Returning to the convoy while resisting the head-splitting pain of the side-effect of forcefully using the incomplete soul lock technique with an already weakened soul force at barely one fifth of it's maximum strength, Lin carried Lai by the armpit and moved ahead of Li Yang and Zan Shui who infused their lightning and water energies to the ice block imprisoning the assassin, not only was that ice block suppressing his martial-spirit but also restricted his body.

Lightning energy was the most effective element amongst the elements of the high grade when used against soul force, while ice energy hinders and blocks the flow of spirit energy within the enemy's body if it managed to invade the meridian's pathways.

Blood demon was unable to resist this suppression or shake it off no matter how hard he tried, while being transported back to the convoy against his will, his eyes only saw the boy who was the main reason he received his first failure in more than eighteen years of working as an assassin.

Before he decided to make his move on the Ling empire's youngest princess, blood demon was disguised amongst the group of cultivators who saw Lin's confrontation with Lantian and faced Lin in the sparring matches personally, of course he saw Lin's first time using the long range technique and experienced the aftereffects of facing it personally in the second time, however, blood demon's regret was caused by his lack of decisiveness since he got a chance to escape when the evil reign technique started to spread evil mist and hesitated, blood demon's hesitation is caused by the assassins guild because it doesn't tolerate failure just as much as it generously reward success.

If he returned without success in this mission his rank would drop back to the spirit-gold with nine stars and blood demon would work again on taking out three spirit lords to earn back his spirit-pearl rank, his losses to reach that high rank and fourth rank inside the assassins guild was a few of his best trump cards and the sacrifice of a whole stage's worth of spirit energy in the tyrant realm cultivation!

The last of these trump cards was that nameless soul talisman which Li Yang's lightning bolt attack intercepted and redirected away from it's intended target (which is Lin), but after seeing Lin still capable of using his spirit energy after the short struggle with blood demon's martial-spirit he doubted if his nameless soul talisman could've given this boy much trouble on the long term before the others helped the boy after killing blood demon with their attacks.

'why did he stop them from killing me?, Is he after some information before getting rid of me!, Heh, let's see if he has the methods and backbone to break my will before I die.' blood demon was kind of anticipating the incoming events, his own judgement on Lin's character from the few times he witnessed him deal with others was that the boy is upright, wise, charismatic, strong beyond his age, and soft.

Yes, soft.

His care for mortals was the reason blood demon gave Lin that specific description, that's why he was anticipating Lin's following methods.

Can he be soft when needed and cruel when needed?, If he can then blood demon doesn't take shame in falling at the hands of such genius.

Life for him (blood demon) lost it's taste since his kidnapping incident, his only reason and need for strength was to avenge himself against the devil cultivator who forced his younger version to the path of evil.

Yet, despite it being easier to ascend to higher realms with the evil dao compared to the cultivators of the other daos, the requirements were tasking on the materials and in his case it was costly and extremely demanding on the souls quantity and quality with every major realm increase.

"Seniors, I believe I don't need to remind you not blink once after we return, three tyrants are to keep this prisoner within an arm's length until it's time for his interrogation. How many grandmasters needed to join you will be left for you to decide, I need a couple hours to stabilize my soul force as you can see." Lin's words pulled blood demon from his daydreams, he was slightly surprised when he saw the two tyrants nod seriously when Lin gave them commands as if they're used to act as subordinates to the boy!

"Young hero Ming can be assured and rest up without any worry, this Li will die before this beast escapes if needed." Leader Yang gave blood demon a side-glance full of contempt, before answering Lin while giving him an appreciative look.

If it wasn't for Lin's technique of restraining this assassin's annoying martial-spirit which obviously could've given both him and this fellow called Shui an endless trouble, both of them could feel the dangerous amount of soul force on it once blood demon stood in front of them, he and Shui vigilantly guarded their souls at once because if their souls received any sneak attack mid-fight and lost focus or their reflexes delayed slightly it could be the end of their lives.

Despite being clearly weakened by the aftereffects of Lin's light beam attack, blood demon is a 8-stage tyrant and stronger than Shui by one stage and Yang by four whole stages.

Then again when Lin shared his own encompassing view of the situation with a soul link transmission with them and they very easily countered and parried two simultaneous techniques from blood demon then with the third they immobilized his body and easily took advantage of the momentarily depletion of his evil energy after just unleashing two techniques and restricted it back to the dantian.

If blood demon is someone with a strong physique and attainments in the body forging dao, then he could've resisted this imprisonment with his body's strength.

Thankfully he wasn't and they smoothly bagged him back to the convoy, Shui was visibly not pleased from the look in his eyes but he kept his mouth shut and followed to take blood demon and drop him next to Wei's carriage.

Lin sat down to meditate on the soul strengthening technique to stop the headache after dropping Lai next to Wei, the convoy was placed on a state of full alert and everyone except for the three tyrants reinforcing the block of ice from losing strength against blood demon's corrosive evil energy was prevented from coming within the distance of five hundred meters.

Li Yang, Zan Shui and Ning Xue were overseeing the first shift of guarding the captive while Lin rests under the care of Zhang, Lai and Wang were helping Chen Fu guard the convoy searching for anything that might have escaped Lin's keen eye, Su Meiyin was next to princess Mei inside the carriage and placed sensory formations inside the walls of the carriage and around it to ensure no other assassin takes her by surprise in a moment of lowering her guard.

Bo An felt the situation outside from the very beginning and activated the formation to block the disturbance from distracting these beasts who worked hard to become stronger just like her, she had faith in Lin's capabilities and wanted him to gain experience since that was one of the things that needed him to work on mending their flaws, however, just to be on the safe side she asked her grandpa's beast companion (which is her current dao protector) to watch over her lover and rescue him if things got dangerous in her absence.

The mortals saw the five murdered family members and learned of what happened after asking the kind looking cultivators in the guard units, from the scary looking but unexpectedly easygoing young man called Qiang Chi, they learned about what young hero Ming did by capturing the assassin at the cost of injuring himself.

After hours of waiting for young hero Ming to wake the worry started to fester in the chests of Lin's fans, they gave silent prayers for the safety of young hero Ming especially the young generation of mortals.

One of the few people who really wanted to talk with Ming right now was Ning Xue herself!

Every now and then she would tsk and pucker her lips before infusing some of her energy in the ice block after giving Lin who kept meditating with no care impatient looks, Zan Shui would resist downright killing this asshole who tried to kill his princess right here and now but he felt like doing that would draw the ire of this young genius Ming.

Even if his princess was a highborn with quite a status to back her up, if he did or said something to annoy this brat maybe he'll make things difficult for the princess in the future just to pay him back for going against his direct orders.

Li Yang didn't mind waiting or the delay from reaching mercenary city in time, after fighting alongside the boy he wanted to leave a good impression and make any connection if possible with Ming.

Wei was beaming with smiles as he ate and drank, this was enough propaganda for his next business.

The capture of a peak stage tyrant by the youngest of the guards his establishment has to offer, will give people a fake impression of greatness and mightiness to his upcoming transportation business.

'hehe, money money money.' Wei thought and chopped another slice of fruit with his teeth, his smile widened and caused his eyes to squint and his pupils disappeared under the great pressure of these meaty eyelids.

Lin sat in his soul world and while following the instructions of the soul strengthening technique to heal his soul he kept remembering the short clash of soul force between his weakened soul force in using the incomplete soul lock technique and blood demon's martial-spirit which hissed and bursted in an explosion of soul force to stop the technique from coming any near to blood demon, Lin felt his soul force lose against that little red snake's soul force in the beginning because it was corroding his soul force and scattering it, gradually that red snake managed to stop his soul force from completely surrounding blood demon as it should've did.

It was like two waves meeting head on, and Lin's soul force could only try and push that wave because every inch you let go of ground will mean giving the opponent's soul force a chance to grow stronger in exchange and grow focused at your weaknesses instead.

From that man's soul force he felt disgust deep down to the soul level which Lin couldn't stand being touched by, Gang was the witness to the moment his soul body with the infinity symbol on the left hand sent a stream of silver running up the left arm through the back, once that stream of silver soul force reached the spine it stopped for a second and lit up the leaf-less branches symbol, then it moved down the right shoulder towards the right hand where the wings symbol is at, when that link of three symbols happened Lin's soul force managed to resist being pushed back by blood demon's explosion of soul force and the result was both soul forces ending up with a draw and no side being in a clear advantage, Lin's fire intent decided to join the struggle on it's own and sent the gold flame towards the infinity symbol directly and around the symbol another circle of light flickered once before disappearing.

The obvious weakness of Lin's soul force was replaced with a draw in the beginning then superiority when the gold flame from the fire intent joined the struggle, blood demon's corrosive soul force faced the same fate as his evil reign technique when faced with Lin's light beam attack and right after he unleashed the nameless soul talisman Lin's soul force augmented with the golden fire's intent struck the small red snake after scattering it's explosive, corrosive soul force into nothing.

It was a short but dangerous that soul force clash, thankfully Lin's soul force and fire intent fusion managed to win against blood demon because of the advantage of the affinities suppression towards one another, if that clash was against someone with different affinity then Lin's win couldn't be that assured.

That was one of the things he reminded himself with, to be careful not to get too confident when facing strong opponents because he might receive other surprises, that one had corrosion as a way of using his soul force maybe others can use ways he can't counter, if that happens then Lin would be forced to struggle on longer fights, from facing Lantian he learned how short he can keep up when going all out compared to a lord.

