— Dark Forest, outside of Dark Cave
Six days later…
Sirius Regal was sharpening a long crimson blade by a campfire. Next to him lay Dessa Chimes, who was totally unconscious. Surrounding Sirius were many warriors both saint class and mortal martial artists. They were discussing plans, and cracking jokes, secretly stealing glances at the near-naked beautiful woman rags next to their boss.
“I don’t get it. Typically once the boss plays, he would pass the fun around. What’s her deal here?” a skinny man in crimson light armor said.
“I fink the boss iz infactuated wit ‘er,” a bald giant with a gentle face replied.
“I think I’m infactuated with her too!” said the skinny man.
“It’s fat, not fact, you double dopes! Now listen up, because I’ve got the skinny!” said an elder with purple hair. “Remember that twerp we picked up back in the Urchin Fields*? They say the redhead was his crush or sumfin, so he begs the captain to save her from some fiends in dark cave! Heh, bet the brat never imagined he was giving his wife away for cheap.”
“Oh yeah, that Moon brat right? Why does the boss even bother with this kid?” asked the skinny man.
“Well you never know, maybe that story he told us is true?” said the purple haired elder.
“Okay so the brat could be a noble from Rodinia, but big whoop! What’s it matter to us here in Pangaea?” said the skinny man, “Besides, he’s a total eyesore. Pretty boy punk, the way the ladies look at him makes me want to kick his little teeth in. All sweet an’ s***. I’ll show him what it’s like growing up with a crooked smile!”
“Find another punching bag, Dave,” the purple-haired elder sneered. Was this guy serious? What a loser, “What if this big play we’re doing in a few days goes wrong, huh? What then? We’ll definitely have to flee to the south. If at that time we happen to rescue or ransom a certain noble’s son, we may just find a new base.”
“Ah! They don’t call you the vice-captain for show Walter, that’s for sure.” the skinny man Dave felt enlightened. He spoke his praise from the heart.
Sirius paid no heed to any of the discussions surrounding him, he was deep in thought. The other day when he picked up the girl, he indeed had some nefarious ideas. However, ultimately the True Saint didn’t touch her. After returning to camp without harming her, a voice had spoken to him and offered him a reward if he was able to remove the girl’s cursed fate seal. This was the same outrageous request as the one made by that damn Moon brat!
Should he do it?
Sirius didn’t know what type of reward he would gain for helping the girl, but he gave up on thoughts of the treasure as soon as he heard the voice speak to him. Any treasure that could speak was far more than what his karmic path could handle!
Thinking up to here, he pinched the skin on one of his fingers, and a drop of blood vanished into the void. Sudden, a vortex spiraled in the void in front of Sirius Regal before an ancient and majestic looking diagram manifested. It was a circle where one half was gray and black, full of images of tragedy and death, while the other side was the exact opposite, a bright paradise full of riches. A black dial pointed slightly towards the bright side.
The Karmic Wheel!
The karmic wheel was a tool used to gauge one’s destiny! One side represented the long-lasting bright and healthy side of the dharma, while the other represented the cold and dark despair of the dharma. The karmic wheel could be used to figure out whether one’s path walked on the side of destiny or against it! Experts believed that they could measure their good luck with the karmic wheel because the state of your dharma changed based on every conscious action made. Only those who had experienced the gate of destiny could see their own karmic wheel, and just powerful sages and saints knew how to do so.
“My luck is on the rise it seems…finally turned it around.” Sirius Regal wore a rare half-smile and stood up to glance towards the dark cave. The other day they had almost died in that dump! After rescuing Dessa Chimes, the cave rumbled and shook intensely, as if two powerhouses were fighting for there lives on the deeper levels. He managed to grab Dessa and the boy and make it out, right as the entranced collapsed.
The Dessa girl had even woken up once, but there was no way for Sirius to let her stay conscious once she discovered that her ‘savior’, whom she often referred to as ‘Mr. Jupiter’ or her ‘master,’ had not made it out of the cave safely. This ditzy redhead even tried to go back in! She clearly didn’t fear for her life. He had to knock her out immediately. Who was that negus brat, anyway? Some fancy noble’s son?
Well, at any rate, he was likely dead. However, it seems something unexpected happened to Mr. Mercy. Sirius presumed that he encountered trouble trying to snatch the dark jumble fruits or maybe some other precious natural treasure! Well, lucky his Crimson Rider crew hadn’t been too greedy. His father, Crimson Regal, would likely never forgive his ghost if he had died in Dark Cave.
