Chapter 169: Picking up the rewards.
While Watkin was cursing into empty air, Yao Jun was making his way through the shadows, rapidly moving away from Watkin, a smile appearing on his face. His abdomen hurt, and his hands were numb, but he felt like letting out a loud laugh. Watkin was about the same strength as Yuan Shen had been last time they had fought, back then Yao Jun had only been able to dodge around and flee, but now he was able to fight head on. While fighting Yuan Shen, most of his elements would be unavailable, but he was confident that he could still properly fight even if he only used his lightning, ice, and space elements.
But Yao Jun did not let this confidence go to his head, nor did he grow complacent. After all, Watkin only had the strength that Yuan Shen had the last time they fought. Time had passed since then, so Yuan Shen had likely grown stronger already. After all, as the person holding the Element God's Gate, he only had to absorb the elements to grow stronger faster. Yao Jun on the other hand, had to find strong Demonic beasts if he wanted to grow stronger quickly.
And Yuan Shen wasn't even alone. He also had Qiao Xian Yi, who was even stronger, and there was also clearly someone else behind them. To command two people who had God Gates, the one who commanded them was clearly much stronger than the two of them. Yao Jun had grown stronger, but he could not stay idle, he could clearly feel the pressure that was on him. While moving through the shadows, Yao Jun sent a quick message to Ba-Shei.
“Ba-Shei, return to the gate for now. The battle should end rather soon.”
Yao Jun had caused four of the enemy squads to lose their formation, and even Watkin's squad had been destabilized heavily because of their battle. Battling any longer would result in more deaths than the enemy was willing to suffer, at least that was what Yao Jun guessed. Ba-Shei gave a quick confirmation, returning to the gate with a single thought.
Yao Jun quickly reached his own squad, jumping out of the shadows when he reached a place where no one could spot him, sneaking forward and joining up with his own squad unnoticed. Just like Yao Jun guessed, the battle only continued for another half hour before the people from the Final Fire clan called for a retreat, the two armies separating and returning to their own camps. Seeing how clean the retreat was, Yao Jun could not help but be surprised, neither army even thought about attacking the enemy as they were retreating.
While retreating, Yao Jun was chatting with Reyner and the others, who were all happy that the others had survived through the first battle. They were a bit worried about Yao Jun, who had the lowest cultivation among them, but they were relieved when they saw that he had no wounds, leaving them marveling at the might of the armor he had been given. Facing their awe-struck gazes, Yao Jun merely gave a non-committal smile.
Once they returned to the camp, which had been set up by the squads that had been left behind before the battle, they were assigned their quarters. Since they were the weakest squads, their quarters were located at the outskirts of the entire camp, allowing them to serve as vanguards in case there was a night attack. Upon returning to the camp, the soldiers in each squad moved to report to their Squad Captains, who would then report to the Division Leaders, who would then continue to report the results of the battle upwards.
While they were doing that, Yao Jun quietly snuck away, casually moving through the camp. Yao Jun did not even need to ask which tent belonged to Diana, as there was a tent at the very center of the camp that was clearly more grandiose than the rest. Looking at the tent, and comparing it to the tent Diana used before they arrived here, it was clear that this tent was not set up by her, but was set up for her by someone else.
Outside the tent stood two guards clad in ashen armor, each holding a long halberd. The two guards were a little over three meters tall, but the halberds were still longer than them, prompting Yao Jun to wonder how they even wielded weapons that long, even with their height. As he stepped closer, the two guards crossed their halberds, preventing him from moving further. Before they got the chance to question him Diana's voice rang out from within the tent.
“You can let him in.”
The two guards straightened out their halberds, no longer looking at Yao Jun. They no longer looked at him, but they still released a strong pressure that told him that they would not accept him attempting anything strange. Yao Jun walked past the guards and entered the tent, giving the insides a quick glance.
Despite the grandiose appearance of the tent, the inside was decorated sparsely, much closer to how Diana preferred it. Glancing at one corner, Yao Jun could see that there were quite a few packed into a large box, so he guessed that she might have removed all the previous decorations and furniture, only keeping the bare minimum, which was a single bed, a large table and a few chairs.
