A few hours before daylight, each and every cultivator in the convoy or those cultivators inside the one hundred kilometers radius from Lin, they felt the stirring of the elements in their surroundings once he started meditating.

Their flow of comprehensions was uninterrupted, their thoughts freely found the way to their dao and their cultivation raised quicker than it used to.

Some of the mercenaries were fortunate to breakthrough by a stage, some found answers to their confusions of technique usage and their efficiency and mastery of their skills saw an increase of a grade.

Only the mortals were unaffected by much, their sleep was deep their wariness scattered.

Old Yang and old Fu, the two mercenary leaders were sitting south of the caravan's circle and drinking a toast to celebrate their survival, even they didn't think the danger would be that high in this mission after all.

Lantian, a beast lord is not something they can hope to escape without suffering grievously, their heightened senses of spirit energy gave them a hint of how much light energy was consumed from the surrounding.

Two spirit tyrants can't completely encompass a spirit disciple's sphere of influence on the surrounding elements as he cultivates?, Anybody who hears it would be laughing at their faces as a joke, but, here they are ruefully exchanging glances as they drank because they're witnessing it happen!.

If it wasn't for Bo An's existence outside the carriage and taking the wolf and tiger somewhere south in the dangerous territories of the beast mountains, then these two would've thought it was her instead of the smaller kid who's causing this.

What about the fact that it is light energy?, These two mercenary leaders would've argued that it must be some treasure used by Bo An causing the light elements to gather for the boy to cultivate, over the fact that it is Lin himself who's causing it even if he happened to have the light element.

Maybe that girl has the light element, like this mystery boy, the jewel of the Chentian clan is a similar mystery to the world.

Her affinity is a secret so far to the world, her grandfather made sure to hide it well from everyone outside her clans.

Lightning spear Yang a peak stage three tyrant, and crushing hammer Fu a stage two tyrant were shaking their heads as they felt the world around them go crazy to help the boy cultivate.

Still, the boy didn't raise a single stage despite gobbling up all that light energy!.

Not once was there a sign of a breakthrough actually happening, despite there being so much more energy getting gathered by the boy which is enough to raise him up at least to the third stage spirit apprentice.

Sighing, both of them finished their drinks and went to meditate, the two leaders had quite some action earlier and needs to digest the previous fights and consolidate their foundations.

Zhang managed to climb to the sixth stage with the help of a high grade spirit crystal, while Wang caught up with Wei after three months of hard work under the constant nagging of Zhang and the various skirmishes they had with the beasts.

Lai felt like he's just a step away from peak perfection of the grandmaster realm, he only needed to solve his mistake of neglecting his praying mantis martial-spirit and merge it's abilities with his dao to conclude this loose end before attacking the tyrant's bottleneck.

Wei wasn't merely sitting there doing nothing, he diligently worked on calculating the financial needs for his next project, the transportation branch while waiting for Lin to be free so they can talk about what to do in their next destination.

Mercenary city is where Wei is planning on making some good money, the fighting arenas there are a very profitable opportunity, now that Lin seems a lot stronger than he thought, Wei had to make bigger plans for them to make more money from this opportunity.

They need to talk, plus the fact that they need to get away from Bo An's company, she's a well known celebrity of this world's younger generation and their group except for Lin should go incognito mode!.

But, by daylight, even mortals were looking towards Lin's carriage, because whatever that was happening inside it, wasn't low-key at all.

Lin's skin was completely covered in light energy, not only was everyone of his body cells glowing gold because they're indeed have a strand of light energy in their center but also because his skin was coated in a thin film of light energy which was entirely gaseous.

His heart was giving similar bright glow and his glass heart's cracks were visibly letting that gold light inside the lantern-like heart to shine on the lone fire inside it, after that light energy kept amassing inside it for some time, the gold light energy gathered into creating a new wick of gold fire next to the red one.

A second fire was born inside Lin's glass heart, and the original dweller of this glass heart (red fire) licked it mischievously greetingly before they started to dance around each other and cause shadows to fall chaotically in their surrounding cracked glass heart wall's, like two kids getting to know each other.

While inside the dantian, Gang was returning from the third attempt to clear the meridian, in the second time he painted all the fixed meridian walls white then on this third journey he returned with impurities that covered the next distance of the walls, however, this time he didn't go long upwards in the main meridian walls before finding the first side-branch entrance, it was a lot narrower than the main meridian's tunnel but it was easier to clear the blockage of impurities and the gross sediment filling their cracks.

He reached all the way until the exit of that meridian side-branch, it went all the way from slightly above the stomach area where the dantian resides to the tip of the right forefinger, the way was blocked with impurities until Gang reached right-hand's wrist area, from there, he found no impurities in the last stretch of the meridian's side-branch, the walls at the end of the meridian's side-branch were completely gold and Gang was welcomed by great quantity of the light energy amassed in this room, there was a symbol of wings similar to the one on his right hand covering the only exit, when Gang sent some of his light energy through that exit it merged with the wings symbol and was sent outside his body, sticking to his skin, the light energy covered his right hand and quickly encroached upwards to cover his right hand to the shoulder, calling that light energy back, it receded inwards towards the wings symbol on the back of the right hand then got transported inside the golden room through the other symbol inside the meridian side-branch, then that symbol aided him on the way back by offering almost all of the golden clouds of light energy to Gang to help him in repairing the walls of the side-branch which he cleaned and repaired all the way back until the white walls of the main meridian!.

"Well that wasn't so hard!, You two go eat while I expell these nasty impurities." Gang said as he patted these two cloud generals, while studying how his spirit energy is coating his body right now.

"Fewww...." Opening his mouth to release a breath of light energy filled with a considerable amount of impurities, Gang didn't hesitate to burn it all with the help of the two fires in his glass heart, a single thought and these two small fires ignited a bit brighter than normal and exited the glass heart through the cracks and appeared on Lin's right chest.

"Sizzle...." The red and gold fire mixed in two clouds of fire as they covered the light energy and the impurities and burned them to cinders, not even ash remained after this golden-red mixture of fires burned for a couple seconds then retreated to their glass home!.

"Hoot...." Frostine complained about the nasty smell, then jumped to stand on Lin's head and lowered her head to look down, if he kept making these sudden "farts" she wouldn't be able to concentrate on digesting her inherited memories.

After all if she could finish this step, Frostine was sure she can reach the ancestral realm.

"Heh, this bird dares stand on my head?, Should I pluck her feathers?, Nah, Lin would nag like a granny if I did." Gang cracked his fingers then remembered that he wasn't free to do what he wanted yet, plus how Kai said to take care of Frostine.

"You're lucky you got a backer, snowflake." Gang muttered faintly while grinning widely then he focused on remaking another army to finish working on the remaining grey walls of the meridian's side-branch, just the fact that by opening the first side-branch of the first meridian made Gang able to release his spirit energy outside and inside his skin like what's supposed to only happen with spirit disciples who're able to use the skill of energy armor was an amazing feat.

Was enough to draw a smile on Gang's face, that should be only available when he clears this major meridian!.

Whistling carefreely, Gang watched the fused cloud generals create another vortex around the barrier of the wings and pop up one dark-gold cloud after the other while sucking all the light energy that enters the dantian's space, in two separate ranks, one army to the left and another to the right were being created for the two generals who made a temporary truce, of course these smart generals didn't forget their place and gave their tribute to the wings on time like a vessel honoring it's lord.

Lin was just standing there like a statue in front of his wings, watching every single detail of each feather, every bend of the lines of each symbol, the way they slowly flutter to send the clouds crashing at the surrounding dantian walls outside the golden energy barrier covering the wings.

He just watched and wasn't bored at all, these wings felt closer to him the more he looked at their details the more he felt intimacy with them on a deeper level.

Gang patted the two cloud generals after they did their work and led them up for the side-branch entrance and started reinforcing the walls by offering his cloud armies of light energy, this time the walls would become yellow in color after the dark-gold clouds sacrifice!.

All the way until he reached the area with the walls colored gold beyond the wrist of the right hand, once the connection was over between the white, yellow and gold walls, Gang was sure that he can transfer energy from the dantian to his right-hand's forefinger with a single thought.

The martial-spirit wings spread out completely when the connection between the main meridian and the exit of the meridian's side-branch happened, the wings shone brighter and brighter in gold blinding light, before a thick halo of gold color scattered from it outwards to paint quite a huge part of the dantian walls with huge golden suns, these dozens of suns which added to erase the previous dark bleakness of the dantian's space was a cause of joy to the different newcomer clouds!.

While taking the third return journey from the place where the wings symbol is residing in the right hand, Gang was given another help of golden clouds to repaint the yellow walls of the side-branch a brighter shade of yellow.

"Whistle.... He really is giving me no easy time, really good, now it wouldn't matter if I stayed in the soul world or the dantian." Gang was surprised to find the black areas of the dantian walls shrinking from being the majority to barely half the walls of the dantian, giving Lin an approving nod, Gang didn't urge the two generals to work anymore and let them do whatever they wanted.

The situation outside was getting hectic since Wei and the others were anxious to take a look inside the carriage, while some of the mercenaries were eager to know this boy "Ming" who saved them.

"Lin, the main meridian wall's are painted all the way up until the first side-branch's entrance in white, the side-branch itself is painted mostly in yellow except for the area beyond the right wrist where the wing symbol is, it is painted gold until the exit at the forefinger. We can use energy armor now as it seems, and there's an additional gold fire inside the second heart. That's it for my report on the current situation." Gang grinned when he saw Lin notice his return, then he told him what he managed to accomplish while reclining on one dark-gold cloud general as if he's a floating sofa!.

"I see, good job Gang. Glad to see you're not blushing like Ming at least, I think you should continue working on the soul lock inscription while I deal with Wei and the others." Lin yawned lazily after hearing the report, he smiled when he noticed how Gang was tickling the cloud general underneath him which made it messily fly everywhere in panick, shaking his head at this comical sight, Lin stopped meditating and opened his eyes.

