A Trial Completed (4)

"Let's rest," A rather suave middle-aged man grins and leans in on a brown-haired woman as she lets her back get pressed onto a tree. Although the woman pouts and turns her face in the other direction, she doesn't resist the man's act of pecking her jaw and then kissing her neck.

"Come on, be serious," she scolds softly, "We need to scout the region and report back. We only have an hour, you know."

"I know," the man whispers, "Lucky me. I can't handle you for more than an hour either way. Remember? My dick almost fell off that night. What was it? 6 hours?"

Blushing, the woman resists the urge to complain any further as the man soothes her worries, "I'm one of the best scouts with a skull spirit bone that enhances my senses. There is no danger around us. Believe me."

The woman sighs softly as she leans forward to peck him.

"I believe you, my little rogue. Why else would I have agreed to marry you?"

They both share a smile but...

In between their healthy intimacy, they fail to notice a quiet yet beautiful strand of blue-silver goddess growing in between the gaps in their feet. For a moment, a thin tendril of greyish fog begins to layer the strand of grass. This is not the effect of Ah Yin's spirit bones. Instead, this is the act of her eighth spirit ability.

This smoky grey tendril wraps around the Blue-silver Goddess and the blade of grass loses its splendor and lush appearance. Instead, it turns dry and grey. The previous silver veins of the grass now release a cloud of grey mist that soon extends to the size of a radius of a meter and it finally attracts the attention of the couple from the Spirit Empire.

"What—"

"Lu!" The woman yelps and her eyes widen in surprise that her man's skin paled and dried in a matter of seconds at a pace visible to the naked eye before shriveling but her voice, too, clenches up as her throat shrivels, skin greys out, and hair falls out before they both collapse on the ground. Dead. Robbed of their essence and spirit energy.

Only the male spirit master's sunken head reveals a strange glow but Ah Yin doesn't reach out for the Skull Bone and instead chooses to retreat.

'Crimson rings and million-year-old rings should consume less and less spirit energy. That's their greatest benefit... but Petals' skills are too overbearing. As a million-year-old spirit skill, it should affect Qian Xunji to a certain extent, too, but this spirit skill still cost me 3% in every use... I have to save my spirit energy for the last part of the plan.'

Although Ah Yin's recovery is practically unbeatable in her domain, she has been trying to not use it. While her domain can fully hide her and she is confident in that fact, Ah Yin also understands deeply that absorbing essence from around into her Yin Node would leave a trail no matter how faint and she had to overestimate Qian Xunji to a certain level to not get caught by surprise. This means she must cover her tracks carefully.

After this couple, Ah Yin targets other groups who are only stalling for time and not on the move while possessing spirit bones. That's the criteria of prey she is preying on.

She used one of her eighth spirit skills, the same one that mummified the first couple, every time.

Like her seventh ring, her eighth and ninth rings have two spirit skills, too, which is strange when compared to the spirit bone Ah Yin gained from petals that possessed four spirit skills.

But Ah Yin already knows the answer by now.

Petals is born from the extreme difference between Yin and Yang. She was born to suppress the souls of two dragon kings! She represents the very nature of duality and it shows in her spirit skills.

No matter how overbearing or dangerous her skills are, they come in a pair of two. Meanwhile, her spirit bone is free from these restrictions. And Ah Yin believes that if they hadn't turned Petals into a spirit soul, the one ring she could have gotten would possess 4 spirit abilities.

But with three million-year-old rings, Ah Yin now possesses 6 spirit skills of this nature so it wasn't all that bad. This also affirmed that Petals' attainment in the concept of yin-yang was beyond the realm of a master as it affected the spirit rings produced by her living self. That's the kind of potential Ah Yin would benefit from in the long run.

Anyway, one of her eighth spirit abilities is Blooming Grey.

The Blue Silver Goddess turns into a dull grey grass that exudes a layer of velvety grey mist. Coming into contact with this mist creates grey strands of grass that absorb all the spirit energy of the living entity. The spirit energy is unrefined and cannot be consumed by the user. The mist cannot be controlled and is formed in a sphere of one meter around the strands of Blue Silver Goddess.

But despite these limitations, this skill works as a mobile landmine when used alongside her domain.

Ah Yin surely could have used the Yin-Yang Petals which would have gotten rid of the enemies completely but... it would only seed caution once her work is known. No. Ah Yin wanted more than caution. She wanted the enemies to oppose each other and what better motivation to do so than spirit bones?

