Inside the scholar's house, the group of people watched the little boss drinking the hot red liquid while red mist came out of his head...
They knew about the blue spiritual energy being rejected after going to his body, but why was it red now?
Was it because the liquid the Fire Goddess gave him contained a completely different kind of energy?
This liquid was something that only the Fire Goddess possessed.
She had found it on one of the demons who invaded their world.
The creature party had been in a fight with someone else at that time, on the other side of the passage so that she couldn't see clearly.
Then the two figures came to their side—one was a human-like creature, more than two meters tall, with black skin covering it like stone armor.
And the other one?
She didn't even see them before they disappeared.
Then she was forced to fight this dying creature and Its minions, who were a group of black demons wielding stone weapons, and they later invaded their side.
In the end, she killed them all.
This liquid was what the leader had been trying to drink before death.
When she took it from the corpse, she couldn't find any use for it and didn't dare to drink it randomly.
But because she knew this little monster could eat anything—even smoke spirit stone cigarettes—she gave it to him to test it.
Little Mortal, while sipping on his 'tea,' said,
"Do you guys want some?"
The crowd shook their heads.
Seeing the silence, Lady Butterfly, who was still worried, said,
"Boss, weren't you training the gang members? How did you get the time to visit us?"
Her parents, who ascended to the immortal world long ago, were probably part of the missing people, and her boss told her he could help her in that regard if he became the guardian.
That's why she requested Rose to ask the followers to work in the fields and complete their tasks ahead of time.
Little Mortal snorted,
"It's already done. Let me show them to you."
Then a picture appeared on a screen projected from his crystal.
In it, you could see thousands of people lying on the flat ground.
There was some farmland in the background.
The picture zoomed in and started moving so they could see clearly.
Charm Goddess furrowed her brow and said,
"Boss, aren't you in the Demoness Sect? Where did you find this muscular race from? I've never seen anyone like them!"
The gang members lying on the ground were indeed all muscular, even the children!
And they were in peak shape—not just random, unrefined muscles!
They were curious where he had found them.
Little Mortal rolled his eyes at her,
"What do you mean by 'race'? They're normal humans, like you! I trained them for hundreds of years to become like this!"
The crowd gasped!
So he'd brought his own followers with him?
And this was the result of a hundred years of training?
Were they in a dormant state now, ready to wake up and start their mission?
While the others' imaginations ran wild, Lady Butterfly suddenly saw a familiar face in the familiar place, and her heart skipped a beat.
"Boss, isn't that Rose, my granddaughter? What happened to her? She was fine last night! Why does she have so much muscle?"
The rest of them looked at who she was pointing at.
Sword God said in shock,
"That's my disciple's daughter?!"
What was the deal with all the muscles on her?!
Little Mortal, taken aback, said,
"I-I... You know, basically... Mmm, as I was saying, a hundred years have passed! The passage of time is different outside. While you were here for not even half a day, outside, a hundred years had passed! She became like this under Coach Mambod's strict training program!"
The crowd knew right away it was a lie!
So they weren't people he'd brought with him!
And all of them had been normal people just yesterday?
What had he done to them?
The big shots gulped nervously.
Lady Butterfly, trying to control her emotions, said,
"Can you explain why they're lying on the ground all together?"
"Nothing special happened. Last night—no, no, I mean, a hundred years ago last night! Yes, it was the night of a hundred years ago that I was suddenly informed by Mr. White that there was an error in our calculations."
Then he took another sip of his drink and continued,
"It turns out that the spirit creatine I gave my gang members had too much spirit energy, and because they don't have awakened spirit roots yet, that means...?"
He pointed at Old Seven, as if saying, 'You finish the sentence.'
Old Seven, suddenly dragged into the conversation, said,
"T-They can't use it?"
"Exactly! And?"
Old Seven thought for a moment.
"And they can't get rid of it either!"
Little Mortal started clapping,
"Exactly!"
Then he looked at the others.
The rest of them started clapping for Old Seven, too.
Lady Butterfly, seeing him pause, asked,
"What happened after?"
