Chapter 32: Absolute Loyalty

"The inscription of silence." Feng Zhiming inspected the scarf he had taken as his payment fee.

The inscription of silence was one spiritual inscribers could make when they entered the foundation establishment realm, of course the efficacy of the inscriptions differed from person to person.

He carefully wrapped the scarf around Anissa's neck and told her to speak.

"I don't like this color, it is very ugly." She did as instructed and spoke.

Feng Zhiming was satisfied with the effects, the scarf had actually suppressed her speaking completely, of course if she really wanted to she could shatter the scarf and the inscription.

She took off the scarf and gave it to Feng Zhiming.

He raised his hand to stop her.

"Keep it, I can see you having a use for it in the future."

"Who wants this ugly scarf?" Was what she wanted to say but she held her tongue and merely stored it in her ring.

Right now they were heading towards the trading circle of the city, this was where the majority of sect disciples came to buy and sell things.

Feng Zhiming had thought about going straight to the Flowing River Sect but he chose to exercise a little caution, he had no idea how many Spiritual Awakening cultivators they had nor did he know if a participant of the game was among their ranks.

Now that the quality of reward had gone up he wanted to be the one to win even more, it would be quite ironic for him to overthrow the very same Assembly that helped him grow stronger.

"What exactly is our plan of action? I could walk into the sect and kill them all, just order me."

Anissa was getting annoyed going from one place to another, the lack of a proper fight was eating away at her.

"The Hiding Demon Sect are subordinates to my sect, this means I'll catch a ride with their disciples, go to their sect and have them declare war on the Flowing River Sect."

Anissa was clearly dissatisfied with the plan, it showed on her face.

"Bu-" Anissa was about to rebuttal, but stopped mid sentence.

Feng Zhiming had turned his head to look at her, his usual joking expression was not there.

"You are free to leave, Anissa." Feng Zhiming did not bring along Anissa for her to question his every decision, he couldn't tell her about the game, nor about the 96 people trying to kill him, if he did he would die.

The only thing he could do was offer her a way out and he did so.

He had said it before, what he needed was absolute loyalty.

"If I have to explain my logic and reason to convince my subordinates to follow my orders while my enemies have blind loyalty, I will always lose."

Anissa lowered her head, she understood that even a fraction of a second could be the difference between life and death.

"My apologies." she said with an undertone of sadness in her voice.

She knew if she left she would have nowhere to go, sure she could go seclude herself in a forest for a millennia but after what she experienced she despised the idea of wasting her life locked in seclusions, she truly wanted to see the world.

"There will come a time I may seek your advice." Of course he didn't want to completely shut down any future ideas from her.

She nodded in response, it seemed she was very clearly affected by the lecture Feng Zhiming had given her.

Feng Zhiming sighed, he placed his hand on her head and patted it slightly. She was only a little shorter than him but she was still short enough for him to get his hand there.

"It's good you understand, now come along, I think I see my tools getting abused over there." he smiled as he spoke, uplifting her previously fallen expression.

At the end of his gaze four people who he thought he remembered from the restaurant were harassing two members of the Hiding demon sect, a boy and a girl, who seemed to be around 15 and were actually Qi condensation disciples.

"We're already giving you a good deal, just hand over the beast cores." one of the four men spoke while pushing the male disciple.

The four men were at the foundation establishment stage so it made sense for the boy to concede, but as a man he didn't want to look weak in front of the girl he wanted to impress.

He and Zhu Li had come here to sell the beast cores they hunted and he did not want her to see him as a coward.

He stood his ground.

"I will sell to those who pay me what I want, or my name isn't Qin Hao." He stood at around 5'9 and was completely overshadowed by the four men.

The four men who had been harassing him caught sight of Feng Zhiming approaching behind him, it was the same man who had reduced someone to mush earlier, they did not want to find out why he was approaching them and quickly made themselves scarce.

Qin Hao slowly opened his eyes that he had shut preemptively, to reveal that the four men were actively running from him.

Qin Hao put his hands on his hips and laughed out loud.

"Look, junior sister Zhu Li, gaze upon my strength."

He slowly turned around to reveal Feng Zhiming and Anissa standing there, menacingly, two cultivators far more powerful than the ones harassing him before.

"The heavens want me dead." he thought to himself as he gave up any idea of resistance.