It's a form of wealth that even Titled Douluos would strive to gain. Even if Titled Douluos feared the consequences of killing a member of their voyage for the spirit bone, all these inhibitions lose meaning if the possessor of said spirit bone is dead.

Then it's fair game.

After killing over 10 teams out of the 20 that were tasked by Xiaogang to scout the region, Ah Yin brings her senses back and is ready to destroy the Yin Node at a moment's notice if she feels Qian Xunji acting up.

After all, Ah Yin's real body is not here. She would not risk her unborn baby to face the Blood God for thrill and thank the devils that Ja Sun isn't a woman because that is exactly what he would have done... or at least, that's what the 'statistics' show.

Of the targets that she hunted, all of them did not possess two spirit bones. These are still too rare and the inclusion of so many talented youths showed that Qian Xunji is truly invested in his goals.

After the three-hour mark, the return of half the teams gets the attention of the rest and Xiaogang sends all 29 teams to find the missing 10 teams at once. A mistake.

It's not long after that the Spirit Douluo and the Titled Douluos hear the clashes of battles.

Startled, every Spirit Douluo rush out from the beach!

---

"Stop it at once!" Golden Crocodile's voice thunders throughout the small island as Spirit Douluos like Xiaogang and others reach the points of battle and find out various spirit sages are already dead beside the shriveled corpses.

The idea behind Ah Yin's actions was so simple that falling for it almost looked stupid. But, beasts die for food and humans kill for benefits. The stronger a realm of a Spirit Master, the more intense this reality becomes.

This team didn't come from a single clan. All the Spirit Masters gathered here came from different backgrounds and that, too, not long ago. Their bonds, except in a few rare cases, are just that— flimsy. Who wouldn't kill the other person to hog the spirit bone?

And even if someone is smart enough to not fall for this obvious trick, it is because of their intelligence that they will either suspect their partner to make the first move or betray them. The lack of trust, the authority they once had before Qian Xunji came along, and the obvious benefits led many spirit sages to attack their partners with full strength at once.

Some died but many were injured. There were no exceptions of anyone talented or exceptional enough to defend themselves completely.

Why?

Because Ah Yin assassinated these exceptional Spirit Sages in the first place!

Almost all the Titled Douluos and Spirit Sages had distributed evenly alongside dead or injured spirit sages. Golden Crocodile, too, stayed next to Yu Xiaogang now that the conspiracy of a hidden enemy felt extremely clear. The shriveled corpses of the Spirit Sages alongside the spirit bones left as a lure could not be clearer that the act of killing was not done out of greed. In fact, targeting Spirit Sages with Spirit Bones accurately made many ponder on what is going on...

And it is at this time Ah Yin changes her plan.

Living with Bibi Dong for so long has made Ah Yin... well, more calculative. It's not something she likes to constantly make use of but in her mind, the most important asset for this group isn't the Spirit Masters. Maybe Titled Douluos, sure, but they are too hard to deal with. Each of them possesses a level of skillset that will take time, even if more than a few seconds, to handle.

Mere seconds that a God can use to travel virtually anywhere.

So, the other most important asset just happened to be the weaker sailors.

They are essential to the operation of the group's travel. And they are weaker than Spirit Sages.

Never in Ah Yin's imagination did she consider a scenario where all Titled Douluos would leave the sailors alone! After all, Bibi Dong wouldn't, in this case.

And that is why Ah Yin held the same expectations from the enemy.

Their loss.

It wasn't even a hard decision to choose the massacre of the sailors. She did not have to kill them all. She only needed the true experts and crucial members of the team gone alongside the ship.

Planting her Dissolving Petals skill on the vines of grass created through her domain, Ah Yin instantly lay waste to the enemy ship by dissecting it into many parts and killing many sailors in a matter of seconds.

Of course, this change of plan had its loss, too.

---

"What happened?" Xie Xan, Erlong, and other beasts who were ready to 'welcome' many spirit masters in the specific region of an enclosed spatial artifact mimicking a sea question Ah Yin.

"Change of plans..." Ah Yin sighs and explains the situation and Xie Xan is the only one who has something to say while others just accept the explanation.

"I see... although you restricted their mobility, and now that they fear the constant retaliation of aquatic beasts, they won't make a move easily. But now you don't have the spirit bones you could have looted otherwise. This becomes a source of strength for the Titled Douluos. After all, they won't let others have a treasure as great as a spirit bone."

