“I never saw these inscriptions before, are they custom made?” Lein said as he inspected on the pair of inscription charms after sticking the formation badge proudly on his shoulder.
“Action speaks louder than words. Let’s bring you guys to an empty dungeon space to test it out,” Jin said as he tapped a few buttons on his phone and informed his demon exorcists to follow the penguin waiter who later ushered them to a cabin with an open portal in it.
When they entered the portal, the demon exorcists realised that they returned to the very same dungeon instance which they pitted against Jin in a ‘one to one’ duel. While the memory of their defeat haunted them a little, the refreshing sea breeze blowing in their face made them take a step back to appreciate the scenery instead.
But for Lein, he was more than excited to know what the pair of inscription charms could do. Without much hesitation, Jin told the Qilin Demon Cultivator to put the charms on his clothes. “Be ready to prepare a constant supply of chi, though I will suggest inserting a burst of chi into them for an added effect.”
“But won’t that means we have to use these clothes in the future?” Lein questioned and wondered if it was the best choice to use them on ordinary clothes as compared to customised high grade defensive shirts.
“Hahaha, you are right. but there’s nothing to worry about. What you are holding are temporary inscription charms. And the reason I brought you guys here is that I want your honest opinions on it. You can say this current session with the inscriptions is part of a trial too.” Jin answered as he brought out a few more of the very same inscriptions they were holding on his hands. At the same time, he brought out a few fighting dummies and placed them at various distance intervals.
Lein gave a satisfied smile from Jin’s assurance, and he pasted the two inscriptions on his long sleeve shirt. The rest had decided to stand at the sidelines to watch and see Lein’s performance before trying it out themselves.
As instructed, the Qilin Demon Cultivator focused his energies and inserted it into the pair of inscription charms with an intense amount of chi. But unlike the usual inscription charms, the current ones only glowed dimly upon receiving the chi energy, making Lein thought that he had not supplied enough chi into it.
Then suddenly, a pair of phantom Qilins burst out of the inscriptions, growing more prominent as it travelled forward, hitting the dummies at the five and ten metre mark before performing a turn to run towards Lein instead.
“Stand there and receive the blow like a man!” Jin shouted as he signalled the rest to move back a little more. Lein was surprised by the command given by Jin but he figured the dungeon supplier had his reasons ordering him to do so.
Thus, he took a deep breath in and prepared for the worst. When the two phantom Qilins dashed towards Lein, it felt like a blast of his own lightning techniques pulsating through his body when they hit him. However, instead of feeling injured, he felt refreshed more than ever and noticed an external flow of chi covering his entire body.
When Lein opened his eyes, the Qilin Demon Cultivator found out that he was in a different set of clothing. There was a sort of grey protective gear covering his chest while he wore a long white coat with blue streaks along the coat tails. Later he realised that the blue streaks somehow formed the outline of Qilin head.
Lein even had combat gloves and boots on, and they felt extremely comfortable on him like a perfect fit. The rest of the demon exorcists were amazed by his sudden change in appearance as if he was some hero from some anime show.
Jin smirked as he told them that the pair of inscriptions consisted of a cosmetic inscription and a full body defensive inscription. By materialising their own chi into metaphysical state, it creates a defensive body barrier around the user.
Su Zhen had heard about such defence inscriptions and knew that they were used for higher ranked demon exorcists. Some even tailor made their talismans to incorporate this type of inscriptions. However, she recalled that these full body defence inscriptions were usually depicted like an aura enveloping the user.
“That is where my cosmetic inscription come into play! It transforms the full body defence aura into physical items, and you could say I went a bit overboard with the design…especially for the females.” The way Jin replied nearly creeped Su Zhen and Lian from trying the pair of inscriptions, but he subsequently assured that it was not lewd in any way.
“Still, this is an amazing innovation! I did not expect inscriptions could be created like a transformation device.” Lein was pleased with the gift, but he could feel that maintaining the ‘hero’ form was not easy. “And you are right, the chi consumption is immense, I can feel my dantian churning madly just to keep this up for more than a minute.”
“It actually depends on how much chi you give at the start when you activate the inscriptions, it will then consume that amount of chi to maintain the cosmetic inscription,” Jin replied while keeping the rest of the dummies.
“However, I suggested a burst of chi is to show you that the defensive inscription could work as an offensive technique too. You had personally seen how powerful that Phantom Qilin attack was, shredding the dummies into pieces.” He then asked Lein to deactivate his ‘hero’ mode to save his chi.
“And like every technique, the more chi inserted into the defensive inscription, the stronger the chi armour becomes. In my opinion, Lein’s concentration of chi in that previous transformation could at least withstand Rong’s full combo attack without flinching.”
“What?! I don’t believe that! Come, Lein! Activate that chi armour again, I want to prove Jin that his theory is wrong!” Rong said as he materialised his weapon.
“Aren’t you more interested to see what your hero form looks like?” Lein tried to change the subject as he knew he needed time to recover his chi.
“Heh! Probably the same as yours but I am more interested how the girls looked like. Then, it will also give us a glimpse of what kind of pervert Boss Jin is.” Rong said with an evil looking grin on his face, but upon hearing his comment, the two girls refused to transform.
“I really swear that the armour does not look as bad as you think!” Jin tried to downplay Rong’s response, though Lian gave a disgusted look back at Jin’s defensive comments. She discerned that Jin must not be telling the entire truth with the way he was acting. Meanwhile, Su Zhen shook her head in dismay and had forgotten that they were dealing with immature boys here.
“Alright, alright. That’s enough for now. Here Lein, the replacement inscription charms. Use them wisely, they are not easy to make.” Jin calmed down before opening another portal, leading them to the conference room instance.
Now that the Christmas gifts were out of the way, its time for business.
