Finally Lin found himself alone after hours of having others force their way into his company.

He needs to readjust himself to his physical powers, he also needs to check if his spirit wings had reached the saturation point yet in order to start unblocking his first meridian after pushing the purity of his spirit energy to the maximum, finally the case with the strange fire intent which popped up out of nowhere, Lin needs to understand it and harness it's powers too.

As for his soul force?, He still have quite a few soul skills on the soul strengthening technique which he didn't try using them yet because his soul force was lacking.

On top of all that, Lin has to figure out a way to gather the four soul related natural treasures while upgrading his powers as best as he can.

Somehow with his current capabilities Lin found that he's still nothing threatening to these titans of the spirit world, maybe in the future he will be a threat, but until then he has to keep low key.

That was mainly the reason he went too hard on Liao Lai, if Lai was bullying strangers just like he used to do to his friends, then the trouble ensuing would only delay Lin and waste his time.

It was either correct his attitude or push him away from the group for the greater good.

"Cultivate, exercise, deliberate, meditate and repeat from now on." Deciding on the order of his future menu, Lin patted Sun's head and sat down cross-legged on the ship floor.

Sun jumped on Lin's head and vigilantly guarded his best friend, if anyone tried to approach Lin before he's done then Sun is going to beat them up.

Of course that wasn't necessary with Ming's existence, but guarding Lin as he meditates has become a habit of Sun.

Plus how benefitting it was to the tiger, just by being close to Lin as he spirit cultivated helped Sun in understanding his dormant bloodline.

Inside his dantian, Lin was surprised by how much it had changed in here.

His own wings spread out in the center, completely different than how he last saw them, not only were they bigger but in a different color as well.

Two additional feathers had changed, but the symbol on them was split in half between the two feathers.

The symbol was of the canopy of a tree, but unlike how it should be covered in leafy greens and lush foliage, this symbol was of bare tree branches completely leaf-less on either feather.

The nebulas were no longer of mixed color light energy clouds, dark-gold clouds were everywhere he looked.

Even the mostly dark walls of the dantian previously, is now covered in spots of light bigger than the previous flickering stars, like miniature suns in the solar system of his spirit wings.

Right above the wings on the topmost of this dantian world, Lin saw a tiny black hole swirling slowly.

Any miniature sun or flickering star nearby on the dantian walls would get sucked in and disappear, the wings would scatter clouds to the walls periodically and the two smart dark-gold clouds would send their tribute in time without delay.

Lin noticed that at the center of these two dark-gold clouds, there was a faint smear of bleak grey color which alternates between black and white.

No other dark-gold clouds had these hair-thick grey smears, and the other dark-gold clouds doesn't seem to be courageous enough to challenge these two clouds for the leadership of the nebulas like before!.

After taking a close look around and finding nothing else which is interesting enough to be noted, Lin walked towards his wings and sat down cross-legged underneath them.

Prime light technique mentioned that doing that while unblocking your meridians means a closer link with your martial-spirit and finer control over your spirit energy, first thing was making sure that his spirit energy wouldn't resist his commands while he venture deep in his meridians, not only would that mean saving Lin the trouble of losing parts of his spirit energy unnecessarily but also saving him the trouble of spending longer time which will be needed to make an easy reinforcement of the beginning parts of the meridians in the future for example.

Asserting his control of the nebulas turned out to be a piece of cake, Lin focused on one nebula while Ming leashed the other one.

Looking at Ming who kept gazing up at the swirling black hole at the dantian's top while snickering endlessly, Lin couldn't hold back his curiosity anymore and had to ask : "What makes you so very much happy?." Standing next to him, Lin looked up too and squinted, he was trying to see what's behind that black hole.

"Heh, better not, if I said it, it will only make you lose your appetite for clearing our meridians." Ming shrugged and like Lin, he concentrated the nebulas into one long line of spirit energy then like a wire both lines twirled around each other.

Finally the shape Lin decided to use to unblock his meridians was the DNA shape, but when Lin looked at the black hole before they charged at it with their spirit energy he wanted to know what makes Ming very amused.

"Say it anyway." Lin said while making sure their spirit energy was in perfect shape before they enter the black hole.

"We're going to poke this gigantic hole in the anus with a golden dick." Ming waited until just before they entered the black hole then said his answer.

"@#$&...." Lin would've clobbered Ming with a downward fist but he had to focus, according to the prime light technique most meridians will be dark and filthy.

Filled with most of the impurities of the body, in years breathing air full of impurities of the mundane world, eating and drinking impurities-filled food and waters, the impurities the body washes off in the acupoints opening are nothing in comparison to these in the meridians.

Maybe those impurities buried deep in the marrow can be comparable to the meridian's impurities, Lin had to use his spirit energy to move up while using his own energy to remove the accumulated impurities from the meridians walls.

That will only cost him spirit energy nothing more, as he moves up he needs to keep removing impurities until his spirit energy couldn't go any further before he returns back to the dantian's space carrying the impurities he removed.

From the dantian he can amass the impurities and expell them out with spirit energy, but the next time he enters the meridians he wouldn't continue from where he left, from the very beginning he will need to heal the meridian's walls which were malnourished by the impurities blocking them from spirit energy for years.

Healing, strengthening, widening, fortifying, upgrading, then going up slightly and doing the same, and again and again.

Like before with the step of saturating the martial-spirit with spirit energy and purifying the spirit energy itself, Lin can ignore these cumbersome details and push for clearing the first side-branch of the first meridian.

Doing that will allow Lin to use spirit energy to fortify his body with spirit energy from within, according to the prime light technique any spirit apprentice realm cultivator has no way of using energy armor, only those extremely rare few with special physiques.

Not all of them (inborn with special physiques) can do that too, anyway, two approaches were known in the spirit apprentice realm, the first one was focusing on clearing up the first meridian completely as fast as they can to reach the spirit disciple realm and attain the spirit armor ability which is very helpful to the protection of physically weak cultivators before returning to work on fixing and repairing the weak meridian itself and clearing it's side-branches, second was the slow approach by gradually laying down the perfect foundation for yourself and clearing up the side-branches of the meridian first while widening, fortifying, upgrading their walls too.

As his energy drilled on the surrounding darkness, Lin noticed that his energy was doing a good job actually, it seems like all that work on refining the light energy and upgrading it wasn't for nothing.

Then finally the first layer of darkness was removed from the beginning of this tunnel, underneath the previous darkness there was faded grey walls full of cracks filled with pitch-black sediment that started leaking down dark filthy waters on the grey walls!.

Lin didn't hesitate to ascend a bit higher and use his energy to clear up the darkness, working on these grey walls will come later, now he needs to see how far his pure energy can take him up in this tunnel which turned out to be very narrow.

His energy-tank held on because the two smart dark-gold clouds led the vanguard fearlessly, when their energy was spent they would consume some of the clouds behind them and return to drilling on the darkness covering the grey walls of his meridians, while their followers would follow their lead and cause a hurricane of light energy swirl.

But it seems like in this tunnel Lin was followed by an army in foreign land behind enemy's lines and cut off from his supply line, finally there was merely a few dozen dark-gold clouds following the two cloud generals after he cleared a long way up and lost sight of the entrance to his meridian's tunnel.

Feeling no shame in retreat he descended in the narrow tunnel with his two cloud generals and their cloud soldiers, all the broken pieces of darkness rubble which covered the meridian walls followed behind and fell from the black hole on the dantian space's top.

"Whoosh....." Lin's wings fluttered once and one ball of dark-gold energy barrier covered it from the falling rubble of darkness and the dripping dark filthy waters.

At once Lin willed his soul sense to the maximum range and opened the doors of his dantian to the light energy in the surrounding two hundred kilometers, now it was a repeat of his previous job which is refining the light energy and filling his dantian with dark-gold clouds as much as his dantian can take.

Outside, it had turned dark and right now it was past midnight, Peng Tao had given Liao Lai the full set of armor and had a long talk with him, while Zhang Wang had gone and watched his best friend Wang Zhang breakthrough to the fifth stage of the grandmaster realm and gave him Lin's gifts and told him what he achieved previously, remembering the glowing light on Zhang's wide oxen eyes were making Wang chuckle as he tried hard to focus on his own meditation.

Tang Wei danced in his cabin like a fool when he made a close estimation of the worth of Lin's grandpa Ming's gifts, then he circled his favorite couch endlessly while perfecting the plans of using Lin's abilities to make lots of money before he returns to the clan city.

