Chapter 78 - Date Revealed

When they returned to Chestnuts City, the guards at the entrance remained stunned at the sight of the majestic albino buffalo carrying behind them a series of spirit beast carcasses and humans bodies.

At such a sight, the guards immediately called their superiors, who alerted the city authorities and asked how they should act. They were then ordered to keep the strange group that had just arrived out of the city, awaiting further instructions.

While the big shots were deciding how to proceed, Hei requested them to bring food, drinks, and medicines to him. With the strength of a second-level spirit beast, none of the guards had the slightest thought of contradicting his request. Besides, they only had to stop him from entering, and Hei himself didn't seem to want to alarm them by making his way by force. Therefore, it was also in their interest to fulfill his requests.

With water, food, and medicine delivered, Hei went to treat Lian's wounds carefully. And when he finished wrapping her wounds again, the city authorities finally arrived along with various garrison officers.

"What the hell is going on here?" Said a grumpy old man.

He was the city lord who administered it on behalf of the king. It was he who dictated the decisions conforming to the policies established by the capital.

"Hi everyone, my name is Hei. I am an inner disciple of the Flower Sect. This is my partner, Lian, also a sect inner disciple."

Upon hearing the name of one of the five big sects, the Flower Sect, everyone present was amazed. However, not wishing to waste time on pleasantries, Hei continued his speech.

"We accepted, on behalf of the sect, the mission concerning the series of murders. This incident had also involved some of our disciples. The ones you see are the bodies of the culprits. In reality, it was a group of five people. But we could only bring two of them; anyway, they are all dead. All of them were beast tamers, and their goal was to increase the power of their spirit beasts by making them eat the flesh of martial artists."

Listening to the gruesome background behind this matter, the faces of the guards paled. Even though they were dead, one could still feel the strength behind those spirit beasts. And the fact that two kids managed to complete the mission was incredible.

"I remember you. Number one and number two of the Flower Sect younger generation. You were present at the king's banquet."

"Exactly, city lord."

At that point, the city lord reviewed the bodies placed on the ground.

"So, are you saying the culprits are these here?"

"Precisely, city lord. I brought the bodies of the two main members as proof of my work. I trust in your work to communicate the situation to the Flower Sect. After all, it would be inappropriate to travel with two human corpses, wouldn’t be?"

The city lord nodded slightly and ordered to take away the bodies of the two men. However, while the guards were preparing to execute the order, one of the officers asked, "And what about the spirit beast bodies?"

Hei answered this question in a calm but cold voice.

"The spirit beast bodies are the spoils that my companions and I have earned. Furthermore, the bodies of the two main perpetrators are more than sufficient as proof. But if they aren’t enough, here you are."

Hei pulled out a bag containing the various tokens engraved with the symbols of the sects to which the victims killed by the group of beast tamers belonged. Obviously, he had already separated those belonging to the Flower Sect from the rest.

Given that they were authentic tokens, the officer couldn’t help but remain silent and let the guards take away only the two men. Although it was dishonest, the various officials present wanted the carcasses of the four spirit beasts.

Such carcasses were precious material from head to toe, not to mention their spirit cores. But in front of the Flower Sect background, they could only suffer passively.

"I guess you will be tired, why don't you come to my residence to rest?" The city lord proposed to flatten any disagreement derived from the cheekiness of his officers.

"No, thank you. Instead, we will prefer to return immediately to the sect. We have come here only to communicate the completion of the mission."

Without other words, Hei turned around and led Lian and Shui towards the Chestnut Forest. Instead of resting at a stranger's residence, he much preferred the security of last night's cave.

Looking at the backs of the two youths, the city lord sighed. Then, urging everyone to return to their activities, he went to send a message to the sects involved to communicate that the situation had been resolved.

*

In the cave, Hei was preparing the carcasses of the killed spirit beasts. As before, he separated the skin from the actual meat and set aside any parts suitable for blacksmithing, alchemy, or formations.

Usually, he would ask his mother to store the parts they would sell to the sect or use for them, but among the spoils obtained, there were two goodies - two space rings.

Although they weren’t as big as his mother's dimensional pocket, having extra space was still a good thing. Furthermore, inside the rings, he found the second spirit beast bag as well as the manuals of techniques used by the leader of the beast tamers’ group.

In particular, what caught Hei's attention was the part about the strange technique that the man used in the final stages of the battle. It was a technique that had been developed after the disappearance of the divine beasts.

Without being able to acquire new bloodlines, human and demon martial artists had conducted various researches. They wanted to verify if it was possible to obtain a bloodline by using spirit beasts that hadn’t reached the rank of divine beasts.

Thus they created a kind of tattoo-like formation from the blood of a spirit beast. By activating the formation, they would have acquired the physical qualities of the spirit beast used, significantly increasing their power.

Nevertheless, however, it wasn’t possible to recreate the acceleration effect in learning an Elemental Law like the bloodlines were able to do. And this tattoo formation didn’t even increase the power of their elemental attacks like elemental essences.

Therefore, this result could be considered a failure from the starting point with which the search had started. But, it had nevertheless produced an additional combat weapon. With the loss of bloodlines and the scarcity of elemental essences, more and more martial artists on the Continent began using formations tattoos.

However, there was a problem with the formation tattoos: the same that affected the elemental essences and the bloodlines - the percentage rate.

"Rejection Rate?" Hei asked, perplexed, not understanding what this term meant.

Bao Bei looked up for a moment before answering.

‘Any martial artist, be it a human or a demon, can absorb a bloodline or an elemental essence, right? Then, according to this reasoning, nothing would prohibit someone from absorbing more than one bloodline or fusing more elemental essences in their bodies. But it has never happened that a martial artist possessed more than one bloodline. As far as the elemental essences are concerned, the maximum is two.’

