This time not only did Wei's ship stop, all the ships in the premises did stop too!.

Two men arrived this time, the older one wore a blue robe the other one was the same arrogant fellow in red but this time he followed behind like a lackey.

His posture humbled, his eyes lowered like a beaten dog with a frown on his head.

Wei's group and the crewmates were all on deck looking up at the two men on the sky.

"Cheng Wei greets you inspector Huang, how can I be of service?." Bowing deeply with his friends while the other crewmates kneeled on both legs and lowered their heads, Tang Wei spoke loudly and didn't raise his upper body.

Lin followed them in bowing and watched every detail in the older man's face with his soul sense.

The man looked to be in his seventies possibly eighties, hair and beard a flare of white and cut short, gentle but dangerous eyes surrounded by deep lines of age on each side, some light wrinkles on his cheeks.

A slightly bent shoulders but his back was straight and his tall physique added more to the pressuring feeling he gave the group and crewmates, looking at this inspector Huang, Lin felt like the surrounding waters are at this man's beck and call, just a simple move of his finger and this calm seawaters will turn into a raging sea.

After his last meditation on the fire intent, Lin's awareness for fire energy isn't only stronger but his senses to the opposing elements like water and ice is keener as well.

"Mmmm, Hai, tell the other ships to keep on going for the harbor, I don't like it when people get their noses stuffed into my matters. Cheng clan huh, well your clan master can go to the alliance's headquarters to complain if he wants, just give the water-pearl here, now. Otherwise Ill bury you all in the ocean floor and still get what I want." The old man said and the red robed man flew left and right giving orders to the other ships, landing in front of Wei's body, the old man spoke softly threateningly and Wei's group shivered visibly under the suppression of the higher form of water energy.

"City lord Huang, we're helpless if faced with your wrath and doomed if you find us with one of these miraculous treasures, if I had found one then I would gladly offer it to you senior. When your subordinate delighted us with his visit we never hesitated to surrender our space rings and followed each command to the letter, like I said we're helpless to be of service and I'm sure nothing will escape your unfathomable self if you want to make sure of our honesty, we're just lowly merchants from a lowly clan trying to get by with some profits from a tiresome journey from the east to west and I doubt my clan master would frown if you wiped us all out." Wei spoke calmly this time after knowing that Lin had a way to cover his belongings from prying eyes, despite facing a king of the higher stages he was sure that a person in the soul keeper realm could hoodwink him.

"Snort, good that you know your place, but that won't be enough for me to-" inspector Huang seemed to be pleased with Wei's groveling attitude and brought out his own version of the spirit tool that looks like a compass and spoke as he injected his water energy inside it, but his words were cut short after the same effect happened with the pointer chaotically moving all over the place!.

Frowning deeply he kept staring at the pointer in befuddlement, this tool never failed to point out soul related treasures before.

Feeding it more of his spirit energy, made a blue sphere of very thick water energy cover the compass in Huang's palm and calmed the racing pointer slightly which slowed down but didn't point out a clear direction still.

Inspector Huang walked aimlessly on the ship trying to get a clear reading with his compass, but the bloody tool refused to work!.

He didn't care about the kneeling mortals or the bowing juniors and took his time searching the ship, the man in red had returned and stood at the very front of the ship watching everyone with a scorn-full smile.

Whenever he looked at the little boy with a cat, Hai would feel like there's something different about him but no matter what he couldn't point it out clearly, the boy is still a junior in the first stage of the apprentice realm.

"Hai, are you sure their space rings are clean?, If I found it on them then you're going back to the alliance to report for the disciplinary hall. Good then, open your space rings." Inspector Huang returned from the lower floors of the ship and asked his subordinate, when he received a serious nod from the red robed man he commanded Wei and the others who has space rings.

Like always, Wei was the first to raise his head and straighten his back, taking off all his space rings he offered them with open hands, Lai and the others kept their silence and offered their space ring but their eyes had various emotions buried deep.

Lin raised his ring too and watched the blue robed elder take one ring after another from Wei and look inside, his frown only deepened when he found nothing inside the dozens of space tools of various levels.

Inspector Huang gave Lai a frosty look when he saw the look in his eyes, rudely he injected his water energy inside Lai's space ring which caused his face to pale then flush deeply as he stifled a cough full of blood from spurting out.

One red line of blood escaped the corner of his lips though, and Lai stood there shivering in rage and unwillingness silently after the old man threw him back his ring after scanning it thoroughly, only, he threw it in the water with a splash!.

"Hrrrmm, the Cheng clan works it's juniors at that tender age, and it seems they don't support them with resources too, who are you boy?, Some junior of the clan master?, A bastard maybe?." The old man had already noticed Lin previously and only decided to speak when he found nothing inside any ring he searched, opening the last ring (which is Lin's) and finding it empty he was sure that these juniors doesn't have what he's after, trying to lighten up the mood (which was awkward for him as a city lord and an inspector from the cultivation alliance) he talked while giving Lin a smile.

"Replying to senior, my name is Ming and I'm not from the Cheng clan but from the island which looks like a hog in the western islands, big brother Wei's group found out that I have awakened my martial-spirit and since I'm an orphan they decided to groom me into a scout for their next journeys because I have wings!." Lin's answer gave the people on the ship who felt heavy-ness on their chests a release, the way he talked and acted like a kid cheerfully blowing his own trumpet full of pride and joy for his accomplishments made inspector Huang give him a leering look hidden behind his fake smile.

"Wings are good, not every junior get that ability in the beginning, your ship doesn't need to pay it's tax fees on this journey. Here boy, cultivate diligently and work hard maybe my alliance will someday find you useful." The old man ruffled Lin's dark hair and generously compensated the tyrannical action of double searching their ship with some tax waiving, taking out a low grade spirit crystal and handing it to Lin he turned and left with his subordinate who gave the people on the ship one last look of despise before flying after his master.

Lai was the first to move towards the ship rails and was about to jump in the waters ro find his ring, but Lin had it covered and offered him the ring with his soul force.

"Are you alright?," Lin asked Lai whose face was still pale, but the stubborn blade user only nodded silently after taking his ring and sat down cross-legged. "You shouldn't have given him that look you know, he could've made things harder on your friends too. That man is evil and wouldn't hesitate to do what he said, better to avoid meeting him again." Lin had isolated the ship from the senses of others with his soul force as he spoke, then he threw the low grade spirit crystal carelessly into the waters with a splash, just like how inspector Huang threw Lai's space ring earlier.

Seeing the others gawking at what he did and said, the group of cultivators were uneasily looking east in fear of inspector Huang hearing Lin.

"He left don't worry, everywhere around the ship is covered with my soul force, he can't overhear what we say." Lin said confidently while taking a seat.

"Phew, you scared the fat out of me just now Lin, but we gained a tax-free journey. If only he would search us everytime, then I won't need to pay any more taxes agai-" Wei received a glare from Tao, Wang, Zhang, Lin, and even from Lai who seemed like a ghost with his bloodshot eyes on top of a pale face, pausing his words he glared back at them because not paying taxes would really help the clans save quite a sum of money.

But despite his greed, Wei never gave the low grade spirit crystal Lin threw in the water a second look, he didn't feel the fueling force inside which pushed him to gather as much money as he can, that crystal felt cursed to Wei who had no greater pleasure than finding free resources.

The crewmates had nothing to do with the affairs of cultivators and steered the ship towards the public docks for their young master Wei and his group to leave first before they go later to the clan's docking station to transport the products from the ship to the storehouse's, all of them were eager to work hard now so that Peng Tao would give them an early release from duty.

Lin watched the hustle and bustle of the harbor as ships docked or sailed from the harbor, people transported products of countless shapes and sizes from and to ships.

"Hmmmm...." As they moved closer, Lin saw with his soul sense that some part of the harbor had ships filled with people of both genders, kids, youths, elders of many shapes, colors, and sizes wearing tattered, filthy rags and chained by collars on the neck and tied to one another.

Led in lines by muscular men holding whips either towards a spacious, clear area made from yellow stone to orderly sit under the sun, or to ships where they get crammed into the lowest, darkest, dampest parts until there's no more place to cram some more.

Whoever stumble and fall or lag behind until his chains are pulled tight by the one ahead of him, gets lashed by the muscular men mercilessly!.