"Ommm.... Whooosh....." Suddenly the ship shook roughly and the five cultivators were pulled out from their meditation, conversations, or deep thinking.

Running out to the deck, they saw Lin sitting all the same close to the bow of the ship meditating with his pet lazily enjoying sitting on his hair but it was guarding him closely.

The only difference is the insane amount of light energy getting drawn to his body, these five cultivators has the lightning, ice, wind, wood, fire, gold, and earth combined, yet each and everyone of them felt his affinity for his own element being forcefully pushed back by the light element which tyrannically occupied the area of their perception!.

Looking at each other they smiled ruefully except for Zhang and Lai, Zhang was shivering from excitement while Lai felt sad and weak compared to this freak of nature.

"Can that even still be called cultivation?, It must really be hard for others to keep up with him. The environment doesn't seem to hinder him from cultivating at all, while geniuses from top tier sects use formations and high grade spirit crystals and spirit essences, he just spreads his soul sense and pull what he wants from the elements." Wang crossed his arms and commented on what he saw.

"Zhang will keep up, I just need to work harder." Zhang said with a smile on his face, as if he just figured out the solution.

"Whatever you say big guy, I'm going to stay and guard the young master. Such a commotion can draw curiousness from nosy people after all." Wang patted his friend on the shoulder and walked towards the sitting boy and leaned against the ship rails nearby, he had eyes on the surrounding waters and brought out a spotless white spear three meters tall, tightening his grip on it's shaft with the new gloves he managed to snatch before Wei took the rest of the gifts in his pockets.

Zhang turned back and entered his room to meditate, Wei yawned and entered his cabin to sleep, Tao and Lai sat down to the side and silence ruled the atmosphere.

"Old Tao, I made up my mind. After delivering young master Wei back to the clan Ill be going on a journey to gain experience and seek to breakthrough to the tyrant realm and materialize my blade intent." Lai said while looking at Lin as he cultivated, his eyes serene and his voice calm.

"I still think you'll have better chances of achieving that if you stayed next to him for a while longer, but I won't stop you from leaving if you feel like it." Peng Tao said and brought out one bottle of liquor and two wooden cups, pouring the alcohol he offered Lai one cup and sipped from his own while gazing at Lin.

Lowering his head to stare at his cup absentmindedly for a while, Lai drank the strong liquor all at once and let the burning feeling at his chest eat away at his low mood, he was feeling downhearted and frankly speaking disappointed with himself.

He was blinded by his ego and carelessly forgot the feelings of his friends, and that carelessness stretched in the span of years now!, The rude awakening Lin gave him, made Lai feel ashamed of keeping Wei and the other's company anymore.

They drank together in silence and Wang kept his guard next to Lin, two times a water creature tried to attack the ship and swallow Lin but Wang used his ice to freeze them, the crewmates didn't let go of the opportunity and threw hooks at the frozen creatures and pulled them near and chopped them to pieces efficiently.

Lin would use some time to draw the light energy towards him then stop to refine the energy he gathered then use the two dark-gold cloud generals to lead his army of dark-gold clouds and thrust into the anus of the black hole, the second time he entered his meridian his army of clouds wasn't drilling into the darkness like before, they started uprooting the dark sediment from the cracks of the grey walls one by one.

By the time he went up to the area of his meridian with the uncovered grey walls, his army was exhausted and he had to retreat again to the dantian.

The grey walls had cracks all the same but this time they looked cleaner, third time he found his army of dark-gold clouds willingly sacrificing their light energy to heal the cracked walls and the expenditure was huge!.

Lin ended with only his two cloud generals by the time his light energy mended the cracks halfway to the furthest depth he went in this meridian's tunnel, he only succeeded in mending all the cracks of the explored part of his meridian tunnel with his light energy by the time it was morning!.

When morning arrived Lin stopped his cultivation session and opened his eyes, he felt his throat clogged and his chest heavy.

"Cough...."

The breath he let go in that cough held all the impurities he removed from his meridian so far and they were covered in a faint film of light energy.

Sun's hair stood at end when he smelled that foul breath coming from his buddy's mouth, opening his mouth Sun breathed a ball of red fire on that ball of light energy.

Sun's fire ball caught up with the impurities globe and burned it seven meters away with sizzling sound and in three seconds it was gone with the fire ball.

Wang smiled when he saw Lin open his eyes and kept his spear in his ring, bowing once politely to Lin he walked towards his room to meditate.

Sun licked Lin's cheek and surprisingly ran after Wang!.

Getting up and stretching his body, Lin did his warm-up routine while adjusting his breathing for ten minutes then started his pumma training with slow motion, Peng Tao raised an eyebrow at this strange way of training the body but he kept his mouth shut and watched.

"Boom...." Lin just placed his foot slowly on the ship floor and Tao and Lai saw it with their eyes very closely, yet it caused an earthquake to the ship and rocked it left and right.

"Hurry, activate the protective formation now." Tao ran towards the center of the ship and pushed the crewmates on his way flying while shouting at the one steering the ship.

Lai found himself at a loss of words while holding his empty cup, his clothes drenched with the alcohol that should've been in his cup, just a single touch with his feet caused that earthquake!.

"Omm....." Peng Tao sighed when he saw the formation inscriptions at work, then he walked towards Lai and shrugged when the blade user looked at him.

Honestly he doesn't know how Lin could do that, even if he's strong physically and just a little bit less stronger than Lin, Zhang couldn't do the same when he exercised at all, not to mention how easy it seemed for Lin when he rocked the ship!.

Zhang had just exchanged duties with Wang and was supposed to be guarding Lin as Wang meditates, but midway up he felt the ship suddenly sway and heard Tao order for the formation to activate, hurrying to the surface he found no enemy attacks or any water creatures endangering the ship!.

Grabbing one nearby crewmate to question him, Zhang found out that what happened just earlier must be caused by Lin when he exercised his physique.

Walking towards Lin while watching his every move, Zhang found himself completely lost when he tried to make sense of these moves, they felt slow and weak and nobody could get hurt from receiving them.

However, just by looking Zhang felt like he found flaws in his own combat techniques, and when Lin side-kicked Zhang saw the formation inscriptions below his feet glow up as they seemed to be absorbing an overload of power!.

Such a slow side-kick looked stronger than Zhang's fastest kicks!, How could he do that?.

'Rough, my motions are not fluidly transferring the power as it should, this kick should've sent two times the power to the ground for stability and balance and four times that much to the sole and heel of my left foot.' Lin thought as he judged every move he made with his much stronger body.

Had Zhang and the others heard what he just thought then Zhang would've shivered visibly in excitement, while Tao plucked more strands of his long beard, and Lai went down to pack up his stuff to leave.

"Brother Lin is really something else, he doesn't waste time at all first spirit energy cultivation now he's training his physique. And it seems like I won't get any peaceful sleep for the day." Wei got out from his cabin wearing his sleeping robe and slippers, he appears to sleep wearing his jewelry.

"Then learn from him and do the same young master Wei, it really pains my heart to see you neglect your cultivation all the time." Tao said while gesturing for the breakfast to be prepared since Wei is awake.

"Nah, money can buy me all the service I need from strong cultivators, why bother busting my balls working hard when I can make money and live a comfortable life?, There's all kinds of pills that can make me reach the emperor realm!, All I need from cultivation is the additional lifespan that comes with it after all." Wei grabbed a fruit and sunk his teeth on it, speaking wisely about his ambitions made the three grandmasters sweating bullets at how carefreely he was taking cultivation as always.

If he really did what he wanted then Wei will be the emperor with the weakest foundation they could imagine possible!, Yes he gets the lifespan addition with each raise in the major realms, but he might even be weaker than a genius in the spirit lord realm.

How disgraceful would that be?, To be an emperor yet some genius in the lord realm bullies you!.

"Sigh, then you better work on gathering the most loyal, and formidable subjects around you young master Wei, because when enemies come knocking on your doorstep your money won't be of any help, after all you can't expect to hurt a dog by throwing meat at it." Tao sighed softly then adviced Wei.

"I have you old Tao to give me counsel and my friends to protect me, add brother Lin and his grandfather and I'm sure I can walk this spirit world sideways if I want." Wei smiled like a sly merchant who has it all figured out as he answered.

"I plan to travel the world to gain experience once you're back in the clan city." Lai said to Wei and turned his head to watch Lin.

"Oho!, You feel like you can't play with us anymore and decided to go find your fun somewhere else?." Wei intentionally smeared salt on Lai's wounds with his words, but to his disappointment the blade user didn't seem affected, shrugging, Wei lost interest and ate away his fruits before the breakfast arrives.