“Hm?” Walter’s brow suddenly twitched. “Boss someone’s coming out of the cave!”
“What?!” Sirius Regal stood up in shock, looking at the collapsed cave mouth. Hadn’t it already been several days? Maybe Mr. Mercy made out like a true bandit, and then took the time to recover before coming out? That would certainly make it harder to rob him, “Tch. Too bad…”
In a tree branch above the camp, Aiken Moon wore blue robes and laid on the Shadowblitz Lion cub, catching glimpses of the clouds in-between the leaves above. His arm was in a sling, and he had a big medical leaf over his left eye. He sighed heavily as he spoke to no one in particular, “At least she’s safe now… poor Mr. Jupiter though… ah…”
Rumble. Rumble. Rumble. Bang!
However, before Aiken could continue moping there was a considerable commotion from the mouth of Dark Cave. The rocks blocking the entrance were forcefully blown away as scarlet-green sparks of electricity burst from the cave mouth! As the dust blocking the entrance cleared, the silhouette of a 12 or 13-year-old boy wearing pure white robes could be seen in the cracked opening. He had slightly sharp features and thick eyebrows with a good looking face. He had low cut black hair and wore the brave fang collar around his neck. In both of his ears was a serenity crystal earring, and he held his left arm in his robe as he walked out casually. He seemed as calm as the quiet brook, but there was a strange intensity in his aura. As he stepped out of the cave, his jewel-like blue eyes seemed to brighten the sky, as he took in the fresh air.
Who else could this be but Jodye Trill?
Aiken Moon sat up abruptly, totally aghast! Mr. Jupiter was alive?? How? The captain said a madman had already gone after him, a madman that even the captain himself had to be cautious of! How strong was this boy who claimed to be even younger than himself? Aiken didn’t believe it was enough to defeat the captain, however strong Mr. Jupiter was. Their auras had two totally different levels of intensity! Aiken might have had his origin pool sealed, but he was still a born sage. Even before his saint training, he could quickly feel the aura of others.
Meanwhile, Sirius Regal was equally if not more shocked! Why the hell would the one who showed up be this brat instead of that old villain?? What did this mean? Sirius had no way to figure it out. Could he have defeated the vicious and crazy Oulan Mercy? Escaped? Both seemed near impossible. While this kid clearly had an impressive aura for his age, it was still one that didn’t surpass the Fledgling Saint realm. Even though he likely had more competence than a typical fledgling saint, it couldn’t be that exaggerated right?
At the very least Sirius Regal didn’t feel any pressure from the boy. He couldn’t see him as a threat. The Crimson Riders all exchanged shocked looks and exclamations.
“Bloody hell, someone came out of that hell hole alive?”
“Look, it’s merely a boy! How did he do that?”
“Looks like some noble son.”
“Wait, then why do I feel a saint aura stronger than my own?”
“A second cultivation at this age? This guy ain’t average! It might be a big fish, boss.”
……
Jodye Trill was unaware of these people’s opinions and thoughts. After Xavier hacked down on the creepy jerk with Fenrir, Jodye Trill was launched uncontrollably forward by dozens of kilometers! Jodye simply didn’t see the aftermath of what happened, but he could imagine the result. The origin qi phenomenon above Xavier right before he attacked looked like four fist-sized golden suns. Jodye’s world was thrown upside down at that moment! These two were actually so strong? He only knew that he was too weak to utilize their strength!
Luckily, he managed to snatch the spatial artifact off of the creep in that instant he passed, but his arm ended up badly broken as a result! Not only that, but Jodye had totally lost control of himself after being launched like a rocket. He was about to crash brutally into a cave wall and feared that he would be smashed to near pulp. However, before he could panic, he heard a familiar giggle, and his forward momentum somehow reversed! He wasn’t going nearly as fast anymore. Merely, he still crashed into the wall and was heavily injured.
Fortunately, his abnormal recovery speed seemed to have traveled lifetimes with himself. After Jodye meditated for 12 hours, he had recovered to 50% health. Was this some unique ability of his own soul? He didn’t really understand it, or how to find out. When he checked his heavenly grimoire, he discovered that both his guardians had entered a ‘stasis.’ Obviously, they had greatly strained their souls, now the [Cosmos Revolving Grimoire] had to restore them. Jodye had a feeling this was only possible because of the unique features of his own soul. This was just a hunch, but it felt so close to the truth.
After recovering a bit of his strength, Jodye returned to the first level of Dark Cave and realized he was stuck inside. He didn’t possess any more astral force in his astral points, so he could only rely on his body’s base strength which was now around 105 BP thanks to his premature heavenly titan physique combined with his saint essence cultivation. This strength was ultimately unable to help him escape the cave, the rocks were too firm.