Little Mortal scratched his head.
"I asked Coach Mambod to take care of it. They'd already drunk so much that I thought they might go 'BOOM,' so I asked him to supervise this matter."
The crowd felt even more confused.
Who was Coach Mambod again?
Only Lady Butterfly had seen him once before, and she suspected it was just the boss in different clothes!
"Boss, did he tell you how things went after that?"
Now, Lady Butterfly was worried about the 'BOOM' part!
"Oh, he said they trained from midnight until morning. Then he made them drink another ten servings of the spirit creatine. This way, while they have more spirit energy, they also have more muscle."
Lady Butterfly turned pale.
"Wouldn't that make it worse? Why would he do that? Oh no, Rose!"
Charm Goddess panicked beside her.
"Oh no! My disciple is going to explode too if so many people go 'BOOM' together!"
Little Mortal rolled his eyes at them.
"Calm down! Don't be silly—they're on my team!"
Then he pointed at Lady Butterfly.
"Old rival, tell them why nothing can harm them."
Lady Butterfly was clueless.
What did he mean by 'they're on his team'?
But the Scholar, remembering something Lady Butterfly had told them, said,
"Boss, you mean nothing can happen to them because of the guardian token? I heard from Fellow Daoist Butterfly that if they get hurt, the backlash is sent to you instead. So you're saying even if it's internal, it still works?"
Little Mortal started clapping and turned to the Charm Goddess.
"See? If you go to a good school and study enough, you can be as knowledgeable and smart as him!"
The others started clapping for the Scholar's 'correct answer' this time...
Then they stared at Little Mortal and thought to themselves:
'So thousands of people on the verge of explosion are connected to him? What if they explode? Will he explode, too? Or will he send a shockwave out, like what Lady Butterfly told us about the shockwave from the capital?'
They all gulped.
Third Sister asked nervously,
"Boss, how do you feel now?"
Little Mortal, sipping his drink, was about to say 'fine,' but he suddenly spat out a mouthful of 'blood'!
He coughed a couple of times and said with difficulty,
"Don't worry about me... I-I can handle it... I just took an explosion equal to ten thousand gang members internally! But don't worry about me, I-I'm fine..."
Then he secretly glanced at the crowd to see their reaction.
The crowd was dumbfounded!
Was it for real?
Had he taken the explosion in their place so they wouldn't explode in return?
Lady Butterfly, however, was suspicious—she knew about the fake blood!
Third Sister, too, just pretended to be worried for him but didn't believe it at all.
After some random hand seals, Little Mortal said,
"Divine Technique: Full Recovery!"
Then he pretended to be healed and, after a deep breath and wiping the 'blood,' started drinking again.
Charm Goddess, who seemed to really believe all of it, asked,
"Boss, did you use a divine technique like this to catch those sect masters all together?"
Hearing the question, he suddenly became excited.
"Oh, you heard about that too! Let me tell you."
Then he placed the glass of boiling red liquid down and stood up.
"The other day, I went to see why my little brother betrayed me!"
The crowd nodded. They knew the current Emperor was his little brother now.
Charm Goddess chimed in,
"Yes, and we heard from Lady Butterfly until the part where you found out he wasn't guilty and your sister-in-law was kidnapped!"
Hearing her interrupt the story, the crowd slapped their foreheads in frustration!
'Don't you know you can't spoil the story? Especially when a child is telling it?'
And sure enough, Little Mortal froze in place!
The whole story was revealed—what else was left for him to say?
Charm Goddess covered her mouth, but it was already too late!
How did they know it was too late?
Because his following sentence showed how dissatisfied he was—and how disasters could descend when this little monster was provoked!
"Yes, so let me show you the divine technique I used there!"
And he immediately started doing his random hand seals!
The crowd panicked!
"Boss, I was wrong! I didn't mean to spoil the story!"
"Fellow Daoist Mortal, calm your anger!"
"Boss, just use it on her! We're innocent!"
Seeing the panicked crowd, Little Mortal laughed.
"Hehe, just kidding, just kidding. You guys are so easy to scare!"
