Battling a Giant Muntjac

"Your Golden Tickets?" Elder Yi was surprised.

Golden Tickets were akin to Privilege Points; they were rewarded when organizations made meritorious deeds during the Universal Council's missions.

These Tokens allowed an organization to pull their weight or utilize special authority in certain matters within the Council.

"As far as I know, you're not the only representative member of your organization in the Council," Elder Yi said. "I have to be sure that this decision is your organization's, not yours."

Fang Ao calmly retrieved a jade slip and handed it over to Elder Yi. She collected it and read its content.

"You indeed have the go-ahead from your higher-ups," she muttered. "This is going to be a bit troublesome."

She could already foresee that the other organizations hoping to recruit Di Tian would become suspicious when they discovered the usage of a Golden Ticket to snatch him away. They would assume there was more to the mortal than they knew and as a result, some might also burn a Golden Ticket or two to get him back, turning this into an open 'Golden Ticket Snatch' war.

Even Elder Yi herself was suspecting that the Taboo Order had discovered something extra special about the kid and wanted to snag him for themselves as a result. What baffled her was, what secret could possibly make a top-grade organization decide to splurge on their hard-earned Privilege Tokens just like that?

In truth, Elder Yi was overthinking it. There was no extra discoveries on the part of the Taboo Order. The real reason was the significance of Fang Ao finding his Saint Shadow.

Of all the three hundred and sixty Saint Candidates in training, only Fang Ao hadn't found his Saint Shadow up until now. As the competition for the True Saint status could only proceed when all the matches were complete, the organization was more than willing to burn a bunch of their accumulated Tokens to claim him so that the race could begin.

Elder Yi also didn't consider the fact that the Taboo Order didn't even care about these Golden Tickets. In fact, they didn't care much about the Universal Council and left membership to the choice and discretion of their Saint candidates.

As for why Fang Ao didn't just snatch Di Tian directly, it was because the former was under the radar. To the external visitors on the planet, the disappearance of any mortal might not draw any attention, but Di Tian's would.

"Alright then," Elder Yi said. "I'll send a report to the Council about this, but I know for a fact that your request can only go through if you accept one condition."

"I'm all ears, Senior," Fang Ao said calmly.

"The mortal will have to pay one of our branches a visit in person for a routine investigation," she said. "It doesn't have to be right now compulsorily; anytime within the next hundred years is fine."

"I agree on his behalf," Fang Ao nodded, agreeing immediately. "Anything else, Senior?"

"No," Elder Yi said. "I'll get back to you about the response from the headquarters."

Fang Ao thanked her and excused himself, returning to his cabin. As soon as he got back, he retrieved a transmission jade and relayed the news to his superiors.

Within minutes, Fang Ao received a response and further instructions.

He read them and finally felt assured, knowing it was settled.

Secretly, Fang Ao felt excited. Just a little bit more, and the open competition he had been training for all his life would begin.

He was looking forward to trampling the heads of those bastards. The crown of True Saint could only belong to one person; him.

*****

Di Tian had experienced about three near-death experiences this morning so far.

At first, he could only blame his combat sense for being too poor.

It all started when he crossed a certain landmark on the mountain. The creatures that were otherwise absent in the outer zones of Mount Wuling congregated this area in territories.

The first zone Di Tian wandered into was inhabited by a Giant Muntjac. But unlike the docile, herbivorous deer one would expect, this Giant Muntjac was one that had undergone a bloodline evolution to become a Demon Beast.

It was fiercely territorial and launched an attack on Di Tian immediately it sighted him.

The Giant Muntjac was at least thrice as strong as a normal one and had its other basic attributes, speed and stamina included, doubled. Even though Di Tian was stronger than an average human by virtue of his incomplete Heart Refinement, he panicked and almost got himself impaled several times by the creature's horns which were terrifyingly sharp and extendable.

It was a fight to the death, and Di Tian eventually ended up winning by a slight margin after targeting a weak spot in its chest area. This part was unprotected and relatively weaker than the rest of its body, and Di Tian finished the Giant Muntjac off using this flaw.

The consequence was that he ended up severely injured and almost unconscious. Thankfully, there were several Spirit Herbs in the area. They were all of the same type, except from one which he recognized to be a Spirit Ginseng and consumed to activate his accelerated healing talent.

After he gathered the Spirit Herbs and before he moved on to the next territory, he remembered to retrieve the sharp horns from the carcass to use as a makeshift handy weapon.

It was a good thing he did so, as he was now spending the rest of the morning defending against a horde of Wild Monkeys. These intelligent creatures had an agility that was off the charts and were more intelligent than normal, no doubt

thanks to their evolution.

Despite their smaller size and relatively weaker strength, their impeccable teamwork made them quite the force to be reckoned with. In fact, they had delivered an impressive set of dangerous sneak combos so far that almost got Di Tian.

Luckily, his sensory radius alerted him early enough to react in time. Still, he had more injuries in this battle as of the moment than during his fight with the Giant Muntjac.

"I can't hold on for much longer," Di Tian gritted his teeth as he analyzed his situation.

His eyes fell on the bunch of herbs in his backpack. Right now, there were almost sixteen of them, but none was a Spirit Ginseng.

Whoosh!

A rock sharpened to a dagger shape suddenly streaked through the air in his direction.