Chapter 161 A New Mission

Everyone was on their way out of the military camp. Evan glared at Rocky as they left. His jealousy and hatred for Rocky only grew when his joint signature petition for protest was denied by the Commander in Chief. The idea behind him was to expose Marin's bias towards Rocky.

Almost everyone had evacuated the camp except for Rocky and Marin.

"Commander, what are your directives?" Rocky knew better than to think this is just some daily light-hearted chat. He could sense the tension in the air the moment he came in to the Commander's camp. His guess was this meeting was to pick on him.

"I have a secret mission for you," Marin said to Rocky who was fairly surprised at this point.

"A secret mission? Why assign it to me? I think you're overestimating me here. You fully know the extent of my power. I don't think I am cut out for a secret mission," Rocky refused with an awkward smile. Marin must be out her mind to assign some secret mission to him. There was not a doubt she had some sort of hidden agenda for assigning him this secret mission. She could not possibly be up to any good.

"Despite this mission's secrecy, it's actually quite simple and easy. Here are three confidential documents I need you to deliver to different outposts," Marin explained, picking up the envelopes ready to hand them to Rocky.

"However, as easy as it may seem, I am fully aware how this mission could put me in a possible risk. Commander, I believe you just said spies from the Timber Deity Empire could have possible slipped into our border. I'd automatically fail this mission if I got targeted by them," Rocky rationalized, trying to get himself out of this mission. He was not up for any kind of secret mission, ever. Not to mention the iffy feeling he got from Marin, this mission was absolutely not his thing.

"You said it yourself, your power's extent won't be of any interest for them. No spy would care to target on you. They would not think of you someone worthy enough to harbor a single confidential document, let alone three," Marin snapped back.

"True, but what if they're such bad spies they don't know how to tell strong spirit manipulators from the weak ones?" Rocky responded, marveling at Marin's quick wits.

"This is an order. Your willingness matters not at all. Your compliance is required. Otherwise, you will have to face grave consequences," Marin stated matter-of-factly and threateningly.

Rocky

Two figures then suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking his way.

Rocky ran a quick scan of the two people before him. They both wore green clothes and bamboo hats covered their faces. Judging by their movements, their skill level should be at the sixth level of the Mortal Stage. This is a relatively strong spirit manipulator by the military's standards.

"Hey, you! Hand over the items you are hiding on you," one of the two spirit manipulators ordered, shouting.

"The item? What kind of an item is it?" Rocky squinted his eyes in an attempt to look oblivious. 'Are these two also sent by Marin as a test?' Rocky asked himself. 'If that were true, then Marin really was desperate to find out the true extent of my powers and my real identity. First, she sent someone to spy on me. And now, these two are trying to set me up. Oh, but she was wrong to underestimate me. I couldn't be possibly fooled by such a shoddy trick. It was so poorly executed I saw right through it from the very beginning.'

"Quit it with the games. Hurry up! Give it up! Now!" The other spirit manipulated shouted.

"Hey, brother. I'm not playing any games, alright? Go back and tell the Commander this is not fun at all," Rocky replied calmly as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

The two spirit manipulators looked at each other in confusion.

"Should we just kill him? We shouldn't have wasted our time having this screwball fool around with us," one of them yelled.

Their eyes flashed with an intent to kill. They lunged towards Rocky, shoulder to shoulder, employing the techniques of spiritual martial arts.