Even if it was a child younger than Lin, they get the same painful experience, what infuriated Lin was that these cruel people licked their lips while doing it and were taking pleasure in hurting others.

"Prepare to dock the ship," Tao said and the crewmates threw the ropes in lassos and pulled until the ship was stuck to the highly elevated dock, Tao's calling distracted Lin slightly from the sights of the people's suffering. "Young master Wei, have a safe trip home." Peng Tao bowed towards Wei and gave him his well wishes, the crewmates were gladly doing the same especially those who received a coin after their loss.

"En, you take care in your next journey old Tao, Ill give your family a visit when I return." Wei patted Tao's shoulder firmly once before walking towards the stairs and into the firm land of the harbor, Wang, Zhang and Lai nodded towards Peng Tao before following their young master Wei.

"See you later then minion number one, I bet the other minions are envying your special rank." Lin stood on top of the stairs about to leave then he stopped and looked at Tao and said while raising an eyebrow mischievously, then he pointed at the crewmates who were evidently restless and waved them goodbye.

"Keh, who's your minion you brat."

"I wouldn't have been able to get back home because of what you did, thanks to young master Wei I can now though."

"Hurry up and leave you snotty-face little shit, you're attracting bad luck for me and my friends."

"Not for me, hahahaha cloud pavilion here I come."

"Shut the fuck up fool, learn to read the mood."

"And you learn to use your brain, the money you took from young master Wei was surely given by Ming."

"Eh!, You don't say?."

"When was the last time young master Wei gave you anything but more work?."

"Enough with the chitchats, head for the clan's docks now or you'll be repairing the ship before eating the next meal." Peng Tao was smiling proudly when he saw his men charged with morale, despite their rudeness they seemed to like Lin very much even if they only got to know him a few days ago.

His crewmates stopped fooling around and released the dock from their ropes and left for their next destination, but they all were smiling and waving arms exaggeratedly at Lin's group.

"Such a rowdy bunch, now that I remember, they never gave us such an energetic goodbye before." Wang nudged Zhang with his elbow and pointed at a woman walking some distance ahead with his chin as he spoke, but he was disappointed to find Zhang shaking his head in apprehension with dodgy eyes.

"Who cares, I'm not paying taxes this time." Wei was in excellent mood and walked slowly among the crowds as he whistled softly.

Lai looked at the departing ship and found Tao's eyes on him, nodding assuringly he calmed the "outcast" that he'll make sure to do his best and escort the young master and Lin to the clan safely.

Tao smiled widely when he saw Lai's gesture and raised his arm, waved goodbye and turned to give him his back.

Two days ago they had a private talk and Lai was still thinking that the best thing is to go alone in a journey to gain experience, Peng Tao didn't oppose his choice and asked Lai to protect them with all he got.

Wang and Zhang walked behind with Lin between them, Wei a few steps ahead and Lai walking to his left.

"Something is bothering you Lin?," Wang glared at Zhang who kept shaking his head at each option he gave, and noticed the slight frown on Lin's forehead. "Don't provoke the slave traders, these slaves are from the evil race and belong to the alliance." Looking towards the direction Lin is looking, Wang saw the slave trader's area with the same normal sight of people getting whipped while being led everywhere the whip holders point.

Wang felt a shiver when he saw the hardened eyes of Lin, lowering his head he whispered in Lin's ear the identity of these slaves.

"Evil race!, They look normal to me, just mortals without spirits. Where are they taking them?." Lin didn't know why, but the sight of these people getting tormented spoiled his fun of seeing new things.

Despite there being other things which should be fun, like the humanoid creatures locked in cages with the beasts in the area next to the slaves, some had cat's ears and tails, bunny ears and fluffy short tails, draconian looking ones, beastly looking ones covered in fur and showing their canines to passerbys, a mermaid collared and her lower fishtail contained in half-filled, large water bowl made from transparent glass, and lots and lots more of the strangest sights.

But ever since Lin saw these "evil race" it was like there's a volcano wanting to erupt in his chest and he couldn't remove his eyes or soul sense off of them, Wang felt the rage underneath each of Lin's words and the forcefulness in his questioning!.

"This.... I don't know, it is just the way they're called and I don't know why we cultivators have to bully and suppress them despite us being clearly stronger and the evil race being known for their inability to cultivate at all on any aspect, our clan doesn't deal in the slave business at all. As for where they're going, from here they can be sent to western islands or the western continent I guess." Wang shrugged because he doesn't know, and right before this moment he never cared for slaves of any kind really.

Instead of looking to waste money on slaves he can get resources to cultivate and get stronger by himself, the evil race were good as a work force and craftsmen but never as an army of any kind.

Feeling sorry for venting at the wrong person, Lin silently walked with the group and his previous distaste for the alliance's tyranny deepened with each lash of the whip falling on the back of the slaves.

"What kind of mount will you choose Ming?, The beast's renting station in this harbor is that red building with green flag on top over there at the back, it has many beasts that you can buy or rent and they accept every type of beast that you offer to sell as long as it is healthy." After the silence became unendurable for Wang who felt antsy since Lin stopped talking, he glared at Zhang for help since Lai was acting like he heard nothing at all and Wei was happy just because has no tax to pay.

The attempt to lighten up the mood by Zhang was seen foolish by Wang who almost snapped at his bestie, but Lin reacted by looking up at Zhang's ox eyes and smiled as he looked where he pointed.

"What kind of mount do you have big guy?, Is it yours or is it rented?." Lin knew that the muscular man was trying to cheer him up, he shrunk his soul sense range to one hundred meters after giving these unfortunate slaves a mental apology because he's helpless to aid them right now, then he asked Zhang in return aiming to make the simpleton's words distract him slightly from the tragedy that he saw.

"Rented, last time I bought a mount and took good care of it then it was eaten during a beast wave attack, I always rent a horned bull because they obey all my commands." Zhang blushed slightly as he spoke about an incident of the past then glared back at Wang who started to snicker in amusement as he remembered that Zhang had paid one low grade spirit crystal on that bull from his allowance.

"What else is there for you to recommend?." Lin asked again as he noticed that the wide streets paved with yellow stones of the harbor started to get orderly as they walked deeper inlands, hawkers shouted for their products and most of the items were spiritless, cheap, and sold in large quantities.

"Young master Wei and Lai always choose shadow colts because they're fast and have good stamina, but the colts always rear and neigh restlessly when I ride them, I guess they don't like the scent of my martial-spirit, once I rented an earth lizard but it was slow despite being very sturdy and big. Most of the other mounts are costly because they're faster and stronger, if you aren't strong enough then it's possible that they attack you or try to escape if they could, because they're in the devil beast realms or higher. As for mounts in the ferocious beast realm, they're weak, slow, and have low stamina, mounts in the demonic realm are a safe choice." Zhang repeated the words Wang once taught him without blushing as he spoke, but Wang knew very well that the big man was doing his best to avoid eye contact with him right now because he's very embarrassed.

"Quite knowledgeable indeed, our Zhang is sounding more and more like a beast tamer." Wang teased his friend.

"S....shut up, I'm never going to be a beast tamer, I'm a warrior and sheild for young master Wei same as you. No, better than you." Zhang flushed deep and refused to accept the praise from Wang, stubbornly he defended his dream of becoming someone great, just like his role model the barbarian emperor.

"Shut up both of you, let's go grab our mounts and get the hell out of this harbor, I still need at least a day of rest to remove the foreign energy within my body," Lai coughed slightly and spitted a globe of blood mixed with his saliva, then spoke after giving the two a smile full of bloodied teeth. "What a generous gift that senior has left me, what a lovely gift, honored, really honored to receive it." The mockery and sarcasm in his words definitely hid rage beyond limit in Lin's eyes.

Seeing the strongest person in the group suffering from an internal wound, reminded the duo of the previous shame that they tried to forget.

Their steps picked up speed and silence returned, only the sounds of the people around them going on with their lives doing their business was heard.

Cultivators, mortals, beasts, beast-kin, walking the earth or flying in the sky, riding a mount or a palanquin carried by slaves, walking alone or in a group, wearing fine clothes, armors, carrying various shapes of weapons, or different kinds of jewelry or none at all.

Sights no different from fictions or weirder, Lin watched and heard everything yet his heart felt like as if it is getting torn in half as he turned his back on these unfortunate slaves.

