Chapter 855: The second day of the evaluation trial (part 8)

The previous is why Mylene when in alchemist "mode" looks at Aster as if she is seeing a mysterious fantasy creature, and seems to want to cut him up to study how his body works, very much to Aster’s amusement, it’s because his blood is simply a priceless treasure that even at mortal level can produce incredible results when added to other things.

And it’s not even limited to a single aspect where it focuses all of its power, like it happens with Vivian, though that white-haired girl can make up for it given the basically limitless variations for which her blood can be used though they would all be medicinal, toxic or alchemical related.

In Aster’s case, his blood can even be added to metals and produce better craftmanship results, it’s quite an incredible thing, but for now let’s focus in alchemic products, don’t get it wrong, Mylene using the mortal materials of this place can already create things that wouldn’t be considered normal in the mortal world, however by adding Aster’s blood to them, they outright enter the territory of things from the cultivation world, even if due to the limitations would be at the lower end.

For a mortal, even the lowest of cultivators is an existence they would have to look up to, so the medicines, elixirs and other alchemical products produced at the myriad occupation sect’s camp, are far superior to what most of others might be able to make.

Of course, Vivian wasn’t planning on explaining that to the enemy, she instead took out a pinky sized irregular sphere of a familiar looking black, green and purple color which had a layer of another yet familiar looking clear slightly white color material, covering it.

’That looks like the original color of our poison and that white layer... damn it, this woman is a poison either lineage or constitution user who can access her innate abilities just like that lizard woman from earlier!’, inwardly cursed the enemy leader.

Unlike the rest of his group, he was aware that some people might still be able to access their innate abilities which originate from either lineage or constitutions, if they are high ranked enough, have been trained enough or if the owner is talented enough, even without access to spirit energy.

And no, this wasn’t a conclusion he reached after he saw Alice’s tail smacking the bow users against the ground while breaking their legs and arms, it was something he was aware of, because even after losing access to spirit energy, or well, in their cases, after losing their cultivation via the punishment that Blue Sky had applied on him, he was like that.

Though in his case, he falls in the category of "those who have trained enough" to be able to use an innate ability without access to spirit energy, as to why he didn’t correct the wrong conclusion to which his "teammates" had reached about the regarding subject, that’s because he treated this as his trump card.

After all, while on the outside world he was far stronger than any of his subordinates, both having a higher realm and battle prowess than them, in this place he could be killed just with numbers if his subordinates turned back on him.

So, he kept a thing or two hidden to deal with such a situation, but now, all of that no longer mattered because that scale tailed girl with red-eyes could kill him head on, whether he used his constitution’s ability or not.

"Damn it!", the leader who had actually deduced what had happened with their poison, which had all of its toxins gathered and concentrated into that irregular finger sized object and was then sealed by a concentrated layer of the antidote which resulted from the poison having its toxins extracted, couldn’t help but curse out loud.

"Ha!", with a loud shout, the legs of the leader tensed, the veins on them bulged and then a bright yellow circuit-like pattern which could be seen through the pants that the enemy was wearing, appeared on his leg’s skin.

"Crack!", the ground cracked a bit below the enemy leader’s feet as he... shot through the distance.

Yep, all that preparation wasn’t done with the idea of charging at Vivian in the slightest, the enemy leader apparently had a constitution, which was yang related by the way, that focused in increasing his leg strength and he used it to increase his speed to run.

"Mmm, that’s definitely not what I expected was going to happen, but miss Mina’s plans are flawless indeed", mumbled Vivian as she saw the enemy leader rushing into the distance to then crush the small black object with her hand.

Which would have normally resulted in a rancid and actually acid enough substance to melt flesh, bones and even corrode the ground, to be released, had it not been done while in contact with Vivian’s hand.

Not only did the bits and pieces of the black object didn’t cause any reaction, but they turned into powder which was then absorbed by Vivian’s pretty pale skin.

’It’s not even close to be as good as sister Mylene’s poisons but the large quantity allowed for a decent medicinal effect to be produced by my heavenly benevolence, besides... I’m not the same as back then either~’, thought the white-haired girl as she gazed at the direction at which the enemy leader had rushed to, before.