Only Zhang among the group of cultivators wasn't interested in their chatter and kept his eyes on Lin.

The formation inscriptions below his feet struggled more and more as Lin regained his perfect control over his body, and one crewmate responsible for watching over the energy consumption of the spirit crystals feeding energy to the protective formation ran towards Tao and notified him that the crystals in each node were halfway spent!.

"How is it possible?." Peng Tao got up and went to check himself, and stood there at the core of the formations watching the spirit crystals lose energy fast, it was like a leaking roof!.

Running back to tell Wei the situation, Peng Tao saw Tang Wei's face blackening at his loss of some spirit crystals, seeing him remain silent he had to press the matter right now before the formations stop functioning, otherwise Lin would demolish the ship in a matter of seconds if this continued and they all will have no other way but to swim their way back!.

Despite the ship being made from sturdy materials, the boy would face no problem breaking them all the same in a single exercise!.

Knowing very well how greedy his young master Wei can be when everything is related to his pockets, Tao was frowning because they can't wait long, either they restock the formations with crystals or tell Lin to stop his exercise.

"Young master Wei, we can't afford to stop the formations it can endanger our journey bac-" Tao patiently and softly tried to convince Wei but he was suddenly met with Tang Wei's bloodshot eyes as he raised his head and snapped at him interrupting his words.

"Think I don't know that?, Damn it. These thirty two low grade spirit cryastals should've been sufficient to cover our journey, a third of their energy were expended on resisting that sea lobster's attack before we managed to escape. Now are you telling me that I need to dig again in my small, shallow, overspent pockets to accomodate brother Lin's exercis-" with pained expression and tears welling up in his eyes, Tang Wei seemed like a begger on the streets wailing his extremely bad fortune, but Lai only sneered and cut him off.

"I heard he gifted you boxes filled with high grade spirit cryastals, stop bullshitting and exchange the crystals you greedy asshole." Hearing these words made Tang Wei's face pale and he gripped his left flappy chest as if suffering from a heart attack.

"These crystals are the capital of.... Cough, they're the clan's assets now, how dare you tell me to steal from the clan?. The way I see it, you should go feed the formation with your spirit energy. En, you can go now, a peak spirit grandmaster should be able to keep the formations working until we arrive. Make sure to send me these halfway spent crystals, go now before they're drained beyond saving!." Tang Wei almost spilled the beans, flushing red he pointed at Liao Lai like a saint who got his honor tarnished and commanded him to leave.

Tao's words were caught in his throat and his head was filled with sweat at the cruelty of Wei when his money is threatened, such greed is awfully thick and revolting!.

Lai paled when he saw Wei stubbornly refuse to be reasonable, then after giving Lin who resumed his exercise naturally without care a final look, he walked towards the formation's core to feed it with his spirit energy.

Fact is, all cultivators of the five clans are dirt poor, heck, all the five clans are dirt poor right now.

Except for two people, Tang Wei and Tang Jianyu the ancestor who fell from grace.

Tang Wei showed brilliance in making money from tender age, when he was eight years old he would visit the market daily to do business and by the age of ten he had made his own private connections in the Dou empire and the Cai empire.

By the age of twelve he visited the Dou empire and managed to make some good money and agreed on many future business deals benefitting the clans greatly, when he was fifteen, Wei succeeded in supplying the five clans with enough resources and an opportunity which will enable the five clans to nourish one more junior each until said juniors reach the spirit master realm.

At the age of twenty, Tang Wei succeeded in making yet another chance for the clans by venturing west and going by sea discreetly and doing business in the western islands while disguising as a merchant from the sunrise empire in the eastern heights, with his keen eyes and perfect sense for making profit, Tang Wei always managed to choose the best products in the right time while haggling the prices to reasonable standards (which is only in his view) he would bargain with a smile for a chance to make one extra silver coin unashamedly much to the shame of his companions.

Due to the financial curfew imposed on the five clans by the cultivation alliance and the giants of the southern continent, no sects would accept the juniors of the five clans among them to give the alliance face.

Only the Dou empire and the Cai empire closed an eye on the actions of Wei because of the friendship the two emperors had with Tang Jianyu in his youth, and that's why Tang Wei's ancestor made his Tang city in the area bordering the two empires in the first place.

As a sign of trust he settled down and created his Tang clan north of the Dou empire and south of the Cai empire, after thousands of years his Tang clan grew bigger and it's branches and it's businesses scattered all over the human domain in the southern continent, the same went for the Liao, Peng, Wang, and Zhang clans which were created by Tang Jianyu's four lifelong friends and closest retainers.

However, Tang Jianyu had one flaw to his character, and his enemies took that to their advantage and succeeded in laying down the perfect scheme then finally ended up winners and knocked the arrogant ancestor from the cultivation alliance board of command after successfully crippling his cultivation and mortally wounding his soul.

The elders and grand-elders of the Tang clan were put to the sword in the time of the crisis or falling later under the schemes of the wolves of the spirit world looking for safe gain, a tiger without teeth and claws wouldn't scare a wolf smelling fresh blood.

The branches and businesses suffered the majority of the attacks in the first day that news reached the south continent, once they heard the awful news, the four clans hurried to call their members and stood united with the main Tang clan.

But they didn't escape and couldn't avoid the same fate that befell the Tang clan, countless requests mysteriously appeared on the assassins guild seeking the death of the strongest people of the five clans, with very generous rewards.

For generations, the five clans were locked within their last fort (which is Tang city) and only under the secretive support from the two empires was the five clans able to survive this calamity, Tang Jianyu had to thriftily distribute resources among the five clans from his own wealth, hoping for an upcoming junior which can carry the clans back to their previous glory.

Liao Lai's allowance and wealth could barely support his cultivation as he rose higher, same went for the others as well.

Only Tang Wei had his pockets filled and senior Tao didn't care for resources among this group, if it wasn't for Tang Wei's contributions for the clans rise during the previous years then Lai would've argued more instead of obliging with his command.

Thirty two low grade spirit crystals can be used by Lai to help in his breakthrough to the tyrant realm instead of wasting them to accomodate Lin's exercise, that only added to Lai's frustrations for the five clan's current circumstances.

"Sigh..." Lai sighed a breath filled with frustration as he left.

"Remember my words, despite my young age which is only less than a quarter of yours, I believe your mentality isn't even one tenth of my mentality's strength. If I were you I would've treated this situation as a way to temper myself instead of lamenting my dry pockets and strained coffers, I don't know much about cultivation but I know this, emptying my spirit energy tank then filling it then repeat, only helps in making the energy more refined and better the control of said energy. Not to mention how close the connection between the user and the elements become." Lai stopped in place as if thunderstruck when he heard Lin's words ringing in his ears, turning slowly he saw Lin's gold pupils staring at him as if they could see the depth of his soul.

Peng Tao nodded in approval when he heard Lin and his right hand habitually smothened his long beard.

"I can very easily cover the expenses of my own exercises or tell Wei to stop being a cheapskate, but I won't, do you know why?," Lin continued to speak when he saw Lai remain silent, receiving a sad, slow shake from Lai's head in return to his question he kept saying : "it's because of your perspective, when you face a difficulty your eyes tend to habitually avoid the possible advantages of the difficult situation and how to overcome it while benefitting and get blinded by the wall facing your preferred comfort. I know that there's people who see the cup half empty and people who see the cup half full, but don't forget that there's people who see the cup fully empty and people who see the empty cup who can be filled while thanking their fortune because others doesn't have a cup of their own. Go feed the formation with your energy, and while in the solitude of the core area try to seek the peace within which you forgot ever having in the first place. As a blade user I know that you always think of breaking whatever stands in your way with strength, but remember that if your blade happened to get stuck or broken while bringing down a hurdle or a difficulty in your way then you'll need to find another way to move on or another blade which is strong enough to remove whatever blocking your path. That will be my last piece of advice for you, if you casted away your bone-deep harmful stubbornness then I'm sure you'll be a source of pride for these friends who kept worrying for your sake for years and endured your childish bullying silently even if you was a hindrance to the group. Again, widen your perspective and grow up." Finishing, Lin gave Lai his back and returned to his exercises.

Tao would've clapped and whistled like a fan listening to the guidance from a wise senior if it wouldn't ruin the mood, Wei was smiling as he dug his fingers in the breakfast plates made from the two water creatures Wang killed during the night and the crewmates handled.