The group of big shots breathed a sigh of relief—but then:
"I was kidding that I was kidding! I wasn't kidding! Divine Technique: Judgment by Age!"
Everyone's heart jumped to their throats!
They all glanced resentfully at the Charm Goddess before 'dying' or disappearing into the 'cage'!
Charm Goddess, with tears in her eyes, looked back at them with a mix of regret and sadness...
And after that... nothing happened.
They just felt their spiritual energy cut off for a moment, turning extremely weak—even weaker than mortals—before returning to normal.
Little Mortal, as if disappointed, said regretfully,
"I wasn't lucky this time either..."
Then he sat back and finished his 'tea' while generating some red smoke.
Scholar, who had been ready to run a moment ago, cleared his throat and asked,
"Boss, can you explain how your divine technique works?"
Little Mortal finished his 'tea' and looked at the others, then pointed at Fourth Brother—the former Sword God.
"Mr. Fourth, you answer this time. I'll give you a hint: the answer is in the name of the technique. 'Judgment by Age.'"
Sword God thought for a moment and said,
"It judges you and your opponent by age? We became weak when you used it just now, so it means our power reverted to the same age as you, three years old? And you said you weren't lucky this time, which means it might also work the other way—you could gain the power you can have in your opponent's age! However, because you used it on a group and couldn't match all our ages at once, it only worked this way. We all turned back to when we were three!"
The crowd nodded. As expected of the genius of an era, one of the youngest immortals in the cultivation world!
Little Mortal, on the other hand, was dumbfounded.
"So that's why I never grow up when I use it! I should use it when there's only one person, or they are all around the same age!"
The people tried to act normal—or they might start laughing at him.
He didn't even know how his own technique worked properly?
Fire Goddess, trying to change the subject, asked,
"So, Boss, did you learn this technique here, like your 'Coach Assistant'?"
Little Mortal rolled his eyes at her.
"It's a divine technique! How can you find a divine technique in a world where no one can create them in the first place? And 'Coach Assistant' is a unique technique—you can only use it in the same universe as its birthplace. It won't work everywhere like divine techniques."
The group of big shots felt that any random information coming out of this little boss could be an eye-opener!
Unique techniques?
Divine techniques?
Charm Goddess raised her eyebrow and asked with interest,
"Then where did you learn it?"
"In the library of—"
But he stopped.
The people in the hall stayed silent and waited.
'Library of...?'
"How should I know? I'm just a child."
The crowd was disappointed.
This little guy wasn't someone from whom you could take certain information out.
"Okay, let's get to serious matters.
I came here to give you guys an update about the next step of my plan."
The big shots were surprised.
"Boss, you're done with the two remaining conditions?"
The little boss shook his head.
"No, but after what happened last night, I found out that my gang members can break through their butter-neck a lot faster if I use the guardian token's loophole'."
When he said last night, everyone thought,
'He forgot it was the last night of 100 years ago!'
"So I came here to take Ronnie away with me because I knew he couldn't bring what I asked Mr. Blacksmith to build, and I need him for my gang members' motivation!
And I need to tell you guys about how we're going to conquer the Immortal World after my guardian ceremony."
They all nodded but suddenly froze.
Charm Goddess asked timidly,
"Excuse me, Boss… you said you take Ronnie, and do what after that?"
"The Immortal World—our neighboring planet. We need to conquer it."
Alright, we heard it right...
He wants to conquer that place?
Scholar asked nervously,
"Do we have a use for that planet, Boss?
I heard from Fellow Daoist Butterfly that there are only a couple of people left there, but they're all immortals, so..."
Little Mortal looked at him like he was ignorant.
"First of all, what immortals?
There are no immortals around here.
And second of all, we don't fight with them—we bet!"
They became puzzled.
"We bet what?
And what do you mean, there are no immortals?
Aren't we supposed to become immortals when we break through to the Immortal Realm?"
Little Mortal scratched his head in confusion.
"I don't know what you're talking about.
After 'Mama Mia' realm is 'Pipe' realm.
What Immortal Realm?
