Taking Inventory; To King's Lair

Ja Sun took deep breaths. Nobody likes being conspired against and neither did Ja Sun but he realized the core issue why he didn't even consider the fact that a God could fuck him up.

He was spread too thin.

From his excitement in researching the Soul Origin using various means at his disposal to absorbing treasures worthwhile, Ja Sun had lost his focus. Although he believed that he did the best in all things he pursued, he felt that picking one thing and seeing it to the end also wasn't such a good idea. He was this strong only because he invested his time in various aspects. From spirit rings and spirit bones to internal spirit techniques and array mastering. Everything had its use.

Although his spirit rank still remained rank 70, Ja Sun fully expected to skip rank once he broke through just based on the fact that he absorbed a million-year-old external spirit bone.

Standing up, Ja Sun retrieved the Vajra Gauntlets into his bloodstream. For a moment, a soft white light began to cover his hand. The air around this region vibrated as if the energy covering his palms was constantly contracting and expanding.

The Gentle Tactics. But this wasn't the only thing Ja Sun had incorporated.

Through the rewards from the Clear Sky Clan, Ja Sun had incorporated their secret techniques— Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer and the Clear Sky Nine Absolutes. There was also a spirit technique called the Great Sumeru Hammer but it wasn't a technique that could fit the Gentle Tactics itself.

He then moved slightly and appeared ten meters away in a moment.

His movement technique incorporated the shift of momentum without any waste of energy and extreme speed through the use of spirit energy. These two techniques were just the most basic go-to skills in his arsenal.

The Fiery Golden Pupils are his trump card even now.

His spirit skills provided him with enhancements, support, killing techniques, and even great defensive techniques. Not to mention the life-saving skill Bright World.

His spirit bones, on the other hand, had varied effects. From attacks to providing enormous support to his clones and then there was his external spirit bone that simply gave him... another skin.

Mastering Array was merely a statement. Ja Sun didn't expect to master such a profession until he could achieve things considered imaginative by this world. One of his current projects at least touched on this aspect but Ja Sun felt that the moment he could make even the Soul Origins his plaything, he would have mastered the art of array. Of course, Arrays also included crafting artifacts and refining pills for Ja Sun. Although, he admitted that he was more interested in the former than the latter due to sheer strange things he wanted to give form.

His palette of cores was now completed, too. The tomes he read were clear that no being can have cores more than three. A similar thing is said about Immortal herbs that no individual can absorb more than one herb but Ja Sun had successfully absorbed two. Not to mention, Ja Sun had broken many records and formed multiple exceptions by now so he realized that if he truly set his mindset to the rule that he can only absorb three cores then, if somehow, there comes an opportunity for a fourth one, he would lose that chance because of his mentality more so than anything else.

After going through everything he had learned until now, Ja Sun realized the need to set his priorities once again.

The greatest priority was to find a suitable and spirit soul for his Three-eyed Silver Lion.

There was a need to complete his knowledge regarding the Soul Origin.

Next, he wanted to use the Water Dragon King Saber and the Fire Dragon King Arm Canon just for the sake of causing mayhem.

He also wanted to find materials to complete the nine bracelets.

Finally, he wanted to finally organize his treasures to reconsider everything he may have somehow forgotten.

Of the five things, Ja Sun found he could do the last one the earliest and he did so.

Piling away the Immortal herbs in one corner, Ja Sun went through all his wealth. Gold was simply a means to form Diamond Essence Gold. Ah Yin loved the clothes made from this material and Ja Sun knew it for a fact that Yuehua secretly liked them, too. Erlong told him.

With Immortal Herbs and Gold separated, Ja Sun began to sort out the many weapons, most prominent of them being varied blades, that he looted from his opponents. Then came the clothes. With the number of people he had robbed, it came as no surprise that he had a mind-boggling amount of underpants— both men and women undergarments.

Of them, Ja Sun felt that the highest in value belonged to Dai Taiyin's underwear. He still didn't have any great opportunity to finally sell them off but Ja Sun did begin to store the clothes that didn't belong to the rich for the needy. If it wasn't of use to him, he could at least teach spirit beasts some dressing sense, right? His first thought formed regarding Violet. A lewd grin touched his lips at the thought of dressing up the seductive lamia in any way he saw fit.

Shaking his head, Ja Sun continued to work. After separating the rich people's clothes and the poor people's clothes, he began to tag the clothes he gained from the aristocrats of the Spirit Master society.

Once he did so, Ja Sun carefully folded the clothes he won from Ah Yin and Bibi Dong. Those were one of his most prized possession.

Sure, he could see them in any clothes, but it wouldn't have the same feel as the panties he robbed them off through a bet!

'Maybe... I should make some crotch cutouts and ask them to wear it again... or transparent ones... hehe,' Ja Sun leaned against the tree and rested for a while alongside entertaining his fantasies.

Once he had enough rest, Ja Sun went through the entirety of his spirit bones collection. There were a few spirit bones that he had gained from the rewards but these also existed in real life and were absorbed by one of the teammates.

Shockingly, Ja Sun still had ten spirit bones left!

11000-year-old Flash Snake Right Arm Bone.

35000-year-old Tiger Badger Skull Bone.

40000-year-old Saint Hell Tiger's Skull Bone.

42000-year-old Thunder Scaled Leopard Right Leg Bone.

50000-year-old Blight Toad Left Arm Bone.

52000-year-old Hulking Camel Torso Bone.

59000-year-old White-eyed Gu Right Arm Bone.

75000-year-old Nine-headed Giant's Left Leg Bone.

