Quest Maker of Soul Land

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'As long as they aren't hurt, I will get Life Gold... that is truly a precious treasure. If I had to give something up... I guess giving up that mask is easier but... it is still an S-rank reward...'

Ja Sun thought for a moment. Right now, he could use Vajra Gauntlets to their full capabilities, enter into his beast enhancement state and try to communicate with the beasttakens at the risk of letting the opponent know of his martial soul or fight it out while relying on his immunity to illusions but that didn't mean he can counter invisibility.

'But what if he isn't invisible but hiding in a corner, observing us, and using the illusion to think that he truly has hidden him or herself from us?' Ja Sun narrowed his eyes. Whoever the opponent was, it was at the very least at the level of a Spirit Emperor or even a Spirit Sage. Using his given options, Ja Sun had a certain confidence in dealing with this level of the opponent but not a Spirit Douluo. Not unless he uses one of his restricted abilities.

Using his other technique: The mental Acupuncture Technique meant using the Astral Combatant since all of his mental energy was condensed into the figure itself.

"Think quickly, they are climbing up," Bibi Dong still stated calmly when Ja Sun realized the meaning of such calmness and posed, "If you are that confident, then let's have a go with the beasttakens. However, you did say that we all will be working together so we will stick to the plan. Else, let's go already."

If Bibi Dong strays and gets hurt, Ja Sun wouldn't know where to shout at.

Furrowing her brows, Bibi Dong nodded and spirit rings appeared around her body. Yellow, Yellow, Purple, Purple, Black, and Black.

Six rings moved rhythmically and Bibi Dong's body gave a startling sound of bones crackling and popping. Her clothes weren't the least bit affected but a terrifying sensation spread out. It stopped the beasttakens momentarily as her lower body began to expand and the remaining five quickly moved towards the corner of the platform.

Her lower body grew wider and wider with spherical carapace forming over her being and thick, crude legs piercing out of the enlarged body: A total of eight spider legs. The carapace and the barbed legs were purple-black, furthermore from her back and arms, similar carapace grew out until it ever covered the top half of Bibi Dong's head, leaving her chins framed and her lips exposed. Her set of eyes turned completely blood-red while two more pairs of eyes, each one smaller than the last, grew below her eyes, making her look like an actual spider. This was the first time Ja Sun and others had seen a transformation so hauntingly beautiful as the carapace seemed to have covered her front in a rather creative manner.

"Stick to the plan," Bibi Dong whispered, strangely, not looking at the group and her voice slightly hoarse.

Everyone broke out of their daze and quickly used their own spirit transformation save for Ja Sun.

At this point, Ah Yin waved her hands, and lashes of blue silver vines struck the beartakens that seemed to be cowering slightly while Ja Sun unceremoniously jumped down, his foot instantly landed on one of the howling beartaken. The poor thing found Ja Sun's shoes landing on into his wide mouth before strangely his jaws were dislocated and his vision turned dizzy, forcing it to let go of the vines and fall down, cushioning Ja Sun's landing as his foot pushed in and crushed the feeble head of the opponent.

Without stopping, Ja Sun stomped again, sending the shock force into the ground, and instantly turned around to tap the body of the nearest beartaken.

"There is no beartaken underground. Let's take care of these guys," Ja Sun called out as another beartaken was pulled down by a vine and landed in front of Ja Sun.

*Chiiiiiiiiii*

Bibi Dong suddenly let out a sharp screech. Her group didn't feel anything but the surrounding thicket suddenly shook.

---

'I'm... shaking?'

A pair of eyes focused on the five-meter high strangely shaped combination of Spider and a woman and the body of the beholder of such a sight trembled the moment the woman let out a sharp cry. He didn't gaze at the fleeting shadow removing beartakens out. The thick hides that could defend against the sharpest of swords fell useless against the softest touch of the figure's hands and feet.

'They didn't have any information of a spider-type martial soul and such a powerful one at that. What martial soul is that? The surrounding insects are all acting frantically.'

He cautiously continued to keep in hiding. He couldn't have defended this spot until now if he wasn't meticulous and insidious in his approach. But a sense of creeping demise managed to grip his being.

At this moment, he looked down and found a small ant slowly using its antenna to touch the sole of his boot. Furrowing his brows, he found the ant slowly moving away but soon, he felt a small ladybug land on his nose before flying off once again. Now, his expression was truly ugly. He didn't dare move a single inch and the raised pillar of study blue silver variant grass lowered itself while the dark and long-haired youth stored the corpses of the beartakens.

