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Quest Maker: 237
🕑 Added 2022-01-24 18:59:50 +0000 UTCTitle: Rest in Pieces (2)
It has been days since Ja Sun's and Ah Yin's departure. Bibi Dong and others have finally managed to settle in the northern entrance while starting to delegate various tasks effectively. Yet, the environment of the Giant's Fortress couldn't get tenser.
Bibi Dong continued to tap the nib of quill pen against a piece of parchment. It ruined the pen surely but she had greater issues than a slight increment in miscellaneous expenses. She continued to gaze at the unfurled scroll in front of her. In front of her desk, one could see the remaining teammates settled on various spots. Xie Xan sat on the chair and leaned against the desk with a deep frown. Yuehua sat on the chair next to him while others settled on the couch with a glass table in the middle.
"Apparently," Yuehua nodded with a gloomy expression. She felt especially troubled at this point.
To Giant's Fortress, the enemy's attack wasn't to be feared. Not with such a great pace of development. It was something entirely different.
The sudden dip in the earnings kept the human resources— the source of defense and proper functioning of the point of interest— happy. It happened, the backlash of Bibi Dong's actions and bold approach for pushing her name atop the list of potential candidates for the seat of Supreme Pontiff. It should be considered that right now Spirit City was a power keeping balance between the two Empires. While the two Empires dealt in Imperial Monarchy, Spirit City had different conditions— strength and support.
Bibi Dong had great potential for both but she needed to pass this phase without sacrificing a greater chunk of the team's accumulation but this also meant she needed to confront the individuals still opposing her firm hold of the future.
"Don't lose your calm," Bibi Dong calmly regarded Yuehua, "We both knew that even if you don't wish to betray and because of you, your family, too, won't betray... it never meant we could control others."
"I don't get why the consideration," Liu Erlong leaned against the couch and scoffed without looking back, "I mean, I get it that this is a big clan but they don't have a Titled Douluo."
"No, they do," Yuehua sighed, "My father. The Sect system includes various clans into a system of class and ranks under the umbrella of the main clan that acts the governing force."
Erlong frowned as Yuehua continued, "And, even father would not remain unaware of the current situation. All the surrounding clans suddenly pulled back their requests and paid the cancellation fees. It may provide the Fortress with a boost of resources for the moment but the moment it fades away, we will start to deplete. This means that the opponent hidden in the shadows has enough force and benefits that the entire Clear Sky Sect has decided to become a bystander."
"Exactly," Bibi Dong nodded, "Although we cannot disregard the possibility of personal attacks, currently, our major problem is to gain enough attraction and encourage other spirit masters to visit the Giant's Fortress to claim spirit rings, or at least, try to claim one. But no matter what, we cannot be the first to lose our cool and act against our neighbors."
"Why not smoke them out?" Jun'er blinked and others looked at her, "Even if we assume this is happening because of Sister Dong's claim, she should also have the majority of support and if she didn't, we would be facing a greater calamity. So, we are simply speculating the motives of the opponent, you know, like I would smell a different thing but the target of that particular scent may just be different so instead of acting simply based on my nose, I need to see or hear the target. Similarly, why not first find out who we are facing and then... counter them."
"Dude, what did you smell?" Hu Lana inquired as Jun'er refused to answer.
"Ehm, I have an idea... if we only need to smoke the opponent out, then why not use the one thing that will move the Clear Sky Clan?" Oscar suddenly smiled and then looked at Yuehua, "No offense."
She smiled and shook her head.
"You mean..." Bibi Dong's gaze brightened. A plan already forming in her head.
Others grew a bit confused by Oscar's cryptic intentions as he shrugged, "It doesn't need to be nine. Just a number close enough. Even five or six would do..."
"But... we don't have Ka-ul's illusion," Bibi Dong muttered, "Still... there might be something we can do ourselves."
The room grew silent.
"A heavenly mark..." Xie Xan whispered, "That's it!"
Others looked at him as he coughed, "So, one day, I called Ka-ul saying that he's so goddamn Demonic and a thorough bastard that the sky shifted its color just to reveal his presence early on."
Bibi Dong narrowed her eyes. Comments like this back then didn't affect her but now Xie Xan was making fun of her man, "I hope you have a point. Otherwise, it would be a pity for Lana to take care of her son and her bedridden husband at the same time."
Xie Xan took a deep breath, "We need to make the sky change its color. The need for a fake Nine-headed Giant is only based on the fact that our Giant's Fortress needs to claim attention once again and the surrounding clans won't sit back at the prospect of a Nine-headed giant.
Think about it. Ah Yin revitalized the Giant's Forest. Ka-ul somehow made the giants more uniform and harder to hunt. The progress of the forest is on the right track and our scouts have noticed an increment of 1.2% in the positive mutation of the newly bred giants.
It wouldn't be impossible for a Nine-headed giant, or a mutation with more than 2 heads to exist and wield multiple elements and properties."
"There is one problem," Yuehua frowned, "The records never showed that the birth of a Nine-headed Giant elicited such a heavenly reaction."
Bibi Dong suddenly chuckled, seeing the point of it all, "And? The Nine-headed Giant doesn't exist for the moment. We only need to pull the clans back from the sidelines into the play and smoke out the party truly responsible for targeting us."
Xie Xan nodded while Bibi Dong continued.
"I would need your assistance for the matter but making the sky dye in a particular color... is easier than we would have expected early on."
As the sun descended to give way for dusk, a strange phenomenon was noted by various scouts keeping a daily check on the foreign force integrating with the sect.
The darkening sky was suddenly lit up in crimson with a large cloud slowly forming nine distinct holes. The distance itself made it hard to see anything but the situation was so strange that the scouts couldn't help but report everything back.
