Ever since he knew about the true identity of the material imprisoning Rong Qing as a shell of sin energy, Wei made himself the supervisor of the trio as they worked on removing it from Rong Qing's body.

He was very meticulous in measuring the layer's thickness whenever the trio made it shrink, again and again he would shout at Lai to be careful not to waste any of that extremely valuable material which made Lai very eager to use his blade as a cane and beat the living daylight out of the fatty who kept nagging like a bitch all day long.

'fuck, I'm not working alone here, at least shout at Lin and old Fu for a change if you dare.' Liao Lai thought as he gritted his teeth and balled his fists then stifled his emotions and returned to his meditation after glaring at Wei who felt a shudder in his spine under that glare.

Wang had to answer the questions about the origins of the Rong clan whenever one of the mercenary leaders or Xue asked, after all Wei and the Cheng clan trade delegation is supposed to be from the same empire, Zan Shui didn't care about how strong the Rong clan or the sunrise empire are, he only wanted to find a way to take Lin back to their carriage to convince him with Su Meiyin to join the princess in the heart seeking sect as new disciples.

But the boy was either working with the others to remove the sin energy or meditating to recover his lost soul force and fire-intent energy, other than that he would be eating or back in his carriage spending time with the girl from the Chentian clan, after five days of the trio's work they removed the sin energy from the left arm, head, alongside the neck and left shoulder with almost half the left chest area.

Rong Qing can move his left arm and neck after they were freed, however, he was weakened and looked sick with very pale skin after he got his cultivation crippled, his breathing faint and his eyes staring at thin air in a daze all the time.

According to Lin, that large chunk of sin energy is to be distributed to everyone who participated in capturing and purifying the evil energy, of course Zan Shui and Li Yang get a slightly larger share than Lai who only participated in the capture of Rong Qing.

Chen Fu didn't like it since Li Yang gets almost a double of what he and Ning Xue compined get from that valuable material, but he had nothing to say since no one else other than Ming would take the rest all to himself.

Li Yang and Zan Shui would get ten percent of that material each, Lai gets five percent, both of Fu and Xue gets about seven percent, the rest belongs to Lin and no matter how much Wei tried to ask to take a share for himself Lin would refuse him just to test his control over his greed.

That's why Wei was a bit too much of a bully and shouting at Lai all day as if he murdered his family, in truth he wanted to take Lai's share of the sin material because that blade loving freak might exchange it for some high quality blade tool or something!

However, the work Lin made Lai and Fu do on that layer of sin energy wasn't exhausting their intent energies for nothing, beside their profits of getting a share of the sin energy itself, the gains they gained were greater if seen from the perspective of control over their intent energy.

Lai and Fu were merely using their blade intent or heavy-ness intent respectively on it's own as a pure intent energy or mixed with a bit of spirit energy in case they needed it to fight, however, after seeing Lin use his fire-intent energy all the time while mixing soul force inside it to control it easier and give it another boost of strength which gave his intent power a lively feel, then again when he started to fuse spirit energy to make his intent energy almost comparable to theirs in strength, made these two seniors eager to try and fuse whatever soul force they have with their intent energies like the boy to see if it's possible to strengthen their powers.

Whenever they faced a trouble or difficulty in doing that, they would ask Lin to check their methods for the sake of learning and aim to imitate him, Lin would patiently give them his opinion on what he feels wrong in their fusion and a few hints on how to use soul force but he had nothing to teach these two when it comes to adding spirit energies or how to manipulate their intent energies, their affinities were different and their intents were all the same.

Any spirit cultivator would see a passive increase in his soul force just by reaching the grandmaster realm, that's why cultivators in the spirit grandmaster realm can send their long-range techniques further than spirit masters with better accuracy, because their soul force is stronger with each major realm increase from the grandmaster realm upwards.

Chen Fu had it easier than Lai who struggled with control over his triple aspects energy fusion, but that was only because he had higher attainments in spirit cultivation not because he's more of a genius than Lai.

Still, their soul force level was between the wanderer soul realm and the soul returner realm, none of them had reached the soul seeker realm yet and Lin gave them the same advice Jin Bao gave him years back, to meditate on their soul and try to increase their soul force as well because from experience Lin knows the advantage a bigger tank of soul force gives.

Had any of them a bit of talent on soul cultivation, then Lin would've sent them the first few levels of the soul strengthening technique, yet from the experience of dealing with Chen Fu and Liao Lai he knew that both of them are devoted to spirit cultivation a bit too much and merely think of intent as a supplementary aspect, well in the case of Lai it was the other way around and he thought of spirit cultivation as a way to make his blade strikes stronger and faster.

Despite having the dual affinities for gold and earth elements Liao Lai was single-mindedly seeking the dao of the blade.

Rong Qing silently accepted his fate and watched this boy Ming for the past few days, while he completely ignored everyone if Lin spoke to him he would answer slowly and quietly with a weak and feeble voice filled with exhaustion, anyway Lin was mindful enough to ask the sensitive questions with a soul link technique and knew the complete background of princess Mei of the western island's Ling empire.

After his face was revealed and the bloody hood of the black cloak of the assassins guild was removed, Qiang Chi brought him some food to eat after Lin gave the order and Rong Qing refused to eat in the beginning, however, once Lin looked him in the eyes and commanded him to eat, the assassin opened his mouth and chewed slowly much to the surprise of everyone who saw it.

Honestly, everyone was expecting that assassin to commit suicide on the first opportunity he gets after being crippled and captured, yet they felt something going on between him and that boy which wasn't revealed to them yet.

No one asked Lin anything and did their jobs of ensuring that nothing is wrong in their remaining journey to mercenary city while leaving Lin to handle the issue of this captive since Wei wasn't.

On the sixth day Lin returned to Wei's carriage with Sun who consolidated his devil beast realm and Frostine who became a lot obedient after Lin warned her to behave or else!

"Buddy, is that the one who tried to kill the little girl?" Sun jumped directly on Rong Qing's right shoulder and poked his right cheek repeatedly while asking.

"Hoot." Frostine looked around at this group of strangers then flew to perch on Zhang Wang's shoulder, hooting curiously she kept looking at his eyes.

"His name is Rong Qing, he got crippled of his cultivation but you should've seen how strong he was before, we had to gang up on him in order to restrain him. Unfortunately he wasn't a good guy but certainly we'll make him do his best in the rest of his life to correct his wrongs if possible, however, first he needs to meet his family and explain the reason he disappeared all these years." Lin spoke while looking at these lifeless eyes, then he saw longing in Rong Qing's eyes when mentioned that he needs to get together with his kin.

"Is that the material called sin energy?, It looks no different from red glass to me eh!, My claws wouldn't even leave a scratch buddy, even when I use my fires!" Sun glared at this red matter when his claws failed then used his teeth to bite it and stopped when his jaws hurt, he was amazed by the durability and resistance it has.

"Yes it's quite strong indeed, don't get in our way now buddy, we need to remove the rest of it from the other shoulder to pull Qing out from it." Lin gestured for Lai and Fu to start and Wei the self-proclaimed supervisor watched them work like a hawk.

"Heh, you're a lucky man, but you should be thankful for buddy here, someone else would just kill you and get it done, believe it or not if you dare try and mess with my friend you'll come to regret it. He might appear like a gentleman all the time but he wouldn't hesitate to show you his dark side if you try to outsmart him, you should behave from now on, ya hear?" Sun stood on two legs with one paw behind his back like a sage teaching a mortal some of his wisdom, while the other paw never stopped poking Rong Qing's right cheek.

