Although he was a man of few words, Xiang Jiao guided them out of the jungle.

“Left.”

“Straight”

“Right.”

That’s all he said throughout the journey, and they followed his instructions. They finally got out of the jungle and arrived into a familiar area. Ye Tian said, “Okay, since we’re near the city, Xiang Jiao, I don’t really know what your plan is, but if you want to come along with us, you are more than welcome. However, we’re currently is need of zoids, so we’re planning to do bounty missions to earn our living. If you’re sticking with us, then we need you to register as a bounty hunter as well.”

“That’s fine,” Xiang Jiao responded.

All three went to the guild alliance center to get Xiang Jiao registered and tested. Wang Rong guided him since he was a part of Ye Tian’s party. A few hours later, Xiang Jiao came out of the exam with his usual monk posture. Ma Qian grabbed Xiang Jiao’s book and looked at his rank. “Xiang Jiao – S Rank Bounty Hunter.” Ma Qian was disappointed once again. He was hoping that Xiang Jiao was bit less talented than him. Why are there so many geniuses popping up everywhere now?

“Ma Qian, you can keep my book,” Xiang Jiao said and walked away. He didn’t want to bother carrying such things anyway. Ma Qian turned out to be the squire of the group, but he didn’t realized it.

Back inside the inn, they strategized on how they could use each others strengths to complete some of the missions most effectively. They could actually complete three missions if things goes well for tomorrow. As they finished strategizing, Xiang Jiao suddenly asked Ma Qian, “Are you gay?”

“What?”

“Are you gay, homosexual. Do you like boys?” Xiang Jiao asked again, but this time with more clarity.

“Hell no! Why would you think that?” Ma Qian responded angrily.

Xiang Jiao only nodded and did not respond any further. Ma Qian was furious. He didn’t want any misunderstandings and he wanted to be clear that he is 1000% straight as a wolf. Seeing that a conflict was about to start, Ye Tian sighed and said, “Ma Qian relax. It’s just a misunderstanding. Xiang Jiao kept seeing you grinding at Wang Rong during the exam. But there was another man besides her and it looked like you were grinding at him instead of Wang Rong.”

Ma Qian felt embarrassed. He did remember there was a man close to Wang Rong, but he continued to ignore that man. How would that man have felt seeing Ma Qian grinding constantly, and it seemed like the target was him? Now that he thought over it, it was reasonable that Xiang Jiao thought of him like that. Ma Qian did not want to think any further embarrassing stuff he has done. Ignorance is bliss!

“I’m not gay! There are three things that I admire the most – Zoids, Women, …..and more beautiful women!” Ma Qian emphasized before going to bed. Everyone begin to sleep in preparation for tomorrow’s mission.

Morning arrived, and everyone was set and ready for the big day. All the missions they chose were to kill specific wild beast that are in the supreme dao realm cultivation, except for the last one which was at the infinite dao realm. With the team as a support and Ye Tian doing the heavy load, it should be relatively easy to complete these missions.

Inside the forest, the team decided to first target the infinite dao beast. They laid out traps and and secured a couple of places to escape in case things didn’t go as planned. Ma Qian became the bait of the team. What luck? His vines have high defensive ability and can at least temporarily save him from a crisis. Ma Qian had a very gloomy face. After all, how the hell can he face an infinite dao beast when he can’t even beat a supreme dao beast?

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Ma Qian walked slowly without the vines. The vines would prevent the beast from biting the bait. “Ma Qian, walk faster, you coward!” Ye Tian whispered angrily while hiding high up above the tree, while Xiang Jiao was hiding in another place. “Screw you, you do it then!” Ma Qian responded quickly. A few minutes have passed, only to see Ma Qian walking baby steps one inch at a time like a geisha.

He knew this was ridiculous but he was scared and nervous. After a few minutes, Ma Qian gathered up his courage and started walking normally deeper towards where the beast resides. For the next 10 minutes, Ma Qian kept on walking. Everything was as quiet as a cemetery. No other beasts was around the area, because they knew the territory was exclusive controlled by this powerful beast. Ye Tian continued surveying the scene ahead of him while Xiang Jiao was seen writing his name on a tree branch with a stone. He felt Ma Qian was some kind of gay devil, which was against his beliefs, and that kind of irritated him while on this mission.

