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Quest Maker: 94
🕑 Added 2021-08-01 11:55:26 +0000 UTCTitle: Another Hint of Evil
The battlefield had yet to be cleared so instead of conducting postmortem at the sight, the unconscious man and the corpse of the sick-looking middle-aged man by a hidden ditch were brought over to the location of the massacre. The first order of business was none other than to quickly search the field. Beasttakens bodies were no longer valuable since their mystery was simply given up on. After all, fourth generation and higher births from the beasttakens are almost all humans with a few bestial traits. Their existence was simply an accepted fact. It was also for this reason that Bibi Dong emptied her storage tool filled with the corpses of Beartakens that Ja Sun took out previously.
Everyone quickly began to stab into the heads, limbs, and torso of the beasttakens to find out if any of them dropped a spirit bone. When all the mutated Beasttakens failed to drop any, others were a little disheartened. The cold drop rate of spirit bones smacked everyone right on their expectant expressions until...
"Well... I wanna trade," Liu Erlong smiled, holding a left arm spirit bone consisting of only the forearm portion of the arm with its body rendered cyan and an ethereal glow around it without a drop of blood marring its surface once it was brought out. The fluctuations of the spirit bone could only be considered meek when compared to what their group had experienced overall but this was still a spirit bone. However, Ja Sun glanced at it without much thought and shrugged. He didn't reject it as he already had a value for it.
Indeed, it was a 6000-year-old Cyan Wolf Left Arm Spirit Bone. Probably the same one as the reward of his trait so it could be experimented upon.
"Sure, we'll discuss it later."
Finder's keeper.
Liu Erlong discovered the spirit bone, its true value: Age and attributes, were barely useable for anyone around so she kept it unceremoniously. With this spirit bone, everybody's except Ja Sun's hope was reignited and they quickly covered the entire site but Liu Erlong's spirit bone was the only one. Still, they moved once again and finally returned to their encampment with Olivia and Caihong already waiting nearby and treating themselves to a few berries, out of which, Ja Sun picked one and wiped it clean against a handkerchief and ate it with a blissful expression.
Instead of checking up on the corpse, the group quickly freshened up and only then gathered into the single tent with two bodies placed next to each other.
One of the men was in ragged clothing but the spirit fluctuations on it revealed that he was a Spirit Emperor. The corpse, however, wore blood-red clothes with streaks of dried blood carving through the corners of his eyes, lips, nostrils, and mouth. If it wasn't for such a strange situation, Bibi Dong would have wanted to stay longer and find more clues but they had enough adventure already.
Everyone silently stared at the corpse before Bibi Dong knelt and touched the head of the corpse with her thumb. Her nails grew purple momentarily before she closed her eyes and swept through the internal situation of the corpse with her mental strength.
Ja Sun and others waited idly. It was only after a minute that Bibi Dong opened her eyes and looked at the group.
"His brain imploded within his skull but there is no hint of spirit energy. His other organs are completely fine, too."
Bibi Dong's mental energy was just short to Ja Sun within the group and only because she did not have any of the auxiliary techniques Ja Sun attained from his trait. So, her judgment could be trusted but just the simple explanation couldn't shed light on what happened itself.
"Let's search his storage tool," Ah Yin sighed and pulled the pouch tied to the corpse's waste. Once she completed the check, she couldn't help but frown and from the storage tool, she took out a muddy yellow token and a slightly weary parchment.
Seeing this token, Ja Sun couldn't help but blink.
"Hint of Evil?" He smiled.
The yellow token with brown etchings was similar to the one Ja Sun and Ah Yin procured from the team of four attributes clans and on the parchment, aside from the bold marking: Hint of Evil, and a map, there were two other sentences.
'Chaos worth ten villages.'
'Passive Evil; Mightiest Sin.'
Previously, the parchment from the group in Star Dou Great Forest contained the sentences:
'Goods worth more than 5000 gold coins...'
'Passive Evil; Mightiest Sin.'
Seeing the hint of recognition in Ah Yin's and Ja Sun's eyes, others naturally awaited an explanation and Ah Yin was the one who gave a simple explanation on the matter. She truly feared that Ja Sun might speak something else regarding their first encounter with Violet.
'Hint of Evil...'
After hearing their explanation, everyone turned ponderous. Causing troubles on the border and committing massacres is extremely different from catching rare spirit beasts for money. The latter is one of the major sources of earning for spirit masters while the former is a violent crime that awards the spirit master the title of Evil Spirit Master.