"And this because of the rejection rate?"

‘Indeed. Inject the blood of another organism or insert a foreign object into your body. Do you think it's without consequences? When one wants to absorb a bloodline or an elemental essence, one has first to pass the rejection rate test. If the rate is too high, even if the martial artist were to acquire the bloodline or the elemental essence, his body will eventually reject the foreign substance causing their death. As a result, these tattoo formations must work the same way.’

"So, I also did this test as a child? And can't I absorb any other bloodlines?"

When asked by her son, Bao Bei smiled.

‘No, for you, there was no need. When a divine beast decides to donate its blood on its own, there will be no rejection. Only, until you were born, there has never been such a case. Moreover, the reason why martial artists have only one bloodline is because of the difficulty in finding a suitable bloodline with a minimum rejection rate. If we find another that suits you, it is possible that you can absorb it.’

"I see. Then there is a chance," Hei murmured.

Although he wasn't sure, there was the possibility that his father's bloodline was hidden there. If possible, he would like to absorb it. Otherwise, he would give it to Lian. And even if she weren’t suitable, they would keep it until they find the right person.

After the explanation, Hei returned to focus on preparing the food. They would rest here for another day before actually marching back to the Flower Sect.

*

Upon their arrival at the Flower Sect, Hei and Lian were greeted by an incredible number of people. Thanks to the Chestnuts City city lord, the rumor of their success made had spread throughout the kingdom. Moreover, it was also known that the albino buffalo that had caused a great deal of marvel in the king’s celebration had passed to the second level. Thus, the Flower Sect had acquired another power comparable to an elder.

"Welcome back, Hei, Lian. I received confirmation of your work from the Chestnut City city lord. Good job, you two."

The sect leader herself came forward to welcome Hei and Lian. Then she nodded them to follow her. She wanted to hear every detail of the situation, including what hadn’t been revealed to the Chestnut City city lord.

Hei and Lian found themselves in the sect leader residence with all the other sect’s elders who had come to listen to their report. At that point, he began to tell how things had happened. He said everything that had happened, including the discovery of the spirit beast bags and the participation of the Bubble Sect behind such events. However, he left out the part concerning the formation tattoo.

Having finished listening to his story, the sect leader sighed.

"As we thought. There was no way they wouldn't get more active after knowing that we had managed to get another token. But, I never imagined such aggressive behavior. This time was a close call, but thanks to you, Hei, Lian, we managed to inflict a severe blow to the Bubble Sect even before the Secret Dimension opening. Furthermore, we now possess the weapons they intended to use against us."

The sect leader pointed to the two spirit beast bags placed on her desk. The second and fifth elders were bent over these as they tried to examine the formation that operated the mechanism.

"There is no need to thank us. It was our mission. Moreover, we also got various useful things on this journey."

"Although I am happy with the progress of your albino buffalo, I would have preferred it to have evolved after your return from the Secret Dimension. But apparently, there is no need for me to worry. Your spider and your snake are surprisingly stronger than they look."

"Yes, with Ye and Xing, I am unbeatable. We will sweep away all our adversaries." Hei confidently said as he placed his hands on his clothes and stroked his two little sisters.

"I'm glad to hear it. That's exactly what I wanted to talk about. We want you to kill the participants of the other sects during your stay in the Secret Dimension."

"Kill the participants of the other sects? Why such a request? "

"When they find out that the disciples we send there are seven instead of five, do you think they will stand still and watch? They will take advantage of the first opportunity to reduce our numbers or even destroy us. Before that happens, you have to kill them. Mei and the others are good children and have talent. They will also not let their conscience stop them if it is necessary to kill the enemy. However, having grown up in the sect, they aren’t skilled in fighting in an unknown environment. But if this is valid for them, it is also valid for the others. This is why I want you and Lian to take advantage of this to reduce the number of participants."

Listening to the sect leader words, Hei answered quickly.

"Sect leader, my hands have been stained with blood since he was a child. I don't deny it, but I'm not a hitman. I don't kill for fun or money. Furthermore, this isn’t war, so I don't see the need to kill. However, it is also true that if my life or Lian's or my spirit beasts were threatened, I would have no hesitation in killing. Even if I had to kill all the participants there."

While he was saying this, Hei's eyes were emitting a cold murderous intent. By looking at this, the sect leader was surprised how a kid like him could make such a murderous intent.

The murderous intent was something that grew more a person got their hands dirty with the blood of their enemies. If you had killed enough people, you could make it be perceived on the outside. Hei's murderous intent wasn’t comparable to someone who had killed one or two people. It was equal to the one possessed by martial artists who had seen countless battlefields and taken an enormous number of lives.

However, this wasn’t abnormal. For Hei, killing a spirit beast or an animal was like killing a human being. It was logical that after years of hunting, he had developed a murderous intent equal to that of a battlefield executioner.

"All right, do as you see fit. However, keep my words in mind and be careful. There are still three months before the Secret Dimension opens. The date has recently been formalized, and all the preparations are now complete. Can you make it to the sixth stage before then?"

"Yes, there are no problems. Lian and I are already close to the bottleneck of the fifth stage. With the Fortifying Metal Pill you gave us, we can move forward without problems."

"Right, if I'm not mistaken, I've only given you one pill, am I? Here's another one. Consider it as an extra reward for avenging your fellow sect members and bringing back their lost tokens."

"Thank you, sect leader."

"Do not thank me; you have earned it. Now go, you have only three months. If you need resources, communicate your needs to the exchange center. I have already left the arrangements in this regard. The other elders and I will personally take care of your other companions to prepare them in the best possible way. In any case, you don't need our guide, do you?"

"Yes, sect leader. I thank you for your understanding. "

At that point, the discussion ended. Finally, the long-awaited opening date of the Secret Dimension had been decided.