When facing a pinnacle tyrant like blood demon, Lin doesn't have much of an advantage in prolonged fights all the same, first blood demon used some technique to temporarily raise his cultivation to be comparable to a lord in might, yes, Lin seems to have interrupted some of his plans and caused him to stop at the quasi-lord realm or the half-step lord.

When Lin's attack hit, it was just a few hundred meters away from the assassin and by going all out to block it, blood demon's cultivation degraded into the peak-perfection tyrant, then his short interval of trying to force the invading light energy from his body lowered blood demon's cultivation once again to the beginnings of the 9-stage tyrant.

Lin knew that he was lucky, when he aimed his light beam technique at the beginning he aimed at the center of the cloud of evil energy, however, he ended up pointing at the place he felt thicker concentration of hate coming from the tormented souls swimming all over the evil mist and screaming silently in pain, as to answer these tormented souls calling he launched his technique where they majorly looked and managed to weaken the enemy and remove the danger of the evil mist in one strike.

As he meditated, Lin was trying to see if he can do the fusion of intent and soul energies.

Lin was born with the inherited fire intent from the previous death by fire in his first life, when he drank the potion of thought rebirth he understood the true intent of light.

Sitting on top of the golden waters in his soul world, Lin raised his left hand and from the infinity symbol he formed a cloud of soul force on top of his left palm, he called both of the gold and red fires to his other hand and slowly tried to send a wisp of both fires to join the silver could of soul force in his left hand.

The silver cloud started to change shape into a glittering flame twinkling in silver, gold, and red colors.

First it was easy and Lin saw no trouble in infusing more wisps of the two fires into that small amount of soul force, however, the fusion between intent and soul became straining on his soul force when he increased the intensity of the intent to the fusion, currently he couldn't tolerate spending any more soul force, he was trying to stabilize his soul after all, even his soul world was small and shrunk to be only three kilometers after the major problem which followed using soul lock technique when it's inscription isn't complete.

Letting out a sigh, Lin stopped experimenting with any more fusion and concentrated on healing his soul faster, finally after a short session of meditation he healed his soul back to the ten kilometers radius of soul sense and decided it was enough for now.

Opening his eyes he saw Zhang standing behind him while activating his earth armor and behind him Wei's carriage, Wei and Lai to his left setting at the table arguing about how it isn't decided yet who might reach the tyrant realm first, the frozen prisoner ahead with the three tyrants sitting cross-legged around him gathering spirit energy to their bodies to keep in tip-top shape, after spending energy continuously for hours now to suppress this evil cultivator whose energy kept fighting to corrode the spirituality of the ice.

If he managed to escape the ice imprisonment, blood demon has a good chance to escape if Lin couldn't be of any more assistance to these tyrants.

The man wasn't hurt at all in the fight, Zan Shui and Li Yang knew that their win doesn't mean another win without Lin on their side, if that man managed to free himself and was intent on leaving they'll have to go all out to keep him here and might suffer great loses, things can get dangerous with a devil cultivator very easily, one example of increasing his strength momentarily has a very high chance of happening again.

Yes, these secret techniques of devil cultivators has harsher lash-backs and hurts the foundations of the devil cultivators if used repetitively, but if the alternative is death and the exchange is hurting your foundation with a chance of living then even the sane of orthodox cultivation would choose life, not to mention these suicidal maniacs of the evil dao.

"Finally I get to eat, Wei I'm hungry tell them to prepare something for me." Lin got up and said while walking towards the three tyrants.

"Lai, call the man called Qiang Chi for me please." Lai nodded and went to get the young guard without even asking why, he heard the guarding teams make jokes about what happened before Ming sniffed out the assassin, how Qiang Chi was begging for a few words in private while young hero Ming did the young captain's job of ensuring the safety of the passengers for him.

"Thank you for watching over me Zhang." Lin looked at Zhang who walked next to him and pushed him away to the side for a couple of steps while smiling and gave the man his thanks.

"No problem, how's your meditation?" Zhang returned the gesture and pushed Lin by the shoulder but he couldn't make him take a step to the side and shrugged at his small failure while asking.

"Just some rest and something to eat every now and then is all I want, Ill be alright don't worry." Lin said as he approached the tyrants, the three of them stood up when they saw Lin walk towards them and Ning Xue kept giving him looks that felt like she's trying to scan him a few inches below the skin.

"Thank you seniors for your hard work, did you face any trouble the past few hours?" Lin ignored the upstarting tyrant's (Xue) looks, then asked Li Yang and Zan Shui.

"His energy is firmly pushed within his dantian and his body is completely restrained with absolutely no chance for him to move a muscle, it's only that it's costing us three times the amount of energy to deplet his, which is making it hard for us to exhaust his evil energy in a short time." Li Yang patted the block of ice as he spoke, however, he made it sound as if it was easier to kill the assassin instead, just to give the restless Zan Shui an answer to the question which never left his chest.

Just what is Lin after by taking this man a prisoner?

"Let's see if my light energy can make a difference, senior Shui can I trouble you to remove the ice in this area?" Lin said then placed his palm on the freezing cold ice and activated his light armor, that was the only way Lin could send his spirit energy outside his body while controlling it, the other way he can't control it once it exit his finger, he touched the assassin's lower belly and sent his thickest light energy inside that assassin's body aiming to invade his dantian.

Shui nodded silently and endured giving that boy his suggestion of killing the man now and getting it over with, moving his hand, Shui removed the ice where Lin asked and wasn't hopeful for any great results, after all, three tyrants worked for hours and only managed to scatter one fifth of the assassin's evil energy!

Just how much a brat's gaseos energy can do?, Let him see for himself just how much difference is there between energy grades if he wants, blood demon's evil energy was crystalized like his and Yang's, even this woman's energy which started to crystalize was two grades higher than Lin's, afterwards, Zan Shui can get this done with the eternal rest of this farce of a situation with a dead assassin insted.

"Sizzle...." From the dantian of the assassin, a sizzling sound could be heard as red vapour started to exit from his stomach area and cover the surrounding blueish-green ice and melts it down to thin considerably and gradually until the assassin's body was covered by a thin but sturdy concentrated shell of ice to make a very lifelike statue of blood demon.

The three tyrants misunderstood the ongoing phenomenon as the assassin trying to escape when Lin used his light energy and is using some evil technique, hurrying to place their hands on the thin layer of ice and infusing it with their strongest energies, they were surprised to find the evil energy depleting at double the previous speed from his dantian when they stretched their spirit senses to the shell to see the situation inside it.

Exchanging glances, Li Yang gave Zan Shui a knowing look because he didn't miss the haughty look in his eyes whenever Lin gave him a polite order and saw him looking at the shell with shock filling his eyes, Ning Xue clicked her tongue again and gave this little monster (Lin) a look of greed, Chen Fu asked her again and again and again to correct her attitude with Lin because their mercenary group needs the boy to favor them over Yang's group because the boy is certain to at least reach the lord realm with that set of potential.

Zan Shui looked at Lin with fear, only light energy of the highest purity can affect the evil energy of someone four major realms higher than himself, even if light energy was dominantly suppressive to evil energy, that suppression is flipped in cases of a great difference in the energy grades.

That effect which he's witnessing means that Lin's energy is pure and strong to threaten a tyrant of the evil dao because it was of a high grade of purity in the gaseous grade to somehow subvert and minimize that difference in grade between spirit energies with the advantage of element suppression over one another and the help of the three of them restraining the evil cultivator made him able to quickly purify the evilness of that energy!

The three tyrants misunderstood what was truly happening because Lin infused not only his spirit energy of the light element to blood demon's dantian.

If only had they knew that Lin used the same trick of fusing the gold flame to his right palm where the light energy was being transported outside his body by the wings symbol, that single fusion was easier because the wings symbol helped Lin control the fusion of spirit energy and fire intent without straining the soul.

It was the intent of fire born from the energy of light, yes, however, it had very close relationship with the light element originally, even when he used it right in front of their eyes, the three tyrants only saw light energy and never felt the light-fire intent in the mix of light.

Even Liao Lai with the strongest senses for soul force and intent never felt it and continued to argue with Tang Wei about who's got better chances of reaching the next realm faster.

.....

The actions of Lin was completely hidden and only Kai felt it inside the ring and nodded seriously for once after he felt the perfect flow and ease of mixing spirit-intent energies.

"The brat is finally getting impatient to link his aspects and unearthing their true potential, that little girl is keeping her distance and watching but sooner or later she's going to come have a closer look on the brat's origin rune since she has a similar one of the fire affinity. Heh, how long can she resist the temptation of another rune which is very compatible with the one which helped her overcome the lightning tribulation, if she refined this one I'm sure she can reach the origin beast realm." Kai was amused by how Lin started to dabble in the fusion of energies then looked at the sky high above Lin by a few hundred meters where Hongtian the sky queen stood and watched Lin with curious red pupils.

.....

What did it feel for the man himself?, Blood demon was like a sinner who got thrown in hell to answer for his lifetime worth of commiting evil, he felt his body, soul, and spirit burn in the wildest fires when Lin's light energy touched his dantian.

He tried to resist it, to push it outside the dantian and far away from his martial-spirit, alas, that light energy was very clingy and ate away at blood demon's evil energy like oil catching fire and the spreading wave of fire was outside his control.

In forced silence, blood demon was receiving a pain no less than soul torment as his dao was forcefully receiving a purification of light energy, his energy was being scattered and his cultivation was unaffected but from the look of it, if this refinement of his energy continued then blood demon is going to end up as a husk devoid of evil energy or any type of energy!

