Hint of Evil (3)

"We couldn't find a spirit beast today," Ja Sun sighed and leaned against a crystal. The owls finally woke up as they felt to get a breath of fresh air. Meanwhile, Ah Yin stood over an edge of the crystal.

"What do you think would have happened if Violet was taken away?" She inquired with a curious tone as Ja Sun shrugged.

"The best-case scenario would be being sold to a pervert."

"Why is that the best case?" Ah Yin tilted her head.

"Think about it. Any moralistic individual who tries to save her will have enough enemies despite his or her background. Meanwhile, rich perverts often tend to have higher connections. While Violet may be sexually abused due to her exotic appearance in the latter, if she happens to fall in the arms of a just individual... hehe, would it be any different? She is still sold. If not sexually, then she would be used in other manners."

"And the worst case?"

"Falling in the hands of a spirit master curious about her nature rather than appearance. He may perform tests on her which may break her mentally, physically, and spiritually."

"Why didn't you consider death as a good scenario then?" She jumped down and sat in front of Ja Sun.

"Because it may not look like it, but I believe that being alive in any situation also leaves enough hope. Maybe, she could break free from her restraints someday."

Ah Yin narrowed her eyes, "If you happen to chance upon an organization that possibly holds many slaves and sell them for profits. What would you do?"

"Pfft, rob them!" Ja Sun smiled widely, "Slaves sell for a high price! Think of the good things they must have purchased with all that money! Definitely rob them!"

"And the slaves?" Ah Yin tilted her head.

"Hmm... it depends on who is robbing them but considering the big picture, if I were to rob such a location, I would let go of the slaves. Maybe they can successfully escape and start a new life. Anyway, helping them won't cost me too much."

Ah Yin flipped her palm and two items appeared out of her essence storage item.

It was a rolled-up parchment alongside a small token.

"What's this?" Ja Sun looked at the items curiously.

"See for yourself." Ah Yin let Ja Sun grab them as he unfurled the parchment.

The yellowed item had brown etchings.

Aside from a map with a marked location, there were a few statements written with the top of the parchment boldly marked with the words— Hint of Evil.

'Goods worth more than 5000 gold coins...'

'Passive Evil; Mightiest Sin.'

"Hmmm... it looks like a simple arrangement where the marked location is the spot for exchanging goods. The second line is probably their motto, or the secret code between the members. The token may also act as a password aside from identification."

Ja Sun picked the yellow token in his hands and on one of the surfaces, the word Sin was etched.

"This... is good," Ja Sun smiled, "But we can't actually rob them now. This location is in Silvers City. Not only is it too far, the fact that they have tokens and such secrecy indicates that their operation runs much larger than our estimates."

"Of course," Ah Yin shrugged, "And with such a weak partner, I can't expect much support. Let's hope that you can reach the ranks of Spirit Elder by the next year."

"Yeah. Anyway, when you come back tomorrow, be sure to stock some masks for me. The one that covers my face entirely."

Ah Yin nodded.

Once she left, Ja Sun took a deep breath. Spreading his mental energy, Ja Sun closed his eyes.

A yellow ring appeared around him and rotated gently.

'The benefits of having a life contract with a Spirit Soul far outweighs meager mental burden,' Ja Sun reaffirmed his decision.

In the case of Life Contract where the Spirit Soul decides to enhance the spirit master with its entirety in exchange for living alongside the spirit master, it also gains traits from the spirit master's cultivation. After all, the spirit masters gain the entire cultivation of the spirit beast so it was feasible that the spirit soul will earn something, too.

And that was the possibility of continuing its cultivation. The Bright Goddess Butterfly was cultivated inside Ja Sun but her speed was restrictive. The other method of cultivation is more similar to humans. The Spirit Soul will absorb energy from spirit rings but in this case, the energy absorbed will be no more than 1% of the entire cultivation of the targeted spirit ring.

Bright Goddess Butterfly just absorbed spirit energy from the two 1000-year-old spirit rings and her cultivation had finally entered the realm of the 1000-year-old spirit soul. It's just that due to Ja Sun's bottleneck, she kept her cultivation to the limit of the rank— 999 years.

By breaking through together, the two would achieve resonance and the post breakthrough benefits will be far greater than the norm.

"I would be stuck if I just decided to completely dominate the contract... good thing I don't mind butterflies in my privacy."

Ja Sun shook his head and began condensing his second spirit ring.

Within his mental scape, the Bright Goddess Butterfly let out a heavenly glow that illuminated the entire misty world. Ja Sun's blood churned and his spirit energy moved around him in excitement. The original mist-like spirit energy congealed into a yellow ring but suddenly, Ja Sun's body shuddered and the Bright Goddess Butterfly began flapping her wings inside Ja Sun's mental scape.

Each flap made his vortex of mental energy tremble. Bright Goddess Butterfly became heavier in his mind, her presence giving Ja Sun relatively more pressure but it was also refining his already vast mental energy, making his basic mental ability sturdier. The mist around the vortex was slowly pulled into the vortex finally, making it rotate at a greater speed and relieving a bit of the butterfly's pressure. But the pressure simply wasn't enough to completely refine the vast and loose mental energy in the form of bluish mist.

The size of the butterfly increased and its carapace had two segments now.

A Thousand-year-old Spirit Soul!

The two yellow rings floating around Ja Sun shuddered. From the middle, an enchanting purple color spread, and a dim purple halo covered the two rings before the yellow spirit rings started to turn purple.

"Huff..."

Ja Sun looked at the two purple rings rotating around him.

'A 100-year-old spirit soul provides two yellow rings. A 1000-year-old spirit soul will provide with three purple rings. Temporarily, this is already the limit.' His progress wasn't complete yet. The butterfly still continued to release the warm glow while the Ja Sun's spirit energy tumbled and moved, breaking through his restrictions and advancing after being held back for months!