"Telling you it isn't your fault wouldn't ease your mind, I know that very well, but, how about telling you to become stronger then come back here later and lift their curse?." Ming said while feeling Lin's confusion.

"I suppose you're right. But why am I feeling so bad right now?, I know that I hate injustice, but this feels deeper somehow." Lin answered then gave a deep sigh filled with unease.

Arriving at the street facing that red building, first thing to notice would be the wider street and the large bronze gate that was wide open as many people entered and exited in the same time without trafficking the entrance of the building.

Guards armored in full sets of spirit tools with lively, colorful runes covering the armor's exterior and moving jointly in a certain rhythm, these guards were making sure the crowds entering are not here to make trouble for their clients, they all had the same insignia Lin saw on the different coins he gave Wei, the insignia of two people sitting cross-legged side by side and holding the hilt of the sword halfway buried between them with one arm each was there on the heart of each guard.

The weakest guard was at least as strong as Zhang if not stronger, three men with strong auras were among them but they sat to the side under the shade of a small pavilion in the gardens before the beast renting station's main building, the weakest of these three men was comparable to the man in red robes in strength to Lin's senses.

Beasts of various shapes and sizes were being mounted by these cultivators and mortal people going from and into the red building through the entrance of a few tunnels.

"Welcome to our station, how can I help you fellow cultivators." One cute girl with pigtails spotted Lin's group entering the building and hurried towards them and asked while smiling charmingly, her chest wasn't yet developed and she looked to be in the early stages of her maidenhood but the potential for a startling beauty were visible through her yellow dress, such a perky bottom and long legs would certainly drive men to their knees to beg her favor in the future.

"We're looking for five mounts to rent, young lady! Hello?." Lai spoke while Wang kept nudging Zhang to see what he thinks of this one, but Zhang decided to take a step further from his bestie, but they all noticed how the cute girl ignored Lai and walked towards Lin and tried to snatch Sun from his hands!.

"Eh!...." The girl in the yellow dress was surprised to find that Lin had easily avoided her by taking a step backwards, blushing, the girl glared at Lin who looked to be half her age for causing her to be embarrassed.

She only wanted to take a look at his pet before returning it, even if these guys had a problem with her action she could always compensate them with some crystals and a fake apology before sending them on their way.

"Stay away from Ming," Zhang glared at the girl with his large ox eyes once he saw her action and blocked Lin behind him, his words were threatening enough. "What do you want?, We're not here to cause any troubles." Then Zhang asked her suspiciously while raising his voice to make the guards hear, but that was seemingly unnecessarily, from the moment that girl wearing yellow dress walked towards their group Lin noticed the extra dozen set of eyes directed their way, especially the three strong men sitting under the pavilion.

'They're here to protect her huh, at least two of them are.' Lin concluded after seeing one of them shake his head slightly to stop the other two from taking immediate action.

"What I want is none of your business, move to the side or I will make you. All I wanted was to take a look, understand?. Now move, if this lady wanted to bully you, you wouldn't be able to breathe." The girl held her hips with both arms and glared back with her dark pupils at Zhang while speaking, which caused her pigtails to shake with each word and shake of her head.

"Young lady must be joking, this is the beast's renting station. There's no rules which says we have to comply with the wishes of each and everyone working here, don't cause a scene now and go back to your job of serving the clients and let someone else handle our business. Otherwise if your superiors caught wind of what happened here they will surely punish you for ruining their spotless clean reputatio-" Wang tried to give the girl a hidden warning by bringing up her superiors and her position which is no more than helping clients, but he was cut off rudely by a sneer from the girl who gave him a scorn-full smile.

"Shut it eyelashes, nobody tells Bo An what to do." Her comment made Wang grit his teeth and Lai who seemed like a block of ice since inspector Huang's incident smile faintly before giving the guards who acted like blind and deaf despite the loud voice of this Zhang and this "Bo An's" a hard look!.

Wei knew that this girl's background isn't simple when he saw that happen, pushing both Wang and Zhang back a step he stood next to Lin and looked at this unreasonable girl.

"It's just a variant cat, is there a need to cause a scene just to take a look?." Finally Lin spoke after seeing that Wei was willing to suffer for his sake, his stance and the assuring look he gave him meant that he wouldn't let anyone force him to oblige with this strange girl.

Even Wei with his slimy personality had his bottom line, first it was the assholes from the cultivation alliance once and again trying to openly steal his water-pearl, now this girl was trying to make things difficult for them just because she wanted to "take a look" at Lin's pet?.

If "they" weren't intentionally doing that to test them, then Wei had no problem convincing Lin to let this girl have her way and take a look because that's merely a coincidence, but if it was really as he thinks then he can't surrender anymore ground to these scheming villains from the alliance.

Otherwise he will keep facing one test after another all the way back, with higher possibility of having his cover blown away in the process.

He had to take a stand and walk around naked if he has to!, To prove his clean hands from the matter of the pearl before leaving this territory ruled by the alliance people.

"I'm curious that's all." Bo An squinted slightly when she heard Lin's calm question, he didn't seem affected by the ongoing situation at all and under the gaze of his serenely calm golden pupils she felt her face heat up, especially after he patted his kitten which bared it's small canines at her when he offered it closer to her while revealing his intentions of wanting to know what's going on inside her head.

"You're not the only one who's curious, alright!." The girl snapped at Lin while taking Sun in her hands, she ignored the cat's obvious annoyance and flipped him on his back in her palm and unashamedly checked his sex, claws, wings, inside of his ears, his mouth and even sniffed his stomach!.

Finally Lin knew that Sun was about to go on a rampage if left in her palms a second longer, he snatched him back from her clutches and shrugged while calming his buddy who kept snaring at this woman who's even weirder than the previous ones be that Lin's sister, mother, the women in the village, or even Mia!.

"Give it back."

"No."

"Give it back, now!."

"No can do."

"Give it now or Ill really get angry."

"No, your anger has nothing to do with me. You said you wanted to take a look, I gave you more than a look. You made him angry instead, he might've hurted you. You should be thanking me big sister, can we get our mounts now?, Please." Lin avoided the girl's arms and protected Sun in his embrace, everytime he dodged her attempts to snatch Sun back it only made her angrier and more embarrassed.

Under the sight of the stunned guards, station's staff, and the few visitors of the building who know the identity of this young girl.

A kid simply played with her while keeping his distance only two steps away!, While Chentian Bo An, little genius of the Chentian clan, gem in their eyes, and granddaughter of the famous beast tamer Chentian Ao, one of the best ten beast tamers of the spirit world, stomped her feet to the floor in frustration because she couldn't snatch Sun from the kid's arms no matter what she tried!, she couldn't even hold his body and stop him from slipping in and out from her reach whenever she tried to catch the cat.

Finally Lin stopped and asked her to be reasonable while keeping his soul sense locked on the most formidable three guards under the pavilion, the two who wanted to beat up Zhang earlier were staring agape at their young lady in disbelief.

She's not yet sixteen of age, but her cultivation is three major realms above this brat and more!, Yet she failed to hold him despite the kid never actually trying to widen the distance between them?, If she had been going easy on him then they would've treated it like their young lady having some fun toying with a junior or something since she's always pranking everyone.

But they know for sure that she's not going easy at all and did her best to catch the brat, yes she didn't use spirit energy or her tamed beasts to aid her, but the boy only used his little two feet to avoid her nothing more!.

"Tsk, who's this brat?." One of the two men from the Chentian clan responsible for guarding Bo An asked the man managing this establishment for the alliance's benefit, but when he looked next to him he saw the man frowning.

"The men around him are from the Cheng clan, juniors protecting the trading delegation every two journeys to the west if my memory didn't fail me." The old man was trying to rummage through his memory for any piece of information about Lin but he came up empty.

He told them about Wei and the other's identities though.

"Never heard of such a junior in the clan's reports before, is that Cheng clan strong?, Where they're at?." The other man shook his head and inquired for more information about Wei and the other's, only to find the third man smiling ruefully.