'The insects began to display strange patterns clearly because of her. Her martial soul is definitely an extraordinary one and being so young while reaching the higher levels of Spirit Emperor suggests that she isn't only talented, but might also have a backing... fine, it's good time to test out my own abilities.'

Instead of a spirit ring floating out of his body, a black ring appeared around him and turned into an extremely thin black thread that instantly had one of its ends connected to the middle of his brows and the other part was connected to the pitch-black ring with a dark red jewel embedded in the middle around his right index finger.

'Seventh Spirit Skill: Marionette's Display.'

---

"I sense movement," Ah Yin looked to her side when Bibi Dong calmly raised her voice.

"No need to bother with odd movements. The deeper forest of the hill is disadvantageous to us as a whole. Move to the same spot we arrived from. There are bound to be a few traps from underground once again."

Though calm, her naturally coarse voice and valiant form easily led others towards the direction from where they arrived while Ah Yin filled in on her findings. If Ah Yin can be considered the ruler of plants in her domain, despite only preferring to use Blue Silver Grass and its stronger variants due to familiarity with her martial soul, Bibi Dong similarly held influence over bug-type spirit beasts in a manner, just not as deep and unified as Ah Yin which became even more apparent once she evolved into a Blue Silver Goddess.

Ja Sun's steps were layered with spreading shock energy. Seeing that the opponents can use the ground as a hiding spot, he didn't rely on his other senses since he couldn't see through the ground and the opponent's illusion did not really affect him.

Bibi Dong's body moved incomparably quickly. Eight sharp legs propelling her while others followed silently until Ja Sun's words made them stop.

"There are wolftakens ahead," his voice instantly shook others.

Once again, they only saw an empty road down the slope but Ja Sun instantly realized the deception and informed because not only was he keeping an eye on his surroundings but also his teammates. Strangely, all the wolftakens seemed to be forming a semicircle ahead with many of them present on the branches of the surrounding trees ahead, ready to pounce at any moment.

"Don't stop moving. Just turn a little slower. Teacher, at my signal, use your sixth ability. Hu Lana, follow me instead and use your fourth ring when we move ahead and cover as much space as you can. At that moment, Teacher, aside from our original location, launch your sixth ability everywhere."

Ah Yin swiftly uncoiled the vine around Hu Lana as Ja Sun and Hu Lana continued to move at their original pace while the remaining four slowed down. When push came to shove, Xie Xan revealed his trust, not in Ja Sun but his own experiences. He had grown out of his deep insecurities regarding the possibility of Hu Lana perishing in a battle long ago. They had faced enough life and death battles to stop each other from facing dangerous risks as shown by the extremely weak resistance from Hu Lana's side when Xie Xan wanted to break past his limits to absorb a stronger spirit ring while a rather supportive attitude when it really mattered the most.

"You better keep her safe!" Xie Xan compressed his voice and finally called out as Ja Sun smiled.

Safe? Even he himself wouldn't dare hurt anyone of them at this moment. All five of his teammates were more precious than a spirit bone as of this moment.

"Now!" Ja Sun hissed and a purple ring swept out of Hu Lana's body while red mist instantly exploded out of her body. Instead of slowly raising the fog, Hu Lana pushed her spirit energy to the limits of her output and the mist instantly enveloped the suddenly jumping wolftakens accompanied by blades of wind shooting towards Ja Sun and Hu Lana.

Bibi Dong couldn't see the enemies, sure, but she saw the wind slice into the fog and her three pairs of red eyes turned cold before her sixth spirit rings revealed a dominating black glow and numerous dark pink thorns emerged from the ground around her, condensed with spiritual toxins that instantly shot out without any sense of hesitation. This skill had a time limit so Bibi Dong cannot keep using the thorns all the time.

Her gaze glittered when she felt her ability pierce through unknown entities.

Although Ja Sun couldn't see within the fog from the outside, it was an entirely different thing from the inside. His senses weren't the least bit suppressed by the skill and instead of attacking Wolftakens, he merely dodged and incapacitated the monsters before whispering something to Hu Lana. Her expression turned serious momentarily. Within the fog, Ja Sun protected her while Hu Lana finally activated her spirit beast enhancement. Her dark iris turned pink with her pupils now vertical. Pale gold furry fox ears grew elongated high and a bushy tail with white end extended from right above her hips.

