Chapter 85: Shadow battle

Yun Jhin frowned as another shadow needle appeared from the opponent's shadow and rushed at him at extremely fast speeds.

The needle speed was almost at a level that he couldn't dodge, light and darkness attribute attacks were very fast if they were executed in their respective environments, Yun Jhin knew that the man's technique would become extremely slow if there were no shadows left around for him to use.

Sumen watched on as Yun Jhin barely dodged the shadow needles, he was very impressed considering Yun Jhin was so many cultivation levels below him, among with the fact that he had a high battle power even around those with the same cultivation base due to his shadow techniques.

Yun Jhin staggered as a shadow needle pinned his foot to the arena, to counter Yun Jhin's senses, he made smaller and smaller needles, but due to this, the needles didn't do as much damage as before.

Yun Jhin armor covered his chest and his vital areas, but his feet were open to being attacked affecting his movement, countless needles attacked his vital points but they were reflected by his armor, Sumen frowned for the first time since they started the fight, he didn't think that Yun Jhin's elemental armor would have such a high defensive ability that his needles couldn't pierce through it at all, that meant he had to fight a battle of attrition with Yun Jhin.

Sumen opened his mouth and said:

"So troublesome, however, you should have lost here, after all, I'm a stage 9 expert while you are at stage 3, the difference between our ki quantities is quite large, why don't you give up and save me the headache of dealing with you?"

Yun Jhin smiled as he responded:

"Instead of talking you should look behind you."

Sumen looked behind him only to see nothing, suddenly Yun Jhin appeared in front of him as his armor transferred from his body into gauntlet form, the gauntlet started to absorb energy from Yun Jhin's body as a big ball of energy was ejected from it and hit Sumen directly in the chest almost blasting him away from the arena.

Sumen dusted himself as he got up from the ground, but then he fell to his knees as blood seeped out the corner of his mouth and said:

"Very tricky."

It wasn't a big trick, it was a kindergartner level trick, Yun Jhin didn't even think that he would fall for it, but trying didn't hurt. It seemed while the youth was smart, he wasn't wise, he mustn't have got many battles under his belt.

Yun Jhin disappeared from the arena as he used his stealth technique, Sumen eyes widened as he couldn't feel, see or sense Yun Jhin anywhere, he created a barricade of shadows around him as he eyed the surroundings warily.

He didn't know what to do in this situation, attacking randomly wouldn't be that helpful as he would waste his ki, even though his shadow technique was useful it used quite a lot of ki being a Yang type ability, it was also derived from the ultimate skill of his jewel.

Yun Jhin remained passive as he circled the shadow barrage, suddenly a white light appeared from his body as it circled his gauntlet, the light broke his stealth, then he launched himself in the shadow barricade breaking through it like it was made of soft tofu.

Yun Jhin fist met Sumen's face as his nose bleed and knocked him unconscious, however, there was no sound or impact when his fist hit his face, it was due to the Yin attribute that he inserted into his gauntlet, the Yin attribute was soft and flexible unlike the domineering and hard Yang attribute, it struck his soul very lightly and knocked him unconscious, there was no physical damage and the nose bleed came from his soul injury.

Yun Jhin coughed a bit as his ki reserves were drained, he looked down at his palm and saw a little bit of blood that started to evaporate, the referee made sure Sumen was knocked out before he gave Yun Jhin the win.

Yun Jhin left the arena with a bunch of herbs and pills.

He sat cross-legged in the resting area as he took a few pills and mashed some herbs along with water to help him recover his ki and heal his mild internal injuries.

The others eyed Yun Jhin warily considering he beat one of their top candidates for the main tournament.

Yun Jhin ignored most of their gazes and only focused on the gaze of one of them.

Zhu Cheng was eyeing him with interest, it seemed his battle made him want to recruit him.

Yun Jhin wouldn't mind being his subordinate as long as he got benefits, in the end, it wouldn't matter.

Yun Jhin fought for a few more matches with those that were under the 9th stage and he easily won, piquing the interest of the referee and making the head of the house glad that he sent the masked man to get him to the Zhu Family, he was another insurance that they could get a slot to the Imperial tombs!

Yun Jhin left the tournament with a few boxes of herbs, materials for weapon and armor refinement along with one technique that he wasn't that much interested in, but he cultivated it anyways as it took him only a few glances to master it, he needed to play the role of a country bumpkin that didn't see too many techniques due to his origins.

After the tournament ended with Yun Jhin not having to fight any other stage 9 cultivator due to a lucky drawing of lots, he ended up going back to his room.

But he didn't even get to rest or refine his pill when a knock could be heard, Yun Jhin knew who it was as he opened the room and invited the person in while saying:

"Brother Cheng wasn't it?"

Zhu Cheng gave out an amiable smile as he walked inside Yun Jhin's room and looked around, the room didn't have much besides the things that the Zhu Clan already left inside, Zhu Cheng raised his eyebrows inwardly and praised Yun Jhin's minimalistic personality, having an attachment to earthly possesions could halt one progress in cultivation.