After a final glare at the helpless cripple, Sun spread his pair of cute bat wings and stood on the other shoulder of Wang with Frostine.

"Hoot." Frostine rubbed her face feathers with Wang and made a lazy sound.

"Frostine likes you Wang, she says you have a calming aura." Sun bit on the slap of meat Qiang Chi offered and told Wang who smiled at Frostine and ran his fingers through her feathers.

"Well thank you Frostine, I like your feathers they're so pretty." Wang smiled when he saw Ning Xue give him an envious look when she saw these two cute beasts favor him.

Females always seem to have a soft spot for cute creatures and beautiful sceneries, if only his best friend Zhang would stop being so dense all the time and understand that.

"Careful now Lai, stop you idiot!, Wait, let me measure this area I think you wasted some of this precious stuff." Wei's face flushed red from anger and brought his head closer to Qing's right shoulder to check with his eyes even after measuring the thickness of the shrunk layer with his tool, his words made Lai frown and grit his teeth to stifle his anger.

"Wei, you're in the way too, go revise your accounts or something." Lin glanced at Wei then told him to stop being a hindrance, after what happened since he woke up from the side-effect of drinking the potion of thought rebirth, these tyrants had already noticed that Lin wasn't just a subordinate to the merchant.

Seeing no reason to keep the facade, he decided to save time and remove the fatty who kept being a pain in Lai's ass.

"Eh!, I already did and memorized them by heart-" Tang Wei panicked and tried to argue to stay but Lin interrupted him : "Go rest or eat something, maybe some cultivation would help erase your stress," Seeing that Lin wasn't going to let him do what he wants, Wei pouted with droopy shoulders and dragged his feet to his table and slumped in his chair with vacant and spiritless eyes, however, what Lin said next made him shiver in excitement.

"I can give you a portion of this material to sell later, if you did a good job and got me a good price then I don't mind letting you be the spokesperson of my trade affairs." Lin said as he tried to seek an even deeper and harder fusion with Lai and Fu's energies.

Li Yang and Zan Shui were like Wang, Zhang, Chi, Wei and Ning Xue, just a small audience with the two beast companions of Lin's.

Nobody noticed the sly glint in Wei's eyes as he formulated another plan to make another great fortune, 'heh, thankfully these seniors forgot about this Rong Qing's space ring and spirit tools.' Wei thought as he munched some biscuit and softened it with some herbal drink.

Releasing Rong Qing's right shoulder enabled them to free his other arm, since his boots and clothing gave them enough space to pull him out from that shell of sin energy, they were able to pull his skinny body out after some tweaking.

Only he was in his birthday suit and stark naked after they had to remove his upper body clothes one by one to make enough room to pull him out, then unbuckle his lower body's clothes which got in the way.

Thankfully, his boots was a spirit tool and once Qing's energy was crippled they lost their connection to his body, had they kept being tight around his ankles Lin and the others would've been forced to work on the legs as well.

"Zhang, Qing is your responsibility until we reach the Rong clan's estate, make sure he eats and walks everyday." Lin covered the dispirited cripple with a robe from his ring then told the training maniac while storing away all of Rong Qing's belongings including his space ring and the shell of sin energy.

"Okay, if you try to escape Ill break your legs do it again and Ill break your arms. Understood?" Zhang walked in front of Rong Qing and looked at him with his ox eyes while speaking, seeing Qing nod silently he continued : "come with me." Then turned away and walked out of the carriage, once Rong Qing was at the doorstep of the moving carriage and his shoulder length hair got ruffled by the wind, Zhang held him by the arm and raised him as he ran to find a carriage to accomodate him.

"Senior Shui, now that everything is concluded I believe you have something to say." Lin patted Lai and Fu's shoulders who worked hard for days now then turned to look at the man who seemed very anxious to say something yet held it in.

"Uh!, Yes... ehm, everyone here deserves an apology. We implicated you in our matters and put you in harm's way, the identity of my young lady is sensitive and her enemies doesn't want her to live another day, if it wasn't for young hero Ming's timely intervention I'm afraid that with my limited abilities we couldn't have been able to stop the calamity. Zan Shui gives you this bow out of respect and apology." Not expecting such forthrightness from Lin once he seized the assassin under his custody, Zan Shui regained his composure after a second of shock then gave a ninty degrees bow while cupping his fist after he spoke.

'Still want to hide it huh, not for long I presume.' Lin thought when he saw Zan Shui still refusing to say the name of the princess, he didn't expose the identity to the man and decided to wait and see.

Li Yang, Chen Fu and Ning Xue weren't expecting Zan Shui to suddenly be polite, yet they still accepted his apology with a smile on their faces, to have someone strong in the late stages of the tyrant realm bow to them wasn't something which happens often, this matter has nothing to do with them since they're hired escorts to this caravan nothing more, as mercenaries their lives is constantly endangered and their mission ends once they reach the safety of mercenary city.

Wei, Lai and Wang looked at Lin with another layer of admiration for the sharp boy and his daringness, despite wanting to say what Lin said they didn't dare to, because when dealing with stronger people you should be careful with what you say, it was common sense!

While Chi hurried to bring a cold drink to Lin who lost a considerable amount of soul force and his skin was clearly pale from the constant exhaustion, the affairs of the strong has nothing to do with him, he's only allowed to stay here because of his young master.

"Young hero Ming, my young lady would like to thank you in person, is it possible?" Zan Shui gathered his courage to finally ask.

"I take it that you want that to happen in private, you should go back senior, later Ill pay you a visit with your reward. It wouldn't be polite to visit without an appropriate gift in hand, after all I don't want to be frowned upon by royalty." Lin spoke and saw Zan Shui's eyes glow in delight, then intentionally mentioned a hint about princess Mei's true identity to warn that middle-aged man not to try and play games with him.

Zan Shui was clearly shocked by Lin's last joke, lowering his head he excused himself and left to tell his wife about this not expected update.

"That will be it seniors, I'm afraid your assistance is no longer required, both of your rewards will be handed once I separate your portions." Cupping his fist, Lin dismissed the three tyrants sitting in the carriage.

"Are you in a hurry to throw us out, I'm warning you brat, if you take a tiny bit from my share I will haunt you in your dreams." Ning Xue frowned which made her beautiful face show another side of beauty.

Chen Fu tried to shut his idiotic woman yet she kept glaring at Lin like a fierce lioness.

"So noisy, I'm fair enough to tell you what that material is in the first place, ignorance is a sin and idiocy is another sin. Only threaten when you're capable of backing your words, did you ever think about what might happen if I took your empty threats to heart? Go on and listen to your husband obediently or Ill really give you two more." Without even looking at the woman, Lin kept eating slowly while speaking unhurriedly.

His words made Li Yang smile slightly while Ning Xue flushed deep red and stomped her feet, finally she let her man drag her outside the carriage after he excused himself.

'Just you wait little brat, this grandma won't forget.' grinding her teeth, Ning Xue laughed aloud carefreely after thinking about how much Lin seemed to like to embarrass her in every chance he get, touching her belly, Ning Xue wished for a boy like this annoyingly calm Ming.

Quipping and arguing with Ming was a sour delight which became an addiction to her after days of back and forth word duels.