Only Zhang was excited about Lin resuming his physical training, Lin's words affected him simple mind not at all.

Lai stood in place silently for a minute, with Lin's words repeatedly ringing in his head and removing his confusions, unease, doubts, and hesitations.

He felt at ease and free under this liberating feeling of lightheartedness, deep down Lai's defaults and flaws of his personality were strangling his latent potential without him even being aware of the dangerous mental abyss he was heading for!.

His eyes were watering and tears threatened to escape his eyelids, bowing down deeply towards this boy who managed in the span of less than a day to correct some of Lai's personality faults and reveal the rest of it's weaknesses fairly without any hidden intentions of either embarrassing or harming him as he did.

Lin was like a large hand, gently but firmly snatching Lai from the edge of the abyss and raising him up and scattering the clouds that blinded him, showing him the wrong path he took then returning him to the crossroads and telling him that he's free to do whatever he wanted with his life.

The choice was his, either take his future again towards the way of no return and no gain, or to try the correct path which he originally should've taken.

This bow from Lai was a bow of gratitude and respect for a benefactor who willingly went out of his way and stretched out his hand of help and gave Lai free guidance, seeking no gain, praise, or benefit in return.

His steps as he left were confident and light, unlike how Lai's steps before Lin spoke were heavy and confused.

Nodding seriously, Peng Tao gave Lin a gaze of appreciation, such breadth of chest and maturity of the mind from a boy six years old were Lin's most important advantage over his fellow juniors so far.

If another junior with the same set of potential was compared to Lin, then Lin is sure to reach higher, better accomplishments faster than his peer because of that maturity factor.

Peng Tao was certain that Lin's amazing achievements in the soul aspect of cultivation were greatly related to his mature mind and the guidance of that mysterious senior grandfather Ming.

Shortly after the crewmate responsible for watching over the formations returned carrying some spirit crystals which were faint and almost devoid of spirit energy, Wei frowned upon seeing them only containing twenty percent of energy each then gave Lin one final look filled with begrudging annoyance before stashing them in his ring.

An action which caused Tao to shake his head with a rueful smile.

Finally, Zhang couldn't keep himself from staying still, he walked towards Lin and took his stance in front of the boy.

Clearly he was hoping for a spar with Lin, these wide, honest ox eyes were eager for action with this new friend of his.

"Back for more huh!, Bring it big guy." Lin stopped his pumma training and smiled at Zhang when he saw him stand facing him, taking his stance, Lin gave him his approval to be his sparring partner.

Dashing towards Lin without hesitation, Zhang aimed for a tackle instead of throwing punches of kicks.

"Good choice for a starting move, when facing faster enemies you need make sure your blows will be able to land. Especially if your defense is higher than your foe, trading blow for blow will always come in your favor. But, what if you can't catch your opponent no matter how much you tried?. Hmmmm!," Lin easily dissected the motions of Zhang and caught both of his wrists, lowered his own center of gravity and pulled Zhang's arms while planting his right leg on Zhang's stomach to throw him over his body to the back while his own back touched the floor and his left leg like a hook was planted on the floor for stability and drawing force from the ground, springing his legs after drawing them to his chest he sprang up to his feet after throwing Zhang flying, Lin asked the muscular simpleton who wasn't affected by the throw and got up on his two feet smiling. "Then you need to bait your opponent into a situation where you can firmly and surely land a decisive blow, let them tear your flesh as you break their bones." Lin continued to say and Zhang's eyes glowed when he heard him.

Dashing again towards Lin, Zhang's motions started become harder to read and his movements didn't reveal their intentions until the last moment.

He and Lin kept exchanging moves with Zhang tolerating some hits landing on his body for a better chance of succeeding his own attacks, but Lin always kept himself a few steps ahead all the time and never went easy on Zhang.

He countered each move perfectly and didn't hesitate to take advantage of each flaw while adding his own advices on how to cover these weaknesses of Zhang's style, Peng Tao was watching Zhang suffer complete defeat against Lin but in his eyes he saw Zhang's hand-to-hand combat techniques get refined and polished by the minute.

Then Peng Tao imagined Lin in the training grounds of the five clans, surrounded by the clan's juniors drinking from his experience and growing stronger as a whole!.

Shivering from anticipation, Tao couldn't wait to return to Tang city and see it happen.

At noon Zhang finally couldn't go on anymore and be Lin's sparring partner, his body bruised and aching everywhere much to his pleasure!.

Laying down on his back gasping for air, he closed his eyes from the glare of the sun staring at him from the middle of the sky, but the smile on his face couldn't get wider and his heart couldn't be more satisfied, his respect for his new friend Lin was raised a few notches higher.

Lin was quite physically exhausted himself as well but whenever he felt like he's at his limits, a faint coolness on his chest would help him keep up with Zhang for a bit more and his spine would heat up with strength which will flow into his limbs!.

"You're really really really strong Lin, huff, I can't remember, huff, when I last had such fun, huff, so hungry right now." Zhang struggled slightly to raise his upper body from the floor as he spoke, but when he looked up he saw Lin's right arm outstretched in an open palm to help him stand.

"It was a good first sparring match, I'm sure you'll get much stronger in the future." Lin pulled him up to his feet and said with a smile.

"En, Zhang will work harder and harder, otherwise Ill lose sight of your back if I didn't." Zhang scratched his head as he spoke while walking towards the table, once he took his seat Zhang pulled the meat to his mouth and tore a large piece with his teeth.

"Brother Lin now that you're free at last, I have something that I would like to discuss with you." Wei raised a glass of wine to drink after saying that, but his merchant eyes were studying Lin closely like he's inspecting some piece of merchandise.

"Roundabout ways don't work with me Wei, be forthright and frank when you want my help or I will show you my stubborn side and intentionally refuse to aid you, some people are vulnerable to be used by other people and some people use people. I'm neither but, those who get to use me to be their lackey or pawn has to be at least as strong as grandpa Ming." Lin gave Wei a side-glance then spoke as he slowly ate his food.

Peng Tao became antsy when he heard Lin's underlying threat and was glaring at his stingy young master Wei warningly, if he drew the ire of this young master Lin there won't be any benefit whatsoever.

Wei smiled in return when he heard Lin's words and nodded to imply that he understands what to do to old Tao.

"There's an opportunity to make a fortune but it has to be done perfectly with your help, say, are you interested?." Wei reiterated his words, this time his face was giving a half-serious half-expectant expression as he spoke.

"Still, your words are only aiming to attract my interest with no forthrightness in your words, be specific merchant Wei." With the same disinterested tune Lin said while pulling another filled plate closer to eat.

"Thank you for your hard work, make sure all your colleagues receive enough to eat from the same type of food you bring to my table as long I stay with you. All expenses will be paid from my pockets, I don't need minions who aren't fully fed and healthy," Lin turned to say to the crewmates serving him food, then he turned to look at Wei's fat face and said : "Would you believe me if I told you that I can steal your travelling companions from you in a heartbeat, call it charming them or manipulating their minds or even buying them with riches ultimate goal is gaining their loyalty, what now?, You're alone, weak, and full of riches. Single word spread with my soul sense and you're in foreign land away from safety, surrounded by enemies everywhere, and can't protect yourself or your possissions. Tell me what would you do?, I'm curious." Lin rested his back on his chair and rested his chin on his knuckles after wiping his hands clean, and waited for Wei to answer to his scenario, which showed Wei and Tao the limits of the power of money.

"Hisss...." Peng Tao sucked a deep breath when he heard Lin's words and was stunned by how clear Lin was in being daring, imposing, and how to describe it "different" in Tao's eyes.

While the crewmates serving the food were shocked by Lin's sudden generosity, giving Wei and Tao looks of puzzlement seeking confirmation to Lin's words.

"Hrmmmm... I would give them everything and hope to keep my head, I can always go back and bully them after making some more money." Wei squinted slightly as he replied but the look on his eyes was almost hidden by his thick eyelids, he was really overweight but Lin couldn't peer into his body to see if he's having any ailments because of all that fat but he couldn't because of Wei's lightening energy.

Lin was sure that he can forcefully scan Wei's body with his soul sense, not only would that be rude but also harmful to the money-grubber fatso's soul.

Finally Wei nodded to the crewmates to confirm Lin's wishes of upgrading the treatment of the workforce on the ship, there's only three more days to their journey after all these guys will only go as far as pearl harbor with them, Wei and his friends would join another group in pearl city, then travel the pearl road together with them before parting ways with them in mercenary city while the team of sailors dock in the harbor to repair and resupply the ship with products from the continent's empires and make another journey to the western islands before Wei returns again from Tang city.