Evil energy wouldn't allow any other type of energy which isn't under it's control to remain inside blood demon's body, he was kidnapped then operated on by that devil cultivator, that disgusting old man who forced him to be hated by almost all, be that cultivators, mortals, beasts, elves, and some of the dragons, etc. He was hated just like necromancers who loved to dig the graves, that's why except for his martial-spirit and small attainments in sword intent the rest was removed altogether by evil energy when it entered his young body.

He was thankful despite being tormented by the pain of purification, he wanted to go back to being normal deep down, mortal or cultivator it didn't matter, he really wished for that to happen with all his heart, even more than growing stronger to be able to kill that geezer, who made him watch his clan grieve his loss and his poor mother who would spend nights staring at the street which he last gave her his goodbyes before departing to do the mission.

"Blood demon, that's your name from now on. If you think of going back to your sect or clan then Ill release the news of your fall to the evil dao and spice things up which will bring the people from the cultivation alliance to knock on your clan's and sect's doors, if you want to kill yourself then you better do it now there's no need to go implicate the innocent. Kekeke, you better grow stronger fast, if I get bored waiting for you then I might release the news just to entertain myself." The thin, short old man with pale and sickly skin and evil smile, said to blood demon who just received his demonic ceremony then exited the cave once the younger blood demon's eyes rolled in their sockets and lost consciousness.

"It seems like this will need a couple more sessions to remove the disgusting evil energy inside this man, I hope none of you is in a hurry seniors, this might take a bit longer than I thought." Lin said after Gang told him that only the two cloud generals remained in his dantian, his words awoke the daydreaming devil cultivator who got reminded of the unfortunate event and blood demon closed his eyes after seeing Lin give him a look which felt like he's seeing his soul naked.

That layer of ice was bloodred from the purification of all that evil energy under Lin's light and intent energy fusion, all the red vapour was sucked by the thin layer of ice once it escaped the dantian, thankfully Lin was used to sacrificing a shitload of energy to the meridian's walls be that in clearing, fortifying, or upgrading them, that's why after he spent his energy tank he got up and went to the table to eat his fill.

"Heh, almost a third of my energy is spent, as long as we're not delayed anymore than two days I have no objections." Shui nodded and was the first to cup his fist as he spoke, Lin's previous actions made this senior curb his pride and wholeheartedly surrender to his brilliance, even his smile was self-ridiculing as he spoke.

Ning Xue kept looking for her man who returned after sweeping the caravan for any hidden danger and left the guards on a full alert mode.

Yang saw Chen Fu return and knew what his old friend was after by sitting next to Lin and trying to have small talks with the boy, he wasn't worried and did what he was asked and sat to cultivate his lost energy next to blood demon.

Qiang Chi followed Lai once he was called and waited to the side to see what Lin has in mind, he watched as Lin kept infusing his light energy inside that assassin's body with three tyrants assisting him.

When Lin sat and ate, Qiang Chi kept standing like a statue in silence, after all the young man lived his life as a soldier and standing at attention in front of his superiors was the norm.

before sitting to gather light energy and return to torture blood demon with another session of purification, Lin looked at Qiang Chi and beckoned for him to come near.

"What is your purpose of swearing fealty to someone like me?, The thing about your instincts is confirmed already you don't need to emphasize that." Lin raised his head to look at Qiang Chi's eyes and spoke, he covered the ten meters around him in soul force to give Qiang Chi privacy.

Only Zhang was able to hear what he said since he stood right behind Lin when he sat cross-legged to cultivate.

"You don't have to worry, nobody except Zhang can hear what you have to say." Lin assured the young man with hideous crisscrossing scars when he saw him look around.

"My attainments in spirit energy cultivation is mediocre at best or below average, with you young hero Ming I have higher possibility of attaining my full potential." Feeling unease under the stare of Lin's gold pupils and Zhang's ox eyes, Chi hurried to give his answer.

"That's another reason beside your heightened senses and intuition, still, you left the most important reason. Qiang Chi, you leaving the ranks of Wei and joining mine doesn't mean a smooth sailing, being my subordinate means to live according to my rules. I reward obedience to the best of my abilities, however, the same goes for my punishment. The scars on your body gives me a fainter feeling compared to that assassin's evil energy, let me ask you again, are you willing to relinquish your old ways and truly follow my orders to the tiniest bit of detail no matter what?" Lin noticed how Qiang Chi's eyes widened in shock when Lin mentioned his scars, seeing him lower his head, Lin asked again.

Raising his head up, Qiang Chi saw Zhang's encouraging ox eyes urging him to accept this once in a lifetime chance.

Zhang sparred with Qiang Chi whenever there was a chance, he liked his tough personality and lack of arrogance.

He mentioned recruiting the young captain to the clan but Wei said it was too dangerous and Zhang was sad because his suggestion didn't work.

"M-my mother was my only relative....." Qiang Chi fought tears in order not to escape his watery eyes, then he slowly said his story from the very beginning and Lin and Zhang quietly listened.

The four tyrants and three peak stage grandmasters saw Lin and Zhang calmly give the young captain their attention, their vision would blur when they tried to read the lips of the captain but they saw him clinch his fist until his knuckles turned white.

"I see.... first, I'm terribly sorry for your loss, what happened to your mother was cruel and inhumane. Second, what you did was wrong and savage, glad that you woke up before it was too late. Third, you need to atone for your sins, for the rest of your life or as long as you're alive, can you do that?" Lin crossed his arms around his chest and after a short silence which felt like years and years to the anxious Chi, he started to speak and Qiang Chi kept nodding because he agreed on every word Lin said with every fiber of his body.

"I can only try young hero Ming." Qiang Chi cupped his fist and gave his answer which made Zhang smile in excitement.

"That's the proper attitude, now, by following me you'll be searching for your origin to fulfill the wishes of your dear mother, nobody disagrees with doing that and I will give you my full support. However, I don't like surprises and I don't like seeing the innocent suffer even more. Remember, you only have one chance in this Qiang Chi, fail me once and our path is split." Lin gave Qiang Chi a hard look then stretched out his hand to shake his rough hand, while squeezing Qiang Chi's hand bones until they groaned as a mild warning, Lin said these words because he isn't going to babysit anyone.

If Qiang Chi can't find it within himself to be patient then Lin would discard the extra weight without hesitation, he already has very important matters to burden himself and Qiang Chi's goals has nothing to do with Kai, Jin Bao, the seven deadly sins which are burdening Lin.

"Young master Ming, I swear on my dao and spirit, I swear on my soul and body, let them fade out and be forgotten in the dust of time if I disobey your orders. This Qiang Chi swears an oath of everlasting fealty and loyality to you, I'm yours to command." The muscular young man kneeled down on a single knee and cupped his fist, while looking straight at Lin's golden pupils he swore an oath without any hesitation.

This time, Lin felt the stirring of the surrounding elements when Qiang Chi spoke, as if they're bearing witness to his words.

Deep down in his soul body, Lin felt attachment to this young man full of scars on a deeper level, as if he's familiar with Chi just like how he's familiar with Sun.

"Zhang, you can go and cultivate or exercise now, Chi will replace you from now on." Lin didn't talk nonsense, just his words assured Qiang Chi that he's not going to be thrown to the side after his oath.

The oaths of cultivators isn't a small matter which can be neglected, after what he said, in the eyes of some cultivators he can be no different than a slave.

"En, welcome young Chi." Wang Zhang squeezed Qiang Chi in a bear hug which took his breath away then pushed him at arms length to admire him with two scorching ox eyes, clobbering his shoulders with two strong and rough palms excitedly, Zhang gave the young man his congratulations then walked towards Wei's table and sat next to Lai with a wide smile on his face.

Of course all of them saw what happened but couldn't hear anything because what Lin did, despite their curiosity, Wei and Lai never asked Zhang anything at all.

The four tyrants kept glaring at the fat merchant because they wanted to know what just happened between Lin and Qiang Chi, however, Wei only slyly smiled innocently while ignoring their looks.

Lin sat to meditate and gather his spirit energy and soon the tyrants had to do their best and recover their lost energies before this little monster recharged his spirit energy, if Zan Shui lost almost a third of his spirit energy then someone like Ning Xue can be imagined as being left with a small puddle of liquid spirit energy that started to crystalize inside the dantian when Lin exhausted his light energy on the assassin!

Right after they started to seriously meditate on their spirit energy cultivation, all the tyrants noticed how fast their spirit energy was recovering.

Ning Xue noticed how easier was it for her to compress her water energy to crystalize, and her attainments for the ice element which were laughable started to strengthen as her comprehensions increased by the second.

Without them knowing, the three tyrants were fast and deep in their cultivation and their friend Chen Fu noticed how they forgotten about the captive, gritting his teeth, Chen Fu walked towards blood demon and worked on infusing his earth energy and crushing intent to suppress the assassin inside the thin layer of bloodred ice on his own.

First to finish her meditation was Ning Xue, after her recent breakthrough she can't push her cultivation any further without solidifying her comprehensions, she can start by learning about other element's usage to expand, fortify, and give space for the thicker and higher grade of energy to accomodate itself inside the dantian which is normally used to liquid spirit energy.

The tyrant realm was a whole new level, beside using the elements to fly, a cultivator can experiment with the fusion of elements and seek the dao most suitable and compatible with the person himself in order to strengthen the meridian pathways to be able to withstand the crystalized energy, many examples of people who exploded because their foundations wasn't stable enough are everywhere.

