“What plans do you have in store for that boy,” Grandma asked the System as she saw how Jin went into the fray and burned the magical fog away. He interfered with the impromptu examination with the permission of Claire and protected the rest of the trainees with his Green Panda Wind while his Black Panda Fire burnt the living fog of cobwebs.
“Nothing in particular. System is just maintaining what User had been doing. If past Sub System Yuan wished to enter back into the System, the System would not hesitate to grant back both enhanced mortality and powers to Yuan.” The Almighty System offered Grandma Yuan seeing how she had contributed back to the System by offering Jin to be Shenzhen’s branch of the Joint Organisation of Demon Exorcists (JODE).
“I am not doing this for you, but for that little fellow.” Grandma Yuan retorted when she saw from the Magic Eye camera that the trainees proceeded with the plan they had come up with.
“As for how the System sees it, your contribution to User would be tremendous if you return back to the System. You can further your cause in helping User, especially in terms of the JODE branch which you had been suggesting.” System added while it appended more information about the exorcist trainees when they performed their tricks and stunts.
Rong had propelled himself up along with the help of Lein’s Lightning Dash movement skill. With the snake whip in Lein’s possession, both Su Zhen and Lian had switched places with the boys when they reached the maximum height their ability could bring them with the substitution technique.
“Hmph, don’t bluff. You have been aware of the JODE when I used my Sub System back then. There’s no difference between then and now. You can help Jin up with the knowledge you acquired previously before you disappeared from action. “Grandma Yuan tried to ignore the System when she continued to observe how Su Zhen pushed Lian even further up with the help of a Whip Arts, Raising Snake Strike. The art’s technique allowed Su Zhen to create a visible chi snake silhouette that Lian could hold onto while it extended itself up to the top.
Lian proceeded to use the snake silhouette as a platform to bounce off and reach for the gem eyes that was below the spherical body of the Transforming Spider. She infused herself with chi again to keep the form of the Three Tail Fox Demon and extended her claws towards it.
The Transforming Spider quickly tried to cover its eyes by releasing a wide oval shaped carapace within its body to keep the gem eyes safe from any damage. However, the spider did not know that Lian’s attack was able to penetrate the first layer of defence and damaged one of the few eyes on it. The gem eye along with some gooey liquid dropped through the pierced carapace and Lian managed to catch it in time.
In retaliation, a horrifying tune was emitted out of the spherical body and the carapace that was protecting the eyes immediately ejected out, slamming straight at Lian’s face. That sudden attack rendered her to be stunned momentarily. “Oho, looks like this is not an easy fight at all.” Grandma Yuan saw that when the carapace hit Lian, the three other cultivators who landed safely on land had scrambled to save her.
Another raising snake strike from Su Zhen was used to assist Lein along with his burst of Lightning Dash allowed him to grab the slightly stunned Lian in time before she dropped to the ground like a dead fly.
“Question. There is a particular matter that the System had been been unable to address and deduced that past Sub System User Yuan might have more information considering your relationship with the Royal Zodiac Clans. System would like to ask if Yuan knows of this person, called Ryuli.” The System suddenly spoke out of place, and Grandma Yuan’s sudden fazed reaction made the System believed she knew something about it.
“…How did you know about that?” Grandma Yuan’s eyes turned deadly, and her chi was burning brightly in the middle of the Dungeon Maker.
“Jin said he dreamt of this person in the Isolation Ward. System attempted to make some inquiries, and it had no luck as of yet.” System answered, and Grandma Yuan’s wrath did not simmer with the explanation.
“Jin…knows about Ryuli?” Grandma Yuan thought to herself before she gripped her walking stick tight. “I assumed you attempted to hack the national database to find its information.”
“Affirmative. Should past Sub System Yuan refuse to give any clues, the System would still obtain it sooner or later.” The System said as it magically issued a file for Yuan to peruse. She sat down and saw that the System had managed to have obtained partial access to the things that should be hidden.
“Heh. I told them already, it’s useless to place it there. Pen and paper would still be a better form of security. They would not believe me.” Grandma Yuan said with a distressed look on her. Suddenly there was a high pitch screech that made her look at the cameras to see that the form of the Transforming Spider had disintegrated. In replacement, a humanoid emerged out of from the spherical body. It looked like the theory of her trainees were right.
“So it is really not a monster but a demon….still what kind of demon is that…?” Grandma Yuan stopped reading the compiled file that the System gave her and saw a humanoid with spider legs behind its back and its face was filled with gem eyes.
There seemed to be a slight disfigurement on her face, and it could probably be Lian’s attack that caused it as it appeared, she was missing one gem eye out of the six that she had.