"Some weak clan from the sunrise empire, that fat one is their leader and a waste of a cultivator with good affinity but I heard he's got a talent in making money and cares not for fortifying his foundations. If I'm not wrong then the strongest person in the Cheng clan is a high stage tyrant, fellow cultivators Qiu and Quan shan't be worried for any consequences if you want to intervene on this matter. Senior Ao is here under the requests of grand-elder Renshu's personally, as our esteem guest's kin, accomodating his granddaughter as most as I can is my duty. Even inspector Huang is doing his best to be of service, I only need to assure the safety of young lady Bo An as she works in my establishment and make sure her days are filled with fun and peace." Washing his hands clean from the matter, the alliance's lackey gave Qiu and Quan the green light to do what they want.

Quan nodded then after giving Bo An and Lin who were playing at the moment a final look he left the beast renting station and went to report to his clan's most famous beast tamer, Chentian Ao!.

He could've sent the message with a single wisp of spirit energy through a long distance communication jade, but that has a flaw of being vulnerable to be sensed by higher cultivators.

He wanted to report such a startling genius, even if he's a source of annoyance to the young lady, the clan can groom him to be her personal guard in the future to make her happy.

"No, you won't be getting any mounts from this station unless I say so "little brother". Since you called me big sister you shouldn't be naughty and listen to your seniors, give it now and I will give you a half-pure unicorn-" Bo An shook her head and caused her pigtails to flutter as she spoke.

"No, since we're not getting any service in here then goodbye big sister Bo An, I hope next time we meet you'll be a bit more reasonable otherwise it is better if we don't meet at all in the future." Lin noticed the man who left heading northeast, and tried to leave at a hurry after throwing these words.

"Impudent!."

Bo An tried to stubbornly corner Lin and even threw a half-pure unicorn in the deal, however, Lin didn't care for a mount in the first place and was only here to accompany Wei and the others and enjoy the novel sights, after all he has his wings and Sun to carry him anywhere he wanted.

But the other man's face darkened when he heard Lin's words, Qiu, one of the autumn and spring duo from the Chentian clan, high stage spirit lord and famous for his storm dao, he tried to give this ignorant junior a scare by momentarily suppressing him with his spirit pressure.

Only to find Lin's golden pupils turning to look towards him from inside the building's main hall, not affected whatsoever by his loud shout or the pressuring effect of his storm dao created by combining and fusing wind-water energies!.

Wei and the others were protected by Lin's soul force and only Liao Lai felt what Lin did just now, the other people in the building with weaker cultivation paled in the face while mortals flushed deep red in the face and felt their chests heavy and stiffly, some outright spat blood before getting knocked out.

That was because they weren't targeted by Qiu's pressure directly like Lin!, They only received the aftereffect of what was directed towards Lin, after Qiu worked on weakening the scattered pressure and controlling it, because he didn't want to hurt his young lady Bo An who stood a few steps from Lin's body!.

"Eh!...." Bo An looked towards senior Qiu's direction just like Lin after she witnessed the people getting affected by his pressure, she never wanted to bully Lin forcefully and wasn't offended at all by what he said.

Just one look at his eyes and she felt like he wasn't meaning to mock her, even Bo An was embarrassed by what she was doing right now but she only wanted to keep her high and mighty image in front of the staff of this station and the people of pearl harbor and city.

Actually Chentian Bo An has confirmed what she wants after holding Sun in her arms, but she wanted to appear mysterious in the eyes of this little one with gold eyes, the scenario in her head would be Lin's eagerness to know what kind of variant his winged-tiger is while staring with his golden eyes like a puppy waiting for his milk while Bo An would enjoy the attention for a while before telling him that his beast has good bloodline and high attainments for a demonic realm beast, then she will give him some advices on how to groom it before taking them to choose their mounts.

But senior Qiu got worked up for her sake like always and tried to suppress the kid!.

"Hrmmmm...." Receiving the stares from everyone, Chentian Qiu was in disbelief not only because Lin and his group were completely unaffected but also because Bo An was glaring at him for ruining her fun.

The man next to him brought out his long distance communication jade at once and sent inspector Huang his report, as spirit lords they felt the sudden increase of soul force from Lin's body just before he got slammed with the pressure from Qiu's energy of the storm dao.

The degree of soul force was confusing them because they couldn't feel at what realm it was, just as it appeared suddenly it was gone all the same in an instant.

"Senior, do I have your permission to leave?, If you have anymore teachings for this junior before he goes on his way by all means say them, you have my full attention." Lin spoke while looking straight at the man with eyes clear from emotions, his words sharp and on point.

'I had enough, either come all out or I'm out of here, don't throw your weight around old man, I won't tolerate this behavior anymore than I did.' Chentian Qiu felt Lin's hidden meaning behind these words was something of this sort.

Yet, Qiu couldn't read anything from looking at these golden pupils at all, if he was in place of Lin at such a young age and some senior from the older generations tried to bully him for whatever reason then he would be burning with various types of emotions, such things can't be hidden from the eyes of experts or cultivators in the higher realms just like how Lai couldn't hide his emotions when inspector Huang searched his ring.

Who's Qiu?, In the long pyramid of cultivation of spirit energy he's currently in the sixth floor only two steps away from reaching the seventh floor!, Yet someone like him was unable to uncover some kid's hidden emotions despite staring him in the eye.

"Apologize for what you said to my young lady Bo-" Qiu tried to at least take an apology from the brat before he leaves, but Bo An interrupted him.

"No need for an apology senior Qiu, I will take them to pick their mounts now. It was just me pranking little brother here earlier, your name is Ming huh, let's go this way." She gave the autumn fellow a glare to back off before smiling at Lin and cutely acting cheerfully suddenly, then she politely pointed towards a door to the side and invited them like she should've done from the beginning to choose from the various mounts.

Wei smiled ingratiatingly and followed Bo An, but his walking gait was stiff and his brain was almost bursting from the thoughts that kept troubling it.

Wang really wished to leave because this girl was annoying him, Zhang kept walking while giving Lin a few looks of adoration and respect, while Lai did his best to suppress the foreign water energy inside his body and like Wang he wished to leave so that he could quickly remove it.

Lin looked at the red walls of the tunnel they were in after entering the door Bo An led them towards, it was wide and traces of animals was visible on the floor and walls but the red stones that made this building were large and looked sturdy.

Glowing crystals were embedded in the ceiling and they gave more than enough light to brighten the long, wide, and high tunnel.

Finally after half a minute of silence since they entered the tunnel, Bo An twirled around to face Lin and like he's carrying Sun in his arms hugging him close to his chest and scratching his fur, she too was holding a grey puppy with pitch-black eyes and hugging it to her undeveloped chest and gave Lin a cute smile.

"This is Fang Bo, my companion." Walking closer to Lin, Bo An raised her puppy and rubbed her cheeks in his grey fur and introduced her beast.

"This is Sun, my best friend since I was ten months old." Lin scratched Sun's head as he introduced him.

But Fang Bo merely sniffed the air and gave Sun a look before closing his eyes to sleep, while Sun who just got a bit calmer after Lin coaxed him repeatedly, stood up and snared at the grey puppy who acted arrogantly.

"Ah!, They don't seem to get along well." Bo An wasn't happy because of what Fang Bo did and she helplessly returned the puppy to her monster medallion, only then was Sun a bit more at ease but he kept snorting in frustration.

Actually Sun felt like he's not going to have to wait for long now before taking the core Lin has in his ring, as for the big one's core?, Sun knew that he has to become a lot stronger to be able to eat it.

One after the other these stupid humans and their stupid furry friends bullied him and caused trouble for his buddy, he needs to become stronger and beat them all up, murrr.

So what if that stupid grey dog was stronger than him right now and acting arrogantly?, Sun ate stronger enemies ever since he started to learn how to hunt with Lin's father, so what if you're strong?, I can be stronger with enough time, Just you wait black eyes someday this Sun will bully you and pin you under his paws, let's see you acting arrogantly when it happens!.

Seeing that awkward silence had returned to rule after her attempt to ease the tention slighty with Fang Bo had failed, Bo An decided to be direct instead and looked at Lin : "Do you know what kind of winged-tiger do you have in your arm?. Sigh!, Listen Ming, Sun is a special tiger with a mixed bloodline that have a faint strand of a dragon's bloodline. Make sure to feed him well and as he grows stronger raise the quality of the meat you give him, after he reaches the devil realm don't feed him anymore meat from normal animals, change it to meat from ferocious or demonic beasts. Each time you find his pulse slowing down for more than a day's worth feed him a beast core of the same realm or lower, never higher...." After receiving a slight shake from Lin's head to her first question made Bo An drop her shoulders in surrender while thinking 'as I thought.' then she started giving him advices while explaining the cause of her previous curiosity, at least she was satisfied with Lin's serious attitude as he gave her words his attention and kept asking about things which happens to puzzle him.