“Helppppp meeeee!” Ma Qian yells while jumping like a trampoline by summoning his vines to help him escape faster. Ye Tian sees Ma Qian running back and this is the time for him to act according to plan. Ma Qian passes by Ye Tian, who’s hiding on top of the tree, then stops at a certain location, turns around, and starts whispering a spell. The moment the infinite wild beast almost passes by Ye Tian, Ye Tian transforms into a water dragon and dives towards the wild beast. The wild beast senses danger but is too late to react. The water dragon opens his jaws and bites deeply into the infinite beast’s neck, while the beast struggles wildly until the water dragon lost the grip and crashes to the ground. While Ye Tian’s water dragon is biting the beast, Xiang Jiao starts activating his massive beads and starts rotating around his body. One bead flies near the beast and starts releasing sleeping gas. Another bead flies near the beast and transforms into multiple needles and pierces the beast’s vital areas. Then another bead flies near the beast, transforms into a gigantic pole, then continually bashes the beast’s head. His attacks won’t be enough to severely injure the beast, but it’s enough to distract, delay, and cause a few wounds. The remaining beads continue to revolve around Xiang Jiao while everything else is happening.

Ma Qian raises his hands and his vines start to tie up the 3 legs of the beast. The vines forms like a rope but with the addition of curved spikes. As the vines twist around the beast’s legs, the spikes are able to cut and pierce the skin. The spikes has another special ability – poison! Anything the vines pierce will also be poisoned. But one of the beast’s legs is able to escape and whips a sonic beam towards Ma Qian. Ma Qian surrounds himself with vines that acts like a capsule shield. The beam crashes into the vines, but Ma Qian’s capsule shield can’t take further impact and flies backward until he crashes into another tree.

Ye Tian, from the distance, unleashes the water dragon again and bites the beast’s jaw to avoid the beast from opening his massive jaws. Ye Tian then quickly dashes and takes out a black sword, and stabs the beast’s forehead with lightning speed. The beast’s roars become quieter and quieter after 30 seconds. The pierced forehead on the beast starts shining as it opens wider. Inside the forehead is the monster core. Once it’s taken out, the beast can no longer live. Ye Tian grabs the monster core and pulls it out of the beast’s forehead and moves back quickly, before it unleashes a red poison from the beast’s body. The beast falls to the ground heavily and no sign of life is left after the monster core was pulled out.

Xiang Jiao wasn’t injured. Ye Tian was slightly injured, but Ma Qian took the heavy blow as his head was bleeding. Poor him. As they looked at the lifeless infinite dao beast, they were happy to have completed their first mission. The three legged beast had a racoon-like head where the jaws could open wider than the head. The body was about 6 meters long and had lots of white and golden furs. The eyes were golden colored and shaped like a pentagon. All of these, if extracted,  would be given a nice amount of zoids if they were to be returned in good condition.

Ye Tian activated his storage ring and the body of the beast was sucked into the ring. He looked at Xiang Jiao and saw he wasn’t injured. Then he looked at Ma Qian sitting on the ground lying on the tree he crashed to. Ma Qian gave him a thumbs up, and then fainted…..Ye Tian felt a bit relieved, although he was injured, half a day of rest and a healing potion would do the trick. He took out a mini crystal in which he inserted into Ma Qian’s body. This was a healing potion to help Ma Qian recover faster. He then said to  Xiang Jiao, “Xiang Jiao, can you carry him while we do the next mission. I think I’ll be able to handle the supreme dao beast alone, but please continue to support me at a distance while guarding Ma Qian.”

Xiang Jiao nodded. After all his job was pretty easy. He had nothing to complain when Ye Tian will be doing the whole dirty work. They moved to another place in the forest while Xiang Jiao was seen dragging Ma Qian on the ground by the foot, not carrying!

First mission completed!