The flow of spirit energy from the dantian to his forefinger was stoppered with a thought and the skin of his body returned to normalcy, the people outside noticed that light energy stopped to push away the surrounding elements from the area around Lin's carriage, Frostine was deeply in her hibernating state of digesting the inherited memories and didn't notice Lin awaking from his meditation.

Gently raising her from his head and nesting her small body in his arms, Lin lowered Frostine to the indigo piece of fur and quietly left the carriage.

"Ah!, Young hero Ming is here."

"Sister Xue look the cute kid is out."

"Little Tong why don't you try recruiting him to our group, if you did Ill teach you some of my moves. See how that Wang is looking your way, I bet he's picturing you naked."

"Oh stop it, is he?, Why would he want to see me n....naked!."

"Eh, maybe you're still a bit too young for these things."

"I'm almost twenty now, see how big they grew?, I bet they're almost as big as yours!."

"Shhhhh...." Lin hurried to cover the carriage with an inverted bowl of soul force to isolate the sound from distracting Frostine, but he was glaring at these two ladies who acted improperly by letting him hear their naughty conversation.

Yet despite him giving the cultivators around the carriage the gesture of lowering their voices, only these two women resumed their hushed conversation when the other's obeyed and became silent.

"Eh!, Sister Xue, why is young hero Ming giving us that look?." The younger woman whispered softly in the older women's ear.

Smirking devilishly, the older woman whispered back : "Maybe he too wants to see little Tong naked." And enjoyed seeing the young woman gape her mouth in shock while a faint blush crept up her cheeks.

"Cough...." Lin almost spat blood when he heard that woman, this time he gave the long legged woman called Xue a glare because she was poisoning this young one called Tong's mind.

"My companion needs some quiet time right now, please don't make noise around the carriage." Lin said as he walked towards Wei and took him to the area where the mortals were preparing breakfast, except for those on guarding duty, the other cultivators in the convoy followed and walked behind Yang and Fu.

They were exchanging excited looks, to get the chance to get acquainted with someone like Lin is something which every cultivator would take pride of mentioning and brag about it everywhere they go, the younger generation is also a possibility to achieve greatness.

Countless tales of fortunate individuals who knew powerhouses of the spirit world in their youth, just knowing them and giving a good impression once, resulted in always a seat available for them on the tables and banquets of the powerhouses when they attained their peak of cultivation!.

Lin despite his tender age, proved to these people how age difference doesn't mean to be always superior in strength.

Two tyrants had to rely on his help when they truly needed saving, alongside more than a couple hundred others in the grandmaster, master, disciple and apprentice realms.

Not to mention how many thousands of mortals who would've died if these cultivators had failed in stopping the beasts, such a rising star has higher possibility of reaching the peak compared to the majority of juniors in the rankings they know of.

The factor of Lin being an orphan and this lucky merchant happened to meet by chance added a certain flavor to their curious nature, they need to know him to satisfy their gossiping habits, why not leave a good impression while doing that?.

"Young hero Ming, I am Li Yang, allow me first to thank you in person for coming to the rescue of my lightning spear mercenaries, if there comes a day and you need the help of my group don't hesitate to send the word, this Yang will do his best to be of assistance." Li Yang the leader of one mercenary group of cultivators no weaker than the spirit master realm, was the first to go ahead and give Lin a deep bow while cupping his fist when he saw the boy go naturally to sit amongst the mortals (who were scared by the sudden intrusion from the cultivators who usually kept their distance from the lowly them) and stretch his arm to grab a piece of hard bread and dap it in some butter and eat casually.

"Senior Yang is polite, this is young master Wei's caravan and I can't let it be destroyed or it will sadden him greatly, but Ill gladly take you up on your offer" Lin waved it as nothing while taking out some of the steaming hot meat dishes inside his ring and offered it to the people who warily and timidly looked at these fabled cultivators, first to try them were the kids around his age who gave him curious looks.

"Young hero Ming, I am Chen Fu, my crushing hammer mercenary group is grateful nonetheless. Just give us a hauler if you require our service anytime, we'll hurry your way as fast as we can without delay." The stocky build man did the same thing as Yang as he spoke, he gave fatty Wei the lazy merchant an envious look before sighing at the luck of the few of this world who can stumble upon a treasure sometimes.

After all, in Fu's mercenary group there's an example of little Tong who's the same as this merchant Wei who managed to find this orphan in his travel, or was it Xue who's lucky?, because originally she's the one who discovered little Tong during one of her missions when Tong was just a brat seven years old begging the streets of some city in one of the twenty-seven empires of the western reaches of the southern continent.

"Senior Fu, please join our table, let's enjoy this beautiful morning and be thankful to be alive." Lin gestured invitingly for the cultivators around to sit as well after sitting, Yang hurried his steps and took the seat next to Lin to the right with Lin, Wei, and Lai to his left, Fu sat next to Yang to the right and his dao companion and elder of the crushing hammer mercenaries to his right, the rest of the cultivators found the mortals willingly give them their seats and about to retreat with their families a bit further to give them space.

Zhang and wang sat next to Lai to the left and kept their "find a woman Zhang likes" game much to the frustration of Zhang, Wang almost froze Zhang into an ice cube when he kept saying no to every option he gave, because that element seemed to suit him better than Wang himself!.

"Everyone, please join my table, I never meant to chase you away. There's plenty of space for everyone here and plenty of food." The cultivators who were about to naturally take these seats which the mortals gave away, were embarrassed by Lin's sudden invite to these mortals and saw their three bosses (Wei,Yang,Fu) looking at them with a hard knowing look which meant 'whatever this little boy say never frown or yammer, just don't be a dick or we'll show you hell'.

Mingling with mortals was these cultivators only option and they had to stuff their way into the circle, however, the most excited about this situation wasn't the grown-ups of the mortals but the youngsters instead.

"Big brother Ming, is it true that these beasts were really chased away by you?." Some snotty-face brat being shackled by his mom's arms, held the table edge to push his small body up and asked in innocent childishness, as fanatic glow clouded his eyes.

"En, senior Yang and senior Fu and all these good men helped out and we were successful, be sure that you're safe now. make sure to grow up strong to protect your family, but above all, don't ever be naughty and disobey them, you know how sad that will make them right?." Lin smiled when he heard the boy's question, he moved a few plates of food closer to the boy's family and answered to calm the mother who felt fear for her boy for daring to speak in the presence of all these cultivators.

The cultivators in the surrounding squinted slightly when they saw Lin send these plates flying towards another table, all of them are sure he isn't using spirit energy at all to do that, however, not all of those cultivators was able to figure out how he's doing it!.

Seeing the same confusion inside the eyes of almost everyone except those sitting in the same table as Lin, made these cultivators curb whatever sense of pride they had in his presence, looks could be deceiving in these situations, if they forgot themselves and said or did something to annoy such a person would be met with misfortune.

The mortals in this gathering were wowed when Lin did this small trick with his soul force, kids were amazed and kept shaking from excitement as their eyes glittered with fantasising daydreams of them someday doing the same.

Seeing the little boy getting easily distracted by what he just did, Lin smiled and asked him again : "are you going to make your mom and dad sad and be naughty little brother?." He looked the child in the eyes seriously and asked which made the boy fidgety.

"I won't make them sad, never ever." The boy shook his head like a rattle drum firmly then stopped to raise his head as he answered while puffing his tiny chest out, it was a pure sight of cuteness as the boy spoke while sitting in his mother's lap, his mom's arms tightened around his small body gently as she smiled the sweetest smile a parent could ever smile.

"Good it's a promise then, to grow stronger you need to finish your meals and help your family around and train your body after reaching the age of six years old, can you do that little brother?." Lin pointed at the food in front of the boy, the plates had piles of meat and various types of fruits and side-dishes then asked with a goading technique that always work on children older than three.

"I can!, I promise to be good." The boy nodded and snatched a fruit from the plate to munch on with gusto after answering enthusiastically.

The other kids pushed away their parents hands (Which they used to reflexively and protectively cover their children's mouths when that boy spoke) and rained questions at this boy who looked younger or a little bit older than them!.

Much to the surprise of everyone here Lin answered when he felt the need to answer some good question, the nonsensical ones he just skipped them while teasing the kids to make the elders in the caravan laugh.

Lin's easygoing personality and his respectful attitude to both mortals and cultivators alike, made the tention in the air vaporize into nothing.

Soon the cultivators were adjoined with mortals in conversations which made Yang nod in approval, just a few words from the boy and these two groups living in two entirely different world from one another were at ease.

While admiring Lin's charismatic personality, Yang was ignoring the glares Fu gave him for taking the seat next to the boy!.

Wei wasn't in a hurry just yet to present this brother Lin with his plans, the two incidents of the race and the beast-wave attacks made Wei wake up to the truth of his financial power.

Wei always dreamed of being the wealthiest merchant alive, to suffocate enemies just by throwing money at them, to be influential, with deep pockets filled with endless resources, powerful friends and allies everywhere around him to keep him safe.

Yet this journey, opened Wei's eyes to his true worth, a lord made him bend his waist and fawn over him.

How could that be called influential?, If he was influential then just his name would make a city lord like Huang welcome him with a wide smile not with threats and a body search!.

Lin's words in the ship about what would happen if he influenced his men to change loyalty, played back again in his head for three months now!.

Forget it, if Lin was somehow hurt by anything or anyone, Wei will have to answer to some entity called Ming, for now he needs to make sure Lin is safe while making enough money to tempt the strong to give Wei protection in the future, Lin was too young and too strong but he was still a first stage spirit apprentice after all.

Wei felt that the boy's limit is a lord realm or something of comparison, for now, but why despite Lin being strong as he is, he's still in that low spirit cultivation realm?.