Wei and the others were looking at Sun in a different way after hearing that he's blessed with a faint strand of a dragon's bloodline, the word "dragon" if used to describe anything no matter how "faint" it seemed was never simply added, even beasts with the faintest hue's of dragon bloodline were said to be a hundred percent able to reach the tyrannical beast realm!

"Thank you big sister Bo An, I really learned a lot from you. Allow me to introduce myself properly, I'm Ming Tai son of Tai the mighty and Tian the beauty, pleasure meeting you." Offering his hand to shake hers, Lin introduced himself while inside Ming was blushing and smiling all the same.

"What a strange introduction!, Tehehe, I'm Chentian Bo An from the clan of beast tamers. Nice to meet you too Ming." Bo An giggled cutely and entered the second gate that was guarded by two spirit tyrants ahead of Lin's group, these two guards hurried to open the black gate's doors for her and give a slight bow of salute.

Again Wei's group were stunned by Bo An's identity, Chentian clan!, One of the top hundred famous clans on the spirit clan ranking, their Tang clan were almost on that list's once because of their ancestor Jianyu's attainments, but alas, the fall from the top of the pyramid for the Tang clan and it's friendly clan's was harsh and catastrophically severe.

'Chentian huh!, Mia mentioned such a name before, more than once. it will be for the best if I didn't ask I guess.' Lin thought as he walked, and turned his attention to the gates and what lay behind them.

Carved on these black gates was a variety of beasts, everyone of these beasts was lifelike and had two spirit crystals or more instead of eyes.

As he followed to enter, Lin felt like these beasts carved on the gate's doors were watching him and could jump out and attack their group in a heartbeat!.

The guards pulled the doors shut after they entered and ahead Lin saw beasts lined on each wall of this long hall seventy meters below ground, separated by tall pillars every twenty meters and leaving the space between every two pillars for a single beast to rest comfortably on hay scattered messily on the ground below their feet.

"Take your pick, these are the finest mounts in the demonic beast realm or lower currently in this station." Bo An smiled and spoke as she patted the long neck of a tall horse that was black as night, and had hoofs covered in similarly long, thick, hair just like it's tail and neck, it was brushed and clean.

Despite there being hundreds of beasts and animals in this great, spacious hall, there was no odor of faeces or traces of it at all, everything was clean and well organized.

Wang followed Zhang and went to check the horned bulls, Wei and Lai nodded when they saw the shadow colts and brought out some fruits to feed the ones they choose.

Sun kept his eyes on these new guys and wanted Lin to choose a brown lion from a strange species as his mount but Lin patted him and shook his head, certainly his tiger wanted this lion to be Lin's mount so he can bully him or maybe play with him later, but one troublesome tiger in his company was more than enough.

Finally after reaching the end of the hall, Lin was still hesitating about taking his pick.

"Why not this half-pure unicorn?, It's pretty, docile, and strong as well as fast!." Bo An asked but Lin shook his head, the beast was all that but it was very noticeable and eye-catching, tall, bright white colored like first daylight, colorful mane of hair on the neck and tail, silver hoofs, and purple-blue long horn at the head.

Lin never forgot Jin Bao's advice on being low-key in his travels, riding that unicorn would be like riding a light show in the middle of the night, it was impossible not to draw attention to himself.

Finally while sighing, Lin choose a spotted mule deer that Bo An mentioned it could keep up with a shadow colt in a sprinting rush for six hours, other than that it was tame and docile and had the wood affinity, while mounting it you can recover your stamina, or your wounds a bit faster.

Bo An was glaring at Lin who refused her advice and humphed cutely, returning to the group pulling the deer he chose by the reins with Bo An who was unsatisfied with his choice, Lin saw Wei and Lai feeding their horses and Zhang-Wang's duo were patting the backs of their horned bulls who seemed to enjoy this pampering.

The shadow colts were taller and looked to be fast like the wind with their symmetrical shape and long, slightly muscular legs, while the bull's bodies are longer, shorter, with wider backs and stunted legs packed with muscles on top of muscles, their two horizontal horns curved upwards at the end, which stretched out for one meter each before curving for another half meter up and ending with dangerous looking sharp points.

Seeing Lin bring a deer puzzled the others, they thought Lin would receive that half-pure unicorn from Bo An but one look on her face told them that Lin must've refused, a few days with the boy and they know that he will do whatever he liked.

"Young lady, we'll take these mounts. How much do we owe your station?, We will be sending these beasts to your station in mercenary city." Wei asked for the price as he readied himself mentally to pay for the expenses, it really hurted the fatty that inside the alliance's establishments he couldn't bargain for anything.

'Sigh, nothing is better than the free market.' Wei thought as he lamented how much of his fortune he could deny the despicable alliance, everytime he deals with them he's helping them grow stronger too, but he had to be patient and wait for the opportune time to strike at that colossal organization.

"The colt's rent is one green, fifty yellow coins each, selling price is one low grade spirit crystal, fifty purple coins per colt. Horned bull's rent is two green coins each, selling price is two low grade spirit cryastals per bull. Ming's deer is his to take for free, it's my gift to him to apologise for what senior Qiu did earlier," Bo An gave the prices then turned towards Lin and gave him a smile while pinching his cheeks, she was speaking like a big sister seeking praise from her junior brother. "You see, Big sister Bo An is very generous, right!." While puffing her small chest out proudly, she asked while a sly glow fleetingly passed her eyes.

"The best!." Praise comes easily for Lin, since it's free and works wonder in making people around Lin like him more, even Kai softened and gave Lin advices despite how uptight he's, Bo An had no idea that Lin could read her like an open book right now.

Bo An's face lit up with joy at Lin's praise, she lowered her upper body and gave him a light kiss on the cheeks then pinched them again one final time.

"That was only because you gave the correct answer, don't go on getting used to receiving kisses from me in the future." With mischievousness in her eyes, Bo An whispered softly which only made Lin smile ruefully in return.

He was sure that Bo An had it in her wishes for Lin to beg for more of these kisses, but he gave her a silent nod and saw disappointment in her eyes to confirm his thoughts.

Turning to face Wei's group after Bo An returned to her seriousness, she saw the fatty with comly face shivering like a leaf, eyes bloodshot, and face blackened by something and frowning deeply.

Lai snickering endlessly at Wei's sight, the prices on this tunnel were almost a double of the other tunnels, however, the beasts are a few grades better.

Wang mischievously raising his eyebrows at Lin who just received a kiss from this babe and discreetly winking knowingly, but he found Lin unaffected by his teases to Wang's dismay.

Zhang had only the bull he choose in his eyes and kept pampering it by patting it's back while his horned bull kept mooing comfortably and gently while shaking it's head, that really made Bo An smiled because finally she found someone who knows how to treat a beast.

"Here's seven green coins for the rent, thanks young lady for your generous gift." After calculating the worth of Lin's deer and finding that he really did profit despite paying higher price for the mounts rent, Wei felt a lot better in handing out the coins but his fingers were shaking visibly to Bo An's eyes.

"Take care Ming, pearl road isn't safe like it should these days, reports say some large beast wave attacks happened last week." Bo An warned and Wei was the most thankful to hear the news.

During his days of treading the pearl road Wei would always hear rumors of large beast wave attacks, only to find that they're small scale which can't really endanger his trade if he prepared well for them.

However, since someone like Bo An mentioned it then she must've heard from a reliable source, he gave her a polite bow of courtesy first for her kind warning and mounted his shadow colt lightly then trotted towards the black gates ahead of Lai, Wang, and Zhang.

"Make sure to keep my friend Ming safe and healthy little one, don't be naughty and give him trouble now. Sun won't bully you, I know Ming will make sure of that." Bo An told the deer once Lin mounted it, she felt the deer's unrest once Sun was on it's back and calmed it with a few words.

Seeing the interaction between Bo An and the deer made Lin smile, he was relieved to know that he isn't the only one talking to animals, otherwise Lin would've admitted that he's going bonkers.