Wei didn't want to blow up his cover by making frequent visits to the western islands, if the cultivation alliance sniffed him out then he'll certainly start making connections from scratch.

Once Wei's group was in pearl harbor they'll act low-key until they reach the first city in the Dou empire, from there it is safe for them to consider themselves safe from being bullied openly by people from the alliance.

Outside either of the Dou or Cai empires it is very possible for others from the alliance to unreasonably demand fees from Wei's group just because they saw them for example, history has proven it that nobody would stand up and defend the people from the five clans in these situations, otherwise the alliance will suppress those people upholding justice or make things difficult for them.

Unbeknownst to Wei that Lin planned to give the men serving him the best treatment everywhere he goes, and that will be a source of endless pain in the ass for the fat merchant.

"Some thiefs and bandits has a habit of assuring their safety, and the only safe enemy is a dead enemy. Now do you see my point, go on and tell me what do you have in mind." Lin was disappointed really with how Tang Wei only had surrendering in his mind when facing that difficult scenario, changing the topic back to it's original course he waited for Wei to speak the details this time.

Hearing Lin's words, Wei frowned when he understood the hidden consequences of his choice, after a few seconds which he couldn't find a better answer to Lin's scenario Wei shook his head and shrugged.

After all Lin didn't seem to be after Wei's destruction, he only was seeking to open his eyes like he did to the others.

"There's a fighting arena in mercenary city, when we are there if you agree on participating then I can place all my money on your win. But you can't be allowed to show all your powers all at once from the get go, if you gradually revealed your strength as you fought then I'm sure I can help you make a fortune in the shortest time possible, while giving my clan's people some hope for a brighter future after generations of suppression." Wei spoke honestly of his intentions while looking straight at Lin's golden pupils, despite being greedy, Wei was never stingy or lazy when it comes to helping his clans.

"What if by some chance I lost?, Hrmmm." Lin asked while returning to his meal, that short pause made his stomach roil and he felt his hunger bangs give him a serious warning not to stop eating otherwise the complains will start getting louder.

"I'm willing to take that loss, as long as you're not intentionally losing on purpose." Wei didn't hesitate to reply while Tao shook his head when he heard Lin, even he in his glory days can't see himself winning against Lin who is serious about winning.

From where they're at until they reach mercenary city it will take at least a month, in that month who knows how much stronger Lin would be, just one look at the turbid breath Lin exhaled after the last session of cultivating his spirit meant that Lin was still working on clearing his meridians.

That really puzzled Tao very much, his grandfather Ming said that he had no time to send Lin back to the western continent while Lin said that his clan exists in a forbidden area!.

He awakened his spirit at the tender age of less than four, now he's just starting on working on his spirit cultivation at the age of six!, Why?.

Why waste two years?, All that wasted potential on such a startling genius's future made Tao really wonder, was it intentionally done by his grandfather to grind his ego and stabilize his personality?.

"If I found the place to my liking and nothing shady is going, then I have no problem in getting some action while making money." Lin gave his answer while revealing his bottom line to Wei, and the fatty smiled widely after releasing a sigh.

"Good, good good, brother Lin won't be disappointed for sure, but once we reach the harbor we need to hide our identities until we reach the lands of the Dou empire, we will act like ordinary merchants from the sunrise empire. Just act normally when we arrive there and let us handle everything, under any circumstances don't speak or take action if you see others make it difficult, or bully us intentionally because that's the way it is in these areas controlled by the alliance, we can't afford any kind of confrontation with these people right now. I doubt they'll lower themselves to question your identity but if they did, don't mention your grandfather and your origin or your true name." Wei started to explain some of the difficulties his group face in each journey.

"I see, then I can be some orphan you found in one of the islands and you decided to take me under your service, my name is Ming and have a mediocre talent in spirit energy. Since I look older for my age then I'm almost nine and just awakened my martial-spirit, to help you I won't meditate on my spirit energy until we're clear from suspicious eyes." Lin said and Tao nodded when he heard the history Lin just fabricated, getting up he went and gathered the crewmates and told them Lin's new identity with a severe warning of certain death by his own hand if he heard a single word about Lin until they arrive in the harbor.

Zhang was a simpleton but he wasn't an idiot, he easily scratched Lin's name and changed it to Ming instead, as long as he stays his friend then names doesn't matter.

Soon after, Wang arrived carrying Sun on his shoulder and smiled when he saw his friend stare widely at Lin who kept eating still with no signs of being full yet while Zhang's belly was currently inflated outwards roundly, "Hello Ming." Wang said as he sat down on the left seat next to Lin, while Sun jumped on Lin's shoulder and started licking his cheek as he spread his cute wings.

"Good afternoon, do you go by different names as well?." Lin fed Sun some meat as he asked Wei who seemed to be brooding something with that money oriented mind of his.

"They don't know that we're working under their noses, just the name of our clans is Cheng instead of Tang, Liao, Peng, Wang, and Zhang. We're one happy merchant clan taking the long trade road from east to west and making some little money from it, unfortunately we don't have ways to disguise our faces without being discovered by the alliance's people. That's why the clans made sure my and the other's features remain secret since we were about your age, there's others masquerading as us in the clan city to help perfect this operation, of course they look completely different and only old Tao isn't because his actions of saving my brother Hao back then in that unfortunate event. He is known to have left the clans after they failed to compensate him for his honorable deed and settled here in pearl harbor under the pretense of seeking to live the rest of his days under some head-butler from the Cheng clan responsible for overseeing their business branches while hoping to find a way to heal his wounds and regain his previous cultivation, some secret about Lai's talent in the blade dao got revealed as well two years ago but his features remained hidden thankfully." Wei proudly spoke about how he's sneakily hoodwinking the alliance.

"Then this old Tao's job will end once we're at the harbor?, He doesn't go any further?." Lin asked.

"En, our clans announced that if old Tao dared enter the Dou or Cai empires then we will eliminate the traitor who lost faith in the clans revival and abandoned us in our time of need, even at the first stage of the grandmaster realm he is still a strong asset for the clan." Wei smiled and winked at Lin as he introduced the traitor who just returned after warning the crewmates and notifying Lai that he can take a breather for now about Lin's new identity.

"Quite a noble person, I guess my previous statement about gaining the loyalty of your people was flawed, I doubt old Tao would've jumped to my ranks after all." Lin smiled when he saw Peng Tao sit there with a melancholic smile on his face, slowly smoothening his long beard with a look full of longing for his home.

"Without hesitation, I really would've done it if it was a decade ago young master Lin, but I feel like I will be returning to the clan soon after meeting you, not only that, I have a feeling of certainty that my clans will overcome their predicament with your aid." Tao said that then raised his glass of wine and offered Lin his salutations.

"Ming, don't be the first to have your tongue slip on you now old man, Ill play in the favor of your clans in this game. Seeing the underdog's win always has a way of pulling a smile on my face, you just sit tight and wait for the good news, I promise to give you a good show." Lin raised his glass of juice in return and said before drinking it.

"Heh, just these words can make me laugh in my sleep." Tao said and Wang, Zhang, and Wei felt waves of excitement overtake their bodies after hearing Lin's promise.

"Wang, earlier I lost to Ming again, he never used anything else other than his physique when we sparred but I couldn't hit him once without getting countered....." Zhang started speaking with his best friend and told him about what happened in the few hours that passed, Lin ate and Sun joined the meal like the glutton he's while hearing Zhang's tale.

Finishing, Lin got up and returned to his meditation on soul force this time, his soul aspect was ahead from any other aspect despite being agreed upon as the hardest aspect of them all.

Of course he knows that the sudden increases happened only because of Jin Bao's sacrifice of his primordial soul source which enabled Lin to ascend to the clone realm, and old Tao's snake-venom wine which added to a quicker increase of Lin's soul force.

But in comparison to Jin Bao's attainments in soul cultivation then Lin would've lost if he met Jin Bao in a clash of soul force, not only because Jin Bao would be more volatile and expert in using raw soul force but also his arsenal of soul techniques would be more ambler.

Lin can only use a few techniques of the soul, starting from soul link, soul web, soul candle, soul sense, and soul gaze.

If he added his own version of soul concentration (which is the ability to compress his soul force in smaller areas to either use it to control, move objects or to suppress others in the range of his shrunken soul sense range) then Lin is only using six techniques with his soul force.

