There was no time for any argument. The moment Grandma Yuan declared that Jin had to survive, it turned into the longest 30 seconds that Jin would ever feel in his lifetime.
“Rong! Coming forth!” The boy who appeared to be in his late teens shouted as he portrayed his cultivation with five Ox silhouettes above him. However, what Jin could see was that they were not ordinary Oxen at all.
“Demons!” Jin expressed his shock as he saw the Ox Demon had four protruding horns, two large and two small. The body of the Ox Demon was covered with massive thick strands of hair as if one had just woken up from bed. Underneath that gigantic hair like fur, it had hooves that were similar to a bird’s claws, as if it was used to catch humans.
“That is right, I wield the cultivation style of Ox Demon, Ao Ye!” Rong shouted as he summoned out a large hammer from his storage ring and prepared to slam it at Jin mercilessly. However, the dungeon supplier was quick enough to dodge it, clinging on to an inch of his life, but that was also when the next challenger came in to strike him. It was the girl who had been talking to Rong before Grandma Yuan issued the challenge.
“Lian. Striking from behind!” The girl with plaited hair announced her name as she revealed a cultivation of six fox silhouettes above her. This was the most familiar demon that Jin recognised almost immediately, the Nine Tailed Fox Demon.
“Very interesting. Not many people can handle the constant trickery of the Nine Tailed Fox Demon. You have to watch her out the most, she will not show you her best attacks until the end.” Kraft whispered in Jin’s head even though that was insufficient to distract him.
Jin whipped out Bam, in katana form and tried to stop her claw attack from inflicting any damage. Even though he knew that he should have blocked the attack just now with the back of his scabbard, he somehow could feel a slashing sensation on his body. Jin could not verify if he were bleeding as there was no time to, especially when the next demon cultivator came towards him.
“Su Zhen. On your left.” A whip secretly wrapped around him while Jin was still busy blocking Lian’s attack. This particular cultivator portrayed one large white snake silhouette above her. He roughly knew that a large silhouette meant that the cultivator had at least ten grades on them, and even had attained spiritual union. But did she really attain a spiritual union with a white snake demon or with white snakes in particular? Jin did not know and had no time to think and could only react.
He swiftly cut off the whip upon making a body flipping twirl via Panda Rolling with Bam. However, upon cutting, the broken white whip on Jin’s right hand turned into a snake trying to crawl up his arm, as if looking to bite his neck.
Thus, Jin quickly released a burst of his Black Panda Fire which thoroughly burnt the snake, revealing his one of his trump cards to the demon exorcist trainees. Su Zhen gave a visible ‘tsk’ as she retracted her whip. In a few short seconds, the whip regained its original shape.
“Interesting. A type of fire that can actually destroy Su Zhen’s snake whip. That I have to give credit. However, you shall now die by my sword. Lein! Meet your match!” Lein shouted at Jin as he jumped in the air, and the clouds turned partially dark for a moment as a flash of lightning imbued his sword. Similar to Su Zhen, a large silhouette of a Qilin, a unicorn like demon came out above Lein’s head.
“Intermediate Sword Technique, Thunderclap of the Qilin!” Lein shouted as he struck his sword down hard and fast at Jin.
“Panda Rolling!” Jin was unable to completely dodge out of the way in time judging from the amount of area damage that particular technique Lein was using might have. However, he needed to use Panda Rolling to at least get into a position to defend himself. “Note to self, get a fast reacting defensive skill!” Jin thought to himself. Jin assumed that there was no need to use White Panda Ice despite of the grade that Lein was in.
The lightning infused sword clashed into Jin’s katana and the impact made the surrounding ground caved in. “What the hell?!!” Jin thought to himself as he was sure that a Grade 10 shouldn’t be as strong as what Jin was experiencing. Was the power gap that high from a Grade 8 to 10? Even so, Jin had fought grades higher than himself, and he attained spiritual union which was why Jin did not expect the disparity in strength to be so unequal.
Lein gave a wide smirk as if he wished to execute another technique, but it appeared that Jin had more battle experience than Lein, allowing the dungeon supplier to open his mouth and shoot a beam of chi energy from it.
Lein had to swirl his body to the side to dodge it and his teammate Rong covered his flank by initiating a hammer swing straight to Jin’s chest. Because Jin was too focus on bringing down Lein, he did not see Rong coming, causing him to eat the slam of the hammer. Su Zhen then took the opportunity to grab Jin by the neck with her whip while Lian dashed in for the final blow.
“Stop.” Grandma Yuan said as she banged her stick on the ground again, and Jin was centimetres from death. “29.6 seconds to immobilise him and reach for the kill. You kids have more to learn.” The bespectacled female assistant in office wear who Jin had previously seem and made contact with was right beside Grandma Yuan and spoke out loud to the teens.
“If it takes you this long to kill him, you all better practice more.” Grandma Yuan berated them as she commanded Su Zhen to release the whip. “As for you, Jin. You failed to uphold our bargain.”
“How the hell, did I know that I will be-“
“NO EXCUSES!” Grandma Yuan shouted with chi infused into it, which caused the rest of the teens to immediately kneel in front of Grandma Yuan with their heads lowered. “If you do not wish history to repeat itself. You better learn to be much stronger!. And why are you holding your punches back? You think that just because they are kids and probably lower in rank than you, that you can afford to go easy on them?! You saw how two of them had higher grades than you!”
“But I…” Jin was speechless as he stood right in front of Grandma Yuan.
“No Buts. I understand why you do not wish to use ‘that’ in front of them. Still, does that mean your self defence ability is this weak? What if they were indeed the very same assassins that came to your shop? All your work would have gone down the drain!” Grandma Yuan scolded Jin.