And for the best, I don't know yet.
I know, but that old manager should agree with it.
You guys just be ready.
There will be five matches. Whoever wins three is the winner."
Hearing his answer, they assumed Pipe Realm was the name he had given to the Immortal Realm himself, just like the rest of the realms, so they pretended not to hear anything...
Scholar asked,
"Who will be the five people from our side?"
"Me, you, and Ronnie."
Scholar, while puzzled, asked,
"Only three?"
"Yes. Each round, one side can say what the match is about.
Anything is fine if it's fair in the eyes of the Guardian Association.
For example, if you say, 'I want to have a beauty contest,' you should first send your participants in, then the other side can choose from their Guardian Special Force.
So, I use one of my birthday gifts to turn our luck around and be the first to choose.
Then I choose Ronnie—he wins.
I go second—I win whatever they challenge me with.
Then it's Mr. Scholar's turn, and he wins too.
Here you go—3-0, we won!"
At the end, he was so excited that he started cheering and clapping for the win that hadn't even happened yet!
The rest were forced to clap and cheer for the victory in a not-even-happened competition while they stared at him blankly.
'What is he talking about?
Win, win, win? Done? No need for the other two?'
Scholar tried to make sense of this "100% winning" plan.
"How can you be sure we all win?
And they have a Special Force too?
There's a guardian on their side?"
The rest nodded—good questions.
Little Mortal shook his head.
"What guardian? What Special Force?
They don't even know what a guardian is!
Even that old lady manager is clueless about it!
She might have at most heard something, but not everything.
And why we win for sure is a secret. I'll tell you on that day.
And don't worry—the easiest match is yours.
And if things don't go as planned, we have so many other backup members and guardian rules that only I know!
We can use them all against them!"
The group of big shots was shocked.
They understood why he was so confident.
The other side didn't even know there was going to be a bet that they might lose their whole planet because of it, let alone be prepared for it!
There were even some hidden rules that only one person here knew about.
They all mourned for their seniors in the Immortal World.
What is an unfair match? This is!
Little Mortal stood up and walked to Third Sister's side, sitting beside her.
Then he took out a paper and a storage ring and placed them in front of her, asking with a smile,
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the best pill maker in the cultivation world?
How are you today?"
Third Sister smiled and, without saying anything, picked up the paper and read it.
After understanding the content, she said,
"Boss, I've never made a pill like this, so it'll take a couple of days for me to learn how to make it."
Little Mortal, as if he didn't hear her at all, said,
"Oh, you can make it right away?
Then let's start—I'll help you too."
Third Sister smiled and said,
"I said I've never seen this pill formula before, so I need a couple of days to learn it."
"I heard you the first time.
So make it now. I need it for today."
Third Sister was speechless.
The rest of the audience could sense that he always treated her in a slightly rough manner.
Third Sister, who couldn't say anything else to her bully, just took out a cauldron and said,
"Just take over my body with your Harmony Technique and make it.
I'm sure you already know how it is."
The audience felt Third Sister was fearless!
But the little boy shook his head and said,
"I can't. It only works on creatures with souls from her.
And it's not Harmony—it's 'Coach Assistant'."
The crowd became shocked!
He'd said it before, too, but they didn't care because they thought any creature could be included in the category of this big and endless universe!
But not even a day had passed, and here you go—
Third Sister isn't from their world!
Third Sister was really annoyed now.
This kid had just blown up another level of cover...
"Alright, I'll do it, but if it fails, I can't do anything about it."
Little Mortal snorted.
"Fail?
You can't fail even if you want to!"
Then he stood by her side, took out a gold coin, flipped it up, and after catching it, said,
"I wish you luck in making this pill."
Everyone just looked at him and the simple, blank gold coin in his hand in puzzlement.
Third Sister glanced at it, not knowing what to think.
She can't fail even if she wants to?
Either way, she took out her cauldron and started the process.
In half an hour, her expression went from normal to shock and then frustration.
At first, everything was normal, but as she reached the middle of the process, she failed—as she'd predicted. But then, the failure was offset by another coincidence, and everything got back on track.
