands¡­


    The Senior Disciple saw this and rushed over to the drawer full of worms before taking two handfuls back to the table and pouring them all by their numbers into Dara''s open wounds;


    Then like fishes released into the wild waters, the worms squirmed faster than normal sucking the all the blood within Dara''s wounds as they kept leaving the sponge like fluid behind in their tracks¡­


    "We heard screams, what happened!?"


    Ji Wang burst into the room as Elder Ting quickly walked over to the entrance and used one hand to push Ji Wang out whilst using her other hand to pull the covers over the entrance, indicating that no one was toe bother them again¡­


    Ji Wang looked at his body and saw Elder Ting''s ring handprint on his clothes and it was stamped in blood; one Ji Wang was most certain wasn''t hers¡­


    He returned to the entrance of the clinic, as Uncle Min gasped in shock when he saw a bloodied handprint on the body of Ji Wang who just left him about half twenty seconds ago¡­


    Ji Wang then exined everything to Uncle Min who used every shred of will he could muster to prevent himself from barging into the ward¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Whilst all of that was going on¡­


    Within Dara''s mental space...


    He [His golden soul/consciousness] was currently lying beneath the massive tree, unconscious, gradually diming and fading, signifying that should itpletely fade or get snuffed out, then that would be the end of his life journey¡­


    Of the three roots, two was gradually shriveling, with the one attached to his soul shrinking at a faster rate than the one attached to his body¡­


    The root attached to his soul continued to shrivel as the fading of his soul continued and when it reached the point where it was just about topletely fade out, the tree trembled slightly, and then aggressively, before the root attached to his soul actually pierce through and emerged from the other side before shooting off into the distance seemingly in search of something¡­


    Few secondster, the surging root stopped and began to retract at an even faster speed than it shot out, and by the time it arrived by Dara''s soul, there was a white soul with a mysterious ancient formation attached to the tip of its root¡­


    Then the root began to pulse as it shot out once again into the distance, and momentster, just like the first time, it returned with a ck soul in tow¡­


    The root then wrapped around the two souls as well as that of Dara''s fading golden soul, as it began to suck the glow out of them¡­


    The lights passed through its root into the trunk, and then up to the top of the tree where a branch began to grow out of the previously branchless and leafless tree¡­


    The moment this happened, the Senior Disciple suddenly felt the blood flowing out of Dara gradually slow to an abrupt halt;


    "Um¡­ Master, I''m not sure, but the worms shouldn''t work that fast or did someone swap the worms!?"


    She asked as Elder Ting looked over and hurriedly moved over and ced her hand on Dara''s chest, and instantly her eyes widened in shock;


    Then she lowered her head and ced her ears on his chest, before gasping in utter shock;


    Not willing to admit the situation, she grabbed his wrist and ced two fingers on it as she felt for a pulse¡­


    Then the anticipating Senior Disciple suddenly saw her master''s eyes redden before she then slouched to the ground sitting on her legs as tears began to spill out of her eyes in massive quantities¡­


    "Master, what''s wrong!?"


    "Why''re you crying!?"


    The Senior Disciple had suspected what went wrong, but she simply didn''t want to believe it as she went on to do the same procedures her master just did, as she grabbed her mouth to prevent herself from wailing out loud¡­


    A few minutes after, the Junior Disciple walked in and froze at the entrance when she saw her master and senior apprentice sister wailing quietly, then she looked towards the operating table, at Dara and noticed that his chest was not heaving, as she ced her hand over her mouth¡­


    Elder Ting saw her younger disciple and noticed that she seemed to be seething with a scream, and just as she was about to stand up to go meet her, the little girl ran out of the ward and down the stairs as she burst out of the clinic before puking her guts out stunning Ji Wang and Uncle Min who were standing guard at the entrance¡­


    Ji Wang and Uncle Min felt their hearts tug heavily with a very ominous vibe, as they both rushed over to the girl;


    "Hey, are you okay?"


    "What happened in there!?" They asked as the girl pointed to the clinic;


    "Tr- tribe Leader¡­" She stuttered before fainting on the spot¡­

 Chapter 142 - Unwarranted Compliments

    "Basically, but this one is quite more advanced in the sense that it takes the properties of all the ingredients used to form it and put them into effect¡­"


    "For instance, I told you to use Space Dao because nothing can pass through space undetected; not even ghosts, spirits and shadows¡­"


    "Thus, it has taken your Space Dao energy and stored it within itself, and will keep absorbing the energy in the atmosphere before converting them into Space Dao energy to keep the formation and the barrier powering itself and on standby till the end of time¡­" Little Fei proudly stated¡­


    Min Hong walked down the stairs as he conversed with Little Fei and Daniel, whilst the rest of the group also seemed to be murmuring some things to each other when Min Hong came in;


    "Is everything alright?" Min Hong asked as Gong Yi stood up to offer him a seat before letting him in on the topic of their discussion;


    "Yeah, we were just talking about how we had the best sleep of our livesst night¡­" Gong Yi said;


    "Eh?" Min Hong acted surprise like he had no idea of what they were talking about;


    "Yeah, the stalking feeling abruptly vanishedst night¡­" Elder Fu added;


    "Oh?" Min Hong once again eximed like he was truly surprised by the situation;


    "Yeah, and the ominous aura that covered this building is no longer there¡­" Yu Ming also chipped in;


    "You don''t mean it!?" Min Hong continued his acting;


    "It was actually true, I and Ting Ting slept like a babyst night, but you were so busy staying up doing whoever knows what and you missed out on the opportunity to have a nice rest¡­"


    The Princess added with a sneering smirk as the entire groupughed lightly at the situation whilst Min Hong''s brows were twitching;


    ''Tch, to think I was busy dealing with shadows and providing security whilst you all were snoring through your butts, and you dare rub it on my face¡­ Hmph!''


    Min Hong snorted mentally in yful anger as a mischievous smirk abruptly appeared on his face;


    ''Perhaps I should let Cheng and his Partner give you another dose of nightmares¡­ Hehe he¡­'' Min Hong thought to himself as he gave an evil mental chuckle;


    ''But you are all lucky I have toplete this mission in two days, so I have no time to y around¡­''


    Min Hong added before he finally looked up to all of them and all of a sudden the table went silent;


    Min Hong had been silent for a while whilst simply gazing at them, and they understood that he was about to address them and didn''t want to tell them to keep quiet;


    "It''s nice that everyone actually had a nice rest, because you will all be needing that extra energy very soon¡­"


    "Eh?"


    Xiao Gui was the first person to voice out his confusion; to him and to the rest of the group, they didn''t think anyone within the tribe could give them any sort of problems should they get into a fight;


    But that was if it was the real Left grand Elder and co that they were fighting, but only Min Hong knows, and he realized it might be too dangerous to let these people know about the Yao Demons now¡­


    "Yeah, my gut keeps telling me that a big trouble ising and on the horizon¡­"


    Min Hong wanted the group to be mentally prepared to battle people stronger than them without giving them any clue into the identity of their opponents after all, he couldn''t simply walk up to the group and say;


    ["Hey guys, we will be fighting some Yao Demons tomorrow and most of them are all in the Late Saint Stage/Nirvana stage¡­"] when they don''t even know what a Yao Demon is¡­


    "Unh?" Gu Ming eximed softly;


    "Yeah¡­ That''s why I have been having trouble sleeping¡­" Min Hong added;


    "Fei Hong has never cried wolf, so that means if he is feeling that sort of danger then there is a strong probability it might be true¡­" Gong Yi chipped in as the rest of the group nodded;


    ''No wonder this peacefulness we are experiencing was very abrupt¡­''


    ''So they are trying to let us getcent and drop our guards before they sweep in and clear us all¡­'' Gong Yi nodded as he shared his views;


    ''Well, I didn''t mean it that way, but if that works, then fine, I will go with that¡­'' Min Hong thought to himself;


    ''So he was up all night because he couldn''t shake of the feeling of lurking danger, and I was here thinking it was because he wanted to screw Ting Ting¡­''


    ''That''s so petty of me, and very noble of you¡­'' The Princess mentally chastised herself before looking at Min Hong with a warm expression;


    ''Eh?''


    ''What have I done?''


    ''Why is she looking at me like that?'' Min Hong was stunned by the sudden change in the vibes he was getting from the Princess;


    ''So he was so worried about us that he couldn''t go to sleep, and I really thought he was trying to ram mest night¡­''


    ''Ki Ting that''s so despicable of you!'' Ki Ting chastised herself as well before looking at Min Hong with a smitten expression;


    ''He is handsome, talented and considerate¡­''


    ''We really need to stop thinking perverse thoughts whenever he pops into mind¡­'' Ki Ting added;


    ''Wow, so we were busy dozing off and this guy couldn''t sleep because he was concerned about our safety!''


    ''True leader!''


    The rest of the group also had one good thing or the other to note about Min Hong;


    ''So, he was the presence I felt outside my doorst night?'' Yu Ming thought;


    But whist she did feel a presencest night, it was that of the shadow she felt and not Min Hong, because Min Hong wrapped the Oblivion Dao aura all over himself which means no one would be able to detect his presence, except if that person was a Sage, or an expert with stronger understanding of the Oblivion Dao than himself;


    "So, he truly cares about me?" She thought to herself before looking at Min Hong with a smitten face of her own¡­


    Min Hong realized he seemed to be getting unwarrantedpliments and it was stunning, thus he quickly moved on with the topic to ward off the awkward situation...

 Chapter 143 - Unprofessionalism & Complacency

    "So, he truly cares about me?"


    She thought to herself before looking at Min Hong with a smitten face of her own¡­


    Min Hong realized he seemed to be getting unwarranted love andpliments and was stunned, thus he quickly moved on with the topic to ward of the awkward scenario¡­


    "So, what do you think we should do?" Elder Fu seemed to be the calmest and mostposed of them all;


    "We should always be aware of our surroundings at all time and maintain the mentality that we might be needed to ward off an ambush at all times; but most importantly, that our opponents might be way stronger than we believe¡­"


    Min Hong made sure to add an expression of pure solemnity as he spoke and it did really work because the moment he finished his statement, the entire room became solemn and some were even giving out and infuriated vibe;


    "We gotcent, but now that we have realized it before our opponent acted, we must make sure it never happens again¡­" Xiao Gui calmly brought rationality back into their minds;


    "True, to think we could lose our guard and sleep that nonchntly in an enemy base where kidnappings had just urred; that''s just nothing but unprofessionalism at its height¡­" Gong Yi added;


    "Yeah, especially, when you consider the fact that we are the ones investigating the kidnappings¡­" Elder Fu also chipped in;


    "It is fine and alright¡­ This was why we were on this mission in the first ce¡­"


    "It was to gain experience, and this one is one we should keep to heart¡­" Min Hong relieved the guilt and self-pity in the atmosphere as everyone once again began to feel good about themselves;


    "Alright Leader¡­ So what do you think we should do now?"


    "Should we act that we don''t know yet and wait till they fall into our traps before wiping them of the?" Gu Ming asked;


    "It doesn''t matter how we behave, because they would have to act sooner orter¡­"


    "Our presence here is an obstruction to their schemes and they would want us gone as soon as possible; either by friendly or unfriendly means¡­" Min Hong responded and Gu Ming nodded;


    "Alright, let''s head out everyone, we have work to do¡­" Min Hong responded as they all left the building in the carriage that was sent over¡­


    Thirty minutester, the two groups were already within the neighboring residence to the one they investigated thest time, and as usual, there was the Left Grand Elder, Right Grand Elder, Tribe Lady and Tribe Leader following them around¡­


    But today, just before they split up, Min Hong had sent a mental transmission to the group to shuffle up, and now, he was having; Ki Ting, Mao My, Tong Tian and Gu Ming with him, whilst the Gong Yi was having; Xiao Gui, Elder Fu, Yu Ming and the Princess¡­


    Furthermore, he also told them to swap the ones using mystic techniques in the investigations;


    This was because he had figured out that the Left grand Elder might have as well sent a mental transmission to the rest that they should pay attention to the Princess since she was most likely the one who used the technique he was so scared of thest time;


    But as fate would have it, the Left grand Elder did send the mental transmission¡­


    Thus, this time, Gong Yi continued with his technique since no one knew he used one thest time as he summoned his Ghost Eyed Mouse whilst Elder Fu used his keen discretion and intuitive experience to determine what happened within the floor he was currently investigating...


    The rest were simply doing basic physical investigation in a bid to disorient the Tribe Leader and Lad from figuring out who amongst them were using mystic arts to investigate¡­


    On the other side, were Min Hong''s group, and today he was with Mao My being tailed by the Left Grand Elder, whilst Ki Ting and Tong Tian were being tailed by the Right Grand Elder who must be following the instruction of the Left grand Elder, leaving Gu Ming who was a mercenary to investigate the area, and it was this that became the undoing of the Left grand Elder and his group¡­


    This was because they had been so focused on Min Hong''s group that they didn''t realize that Min Hong had dropped off Little Fei and Daniel who were already within their mansion searching as fast as they could in vast numbers¡­


    Currently the duo had just realized that it seems the Tribe Leader and Lady had been chased from main mansions and were currently residing close to one another to the left of the main mansion with the Tribe Leader taking the closer mansion to the main mansion whilst his wife was living in thest one at the edge¡­


    On the other side, Elder Ken was at the edge with the Right grand Elder being close to the main mansion where Little Fei and Daniel were shocked to find out has been taken over by the Left grand Elder¡­


    Whilst they were searching over there, Min Hong''s group were still investigating over here;


    The Left grand Elder was gritting his teeth in frustration when he noticed that Min Hong and Mao My didn''t seem to be using any technique or mystic arts and were busy doing basic investigation which meant he couldn''t go and see what Gu Ming was doing at the ground floor¡­


    After about three solid hours, they were already done with their investigations and the Left Grand Elder was already hinting them to return but Min Hong had contacted Little Fei and Daniel via mental transmission, that they were just about to begin searching the main mansion and they would need a bit more time¡­


    Min Hong calcted that the dup would need at least about 2 hours to search the entire mansion even with the help of the two anthills they took over, but judging from the haste that the Left grand Elder was insinuating that they leave, he was absolutely sure he wouldn''t be able to even buy half an hour of time not to talk of two;


    ''So, you are giving us no choice but to move our ns forward unh?'' Min Hong thought¡­

 Chapter 144 - Do Not Read 1

    "For instance, I told you to use Space Dao because nothing can pass through space undetected; not even ghosts, spirits and shadows¡­"


    "Thus, it has taken your Space Dao energy and stored it within itself, and will keep absorbing the energy in the atmosphere before converting them into Space Dao energy to keep the formation and the barrier powering itself and on standby till the end of time¡­" Little Fei proudly stated¡­


    Min Hong walked down the stairs as he conversed with Little Fei and Daniel, whilst the rest of the group also seemed to be murmuring some things to each other when Min Hong came in;


    "Is everything alright?" Min Hong asked as Gong Yi stood up to offer him a seat before letting him in on the topic of their discussion;


    "Yeah, we were just talking about how we had the best sleep of our livesst night¡­" Gong Yi said;


    "Eh?" Min Hong acted surprise like he had no idea of what they were talking about;


    "Yeah, the stalking feeling abruptly vanishedst night¡­" Elder Fu added;


    "Oh?" Min Hong once again eximed like he was truly surprised by the situation;


    "Yeah, and the ominous aura that covered this building is no longer there¡­" Yu Ming also chipped in;


    "You don''t mean it!?" Min Hong continued his acting;


    "It was actually true, I and Ting Ting slept like a babyst night, but you were so busy staying up doing whoever knows what and you missed out on the opportunity to have a nice rest¡­"


    The Princess added with a sneering smirk as the entire groupughed lightly at the situation whilst Min Hong''s brows were twitching;


    ''Tch, to think I was busy dealing with shadows and providing security whilst you all were snoring through your butts, and you dare rub it on my face¡­ Hmph!''


    Min Hong snorted mentally in yful anger as a mischievous smirk abruptly appeared on his face;


    ''Perhaps I should let Cheng and his Partner give you another dose of nightmares¡­ Hehe he¡­'' Min Hong thought to himself as he gave an evil mental chuckle;


    ''But you are all lucky I have toplete this mission in two days, so I have no time to y around¡­''


    Min Hong added before he finally looked up to all of them and all of a sudden the table went silent;


    Min Hong had been silent for a while whilst simply gazing at them, and they understood that he was about to address them and didn''t want to tell them to keep quiet;


    "It''s nice that everyone actually had a nice rest, because you will all be needing that extra energy very soon¡­"


    "Eh?"


    Xiao Gui was the first person to voice out his confusion; to him and to the rest of the group, they didn''t think anyone within the tribe could give them any sort of problems should they get into a fight;


    But that was if it was the real Left grand Elder and co that they were fighting, but only Min Hong knows, and he realized it might be too dangerous to let these people know about the Yao Demons now¡­


    "Yeah, my gut keeps telling me that a big trouble ising and on the horizon¡­"


    Min Hong wanted the group to be mentally prepared to battle people stronger than them without giving them any clue into the identity of their opponents after all, he couldn''t simply walk up to the group and say;


    ["Hey guys, we will be fighting some Yao Demons tomorrow and most of them are all in the Late Saint Stage/Nirvana stage¡­"] when they don''t even know what a Yao Demon is¡­


    "Unh?" Gu Ming eximed softly;


    "Yeah¡­ That''s why I have been having trouble sleeping¡­" Min Hong added;


    "Fei Hong has never cried wolf, so that means if he is feeling that sort of danger then there is a strong probability it might be true¡­" Gong Yi chipped in as the rest of the group nodded;


    ''No wonder this peacefulness we are experiencing was very abrupt¡­''


    ''So they are trying to let us getcent and drop our guards before they sweep in and clear us all¡­'' Gong Yi nodded as he shared his views;


    ''Well, I didn''t mean it that way, but if that works, then fine, I will go with that¡­'' Min Hong thought to himself;


    ''So he was up all night because he couldn''t shake of the feeling of lurking danger, and I was here thinking it was because he wanted to screw Ting Ting¡­''


    ''That''s so petty of me, and very noble of you¡­'' The Princess mentally chastised herself before looking at Min Hong with a warm expression;


    ''Eh?''


    ''What have I done?''


    ''Why is she looking at me like that?'' Min Hong was stunned by the sudden change in the vibes he was getting from the Princess;


    ''So he was so worried about us that he couldn''t go to sleep, and I really thought he was trying to ram mest night¡­''


    ''Ki Ting that''s so despicable of you!'' Ki Ting chastised herself as well before looking at Min Hong with a smitten expression;


    ''He is handsome, talented and considerate¡­''


    ''We really need to stop thinking perverse thoughts whenever he pops into mind¡­'' Ki Ting added;


    ''Wow, so we were busy dozing off and this guy couldn''t sleep because he was concerned about our safety!''


    ''True leader!''


    The rest of the group also had one good thing or the other to note about Min Hong;


    ''So, he was the presence I felt outside my doorst night?'' Yu Ming thought;


    But whist she did feel a presencest night, it was that of the shadow she felt and not Min Hong, because Min Hong wrapped the Oblivion Dao aura all over himself which means no one would be able to detect his presence, except if that person was a Sage, or an expert with stronger understanding of the Oblivion Dao than himself;


    "So, he truly cares about me?" She thought to herself before looking at Min Hong with a smitten face of her own¡­


    Min Hong realized he seemed to be getting unwarrantedpliments and it was stunning, thus he quickly moved on with the topic to ward off the awkward situation...

 Chapter 145 - Do Not Read 2

    Min Hong realized he seemed to be getting unwarranted love andpliments and was stunned, thus he quickly moved on with the topic to ward of the awkward scenario¡­


    "So, what do you think we should do?" Elder Fu seemed to be the calmest and mostposed of them all;


    "We should always be aware of our surroundings at all time and maintain the mentality that we might be needed to ward off an ambush at all times; but most importantly, that our opponents might be way stronger than we believe¡­"


    Min Hong made sure to add an expression of pure solemnity as he spoke and it did really work because the moment he finished his statement, the entire room became solemn and some were even giving out and infuriated vibe;


    "We gotcent, but now that we have realized it before our opponent acted, we must make sure it never happens again¡­" Xiao Gui calmly brought rationality back into their minds;


    "True, to think we could lose our guard and sleep that nonchntly in an enemy base where kidnappings had just urred; that''s just nothing but unprofessionalism at its height¡­" Gong Yi added;


    "Yeah, especially, when you consider the fact that we are the ones investigating the kidnappings¡­" Elder Fu also chipped in;


    "It is fine and alright¡­ This was why we were on this mission in the first ce¡­"


    "It was to gain experience, and this one is one we should keep to heart¡­" Min Hong relieved the guilt and self-pity in the atmosphere as everyone once again began to feel good about themselves;


    "Alright Leader¡­ So what do you think we should do now?"


    "Should we act that we don''t know yet and wait till they fall into our traps before wiping them of the?" Gu Ming asked;


    "It doesn''t matter how we behave, because they would have to act sooner orter¡­"


    "Our presence here is an obstruction to their schemes and they would want us gone as soon as possible; either by friendly or unfriendly means¡­" Min Hong responded and Gu Ming nodded;


    "Alright, let''s head out everyone, we have work to do¡­" Min Hong responded as they all left the building in the carriage that was sent over¡­


    Thirty minutester, the two groups were already within the neighboring residence to the one they investigated thest time, and as usual, there was the Left Grand Elder, Right Grand Elder, Tribe Lady and Tribe Leader following them around¡­


    But today, just before they split up, Min Hong had sent a mental transmission to the group to shuffle up, and now, he was having; Ki Ting, Mao My, Tong Tian and Gu Ming with him, whilst the Gong Yi was having; Xiao Gui, Elder Fu, Yu Ming and the Princess¡­


    Furthermore, he also told them to swap the ones using mystic techniques in the investigations;


    This was because he had figured out that the Left grand Elder might have as well sent a mental transmission to the rest that they should pay attention to the Princess since she was most likely the one who used the technique he was so scared of thest time;


    But as fate would have it, the Left grand Elder did send the mental transmission¡­


    Thus, this time, Gong Yi continued with his technique since no one knew he used one thest time as he summoned his Ghost Eyed Mouse whilst Elder Fu used his keen discretion and intuitive experience to determine what happened within the floor he was currently investigating...


    The rest were simply doing basic physical investigation in a bid to disorient the Tribe Leader and Lad from figuring out who amongst them were using mystic arts to investigate¡­


    On the other side, were Min Hong''s group, and today he was with Mao My being tailed by the Left Grand Elder, whilst Ki Ting and Tong Tian were being tailed by the Right Grand Elder who must be following the instruction of the Left grand Elder, leaving Gu Ming who was a mercenary to investigate the area, and it was this that became the undoing of the Left grand Elder and his group¡­


    This was because they had been so focused on Min Hong''s group that they didn''t realize that Min Hong had dropped off Little Fei and Daniel who were already within their mansion searching as fast as they could in vast numbers¡­


    Currently the duo had just realized that it seems the Tribe Leader and Lady had been chased from main mansions and were currently residing close to one another to the left of the main mansion with the Tribe Leader taking the closer mansion to the main mansion whilst his wife was living in thest one at the edge¡­


    On the other side, Elder Ken was at the edge with the Right grand Elder being close to the main mansion where Little Fei and Daniel were shocked to find out has been taken over by the Left grand Elder¡­


    Whilst they were searching over there, Min Hong''s group were still investigating over here;


    The Left grand Elder was gritting his teeth in frustration when he noticed that Min Hong and Mao My didn''t seem to be using any technique or mystic arts and were busy doing basic investigation which meant he couldn''t go and see what Gu Ming was doing at the ground floor¡­


    After about three solid hours, they were already done with their investigations and the Left Grand Elder was already hinting them to return but Min Hong had contacted Little Fei and Daniel via mental transmission, that they were just about to begin searching the main mansion and they would need a bit more time¡­


    Min Hong calcted that the dup would need at least about 2 hours to search the entire mansion even with the help of the two anthills they took over, but judging from the haste that the Left grand Elder was insinuating that they leave, he was absolutely sure he wouldn''t be able to even buy half an hour of time not to talk of two;


    ''So, you are giving us no choice but to move our ns forward unh?'' Min Hong thought¡­

 Chapter 148 - Ppp

    They were all women and just as they arrived at the courtyard, they frantically asked; "Where''s his highness, we need to treat him now!?"


    The Elders didn''t want to say anything because they didn''t want to be the first to speak of the King''s death;


    But at the same time, their eyes kept moving from the women to the unmoving torso on the ground;


    Suspicious of their odd gazes, the women traced the Elders'' gazes to the corner of the courtyard beside a huge flower vase where they saw something from their wildest horrors¡­


    Instantly, the four women fell to the ground and fainted, but in that exact same moment, within the Ji Tribe, Dara screamed to life;


    "Arrggghh!"


    Instantly, everyone within the clinic, including the healers, the disciples and even the Ji Wang duo, but it was Elder Ting that arrived first, as she saw Dara panting hard with his bandages now soaking with fresh blood [His sutured and stitched wounds tore open due to his abrupt movement and scream]¡­


    But just as Elder Ting saw him and his currently soaking bandages, all the pain from the ruptured wounds and broken stitches assaulted his senses and he instantly fell back to the bed, unconscious¡­


    "What happened!?"


    The Senior Disciple asked with bated breaths and heaving chests, she seemed to have ran her heart off up the stairs;


    "Stop standing there ande help me!"


    Elder Ting yelled at her Senior Disciple as she used her hands to block the fountain of blood spurting out of Dara, but her hands did nothing to cover it as it still kept leaking from the sides of her hands¡­


    The Senior Disciple saw this and rushed over to the drawer full of worms before taking two handfuls back to the table and pouring them all by their numbers into Dara''s open wounds;


    Then like fishes released into the wild waters, the worms squirmed faster than normal sucking the all the blood within Dara''s wounds as they kept leaving the sponge like fluid behind in their tracks¡­


    "We heard screams, what happened!?"


    Ji Wang burst into the room as Elder Ting quickly walked over to the entrance and used one hand to push Ji Wang out whilst using her other hand to pull the covers over the entrance, indicating that no one was toe bother them again¡­


    Ji Wang looked at his body and saw Elder Ting''s ring handprint on his clothes and it was stamped in blood; one Ji Wang was most certain wasn''t hers¡­


    He returned to the entrance of the clinic, as Uncle Min gasped in shock when he saw a bloodied handprint on the body of Ji Wang who just left him about half twenty seconds ago¡­


    Ji Wang then exined everything to Uncle Min who used every shred of will he could muster to prevent himself from barging into the ward¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Whilst all of that was going on¡­


    Within Dara''s mental space...


    He [His golden soul/consciousness] was currently lying beneath the massive tree, unconscious, gradually diming and fading, signifying that should itpletely fade or get snuffed out, then that would be the end of his life journey¡­


    Of the three roots, two was gradually shriveling, with the one attached to his soul shrinking at a faster rate than the one attached to his body¡­


    The root attached to his soul continued to shrivel as the fading of his soul continued and when it reached the point where it was just about topletely fade out, the tree trembled slightly, and then aggressively, before the root attached to his soul actually pierce through and emerged from the other side before shooting off into the distance seemingly in search of something¡­


    Few secondster, the surging root stopped and began to retract at an even faster speed than it shot out, and by the time it arrived by Dara''s soul, there was a white soul with a mysterious ancient formation attached to the tip of its root¡­


    Then the root began to pulse as it shot out once again into the distance, and momentster, just like the first time, it returned with a ck soul in tow¡­


    The root then wrapped around the two souls as well as that of Dara''s fading golden soul, as it began to suck the glow out of them¡­


    The lights passed through its root into the trunk, and then up to the top of the tree where a branch began to grow out of the previously branchless and leafless tree¡­


    The moment this happened, the Senior Disciple suddenly felt the blood flowing out of Dara gradually slow to an abrupt halt;


    "Um¡­ Master, I''m not sure, but the worms shouldn''t work that fast or did someone swap the worms!?"


    She asked as Elder Ting looked over and hurriedly moved over and ced her hand on Dara''s chest, and instantly her eyes widened in shock;


    Then she lowered her head and ced her ears on his chest, before gasping in utter shock;


    Not willing to admit the situation, she grabbed his wrist and ced two fingers on it as she felt for a pulse¡­


    Then the anticipating Senior Disciple suddenly saw her master''s eyes redden before she then slouched to the ground sitting on her legs as tears began to spill out of her eyes in massive quantities¡­


    "Master, what''s wrong!?"


    "Why''re you crying!?"


    The Senior Disciple had suspected what went wrong, but she simply didn''t want to believe it as she went on to do the same procedures her master just did, as she grabbed her mouth to prevent herself from wailing out loud¡­


    A few minutes after, the Junior Disciple walked in and froze at the entrance when she saw her master and senior apprentice sister wailing quietly, then she looked towards the operating table, at Dara and noticed that his chest was not heaving, as she ced her hand over her mouth¡­


    Elder Ting saw her younger disciple and noticed that she seemed to be seething with a scream, and just as she was about to stand up to go meet her, the little girl ran out of the ward and down the stairs as she burst out of the clinic before puking her guts out stunning Ji Wang and Uncle Min who were standing guard at the entrance¡­


    Ji Wang and Uncle Min felt their hearts tug heavily with a very ominous vibe, as they both rushed over to the girl;


    "Hey, are you okay?"


    "What happened in there!?" They asked as the girl pointed to the clinic;


    "Tr- tribe Leader¡­" She stuttered before fainting on the spot¡­

 Chapter 151 - Dara, Sam & Long

    ''Those who don''t fall under any of the two categories would find themselves in constant danger by both man, the heavens and the hells¡­''


    ''If I had helped you, I would''ve revealed my presence and position, and then, those bastards who thought I was dead would have spotted my location,e to kill me, and most likely wipe out this eyeball and everyone living on it, just to keep all of it a secret¡­''


    ''Eyeball? What eyeball?''


    ''That''s a discussion forter; anyways, as I was saying¡­''


    If I had also helped you, I would have to face an heavenly tribtion, and trust me kid, that is not something anyone would want to do, no matter how powerful they im to be¡­''


    ''Lastly, if I had shown up when you were in need, I would have most likely been hunted by the specters¡­''


    ''Specters? What is a specter?''


    ''They are beings of theherworld who ensures that souls who have passed away do not stay in the physical realm and are tasked with bringing them to theherworld where they would await their judgement¡­''


    ''You can call them the ''Men In cks'' of the physical realm, only that, they deal with souls¡­'' The Third figure added;


    ''So, on the day the owner of the body died, my chance to be reborn was presented, and just as I was about to possess you, this hateful fellow over here had the balls to share the same idea as mine¡­'' The Second Consciousness exined with a somewhat pissed off expression;


    ''As for me, I simply reincarnated and I was supposed do so in your body, and I even brought Grandma Meng''s milk along¡­''


    ''But then I surfaced and was about to take over your body when I saw this stupid fool trying to take over what rightfully belongs to me¡­'' The First Consciousness used;


    ''Yeah right, like this body belongs to anyone!'' The Second Consciousness bickered back;


    ''How about we both leave his body right now, and see who suffers!?''


    ''You- Tch¡­ Hmph!''


    ''Yeah right, I thought so too¡­''


    ''I wouldn''t deign you with any response whatsoever¡­ You can do whatever you like, but I am not leaving this body!''