That's why for most of the top clans and sects the tyrant realm is the first and most important step for a genius to prove his worth in comparison to the ancients who lived in the bygone eras.

Seeing her husband sweating bullets under the strain of suppressing blood demon's corrosive evil energy alone, Ning Xue hurried to help her man by placing her left palm on his right hand and infusing her energy alongside his.

This time she felt closer and understood a lot about the usage of ice element from Zan Shui's ice imprisonment technique, turning to look back at Lin who peacefully meditated, Ning Xue was certain that this Ming was the reason everything is different.

Soon Li Yang and Zan Shui finished filling their dantian's with spirit energy and gained a considerable amount of comprehensions to top it off, Lin on the other hand filled his tank twice and personally worked on the meridian's pathways and after two journeys the yellow walls of the side-branch were starting to change into the gold color.

Seeing the tyrants awake from their cultivation he filled his third tank of light energy but didn't use it on the meridian and walked towards blood demon to continue his purification for the second time, standing in front of the assassin and seeing his pupils shudder before he hurried to close his eyes to hide his fear from Lin who stretched his right hand towards blood demon's dantian.

Lin felt these countless tormented souls (which formed the thickest part and the majority of blood demon's evil energy) he felt each and everyone of these souls celebrate their release, as if they're pulled from the middle of hell's seventh and lowest level to be thrown in heaven's seventh and highest level when Lin's light energy purified them, before each soul dissipated it's primordial-source would bow and kowtow to Lin then melt into eternal rest and join the world's laws.

Blood demon's evil energy shrunk to one fifth of it's maximum amount in the end of the second purification, his small red snake (martial-spirit) was trembling in the center of his bleak dantian as it gathered the remaining evil energy around it.

The third purification attempt happened in the afternoon and blood demon's evil energy suffered the fiercest retaliation from four tyrants and Lin, he ended up with only his small snake surrounded by a faint layer of crystalized evil energy encapsulating the martial-spirit.

Clearly the next time these people purify his energy no evil energy will be left remaining, his martial-spirit with the rare soul nature was forcefully changed from the clean, pure, transparent, warm and cheerful to it's current evil, cold, cruel, bloodthirsty and muddy character.

'I guess this is goodbye little one, that light energy hurt like a bitch from hell but at least I will die without evil energy inside my body. If there's a next life then I wish for the same martial-spirit, heh, how I miss the gentle touch of your original form, just like how mother used to touch my cheek once I return.' seeing Lin come towards him for the fourth time, blood demon closed his eyes and thought as if talking to his small red snake while remembering how many nights he spent in front of his clan's estate hiding in the dark just to watch his mother from afar, she kept her hope for the day he might return and the years didn't weaken her faith in his return one day, day after day she would spend the night in the balcony and wait for her boy to take the road he prefers back home to the clan's estate and to her embrace.

Lin's light energy had already invaded the body of blood demon's to the marrow before it was able to enter the assassin's dantian, the only evil energy left inside him is the shell surrounding the evil martial-spirit.

The four tyrants created an enclosure around that remaining evil energy to prevent it from escaping, then watched with their spirit senses apathetically as that small red snake hissed in false threatening gestures while looking for a way out from this dangerous situation.

It's soul powers was stopped from hindering the process by Gang, Lin stopped meditating on the soul strengthening technique but Gang took over when he was done.

Seeing his martial-spirit being swallowed by light energy, blood demon felt the same kind of release just like the tormented souls felt when Lin purified them, for the first time in years he felt peace deep inside his heart.

The energies inside his dantian were the earth, water, lightning and light, there was no way his suppressed martial-spirit can withstand that.

For a second, Lin felt the martial-spirit of blood demon change and when he looked he saw a shadow of a second small snake behind it, however, the eyes of the shadow of that martial-spirit weren't reptilian but humane and looked old and murky like the eyes of people with a leg already in the grave.

'junior, you better release my disciple now.' Lin heard the aged voice threateningly ring inside his soul.

'I won't, now what?' Lin didn't stop his purification for a single second and looked back at that shadow snake, however, he guarded his soul and warned the others to do just the same.

'sigh, BEGONE!' that shadow snake glared at Lin then he heard a shout like the scariest war cry and his soul received the strongest blow.

"Bfff...." The four tyrants coughed blood and retreated a step with pale faces after that shadow snake tried to push Lin back.

'huh!, You're able to resist my soul technique, but you won't be able to resist another slam, you better leave junior or Ill scatter your soul and refine it into one of my pet ghosts. Kekeke.' obviously shocked, that shadow snake had a sly glint fleetingly pass inside it's murky eyes and it glared at Lin.

'you talk too much, creepy asshole. Soul lock.' Lin was hurt by what this "thing" did and felt slight headache from resisting it's technique head-on, but deep down he felt even more danger coming from it when he thought about beating a tactical retreat.

Seeing no reason to stay any longer to be it's soul punching bag, or give it his back out of fear of it doing something dangerous.

Lin had no other choice but to use his strongest technique on it instead and take it by surprise, even if he knew that he might fail at least it will give him a smear of safety when he gets out instead of giving his back to the enemy from the very beginning.

'Nooo!, I was so very close, damn you to hell. Arghhhh....' at once the slyness in the eyes of the shadow snake was replaced with fear and it exploded in a black cloud of soul force to resist Lin's soul lock attack.

However, that shadow snake was taken by surprise and passively had to resist Lin's soul technique which was augmented by light-fire intent from the very beginning.

Grey mist spread out all-over blood demon's dantian when the two soul forces met, under the baptism of that grey energy, the red snake regained it's transparency as the bloodred color got washed away.

Once the martial-spirit regained it's original form, that shadow snake shrunk in size and it's image distorted and blurred until a black marble was revealed to be the source of the resisting soul force.

Lin was aware that he's on the brink of unconsciousness after just two seconds of unleashing the soul lock technique, if it wasn't for the fire intent supporting the technique and helping to suppress that small, black thing inside the assassin then Lin could've lost the first exchange.

"Hold on young hero Ming." Li Yang spat blood from his mouth and hurried to place his hands on Lin's back when he noticed how pale his skin was how his body was shaking as he resisted falling unconscious.

Infusing his lightning energy as gently as possible he checked for any sign of danger inside Lin's body, sighing in relief when he saw nothing wrong, Li Yang gritted his teeth and sent his energy again inside blood demon's body while expecting to receive some more soul lashing.

Zan Shui and Chen Fu did the same as Yang, however, Ning Xue massaged her temples to ease the headache then decided to guard Lin instead.

Water energy is the second best element to heal after the wood element amongst the five basic elements, she planned on using her energy to heal Lin since her support will be negligible if she confronted that strong soul pressure with them.

Raising it's tiny, arrowhead-sized triangular head to look at the source of it's owner's sorrow for almost two decades now, blood demon's martial-spirit opened it's mouth and it's tiny cute fangs bit the black marble.

"Crack..... Whoosh..... Sizzle...."

"Noooo, stop you little beast." This time the sound could be heard by everyone in the convoy, a sound full of worry, anger, and despair.

Once that black marble was between the two cute fangs, two holes appeared underneath and above each fang at the cost of breaking the small fangs themselves, then a long crack ran down the middle of that black marble, feeling on the edge of the bottomless pit of cliff unconsciousness, Lin focused on pushing all he could muster of soul force and light-fire intent down that long crack of the black marble and right before he blacked out he heard the sweet sound of fire burning inside that black marble.

Thankfully the moment that transparent snake bit the black marble there was a slight delay of the resisting dark soul force and Lin took it as a chance to take advantage of the situation and go all out, just to be safe before he started the soul lock technique he warned Li Yang to remove him away from blood demon once his signs of being conscious turn negative.

......

"Kakakaka, impressive, he purified that one's evil energy and stuck his finger up that man's ass and ruined his plans. That assassin was supposed to be his next vessel after the one he's overtaking is corroded, I see, I see, that's why he forced that evil seed on his martial-spirit, he choose him because his martial-spirit's nature was of the soul and compatible with his evil cultivation technique, the precious evil seed is already purified no longer usable, the vessel as well is no longer useful. I bet that dude is furiously destroying things right now because of what Lin did, can we call that his first enemy?, Or is that little redhead going to take that honor!" Kai was next to blood demon's red ice sculpture checking the mess, Lin was being carried by Ning Xue away from blood demon once he lost consciousness and Wei, Lai, Zhang and Qiang Chi were franatically checking Lin's vitals while Li Yang narrated what just happened.

Kai was invisible to everyone and looking up at Hongtian who seemed hesitant about making her move on Lin, smirking devilishly, the raccoon was squinting his eyes because if she (Hongtian) did have the courage to make a move, then he doesn't mind spanking a primordial beast of the human path.

.....

Deep inside the restless bogs, one of the forbidden territories of the southern continent.

The restless bogs is known to be an environment no one below the king realm can enter without facing a ninty-nine percent chance of dying!

In a muddy lake which looked to be peaceful without any signs of any living creature in a dozen kilometers radius, suddenly a stirring happened and various creatures appeared panicky as they removed their disguise, exited their lairs at a hurry to flee with fear all over their eyes.

The weakest of these fleeing beasts was a brown mud python in the lord realm which kept looking back as it escaped while fueling it's tail with every ounce of energy it have to move faster.

"Graaaahh..... Die."

From the middle of that previously calm mud lake, an explosion of evil, black, soul force similar to the one Lin faced from the black marble happened and threw tons of mud everywhere around.