Seeing that no strangers remained inside the carriage, Lin took out Rong Qing's belongings.

'brat, I did you the favor of separating that sin energy into twenty equal bricks since it will take months for you to be able to do it with the help of these weaklings, tsk, just a shard of what you plan on giving them is worth hundreds of high grade crystals, such a wasteful brat.' Kai's voice made Lin smile helplessly, after spending all that time he and the others couldn't do anything but make that sin energy shrink, they tried to sever a part but wasn't no matter how hard they tried.

Taking out one of the twenty palm sized red bricks of sin energy, Lin threw it to Lai who couldn't believe his eyes even after he confirmed the authentic nature of the brick in his hand.

"This!.... Thank you Lin." Getting over his shock, Lai hurried to store it in his space ring since Wei almost tackled him to snatch it away from his hand.

"Don't mention it, just don't sell it cheap, the worth of a small fragment is a few hundred high grade spirit cryastals." Lin rested his head on his chair and told Lai to be careful not to get scammed.

"What!, Give it here Lai, I promise to get you a price higher than the market in exchange for a small fee." Wei slammed the table and pushed the chair away with his legs as he stood up in a hurry, completely disregarding the chair that went flying and almost broke one of his antiques if it wasn't for Qiang Chi's strong arm which held it, Wei was tiptoeing and leaning his bloated stomach full of fat on the table and gesturing for Lai to take it out with bloodshot eyes.

"Humph, hey idiot, are you forgetting something?, You're supposed to give me a good price for this one here, selling one can give a considerable amount of crystals. Selling one is enough as a start, or you can be smart and pawn it for some money for a short while, then use that money to bet on me when I fight and invest the money you have, go back and retrieve your brick then auction them both." Lin was really feeling disgust deep down in his stomach when he saw Wei act like that, leaving another brick on the table he got up to leave after placing the belongings of Rong Qing back inside his ring.

He was planning to share some things with the greedy merchant but decided against it, maybe he shouldn't leave him nearby too much wealth from now on.

Qiang Chi returned the chair to it's place then followed after Lin with Sun and Frostine who flew from Wang's shoulder to his, Wang and Lai kept snickering at Wei's shocked face after he heard Lin's words and kept staring down at the brick in his hand like an idiot.

Leaving Wei's carriage, Lin carried Chi back to Bo An's carriage and refused to take Sun or Frostine with him when he left : "Chi, you should focus on cultivating until I return, we need to solve your problem of slow increase of spirit cultivation and I want to see you in your best form before we tackle this problem," Saying that Lin patted Sun's and Frostine's heads and continued : "I know that you two are bored to death because I've been always busy lately, I promise to change your mood once I tie some of these loose ends. Alright?" Sun nodded and Frostine tilted her head yet none of them complained.

Qiang Chi kept his eyes lowered and didn't dare sneak any peaks at Bo An even once, giving her his back he sat facing the door cross-legged and started his meditation once Lin left.

Just the small silver puppy inside the carriage was enough deterrent to the ex-general to behave like a blinded person nearby this girl with a great background, not to mention what he saw from the interactions between Lin and Bo An the past few days, they were.... How to say it?, Right!, A bit too intimate in the openion of the young man.

After just a few days, Qiang Chi had corrected his previous judgement of his young master Ming more than a dozen times, which made him feel gladdened by his quick response to grab hold of the opportunity once it arrived.

Right now Qiang Chi was assured of his judgement, he really did the right choice and certainly he would've regretted not jumping ships in the future.

Lin gave Li Yang his share first under the disbelieving eyes of Chen Fu who just like Lai was shocked once he confirmed that these bricks were really made from solid sin energy, then Lin gave him a single brick which made Ning Xue frown and almost burst into another argument with Lin.

"I know what you're thinking, it isn't that I'm bullying you on purpose, the method used to divide them only gave equal bricks and twenty in total, I still awe you half a brick's worth of sin energy. If you have a method of cleaving this one in half bring it to me and take your full share, otherwise I'm afraid I have to pay you in spirit crystals once I know the market price. Worry not that I won't leave mercenary city unless this dept is repaid in full." Lin's honesty and forthrightness made Ning Xue swallow her words and look away, while Li Yang smiled and stored his two bricks in his space ring then cupped his fist to thank Lin for respecting his promise, Chen Fu felt ashamed of himself for doubting this boy even if momentarily.

"Let's hope fate brings us together someday in the future on another less dangerous voyage, if that mysterious individual didn't fall upon us like armageddon before we reach mercenary city in a few days then we're really lucky and fortunate, we're all dancing with the devils until we're there I guess. Thank you for your hard work seniors, you should pray for your gods that nothing happens again to delay us on the rest of this journey. If we're caught by this one then it's game over for sure." Seeing no reason to stay with them any longer, Lin cupped his fist and flew towards the princess's carriage after saying that.

"Tsk, I really couldn't scold him this time or give any piece of my mind, hubby, how much is that one?" Puckering her lips, Ning Xue clunged to her man's strong arm and asked while leaning her head on his shoulder.

"A lot and more!, The brick he gave us can help our group restock our treasuries with resources and spirit tools enough to sustain us for a couple years without doing any missions, finally we can push forward our plans to add some spirit gathering formations and facilities for our members to train and grow stronger. Fan'er will be very happy when she receives this news, her years of hard work can finally be reaped." Chen Fu hugged his woman to his chest and spoke softly as he patted her back.

He didn't mind that Li Yang heard him, the lightning spear mercenary group's leader took another direction with his group's strengthening compared to theirs, or at least that's what his sister Fan said once.

Chen Fu only cared about his rivalry with the man and to keep the gap between their individual strength from widening and working only to shrink it, Fu knows that he's only a leader of the group in name while Chen Fan control the crushing hammer mercenaries development from behind the curtains.

"Have fun you two, I still have to be on guard for the rest of the day." Winking at the couple, Li Yang smiled then left to the rear of the caravan convoy to check on the guarding teams.

Lin specifically asked for one tyrant realm individual to be responsible each day for a shift, while on duty he has to check on the teams every half an hour and to constantly scan the carriages for any signs of any hidden danger.

"Humph, he still profited more than we did in the end." Ning Xue grumbled under her teeth while pulling Chen Fu to their carriage to have some fun.

"Old Yang still worked more than us, it isn't too bad when one of our allies grows stronger. At least we know that he's not going to ignore our group if we needed his help, first things first, you're not allowed to rest tonight...." Chen Fu smirked slyly as he spoke then hauled off his beautiful wife over his shoulder excitedly and slapped her perky bottom while kicking the door shut.

Soon it was silent outside the carriage with no sound other than the whistling wind, yet inside there was a melody of a mixture of gasping and grunting and moaning and laughter.

Despite knowing that they might be encountering a devil cultivator which they can't resist any second now, these two disregarded the possible danger and drowned themselves in each other's pleasure.

......

"Knock.... knock.... Knock...." Lin landed on the princess's doorstep and knocked, the girl with the special mist affinity was amongst the guarding team nearby and yawning lazily as she seemed to be extremely bored, even the way she held the reins of her mount gave away her current mood.

"Ah!, It's you young hero Ming, come in." Zan Shui opened the door and was clearly not expecting Lin to pay them a visit that fast, he and Meiyin didn't even get to talk long.