Left with no other options, Jodye sat down in cultivation. The Cosmos Revolving Grimoire then appeared next to him once more.
“Yiyayiyayiya!” Jodye heard some incoherent yammering travel into his mind via telepathy, startling him. After analyzing what this strange occurrence could mean, he came to an accurate conclusion.
‘Summon, Eureka!’
With a thought, the Twilight Sphinx cub Eureka hopped out of the space within the grimoire’s fourth page. She rubbed her face against Jodye’s affectionately before looking around the cave in excitement.
“Yiyayiyayiya!” these thoughts were transmitted to Jodye Trill once again, but he just couldn’t understand them. From her actions, he seemed to get that Eureka wanted to explore the cave. Jodye Trill thought this would be dangerous at first before he remembered that this baby origin god beast had once scared off a Trickster30Trickstermonster clan beast with third rank lifeblood. when a level 9 vicious beast with god beast lifeblood reaches level 10 they evolve into low-level demi-god beasts possessing superior intelligence without their own complete demi-god physique. Due to their frail forms, they use their lifeblood powers to condense a cocoon or origin qi that takes on the form of other beasts. Tricksters fight to obtain the ‘life force’ required to condense a monster core by condensing enough god beast lifeblood. Condensing the monster core allows the trickster to upgrade its physique to that of one closer to a god beast and cultivate different lifeblood inheritances. Vicious beasts with a hint of origin god beast bloodline in them merely become higher level tricksters upon evolution, with a more complete true form. Tricksters are only born through the evolution of a vicious beast. Injuries received by tricksters in their true forms risk reducing their level since they must burn their lifeblood essence to recover and transform again. Level 1 Trickster = 1,000 BP Level 2 Trickster = 1,250 BP Level 3 Trickster = 1,600 BP Level 4 Trickster = 2 AP Level 5 Trickster = 4.5 AP Level 6 Trickster = 9 AP Level 7 Trickster = 14 AP Level 8 Trickster = 21 AP Level 9 Trickster = 30 AP . He was probably in far more danger than this Eureka.
“Go, then, just bring me back something good.” Jodye waved his hand dismissively, and Eureka skated away amazingly quick, leaving behind nothing but a trail of serenity ice. Jodye felt a bit inspired watching this. However, he also wondered, just what was in this cave that made Eureka so eager? Anyway, he was destined to not know until she returned to his side. Jodye was over the terror that was Dark Cave, he didn’t wish to explore it any longer.
Jodye decided to immediately refine the tainted fiend force he absorbed during the earlier battle with the bug-loving freak. He sat like a refined monk and chanted the first verse of the Azure World Epoch. The worldly diagram in his origin pool became increasingly detailed and shone resplendently as it absorbed both pure force and fiend force and produced azure purity rain that nourished his different force geneses. The purity force crystal in his origin pool absorbed the most, as it steadily increased in size like ice forming new crystals. They were also azure in color.
Phew!
Jodye spent another day in half like this, before stretching and exhaling a mouthful of bad air. Next, he decided to focus on increasing his origin energy.
Chaotic Thunder Annihilation — Heretical Lightning Layer!
After adjusting his condition once more, he held his final mid-grade origin stone in hand and willed his original immortal conception to circulate to refine the energy. As this process was nearly automatic, Jodye summoned Pharaoh’s Law4Lawthe rules and principles that create, govern, and maintain the energies of the universe. When laws come into harmony they form different systems naturally, with as many functions as the laws in harmony. For laws to enter a state of harmony, they must be compatible and have a proper conduit such as a star, or anything with its own unique Origin source law. With a good enough conduit it is possible to make incompatible laws reach a state of harmony, but in such a scenario there is a high chance of the force turning cancerous. The condensation of law energy produces what is known as Force or Qi.. and split his divine awareness into three as he dove into his nascent calamity force concept!
He chose to go over his concepts one at a time, as he could sense that he had comprehended some new truths of both serenity and calamity from this experience!
After four days passed Jodye Trill slowly opened his sapphire eyes which now swam with a couple of golden lights. The lights in the eyes of a sage represented the height of their comprehensions. Having more than one golden light in his eye meant that his nascent force had broken through and evolved into primary qi! His Serenity and Calamity qi had both undergone grand changes! Both had reached the Advanced Primary Force level, providing an extra 60 BP of force! Even his Thunderbolt qi was close to reaching the advanced primary force level, but because of his concept, the progress was a bit slower while he worked out the mysterious principles of death qi. Nonetheless, his Chaotic Melody of Destruction Concept was already at the Basic Primary level!