Five spirit rings appeared around her and for a moment, Ja Sun found every Wolftaken frozen in a single place. The wolftakens had their senses suppressed in the fog and now the alluring scent of Hu Lana's existence stimulated their primal side. Their dull cyan eyes slowly revealed a bright light but most of them were already pierced by thorns, their life force was actually sucked into the thorns. Of what remained, Ja Sun smashed the head of two wolftakens while the remaining one was knocked out. Since he couldn't use the ability of his spirit bone, right now, one of Ja Sun's sneakiest methods was blocked. However, Hu Lana had a similar skill.

"Do it," he looked at her and she nodded.

Out of her five spirit rings, the first three charmed the opponent using scent, hearing, and vision. The fourth one expelled fog that suppressed the senses of the individuals and increased Hu Lana's charm ability because the fog itself was laced with a tantalizing scent. Finally, the fifth spirit ability was a single target mental attack.

Her vertical pupils revealed an ethereal glow as a wisp of pink light was condensed in front of her under the effects of her fifth spirit ring.

"Mind Break," she whispered.

Like Ja Sun's Heaven's Descent, Mind Break was an illusion-type mental attack, lower in strength but also without the restriction of physical contact with the opponent. However, Ja Sun's Heaven's Descent was too fierce. It would instantly send the opponent into a euphoric state while poisoning the consciousness. Mind Break, on the other hand, committed to its name, making the target's consciousness go through extreme pain.

The floating sliver of pink light, like a delicate fish, didn't shoot into the opponent's mind but floated towards it, revealing its most glaring weakness: This technique was painful yet slow. In others words, it was as painful as it was painfully slow.

Still, Hu Lana had used this ability to survive in the war alongside Xie Xan. Its capabilities were clear and the moment it struck the opponent, the wolftaken instantly howled loudly yet not a single sound escaped the fog.

"Will this really work?" Hu Lana frowned while Ja Sun shrugged.

"In theory, mental attacks tend to strike the source. Since the beasttakens are clearly under control, if the controlled area, in this instance, their minds are shaken, then it may affect the origin itself. Of course, the fact that you can see them once they die or turn unconscious may suggest that the level of control on these beasts only remains to their conscious minds so..."

*Aaaooooooooo*

The wolftaken let out a grudgingly painful howl while Ja Sun continued soothingly, "We may be torturing this poor beast without any benefit."

With the Wolftakens removed, the group finally began to move but instead of exiting where Ja Sun had discreetly located a group of hidden Beartakens underground, they made a turn and finally entered the more forested region.

Their figures didn't stop. If it was a true beasttaken tide, their situation would have been long overwhelmed but given that someone was controlling the beasttaken, everyone felt that the true attacks were about to come. After all, two probing attacks had revealed a level of strength possessed by the group, and any person or group with such controlling abilities and the fortitude to tolerate the slaughtering nature of the beasttaken will surely not be an easy opponent.

Right now, the group depended on Ja Sun's eyesight and Ah Yin's general direction. While Bibi Dong still kept her thoughts around the borders to temper the group as a whole, Ja Sun was calculating how to kill every beasttaken.

Previously, Ja Sun didn't understand the nature of the mission and now he realized why assisting his teammates in killing Beasttakens was only A-rank while other restrictions were all S-ranked.

The enemy was deeply hidden. His Astral Combatant could increase his perception greatly, his first three spirit rings would make him more versatile since his fourth spirit ring had greater restrictions and his spirit bone ability is particularly useful in this situation since he could have shared his vision with others, greatly increasing the group's adaptability.

"You look worried," Bibi Dong suddenly called out. She and Ja Sun were in the lead. More like, Ja Sun would rotate front and back.

"Worried?" Ja Sun smiled, "I am. A little," he admitted. Not even emotional traumas such as dying could affect him. Only an S-ranked mission could. Of course, as long as he keeps this weakness hidden, his defenses were comparable to a moveable fortress.

Bibi Dong didn't continue inquiring further. She had half-expected Ja Sun to relieve their tensions using his signature humor but everyone was slapped with reality when even Ja Sun would admit that he was a bit worried. The guy who would live a supremely masochistic lifestyle revealed that he was worried. What else could they say?