"Though, why would you save a spirit beast? If she can speak human, isn't she even more valuable than just 5000 gold coins?" Xie Xan inquired. Liu Erlong, of course, knew who Violet was. She chased after her only to be defeated by Ja Sun back then.
"Why else," Erlong scowled. She stretched her palms towards her breasts but kept quite a distance between them and hissed, "She was this large and didn't wear anything! Jumping and slithering around with those... giant balls of deception! Of course, this pervert would give his life for an entity like that!"
Ja Sun only smiled. In fact, this was a more believable explanation than he let Violet go due to his interest itself. Curiosity and pervertedness are, after all, divided by a thin line itself.
"R-really?" Hu Lana sucked in a breath of cold air. The size Liu Erlong just showed outgunned everyone present. Within their group, the level of their beauty can be considered almost unmatched. Hu Lana might be considered simply pretty but due to her martial soul, her innate charm, her tone, the sense of her gaze, and the expression of her lips could grip any man's heart but not as tightly as it gripped Xie Xan's.
Ah Yin was the most graceful of all. Blue hair is already a rare sight and her large eyes with sapphire-like pupils, white and healthy skin with her slender curves made her stand out even within this group.
Bibi Dong and Liu Erlong were different. They didn't exude a single quality to the maximum but instead seemed to be the perfect combination of physique, grace, and charm. In layman's terms, Bibi Dong's and Liu Erlong's curves were more prominent than Ah Yin and Hu Lana and while Bibi Dong's hips were her major weapons, which enlarged even further when her lower body turned into that of an arachnid, Liu Erlong governed the group with her bust size.
And if she could scowl at someone else's size, then it meant that it's a real deal.
Ah Yin refrained from saying anything regarding this herself since she was aware of the true reason herself.
Not minding her outburst since he has always been the one to push other's buttons, Ja Sun, too, crouched and began inspecting the corpse.
As Bibi Dong stated, there was nothing else of note aside from the absolutely splashed-out brain within. But Ja Sun began to connect dots at this point. Two individuals, one dead, one unconscious. So, most probably, the two tasks of deception could be divided into two of them. One of them could be the controller while the other one could be illusionist but given the situation of the ragged spirit master, it could also be speculated that he was similarly controlled and enslaved which meant that the corpse was the true controller or...
'The true controller took the chance to escape but whatever the case, this must be affiliated to Hint of Evil? So this organization isn't simple slave traders?' Ja Sun mused and glanced at the unconscious man.
"Anyway, what kind of name is Hint of Evil," Bibi Dong frowned. It truly didn't matter if Ja Sun helped a 1000-year-old spirit beast. After all, the mutation only meant she could be weighed in gold but to a true and excellent spirit master, gold is a simple accessory. Ja Sun could even refine gold into Diamond Essence Gold itself. The fact that their group was even taking care of Olivia and Caihong proved that the hunt of Spirit Beast is most often based on benefits. After all, who would really want to live in a forest and away from civilization when there is no use to this act?
"Maybe they are hinting to everyone that they are really evil? Like little kids do to stand out amongst themselves?" Xie Xan joked, his words relieving everybody's tension but one thing was for sure. Without proper abilities, they would have been torn apart in that small tide of beasttakens. And the ability to control such a force to be reckoned with, after all.
"I've actually heard of them," Liu Erlong uttered with narrowed eyes.
Feeling everybody's gaze landing on her, she crossed her arms below her ample bosom and revealed a distressed expression and her eyes turned strangely gloomy.
"Remember how I avenged my mother? Who was it that informed me of the true culprit?" Liu Erlong's gaze flickered, "It was a servant within the clan. He came to me after I had just buried my mother and told me of the situation. He also said that if I want to kill the bitch who plotted against my mother, the group behind him would help me leave the clan alive... he called his group Hint of Evil."
Everyone felt a little startled.
Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan is known as one of the top three sects of the entire continent! If it was infiltrated by this organization, then what couldn't be expected from this group?
"Teacher, any thoughts?" Ja Sun inquired. The moment the image of the man in red was revealed, Bibi Dong reacted the strongest that almost collapsed the telepathic network once again.
"We wake this man up and question him. If it's anything important, I can contact Spirit City through the Spirit Temple in Dragon Rising City and if not, we can let this man go. Anyway, our focus isn't to snoop around mysterious organization filled with evil cultivators most probably. It's to train and prepare. After the competition, we can focus on something else entirely."