Then a black hand made out of soul force similar to a giant's palm slammed down at that unfortunate mud python which wasn't fast enough to escape the area, when that lord python received this sudden attack it's body exploded into a layer of meat patty and red blood, the fast beasts burned their spirit energy like mad when they saw it happen to escape faster.

If blood demon was here to see the old man who came out from his hiding place to release some steam, certainly he would've known the person who forced his younger self to be a devil cultivator in the past.

With a heaving chest filled with pure rage and two white pupil-less eyes which looked to be blind, that devil cultivator senior looked eastward at the direction his evil seed and much expected vessel were forcefully separated from his control before taking an advanced space talisman and activating it without hesitation.

One second later his threatening presence was gone and the scared shitless beasts were finally able to release a sigh of relief, only the crushed mud python's body inside the great indentation of the earth which looks like a titan's palm was leaking blood from the bits and pieces of it's minced body, it's glittering beasts core which that devil cultivator left untouched and the aftermath of his little rage episode were there to bear witness to what happened here.

......

"Heh, looks like he was impatient for his little prize, if you want to bully the brat then you can come back later when the boy is ready and capable of defending himself, should I send him to the territories of Andreas or the east continent to cause havock in the lands of the monks hrrrmmm." Kai felt the stirring of the space energy a few thousand kilometers away from Lin and smirked slyly, waving a hand he stopped the teleportation formation from fully completing and scratched his jaw while deliberating where to send the devil cultivator senior as if the matter was something minor and didn't seem at a hurry as if space energy was his fifth limb which he can control however he wanted.

......

The teleportation formation which was about to be formed was sensed by sky queen Hongtian when she was about to take this Ming son of Tai the mighty and Tian the beauty from these juniors, she had this intuition before meeting the boy and once Lantian told her about what happened when she met Lin, Hongtian wanted to confirm something first before personally taking the boy and seize his origin symbol for herself or to give him some compensation for it if it wasn't possible to take it by force, she wanted to confirm if her intuition and unease for a few months now was really caused by this boy.

Even if the origin symbol was incomparable in value for Hongtian right now, the unease she felt was no less scary than the period she had to struggle with the world laws before facing her lightning tribulation!

Heart tribulations were no less dangerous than lightning tribulations to pinnacle cultivators, be that beast, human, or even devil cultivators and any other species.

Reaching the beast king realm or any comparable realm of any aspect of cultivation, you're bound to face the truth about the world you live in (which is spirit world) and glimpse the limits of the pinnacle of cultivation.

"Laws" is the name of that higher grade energy after crystalization, if the energy coursing inside the bodies of the holder wasn't infused with the understandings and comprehensions, then they're merely using thick and pure energy which is a hundred times weaker than the weakest energy of laws, a king rules with the laws which he received approval for from the world to use inside it.

After the spirit lord (or comparable in realms), you're not only required to accumulate pure energies with greater strength anymore but also required to understand the rules of the higher laws of the spirit world, that's why cultivators doesn't respect any one to called "king" without laws to back his words.

That's why ever since she reached the beast king realm, Hongtian never ignored the teachings of her dao and the warning from her ancestor's inherited memories to always be attentive and careful when the signs of heart tribulations start to show, every tribulation is an opportunity with fortune behind it, if you pass the test with whatever means you have?, Then you're closer to the limits which you see at the beginning of the king realm or some aspect of comparison, she's Halfway between the beginning of the journey of laws with a great fortune right under her nose, but the signs of the heart tribulations was a glaring red light in the crossroad, deep inside her chest, Hongtian felt the warning and hesitated whether or not should she take the forceful attitude or the soft attitude and the stirring of the space energy made her attentive to this incoming visitor.

Chentian Ao's granddaughter is there and Hongtian wouldn't hesitate to sever relations with the whole southern continent in exchange for another origin symbol (which equals an increase of fifty percent chance to reach the next major realm) however, the sudden visitor which happened to arrive in that exact moment (which happened to happen in the same time she was about to make her move) made her alert and waited to see for herself who is it!

Then she saw how the space formation was stopped from completion then a greater formation covered it and in a moment both formations linked, beyond this big formation she saw a place she knows by heart, temple of transparency was right ahead at what she thought was the entrance of that formation and the place that sudden visitor is coming from, however, she was clearly mistaken in her first judgement because beyond that image of the strongest sect of the eastern continent was another place she happened to visit which is the restless bogs!

'Is that a space tunnel technique?' Hongtian thought then removed the previous thought when she saw the look on the short old man's face when his advanced space talisman was depleted of energy, right before this great space formation disappeared and the triple space tunnel technique ended, Hongtian saw the large gold hand which fell from the sky like a titans palm and the old blind man's face darkening before punching straight up at the sky with a gigantic black fist.

'I should wait, something isn't right here.' feeling a shiver grasping her spine and cold sweat at her lower back, Hongtian moved away from Lin and kept her distance.

That previous space formation gave her quite a few hints, a devil cultivator senior in the sovereign realm, a junior in the tyrant realm who had his cultivation purified, the senior used an advanced space talisman to come here, somehow that simple, single use talisman which should've been a one way trip here from the restless bogs, turned into some kind of space tunnel technique which linked the restless bogs to this faraway place in the western side of the southern continent then directly to the doorstep of the strongest buddihism school of the world!

The senior devil cultivator didn't get a chance to use another space talisman and the fight started before the the three sided tunnel technique ended, surely if his intention was to seek trouble with the monks, that evil cultivator would've started with the first hit.

They (monks of the buddihism path) hate devil cultivators and hunts them just for the karmic benefit which follows each evil purging ceremony, that's why she wasn't surprised to find someone from the temple of transparency confronting that devil cultivator when he just arrived at their doorstep, however, the look on the man's face wasn't unnoticed by Hongtian and that's why she decided to wait and see what kind of person could do that and trick someone stronger or comparable to her in strength.

First, she thought that old, blind, devil cultivator, was Lin's dao protector who arrived to check on the boy after he lost consciousness, however, the following circumstances made Hongtian remove this deduction because clearly that evil cultivator turned out to be an enemy.

Second, the manipulation of the space formation and the genius trick played on that evil cultivator, confirmed Hongtian hypothesis of there being someone hiding himself from her eyes and senses who's working as a guardian to the boy.

If, such a person can work underneath her nose without her sensing anything, then her first plan of kidnapping Lin should be revised.

......

"Keke, such a smart girl, even if I hid myself she still pieced together the puzzle. Still, the temptation is great and she wouldn't be able to resist for long." Kai looked at Hongtian who moved away from the convoy after seeing some signs of what Kai did.

"Still, the brat played his cards right from start to finish, had he retreated under the threat of that blind fool then he would've been attacked instead. His soul is cracking and if he kept being that reckless he's bound to hurt his foundations beyond repair, let's give him the water-pearl to recover fast since that thief's soul has stabilized after three months." Opening his right hand, the blue pearl appeared Kai's arm and he held it between two claws as he spoke, he flicked it carelessly towards Lin and it was stuck on the center of Lin's forehead between the eyebrows.

Seeing that he's no longer needed here, Kai returned to his ring and left the place, from start to finish nobody noticed him or what he did, even that water-pearl which he left wasn't noticed by anyone or felt by anyone when they touched Lin's forehead, as if that water-pearl was in a whole another dimension!

......

The people aroun Lin were relieved when they found no signs of Lin being hurt physically or any spirit wounds when they scanned his dantian with their senses, however, Zan Shui was stunned by the width of Lin's dantian and the purity of Lin's light energy inside it.

"Uh!..." Zan Shui was the strongest person here after blood demon was turned into a husk of flesh devoid of energy and imprisoned by that shell of ice polluted by a great amount of the residue of purifying evil energy, the bloodred ice was devoid of the negativity of evil energy yet it was still not an energy which could be attributed to orthodox energy like water or fire, or any affinity of higher grade among the element ranks.

Once he covered his palm with the purest water energy and the gentlest way to use his energy without harming the unconscious Lin, once Zan Shui looked inside Lin's dantian with his spirit sense he was met with the bright, glowing walls of Lin's dantian.

Countless suns and stars in the few areas left unpainted on the walls, the contrast between the black and the white, yellow, gold, and the dark-gold colors was a sight to behold, the martial-spirit wings with their barrier and the well organized armies of dark-gold clouds and the flooring of the dantian which was almost halfway to the middle made him blush in shame because when he was like Lin in the first stage spirit apprentice realm, Zan Shui had nothing in his dantian except the seahorse martial-spirit happily swimming in a few clouds of the weakest grade of gaseos water energy.

Lin's energy was aplenty and of the highest grade of gaseos light energy in purity, with a dantian who's walls are almost saturated in energy with boundaries outlined.

Zan Shui himself had a comparable dantian with the same amount of painted walls in water energy when he was in the 5-stage spirit disciple, his energy however, was not comparable to Lin's energy.

He only reached an energy comparable in purity when he was in the peak-perfection of the spirit disciple realm, just a simple comparison made Zan Shui remove his palm from Lin's dantian and thank his fortune, had he ignored Lin's orders and killed the assassin then he could've planted the seed for a possibility of his princess facing such a genius's wrath in the future, he had underestimated Lin's potential before and clearly the boy has a great future ahead of him.

'Meiyin should know of this, if that boy can join the princess in the sect to watch over her then her safety in the heart seeking sect can be assured.' Zan Shui thought that as he told the worried merchant Wei and the others that Lin is only exhausted after the assassin used some evil technique to help him escape.