The timing of his spirit awakening is stunning but years without a single stage increase is.... Too much time!.

That's like stepping into the door and stopping at the entrance, it is taking too long almost two and half years.

Then a question came from the far right of their table that grabbed Wei's attention from his thoughts.

"Young hero Ming, is there anything that you wish to accomplish?, Heroes are said to have great aspiration and I'm eager to hear yours." The woman called Xue asked Lin who was tickling a baby boy which some woman brought closer, that baby was really fighting with his mom to let him be nearby Lin.

"I want to "see" smiles on the faces of those around me, I want to "see" happiness in the eyes of those around me, but, there's no way in hell that I want to "see" anyone "naked" of these two blessings. Actually I don't like those who demean me or include me in their jokes without actually knowing me as a person." Lin raised the baby up then tossed him upwards a few meters which caused the baby to giggle cheerfully, and the mother to pale in the face in fear for her boy, however, Lin gently caught the boy and took him in a few spins which caused the boy to wobble like a drunkard everytime he tried to stand back up on his cute bendy feet, the baby would fall comically on his butt much to the amusement of everyone who saw it happen.

The woman named Xue blushed when she heard Lin's words, this naughty boy dares to play the game of words with her?, He stressed the word see three times then stressed the word naked, clearly he heard what she teased little Tong with earlier and that's why he was glaring at them when they were speaking about him.

Yang and Fu kept the information about Lin being a soul cultivator too a secret, that's why Xue didn't know and she leaned further on the backrest of her chair when she figured out that the boy heard what she said and gave Lin a squinting look as he returned to his seat after handing the baby back to his mother.

Yang and Fu exchanged looks when they heard Lin's answer, they too were curious to hear Lin's wishes, but his words were too directed and Xue's reaction confirmed their conclusions.

The fact that Lin used soul force when he saved them from the beasts couldn't be discovered by anyone other than them, Yang and Fu are tyrants while the rest of their groups are in the lower realms, if these two sensed it faintly then these juniors don't have much of a chance to figure it out.

Knowing how big of a mouth this Xue can be, especially for Chen Fu who's her dao companion, these two leaders felt a bad premonition when they saw Xue squint her eyes.

Holding her hand and squeezing it gently and warningly below the table to stop whatever she's trying because the gain (whatever it was) isn't worth the risk, "good impression" was the word Fu's smile said as he looked at his woman with bloodshot eyes.

'It was enough that old Yang snatched the good spot next to the boy woman, don't blabber anything that would give the boy reason to chase me away from his table!.' Chen Fu thought as he squeezed his wife's hand again.

"Young hero Ming must be joking, seeing something naked isn't always too bad, take the naked truth for example." Xue said then raised the liquor cup to her lips while donning an enchanting smile, she was thinking in her head as the liquor burned in her chest : 'Humph, you're a hundred years too early to play this game with me brat, you're lucky you're fast otherwise this grandma would've given you some serious spanking.' While ignoring the signals her man was giving, Ning Xue just couldn't keep her mouth shut after all.

"It depends, when I peel a fruit it could be said that I'm seeing it naked, when I skin my hunt it could be said that I'm seeing it naked. One example I find my fingers covers in sweet nectar and juicy fruit fragrance the other I'm covered in blood and coppery stench, each time I did nothing wrong but try to live with a full belly, that's a "truth" but it isn't naked! It's just nature and how things work. However, You're naked when you commit vile deeds, you're naked when you defy your nature, you're naked when you poison the brain of the innocent just for fun. If both of these truths simultaneously exist then the only naked truth is connected to unhealthy behavior, the other truth is always beautiful and healthily contributes to the benefit of all of us, Aunt Xue, do you disagree?." Lin didn't give Xue much time to enjoy the answer she just gave and leaned his head forward then looked to the right beyond Yang and Fu straight into the eyes of this woman as he spoke, she looks to be in her mid or late thirties with enough charm to make any man's feelings stir with a single glance, purposefully he called her "aunt" and enjoyed seeing the corner of her eyes twitch when she heard it.

His answer made Li Yang nod again and again, and his judgement of Lin's character added the words quick-witted, wise, and composed to the list of the boy's qualities, even mortals were listening in rapt attention to every word Lin said, not to mention the surrounding cultivators and mercenaries.

Somehow hearing these words, Fu felt like he knows what's going on and he gave little Tong on the nearby table a glance, however, in that single glance Fu was momentarily distracted and his woman acted.

"Tsk, I'm no aunty, call me big sister Xue." Standing up, that woman walked to stand between Yang and Lin then stretched her open palm to intentionally mess up Lin's hair, her commanding tune dripping with anger, she was gritting her teeth and her eyes afire with displeasure.

Tong was giggling in amusement at this sight, because sister Xue really hated it when others called her names that reminded her of her age!.

Chen Fu was sweating hard in his seat as he looked at this situation, was this woman insane?, This boy could outrun a beast lord specialized in speed!.

What is she provoking him for?, Even until now Chen Fu was still trying to comprehend the words he said, they were very deep and caused a rippling effect on the bottleneck stopping him from reaching the next stage of cultivation!.

Everyone on the table felt the sudden tension between these two and Lai was holding the hilt of his blade while Wei and the wang-zhang duo were looking at this woman who overestimates herself, not only was she hired by their clan but also pushing her luck by thinking that Lin is no more than a cute little boy.

Seeing the look Lin gave Lai who was overreacting, the four of them knew that he got this and doesn't require their intervention in this mattar, Lai let go of his blade handle while Zhang smiled excitedly and ignored the elbow of Wang poking at his side, again the handsome man was asking if Zhang liked this feiry, beautiful, seductive woman.

"Not until you fix the image you created of me to "you know who", if you did then I may find it within me call you "little" Xue." Lin held Xue's palm and pushed her hand away from his hair as he spoke, if she dared try to be unreasonable then he doesn't mind some morning exercise and teach her a valuable lesson.

"Xue! Enough, young hero Ming enjoy your meal, let's go." Chen Fu felt like his woman would really flip over on this boy, hurrying to stand and pull her by the arm as he gave Lin his courtesy.

"No, this isn't enough. Let's do this you brat, here and now. No spirit energy, hand-to-hand combat techniques to decide who's right and who's wrong. In the spirit world winner is king, win and force me to accept your ways." Smiling defiantly, Xue stuck her chest out proudly and caused her body to flaunt it's superiority in charm compared to other women in the convoy, pulling her arm free from Chen Fu's hold, Xue refused to back off while goading Lin into accepting her challenge.

"Bets everyone!, Odds are three to one in this lady's favor. Don't miss your chance to make some money." Wei jumped on top of the table before Lin got to answer Xue's invitation, the poor table creaked loudly underneath all that fat which made Lin wounder how long would it take before it crumples on itself.

Lin wasn't in favor with beating up females, especially a senior, beautiful, unreasonable one like Fu's woman.

This voluptuous woman called Xue fitted every one of these descriptions, Chen Fu was sweating and gritting his teeth because what Xue is doing could ruin the possiblity of future relations with this boy.

Fu's chest was full of worries, yet he noticed that Zhang was smiling widely and carefreely as he watched Wei collect the bets from everyone alike be that mortal or cultivator, Fu noticed how the fighting maniac gave Lin looks of hunger for action too.

Chen Fu had the simple man understood in the very first few days in the journey, but his Xue is a peak-perfection grandmaster, Just the quenching of spirit energy to her bones and muscles makes her very strong and experienced in these spiritless fights after years of being his sparring partner.

She's a veteran who spent twenty years of her life fighting beasts and seeing the world while going in all sorts of missions, how can Zhang be so eager to fight Lin if he wasn't sure that he'll win Xue, after all this battle adoring freak has faught each spirit grandmaster in his mercenary group at least once, including Fu himself!.

Then Fu noticed the smile on Wei's face as he collected money from those willing to gamble, Lai and Wang cleared a nearby area in the middle of the circling banquet tables, then placed eight grandmasters in the shape of a circle and made them link their spirit energy which caused a transparent barrier to come to life.

The fighting space was only twenty meters all in all from one side to the other, once the spirit cage was on, Xue pulled her sleeves up and entered the barrier, she couldn't wait for the start signal.

She felt like this brat is cornered since this is not a fight that allows usage of spirit energy, however, Fu and Yang were shaking their heads because Xue forgotten about how Lin ran for a day faster than a shadow colt.

"Believe it or not "little" Xue, you're a step away from having my ways forced on you. Your husband is very worried for you, you see!, He's trying to warn you about not underestimating me. Say, what was it that you planned to do to me earlier?." Lin felt how this transparent glass-like spirit barrier was isolating sound after entering but it wasn't hindering his soul force, then he talked with this woman who's devilish figure reminded him of lady Bai, his mother's best friend and the boss's wife back home in the village.

Lin was stretching his body and warming up before the greedy merchant gives the signal, but he really wanted to know what this woman had in stored for him.

The gaze Xue gave him reminded Lin of the single time his mom raised him up and spanked his plump buttocks.

Hearing Lin's calm words Xue turned to look and saw the look in her man's eyes, she understood how much he'll show her hell in bed later since she disobeyed him now and pestered this little boy, it was alright to spar with Lin but never okay to rile him up to frown upon the hammer mercenaries.

As one of the three founders of the crushing hammer mercenaries and an elder of the group, Ning Xue understands her man better than anyone.

He wasn't even sure of her win!.

That made this seductress burn with delirious frustration, so what if you think he's a genius?, She wasn't denying it at all herself, however, Ming is not going to step all over this lady without at least getting his face scratched.

"When the match ends you'll know." Ning Xue refused to tell Lin anything which caused him to smile then shrugging he returned to his silent warm-up.

