Lin Bei returned to Tianjian City through the Teleportation Array at the end of the Dark Forest.
The surrounding scenery gradually sharpened; he found himself standing in Tianjian City's central plaza.
"They actually Teleport you straight back here?"
Lin Bei was a little surprised—he'd assumed he'd arrive beside the city's Teleportation Array, but… that wasn't the case.
"Still, this works. I can go ask Bailing what's up; I left in such a rush earlier that I forgot to ask about her clones."
He glanced toward her shop—already packed with customers.
But he soon spotted over a dozen guard-like figures at the entrance and frowned, studying them carefully.
It turned out every Survivor entering had to hand over a brave badge to those men before being allowed inside.
Refuse and they'd gang up to drive you away.
"Great—they're charging admission now?"
"And doing it at my shop!"
Lin Bei's face darkened; he could already guess who these guards were.
They had to be members of one of Tianjian City's Three Major Forces.
Their gear was white with blue trim—clearly all from the same faction.
"White and blue… exactly what Kuang Long and his bunch wore."
"So these guys are probably from the Order Dynasty too."
Lin Bei narrowed his eyes; he'd already asked the Wildwind Squad about it.
Within Tianjian City there were three powers: the Order Dynasty, Tianjian Pavilion, and Extreme Dao. The Order Dynasty was the largest and strongest, controlling the most resources.
Tianjian Pavilion and Extreme Dao were weaker by comparison.
Tianjian Pavilion followed an elite route—every member had Combat Power above one million, but their numbers were small. They were sword-wielding, arrogant loners who liked training in black-fog zones and rarely clashed with other Survivors.
Extreme Dao was different; according to Gale, most of them were mentally unstable. Survivors gave them a wide berth—even the other two forces detoured around them, terrified of being targeted by those lunatics.
They were said to be maniacs who'd do anything for power; any single one of them was a nightmare to deal with.
"Order Dynasty… Order Beacon… Order…"
"If I'm right, they're using the word 'Order' because they're Survivors of the Order Faction."
"No wonder Aleria ranks them among the top three factions—you meet them everywhere. Still…"
"…if they're bold enough to collect tickets outside my shop, I'd be letting them off too easy if I didn't teach them a lesson."
Lin Bei gave a cold smile, activated a Mental Barrier, and shrouded the plaza, cutting off everyone's perception.
With a flick of his finger a massive spatial wind-blade shot out, bisecting the men at the shop door with pinpoint precision.
Blood sprayed across the ground.
In an instant they were dead.
They hadn't even had time to choose to become Reborn Ones before the spatial blast shredded their remnant souls, erasing them completely.
"Seems my current strength is enough to wipe them out and destroy their remnant souls at the same time."
"No chance for them to turn into Reborn Ones—true annihilation."
Listening to the constant system notifications, Lin Bei's lips curved upward.
Thirteen guards had stood at the door, each with Combat Power above 500,000; two had even broken the million mark.
So this casual strike netted him a tidy harvest.
He'd calculated that killing other Survivors let him plunder roughly 10–20% of their attributes, and with at least a hundredfold Critical Hit multiplier each kill granted him over ten times the target's original attributes.
Thus this simple move had boosted his own Combat Power by nearly 50 million! [Note: data error in Ch. 96 now fixed—Combat Power = (Vitality + Spirit)/2. Apologies!]
The only pity was that over 90% of the gain came from Vitality; the Spirit portion was pitifully small.
On that front Lin Bei could only sigh.
Ever since slaughtering Kuang Long's group he'd noticed other Survivors favored Vitality training; almost none cultivated Spirit.
"Looks like that Mental Strength Training Method I picked up is truly priceless!"
"Kuang Long claimed to be a war-general of the Order Dynasty, yet he didn't even have a Spirit-cultivation technique."
"Even in a High-Level Survival World such things are rare."
"I really lucked out."
With that thought he dismissed the Mental Barrier and strode into the shop.
The surrounding Survivors froze, then every face turned odd.
"What the—where'd those Order Dynasty guys go? They vanished into thin air!"
"Am I seeing ghosts? Where are they?"
"Who cares! Quick, while no one's stopping us—inside! If more jerks show up later we'll be locked out!"
"Yeah, hurry! Those bastards wanted an entry fee, acting like they owned the place—shameless!"
"Pipe down! If their guys hear you you'll get a beating—we can't afford to cross those Major Powers."
Voices rose in a hubbub as the crowd surged into the shop.
Once inside, Lin Bei blinked in surprise.
The shop's interior had expanded several-fold since his last visit.
It was now divided into zones—daily necessities, gear, potions, materials—each with checkout counters staffed by smiling Bailing clones.
As for the real Bailing, Lin Bei swept his gaze and spotted her hidden pocket-space: she was lounging on a soft bed munching fried chicken and sipping cola.
The snacks and soda were, of course, from the storage ring he'd given her—looked like the girl knew how to enjoy herself.
He didn't mind; as long as Bailing ran the shop and kept the star stones flowing she could snack all she wanted.
A little food was nothing.
"Ahem, open up—I need to discuss something with you."
Lin Bei sent the message via Spirit; the hidden Bailing jumped in fright, warily scanning around until her eyes met his through the Barrier.
"Y-you can see me?"
Bailing blurted instinctively.
"Yep, I can see you—and you sure know how to enjoy life."