Her words cleared everybody's doubt regarding their next course of action and finally, they simultaneously looked at the unconscious man, the head of whom Ja Sun tapped and sent his incomparably pure spirit energy to rouse him. Had he sent his mental energy with the quality of rot and death, the man would only have been damaged.
"Nghh," A pained groaned uttered through his lips and he finally slowly opened his eyes. The dark-haired man grew a bit dazed due to his blurry gaze landing on the group and he frowned.
"W-who?" He whispered with a parched throat and felt a throbbing pain pass in his head.
"Since we have decided to train instead of pursuing this line of quest, I'm not particularly interested in this. Teacher, can we stay here for a few days longer? I think I'm about to breakthrough and also need to digest my gains from Ghost Canyon."
Ja Sun looked at Bibi Dong as she nodded and he left the tent.
His interest in Hint of Evil was restricted to looting them only. Since it isn't possible still, he didn't particularly care about the situation. In fact, he would rather use this fight as an excuse to finally have some private time and digest most of his gains and finally make a qualitative breakthrough of his physique which was already long overdue.
He also brought Ah Yin out with him and strangely, Liu Erlong followed out.
"Yeah?" Ja Sun looked back and she frowned, huffing, "Remember? I want to see if you have the spirit bone compatible with me."
Nodding, Ja Sun set another tent nearby and brought Caihong and Olivia with him. His energy fluctuations were passively a great resource for spirit beasts so he didn't want the two to laze around outside but next to him. At least, they would gain a few benefits.
Once the tent was erected, the trio sat and Liu Erlong took out the Cyan left arm spirit bone.
Ja Sun looked at the 6000-year-old Cyan Wolf Left Arm spirit bone.
The quality of spirit bones can be observed through their completeness. This spirit bone only represented the left connected Radius and Ulna bones of a human. It wasn't even an entire arm or extended to the wrists so even among its own level, the quality of the 6000-year-old cyan wolf left arm spirit bone is quite low.
Ah Yin sat a little farther from the duo and petted the softly hooting Caihong and Olivia. Since she didn't have anything to trade and was brought by Ja Sun himself, she waited her turn. Clearly, Ja Sun had something to ask of her.
"What you want should be this, right? I did reveal it inside the carriage when Ning Fengzhi brought us to the forest," Ja Sun smiled and pulled out a crimson-red spirit bone.
Unlike the simple cyan bone, this crimson bone was quite complete. Although its size wasn't even close to a human arm, it revealed two sections of the arm extending to sharp bony claws. The fluctuations of the spirit bone spread out till five to seven meters and Liu Erlong's breathing turned slightly ragged.
A 49000-year-old Lava Salamander Left Arm bone!
Be it her martial soul or the configuration of her spirit rings, this Spirit Bone matched her extremely well. In fact, due to her martial soul being a dragon and the spirit bone being taken from a salamander, she could derive more benefits from this spirit bone because her Martial Soul naturally suppressed the spirit bone, making it far smoother of a process to absorb it. But when she looked at Ja Sun's expression, her lips twitched.
Of course, she wanted this spirit bone. She wanted it from the moment he revealed its existence.
Xie Xan had broken through his limits and absorbed a spirit ring higher than what his capacity allowed him to. If he had a spirit bone, he could have strived even higher because a spirit bone not only enhances one's body, it also has a positive effect on one's spirit energy.
"Yes, I want it," Liu Erlong eyed Ja Sun but her fickle lens of calm couldn't cover the whirlpool of desire under her pupils. Most spirit masters live their entire life without a spirit bone much less a compatible one. If Ja Sun hadn't risked offending the entire White Tiger Imperial Clan, he wouldn't have gotten such high quality of spirit bones.
"But just this incomplete spirit bone isn't enough. This is a 49000-year-old spirit bone that is exceptionally suitable for you. I can bet that because of your martial soul, this spirit bone may even enhance slightly and turn into a 50000-year-old one. Not only that, you are a level away from rank 50. This spirit bone can bring you to the peak and improve your body, allowing you to achieve the same feat as Xie Xan but probably more efficiently.
So, the value of this spirit bone to you is incomparable. After all, just this spirit bone serves as a foundation to enhance your future cultivation."
