Chapter – 124 - There Is A Second Species Living On This Planet!

Rihanna took out two bottles from her storage ring and tossed it to the man, who caught them carefully and with great reverence. Then he turned and walked back to his team. Though this girl was very weak when it came to cultivation power, anyone who could concoct such creative poisons and their antidotes was worthy of his respect.

"Hey, little girl. Don't you think it is unfair if you keep such great poisons and potions all to yourself? After all, we could always collaborate. Of course you would get great returns....guaranteed from the Underworld Abyss. We could also form a partnership!"

Rihanna could feel her entire body twitching at the sickly sweet words coming from behind her. Her hands were itching. Too bad that there was such a great disparity of power between her and this psycho sadistic pervert. She needed to grow up quickly. Because she was dying to see someone face planted deep into the ground after she had beaten him up thoroughly!

"Oh? And what kind of returns are we talking about?"

Rihanna turned to look at Wenzhaobei who had walked over. His lazy eyes were roving around with curiosity and she could see the scheming look beneath those black pupils. Could he be less apparent!

Wenzhaobei was about to answer when he felt something wrong and looked back at the girl staring directly into his eyes. For a moment he felt time had turned back, and they had returned to the chambers of the Clan Leader in the Chen Clan of Moon-Grave City. She looked just as defiant and unwilling to bow down as she had done then. His lips curved upwards in a helpless smile.

Rihanna too felt the unnaturalness of her response. Beibei was way more rigid and unwilling to bend according to situations, quite unlike Rihanna. She sighed, closing her eyes to cover the conflicting emotions reflecting in her eyes. When she opened them, she turned away to hide from the unnerving gaze of Wenzhaobei. She didn't want him to think that she was becoming too arrogant and carefree before them simply because she had gained some sort of acceptance from their Master.

"So....what sort of a partnership were you talking about?"

Rihanna chose to walk down the narrow dirt path leading back to the village where they had currently boarded up. This village was one of the many unnamed villages, sheltered in all sorts of nooks and crannies all over Madsa-Tamu. This particular village was at the border of Ice-Fire Desert and Dark Forest. Ironic....since the very first man she had transmuted into, Ke Kuroba, apparently came from a village in the Dark Forests. Though she had taken on an identity, but the real person, from whom she had stolen the identity , had actually existed. Life was such an unpredictable overlapping of circles.

Wenzhaobei either realised she was trying to evade him, or probably ignored the smaller details in the face of a bigger deal. Either way, he quickly followed her, reverting back to his laid back, scheming ways.

"All the unique and personally concocted poisons, pills and potions will be given a priority placing in the Green Dragon Auction House. In return, we will give you one-fourth of all profits, and a hundred years Blue Membership Token. With this token you can not only freely participate in all auctions for the next hundred years, but you will also get a ten percent discount while making any purchase in the Underworld Abyss. How about it?"

Rihanna stared at the less dense part of the forest which slowly cleared up as they moved forward. The people here were mostly commoners. They stayed at the peripheries of the forest to stay safe, and preferred either burrowing holes under the gigantic roots of the trees and cozying inside these holes, or pulled in the large creepers growing all around to make tree houses on top of these very large trees and living there.

Sometimes she felt like Wendy in Never-land. This land was just as exciting and unpredictable as Never-land. She wondered if she would ever see a Tinker Bell in here.

"Half the Profits...and at least two hundred years of White Membership Token. Also....don't you think you can upgrade the 10% discount as well?"

"Hey....don't go poking the beast you cannot kill! Why don't you ask for the ownership of the entire Underworld Abyss while you are at it!"

"Nah!....Too troublesome!"

'Who wants to take over such a cumbersome job of managing a bunch of wayward creepos!' was what she really wanted to say.....but she knew her limits. Perhaps they were giving her some respect due to the unprecedented reaction of their Ice Emperor towards her. But she couldn't take herself too seriously.

Wenzhaobei almost made a face behind her back. The only thing holding him back was his dignity....he couldn't lose face before this little twit! But he couldn't even react back...otherwise he had no idea how that Master of his would react back! He had already turned the Abyss upside down with the sudden decision of sending out hordes of Abyss Guards to search for this little girl when she went missing from his radar.

"Fine....Half the Profits, and a White Membership Token for the next two hundred years. Can't increase the discount. Or do you want the sellers to stop selling their goods in the abyss!"