In the soul strengthening technique there's nine techniques mentioned but the sky was always the limit in soul force usage, Lin saw it mentioned a lot in the information Jin Bao sent him about the technique, "Never limit yourself to the technique's teachings and try to not only learn all the nine techniques themselves, but also meditate constantly and try to add your comprehensions of them and seek your own path of soul cultivation", such saying means that Lin has to be creative with his soul force.

Who can be more creative than great sage Lin?, If, there was someone in this world then Lin wishes to meet him and learn from him.

Next technique to be learned from the soul strengthening cultivation technique is called soul search, unlike the savage way of soul scouring which devil cultivators use to forcefully pillage information from their enemies, soul searching is much gentler and if used by an expert soul user it can be harmless to cultivators above the spirit master realm.

The aim of this technique was to know the deepest secrets of other cultivators, that's why clone realm cultivators were extremely feared by the other schools of cultivation.

If you happened to get captured by one, then he can take his sweet time to extract information from you, resist?, You'll only be suffering from soul torment if you did.

And no degree of pain is easy when it comes to your soul.

Now was the hardest part of learning this soul search, who is going to be Lin's test subject?.

Lin couldn't ask these guys, and using it on the crewmates with weak mortal souls would only burn them like paper without any time to actually see anything, even Jin Bao's memories were mixed up and missing years worth of information when Lin ingested his primordial-source.

"Hrmmm, looks like I won't get any chance to learn this one right now, next one then." Lin muttered faintly then looked for the next technique, this one is mentioned as a restriction technique with the purpose of forcing the opponent into total submission.

"Soul lock!, senior Kai said that the formation trapping old Jin Bao is called soul-lock time-formation, does these two similar names have some kind of relation?," Lin looked at Ming and asked, but he only received a careless shrug in return. "Let's ask then, I just hope he wouldn't get angry at me for always disturbing his rest." Lin said and Ming gave a vulgar middle finger gesture for the raccoon, he never forgotten about how the little fleabag made Lin humble himself to him.

'Senior Kai, this junior has some confusions and is seeking your guidance. Do I get the delightful honor of your reply or should I apologise for my impudence?,' Lin sent the message with his soul sense and waited hopefully for an answer, but his wait stretched out to his sorry.

"Let's just focus on learning the technique then." Lin didn't get sad by Kai ignoring him and started to focus on the steps of the soul lock technique.

Unlike the other techniques which he knows how to use, this soul lock has a delicate approach and certain steps to be taken before using the technique itself, the previous techniques like soul sense or soul gaze use soul force in the raw form.

Soul lock requires the soul force to be not only compressed but also it requires certain things to be done beforehand, first is to itch the required inscription on his soul body around the soul eye.

Within the soul world Lin could materialize anything, do everything, practically in that world Lin was no different from what others in his previous life called "God".

That higher entity which made Lin, his universe, and had it in his will to cause both the disintegration shockwaves to destroy the universe and Lin's last discovery of the matter which could resist the disintegration shockwaves and highest degrees of heat.

But, power doesn't come by freely in the soul world, just like how old Jin Bao sacrificed his primordial-source to save Lin from the clutches of death by protecting his weak soul body with it, Lin knew after he experienced the revolting soul pain that if it wasn't for Jin Bao's fast reaction to contain Lin's soul then he certainly would've died or at best he might've been turned into a vessel with a wiped soul devoid of sanity, a "Vegetable" or "idiot" is what it is called by cultivators.

Lin needs to sacrifice his primordial-source too to create the tangible out from nothing, if he merely used soul force to make something appear inside the soul world then he has to sacrifice some of his concentration to keep it existing, once he redistribute that concentration to something else that conjured object disappears.

But if he used his primordial-source instead then everything he makes permanently remains in his soul world, of course the loss of Lin's primordial-source isn't permanent otherwise the loss would've been pointless.

Lin needs to inscribe that inscription around his soul eye with primordial-source very carefully, not only that but he has to fill it with soul force piece by piece to ensure the effectiveness of the end formation.

Before using the skill called soul lock Lin has to prepare his soul eye to be capable of enduring the intensely concentrated soul force, just like how you can't throw a proper punch without having strong muscles and dense bones, you can't use soul lock technique without strong soul eye.

It was a training of some kind to the third eye itself!.

Happy as always with now things of all kinds, Lin started forcing out parts of his primordial-source from his and Ming's body, silver clouds of the purest soul energy was changed by Lin into silver liquid then slowly according to the soul strengthening technique that liquid would sink into the skin of their foreheads.

Slowly the shape of the inscription started to appear and once each line formed a pulse of silver color would glow on it, but the cost of the few, faint, small lines (which formed) was extreme tiredness and mental fatigue.

"Really hard, that miniature inscription for the soul lock technique is nothing compared the inscriptions required for the next technique!. This one will take at least two weeks in my estimations." Ming said as he rested his back on the golden waters obviously tired.

"We're in no rush, how do you think it will feel to lock someone else's soul?." Lin was supporting his head under his arms as he looked up at the endless dark beyond the lit up area by his soul sense (which shrunk back to one hundred kilometers momentarily until he regains back his lost primordial-source with enough rest and meditation).

"Dunno, maybe it will be like imprisoning someone wearing anti-microwave armor with microwaves. Just like how it feels if you found someone coming to this soul world and holding us against our Will's, I guess." Ming said then got up and used his set of wings to circle Lin while doing some acrobatics which looked absolutely nonsensical yet funny.

"I suppose you're right, see you later then." Lin smiled and said his goodbyes before leaving the soul world, he needs to take a nap then start to figuring out a way to use his fire intent.

Opening his eyes Lin saw Sun chase after Wang's martial-spirit on the ship, the crewmates were running away from the two large beast's path, some fell from the ship after getting lightly pushed from Sun or Wang's leopard.

"What is going on?." Lin asked Lai who was acting as his bodyguard this time.

"Your tiger kept annoying Wang for a while and once he activated his martial-spirit that happened, it seems like your pet likes to play with it a lot." Lai answered at once while removing his blade to train.

Zhang had already returned to his spirit cultivation once Lin started to meditate, Tao takes charge of guarding Lin next while Wei -as always- is snoring in his cabin.

"Murrr..." Sun stopped his game of tag with Wang's ice leopard and nudged Lin naughtily after stopping in front of him.

"Knock it off buddy, next time you play you should be careful not to hurt others, these minions are not as strong as the baldies back home," Lin removed his face from Sun's barbed tongue and looked at Tao who stood to the side smiling and asked : "old Tao, Where do I get some rest on this ship?." And Peng Tao didn't answer but he pointed below deck with a smile.

"Ming the orphan sleeps with the crewmates huh!, Good choice, even I don't know how long my body will need to sleep this time. Buddy, are you coming with me or.... Alright then, you behave yourself now you hear me, no more games of tag until Wei says we're clear from suspicious eyes." Lin nodded and left to the stairs leading to the lower levels after taking away some of Sun's fun with him.

His bed was in a cramped corner with barely any room to move around it without knocking or hitting something, next to him was the sleeping areas for the chef's and the kitchen.

The crewmates would give him a knowing look and nod politely whenever he passed one in the narrow passages of the lower floors, after all Lin raised their food quality with a single word and despite calling them "minions" he never bullied them like Lai did in the past.

However, Lin was really exhausted mentally that his sleep hit home once his head touched the pillows.

"Ming.... Ming.... Wake up, we're almost in the harbor. You need to get on deck with the rest of us for inspection, smugglers get decapitated you know." Lin opened his eyes when one of the crewmates started to shake him gently.

"I'm awake, how long was I asleep for?." Rubbing his eyes, Lin asked as he got up.

"Two days, I heard boss Tao reprimanded Zhang for taking it too far in his sparring match with you," The crewmate answered while offering Lin a washing basin to wash his face and a clean towel, "breakfast is ready, and the chefs made you the best cuisines to thank you for speaking for us to young master Wei." The man patted Lin's shoulder once as he spoke then he froze in place because what he did could be taken as an offence by cultivators, he has a son at Lin's age back in the clan's city and he reflexively did to Lin just like he used to do to his boy.

"No need to be afraid, I'm not offended by what you did, later Ill talk with old Tao to ensure the same treatment doesn't change when I'm gone." Lin saw the wariness in the man's eyes and calmed him with a smile.

"The men did their best to hunt some creatures from the waters and the chefs didn't complain for getting overworked, only young master Wei kept frowning deeply whenever he got updated about the loss of some of his precious spices and ingredients." The man said while still looking at his hand, he seemed like he's not going to wash it anymore.