    As the dup continued to bicker, the Third Consciousness felt a splitting headacheing and thus he released a huge sigh, and just as he was about to speak, the Second Consciousness abruptly asked; ''Speaking of which; We have told you about ourselves, but we don''t know you¡­''


    ''That''s right, who are you!?'' The First Consciousness added;


    ''Baka!'' The third Consciousness abruptly blurted out of fury;


    ''I am the owner of this body, and I guess you two idiots didn''t allow my soul topletely disperse before barging in unannounced¡­''


    ''Next time when you want to do something that important, always try to be patient and diligent¡­''


    ''But since you both have finally saved me from dying for the second time, I guess the least I can do is amodate both of you as tenants into my body till we can find a solution to both your miserable situations¡­'' The Third Consciousness blurted;


    ''Alright, since that is out of the way, I think it is time we formerly introduce ourselves, and as the owner andndlord of this body, I would go first¡­''


    ''I am Ji Dara, and I am eleven years old¡­ I''m from the Jok and was born in the Dark Lands¡­''


    ''I am also the Tribe Leader of the Ji Tribe, and have a lot of responsibilities, goals and ambitions to fulfill¡­'' The Third Consciousness which actually belonged to Dara revealed;


    ''Alright, I am Sam and I am 35 years old¡­''


    ''I am from a ce called ''Earth'' and was born in a continent called North America¡­''


    ''I was the Leader of the Security Group of the greatest firm on our, and also had a lot of responsibilities, goals and ambitions before my supposed best friend stabbed me in the back¡­'' Sam briefed with a mncholic and furious intent seeping out of him¡­


    ''~Hu~''


    ''I am Long and I am 4600 years old¡­''


    The moment the Second Consciousness made this statement, Sam and Dara almost chocked in shock and the sheer surprise they had just experienced was mind boggling¡­


    ''I am from the Seventh Realm of this world, and was born in the Demonic Realm¡­''


    ''I was the Patriarch of the Demonic Lotus Sect, and also had the grand ambition of breaking past the Spirit Realm when I was betrayed by my lover and stabbed in the back by my best friend¡­''


    ''So, you can suck it Sam, I was doubly fucked which makes me more entitled to this body¡­'' Long abused;


    ''Nah, that just makes you doubly stupid, and the fact that you still hold the notion that this body belongs to you means you must be triply stupid¡­''


    ''The fact that you did so in the presence of the owner of the body itself means your level of stupidity had quadrupled¡­''


    ''Thenstly, the fact that you 4600 years old and still stupid makes you five times as stupid as any of us would ever be¡­'' Sam verbally assaulted Long¡­


    Long not only felt assaulted, he felt vited like a high school y queen being tossed out into the public, butt naked¡­


    ''Oi, that''s enough¡­ If you guys keep this up, I don''t mind tossing you both outside right now¡­''


    ''You two had better help me as long as you are here, and anyone of you two who happens to help the most would get the solution to their problems first¡­''


    Dara smartly pitted the both of them against one another to his own benefit, and it seemed to work;


    ''That''s shameless of you¡­'' Sam responded instantly;


    ''Yeah, truly shameless of you¡­''


    ''But if it means I am going to get my problem fixed before this fool, then I don''t mind ying along with you¡­'' Long replied whilst giving Sam a ridiculing sneer;


    ''You were the most stupid amongst us before, but now, I think shamelessness needs to be added to that list¡­'' Sam hit back;


    ''It''s time I show you the difference between our modern day earth, and your backward world¡­''


    Sam added with a mischievous smirk of his own as Dara sighed in relief¡­

 Chapter 152 - Bbutbut How!?

    ''But if it means I am going to get my problem fixed before this fool, then I don''t mind ying along with you¡­'' Long replied whilst giving Sam a ridiculing sneer;


    ''You were the most stupid amongst us before, but now, I think shamelessness needs to be added to that list¡­'' Sam hit back;


    ''It''s time I show you the difference between our modern day earth, and your backward world¡­'' Sam added with a mischievous smirk of his own as Dara sighed in relief¡­


    ''Alright, back to the problem at hand¡­ How do I exin my miraculous revival to these guys?'' Dara asked as Long quickly advised with aim of beating Sam to the punch;


    ''Just tell them that the nature of your cultivation allows your body to enter a state of total hibernation until it can fully recover¡­'' He said before rippling with a smug intent¡­


    ''I don''t think you need to exin anything to anyone, after-all, they can obviously see the Qi stones within your casket¡­'' Sam added as Dara nodded at both their method of approach;


    ''Alright, I wouldn''t tell them anything at first, and if they still don''t understand, then I would use Long''s exnation¡­'' He revealed as Sam sneered at Long;


    ''It is not about speaking first stupid¡­ It is about giving useful ideas, and I can see you are too stupid to realize that¡­''


    Long was once again stunned speechless as Dara simply left the two of them to their shenanigans and opened his eyes in the outside world and realized that the Pink and Purple flowers within his coffin were beginning to dim out whilst the White and Yellow one are beginning to bloom;


    ''So, it is about dawn, unh¡­''


    He thought to himself before looking to thedy sleeping on his chest and began to caress her hair, making her sleep muchfortably¡­


    Aunt Lin felt the familiar cozy and tender feeling from her sleep and readjusted herself as she muttered;


    ''Baby, go back to sleep, you must be tired¡­''


    Dara was stunned but he simply smiled after a while as his heart tugged slightly;


    ''I am truly lucky to have experienced my first love with you¡­'' Dara thought to himself as he continued to caress her hair¡­


    Probably because she had not had a good sleep for the past one month or so since Dara had been presumed dead, but Aunt Lin only made herself morefortable whenever Min Hong caressed her hair, and she slept like a baby all through, not even opening her eyes until the next morning when the sound of several footsteps approaching the ward woke her up¡­


    But she still didn''t open her eyes as she knew who they were, and was feeling like she needed a few more minute which she was sure all the Elders were going to give her¡­


    But then;


    Bang! ng! ng!


    The sound of metal and wooden objects abruptly dropping to the ground resounded within the entire ward, as Aunt Lin frowned in fury as to why they couldn''t even spare her a few minutes more¡­


    Thus, she opened her eyes and stared daggers at them, but for some strange reason, she met an entirely different expression on the faces of the Elders and some of them were even having their mouths so wide open, an adult sperm whale could fit into it;


    "What is it!?"


    "What are you all standing there stunned for!?" Aunt Lin was seriously pissed as she questioned;


    "I only needed a few more minutes with him and you still can''t let me have that!?"


    Aunt Lin still hasn''t looked behind her as she rose up and furiously bellowed at the Elder''s whose faces were still disying incredulous expressions¡­


    Some of them were even frozen on the spot with no idea as to what to do next because it seems their brains were still processing what was going on and the infinite possibilities on how what they were looking at was even possible¡­


    But gradually, the younger disciple of Elder Tin finally managed to raise her hands with great difficulty before pointing behind Aunt Lin;


    "What is it¡­ Have you all seen a ghost?"


    Aunt Lin frowned slightly as she finally turned around to see what they were all staring and pointing at;


    "~Nyah!~"


    Aunt Lin jolted and jumped off the casket,unching a p at Dara out of shock;


    Pa!


    It was reflexive reaction and in the blink of an eye she was already standing with the rest of the Elders looking at Dara with the same expression of shock her colleagues were disying earlier;


    "What is it!?"


    "What are you standing there stunned for!?"


    "What is it¡­ Have you seen a ghost?" Dara asked with a smile whilst rubbing his red cheeks¡­


    The moment everyone heard him speak, they were once again plunged into a deeper level of bewilderment;


    "B-but-but how!?" Aunt Lin asked with her hand still covering her mouth;


    "What?"


    "Don''t tell me you all think I was going to die that easily?" Dara replied with a smirk;


    "Yeah right, you were dead for about a month and you think that was perfectly normal!?" Ji Wang was the first to recover as he responded;


    "Oh?"


    "It''s been one month!?" Dara was truly stunned¡­


    He truly didn''t know how long he had been dead for, because all he could remember was cking out from the explosion, and then waking up to find himself within the clinic before the immense amount of pain that struck him knocked him unconscious once again, and finally,st night¡­


    To him, only about a day or so had passed, after all, based on all he had experienced, only about a day or two had passed, so he didn''t realize how much time had truly passed¡­


    "Was it the Qi Stones!?"


    Elder Smith was the next to recover as the rest finally looked away from Dara for the first time and stared at the dim Qi Stones in his hands¡­


    Though, the Qi Stones was dim, there was still a significant amount of Qi still left in it, and to them, that little amount of Qi shouldn''t cause him to recover fully to that extent¡­


    But when they looked around and saw that the rest of the Qi Stones they ced around his body had been totally drained and had crumbled into dust, they began to ept the fact that, it might have been the case¡­


    Seeing that the Elders had already epted the exnation Sam suggested, Dara breathed a huge sigh of relief¡­

 Chapter 153 - Getting Smacked In The Balls

    [Indeed kid, you are truly blessed, we don''t havediese in such perfect conditions even back where I''m from¡­]


    Sam added as they watched Aunt Lin disappear out of sight towards the Farm area¡­


    "Alright, time to get to work¡­" Dara spoke as he opened the door and stepped into the Qi Stone Room;


    [Hey kid, I can sense that you are already using the cultivation technique I obtained with my blood sweat and tears which was also the cause of my death¡­]


    [So, let me ask, how many meridians have you unlocked?]


    [If you have unlocked at least 120 that would me mediocre but eptable¡­]


    [If you unlocked 240 then that would be good enough] [360 would be great] [480 would be outstanding and that was the best I could unlock¡­]


    [So tell me how far off my level you are¡­] Long spoke with a proud tone as Dara simply shook his head and sighed;


    ''Since you are still feeling impetuous, then let this be your funeral¡­'' Dara thought to himself before revealing;


    [960!]


    [What- *Cough!* *Cough!*] Long choked on his words as he simply went silent whilst Sam simplyughed his ass off;


    [Oi, what''s so funny¡­ Do you even know anything about what we are talking about!?] Long bickered at Sam;


    [I don''t need to know what you are talking about to realize you have been smacked hard in the balls... Haha Haha ha!] Sam rubbed pepper on Long''s wounded pride;


    [Tch¡­ Hateful fellow¡­ Hmph!]


    [Oi! You two! Pipe down!] Dara bellowed as he finally concentrated and began to absorb the energy within the room¡­


    Gulu! Gulu!


    Dara''s meridians began to guzzle all the energy within the room with breakneck speed as all the energies began to gather around his body, until a vortex of energy was formed around him¡­


    [It''s truly 960 meridians!]


    [Good one kid¡­ Good one!]


    Long praised whilst Sam simply watched on in amazement, whilst also gathering intel since he can help it; after all he was in the military¡­


    Dara continued to absorb the energies as his blood, tissues, tendons, bones, muscles, flesh and organs began to stretch and creak like a parched desert which was just seeing the first signs of rain¡­


    Dara felt so euphoric that he was grinning from ear to ear as his physical body continued to reshape themselves, but after a while, Dara''s smile began to transform into a frown as it seems like his body was somewhat insatiable and didn''t seem like it was going to be satisfied anytime soon and the energy within the room was already running out;


    [Long, do you have any idea about what is going on with my body?]


    [Tch, kid I am not inclined towards that way¡­] Long replied with disgust apparent in his tone;


    [Oi. Cut the crap¡­ I''m taking about my body absorbing such vast amount of energy and still not seeming to want to stop¡­] Dara frowned in fury;


    [Oh¡­ About that¡­]


    [Well, if you liken the physical body to a patch of solid earth¡­ Then absorbing Qi would be like water boring into that earth to create channels within it¡­]


    [Thus, once the water within these channel dries up, you would definitely need more water to refill it, since more channels would be created the next time water permeates that patch of earth¡­]


    [But when your soul was being reformed earlier, your Dao Tree took not only all the water within these channels, but also sucked out the ones the earth had absorbed along with it, and this means, to refill that patch of earth once again;]


    [Not only would you have to put enough water for the earth to absorb once again, but another extra amount of water that would stay within the channels¡­ which means you are currently like a sponge¡­]


    [First you would absorb water to swell, and then absorb more which you will hold within your channels¡­] Long exined;


    [What about the Dao Tree you just mentioned?] Dara realized that the tree he was seeing within his mental space was most likely the Dao Tree Long mentioned;


    [One after the other kid.. When the timees, I will definitely tell you everything you need to know about it¡­]


    Long added as Dara opened his eyes and then left the Qi Stone room to find Ji Wang¡­


    He knew where he would be and thus, didn''t need to waste too much time in finding him...


    "Eh?"


    "Tribe Leader, what brings you here?"


    "Has Elder Ting given you the go ahead to move around?" Ji Wang asked, simply concerned about Dara''s health;


    "Yeah, thanks¡­" Dara replied simply as Ji Wang sensed some sort of urgency within his tone;


    "What brings you here?"


    "I would like to take some more Qi Stones for cultivation¡­"


    "The Royals would obviously not take this lying, and I intend to take the fight to them rather than bring it here-"


    "-Because you don''t want the tribe to be caught in the crossfire¡­"


    "It''s always nice to know that our thoughts are in sync Ji Wang¡­" Dara added as he tapped Ji Wang on the shoulder with a smile;


    "But I thought you had a personal key to the vault, or have you misced it?" Ji Wang asked;


    "No, I have it¡­ But I simply felt it would look bad on me to simply march into the vault and pick anything I want, whenever I needed it¡­" Dara revealed;


    "But you are the tribe leader?" Ji Wang was bing even a little more surprised by Dara''s behavior;


    "Alright then, just give me the go ahead¡­"


    "If it makes you feel better then; By all means, you can take as much Qi Stones you want, Tribe Leader¡­" Ji Wang replied with a smile as Dara chuckled slightly and left for the Tribe Store¡­


    "What happened?" Uncle Min who saw the duo arrived and asked;


    "He came to ask for permission to take some Qi Stones from the vault¡­" Ji Wang revealed;


    "Eh?"


    "That''s strange, doesn''t he remember he is the Tribe Leader?" Uncle Min was also slightly taken aback;


    "Well he still does, but still came to ask for permission eitherways¡­"


    "Hmm¡­ Well I totally get where ising from¡­"


    "Same here, and I''m liking it¡­"


    Ji Wang and Uncle Min discussed before they went on with the construction, whilst Dara finally arrived at the store¡­


    Clink! nk!


    Jia!


    The sound of keys fumbling and a lock giving way resounded in the area as some tribesmen saw Dara at the store entrance and stopped to give a bow, before going on with their tasks after Dara gave them a smiling nod¡­


    Then he pushed the massive store double doors open....

 Chapter 154 - Personal Future Plans

    She had already developed heavy eye-bags from shedding tears but Dara made all of that and her wait and grief worth it by speaking to her, as softly and lovingly as he could which helped her recover from her grieving state as quick as possible and as a result, by the end of the day, Aunt Lin had approached him with a kiss; no groping or touching or erotic intents¡­


    It was like she was checking to see if it was truly him from the way he kissed her¡­


    Dara usually kissed her like it was something important or more like his very life depended on it, and whilst that was what every woman or female craves, Aunt Lin was happy to im that she was the one of the very few enjoying such treatments¡­


    They kissed softly and gently for about an hour before Aunt Lin finally looked at his face and became engrossed in it;


    "I still can''t believe you''re here¡­" Aunt Lin said as Min Hong pinched her cheeks and asked;


    "Does it hurt?"


    "Yes it does¡­"


    "So, what do you think!?"


    Dara asked with a smile, but Aunt Lin didn''t respond, instead she simply rested her head on his chest and added;


    "Don''t make me look that miserable to everyone else next time, alright?"


    "Trust me honey, you can never be miserable¡­ Anyone that finds you asides from me would realize how lucky I am to have you¡­" Dara soothed as Aunt Lin revealed another cute smile before kissing him;


    "Just make sure that before you leave me next time, you leave something living and physical for me to remember you by¡­"


    "Unh?" Dara was stunned not knowing what she was talking about;


    "A child would be fine¡­"


    Aunt Li added with a furious blush whilst resting her head on his chest, preventing him from seeing her tomato-red face¡­


    Min Hong on the other hand, understood where she wasing from, but as a reasonable man, he understood the sort of threat having a kid at this point can pose¡­


    Not only would that mean he has to sacrifice his future and settle down with her, which he would love to do if not for his desire for utmost domination, but that would also present an extra tform with which his enemies can fatally hurt him¡­


    Aunt Lin was waiting for his reply and when he was taking too long to reply, her heart broke as she thought he didn''t love her just as much as she loved him; but then Dara replied;


    "I would be honored to have you as the mother of my kids, but first I have to clear this of every threat that might affect their livelihood¡­"


    Dara replied as Aunt Lin''s face zed over with love whilst her hand cupped his cheeks before nting a kiss on his lips;


    "Just remember, my body belongs to you, and my life belongs to my kids¡­"


    Aunt Lin reassured him as Dara looked to the roof before sighing, seemingly holding back his tears, as he had just realized just how much Aunt Lin truly loved him¡­


    Thus, he kissed her forehead and replied her;


    "I will give you wat your heart desires, but first, I have to clear this off its decaying worms!" Dara replied as Aunt Ling began to rub his chest and then added another series of passionate kiss;


    "I love you Dara¡­ I will do anything you want me to, even if you tell me to destroy everything you have built¡­" She promised with eyes zed with love, whilst Dara simply smiled;


    "Don''t worry honey, you won''t have to do that after all, the tribe is the only protection you will have should I leave, and I am sure Uncle Min and Ji Wang wouldn''t allow you suffer any loss as long as I am here¡­"


    Dara replied whilst Aunt Lin cleaned her wet face and slept on his chest¡­


    [You do know you would still eventually leave this ce right?] Long asked after Aunt Lin fell asleep;


    [Yeah, I know¡­]


    [And you know she can''t follow you wherever you go, right?] Sam added;


    [I know guys, but I would still make this one year worth her efforts¡­] Dara responded as he looked towards the snoozing Aunt Lin in his embrace;


    [Alright then¡­ Taking over this is as easy as breathing to me, but once you leave, everything else would be extremely dicey and unpredictable¡­] Long added;


    [She will be fine as long as she has my child in her tummy¡­] Dara responded;


    He had always known that the Dar Lands would be too little a stage for him, and whilst the entire of Jok would be an incredible feat for his young age;


    Dara knew that is because he had yet to truly be an expert on the path of cultivation and once that was done, he would need to seek out more challenges, especially now that Loong and Sam are now with him¡­


    Thus, after a while, he kissed Aunt Lin on the forehead and fell asleep whist absorbing the remaining Qi within thest Qi Stone to nourish his soul¡­


    By the time he was done, the dawn of the next day had arrived, and Aunt Lin was woken by all the Elders who had assembled even before any of the tribesmen could wake up¡­


    "I have lost the little cultivation I have and would have to cultivate for at least three days straight to return to my peak¡­" Dara told them as the Elder''s nodded their heads;


    "Well, your room of Qi Stones that Elder Smith forged for you have been gathering natural energies for the past six weeks, so you can use that to return to your peak, but we will also give you ten Qi Stones, just in case it isn''t enough¡­"


    Ji Wang added with a slight bow as Dara looked to him with a favorable gaze;


    "Alright, then, I would have to rely on you all for the next three days then¡­." Dara added as a feeling of joy and sensitive responsibility surged within the hearts of the Elders¡­


    This is the first time Dara would be utterly reliant on them, not to mention the fact that he said it with his own mouth¡­


    Thus, they all felt like his wellbeing before returning to his peak was the most important tasks to them;


    "Don''t worry tribe leader, I will try to fashion the most reliable weapons and amour for you within the next one month¡­" Elder Smith promised;


    "I''ll also make sure that the rest of the residences arepleted within the next two weeks, so you wouldn''t have anything to worry about when you return to your peak." Ji Wang added;


    "I''ll also make sure that you have enough healing resources before your next dangerous mission." Elder Ting promised as the rest of the Elders nodded in agreement¡­

 Chapter 155 - Ten Times Stronger!

    [I will exin as simple as I can, so that if it goes wrong or not good enough, my conscience would be clear¡­ Alright, listen;] Long began exining as even Sam paid attention;


    [The reason why people feel cultivation is hard and requires tremendous amount of cultivation is because they made a grave mistake during their Qi Sensing stage¡­]


    [It is the first and also the earliest stage of cultivation, as well as the simplest and fastest, but also the most vital and the most condemning¡­]


    [In cultivation, there are 5 Realms known to everyone; The Mortal Realm, The Spirit Realm, The Divine Realm, The God Realm and finally the Primordial Realm¡­]


    [Now I would have loved to exin everything to you at once, but in doing so, you will fail to take things as intricate as possible and instead look to rush and be strong, and thus like everyone else, you will lose something important that can never be recovered¡­] Long exined;


    [Now for this Qi Sensing stage, it determines how strong you would be due to the tier of Qi you would be wielding¡­]


    [Mortal Realm Qi is the one everyone can easily find around, and is the same one in this Qi Stone of yours, and it is only 5 percent pure and extremely scarce; simply because there are a lot of people who connected to the Mortal Realm during their Qi Sensing stage...]


    [But even though it is being created by nature, everything still has its limit and as a result, there are simply too many people for the avable Qi¡­]


    [The ratio of cultivators to Mortal Realm Qi is about 1 to 1 million; and this means for every amount of Qi needed for a cultivator to cultivate, there are 1 million people sharing it¡­]


    [Then when you consider the fact that there are some people who are now even using Qi Gathering formations to take more Qi out of nature for themselves, it takes the ratio to about 1 to 10 million¡­]


    [Thus you can imagine how scanty the Qi in the Mortal Realm is¡­]


    [But since nature would always maintain bnce, it has its own way of taking back Qi from people¡­]


    [When you power a technique with Qi, fine it deals damage to your enemy, but the Qi also disperses back into the atmosphere instantaneously...]


    [This means if you cultivate in an area where there are a lot ofpetition amongst the experts residing there, your cultivation would be faster, and people in that area would be stronger than those living in an area where there''s peace¡­]


    [Furthermore, once a cultivator dies, and they do not pass on their cultivation to anyone else, their cultivation and all their Qi ends up returning to the atmosphere¡­]


    [Thus, if you then fail during your Qi Sensing stage and link yourself to the Mortal Realm, you will simply be adding to the poption that is already overpopted and diminish the Qi that is already insufficient...]


    [Then that would limit your future aplishments because the higher you go in cultivation, the more Qi you would need...]


    [This is why some experts stay in a single cultivation stage for hundreds or even thousands of years without moving an inch¡­]


    [There have even been cases of some experts cultivation base actually receding¡­ I am not saying all these because I wish to narrate some story or scare you in cultivation¡­]


    [I understand, you are just trying to tell me how valuable the Qi Sensing Stage of cultivation is¡­]


    Dara got the message and would be lying if he said he wasn''t influenced or understood the consequences of what he was about to do¡­


    [Now for the Spirit Realm; obviously the QI in there is much more abundant and is 10 percent pure, then twice as strong as that of the Mortal Realm¡­]


    [This means, if two cultivators in the 2 Star Qi Sea Stage battle one another, the one linked to the Spirit Realm would utterly defeat the one linked to the Mortal Realm, WITH HALF THE EFFORT!]


    [Eh!?] Dara was stunned¡­


    [Exactly, so now, you know that¡­]


    [Then as for the Divine Realm, it is 25 percent pure, twice as strong as the Spirit Realm and four times as strong as the Mortal Realm, and I don''t need to do the calctions for you if you use my earlier example¡­]


    [As for the God Realm, it is 50 percent pure and also twice as strong as the Divine Realm, and you can understand the rest¡­]


    [Then finally we have the Primordial Realm which is 100 percent pure, and TEN TIMES as strong as the God Realm¡­]


    [Now this means, if a Mortal Realm 1 Star Qi Creation stage expert has a punch that weighs 500KG, a Spirit Realm of the same stage would have a punch weighing 1,000KG, and then it would be 2,000KG for Divine Realm, 4,000KG for the God Realm, and 40,000KG for the Primordial Realm¡­]


    [That is the difference in Qi quality alone, and it is just one aspect of a cultivator''s total battle power¡­]


    [We also have the meridians, techniques, cultivation path and other factors¡­]


    [But this is the major of the all followed by the meridians, cultivation path and the likes¡­] Long exined as Dara gave a huge sigh¡­


    [So, how do I achieve for the Primordial Realm Qi?] Dara asked;


    [Eh!? Haha haha ha!] Longughed till his ribs nearly cracked as Dara''s face darkened;


    [If it was that easy to link to the Spirit Realm alone, don''t you think the world would have been teeming with experts who could create entires with a fart?] Longughed harder than before as he continued on;


    [The strongest expert I know of, was able to connect to the Divine Realm, and he could create a of his own with constetions around them¡­]


    [I was only able to connect to the Spirit Realm, and I could already shatters when I was only 40 years of age; and I mean my true age not my appearance¡­]


    [Back then I had the appearance of a 17 year old, and that was because I didn''t give two fucks about my appearance¡­] Long exined as Dara and Sam froze in utter shock;


    To be able to shatters even if one was a thousand years old is still an incredible feat not to talk of at a tender age of 40!


    [Oh back then, experts move into the multiverse to do battle, picking up a star and throwing it straight at their opponents who would simply smack the star out of their paths¡­] Long added proudly....

 Chapter 156 - Left!?

    [Back then I had the appearance of a 17 year old, and that was also because I didn''t give two fucks about my appearance¡­] Long proudly exined as Dara and Sam froze in utter shock;


    To be able to shatters even if one was a thousand years old is still an incredible feat not to talk of at a tender age of 40!


    [Oh back then, experts move into the multiverse to do battle, picking up a star and throwing it straight at their opponents who would simply smack the star out of their paths¡­] Long added proudly...


    [But that is not for you yet, whatever you achieve now, would depend on how well you do today, if you want t be as strong as me, then connect to the Spirit Realm¡­]


    [If you want to be like my idol which was the strongest person I know of, then connect to the Divine Realm¡­] Long encouraged;


    [How many people has ever connected to the God Realm?]


    Dara asked as Sam and Long froze in shock¡­ Not because of the question, but the tone, confidence and manner with which Dara asked;


    [Since the beginning of creation, though we don''t know the exact number, but we are very sure they could be counted in one hand, and they are also things of the Legend, that borders on Myths¡­]


    Long exined whilst Sam started thinking about all the Gods in all the religions he had heard of back on earth, and he was sure than even though they all referred to their Gods with different names, there still all had a single All Sovereign who they simply call different names based on their ethnicity,nguage, and location on the¡­


    But what they were speaking of here were something that he had never known before, it was fiction, impossible and what everyone would regard as lies if they were told back on earth¡­


    [Alright, so how do I go about it then?] [It''s simple¡­ It depends on luck, your fate, ambition and desire¡­]


    [It is known that all Qi originates from the Primordial Realm, and then it reduces its own quality to serve the God Realm, and then degrades itself further to serve the Divine Realm, and then furtherly the Spirit Realm before ending as the Physical Realm¡­] Long exined;


    [This means that within that Qi Stone of in your hand, there is a 10 percent chance for you to discover the Spirit Realm Qi within it¡­]


    [Then a 1 percent chance to discover the Divine Qi within it; and then a 0.1 chance to discover the God Realm Qi within it, and a 0.01 percent chance to discover the Primordial Realm Qi within it¡­]


    [But I must warn you very well, one would only have s single chance at the Qi Sensing stage, if they fail, they would never be able to cultivate, which is why finding cultivators naturally is very scarce¡­]


    [How can you say cultivation is very scarce when almost everyone on the of Jok can cultivate?] Dara asked thinking Long was simply bluffing;


    [Firstly, you guys are not even living on a real but the simple eyeball of a God Stage cultivator¡­]


    [But I must tell you that all the stars you see in the sky are alls with people living on them, either humans, spirits, beasts, aliens or nts, but that''s not the point, when you finish up here and we leave this eyeball you all are living on, then you will understand yourself¡­]


    [Back to your cultivation¡­]


    [The reason is because, a spirit can only make contact with the Qi Sensing stage once in their lifetime¡­]


    [This means even if you die and get reincarnated like me, and have the chance to begin cultivating again, you still won''t be able to improve on it, and thus, once you link it, you are stuck to it till you no longer exist¡­]


    [Otherwise, everyone would just kill themselves reincarnate and try again¡­] Long exined;


    [Thus, the first Realm you will find is the Mortal Realm, and then you can ascend further to search for the Spirit Realm, and if you are lucky and you find it, you can also decide to ascend once again to look for the Divine Realm¡­]


    [But all that is within the time it takes this Qi Stone to run dry, once it is dry, you would be forced to descend at more than ten times the speed you were ascending with, and by that time, you will fall past the links you have found on your way up¡­]


    [So let''s say you were searching for the Primordial Realm when you ascended, once you are returning, if you are lucky totch onto the Divine Realm link, then all the best for you, that means you have be a Divine Realm cultivator¡­]


    [But once you miss that link which would be 1 in about 1 trillion empty links, you would have to look for the Spirit Realm Link andtch onto it, and that is about 1 in 1 billion empty links¡­]


    [Should you miss that as well, you must catch the Mortal Realm link which are much but are 1 in 1 million empty links, and that is why it is the easiest totch onto amongst all of them¡­]


    [But if you fail to catch that as well, then it means your journey into cultivation would end before it even begins¡­]


    [Simrly, even if you are in the Primordial Realm looking for a link, and you mistakenlytch onto any one of the 999.9 billion empty links, your journey into cultivation also ends from there¡­]


    Long exined as Dara and Sam finally realized that Long wasn''t just bluffing but was inherently serious about this part of one''s cultivation journey;


    [But why didn''t everyone else try other Realms?] Sam asked out of sheer curiosity; [Well, that is because it is a valuable and closely guarded knowledge that less than ten living beings know of till date¡­]


    [Out of those ten, two are beasts¡­ One is a nt, then the remaining eight are humans¡­]


    [Then out of the eight humans, five took the secrets to their grave because they were scared of what everything would be once they all know the truth¡­]


    [Then of the remaining three, two of them have left¡­]


    [Left!?]

 Chapter 157 - A Sneak Peak Into Catastrophic Knowledge

    [But why didn''t everyone else try other Realms?] Sam asked out of sheer curiosity;


    [Well, that is because it is a valuable and closely guarded knowledge that less than ten living beings know of till date¡­]


    [Out of those ten, two are beasts¡­ One is a nt, then the remaining eight are humans¡­]


    [Then out of the eight humans, five took the secrets to their grave because they were scared of what everything would be once they all know the truth¡­]


    [Then of the remaining three, two of them have left¡­]


    [Left!?]


    [Yeah, the record of their presence simply ended, and ording to those who recorded their lives, they said their aura and presence simply vanished¡­]


    [Did they die!?]


    [What!? Do you think people with such level of power can still die?]


    [Even the god of death would eat horse poop just to get the chance to die for people on such level of power¡­] Long added with a frown of incredulity as he sighed at how na?ve they all were¡­


    [Thest person who knows about it, hosts a tournament for all cultivators, and the reward is the opportunity to take a nce at his mental sense which contains all his knowledge, and whatever you obtain from it is up to you¡­]


    [Then doesn''t that mean there are others who would have found out about it?]


    [Imagine the entire life of a person who have lived for at least 4 million years shing in front of your face in a second in different series of pictures, do you think you will be able to even see anything?]


    Long asked and Sam nodded, if they put a movie at 1,000 times payback speed, you might not even see anyone''s face, not to talk of know what the movie was all about, not to talk of 4 million times payback speed, a normal human would die instantly¡­


    Dara on the other hand could utterly rte, because when he got the information of a single technique from Long''s soul back then, he had fainted in less than five seconds and woke up with an head splitting migraine¡­


    [But the First Bloodline Ancestor of our bloodline was able to glean a picture where that expert was reading about this exact information, and he stuck that image to his head, and that is despite it being a book of about 1,000 pages...]


    [Imagine the fact that the information written in just a single page of this 1,000 pages long book actually contained such a significant information¡­]


    [Now imagine what would happen if you actually had the entire book?]