"Excuse my intrusion, here's your share senior Shui." Lin took out two more sin energy bricks and handed them to the man, before he got to sit down, the little princess Mei who should've been cultivating under the supervision of the thin woman in black, opened her blue eyes and smiled cheerfully then hurried to run towards Lin and sat next to him.

"Big brother Ming you're here." Ling Mei held his left-hand with both arms and grinned widely to show a cute dimple.

"Princess Mei, lady Meiyin." Lin nodded once for this little princess and another for the woman in black then kept his silence, he looked at the couple sitting in front with calm eyes waiting for them to speak their minds, he wasn't in a hurry anyway and wasn't someone to speak first, normally, Lin would listen first then speak later.

"Is it true that big brother Ming is joining me for the trials of the-" Ling Mei was the first to speak, shaking his left-hand she asked with glowing eyes, however, Su Meiyin glared at her and interrupted Mei from saying anymore. "Your highness!, Not another word from you young lady or say goodbye to sweets until we do what lady Yanmei ordered us to do."

"But big brother Ming already knows my identity, you're bullying me by taking my sweets, uncle Shui this is unfair." Ling Mei hid herself from the scary maid behind Lin's back while complaining.

"Princess Mei stop your naughty behavior, this is a serious matter. Young hero Ming, our princess is joining the trials of the heart seeking sect which happens every once in five years, no one other than disciples of the sect are allowed entrance once the trials are passed. Join us and take care of our princess in the sect, you're such a great genius and staying with merchant Wei is such a waste of potential, the young sect master of the heart seeking sect is the genius with the best achievement of awakening his martial-spirit." Mildly reproaching the little princess, Zan Shui looked at Lin and said their reasons while handing out one of the sin energy bricks to Su Meiyin.

Even now he can't figure out how did Ming mold and separate that shell in such a short time, yet the three of Ming, Lai and Fu compined couldn't do anything but shrink it!

"Yes, big brother Ming should join me, we'll team up and bully the other disciples, tehehe." Ling Mei smiled widely and was very excited about the idea.

"I see, sorry but I can't. Our goals is different and our paths crossed here and inevitably has to fork in mercenary city, but who knows maybe in the future we'll meet again," Lin nodded when he heard the middle-aged man's reasons and shook his head apologetically to the little princess who skipped ahead to imagine herself beating the disciples already, patting Mei's head he got up, while heading for the door he continued : "If someday you needed my help and I was able to be of assistance, then I will give it unhesitatingly. I hope you won't bear a grudge against me for refusing you now seniors, but if you did I can somewhat understand where it comes from. At least your loyalty is something which I respect, one look in your eyes as you look at princess Mei tells me how much you love and care for her, sorry little Mei we can't be a team this time but I promise to come visit your sect if you grew up to be amazingly strong and renowned. Can you do that?, Good then it's a promise. Take care now." Lin told the couple and saw them sigh then he turned to speak directly to the little girl who seemed heartbroken and on the verge of crying, before her tears fell on her cheeks he closed the door after she gave him an innocent nod.

His burdens and responsibilities were enough to fill his schedule for years to come, yes he was curious about the so-called geniuses of this world especially this heart seeking sect's young sect master, however, he can't forget his oath to Jin Bao and promises to Lily, Mia and Kai.

He can accept being disliked by these three if it means that Jin Bao gets to walk the spirit world again.

"Young hero Ming, are you looking for the captive?" Little Tong the lucky charm of hammer mercenaries shouted towards Lin once she saw him exit the carriage of these mysterious three.

"Yes little Tong, which one is it?" Lin asked and was smiling helplessly at his current soul force which was weakened after days of constant exhaustion without much rest, even after Gang worked all the time on meditating on the soul strengthening technique, Lin still ended up with a two kilometers radius of soul sense!

"Zhang took the captive to the heavy merchandise carriages, I bet he's going to use these heavy materials to train. He always think about getting stronger this one, he's kinda cool but odd, last time I tried to talk to him he grunted and left after ignoring me. You're close with him right?, Sweet, tell me, is he single?" Pointing at the rear carriages Tong spoke while edging her mount closer to where Lin stood at the doorstep of the moving carriage, seeing Lin nod to confirm his friendship with Zhang, she covered her mouth to whisper while leaning her body towards Lin.

"He is, but that's a difficult nut to crack, are you sure Zhang is the one?, If you break his heart or play with his emotions you'll answer to me. Don't worry, Ill try and make it easier for you to the best of my abilities, tread carefully now because luck isn't always going to be your best friend, with Zhang try to share his interests because he isn't only brawn and no brain, you'll be surprised." Lin smiled and left after giving little Tong his blessings and some hints, what comes next depends on her methods and Zhang's choice whether or not to open his heart.

While staying stationary in the air and waiting for the caravan's rear carriages to come to him, Lin was wondering if little Tong's curiosity towards Zhang was because of the influence of Ning Xue on her.

Shrugging, Lin touched down in the carriage which Zhang was really lifting some heavy looking cubes of stone or metal, Rong Qing was huddled in a corner and staring at the ceiling in silence.

"You're not wasting any time huh, looks like I need to workout or you'll catch up big guy. How's our guest?" Lin smiled when he saw Zhang seriously take his physical training, then crouched in front of Rong Qing and asked while checking the man's dantian one more time.

"Quiet, he didn't say a word and beside the sound of his breathing only the sound of his silence could be heard." The one meter cube of yellow stone was lowered back to the floor by Zhang, saying that he turned to carry a smaller cube which felt even heavier from the look on his face and the veins which revealed themselves on his muscles.

"Your dantian is cracked and fissuring everywhere Qing, your martial-spirit is nowhere to be seen inside all that chaos. All I saw you do is brood for days yet I never saw you try and fix this dantian or regain your cultivation, why's that?" Lin asked while looking at this mess of a dantian, the cyclones of the grey wind rupturing the dantian's space everywhere they go, the shards of the exploded evil seed carried by wind everywhere same like sand particles buffeted by wind.

"It's gone alright!, The little one is.... Sigh, forget it, you won't understand." Rong Qing suddenly spoke with a sharp edge to his words, pausing suddenly when he saw the look in Lin's eyes, he lowered his head and hugged his knees after sighing, obviously he was depressed.

"It's normal to grieve and be saddened for losing your little snake, however, you reached the pinnacle of the tyrant realm once even if it was through the evil dao. Staying the way you are isn't alright with me, what good are you the way you are?, Your life doesn't belong to you until you wash away your sins with the purity of good deeds, same as your body and powers. Do you understand?, Being strong means being able to do more than a cripple, which means you can be free from being my captive faster, free to return to your clan without having to leave, strong to protect them if that man wanted to pour his wrath at them." Rong Qing looked up at Lin when he remembered that the old dog knows his background, he had fear in his eyes and worry for his clan.

"I will be sending my light energy inside your dantian, tell me if you still can't use your mind eye to see your dantian so that I can send you a transmission." Lin seized the moment of emotional turmoil to give his command, like he expected Rong Qing would do, he sat properly in a cross-legged position and calmed his breathing, closing his eyes he tried to get a feel for the energy entering his body.

After getting tortured by it, Rong Qing's body and soul remembered it and he felt a shiver on his spine when he tried to trace the source of his fear in this absolute darkness, his mind eye wasn't working and by closing his eyes to take an inner look on his body didn't work.

