Pow!
Bian's punch turned the ground to dust, but Black Wind Spirit dispersed just before the hit connected.
His body turned into blades of pitch-black wind blades which rained down on Bian's armor, but they could only rattle the Silver-Plated Armor.
"What a weird ability, he can still track the surroundings using the airflow although his senses are blocked."
Bian looked up at the geno core of Black Wind Spirit. It looked like a football, but the white patches were gray while the black patches were missing.
It vacuumed in the air in the surroundings and generated dangerous black winds.
"Wow, so eager, you didn't even give me a chance to introduce myself."
A voice spoke from the wind around Bian. Black Wind Spirit had become like a breeze and was completely indistinguishable from swirling black winds.
Bian slashed out with his palm and sent a sword beam to the geno core, but the black winds diverted his attacks, causing the slash to miss by an inch.
An annoying cackle echoed from the wind which was now growing into a storm. Black Wind Spirit grew stronger as the battle progressed; most opponents would concede once they couldn't defeat him in the first few minutes.
The Bronze Cauldron couldn't really be used for fighting, so Bian had to resolve this issue himself.
Using the Dongxuan Sense, the world collapsed into sequence chains, and each structure had its own unique composition.
Black wind blades flew towards Bian, but he punched them into oblivion.
"What!"
The voice in the wind sounded astonished.
Bian flew towards the geno core in the sky like a deity. Every punch scattered those black winds like they were a gentle breeze.
Black Wind Spirit tried to move his geno core, but Bian was too fast. He had already reached the core and slapped down on the weakest point in its structure chain.
Pang!
The entire structure began to unravel, and the geno core turned to dust.
"Argh!"
A blood-curdling scream resounded from the leftover black air.
Bian called out the Emperical Aura again. Those who died in its light were doomed to be swallowed into silence beyond revival.
This Black Wind Spirit was not a good person! The main danger of black wind wasn't the big blades but the small yin wind which kept trying to pierce Bian's armor.
A normal person wouldn't even know how they died as the Black Yin Winds invaded their bodies and destroyed their organs.
Without the support of his geno core, the body of Black Wind Spirit unwillingly reformed and fell out of the sky with blood spilling from his mouth.
"I ~ "
Before he could get a word out, a punch landed on his face, turning the spirit to dust.
In a glorious and magnificent spirit hall, a tall statue stood with several guards on the side.
Suddenly, the black diamond-shaped crystal embedded in the forehead of the statue began to emit a resplendent indigo light before it burst into a rain of specks.
"Who dares! Who killed my son!" The thunderous voice of a furious emperor boomed, but no one could answer him.
...
Bian left the battle without a single gain and immediately chose to level up the Cauldron after it received its due share from the Solum Mirror.
Upgrading the Bronze Cauldron gave Bian a noticeable power boost because it was the geno core of the inner pillars which had the body pillar which, in turn, had absorbed jadeskin.
Now he felt that he could easily destroy the core of those scorpion golems with a single strike.
All of his self geno cores had reached silver rank, but they had yet to be strengthened.
Bian got the Altering Brush to be scanned by Rockman. It got first position in the Silver rankings and knocked the previous first down a step.
Then many battle invitations flooded in and Bian had to oblige at least one, or he would forgo the fortifications.
There was a weird geno core in the top ten without a shelter attached to it, just like Bian.
The name of the geno core was simply Geo Core, but Bian felt the Spirit Pillar pounding loudly just by reading that name. It was warning him not to accept that invite no matter what.
Bian had three silver geno cores and with the little points he had amassed in his sacred and super geno points tally, no creature on his level should have been his match.
"An Executioner."
Bian was certain it had to be one, as only they could threaten him even when he was physically stronger than them.
"Is it Man Tian's wife?" He couldn't help but wonder before shaking his head. "No, we don't even know if she is an Executioner."
He looked away from that invite and found another from a shelter called Thousand Investiture. The geno core was a weird one named Bazuka, and Bian accepted that invite.
Still masking himself with the Dongxuan Sutra, he walked into the portal while holding the Altering Brush.
"Wait! I'm not here to fight!"
A creature that looked like a white mouse with an elongated tail, was shouting from the other side of the portal.
Seeing that Bian wasn't trying to kill it, the creature gained some confidence and spoke.
"I want to make a deal, you could profit quite a bit."
As Bian got closer, he saw that the mouse had big blue eyes, and it was only about the size of a vase. It was lifted up by its tail, which was curved into a spring.
"What deal is that?" Bian saw that the creature was just a sacred-blood creature, and he was surprised it was able to climb so high into the rankings.
"I'll trade you for your position as first with anything you need."
It was actually a common occurrence where a high rank would trade their position for benefits since they wouldn't lose their enhancements even if they lost their rank.
It wasn't a bad proposal for Bian, but there was little the mouse could offer him in terms of materials.
"I can agree to that deal, but I don't want a material trade," Bian said.
The mouse was very confused. Blood, geno fruits, and even treasures were all materials. What could Bian possibly want?
"Do you have connections with the bronze, gold, and gemstone geno core rankings?"
A look of shock appeared on the little creature's face, then it understood.
Bian wanted to trade first position for first position. Such a trade was quite risky though as it required a certain level of trust.
The white mouse was truly a professional. It adjusted itself almost immediately and said:
"We do have a connection with the first place in the bronze rankings. It won't be easy, but I should be able to pull through. Tell me the name of the geno core you want to get first place, and I'll do the needful afterwards."
The white mouse didn't beat around the bush, but Bian couldn't be sure it would keep its promise.
He shook his head and said, "It's not that easy, little mouse. I'm in an organisation, so it's not going to be a one-off trade. Tell you what, I'll let you win this one in goodwill and come to you later for what I need."
The mouse's eyes lit up like a pair of lightbulbs. It quickly said, "That would be great, I am a mouse of my word!"
Then it puffed up and patted down on its chest, seemingly righteous.
"Not so quick!" Bian was now twirling a brush as he spoke. "I have to leave a mark on you to make sure you don't run."
The Silver Altering Brush now had a new ability which could give any target a unique name or number. That target would then be marked even in death unless it could find a way to remove that marking.
The white mouse agreed, but it was cheering inside.
'This guy is really naive, I'll undo whatever he does the second I get out of here.'
White Mouse was actually quite ethical, but Bian didn't hail from a big shelter, plus he wanted to make a verbal agreement. Wasn't this begging to be scammed?