    Long asked whilst looking at Sam and Dara''s faces, and he could see that they couldn''t evenprehend the consequences of such a scenario;


    [Alright, you can begin¡­ Enter your mental scape and allow your Dao Tree connect to your mind¡­]


    [How do I even do that?] [Your Dao Tree connects to everything about you, from your Body, to your Spirit and your Cultivation, thus when you cultivate, your Dao Tree also grows¡­]


    [Once you start absorbing the Qi in this stone, the specific root on your Dao Tree that is connected to cultivation would slow down the rate at which you absorb the Qi and then it would begin to search for those link itself, but because you can it is your Dao Tree, you can control which link the roottches onto¡­]


    Long exined as Dara shut his eyes, and before long, a multicolored spirit appeared within Dara''s mental scape, and floated right in front of his Dao Tree¡­


    The Spirit was Gold, White and ck in color;


    [That is the root that is connected to your cultivation¡­] Long directed Dara as he approached the root and touched it, instantly his consciousness was sucked into it;


    [How do I know which is the Spirit Link or Divine Link?]


    [It is by their color¡­ In the Mortal Scape, you will find brown and green empty links which is simr color to Bronze which is the Mortal Realm Link¡­]


    [In the Spirit Scape, you will find transparent and white colored empty links, which are also simr to silver which is the Spirit Realm Link¡­]


    [I heard about the Divine Scape which contains empty links of different shades of yellow and brown which are also simr to Gold which is the Divine Link¡­]


    [As for the rest, I don''t know anything about it which means that is as far as I lead you, the rest is up to you¡­] Long exined;


    [But how would I know if I have picked a Link?] [Well, we are in your mindscape and once you pick the right link, this ce would expand into a word of its own, with this Dao Tree of yours as the center of it all¡­]


    [If you pick the Mortal Link, you would find vegetation and other things that can support life within thisce; from nts to bodies of water, fire source, source of breeze and the likes¡­]


    [Then if you pick the Spirit Link, then Qi would exist in here as well as a sea of consciousness which would make this ce be an ind on ake¡­]


    [This means this entire ce would be ake with the water being your sea of consciousness, and in the middle of that sea of consciousness will be a small patch ofnd where this tree stands¡­]


    [It is also one of the reasons why experts linked to the Spirit Realm recover their Qi faster than Mortal Realm experts, because Qi exists here¡­]


    [Furthermore, the reason they are able tost longer in battle is because they can store Qi within this ce and simply use it when their normal cultivation Qi has been expended¡­]


    [Furthermore, the higher your Link is, the bigger this ce bes which means a bigger space to store Qi¡­]


    [If you then pick the Divine Link, then you would start seeing divine bodies like constetions; stars, sun, moon and the likes¡­]


    [But as for the God Realm, even I don''t know the colors¡­]


    [But there have been rumors that life would exist within this ce, and I mean soul wisps in the form of humans, animals and other species of beings based on what you fantasize about or love...]


    [After all, it is your mindscape, so you can create whatever you think of in here, and that is ording to the rumors because I have never met anyone who has reached this Realm¡­]


    [Others even imed that once you reach a certain stage of cultivation, you could project this mindscape of yours into the physical world and it would exist¡­]


    [But as for the Primordial Realm, no one knows, not even the expert who gave my First Bloodline Ancestor a sneak peek into catastrophic knowledge...] He added¡­

 Chapter 158 - Longs Mindscape

    [After all, it''s your mindscape, so you can create whatever you think of in here, and that is ording to the rumors because I have never met anyone who has reached this Realm¡­]


    [Others even imed that once you reach a certain stage of cultivation, you could project this mindscape of yours into the physical world and it would exist¡­]


    [But as for the Primordial Realm, no one knows, not even the expert who gave my First Bloodline Ancestor a sneak peek into catastrophic knowledge...] He added¡­


    [But I must remind you, the moment you pick a link, it won''t matter even if you are done absorbing the Qi or not, the Realm you are in would mysteriously expel you out of the Qi Sensing Trial immediately¡­] Long added;


    [Anything else I need to know before I start?] Dara asked;


    [Nothing that I can remember for now¡­ To begin, simply jump into that stream of Qi and it would take you into the Mortal Scape first¡­]


    Long added as Dara began to stare at the steady flow of Qi that was streaming from his cultivation through the roots then into his Dao Tree¡­


    Sam and Long waited for hours but Dara didn''t move an inch and just as Dara was about to jump in;


    [Wait!] Sam blurted as Dara froze on the spot;


    [What is it!?] Long bellowed at Sam in fury¡­


    He had just exined how delicate this process was, and Sam had to wait till Dara was about to enter before shouting, an action that can cause Dara to fall into the stream of Qi with a disturbed mind which would definitely affect him once it was time to pick¡­


    [I didn''t mean to cause any problems¡­ But I was just thinking;] [Is there any wat I can go first¡­]


    [Just to try my luck and let him witness it, so that he can know what to expect?]


    The moment Sam said that, Dara quickly looked at Long with an anticipative gaze, but Long himself was gob-smacked by the question;


    [T-th-that''s possible!] Long stuttered in joy;


    [Due to the fact that, one''s Realm Link is a very closely guarded secret, no one is ever allowed to spectate such a journey out of fear that they might sabotage one''s pick and destroy their future before it even begins¡­]


    [But most parent would spectate their child''s Link selection trial to help him chose the best possible link, but I felt it might sound somewhat intrusive and scheming if I proposed it first¡­] Long exined;


    [Enough with the exnation, how do we do it?]


    [Does he have to simply jump into the stream?] Dara asked out of joy;


    [You this stupid fool, are you trying to destroy your future!?]


    [You want someone else to pick a link for you!?] Long snapped at Dara who froze in shock;


    [It seems I would have to be watching what I tell you in the future¡­ To think such a dangerous and careless thought would even cross your mundane mind!]


    Dara felt vited and hurt, but he knew Long was speaking the truth and was simply chastising him for his own good¡­


    [Dao Trees can only be found within one''s mindscape, which means as long as you have a mind of your own, then you will surely have a Dao Tree of you own¡­]


    Long didn''t just exin by speech, but instead warped them out of Dara''s mindscape into his own with a thought; after all, he has a much stronger mental cultivation than the duobined;


    [Woah!]


    On arriving, Sam and Dara blurted simultaneously as took in the sight¡­


    They were standing on a massive ind the size of china with a ck colored tree that towered so high into the sky that they couldn''t even see where the trunk began, because the only thing they could see were ck roots;


    [So huge!]


    Dara blurted whilst Long smugly allowed them experience the scene just to improve their drive for what they were about to do¡­


    The water body on which the ind they were standing on was sorge, that they couldn''t even see thend that made it ake¡­


    There were insane amount of Qi in here which were packed together to form clouds that covered the entire sky in here, causing it to look just like the outside world, only more than 10,000 bigger¡­


    [Is this what a Spirit Realm Link looks like?] Sam asked; [Of-course not¡­] Long chuckled;


    [Whilst the Spirit Real Link gives me a sea of consciousness and a ce to store Qi, all these seas of consciousness is from my mental cultivation which I had earned with my blood, sweat and tears¡­] Long exined;


    [Damn! From this patch of cloud alone, we could fashion out 10 million Qi Stones for all out tribe members and still have many more Qi Stones left, and to think it is just the smallest patch of cloud in sight!] Dara blurted before asking in wonder;


    [Just how strong were you in your prime!?]


    [I don''t mean to brag, but even if I told you, you will still not understand, simply because only a Spirit Realm Linked cultivator can understand what another Spirit Realm Linked cultivator''s mindscape is all about¡­] Long added;


    [Don''t worry, I believe you will surpass me, but if you can at least Link the Spirit Realm, then once you begin to store Qi within your mindscape, you will understand how many Qi stones this tiny little patch of cloud could make¡­] Long added;


    [Alright, we shouldn''t waste time¡­ Sam, lead us into your mindscape¡­]


    [Eh? Um¡­] Sam gave an awkward smile;


    [I don''t know how to do that¡­] He confessed;


    [Eh?] Dara was stunned;


    [It is understandable, he might be born into a world of mortals where there is no cultivation, so it is not a shocker¡­] Longughed before adding;


    [Alright, just think about your happiest moments, or the things you love or long for the most¡­]


    [Oh that''s easy¡­]


    Sam said as he shut his eyes and thought about Ivory and Jacob, and the moment his thoughts wandered, Long tapped into it and instantly, they all appeared within an utterly dark space¡­


    They could see nothing except from a white colored Dao Tree which was barren and simply looked like a tree that hasn''t seen water in ten thousand eons¡­

 Chapter 159 - Sams Mindscape

    Author''s Note:


    Hi guys... I have written this bonus chapter to apologize for the irregrities that has been happening with the chapter release recently... I use this to ask for your forgiveness, and hope that you support me till the end...


    Speaking Of Support; I decided not to release any Privilege Tier since i began this book because i wanted everyone to enjoy more chapters before i start setting privilege tiers... That is a loss on my part, but if you can pour your powerstones, gifts and constructive criticism into this book, i would very much appreciate...


    My vows remains valid and once those targets are met, the rewards would also follow suit... Thanks; Enjoy...


    ---


    [Alright, just think about your happiest moments, or the things you love or long for the most¡­] [Oh that''s pretty easy¡­]


    Sam said as he shut his eyes and thought about Ivory and Jacob, and the moment his thoughts wandered, Long tapped into it and instantly, they all appeared within an utterly dark space¡­


    They could see nothing except from a white colored Dao Tree which was barren and simply looked like a tree that hasn''t seen water in ten thousand eons¡­


    [Is this my Dao Tree!?]


    Sam asked with mixed emotions; one part was happy and wowed that he did actually had the chance to be a cultivator, whilst the other was disappointed and ashamed of its size and how barren it was¡­


    Then Long took them around the tree where they finally saw a white colored mini-sam who was asleep;


    [It''s simply because you have yet to awaken your Dao Tree¡­] Long exined with a smile;


    [How do I do that!?] Sam asked earnestly;


    [Well since you are going to be going in our ce, it is only natural that we would have to awaken it¡­ Though it should awaken by itself soon¡­] Long responded;


    [How!?] Dara was confused;


    [Well we all share the same body but different mind, and we are only able to jump into one another''s mind because your Dao Tree merged the three of us together, so the Qi that was previously flowing into your Dao Tree, should start flowing into his Dao Tree, but because he has no meridians, I would help out and clear his meridians from within¡­]


    Long spoke as he went to the sleeping mini-sam and ced his palm on its back, nd instantly, the tiny patch of Qi cloud which Dara saw earlier floated out of their spiritual body and appeared within Sam''s mindscape;


    [How''s this possible!?] Dara asked in shock;


    [It is mental sense¡­]


    [Experts that has reached a certain stage are able to speak to themselves using their mind, and can even narrate five days'' worth of story and only an instant would pass in the outside world...]


    [But it uses the sea of consciousness and a little Qi, and thus, I simply attempted to send a mental transmission to Sam, and thus, it brought my Qi along which the message is encoded within¡­] Long exined;


    [If his Dao Tree had been awakened, he would have heard me in his mind¡­] Long exined as the tiny patch of Qi Cloud surged into the slumbering mini-sam¡­


    Kacha!


    It was like a chain was broken as the mini-sam lit up and began to glow, and instantly, Sam''s consciousness began to be even more self-aware¡­


    Then it began to glow as the trio watched the light begin to flow in two different direction, one was heading for the tree whilst the other was heading for his cultivation to open his meridians¡­


    The moment the light entered the tree, it was just like a tree that had been starved of water; Sam''s Dao Tree guzzled the light through its tiny vein like paths before it trembled and rustled¡­


    Instantly, Sam realized that his thinking capacity, speed and depth soared to new heights;


    [Wonderful!]


    [If I had this when I was born back on earth, I might have grown to be the most powerful man on earth, and I would have been able to all those good deeds that I desired¡­]


    Sam blurted as Long and Dara simply smiled whilst the flow of light finally connected to Dara''s meridians and cleared a path from it to Sam''s Dao Tree¡­


    Then they saw the stream of Qi which was flowing within Dara''s Dao Tree root back then begin to flow through Sam''s Dao Tree root;


    [Alright, time to begin¡­]


    Sam also didn''t get carried away, after all, they all came her because they wanted to help Dara, and it wasn''t like Dara had all the time in the world;


    [Since our consciousness as linked, I should be able to get you guys to the Spirit Realm much faster, but then we would all look for the Golden Link of the Divine Realm, if we can get it¡­]


    [That means when our consciousness gets powerful enough to break this seal, Sam would not need to go through another Qi Sensing Trial ad simply begin to cultivate Divine Realm Qi, and that means Dara would be able to reach the Divine Realm faster and then search for the God Realm...]


    [But whilst we don''t know what we are looking for, I believe we should at least try our luck, even though we might have to sort through 1 zillion links by then¡­] Long added;


    [So, Sam, this trial is just as important to you as it is to Dara, in fact, it is even more important, because it would be for your cultivation in the end¡­] Long encouraged as Sam''s expression changed into a determined one, as he began to ripple with a unique sort of military aura¡­


    [Dara, this is also as important to you as it is to Sam, after all, it would determine if you would even be able to find a Divine Realm Link or if you are eve lucky get to enter the God Scape to look for a God Realm Link¡­] Long added;


    [As for me, it counts as even more loads of good karma for me, which boosts my luck¡­] Long added with joy as they jumped appeared in front of the root that was flowing steadily with Qi¡­


    They touched it and instantly, they were within Sam''s cultivation root which was mysteriouslyrger than Dara''s own;


    [Howe!?] That was the first thing that popped into Dara''s head;


    [Well he has been alive for much longer than you have, and has experienced several things more than you have, thus, you can''tpare you mental fortitude to one another¡­] Long exined as Dara nodded inprehension whilst it was apprehension in Sam''s case¡­.


    [Alright, in we go!]


    Ssh!


    They jumped into the stream and were instantly carried along till they finally reached the trunk of the Dao Tree;


    [Alright we are here¡­] Long revealed as Dara and Sam saw what the physical realm truly was all about¡­


    It was like having ten tons of salt being poured into a massive container, and then they ask someone tell someone that; within the ton of rice, there are about 1,000 grains in it which are actually diamond shards, and the person was to find one, and whist the odds were still possible, it was still tons of rice grains that the person has to sort through¡­

 Chapter 160 - The Elusive Bronze Link

    [Alright we''re here¡­]


    Long revealed as Dara and Sam saw what the physical realm truly was all about¡­


    It was like having ten tons of salt being poured into a massive container, and then they ask someone tell someone that; within the ton of rice, there are about 1,000 grains in it which are actually diamond grains, and the person was to find one, and whist the odds were still possible, it was still tons of rice grains that the person has to sort through¡­


    The Mortal Realm and its links were like several ropes of different colors from hanging downwards from above;


    [These are the links guys¡­ Like I said it is based on your desires¡­.]


    [Once you find a Mortal Realm Link or any bronze link hanging from above, you will grab it and then desire if that is what you want or if you want to ascend higher into the Spirit Realm to get a stronger link¡­] Long reminded as they saw these links shuffling within themselves with no apparent rhythm;


    [Damn, as if finding a Bronze Link isn''t had enough, but you must also chase it otherwise it would elude you¡­] Sam said when he saw the rate at which over 1 billion links were shuffling into one another;


    [No shit¡­ If one isn''t careful, one might mistakenly grab the wrong link at thest moment¡­] Dara added;


    [That is why I used the term ''Latch Onto'' guys, once you see it you musttch onto it before it eludes you¡­] Long gave ast minute advise, as their consciousness searched about with insane mental speed;


    [There''s one!]


    Dara blurted as Sam and Long looked in the direction which he was gesturing too and indeed, there was a bronze link in there nestled and squeezing through every avable gaps as it tried to flee from their sights;


    [After it, don''t let it out of your sights!]


    Long screamed as they chased the Bronze Link which for some reasons began to tease them and toy with them, and after about an hour of chasing, they still hadn''t caught up, and not only that, the Bronze Link made sure to cause a very disturbing ruckus as it fled, chasing every other Bronze Link they found on the way before Dara''s group could even see them;


    [Tch¡­ Does this happens every time!?] Dara was somewhat getting tired and stressed out as Long reminded him;


    [I have told you it depends on luck, your fate, ambition and desire, and these Links would test them to the limits of your endurance, and some would even supersede your endurance limits¡­]


    [Perhaps, it is just nature''s way of preparing everyone for the cultivations journey, or perhaps it is its way of weeding out the faint hearted from the rest, or perhaps, these links are just being assholes, but that is how it is¡­] Long exined as they chased it, but after a short period of time;


    [Wait!] Sam abruptly spoke as everyone stopped;


    [What is it?] Long asked;


    [I have an idea¡­] Sam responded;


    [If something keeps hoping around or behaving like we are in a cat-mouse chase, then we will step up the game¡­]


    [What do you mean?]


    [We take the viper approach¡­] Sam said as he exined his idea to them;


    [Are you sure it would work?]


    [Like, you know we really have no time right?] Dara and Long asked respectively, just to be sure;


    [Trust me on this one¡­ One thing I learnt in the military is how to study the behaviors of our targets, and I think I have this one all figured out¡­]


    Sam added as they abruptly split up in three different directions, but were still connected via the seal from Grandma Meng''s milk¡­


    They hid in three separate areas of the Realm but very close to each other, and soon enough, about three minutester, they saw the same Bronze Link [or rope] they have been chasing for an hour¡­


    It returned and moved around in all directions in a probing manner like someone who was looking for something;


    ''To think Sam would truly predict the behavior of this thing¡­'' Long thought to himself in wonder as he mentally gave Sam a nod of approval¡­


    But he was not the only one, Dara also saw the Link and was stunned by its humanly behavior;


    ''Damn, if even the Mortal Realm Link is this difficult to find and catch, just how difficulty would the Spirit Realm be?'' Dara thought as he saw the Link;


    ''Alright, Sam should be making his move anytime soon¡­''


    Long thought to himself, and the moment his thought ended, Sam''s consciousness jumped out of the crowd of empty links and spooked the Bronze Link, which instantly took flight in the opposite direction¡­


    But it had barely moved three meters when Long''s consciousness popped out right in front of it, forcing it to rapidly change direction, but just as it chose a direction, a consciousness abruptlytched onto it from below;


    [Great job kid!]


    Long praised Dara''s reflexes as Dara desired the Link to take them into the Spirit Realm, and the moment that happened, the Bronze Link abruptly sped upwards towards the direction the other empty links were hanging down from;


    ~Swoosh!~


    Dara''s group found themselves moving at inhuman amount of speed, until they finally popped into a new scape¡­


    In this area, the Links here were more but were more spaced out as Long exined;


    [This is the Spirit Scape, and the tactics of selecting the right Link here is very different¡­] He said;


    [Here all the Links are in a set position, but we would have to identify the Silver Link amongst all this shade of white and jump just like someone trying to cross a ditch, and we have to catch the right Link, otherwise, if we fail to catch it, and we fall, we will fall into the Mortal Scape...]


    [Then if we fail to catch another Link in the Mortal Scape whilst falling, we will eventually fall out of the Trial and then you can kiss your cultivation goodbye!] Long rapidly exined as Sam and Dara froze in shock¡­


    The sheer speed a with which this Link was pulling them would barely enable to them to spot a Silver Link, not to talk of jumping to actually catch it on time;


    [How is it even possible!?] Sam asked with a hard frown;

 Chapter 161 - Damn… We Messed Up!

    [Then if we fail to catch another Link in the Mortal Scape whilst falling, we will eventually fall out of the Trial and then you can kiss your cultivation goodbye!] Long rapidly exined as Sam and Dara froze in shock¡­


    The sheer speed a with which this Link was pulling them would barely enable to them to spot a Silver Link, not to talk of jumping to actually catch it on time;


    [How is it even possible!?] Sam asked with a hard frown;


    [The most important thing is to spot one, once we have the general direction of where the Link is, we can jump off this Link after moving past it...]


    [But then, the challenge would be to ensure that we catch the Link on our way down, otherwise, we would find ourselves back at square one at best, and at worst, we would have wasted our time here¡­] Long exined as they all kept a lookout for the Silver Link¡­


    But even after three hours of looking at thousands of Links speeding past their presence at a speed of about 2,000 miles an hour, Sam and Dara were already getting dizzy and somewhat hallucinating;


    Moreover, even their consciousness was already ying tricks on them as every now and then they would see a Link that they could have sworn was Silver in color¡­


    But Long kept paying attention to the situation as he had sensed that the Qi they were absorbing from the Qi Stone was about 95 percent depleted already, and he knew it might affect Sam and Dara''s desire to look for the Link should he tell them, thus he simply went on with the search and even encouraged them;


    [Pay attention guys¡­ It is this time when you start thinking that your mind is ying tricks on you that these Links would start appearing one after the other, and after being exposed to a lot of them, you might pass by one and think it is another ordinary White Empty Link, so be careful¡­]


    Long warned as Sam and Dara refocused, and after about another half an hour; [


    I see one!]


    All three of them blurted simultaneously as they coincidentally saw the same Silver Link¡­


    [Alright, jump!]


    Long ordered as they jumped off the Bronze Link which dropped back down at a pace so fast, it almost bordered on instantaneous return¡­


    Dara and the rest were already on their way back down when Long realized they were a little off course;


    He realized that the Link would most likely be about three meters of their current spot, and as a result, they grabbed Dara and tossed him three meters away from their current location¡­


    Then after another ten minutes of falling, based on the types and color patterns of the Empty Links they saw around that Silver Link, they once again realized that they were about two meters to the right;


    But just as Sam and Long was about to toss the other two meters off their current location, Dara abruptly yelled;


    [Wait!]


    [What is it, you brat!?] Long yelled;


    [You almost made me toss Sam in the wrong direction!] He added with a frown but wasn''t overly harsh with his tone;


    [I was just thinking that if you tossed him just now and we discovered that we were about a single meters off the Link when we arrived at its position, what would we do then?]


    Dara asked as Long and Sam realized that they had almostmitted a grave mistake;


    [So what do you suggest kid?] Sam asked;


    [I think it would be better if you guys wait until it is almost time and thenunched one another two meters apart, that way we would have a higher chance of grabbing it!]


    Dara suggested as Long and Sam agreed to this logic, and soon enough, they were bearing down on the Link when Sam bellowed;


    [Now!]


    Instantly Long grabbed Sam and swung him in an arc, but just as Sam''s other hand was about to leave Long''s grasp, they both realized that they had gotten it wrong by about five degrees to the left, and it was already toote;


    [Damn!]


    Sam cursed out loud as he realized that they would have fallen even more off target if Dara hadn''t stopped them earlier¡­


    But whilst Dara and Sam bothmented on the situation, Long abruptly grabbed Sam''s only limb tighter and instead threw him towards Dara¡­


    Coming to a quick understanding of Long''s intention, Sam slimmed his posture to take advantage of the momentum as heunched a very hard kick at Dara, who also realized their tactics and flipped himself mid-fall before stomping on Sam''s iing foot¡­


    Tak!


    Sam added Long''s momentum to his own and transferred it into Dara who borrowed it to jump even higher as he moved up slightly, but that momentum could only do so much as the downward force of the Spirit Realm which expels experts'' consciousness stopped him mid-flight before it began to push Dara back down as Sam and Long sighed in anguish;


    [Damn¡­ We messed up!] Sammented;


    [So sorry guys, I have been here before albeit a very long time ago¡­ But that is not an excuse, I should have done better!]


    Long took the me upon himself as they saw the barrier that led into the Mortal Realm fast approaching;


    [We should be just try our best to grab into any Bronze Link as we descend¡­] Long tried to encourage;


    [It''s alright even if we don''t; at least, we have achieved our primary aim which is to show Dara what to expect¡­]


    [Furthermore, I was a mortal before, and I will be happy even if I only get to live as a mortal in this fantastic world too¡­]


    Sam held no real optimism because, whilst the Link in the Spirit Realm were all stagnant and unmoving;


    The ones in the Mortal Realm were extremely elusive, and when one considered the fact that they had already almost run out of Qi and were only barely resisting the repulsive force of the Qi Sensing Trial, one would realize that their situation was nigh hopeless¡­


    ''Shit, will Sam now sacrifice himself for me and then settle for less¡­ No, I am unwilling to let that happen!''


    Dara thought to himself as he began to think of the box to find a solution but just couldn''t due to the chaotic state of his consciousness, thus he decided to calm himself¡­

 Chapter 162 - Sams Silver Link

    When one considered the fact that they''d already almost run out of Qi and were only barely resisting the repulsive force of the Qi Sensing Trial, one would realize that their situation was nigh hopeless¡­


    ''Shit, will Sam now sacrifice himself for me and then settle for less¡­ No, I''m unwilling to let that happen!''


    Dara thought to himself as he began to think of the box to find a solution but just couldn''t due to the chaotic state of his consciousness, thus he decided to calm himself¡­


    He shut his eyes and looked deep into his consciousness as he calmed his chaotic state of consciousness¡­


    He search his inner consciousness for a way out, and the moment he did that, he seemed to enter into a new realm and the first thing he noticed was that he lost all sense of touch, hearing and everything seemed to drown out except from the sensation of free fall he was having¡­


    Everything was pitch ck until he had almost fallen through the barrier which Long and Sam had already passed through already¡­


    But just as he was about to fall through the barrier, a single silvery rope appeared in the corner of his eyes;


    ''Unh!? Is that!?''


    Dara eximed as he stretched his hand within this dark space and attempted to grab onto the silvery rope as his consciousness within the Spirit Scape also stretched its hands through the host of Empty Links and surprisingly approached a very dim Silvery Link which was so obscured that it was actually there in front of everyone to see; just at the entrance of the Spirit Scape, but seemingly invisible to the consciousness¡­


    It was truly representing the term ''Hiding In in Sight''¡­


    Tap!


    Prrrrr!


    The moment Dara caught it, everyone vanished instantaneously;


    [Eh? We are back!?] Sam was stunned when he saw the three of them back within his mindscape;


    [Did any one of you pick an Empty Link!?] Long asked with a frustrated frown that was bordering on anger;


    [I was just about to pick up a Bronze Link!] He pped his forehead in total disappointment¡­


    [It was me¡­] Dara confessed;


    [What!?]


    [How could you do that!?]


    [After everything we have discussed and the amount of times I''ve told you how important this is to both of you!?] Long felt utterly disappointed¡­


    He was a person who always desired to achieve whatever he had set his sight on, and whilst he had even chose to settle for less today because they missed out on the Silver Link they saw;


    He was determined to pick a Bronze Link for Sam, but right when he was about to catch one, he suddenly found himself back within Sam''s mindscape;


    [But I picked a Silver Link¡­]


    Dara spoke with an unconvinced tone as he had begun to doubt if he had truly picked a Silver Link¡­


    Perhaps, he had fallen for the illusion effects which arises as a result of having his consciousness go through a lot of workload in a very short period of time¡­


    [You picked a Silver Link!?]


    [Then howe we can''t see the effects here!?]


    [Look around you and tell me again, do you think you picked a Silver Link!?]


    Long was yelling already because he felt Dara took the situation lightly or perhaps got a littlecent and carried away;


    [It''s alright Long, we were here for him in the first ce, and like I said earlier, I don''t mind not getting anything either¡­]


    [Getting to experience this new world is already a great achievement for me¡­] Sam defused the tensed situation as Long vented all his frustration with a deep, heavy sigh;


    [I''m sorry¡­] Dara felt annoyed at himself as well;


    [It''s fine¡­ But if you really want to make it up to me, then you must at least grab a Silver Link when it''s your turn, that way I can experience what it feels like whilst you cultivate¡­] Sam added with a smirk¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    In the outside world¡­


    It had almost been about six hours since Dara had picked the Qi Stone and Aunt Lin had returned from her daily tasks and had been searching for him for reasons unknown, until she came upon Ji Wang who told her that he would most likely still be within the Qi Stone Room¡­


    Thus, Aunt Lin came over to check up on him as she always loved to stare at him whenever he was unaware, that way she usually get the full natural view of Dara''s handsomeness which usually made her heart flutter, and she most often did that whenever he was asleep and she managed to wake up before him¡­


    But on getting to the transparent Qi Stone Room, she saw him there sitting cross-legged with an utterly dim Qi Stone in his grasps whilst there were nine bright ones in front of him;


    "Are you so tired that you have fallen asleep whilst cultivating?"


    Aunt Lin muttered to herself with a love smitten expression when she saw the situation; so she walked into the Qi Stone Room and squatted in front of him with eye zed over with love, before removing the empty Qi Stone from his grasp and putting a bright one on it¡­


    Boom!


    Instantly, the group of Sam, Long and Dara felt Sam''s entire mindscape tremble as Qi burst out of his cultivation into the root connected to it, as they saw insane amount of Qi stream into Sam''s Dao Tree which trembled before absorbing all that Qi and dispersing it into the atmosphere when it reached the top of the tree, as the area began to brighten like dawn was just appearing;


    [Eh? What''s going on?] Sam was stunned;


    [Oh my world¡­ Oh my world¡­ Oh my- It''s really a Silver Link!]


    Long was so ecstatic the amount of words in his memories were fading so fast that he became speechless after his first statement;


    [Silver Link!?]


    [What do you mean? I thought you said he picked an Empty Link?] Sam asked as Long finally found his words back;


    [Yeah, but I think I might be getting too old that my memory is failing me after all¡­]


    [Naturally, once someone connects to a Spirit Realm Link, the person''s mindscape would begin the reconstruction of the mindscape instantaneously, but I totally forgot that your Dao Tree wasn''t a native of this ne of existence¡­]


    Long exined with a beaming smile as he gazed over to Dara who seemed too caught up in his own thoughts to even hear a single word he was talking about;

 Chapter 163 - Success Adiction

    [Yeah, but I think I might be getting too old that my memory is starting to fail me¡­]


    [Naturally, once someone connects to a Spirit Realm Link, the person''s mindscape would begin the reconstruction of the mindscape instantaneously, but I totally forgot that your Dao Tree wasn''t a native of this ne of existence¡­]


    Long exined with a beaming smile as he gazed over to Dara who seemed too caught up in his own thoughts to even hear a single word he was talking about;


    [For those who were naturally born here, they are created with awakened Dao Trees, and thus, the only thing they needed to do was to jump straight to unlocking their meridians, then linking the meridians to the Dao Tree and then taking the Qi Sensing trials¡­]


    [But for you, your Dao Tree wasn''t awakened at all, and I guess it is because you have not been truly reborn into a body yet, which means your transmigration process isn''tplete¡­] Long began to exin;


    [Okay?]