Still, he wasn't a fledgeling cultivator of the spirit world, after years of experience in administering cruelty to his enemies and coming out alive from countless life and death encounters in forbidden lands, Rong Qing had enough mental fortitude and intuition to know that his fear isn't danger but a beacon to follow, it was just a mental demon after getting Lin's light energy purification.

Trying his best to calm his restless mind, Qing followed his fear and gradually after being in the dark for a while, he found himself in a stormy place full of grey hurricanes and sighed inwardly.

"Took you a while but you made it, my light energy is stopping this tumultuous storm but very slowly, since it's your dantian I figured you might have some kind of advice where to start. Actually I think this grey rampage shouldn't be left for long unattended, these walls of your dantian don't seem to be going to hold for long." Lin stood in front of the small wisp of soul force which is Qing's feeble mind eye, covering it in a barrier of soul force to separate it from being affected by these gey hurricane's slashing wind, he asked the owner of this place for help while showing him what happens when he infuse light energy to the walls of the breaking dantian.

The cracks and fissures would mend back to solidness in the area Lin touched, but once the grey cyclones send their wind there afterwards they'll start affecting the fixed area again.

Seeing his dreary dantian on the verge of crumpling upon itself, made Rong Qing sigh again and again while being taken to every corner by Lin who didn't stop fixing walls once like a working bee full of dedication.

"Still nothing?, Then maybe you should be getting some rest instead Qing." Lin asked the man's soul wisp and patted him comfortingly while pushing him out from this place, yet he didn't leave and stayed inside the man's dantian trying to stabilize it to the best of his abilities.

'gather all the pieces of the evil seed and burn them with your light-fire intent, don't add soul force until I tell you so.' Kai's voice made Lin smile and hurry to follow his commands, he didn't know what kind of idea he had in mind but Kai wasn't the type to play games with Lin.

Everytime he spoke or did something it was conjoined with Lin's goals or benefitting Lin.

Still, most of these grey hurricanes had the majority of the fragmented evil seed inside their bodies, when Lin tried to pull the fragments from the cyclones just by soul force they didn't move and he had to stretch his light energy inside it to grab them.

"Eh!, That grey wind tore up my light energy like a hot knife through butter, what kind of energy is that?" Lin was surprised to find that his gold colored light energy was like a kid being confronted with an adult, receiving a beat down from start to finish and only managing to snatch one fragment after wasting and sacrificing a considerable amount of their light energy.

'Chaos energy of the weakest purity, the gaseous grade of chaos energy. Keep on collecting them fragments, that's a good price to pay when facing energy a couple grades higher than your light energy.' Kai seemed to enjoy it, watching Lin lose energy and struggling to grab hold of the fragments from the twisting cyclones of chaos energy.

Spending the whole day exhausting his spirit energy Lin was almost done gathering all the fragments, while Gang had to stop his soul cultivation and change to spirit cultivation to gather light strands from the surrounding area to sustain Lin's spirit energy expenditure as he snatched all these fragments one by one and got some what better in resisting the gaseous chaos energy with his light energy.

In the beginning his light energy would be helpless when faced with this grey wind then he had to use tricks to snatch the targeted fragment before his energy is wasted, but, after a while Lin found a few more things to notice about this energy which had no one to control it.

First, was the restlessness of the energy itself, it had tendencies to cause havock everywhere it goes and leave destruction and chaos behind.

Second, was the ever calm center of these energy cyclones, as if their chaos was a front to protect something hidden inside, unfortunately Lin couldn't send his energy to that safe area before it was shredded to pieces and stolen from his control.

Third, was the light energy which Lin had to watch these chaotic cyclones wring out of his control when he tried to steal their fragments, the light energy itself would be broken and assimilated by the grey cyclones, however, before these strands of gold light energy turned into grey wind of chaos energy, Lin saw them being forcefully compressed to dark-gold then further and a hair of grey color appeared in their much smaller and microscopic bodies before they were compressed again and vanishing inside this chaos energy as new recruits!

Fourth, was the walls of Qing's dantian which held on for days despite being devoid of spirit energy, why was that?, Is it because it used to hold higher purity of concentrated energy?, Or is it because his foundations were solidified enough as a devil tyrant?.

Finally Lin had to go with concentrating his light energy inside Qing's dantian into dark-gold grade, despite doing that now will consume soul force which he wished that it would recover to it's peak, Lin had to go with that option because the grey chaotic wind was mercilessly gobbling up his energy too fast.

That saw a bit of improvement in comparison to before but these grey hurricanes made it hard on Lin by combining their cyclones and fusing together, deep inside the greyness of their wind Lin saw a faint flickering glow alternating between black and white.

Thankfully he had snatched the majority of these evil seed's fragments and the remaining few of the fragments were inside the few dozen stronger cyclones, focusing on his target, the moment Lin was about to make his move and snatch the fragment, he saw two of the hurricanes sweeping everywhere they move and homing on his way.

'Careful now brat, the final will of that devil weakling's martial-spirit is to protect the fragments, looks like they hated the blind fool to death and exploding the seed into countless fragments after purifying it wasn't enough. Heh, go on, use stronger energy just like the ones who always command your energy strands, when facing something stronger you can't play tricks because just a single move or reaction is sufficient enough to break countless of yours, going all out and head-on will save you some needless troubles. The other option is to escape and hope for a chance to see another day.' Kai spoke and Lin listened closely while avoiding the path of these two crisscrossing hurricanes, honestly, Lin didn't want to see his two cloud generals sacrificed since they have been with him for a while now.

Sighing, Lin sent his two cloud generals outside his body for the first time ever with the remaining of his armies of dark-gold clouds.

"Hrmmm...." Zhang had already stopped his physical exercises once Lin concentrated on the captive's dantian, even if Qing was sleeping as it might seem, since Lin seemed guard-less then this man might try and hurt him, who knows what is going on inside that revolting head of this cripple, that's why Zhang stood next to Lin to guard him and if that former assassin tried to harm Lin then Zhang wouldn't hesitate to kill Qing if it had to be done.

Seeing the energy armor around Lin's body change color from gold to dark-gold, that really surprised Zhang because he felt exactly how strong that energy is from how close he was to Lin.

As if he's sitting close to the sun, Zhang felt his fire affinity stirring up inside his dantian and for the first time in years he felt his fire affinity pushing back the earth affinity which always dominated his dantian.

He watched as all that energy kept amassing inside the sleeping Qing's dantian, the man himself seemed to be experiencing a nightmare as swear covered his body and his lips muttered incoherent words.

Inside the dantian of Rong Qing, Lin was sorry for his pure energy which would fall by the cluster in the hands of these hurricanes whenever he stole their fragments, however, he almost cursed aloud when another change happened in the dantian's space.

With him was the countless fragments of the evil seed, all but one, the largest fragment which Lin avoided it's hurricane from the very beginning because he felt like it was bad news for his poor and weak light energy.

That hurricane had a deeper tinge of greyness to it's wind and before these hurricanes started to fuse it was already four times larger than the other hurricanes!

After the fusion it was six times larger than the other few dozen hurricanes which remained in the dantian's space, yet after Lin stole the last fragment from the previous hurricane, that monstrous hurricane with the largest size and largest fragment suddenly rammed the closest hurricane and swallowed it before taking the rest of the hurricanes and assimilating them with it's body to grow stronger and bigger.

In the span of a second, Rong Qing's dantian had nothing remaining inside it but ruin and destruction, and a big ass hurricane heading for Lin's soul force aiming to annihilate it.