Yun Jhin watched on as Zhu Cheng cleared his throat and said:

"As someone new to the family you might not know about the factions of the younger generation, I came to invite you to mine and I can say you won't lose out, members of my faction are heavily rewarded for being members only and you would get heavy respect from the younger generation of the other families if you tell them you are for my faction, you will have an easier time in the city next time you go out, these are only one of the few benefits you will get from joining, what do you say?"

Zhu Cheng came out himself instead of sending someone to recruit Yun Jhin, because of Yun Jhin's capabilities of defeating someone at the 9th stage of the King Realm, even though Zhu Cheng's faction had quite a few people inside it, it didn't have any at the 9th stage, only because those at the 9th stage wouldn't lower their heads to Zhu Cheng due to their pride, they knew they couldn't beat him but they wouldn't be his lackeys.

Yun Jhin made himself look like he pondered the question for a while before he responded with a question:

"Might I ask what kind of tangible benefits would I get after I joined?"

Yun Jhin made a small motion with his hand that indicated what he was talking about, Zhu Cheng gave a big smile as he identified Yun Jhin as someone who cared about wealth even though he put a minimalistic look on the surface. Zhu Cheng took a bag out of his spatial ring and passed it to Yun Jhin.

Yun Jhin opened the bag and his eyes widened as he opened it and saw a beating heart inside of it!

Zhu Cheng gave out a small chuckle as he remembered that Yun Jhin was a country bumpkin that came from their brother empire and he told him the functions of the heart:

"It's a medium demonic heart that can be concocted using a heavy starlight herb and stone, it should be useful for those below the 6th stage of the King Realm and it should be able to boost your cultivation speed by a lot, I can give you enough hearts until you reach the 6th stage, the remaining ingredients cannot be given out for free, however, I can tell you where you can gather them."

Zhu Cheng was giving Yun Jhin an offer that he couldn't refuse if he cared about his cultivation base, Zhu Cheng knew how to manipulate cultivators quite easily as they were all interested in furthering their cultivation as long as the price they had to give wasn't over what they could pay.

Yun Jhin took the heart and put it in his spatial ring, this action made Zhu Cheng smile as he put his hand forward for a handshake, Yun Jhin gave out a small polite smile as he shook his hand and Zhu Cheng laughed as he said:

"Welcome to my faction Yun Jhin, it's called the Demonic Killers, you won't regret joining us, you will even get a chance to spar with high stage cultivators from the other top 10 clans, we have a monthly gathering that should happen a week from now if you would like to come you are always welcome."

Zhu Cheng waved as he left Yun Jhin alone in his room, Yun Jhin didn't say anything as he took the demonic heart out of his spatial ring and he scrutinized it, then he opened his mouth and gave it a few licks, he frowned as he tasted the fresh blood coming out of the heart and muttered:

"Truly a demonic heart, unfortunately not a devil one, can't be used for my evolution, fortunately, I can do what Zhu Cheng said and use it to cultivate my ki cultivation base."

Yun Jhin thought that there could be some devilish bloodline in the heart as demon and devil's heart were similar in looks and could only be discerned by different techniques, one of the simplest ones was ingesting some blood from the heart.

Yun Jhin put the heart back into his spatial ring, fortunately for him, the herbs that he needed for the concoction were won from the tournament so he didn't need to go out and buy or search for some, however, the unfortunate part was that he could only create 3 pills with them, and he would still have half a heart left.

3 pills would make him able to reach the 7th stage of refinement of his 3rd jewel, maybe even the 8th stage, with 3 more he would be able to reach the peak.

Yun Jhin slowly got to work as he created a formation and took out a cauldron from his spatial ring, he was ready to concoct some pills!

A knock came from his door almost as soon as he started, it was Mingo, Yun Jhin asked him what he wanted and Mingo told him that he heard that he joined Zhu Cheng's faction, so he wondered if Yun Jhin would be able to get him inside as well.

Yun Jhin gave out a small smile to him and patted his shoulder and told him he would put in a good word for him when he talked next with Zhu Cheng, but it was up to Zhu Cheng himself if he wanted to invite him or not.

Mingo didn't say anything as he left, he knew from Yun Jhin's word that there was a very low chance of him being invited so he left to train.

Yun Jhin shook his head as he watched the poor man's figure disappear from his vision and muttered:

"Aren't you overestimating yourself?"

Yun Jhin locked the door and put a sign with do not disturb created from a formation on the door.

Yun Jhin got back to concocting the pill as he regained the concentration from before, all he needed to do was put the ingredients in the right order and turn on the formation so he could create his 3 pills...

So he started, he first cut a chunk of meat from the heart and afterward put the herbs in a certain order as he drew a pattern with his hands in the air.

After a short while and activation of the formation, Yun Jhin now had 3 glistening crimson and black pills in his hand ready for consumption, and it only took him almost 2 days of refining. It was quite a bargain for him as he didn't have to search for any ingredients.

Yun Jhin eyed the pills for a bit before he popped up one in his mouth and started cultivating, he was ready to continue refining his 3rd jewel and further his ki cultivation.