---
"Huff, they are taking longer to wake up than expected," Ja Sun muttered inwardly. He had 40 minutes but the two giant sources of energy still kept their slow pace in awakening. Of course, they would take time. God knows for how long they had been sleeping under the natural suppression.
But Ja Sun wasn't free as he waited. He had a plan already at work. Aside from forming a few array patterns on the bed of the pond, Ja Sun drew a knife and carved his stomach without flinching. His work netted a circular array in the middle of his abdomen as the water around him turned bloody. For a moment, Ja Sun observed his blood having a slight golden sheen.
'My body is reaching the divine quality... if it does, that's game over for my spirit cultivation,' His lips curved into an excited grin.
His mission was to devour the streams of energy. This meant that defeating these forms of energy was never a problem but successfully devouring and holding the energy was something he had to think for.
These were divine beasts.
Mortal beasts turned gods.
And their source of energy was several times greater than the tiny portion of divine intent left by the Evil-Eyed Sage Tiger in his mental world once he delved into the Evil Sage's Third Eye. Just that tiny portion pushed his spirit bone by more than 100000 years. Why Ja Sun didn't use his own divine intent to continue enhancing it? Because the spirit bone siphons the divine energy for its growth. Using his own energy meant cutting off his divine energy permanently.
If Poseidon were to be present, he would realize that the array on the floor of the pond was none other than a miniaturized version of the Divine Grace Array held up by his divine intent. Meanwhile, the bloodied mark on his abdomen was different. A mix of Divine Grace Array with many other ones that seem to have a very... risky act.
"It's about time," Ja Sun suddenly growled and stabbed his arms into the ground.
*Bang*
*Bang*
*Bang*
Ja Sun didn't intend to ruin the core of the Blessed Land by destroying this pond. However, he needed some space.
His divine intent exploded with its full might. The Divine Grace Array brightened with a golden glow marking the water of the pond to the point that the glow of the cocoon within which Ah Yin lay silently was overtaken by the brilliance of the array. For a moment, before his consciousness was overtaken and brought to the intended location, Ja Sun pressed a beautiful green pendant against the center of the array on his body that seem to not heal despite his physical attributes. After all, this array was supported by his blood.
---
*Grrrrrrrr*
A low, guttural growl rung in a space of gold.
Two pairs of giant eyes opened instantly. One pair completely golden with pure red vertical pupils and the other pair completely purple and icy blue vertical pupils lay within.
The pair of eyes instantly gazed at a tiny individual with short black hair and a set of golden pupils surrounded by emerald irises.
"Human...?" A low, confused voice rang as the golden space shook. Cracks already formed and made Ja Sun realize the actual boundary of this location as he shifted his attention to the two behemoths still staying within their sleeping position, properly curled as their giant pair of wings covered their backs like a blanket.
One on the left had bright red scales, its very body a testament of divine might. Meanwhile, the one on the right was layered with chromatic ice-like dark blue scales.
Giant Dragons!
Ja Sun gazed at them with a sense of wonder. He had seen Liu Erlong's most recent Spirit Transformation where her entire body would be covered with two wings on her back. Her crimson scales were truly brilliant but she fell short compared to the mere form of energy of these two Divine Dragons.
'So... the mission's rewards suggest that these two are either the Fire Dragon King and the Water Dragon King... or related to them.'
Ordinarily, Ja Sun would be happy to question them and fool around but not only was he pressed for time, but he also didn't have enough mental energy to hold them either.
"I'm sorry to disturb your rest, O'Mighty gods, Rest well... in pieces." Ja Sun bowed before standing straight in chuckling eerily. His pupils glowed harshly while the two Dragons suddenly felt threatened. Yet, the space of Divine Grace Array enclosed on the trio rapidly.
The two dragons felt their heads bursting open as sharp pain wrecked them in their weakened and unprepared state.
*Roar*
The space trembled violently but it was all too late.
A green pendant suddenly appeared in the middle of Ja Sun's abdomen as an overbearing suction force suddenly caused the two dragons' bodies to distort!
In the golden space, a bizarre scene of two mountainous bodies having their beings twist, turn, and distort before being absorbed into the green pendant was only for Ja Sun's eyes to behold as he bled through his eyes. His mental energy was deteriorating at a pace visible to the naked eyes. Cracks spread throughout his physique but he held on with an excited grin.
The slow cracks spreading on the Sigh of Immortal were hard not to notice and it made Ja Sun feel momentarily pained but this emotion was soon overshadowed by the thought of going all out.
He just lost one of his most useful spirit tools for the task. Of course, he would see to it that these dragons properly compensate him!
---
*Spurt*
Ja Sun coughed, tears spreading through his mouth to his arms, groin, and legs! A small shroud of blood covered his body within the pond while his eyes were bloodied shut. The Divine Grace Array lost its glow and the cracks on the Sigh of Immortal pressed against his abdomen continued to give off bright red and icy blue glow while trembling violently.
"Now, now," Ja Sun chuckled, his teeth stained with blood, "I'll give you my attention soon enough. But before that..."
He took out a small tent within the pond and swam within before pumping his fist.
His mission dictated devouring the energy. He lost an S-ranked item for that but in return, he earned two S-ranked items as he stored the Yin-Yang Apple before suddenly holding the two skull-sized bright red and blue cores that instantly lit his body on flames and froze half his body. Ja Sun knew of such elements.
The Ultimate Variation of elements.
Burning and freezing within the pond, Ja Sun began to chuckle eerily as he shoved the two cores against his Sigh of Immortal that already had cracks spreading through its surface while the array on his abdomen finally lit up, covering Ja Sun in a bloody glow.