'Bring it on brat, big sister will squeeze you between them and sandwich you until you surrender, humph, dares to call me auntie?, Ill show you one hell of a crazy auntie.' Ning Xue thought as she stood confronting Lin, no matter how much she glared at him he only gave her back the same annoying calm look with his strange gold pupils, Ning Xue was annoyed because she felt her supply of anger which would help her against this smart-ass brat, that supply of anger kept diminishing by the second as she looked in his eyes.

"Are we doing this or what?, To hell with it, here I come, boy." Finally Ning Xue thought she had enough of waiting, stomping the ground with her feet, she crossed the twenty meters separating her and Lin in a single push with her right foot and in a split second she was only two steps away from Lin.

Twisting her hips and leaning slightly to the left with her upper body as she opened her long legs right before firmly planting her left foot to Lin's right, through the thigh-height opening at the side of her dress, Xue stretched her right leg to the far right and brought it forward and downwards with all the momentum in a whip-like side kick, aiming for Lin's chest and upper left hand.

Like water flowing, Ning Xue's actions were unhindered as if she has thrown that side kick many thousands of times before, efficiently angling her body and controlling each joint to add force and speed to her kick, her left hand was tucked to her side and was loaded, cocked, and ready for following punch.

The transparent spirit barrier was isolating sound from outside and stopping it from reaching the fighting ring, however, sound inside is transmitted outside normally.

Everyone except for Wei was enjoying the fight that started earlier, however, right now everyone watching the fight was shocked, all except for the four who knows Lin's true name because they expected this result.

"Pa...."

This mixture of mortals and cultivators creating a rare gathering these times and acting as the audience to this rare chance to witness a talented individual from the younger generation confronting a senior in a sparring match to test technique and physical strength, the whole audience was shocked because Lin blocked Xue's kick singlehandedly with his right palm by catching her knee like a hawk latching on a snake, then he twisted on his heels to turn and push his back towards Xue then leaned below her spread legs while turning, he intentionally took a look at her panties while tsking at the color of her choice which turned out to be red, Lin was facing Xue's back in a single retreating step and rewarded her a breathtaking, heavy, left-handed slap on her bountiful left butt cheek which hurled her forward the remaining meter to be stuck face first on the spirit barrier and deforming it outwardly.

"Auntie, you're full of openings everywhere, you better be serious or Ill reward you a few more of these." Lin was the epitome of arrogance as he retreated and invited Ning Xue to try again.

Hissing in pain, Ning Xue really wanted to rub her tingling ass which felt as if it was on fire, however, seeing the eyes of everyone around burning with excitement, she gritted her teeth and endured.

The audience cheered loudly when they saw the boy win the first exchange.

Yang snickered when he saw Fu grit his teeth while thinking : 'Will he be able to endure as his woman gets bullied by a kid?, So much for telling his woman to keep calm earlier.' then he watched as Lin took the sparring match a bit more seriously.

no more spanking happened to these uneven buttocks much to the dismay of the audience, they felt it was unfair for this seductress to have one butt cheek rounded perfectly after Lin slapped it and the other cheek begging to be inflated to give them the perfect sight of a peachy butt.

From time to time Lin would easily restrain the woman called Xue and tell her what she did wrong to prematurely reveal the intentions of her movement before releasing her to try again, hissing with anger at this boy who turned out to be stronger than her bulky man Chen Fu and calmer than his twin sister Chen Fan the only advisor and the true brain of this crushing hammer mercenary group.

Jumping like a lioness at this brat again and again, Ning Xue couldn't scratch anything other than thin air, finally Lin had to exhaust her because he felt that this match is becoming meaningless and this stubborn woman refused to admit defeat after he gave a number of advices with well intentions, raining punches and kicks at Xue while gentlemanly leaving her face untouched he closed the curtains on this fight.

Lin ended the fight by giving the audience what they were whispering about secretively, whacking the right butt cheek with a similar slap to even both sides, Xue fell to her knees with tears welling up in her eyes as she gave her man a weak gaze that stirred up his built up worry for her.

Like a maiden getting bullied by a villain and seeking assistance from her hero, Lin noticed the sly glint in Ning Xue's eyes when she gave Chen Fu that gaze.

Smiling ruefully, Lin didn't reveal it and looked at Fu who was squeezing his fists and shaking from having witnessing his woman getting spanked by a boy in front of everyone, this was shameful even if his woman was an idiot for not listening to his advice, she's still his lovely idiotic woman.

When was it someone else's turn to do this fun game of spanking his wife's butt other than him?, He needs to step up and defend his wife's honor even if he ended up losing.

However, these swollen buttocks must feel good to pump against them, he must give them a try for sure but right now Chen Fu has to face this boy, even he wasn't feeling well about it.

Chen Fu has good hand-to-hand combat techniques, but most of them has requirements for earth energy to be used in tandem with the combat techniques.

His physical strength was even more than old Yang reaching two horses and half, his affinity is earth and after reaching the tyrant realm he choose the dao of heavy-ness intent to supplement his main affinity because he didn't have talent in other elements and found difficulties understanding them.

His intent isn't related to elements like Lin's, but an ethereal crushing force with similarities to how Lai's intent is ethereal but as cutting force instead, when he augments his hand-to-hand combat with either earth energy or the intent of heavy-ness or both of them together, Chen Fu becomes a mighty castle of great resiliency his defense as well offense reach their absolute limit.

"No matter what I say you never listen, damn it woman. Now I need to either win and become the senior who went overboard with Bullying a junior, or lose and become the laughingstock for old Yang's group to ridicule for god knows how long. Go find some rest in the carriage, I know Ill be joining you very shortly because no matter what happens next Ill be too embarrassed to stay here afterwards." Chen Fu glared at his woman as she passed him, holding her by the shoulders Fu pulled her close and told her softly, however, he couldn't help but take another look at her swollen butt as she left with Tong who kept giggling as she whispered softly in her sister Xue's ears who did a first class act just now.

Yes she lost apparently to Lin, yet she still managed to drag her man to the cause of defending her which is considered a win to a woman in love like Xue, quite frankly she doubted Lin would lose to her man after sparring with the boy earlier, he'll just be a bit heavy-handed and a bit more rougher with her man since she felt the boy purposefully go easy on her with his blows.

"Bets everyone!, Senior Chen Fu a stage two tyrant, odds are nine to one in his favor, don't miss your chance to win big." Wei clapped to grab their attention and people started to call their bets.

"Senior Fu, please make your move." Lin didn't wait for long until the procrastinating crowd betting on the winner to make their choice and asked for Chen Fu to start.

"Be careful.....fsst....." Chen Fu came punching straight from the get go, since he's shorter than his wife, his reach was better towards someone as short as Lin.

Lin popped his head up and away to the side while swaying his waist like pendulum, then engaged the bulky man in a boxing competition as it would seems to be his preferred style of close combat.

Both of them were strong, however, Lin was superior over Chen Fu in physical power by a whole ton and two hundred fifty kilograms of force the last time he tested himself, Fu's bones would groan after blocking any punch from the boy which gave him a startling surprise!.

He knew Lin must be very strong to be able to endure that physical burden of the long race between the harbor and pearl city while being a spirit apprentice, which means that he didn't use spirit energy to assist him in finishing the race discreetly, now that he remembers, Chen Fu heard that there was some rumors about the people who witnessed it happen feel the boy's heartbeat and their hearts clinched in pain because of it.

Ruling heart phenomenon was mentioned by some people knowledgeable about the Qi refinement system, some say it happened some say it didn't, but who cares right now?, the feeling of getting pushed back by a boy in a physical strength competition was really annoying and extremely bitter to swallow, Chen Fu felt like he's wasted almost fifty years of his life just by retreating one step when confronting Lin, not to mention being in a complete disadvantage in technique and power which should've been Fu's advantage!.

"Crackle...."

Feeling the two fires in his glass heart at the right chest suddenly crackle, Lin hurried to evade the next punch instead of receiving it in his palm like he did before.

"Boom..."

He felt danger when he looked at the normal fist travel past his chest, suddenly a crushing pressure overcame his body and Lin saw the ground behind him indent inwards in a shape of bigger fist and one large dust cloud spread around where it hit the ground.

Just the sound gave everyone watching a feel of how strong and forceful the previous crushing punch was, maybe had Lin received it then his arm would break or get thrown back by it's great force.

"Eh!.... This.... I'm...." Chen Fu stammered when he awoke to the fact that his intent was used in a simple sparring match.

The eyes of the crowd was hard and their frowns deep when they looked at Chen Fu, only Wei was enjoying the show and spicing things up with his commentary to pull more victims to bet against Lin.

Lin was dodging each punch flawlessly, however, in Wei's commentary he was struggling and pushed to the corner helplessly!.

Once the show of heavy-ness intent happened Wei called it "vital Qi" shamelessly to trick the ignorant few to give him their money.

Yang was surprised to see Chen Fu get pulled in the fight that deep to the degree of forgetting the rules, he was enjoying the challenge one moment then in the next moment he was including his intent in his punches!.

Zhang was interested in that strange intent which he felt from Fu, it wasn't the strongest of the intents which he witnessed in the past but it was to his liking.

"That was your intent right!, It felt heavy like a mountain. Want me to use my intent as well?, Or should we call it an unintentional foul and continue like before with just the strength of our physiques." Lin massaged his sternum which itched slightly as he spoke, he wasn't blaming the bulky man for getting lost in the spur of the moment and forgetting the rules at all.

This used to happen when he sparred with seniors from his village, these battle maniacs would get their eyes reddening after excitement got to their heads and make Lin end up with bruises sometimes before they woke up from their state of battle lust!.

Chen Fu blushed in the face when he saw Lin calmly give him some face by leaving the choice of the rules to the spar in his hands.

"Normal rules, I say hurry and end it because I feel like I'm an exotic creature in a storefront right now." Chen Fu removed distractions from his head and this time he went at Lin like a monster, punches, kicks, joint locks, throws, tackles, etc.

