37 Returning Home
Bai Li returned to the ditch which housed the Sand Pit spider and Mo Tian. He was met with no surprise.
The ditch had mostly vaporized due to an immense heat wave. Most likely effected by Da Yuan's last ditch efforts in finishing off Bai Li so he could rescue his only contractor. The immense heat and strong forces interacting had created strong sound waves which struck the surrounding radius of a small football field, Bai Li's power was not enough to fill in the gap, his opponent was a truly powerful warrior who was close to reaching High tier. He started thinking if he wasn't able to block most of the force behind the punches, getting injuries was the least of the worry.
Mo Tian was actually fine, most likely an effort to protect their heir, they had given him a life saving hidden card whcih gave him a temporary barrier.
His life saving relic took the shape of a simple necklace which expanded heavily, embodying him with strong defenses and some offensive capabilities with the growth. The shock wave forced Mo Tian to fly couple of feet and fell in a ditch, enough to knock him out cold.
Bai Li retrieved the body from the decimated corpse of the spider and laid him on the leveled surface of the sand.
He had a smile like no other and that came from the knowledge gained from the other realm. Bai Li couldn't be grateful enough if it weren't for the skills and knowledge passed down by the man.
One piece of the pie that was eagerly taken by his brain was acupuncture skills. Fan Tong was in no way a martial art practitioner but gained fame for furthering the field of enhancement and restoration. One such was definitely the acupuncture skill to boost the body passed its limit. If he had the proper tools, the job wouldn't be that crude and painful, but acupuncture didn't really need proper equipment and one's hands were sufficient. If given proper time before the encounter between the Cold Steel Gorilla, he would've already had done so. But the boosts weren't always without cost, stimulating Qi was a double edged sword to boost powers temporarily.
He began pressing down on generalized areas where innate energy is stored, the stomach and head.
He pressed down, a certain feel around his stream infused with his Qi allowed him to sense the energy within Mo Tian. The flow which streamed endlessly and with calm levels was now having a ditch put into a lake.
The press on his stomach had simulated that of having no soul energy and the body was trying to replenish more energy to fill his reserves, which began overflowing and exerting stress along the body.
The path of soul energy became much more contorted than originally was and grew volatile different from the nature of Qi, being the second generation of a weak Qi energy. The slowly calm river became endless torrents sent to fill in the empty vessel, which came in as a defect.
His soul energy storage couldn't handle the extra stress and began cracking at its core, finally procuring a large crack which allowed the vessel to pop. Soul energy was now leaking from his body, in the formless liquid coming from his body. If one wasn't specialized with extreme perception beyond the capabilities of man, they would be able to observe the leakage. But that didn't allow some suspicions.
Each time he would force soul energy to produce results from his Arts of Body, the soul energy would leak and the activation would be halted, further incapacitating and creating a ditch for his personal growth.
Only time or certain medicinal herbs to which Bai Li had the knowledge of would be able to stop such detrimental effects on his youth.
'That was quite hard.'
His fingers were concentrated with qi to create formless qi needles on his fingers to operate, the crude method was not efficient in usage.
'I'll carry you back free of charge!'
Picking up the mistake of a human being over his shoulders, he walked towards the distance with overwhelming speed and kept his demonic mask shut, being discovered as the true identity and number one suspect would be a horrible track record.
The trip took close to about a day, heading straight into dangers with one arm occupied with baggage.
He actually gained a number of beast souls for him to sell along the way, extremely gleeful of his bounties and rewards.
He arrived at the outpost with the man on his shoulder.
Paramedics are always at the scene and rushed towards the area where they were needed.
"What's wrong with him?"
"We were in a middle of our trip back and a couple of a Dreaded Plague Rats swarm chased us."
Bai Li had already prepared a viable story so they couldn't put anything against him.
The paramedics' face darkened at the incident, some minor burned marks left some bite sized injuries along with the bite of the Sand Pit Spider which was the largest. Dreaded Plague Rats received their name for being the carriers of despair. Ancient history was told to never repeat itself, but some events do come at present, the rampant black death killed the majority of the world's population with some to spare. The Plague Rats carried a strand of a Soul Devouring Worm which directly infuses their parasite into their soul energy, devouring the reserves constantly to grow in numbers.
The paramedic retreated back and spoke to what was presumably was his superior. If this was from someone else, they would call their bluff, but from a man being from the Mo family, they hurriedly left to get the equipment, they truly did not want to incur the wrath of the Mo family at all with their immense political power in the local area.