96000-year-old Dragon Child's Spine.

100000-year-old Duskgold Beartaken Torso Bone.

Admiring his collection, Ja Sun chuckled softly. This really did put a smile on his face. He should start being a collector of spirit bones already. Maybe make a set of spirit bones from a single beast regarding all the slots. That really would be a great accomplishment.

With this done, Ja Sun then took a look at the cores he had collected.

The Dragon's Mind Core.

The Death Poison Core.

Bloodline Core of the Three-eyed Golden Lion and,

300000-year-old Yin-Yang Apple.

The last one wasn't an immortal fruit in any manner. It was a condensed energy that Petals couldn't keep within her body and was formed into an external core. Speaking of Immortal Fruits, he still had the 10th Grade Myriad Blood Mango.

Ja Sun then finally took note of the most important Artifacts not combined into his body.

A chunk of Life Gold.

Two Evil-Eyed Sage's Third Pupil.

And the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud.

The time to deal with the latter hadn't come but the sheer amount of seals on its surface showed just how much Ja Sun was willing to rectify his negligence.

Finally, there were manuals that were still useful to him or weren't understandable at all!

Evil Space Records was written in a completely different language.

However,

The Lightning Dragon's Ascension Manual.

The Divine Grace Array.

And the Rakshasa Soul Devouring Technique was still useful to him in some form and manner.

For a moment, Ja Sun focused on the Bloodline core of the Three-eyed Golden Lion and he was filled with a sense of dread once again. Even now Ja Sun failed to understand why he felt this sensation when he focused on this particular core but he was willing to find out and make work for it.

After all, this was directly related to his reward from Qian Daoliu and ironically, the location Redstar pointed out for him to visit when he gets strong enough.

The true center of the Star Dou Great Forest.

The King's Lair.

When he was brought into the slaughter city, Redstar was pretty clear that the true strength of beasts wasn't even close to what is shown on the surface but is actually organized by an overlord within a space locked using spatial means. Only a few with enough means or strength can travel into this locked region. Those with strength included Qian Daoliu and Redstar. The two had also explored King's Lair extensively.

According to Qian Daoliu, the location was dangerous enough that his father lost his life in the King's Lair while Redstar stated that he got his share of pain in that region, too.

As for the men with enough means, Spatial talent was necessary and the ability to see through the natural arrays.

As it turns out, Ja Sun had both— enough means and strength to try his hand at entering the King's Lair. He had the general direction, all he needed to do now was be a little smarter about entering the lair than his two sources.

After all, that was the location of the spirit beast he desired the most—

The Three-eyed Golden Lion!

The spirit beast dubbed as Auspicious Emperor for its very existence is a boon to the environment. The spirit beasts grow quicker and healthier. Not to mention the fact that this species is loved by all.

Ja Sun wanted to meet one for himself. Yes, he desired its spirit soul, but before that, Ja Sun wanted to meet the prime beast off of which his martial soul is mutated from.

While the Three-eyed Golden Lion is supposed to be fashioned from Golden Dragon, the Three-eyed Silver Lion is remarked to be carved from the Divine Silver Phoenix. Ja Sun felt that these weren't just ordinary legends but held some form of truth.

After Ja Sun completed his inventory, he began to move towards the so-called King's Lair. On the way, he would 'borrow' the essence of a few interesting spirit beasts for his most recent project. But without any constraint on time, Ja Sun used arrays to study the soul origins of these spirit beasts, too, before feeding it to his spirit souls, increasing their cultivation at a breathtaking pace. Ja Sun especially focused on the Bright Goddess Butterfly this time since her cultivation had been neglected for a while from Ja Sun's end even if she could peacefully cultivate within his world of consciousness.

The King's Lair entrance was situated within the northern region of the forest and with Ja Sun starting from the South-east end, and given his casual pace, it took him a little over two weeks to reach the area.

He took rare stops within a few villages close to the forest and noted that almost every household now had a statue of Qian Xunji. Even now, Ja Sun was impressed by Qian Xunji. Well, aside from his actions irrelevant to his cultivation, at least. The man found a way to become a god.

The moment Qian Daoliu explained things about God Paradox, Ja Sun realized that Qian Xunji's plan to become a god was through making others believe he had become a god and this came to fruition when he used some mystical means to temporarily reach that level in front of the whole continent before disappearing with Redstar.

The competition by itself was simply a small part of a grand scheme to give Spirit Hall a reason to install video recording devices all around the continent so the whole continent could see him become a god.

If Ja Sun had that much drive of becoming a God, he couldn't have done things better if he had the same resources and was in the same situation as Qian Xunji.

No, the essence of the plan lay in Qian Xunji's devious nature.

He was simply without any moral compass.

'Just like Teach...' Ja Sun recalled his previous teacher and sighed softly.

"I wonder what they would want after gaining all the power in the world by pushing everyone away..." Ja Sun hummed thoughtfully as he jumped up a branch to lay on and rest.

He was certainly enjoying the short period of peace. He had almost forgotten how good his own hand happened to be.

Groaning in satisfaction, Ja Sun slept promptly, fully knowing that once he do enter the King's Lair, such peace would be rare once again.

***

A/N: I realize that this is a filler chap but with all that has happened, I felt that slowing down the pace just a tiny bit was necessary before starting the next short arc. Anyway, I was making sure that I had the inventory side note of this novel all sorted out and I thought, hey, you know what, here's an idea— Make Ja Sun do his inventory. This way, readers will also get the sense of the treasures he has.

Anyway, do let me know if I missed something.

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Shoutout to Peter Yang~!

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