"Fine. I guess I'll have to accept what is within your capacity and not hanker for more."

Rihanna was secretly grinning as she watched him pursing his lips in indignation from the corners of her eyes. Why had she not realized that he was such an easy to control pervert!

Come to think of it....most of the people in this world were pretty easy to please. They had a lot of power, and they resorted to using this power whenever they needed to solve any problem. Generally, most people were easy going, laid back and approachable. They could be ruthless, cruel and even kill someone directly using their superior powers. But she had rarely seen much scheming and cunningness from these people. Comparatively, where people on earth had far lesser spiritual powers, they resorted to all kinds of schemes and plots. They were more difficult to read. Of course both world had their own dangers and problems. She shouldn't really correlate the two.

As they entered the residential part of the forest, more and more commoners came into their sight. These people lived far away from the cities and its policies and lifestyle. As such, they rarely saw cultivators. Though they seemed more relaxed around them, still, thousands of years of being subjugated by the ones who had the real power in this world had turned them servile. They still kept a distance and obeyed their orders.

200,000 years ago, the life of commoners was hard. And 200,000 years later, it didn't really seem that much better. Whereas the cultivators had grown and developed their powers and evolved their way of living....the commoners hadn't been given the chance of being a part of this glorious evolution. Rihanna frowned as she walked past these people staring at them from a distance. She was seriously starting to contemplate if she could do anything to make a difference in the lives of these people.

"When are you leaving for the Ancient Beast Aura Sect?"

"Tomorrow....morning.....Why?"

"Nothing. If I am not wrong, your friend will be asking you to accompany him to the Core City of Madsa-Tamu in the coming week. You will be passing the Underworld Abyss Base near the No-Man's land outside the Core City. You can collect your membership token from there. If you have anything good I can put up for the coming auction, you can give it to me before you leave."

Wenzhaobei had caught a glimpse of his Master standing aloof atop the tallest tree at a distance. This Master of his had a strange fetish of standing on top of the world and watching the world bellow passing by. And his poor subordinates were always left climbing mountains and trees and cliffs in order to reach him!

Rihanna watched as Wenzhaobei finished his words and vanished from his spot, then turned to glance at the lone man standing against the backdrop of gray clouds rolling about in a dark blue sky.

'Hey....Little Purple...you had said there was something you would tell me regarding them when we were in the Abyss. What was it?'

'...I think....and I am not entirely sure myself.....but I think that they are not humans.'

Rihanna almost choked on her breath. Her feet stumbled. Even from this distance, Mayaroubo seemed to sense something, and turned towards her. Rihanna looked up just in time to catch the sharp, cold glare beneath his icy façade. When he saw her, the glare faded, but he looked at her for a short while before quickly turning away.

'What do you mean by 'Not Humans'?! are they some sort of Trans-mutating demonic beasts?!'

'....Yes....and No....'

'Could you give me a more specific answer! Your obscurity is making my hair turn gray!'

'Tsk! What I mean is that they are neither humans, nor are they demonic beasts. They have a very long history in these lands. In fact, the first of their species was born more than a million years ago, from the communion of the humans of that time, with the Ancient Demonic Beasts who existed at that time.'

'How.....how can humans mate with demonic beasts?! No...wait.....they are different species....so how did their off-springs survive?!'

'There is more than just genetic codes! This world has spiritual power, which can create even plant and stone spirits! Why can't it help in sustaining and developing creatures which already have life force! Moreover, the ancient beasts of those days were nothing like the beasts you see today. Their spiritual power is beyond your comprehension. They could change to any form they desired, to say nothing of changing into humans and mating with humans.'

'Oh....so.....what about these off-springs? Were they human, or beast....or a mixture of both?'

'Well....they had human body, but their spiritual cultivation capacity was much greater than that of normal humans. They were also said to be blessed by the realm spirit, as almost every Aratyuusa was born with the consciousness of one core spirit.'

'Core spirit?'

'Something like the green energy that man passed into you. That spiritual energy has already developed a consciousness. It can follow orders, protect people, and even attack on its own.'

Rihanna paused in her questioning. She couldn't believe such an incredible power was currently circling her energy core...and the man had given it to her without asking for anything in return? What was the deal with this man? Why did he treat her so.....differently?!