The equipment was simply a tool where it measures the density of soul energy contained in a certain amount of blood.
Blood was drawn and kept in a small vile as a small analysis machine began reading signatures from the waves of activity.
A number was generated which expressed the activity of soul energy in a catalyst vial which was produced from the metals as the pins to sign blood contracts.
The number dropped gradually but had certain sporadic downward behavior.
To remove the parasite was a hard issue, as it masked itself as part of the soul energy circulation and in the second phase, will begin integrating with their body. The Soul Devouring worm only feasted on one's soul energy and nothing else. Nothing in one's life was really influenced by their presence but wedding carriers of them produced offspring with the same carrier which produces even more soul energy deficient diseases. It basically turned one into a normal human being on earth. Though the effects weren't that dire, in the Soul Realm, it was basically an early entirement and a forever engagement of being alone. Nobody wanted to date someone with the likes of any disease, much like a STD.
The assumed boss of the group looked at the results and a sense of urgency overcame him.
"Get proper tools to begin treatment immediately, maybe it was dormant for the two days of travel and we can try to find the parasite!"
After a few more minutes of yelling, he came backto Bai Li.
"And to which is your name? or identification will do."
Common practice in the field of doctors was to help patients and needed a witness to see who can be contacted to pay the bill. The paramedic doctor was much more lenient about the procedure as they already knew Mo Tian's family could definitely pay the medical bill.
"My name is....Phantom, I was hunting alone when I saw them across the horizon, his party, the True Steel Gorilla Gang were trampled over and risked their lives to protect the young master. But that wasn't enough to save the novice and he was trampled, I just so happened to be there so I helped him, but I can't do anything about the plague the rats bring.."
The mask made a subtle transformation to bare a sad expression but his tone was much more sincere.
"Well, okay. Here is a small gift for helping."
A redemption card given to Union Workers to credit notable figures, the workers could also cash in but only for the same valid reason. The redemption card held about 500 credits as a way of sincerity in the cruel world of hunting in the Soul Realm.
"Thank you."
Phantom left without a word and walked away, an applaud was heard from nearby teams to the lone wolf, the admiration and time to rescue other lives were already renown local figures.
Bai Li did not worry for the bodyguards who were kept alive, surviving the strike that almost dismembered their own arm was the punishment to bystanders working under their power, it was a setback for them in the brave wilderness, they would use their own power to survive and maybe get through their situation and get a change of attitude.
Mo Tian woke up after a few more hours after the operation and witnessed the change for himself. Anger flooded his mind in a blind rage, though he was grateful for his life, losing the ability to cultivate was already a death sentence for his reputation. Nobody will take him seriously when he becomes the heir and most likely lose his position by the board under incompetence and be replaced by a more competent chairman.
To Bai Li, this was a good devious plan though it came abruptly, the right timing was all he needed.
Mo Tian regained his composure after a few days as Bai Li went out the grid for a few days, word spreads quickly in the local region of the now turned incompetent Mo heir and news outlets were spread throughout.
Mo Tian remembered the incident before he was knocked out and placed a bounty under the mysterious man who destroyed his future, he described the man with the demonic mask. The paramedic saw the description once and became a hot lead against his true identity, but included that he was the one who saved him. Mo Tian received heavy backlash for the savior of him and kept quiet to himself.
A memorial service for the Gorilla gang underwent but the admiration became scornful as people oppressed spoke up against their atrociousness.
Again, the Mo Family lost even more reputation than needed and lost the public view, anyone caught doing business with them would be under the spotlight so their company began dropping in rank, forcing them to liquidate their shares from the surrounding star systems. Even the Zhao Family retracted from the situation, they were now left by themselves to fare against the world with a bad renown.
But the biggest question was the claim on the mask man, Phantom, who single handedly dealt with the True Steel Gorilla Gang and or dealt with the stampeding swarm of Dreaded Plague Rats.
He became a mystified rumor and many news outlets went on a wide search to find the so called phantom, but just like his name, nothing was heard about the man, which added to his fame.
Little did they know, he was eating with the Bearded Lady in the most luxurious restaurants in the region.
They all raised their cups for their last time to see one another or for a long while.
Bai Li, or Phantom, was preparing for his transfer to the Bright Star League Facility. An Elitist Course for seniors called Greyman Institute. A place of overwhelming prestige and fame. A place for Bai Li to truly shine.