Speaking of which, the enemy leader had really increased his speed, when compared to earlier when he travelled through the camp to reach the area where the poison container was kept, he was around three times faster.

An adult normal human can run as fast as close to 10 kilometers per hour, while an athlete at Olympic competition level can triple that, those at the top might quadruple the base, of course this speed can’t be kept for a long period of time, world record holders reach that and maintain it barely for a couple of seconds, in which they can travel 20 to 30 meters at most.

But we are not speaking about a normal mortal, but a secondary body path cultivator who also has a body constitution, so not only was his base speed higher despite not having done the training needed to achieve such a thing in a mortal state, being around 20 kilometers per hour, but now that it had tripled, he reached 60 kilometers per hour and could maintain it continuously for around five minutes.

With such a speed, the enemy could have reached the wall at the extreme opposite side of the camp if he moved in a straight line, considering that in the minute which had elapsed since the moment he rushed away from Vivian’s vicinity, he could have travelled almost a whole kilometer.

Instead, the enemy leader had zig-zagged through the empty refuges that were built to make enemies who might appear, to think that there were more people in this camp than what there really was, so he only got away around half a kilometer from Vivian.

And it was for a good reason of course, an experienced mercenary like him wouldn’t put all the eggs in a single basket, so the enemy leader had a second plan in case the original one failed one way or another.

Which is why he rushed straight into one of the "random" empty refuges that were there just for the sake of appearances, only to be met with a sight that made him curse.

"What the hell, so that bastard did betray me", he cursed with a low voice as he saw the hole in the ground of the empty refuge where he kept a secret stash of both "valuable" objects and a separate reserve of poison to use in case something happened to the main container.

Only one person knew about this, besides himself and that was the vice-leader, amusingly enough that guy who used to be the third in command before Alice utterly destroyed him earlier, despite his tricks and what costed him to get his so wanted ascension, wasn’t even trusted enough to know about this.

"Fucking bad luck!", said the enemy leader as he rushed out of the refuge, one would believe that he would then try to leave the camp by now, but no, like previously stated he wouldn’t put all the eggs in a single basket, so of course he had taken into account a situation in which his vice-leader would betray him.

Which is why the enemy leader once again used his fastest speed to move through the camp towards his second secret stash, one that only he knew about and prepared for this kind of situation.

So, imagine his expression when he was met with the sight of a pretty white-haired girl, casually standing while leaning her back against a tree, there was an empty hole in the ground relatively close to said tree.

’No way, how the hell did she arrive here before me and more importantly, was she the one who took the things in my secret emergency storage... no, with her pale skin, even the slightest traces of dirt would be easily noticeable, so she wasn’t the one who dug out that hole’, thought the enemy leader.

His mind was in chaos right now, but he still reached a proper conclusion the next second.

’One of those bastards must have seen me hiding away my stuff and told it to that guy, what’s more this white-haired girl might very well be a double constitution owner with poison manipulating and speed increasing abilities, damn bad luck...’, just as the enemy leader was cursing his luck once again, as if she could read his mind, Vivian casually added.

"You seem to believe that this was a result of simple "bad luck", but can such a thing explain why I knew where to wait for you, though I’m indeed faster than you", said the white-haired girl as she reached out for the spear that was mounted on her back.

"Crack!", very similar to how it was when the enemy leader had suddenly gone all out with his speed, the ground below Vivian’s feet produced a shattering sound as she charged, the difference is that she did so towards the enemy unlike the leader.

’She is really faster than me, damn it!’, cursed the leader to his insides, as the bright yellow lines on his legs became visible through his pants again, allowing him to barely react in time to avoid the spear’s slash that was aimed at his right shoulder.

With a "swoosh", the spearhead’s edge missed its target and the enemy leader gritted his teeth, now he had no choice but to abandon the camp without being able to cause chaos to prevent the enemies from going after him.

The two secret storages he had prepared, had dried branches and leaves laced in poison, which might not be enough separately to produce toxic smoke strong enough to kill the enemy, but the leader was planning to use the ones of both storages which should have made up for the lack in poison.