“I am sorry.” Jin had no other words to say.
“Claire. Bring this guy into the Isolation Ward. Jin. I will only give you one more chance to redeem yourself. Three Days. No one will disturb you. In three days, you will duel with all of my students once more in a one on one match. Either you kill them all, or you receive zero help from me.” Grandma Yuan stated as she nodded her head towards Claire, the lady secretary right beside her.
Claire understood what needed to be done and told Jin to follow her. With a slight push, she opened what seemed to be a hefty iron door which Jin was amazed at her strength. There was no revelation of her cultivation to Jin, and as he walked past the gates, he also tried to casually push the other side door with his usual strength.
It did not budge a single bit.
He sighed at the discovery of these group of people and quietly followed Claire behind. In the meantime, he did feel some sort of déjà vu coming from the temple interior décor. While it was not precisely the same, the temple that Ming created in his dreams, had many similarities to it… if not the exact same designs.
There was silence throughout the entire walk as Claire brought him underground, and it was several floors below where he eventually noticed a sort of trapdoor at the edge of the basement room. Claire mumbled some words which he did not recognise, but they caused the trap doors to open for it to reveal a room void of light.
“Jump in, it is approximately 50 metres deep. There are no stairs, no food or water and only a small hole at the right end for you to relieve yourself. The…erm stench might be a bit strong, but you will get used to it immediately.” Claire said as she took a flare from her storage ring, lit it up and threw it into the Isolation Ward
“Exactly three days from the moment I close this door. That is the time when I will come to retrieve you. While I will usually say that this is your last chance to back out. You have that ‘thing’ with you. Whether you choose to keep yourself confined or escape from this place, its none of my business.” Claire seemed to be aware that Jin had the System with him.
“In the isolation room, there is a sensory inscription charm. It will activate to send us a signal when it senses that you are not in there. Should that happen for whatever reason, we will assume that you forfeit your right to speak with Grandma Yuan to learn about the matters of the Demon Exorcists.” Claire explained as she relayed the wishes of her boss.
“Till then, as I said, whatever you do inside the isolation ward is none of my business.” Claire reiterated and waited for Jin’s reply.
“I understand.” Jin realised Grandma Yuan was at least prepared to counter Jin’s way of escaping and therefore decided to go into the isolation ward of his own free will. Claire banged the door shut even before Jin reached the bottom of the lit flare.
“I guess it’s time to formulate my own strategy against those demon exorcists trainees… heck they might even be the real demon exorcists.” Jin thought as he quickly went into the cultivation stance to recover the wounds he had.
——
After Jin left the courtyard, Grandma Yuan stared at the four teens that were still kneeling down in front of her. They heard the entire conversation and knew that they had to fight with this Jin once again. And this time not only would it be one on one, but he would also be prepared.
“As for you kids. If any of you lose, you will be resurrected. However, anyone who loses, no matter if Jin defeats all of you or not, will have to work under him until you paid off your debts to me before you can kneel before me again. Like I said, fight to the death or no more teachings from me!” Grandma Yuan announced her orders to them out of the blue, and the teens immediately spoke out rackets of rejections.
“Why?! He is just a nobody! It was a fluke that he could dodge and block our attacks! You saw how we managed to get him in the end!” Su Zhen tried to refute and the others chimed in as well.
“Silence! I told you guys to bring him down in 20 seconds. You all took 9.6 seconds more because you severely underestimated him. How many times have I told you not to waste time talking with the enemy?! … Three days later will also be your only chance for redemption.” Grandma Yuan said. The teens understood how strict Grandma Yuan was and reluctantly nodded their heads as they began to leave the temple ground to go to their respective training areas except for Lein. Grandma Yuan told him to stay for a private conversation.
“Did you see his intent to kill when he shot you that beam of chi energy?” Grandma Yuan asked Lein, who was all proud and arrogant in front of the disciples, suddenly trembled badly and nodded his head.
“The others have yet to experience it first hand because he was still holding back his abilities but when he sensed that his life was in danger from your attack, that intent to survive…that intent to kill. Now, do you understand that this is what you will feel if you ever go out to fight real demons?” Grandma Yuan became slightly gentle in front of Lein despite her strict demeanour.
“Three days later, you will notice that his intent to kill and survive will still be the same… Perhaps even more terrifying. If you think you have seen it all from your training, you are sorely mistaken. You might have the skill and talent, but if you cannot overcome that fear of striking him down for good, I suggest you drop out of training.” Grandma Yuan warned Lein.
“You can pass that message to the others, though I doubt they will understand until they experience it during the heat of battle.” Grandma Yuan added before dismissing Lein. Claire returned by the time she finished lecturing Lein, and she was enjoying the calming tea that was placed right beside her.
“Hmm…I still think Jin’s girl brewed a better tea.” Grandma Yuan said casually which Claire apologised immediately. “Nah, it’s fine. Do not blame yourself, she is a natural. That’s all.”
“I see…so are you really going to make them fight to the death?” Claire asked as a sort of concern. She herself had undergone a similar trial. It was the norm for Demon Exorcists to have to go through a selection process that included death. The teens had learned about this when they first picked up the mantle as apprentices, but whether it got into their heads was a different issue.
“Perhaps…but you know, Jin is a dungeon supplier and with the System too. So…” Grandma Yuan did not finish her sentence. Claire chuckled.
“You’ve changed. Perhaps for the better, Madam…” Claire bluntly stated her thoughts.
“You cheeky fellow. Since when you can talk back to me like this. Haha!” Grandma Yuan said as she closed the lid to the teacup she was drinking reminiscing a little on Lynn’s brewed tea. But when Claire assisted her, Grandma Yuan snapped out of it and they returned back to Tiangong District for the time being.
