The Return

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Now free from the schedule, the group did not rush to their destination every time. In fact, they took too many breaks, enjoying their time in each village and campsites. Xie Xan loved the fact that he could prove his emotions using the Yearning Heartbroken Red, but he had faced helplessness once personally so despite the emotional attachment to the Immortal flower, Xie Xan decided to absorb its medicinal effects. Xie Xan only revealed the process of absorbing the plant to Ja Sun and Hu Lana and even its effects.

By now, the group had already formed a deep bond that only had to face a few more hurdles. The Yearning Heartbroken Red made Xie Xan's cultivation shoot through four more ranks, bringing him to the third-highest spirit master in rank alone— Rank 57.

But just like any Immortal Herb, the effect on the spirit energy is barely the lowest of the entire package of benefits. Xie Xan's physique had been strengthened from the foundation. Ja Sun had once thought that somewhere down the line, he would actually have to waste the rather precious Mysterious Ice Grass on Xie Xan but the man had proved him wrong. Aside from the quality of his body restructured permanently, making him one step closer to the monsters that the Ah Yin, Bibi Dong, and Ja Sun trio were, Xie Xan admitted that the herb failed to affect his martial soul in any manner.

But this just meant that Xie Xan had yet to find more fortunes aside from a really charming girlfriend and a charming benefactor.

The constant breaks also finally gave Ja Sun the space he needed to constantly attend to the art of refining essence tools. It was quite a method, really.

Arrays and Formations developed by one's energy are often temporary. And these are also the source of any Essence Tool's strength. However, to make sure that any individual could use these items, the arrays are inscribed onto the surface of an object using essence knives and the blood of spirit beasts. The item being inscribed itself uses precious materials as the base.

Everybody watched Ja Sun's tent silently. They all had cultivated and meditated in the morning and now were on the verge of leaving towards the next town but not before getting the conclusion of Ja Sun's first attempt at crafting an essence tool.

Within his tent, Ja Sun was refining large volumes of gold inside a palm-sized War God's Cauldron. The brown-gold array in the shape of a cauldron had strangely condensed almost 500 kg of gold into a small crystal ring. On the surface, the ring seemed to be cut out of diamond but the pure golden veins inside the ring revealed that this was none other than the Diamond Essence Gold. Watching the ring with an attentive gaze, Ja Sun picked the knife he had personally sharpened out of the refined bones of many spirit beasts.

He already had quite a lot of words learned from the inheritance of the art Qian Daoliu had imparted him. His hands moved swiftly and did not affect the state of refinement the ring was in. The carving knife accurately carved the inscription on the inner side of the ring—

*Crackle*

A soft fizzling sound echoed.

*Boom*

The ring expanded violently, the golden veins exploded out with the entire cauldron finally escaping Ja Sun's grasp and adding to the firepower. However, with enhanced physique came the enhanced tolerance to such situations. Only sporting a rather spikey hairstyle and a dusty face, Ja Sun walked out, coughing and feeling distressed. The mission had failed despite this only being a C-ranked mission which meant that he had overlooked something obvious.

'Oh... the spatial inscription shouldn't be messed with, huh,' Ja Sun realized his mistake instantly. He was trying to form a storage ring as his first crafted Essence Tool. Since he also sported Spatial Attribute with his martial soul, Ja Sun had enough confidence to create a storage ring but he failed only because he had the urge to try his improved Spatial Inscription.

"I'm fine," Ja Sun waved his hands.

"You have... a little bit of metal sticking out of your arm," Oscar pointed out. Sighing, Ja Sun pulled out the gold pillar in his right arm and stored it, leaving the group speechless with his brutality, "It'll heal up itself."

"Sister Dong, isn't it already a good time to tell us the new rules of the competition that you and... hmm, Ning Fengzhi, was it? That all of you discussed in the Star Luo Empire?"

Ah Yin looked at Bibi Dong and the leader nodded.

"Alright, I guess. Gather up."

Bibi Dong waited for Ja Sun to settle in and then began.

"The changes aren't too many. The number of members by each academy, sect, or any other orthodox faction can be from 7 to 12. This means that every faction would have prepared a main team and a set of competent backup spirit masters.

The Heaven Dou Empire and the Star Luo Empire will have sixteen spots each for the final competition. Their area is divided into five regions where the competition will begin within their respective empires. But that doesn't affect us too much. For the Spirit Hall, the Supreme Pontiff claimed that our faction will only have one spot in the final competition after rounds of inhouse battles. Meaning, we will battle the teams prepared by other elders inside the Spirit Hall for the final competition.

There are two main changes. First, the main completion will not be held inside the Spirit City, the Heaven Dou City, or the Star Luo City. A completely neutral ground will be chosen and developed within these few months by the efforts of the three forces so that fairness can be ensured. Two, the death matches suggested by the Star Luo Imperial Clan have been modified.

Being the first official meet of the two Empires, the two Emperors certainly realize that due to past wars, there will be much resentment left within the members participating.

Thus, in the final competition, instead of Death Matches, there will be Resolution Matches."

Feeling her teammates' curiosity, Bibi Dong smiled, "The Resolution Matches were suggested by Ning Fengzhi during the discussion and was accepted quite heartily by everyone, including me. With only one team from Spirit City, it is clear that the major focus of the final competition will fall on the 32 teams from the two Empires.

Killing your opponent is not allowed while everything else is. But, to make sure that killing is turned into the toughest choice, Ning Fengzhi proposed adding benefits. During the last wars, clans and factions of both sides have been looted. Precious treasures... prisoners, anything and everything.