"We have visitors," Ja Sun narrowed his eyes as he saw countless flashes of light moving around them.

"We can see it this time," Xie Xan spoke confidently and Ja Sun scoffed, "I can see almost 50 wolftakens. What do you see?"

Everyone's expression froze and Bibi Dong whispered coldly, "20 Beartakens."

Ja Sun almost cursed. This was a dreadful trap. Attacking while thinking that they were dealing with Beartakens when in fact even more Wolftakens instantly launched their wind-attributed attacks like rabid beasts. Numerous slices of wind energy struck out and this couldn't be hidden. Seeing the attacks materialize instantly, Ah Yin snorted and her fifth and second spirit rings flared up with waves after waves of vines of blue silver emperor sweeping up. Each strand was extraordinarily tough and under the enhancement of her second spirit rings, none of the strands of grass twisted into thick vines actually faltered once struck by the sharp wind blades.

"Ka-ul, point me in the right direction," Xie Xan cackled eerily as eight moon blades flew out with his fifth and third spirit rings flashing.

Xie Xan's fifth spirit skill: Eight Crescents, created six identical moon blades with the ability to use other spirit rings at the expense of the majority of Xie Xan's spirit energy but this was Ah Yin's domain. Inexhaustible. In any forest, Ah Yin is a one-man army and her support ability is simply incomparable. Xie Xan's consumed spirit energy was almost filled while the eight moon blades rotated sharply, drawing the air around them into a sharp twister vertically— Strike Hurricane, unleashed.

"There, a little to the left, yeah, make the right one horizontal and sweep forward," Ja Sun instantly added instructions. Xie Xan's fifth ability with Ah Yin's support turned out to be an amazing skill as the moment Xie Xan felt his blades being blocked, his fourth spirit ring flared and consumed his spirit energy astonishingly once again but the effects were equally great!

Eight bloody hurricanes sliced off half of the wolftakens while others were pressed back, unable to compete against this dangerous force.

Since Ah Yin's domain drew strength from the forest and the plants itself, the most constricted one was Liu Erlong herself since her attacks could cause widespread and lasting damages to the plants. Especially her third spirit ring that can explode out wisps of flames in every direction.

"Our focus is to develop our teamwork but since the conditions aren't suitable in for that kind of pressure, let us prolong our stay and find the person behind all this. If high and immediate pressure cannot make us familiar with one another, then slow and taxing one will do the trick," Bibi Dong stated and looked towards Ja Sun, "What's going on in the front?"

As the corpses finally revealed themselves, many were definitely startled by the vanishing of Beartakens and the revelation of Wolftakens but this only made the intensity of Xie Xan's attack higher.

"Alright, that was the last one," Ja Sun spoke up. With a team around him, he didn't necessarily have to do everything alone. With Ah Yin's support, Xie Xan's attack strength was already close to Ah Yin's.

Ah Yin withdrew the thick dome of blue silver vines and the group moved forward once again.

They have successfully repelled three waves of attacks. But the tribe would barely take a hit with this loss and the next controlled attack would be even more exhausting. It may even finally force everyone to take part in the battle but with a goddess amongst men, the group barely felt tired. Instead, all of them began to thirst for a true test to realize everyone's limits and cooperation ability.

And soon, they did. A formation of Wolftakens and Beartakens surrounded them quickly but once again, only Ja Sun could see who was what and others remained under that frightful illusion still. Unable to truly identity their opponents but at this point, Ja Sun couldn't help but feel bitter. The cyan and deep red wolftakens and beartakens suggested their mutated forms and the fluctuations on their bodies no less than ten-thousand-year-old spirit beasts. 8 ten-thousand-year-old beasttakens surrounded and surely, under a proper command, even if they cannot reveal their bestial side, their power wouldn't be less when cooperating with their weaker counterparts.

And only now, Ja Sun gave up on the first S-ranked reward. If he used Astral Combatant, then this fight would be pathetically plain and simple. But he valued technique from the Extreme Phantom Douluo who also developed this Astral Combatant. Out of all the rewards, the strange mask did sound exotic but right now, he had to give it up for Life Gold.

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Sorry for no publishing anything yesterday. With raksha bandhan and the fact that I hadn't slept in 24 hrs and also helping Family out with chores and dealing with relatives, I was too tired yesterday... and then slept for 17-18 hrs... yeah, I know. Anyway, I'm still not home yet but was able to write one out.