    [That means I had to forcefully awaken your Dao Tree, and that would naturally mean your Dao Tree will react differently to everyone who are natives of this ne of existence¡­]


    [So, I guess that was the reason why your construction didn''t begin on time, even though, your Dao Tree is awakened, it ispletely devoid of any shred of Qi as we have utterly used up the one within the Qi Stone, thus it had no energy to pull the Spirit Realm Qi needed to kickstart the reconstruction process¡­]


    Long exined as Sam watched the light within his mindscape begin to spread deeper and deeper into this dark ce;


    [So are you saying-]


    [Yes¡­ Someone out there has swapped the used up Qi Stone for a full one, and since your Dao Tree has found a source of energy to forge the permanent link with the Spirit Realm, the Spirit Realm Qi can naturally begin the reconstruction¡­] Long exined;


    It was no one''s fault after-all, it was just the uniqueness of Sam''s Dao Tree which originates from the fact that he was from another ne of existence;


    Then the fact that he had yet to trulyplete his transmigration process because Dara''s spirit would have to vanish along with his Dao Tree before Sam canpletely take over andplete his transmigration;


    [Wow¡­ To think transmigration is that simple, intricate andplicated¡­] Sam sighed in wonder and joy as he watched the reconstruction go on;


    [So, what do I do now?] Sam asked;


    [Nothing¡­ We just have to allow the Spirit Realm do its thing¡­]


    [But don''t worry, it would construct it ording to the preferences of your mind¡­] Long exined with beaming smiles¡­


    But as for Dara on the other hand; he was still in a daze, not out of joy but sheer wonder¡­


    Though, he was happy for Sam, but he was even more shocked that the methods with which he actually selected the Silver Link was actually real;


    ''Doesn''t this mean that I will be able to find my own Silver Link on time!?'' Dara thought to himself, and it was only then that joy began to surge within him¡­


    [I''m sorry kid, I misjudged you¡­ I guess being alive for 4600 years has its own drawbacks¡­] Long apologized;


    [Yeah kid, I would be lying if I said I wasn''t a little disappointed back there; but I guess I was just too na?ve¡­ Thanks!] Sam confessed as Dara smiled;


    [You guys have sacrificed and done a lot for me already, I should be the one thanking you guys for going through all these stress to help me gain valuable experience that would give me a better chance at even getting more than I would have most likely received if I had done this on my own¡­] Dara yed down the entire situation;


    [No you would''ve still made it¡­] Long said as Dara and Sam looked strangely at him;


    [What do you mean?] Sam asked;


    [Alright, I guess it is time for me to be totally honest with you¡­] Long''s expression became guilty as he sighed;


    [Everyone in our ne of existence is born with a natural Link to the Mortal Realm¡­] He revealed;


    [What!?] Sam was stunned;


    [You mean!?] Dara spaced out slightly;


    [Yeah, I''m sorry¡­ But every other thing I have told you up to this moment is true though¡­] Long was now feeling bad as it seems his conscience and guilt were now tripping him;


    [It''s just that I have an addiction problem¡­]


    [I am so addicted to sess that anything other than the best to me is considered a failure¡­]


    [I n things carefully before doing them because I only want to achieve the best, and that was what caused my death¡­] He confessed;


    [Eh?] Sam and Dara eximed simultaneously;


    [Yeah, this knowledge I have now was stolen by me from a very powerful entity and the moment I took the secret, I burnt the scroll where it was recorded to ensure that I was the only one who had it¡­]


    [Then in a bid to ensure that I die, the n I stole it from released the news that I had the secret to all other major powers of our realm, and thus, these powers all hunted me down with the intent to kill me and obtain the secret¡­]


    [But I managed to flee quick enough and was about to grab my best-friend and woman and take them with me to prevent these major powers from using them as leverage or making them suffer a fate worse than death¡­]


    [But I never knew that they had also heard about the secret, and thus, thinking I still had the scroll on me, they killed me, nning to take it for themselves without knowing that I had already burnt the scroll, and that the secret was in my mind¡­]


    [This was what caused my death¡­] Long revealed; [I managed to use the knowledge but because I was the first person to use it since the time of those expert I spoke to you about, I had no one to guide me and thus, I failed to get anything higher than the Spirit Link which was even worse than a failure to me¡­] Long began to confess, stunning Dara and Sam¡­

 Chapter 164 - What Nonsense Are You Spouting?

    [This was what caused my death¡­] Long revealed;


    [I managed to use the knowledge but because I was the first person to use it since the time of those expert I told you about, I had no one to guide me and thus, I failed to get anything higher than the Spirit Link which was even worse than a failure to me¡­] Long began to confess, stunning Dara and Sam¡­


    [Thus, when you came around and I realized that you were a clean te who had yet to jump into cultivation without knowing you could achieve better, I stuck to you and waited till you were about to begin your cultivation¡­] Long revealed as Dara frowned slightly;


    [So, you mean-] [Yeah, though I was going to reincarnate, but not in your body, after all I don''t know what type of bloodline you have yet until you reach the bloodline realm, and I already have a body I would reincarnate into¡­]


    [Then why did you stick to me then, even going as far as risking your memory and that knowledge being wiped away by the so called Grandma Meng''s milk?] Dara couldn''t understand Long''s motives;


    [It''s very obvious¡­ He is so addicted to sess that if he can''t get the best Link for himself, he would find another person and ensure they get it¡­]


    [Furthermore, the fact that a child with no significant background or extraordinary talent could cultivate to be the greatest expert in existence appeared to you as the perfect type of sess¡­ Am I right!?] Sam profiled Long and asked;


    [You can indeed read your targets behavioral inclinations¡­]


    Long admitted as Dara had to take about three step back just to get enough room to process what he had just learnt¡­


    But to Long and Sam, it appeared like Dara was hurt and utterly disappointed in Long that he looked like he was about to make a drastic decision; but no matter how they felt, they didn''t want to push it and instead wanted to hear his thoughts first;


    [So, I am basically your experimental specimen?]


    Dara asked with a t tone which made Long and Sam sigh in regret as it seemed he had already made a decision that would not bode well for them at all, thus, Long decided to go for broke;


    [Yes¡­ I n on creating the perfect being¡­ The best of the best¡­ A first, with no precursors or ancestors¡­]


    [I spent my whole life gathering information and secrets that have been lost since the Primordial Era just to make myself the perfect being, but whilst I didn''t amount to 1 percent of the ideal person I wanted to be, I was still one of the top three strongest experts in my realm¡­]


    [If you can use 10 percent of the knowledge in my head to cultivate, then I can assure you that you will have enough power to rival my idol¡­]


    [Be 20 percent of my perfect being, and you will be able to shatters with a simple snort¡­]


    [If you manage to achieve 50 percent in your lifetime, you will be an unparalleled existence¡­] Long stopped and sighed;


    [But I guess I have simply overdone it¡­ Being addicted to sess is truly a bad thing¡­]


    [You never get satisfied even if you have 99.99 percent, and itnded me in a bad spot; Not only did my own love stab me in the back, my best friend also dealt the finishing blow, and now, I have repulsed you¡­]


    [You can do whatever you want, even if you want to cast me away, the worst that would happen is I would simply be captured by those ancient experts once they sense my presence and be tortured for generations¡­] Long added as Dara''s frown even deepened the more;


    [What nonsense are you spouting?]


    [Eh!?] Sam and Long blurted simultaneously as Dara chuckled at their expression;


    [You were simply rambling on and on and didn''t even wait to hear my own opinion¡­] He added a smile;


    [You are not angry!?] Sam asked;


    [Why would I be?] Dara looked at Sam with a ''Duh'' frown;


    [So, you are not throwing me out!?] Long asked;


    [I would be utterly insane to do that¡­]


    [Firstly, you have mentioned the ancient experts sensing your location; what if theye here and decide not to even punish you but destroy you along with this, killing all my loved ones and everything I care about?] Dara revealed like his decision was a no-brainer;


    [Secondly; whilst your actions might have appeared selfish, it was not with a harmful intention, we just have to work towards solving your addiction issues and you will have to promise toe clean and be utterly clear from now on¡­ No more secrets!]


    [Thenstly; who doesn''t desire to be the best or possess immense power; as a matter of fact, the fact that expert on your level are searching for you means they would find this ce sooner orter, so I want to possess enough power to be able to defend it¡­]


    [Though, I have yet to even finish up things with the Qi Stone Farms, the Royals and the other Kingdom, but it was in my n all along to go their region and ask them to either protect my tribe or establish peace and a loyal working rtionship with us¡­]


    [I will even force them if I have to; that''s how much I care about my tribe¡­] Dara revealed;


    [So, no one is throwing anyone out, and as a matter of fact, I will only throw you both out if you fail in building me to that ideal person you have in mind; and this begs my question;]


    [What happens if I be 100 percent of your ideal expert?] Dara asked;


    [Unh!?] Long was taken aback;


    [I don''t know, and I believe no one does¡­ Not before creation, not now and not after all creation would end¡­] Long revealed with an awkward chuckle;


    [I think only someone who reaches that level would be able to tell¡­]


    Sam added, and though he didn''t know what level it was, he could still make a deduction based on everything he had learnt so far;


    [Then let''s find out, or shouldn''t we?] Dara asked with a smug grin;

 Chapter 165 - Take It Easy Lover Boy

    [I don''t know, and I believe no one does¡­ Not before creation, not now and not after all creation would end¡­] Long revealed with an awkward chuckle;


    [I think only someone who reaches that level would be able to tell¡­]


    Sam added, and though he didn''t know what level it was, he could still make a deduction based on everything he had learnt so far;


    [Then let''s find out, or shouldn''t we?] Dara asked with a smug grin;


    [O-of course!] Long blurted like his life depended on it;


    [We can also find a suitable body for you both along the way¡­] Dara added as Long and Sam felt their emotions triggered¡­


    Though, they were grown men, but even men would break when they find someone who has a genuine desire to improve their wellbeing, and Dara just showed that¡­


    He had no business with them and could even decide to throw them out if he wanted, or threatened them into making him the best he could be as a form of paying rents for residing in his body, but no;


    Not only had he found a way to obtain a Silver Link for Sam, but now he was even thinking about finding a body for not only Sam but Long too¡­


    Dara smiled and turned around as he began to walk away;


    [Where are you going?] Long asked;


    [Eh? Where else?]


    [Let''s get started¡­] Dara added as Long smiled;


    [Hold on kid¡­ We can continue tomorrow, let''s take a breather so we can be fresh and in full condition¡­] Long added as he ced his palm on Dara''s consciousness;


    [We will meet up within his mindscape tomorrow¡­] He told Sam as he left with Dara whilst Sam returned to his Dao Tree to spectate the mind blowing reconstruction that was still ongoing¡­


    Dara and Long appeared within Long''s mindscape;


    [Thanks a lot kid, I would try not to fall short of your expectations¡­] Long promised;


    [Let me send you back, and remember to thank that person who swapped the exhausted Qi Stone for a new one¡­] He added as Dara vanished before his sight¡­


    Then Long walked over to his Dao Tree and ced his hands on the trunk;


    [You have told me to go find the right candidate to help and pay for my sins; I hope he is that right person and this counts as my penance¡­]


    Long added before he sat beneath the tree, picked a leaf from the ground and ced the stem into his mouth, before crossing his hands behind his head and going to sleep beneath the tree¡­


    But just as he shut his eyes and slept, the Dao Tree glowed and bore a new ck, lush flower¡­


    Dara on the other hand appeared in front of his Golden Dao Tree which was in rtion to the color of his spirit as he touched it and mumbled;


    [I hope you help me tomorrow¡­ I want to be very powerful, so that I can protect the things I love and make you proud of being my Dao Tree¡­]


    He said before leaving, as his own Dao Tree also glowed thrice before bearing its first ever flower¡­


    Dara opened his eyes in the outside world and saw a very pretty face with beautiful eyes staring at him with eyes lost in blissful thought which was apparent from the blush on her face¡­


    He felt the Qi Stone in his hands and realized she was the one who ced it there because he knew she is most likely the only person bold enough to enter his cultivation chamber within the entire tribe¡­


    Aunt Lin''s eyes refocused when she saw his hands tremble, but before she could say anything, Dara grabbed her by the wait and pulled her in as she fell on top of him;


    "Take it easy lover boy, this babe isn''t going anywhere¡­" She said with a cute giggle as they both shared a kiss;


    "It''s alreadyte, and you have been cultivating for hours on end¡­ You should take a rest¡­"


    She added as she ced her fingers on his face, feeling all the curves and edges on it as she looked straight into his eyes which was currently spilling out with greater amount of love than she had ever seen;


    "What? Is something on my face?" She asked when Dara had stared for too long as her blush brightened slightly;


    "Someone told me to thank you and I am wondering how I should do that¡­" He replied as she giggled;


    "Well, that''s so thoughtful of that person¡­" She added as Dara smiled because he was the only one who knew who he was talking about;


    "But I just returned from work and I''m a little worn out, so I guess a hot bath together would make me happy tonight¡­" She added as Dara tilted to rise¡­


    Aunt Lin rose off him and offered a hand as Dara finally stood up, but just as they left the Qi Stone Room, Dara abruptly lifted her off the ground;


    "~Nyah!~"


    She cooed cutely with a giggle, as she realized Dara intended on carrying her that way back to their residence since the Qi Stone Room was built at the base of the pit Dara dug to cultivate the Dark Qi back then¡­


    Aunt Lin hugged his neck as she continued to stare at him as the pink and purple ambience from the night flowers made the scene all the more romantic, and in that moment, her love for him soared to new heights¡­


    Especially when she knew that some of the tribe members could obviously see them from wherever they were¡­


    Dara dropped her when they entered and headed straight for the room to go strip off his clothes whilst Aunt Lin locked the door tight with miniature locks like the ones on the store door which Ji Wang had made and ced on all the doors within the tribe to ensure an added amount of privacy for everyone, as Aunt Lin went straight to the bath to prepare the hot tub, and dinner¡­


    Whilst she was preparing dinner, the hot water was ready as Dara assisted by filling the tub, before calling out to her when it was ready¡­


    He entered and soaked into the tub, and truly, he really needed it just as much as she did, and though, he didn''t do any physical work, but physical rest also worked wonders on the mind, and Dara''s mind had done a hell of a lot of work today;


    From receiving several back to back mind blowing information about the Qi Sensing Trials, to experiencing back to back shocking scenarios within Long and Sam''s mindscapes, then the Qi Sensing Trial itself which was apletely different experience on its own, and finally Long''sst minute confessions¡­

 Chapter 166 - Don’t Speak; Experience It…

    He entered and soaked into the tub, and truly, he really needed it just as much as she did, and though, he didn''t do any physical work or battle, but physical rest also worked wonders on the mind, and Dara''s mind had done a hell of a lot of work today;


    From receiving several back to back mind blowing information about the Qi Sensing Trials, to experiencing back to back shocking scenarios within Long and Sam''s mindscapes, then the Qi Sensing Trial itself which was apletely different experience on its own, and finally Long''sst minute confessions¡­


    Thus, this rest and hot bath was very much needed, and a few minutester, Aunt Lin walked into the bath with her clothes still on with a tray of several edible spirit fruits on it and a jug which Dara felt contained water as she went down on her knees and ced it by the side of the tub¡­


    She then rose to her feet and stood in front of him striking a pose which made Dara initially bewildered and then show a naughty expression when she removed the band holding her hair, allowing it to cascade over her shoulders¡­


    Dara watched on with excitement, and just as he was about to speak, Aunt Lin ced her finger over her lips to hush him as she said;


    "Don''t speak; experience it¡­" The way she said it was so erotic that Dara felt like the luckiest asshole in the gxy¡­


    Aunt Lin then ced her index finger into her mouth and sucked on it softly but nastily before she then traced her fingers down her neck to her chest, widening the slit that was on her robes, allowing Dara to see a some cleavage, before she then ran her hands downwards and then hoked the slip holding her robes with that same index finger¡­


    Then with a slight tug, the slip fell off and just as the robes was about to reveal everything beneath, she grabbed it, but Dara was still able to get a glimpse of what was underneath, and the only thing he could really take note of was the fact that, she was wearing absolutely nothing beneath those robes;


    Then it hit him that she''d most likely taken them off before she came over to the bath as he mentally appreciated her efforts with a blush of his own, one with seemed to be turning Aunt Lin on¡­


    Then she walked towards the bath gracefully, and then turned her back to him revealing her perfect backside as she went to her knees with her back to him¡­


    Then she pushed her robes over her shoulders just to the point of falling, but not entirely falling off, as she looked back to him as if offering him the honor of pulling them off¡­


    The clothes were so loose that the moment Dara touched them, they came off by themselves revealing her smooth back and neck as well as her long, slender, fair, porcin looking neck¡­


    She pulled her hair from her back to the front to reveal more of the neck to him, and it seemed like she was showing him that, there was a lot of things on about her and on her body that he could appreciate more, and Dara was obviously seeing them clearly and getting the message perfectly¡­


    Then she rose to her feet, but the clothes stayed behind as her entire back was revealed to him, from her shoulders to her slender, tender backs and butts so immacte that it could make an Emperor sell his entire empire just to get a feel of, as Dara''s gaze rolled down her triangr thighs which joined together at her knees, and then down her straight long legs, which sported two firm but soft calves¡­


    Aunt Lin saw tilted her head to the side to see him fully engrossed in every inch of her body as her blush spread wider and deeper as she got butterflies in her tummy;


    She had wanted him to appreciate her body well and not just think of it as a sack of cum dump, but she would have never believed in a million billion years, that he would take all the time he had to get into the intricate details of her body, appreciating every single part of it along the way, an action that wooed her innerdy¡­


    Then after looking it all down, Dara took a brief look at everything from down up as if trying to record their details in his memory...


    Then when she noticed he was done, she turned around and revealed the rest of the goods, as Dara almost blew his load there and then; he had just been so turned on by what he was seeing that it took a whole nother level of willpower to prevent himself from ruining the mood by grabbing her and pounding the letter ''I'' off her name¡­


    He looked at the twin mountains in front of her, as Aunt Lin used both her hands to grab her hair and pull it up leaving him with the full view of two perfectly round globes with two pink ares standing there like an oasis in a treacherous and deste desert, whilst her nipples which were erect from her feelings stood there, stiff like toppings on cakes¡­


    They were neither big nor small, sagging and at the same time not, they were the perfect fit for his hands which were itching to grab and knead them, as his eyes went down her tummy which was very firm and ripped


    That significantly highlights that she did a lot of bending and working in the farm and then her belly button which was nested within them but still slightly puckered as Dara''s tongues itched to flick them in and out of that depression they were hiding within¡­


    Then he looked down her navel to her waist and then finally, the first sight of vegetation on her body which was barren with hair like there was a worldwide famine¡­


    The vegetation looked lush, well-trimmed, and so fluffy that they look like they can cushion an asteroid to a standstill, and then just slightly below was some sort of irrigation problems that Dara was really interested in solving as he swallowed dry air¡­


    Then just as she thought he was going to grab her, he pulled back and instead stand up butt naked, before offering her his hands like a gentleman trying to bring a princess into his carriage or up the stairs of his mansion¡­

 Chapter 167 - The Plumber & The Irrigation Problem

    The vegetation looked lush, well-trimmed, and so fluffy that they look like they can cushion an asteroid to a standstill, and then just slightly below was some sort of irrigation problems that Dara was really interested in solving as he swallowed dry air¡­


    Then just as she thought he was going to grab her, he pulled back and instead stand up butt naked, before offering her his hands like a gentleman trying to bring a princess into his carriage or up the stairs of his mansion¡­


    That action sealed Aunt Lin''s entire effort as a sess as she dropped her hands causing her fluffy long curly hair to cascade down her shoulders once again before she then took his hands with one of hers whilst using the other to ce her bangs behind her ears...


    She slowly and gently took a step into the tub, and when she was in, her hands went straight to his chest as she began to feel all his muscles as intricately as she could¡­


    From his chest to his abs, then down his waist, but just as you dirty-minded souls were thinking she was going to grab his schlong, she slid her hands to his back and grabbed his firm butts which she squeezed slightly, before working her way up his back and back down his butt;


    Then she gave another squeeze before removing her hands, as Dara knew the reason why her lower garden was having irrigation problems earlier;


    As it turns out, having someone appreciate one''s features at such close proximity and within these conditions would arouse the person even if the person was a god or goddess of celibacy¡­


    Dara was already sporting a pole around his groin area whilst Aunt Lin carefully grabbed his arm and felt all the muscles there from his biceps to his triceps, before looking up to his face, taking Dara''s attention with her before she then grabbed his pole, as Dara who was already carried away by her gaze trembled by the unexpected cold grab¡­


    But her hands warmed almost instantaneously because Dara''s pole felt like they had been standing in the sun for hours, and then she stroked his schlong to the base with one smooth slide before grabbing his own forest that was down there


    [Duh, just enjoy and stop questioning how an eleven year old would grow adult hairs];


    Hers'' was a tender garden whilst His'' was a wild forest and afterbing through it for a while, she finally ced both hands on his chest and pushed him weakly as Dara took the hint and reclined back into the tub, before she then knelt and sat on his groin, just above his raging schlong which was raging for some PUBG adventure¡­


    Then she inclined into him with her face only inches from his as Dara licked his lips and swallowed a saliva he had no idea was there before, whilst Aunt Lin bit her lips, and drew in an audible gust of air before confessing to him;


    "I love you honey¡­"


    "I love you more, my queen¡­"


    Dara whispered back to her as Aunt Lin felt as if some shackle within here shattered and she then broke free¡­


    She slowly leaned in and kissed him; this was no lip to lip; hell no, not when they had put all that effort into it ande this far, it was a tongue to tongue contact first before they then sucked each other''s lips, as they both felt like they were going transfer into each other''s body through their sucking¡­


    It was slow and soft as they both felt like Jean Grey whenever she kissed Wolverine in X-Men; dangerous and deadly, but something to die for¡­


    They took their time as Aunt Lin cupped his faced with her hands whilst Dara''s hand simply began to rub her back, warming her into the action, before they thennded on her waist¡­


    Then they both began to lock and twist their lips as they turned their heads from side to side, exploring the true definition of the term ''Passionate Kiss''¡­


    About ten minutes into the kisses and Aunt Lin began to writhe slowly in tandem with their kiss as Dara hugged her body as tight as he could whilst still giving her room to wiggle around as they finally broke the kiss to take in some really needed air¡­


    But before Aunt Lin who raised her head to take a breath could bring it down, Dara''s mouth andtched onto her left nipple as she released a soft but deep moan; she looked down as him and realized that he wasn''t just sucking her nipples like a barbarian, but was more like worshipping it with his tongue, an action which turned her on to ''Max''¡­


    She grabbed his head and held it like anydy would hold a luxurious Gi Bag, unwilling to let it move even an inch away from her¡­


    Dara made her moan from the nipples as he flicked, dug and circled around it with his tongue, before moving to the next one which slightly turned up the volume of her moans, but he didn''t neglect the first nipple either;


    His hand which had been within the hot water for so longtched onto the breast and not knead, but massage it like he was an expert masseuse, and at this point, Aunt Lin was already nearing the borders of euphoria and could feel the irrigation problem at her lower tender garden worsen by the moment¡­


    She began to slowly slide her hips back and forth, gliding it through the length of his schlong and allowing the tip to poke her wet cave a tiny bit before sliding back as Dara also began to moan; he was truly being blessed at this point, and in that moment, a mysterious enlightenment hit him;


    ''True Happiness Are Usually Experienced In Private!''


    Min Hong thought of it as he decided that should they write any sort of holy book for him in his lifetime, then he would tell them to include this sentence into it¡­


    After another half an hour of getting one another to the edge, Aunt Lin finally slid her hands between their bodies and dove down to the depths of the tub to fish out his schlong which she then ced at the entrance of her lower garden;


    This caused Min Hong''s Schlong to seem like an expert plumber who was being consulted toe explore a secret cave hidden beneath the lush garden and find out the main source of the mysterious irrigation problem¡­


    Then looking back at her, he gave her look that said; ''Whenever you''re ready!'' and that was the permission she needed.

 Chapter 168 - This Is Good Stuff

    After another half an hour of getting one another to the edge, Aunt Lin finally slid her hands between their bodies and dove down to the depths of the tub to fish out his schlong which she then ced at the entrance of her lower garden;


    This caused his Schlong felt like an expert plumber being consulted toe explore the save hidden beneath the garden to find out the source of the irrigation problem¡­


    Then looking back at her, he gave her look that said; ''Whenever you''re ready babe!'' and that was the permission she needed¡­


    She lowered herself very slowly allowing both of them to savor the every shred of the feeling it brought;


    "~Hummn~"


    They both released stifled moans as Aunt Lin sat until their groins met and stayed there whilst they began to share another series of kisses, and then she slowly rocked back and forth like she was swinging a baby cradle¡­


    They sex wasn''t tant or rushed or unemotional, they both hold one another in a different kind of regard; their feelings were unique to that of any other couple, so they had to make sure their intercourse was simrly unique¡­


    She ground him and slid to and fro, as she raised her head to the ceiling and shut her eyes trying to get a mental picture of what was happening within her wet cave whilst Dara simply cupped her nipples with his mouth once again, ensuring that he was giving her just as much pleasure as she was giving him¡­


    Two hours passed whilst they both enjoyed the product of their rtionship status, before they washed up and headed to the room for a good night rest¡­


    They slipped beneath the cover fur which kept them warm as they clung to each other butt naked and began to whisper sweet nothings to one another beneath the serene vibe of their calmness and the romantic atmosphere the sweet smelling flowers within the room brought¡­


    "Do you have anything on your mind?"


    Dara asked with a soft voice whilst Aunt Lin simply looked into his eyes enjoying the love that was apparent within them;


    "Just you¡­ I feel so lucky that I got to have you to the extent that I sometimes think I have used up all the luck I have for this¡­"


    "But even if I get to be miserable for the rest of my life, I won''t have a single worry as long as I know you''re mine¡­"


    Aunt Lin replied with rosy cheeks and eye utterly zed with love whilst Dara felt stunned because he could think of nothing to say that could best what she just said, which was how she truly felt;


    "What about you?" Aunt Lin pushed back since sleep seems to have abandoned them;


    "For me?" Aunt Lin nodded;


    "Everything feels surreal¡­ But I know one thing; If I get the chance to choose, even in different circumstances, I would still want you¡­"


    "Even in ten lifetimes?" Aunt Lin asked with a sweet smile;


    "Yeah, even in ten lifetimes¡­"


    He replied and kissed her on the forehead as Aunt Lin rested her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat whilst running her hands all over his abs;


    "The only thing missing now is to have your child, and then I can experience another level of our love through your seed¡­" She added as Dara sighed and just as he was about to speak, she looked up and ced her index finger on his lips;


    "But I understand the position you are currently in and I respect your decision as well¡­" Then she kissed his lips with her finger in between;


    "Try to get some sleep, you would need all the rest you can get since you still have to cultivate tomorrow¡­"


    Dara sighed at her level of understanding and maturity which was the main reason why he couldn''t get enough of her;


    She rarely put him in a difficult situation, and whenever she finds him in such a situation, she tries her best to get him out of it, or at least suppress it¡­


    "How''s the Farm and Den?" Dara asked;


    "The beasts are already with babies, and we should be having some cubs in about three to six months¡­"


    "Our crops also seems to be evolving, and I guess it is because of the change in their habitat¡­"


    "The Dark Lands was very treacherous and disadvantageous to their growth, but now that the QI Stone has transformed the soil, they seemed to be teeming with nutritious produce¡­"


    The moment she answered Dara got an inkling into why she was so intent on having a baby;


    She had been working with little kidstely and was also taking care of beast that were pregnant, and no sweetdy or woman would be in such an environment and not want a kid of her own¡­


    Thus, he rolled over and ced his head on her plump breasts which cushioned itfortably before adding;


    "Don''t worry¡­ I would fulfil my duties and promises to you very soon¡­"


    He replied and shut his eyes whilst Aunt Lin began to caress his head slowly, causing him to begin to feel sleepy, and before long, they were both fast asleep¡­


    Dawn the next day¡­


    Dara woke up first and went to the bath to get the tray of fruits Aunt Lin brought to the bath the night before and ced it on the bed as the movement woke Aunt Lin;


    "Are you hungry?"


    He asked as Aunt Lin moaned and stretched before turning to the sides to see the tray of fruits where Dara picked one and took a bite before offering the small bite to her¡­


    She ate it and kept staring at him as he kept feeding her;


    "Drink?"


    She nodded her head as he took the small wooden cup and poured out a little before taking a sip as his eyes widened in shock, causing Aunt Lin to smile;


    "~Hmm~ This is good stuff¡­" He said with his eyes closed, savoring the taste of the drink;


    "It ps my taste buds¡­ Natural and fresh but also a little bit liquorish¡­" Daramented as he opened his eyes to see a smug grin on Aunt Lin''s face;


    "You made this!?" He asked in apparent surprise as Aunt Lin nodded;


    "What do you think?" She asked as he nodded his head with an impressed smile¡­

 Chapter 169 - Why Are Ghosts So Bad At Lying?

    "It ps my taste buds¡­ Natural and fresh but also a little bit liquorish¡­" Daramented as he opened his eyes to see a smug grin on Aunt Lin''s face;


    "You made this!?" He asked in apparent surprise as Aunt Lin nodded;


    "What do you think?" She asked as he nodded his head with an impressed smile¡­


    "This is immacte¡­ Can you mass-produce this?"


    "Um¡­ It takes only about ten minutes to make this jug, but if I had more hands, we should be able to make at least five of it in as much time¡­"


    "I''m definitely getting you more hands¡­ As a matter of fact, I think it''s time you stop getting your hands dirty and instead have people do it whilst you simply supervise¡­"


    "Meh¡­ Then what would I be doing with my free time?"


    "I don''t have any other thing to do, and I would just be bored and alone most of the time¡­ If only I had-" Aunt Lin was halfway into her speech when her eyes widened and she abruptly paused;


    "Eh? What is it?"


    "Nevermind¡­ I''m just d you liked it¡­"


    Her eyes dimmed slightly and her voice trailed off, but Dara was no kid anymore and understood where the rest of the statement was going;


    ''I really didn''t know this is how she mostly felt when I''m not around¡­'' He thought to himself;


    ''No wonder she is always very active, happy and clingy whenever I''m around¡­''


    He thought before taking another bite and feeding it to her, but that still didn''t cheer her up, so he tried to figure out a way to do so, and when he couldn''t find some, he simply shut his eyes¡­


    Aunt Lin saw this and thought perhaps she had ruined his mood with her actions, but just as she was about to speak, he abruptly opened his eyes and smiled at her;


    "Do you want to hear a joke?" Aunt Lin was slightly taken aback before she chuckled slightly and replied;


    "Okay!" Her mood improved as she was actually loving the new him¡­


    The usual Dara would still be snoozing his balls off by this time, but now, not only was did he wake before her, but he also brought her breakfast in bed, and was about to tell her a story; little actions that made her feel special, loved and happy;


    "How do mountains see?"


    Aunt Lin was stumped by the question, but after thinking hard for a while she couldn''te up with an answer;


    "I don''t know¡­"


    "They peak!" Heughed whilst she simply smiled at the cheeky answer;


    "Do you want to hear more?" Aunt Lin bubbled her head;


    "Why did the fire fall in love?" Aunt Lin obviously had no answer so she simply gazed at him;


    "Because it found its perfect match!" Aunt Lin giggled this time around;


    "One more¡­" She asked as she sat up and faced him;


    "I was up all night trying to figure out where the sun went?"


    "Then it dawned on me¡­" Dara gave her another bite as Aunt Lin giggled; "One more please¡­" Aunt Lin asked like a little cutie;


    "Alright, thest one¡­" Dara responded as he shut his eyes in thought;


    "Why are ghosts so bad at lying?"