Diana was sitting behind the table, looking over several papers that were scattered across the table. But she was clearly in a better mood than she had been when Yao Jun last saw her, the furrow on her brow somewhat receded. She did not look up from the papers she was reading, pointing at the seat in front of her as she spoke up.
“Take a seat. The reward for the four heads are in that interspatial ring there, you can keep whatever they had on their bodies when you killed them.”
Yao Jun sat down in the seat that Diana had pointed at, picking up the yellow interspatial ring that was placed on the table. He played with the interspatial ring a little, turning his gaze towards Diana, a somewhat surprised expression on his face.
“You already know that I killed them, huh.”
The battle had ended just now, yet she had already learned about the captains he had killed, even preparing the reward already. Had she made someone spy on him? Or was her information network just that good. While Yao Jun was pondering over it, Diana raised her head slightly, glancing at him with a calm expression, as if the answer was self-evident.
“I know the strength of everyone in my army, everyone but you that is. None of the people I sent out for the first battle have the strength to sneak into the enemy formation and kill the captain, and they certainly did not have the strength to fight against a Watkin surrounded by his own soldiers. So it can't be any of the soldiers I sent out to fight, leaving only you and your unknown strength. It doesn't require much thought.”
She was the General of the entire army, it was her duty to know exactly how strong every single one of her soldiers were. She even knew the strength of the soldiers that had only joined recently, having been present at all the training and sparring they had done. Hearing her response, Yao Jun gave a slight nod of his head.
“Fair enough. The heads are in here, I have no need for them, so you can use them to boost morale or something like that.”
He took out the interspatial ring where he had stored the four heads, placing it on the table as he shrugged his shoulders. He did not know what she was going to do with the heads, or if she was even going to use them for anything, but he didn't really care. He sank his mind into the interspatial ring that he had been given, surprise appearing on his face when he saw the contents.
“Hoh? You also use Spirit Stones as currency? These should be Spirit Grade, right?”
Spirit Stones were not unfamiliar to Yao Jun, it was the same currency that was used by cultivators on his own planet. They were created when enough Qi gathered together and crystallized, forming crystals of varying sizes. They were divided into several different grades, based on how much Qi they contained, as well as how pure the Qi was. If he remembered correctly, they were divided into Mortal, Spirit, Earth, Heaven, and the fabled Primordial and Empyrean Grades. Diana gave a slight nod of her head, giving the interspatial ring she had been given a quick glance before putting it away.
“Correct. Squad Captains are only worth Spirit Grade Stones. Division Leaders and above will give you Earth Grade Stones. Once you have gathered enough, I can also help you convert them to a higher grade.”
Yao Jun put the interspatial ring away, pretending to put it into another interspatial ring, but in reality, he put it into his God Gate for safekeeping. He did not leave after storing away the interspatial ring, leaning back a bit in the chair as he questioned Diana.
“When will the next battle take place?”
Only by taking part in battle could Yao Jun earn more money and sharpen his skills, so he was quite eager to go back into battle and temper himself in the forge that was brutal combat. Diana rolled her eyes for a short moment as she thought, putting down the paper in her hand and picking up a different one. After glancing at the paper, she gave a blunt response
“The next battle will take place in four days, but your squad won't be part of that one. The next battle for your squad should be in about a month. If you are not satisfied with that, you can tag along with the others when they battle, but I won't guarantee your life. If you die, you die.”
Yao Jun did not immediately respond, sinking into a short silence as he thought it over. After thinking it over for a bit, he stood up from the chair and headed for the exit of the tent, giving an unclear answer.
“We'll see. I'll come back once I have more heads.”
Yao Jun was uncertain whether or not he would risk tagging along with the other squads as they went out to battle, they would face stronger enemies after all. He decided that he would first return to his quarters and check out the spoils he had acquired during the battle. If he was lucky, there might be something among there that would allow him to increase his strength.