The action of blood demon's martial-spirit helping Lin bite the black marble was not seen by the tyrants because at that moment they were pushed back from the blind man's attack and were spitting blood, when they hurried to recover and re-injected their own spirit energy to suppress blood demon it was over and no sign of blood demon's martial-spirit or evil energy was anywhere inside the assassin's body or dantian.

Lin was unconscious and only the panick following until Zan Shui assured the group of Lin's safety and the imprisoned assassin were left to witness what happened today as the night descended on the convoy who stopped for the second time after the beast-wave attack was avoided.

The mortals smiled when they heard the news as their kids cheered loudly while excitedly exchanging childish promises of becoming strong like young hero Ming in the future.

......

Blood demon was still in a state of dazed disbelief even after night descended and everything calmed down.

After that evil seed appeared he wanted to shout and curse that abominable old geezer all the way down to the seventh ancestor, alas, the pain he was experiencing was nothing he can resist, as Lin's light energy purified him he wallowed in silence, once twice and third and fourth he gradually got used to it and was able to focus a little on other things other than the pain his soul, body, and spirit were going through.

He wanted to tell Lin to watch out, and guard his soul from that shadow snake because from experiencing the disgusting old man's methods once he knows by heart that Lin isn't a foe who can threaten that disgusting geezer.

When he saw Lin's soul and the tyrants receive the attack from that shadow snake he felt sorry for Lin, 'just like me he's going to be turned into a devil cultivator or his future is going to be ruined.' blood demon thought and sighed as the light energy of Lin refined his last strand of evil energy. 'he never left that asshole, he was always hiding himself inside the little one's body. Hadn't the boy revealed him then I might've not knew about it, thankfully he did and now I know.' then he thought as he looked at his martial-spirit which still had some evil energy left inside it's body, deep down, blood demon wished if his martial-spirit had been purified as well so that he can use it to help Lin.

Then he was surprised again as that boy managed to resist that attack and answered with a quick counterattack of his own, he witnessed the golden wave of soul force with the old man's black wave of soul force short clash, the black marble appearing and he knew the evil seed once he saw it and understood what that short old man was after by turning him into a devil cultivator 'He wants to use me as a vessel and take over my body!' blood demon thought as he wished for nothing but destroying that evil seed even if it cost him his life, at least that would deliver a severe blow to the man's soul.

Once his martial-spirit got showered by that grey energy when the two waves met and regained it's original form of being clean and pure, blood demon was able to feel a faint connection with his martial-spirit again, he saw it doing just what he was thinking of doing, attack that evil seed because as long as it existed inside his dantian then he isn't outside that evil man's control yet.

Once Lin sent his energy fusion inside that evil seed, the transparent snake entered through the crack which it's broken fangs created and blood demon lost connection with his last remaining energy alongside his martial-spirit and lost the ability of inner sight then he was no longer able to see his own dantian.

Blood demon felt like an ordinary mortal, no longer a cultivator and through the thin layer of ice he watched these people check on Lin's vitality.

'I'm free, free, free.' the chaotic emotions in his chest would circle around that single thought and the word free kept echoing in his brain, blood demon can finally say his true name without fear for his clan or sect being implicated because of him.

Becoming a mortal was alright for the man, just the thought of being able to meet his kin again was a dream come true after two decades of yearning for home yet unable to meet with them.

He was thankful for the boy for what he did by scattering his nightmare, Rong Qing was sorry for implicating the boy in his matters all the same.

Certainly, that asshole will not let things go unpunished, the evil seed and himself as the next vessel for that geezer's were ruined, and he's certainly going to retaliate by taking this boy as the target for his fury for ruining his plans.

However, hours passed and Rong Qing saw only peacefulness in the convoy and no signs of that geezer at all.

Surely, that mother fucker has an advanced space talisman, right!

.......

"Amitabha buddha, let me guide your sins to the cycle of reincarnation-" a bald monk with long white eyebrows and two squinted eyes flew right behind a black cloud of evil energy with the blind evil cultivator at it's head, clasping his palms, behind that dark skinned monk appeared a phantom of a tree with a golden buddha sitting cross-legged beneath it, one palm of that buddha in the image held two jade marbles one white the other black and he kept twirling them in his hand, the other hand was in a strange gesture and a small bronze bell was between the buddha's thumb and forefinger, before that old monk in simple tattered clothes got to finish his words the evil cultivator gritted his teeth and burned his own dao energy to use some secret blood technique to sacrifice his cultivation to escape this predicament.

Because behind that old monk was a dozen other monks moving in formation and about to unleash some restrictive formation to stop him from escaping the territories of their temple.

"Bald donkeys Ill remember this humiliation." Leaving these words behind after suddenly accelerating a dozen times faster, the black cloud turned red as that blind evil cultivator escaped further and further from the danger.

"Senior should we chase after him?" Seeing their temple master and high monk stop after cancelling his technique, the oldest of the dozen monks in yellow or blue robes asked while vigilantly scanning the surrounding area for any other unexpected visitor.

"No, activate the sensory formation and notify our disciples to be careful after leaving the temple, better yet if they hide their identities while working nearby the temple, Ill be visiting the ancestors. Send the news of blind devil sovereign appearing at our doors injured and fleeing after accumulating wounds on top of wounds and sacrificing his dao energy to escape, that will draw his attention from our disciples and keep him busy until we make our move." Leaving these words behind, the high monk left for the forbidden area where the ancestors spend their time in seclusion.

In a second, the temple master was outside these dozen monks range of senses and sight, pure white lotuses were blooming beneath the temple master's feet after each step he took and faded gradually in a few seconds.

Most of the monks sighed at the high attainments their temple master has in the lotus step movement technique, they all learned it from the first day of joining the temple of transparency, yet none of them is his match in speed even if he suppressed his cultivation to match theirs.

Scattering to do their temple master's orders, these monks all agreed that this continent is going to experience a tumultuous phase with the appearance of such a pinnacle cultivator of the evil dao such as blind devil sovereign.

Temple master Dong Peizhi smiled despite his old age and usually stern and serious personality then picked up speed to move faster towards the forbidden area while thinking 'that is the fortune of our temple, a fat, juicy, and extremely rare chance for me to reach higher in my cultivation just appeared on my doorstep. I can't let that one escape or Karma would turn to entangle me instead, amitabha buddha.' the shine in his eyes was filled with determination, the temple master took out a wooden token and injected his spirit energy inside it before entering the white dome of the protective formation around the forbidden area where his ancestors rest and vanished inside.

Beside himself, only three others from the temple of transparency are allowed entrance to that forbidden area, any outsiders are going to face the strongest retaliation from the temple if they dared to try, even Andreas and DaiLong don't dare and probably won't in their lives.

........

Lin woke up a couple of hours after midnight, opening his eyes he saw Qiang Chi sitting next to his bed, the place was Wei's carriage and except for Lai, Shui, Zhang everyone was inside the carriage sitting at the table and exchanging ideas.

"We should hand that assassin to the mercenary guild, certainly there's a bounty on his head there. En." Wei's eyes glittered with the glow of spirit crystals when he said that, only to find Yang frowning and Fu ignoring this greedy fatso and giving his attention to his beautiful wife instead.

"We should wait until Ming wake up, he was the one to discover and capture then cripple this man's cultivation. He should be the one to decide." Wang argued while shaking his head, he knows that Wei was only after the money.

Fu, Yang, Xue nodded their heads to agree with Wang, much to the distaste of Wei who frowned his round face and puckered his lips at these stubborn people, but he didn't argue or retort and kept his silence while venting on the food on the table instead of wasting his breath on some stupid idiots who doesn't value the idea of getting rich.

Habitually Lin stretched out his soul sense and was surprised to find it reaching almost twenty kilometers wide!

Not only was his soul force recovered by almost a double compared to what it was before he blacked out but also he felt a gentle stream of cool soul force constantly feeding his soul from the center of his forehead, from the previous experience of using the incomplete soul lock technique, Lin was expecting a much weakened soul force when he used it in the second time with a much weaker soul force base, however, he found his soul force recovered beyond it's normal rate.

'Brat, you're forbidden from using that shitty soul technique unless it is completed, until you give me what I require, you are not to use any technique which might harm your foundations, understood?' Kai's voice made Lin smile ruefully and he knew that Kai must be the reason of this contradictory result.

'Yes senior, I understand and am grateful for your timely assistance.' Lin answered and retracted his soul sense.

'Since you understand then work hard and hurry up and grow strong, I'm sick of babysitting you.' Kai's words were dripping with cynicism and ridicule.

Lin felt the source of that gentle soul force on his forehead disappear when Kai admonished him, he stretched his right hand to take a glass of water to quench his thirst while sitting on his bed.

The people inside the carriage noticed that he was awake and stopped their conversations then gave Lin looks of disbelief, injuries to the soul take longer to heal and the boy was drove to the state of falling into unconsciousness from exhaustion.

They expected him to sleep for a few days not a few hours, from their first diagnosis of state the boy was in currently, he is out from the critical state to the safety of recovery with the ability to move his body without any trouble!

Qiang Chi hurried to snatch the glass of water and brought it near to Lin's mouth and helped him sit by supporting his back, his eyes were scanning Lin of any signs of extreme fatigue or exhaustion which he is very familiar with after years of experience in the battlefield.

"Chi, I'm not that tired to the degree of not being able to drink and sit on my own." Lin didn't open his mouth to drink but to speak, he gave the worried young man a helpless glance while taking the glass from his arm.

"Yes young master." Qiang Chi smiled while giving way to the worried seniors to come near the boy's bed by taking a couple steps back.