'heh, that one is really out of your league, quiet down!, here brat, start roasting it with only the light of your intent fires, remember, don't add soul force unless I tell you to do so.' once Lin was about to escape from this hurricane by severing his connection, Kai miraculously appeared in front of him with the same ease and simplicity the little raccoon glared at the incoming deep grey hurricane then ordered it to quiet down!

When Lin was about to say something, he saw that hurricane freeze in place then Kai gestured with his finger and the remaining fragment flew to Lin's hand from that hurricane on it's own, while speaking Kai gestured again with both hands as if compressing that gigantic hurricane and it really shrunk until Kai held it in his claw, it was only a miniature grey hurricane inside a transparent cube the size of a toy in Kai's hand.

"Thanks senior Kai, Is that space energy?" Igniting his gold fire intent on these fragments like Kai wanted, Lin thanked him while looking at that small hurricane which caused Qing's dantian to be a sight to behold.

'Space-time energy, see how the hurricane is still spinning like it is still outside my technique!, That's because my space-time dao energy is coating the chaos energy and not restraining the chaos energy inside it, inside this small cube is a world no smaller than the space of this dantian with the same laws, that's why I'm able to control this chaos energy easily, first because space energy can affect chaos energy and restrain it and if time energy is added then it's like a tiger with wings and a lot easier to manipulate it, second because my space-time dao energy is a lot higher than gaseous chaos energy so despite the fact that my two talents are in elements lower in grade than chaos, the restraining factor of the elements and the higher grade of purity made up for the difference in the element realms an I didn't waste much energy to trap this cyclone. Still, you aren't so bad by holding on this long since you're a brat and all that.' Kai threw his new cubic toy from on hand to the other as he spoke, but his eyes never left the fragments which started to melt like transparent glass which turned gold under the golden fire intent.

Lin kept his silence while feeling sorry for the generals who got sacrificed for nothing, burning the globe of melted fragments until it was completely golden liquid, Lin started to wonder when will it be the time Kai tells him to add soul force because his intent energy was below the last five percent mark!

Still Kai silently gave that golden liquid a calm smirk and his obsidian black eyes were two torches of golden fire as he gazed at this melted liquid.

Suddenly, without Lin expecting, he felt a prickling pain in the center of his forehead and Kai flicked a drop of blood inside that golden liquid, then Kai placed that golden liquid mass inside the small grey cyclone in the cube in his arm, finally he threw that cube towards Lin and said : 'now!, Add whatever you can of soul force.' From the tune of his voice and look on Kai's face, Lin felt like he's just experimenting on something fun.

Before Lin started to inject his soul force inside this cube, again he felt the constant stream of soul force from the center of his forehead feeding his soul bodies power, and Kai had somehow conjured two ball-sized formations around the cube, these complicated formations would constantly change their inscription's shape and order.

Still, Lin did like he was asked and sent his soul force inside that space-time cube in his hand.

'now, start sending your spirit energy as well as your intent energy.' Kai brought his snout closer to the cube in Lin's hands as he ordered, he was looking at that golden liquid which was in the canter of the swirling grey hurricane.

Once Lin pushed his spirit and intent energies inside the cube as well, Kai gestured and the two formations entered the cube and sank inside the liquid.

"Eh!...." Lin felt something sucking out his soul force, light energy and fire intent from that golden liquid.

'the blind fool wanted to make this little devil weakling his next vessel, if he comes for the prize he'll find a surprise waiting. Brat, this man has been branded on his soul, body and spirit. Even his blood-essence has your mark and it's impossible for him to become a devil cultivator again, if you give him an order he wouldn't be able to go against it unless he's stronger than you in soul cultivation by a full realm. What you felt before was the connection you have with this new lackey, if he wants to visit his clan send him without worry but don't waste time going as well, there's other things you should be looking for instead of going to that godforsaken place, kekekeke.' Kai cackled as he watched the large arrowhead-like triangular scaly head come out from the top and widest part of the grey hurricane, stretching it's forked tongue out while curiously looking everywhere around.

Lin saw it and was amazed, despite the difference in size and color, this snake looked no different in the eyes than the previously finger-sized red snake!

"Just now, did it lick and swallow some of this hurricane's chaos wind?" Lin asked as he watched this snake entirely exit the center of the grey hurricane non-affected, the grey scales on it's body were unblemished and the long gold, red, silver and black lines on it's back were a contradictory to it's bleak grey color.

'Why do you think I would take all this trouble to help this weakling? This martial-spirit can use light, fire, soul, and darkness attributes, plus the gaseous grade of chaos energy. Light and fire he received from you, while both of you share the soul nature and he could use soul attacks previously through his martial-spirit, I guess he had the darkness attribute or he learned it later after his tyranny was achieved, chaos energy comes from my f-' suddenly Kai stopped from saying anymore and stared at the snake which took a deep breath to suck the entire hurricane through it's nosetrils as if sniffing the aromatic steam of a delicious meal, flicking it's forked tongue in and out, the snake kept looking towards Lin with intelligent eyes while trying to reach his palm which held the cube, however, inside the space Kai made it was pointless to seek the end because no matter how fast you move, practically you're in the same place.

'tsk, what a gluttonous little worm.' scattering the space-time cube, Kai held the grey snake by the neck and licked his lips then showed her his set of canines, panicking, that small martial-spirit kept looking towards Lin for help pleadingly with it's eyes while it's body shivered from fear under the threatening intimidation of Kai's aura.

"Senior Kai we didn't waste all this time and effort just to kill it again, I think I should go back to cultivate since we're done here." Lin spoke to Kai then looked at this dozen times larger snake from how it was before once again to admire the great difference.

'it was child's play for me, I don't mind killing it again just for fun.' Kai never looked away and kept his eyes on the snake's forked eyes, despair was all over the revived snake's eyes as it kept looking towards Lin pleadingly.

"Sorry little one I can't go against his wishes, that's why you should be begging him not me." Lin shrugged then left the dantian after apologizing to the unfortunate snake who got revived just to be threatened to be killed again.

When he opened his eyes, Lin could still feel his connection to Rong Qing's body, spirit and soul after he removed his hand from the man's stomach, the connection was on a deeper level in comparison with Qiang Chi's connection with Lin after he swore the oath.

"Look over him Zhang and be careful because he is no longer a cripple, take him to me once he wokes up." Lin patted Zhang's shoulder then walked towards the carriage's door, whether Qing would visit him as a cultivator or a cripple has to be decided personally by Kai.

"Oh, by the way big guy, you have a secret admirer, don't forget to tell me if you're interested to know more." Spinning on his heels at the door, Lin gave Zhang a wink then left after giving him two thumbs up.

Zhang was shocked by Lin's last words, because quite frankly he had no self-esteem when it comes to matters related to the other sex, hearing what Lin said meant that was true because he trusts Lin's honesty yet he felt a strange pressure cover his body when he thought about a female actually liking him, what does she like about him?, What does she look like?, What.....

Many questions about the mysterious female and many more questions doubting if she'll like him were birthed in Zhang's head and kept sprouting more questions, if Wang had knew that all it took from Lin was a single line to grab Zhang's attention while he had been trying uselessly for a couple years now, certainly he would go have a few drinks in solitude to vent out the frustration accomodating this terribly good yet annoying news.

Sadly for the handsome man, he won't know until the rice is cooked.