Any technique in his repertoire was attempted or executed on Lin by leader Fu, with Wei adding fire to the action with his commentary, these mortals were having the show of their life and the majority of the hot-blooded cultivators were eager for some action.

Finally Fu knew that he has nothing more to try on Lin, and in the moment before he gave up, Chen Fu found his face stuffed in the ground after his legs got entangled with Lin's then Lin was firmly locking his arms around Fu's neck and his legs around his wide back and squeezing like a python.

Knowing that he lost and the only two things to help him remove Lin who was acting like a sticky leech for a while now, creeping all over Fu's body and using the strangest joint locking techniques, was by either using his earth energy or heavy intent.

Tapping on Lin's arms who blocked air from his lungs with his arms and crushing his ribcage from the sides with his legs, Fu found himself able to breathe again as Lin let go of his hold and quickly got off of him and offered him a hand to get up.

His face calm and a faint smile on his face, looking at these golden pupils Fu felt like this kid knows what he's intending to do next to his woman to vent out this morning embarrassment.

Those who won by betting on Lin were the minority yet they were making quite a ruckus while those who lost were silently glaring at the bulky mercenary leader who was their choice, only Wei was still commentating on how hard the fight was and emphasizing how this boy must be tired to exhaustion right now after two continuous fights back to back.

Fu escaped from the spotlight and ran back to his carriage with a bellyful of feelings of being wronged by these assholes who betted on him yet didn't give him emotional support after losing, there he found little Tong waiting and giving him gloating looks, this brat knows what is going to happen later between these two lovebirds for sure, however, Fu needed to vent all these on the one who caused it in the first place.

His wife Ning Xue.

'just what kind of open secret has my relationship with Xue became?, I must teach her to be meek and tame like a proper wife this time for sure. Hmph, I can't let her get me mixed up with needless troubles anymore, old Yang is sure to take advantage of this situation to earn the favor of Ming. Sigh, no use crying over spilt milk huh.' Chen Fu thought when he saw little Tong's knowing look.

"Cough.... Little Tong is very lucky, why don't you go make some money from this event before it's over?. Always bet on the brat and I'm sure you'll be alright, if you see him reaching his limit go in there and clobber him some for me and your elder sister Xue alright." Chen Fu took out one purple coin then tossed it to the girl and said while rubbing his fore-arms to ease their pain a little, just this small action of tossing a coin sent pain signals like hive of bees going all out on his nerve system, earlier he was using them to resist by blocking or to parry some of Lin's punches and his bones were still screaming from the rattling aftereffect of all that force travelling to the bones even after he used his spirit energy to ease their pain.

But nothing was harmful from this lesson from the boy, after showing his woman who really is the boss?, how should she heed his orders and behave in his presence?, how to care for the future of their mercenary group?, and above all to teach her how to always give him face and stop embarrassing him while relying on the bond of love between them as a safety net.

He would need to meditate on his fight with the boy and some quiet time to understand the meaning of the words Lin said, Chen Fu wasn't able to find the underlying meaning behind a few lines the boy said and his mind and intuition were strangely united on a decision this time and kept warning him to not lose this lead, especially since he felt the bottleneck loosening up earlier and wanted to take advantage by trying to push for the third stage.

Tong gave her leader a knowing look after catching the coin and didn't leave before sticking her head inside Xue's carriage to see what she's wearing this time for her man, giggling when she saw Xue's heavenly figure sticking out seductively from the revealing pinkish lingerie, little Tong patted Fu's wide shoulder assuringly but instead of seeing him smile he was groaning in pain as his face turned into a meat bun after flushin red with pain, because that gentle pat sent a few more waves carrying suffering to his head.

Shrugging, Tong left the bulky man to solve his issues with her sister the old way, then headed for the bustling area where Lin was fighting one captain of the lightning spear mercenaries this time.

Wang was arguing with Zhang about how he's being unreasonable, if he didn't choose a woman and bring her back this time then Zhang's mom wouldn't stop nagging poor Wang.

Stubbornly, Zhang was frowning hard and puckering his lips in dissatisfaction, why should he marry when he doesn't feel like it?.

He would rather go spar with Lin or break his back in training than spending time with some girl who wouldn't understand him, these creatures called females are strange and oftentimes scary!.

Even Zhang's mother was an exotic creature all the same, now she was pushing the matter of his marriage and whatnot too far, often asking him for a grandchild and a daughter in-law to keep her company in his absence.

Lai was watching Lin's every technique and linking them with how Lin would train his body, he felt weird when he fused the two events, because as he watched Lin train his body solo, Lai couldn't get his hands on the point of these random moves.

But, when he saw the boy in action, these incomprehensible moves felt like the best, most direct, and efficient choice to cut corners towards your enemies and force your opponent into an endless backpedaling disadvantage!.

'If only had I one similar technique compatible with the blade.' Lai regretfully thought that while watching Lin take on one mercenary after the other, be that apprentice, disciple, master or grandmaster.

Wei closed the betting house and just for fun resumed his position as a commentator with old Yang joining him in trying to dissect Lin's techniques, none of those who lost felt any shame in losing at all.

After all, this boy just bested a tyrant specialized in strength and defense earlier, it was their honor to withstand being locked in the same cage with him for a few moves more than their friends.

It was an endless winning streak and soon it became a cacophony of chants after each win, Ming.... Ming.... Ming....

Those who dared enter the cage to face Lin would find him going on the defensive first to measure their strength before countering them without hurting them, well much!.

But, his last words with those brave enough to join him in a sparring match would make their eyes light up with joy and they would leave at a hurry to seclude themselves after thanking Lin, gradually by noon, those who are still watching were the few cultivators who aimed for snatching the win or those who choose to bid their time to study Lin a bit more.

Plus Lai, Wang, Zhang, Yang and little Tong who made quite a bit of money before the betting organizer (Wei) decided that he would be losing money if everyone betted on Lin's win.

The mortals were sitting under the shade watching this boy beat up one strong man or woman after the other, fathers and mothers kept encouraging their children who aren't yet ten years old to try and awaken their martial-spirits, who knows they might be strong like this Ming someday if they gave it their best.

Finally, Zhang couldn't hold back his enthusiasm any longer, jumping inside the spirit cage he showered Lin with his newest combinations, not only was his attacks fast but deviously patient and not leaving himself open for the boy to disrupt his flow.

Lin smiled when he saw how Zhang's approach has differed since the last time they sparred, even his physical strength was higher!.

However, that was the best individual when mentioning strength in this group and Lin was excited about the fact that despite Zhang getting stronger, his own body seemed like it had been upgraded compared to what he thought it should've been.

From his estimations, Zhang is about four horses strong, each of his punches is equaling at least four tonnes!.

Sometimes with the effect of executing techniques, this force increases and Lin was excited to witness his body receiving these fearsome attacks without succumbing to them, feeling that he can go ahead and push the gas a bit to see what he's capable of doing right now, Lin upped his strength and speed a notch and wildly went head to head against Zhang.

Lai and Wang were surprised to see Zhang get pushed back despite him going all out, only his stamina tank held on for about fifteen minutes before he fell on his back gasping for air.

He lost again but he was smiling widely and basking in the sun to enjoy the feeling he liked the most, the feeling of going all out and giving it his all, win or lose doesn't matter as long as Zhang gave it his absolute best and left nothing for regrets.

"Hurry up and leave, the boy is exhausted this is our chance."

"Yes, big fella Zhang hurry!."

"Hahaha, merchant Wei open up the betting house I'm betting on myself this time."

"Not fair, I waited long for the boy to gas out."

"Ehm.... Draw lots, hurry because you see Ming is able to recover very fast." Wei slyly said and watched the sneaky cultivators decide the order while betting on themselves to win this time, little Tong took advantage of the situation and made a few more bets on Lin, her action caused Wei to notice how this hedging client always betted on the winner.

Old Yang and Wei's commentary reached all the way to those on guarding duty, these men counted the minutes until their shifts ended either to go watch or participate in the action.

Once the next shift arrived, these guards ran towards the banquet to join the festivities.

With the new wave of cultivators from the two mercenary groups and Wei's own men, the fights continued to plaze inside the ring, even Wei's new clients joined the fun(who ditched the other caravans to join his), Lin forced some to submission and knocked out some stubborn fools who refused to submit because they betted on their own win.

Finally only four cultivators remained who didn't spar with Lin today or at all in a couple of cases, old Yang, Lai, Wang and little Tong.

All the cultivators experienced a beat down except them, one was joining Wei in the commentary and deeply wishing if Lin would join his lightning spear mercenary group, one was focusing on finding or creating a similar technique to Lin's which is suitable for the blade while sitting next to Wei and keeping close distance like a loyal personal guard, one wasn't interested in being Lin's punching bag in public and thinking about which of these females has a chance to grab Zhang's attention and worm into his dormant intimate feelings for the other sex and ignite them, one was waiting for the best chance to sweep the carpet from below this boy and con this fat merchant of his money while avenging her big sister and her group leader.

Chen Fu and Ning Xue were attached at the hips ever since Tong left, going at it like an animal to vent his frustrations was only making voluptuous Xue moan louder and louder, if it wasn't for the sound isolating formation that Ning Xue activated earlier then the sound would've been heard all the way to Lin's audience!.

Even if his whole body ached with each thrust, Chen Fu couldn't stop pushing deeper while firmly pinning his woman's shoulders from the back underneath his rough palms.

However, the shaking carriage gave away the committed actions inside it, thankfully not too many people were looking towards that area, only the guards noticed it and envied boss Fu on his charming woman.

These two actually were wild even before Lin met them, they wanted a child of their own, to create a family was their aim for years now but they didn't succeed in conceiving one yet, their talents in cultivation wasn't great but their love for one another was.