Her thoughts completely exposed and the value of the bone completely revealed, Liu Erlong couldn't help bite her lips.
"You think I wouldn't have thought all of this? What do you want?" Liu Erlong inquired with a heave and Ja Sun frowned momentarily. Even if Liu Erlong added the second spirit bone of hers, she wouldn't be able to match the value of this spirit bone.
He already knew that Liu Erlong was the one to complete the final mission in the war between Balak and Silvers Kingdom. This was also one of the many reasons why Ja Sun poked fun at her. Because he was somewhat petty when it came to such things. However, unlike Liu Erlong stated, Ja Sun didn't have anything he wanted from her.
"Did you already forget?" Ja Sun tilted his head, "You are the one who demanded a trade."
"But you accepted it. I figured that you already know I cannot compare the price and have something else you want as compensation," Liu Erlong glanced at Ah Yin for a moment and when she saw Ah Yin wearing the same necklace that Ja Sun had gifted her in the Star Luo City, her eyes couldn't help but flash.
"You overestimate me too much," Ja Sun's lips twitched.
His mind, at this moment, is practically filled with the digestion of his gains. Sure, staying at this level and facing tougher opponents meant attaining more S-ranked rewards but the main attraction of the trait was to help him grow quickly. If he even forgets this simple thing, then he may as well consider himself a true mission junkie. But now, it was time to settle a little and redefine one's foundation.
On the other hand, Liu Erlong was in a daze. She gazed at the crimson spirit bone set on Ja Sun's lap with an expression of longing and desire. The calm facade already ruined by his words.
"What's your other spirit bone? Take it out," Ja Sun mumbled with a snort.
Taking a deep breath, Liu Erlong revealed a calf bone extending to the foot. Dark-blue all over and a soothing energy around the spirit bone unlike the slightly tyrannical fluctuation around the cyan bone and the explosive heat around the crimson one.
"8000-year-old Gentle Moray Left Leg Spirit Bone."
Liu Erlong introduced.
Ja Sun gazed at the spirit bone before losing his interest but in his own hand, the Salamander bone was basically useless. Still, he was conflicted to just give it away for a loss and he closed his eyes to mull on the situation. Right now, he didn't have any pressing use of Liu Erlong like back then were he truly gifted the Blue Silver Emperor's Core to Ah Yin. Giving this Spirit Bone to Liu Erlong at a loss, now, would only probably gain him her favor which wasn't much of use to him. So, either he had to find a good use of Liu Erlong or reject the trade. There was no other way about it.
Alas, Ja Sun didn't. Shaking his head with a sigh, he finally declined the trade, making Liu Erlong quite upset as she left the tent with slumped shoulders.
"That was rough to watch," Ah Yin exhaled herself as Ja Sun shrugged, "Trading is rough, what did you expect? You should count lucky that I gave you that beautiful pear for... nothing," he pouted and sprawled on the ground.
"Well, it wasn't for nothing," Ah Yin scooched forward while setting the two owls on the ground and gently pick Ja Sun's head and set it on her lap. The affectionate action made Ja Sun's heart thump in excitement as Ah Yin smiled, "If you hadn't done that, could you make fun of all of us now? This is the price of that pearl."
Ja Sun grew dazed momentarily before chuckling out loud.
"Money well spent," he remarked and added, "But I am always hoping for something more."
"Hope does give us strength," Ah Yin winked, "Keep hoping."
'Why does she have to be so difficult!' Ja Sun rolled his eyes. She wasn't the only one difficult. Just a few moments ago, Liu Erlong was basically pestering him for the Spirit Bone. If he had a weaker will, the sight of her jiggle physics unconsciously created from her side would have persuaded him to trade. But pleasure has always been a personal concept for Ja Sun and not a professional one. He knew how to differentiate between needs and desires.
He needed Ah Yin's lips. He desired other beautiful woman's lips. A clear difference.
Seeing his stare not leaving her lips, Ah Yin's soft pink lips tilted slightly upward in a short smile and she leaned down. Her natural fragrance is all Ja Sun could sense at this moment.
"You wanted to ask me something didn't you?" Ah Yin inquired softly.
"Will you cover my tent with your domain so that no spiritual fluctuation leaks out?" Ja Sun inquired after inhaling deeply. He didn't mind even if he did this in front of Ah Yin. Were the two of them not aware of what was happening already?
"Of course, I will," Ah Yin smiled, "How long?"
"Most probably a week."
