Finding Sun

The needle tailed swift struggled, soon breaking free of Yao's hold and it tried to fly away. Emphasis on tried as one of its legs was grasped by the child with an iron grip.

"Fly! You stupid bird! Fly or I'll strangle you!" Yao raged, commanding in a domineering tone and ignored the pitiful shrieks of the needle tailed swift desperately keeping themselves in the air as his hands gripped its black stick like legs.

He could just abandon the monkey but what was he doing right now? He was risking life for an endeavor bringing back almost no benefits.

'This world is really stupid. I'm stupid.' Yao snorted, his thought process boasted a one-track mind focusing on using calculations or logic for maximum benefit. Yet there existed a new source of irritation, this tugging feeling poking through his gut.

'I feel like I'll regret it if I abandon that fool.' Yao could not understand it, thus questioning it not and focusing on the present posed a more suitable course of action.

Piek! Piek! Piek!

The bird struggled to fly and it felt its body gradually weaken. Needle tailed swifts threw away all other aspects, specializing in speed. A decision now tormenting the bird since it barely managed in keeping itself and Yao soaring in the air.

"Fly me towards that mountain or else..."

"Hurry up!"

"I'm quite hungry for some fried chicken. Unfortunately, there's no chicken around, I think you should suffice?

Needless to say, Yao's threats sounded similar to gibberish in the ears of an ignorant thousand-year-old spirit beast. Gibberish it faintly understood as threats and began pecking on Yao's hand.

Yao rolled his eyes, the pecks were more like light taps.

Letting go of one hand, he drew upon a spell card and made a decision.

'I don't have any other idle trap cards or active spell cards. But I do have a monster card that's active and battling something right now. Stupid monke…'

Yao did not understand why he had Yugioh cards for a martial soul, though he was perceptive enough in discerning their real use.

'These things bend the laws of reality depending on their description.'

As long as he was strong enough and could supply soul power, he can bring out the power of these mystical cards.

The [Magic Cylinder] spell card glowed, it soon changed to a pair of arms holding each other and flashed.

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United We Stand [Spell Card]

Description:

Amplifies the equipped monster's offensive capabilities by an additional eight hundred percent and defensive capabilities by eight hundred percent for each monster card on the battlefield.

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'Five seconds! Fly faster!' Soul Power abandoned Yao, the misty energy inside him quickly receded like a tide being sucked back into the ocean.

The card glowed and fused with the bird, feeling a strange power reinforce its strength, the needle tailed swift slashed the air asunder and violent winds were generated from its wings. Yao fastened his hold as the bird broke through the sound barrier, soaring through the skies at a speed befitting a falling comet.

Once the mountain two spirit beasts were fighting on came into close view, Yao deactivated the card and tumbled into the ground, the needle tailed swift having lost the reinforcement crashed on the ground limp, twitching occasionally.

Yao stood up, the entire world spun around him and blood leaked from his lips. He vomited a mouthful of blood and forced himself upright.

As hazy as the world was, Yao could still see Sun fighting a large four-meter-long, green plated crocodile beast. The monkey's hair was a mess and blood flowed from his eyes, his hands holding the now cracked iron staff bled profusely.

Dents could be seen on the light green colored crocodile like spirit beast having four red eyes for seeing, four claws under it shone as each of its attacks shook the mountain. Like a heavy sixteen-wheeler carrying tons of baggage, its collisions created slight shockwaves Sun had to avoid.

[Trying to get yourself killed, are you?!?!?!?] Bellowing, Yao shouted from the bottom of his heart. He was frustrated and worried, the monkey was being reckless and he did not like that trait of his. Yao preferred having everything under control, minimizing risks and maximizing advantages.

[Yao? YAO!] Sun realized who came to his aid and screamed back.

Yao Guai, taken aback by the scream of the monkey through telepathic link felt his brain get fried. That shout carried with it genuine anger and unwillingness. As crude as Sun was in terms of manners and speaking, even if he shouts at Yao it had none of the former emotions mixed in. At most it would be slight annoyance.

'Forget it. I'll kill this thing first then get to the bottom of things later.' Down to around half of his soul power left, Yao patiently waited for three minutes while rushing to intercept the four-legged spirit beast.

The spirit beast caught Sun off guard and sent the monkey flying onto a wall of weathered rock. Sun having crossed his arms and hardened his whole body groggily picked himself up. The oversized alligator approached the monkey intent on ending him.

Yao's punch slammed onto the beast's jaw. Roaring, the beast shifted its attention to the new assailant. A set of slippery movements and well-timed predictions helped Yao weave and bob against the spirit beast's assault. It was strong, strong at the cost of speed.

Horrendously slow.

'A qilin armored beast.' Yao having read more books about spirit beasts expanded his horizons. Qilin armored spirit beasts were powerful spirit beasts able in fighting against stronger spirit beasts far surpassing its strength.

Its body was coated in a half a meter thick, dense plating borne from the combination of numerous smaller dragon scales. Proud of its strength and durability, it can ignore the attacks of spirit beasts the same rank as it.

The armored beast sat around a thousand and two hundred years in terms of strength. At this point it can already rival a ten-thousand-year spirit beast in terms of body strength.

'I can't get hit.' Being hit was being squashed like an ant.

Yao made full use of his body control, biding his time and unleashing deadly attacks. His punches dented the beast's outer armor by a measly one centimeter. Doing worse than sun yet his soul power would pass through that solid plating.

Rupturing flesh and dicing it from the inside.

Enraged, the qilin beast stumbled back, blood leaked out of its mouth and its eyes stared at Yao vigilantly. Just like the monkey from before, the strange hairless, green spirit beast in front of it can bypass his supreme defense.