    "Because you can see right through them¡­"


    Dara added with a chuckle of his own, as Aunt Linughed softly and moved closer before taking the tray off his hands and cing by the bed, as she straddled him, and pushed him back on the bed, and then leaned in to kiss him¡­


    They shared several minutes of kisses before Aunt Lin''s hands finally went down to his groin and grabbed his schlong and then lowered herself on it, as they both shared a passionate morning sex¡­


    By the time they were done, the entire tribe was already alit with the white and yellow roses in full glow¡­


    They took another hot bath together, and dressed up before stepping out to begin their day¡­


    They walked out with Aunt Lin grabbing one of his arms whilst resting her head on his shoulder as she they took a short walk around the tribe causing all the tribe members who saw them along the way to turn their necks and stare; this made Aunt Lin really happy whilst most of the girls at Dara''s age were all looking with eyes glowing like stars¡­


    "Aww, look at the two of them, they are a perfect match made by the heavens¡­"


    "She looks so happy, and radiant¡­ How I wish I could also have someone to make me feel that way¡­"


    "Che''¡­ With that your 12 inch nose, no one would even spare you another nce¡­"


    "Ji Ping, if you would have me, I will dedicate my lifetime to making you feel that way¡­"


    "Ji Bao, I have always told you not to speak like that to me again!" Several tribesmen looked at the duo as they fantasized being in a simr situation¡­


    They all felt happy for them, and some of them looked to their partners and smacked them on their head, and an example was Ji Chen''s woman, whilst Ji Wang''s woman on the other hand looked to the other side and snorted when he tried to emte them, as Ji Wang scratched his head with an awkward smile¡­


    The duo obviously noticed all this as Aunt Lin''s cheeks went rosy as Dara escorted her to the farm where about 30 little kids and 70 male and female adults were waiting to begin their daily tasks, but just as she wanted to enter the farm, Dara grabbed her arm, and pulled her into his embrace¡­


    His hands found her waists as he leaned in and gave her a hot passionate kiss in front of the crowd, as the kids pped whilst some of the adults whistled at their public disy of affection¡­


    Aunt Lin blushed intensely as their lips parted as she pulled her bangs behind her ears with one hand;


    "See youter, my queen¡­"


    Dara added before walking away as Aunt Lin stood there looking at his figure shrink into the distance with a beet red face and love smitten expression;


    "Hmm Hmm!" Ady cleared her throat beside Aunt Lin, snapping her back to reality as her blush intensified;


    "So, where should we begin today, tribedy?" She asked as Aunt Lin followed her into the farm¡­


    Dara on the other hand, headed straight for the Qi Stone Room¡­


    He seemed to be in extremely high spirits and felt in peak mental state, as he sat cross legged and grabbed a full Qi Stone before shutting his eyes¡­

 Chapter 170 - Long!? Sam!? Guys!?

    "See youter, my queen¡­"


    Dara added before walking away as Aunt Lin stood there looking at his figure shrink into the distance with a beet red face and love smitten expression;


    "Hmm Hmm!" Ady cleared her throat beside Aunt Lin, snapping her back to reality as her blush intensified;


    "So, where should we begin today, tribedy?" She asked as Aunt Lin followed her into the farm¡­


    Dara on the other hand, headed straight for the Qi Stone Room¡­


    He seemed to be in extremely high spirits and felt in peak mental state, as he sat cross legged and grabbed a full Qi Stone before shutting his eyes¡­


    By the time he appeared within his mindscape, Long and Sam were also just arriving;


    "Eh?"


    "How did you know I was going to arrive now?"


    "If we were experts who have reincarnated, we would be able toe here even if you don''t want us to as long as we have stronger mental power than you do; so be careful in the future not to offend someone of this nature¡­"


    "But to answer your question, we have wanted to be here earlier, but since you weren''t here, we were being blocked by your Dao Tree, thus, until you have the intention of seeing us, we would never appear¡­" Long exined;


    "Oh¡­" Dara understood what he was trying to say, and it was true, the moment he shut his eyes earlier, the first thing that came to his mind was to see these two, and perhaps that was why they appeared the moment he arrived;


    "Alright, let''s get to it¡­" Dara excitedly urged;


    "It seems she really treated you nice this morning, unh?"


    Sam smugly teased whilst Long looked at the both of them trying toprehend what went on that he didn''t know about, as Dara on the other hand was made to remember the mind blowing sex Aunt Lin gave him this morning; .


    "W-w- I don''t know what you''re talking about¡­" He said with a flustered expression which caused Sam to burst out inughter;


    "It''s alright kid; I and Long are both adults and we have long done simr things in the past too¡­" Sam eased Dara''s tension;


    "Thanks for the series of joke though, it really made her happy¡­"


    "Oh, nevermind¡­ I''m happy to help¡­"


    "Alright cut it out¡­ I don''t know what the two of you are talking about, but we really need to begin¡­"


    Long interrupted as he pointed to the root linking to Dara''s cultivation which was already streaming with the QI from the Qi Stone in his grasp in the outside world¡­


    "Alright kid, you have experienced how it feels and look like, so waste no time whatsoever¡­"


    Sam tried to boost Dara''s morale and it seemed to work because Dara''s smashed his fist into his palm and growled;


    "Let''s go get it!"


    Long smiled and with a simple jump, they sshed into the stream of Qi which carried them into the trunk of the Dao Tree as they found themselves in a familiar dimension;


    "Go!"


    Whoosh!


    The trio burst through the crowd of Empty Links and in a matter of minutes;


    "I got it!"


    "Good spot kid!"


    "Great start!"


    Sam and Long encourage with n impressed smile as the Bronze Link pulled them through the crowd of Links¡­


    Recalling what happened during Sam''s trials, before they even entered the Spirit Realm, Dara already shut his eyes and prepared his free hand to grab the first Silver Link he finds in the Spirit Scape¡­


    Whoosh!


    They burst into the Spirit Scape and Dara instantly found a Silver Link just by the entrance as he grabbed it instantly;


    "Got it!" He yelled;


    "Unh?"


    "So fast!"


    Long and Sam could barely believe the situation as the Trials were progressing even faster than their minds couldprehend;


    Whoosh!


    The Silver Link pulled them upwards at an even faster rate as they approached the Divine Scape¡­


    Pata!


    Dara entered first and it felt like he had just sshed past a thin membrane of water as he asked;


    "Alright, we are to look for the Gold Link right?" Dara asked but the only response he got was total silence;


    "Right?"


    He asked again as he felt that perhaps the duo didn''t hear him clearly, but there was only total silence as well;


    "It is fine if you want me to seed on my own but you should at least an- eh?"


    Dara was midway through his sentence when he realized that Long and Sam were nowhere to be found;


    "Long?" "Sam?" "Guys!?"


    But he saw no one nor received any sort of response;


    "Tch¡­ I guess something is preventing them froming up with me!" He muttered to himself¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    "What''s going on, Long?" Sam asked with a bellow as they fell towards the Mortal Scape;


    "I don''t know¡­ Like I told you guys, I have only known one person who has entered that Realm, and he didn''t take anyone along, so I don''t know what is happening!" Long yelled back;


    "But if you picked a Silver Link, doesn''t that mean you failed in the Divine Scape?"


    "No¡­ Firstly, I didn''t even get to enter the Divine Scape at all because my time ran out before I could even get to the barrier separating them¡­"


    "Secondly, I went in alone as well, so I don''t know why this is happening¡­"


    "But can you give any guess?" Sam was unwilling to back out;


    They had just promised Dara that they would help him through the journey, only to get repelled by the barrier separating the Divine Scape from the Spirit Scape, and they didn''t know how Dara is faring on his own at the moment, if he is now demoralized or having aplete meltdown;


    "I can only think of a single possible scenario¡­" Long answered as they finally fell into the Mortal Scape;


    "It is most likely because we possess only a Silver Link and thus were refused entry into the Divine Scape by some universalw of some sort¡­"


    Long exined as Sam nodded at the feasibility of his reasoning;


    "Or could it be because we have yet topletely reincarnate?" Sam guessed;


    "I don''t think so¡­ If that was the reason, then you would have been unable to even take the Trials in the first ce¡­"


    Long debunked the idea as they fell out of the Mortal Scape and appeared in front of Dara''s Golden Dao Tree¡­


    "The best we can do now is wait here for his return and pray that he gets at least a Gold Link¡­" Long sighed as Sam palmed his forehead in frustration;


    "Good luck kid, may you find the best possible Link¡­"


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back within the Divine Scape;


    "Alright¡­ Dara you can do this¡­"


    "Every man for himself¡­ So, we are looking for a Gold Link¡­" Dara muttered to himself as he looked around¡­

 Chapter 171 - F*ck Me Sideways!

    This new Scape was different; it was calm and there was nothing pushing him down or up; he could walk around if he wanted to¡­


    But there was a strange thing happening here; everything was dark and he couldn''t see anything at all, but just as he took a step, it was as if he activated the entire scape as everything lit up, from his position straight into the distance;


    "Oh, here they are¡­"


    Min Hong''s eye lit up when he saw the numerous Links glowing into the distance; they were rooted to the ground like shrubs or grasses, and there were not as much as the Mortal Scape or Spirit Scape;


    "That''s a Gold Link!"


    Dara saw a Gold Link almost immediately, as he bolted towards it, praising his luck along the way, there were thousands of this Links around his immediate vicinity, but only one of them was Gold colored¡­


    ''Wait, things shouldn''t be this easy'' Dara thought to himself, and the moment that happened, he saw the Gold Link change its color and turned yellow, whilst another Link in the distance which was previously brown became Gold;


    ''Just as I thought¡­''


    Dara changed direction and headed towards the new position of the Gold Link, but just as he took a step, the Link changed back to yellow, whilst the previously yellow Link changed into brown and then another utterly different Link in the distance became Gold, making the entire trial look like a massive whack-a-mole;


    ''Oh, so that''s how it is¡­''


    Dara thought to himself in surprise; it wasn''t like he didn''t expect the trials in here to be different, he had simply never thought it would be this unique;


    ''This Links swap colors in the space of about a breath¡­''


    ''It is also extremely random which means I would have only a breath to choose the right Link and pick it before it jumps elsewhere¡­''


    ''This is going to be difficult¡­'' Dara frowned, but momentster, a mischievous grin tore his lips;


    ''But that is only to someone who doesn''t know any better¡­'' .


    He added as he shut his eyes and tried to check if the same technique he used in the Spirit Scape would work here as well, and he realized that the deeper he searched with his eyes shut, the dimmer all the links got leaving only one which refused to dim out but instead sh like a beacon, dimming and brightening at constant intervals¡­


    ''There you are¡­'' Dara chuckled as the rest of the Empty Linkspletely dimmed out;


    ''To think it would be as easy as simply shutting one''s eyes¡­''


    ''But when one thinks about it though, how many people would dare to shut their eyes within such a Trial which the odds of even getting a Link when one''s eyes are wide open are extremely slim¡­''


    Dara thought to himself as he walked over, changing directions every now and then as the Gold Link kept moving around unbeknownst that Dara could tell its next destination, because once the Link leaves a spot, the glow there actually dims whilst the glow of its next destination brightens¡­


    In less than ten minutes, Dara was standing right in front of the next position of the glow, and the moment it was about to appear, he intentionally opened his eyes to test if his theory was right, and immediately, the yellow link in front of him changed into Gold as he grabbed it;


    Swish!


    Instantly everything around him transformed as he appeared in a ce underground which looked a lot like a mine or cave of some sort, and in here, there were many natural gems embedded all over the ce, from Ruby to Emerald, Bronze, Silver, Gold and what not¡­


    But he was yet to find any diamond as he walked deeper into the cave searching through everything and ensuring that he did not touch anything lest he picks the wrong thing and gets teleported back to his Dao Tree, and whilst that would eventually happen, he wanted it to be because he had run out of time rather than failed by picking the wrong thing¡­


    After searching for a few hours, Dara arrived at a crossroad, there were two tunnels in front of him, and without needing to be told, he picked the one that appeared brighter, and walked into it;


    ''Damn, this tunnel is endless, should I have picked the other one?''


    "But this ce was brighter which means more shimmery contents¡­"


    Dara thought to himself as he was now getting somewhat exhausted; He had tried using the closing of eyes and sensing the Scape tactics, but that didn''t work, as everything appeared the exact same way they did when his eyes was no open with no change in their glow whatsoever¡­


    He was getting weaker and weaker, more and more exhausted, not fromck of drive, but simply because the Qi within the Qi Stones seemed to be depleting at an insane speed;


    "What do you think is going on up there?" Sam asked;


    "At least it is nothing bad; after all he hasn''t appeared yet which signifies that he is still taking the trial¡­" Long replied;


    "The only thing I am concerned about is the rate of his Qi absorption¡­" Long added as he pointed to the root which had Qi whooshing through it at an insane speed;


    "It seems the Divine Scape Trial is too hard that he is burning Qi much faster¡­" He added as Sam also sighed at the sight¡­


    But back within the God Scape, Dara was utterly exhausted as he sat on the ground, panting heavily as it seemed like the air in here was getting thinner;


    "Sit, where in the heavens is this diamond link?"


    Dara asked himself as he ced his hands on the ground behind him to prop himself up, before he then looked up with a sigh¡­


    But that sigh only stopped halfway as Dara''s eyes widened;


    "Fuck me sideways!"


    He blurted as his eyes shined with brilliant light which was being reflected by a single thumb sized gem etched to the roof of the cave; yeah, it was the Diamond Link he had been searching endlessly for, and here it was just overhead¡­


    Dara summoned every ounce of strength he could muster within himself to stand up, before jumping with a brilliant and joyful smile as he grabbed the Diamond Gem;


    Bam!


    Dara''s vision blurred the moment he touched the Diamond Link, but he was expecting it since he had willed the Link to take him to the final and strongest Qi Sensing Trial Phase¡­

 Chapter 172 - The Invisible Sphere

    Dara summoned every strength he could muster within himself to stand up, before jumping with a brilliant and joyful smile as he grabbed the Diamond Gem;


    Bam!


    Dara''s vision blurred the moment he touched the Diamond Link, but he was expecting it since he had willed the Link to take him to the final and strongest Qi Sensing Trial Phase¡­


    The moment Dara arrived, he was greeted by a very shocking and surprising sight¡­


    There in his front were four gctic bodies; the first was a; the second was a moon, the third was a sun and the fourth was a vortex of stars¡­


    Without thinking too much about it, Dara knew he would have to choose one of these objects and if he got it right, then he would have picked a Primordial Realm Link; otherwise, he would have wasted the biggest opportunity ever presented to him in his life¡­


    ''Am I supposed to go for the one which would hurt the most; or the one where Ie from; or the one that has the most numbers; or am I to simply pick thergest one?''


    Dara was torn between which to pick and didn''t even know how to pick¡­


    But after realizing that his consciousness had begun to fade which signifies that the Qi that was meant to support his picking process was then getting exhausted, he looked to the sun;


    ''It is thergest and also the one that hurts the most¡­''


    ''But as for the stars, their sheer numbers is just too much and they can most likely outnumber the sun; moreover, they are also the first on the queue¡­''


    At this point, his legs had begun to fade, as well as his head;


    ''Damn, I better just pick the stars instead, and live with the consequences¡­''


    He thought to himself before approaching the stars, but on getting there, he figured out that all these celestial bodies seemed to be held in ce by some mysterious force¡­


    He moved closer and was just about to pick the stars when his vision picked up an invisible sphere just behind the stars¡­ .


    He didn''t see it because it was invisible, but he was only fortunate to see the outline of the sphere;


    It was more like the way our eye can''t see tiny grains of dirt, but when you put on your shlight, then you see them fleeting across the shlight beam;


    Or how one can never see a single strand of cobweb in public, except the sun shines and the breeze shakes the web, which then reflect for a brief instant¡­


    It was a simr phenomenon; the orb blended into the darkness, but he was just lucky that the starlight was able to shine on its borders just as he was walking over to the vortex of stars;


    Then he lost his arm and one leg as he was fading like the way paper gets wet when it falls into a pool of water by the roadside¡­


    Without caring about if he had chosen the right one or not, Dara fumbled his hand around until it touch one palm sized orb that instantly erupted with a maic suction force, and then;


    ~Swoosh!~


    He was instantly sucked out of the dimension and dumped from a position half the height of the tree, but with two flips mid-air, hended safely on the ground;


    "Oi¡­ Are you alright?"


    "How did it go?"


    Sam and Long dashed over to him with much more concern than they had when they were choosing their own Links¡­


    Dara was still contemting what thest invisible orb he had chosen was all about that he didn''t really hear what the duo was saying but only knew that they had rushed over;


    "Is he okay?" Sam asked when he realized Dara seemed to be in a trance;


    "I don''t know, but he seems fine¡­ Let''s just allow him to finish up with whatever is going on within his mind¡­"


    Long advised, as they saw Dara move over to the base of his golden Dao Tree where he sat in a meditative posture;


    One way or the other, something kept telling him that the way those Links behaved seemed to feel or look like techniques, and the first he was trying toprehend was the maics aspect of thest Qi Sensing Trial¡­


    "Oh, I get it¡­ He seems to beprehending something¡­"


    Long added with his index finger pointed upwards in a manner that signified he just had a great idea¡­


    "Eh?"


    "Comprehending what exactly?"


    Sam didn''t know what it meant to beprehending something; and whilst he did know what the sentence meant, he couldn''t tell what Dara wasprehending;


    ''Was he taking the idea from the trials so as to understand how he could setup difficult trials in the future?''


    "I don''t know either, but let''s give him all the space and time he can get¡­" Long replied as he ced his palm on Sam''s shoulder and vanished instantaneously¡­


    But whilst Dara was smoothlyprehending the brief enlightenment he had experienced within the Qi Sensing Trial, things weren''t smooth at all within the Royal Court, and as a matter of fact, there were currently about fifteen Elders gathered within the Throne Room at this point and they were all having intensely heated arguments¡­


    "Eh! So, because you managed to expose something fishy happening within the pce, you think that makes you qualified to take the throne!?" One Elder blurted in disdain;


    "Hmph, and that is even ignoring the fact that, the King still ended up dying!?" Another roared as his beards kept trembling like waves on an ocean;


    "What if this was all nned and there weren''t really any expert trying to kill the King, but you guys simply used this one here as a distraction to do the King in!?"


    On one side were ten elders looking and ring dagger at the five people on the opposite sides; but unlike these ten elders, the other five elder were pretty calm and seemed to be contemting something within their minds rather than engaging themselves in the ongoing bickering¡­


    These five elders were; Elder Bai and Elder Fei who were sent to search the other part of the pce; then Elder Du and Elder Dong who were both present throughout the battle; and finally, the Vice Captain of the Royal Guards; Mo who arrived near the conclusion of the battle¡­


    They all sat there brooding the reason why there was a teleportation formation within the royal courtyard and why the King had kept the presence of Fu, Su and Cheng a secret¡­

 Chapter 173 - Captain Chun

    These five elders were; Elder Bai and Elder Fei who were sent to search the other part of the pce; then Elder Du and Elder Dong who were both present throughout the battle; and finally, the Vice Captain of the Royal Guards; Mo who arrived near the conclusion of the battle¡­


    They all sat there brooding the reason why there was a teleportation formation within the royal courtyard and why the King had kept the presence of Fu, Su and Cheng a secret¡­


    "Do you think it is possible that the King was thinking of deserting us and going with them?" Elder Dong asked the other four;


    "I don''t know Dong¡­ I have no idea¡­" Elder Bai replied;


    "I never even knew something like a teleportation formation ever existed; I have always thought it was something of the legends¡­" Elder Fei chipped in with furrowed brows;


    "Though it might sound betraying, but I know one thing for sure; His highness was someone who would have gone to any lengths for power¡­" Vice-Captain Mo imputed;


    "Who knows what they promised him, or what he even promised them?" Elder Du sighed in frustration;


    "Do you think that is the major problem here!?" Another voice spoke from the distance;


    "Eh? Captain Chun!" All the elders within the throne room stood to their feet as the Captain of the Royal Guards walked in;


    The Royal Guards was invariably the military force of the Kingdome of Shangri La;


    Thus him being the captain means he was akin to the General of the Kingdom which puts him below the Grand Elder position but above that of the elders within the throne room¡­


    Shrap! Shrap! Shraa!


    The 15 man troop who came with Captain Chun marched to a stop just at the entrance of the throne room; all radiating battle intent and extreme valiance with their amour perfectly fit to their bodies, and their spears pointing towards the heavens in defiance¡­


    "Captain, what have you found out?" Vice Cap Mo asked with utter respect evident in his tone;


    "Firstly, we don''t know if those three were the only ones; this means we have to be prepared for any form of invasion should they have a team out there¡­" .


    "Secondly, we don''t know if this was the only teleportation formation they have within the Kingdom; thus, we need to send out teams to scout and scour the entire Kingdom for any sort of formation¡­"


    "Thirdly, we haven''t been able to get in touch with both Grand Elders and Elder Yun, and whilst there is news about the Left Grand Elders death, I still want to see his body and give him a befitting burial; thus, we have to send some men out to search for them¡­"


    "Then finally, I want ten Royal Guards each to serve as reinforcements to all the Qi Stone Farms out there¡­" Captain Chun revealed;


    "But instead of looking for the residues of threats and future problems the death of this guy brought, you all are busy deciding about who would take the throne next¡­"


    Captain Chun turned to the 10 elders on the left and spoke with an aggressive tone, causing all of them to nche in fear;


    "If I had some time on my hands, I would have had my men gather all of you together and throw you into the prison for a year and reflect on your ipetent attitudes!" He added aggressively;


    "Elder Dong, you seem to be the one with the strongest deduction power as well as tranquility, you will handle the affairs of the Kingdom pending the time we elect the rightful official for the position¡­"


    "As for you all-" The Captain looked towards the ten elders;


    "Each of you will lead a troop of ten soldiers; one would move out in search of the Left Grand Elder; another in search of the Right Grand Elder; another in search of Elder Yun¡­"


    "Two in search of the remaining formations within the kingdom; three in search of the remaining troops that might have been with those three; and finally two would be in charge of defending against any sort of invasions!"


    "If you do not find these officials, formations or hiding experts, do not return to the Royal Court; otherwise, you will be charged with treason!" The Captain ordered coldly;


    "You can also choose to resist now and I would have my men send you to meet your ancestors!"


    "Vice, Bai, Fei, Du and I will take 1,000 royals guards each and split them amongst all the Tier 1 Qi Stone mines in the Dark Lands¡­" The Captain bellowed;


    "Now, leave!"


    The Captain bellowed as all the Elders rushed out of the throne room in fear; then the Captain turned to Elder Dong;


    "No one is to sit on the throne¡­ You must be wise with your control, and none of the citizens must know that the King is no more¡­"


    "Finally, before we return, I expect to see positive changes to the Kingdom, otherwise, you will suffer the same fate as those stupid old fools!" The Captain charged as Elder Dong broke out in cold sweat;


    "But Captain-"


    "No buts!" The Captain yelled as the rest of Elder Dong''s statement stuck to his throat¡­


    Then the Captain marched out with his vice, the three Elders and the troop he came with¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Rewind to a month ago before all thismotion began... On another entirely¡­


    This ce was vast with thick forests that bordered on heavy jungles present all over the ce for miles upon miles¡­


    Here, there were raging rivers and silent streams, sweet smelling vegetation and route misleading trees;


    It was a ce of the extremes; both too bad and too good¡­


    It is a ce where one can stumble upon ravines on the level of oasis, but they would be located within the depths of the most treacherous and dangerous forests or jungles¡­


    One might see a very beautifully colored butterfly,zily flying around and trying to capture them, and all of a sudden, one woulde upon a serpentine beast whose head alone is almost asrge as a Range Rover¡­


    One might be swimming in a clear spring and see a very beautiful, tiny marine beast, the size of a middle finger; but the poison residing within such a pretty little beast would be enough to wipe out an entire civilization¡­


    It is a ce where death lies within an oasis, and simrly, an oasis lies within death¡­


    One must be very attentive, careful, wise and knowledgeable here; otherwise, one would notst half an hour before they are swallowed whole by a rabbit the size of MacBook Pro, or killed by the bite from an insect the size of a grain of sand¡­


    But within this heavenly demonic forest was a patch of clearednd; about 400 square meters in size¡­


    This patch of cleared had four small huts which could only contain a person, with a ce to sleep, a ce to cultivate and a ce to ce their belongings¡­


    These four huts were built facing inwardly, towards each other in a square shaped manner, and right in their midst; centrally, was a massive circr formation with several ancient runes etched all over it¡­

 Chapter 174 - Open The Gates!

    But within this heavenly demonic forest was a patch of clearednd; about 400 square meters in size¡­


    This patch of cleared had four small huts which could only contain a person, with a ce to sleep, a ce to cultivate and a ce to ce their belongings¡­


    These four huts were built facing inwardly, towards each other in a square shaped manner, and right in their midst; centrally, was a massive circr formation with several ancient runes etched all over it¡­


    Currently, four youths in ck and green colored robes were sitting just by the formation; two of them were wearing green robes with ck embroideries, whilst the other two were wearing ck robes with green embroideries, showing that they were most likely from two different ces within the same region¡­


    Two of these four youths were paired with each color against the other, and they were currently ying the game of Go, whilst one of the other green robed youth was snoozing with the branch of a small grass in his mouth, and the other ck robed youth was busy meditating with his eyes closed¡­


    But the clicking and cking sound from thepetitively ying duo was noising into his ears, ensuring that he could not concentrate on his meditation;


    "Cut it out guys, I am trying to meditate here!" The youth bellowed out of frustration;


    "If you have any problem, take it up with Senior Brother Wu!"


    One would think that since they were both wearing ck robes that the meditating guy''s partner would try to tone it down, but on the contrary, he urged his partner to go meet the other green robed guy who was snoozing;


    "You know Senior Brother Wu would fight an immortal to the death if he disturbs his rest, but you are here telling him to go meet him; how shameless of you!" The other ck robed youth disdainfully replied;


    "Hehe; but aren''t you trying to cultivate to be an immortal?"


    "If you can''t even stand up to someone of simr ambitions, how can you im to want to reach such a level!?" The other Green Robed Youth teased whilst the ck robed disciple simply sighed;


    "How I wish Senior Brothers Fu, Cheng and Senior Sister Su will return, so I can leave this forsaken ce¡­"


    He said as he slumped his head to nap, but just as he was about to shut his eyes, his vision caught the movement of some leaves and dusts on the ground, as he looked towards their source and found out that one of the runes on the formation is now lit;


    "Eh? They are back!" .


    "Look the runes are lighting up!" The youth blurted in excitement;


    "La, if I open my eyes to find out that you are simply causing a nuisance or unnecessarymotion, you will either be force to receive three strikes from me, or spend three days outside the safe zone!" The napping youth with the branch in his mouth softly spoke with his eyes closed;


    "Hehe he, it is your funeral now that you have woken Senior Brother Wu¡­"


    "Yeah, at least, we can now y our games without any form of disturbance whatsoever¡­"


    The two other youths smirked and mocked as they became even more engrossed in their game, oblivious to the fact that the second rune on the formation had begun to light up;


    "But I am not making things up, the formation is really glowing¡­" Gui La repeated with a wronged expression and tone;


    "Alright, Gui La¡­ that is it, you''re going out of the safe zone to get rid of this childish attitude of yours¡­"


    Senior Disciple Wu sighed as he stood up to chase Gui La out of the squared shaped clearing; but just as he opened his eyes, his jaws cked like they lost all form of muscr support;


    ''The formation is really lighting up¡­ But they are not supposed to arrive until next month!?''


    Senior Disciple Wu thought in shock as he bolted off the bench and kicked away the game of go the other two youths were ying before waving his sleeves sending several Qi Stones into different parts of the formation as the rate with which they lit up increased rapidly, and in little to no time;


    ~Whoosh!~


    Thud!


    The sound of of loud wind gust resounded within the area as all the leaves and dusts on the formation were swept away, before the sound of two heavy objectsnding on the ground followed suit;


    "Senior Brother Fu!"


    "Senior Sister Su!"


    The four youths bellowed in a shocked tone mixed with fear as they all rushed over to the formation to find two unconscious bodies;


    "Gui La, help being senior brother Fu over¡­"


    "Shi Long, quick; grab the first response kit!"


    "Ma Dong, scout the entire area for danger and keep an eye out for any beast that might have been attracted here by the formation¡­"


    Tian Wu, the person with the most seniority amongst the four of them rapidly dished out several quick fire orders¡­


    In little to no time, they were all about their tasks;


    "Damn! Their injuries are too severe, we have to take them back to the sect!" Tian Wu blurted with a darkened expression;


    "Pack up guys, we are leaving in five minutes¡­" He added as he did his best to stop their bleeding wounds whilst they rushed out of the area and towards their sect in full flight¡­


    Their sect was located right in the middle of this massive forests;


    Surrounded by a cliff with a sure death-drop from the North;


    An ocean with body shredding currents to the South;


    A jungle filled with uncountable deadly creatures to the East;


    Then finally a massive, major transportation road to the West¡­


    The Tian Wu group were rushing over from the East¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    This sect itself sported a wall that was over 30 meters in height, and a gate that was about 33 meters in height with its top ending in series of sharp metal spikes that numbered about a dozen¡­


    It was a no brainer to understand that these walls and gates were built to prevent the innumerable savage beasts from scaling over¡­


    Atop the wall, there were several disciples patrolling it in pairs and they were all wielding several different weapons, from spears to swords, sabers and hammers¡­


    "Open the gates!"


    The screams of more than a single person floated over to the top of the walls as the pair of disciples patrolling the area moved on with their patrol seemingly oblivious to the scream which must have at most sounded like the a buzzing fly due to the distance between them...

 Chapter 175 - A Cat5 Green Furred Mammoth!

    Atop the wall, there were several disciples patrolling in pairs and they were all wielding several different weapons, from spears to swords, sabers and hammers¡­


    "Open the gates!"


    The screams of more than a single person floated over to the top of the walls as the pair of disciples patrolling the area moved on with their patrol seemingly oblivious to the scream which must have at most sounded like the buzzing of a fly due to the sheer distance between them;


    "Open The Gate!" This time it was a little bit more audible as one of the duo stopped the other and asked;


    "Did you hear that!?"


    "Hear what!?"


    "I thought I heard someone shouting for us to open the gates¡­"


    "What!? Hehe he¡­ La Gun, I know Tin Tin has been out of the sect for a while, but we both know her mission would at least take about three more weeks before she arrives¡­"


    "Don''t tell me you''re getting paranoid due to sexual frustrations; everyone knows both of you can barely be allowed any single free time together without humping one another like beasts in heat¡­" His partner responded with a ridiculingughter;


    "No way¡­ I''m serious, I think I heard the scream of two pe-"


    "OPEN THE GATES!" La Gun had barelypleted hi statement when the scream echoed over once again;


    "Eh?"


    The both of them were stunned as they looked towards the in the direction of the jungle as they saw the figure of four youths donning both outer court and inner court robes, as well as two other disciples on their backs donning two core court disciple''s robes;


    But that was not what shocked them to their core, rather it was the trees that were falling behind these disciples as well as the tremor that they were beginning to feel from the ground that stunned them speechless¡­


    Furthermore, if those two phenomenon were something to go by, then it was most likely that these disciples were being chased by a giant beast, or perhaps a beast horde; .


    The two youths patrolling atop the wall instantly bolted in two directions as one dashed for the gates whilst the other ran towards a massive bell that was located atop the wall;


    Bong!


    The heavy sound from the massive bell tore through the entire 1000 square mile sect like a Cat-7 earthquake as several smaller bells began to go off all over the sect, and instantly the bustling sect was all of a sudden quiet¡­


    It streets were emptier than a deste area, as the other patrolling youth finally arrived by the gates;


    "Open the gates, and prepare to close it immediately!" He bellowed at the top of his fat lungs¡­


    Boom! Boom!


    Boom! Boom!


    The sounds of several objects erupting with insane momentum resounded from the four corners of the massive sect, followed by the sound of four homing objects approaching with blitzing speed¡­


    In little to no time, these figures had already arrived at the top of the wall; two of the four Elder were putting on green robes whilst the other two were donning ck robes¡­


    Two of them were also female with the other two being male¡­


    "What is it!?" A ck robed female blurted with grim expression;


    Ringing the sect warning bell should only be done when there is a threat at a level which could obliterate the entire sect;


    "Look!"


    The patrolling youth didn''t even bother to say anything and simply pointed towards the source of the problem¡­


    He knew these Elders would be able to figure out more than he knew in the time it required him to exin what his miniscule mind could detect from the ongoing situation;


    "Damn! It should be a category 3 or 4 wild beast, and six of our disciples¡­"


    The ck robed female blurted with a frown which signified that they were about to encounter some difficult problems¡­


    "Elder Yin, can you tell which beast it is?"