While pushing his woman's perfect body underneath him, Chen Fu was grateful for Lin, he really made him the best cushion with these two heavy-handed spanks.

Just ramming it in and feeling the bouncy, springy, flexible buttocks on his stomach was an addictive feeling which Chen Fu couldn't get enough of.

Poor Ning Xue had her brain freeze and her thoughts elongated into her man's male member poking her brain repeatedly and making pleasure ooze from it, feeling the hot liquid seeping inside the deepest parts of her womb and almost making it explode made Xue shiver in pleasure for the first time in her life!.

Chen Fu never felt so alive, this session has just started and little Xue is shivering like a wet kitten underneath him.

'Heh, this is fun, one more time.' Chen Fu thought as he raised his woman to his chest and cupped her chest in his palms from behind and kneaded it roughly, he resumed his repetitive thrusts, leaning his head forward he locked lips with her and sucked her sweet lips while enjoying the dreamy eyes of his woman.

While getting nailed, Ning Xue wondered why this time was different with her Fu, deep in her brain the image of two golden pupils opening in the dark of her thoughts to give her a calm stare.

Opening her mouth to say something, the next thrust of her man made her body spasm and weakly she was crushed under his muscular body pushing against her on top of the soft bed cushions.

'It's him!, The boy is the one responsible for this change.... Hnghhh.... Mmmm.... That's the spot.... Harder.... Deeper.... Ahhn....' Ning Xue was soon forcefully pulled from thinking straight by Chen Fu who never gave her a second's worth of rest, but it wasn't to her dislike at all to discover this new side of her loving husband, right!.

Lai was the first to enter the cage, Lin has more to teach him, he just felt it, however, Lai has to be in the receiving end of the boy's attacks to figure it out, not someone else.

Since he couldn't use his blade, Lai used his arms like a blade and found Lin indeed giving him hints of how to include blade usage in that strange technique, but the brat played with him long enough until Lai felt like his bones would break if he exchanged one more attack with Lin.

'He's stronger than before, that time when we raced must've been the cause his physical strength raised this much, body, spirit, soul, intent! Sigh, better focus on myself than others. At least he gave me some hints, I need to be thankful for the opportunity and work hard on applying them in my blade techniques and integrate them with my blade intent. However, right now my martial-spirit techniques integration with my blade dao is a must to reach the tyrant realm, shitty merchant here is about to reach the last stage of the spirit grandmaster like me. If he reached the tyrant realm before me I know he wouldn't shut up about it.' Lai thought as he retreated towards his carriage to meditate after giving Lin his submission gesture.

Wang knew that he has to taste this beat down whether he likes it or not, seeing Lai finish, he jumped in the cage and unlike everyone, he was doing his best to evade Lin's attacks and not seeking to win!.

Passively seeking to keep on the defensive without attacking once, no matter how many times Lin gave away flaws in his techniques as he attacked, Wang never bitten the bait, he did his best to prolong the sparring match while limiting the damage he received to a minimum for as long as he can.

The crowd of mortals were pooing the handsome man who didn't seem to have the guts to fight a little boy, especially the kids who laughed at his sight as he tried to escape from Lin again and again and again.

Old Yang mentioned how Wang is solidly making sure to maintain his calm despite the endless barrage from Ming to the ignorant crowd of mortals, then he patiently explained how this approach isn't wrong because, if he's lucky he may catch the boy by surprise in a heartbeat, if only his strength was comparable to Lin or at least Zhang, then Wang could've had at least thirty-five or fourty percent chance of winning this sparring match in his opinion.

The females from the crowd who had disappointment in their eyes saw Wang in an entirely different view after hearing Yang's commentary, some even betted on Wang's win with blushing cheeks and a wave of teasing comments followed by some envious males who wished Wang would be eating dirt next, thankfully this barrier was isolating sound from outside or Wang would've spat blood if he had heard some of the little kids spiteful comments as they defended their newest role model, young hero Ming.

Finally it was over when Wang was forced into a corner and pummelled hard everytime he tried to escape or counter, Lin grabbed Wang's left wrist with his right arm then slapped the other arm aiming to clinch his body away with a backhand sweep of his left arm, jabbing Wang's nose twice quickly while using his left knee to redirect Wang's straight front kick from finding his belly which aimed to give Wang some breathing space, nudging the handsome man's jaw up with a measured left uppercut after the backhand sweep, he let go of Wang's left wrist after pulling it downwards to shrink the height difference, then rewarded him a right hook to the jaw which caused his neck to twist to a dangerous angle and rattled his brain so hard like a jar of pickles!.

Slumping to his knees paralyzed, Wang knew that he must've been too passive for Lin's preferability that's why he choose to knock him out despite seeing how helpless he was to even go for the clinch desperately.

Old Yang smilled and entered the cage when he saw two guards carry the unconscious Wang out, he can't miss out on the festivities after all, the boy was an opportunity to test how far he's in comparison to this startling talent from the next generation.

Old Yang wasn't old for a third stage spirit tyrant, but he wasn't overly young to be a powerhouse of his generation as well.

As a user of lightning, Li Yang couldn't be defensive like Wang because it would be going against his dao, from the moment he entered the transparent spirit barrier cage, he refused to shy away from this brat without actually feeling how hard, quick, devious, and brilliant Lin's attacks were in person.

The man studied Lin's movements and felt like he understood his style after seeing all these fights, however, Li Yang was surprised to find Lin using an entirely new different style to counter his own!.

Wei was elated to accept bets and even more elated to watch old Yang in action, however, what really elated him was to fan the flames of this fight to attract more gamblers, every move the mercenary leader made benefitted the fatty who felt like his lightning affinity resonate with this style.

Deep inside his brown eye-pupils a faint image of a purple tip-less spear made of lightning energy appeared, and Wei unknowingly entered a phase of silence and the audience was confused why the commentary stopped suddenly!.

An air of unease filled out the chests of those who betted on Lin in this silence, and thought they were going to lose their money this time since the man who is the true lord and leader of this caravan should be favoring his underling (Ming), yet he suddenly stopped talking and stared silently at the fight!.

Surely, he's worried.

Those who betted on Li Yang felt like this silence was a chance for them, chanting Yang's name louder and louder they watched him go on the offensive from the get go like a simpleminded, suicidal general who found himself the last man standing in the battlefield facing an entire army after a great battle where he lost his soldiers.

Zhang returned after resting for a while and saw the audience riled up and Wei staring at nothing like an idiot silently, knowing what usually accompany this state from his young master, Zhang stood behind him protectively while activating the strongest earth energy armor he can conjure on his body.

Last time Wei had a sudden enlightenment Zhang got scorched much more than the time Lin burned him with his fire intent, despite being lazy and extremely neglectful in his cultivation, this fatty somehow is two stages beyond Zhang in cultivation despite being a few years younger!.

Wang always hated it but Zhang thought it was natural for the lord to be stronger than his vessels in this world which only respects the strong, otherwise the vessel should take the lead instead.

However, this old Yang was holding his grounds against Lin quite well, even if Zhang was assured that Lin was intentionally using similar force to Li Yang's own to make it a fair sparring match and the fatigue factor which started to kick in after this prolonged exercise for the boy, yet he was still faithful in Lin's eventual win at the end.

The cheering noise attracted attention from the cultivators who retreated to digest their comprehensions, the majority hurried up the process and the minority stopped it all together to go take a look, they shouldn't miss the fight between the strongest person in the caravan and young hero Ming.

Those who fought already started to trickle back in to watch after finishing their short secluded meditation while excitedly exchanging conversations about how much they earned from their loss, the cultivators who didn't manage to raise a stage in their cultivation after fighting the beasts were surprised to find another few dozens who managed to raise their cultivation by a stage after sparring with Lin!.

Finally, like Zhang anticipated, Lin was able to deliver a nasty liver blow to Yang's midsection which took his breath away and caused his face to contort in pain, before Yang managed to recover, Lin was twisting his torso and turning counterclockwise to lower his body and sweep Yang's legs from the ground with the heel of his left leg, and before Yang got to use his left hand to support his falling body, Lin was supporting his body on his two palms while bending his elbows to lower his back and to push against the ground to position himself right below the falling Yang and his right foot sole was buried a few inches deep in Yang's left side below the ribcage and extending his bent right knee and raising him up and hurling his body to the air like a doll while using his back to absorb strength from the ground and the left leg acting like a hook firmly planted in the floor, as he delivered the last push with his right foot his waist rose up to create the perfect bridge with his spine and Lin elegantly did a hand stand then flipped his body to stand on two feet again normally.

Li Yang used his lightning energy to cover his body and stop it from raising too far up then slowly lowered his body to stand in front of Lin, he was floating above ground by a few inches and admiring this young talent who just gave him a very valuable experience.

Cupping his fist politely, boss Yang said : "Thanks for giving this Yang face by going easy on me young hero Ming, let us do this again in the future while using our spirit energy. I know I won't need to wait long for it to happen, I admit defeat." Li Yang nodded then left in a hurry for his carriage, his comprehensions this time were more than he can wait to digest, otherwise he'll come to regret it if he didn't hurry, Li Yang felt it clear as daylight, his bottleneck was loosening more and more, this was a chance to widen the gap between him and Fu!.

Looking around, Lin was gasping for breath as his chest heaved up and down but he didn't want to rest just yet, this exercise was fun and these people helped him understand his current physical capabilities, why should he stop before getting completely exhausted?.

Wei had closed his eyes once Li Yang lost and entered a state of absentmindedness, only little Tong was left in all the cultivators who didn't give sparring with Lin a try.

"Yes!, Mommy big brother Ming won, see!, He won!."

"Big brother Ming you're so cool."

"Big brother Ming is amazing, he beats everyone!, Hahaha I'm going to grow up strong just like him."