"Let him frown, it isn't right to live comfortably while your neighbor is suffering." Lin said before leaving and the man stood there stunned by what he heard last, finally he went to his friends and told them about what happened and before Lin ate his breakfast the ship's working-force were full of praise for his generosity.

"Hrmmm.... Someone is flying towards us." Lin's soul sense picked up a man wearing red robe surrounded by a feiry cluster of fire energy heading towards their ship, he had noticed that in the range of his soul sense many other ships were heading for the same direction as them unlike before he slept when there was only one ship on his radar.

"They're here huh!, They always make their inspections before we dock, why come for us specifically?." Lai said while getting up from his seat to stand at the bow of the ship.

"Doesn't matter, dealing with them is inevitable anyhow." Wang said as he stored the table and chairs in his ring, then he and Zhang stood behind Wei like bodyguards, while Tao notified the crewmates to be prepared for inspection then stood in front of them.

"Stop the ship, halt right now." A shout came from the person flying their way before he was ten kilometers away, his words commanding and his tune dripping arrogance.

Tao gave the gesture and the crewmates raised the seals and stopped the ship at once.

"Who's in charge here?, Come to the front." The man wearing red said and Wei walked ahead and stopped one step ahead of Lai.

"This one happens to be Cheng Wei, a lowly merchant nothing more." Tang Wei with a greasy smile and humble tune spoke as he bowed while cupping his left fist.

"Mmm, you're back from the western islands I see, where's the pearl?, Don't say you don't have it now. Inspector Huang sent me in your direction personally." The man looked to be forty years old nothing more but the feeling he gave Lin was a lot stronger than Mia's, shoulder length brown hair, hard black eyes burning with fire, and a long nose on top of wide chin.

His vest underneath the red robes was crimson red and his trousers made from cherry red silk covered in inscriptions made from pink threads, he was unarmed with any kind of weapon but Lin felt that the man's confidence was deserved, Wei's group succeeding in harming that man in any way would be almost impossible to happen.

"P....pearl?, Senior must be wrong, we...we have no pearls on the ship, it's only products from the western islands that I plan to sell in sunrise empire for some profits. Look for yourself, here's my space rings." Tang Wei giggled his meat on obvious shock, then he hurried to remove his rings to show his willingness to be searched.

"No need for me to look at your shitty rings, this here would give me my answers." The man frowned upon looking at Wei and didn't lower himself to land on the ship, he kept standing on air as if it was an elevated stage three meter above the ship bow.

On his right palm was some tool looking like a compass, when he injected his fire energy in it the pointer of the compass circled every direction chaotically.

While Wei kept his mouth smiling and returned back a step, he was very happy that the man didn't look because Lin's grandpa Ming's gifts were in there then remembered that he gave the water-pearl to Lin and kept praying that this strange tool wouldn't pick the thing otherwise Lin would be in trouble.

"Hrmmmm, is it possible that this thing isn't working anymore?." The man frowned and shook the compass slightly while increasing the amount of fire energy he sent inside it, the pointer only spinned faster on the compass to the red robed man's annoyance.

Nobody answered his words and silence kept ruling the situation, only the waves hitting the ship were heard.

"Give me these rings, you too anyone with a space ring give it up right now.... Hrmmmm!, Lowly merchant huh, it seems like the Cheng clan is riding up the waves these days I see. You over there, you're the Tang clan's previous dog huh, your ring....eh!, You're a cultivator huh, your cat seems talented in the fire dao as well, all the same your ring.... Hmmmm!, Is that your first space ring?," The man walked above every head arrogantly and confiscated each ring offered to him, he would comment or throw the space ring he gave a look back to it's owner. Once he gestured for Lin's space ring and gave it a look he asked about Sun on his shoulder (which gave him a cold look ever since he arrived) then he threw the ring back to Lin after receiving a silent nod of confirmation while saying : "Lucky, I started with a level three ring. But unlike your empty ring, mine was filled with treasures." Which caused Lin to be amazed again by how formidable Kai is, just before giving the ring and weakening his spirit mark on the ring it was full of his items!.

And when he injected it again with spirit energy the space ring was still full, it was like Kai had just blocked this man from seeing anything inside Lin's ring or he moved the items inside from and back to the ring in such a short span of seconds.

"We'll meet again in the harbor, if inspector Huang found that you played some trick to hide the water-pearl then you'll see me burning you all to ashes." The man confirmed again with his strange compass to make sure a final time before he left while leaving these words, in a second he was out from sight and in another three he was out from Lin's range of soul sense.

"Everyone back to work, same course at moderate speed." Tao shouted and the crewmates lowered the sails and went back to do their jobs.

Lai sqweezed the handle of his blade in anger after the man in red robes left, as a cultivator the action of letting another cultivator take a look inside his space ring has a meaning of being weaker and helpless.

Wei didn't take offense from the red robed man's arrogance and sat back on his chair after Wang brought back the table, Zhang turned to sit after giving the east direction a final hard look.

"My heart fell to my feet, brother L.... Ming, good save." Wei finally couldn't endure to keep his act any longer after drinking some wine, his fat fingers were shaking and he almost forgot and called Lin by his name then corrected it in the last moment.

"Who's that inspector Huang?." Lin nodded and sat while scratching Sun's scaly skin underneath his thick fur, he already sent his thanks for Kai but received no answer.

"City lord of pearl city, he's in command of the city since I was three years old, a senior cultivator in the seventh stage of the spirit king realm and an inspector from the cultivation alliance." Wei wiped his sweat and muttered as he looked at Lin gratefully, if Lin hadn't arrived and asked for it (Water-Pearl) then this man in red robes would've found it and took it.

Now after seeing that man with the strange spirit tool, even if Lin tried to give Wei the water-pearl now then Wei would beg him to keep it until they reach Tang city, Tang Wei is sure that the safest place to keep anything now is with Lin.

Just the fact that the man in red robes couldn't see anything inside Lin's space ring at all, means that his grandpa Ming has done something to protect the boy while he's away.

Then, Wei can use this chance to smuggle somethings right!, But he has to confirm if it is really an ability Lin can control otherwise Wei will only end up giving Lin troubles.

"We're one day away from the harbor, may fortune and luck be your best companions in your return journey young master Wei." Tao said while giving Lin a nod of approval, earlier when he saw the man use that strange spirit tool he was ready to strike at once if the pearl was found on young master Lin's space ring.

"It was thanks to you old Tao, maybe that....will be enough to cure some of ancestor Jianyu's wounds, your family is well taken care of by the five clans and I'm sure after a while me and Ming will come personally to accompany you back to the clan. Maybe your son will receive the blessing of befriending Ming, or your daughter will....hehehe." Wang said while teasing both of Lin and Tao, the old man smiled but Lin acted like he heard nothing from Wang at all.

After seeing that he had heard enough from these guys, Lin took his seat at the very front of the ship and calmed his senses aiming to feel that fire intent.

For Lin, his relationship with fire and power resulting from ignition at various levels was very close, he even ended up getting burnt alive once which wasn't pleasant at all.

The secend heart Lin has under the right breast was still a piece of invisible glass, motionless and steady with a wick of a flame burning inside it.

Like a glass lantern, his second heart was the complete opposite of his first heart which turned completely gold, each time it pumped blood the cells would fliker in various types of light.

Wei's group and the crewmates saw Lin's hair and the visible parts of his body fliker in lights weakly, but during the night his body was making quite a sight to the people in ship.

Hoards and schools of fish and various water creatures left their territories and swam peacefully next to their ship, that small fire at his chest didn't become larger or do anything other than swaying left and right on it's own rhythm inside the glass heart, it looked weak and feeble to their eyes but looking at it's yellow core and the surrounding orangish red cover gave Tao the feeling of being faced with a sea of burning fire.

Zhang and Sun were sitting behind him or on his right shoulder nearest from the fire, eyes glowing and staring silently at it for almost a night and day now like watching the most interesting documentary show of their life.

Both of them has the fire elements in their affinity, Sun didn't need to go in much of a trouble to learn how to use fire energy once they left the land of forgetfulness, while Zhang has the fire element and can use it with his martial-spirit or personally to make long range attacks.

First when Lin started to meditate on the ship, they felt like their attainments in the dao of fire was better actually.

But gradually, Lin started to go deep in applying his comprehensions on this small weak fire, he doesn't need to be like other fire element cultivators and experiment with their fire to understand the element, Lin has understanding for ignition, it's cause and effect, up to enormous limits.