    The ck Robes Female who looked to be in her early forties, without any wrinkle whatsoever, but skin as smooth as jade, and as fair as fair could be asked;


    She was about 6 foot in height and was perfectly shaped and endowed in all sides in a proportion that not only matched her height but temperament as well, and she was the leader of the female district of the outer court¡­


    The person she was talking to was much younger than she was, looking to be in herte thirties and standing at about two to three inches taller than her ck robed colleague¡­


    In contrast to her ck robed colleague, thisdy was so busty that her robes seemed to be using thest shred of their will to contain her plum breasts which already had about half of it spilling out¡­


    Her rear end were also massive to the extent that even if she wore 300 robes over one another, they would still reveal their presence;


    A situation which makes one wonder how her enemies react to her appearance during battle¡­


    "From the tremor on the ground and the negligible resistance those forest trees are posing towards it; I gather it is most definitely a Cat-4 beast¡­"


    Thedy said in a tone that was in total contrast to her appearance, sounding very elegant, innocent and na?ve¡­


    "Elder Jiang, you are very adept at recon, can you see what type of beast it is?"


    Elder Yin asked the ck robed elder standing by her side who seemed to have been checking her out all the way from within the sect;


    "Oh! Ahem! Um!"


    "Step aside and let me see¡­"


    He said with some hidden meaning to his statement as Elder Yun who knew he was referring to her oversized ass frowned in displeasure but still stepped to the side;


    "Shit!"


    "What!?" The two female elders asked dripping with curiosity;


    "You''re both wrong!" Elder Jiang revealed;


    He was an old man who looked to be in histe forties and was short, bald and looked to be a very mischievous old geezer at first nce;


    "Eh?"


    "How''s that possible!?" Thedies couldn''t believe what they were hearing;


    "Elder Kang, it is a green furred mammoth!" Elder Jiang revealed;


    "Shit, that''s true¡­ It is their mating season¡­"


    Elder Kang who was donning a green robe and looked to be in his early forties thought to himself with a frown;


    Unlike his ck robed colleague who was the Leader of the Outer Court Male District, he stood at about 6''5", with a dignified aura all around him that showed that he was a person who had been extremely talented since he was young¡­


    He was fair and had flowing hair as well as deep set eyes which signified that he had either seen a lot in his 40 year lifespan or haveprehended some mysterious truths¡­


    "Alright¡­ As usual, you two will go rescue the disciples whilst I and Jiang would go stop that thing in tis tracks¡­"


    "The Sect leader is in cultivation seclusion trying to breakthrough, thus he can''t be disturbed¡­" Elder Kang exined¡­

 Chapter 176 - Sword Art; Deforestation Style Trunk Piercer!

    He was fair and had flowing hair as well as deep set eyes which signified that he had either seen a lot in his 40 year lifespan or haveprehended some mysterious truths¡­


    "Alright¡­ As usual, you two will go rescue the disciples whilst I and Jiang would go stop that thing in its tracks¡­"


    "The Sect leader is in cultivation seclusion trying to breakthrough, thus he can''t be disturbed¡­" Elder Kang exined¡­


    "What do you think is happening!?"


    "Why are you so dumb Chi Wa, weren''t we both scrambling to safety at the same time; how do you expect me to know what is going on outside the 30 meter tall wall!?"


    "Gen, can you specte what is going on?"


    "Yeah, you''re one of the patrols as well; can you tell us what is going on!?"


    Several whispers began to pop up from different parts of the sects as the disciples frantically hid within their dorms awaiting the impending danger;


    "There is only one thing I am sure of; since it is the bell on the wall that was rung, then it must be that we are being attacked¡­"


    "Invaded!?"


    "Nooo! I can''t die here¡­ I haven''t seen my Lin''er in almost a year now, I still have a lot of things to do with her!"


    "Cut it out, you stupid pervert!" Another disciple bellowed at the youth;


    "What!? She''s my fianc¨¦ and I''ve been working so hard to get into the inner court so I can prove myself worthy of her hand in marriage¡­"


    "But now, I am only three months from achieving that goal, but now I am probably going to die!?"


    Smack! .


    "Cut the crap! No one said anything about invasion or anyone dying, I only said we were being attacked!" The Patrol Disciple smacked the flustered disciple on the head before exining;


    "The only reason why the bell would be rung is if we are dealing with a low category beast horde, and should that happen, our core court disciples are capable of fending them off¡­"


    "If it is a middle category beast attack, then an Elder can handle it; and if it is a beast horde of simr category, then all the Elders would join hands to fend them off¡­"


    "Anything higher than that, then we can begin to fret over it since the Sect Leader is in seclusion¡­"


    "But if we are being invaded, then the sect''s defense system would have been triggered..."


    The Patrol Disciple did his best to calm all the male disciples in his dorm, and simr situations were happening all across the other dorms as well¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the top of the sect wall¡­


    "So you two would have to finish up with those kids ande lend a helping hand¡­"


    "Alright then, we will be with you shortly¡­" Elder Yin chimed before jumping off the fence with Elder Qing, but before they couldnd on the ground;


    Schweein!


    The sound of sharp metal cutting through the air screamed all over the ce as Elder Jiang and Kang took to the air, bolting towards the iing massive beasts that were chasing the exhausted disciples¡­


    They had been running faster than their legs could carry and were already running on the hope granted to them by the mere sight of their sect''s massive wall¡­


    "Keep running guys, I can see some Elders over the wall, we have to keep running till they cane to our aid!" Tian Wu encouraged the rest of his team;


    "Damn it! To think we would encounter a Cat-5 beast so close to the sect!"


    Ma Dong; the other Green Robed Disciple, who had been told to scout the area cursed as he adjusted the unconscious Su and increased his speed;


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    Elder Jiang and Kang appeared in their sights in little to no time;


    "Keep going, and don''t stop until you are inside the sect!"


    Elder Kang ordered before dipping his hand into his robes and whipped out a very simply, slender but extremely sharp sword¡­


    He grabbed the hilt with all his strength as his hair and robes began to float without the presence of any wind;


    Kaboom!


    His cultivation erupted and soared instantaneously; 4 Star Dan Formation Stage!


    "Sword Art; Deforestation Style ¨C Trunk Piercer!"


    Elder Kang bellowed as Qi gushed out of his meridians before flowing through the hilt of the sword into a gem which was ced at the joint where the de connected to the hilt¡­


    Then with an aggressive jab, a sword almost ten times the size of the one in his grasp materialized out of thin air before tearing to the air with a venomous momentum, heading for the jugr of the massive green furred mammoth who sensed the lethal danger heading for it;


    Grrrr!


    All four massive legs of the mammoth screeched to a halt as the sword of Qi entered its ranged; the moment it ground to a halt, it raised its trunk into the air;


    "Oi, watch out!" Elder Jiang bellowed at his partner;


    Fuunnnn!


    An ear-ripping, earth shattering soundwave burst out of the mammoth''s trunk sting everything in sight away!


    It was a ranged attack, and one that the mammoth heavily relied on when it was being ganged or teamed up on;


    Elder Kang was quick to cover his ears, but that wasn''t enough as he was pushed over 10 meters off the mammoth''s range, likewise Elder Jiang...


    But as for his Qi sword, it''s trajectory was slightly deviated and instead tore through the hide on its nk, tearing open a ten foot long gash across the massive mammoth''s body¡­


    Splurt!


    Blood spewed out of the gash on its nk as the mammoth''s eyes went red in rage, as it rose both of its foot into the air and stomped on the ground furiously, creatingplex webs of cracks that covered a two meter range;


    Massive amounts of debris and particles were also thrown about into the air, significantly hindering the sight of Elder Kang and Jiang who looked behind them to see that the disciples had already been rescued and were being escorted safely through the sect gates;


    "Tch, if it was any other beast, we can just make a run for it¡­"


    "But this one in particr will charge on and furiously batter our sect walls before invading to cause insane amount of debt in damages to the sect¡­"


    Elder Jiang thought to himself as the sound of heavy footsteps began to echo into their ears as thend quaked intensely; the steps became more rapid and forceful as Elder Kang''s voice bellowed through the dust and debris in the air;


    "It''s charging towards you!"


    "Eh!?"


    Elder Jiang''s eyes almost widened out of its sockets when the massive head of a mammoth with two horns abruptly burst out of the dust and appeared before in from point ck range;


    "Hmph! You''ll need to do better than that to get someone like me!"


    Elder Jiang floated backwards trying to put a little distance between himself and the charging bull before dipping his hand into his robes and whipping out an axe;

 Chapter 177 - Axe Art; Deforestation Style Branch Breaker!

    "It''s charging towards you!"


    "Eh!?"


    Elder Jiang''s eyes almost widened out of its sockets when the massive head of a mammoth with two horns abruptly burst out of the dust and appeared before in from point ck range;


    "Hmph! You will need to do better than that to get someone like me!"


    Elder Jiang floated backwards trying to put a little distance between himself and the charging bull before dipping his hand into his robes and whipping out an axe;


    Boom!


    His cultivation red aggressively; 3 Star Dan Formation Stage!


    He surged his Qi into the gem located beneath the axe handle which glowed with bright light before bellowing;


    "Axe Art; Deforestation Style - Branch Breaker!" Bang!


    "Ahk!"


    Elder Jiang coughed out a mouthful of blood as he was sent flying over ten meters away, tearing through the forest trees, falling over a dozen in the process before crashing into the ground with a loud bang, which took another mouthful of blood from him¡­


    His vision blurred and his organs shook intensely from the impact of hisnding;


    Bam!


    But his sufferings wasn''t without rewards as one of the massive tusks of the mammothnded beside him;


    "Jiang!" .


    The busty green robed Elder Yin screamed in concern as she rushed over to him;


    "I''m alright, let''s put him down!"


    Elder Jiang wiped off the blood on the corner of his lips before pointing his axe at the winded green furred mammoth, who had also received its share of agony from the impact that took away one of its tusks¡­


    "Hmph!"


    Elder Yin''s eyes zed over in rage as she dipped her hands into her robes before exploding with the cultivation of a 3 Star Dan Formation stage!


    With a furious pump of her Qi into the gem beneath her whip handle, she bellowed;


    "Whip Art; Offensive Style ¨C Scarring Laceration!"


    Whoosh!


    She sent her whip flying through the air towards the gash which Elder Kang''s technique had torn open earlier;


    Whappa! sh!


    Splurt!


    Frruuunnn!


    The attacknded exactly on the long gash, tearing past its exposed muscles to the extent that the bone of the mammoth was even visible as it cried to the heavens in utter agony;


    Blood began to pour out of the mammoth as its vision blurred from immense pain¡­


    Instantly, it turned around and made for escape, utterly abandoning its initial motive;


    "Pretty wise of you to run¡­" Elder Kang blurted as he watched the mammoth head straight towards the forest on the side;


    "Hmph! Since you havee and have dared to injure my Jiang, then you don''t need to leave anymore¡­ Elder Qing!" Elder Yin bellowed with rage;


    "Allow us go on the offensive today guys¡­"


    Elder Qing said as she flew forward with a smirk before whipping out a whip of her own, and then exploded with the cultivation of a 2 Star Dan Formation Stage!


    "Whip Art; Restriction Style ¨C Python''s Coil!"


    Whoosh!


    The vines bolted forward like a furious serpent beforeshing the right hind leg of the mammoth and then crossing on front of it to coil around the left hind leg; with two rapid coils, Elder Qing pulled aggressively, as the mammoth''s eyes widened in shock before both of its hind legs smacked into one another, tripping it to a heavy and uncontroble fall;


    "Whip Art; Offensive Style ¨C Lash Barrage!"


    Elder Yin didn''t even let the mammoth catch its breath before bathing it in several barrages ofshes;


    Spurt! Splurt! St!


    Roar! Groan! Growl!


    Fruunnn!


    The mammoth gave different sounds of pain as Elder Yin took its consciousness to the brink of death and back on several asions, whilst Elder Jiang and Kang nched in fear warning themselves to never cross her path on get on her ugly side¡­


    In little to no time, the mammoth had been made short work off and was already bleeding through its orifices including its eyes and nostril;


    Huss!


    It breathed through its weak trunk whilst lying half dead on the ground with the little amount of life left in it ebbing away with the massive amounts of blood streaming out of its innumerablecerated wounds¡­


    "Hmph!"


    Huff! Huff! Huff!


    Elder Yin snorted coldly at the dying mammoth whilst huffing and puffing from dishing out more whips than her stamina could carry;


    "She seems truly pissed¡­"


    "Yeah¡­ A very strange woman¡­ She won''t have me, but will chase everyone woman whoes close to me¡­"


    "Yeah, and she also seems to like avenging you too¡­"


    Elder Kang and Jiang chatted with one another whilst looking at the twodies who were heaving and puffing creating a very pleasing sigh to their eyes, especially Elder Yun whose massive kegs were stretching her robes past their limits and threatening to burst free with every deep heave she took¡­


    "Jiang are you alright?"


    Elder Yin walked over twisting and roiling everything in sight as Elder Jiang exaggerated his injury and spit out a mouthful of fresh blood;


    "I''m sorry Yin, I had to hold my injuries at bay should in case you both needed help¡­"


    The mischievous Elder Jiang said as Elder Yin'' expression turned into a deeply caring one, before approaching him as she ced on of his hands over her shoulder before looking towards the other two;


    "Elder Kang, Jiang needs urgent treatment, so I will be leaving with him first¡­"


    She said before leaving with the bald Elder Jiang whilst Elder Qing walked over to Elder Kang;


    "I don''t know why she cares about him so much¡­" She said with a slight smile;


    "Well, ording to the Sect leader, they knew already knew each other long before they came into the sect, back when she was still an orphan¡­"


    "Apparently, back then, Elder Jiang was a butcher who always took good care of her, and despite their contrasting appearance, their ages difference isn''t too great¡­"


    "So, they developed feeling for one another unh?" Elder Qing guessed thetter part of the story;


    "Yeah¡­ But apparently, Elder Jiang''s mischievous nature repulses her a lot, but despite all that, she would stilly her life for him if the time everes¡­"


    "You seem to know a lot about them¡­" Elder Qing teased with a flutter of her eyshes;


    "Eh? Uhm¡­ The Sect Leader has always insisted that we once a group of individuals knew some personal things about one another, it improves not only the teamwork, but the physical rtionship amongst them, which in turn makes the group yield better sess than normal¡­"


    "Don''t worry you''re still new, but you will understand in due time¡­" Elder Kang exined with a slight smile¡­

 Chapter 178 - Three Pronged Missions

    In fact Min Hong could tell that a single punch from the person standing in front of him would not only obliterate his entire physical body, but his soul might also sport a gaping hole in the chest¡­


    "H-how is that possible!?" Min Hong still couldn''t wrap his head around the situation;


    "Kid, the body cultivation techniques in the world now cannotpare to the ones we had and were using back when we''re still in charge of our ne of Existence!" Old Man Li revealed;


    "In addition, we''re also the Ancestors of our bloodlines, and thus, our strength is always unprecedented¡­" He added¡­


    "Oh¡­" Min Hong went deep in thought as he scrutinized Old Man Li''s statement;


    "So, you are saying I can end up having a physical prowess of your kind?" he asked;


    "Kid, are you messing with me?" Old Man Li asked with a ridiculous smile;


    "I would be insanely lucky if I can match up to half your strength when you havepletely unlocked the potentials of your bloodline¡­" He added with a fanatic smile;


    "Really!?" Min Hong was truly surprised;


    He knew that if the current Old Man Li can obliterate him; a Peak Nirvana Stage expert, then what would he be like when he actually gets a perfect vessel that can contain all his powers, wouldn''t he be able to obliterate a Celestial Stage expert with a single punch?


    Furthermore, that was only regarding his physical body power, and not Daos or Qi Cultivation, if he had one¡­


    Thus, in Min Hong''s mind, he was picturing Old Man Li as at least a God Stage expert in his prime, and here he was telling him that he would be unable to match up with his own strength when he unlocks the full potential of his bloodline, and this begs a question in his own mind;


    ''How powerful was the Dawn Sovereign at his peak?''


    "Yeah, really¡­"


    "Anyways, enough about us; everyone can tell you have currently made some very significant improvements, despite Little Lin''s refusal to tell no matter how much we tried to make her do so¡­" Little Wu butted in¡­.


    But just as Min Hong was about to reply, he heard a massive ''Chu-Lom'' sound in his head, and then momentster, he abruptly blurted;


    "Are you messing with me!?"


    Then he looked up to realize that everyone in the area had stunned expressions on their faces;


    "Master?" Little Lin called out to ensure all was well and good;


    "Oh, it''s nothing¡­ I just realized the true extent to which my strength can soar¡­"


    He lied through his stupidly white teeth, whereas, what really caused the three missions that arrived simultaneously;


    The First required him to duel Shen Bing and not lose; the battle timeframe was 5 minutes, and the Base Reward was ¡é10,000¡­


    Then there was a Potential Bonus which were:


    Winning [25%] and Time [50%] and this meant if he could defeat Shen Bing under 5 minutes¡­


    The second mission involved also involved doing battle and it was associated with the ''Pagoda Of Ascension'' and his mission was to clear the seventh and eighth floor, and was given a time limit of 1 hour irrespective of whatever he encountered within the trials¡­


    It had a bae reward of ¡é20,000 and Min Hong believed the reason why the reward was better than his first mission was because, a part of his cultivation would be stripped off in each levels of the trials which made it much more difficult whenpared to his fight with Shen Bing where he could go all out¡­


    The second mission had Potential Bonuses which were:


    Time [25%] and Difficulty [25%] and this meant that Min Hong had to win clear those trials as easily as he could make it seem¡­


    The final mission read;


    Category ¨C Mission¡­


    Type ¨C Active¡­


    Nature ¨C Development¡­


    Location ¨C Hong City¡­


    Target ¨C Poption¡­


    Directive ¨C Develop The Poption Size Of Hong City To 10,000¡­


    Time Taken ¨C 3 Months¡­


    Rank ¨C A Rank¡­


    Base Reward ¨C ¡é60,000¡­


    Potential Bonuses ¨C Time [25%], Diversity [75%]¡­


    Status ¨C Open¡­


    Progress ¨C Pending¡­


    Max Reward ¨C ¡é120,000¡­


    Min Hong was even more stunned by the bonus of thest mission;


    Diversity; which meant the more diverse the background of the poption was the better the rewards...


    Even if they gathered everyone within the District 21 and the Cornerstone Tribe who just returned to the Sect, they could all barely number up to 4,000 people¡­


    Furthermore, that is even considering if the disciples of the Desert Sun Sect would want to leave the Sect which was something extremely unlikely, and this was the reason why Min Hong blurted the statement;


    "Are you messing with me!?"


    All three missions looked and felt nigh impossible except for the Pagoda Of Ascension¡­


    ''Damn it¡­ I can''t think about this right now¡­ I think the best I can do is to finish up the first two missions and then take a moment after I clear the eighth floor of the ''Pagoda of Ascension'' too think about this''


    ''After all, I can tell that no one can eavesdrop or peak into whatever I am doing in there¡­'' Min Hong thought to himself before looking towards the group;


    "Oh yeah¡­ Concerning what I came here for, I wanted toe test my strength¡­" Min Hong replied Little Wu''s question;


    "Oh¡­ How do you n on doing that, dueling us?" Old Man Li asked with a smirk;


    "Hehe, I would be courting death if I even have the slightest thought of dueling you, Old Man Li¡­" Min Hong chuckled awkwardly as his eyes twitched;


    ''No shit Sherlock; looking for someone to test out your newfound powers on unh?''


    ''Why don''t you go challenge the twentieth floor of the Pagoda, I won''t mind granting you ess¡­'' Min Hong thought to himself before adding;


    "I was simply thinking of challenging Shen Bing to a 5 minutes all out duel and see if I can hold out long enough¡­ As long as I cane out with a draw, then I''d consider my test a sess¡­"


    "Then after that, I also n on clearing the next two floors of the Pagoda under an hour¡­ If I can manage that, then I can be at peace that my efforts so far hasn''t been wasted¡­"


    "If I can finish both tasks, then I can return to the outside world happily¡­"


    Min Hong subtly introduced the nature of his missions into the scenario and it worked because not only did the group feel that the ''Realm Of Creations'' was the best ce for him to do so;


    They also felt that his tasks weren''t too lenient and simrly not too ambitious for him, and as a result, they epted his offer and cleared the area for the first of his missions;


    Dueling Shen Bing!


    "What is your current total battle prowess!?"


    Shen Bing asked as she borrowed Little Bing from Little Wu since Little Lin was already hovering around Min Hong like a love smitten bride who was just seeing her groom for the first time in ages¡­

 Chapter 179 - I Wouldnt Have It Any Other Way

    They also felt that his tasks weren''t too lenient and simrly not too ambitious for him, and as a result, they epted his offer and cleared the area for the first of his missions;


    Dueling Shen Bing!


    "What''s your current total battle prowess!?"


    Shen Bing asked as she borrowed Little Bing from Little Wu since Little Lin was already hovering around Min Hong like a love smitten bride who was just seeing her groom for the first time in ages¡­


    "With Little Lin here, it would be-"


    Min Hong was just about to grab the hovering Little Lin when her spirit popped out of the staff and his hands grabbed her left boob;


    "Eh?"


    Min Hong spaced out for a moment unable toprehend how something which was supposed to be normal turned out to be a perverted act¡­


    The rest of the group understood what happened and thus didn''t think too much about it, but they were so pleased to see Min Hong be dazed and flustered by the situation that they couldn''t help but burst out inughter¡­


    But contrary to their reasoning, the reason why Min Hong was stunned was simply because Little Lin felt substantial¡­


    Normally, his hand would have simply passed through, since she was a spirit, but here on the contrary, he was actually touching her, then, his sheer curiosity and shock caused him to subconsciously squeeze her boob about three more times just to confirm if things were really as they seemed to him¡­


    But despite squeezing three more times, it was still substantial, but as for Little Lin on the other hand, she was blushing so much that even the color pink or red would be put to shame¡­


    Then he realized what he was doing and quickly withdrew his hands, but what has been done has been done, and there was no way to take it back or change the situation, as Little Lin dashed back into the staff;


    [L-li-little Lin, I-I''m so sorry!] Min Hong quickly apologized mentally;


    [I-it''s fine M-master, you don''t have to apologize¡­] Little Lin was also slightly flustered as she timidly replied;.


    [Eh!?] Min Hong was stunned;


    Things weren''t progressing like he had hoped it would; he was expecting Little Lin to re up angrily andsh out, but not only did she not do so, her tone was also sounding a bit dreamy, like when a little girl finally obtains what had been at the top of her wish list¡­


    [Alright then¡­ This isn''t going to be like the battle we had earlier¡­ Furthermore, thanks for not revealing everything that happened outside to anyone¡­] Min Hong added;


    [Master is very valuable to Little Lin, so you can be rest assured; your secrets are mine and all of mine are yours¡­]


    Min Hong could sense utter devotion, honesty and affection from the tone Little Lin used in this statement, and he was pleased; at least that told him that asides form Little Wu, there is now one other person who was within the ''Realm Of Creation'' that took him as their primary concern¡­


    [Alright then¡­ This is going to be difficult, but I think we can still hold our own in a battle with those two¡­] Min Hong added mentally;


    [I trust you master, and I am 100 percent with you¡­ Let''s show them the difference between an Ancient Expert and a Young Talent with endless potential¡­]


    Little Lin replied with a confident tone as Min Hong grinned like a stupid stoner¡­


    "Eh? What happened?"


    "Don''t tell me both of you are making out mentally?" Shen Bing teased when she saw the childish smile on Min Hong''s face;


    "Hmph¡­ Whatever we do mentally is none of your concern¡­" Little Lin responded with a defensive tone;


    "Or do you want toe see what we are doing?" Min Hong returned the favor as Shen Bing blushed aggressively;


    Min Hong''s invitation hit the bulls eyes, because she was quite interested to find out if they were actually both making out for some mysterious reason she couldn''t resist, and neither did she know where such an interest wasing from;


    "Hmph¡­ Enough talk¡­ You still haven''t answered my question¡­" Shen Bing shook her head a little to get rid of her thoughts that were already going haywire¡­


    "Oh¡­ About that¡­ My total battle prowess lies exactly at the peak of Nirvana Stage¡­" Min Hong replied;


    "Oh, then let me-"


    "There''s no need for that¡­ I want you to go all out¡­" Min Hong knew that was the reason Shen Bing was asking about his strengths;


    She wanted to adjust her own strength to match his, but he knew Daisy would obviously not allow that;


    But whilst that was truly a leeway to bypass the mission difficulty, he wasn''t sure if Daisy would snap and thus even increase the system difficulty mode, and that was one thing he wasn''t willing to find out in person¡­


    "Hong-"


    Little Wu tried to warn Min Hong of Shen Bing''s current prowess but Min Hong simply looked to him with a smirk indicating that it was exactly what he wanted¡­


    Old Man Li also saw that and ced his hand on Little Wu''s shoulder to prevent him from stressing the situation;


    "Let him be; it is his decision¡­ Moreover, it''s not like he''s looking to defeat her, he is just looking tost for 5 minutes without losing¡­"


    Old Man Li added as he looked to Min Hong with an interesting smirk; he was truly interested on seeing just how much the current Min Hong could resist¡­


    "Since it''s your choice then¡­ But I must warn you, this would hurt¡­"


    Shen Bing was truly concerned about Min Hong, because if she knew he didn''t know the true scope of her current strength;


    "I wouldn''t have it any other way¡­ Everything is eptable, as long as I don''t die¡­" Min Hong added as the rest of the crowd chuckled;


    "Alright then¡­ Let me put you on a 6 month long sick bed¡­"


    The moment her sentencended; Kaboom! Instantly, Min Hong gasped in fear as wind whipped all over the area with a level of intensity that was threatening to throw Min Hong off bnce¡­


    But just as he was about to be lifted of bnce, Little Lin abruptly came forward and erupted with her own powers as all the runes on her body began to turn blood red, causing the clouds overhead to turn blood red from the sheer ughter aura that was rippling out of her;


    The upper torso of her spirit body popped out of the staff, as she stretched her hands towards the rippling winds and with a simple clench of her hand, everything became as still and quiet as a vacuum; it was almost like a massive t board was ced over the windy environment¡­

 Chapter 180 - The Unique Archery Set

    There were also smaller Qi Stones which numbered about twenty by the side;


    "Master, was this the idea Elder Wang gave us two weeks ago?"


    One of the workers asked in wonder as he gazed at the mini Qi Stones which were the size of a Ping Pong ball, and were glowing intensely;


    "Be careful kid, that stone contains the power of a Peak Qi Creation stage, and if it explodes, it can deal the damage of a 2 Star Qi Sea stage, so be careful¡­" Elder Smith exined carefully¡­


    "Eh" The youth eximed in shock whilst the rest of the workers were also stunned by the reveal;


    "Doesn''t that mean that Tribe Leader can only kill 20 Qi Sea Stage experts with these?"


    The youth once again asked curiously as Elder Smith mentallymended his desire for knowledge;


    "No, silly brat¡­" He said with a smirk;


    "These stones are for the amours and weapons themselves¡­"


    Elder Smith revealed as he showed the workers the slot on the bow handle which was the perfect size for the disc like Qi Stone¡­


    "Alright, let me demonstrate¡­ You will all understand then¡­" Elder Smith then picked up the bow, and slotted one of the disc looking small Qi Stones into the spot where the bow was to be held;


    "Look closely and listen attentively¡­"


    "The ws of the previous Qi weapons and Amours we made was that we had no way of measuring the amount of Qi they consume, and that is why I liaised with Elder Wang and we came up with this brilliant idea¡­"


    "Firstly, this Qi Battery here as we called it is only 95% full, and once the Tribe Leader wields it, it would take another 5% of Qi from him, and mix it with the ones within it, and thus it registers the bow to the unique energy of the Tribe Leader, but as for this demonstration, I will be using mine¡­"


    Elder Smith filled the Qi battery with his own Qi as the entire bow lit up like Rolls Royce heamps, then he picked an arrow from the quiver and aimed it at the target where they usually test the sharpness of all their weapons; then he pulled and released; .


    Hu!


    Bang!


    The target was sted away about ten meters;


    "What!?"


    "Impossible!?"


    "That target is about 10,000 KG there is no way an ordinary Peak Qi Creation stage expert can make it move¡­"


    "It had taken Elder Ting, Elder Long and the First Elder to carry it here and they could only manage that because they were all 1 Star Qi Sea Stage experts¡­"


    "But how are you able to do it, Elder Yun?"


    "If we all remember correctly you are at the Peak of Qi Creation Stage¡­" The Youth asked once again;


    "Firstly, since the Qi in the Qi Stone has a burst power of a Peak Qi Creation stage, and I Pumped it with my own Peak Qi Creation stage power, what do you think the end result of that power level would be?" Elder Smith asked with a smile;


    "About 2 Star Qi Sea Stage?" The Youth guessed;


    "Correct, but it was only that because I possess a Peak Qi Creation stage power level; should Elder Long who is a 1 Star Qi Creation stage fire this arrow, then it would at least reach the 4 Star Qi Creation damage level¡­" Elder Smith revealed as everyone gasped;


    "So what level is the Tribe Leader?" The youth asked with a curious whisper as Elder Smith smacked his head;


    "No one knows; moreover, even if we did, we wouldn''t tell, because it concerns the life of the Tribe Leader¡­"


    "So, let this be thest time you will ask; and the same goes for everyone else as well, am I clear?"


    "As Qi Stones, Master!" The workers chorused;


    "Good¡­ But I can tell you this, even if all the Eldersbine to fight the Tribe Leader, we would still be unable to bring him down!"


    Elder Smith spoke as the entire crowd gasped and began to whisper;


    Elder Smith truly didn''t know how much power Dara possessed, but he said what he said for two reasons, the first being that, he wanted to create a level of fear in the hearts of his workers that the Tribe Leader wasn''t to be messed with¡­


    Secondly; he had heard from the rest of the Ji Tribe members of how Dara had faced, massacred the three leaders of the former Ji Tribe whilst battling their prodigy and fending off several warriors simultaneously...


    From those facts alone, he could tell that all the current Elders would stand no chance against him, because not only were they weaker than those Elders, they were also less vicious, scheming and shrewd;


    Thus, it would at take Min Hong only half the effort he put into that battle to finish them off if he wanted¡­


    Though, this doesn''t ssify to only his Cultivation Base, because Elder Smith is also experienced enough to know that there are other factors as to why Dara managed that, otherwise, wouldn''t that make him the strongest expert in all of the Dark and Grey Lands?


    "Alright, pipe down folks¡­" Elder Smith drew their attention back to himself;


    "This next part is the interesting part!"


    Elder Smith added with a smug grin; this part that he was about to disy came from his own theoretical idea, and this is the moment that would tell if it worked or not;


    He held the bow towards the direction of the arrow which was on the ground about 8 meter away and blurted;


    "Reverse!"


    ..!


    All the workers expected something to happen, but nothing did;


    "Eh!?" Elder Smith was stunned;


    "Come back!"


    He blurted again, but nothing happened, and now the workers were beginning to think that he was simply bluffing, but Elder Smith simply snorted;


    "Hmph! Retrieve!"


    Whoosh!


    Right before all of their eyes, the workers saw the arrow light up and return to the bow instantly as Elder Smith caught it and nocked it once again, ready to fire it the second time¡­


    "What!?"


    "No way!?"


    "That''s impossible!"


    The workers all eximed in different manners and words as they blinked their eyes like they have just seen the stuff of the legends; Hell, even their Legends and Myths down here doesn''t possess suchw bending features;


    "Hmph! Can you mundane mindsprehend what is possible in the field of forgery!?"