The kids cheering for their hero Ming awoke the surrounding cultivators from their shock caused by Yang's loss, while the families did their best to shush their children after waking up to the fact of the strongest person actually losing to this boy Ming while warily looking at the frowning or gaping mouthed cultivators, the mortals were timid by nature when dealing with cultivators Lin's politeness gave them relief and it was true, however, who knows what these kids could or might say ignorantly to drive these cultivators who lost their money betting on the wrong person insane.

"Not sure if I saw this big sister there fight big brother Ming yet."

One cute girl with freckles muttered while looking at Tong who was hesitant about joining this sparring match or not, Tong was only in the peak-perfection of the spirit disciple realm after all.

However, the girl's comment happened to be in a moment of silence, everyone from the gamblers heard what she said and turned to look at Tong as if she's their hope to regain their lost money!.

The reason Tong was hesitating about it is because she felt like her luck wouldn't be of help this time against this freak of nature, she wasn't strong physically at all and her hand-to-hand combat techniques were mediocre at best.

"We still have little Tong, she's very lucky and her affinity is the special element of mist."

"Yes, the damned boy is obviously tired and just needs a push to fall, hurry before he recovers little Tong."

"Errr.... Merchant Wei is meditating, who is going to take our bets?."

"What?, Wake him up, I lost half my money."

"This.... We better not offend our contractor, the guild's disciplinary hall would skin us alive because he didn't do anything against the contract you know."

"Fuck!, Are we just going to let this chance slip from our fingers?."

As the cultivators argued with each other, or to be precise, as the losers amongst the cultivators pulled at their hair from frustration, they heard Lin's voice giving answers to their trouble : "I can be the house and take your bets instead of Wei, just name your bet and you won't find me forgetting a figure even if you wished for it to happen, I won't."

Turning to look at him, everyone was stunned to find that Lin didn't exit the sound isolating barrier, the ones who threw curses at Lin were sweating bullets when they discovered that he was able to hear what they say.

Smiling their way he was wiping down sweat from his face with his dirty sleeves and didn't urge them to decide, every second wasted only gave him time to rest which was to his advantage.

One cultivator asked Lin cautiously to test the waters : "what are the odds?."

"Good question, four to one in her favor if she's my next opponent. Of course any of you is welcome to take her place, just take your time and decide if you want to change my opponent before notifying me. After seeing my opponent Ill give you the stakes for the new bet, fellow gamblers." The way he said these words made the innards of the listening cultivators twist in pain, most of them tasted Lin's punishment on various levels this very day and knows what it means to be stuck in an enclosed space with him, the soft tune which he spoke with gave them the creeps.

Fighting the boy again?, No way in hell, at least not now.

Everyone here knew that Lin was going easy on them in the sparring matches earlier, just a little reminder was the bruises which didn't heal yet, this time after they were found out talking trash behind his back?, Surely he'll be extra more heavy-handed, right!.

After all he dared to spank boss Fu's womans butt in front of all of them including her man, for sure he wouldn't spank them too and make them walk around for a while with extra-large butts, or would he?.

Not to mention that the reason of the dispute was Xue's talking behind Lin's back.

"You're on little devil, fifty green coins from me on Tong's win."

"Heck I lost one blue coin in three wrong bets, one blue from me on Tong's win as well."

"One purple coin from me, I'm going all in on Tong this time."

"All or nothing, one low grade spirit crystal on Tong. May her lucky halo touch all of us."

Gritting their teeth, these cultivators found themselves in a very difficult situation.

If they waited, Lin would rest and their chances would become slimmer to break the winning streak of the brat, if they bit the bait, they would be gambling on Tong's luck not her ability.

Finally they cracked under this silent pressure coming from Lin who took out a chair to sit and wait for them with the same calm attitude, that exact attitude was the reason of the pressure and once one shouted his bet, the rest grinded their teeth and called their own bets.

"I can give you a handicap on me and an advantage for her if you're in for a double or nothing option." Lin stored the chair and told the red eyed cultivators, some frowned and some felt like there's something wrong in this situation.

Only Zhang was smirking when he saw Lin play a group of senior cultivators in the palm of his hands while keeping absolute calm, looking at their faces he felt sorry for their ignorance, Lin was clearly stalling for time to recover yet they timidly were afraid to poke the paper tiger and take a look beyond it.

"What handicap?." Tong asked when she heard Lin, anything which is supposed to be an advantage for her is good.

"You're not yet in the master realm if I'm correct, right?," Lin asked as he looked at her, seeing Tong's eyes squint slightly before she nodded to confirm his guess, Lin continued : "Your special element of mist is a bit restraining to mine own element of light, do you agree?." Again Lin saw Tong nod to confirm his guess and her eyes glowed in understanding.

"Get to the point you br... Young hero Ming, don't stall for time or it is considered cheating." One cultivator amongst the losers slammed the table with his fist as he spoke which caused the plates and cups fly a few meters up before crashing to the ground and breaking into countless fragments, the surrounding mortals were scared into paleness when the spirit pressure of a spirit grandmaster covered them and shook like leafs in a storm after falling to their knees with fear all over their faces.

"One more similar action of terrorizing these people and Ill come out to show you what it feels to have a boy force you to kowtow and apologize to every single one for three days and nights, don't forget that they're merchant Wei's clients now and not yours or anyone's to bully until we send them safe to their destination, the Cheng clan's caravan authority will be administered on old Yang and Fu if they dare do the same. Let this be the first and last warning to all of you, our clients will, and shall be forever respected and protected, as long as they're not the first to wrong, then you better come to merchant or his men to solve your issue instead of taking matters to your own hand." Lin scattered the spirit pressure with his soul force and his words thundered in the ears, heads and chests of the cultivators shaking them to the core, raising up the helpless innocent mortals to their feet with gentle touch of his soul force, he gave the cultivators a taste of his grumpy side by lining his bottom line clear as day.

The soul pressure that covered them wasn't affecting their bodies at all, it gripped their souls like a cage that would gradually shrink and tightened around their caged souls.

Inside his soul world, Gang was smiling as he gave the inscription around their silver eye which is half complete a sleepy gaze before he left the soul world to go to the dantian's space to take a nap on top of the fused cloud generals.

When Lin used his soul force he didn't include Wang, Lai, Fu and Ning Xue, Wei or Yang even Tong was left out and completely unaffected.

He wanted to face someone with a restraining element to his own after all and see how elements affects his own, that's why he didn't want to include Tong in this severe warning yet, Spirit energy clash is a test to the strength of your spirit energy, to face someone else who uses energy from the same grade or form, answers your question to how strong and pure your spirit energy currently is.

When Tong fights while coating her body with her spirit energy, each punch or kick would send energy to the receiver, if Lin did the same then his energy needs to be pure and compressed enough to equal Tong's own or higher to nullify the force without having her spirit energy intrude into his body and distrupt his spirit energy flow or worse if it disrupted his inner organs work which could be dangerous in that case if left neglected.

Spirit energy fights tend to be prolonged if the energies were of the same grade, both he and Tong use the gaseous form of energy (which is limited to apprentice and disciple realm), liquefied form of energy comes next (Which is limited to master and grandmaster realm), crystalized form of energy is the last one Lin has information of (which is limited to to tyrant and lord realms).

He wanted to know how pure his energy is right now, he wanted to see if the purest type of gaseous energy he has (the armies of dark-gold clouds and their two generals) would fare long against someone who's at the peak-perfection of compressing their gaseous energy almost to liquefying.

The cultivators who felt the effectiveness of the half complete inscription around Lin's third eye, gave the boy looks of disbelief and dread caught their thoughts, they felt something far worse than killing intent from that pressure from the boy, far worse than the strongest spirit pressure they experienced, those who chanced upon encountering soul cultivators among this gathering were extremely rare, yet those minority in the group of cultivators didn't feel anything like what Lin gave them just now.

They felt it clearly for a moment now, their souls imprisoned, their thoughts revealed, their memories opened like books as their past, present, and future gets held between Lin's fingers to mold it however he wants!.

Even those in the peak-perfection of the spirit grandmaster realm felt that, despite the boost they receive to soul strength by reaching that realm, these grandmasters felt cold sweat trickling down their backs when they felt that inescapable danger from Lin which fell on their souls out of nowhere!.

"You're saying that for double their gamble I'm allowed to use spirit energy, everyone?, With spirit energy at least I can be guaranteed some safety and an additional boost in stamina, young hero Ming is strong physically but I think I can take him on with spirit energy as long as he doesn't use his wings to keep his distance." Tong spoke and awoke the scared cultivators and mercenaries from their shock, she felt nothing but Lin shouting at them and they're getting scared, she attributed it to his previous win over these guys who're suddenly acting timidly.

Looking at them she found hesitation in their eyes, Tong saw them exchange looks again before bringing their money to place it in front of her with droopy shoulders and listless eyes.

These sore losers knew that Lin didn't include Tong in his warning and knew that they need to act normally and not to expose what Lin did, the affairs of the "strong" has no relations with those who're "weak" and these cultivators who received this rude awakening from the illusion of being the strong in this gathering felt like they truly fit this description of being weak, precisely the group of losers, they kept their mouths shut and paid some of their resources to appease the anger of this little ancestor Ming.

After all to receive the favor from this genius wasn't up to them, it was up to Lin himself to choose who to befriend, all they can do is try and leave a good impression and hope this boy would grow up into a titan which will remember them and stretch a hand of assistance when they need it.

Most of the loose cultivators who joined the Cheng clan caravan were planning on joining merchant Wei's ranks and waited for the opportune time, the mercenaries were relying on their two leaders to do their best in making connections with this fat merchant Wei, a few others in this caravan had their own plans and waited for the right time to deliver their requests.

While Lin got misunderstood by these cultivators, he was shocked by how much this simple use of soul force was different and effective, despite Gang having exhausted almost eighty percent of their soul force on the inscription this time!.