"Farewell big sister Bo An, thanks again." Lin waved her goodbye and pulled the reins gently to urge the deer forward.

"Have a safe trip, if you're free and nearby my clan don't hesitate to pay big sister a visit in the future. I'm sure you'll know the way just by asking around." Bo An gave Lin a mischievous wink as she spoke while smiling widely, once the group were out of her sight after the black gates were shut, she went to the half-pure unicorn and pulled it's head by the horn down in frustration.

"You like him whitey, why didn't you approach him and gain his favor?." Bo An glared at the unicorn's large blue eyes as she spoke.

"Snort, let go of my horn An, he has his pride so do I, and I don't like the scent of the cat in his arms too. It gave me the creeps." The unicorn spoke as it raised it's head like a peacock and shook it's colorful mane of hair, it was really a very beautiful creature but if Lin had listened to it talk he would've refused it without hesitation.

A few words from that horse of beauty can make Sun growling for days and nights!.

"Tch, I believe it's your loss dummy, who knows what he'll become in the future." Bo An clicked her tongue and left the place after giving the proud half-pure unicorn a glare, she was taking her time going back to the main hall of the station.

The two guards on the inner gate of this tunnel exchanged looks when they saw Bo An daydreaming as she left, she would stop periodically every few steps to frown or giggle like a demented person.

"What happened to this little ancestor?, Did these guys bully her?."

"Heh, as if anyone would dare do that to Chentian Ao's precious granddaughter, I heard she have a few beast kings to protect her."

"I heard it was a primordial beast of the beast path!."

As the guards argued and Bo An tried to translate these feelings in her chest which were confusingly strange, Lin followed after the group in taking another long tunnel that led them away from the harbor's bustling area.

Ahead was a straight road hundreds of meters wide, paved from the same yellow stones like the harbor's and separated in two ways.

The tunnel exit was guarded by a dozen guards from the alliance with one tyrant in command of the small unit of guards, countless people walked the sides of the street where various stores, restaurants, taverns, etc, were open.

While merchant caravans rode the yellow road from and into the harbor.

Wei released a sigh when he saw the road then took the middle of the wide road and released the reins for his shadow colt to run at it's leisure, every mile on the road Lin noticed a tunnel underneath them which people used to go from the far left to the other direction of the road or towards the stores to their right.

Something felt similar to Lin when he saw that sight which made him remember his previous life with roads without traffic, shaking his head to remove the distractions, Lin looked at the surrounding stores and people hoping for some rest of the mind.

No matter how much he tried to distract himself from the sight of the slaves hoarded like cattle in the harbor, he would see something which would remind him of his previous life!, Be that a unique product being sold in the stores, the designs of some buildings, or the style of clothes some people wore.

Not to mention that the various slaves in collars were everywhere around him in shapes of men and women, boys and girls, humanoids and beast-kin, helping carry some rich looking people's things as they shopped around the stores, or carried the people themselves in palanquins of various designs, shapes, and sizes.

"Ming, you've been out of sorts since we docked, how about a race to add some fun to this dull ride?." Liao Lai suddenly said and except for Lin the others frowned, they thought he was after revenge on their new travelling companion.

Wei glared at Lai while his chubby cheeks bounced up and down by the effect of his colt's running, while Wang sneered in contempt and Zhang shook his head while giving Lai honest warning with his ox eyes that he's bound to lose if he competed with Lin again.

Even if his mount looked superior in speed, he just had a gut feeling that Lin won't lose no matter what!.

'Some habits don't die, I guess.' Wei thought when he saw Lai ignore his glares.

'A leopard doesn't change it's spots, huh.' Wang thought as he anticipated Lai crawling into a dark corner after losing, which made him even more excited to see it happen.

'Sigh, stubborn as an ox, en.' Zhang thought as he gave Lai the certain loss verdict, but he admired his tenaciousness and courage all the same.

"Race huh, how long do we compete?, Bo An said that my deer can't keep up with your colt if it's more than six hours of sprinting." Lin nodded when he saw the intentions of Lai to cheer him up, the other's seemed to merely misunderstand him that's all.

Being in immediate need for a distraction at the moment, Lin welcomed the idea of a race very much.

"Meow...." Sun scratched at Lin's clothes cutely while begging to participate.

"No, I know you're fast buddy, but this race doesn't seem like a short one to me. These guys best you in stamina especially these horned bulls, behave now." Lin had stretched his soul gaze ahead yet after five hundred kilometers all he saw was the road stretching endlessly, the only change in the road ahead is the buildings on both sides which are fewer, smaller, and looked poorer than the ones near the harbor.

"En, Pearl city is approximately a day's worth of galloping from here, our stay in the clan's estate will be a short one for another day before we hit the road with our caravan, we can push our mounts today and let them rest tommorow, treat it as a test of their quality. Honestly I'm currently in a hurry to remove the foreign water energy inside my body and hate to waste time on this short travel between the harbor and city, why not do both while having some fun from it?," After hearing the short conversation between Lin and his winged-tiger, Lai spoke seriously but other than Lin, none of his friends believed a word he said. "Actually, I feel like my chances of winning aren't that great but I've got nothing to lose anyway, the sooner we arrive the sooner I can dissolve this issue." Continuing, Lai shrugged and frankly spoke his mind with a careless smile as air buffeted his hair messily.

"Fair enough, but I won't be riding my deer. I have something troubling my mind and I want to shake it off." Lin said and this time Wei and the others frowned, since he said that he wouldn't be riding his tiger or deer is it possible!.

"Ming, you can't be allowed to use your wing-" Lai tried to convince Lin that it wouldn't be fair if he flew, but Lin merely raised his palm to stop him while saying : "Worry not, Ill run. Maybe that will take it off my mind, I hope." But his words caused his four friends to gape their mouths.

"Hahahaha, now you're talking, this makes things a lot more interesting." Lai laughed aloud then squeezed the belly of his colt and stole a head start on Lin feeling no shame whatsoever in what he did.

Lin gawked at Lai's unethical behavior and jumped from the back of his running deer and sprinted after the shameless blade user's colt leaving his deer running between Wang's and Zhang's horned bulls, quick to respond Wang held it's reins and urged his bull to go after the mad couple.

Wei and Zhang woke up from their shock and followed after these two idiots, Lai was an acknowledged moron of the group years ago but Lin's reckless acceptance to such a disadvantageous race wasn't expected at all.

Before they got to intervene and stop Lai from doing something foolish, Lai stole a head start then Lin dismounted then ran after him and in few blinks they were already racing!.

Not to mention that Wei was frustrated because he could've been the house and accepted bets, such an opportunity for making profit escaped his fingers because he was slow to react.

'Sigh, I'm still green, what a waste of a good opportunity, I could've betted on Lin's win and forced Lai to stay.' Wei thought as he gradually narrowed down the gap between him and Lin who was still in the second place on this race.

"How long do you think he can keep running at that speed?." Wang asked Wei who caught up easily with his faster mount as he looked at Lin who kept running very fast while regulating his breathing, the technique he used to move his body's joints and limbs was seemingly different than any other movement technique Wang had seen before.

But he was certainly fast for a person relying only on his physique's strength to generate speed, the slowest sprinter of these beasts is their bulls who reach a speed of fifty kilometers per hour normally and can keep going faster in double that speed for a hundred kilometers on average per sprint, not only can they do it once but six times each day on a regular of every four hours!.

Horned bulls can keep up with shadow colts on the normal agreed upon distance that both beasts can travel per day, which is one thousand one hundred kilometers on average!.

The only difference is that you can squeeze two hundred kilometers more from shadow colts who can take you nine hundred kilometers per day normally, if pushed to the limit they go for one thousand one hundred kilometers per day, while horned bulls can take you five hundred kilometers per day normally and if pushed to the limit they can do the six sprints for one hour to cover the distance of the sprint and take three hours of normal speed running to rest before sprinting again in another rush.

Shadow colts do sprint in higher speeds but their stamina is incomparable to the bulls and end up slowing down to a trotting pace after each hard gallop, then after they take their rest you keep adding speed into another gallop and the circle of riding shadow colts is complete.

Now Wang was riding a finer bull which is a bit faster than normal by five maybe ten kilometers, and is rushing it to full sprint, yet Lin was keeping his distance between them constant as he ran ahead!.