    Elder Smith bellowed with authority as an aura of a master descended on him through the ventted roof, surrounding him in a unique glow of light as all the workers went silent and bowed their heads slightly, unwilling to look at him in the eye¡­


    Though no one knew the phenomenon that just urred, not even Elder Smith himself, but Long who was far away within the depths of Min Hong''s consciousness could sense it...

 Chapter 181 - Ji Two, Ji Three, Ji Four...

    "Hmph! Can you mundane mindsprehend what is possible in the field of forgery!?"


    Elder Smith bellowed with authority as an aura of a master descended on him through the ventted roof, surrounding him in a unique glow of light as all the workers went silent and bowed their heads slightly, unwilling to look at him in the eye¡­


    Though no one knew the phenomenon that just urred, not even Elder Smith himself, but Long who was far away within the depths of Min Hong''s consciousness could sense it, but not precisely since he was using Dara''s current strength cannot allow him to use even 1% of his mental prowess;


    ''A Master has been born within this backward!?''


    He was truly stunned and surprised, but back at the Forgery, no one knew what happened, but Elder Smith only felt slightly spaced out and realized that not only has his mental prowess increased drastically;


    It also seemed to possess more speed unlike before, whilst he could also feel a sense of loftiness that was natural to him but was the simple cause of the aura of a master that descended on him¡­


    He felt unmoving and unfazed, but not from impetuousness, but because he now possessed and increased level ofposure and calmness, which was also a byproduct of the aura of a master!


    Then after about half an hour, the glow automatically bored through Elder Smiths body, creating some unique meridians whilst clearing some things it found unworthy of being within a master;


    But it happened in such a subtle way that not even Elder Smith felt anything;


    "Alright, for the final part of this demonstration¡­" Elder Smith called the attention of the workers back to the situation at hand;


    "Take!"


    He handed the bow and arrow to the curious youth and told him;


    "Shoot me!"


    "Not at any vital area, but a ce like my thigh would be okay¡­ Any other part of my body and I won''t be able to forge anything for life!"


    Elder Smith quickly added as the youth kept looking at him with a stunned expression as Elder Smith bellowed at him in a bid to snap him out of his daze; .


    "Come on, I don''t have all day! I still have to go-"


    Hu!


    Spurt!


    "Eh!?"


    Elder Smiths bellow did its job, as the Youth fired the arrow, but just as the arrow reached a few inches from Elder Smith''s thighs, it glowed brightly like it was resonating to something within that thigh;


    Then as if having a mind of its own, it made a beeline for the Youth who fired it and stabbed the exact spot where the Youth aimed on Elder Smith¡­


    The arrow went through the youth''s thighing out of the other side as blood spurted like fountain all over the area¡­


    Though, they youth had been stabbed, but the sheet suddenness and mysteriousness of the entire scene ced him into such a shock, that he didn''t feel the pain from the stab until he looked down at his leg and saw another worker passing their middle finger straight through the hole in his thigh without any hindrance whatsoever¡­


    "Ahk!"


    "Arggghh!" The Youth cried like he was a chick being ran over by a freight train¡­


    "Master, why did you do this to me¡­" The Youth cried;


    "Master tell me why!?"


    He cried as the rest of the workers quickly tied a leather around that area and bound it tight, to prevent him from losing much blood;


    This was the First Aid training Elder Ting had ordered her Eldest Disciple to teach them thest time she came over, and it was working¡­


    "Sorry Kid, it wasn''t my intention to do that to you¡­" Elder Smith apologized immediately;


    "I had predicted that the arrow would react to my Qi, but I only thought it would simply grind to a halt; I never knew it woulde back to hurt you¡­" Elder Smith exined apologetically as the youth nodded his head;


    "Yeah, I had a slight rejection feeling from the stone when I infused my Qi into the arrow earlier¡­"


    "Perhaps it somehow identified my Qi as the intruding Qi and used that to trace the Qi back to its source; Me!" The Youth spected;


    "That''s right, a bacsh!"


    "People have that very often when they use techniques or arts not meant for them!"


    Elder Smith snapped his finger in joy and realization, as he walked forward and tapped the youth on the shoulder;


    "Weldon kid, what''s your name?" He asked with a bright smile whilst the youth simply replied;


    "Master, all of us who are born into the Qi Stone farm are not given names¡­"


    The youth spoke whilst the rest of the workers also seemed a bit dejected by the situation;


    "Well, you have all been freed and are now native members of the Ji tribe, so that stops today¡­"


    "You all can choose whatever names you want to bear and put the name Ji behind it¡­"


    Elder Smith spoke and the eyes of the workers lit up as, but then they simply looked at Elder Smith and responded;


    "We don''t know many names, Mater¡­ How about you give us some?"


    The youth asked with a bright smile, whilst Elder Smith''s brows twitched wildly;


    ''What makes these guys think I know so many names¡­.''


    ''Fuck it, I would just give them numbers then¡­'' He thought to himself before looking at the youth;


    "Are you willing to be my disciple, and I will teach you all I know?"


    Elder Smith asked, stunning everyone in the area, as the youth nodded with teary eyes;


    "Sorry Master, I would have been able to kowtow to you but my thigh hurts!"


    The youth who was about 18 or thereabout fought back his tears as he replied;


    Elder Smith understood how emotional the situation was; after all, these were people who had been in captivity all their lives, being treated as resources instead of the human beings they were¡­


    Being able to live an ordinary life within the Ji Tribe was already a dreame true for them and the epitome of what they wished for, but now, Elder Smith was now giving him an opportunity to be more, and just the way the youth reacted to it made Elder Smith himself emotional;


    "No need for formalities kid¡­"


    "But now that you are my first disciple; I guess you should also go by the name¡­"


    "Thus, from now henceforth; you are Ji One!"


    Elder Smith blurted as tears finally leaked out of the youth''s eyes whilst Elder Smith turned to the three workers who brought out the equipment and also named them;


    "Ji Two, Ji Three, Ji Four; pack everything up¡­" He ordered as the three workers answered to their names;


    "But master, wont this weapon hurt the Tribe Leader if he fires it?" Ji Two asked as the rest of the workers also nodded and frowned slightly;


    "What nonsense!?"


    "I would never hurt the Tribe Leader!" Elder Smith debunked the thought instantly¡­

 Chapter 182 - The Core Court Disciples

    "You seem to know a lot about them¡­" Elder Qing teased with a flutter of her eyshes;


    "Eh? Uhm¡­"


    "The Sect Leader has always insisted that once a group of individuals knew some personal things about one another, it improves not only the teamwork, but the physical rtionship amongst them, which in turn makes the group yield better sess than normal..."


    "Don''t worry you''re still new, but you will understand in due time¡­" Elder Kang exined with a slight smile¡­


    "Alright, we should return¡­"


    He added with a doting smile before wrapping his arm around Elder Qing''s shoulders, as she blushed coyly¡­


    But just as they turned their backs, the ground abruptly rumbled as the mammoth they all thought had dies rose its head up and gave a deafening re;


    Fuunnn!


    "Ahk!"


    "Argh!"


    Elder Qing and Elder Kang instantly felt like a million needles just stabbed into their eardrums as blood spurt out of their ears, before they both fell to the ground unconscious;


    "Damn! Is that the rally cry of a dying beast!?".


    Elder Yun who was already within a room bandaging Elder Jiang''s twisted arm looked towards the gate in petrification;


    "Yes it is! Kang and Qing are still out there!"


    Elder Jiang rushed to a sitting position as Elder Yun ced both her hands on his shoulders and pushed him back to bed in a seemingly erotic manner;


    "Don''t move around, or you would rpse your injuries¡­"


    She said caringly referring to his internal injuries which resulted from the impact of facing the Green Furred Mammoth''s charge head on¡­


    "But we might be having a beast horde soon, Yun¡­"


    "You will need some help¡­" Elder Jiang tried to stand up once again;


    "Do you want me to knock you out again!?" Elder Yun bellowed;


    "Don''t worry, it would take a while for the beast horde to reach here, since beasts of those level live very deep into the forest¡­"


    "So, I won''t be in any danger¡­" She said before cing a gentle kiss on Elder Jiang''s forehead, and leaving¡­


    The moment Elder Yun came out, she saw about twenty figures bolting towards Sect Walls;


    ''So they heard the trumpet too¡­'' She thought to herself as she caught up with the figures;


    "Elder Yun!"


    "Elder Yun!"


    All of these twenty or so figure bowed and sped their hands towards Elder Yun whilst still gliding on towards the Sect Walls;


    "What fine control of internal energy¡­ Truly befitting of a Core Court Disciple!"


    Elder Yunmended the youths who all seem to be within the ages of 16 to 25, with the oldest being a 25 year old male who seemed to have gone on many missions and gained a lot of experience just from his vibes and the fact that he was in the leading position of all the Core Court Disciples¡­


    "Hehe, Elder Yun, we are unworthy of such praises; all this is possible because we had good teachers and District Elders¡­"


    The 25 Year Old youth responded humble and courteously whilst the rest of the disciples behind him nodded in ordance;


    "Alright¡­ I''m sure you have all heard the rally cry, and that means we would be having beast hordes very soon in waves, thus, I will need you all to take charge of patrolling the city walls¡­"


    "But first, we have to rescue Elder Kang and Qing who were standing at close proximity to that beast when its rm went off¡­" Elder Yun added as a girl who looked no older than 17 asked;


    "Elder Yun, it was a Green Furred Mammoth, wasn''t it?" She smiled as she adjusted the googles on her face;


    "Yes, Bing Hei¡­ You''re as ever knowledgeable as I have known you to be¡­"


    Elder Yunmended, and whilst their conversation might seem a little too formal, that was because, they were Core Court Disciples who were bound to achieve far more than Elder Yun and the rest of the Elder would, in their lifetime¡­


    This was because all of these youths were between the 1 and 2 Star Dan Formation stages respectively, at such a young age, and that is why they are treated with so much respect within the sect that they are regarded as ''Elders In Learning''¡­


    This means they are already Elders in terms of everything else, apart from experience, and that is why they are being taught directly by the Grand Elder''s and the Sect Leader, personally; a level of tutge even Elder Yun would do anything for¡­


    They arrived at the city wall momentster as Elder Yun moved over to one of the Patrols on the wall;


    "You all are relieved of duty from now henceforth, until the iing beast horde is dealt with¡­"


    "However, you are to go to every inch of the sect and announce to all disciples, that everyone is to remain indoors, and every ongoing missions or punishments whatsoever must be suspended till the aftermath of the uing beast horde¡­" Elder Yun instructed solemnly;


    "Each of the buildings within the sect is being reinforced by a protective barrier that could withstand the strength of a Cat-4 Beast and Cat-3 Beast Horde¡­"


    "Thus, except the categories of these beasts or the beast hordes exceed the levels I have mentioned, then everyone should remain indoors¡­"


    "But if it exceeds it, then all Enforcement Hall Disciples are to ensure that all Disciples are safely and sessfully evacuated to the underground hall!"


    "Am I Clear!?"


    "Crystal, Elder Yun!"


    The youth she was speaking too stood straight and responded with a curt tone before giving a bow and leaving to announce to the rest of his colleagues that the Core Court Disciples are now taking over patrol and guard duty¡­


    "Bing Hei, take four of your colleagues and move ahead to scout the perimeters of the sect for any activity..."


    "If you find any form of disturbance, horde or charge, notify us through themunication device in your badges¡­"


    "On it, Elder Yun!"


    "You, you, you and you¡­"


    Bing Hei made her selection instantly as all five of them moved outside the Sect Walls and flew ahead on their flying swords to scout the area¡­


    "Lao Yi, you will take four of your juniors over there, have two of them carry the injured Elders to the Sect Healer, and the rest of you should take apart that mammoth and being all its valuables to me¡­"


    "On it, Elder Yun!"


    The 25 Year Old youth who was named Lao Yi simply pointed towards four disciples and without any much as a sentence, they all moved out to carry out their tasks, whilst Elder Yun look at the remaining ten of them;


    "Spread out over the wall and keep a look out¡­ If you spot anything from your positions, alert me to it immediately!"


    Elder Yun added before moving over to the gate of the sect itself and hovered over it, causing her to look like the guardian of the hidden temple¡­

 Chapter 183 - Massive Unrest

    "We are on it, Elder Yun!"


    The 25 Year Old youth who was named Lao Yi simply pointed towards four disciples and without any much as a sentence, they all moved out to carry out their tasks, whilst Elder Yun look at the remaining ten of them;


    "Spread out over the wall and keep a look out¡­ If you spot anything from your positions, alert me to it immediately!"


    Elder Yun added before moving over to the gate of the sect itself and hovered over it, causing her to look like the guardian of the hidden temple¡­


    The Sect wasn''t an overlyrge one with a simple poption of 1,000 people split into; One Sect Leader, Two Grand Elders, Three Teachers, Four District Elders, 20 Core Court disciples, 170 Inner Court Disciples and 800 Outer Court Disciples¡­


    Thus, they were very smart, tactical and organized in their setups which makes them efficiently adapt to change in situations very quickly, and this can be seen by how they have handled the news of a potential beast horde¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back on the Of Jok¡­


    Within the Dark Lands¡­


    There were so much activity going on, that the moment all the Elders and the Captains marched out of the Royal Court, every single citizen of the Land of Light realized that something was going on;


    Then everything fell on the shoulders of Elder Dong, to look for a way of addressing the anxious citizens about the scenario, as several rumors have begun to circte throughout the metropolitan city called the ''Land Of Light''¡­


    Some imed that the King was dead and that the rest of the Elders were fleeing from the invasion of those who killed the King¡­


    Some imed that the Royals seemed to have conquered the Jok Kingdom and were thus, fleeing to greener pastures whilst leaving them behind to battle and suffer in the scarcity of resources¡­


    There were some who imed that it was the cause of a major disagreement between the King and his Elders which caused a significant friction, and that as a result, the King had banished all the Elders and Captains into the Dark and Grey Lands¡­


    Several rumors were flying around and were causing massive unrest, to the extent that the exiles who were residing within the Grey Lands, caught a wind of it, and as a result, those who detest the way the harsh rule of the king had begun to form alliances amongst themselves¡­.


    They were gathering themselves and amassing troops from different angles of the Grey Lands with iron hands; those who agreed to join were given better treatment and opportunity for a better life, whilst those who refused were simply massacred!


    Strangely, wars began to pop up everywhere within the Grey Lands even after the Season of War had passed¡­


    The alliance called themselves the Forgotten Ones and they were growingrger andrger as time went by¡­


    There were naturally more people in the Grey Lands than the Dark Lands, because asides the fact that the Dark Lands was unbearable atmospherically, it held little to no source of food whilst boasting of extremely deadly dangers lurking from every angle...


    Then as a result, except if stated by the King himself, all the exiled choose to live within Grey Lands, and as a result, they were all oblivious to the fact that, within the Dark Lands itself, lurked three major powers;


    The Ji Tribe, The Qi Stone Mines of the Royals, and finally the Obuns who have be so beastly, they have no way of returning to their right state of mind, not to talk of bing human once again¡­


    Luckily, right in the middle of the Dark Lands, and at its highest pointid the Ji Tribe¡­


    If one came here, the first thing they would notice was the insanely tight security patrols, and nigh imprable walls and gates; making it seem like the people are anticipating a major war¡­


    Within the tribe however, it was a total contrast, as it was as peaceful as a thousand year old well¡­


    There were little to no people moving around, and the only areas where any form of activity could be sensed were the Tribe Wall, The Forgery, The Farm, The Construction Site and The Training Are; every other part of the Tribe was as peaceful as peaceful can be¡­


    "Everybody gather around¡­"


    The joyful voice of an Elderly man resounded within the Forgery as all the workers in there gathered around, including the two who tested the Qi Swords thest time¡­


    "You have all worked tirelessly for the past one month, and now, the sole products of our efforts areplete; for that I want tomend all of your hard works¡­"


    Elder Smith addressed the workers who were either wiping sweat of their faces or drinking cool water;


    But this was not from the heat as there was more than enough venttion, but from the sheer physical work they have done, from increasing their speed, lifting heavy objects as well as the mental toll all that stress induced on them;


    "Due to this, we have managed toplete our work on time, and here they are¡­"


    Elder Smith gestured to the side as three separate workers carried over three cases made of finely sculpted wood, and on opening it, all the workers gasped in wonder and shock whilst pping their hands in delight¡­


    They couldn''t believe what they were seeing; they have never been allowed to see what they were working on, as Elder Smith had holed himself within a separate room within the Forgery where he crafted these products by himself with the help of the three who carried them out¡­


    Firstly, it was to keep the method and blueprint with which he crafted them a secret, and secondly because of this moment¡­


    The rest of the workers only melted the ores and transported it to his personal working space, where Elder Smith would simply receive it and shut the door in their curious faces¡­


    There within the cases was a new set of bow and arrow;


    A twin sword, and finally,


    A Set of Amour which from first nce would fit Dara too well¡­


    There were also smaller Qi Stones which numbered about twenty by the side;


    "Master, was this the idea Elder Wang gave us two weeks ago?"


    One of the workers asked in wonder as he gazed at the mini Qi Stones which were the size of a Ping Pong ball, and were glowing intensely;


    "Be careful kid, that stone contains the power of a Peak Qi Creation stage, and if it explodes, it can deal the damage of a 2 Star Qi Sea stage, so be careful¡­" Elder Smith exined carefully¡­

 Chapter 184 - Sword Art; Deforestation Style Trunk Piercer

    He was fair and had flowing hair as well as deep set eyes which signified that he had either seen a lot in his 40 year lifespan or haveprehended some mysterious truths¡­


    "Alright¡­ As usual, you two will go rescue the disciples whilst I and Jiang would go stop that thing in its tracks¡­"


    "The Sect leader is in cultivation seclusion trying to breakthrough, thus he can''t be disturbed¡­" Elder Kang exined¡­


    "What do you think is happening!?"


    "Why are you so dumb Chi Wa, weren''t we both scrambling to safety at the same time; how do you expect me to know what is going on outside the 30 meter tall wall!?"


    "Gen, can you specte what is going on?"


    "Yeah, you''re one of the patrols as well; can you tell us what is going on!?"


    Several whispers began to pop up from different parts of the sects as the disciples frantically hid within their dorms awaiting the impending danger;


    "There is only one thing I am sure of; since it is the bell on the wall that was rung, then it must be that we are being attacked¡­"


    "Invaded!?"


    "Nooo! I can''t die here¡­ I haven''t seen my Lin''er in almost a year now, I still have a lot of things to do with her!"


    "Cut it out, you stupid pervert!" Another disciple bellowed at the youth;


    "What!? She''s my fianc¨¦ and I''ve been working so hard to get into the inner court so I can prove myself worthy of her hand in marriage¡­"


    "But now, I am only three months from achieving that goal, but now I am probably going to die!?"


    Smack!.


    "Cut the crap! No one said anything about invasion or anyone dying, I only said we were being attacked!" The Patrol Disciple smacked the flustered disciple on the head before exining;


    "The only reason why the bell would be rung is if we are dealing with a low category beast horde, and should that happen, our core court disciples are capable of fending them off¡­"


    "If it is a middle category beast attack, then an Elder can handle it; and if it is a beast horde of simr category, then all the Elders would join hands to fend them off¡­"


    "Anything higher than that, then we can begin to fret over it since the Sect Leader is in seclusion¡­"


    "But if we are being invaded, then the sect''s defense system would have been triggered..."


    The Patrol Disciple did his best to calm all the male disciples in his dorm, and simr situations were happening all across the other dorms as well¡­


    Meanwhile¡­


    Back at the top of the sect wall¡­


    "So you two would have to finish up with those kids ande lend a helping hand¡­"


    "Alright then, we will be with you shortly¡­" Elder Yin chimed before jumping off the fence with Elder Qing, but before they couldnd on the ground;


    Schweein!


    The sound of sharp metal cutting through the air screamed all over the ce as Elder Jiang and Kang took to the air, bolting towards the iing massive beasts that were chasing the exhausted disciples¡­


    They had been running faster than their legs could carry and were already running on the hope granted to them by the mere sight of their sect''s massive wall¡­


    "Keep running guys, I can see some Elders over the wall, we have to keep running till they cane to our aid!" Tian Wu encouraged the rest of his team;


    "Damn it! To think we would encounter a Cat-5 beast so close to the sect!"


    Ma Dong; the other Green Robed Disciple, who had been told to scout the area cursed as he adjusted the unconscious Su and increased his speed;


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    Elder Jiang and Kang appeared in their sights in little to no time;


    "Keep going, and don''t stop until you are inside the sect!"


    Elder Kang ordered before dipping his hand into his robes and whipped out a very simply, slender but extremely sharp sword¡­


    He grabbed the hilt with all his strength as his hair and robes began to float without the presence of any wind;


    Kaboom!


    His cultivation erupted and soared instantaneously; 4 Star Dan Formation Stage!


    "Sword Art; Deforestation Style ¨C Trunk Piercer!"


    Elder Kang bellowed as Qi gushed out of his meridians before flowing through the hilt of the sword into a gem which was ced at the joint where the de connected to the hilt¡­


    Then with an aggressive jab, a sword almost ten times the size of the one in his grasp materialized out of thin air before tearing to the air with a venomous momentum, heading for the jugr of the massive green furred mammoth who sensed the lethal danger heading for it;


    Grrrr!


    All four massive legs of the mammoth screeched to a halt as the sword of Qi entered its ranged; the moment it ground to a halt, it raised its trunk into the air;


    "Oi, watch out!" Elder Jiang bellowed at his partner;


    Fuunnnn!


    An ear-ripping, earth shattering soundwave burst out of the mammoth''s trunk sting everything in sight away!


    It was a ranged attack, and one that the mammoth heavily relied on when it was being ganged or teamed up on;


    Elder Kang was quick to cover his ears, but that wasn''t enough as he was pushed over 10 meters off the mammoth''s range, likewise Elder Jiang...


    But as for his Qi sword, it''s trajectory was slightly deviated and instead tore through the hide on its nk, tearing open a ten foot long gash across the massive mammoth''s body¡­


    Splurt!


    Blood spewed out of the gash on its nk as the mammoth''s eyes went red in rage, as it rose both of its foot into the air and stomped on the ground furiously, creatingplex webs of cracks that covered a two meter range;


    Massive amounts of debris and particles were also thrown about into the air, significantly hindering the sight of Elder Kang and Jiang who looked behind them to see that the disciples had already been rescued and were being escorted safely through the sect gates;


    "Tch, if it was any other beast, we can just make a run for it¡­"


    "But this one in particr will charge on and furiously batter our sect walls before invading to cause insane amount of debt in damages to the sect¡­"


    Elder Jiang thought to himself as the sound of heavy footsteps began to echo into their ears as thend quaked intensely; the steps became more rapid and forceful as Elder Kang''s voice bellowed through the dust and debris in the air;


    "It''s charging towards you!"


    "Eh!?"


    Elder Jiang''s eyes almost widened out of its sockets when the massive head of a mammoth with two horns abruptly burst out of the dust and appeared before in from point ck range;


    "Hmph! You''ll need to do better than that to get someone like me!"


    Elder Jiang floated backwards trying to put a little distance between himself and the charging bull before dipping his hand into his robes and whipping out an axe;

 Chapter 185 - Axe Art; Deforestation Style Branch Breaker!

    "It''s charging towards you!"


    "Eh!?"


    Elder Jiang''s eyes almost widened out of its sockets when the massive head of a mammoth with two horns abruptly burst out of the dust and appeared before in from point ck range;


    "Hmph! You will need to do better than that to get someone like me!"


    Elder Jiang floated backwards trying to put a little distance between himself and the charging bull before dipping his hand into his robes and whipping out an axe;


    Boom!


    His cultivation red aggressively; 3 Star Dan Formation Stage!


    He surged his Qi into the gem located beneath the axe handle which glowed with bright light before bellowing;


    "Axe Art; Deforestation Style - Branch Breaker!" Bang!


    "Ahk!"


    Elder Jiang coughed out a mouthful of blood as he was sent flying over ten meters away, tearing through the forest trees, falling over a dozen in the process before crashing into the ground with a loud bang, which took another mouthful of blood from him¡­


    His vision blurred and his organs shook intensely from the impact of hisnding;


    Bam!


    But his sufferings wasn''t without rewards as one of the massive tusks of the mammothnded beside him;


    "Jiang!".


    The busty green robed Elder Yin screamed in concern as she rushed over to him;


    "I''m alright, let''s put him down!"


    Elder Jiang wiped off the blood on the corner of his lips before pointing his axe at the winded green furred mammoth, who had also received its share of agony from the impact that took away one of its tusks¡­


    "Hmph!"


    Elder Yin''s eyes zed over in rage as she dipped her hands into her robes before exploding with the cultivation of a 3 Star Dan Formation stage!


    With a furious pump of her Qi into the gem beneath her whip handle, she bellowed;


    "Whip Art; Offensive Style ¨C Scarring Laceration!"


    Whoosh!


    She sent her whip flying through the air towards the gash which Elder Kang''s technique had torn open earlier;


    Whappa! sh!


    Splurt!


    Frruuunnn!


    The attacknded exactly on the long gash, tearing past its exposed muscles to the extent that the bone of the mammoth was even visible as it cried to the heavens in utter agony;


    Blood began to pour out of the mammoth as its vision blurred from immense pain¡­


    Instantly, it turned around and made for escape, utterly abandoning its initial motive;


    "Pretty wise of you to run¡­" Elder Kang blurted as he watched the mammoth head straight towards the forest on the side;


    "Hmph! Since you havee and have dared to injure my Jiang, then you don''t need to leave anymore¡­ Elder Qing!" Elder Yin bellowed with rage;


    "Allow us go on the offensive today guys¡­"


    Elder Qing said as she flew forward with a smirk before whipping out a whip of her own, and then exploded with the cultivation of a 2 Star Dan Formation Stage!


    "Whip Art; Restriction Style ¨C Python''s Coil!"


    Whoosh!


    The vines bolted forward like a furious serpent beforeshing the right hind leg of the mammoth and then crossing on front of it to coil around the left hind leg; with two rapid coils, Elder Qing pulled aggressively, as the mammoth''s eyes widened in shock before both of its hind legs smacked into one another, tripping it to a heavy and uncontroble fall;


    "Whip Art; Offensive Style ¨C Lash Barrage!"


    Elder Yin didn''t even let the mammoth catch its breath before bathing it in several barrages ofshes;


    Spurt! Splurt! St!


    Roar! Groan! Growl!


    Fruunnn!


    The mammoth gave different sounds of pain as Elder Yin took its consciousness to the brink of death and back on several asions, whilst Elder Jiang and Kang nched in fear warning themselves to never cross her path on get on her ugly side¡­


    In little to no time, the mammoth had been made short work off and was already bleeding through its orifices including its eyes and nostril;


    Huss!


    It breathed through its weak trunk whilst lying half dead on the ground with the little amount of life left in it ebbing away with the massive amounts of blood streaming out of its innumerablecerated wounds¡­


    "Hmph!"


    Huff! Huff! Huff!


    Elder Yin snorted coldly at the dying mammoth whilst huffing and puffing from dishing out more whips than her stamina could carry;


    "She seems truly pissed¡­"


    "Yeah¡­ A very strange woman¡­ She won''t have me, but will chase everyone woman whoes close to me¡­"


    "Yeah, and she also seems to like avenging you too¡­"


    Elder Kang and Jiang chatted with one another whilst looking at the twodies who were heaving and puffing creating a very pleasing sigh to their eyes, especially Elder Yun whose massive kegs were stretching her robes past their limits and threatening to burst free with every deep heave she took¡­


    "Jiang are you alright?"


    Elder Yin walked over twisting and roiling everything in sight as Elder Jiang exaggerated his injury and spit out a mouthful of fresh blood;


    "I''m sorry Yin, I had to hold my injuries at bay should in case you both needed help¡­"


    The mischievous Elder Jiang said as Elder Yin'' expression turned into a deeply caring one, before approaching him as she ced on of his hands over her shoulder before looking towards the other two;


    "Elder Kang, Jiang needs urgent treatment, so I will be leaving with him first¡­"


    She said before leaving with the bald Elder Jiang whilst Elder Qing walked over to Elder Kang;


    "I don''t know why she cares about him so much¡­" She said with a slight smile;


    "Well, ording to the Sect leader, they knew already knew each other long before they came into the sect, back when she was still an orphan¡­"


    "Apparently, back then, Elder Jiang was a butcher who always took good care of her, and despite their contrasting appearance, their ages difference isn''t too great¡­"


    "So, they developed feeling for one another unh?" Elder Qing guessed thetter part of the story;


    "Yeah¡­ But apparently, Elder Jiang''s mischievous nature repulses her a lot, but despite all that, she would stilly her life for him if the time everes¡­"


    "You seem to know a lot about them¡­" Elder Qing teased with a flutter of her eyshes;


    "Eh? Uhm¡­ The Sect Leader has always insisted that we once a group of individuals knew some personal things about one another, it improves not only the teamwork, but the physical rtionship amongst them, which in turn makes the group yield better sess than normal¡­"


    "Don''t worry you''re still new, but you will understand in due time¡­" Elder Kang exined with a slight smile¡­

 Chapter 186 - The Core Court Disciples

    "You seem to know a lot about them¡­" Elder Qing teased with a flutter of her eyshes;


    "Eh? Uhm¡­"


    "The Sect Leader has always insisted that once a group of individuals knew some personal things about one another, it improves not only the teamwork, but the physical rtionship amongst them, which in turn makes the group yield better sess than normal..."


    "Don''t worry you''re still new, but you will understand in due time¡­" Elder Kang exined with a slight smile¡­


    "Alright, we should return¡­"


    He added with a doting smile before wrapping his arm around Elder Qing''s shoulders, as she blushed coyly¡­


    But just as they turned their backs, the ground abruptly rumbled as the mammoth they all thought had dies rose its head up and gave a deafening re;


    Fuunnn!


    "Ahk!"


    "Argh!"


    Elder Qing and Elder Kang instantly felt like a million needles just stabbed into their eardrums as blood spurt out of their ears, before they both fell to the ground unconscious;


    "Damn! Is that the rally cry of a dying beast!?".


    Elder Yun who was already within a room bandaging Elder Jiang''s twisted arm looked towards the gate in petrification;


    "Yes it is! Kang and Qing are still out there!"


    Elder Jiang rushed to a sitting position as Elder Yun ced both her hands on his shoulders and pushed him back to bed in a seemingly erotic manner;


    "Don''t move around, or you would rpse your injuries¡­"


    She said caringly referring to his internal injuries which resulted from the impact of facing the Green Furred Mammoth''s charge head on¡­


    "But we might be having a beast horde soon, Yun¡­"


    "You will need some help¡­" Elder Jiang tried to stand up once again;


    "Do you want me to knock you out again!?" Elder Yun bellowed;


    "Don''t worry, it would take a while for the beast horde to reach here, since beasts of those level live very deep into the forest¡­"


    "So, I won''t be in any danger¡­" She said before cing a gentle kiss on Elder Jiang''s forehead, and leaving¡­


    The moment Elder Yun came out, she saw about twenty figures bolting towards Sect Walls;


    ''So they heard the trumpet too¡­'' She thought to herself as she caught up with the figures;


    "Elder Yun!"


    "Elder Yun!"


    All of these twenty or so figure bowed and sped their hands towards Elder Yun whilst still gliding on towards the Sect Walls;


    "What fine control of internal energy¡­ Truly befitting of a Core Court Disciple!"