The first time, she felt it was a lucky coincidence, but it happened again and again!
At some point, she didn't even know what she was doing, but coincidences kept happening, and things would return to a point she could understand and continue!
Until the pill was ready.
She was frustrated now because she felt this was the pill with the most mistakes possible in the making process—but at the same time, it was the pill with the best quality she'd ever made in her life!
What even was that coin?
He just made a wish, and it was granted?
Little Mortal took the pill from her and looked at her with a mocking smile.
"A couple of days to learn this?"
Then, while shaking his head, he walked toward the door and patted the guardian token on his waist.
"Activate the guardian token for Third Sister.
With this contribution, she is officially a member of the team now."
Third Sister couldn't do anything except grit her teeth and endure when he mocked her—and be happy at the same time for being accepted as a team member.
Until now, she had been the only "outsider," and that meant she could die accidentally at any time in this little monster's hands!
But now, if that guardian token's ability were real, she'd be safe from now on.
Meanwhile, the others didn't even know what had happened.
Was it hard to make the pill or not?
At this moment, Little Mortal, on his way to the door, after a couple of steps, suddenly spat out another mouthful of "blood"!
Then he kneeled on one knee, and after a while, under the speechless gaze of the crowd,
stood up with "difficulty" while coughing and said in a heroic and determined tone,
"Cough, cough... Don't worry about me. I'm fine...
I'd rather die than let a single hair of my gang members be harmed!"
The group of big shots could only compliment him for being a young hero, unparalleled in this era!
Outside the Scholar's House
Elder Iron was standing beside the backpack.
Not long ago, when they were done building the blueprint, it had come inside and picked everything up, putting them inside itself as if they were weightless!
Blacksmith shook his head and went back to his place to rest.
He was done with his job, and he knew he'd gained a lot from this special work.
The special material he'd been working with had started covering his hand at some point, as if it was connecting to him through spiritual energy.
At some point, his fists were covered entirely, and it even started moving up toward his forearms.
Now, both of his hands were completely covered with a thin layer of this heavy material that his own will could control!
It was a fascinating material—it wasn't alive and had no intelligence, but it would react to smithing techniques and could be controlled by his thoughts, as if it could analyze information through his skin!
So after the job was done, he went back to his place to see what kind of uses it had.
He was a little worried that the little sect master might take it away, so he tried to hide from him.
Little Mortal opened the door and stepped out, spinning the small chain around his finger as he walked arrogantly.
When he saw his backpack and Elder Iron waiting for him at the door, he threw the pill to his backpack and said,
"Little Pot, I need ten thousand of this pill by the time we get back to the stronghold, so get on it!"
A little black pot floated out, "ate" the pill, and went back inside.
The crowd, who had heard about this legendary pot, finally saw it in person!
Little Mortal turned around and said to the people behind him,
"Alright, everyone, I'm leaving. See you guys at my ceremony."
Then he went to the middle of the village, kicked the leftovers of the big iron ball toward the backpack (which was in the same direction as the big shots), and gave them another round of heart attacks.
But the backpack caught the ball in time and "swallowed" it.
The audience once again felt the immense power in this little monster...
What they couldn't even move, he kicked like a ball...
Then he whistled, and as his tricycle appeared, he picked up the backpack and said,
"Sup, Ronnie?
Ready to break your butter-neck?
If yes, then jump on the backpack!"
Elder Iron said his goodbyes to the big shots and, while embarrassed, jumped on the backpack.
"I'm ready, Senior. Sorry for bothering you!"
And Little Mortal rode his tricycle out of the restricted area, leaving a sentence behind:
"Fellow Daoists, let's meet again if fate allows it!"
The group of big shots wiped the sweat from their foreheads and sighed in relief.
Scholar said,
"Fellow Daoist Butterfly, you were right.
It's a lot better here than being around him outside."
Third Sister patted her shoulder and said,
"It was hard on you..."
Lady Butterfly felt tears gathering in her eyes...
There were finally some people who could understand her difficulties in dealing with this unreasonable bully...