Lin wasn't only tired because of the prolonged sparring matches, Gang's simultaneous meditation and training of the soul lock technique as Lin sparred with these people costed him by adding a straining factor on his concentration and focus on top of the side-effect of training that technique.

Lin was planning to stop this event and go take a nap after fighting the last cultivator (which is Tong), even the eight grandmasters who joined their spirit energy to work the transparent spirit barrier had changed place with other cultivators to give sparring with Lin a try earlier.

The mortals gave Lin looks of appreciation for standing up to defend them, their admiration for Lin reached an even higher degree and some servants moved to remove and clean whatever that was spilled or scattered around the table without giving the man who caused this situation a single glance, the silence between these two different class of people wasn't unnoticeable by Lin, he learned about the existing social gap between cultivators and mortals from old Jin Bao's memories but he witnessed it for the first time now.

The images of the slaves back in the harbor replayed in his head as he categorized these mortal's social standing in the eyes of cultivators.

'not slaves, yet, no different than ants in the eyes of cultivators.' Lin thought when he saw the air getting heavy with awkwardness.

"Young hero Ming, here I come." Tong walked inside the borders of the fighting ring and activated her mist energy armor, white steam covered the half meter area surrounding Tong right after the inch thick, fluffy, white cloud of gaseos energy covered her body.

Lin felt like these white clouds were spongs that would ooze liquid if pressed, however, Tong didn't give him much of a chance to take a longer look at her mist energy, because she dashed towards Lin after giving him the gesture of cupping her fist.

Lin uncorked the exit to release his own light energy armor for the first time, from the tip of his right hand forefinger the light energy from the dantian found a release to go play outside, sticking to his skin like glue was a golden layer of light energy.

The dark-gold cloud generals would turn white while taking the main meridian pathway, then yellow when they cram in the side-branch, then once they exit the yellow part and enter the wrist area they turned gold and exited to cover his skin.

Blinding gold light made the mortals cover their eyes, while the cultivators used spirit energy to block the blindness effect of Lin's energy only to see a hazy figure like a shadow standing in the ring with Tong!.

"Huh!... How?."

"What the fuck is going on?, Isn't he a first stage spirit apprentice!, How can he use energy armor?."

"I get it, he has a physique, it must be a special one otherwise it's impossible to imagine anything else."

"Damn it, now I am not getting any rest when we return to the city, I don't have enough resources to use and only own the contribution points from this mission, sigh, my breakthrough to the grandmaster realm will have to be delayed a few months."

"Hehehe, I quit being stubborn early and changed into betting on young hero Ming, I'm certainly getting the version of the spirit sword which I wanted to buy a while ago from one of the guild's grandmaster blacksmiths, certainly I'm getting it custom-made this time."

While the cultivators exchanged conversations, be that of joy, sadness, shock, confusion, or amazement at what Lin can achieve, Tong's attack didn't stop because Lin is able to use energy armor, mist energy made the light energy stop from piercing their effective steam layer by much, the half meter layer of steam around Tong's body merely shrunk by twenty percent under the light coming from Lin before the mist nullified the light energy.

As he watched the white, coated in steam figure run towards him at a speed comparable to old Yang because of the assistance of Tong's mist energy, Lin felt his skin and muscles, bones and innards, he felt them awaken to life once his own light energy armor completely covered his body.

The strands of light energy who preferred to fuse with his body instead of entering the dantian, glowed their brightest as if to greet and welcome their monarch's arrival.

Like Tong, and anyone else who's able to use the skill of energy armor, Lin felt his senses heighten and his capabilities improve when the light energy coated his body, speed and power were higher by almost a double, especially his defense and stamina which felt like their increase triple what it used to be without the light armor on.

In fact, he felt his exhaustion scatter with each breath and his tiredness fade away faster comparable to before by a few times!.

Tong punched and Lin like always kept himself on the defensive in the beginning of every fight to estimate his opponent's strength, however, her speed, power, and technique wasn't a problem, yet, her spirit energy was.

Each time he blocked, Tong's mist energy would clash with his light energy and push his light armor back and exhaust a big amount of it whenever their energies met.

During all of his fights there was not a single time where Lin used his soul sense to study or read the motions of his opponents, he fought fairly and won with ability and well planned moves after collecting information on his opponents during the sparring matches.

Little Tong understood that her only advantage over Lin is her higher grade energy after exchanging a couple dozens of moves with the boy, that's why she didn't hesitate to aim for the high expenditure clash of energies to win.

Lin's light armor started to fade away from it's original gold into yellow with each exchange, much to the excitement of the gamblers who threw their lot's on Tong's win.

Those who betted on Lin's win weren't anxious or worried about their money, because not only did they bet less than the losers but also because they already won earlier and the money they gave on this bet was the money of some of these sore losers.

The mortals were giving their silent prayers inwardly for Lin to win this fight too, the youngsters amongst them were shouting their support aloud for Lin to win.

Yet, Tong was stunned to find Lin's golden eyes always calm during the fight even if he's clearly losing spirit energy much more than her, defensively he just watched his light energy drain as if he doesn't care about his win.

Actually, with the additional boost to speed and power Lin could stop holding back and overpower Tong while avoiding her attacks, however, that would be meaningless since he wanted to test the purity of his own light energy.

Inside the ring of origin, Kai felt the aura of faith from these rowdy mortals fuse with Lin's already gigantic faith aura, his light armor became tenaciously stronger and sturdier by fusing with these wisps of faith aura, and gradually even the girl facing Lin felt how different the situation started to lean to her disadvantage as Lin lost less and less energy with each exchange.

"Heh, the brat is like a loach, whenever one of his disadvantages gets revealed somehow the world extends a hand to cover it and he comes out on top. In this case it was the gratitude of these mortals who assisted by putting their faith on him, that must've ruined his plans to test his spirit energy's strength, tsk tsk tsk, how long would it take for him to come asking for my help?, I swear sometimes he's too smart for his own good." Kai muttered while walking in that gigantic forest, beasts far stronger than Lantian would lower their heads to greet him whenever he passed one, some of these beasts had left offerings of spirit fruits in Kai's path to take if he liked.

Outside, Lin noticed how his light armor had managed to withstand Tong's earlier attack without losing energy more than she lost, that previous exchange was a tie despite the purity of Lin's light armor falling to the yellow grade of light energy!.

"I admit defeat." Tong hurried to retreat back and called her surrender loudly before exiting the transparent spirit barrier, hurrying to scatter her mist armor, Tong was covered in sweat and her chest heaving up and down hurriedly looking obviously fatigued by the sparring match.

The mortals cheering noise was joined by the winners of the cultivators, while the losers gave Lin despondent looks and sighed while seeing the difference between him and Tong after scattering their energy armors, during that fight Lin recovered from his physical exhaustion and exchanged it with spiritual exhaustion!.

Nobody blamed Tong on her early surrender when they discovered that glaring flaw which would've affected their hopes for winning this bet, if Tong stubbornly kept her onslaughting high cost mist energy attacks, then after draining Lin's light energy to the maximum, she would be using weak energy attacks against his strong physique to end the fight, that was completely in her disadvantage because Lin previously proved that his physical strength can affect the bodies of spirit tyrants, spirit energy would seep inside the bodies of spirit cultivators in greater quantities with each increase of a major realm to give them stronger physiques capable of withstanding the workings of higher grades of energy.

From the south of the caravan, Bo An was returning from the territories of the beast mountains, sitting on top of Fang Bo's silver fur and the larger sized Sun running next to her and eager to show Lin his latest achievement.

Hearing the noise she headed for it's direction with the two beasts.

However, once these three were next to Lin's carriage they stopped to look towards it because they felt an increasing pressure emitting from the carriage, inside the carriage, Frostine was still where Lin left her, however, white-blue energy covered her body and her wings were spread open yet her captivating eyes were closed shut.

"Whoosh...."

"Vzzzt...."

"Clang...."

"Boss Yang is breaking through to the middle stages of the tyrant realm, long live lightning spear mercenary group."

"Look!, Merchant Wei as well."

"Some beastly aura is coming from young hero Ming's carriage too, it seems like what he said earlier about his companion is true after all."

"Blade master Lai looks to be on the verge of breaking through as well, for a while now everytime I look towards his carriage I keep seeing my hometown!."

"Hehehe, for a while now boss Fu's carriage never stopped shaking you know."

Zhang smiled when his preparations saved him from getting affected by Wei's breakthrough, he looked at Lin and grinned widely when he saw Lin give his polite thanks to the eight grandmasters after they scattered the transparent spirit barrier.

"Ming, what is going on here?." Bo An was stunned by this strange situation of many cultivators simultaneously breaking through, however, once she saw Lin's dirty clothes and the surrounding area scarred by the sparring matches, she ignored the ongoing rare occasion and ran towards him and asked as she held his shoulders and scanned his body for any injuries.

"Just some sparring with these seniors, hrmmm where did you take Sun?, He looks different and feels even more different. Come here buddy, let me take a close look at you." Lin shrugged at Bo An's question, then he called Sun who murred then jumped into his arms after changing form.

Willingly offering Lin his belly to rub it once Sun settled in his arms, Lin used his weakened version of soul sense to scan Sun's body especially his core while tickling the kitten's soft belly.

"Meow, right there buddy, that's the spot. Purrrr, this feeling is the best." Sun suddenly spoke, Lin was staring downwards at the small kitten in his palms in shock.

"Hehehe, Sun is very capable and reached the devil beast realm this morning. How is it Lin?, Did you like this surprise?." Bo An smiled and hugged Lin from behind while completely ignoring everyone around, she joined in tickling Sun's belly as she asked.

"It wasn't expected, but I like it." Lin answered while thinking 'So he speaks now, I guess this journey will be even livelier from now on.' then he took Bo An towards his carriage to take some rest.