Alternatively, just the ones from a single storage while not enough to kill, would still keep the enemies occupied, buying him time to leave safely, but now, neither of the previous was possible.

And what was worse is that the enemy was also a speed increasing ability owner, that being said the enemy leader didn’t despair yet.

’Given her fragile appearance, her poison talent part must be the predominant one, and there is no way she who doesn’t look as if she had done any kind of manual labor in her whole life is a secondary body path cultivator, so while she might surpass me in terms of speed, I will win in a contest of endurance’, concluded the enemy leader.

Like previously stated, his constitution is yang related, which means that he also has a decently high vitality and that translates in better endurance than normal, which is why he is able to maintain his maximum speed for such a "long" period of time as five continuous minutes, out of which he has used almost two of them by the way.

"You want to keep the camp so much, fine, I’ll let you have it for now!", said the enemy leader as he rushed into the distance.

"Crack!", it’s just that this time and as he expected, the white-haired girl followed after him, the enemy leader already knew that Vivian was faster than him, otherwise she wouldn’t have arrived at his second destination before him, even if she somehow knew about it, but seeing Vivian nearly catching up to him on a couple of seconds, nearly made the enemy have a heart attack.

"Damn it, fine, try to follow me and see what happens!", shouted the enemy leader as he continued running, reaching the wall of the camp before a minute had elapsed, to then use his impulse to jump said wall and continue rushing into the distance.

’That’s right, follow me, once you get tired, I’ll fucking kill you for being a nuisance!’, inwardly cursed the enemy leader as he saw Vivian also jumping the wall and continuing her pursue.

Needless to say, but when another minute which basically represented a whole kilometer of distance travelled by the enemy in which Vivian managed to catch up to him four times but had her attacks dodged by the enemy leader every time, the latter started to worry.

And when half into the last continuous minute of which the enemy leader could move at his maximum speed passed, and he saw that Vivian was still on his tail, then the enemy leader gritted his teeth as he stopped running.

"You bitch, you aren’t a poison ability owner right, how dare you trick me!", exclaimed the enemy leader, clearly the white-haired girl in front of him was a speed and endurance ability owner like him, otherwise with such a frail-looking body there is no way she could continuously move at such high speed without tiring herself at all.

’If that’s the case, given that her speed is higher than mine and her endurance doesn’t seem to lose to mine either, then she must lack in terms of physical strength’, thought the enemy leader as he unsheathed his bone sword and then made an abrupt turn to charge at the white-haired girl who actually put on a surprised expression.

"I’ve got you...", the enemy leader who was excited over his theory being "right", had his words stuck in his throat at scene that unveiled in front of him.

"Crack!", that was the sound of the enemy’s bone sword which by the way was made from the bones of one of the "abnormal" animals that had started appearing after the leader’s group was met with those horrifying blue flames, shattering on the spot.

And nope, that wasn’t caused by the steel spearhead of the white-haired girl’s weapon, which the enemy leader would have been still able to understand, it happened because that fragile-looking girl casually... smacked her left hand at the bone sword.

Why did Vivian who had the reflexes to casually smack a bone sword being slashed out of nowhere at her, looked surprised earlier you wonder, well, the answer for both us and the enemy later came in the form of Vivian’s amused next words.

"Woah, miss Mina’s prediction was so accurate it’s incredible, how funny~", said Vivian.

’No fucking way, but if she is also strong then, she shouldn’t have anything to do with poison!’, inwardly screamed the enemy leader as he took out a hidden bone knife which had a black paste-like substance applied to its scabbard to keep it coated in it, to then slash it at Vivian.

The enemy leader didn’t aim for a vital nor a relatively important spot, because doing so would trigger the enemy’s survival instincts which would make it easier for her to dodge or block, but for a non-lethal random part of the enemy’s body, her left upper arm.

"Clang!", only to see in despair how his bone knife couldn’t cut through the leather jacket that was the only thing covering the arm of the white-haired girl.

The only vital areas that were out in the "open" for the girls of the sect were their necks and faces, the rest was covered by their clothes and light metal protection, with the interference of the leather jacket Vivian was wearing, the enemy didn’t expect to cut off her arm, nor leave a deep wound, but that was fine, he only needed a small cut to apply the poison.