Returning to his carriage, Lin saw Bo An feeding the "kids" just like how she calls them, Qiang Chi hurried to organize the table for Lin once he arrived then filled the bathtub with steaming hot water.

"You're here at last, I almost thought that I won't see you until we reach mercenary city." Bo An jumped towards Lin and gave him a fierce hug while speaking with a sad tune in her words.

"You broke through!, Congratulations Bo An. You're an 8-stage grandmaster just like Wang, while being more than a decade younger haha, I bet he'll hide from us for a while after hearing that. Come-on, you should be happy!" Lin felt the stirring elements around Bo An's body and knew that was a sign of freshly raising a stage, holding her hips and twirling her in the air as he spoke brought a smile on her face.

"We reached the boundaries of mercenary city a couple hours ago, in two days we'll reach the city and I don't want to leave yet. This is unfair, we just met and now we're separating." Bo An stuck her cheek to Lin's own and grumbled weakly while leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Should I kidnap you then, I bet this scandal will be the news of the month for these shady organizations, the princess of the clan breaks the hearts of countless admirers and chooses the frog in the well as her sweetheart." Lin shiftily looked around like a burglar while hugging Bo An's small waist to him as he spoke, she snickered when she saw him trying to cheer her up and mutely hugged him tighter.

"Ill be missing you every second when you're away." Faintly saying that Bo An pushed Lin to the bathtub to rest, his pale skin spoke volumes of how much he was burned out right now.

He never complained about a thing, always being serious when needed and easy-going when needed yet silently taking everyone's thoughts in consideration.

Soaking in the tub for a while then eating a good meal, Lin was about to take a look at Qiang Chi's cultivation however the man himself kept refusing politely and asking to delay it until Lin takes some rest and Bo An who turned into some kind of scary witch as she shouted at Lin to get some sleep, made Lin smile helplessly while Bo An hugged him tighter in bed and Sun and Frostine snuggled up with the duo then Fang Bo got caught by the scruff of his neck and forcefully included by Bo An.

Closing his eyes, Lin was instantly in a deep and calming sleep.

......

Back inside the carriage where Zhang and Qing stays, once Lin removed himself from Rong Qing's dantian and left Kai to do his thing with the martial-spirit snake, the snake's eyes which were full of fear and panick just a moment ago turned murky and aged in a second, exactly like the blind devil sovereign's eyes.

'heh, you think you can fool me?, Such amazing appetite you have there lettle runt. The brat ruined your vessel and seed and even I thought you were after this trash's body, yet, you're still here, with a pure soul clone completely devoid of evil energy and trying to steal my hard work and retake this martial-spirit. Hrmmm.... The only reason I can think of is that you're not after the vessel but the soul itself, but why?.' Kai said while looking at the eyes of the grey snake in his clutch, he wasn't threatened at all by this man yet he was curious about the reason why this formidable senior cultivator of the devil dao was so adamant on seizing this junior.

"Release me and give me back my disciple and I promise not to seek troubles with your boy-" the snake started to speak but Kai's claws started to tighten while glaring at the soul clone hiding itself deep inside the snake's body, the other hand of the much shorter raccoon suddenly was sent between the eyes of the martial-spirit and exited with the blind devil sovereign's soul clone gripped tightly by the neck.

'first, the brat damaged and destroyed your evil seed and you should've been tactful enough to know when to stop when dealing with a junior, yet you decided to come here and pour your wrath on the boy. Still, I gave you a small warning by sending you to the temple of transparency, now you threaten me? Heh. Before I annihilate this soul clone let me tell you something, please don't hesitate to come seek troubles with the boy.' Kai was amused by the blind devil sovereign's attitude and released the grey martial-spirit snake to go play, then brought the soul clone in his other arm closer to his snout and spoke derisively while sending spittle flying out from his mouth at the soul clone's face, before blind devil sovereign's soul clone got to do anything to attempt to escape this predicament be that by talking his way out of it or trying to resist, Kai had closed his other free claw into a fist and the soul clone was forcefully placed in another space-time cube just like the chaos hurricane before, then sent to the refinement node of the soul-lock time-formation, the soul clone didn't get a chance to say a word, from start to finish until the last wisp of soul force was sent towards Jin Bao's primordial-source.

.......

In the lands of the eastern continent, some chain of mountains nearby the eastern borders of this continent were very famous for being lacking in resources albeit a few low grade medicinal ingredients and low realm beasts not really valuable to anyone beyond the tyrant realm.

In here blind devil sovereign was hiding after suffering one set back after another, the borders of the continent were under surveillance by quite a gathering of pinnacle cultivators after the gain of delivering such a great devil cultivator to the temple of transparency, many sensory formations and space solidification formations were being erected since the news of his appearance was spread.

As he hid his tracks, blind devil sovereign was working on healing his soul wounds while keeping discreet taps on Rong Qing's status with his only untainted by evil energy soul clone, he greedily wanted that great amount of the extremely valuable crystalized sin energy, then once Lin and Kai harnessed that similarly valuable chaos energy then revived the martial-spirit of Rong Qing and gave it an unbelievable amount of potential, not only was that martial-spirit able to use soul and darkness like before he alternated Rong Qing's foundations, Rong Qing's martial-spirit took the affinities of both the light and fire elements from Lin's precious drop of blood-essence in addition to the ability to use gaseous chaos energy!

Since the hidden soul clone he left just in case of an emergency wasn't tainted by the evil dao, blind devil sovereign decided to swoop in and posses this martial-spirit.

Yet he failed to bluff this strange creature, before he got to negotiate anything his soul clone was refined forcefully and blind demon lost almost twenty percent of his soul power all at once, add the previous injuries from Lin destroying and purifying the evil seed, then his use of the blood sacrificial technique to escape the temple master, blind devil sovereign just lost almost half his soul force and a few valuable years of dao energy accumulation plus a few even more valuable year's worth of vitality not to mention the resources he has to exhaust to regain his peak and recover from all these accumulated wounds.

With a flushed face and a lower jaw covered in blood after coughing a few mouthfuls, blind devil sovereign was grinding his teeth until they almost cracked and balling his fists in vain attempts to control his emotions.

Closing his pupil-less eyes, blind devil sovereign decided to hold back and prepare himself the next time he confronts these two who gave him the worst loss since his junior years.

......

"Young master.... Young master Ming, Cheng Zhang is outside with the captive and requesting to meet you." Qiang Chi stood next to Lin's bed and patted the boy on his shoulder gently, his eyes never left Lin's face despite Bo An's developing chest being slightly revealed next to Lin's face.

"How long did I sleep for?" Lin asked while sitting up and covering his mouth to yawn.

"Almost a whole day, mercenary city is a few thousand kilometers away and the people in the caravan convoy are delighted to be within the safety of mercenary city soon." Qiang Chi stood at attention and reported to Lin the recent update of their progress on the journey.

"Alright, send them in and would you be kind to bring me something to eat, for a while now I haven't been eating or training properly." Carefully removing himself from the embrace of Bo An, Lin hurried to replace himself with the three beasts and smiled when he saw Bo An snuggling with them.

Telling Qiang Chi to bring Zhang and Qing inside, Lin went to wash his face while remembering the last time he had a satisfying exercise.

"Ming, this guy wants to speak to you, well, me too have something to say but in private." Zhang's face showed a completely different expression when he asked for a private conversation with Lin, for a day now he was burdened with curiosity about the identity of his secret admirer.