21...

22...

23...

24...

25!

His spirit rank advanced to rank 25!

This was the effect of the spirit master and the spirit soul breaking through their limits together.

The Bright Goddess flapped her wings gently and seemed to rest. Her presence making his mental scape almost heavenly.

Meanwhile, Ja Sun stood up.

'The Three-eyed Silver Lion seems to be evolving into a hybrid of assault and agility type.' Ja Sun's second ring glowed and two pairs of silver wings formed behind him. These wings were made of pure spirit energy and just like the Bright Goddess Butterfly's patterns, the emerald color followed within the wings in the form of emerald feathers!

"Silver Light Wing..." Ja Sun slowly controlled the wings.

He knew how to walk on legs but to fly, he would need practice. A lot of practice. Feeling the lack of control, Ja Sun slowly kept himself a few inches above the ground but his vertical distance would increase or decrease sharply with each flap of his wings.

Spirit Energy was drained from his body slowly and when he tried to activate his first spirit skill— Silver Burst, aside from the majestic light covering his talons, four of his wings were covered, too. The moment his wings flapped, he flew up at an extremely quick pace, his back smashing against the ceiling of the cave but the original defense of the wings was heightened. After all, the silver light from the silver burst was even more prominent over his wings than his talons.

'According to the tome of bloodlines, the Three-eyed Golden Lion resembles the lineage of Golden Dragon. But it is merely a resemblance. A Three-eyed Golden Lion is a top-class beast on its own. Meanwhile, the variation of this beast, the Three-eyed Silver Lion is fashioned after phoenix, specifically, Seven-Light Phoenix. The wings on my back, despite gaining from Bright Goddess Butterfly, have feathers. Not only that, the quality of the wings increases drastically if used alongside Silver Burst.'

Ja Sun retracted his spirit rings and he easily landed on the ground before heaving a soft sigh.

---

"Come out," Ah Yin sighed and stopped after exiting the forest. The trees had grown sparse and there weren't any spirit beasts around except for the one.

While Ah Yin was prepared to face the persistent entity, she didn't think that the figure wasn't far away and actually grew visible in front of her.

'A stealth ability that can even mess with my senses?' Ah Yin frowned. The beast in front of her long violet hair, beautiful yellow eyes that glowed in the darkness, pale skin basked under the moonlight, and an astonishing figure of large breasts and curving hips that only extend to a long serpentine body. Her arms were covered in scales and her nails weren't much different from sharp claws.

"Violet, why are you following me?" Ah Yin inquired calmly.

"Do you think that the effects of the mutated Three-eyed Golden Lion are the same are the real one?" There was a bit of hope in her voice.

"I wouldn't know. Where can I even meet this legendary spirit beast?" Ah Yin inquired with a clueless expression. Her words and sincere expression actually created a doubt in Violet's mind, "You... really are a human?"

Looking at her own arms, Ah Yin nodded, "Am I supposed to be anything else?"

"You should leave. I and my partner may not hunt you, but that doesn't mean there won't be suitors for your spirit rings." Ah Yin suggested calmly before turning around.

"Wait!" Violet hastily called out, "I wasn't completely honest with you two."

"What?" Ah Yin looked back.

"Actually... I was the first to make contact with the humans. After being discarded by my teacher, I didn't have the heart to return to my tribe. All of them are still beasts without higher intellect and even if they care for me, I couldn't live like that so I roamed and found a spot for myself to call home. Then, I began contacting humans but... almost all of them tried to kill me. Or capture me."

"Almost? That's praiseworthy," Ah Yin smiled slightly.

"Well... the almost part only includes you and the boy with the mutated martial soul."

"And?" Ah Yin inquired.

"And... take me in! Teach me. I believe that once I learn more about humans, I will be able to rise from my current bottleneck."

Ah Yin turned around, "You'll die if you follow me into the city. Be careful."

With that, she left.

Alone, Violet bit her lips as loneliness flickered in her eyes.

Slowly, her body turned invisible and she vanished completely.

When Ah Yin finally reached the nearby town, she observed the distinct lack of spirit masters. The situation itself led Ah Yin completely stunned and she walked into the familiar inn greeted by a kind-looking older woman with white hair and a wrinkled face.

"Granny, what happened? I didn't see fatty and that bearded master fighting outside like usual," she leaned against the counter. Even then inn was relatively empty and all that remained had weaker spiritual energy around them. At least, weaker than herself.

"Xiao Yin... sigh. It's the Silvers City. The word is that the third prince of the Silvers Kingdom and the Second Princess of the Balak Kingdom have just announced war against each other."

The woman shook her head and replied with a distressed sigh.

"War?" Ah Yin inquired again as the old woman nodded, "Yes. The reason is unknown... but both the kingdoms are recruiting spirit masters from all around and offering various resources for participation. The Heaven Dou City announced that no other forces will take part in the war. But the amount of resources offered has made many spirit masters attracted."

After speaking with the old woman for a while, Ah Yin returned to her room and started packing her stuff inside the wristband. She continued to think about the token from the mysterious faction— Hint of Evil and their possible relation with the Silvers Kingdom.

"Still need to find a spirit ring for him and reach the level of Spirit King. Two more ranks to go..." Ah Yin mumbled in amazement. This speed was almost divine.

Of course, she knew that after each major title, the speed of cultivation decreases severely.

"Soon..." She clenched her fist in excitement.

"But it looks like the enhancement of cultivation is related to his martial soul only. It would have been too good to be true if the speed of cultivation could increase further."

She sighed and lied on the bed.

"I need to buy a bed, too," she mumbled to herself. If not a bed, then at least, a comfortable mattress. She wasn't going to lie on the ground all over again.

***

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