Of course, since his death concept was born within the Chaotic Thunderbolt concept to form a single unit, he didn’t need to actually spend a lot of time comprehending voodoo death laws, they seem to teach him willingly. It was the same for his comprehension of magic life qi, it improved automatically as his dragon force developed. However, dragon force was enigmatic and difficult to comprehend, so this slowed Jodye down as well. The origin stone in his hand had already faded to dust. The peak of the Sophomore rank! He could already feel the barrier to the next level. He could breakthrough whenever he wished and become an Earth Science Realm expert!
Of course, that was his last mid-grade origin stone. However, Jodye felt it was fine. After all, he was at the peak of Perfected Sophomore rank on the verge of breaking through to the next realm! He had robbed the wealth of several people, so he did not lack lower grade origin stones or spiritual herbs.
In fact, Jodye could definitely ascend to the next realm now if he so wished. Merely, his mother had taught him that the best was to advance to the next realm was to let it happen naturally. When one poured too much water into a glass, it would naturally overflow. That was similar to what Jodye had to allow to happen with his cultivation. He would keep refining energy until his realm advanced on its own! Jodye missed his mom a lot so he would, of course, operate according to the knowledge she had imparted onto him. In this life, she wasn’t just his mother but his martial sensei, his master!
When Jodye Trill thought of his mother, the wrath in him grew uncontrollable for an instant, and it took him a while to calm down.
Nonetheless, he had the same plans for entering the True Saint realm in his saint essence cultivation. Jodye planned to continue refining pure azure essence qi until he broke through naturally. This was actually all he could do anyway since he had managed to develop his pure force without even having a concept. At any rate, he wasn’t pressed to improve, he could take it slowly for now. As Sylvester and kept saying, haste makes waste. Jodye wanted to keep his foundation strong. He also needed to refine some magic elixirs to help him advance further in the Titanic Rage law. He could let his body’s cultivation fall too far behind his origin energy.
Whether it was refining the final two spirit pressure points, or opening the first gate of power and refining it into an astral gate to enter the next stage, both needed magical ingredients with abundant heaven and earth energy. Clearing the last two spirit points was proving to be incredibly difficult, and there was no precedent set on how to do it since Jodye was the first hero Titan in history to do so, but he was determined to see it through! One day in the distant future he would go to find this vagrant master of his T’Zhane to settle debts! Of course, first, he needed to survive in this cruel world long enough to reach those heights.
Jodye Trill first dripped a drop of blood onto the space belt he had stolen from his bugged out attacker. This was a ritual known as the blood ownership claim, it could bind the artifact to the user by his bloodline. The fact that it was instantly successful proved that there was no longer an Oulan Mercy in this world. Not that Jodye even knew of his name before reading a few of the documents in this space belt.
He also discovered that many of these letters and documents referred to him as ‘Vice Sect Master Mercy.’ This man was a Vice Sect Master of White Serpent Cove! Oulan Mercy’s true cultivation was supposed to be at the Silver Mage rank. The Vice Sect Master was on a high priority mission but had suffered some kind of accident with a secret treasure and had his cultivation sealed. Jodye was startled by this information. That strong lunatic was actually in a weakened state, no wonder he seemed so powerful!
With a strong vice sect master like Oulan, that meant that Jodye’s enemies probably had a top mage rank mastermind! This was quite dangerous to the current Jodye. At the same time, he saw a letter of correspondence received from a branch leader Sirius Regal of the Crimson Riders. Jodye was able to gather from these couple of messages that the Crimson Riders was a massive organization, superior in strength to White Serpent Cove, but only by a bit. The team in Dark Forest was just one branch headed by the son of one of the leaders, Crimson himself. Apparently, they had cooperated in entering this Dark Cave in search of some treasures.
This made Jodye inwardly vigilant. It was already strange that he couldn’t locate his companions, now things made more sense. There was a team of top experts targeting the secrets here. How naive had he been in thinking that a low-level area wouldn’t have hidden dangers?
After doing a quick inventory, he discovered this Oulan Mercy was loaded! The groovy belt type spatial artifact had 6 cubic meters of space inside, this was somewhat decent! He considered gifting this belt to Aiken if the boy submitted to his legion. Inside the space belt, there were 500 origin stones, but they were all of the lowest grades. Still, this was far more than the last two people he had robbed. There was also 50 amethyst crystal notes, 500 gold crystal notes, and 100,000 silver crystal notes.