Even when he trained or meditated, Lin's action of giving the double thumbs up gesture as he smiled encouragingly was constantly repeating in Zhang's head.

"Thank you young master Ming, I had lost hope of being able to manipulate spirit energy ever again yet you.... I can feel it, I'm bound to you for life and am willing to make amends to cleanse my sins, just let me visit my mother once to explain myself before I return to your service, I won't complain if you worked me like a dog for the rest of my life I know I deserve it. Just this request is all I ask." Kneeling in place, Rong Qing started to plead guilty while kowtowing, tears of joy were trickling down his cheeks as he spoke.

Waking up he felt the existence of his martial-spirit once again, activating it he saw a completely upgraded version of the snake, not only was his previous affinity there but also Lin's dual affinities plus the fearfully dominant gaseous chaos energy!

Unable to believe what he's seeing, Qing asked Zhang who kept looking at the strange grey snake in confusion, Ming was the answer Zhang gave since he only saw Lin work on infusing his light energy inside this captive's dantian.

"I already said you'll be visiting your clan no need to kneel or kowtow, prove your dedication with your actions. From mercenary city you can take off directly to your sunrise empire with one of the teleportation formations, sit both of you, you too Chi. Now, as a former assassin I trust that your information network is top class." Lin sat on the table then gestured for the three to sit, once Zhang and Chi sat the hesitating Qing followed to sit but he didn't dare take a single bite from the food on the table and merely sat at the edge of his chair while straightening up his back and never letting it lean backwards to rest, once Lin asked he nodded and waited for Lin to shoot his questions.

"In my presence you're not to be so stressed, eat and relax in your chair normally like everyone else, as long as you're not slacking on your duty to absolve yourself from the heavy dept which you accumulated over the years by committing evilness, then you're not going to find me mistreating or treating you any different than everyone else." Lin calmed the former assassin then looked at the impatient Zhang who wanted to ask who is my fan very much yet held it back and ate silently.

"Understood young master Ming." Rong Qing took a piece of fruit and threw it in his mouth to chew on after Lin spoke then relaxed a bit in his seat.

"What do you know about the saintess of the seamless sword sect?" Lin asked and Rong Qing gathered his memories of what he knows for a few seconds before answering with what he knows.

As they ate, Lin learned about what happened after Mia returned to the sect, the imprisonment of Katherine and the visit of one of the high-cardinals loaded with gifts for the seamless sword sect as an apology for what their holy daughter did, the news were that Mia never met any of the messengers from the church of light and most of her fellow sect members didn't see her at all since she returned.

Sword sovereign DaiLong was said to scold the entire group of messengers including the high-cardinal himself for what their holy daughter tried to do, then he took his precious daughter and saintess of the seamless sword sect to leave the sect under the guise of being a journey to earn experience for the saintess, however, the rumours has it that the vice-sect-master and the sect master has bad blood between them and the sect master had enough and decided to abandoned the sect, which has the majority of it's high authority members lusting after the resources of another great sect.

Listening to this report, Lin supported his chin on his fists while leaning on the table with his elbows, even after Rong Qing finished filling him up on what happened to Mia after they went their own ways, Lin silently thought about this situation between two of the five great sects from the look of it the church is going to be the one to control the seamless sword sect or the two titans will end up in open confrontation with one another.

"Most of your previous belongings are not suitable for your current affinities, this will be enough to cover the expenses for a better set of tools suitable for you which will enable you to unleash your full potential. As a former dweller of that path I believe you know it's true worth, right?" Stopping his thoughts on Mia's sect and it's affairs, Lin looked at Rong Qing who only wore the robe which he gave him after squeezing him out from the sin energy shell, Lin threw one of the sin bricks to the former assassin who caught it in his palm and gave it a disgusted smile then nodded to confirm Lin's question.

"Good, here's your space ring I took everything that was inside it even your clothes, if there's anything that was inside it that has emotional value or a family heirloom I can allow you to have it, your swords, equipments, tools, pills, resources alongside everything else should be changed to remind you of who you are now. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, you need to change from the inside out." Flicking the level seven space ring to Qing, Lin told him what to expect when opening it before the man got to even gather his small amount of spirit energy to look inside.

"All of such items were destroyed by the old dog when he kidnapped me, since you took them then it's alright young master Ming I was planning on destroying them anyway. With that amount of sin energy in a solidified state, I'm sure I can fill my ring with enough resources to help me regain the peak of my cultivation as a high stage tyrant and get all my spirit equipments custom made according to my taste to be suitable for my affinities. This generosity I promise not to forget it as long as I draw breath." Rong Qing was at most a few years older than Zhang, yet his years of living as a devil cultivator and an assassin gave him a certain aura of intimidation with a couple of piercing snake-eyes, even when he solemnly swore to be Lin's helper and servant, Qiang Chi felt ants crawling under his skin and the alarm bells rang in his chest, this Rong Qing is dangerous was the message his instincts gave him.

"My name is Lin not Ming, but both of you are to keep calling me that in front of strangers. Besides Zhang, Bo An and the three beast companions there, only Wei, Lai and Wang knows my true name, until I say otherwise anyone is a stranger, if you two understand then go cultivate or exercise together." Lin said and the two men were surprised to find Ming isn't the true name, however, they hurried to get out and left Lin smirking at Zhang who finally could speak without fear for embarrassment.

"Lin, you're intentionally hiding the identity of the a.... Admirer you mentioned before, tell me." Zhang still stuttered despite how much he tried to firmly compose himself.

"It's alright to tell you, but, I need you to promise me to be polite when dealing with her, if you don't like staying with her any longer when you meet it's alright to leave, just tell her you have something to do before leaving and don't just ditch her without saying anything. Can you do that?" Lin said his simple term before waiting for Zhang to give his answer, after the big guy found nothing tricky or hard for him to do from what Lin said, he nodded and Lin smiled when he saw curiosity consume Zhang's face, continuing he said : "little Tong, Ning Xue's closest friend. Earlier she stopped me and asked me if you're single, oh I believe she said that you're kinda cool but when she tried to talk to you.... Hehehe, you completely ignored her and gave her a grunt before leaving her. Are you sure you're not playing hard to get big guy? No! Then go spend some time with her, who knows maybe she isn't your tybe. Just remember my condition and don't be in such a hurry to take her to bed, hahaha you're blushing big guy, oh wait, tsk, he ran before I had to tease him enough." Lin smirked then finished his food until he was filled after Zhang ran away.

Stretching his soul sense out he sighed at the recovery of soul force which was slow as a snail with the constant exhaustion the past few days, be that for inscribing the inscription of the soul-lock technique or what followed using the incomplete technique itself or using it to work on the shell of sin energy or to revive the former assassin's martial-spirit.

"Finally I'm awake to find a day which doesn't want me to run around doing this and that, I bet it won't be long until we're at mercenary city. I wish there's a green stem of the white lotus there somewhere for me to buy, or if I'm lucky some earth mercury would appear." Sitting cross-legged to cultivate some spirit energy, Lin muttered hopefully before deciding to work on appointing two new generals in exchange for the two whome Kai ordered to sacrifice.

Lin wanted to get his hands on these two ingredients fast before he goes to the eastern and northern continents to search for the remaining two, yet he isn't aware that his visit to mercenary city is going to take longer than he ever expected.