“Is past Sub System Yuan willing to share information to notify the System?” The System interrupted Yuan’s viewing, and she groaned at the System’s discovery.
“I will not say anything until the time is right. Deduce as you will,” Grandma Yuan replied, but the Dungeon Maker abruptly turned all pitch dark and later blaring with red lights.
“If you wish to treat me as an intruder, then kill me. Know that this will not further your cause in doing so or provide you anything in return. It was never my aim to help you, but only Jin.” Grandma Yuan stated clearly that she only saw the System as a tool and nothing else. The red lights went blaring for a very long moment before the Dungeon Maker returned back to normal.
“Then, all the more past Sub System User Yuan is not allowed to die.” The System changed its tone as it placed the very same envelope which made Jin a User in front of Yuan.
“By accepting this, you can read my mind, correct?” Yuan refused the envelope, but the System had another trick on its sleeves. It presented Grandma Yuan a ring to right in front of her, and it was encased within a box of thick glass.
“Wear the ring. It would teleport you to the System should anything goes wary. The only compromise System can offer before allowing you to leave the Dungeon Maker. Past Sub System User Yuan may also use this to teleport herself willingly to the Dungeon Maker.” The System stated as it released the lock on the glass box.
“I am guessing if I wore this, there would be no way to take it out ever again…unless I die.” Grandma Yuan said as she sighed when she saw the ring that was in front of her. “Bloody prick…keeping this here in the System’s possession even after such a long time.” Grandma Yuan commented as she took the familiar looking ring up to examine before she wore it on her ring finger.
There was a slight twitch of her finger when it happened, and she could feel a great deal of chi was kept within the ring. She rubbed and adjusted it a little before returning to the screens of the camera to see how they were doing. Since then, the System did not speak much and allowed Grandma Yuan to continue watching the proceedings of the Demon Exorcist Promotion Examination.
——
“Return my eye!” The Spider Humanoid did speak while rubbing its legs at its back together, producing a high pitch creaking sound which made the trainees faltered backwards a little.
“This is way too pretty to not keep.” Lian showcased the eye right in front of the Spider Humanoid and kept it inside her storage ring, causing the Spider Humanoid to go even more insane.
“Now this is a size I can fight!” Rong charged senselessly forward again despite repeated warnings not to do so by Lein. The Spider Humanoid did not hesitate either as it raised its hand up and transformed to the very thing that it was facing.
“Huh!? That spider can transform into us?!” Lian said with shock as the two Rongs clashing with each other.
“I will not be outwitted and outmatched by a fake!” Rong gathered his chi and whacked his bull horned hammer at the side of the Spider Humanoid and similarly, the Transforming Spider did the same, but to the other trainee’s surprise, Rong was knockback by the Transforming Spider’s attack.
“Why you!” Lian stepped forth to clash with the fake Rong when she saw Rong smashed to a couple of trees away from the battle. She knew if its a fake Rong, all the more it would easy for her to defeat it. However, that was also when the Transforming Spider turned into Lian and copied the same thing she was doing, and to her surprise, its agility rivalled up against her.
“No use, we should not let it fight one on one!” Lein charged his sword with chi but Su Zhen stopped him.
“How do you know we are fighting the fake Lian?” Su Zhen said as the speed of battle caught up and there were after images of their attacks and them evading the attacks. “Unlike Rong, we might accidentally injure the real Lian if we intervene in their battle.”
“Urghh…Lian! Use your three tails! I bet that stupid spider does not have it!” Lein suggested, but it seemed like his advice went into deaf ears.
“She needs time to activate the three tails, and at the rate with the fight that they are going with, it is impossible for her to do that. Plus, she used it previously to snatch that gem eye away from the spider’s body, it would be harder to do so.” Su Zhen said before she began to murmur a few words out.
“I see, if we cannot help her directly, we can do so indirectly.” Lein understood what Su Zhen was doing as he too started to gather his chi and prepared a long range technique.
“Lian! Remember that battle against the Black Elephant? We will be doing that!” Lein shouted to the fighters, and he caught a glimpse of Lian’s eyes, acknowledging what they were saying before the fight became a blur again.
“What are they doing? Black Elephant?” Jin asked as he returned to Claire’s sight to observe the fight.
“There was this partially mutated elephant…possessed by a low level demon. The trainees used that elephant as part of their training. I believe they are trying to recreate what they had used for that Black Elephant kill,” Claire replied while continuing to mark their performance.
“Woah, that means they kill demons before? Then what is with this examination for?” Jin asked while moving a few trees back to have a better view.
“No, that demon was placed by us. A few of us in JODE can summon and contract demons without too much of a consequence. Hence, it was a type of training rather than a proper kill.” Claire said as she noticed they were going to put their plan in motion.