It had never seen a human before, so it did not know how to readjust.

Rushing at Yao again, the man went all out and decided to end things quickly. A claw came sweeping in and Yao dashed underneath it, appearing under the beast's stomach, Yao let loose a flurry of punches assaulting the qilin armored beast's underbelly.

GUagh!

It could only roar in anguish and jump back, vomiting blood and tucking its tail in an attempt of running away.

Fear, the fear of the unknown made the spirit beast hesitate as it did not know what Yao would do.

Yao entered Zenith and disappeared, appearing atop the spirit beast's back, Yao punched downwards with all his might. Soul power gushed into the beast upon connecting and the armored monster cried out.

Its back felt oddly numb, and its body felt more sluggish than before.

The spirit beast retreated, it did not want to risk things anymore. As a thousand-year spirit beast, it didn't just rely on strength to reach this far but also on judgement. Yao did not chase after it as he was already exhausted. Using a powerful attribute augmenting equip type spell card sapped half of his soul power, and that punch from earlier combined with zenith reduced him to just a sixth of full capacity.

Yao recollected himself, he walked towards Sun and grinned at the monkey. Yao allowed the lizard an escape since he didn't come here for a spirit beast, he came here to find sun.

[Finally found you. Suicidal maniac.]

[Shut up…]

Sun's eyes flashed, becoming duller a full second later, the monkey picked himself up and brushed the dust off his fur and pants. [I could've handled myself Yao, I didn't need your help.] Sun spat on the ground and scowled at the child. Yao shrugged [At the cost of what? Your life or a dangerous injury?]

[You should've told me you were going to engage in deadly combat. Then I would've been able to make sure things would be within your capabilities.] Yao fired off. Sun felt irritation sweep him off his feet.

Yao meant well, but right now Sun felt like his friend was being too controlling.

[And then what? Keep doing that over and over again, life and death battles are a thing Yao. I set out for tempering and you got in the way. I'm not a baby and I don't need you to baby sit me man.] Sun expressed his annoyance, his low growl reverberated along with his voice in the mental link glaring full blast.

[My plans will take us to the summit. You should believe in me more.] Yao didn't back down, his plans were very well thought off and consisting of multiple flexible steps. Everything he could think of, he had taken into consideration and made possible counter measures against.

There was only one life, Yao was just lucky he lived a second one. One can never be too cautious.

Sun narrowed his eyes, hairs rising he clenched his teeth. [No. It is you who should have more faith in me. Do you even believe in me Yao?] Sun's tone became weaker and Yao flinched.

Their eyes stared down at each other, a pair of green pupils clashing intents with a pair of fiery gold eyes.

Silence overtook the mountain, Sun broke eye contact first and scratched his head. [Forget about it…] Losing his frustration at Yao's meddling, the monkey sat down for a quick rest. Crossing his legs intending on meditating.

Yao's next thoughts reached the monkey first. [I don't want to risk having you injured Sun, as long as I can step in and manipulate everything I will do so.] Sun trembled at his words but shook his head. [You don't get it… Just, leave me alone for now Yao.] Sun disappeared from the mountain, appearing inside the pocket dimension a moment later.

Left alone again, Yao sighed. 'What am I even doing…' Inside of him clashed a set of emotions, anxiousness and fear. 'I don't fear failure but I'm afraid? Laughable…'

'Everything in this world can be replaced, but why am I so anxious of losing this monkey?'

Yao just couldn't understand what he was feeling. Something about Sun dying just ticked the man off in a bad way, it left a bad taste in his mouth that soured his mood. Thinking of his matters, Yao found no answer whatsoever, so he instead suppressed his questions and focused back on the present.

The mountain top was full of deep claw marks extending at least a meter into the rock. Some parts cracked like spiderweb and the soul power within the air was disrupted greatly. He observed the damages and nodded at Sun's capability.

'Still a five-hundred-year old spirit beast but can now battle against a thousand-year spirit beast. A special one at that.' He had no clue about Sun's origin, the first meeting of theirs was just a meeting preordained by fate.

Yao found the monkey beaten and bruised, with the help of his care he nursed the monkey back to health out of curiosity but it didn't leave. Instead Sun accompanied him and mimicked his training, growing stronger on his own and stubbornly refusing to go away no matter how much Yao attempted to beat him up.

Sun was a foreigner, an invader in Yao's silent world back then. Overtime his company became acceptable and the two joined forces. He treated Sun better since he was now his subordinate, teaching him more methods and even protecting the monkey if necessary.

Yao fixed himself up and ignored the now dead needle tailed swift. Its green body had stopped twitching, now laying motionlessly on the ground.

'For now, its best to head back.' He had done what he needed to do. And in his pocket dimension lay hundreds of spirit beast corpses enough for Sun to feast and absorb. In the pocket dimension, the soul power inside spirit beast corpses take a strange turn.

Spirit rings would return back to the spirit beasts' bodies yet they will stay dead. And none of that soul power could escape the fleshly cage which was its former living master. After pulling out the corpses from the realm, they stay that way until the whole body rots away.

Yao turned around yawning, stretching he headed back to the Moon Viewing Pavilion.

At least that was what the child wanted to do.

After turning around, he was met with the familiar sight of a tall woman. Her eyes were faintly red and her bountiful chest rose up and down, face a little flushed, her eyebrows creased into one of unhappiness and those reddish-purple eyes froze Yao Guai's body.

Seething, Bibi Dong flashed and grabbed Yao by the back of his shirt. "Good little brat… I left you alone for a day and the next you're already jumping down mountains. Tell me how should I punish you?"

'I'm in trouble.' Yao prepared himself for the worst.