"Tsk, how would he know how to deal with little monsters such as you?, You should've seen how worried he was for you." Ning Xue clicked her tongue and said while crossing her arms around her bountiful chest, Wang couldn't help but take a second look as that squishy area distorted in shape.

"Thank you Chi, sorry for making you worry for my sake, I'm alright now." Lin nodded and thanked his devoted follower while smiling at how calm like a rock that young man was while receiving his gratitude, unlike Wang's shifty eyes, that young man nodded once and never gave these seniors any rude gazes unless they spoke to him directly, his eyes staring at the ceiling at a forty-five degrees angle was his norm.

"Ming, that blood demon assassin what do you want to do with him?" Wei as impatient as ever for more wealth in his pockets, he asked while hoping that Lin would leave him to deal with the assassin however he wants.

"Tell Zhang to bring him here, I have things to ask that man before I decide what to do next." Lin said while remembering how that man's martial-spirit helped him in the most critical moment.

Hadn't that snake broke it's little fangs to help him purify that black marble, then Lin would've lost the confrontation once he fell unconsciousness.

'Why did he help me defy his master?' Lin had this question troubling his thoughts ever since he woke up.

The tyrants noticed how absent-minded Lin was and kept their silence, Wang nodded and left to bring the assassin which Zhang was guarding on his own, Qiang Chi brought a tray of food to Lin and silently gave the group of cultivators who were evidently following Lin's commands a fleetingly look before returning to his statue mode, he was proud that his young master has such a charismatic personality and even more proud of himself for joining his ranks.

.........

Meiyin was in the carriage with Shui when Lin awoke, after he told her of his suggestion to recruit Ming to join their princess in the heart seeking sect, she knew that having such a genius watch over Mei is another guarantee that her princess doesn't receive any bullying or get her resources taken away by another disciple of the sect.

Looking at her princess who sat to meditate on her bed for the first time in months now, Su Meiyin nodded and held her man's hand and said : "Shui, we need to talk to the boy alone to convince him to leave that merchant, otherwise that man would influence his judgment."

"I don't see the boy as a subordinate to that Cheng clan's merchant, the way he speaks to them is just different. But I agree with you on talking with him on private." Shaking his head, Zan Shui spoke as he remembered the way Lin ordered them to do this and that while Cheng Wei and his men silently followed him with their eyes without interrupting once.

"You should go back and join them in the merchant's carriage with the excuse of wanting to terminate the issue of the threat on our daughter, take the first opportunity to bring the boy here but you should be discreet about it and don't alert them of your true intentions, give the excuse of Ah Da wanting to thank him personally and if that didn't work tell him that our true identities is a sensitive topic which can't be revealed in public." Meiyin was relieved to hear that Lin wasn't under the thumb and control of Wei, patting his hand she spoke while looking at Mei with a gentle gaze that spoke volumes of how much she loves this little girl.

"En, the boy is polite and refined, I don't think he'll refuse the invitation." Getting up from his seat, Zan Shui kissed the cheek of Meiyin and left towards Wei's carriage.

He saw Wang and Zhang carrying the imprisoned assassin to the carriage, he followed after them inside and was shocked to see Lin awake and eating slowly with no apparent problems in his motions.

From the texture and color of Lin's skin, Zan Shui was sure that Lin was alright with no major troubles following his previous adventure of purifying evil energy.

"You're here senior Shui, can I trouble you to remove the ice and free that man." Lin wiped his hands on a clean piece of silk, then got up from his bed after handing Chi the tray of food and walked towards blood demon's body and asked while tapping on the thin layer of cool, bloodred ice with his fingers.

It wasn't cold to the degree of freezing the man to death, it was faint like lukewarm water and Lin felt the assassin breathing normally through it, inside that thin shell of red ice the assassin was unfortunately still wearing that revolting cloak which kept blocking Lin's soul sense and he couldn't get a clear picture of his current status, from that faint breathing he hears coming from that shell with his heightened senses, Lin just knew that the man inside wasn't alright at all.

Zan Shui shook his head at Lin's proposal, shrugging his shoulders he said : "That ice isn't under my control ever since that red energy polluted it, honestly I don't know how he's even alive after his evil energy and martial-spirit got purified. Even after his martial-spirit got wiped out and his cultivation crippled, the man refuses to die and is still hanging on!" Zan Shui was clearly helpless and the only thing he can do is destroy that ice to free the assassin who is no more than a weak mortal now with a remainder of above average physical strength left from being a cultivator once, continuing he said : "As you can see, while we were distracted by you when you fell unconscious, the hole we were using to inject our spirit energy in that man's dantian got covered in the same layer of ice. Well it can't be called ice anymore, I don't even know what to call that red thing." Knocking on that shell with his knuckles and making a helpless face, Zan Shui explained to Lin what he missed.

Lin wasn't expecting that answer when he heard Wang speak about the assassin being crippled before he thought he meant the purification of his evil energy not his martial-spirit, last thing he witnessed was that transparent snake helping him by biting the black marble and right before he lost consciousness it was still in that assassin's dantian when he sent all of his soul force and light-fire intent inside that mysterious black marble.

Unbeknownst to Lin, that little snake followed his onslaughting energy inside that evil seed and disappeared.

"Break it then, but don't hurt his vitals. I want him alive from his breathing I don't think he'll live for long if left like this." Lin pinched the thin layer of ice on the assassin's fingers with all his physical strength yet it remained intact and no fissures appeared on it, turning to gesture for Zhang to do the job he moved away to give him space.

'pointless.' Kai said and Lin found Zhang failing to break that ice when he used fifty percent of his earth energy to kick the ice on that assassin's thigh.

The ice was unaffected and Zhang's kick almost sent the assassin flying outside the carriage if it wasn't for Yang's timely response of grabbing the assassin by the arm to stop him, even Zan Shui who created that ice block imprisonment technique was stunned by the sturdiness of this ice!

'kakakaka, such ignorant fools. To think they can affect something containing all that amount of sin energy with such weak attacks, even if it was a dry and crumpling tree leaf with all that amount of sin energy, then even if they ignited it on spirit fire for days it still won't burn. That kid with blade intent can scratch that ice if he kept chopping at it for a while, while that shorty can break it with his heavy-ness intent if he kept bashing at it. You can melt it with intent energy after fusing your two fires, but your intent is weak, unrefined and used crudely so it will take too long, that evil brat would be long dead by that time. You have your faith aura which is the only energy which can affect sin energy directly, after all both faith and sin energies are the two faces of the same aspect and counters each other. Tsk tsk, I told you before to use your head, brute force isn't always the answer.' Kai ridiculed Lin and everyone with his words as if they're a bunch of clowns.

"Stop Zhang, it wouldn't work with merely spirit energy. Call Lai, senior Fu I will be needing your assistance with the energy of intent." Holding Zhang who was excitedly prepared to deliver a full power punch to follow his previous half-assed kick, Lin looked at Wang who nodded and left to replace Lai on the job of overseeing the guarding teams, then Fu who was obviously not expecting Lin to ask him when he required assistance while Yang and Shui were available and just next to him.

Seeing the encouraging smile on his woman's face, Chen Fu raised his head proudly and gave Li Yang a smirking gaze before standing next to Lin and waiting for him to tell him what to do, after all none of these two has any talent in the aspect of intent unlike him.

Just for the love of experimenting, Lin walked towards assassin and decided to try using fire intent on that shell of sin energy.

On his right palm he held the small red fire which exited from his right chest and started roasting the pinky finger of the assassin, after ten seconds the shell was unaffected like Kai said.

However, the four tyrants were stunned by Lin's fire intent energy which he revealed to them for the first time, all of them knew that Lin was a dual cultivator of soul and spirit with great attainments in body refinement for someone his age, yet now they saw him easily using intent energy!

However, before they got over their shock, these amazed tyrants saw another golden fire exit from the boy's right chest to join the red one in burning that strange but sturdy shell.

The gold-red fire intent made that sin shell moisten after ten seconds but Lin was ready for that result after what Kai said, without hesitation Gang who sat inside the twenty kilometers wide soul world, fused the fire intent energies in his right hand with the soul force cluster in the left hand and remade the triple colored fire which Lin had to forgo before because his soul was in a need for rest and strengthening.

Once again the tyrants were shocked by the third fire which appeared and started to push back a thin layer of that sin energy shell, no evaporation happened and that mysterious material receded backwards like a living organism to reveal the tip of that assassin's pinky nail.

But the amount of soul force exhausted to do that small achievement was almost five hundred meters of Lin's soul world, now he only has nineteen and half kilometers of bright space in the soul world and the rest is pitch black void.

Thankfully he wasn't after harming that assassin, otherwise from that small gap in the shell of sin energy, Lin can send his fire intent to burn him to ash.

Touching that revealed pinky nail, Lin sent his soul sense inside that man's body directly to take a look at the situation inside his dantian.

Like they said, nothing was in that drained and bleak dantian except for the broken evil seed which exploded and it's bits and pieces swam in this destruction, the black marble was no longer black anymore, it's darkness was wiped out and what appears to be glass shards was all over the cracked and fissuring dantian getting carried by the grey cyclones of the grey energy which appeared when Lin's incomplete soul lock technique was met by the dark soul force from that broken thing.

'sigh, hey you, blood demon, why did you help me against that black thing?, Do you hate your master that much?' Lin was sad because that small snake was nowhere to be found, sending that assassin his question with a soul link technique he intentionally mentioned that man who asked Lin to release blood demon.