That's why Wang was asking about how long he can keep running at this speed, not why is he so fast, the road to pearl city is long and even if Lin is fast he shouldn't be able to keep running on that fast pace for long.

"I don't know, damn you Lai, he should've waited until you placed your bet-, nevermind, sigh, green, too green and tender, these big merchants will swallow me like leviathans if I didn't change that. My poor money, mine! All mine yet I let it slip out of my fingers like an idiot, god, I'm so stupid right!." Wei snapped suddenly and started to speak with himself like a lunatic, which made Wang stiffle his laughter and make some distance between them.

"Zhang, what is making you stare like moron so suddenl-" Wang wanted to chat for a bit with his friend since Wei entered his own strange state of self-blame like he always does when an opportunity to make some profits elude him, but he found Zhang staring ahead in obvious shock, when Wang turned his head to look his words got strangled in his throat.

Far ahead was Lai on his colt and Lin some few kilometers behind, after all the colts go at breakneck speeds of almost two hundred kilometers sometimes not to mention how this colt was finer than normal shadow colts.

But Lin was picking up speed gradually and widening the distance from Wang's trio and shrinking the gap between him and Lai, first thing Wang did when he saw Lin get further away was to make sure their mounts aren't the ones slowing down instead.

But the air hitting his body was a clear indication of how fast they're currently going!.

"He's going even faster, are you kidding me?." Wei was the one who shouted in frustration because that meant that Lin can actually win the race which affirms the opportunity loss for Wei, he blamed himself more for being slow to react earlier.

Lai was ahead and gloatingly looking back from time to time to look at Lin who kept getting further and further, then he noticed that the distance stopped widening, then started to shrink slowly!.

Everytime he urged his shadow colt faster it felt like Lin was going faster as well to Lai's worry, he wanted to win the race badly to fill some of the void inside his chest with some relief in besting that little monster who caused it in the first place.

But after half an hour of hard galloping and getting worried for each meter Lin managed to shrink in the gap between them, Lai remembered that this race only begun and smirked devilishly as he let his shadow colt go slower and take a breather.

After five minutes Lin caught up and was next to Lai's colt and graced the blade user with a smiling face, he was sweating bullets and his hair battered by the wind and dust which made him look funny, but Liao Lai noticed that his breathing was barely hurried after running more than a hundred kilometers now!.

Sun was poking his head out from Lin's clothes at the chest and gave Lai a very irritating smirk, which caused Lai to urge his colt faster once again.

'Freak, thank god I didn't get involved with him in any more bets, that shitty merchant almost conned me, even if I'm feeling like I won't win Ill exhaust you all the same, let's see if my luck is good today.' Lai thought as he widened the distance again with Lin.

From the very beginning of the race, many people noticed that strange sight of a boy racing a shadow colt!.

The people who arrived in the harbor first mentioned it as a joke in their chats because they witnessed the distance between Lin and Lai's colt in the beginning, but later as more people arrived that day, the story started to change by more witnesses who saw Lin shortening the gap, gradually they were head to head with every once in a while the colt would take a temporary lead!.

If Lin had seen the sight then he would've remembered how ancients used to listen to their favorite sports on the radio, only this time the commentator was left waiting on the harbor's entrance to keep being updated with the latest news of the race, while a spirit transmission was sent for the guards on the western gates of pearl city to keep an eye out and report the winner of this interesting race at once.

Wei would be shocked almost to death when he receives the news of what he missed, and when he gets an estimation of how much money was betted on this race both in pearl city and the harbor he would faint, such enormous wealth was almost entirely gobbled up by the alliance's people and for days and weaks after the day of the race Wei was troubled with scary nightmares which haunted his sleep.

As a merchant who knows his businesses well and when and where should he risk his assets, Wei never looked at the alliance's benefits and profits they gained covetously, not even once did he get affected when he heard how much their organizations profited periodically, simply because, he couldn't see with his keen eyes for profit, he couldn't see any chance for him to sink his teeth and take a bite from that large pie without getting smacked by the far reaching hand of the alliance.

However, this time Wei could've took the largest slice, both horses of this race were practically his after all and he could be said to be the organizer of this event!.

Had he known that such a large propaganda would follow Lin and Lai's race then he would've personally supervised the ongoings of the tide of bets and sneakily made a fortune with his friends, so what if he schemed these alliance's people?, So what if the race was rigged?, All is fair in love and war yes, but above all in the market.

Many cultivators from the city and harbor tried to go see the fun live, but they found the suffocating pressure coming from two people standing five kilometers above ground and following the racing duo with their eyes.

Each and every cultivator kept his mouth shut and simply followed the race quietly, and never dared to affect the boy or the colt rider's competition.

Inspector and city lord Huang in his blue robe and another elder wearing grey robes were in the sky, that grey robed elder had his long white hair falling below his shoulders freely, the pressure from these two men standing there was enough deterrence to anyone who wants to fly in the air fifty kilometers from from Lin and Lai's location.

The only way any cultivator had to watch the show live was by following after Lin and Lai on foot, and whispering was their loudest way of communication.

"Senior Ao, is your soul sparrow picking anything related to the water-pearl from these juniors?," Huang asked the man in grey next to him who turned out to be Bo An's grandpa, receiving a slight shake from Ao's head made the inspector despair. "I see, grand-elder Renshu will not be pleased, without the water-pearl he has too little chance for taming that water-dragon once it hatches." Huang was the one who found that dragon's egg and gifted it to grand-elder Renshu in hopes for a chance to receive help from the grand elder to rise to the emperor realm, without the grand-elder receiving the water-dragon as a tamed beast, Huang doesn't believe grand-elder Renshu would still help him ascend to the next realm if he ended up with a water-dragon hatchling held under captivity.

Dragon clan could go all out on the alliance if news found it's way to their ears, the case of a dragon who's tamed and a dragon held against it's will is completely different, the faithful coalition is allies with the dragon clan and these two hate the alliance, dragons who are tamed are considered outcasts of the clan or traitors that's why if it was tamed no problems or troubles would follow, the other scenario however is scary for the city lord.

The city Huang rules is far away from the headquarters of the cultivation alliance, and sandwiched between the elve's and the beast's territories, before the alliance could respond and rescue their valuable hold on the west coast, dragons would come to cause havock and rescue their valuable hatchling, kill Huang and everyone in sight then leave everything in ruin.

After all this was proven by history before.

'all those who dare scheme against the dragon clan will face their breathing fury' was a famous saying that some dragon king left in the past after the mighty dragon clan exterminated a dozen clans on the top hundred clan ranking for a similar incident like this one in the past.

That's why the sly grand-elder Renshu choose this place to try and tame the water-dragon, if it failed he won't be blamed by the headquarters for doing his plans in the territory of the headquarters, plus the fact that Huang knows that he himself is a disposable card for the grand-elder, once the cat is out of the bag he can escape and leave him to face the dragon clan's fury.

As a water cultivator his benefits for taming a hatchling dragon can certainly push him up to the emperor realm, if he's lucky to gain the love and adoration of the dragon as it grows then his chances in sovereignty isn't far-fetched.

Huang has taken the risk already, and there's no turning back now.

"So that's the boy who little BoBo played with earlier, Qiu said that he felt soul force which could withstand Qiu's storm pressure momentarily from the boy, Quan said the boy is a little genius with insane agility and quick reflexes, little sparrow here tells me he has a very pleasant soul smell on his body which is extremely strong and bright as the sun, but my eyes see a junior which is a monster in Qi refinement." Chentian Ao brought out a few spiritual seeds to feed the little black sparrow as he spoke, and his words caused inspector Huang to look at Lin suspiciously.

Huang was sure that the kid's space ring was empty, he looked it thoroughly with his spirit sense.

However, soul cultivators are always sneaky and deep, only a stronger soul cultivator can reveal the tricks of another soul cultivator, using other methods could sense the existence of an attempt of a soul cultivator to hoodwink you but not only do you need to be very stronger than the soul cultivator but also your senses and intuition need to be the sharpest there is.