Unfortunately, said leather jacket was a brigandine, so his bone knife was stopped in cold by the steel plaques sewn and glued into the leather jackets that conformed said brigandine.

Not like it would have mattered as the sight of Vivian casually grabbing onto the jagged but still sharp poison coated knife with her hand to then... crush it on the spot, suggested

"Crack!", then before the enemy leader could react, a small fist when compared to the one of the target, landed on his face.

"Ack!", the enemy leader, a heavy adult male who is also a secondary body path cultivator, flew a dozen of meters due to the impact produced by a slender and fragile-looking young girl who seemed to incarnate the white color and then before he managed to react, a white figure descended from above and landed on his right leg.

"Crack!", thus completely breaking said leg’s bones.

"Aghhhhh!", which of course forced a pained scream from the enemy, he didn’t faint from the shock though, and for a good reason, Vivian didn’t hit his face with all her strength, because the enemy leader had to be able to talk given that he had some questions to answer.

"Mmm, you shouldn’t have more than a couple of seconds left of that speed increasing innate ability anyway, but just to be sure, reducing your mobility by breaking one leg should be enough", said Vivian as her nose twitched a couple of times, making her look at the protective glove she was wearing on the hand with which she crushed the knife of the enemy leader.

"Oh, this is a type of toad poison different than the one we have at our camp, let’s see...", mumbled the white-haired girl as she removed her protective glove to then, under the eyes of disbelief of the enemy leader casually tough the black paste on the glove with her bare fingers.

"Hahaha, dumb bitch, that paste was done with poison from one of those abnormal animals, combined with other things, now you are dea... what!!!", the enemy leader who was gloating over the "stupid" actions of the white-haired girl, nearly lost it when he saw the black paste drying up and then turn into soft colorless ashes while most of its volume "disappeared" as it was absorbed by Vivian’s skin.

"Nearly instant blinding, dizziness and tissue destruction effects, not bad, I can use it to improve our medicines and to produce a much more stable and soft boosting elixir with sister Mylene’s help~", happily said the white-haired girl, which finally made the enemy lose it.

He could accept that the white-haired girl turned out to have a strong physical reinforcing ability, despite her appearance he might have underestimated someone who was accompanying that terrifying red-eyed girl from earlier.

But he couldn’t understand how the hell did the enemy was capable of all the previously seen physical related feats and also of manipulating toxins like that.

"Are you not limited to mortal level, who the hell are you guys!!!", he shouted on the spot, the only outcome to which the enemy leader could come to, is that he was facing enemies that like them originally, didn’t lose access to spirit energy.

And he couldn’t be honestly blamed for it, you see, certainly Aster’s camp is not the only one where people that can use a lineage or constitution ability without resorting to spirit energy, you have pretty much seen that already, even this mercenary group from a heavenly quadrant that just recently had joined a divine firmament, had someone like that.

However, even among these exceptions, the mercenary leader with his scope that included that of a decently high ranked divine firmament, to which their newly ascended firmament formed by the flame meridian heavenly quadrant, the frost despair heavenly quadrant and another two that were dragged in as well, now formed a part to, wasn’t aware of anyone that could use such different abilities while limited to mortal level.

It would have been different if the white-haired girl was just resistant to poison, then alongside her capacity to boost her speed, endurance and strength, all would fall within the physical boosting ability, one that was abnormally strong, meaning that her lineage/constitution was anything but normal, but it would be still within reasonable territory.

But that was proven to not be the case, and so, the only term of which the enemy leader could think when he saw the white-haired girl in question, after witnessing the previous was, "monster".

"Y-You, don’t tell me, you are divine royalty, no, a crown princess, but then why would you even bother messing with us, we don’t even come from a divine empire!", exclaimed the enemy leader to which Vivian softly snorted.

"Humph, trash who likes to abuse the weak but cozies up to the strong is better living in fear of the "unknown", well, what you expect is also going to happen and I’m sure sister Mina can make you fear it as much as not knowing at whose hands or why you received such treatment, just like those poor girls did", said the white-haired girl.