'snort, master my ass, my name isn't blood demon it's Rong Qing from the Rong clan in the eastern height's sunrise empire and last disciple of the swift sword sect's sect master, blood demon was the name that mother fucker gave me when he manipulated my dao and erased my foundations after kidnapping me then forced me on devil cultivation, the only true reason I ever seek strength was to tear him from limb to limb. If you're after revenge for what I was about to do to little princess Mei then do your worst, I don't mind dying for the atrocities I did in my life, but you have to send my body to my clan with a message to explain why I disappeared. You owe me at least that much, my little one helped you against that creep, without her help you could never dream of destroying the evil seed with your current abilities, he would've turned you into one of his toys or you could've been another victim for his evil schemes or maybe a vessel like me but I doubt it with your light affinity. Hurry and leave this place before he arrives, seek the safety of mercenary city and live the rest of your life there if you have to. At least it is better than living in fear for your clan and sect getting in harm's way because you're forced to live or die as an evil person in the eyes of this world's majority of population, heed my advice Ming I'm not bluffing, people like him are outside of your league.' Rong Qing answered like Lin hoped he would, however, what he said made Lin annoyed because just like he feard, that man's martial-spirit was helping him and that mysterious individual who spoke to Lin from the "evil seed" was a freak who kidnappes people and forces them to the evil dao!

'death is a choice which you can't have Qing, the countless souls you tormented, I can still hear each and every cry they made before I purified them and released them from the suffering you gave them. Now it's your turn to be on the receiving end, you say you were a victim for that person who kidnapped you, then I sympathize with you but before you die you need to redeem yourself or die trying. Otherwise you're just a coward, the man who tried to kill me was evil, yes, but at least he held his swords and confronted me and a few other tyrants fearlessly to the last moment before getting captured. I bet even your small snake would scorn you if it could speak, alas, even that tiny and weak martial-spirit courageously stood up for you until it was wiped out from existence.' Lin felt the surrendering tune for death from that man's answer and couldn't let him die just yet, otherwise he'll be disappointing all these souls who bowed to him and kowtowed before vanishing, that's why he riled the man up with his words to put some fire of life in his chest.

'heh, what can a mortal do?, Throw rocks at the geezer?' Rong Qing's levity almost made Lin burst in laughter.

'you're not the one to decide, just sit tight and prepare yourself for a lifetime's worth of work, maybe if your conviction is firm and your heart is clear you'll experience things you never knew or imagined.' Lin sent then removed his connection, turning to look at Ning Xue Lin spoke to her directly.

Both her and that Shui were water element users, however, after Rong Qing mentioned the thing about Ah Da becoming princess Mei he understood why that Shui was eager to kill Rong Qing so much, having Shui help heal the one who tried to kill his princess was unlikely and the second choice is that annoying beauty.

"Heal him, do everything in your power to keep him alive," Lin ordered Ning Xue then turned to look at Wei and continued to say : "You should move the convoy for mercenary city now, there's a possibility of some formidable devil cultivator paying us a visit. If he found us then we're -apologies my lady for my inappropriate language- well, fucked in the ass." Ning Xue was about to start another squabble with Lin for ordering her like she's some slave but Chen Fu held her, however, when Lin started to speak the tyrants were stunned, Ning Xue was stunned when Lin suddenly looked at her and apologized politely which was unexpected, then she blushed slightly when he said that vulgar expression.

Wei's face paled and he ran outside the carriage like the wind, 'my baby is in danger, how many times are they going to come to destroy my baby?, For Lin to say that then that devil cultivator senior is beyond formidable, fuck my caravan convoy is in danger. My money is in danger, a senior of the orthodox dao is one thing but a freaking senior of the devil dao is a catastrophe on a whole different level, we need to pack our shit and get the fuck out of here. Fuck, fuck fuck fuck, bloody pearl road doesn't want to give me any rest.' his thoughts oriented about his wealth, Wei ignored Lai who just returned after exchanging places with Wang and ran for the handsome brother, even if he's in immediate need for Lai to move things around faster, Wei knows that Lin needs him right now and he has to make do with Wang's help for now.

"What's wrong with Wei?, He just completely ignored me right now." Lai asked Lin once he entered the carriage, he was confused because he never saw Wei run that fast before without using lightning energy.

"Bad news, but there's no use worrying about something you can't stop. You and senior Fu will use your intent energies to weaken that shell of sin energy-" Lin shrugged and was about to tell Lai and Fu what to do, however, once he mentioned that red glass-like thin shell's true name, the four tyrants gasped in shock and Xue held Lin by the shoulders and shook him back and forth while shouting in his face with excitement in her eyes : "What did you say? Sin energy! Are you sure this is sin energy?" Blocking the spittle coming out from her mouth with soul force and seeing the strange look on the faces of everyone who heard him except for Zhang who doesn't seem to care about what this material's name is, he wanted to give it a few more hits to see if it will hold and was wondering if Lin would give him another chance to try and break it.

"Why? do you have some kind of allergy to sin energy?" Lin teased the beauty to lighten up the mood, she blushed in shame because she lost her composure while the brat remained calm and composed much to her frustration.

"To snotty-face brats I do, humph." Pinching his cheeks, Ning Xue grumbled under her teeth.

"Yet you're still touching me, go help Wei or help this man recover at least you have the liberty to choose what to do while a brat has been worrying about all of your lives since the beast-wave attack." Lin gave this idiotic woman a helpless look then removed her hands from his face and pulled Lai and Fu to help him, Ning Xue felt like she's the brat in comparison to Lin's when he gave a hint of what he's been thinking.

Stomping her feet Ning Xue went to hold Rong Qing's exposed body part and started to send a gentle stream of her water energy to help him heal his inner wounds, she was determined to succeed in making this fellow survive no matter what, even if she saw the degree of chaos and severeness his inner wounds are and the state his weak physique is in currently.

Whatever greed that was birthed inside the hearts of any of the four tyrants who know the true worth of that great amount of solidified sin energy was quickly scattered, first because Lin's easygoing attitude and second because each of the three tyrants had his plans, the two mercenary leaders wanted to snatch the boy or make themselves close to his heart for possible future gains, Ning Xue wanted to prove her worth in the eyes of the boy that she's not all fun and games, beauty and charm.

As for Zan Shui, he wished for the boy to be the inside backer for his princess and if it happened then the fortune of such wealth is certain to rub on her, he just needs to convince the boy to join the same sect.

Lai smiled in gloat as he listened to Lin's orders with Fu while thinking 'Shitty merchant left in a hurry, I'm sure he'll receive a heart attack if he heard what that material really is' then he carefully controlled his blade intent to work on tandem with Fu's heavy-ness intent to weaken that sin energy layer.

Once Lin feels the shell weakening, he would use his soul-intent fusion and the triple colored fire would push back the sin energy layer to shrink backwards.

In twenty minutes the entire left palm of Rong Qing was revealed, yet the three of Lai, Fu and Lin were completely exhausted.

"Huff, this demonic material is like a bottomless pit sucking our energies yet it isn't affected at all, at this rate it will take us at least a week to remove it completely from that blood demon's body." Lai wiped sweat from his forehead and sat down to drink something after his blade intent energy was almost depleted.

"His name is Rong Qing, from the Rong clan in the eastern height's sunrise empire and the last disciple of the swift sword sect's sect master, blood demon is the name given to him by the man who kidnapped him and forced him to be a devil cultivator, the same person who might pay us a visit." Lin joked about their situation while taking a large bite from the thigh of the roasted animal Qiang Chi offered, even Qiang Chi's hand's shivered slightly when he placed the food despite how composed he usually is.

"Tsk, you're still in the mood to joke around, his body is severely wounded all over the place and all I can do is done. The rest is up to himself if he wants to survive, what's with that look?, I'm not an alchemist alright!" Ning Xue clicked her tongue and messed up Lin's hair before sitting on her man's thigh and hugging his thick neck, seeing Lin stare directly at her eyes while straightening his hair with his hand, Xue stuck out her chest fearlessly while stuffing some meat from the table in her man's mouth.

"Thank you Xue, now that I remember, you never answered my question." Lin asked while looking straight into the depth of Ning Xue's eyes.

"What question?" Feeling fidgety all of a sudden after speaking her mind without thinking, Ning Xue remembered the day Lin spanked her butt in public then Fu took her body for a bouncing ride.

"What did you plan to do to me that day when we sparred?, You said if I win you'll tell me but when I won you dragged your husband to defend your honor and never respected the prior agreement." Lin started speaking and Ning Xue wanted to go and stuff his mouth with a large suasage and to eyes threatening to devour him in their scorching fires, however, her man held her by the waist with one hand to restrain her and keep her on his lap.

The carriage's door opened at that moment and Wei entered while gasping for air with sweat trickling down from his face, apparently he forgot to use any of his lightning energy to move until it was over.

"Huff.... Wheeze...." Taking the glass of water Lin offered and emptying it all at once in his throat, Wei rested his back on the chair and seemed to melt in it as his chest rose and fell rapidly, everyone inside the carriage felt the convoy starting to move and the conversation started to take a different route as Lai told Wei what he missed.

Miraculously, Wei seemed to recover in a wink and he ran to hug the statue of Rong Qing and twirl it as if he's holding his bride while smiling from ear to ear.

Lin gave Ning Xue a knowing smile and watched her snare her teeth at him like a cat who got it's tail stepped on, while Fu smiled because he knows exactly what his woman was planning on giving Lin that day of the sparring matches.

Round of spanking was what she wanted to give Lin and a round of spanking was what she got that day.