Thus, in the final matches, the opponents this time will not be from the same Empire. And when the team of the opposing empire faces each other, they can demand something as compensation for past actions should they win.

For instance, if the team from Heaven Dou City faces the Imperial Team of the Star Luo Empire, the two teams can place demands of recovering a list of lost relics from the losing party and the losing party will have to pay up.

However, everyone will be made to take an oath that after this compensation, there would be no grudge. Of course, one of the parties also holds the right to withdraw from the compensation after seeing the demands, but then the two Emperors have decided that any team who withdraws will not be accepted as the faction of their own Emperor."

Everyone was quiet by now.

"Is this... even a competition?" Tang Yuehua whispered and Bibi Dong narrowed her eyes, a slightly crueler smirk touching her lips, "It never was."

"What about the finalist from the Spirit City?" Ja Sun inquired, "The two Emperors would want something from the Spirit City, too, right?"

"Because we only have one team and it is decided that even the finals will be approached as a round-robin completion, we have an advantage. Only if we place a demand in any of the resolution matches can the opponent ask something in return. So, it depends on our orders. If the Spirit City wishes for something then they would also be prepared to lose something."

"Even Spirit Bones?" Ja Sun continued.

"Anything besides the rewards of the competition and the land itself is up for grabs."

"This isn't a competition... but a rearrangement of resources," Yuehua mumbled, realization flickering in her eyes, and Bibi Dong nodded.

"Very good. Unlike the bloodbath Dai Laohu wished for the competition, the act of rearranging the resources satisfies the need of both the emperors.

I will not go into politics in detail, but all of you should understand that an individual's worry is starkly different from an Emperor's.

This is a chance for both the Emperors to not only scheme against each other, but also against their own vassals who are gaining strength at a threatening pace."

"Oh, this means that both the Emperors will try and contact the opposing party to take something from their own teams and purchase it from the opponent at a satisfactory price." Ja Sun mused and Bibi Dong smiled.

"Isn't it fun. Although there will be two different Empires, nobody would hold any loyalty to each other."

"Teach— Sister Dong," Xie Xan spoke up, "Then isn't it clear that whoever has the strongest team will be approached by many factions every match to try and gain something from the opponent?"

Bibi Dong clapped, "And thus, our objective in the competition isn't only to win. It's to have as many benefits as possible. This may be the first and last competition of such kind across the whole continent where every hidden faction will participate, even the continent's strongest sect— the Clear Sky Clan.

Yuehua, you better train even harder these last months to show your clan how correct your decision was to try and find your own fortunes."

Tang Yuehua nodded, her eyes flickering with determination.

"I wonder if Yu Xiaogang misses me whenever he trains. Tang Yuehua, you have to meet that guy and try to bring up a common ground of both of your martial souls being extraordinary.

Discuss your differences to understand your martial soul better," Ja Sun looked at Yuehua and she smiled, long infected by the group's deviousness, "I can get anybody to speak up. Don't worry."

"Dong'er, what about our personal benefits? Do we get something in return aside from contribution?" Ja Sun inquired.

"It's Sister Dong for you," Bibi Dong scowled, "But we do get personal benefits, of course. The Supreme Pontiff will not directly negotiate with willing factions. I will. And aside from the demands of the Spirit City, I can demand a few things, too."

"Can we get a member from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan?" Ja Sun inquired and everyone except Tang Yuehua, Oscar, and Hu Lana rolled their eyes.

"This again?" Liu Erlong snorted.

However, Bibi Dong frowned for a moment and then shocked the group, "For the right price... it might be possible."

"Finally!"

Ja Sun sighed.

"Come on, let's get going. Since we're on a short vacation, we have to make the best use of it."

Hu Lana grinned.

---

Two weeks later.

"Ugh... that felt terrible," Hu Lana groaned.

"Pregnancy isn't looking such a miracle of nature now, is it?" Jun'er snickered and Hu Lana shot her a glare.

"There's a lot more to come... but boy you'll get fat and testy," Ja Sun sucked in a breath of cold air.

"Xan! Stop them!" Hu Lana whined.

"Oh, the mood swings already began, huh," Bibi Dong felt extremely pleasant now. It was a good time to be single, she felt.

"Don't listen to them. They're just jealous," Xie Xan smiled.

"Jealous that you'll get weaker? And probably won't be able to participate in the competition? Yeah, right!" Liu Erlong snorted a chuckle.

"I think it is beautiful," Ah Yin spoke seriously, "Ka-ul, we should try—"

"Woah, woah, woah! Do not complete that sentence," Ja Sun shivered.

"Papa Ka-ul, now that will certainly be a day," Tang Yuehua smiled.

"Yep... I'm never getting 'up.'" Ja Sun looked down at his crotch.

Meanwhile, on the side, Jun'er looked at Oscar with eyes full of expectations and her butt specifically swaying by the side.

"You must be joking," he groaned. He was slightly tired with all the fun they were having constantly to release their pent-up frustration during training.

The group finally reached Spirit City when two months still remained to the competition.

In this period, everybody had gone through another round of advancement but Tang Yuehua's Clear Phoenix turned out to be a picky eater. They made stops around the forests controlled by Spirit Hall but Yuehua still didn't find any spirit ring for herself. But that did not mean her accumulation was lowered. She still cultivated diligently and continued to live a humble life drowned with joy and laughter alongside her teammates.

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