Chapter 78 - Date Revealed (1/2)

When they returned to Chestnuts City, the guards at the entrance remained stunned at the sight of the majestic albino buffalo carrying behind them a series of spirit beast carcasses and humans bodies.

At such a sight, the guards immediately called their superiors, who alerted the city authorities and asked how they should act. They were then ordered to keep the strange group that had just arrived out of the city, awaiting further instructions.

While the big shots were deciding how to proceed, Hei requested them to bring food, drinks, and medicines to him. With the strength of a second-level spirit beast, none of the guards had the slightest thought of contradicting his request. Besides, they only had to stop him from entering, and Hei himself didn't seem to want to alarm them by making his way by force. Therefore, it was also in their interest to fulfill his requests.

With water, food, and medicine delivered, Hei went to treat Lian's wounds carefully. And when he finished wrapping her wounds again, the city authorities finally arrived along with various garrison officers.

”What the hell is going on here?” Said a grumpy old man.

He was the city lord who administered it on behalf of the king. It was he who dictated the decisions conforming to the policies established by the capital.

”Hi everyone, my name is Hei. I am an inner disciple of the Flower Sect. This is my partner, Lian, also a sect inner disciple.”

Upon hearing the name of one of the five big sects, the Flower Sect, everyone present was amazed. However, not wishing to waste time on pleasantries, Hei continued his speech.

”We accepted, on behalf of the sect, the mission concerning the series of murders. This incident had also involved some of our disciples. The ones you see are the bodies of the culprits. In reality, it was a group of five people. But we could only bring two of them; anyway, they are all dead. All of them were beast tamers, and their goal was to increase the power of their spirit beasts by making them eat the flesh of martial artists.”

Listening to the gruesome background behind this matter, the faces of the guards paled. Even though they were dead, one could still feel the strength behind those spirit beasts. And the fact that two kids managed to complete the mission was incredible.

”I remember you. Number one and number two of the Flower Sect younger generation. You were present at the king's banquet.”

”Exactly, city lord.”

At that point, the city lord reviewed the bodies placed on the ground.

”So, are you saying the culprits are these here?”

”Precisely, city lord. I brought the bodies of the two main members as proof of my work. I trust in your work to communicate the situation to the Flower Sect. After all, it would be inappropriate to travel with two human corpses, wouldn't be?”

The city lord nodded slightly and ordered to take away the bodies of the two men. However, while the guards were preparing to execute the order, one of the officers asked, ”And what about the spirit beast bodies?”

Hei answered this question in a calm but cold voice.

”The spirit beast bodies are the spoils that my companions and I have earned. Furthermore, the bodies of the two main perpetrators are more than sufficient as proof. But if they aren't enough, here you are.”

Hei pulled out a bag containing the various tokens engraved with the symbols of the sects to which the victims killed by the group of beast tamers belonged. Obviously, he had already separated those belonging to the Flower Sect from the rest.

Given that they were authentic tokens, the officer couldn't help but remain silent and let the guards take away only the two men. Although it was dishonest, the various officials present wanted the carcasses of the four spirit beasts.

Such carcasses were precious material from head to toe, not to mention their spirit cores. But in front of the Flower Sect background, they could only suffer passively.

”I guess you will be tired, why don't you come to my residence to rest?” The city lord proposed to flatten any disagreement derived from the cheekiness of his officers.

”No, thank you. Instead, we will prefer to return immediately to the sect. We have come here only to communicate the completion of the mission.”

Without other words, Hei turned around and led Lian and Shui towards the Chestnut Forest. Instead of resting at a stranger's residence, he much preferred the security of last night's cave.

Looking at the backs of the two youths, the city lord sighed. Then, urging everyone to return to their activities, he went to send a message to the sects involved to communicate that the situation had been resolved.

*

In the cave, Hei was preparing the carcasses of the killed spirit beasts. As before, he separated the skin from the actual meat and set aside any parts suitable for blacksmithing, alchemy, or formations.

Usually, he would ask his mother to store the parts they would sell to the sect or use for them, but among the spoils obtained, there were two goodies - two space rings.

Although they weren't as big as his mother's dimensional pocket, having extra space was still a good thing. Furthermore, inside the rings, he found the second spirit beast bag as well as the manuals of techniques used by the leader of the beast tamers' group.

In particular, what caught Hei's attention was the part about the strange technique that the man used in the final stages of the battle. It was a technique that had been developed after the disappearance of the divine beasts.

Without being able to acquire new bloodlines, human and demon martial artists had conducted various researches. They wanted to verify if it was possible to obtain a bloodline by using spirit beasts that hadn't reached the rank of divine beasts.

Thus they created a kind of tattoo-like formation from the blood of a spirit beast. By activating the formation, they would have acquired the physical qualities of the spirit beast used, significantly increasing their power.

Nevertheless, however, it wasn't possible to recreate the acceleration effect in learning an Elemental Law like the bloodlines were able to do. And this tattoo formation didn't even increase the power of their elemental attacks like elemental essences.

Therefore, this result could be considered a failure from the starting point with which the search had started. But, it had nevertheless produced an additional combat weapon. With the loss of bloodlines and the scarcity of elemental essences, more and more martial artists on the Continent began using formations tattoos.

However, there was a problem with the formation tattoos: the same that affected the elemental essences and the bloodlines - the percentage rate.

”Rejection Rate?” Hei asked, perplexed, not understanding what this term meant.