He knows how much force exploding would cause, no matter how great the outside spaces varied in temperature, gravity.

He doesn't need to make his weak fire grow in size or change in temperature to understand what will happen, he merely sat there because he felt like what he understands about fire will come back to nothing when it comes to fire intent.

He felt like intent shouldn't be material like fire energy in the case of fire intent, but it should be like soul force yet also not like it.

Like a pressure out of nowhere but not only aiming at the soul or body, but energy as well, burning your opponent's energy-tank while affecting his soul and body, all at once!.

"Thump.... Badum.... Crackle.... Crack....thump...." Suddenly the glass heart beated loudly and the fire inside it made a sound wich caused the glass heart to crack down the middle, but it held on and kept beating with Lin's golden heart.

Sun jumped away from Lin a second previously with the furr on the back of his neck standing on end, Zhang activated his energy armor and the brown colored energy covered his body when he saw Sun jump away in fear.

"Whoosh..." In the split second of the action Lin's second heart caused a burst of fire energy ahead and behind Lin, Sun was quick enough to be behind Lai at the back while Zhang could only protect himself at a hurry with the strongest earth armor he could conjure in a second.

The fire wave that went ahead was able to remove a piece of the ship bow and exploded a part of the ocean three kilometers ahead and caused a very large wave after sinking in the water.

"Grunt..... Sizzle..... Hissss....." First the fire wave heading backwards embedded itself in Zhang's earth armor and indented it inward, then ate away at the earth armor visibly.

Wang was quick to add ice energy on top of the fire energy and that caused it to hiss as it not only pushed both ways but also kept pressing outwards then rebounding the energy inwards to compress itself then explode with higher force outwards, the fire wasn't affected much by the ice energy and Wang knew that both he and Zhang couldn't contain it much longer if that continued because this abominable fire was like and immortal fire feeding on itself to keep living.

"Point it towards the waters ahead!, Lai activate the barrier the waves are about to hit the ship." Tao shouted at Wang and Zhang then told Lai to move it, his earth element is his secondary affinity anyway and both Tao and Wei have incompatible affinities to help in this situation, his wind or wood affinities would make the mess ahead a lot worse same goes for Wei's lightning energy.

"Whoosh...." After the release of the second fire which caused Wang and Zhang to exhaust seventy percent of their spirit energy each, the fire wave caused the sea waters to part as they hit the water wave coming towards the ship.

"BOOOMm......" Through the barrier, the people on the ship saw a hole as large as a mountain on the incoming wave and the sea underneath the hole was sunk deeper by a few meters as water evaporated in a great cloud of steam that covered the area around them in a matter of seconds and blocked their sight, then the waves battered the barrier and they only got to see after half an hour of traveling in turbulent waters.

"Clank..." Zhang knocked on the spirit tool in the shape of a helmet on his head, a sound that finally caused a stop to the silence.

"If Wang hadn't given me that tool I doubt I could've avoided getting hurt this time, en, I really need to work harder or Lin would really leave me in the dust." Zhang muttered then turned to sit at the far end of the ship, the crewmates were stifling their laughter because Zhang had his front side full of burned cloth and his face was fully black.

But Zhang decided that even if he felt like there's some benefit of watching Lin meditate then he should sit a bit further, better if he was a bit more further, far as possible if he can.

Probably, and preferably, the furthest from this boy who keeps growing bigger in his eyes, no matter how much he thought he knew him, Zhang would be finding more greatness within his small body.

It made Zhang excited and scared!, Not fear scared but scared that he wouldn't be able to keep up with him and see that boy as he grows bigger, Zhang wasn't quick-witted or smart but he had his feelings.

He knows that he needs to become stronger to make his family and clans proud, to remove the dark clouds of misfortune and see his younger generation live with their heads up.

But he wanted to be a hero as well, to be strong and have others talk about his awesomeness to make his name recorded in the annuals of history, from all the great seniors and strongest monsters of history, Zhang adores the tales of barbarian emperor and his greatest role model is him without question.

Ever since he met Lin, Zhang was gradually finding the inner child within him waking up and that fun he hade in his childhood found itself brought out in every day he spent together with Lin, once and again and again Zhang would find himself burning with the "competitive spirit" of his childhood.

Which is the best, purest type of competitive spirit you could ask for.

Lai was the only one who kept his closeness to Lin as he meditated, his intent was stronger than Lin's but the explosiveness of Lin's fire intent was stronger than his not to mention the wider range, Lai's blade intent is focused on sharpness and instantaneousness, Lin's fire intent is focused on power and explosiveness.

The crewmates respect for Lin was increased by a few notches higher after Lin caused the previous mess, he was only acting arrogantly but he gave them face by offering them some better treatment.

"Thump....." Lin's hearts beated loudly in perfect harmony until the daylight arrived, not a fish lost their track in the whole journey since Lin started to meditate, all the chaos didn't affect them because they never moved ahead of him, as if accompanying a sea emperor respectly they kept tailing their ship.

Once he opened his eyes, Lin felt like he could evaporate the sea waters thirty meters away if he wanted!.

Once he got up the light effect that covered his body faded away, the creatures in the waters were like a person who just awoke from hypnosis scattering away from these dangerous waters close to pearl harbor.

Thirty ships were in the first ten kilometers of Lin's soul sense which recovere only to one hundred twenty kilometers wide, in the entirety of the soul sense range there was more then five hundred ships ahead and three hundred more behind them!.

Many of these ships were ten times larger and lavishly looked to be powered by spirit formations unlike of Wei's ship (which only worked by using small wind formations that cover the masts and sails) they move faster and had canons on the rails, each of these canons was polished from spirit crystals and covered in inscriptions of many colors.

"Danger, World Ahead, Peep-O-Peep." Ming said in an electronic tune when he saw Lin obviously excited.

"I think you can't ruin my fun on this one Ming, no matter what you say." Lin watched every sight his soul sense broadcasted, at the docks countless ships of all kinds and many people were revealed to Lin's soul sense gradually as they moved closer east.

"So that's pearl harbor...." Lin muttered as the land ahead appeared to his eyes.

"Land Ahead! We're back!....your money will be used generously at the cloud pavilion boys hahaha."

"This asshole's head is really getting bigger the closer we get to the shores."

"My wife is going to kill me, can't we go back for another journey once the young master leaves?, Right!."

"Hell no!."

"If only had I betted on Ming then I wouldn't have lost all my mone-"

"Shut up!, Stop your yappering and go make yourselves useful, after docking for the young master's departure there's still unloading the merchandise in the stores under head-butler Si's supervision and the repairs of the ship in the shipyards, those who laze will be held back until the ship is as good as new before receiving their vacation." Tao snapped at the crewmates and they scattered like mice with the winners as the fastest to make themselves useful.

The man who's afraid of his wife listlessly went to find a place to sit under the shade, right in front of Tao's eyes he carelessly didn't do anything at all as if asking to be held back in detention.

'sigh, better than getting scolded by my woman for the rest of my dear life.' the man thought as he stared at the land arrive closer to add more to the burdens which he's feeling.

"Looks like we've got ourselves a new Atlas over there, poor guy." Ming muttered faintly while pointing out the crewmate who looks to be uneasy in his seat.

"Wei, give this guy a coin or something, make it a yellow one, I'm feeling yellow today and want to see cheerful minions not listless ones. Give the losers one as well, give Wang and the others ten spirit crystals each. Show them your generous side from time to time will only you grow bigger in their hearts." Lin sent Wei with his soul link and the fatty frowned and seemed to be in an internal struggle with himself for a few seconds, then he brought out a yellow coin and with shaking fingers he threw it in the crewmate's lap.

"Eh!, Young master t....this!." The man held up the yellow coin in a death grip like a drowning man who clutched hope with his fingers.

"T....take it, I...if you dare waste it on foolish things.... Sigh, do whatever you want with it. Damn it, I'm getting soft." Wei was like a person getting tormented with guilt and regret after giving away free money.

Lin only smiled and watched Wei wiggle his way towards the losers of the bet to give them money too, the crewmates were rubbing their eyes to check if the Sun isn't rising from the west or something.

Young master Wei!, Is he really giving money to the losers?.

Tao nodded when he saw Wei stiffly move like a dead person among the crewmates then nodded when he saw Wei give Wang, Zhang, and Lai ten high grade spirit cryastals each.

"Halt...." Again the rude sound rang in everyone's ears.