When Huang heard Chentian Ao comment on Lin's soul as "extremely strong" the alarm bells kept ringing on his head, he looked at the spirit emperor standing next to him and said : "Senior Ao, I know that you were fortunate to find a potion of "thought rebirth" once, can I shamelessly ask for it to be used on this junior?. I'm willing to compensate it's use with anything I own and I'm sure grand-elder Renshu wouldn't hesitate to do the same."

"Hrmmm.... even after searching these juniors twice you're still doubting them!, Bullying them thrice would only tarnish your reputation, possibly the reputation of the alliance as well. I won't ask you again, are you sure you want to take this matter that far Huang?." Chentian Ao raised an eyebrow when he heard inspector Huang's request, giving him a deep gaze, Ao asked while taking out a tiny glass tube filled with turquoise liquid.

City lord Huang's face paled when he heard Chentian Ao's words, however, after a second he nodded and said : "Yes senior, all consequences will fall on my shoulders, I'm willing to take full responsibility." Saying these words, inspector Huang seemed to age a few decades, but he was risking it all on his next breakthrough, right now it was too late for regrets, and even more late to turn back.

"Very well then, for a junior, this potion has great help actually, for juniors it's essential to hold the memory of your martial-spirit awakening as you start dwelling on spirit cultivation, sadly nobody cares about admiring the moment when it happened (the moment of awakening your martial-spirit) even if your elders told you to be attentive about it, once you see or feel the existence of your spirit in your body and witness it's characteristics, you're bound to be distracted and the moment slips away from you, you lose the closest distance you can be to the true meaning of the dao of spirit energy cultivation, and what better way or time to do just that other than to itch that memory right after taking your first step on spirit cultivation!," Shaking the turquoise liquid inside the tube after saying that while watching Lin run, Chentian Ao kept a close eye on his breathing which showed how Lin was burning out whatever remained in his stamina tank after crossing sixty percent of the distance between the harbor and the city, continuing he smiled and said : "heh, The boy sure is lucky, he looks to be behind his generation in awakening his martial-spirit and late to start his spirit energy cultivation, yet fate's intervention gave him a chance to catch up with his generation in spirit energy cultivation. to be honest I was planning on giving it to my little BoBo in her next birthday, however, the boy has a slight flaw in talent for spirit as a whole and I would like to see that kid grow up and show his full potential, I doubt he'll certainly become a powerhouse in each aspect since he's already ahead from his generation in Qi and soul attainments. However he wouldn't be able to keep distracting himself by trying to do everything in the same time, his generation is bound to catch up and suppress him if he did that, of course he can take it slow and seek a fusion of three aspects, but that road is risky, the resources needed will be enormous and the demand for comprehension abilities will be very exaggeratedly strained. I wonder what he'll choose to give his full attention to, to truly reach the peak ahead of his generation. Will it be spirit, soul, or Qi?. Don't you want to see that too Huang?," Chentian Ao kept the little sparrow in one of the medallions he have and explained to Huang that he's intending on letting the junior live and grow since he's not going to waste the potion for nothing, shaking his head he kept saying : "you and I are two strugglers who squeezed their tanks of potential to the absolute limit, from the same generation we share you and I have hit the walls any peak cultivator has gave it much thought, be that king, emperor, or sovereign. I'm sure you felt it too, is the wall of sovereignty possibly the last we can really pass?. The one behind mine wall is a door obscured from the eyes of all, any King feels it once he takes the first step of kinghood. Our dao is severed from our senses, is there really no way to become stronger than a sovereign?, If only that question had an answer anywhere, then I will cross world's worth of distance to seek that answer just to get the satisfaction of knowing it. Sigh, here Huang, let's see if that little gamble of mine can lead to something in the future. Maybe I should give BoBo the drop of blood-essence from the water-dragon that grand-elder Renshu promised to reward me for working the thousand beasts formation in her next birthday instead, en." Chentian Ao spoke on and on, then handed Huang the glass tube and his thoughtful face turned into a face of an elder ruminating the thoughts of how to best pamper his grandchildren while donning the happiest smile on his face.

Huang was stunned by what Chentian Ao said because that drop of blood essence is going to be taken from a dragon hatchling, not only is that drop very precious and expensive, if consumed it not only give you pure lifespan and vitality but also reinvigorate the most important thing for any cultivator of any aspect, Potential.

The drop of blood essence from a hatchling dragon reinvigorates potential, for someone like Chentian Ao who squeezed his potential tank almost dry, if he refined that drop of water-dragon's blood-essence, then his attainments in spirit energy cultivation would surely reach the middle stages of the sovereign realm, an increase of a whole realm from the fifth stage spirit emperor to at least a fourth stage spirit sovereign is a fortune of a life time since sovereigns live double what emperors lives!, yet Chentian Ao wants to exchange that with a gamble on a junior, his granddaughter would ascend cultivation realms like a shooting star and hoard more chances which should've fallen to her peers.

To be leading the line of your generation means to be guaranteed a share of resources no matter which environment you're in, for example when his granddaughter visits somewhere like the drowned realm no junior would dare covet any fortune she finds, and her chances to go deeper within the drowned realm itself would be greater and safer if she decided to explore it's secrets, and many more forbidden areas full of fortuitous encounters which only juniors can grasp will be her playgrounds to harvest chances from!.

Holding the potion in his hand, inspector Huang made a mental note to keep a close friendly relations with the Chentian clan in the future, just because they're guaranteed to have an unequaled powerhouse of the next generation in the image of Chentian Bo An, for her age, the girl is already talented with superior attainments for her generation, but after refining the drop of water-dragon's blood-essence then in the minimum number of years the Chentian clan would celebrate another peak cultivator in their ranks.

But both peak cultivators were entirely unaware that they've missed something crucial about the decision they took, yes, Lin was behind his peers in spirit energy cultivation, however, he wasn't in the same slightly advanced age they thought he is, everyone seems to make that mistake because Lin was really looking older than his true age and his mature character added more to that misconception, so Lin in fact isn't behind by much, but if you compared him to Andreas, the genius of the heart seeking sect, Mia, Katherine, and many others then he's indeed a bit delayed.

Now that Chentian Ao agreed to let go of that potion, then Lin would really gain an advantage over them on top of the advantage of awakening his martial-spirit earlier than all.

The timing was just too right for Lin to ingest that potion, maybe had Chentian Ao knew the attainments of Lin then he wouldn't agree to give it to him unless he joined his Chentian clan.

Lin and Lai kept pushing faster for a chance to break this stalemate in the ongoing race, Lin was obviously tired and Lai's shadow colt was all the same burdened with exhaustion.

Wei's group obviously noticed the entourage of cultivators following at a distance behind them, as for the two up in the air?, Chentian Ao made sure to cover their identities from prying eyes.

Only Lin was able to see the identity of these two with his soul sense, but he wasn't able to eavesdrop on their conversations.

That man in grey robes was dangerous to approach with his soul force Lin was sure of it, however, he did see the man hand that city lord Huang the turquoise potion.

Run, run, and run some more.

Lin spent seconds, minutes, hours, day-light and night-gloom in his running rush.

All he had in his mind was to win the race, his body felt heavier with time, his muscles pulled taut with each additional motion, his joints stiffer, groaning, and grumbling for the comfort of rest.

'Stop and ease this suffering you're putting me in' with each painful, rugged, hurried breath he would take in, Lin would feel his body sending him that thought.

Many times he felt the same comforting, cooling, coldness spread on his chest as he ran.

But after running more than five hundred kilometers, the occurrence stopped and Lin found himself pushing the limits of his endurance.

Thankfully Lai's colt had been pushed hard almost all the time and it looked to be burning out the remainder of it's stamina, but after reaching the eight hundred kilometers point Lin looked to be slowing down more than the shadow colt in the last parts of the race.

"Huff.... Huff...." Step after step, Lin's legs felt like lead underneath him, Lai's colt was snorting as it's speed dropped to a trotting pace.

"Looks like it will be my win, you seem to be at your limit Ming." Lai wasn't able to gloat anymore, admiration for Lin inside the blade user was no less than his admiration for ancestor Jianyu!.

"Thump.... Badum.... Thump.... Badum...." From Lin's body, the sound of a beating heart could be heard very prominently and loudly by everyone in a one kilometer radius, cultivators in the master realm or lower felt their hearts clinch and a pressuring feeling overtook their chests.

"Fuck, not again!." Lai's face darkened when he heard the sound, and a feeling of unease filled his chest.