Chapter 16: A Way Out

“‘Everything’, you say?” One of the women in the group accompanying General Logan, slender and young looking lass, blurted. “What insanity! What gall!” She emanated fluctuations of the fourth Martial Mortal level, coalesced with fiery attribute energy.

“Am I?” Zax emitted a vicious glare at the woman. An invisible undulation traversed the distance between them in a blink of an eye and sunk into her glabella, while Zax watched in expectation.

“Argh!” The woman groaned in pain. For a brief moment her pupils were unfocused and when they regained their clarity, the white in her eyes turned reddish.

A long range soul attack of a fifth level Martial Mortal who is not specializing in the soul will not harm a fourth level Martial Mortal, but the one Zax delivered contained a trace of dark element.

“Omina, stand still!” General Logan ordered. He hurriedly tapped her glabella and by the time he removed his finger, the slender Omina’s complexion recovered.

“You are not proficient with the soul”. General Logan commented to Zax. “The strength of your soul attack was overbearing, but that is due to the Mortal Enlightenment state and the portion of element energy you possess”.

“It was merely an experiment”. Zax declared, still scowling, though inwardly he agreed with General Logan. Despite his innately unique soul and the decision to study more on soul’s techniques and formations, there was too little quality material available to learn from for his level and to develop something of his own was too time consuming.

Omina bit her lower lip and reluctantly kept quiet. She, like Debuk Jin, served as General Logan subordinate since before finding this planet. Her grasp of the overall situation calculated variables a bumpkin from a remote Plain, such as Zax, could not comprehend. There was a limit for how much she could indulge Zax. Even if he will sooner or later have his Evolutionary Ascension and she will forever be stuck as a Mortal, those she and her General answer to are way above the Heavenly Immortal rank.

“Be specific with what you want”. General Logan requested. Obviously he did not take seriously Zax’s ridiculous outburst; otherwise he might as well give escape to Horn Kikon and seek his help in dealing with Zax, a possibility he counted the latter took into consideration.

“Set aside my uncompromised demand for revenge on the Dewgong family”, Zax’s killing intent temporarily subsided. “If you don’t have something of similar value to God made dark attribute’s essences, then how do you imagine yourself capable of compensating me?!”

“By trading quantity for quality”. General Loran’s reply hinted that he already deliberated on the issue. “As long as we are in Ercas Mir, resources of equal value to God Demirva’s dark attribute’s essence are not available to me, however cultivation resources of a bit lower quality I have in abundance”.

“Will they be sufficient in nurturing a fourth level Martial Mortal?” From Gid Chu Zax learned that the person controlling the Mercenary Association, Sheldon was the previous and first cultivator to absorb a perfect God made dark attribute’s essence and that through it he reached the fifth Martial Mortal level. His stolen dark attribute’s essences were second rate goods in comparison, but were still the God made; therefore they could still bring forth a fourth level Martial Mortal with a chance for greater heights. Hence, his query was more than reasonable.

“This ... I can’t promise”. General Logan was compelled to admit, yet his disposition had not dithered. “But a regiment of third level Martial Mortal is achievable, and that may be of greater worth than a pair of fourth level Martial Mortals”.

For most cultivators, the third level of the Martial Mortal realm was a threshold in the understanding of the attributes. Succeeding to cross it is a testimony to one’s future prospects, at least on the Mortal path.

“I don’t need a regiment. I would rather have a set future for one or three people close to me”. Zax claimed. “Something else, offer me something other than cultivation resources, if you aren’t able to put up a treasure equal in quality to my dark attribute’s essences”. He deliberately pressed on General Logan, for there was something he wanted, which a composed General Logan would only make difficult to obtain.

This time, General Logan was not in a rush to make offers, as he was forced to a tricky spot. The Blessed Army did have quite a few things that could be traded for the dark attribute’s essence, but the reason they were precious was because they were not of this planet. Initially, he believed that he could appease Zax with cultivation resources, as many as he will desire – the Blessed Army accumulated plenty of resources fit for the Mortal realm from its voyages in space and thousands of years on this sprouting cultivation planet. Now it no longer seemed to be the case.

“Name what you want”. He stopped being in the mood to entertain this guessing game. Worse comes to worst, he was prepared to escape and contact Horn Kikon.

“Release senior Ariel from his oath”. Zax demanded.

“Done”. General Logan did not quibble and before Zax’s voice faded and the Lieutenant Generals behind could react, he let out white smoke from his spatial ring, residues of whatever means he possessed to bound Ariel.

While the others could only see white smoke, Ariel had also felt something inside of him being set free. The shackles that restricted him in favor of the Blessed Army were removed without harming his cultivation base.

“At the day he would have returned to Voltic Star I had planned to rescind your oath anyway”. General Logan told Ariel. Ultimately, the former strongest human indigenous was an extraordinary talent he truly wanted to foster.

“You are free now, senior Ariel”, Zax said without the slightest indication of satisfaction. “Collect your stuff and the personal you care about, you’re leaving with me”.