Jodye rubbed his chin’s imaginary stubble as he thought he was becoming quite wealthy.
There was also an assortment of tomes and literature, most of them centered around voodoo death principles. Jodye summoned [Pharaoh’s Law] and quickly perused through many of them with his divine awareness. In doing so, he actually felt enlightened on many things. He even found a Combat Art called Dance of the Evil Blood Moon. This was a set of sword techniques that utilized energies associated with the principles of death.
There were a total of 5 combat skills, and the first was called Evil Crescent Slash. Jodye kept this book and decided to practice this combat art. He felt he could modify it to suit his combat glaive, but first, he would have to master it with a sword. Combat Skills could boost the power of attacks, and some could even help to facilitate the fusion of energies.
Jodye also found a letter in the groovy belt’s space that had a soul seal placed on it. Luckily, his own soul force was stronger than the sealing soul force, and he easily erased this seal. He learned from the letter that Oulan Mercy was hunting a noble boy with brown skin, who looked to be near the age of 13. The boy was supposed to have the ‘two dark Genova beads, several charm potion prototypes, and a treasured sword.’
After being baffled for a moment, Jodye remembered that the magic pouch he was given by Wyven had many green and pink potions within, and there were indeed two mysterious black spiritual beads covered in runes. Jodye knew that they were the result of high-level alchemy, but he couldn’t identify these items yet. Due to this, he hadn’t placed them in his mind. Now, it seemed he would have to pay more attention to this matter.
As far as the sword, could they possibly be referring to the Autumn Saver that was given to Dessa Chimes? This also suggested that Wyven had indeed removed a few items from the magic pouch before it was handed over to Jodye.
“Sneaky old bastard,” Jodye Trill was irritated that he got hoodwinked.
Jodye reentered his host space and chose to think about this later. After finishing his evening’s meditation session, he used some water rations he found in the Oulan creep’s interspatial belt to wash. Then he got dressed and walked over to the collapsed entrance. Pressing his hand against the incredibly tough rocks in front of him, he pondered out loud, “Hmm. Dense but… I can maybe breakthrough? If I combine my thunderbolt force with my calamity force, I think I can make a hole.”
Thinking up to here, Jodye used two fingers to draw a vertical line of green-hued electricity. The first layer of the Chaotic Thunder Annihilation legacy taught him how to use heretical lightning! Heretical lightning was able to blend and fuse with different energies to form more destructive thunderbolt power. This green energy was heretic lightning! Jodye’s heretic lightning could easily absorb any force backed by his own origin.
Before the first time he used his innate combat spark Thunderbolt Purgatory, he thought he could only use two forces at the same time. However, Jodye now understood that this meant he could enhance his thunderbolt force with other qi attributes. Jodye split his divine awareness in half and activated two concepts. This time he would try to fuse thunderbolt, death, and calamity force. He didn’t know if it would work, but he had a strong feeling he could do it! After all, his death and thunderbolt laws shared a single concept.
“Here goes nothing.”
Thunderbolt Purgatory x 4!
….
As Jodye Trill walked forward from the hole of the cave, he instinctively spread out his divine awareness. He instantly noticed the team of experts who weren’t so far away. However, he didn’t panic as he had already predicted such a possibility when he saw no signs of Dessa Chimes or Aiken Moon in the Dark Cave. Clearly, if even Oulan Mercy appeared, things could no longer be so simple.
Before he managed to walk a full ten meters a shadow flashed and appeared in front of him, causing him to pause abruptly, as he looked at this newcomer. In front of Jodye Trill stood a rough looking man with a bald head and red eyebrows. He looked delinquent and wore a jacket that said CRIMSON in dancing hieroglyphics, indeed of high tech design. This was Jodye’s first time seeing such an outfit on a mercenary. This man was clearly not from any normal background, despite his lack of grooming.
“Say, you kid. Why are you alone, eh? How the hell did you get out of that fiend hole in one piece?” asked Sirius Regal imperiously.
“Do I need to introduce myself to a stranger? Who in the hell do you think you are?” replied Jodye Trill with the epitome of nonchalance.
“Oh?” Sirius Regal arched his brow, suddenly alert. Why was this kid so brave? He matched the negus brat in the description, yet where was the fear a thief on the run should have? Something was fishy here, Sirius Regal started to think that maybe he had come to a false conclusion, “Where’s Mr. Mercy at, kid? Don’t play around or I’ll gut you like a magical beast.”