This makes Ah Yin frown. For all her love of jewelry, she never particularly cared for material wealth. She cared for what Ja Sun gave her but that's a different issue. That is why she could use Spirit Bones as a lure while others in her position would have chosen to steal it, as seen by the sudden battles these treasures caused.

Xie Xan, however, continues, "Not only that, the enemy will now be more prepared. They have the resources of an entire Empire. I don't believe it will take Qian Xunji a lot of time to reinforce his team with the necessary equipment for his intended goals. All we achieved, at the moment, is a delay. While the initial idea was to cut off a pillar of strength of the Empire..."

The more Xie Xan spoke, the colder Ah Yin looked but she just touches her chin with a ponderous expression, "Maybe... I shouldn't be the one planning everything, after all..."

"Hm~ You think? Such a blunder... tsk, tsk, tsk... makes me think that I should create binders of information for you lot like the good old days," A voice spread within this spatial artifact. While everyone under Rank 80 felt nothing, the strong ones in this artifact, including Xie Xan and Ah Yin who were acquainted with Ja Sun's killing intent had cold sweat building on their foreheads.

Why?

Why did even Erlong, Ja Yin, and Violet, most of all, quiver when the Lamia had been the only one to face Ja Sun's bloodlust the most?

Because it was too... similar. But different.

It's hard to explain.

But the sea of water no longer looked blue and beautiful. It looked like a sea of mixed poison that has high tides crashing into each other chaotically. Dark green miasma oozed instead of vapors of water. Gigantic pairs of eyes seem to open above the group as the once beautiful pink irides now held chaotic purple swirling at a maddening pace.

That's it.

Instead of being the epitome of calmness that death represented for Ja Sun.

This one had the sheer joy of chaos before death.

Two sides of the same coin.

"Ah, shit, I thought I could already control my killing intent after my breakthrough," The confused voice breaks everyone out of their trances as they see a Bibi Dong standing next to them with a frown of her own which develops into an awkward smile, "Sorry, I guess it will take me some time to get the self-control Sun is always bragging about. I heard that there are Titled Douluos. Is there anyone at rank 99?"

Ah Yin looks at Bibi Dong for a full minute before touching her slightly rounder belly and then sighs in relief.

"What?" Bibi Dong blinks and looks at her team.

"Don't 'What' us!" Bing Bing screeches like a child... well, her short stature did not help, that's for sure, "Who the hell releases that kind of killing intent?"

This is not strange, however. Bing Bing has been coddled by Bibi Dong before for a short period and their relationship should be considered well than others.

"Master... that was so good..." Feng Liu (Firebird Douluo) whimpers while surreptitiously rubbing her thighs but the 'strange' scent entered every beast's senses and they scowled. Even Jun'er who had a nose of a bitch looked at Feng Liu with apparent surprise.

"Enough," Bibi Dong frowns and replies to Feng Liu sternly knowing enough that this would set her off even more while taking out a popsicle and smiling warmly, "Here you go, Bing Bing. You love it, don't you?"

Surprisingly, Bing Bing still took the popsicle with a blush but had something to say this time as she mutters under her breath, "What's so good about it?... It's just a thicker stick..."

"Do I need to know?" Bibi Dong looks at Yuehua who pursed her lips.

"Got it. Alright. We don't have time to waste. Tell me everything that's going on and your current abilities. Even the capabilities of your subordinates," Bibi Dong shot the five silent aquatic beasts a look, "Ah Yin, sorry for that surprise. Again, I just woke up while you were explaining things and got a little giddy where I can accomplish something great."

Ah Yin releases a sigh and looks visibly relaxed, "Whatever... You needed a breakthrough. No doubt about that."

Bibi Dong's lips twitch and she chooses to ignore that sly burn, "No pregnant women are needed. Yin, Jun'er, and Lana, back to your ships. And tell Xiao Bei that her trial of free rent has ended. I'm putting that rabbit to good use this time. And... where the hell is Sun?"

"He decided to skip responsibilities like the pathetic Beast God he is," Bing Bing comments while licking her popsicle.

"I'm going to ignore that since we really need to capitalize on all the time we have left," Bibi Dong shrugs.

***

Alternative Title: Deathly Return; Eyes are a Window to Soul; Bing Bing 'Hates' Sticks; She Still Licks Them; Feng Liu 'Stinks.'