    Elder Yunmended the youths who all seem to be within the ages of 16 to 25, with the oldest being a 25 year old male who seemed to have gone on many missions and gained a lot of experience just from his vibes and the fact that he was in the leading position of all the Core Court Disciples¡­


    "Hehe, Elder Yun, we are unworthy of such praises; all this is possible because we had good teachers and District Elders¡­"


    The 25 Year Old youth responded humble and courteously whilst the rest of the disciples behind him nodded in ordance;


    "Alright¡­ I''m sure you have all heard the rally cry, and that means we would be having beast hordes very soon in waves, thus, I will need you all to take charge of patrolling the city walls¡­"


    "But first, we have to rescue Elder Kang and Qing who were standing at close proximity to that beast when its rm went off¡­" Elder Yun added as a girl who looked no older than 17 asked;


    "Elder Yun, it was a Green Furred Mammoth, wasn''t it?" She smiled as she adjusted the googles on her face;


    "Yes, Bing Hei¡­ You''re as ever knowledgeable as I have known you to be¡­"


    Elder Yunmended, and whilst their conversation might seem a little too formal, that was because, they were Core Court Disciples who were bound to achieve far more than Elder Yun and the rest of the Elder would, in their lifetime¡­


    This was because all of these youths were between the 1 and 2 Star Dan Formation stages respectively, at such a young age, and that is why they are treated with so much respect within the sect that they are regarded as ''Elders In Learning''¡­


    This means they are already Elders in terms of everything else, apart from experience, and that is why they are being taught directly by the Grand Elder''s and the Sect Leader, personally; a level of tutge even Elder Yun would do anything for¡­


    They arrived at the city wall momentster as Elder Yun moved over to one of the Patrols on the wall;


    "You all are relieved of duty from now henceforth, until the iing beast horde is dealt with¡­"


    "However, you are to go to every inch of the sect and announce to all disciples, that everyone is to remain indoors, and every ongoing missions or punishments whatsoever must be suspended till the aftermath of the uing beast horde¡­" Elder Yun instructed solemnly;


    "Each of the buildings within the sect is being reinforced by a protective barrier that could withstand the strength of a Cat-4 Beast and Cat-3 Beast Horde¡­"


    "Thus, except the categories of these beasts or the beast hordes exceed the levels I have mentioned, then everyone should remain indoors¡­"


    "But if it exceeds it, then all Enforcement Hall Disciples are to ensure that all Disciples are safely and sessfully evacuated to the underground hall!"


    "Am I Clear!?"


    "Crystal, Elder Yun!"


    The youth she was speaking too stood straight and responded with a curt tone before giving a bow and leaving to announce to the rest of his colleagues that the Core Court Disciples are now taking over patrol and guard duty¡­


    "Bing Hei, take four of your colleagues and move ahead to scout the perimeters of the sect for any activity..."


    "If you find any form of disturbance, horde or charge, notify us through themunication device in your badges¡­"


    "On it, Elder Yun!"


    "You, you, you and you¡­"


    Bing Hei made her selection instantly as all five of them moved outside the Sect Walls and flew ahead on their flying swords to scout the area¡­


    "Lao Yi, you will take four of your juniors over there, have two of them carry the injured Elders to the Sect Healer, and the rest of you should take apart that mammoth and being all its valuables to me¡­"


    "On it, Elder Yun!"


    The 25 Year Old youth who was named Lao Yi simply pointed towards four disciples and without any much as a sentence, they all moved out to carry out their tasks, whilst Elder Yun look at the remaining ten of them;


    "Spread out over the wall and keep a look out¡­ If you spot anything from your positions, alert me to it immediately!"


    Elder Yun added before moving over to the gate of the sect itself and hovered over it, causing her to look like the guardian of the hidden temple¡­

 Chapter 187 - The Unique Archery Set

    There were also smaller Qi Stones which numbered about twenty by the side;


    "Master, was this the idea Elder Wang gave us two weeks ago?"


    One of the workers asked in wonder as he gazed at the mini Qi Stones which were the size of a Ping Pong ball, and were glowing intensely;


    "Be careful kid, that stone contains the power of a Peak Qi Creation stage, and if it explodes, it can deal the damage of a 2 Star Qi Sea stage, so be careful¡­" Elder Smith exined carefully¡­


    "Eh" The youth eximed in shock whilst the rest of the workers were also stunned by the reveal;


    "Doesn''t that mean that Tribe Leader can only kill 20 Qi Sea Stage experts with these?"


    The youth once again asked curiously as Elder Smith mentallymended his desire for knowledge;


    "No, silly brat¡­" He said with a smirk;


    "These stones are for the amours and weapons themselves¡­"


    Elder Smith revealed as he showed the workers the slot on the bow handle which was the perfect size for the disc like Qi Stone¡­


    "Alright, let me demonstrate¡­ You will all understand then¡­" Elder Smith then picked up the bow, and slotted one of the disc looking small Qi Stones into the spot where the bow was to be held;


    "Look closely and listen attentively¡­"


    "The ws of the previous Qi weapons and Amours we made was that we had no way of measuring the amount of Qi they consume, and that is why I liaised with Elder Wang and we came up with this brilliant idea¡­"


    "Firstly, this Qi Battery here as we called it is only 95% full, and once the Tribe Leader wields it, it would take another 5% of Qi from him, and mix it with the ones within it, and thus it registers the bow to the unique energy of the Tribe Leader, but as for this demonstration, I will be using mine¡­"


    Elder Smith filled the Qi battery with his own Qi as the entire bow lit up like Rolls Royce heamps, then he picked an arrow from the quiver and aimed it at the target where they usually test the sharpness of all their weapons; then he pulled and released;


    .


    Hu!


    Bang!


    The target was sted away about ten meters;


    "What!?"


    "Impossible!?"


    "That target is about 10,000 KG there is no way an ordinary Peak Qi Creation stage expert can make it move¡­"


    "It had taken Elder Ting, Elder Long and the First Elder to carry it here and they could only manage that because they were all 1 Star Qi Sea Stage experts¡­"


    "But how are you able to do it, Elder Yun?"


    "If we all remember correctly you are at the Peak of Qi Creation Stage¡­" The Youth asked once again;


    "Firstly, since the Qi in the Qi Stone has a burst power of a Peak Qi Creation stage, and I Pumped it with my own Peak Qi Creation stage power, what do you think the end result of that power level would be?" Elder Smith asked with a smile;


    "About 2 Star Qi Sea Stage?" The Youth guessed;


    "Correct, but it was only that because I possess a Peak Qi Creation stage power level; should Elder Long who is a 1 Star Qi Creation stage fire this arrow, then it would at least reach the 4 Star Qi Creation damage level¡­" Elder Smith revealed as everyone gasped;


    "So what level is the Tribe Leader?" The youth asked with a curious whisper as Elder Smith smacked his head;


    "No one knows; moreover, even if we did, we wouldn''t tell, because it concerns the life of the Tribe Leader¡­"


    "So, let this be thest time you will ask; and the same goes for everyone else as well, am I clear?"


    "As Qi Stones, Master!" The workers chorused;


    "Good¡­ But I can tell you this, even if all the Eldersbine to fight the Tribe Leader, we would still be unable to bring him down!"


    Elder Smith spoke as the entire crowd gasped and began to whisper;


    Elder Smith truly didn''t know how much power Dara possessed, but he said what he said for two reasons, the first being that, he wanted to create a level of fear in the hearts of his workers that the Tribe Leader wasn''t to be messed with¡­


    Secondly; he had heard from the rest of the Ji Tribe members of how Dara had faced, massacred the three leaders of the former Ji Tribe whilst battling their prodigy and fending off several warriors simultaneously...


    From those facts alone, he could tell that all the current Elders would stand no chance against him, because not only were they weaker than those Elders, they were also less vicious, scheming and shrewd;


    Thus, it would at take Min Hong only half the effort he put into that battle to finish them off if he wanted¡­


    Though, this doesn''t ssify to only his Cultivation Base, because Elder Smith is also experienced enough to know that there are other factors as to why Dara managed that, otherwise, wouldn''t that make him the strongest expert in all of the Dark and Grey Lands?


    "Alright, pipe down folks¡­" Elder Smith drew their attention back to himself;


    "This next part is the interesting part!"


    Elder Smith added with a smug grin; this part that he was about to disy came from his own theoretical idea, and this is the moment that would tell if it worked or not;


    He held the bow towards the direction of the arrow which was on the ground about 8 meter away and blurted;


    "Reverse!"


    ..!


    All the workers expected something to happen, but nothing did;


    "Eh!?" Elder Smith was stunned;


    "Come back!"


    He blurted again, but nothing happened, and now the workers were beginning to think that he was simply bluffing, but Elder Smith simply snorted;


    "Hmph! Retrieve!"


    Whoosh!


    Right before all of their eyes, the workers saw the arrow light up and return to the bow instantly as Elder Smith caught it and nocked it once again, ready to fire it the second time¡­


    "What!?"


    "No way!?"


    "That''s impossible!"


    The workers all eximed in different manners and words as they blinked their eyes like they have just seen the stuff of the legends; Hell, even their Legends and Myths down here doesn''t possess suchw bending features;


    "Hmph! Can you mundane mindsprehend what is possible in the field of forgery!?"


    Elder Smith bellowed with authority as an aura of a master descended on him through the ventted roof, surrounding him in a unique glow of light as all the workers went silent and bowed their heads slightly, unwilling to look at him in the eye¡­


    Though no one knew the phenomenon that just urred, not even Elder Smith himself, but Long who was far away within the depths of Min Hong''s consciousness could sense it...

 Chapter 188 - Do Not Read 1

    "Hmph! Can you mundane mindsprehend what is possible in the field of forgery!?"


    Elder Smith bellowed with authority as an aura of a master descended on him through the ventted roof, surrounding him in a unique glow of light as all the workers went silent and bowed their heads slightly, unwilling to look at him in the eye¡­


    Though no one knew the phenomenon that just urred, not even Elder Smith himself, but Long who was far away within the depths of Min Hong''s consciousness could sense it, but not precisely since he was using Dara''s current strength cannot allow him to use even 1% of his mental prowess;


    ''A Master has been born within this backward!?''


    He was truly stunned and surprised, but back at the Forgery, no one knew what happened, but Elder Smith only felt slightly spaced out and realized that not only has his mental prowess increased drastically;


    It also seemed to possess more speed unlike before, whilst he could also feel a sense of loftiness that was natural to him but was the simple cause of the aura of a master that descended on him¡­


    He felt unmoving and unfazed, but not from impetuousness, but because he now possessed and increased level ofposure and calmness, which was also a byproduct of the aura of a master!


    Then after about half an hour, the glow automatically bored through Elder Smiths body, creating some unique meridians whilst clearing some things it found unworthy of being within a master;


    But it happened in such a subtle way that not even Elder Smith felt anything;


    "Alright, for the final part of this demonstration¡­" Elder Smith called the attention of the workers back to the situation at hand;


    "Take!"


    He handed the bow and arrow to the curious youth and told him;


    "Shoot me!"


    "Not at any vital area, but a ce like my thigh would be okay¡­ Any other part of my body and I won''t be able to forge anything for life!"


    Elder Smith quickly added as the youth kept looking at him with a stunned expression as Elder Smith bellowed at him in a bid to snap him out of his daze;


    "Come on, I don''t have all day! I still have to go-"


    Hu!


    Spurt!


    "Eh!?"


    Elder Smiths bellow did its job, as the Youth fired the arrow, but just as the arrow reached a few inches from Elder Smith''s thighs, it glowed brightly like it was resonating to something within that thigh;


    Then as if having a mind of its own, it made a beeline for the Youth who fired it and stabbed the exact spot where the Youth aimed on Elder Smith¡­


    The arrow went through the youth''s thighing out of the other side as blood spurted like fountain all over the area¡­


    Though, they youth had been stabbed, but the sheet suddenness and mysteriousness of the entire scene ced him into such a shock, that he didn''t feel the pain from the stab until he looked down at his leg and saw another worker passing their middle finger straight through the hole in his thigh without any hindrance whatsoever¡­


    "Ahk!"


    "Arggghh!" The Youth cried like he was a chick being ran over by a freight train¡­


    "Master, why did you do this to me¡­" The Youth cried;


    "Master tell me why!?"


    He cried as the rest of the workers quickly tied a leather around that area and bound it tight, to prevent him from losing much blood;


    This was the First Aid training Elder Ting had ordered her Eldest Disciple to teach them thest time she came over, and it was working¡­


    "Sorry Kid, it wasn''t my intention to do that to you¡­" Elder Smith apologized immediately;


    "I had predicted that the arrow would react to my Qi, but I only thought it would simply grind to a halt; I never knew it woulde back to hurt you¡­" Elder Smith exined apologetically as the youth nodded his head;


    "Yeah, I had a slight rejection feeling from the stone when I infused my Qi into the arrow earlier¡­"


    "Perhaps it somehow identified my Qi as the intruding Qi and used that to trace the Qi back to its source; Me!" The Youth spected;


    "That''s right, a bacsh!"


    "People have that very often when they use techniques or arts not meant for them!"


    Elder Smith snapped his finger in joy and realization, as he walked forward and tapped the youth on the shoulder;


    "Weldon kid, what''s your name?" He asked with a bright smile whilst the youth simply replied;


    "Master, all of us who are born into the Qi Stone farm are not given names¡­"


    The youth spoke whilst the rest of the workers also seemed a bit dejected by the situation;


    "Well, you have all been freed and are now native members of the Ji tribe, so that stops today¡­"


    "You all can choose whatever names you want to bear and put the name Ji behind it¡­"


    Elder Smith spoke and the eyes of the workers lit up as, but then they simply looked at Elder Smith and responded;


    "We don''t know many names, Mater¡­ How about you give us some?"


    The youth asked with a bright smile, whilst Elder Smith''s brows twitched wildly;


    ''What makes these guys think I know so many names¡­.''


    ''Fuck it, I would just give them numbers then¡­'' He thought to himself before looking at the youth;


    "Are you willing to be my disciple, and I will teach you all I know?"


    Elder Smith asked, stunning everyone in the area, as the youth nodded with teary eyes;


    "Sorry Master, I would have been able to kowtow to you but my thigh hurts!"


    The youth who was about 18 or thereabout fought back his tears as he replied;


    Elder Smith understood how emotional the situation was; after all, these were people who had been in captivity all their lives, being treated as resources instead of the human beings they were¡­


    Being able to live an ordinary life within the Ji Tribe was already a dreame true for them and the epitome of what they wished for, but now, Elder Smith was now giving him an opportunity to be more, and just the way the youth reacted to it made Elder Smith himself emotional;


    "No need for formalities kid¡­"


    "But now that you are my first disciple; I guess you should also go by the name¡­"


    "Thus, from now henceforth; you are Ji One!"


    Elder Smith blurted as tears finally leaked out of the youth''s eyes whilst Elder Smith turned to the three workers who brought out the equipment and also named them;


    "Ji Two, Ji Three, Ji Four; pack everything up¡­" He ordered as the three workers answered to their names;


    "But master, wont this weapon hurt the Tribe Leader if he fires it?" Ji Two asked as the rest of the workers also nodded and frowned slightly;


    "What nonsense!?"


    "I would never hurt the Tribe Leader!" Elder Smith debunked the thought instantly¡­

 Chapter 189 - A Cat-5 Green Furred Mammoth

    Atop the wall, there were several disciples patrolling in pairs and they were all wielding several different weapons, from spears to swords, sabers and hammers¡­


    "Open the gates!"


    The screams of more than a single person floated over to the top of the walls as the pair of disciples patrolling the area moved on with their patrol seemingly oblivious to the scream which must have at most sounded like the buzzing of a fly due to the sheer distance between them;


    "Open The Gate!" This time it was a little bit more audible as one of the duo stopped the other and asked;


    "Did you hear that!?"


    "Hear what!?"


    "I thought I heard someone shouting for us to open the gates¡­"


    "What!? Hehe he¡­ La Gun, I know Tin Tin has been out of the sect for a while, but we both know her mission would at least take about three more weeks before she arrives¡­"


    "Don''t tell me you''re getting paranoid due to sexual frustrations; everyone knows both of you can barely be allowed any single free time together without humping one another like beasts in heat¡­" His partner responded with a ridiculingughter;


    "No way¡­ I''m serious, I think I heard the scream of two pe-"


    "OPEN THE GATES!" La Gun had barelypleted hi statement when the scream echoed over once again;


    "Eh?"


    The both of them were stunned as they looked towards the in the direction of the jungle as they saw the figure of four youths donning both outer court and inner court robes, as well as two other disciples on their backs donning two core court disciple''s robes;


    But that was not what shocked them to their core, rather it was the trees that were falling behind these disciples as well as the tremor that they were beginning to feel from the ground that stunned them speechless¡­


    Furthermore, if those two phenomenon were something to go by, then it was most likely that these disciples were being chased by a giant beast, or perhaps a beast horde;


    The two youths patrolling atop the wall instantly bolted in two directions as one dashed for the gates whilst the other ran towards a massive bell that was located atop the wall;


    Bong!


    The heavy sound from the massive bell tore through the entire 1000 square mile sect like a Cat-7 earthquake as several smaller bells began to go off all over the sect, and instantly the bustling sect was all of a sudden quiet¡­


    It streets were emptier than a deste area, as the other patrolling youth finally arrived by the gates;


    "Open the gates, and prepare to close it immediately!" He bellowed at the top of his fat lungs¡­


    Boom! Boom!


    Boom! Boom!


    The sounds of several objects erupting with insane momentum resounded from the four corners of the massive sect, followed by the sound of four homing objects approaching with blitzing speed¡­


    In little to no time, these figures had already arrived at the top of the wall; two of the four Elder were putting on green robes whilst the other two were donning ck robes¡­


    Two of them were also female with the other two being male¡­


    "What is it!?" A ck robed female blurted with grim expression;


    Ringing the sect warning bell should only be done when there is a threat at a level which could obliterate the entire sect;


    "Look!"


    The patrolling youth didn''t even bother to say anything and simply pointed towards the source of the problem¡­


    He knew these Elders would be able to figure out more than he knew in the time it required him to exin what his miniscule mind could detect from the ongoing situation;


    "Damn! It should be a category 3 or 4 wild beast, and six of our disciples¡­"


    The ck robed female blurted with a frown which signified that they were about to encounter some difficult problems¡­


    "Elder Yin, can you tell which beast it is?"


    The ck Robes Female who looked to be in her early forties, without any wrinkle whatsoever, but skin as smooth as jade, and as fair as fair could be asked;


    She was about 6 foot in height and was perfectly shaped and endowed in all sides in a proportion that not only matched her height but temperament as well, and she was the leader of the female district of the outer court¡­


    The person she was talking to was much younger than she was, looking to be in herte thirties and standing at about two to three inches taller than her ck robed colleague¡­


    In contrast to her ck robed colleague, thisdy was so busty that her robes seemed to be using thest shred of their will to contain her plum breasts which already had about half of it spilling out¡­


    Her rear end were also massive to the extent that even if she wore 300 robes over one another, they would still reveal their presence;


    A situation which makes one wonder how her enemies react to her appearance during battle¡­


    "From the tremor on the ground and the negligible resistance those forest trees are posing towards it; I gather it is most definitely a Cat-4 beast¡­"


    Thedy said in a tone that was in total contrast to her appearance, sounding very elegant, innocent and na?ve¡­


    "Elder Jiang, you are very adept at recon, can you see what type of beast it is?"


    Elder Yin asked the ck robed elder standing by her side who seemed to have been checking her out all the way from within the sect;


    "Oh! Ahem! Um!"


    "Step aside and let me see¡­"


    He said with some hidden meaning to his statement as Elder Yun who knew he was referring to her oversized ass frowned in displeasure but still stepped to the side;


    "Shit!"


    "What!?" The two female elders asked dripping with curiosity;


    "You''re both wrong!" Elder Jiang revealed;


    He was an old man who looked to be in histe forties and was short, bald and looked to be a very mischievous old geezer at first nce;


    "Eh?"


    "How''s that possible!?" Thedies couldn''t believe what they were hearing;


    "Elder Kang, it is a green furred mammoth!" Elder Jiang revealed;


    "Shit, that''s true¡­ It is their mating season¡­"


    Elder Kang who was donning a green robe and looked to be in his early forties thought to himself with a frown;


    Unlike his ck robed colleague who was the Leader of the Outer Court Male District, he stood at about 6''5", with a dignified aura all around him that showed that he was a person who had been extremely talented since he was young¡­


    He was fair and had flowing hair as well as deep set eyes which signified that he had either seen a lot in his 40 year lifespan or haveprehended some mysterious truths¡­


    "Alright¡­ As usual, you two will go rescue the disciples whilst I and Jiang would go stop that thing in tis tracks¡­"


    "The Sect leader is in cultivation seclusion trying to breakthrough, thus he can''t be disturbed¡­" Elder Kang exined¡­

 Chapter 190 - Bloodline Flames

    "And all that was just because he needed to announce his presence¡­" Old Man Li responded;


    "I can''t even begin toprehend how he would be in battle, or those he would be fending off¡­" Little Wu added as Old Man Li gave him a look that meant he has had such thoughts on many asions as well¡­


    Then they both took a massive heave and released huge sighs before turning towards Min Hong and Shen Bing who had yet to adapt to the memoryg as they began to watch the battle proceed again from the beginning¡­


    The Truth Seeker Orbs returned to their normal sizes and left Min Hong''s grasp as they all went to levitate around Shen Bing once again; Little Bing and Little Lin also found themselves back within the grasps of their wielders whilst everything then began to rey themselves;


    "Since it''s your choice then¡­ But I must warn you, this would hurt¡­" The unadapting Shen Bing repeated her past statement;


    "I wouldn''t have it any other way¡­ Everything is eptable, as long as I don''t die¡­"


    Min Hong also gave his same answer as the crowd chuckled once again, but this time they all didn''t realize that the chuckle they just gave has mystically aligned them back into the initial temporal flow they were on¡­


    But this time, Min Hong figured out that from the first moment, he had the desire to go all out, but he simply attributed the strange phenomenon to him growing mentally;


    "Eye Of Infinite Daos; Domain Style ¨C Realm Of Creations!" Min Hong said as he then began to activate al the abilities and buffs he has;


    "Divine Ability; Buff Style ¨C Savvy Domain!"


    "Eagle''s Eye!"


    "Parry Path!"


    ;and when they all thought he had finished, the cape behind the Feng Shui Amour Min Hong was wearing changed morphed into an imperial silk with the runes still etched on them, and the appearance of a crown on Min Hong''s head;


    Then everyone saw a massive shadow of an Emperor with his Scepter in his hands and a book in the other¡­


    He had Imperial Robes on which had the image of numerous Primeval Godbeasts¡­


    Then Min Hong''s ears began to elongate and curl upwards, as his teeth turned into maw and fangs;


    His fingers elongated into ws, but that was the extent to which his transformation went before three tongues of mes appeared out of nowhere and began to revolve around him;


    One was a blood red me, a demon purple me and finally a pitch ck me; they all levitated around him encircling him as they rotated in a protective manner¡­


    But just as that happened, a fourth me (as if being challenged) red to life¡­


    It was invisible but even hotter and more mystical than the other three¡­


    The moment all this happened, the massive shadow of a devilish elven looking Asura appeared behind Min Hong;


    It had six arms and three heads as well as fear inducing gaze from six eyes, two fearful horns, massive wings with sharp tusks jutting from its joints, and finally a tail that ended with the head of a nightmare inducing serpent¡­


    Min Hong at this point was beginning to feel prepared and ready to fight anyone; he was brimming with power and the draconic and imperial pride within his bloodline began to seep out from him as they engulfed the onlooker rendering them subservient to his presence¡­


    Next up; all of a sudden, all the parts of the Feng Shui Amour began to turn silvery as some golden engravings began to appear over them¡­


    Then Min Hong''s left eye turned gold, whilst his other eye turned pitch ck with blood red serpentine pupil, and finally the mask on Min Hong''s face hid the eye at his forehead which was now wide open and brimming with Gold and Green light¡­


    Then a third massive shadow appeared behind Min Hong and this time, it was that of a Deva who was d in battle amour with a sword and shied in hand;


    It appeared valiant and radiated a powerful presence as well as a holy and protective aura¡­


    Then Min Hong grabbed Little Lin who felt some type of way from the way he was wielding her; there was a sense of belief, care and trust in his grasp;


    It was like he believed that with her around, there was no opponent he would fear¡­ Shen Bing also saw and felt the situation as she realized that if she was to win this five minutes spar, then she ought to bring out the best she could afford¡­


    Kaboom!


    The clouds parted as about five different unique aura descended into the area;


    "Essence Level Daos¡­"


    Little Wu and Little Lin could instantly tell; one of them had an aura that was devoid of all forms of life;


    "Death" Shen Bing muttered¡­


    Another felt refreshing, fast and formless at the same time;


    "Wind" She added¡­


    Another one also descended and it made everyone feel somewhat enchanted, smitten, manipted and gentle for some reasons;


    "Yin" She muttered;


    The other two phenomenon also came with audible announcements of their own that was unique to their personalities¡­


    The four Truth Seeker Orbs trembled with excitement when they felt the amount of power that was being flooded into them at the moment¡­


    The tension between both of them began to spiral upwards and peak until Old Man Li felt like the spar was going to be massive and destructive, and as a result touched the ground with his index finger as a massive formation spread outwards towards every direction;


    They stopped when they formed a massive circle as Old Man Li pumped the formation with his Lightning Dao energy;


    Zzz¡­ Zzi¡­Zit¡­ Zit!


    Lightning traveled through all the inscriptions in the formation as they all began to light up, and one they finished, everyone found themselves in anther pocket of space which looked like an ind;


    Except that the waters surrounding this ind was massive and violent; they crashed at the shore with strong forces¡­


    Without wasting time on ceremonies, Shen Bing darted towards Min Hong, sending two of the Truth Seeker Orbs before her as she grabbed Shen Bing and prepared to m the shit out of Min Hong¡­


    Min Hong moved almost immediately as he also sent two of the four mes surrounding him towards the iing orbs whilst grabbing Little Lin and also preparing to receive her gantly¡­

 Chapter 191 - Divine Ability; Eye Of Infinite Daos – Quick Swap!

    Without wasting time on ceremonies, Shen Bing darted towards Min Hong, preemptively sending two of the four Truth Seeker Orbs before her as she grabbed Shen Bing and prepared to m the shit out of Min Hong¡­


    Min Hong moved almost immediately as he also sent two of the four mes surrounding him towards the iing orbs whilst grabbing Little Lin and also preparing to receive her gantly¡­


    The orbs and the Purple and Blood Red mes collided, and to everyone''s surprise, they neither eroded each other and neither did one swallow the other, instead, they mmed into one another with the same power and scattered in every direction due to the resulting momentum¡­


    "I thought the Truth Seeker Orbs should be able to easily swallow those mes?" Little Wu looked to Old Man Li and asked;


    "The Truth Seeker Orbs only absorb things made out of Qi, but are powerless against naturally existing objects, and these mes around the kid are from his bloodlines which means they are not being created by Qi¡­"


    Little Wu shook his head in wonder as he turned back to the spar with an additional knowledge¡­


    The absence of the two orb and mes meant Min Hong and Shen Bing were now exposed to each other''s attack, and thus they braced their staffs and prepared to really hurt one another¡­


    Shen Bing wasn''t used to a staff, thus, she simply swung it without no art nor techniques, but the attack was backed with every ounce of her battle prowess¡­


    Min Hong on the other hand went for his best staff technique as he bellowed;


    "Dragon yer Staff; First Stance ¨C Chaotic Soul Clobbering!"


    Kaboom!


    They smashed into one another as a massive shockwave of resulting force spread out spherically in all directions, pushing back the battering waves of the ocean they currently amidst, whilst also smashing all the clouds overhead as rain began to fall;


    Old Man Li and Little Wu simply waved their sleeves and erected a protective barrier which shielded them from the st...


    Min Hong was pushed back over 5 meters with all the bones in his body vibrating as the draconic bones in his body transferred all the invading forces to every part of his body so as to nullify their destructive tendencies¡­


    Then Min Hong looked back at Shen Bing to check if she felt anything; afterall, he had put everything he had into that strike, and lo and behold, he saw Shen Bing standing on the same spot, with Little Bing still within her grasp...


    But just as everyone was about to think she felt nothing, she released three fingers from each hands and grabbed Little Bing tighter and she scrunched her face to reveal pain¡­


    Min Hong saw this and smirked to himself;


    [So I can inflict pain on an Immortal Stage expert¡­?]


    Then he nodded his head in self-approval;


    "Not bad¡­" He muttered as he braced himself for the iing Truth Seeker Orbs which Shen Bing had justunched;


    Bang!


    He erupted from the ground leaving behind massive spider webs of cracks as he approached the iing orbs at blinding speed¡­


    When they both got within range, Min Hong grabbed Little Lin at one end and just like a professional baseball yer, he smacked the first Truth Seeker Orbs back at Shen Bing before he then vanished from the spot¡­


    He reappeared behind Shen Bing instantaneously; [Omnipresence!] and grabbed his palm into a fist before wrapping it with Chaos Dao energy, as he sent it flying towards Shen Bing''s back¡­


    But Shen Bing being a true and true Immortal Stage expert easily realized the situation and simply tilted herself so that Min Hong''s fist could miss, and then capitalize on his opening;


    But then Min Hong''s soft voice sounded again;


    "Dao Art; Time Style ¨C Temporal Discement!"


    Instantly, the time-flow around Shen Bing slowed down a little whilst his own time-flow sped up and as a result, Min Hong''s fist strike seemed to jump in speed ass he managed tond his fist strike towards the back of her left ribcage instead of the center which he had targeted¡­


    Bang!


    Whoosh!


    m!


    Shen Bing was sted out of the sky as she descended like a missile before mming into the ground, sending rock debris flying all over the ce¡­


    Instantly, Min Hong saw his Blood red and Purple ball of mes return and watched as two Truth Seeker Orbs and two others gather together before entering the pit where Shen Bing had been smashed into;


    Boom!


    Shen Bing burst out of the pit with indignation as one of the orbs floated to her back and began to heal the spot where Min Hong''s fist hadnded¡­


    Her nice hair were now ruffle as she was also covered in dirt; with the Pagoda Of Ascension simting a physical experience within the Soul dimension¡­


    Shen Bing then grabbed Little Bing once more and bolted towards Min Hong with insane speed¡­


    Min Hong saw this and simply stretched his hand as a Saturn looking pitch ck ball formed in his hand with a greenish ring revolving around it;


    He threw the of his palm and smashed it with Little Lin sending it flying towards Shen Bing at a speed greater than the one she was approaching him with;


    "Hmph, futile!"


    Shen Bing didn''t bother to use any technique as she deftly dodged the sphere and continued towards him with four Truth Seeker Orbs and Little Bing in tow;


    She grinned evilly as she approached the seemingly defenseless Min Hong;


    "Know pain!" She yelled as she sent all of the Truth Seeker Orbs hurtling towards Min Hong whilst also baring down a staff strike on him;


    But just as all that life threatening attacks were about tond on Min Hong, he abruptly revealed a smug grin of his own as he whispered;


    "Divine Ability; Eye Of Infinite Daos ¨C Quick Swap!"


    Schweein!


    Min Hong looked to theary Extinction technique that had shot past Shen Bing, and to her greatest demise, his eyes glowed and he and the Saturn looking ball of death traded ces instantaneously;


    Then just as Min Hong arrived at his new position, he released another whisper;


    "Annihte!"


    Kaboom!


    The Saturn looking ball of death in front of Shen Bing exploded at point nk range, scattering Chaos Qi all over the ce, as the Truth Seeker Orbs intuitively moved over and spread out in a bid to shield Shen Bing from harm;


    But despite all these efforts, they were all toote as Min Hong''s tactics was to concise, wicked and fast¡­


    They blocked the explosion but the resulting momentum mmed the shield into Shen Bing whilst some Chaos Qi also fell on her body, boring into her meridians straight away as they began to attack all forms of QI that were within her meridians, causing her pain¡­


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