"Ah? I-I only need to refuel after deploying so many clones, I'm not slacking off!"
Bailing flushed, lowering her head in hurried explanation.
Actually, she'd only spoken half the truth—maintaining so many clones did demand extra energy, yet… her real body could still move and work.
Still, deep down she was stunned by how powerful her boss was.
She'd been around Tianjian City for years, yet never seen anyone who could casually pierce the hidden space she created with her innate gift.
"Even the strongest Survivors in Tianjian City can't see through my hidden-space Barrier. The city lords themselves would need special means to spot these concealed Barriers."
"What exactly is my boss? How did he see through my Barriers with the naked eye? Could he… be stronger than the city lords of Tianjian City?"
"That… can't be right, can it?"
"There are only thirty-six city lords in this world—the thirty-six strongest of all Reborn Ones. Each of them has Combat Power above fifty million and stands on the verge of the Legendary Epic Level!"
"Could my boss… really be that strong?"
Bailing's eyes flickered with deep bewilderment.
But she had no time to dwell on it; she hurriedly opened the hidden-space Barrier and let Lin Bei in, lowering her head like a child who'd done something wrong.
"All right, I'm not blaming you. As long as you keep the shop running well, I won't poke into your private affairs."
Seeing her like this, Lin Bei rubbed his temples and spoke with a headache.
Then he tossed her a kings medal.
"Here, good performance—keep it up."
Lin Bei smiled. "More where that came from if you keep doing well."
"Th-this… this is a kings medal?!"
Bailing's face lit up with delight; she took the kings medal and examined it over and over, unable to put it down.
"Absolutely genuine."
Lin Bei nodded with a smile. "I've more or less figured out how to get them. Keep working hard and you'll get plenty."
"Thank you, boss! I adore you!"
With that, Bailing jumped up in excitement, fluttered her snow-white wings, and leapt toward Lin Bei's arms, pouting for a passionate kiss.
Lin Bei reacted instantly, sidestepping in a flash to appear behind her, grabbing the back of her neck and lifting her up. "You can thank me, but no taking advantage."
"Oh, I get it~"
Foiled, Bailing could only lower her head in resignation.
Yet at the same time she was even more shocked by her boss's strength.
She hadn't even seen her boss's move just now.
No—she hadn't even caught his movement trajectory!
Though she looked delicate, her true strength easily ranked within the top thirty of all Reborn Ones in Tianjian City.
Even the so-called leaders of the Three Major Forces were no match for her!
Yet… against her boss she couldn't even think of resisting!
What did that mean?
It meant her boss possessed absolute, crushing power over her.
At the very least… he was city-lord level!
"Wow, boss, you're amazing! I love you so much~"
Bailing looked back at Lin Bei, starstruck.
"Enough, tone it down. I came to ask you something."
"84, 58, 88!"
"Hmm? What are you saying?"
"My three sizes~ I don't tell just anyone!"
"You—*ahem*, that's not what I meant. I want to know how you create those clones. Could I learn it?"
"You mean the Blood-Shadow Clone?"
Bailing looked disappointed, then pouted. "Well… it's not a talent skill, so normally you could learn it."
"But… you'll need one thing."
"What thing?"
"Blood Shadow Power."
Bailing answered straightly. "That's the source energy of the Blood Shadow Clan. Usually you have to kill a Blood-Shadow king to get a Blood-Shadow Crystal and absorb the power from it."
"Blood Shadow Power? Something like Shadow Power?"
Lin Bei's eyes sharpened with curiosity.
"Exactly."
Bailing nodded lightly. "But the Blood Shadow Clan gathers near Tiansha Star; to collect their power you'd have to go to Tiansha City."
"I see."
Lin Bei nodded, then asked, "By the way, do you know how to use Shadow Power?"
"I don't. Normally each city lord controls the methods for their source energy. To learn how to use Shadow Power you'd need to find the lord of Tianjian City."
Bailing replied. "Actually, around each of the thirty-six main cities the black-fog zones host different races with different source energies. I got the Blood-Shadow Clone ability from the lord of Tiansha City."
"The lord of Tiansha City let you pass it on?"
Lin Bei asked curiously.
"He doesn't mind. Actually… the lord of Tiansha City is my uncle; he dotes on me and won't fuss over details."
Bailing nodded, completely unconcerned.
"The lord of Tiansha City is your uncle?"
Yep."
"Then why are you in Tianjian City?"
"To keep my second uncle company, of course."
"You mean… the lord of Tianjian City… is your second uncle?"
Exactly."
Bailing nodded. "But my second uncle has a bit of a temper, so if you want to know how to use Shadow Power you'd better go yourself. I—I can only write you a recommendation letter."
"…"
Lin Bei fell silent.
He never imagined the employee he'd casually hired had such a background.
"Wait, that doesn't add up. With uncles that powerful, how could you be short on medals?"
Lin Bei frowned.
He could tell Bailing's joy at seeing the kings medal had been genuine.
Yet… it felt too strange.
She had two city-lord uncles!
As city lords they should have plenty of medals; as their niece she shouldn't have reacted like that.
"Sigh… Boss, what are you thinking? For us Reborn Ones, medals only count if we earn them ourselves."
"If my uncles just handed me medals, the world will wouldn't recognize them."
"But you're different. I work for you and you pay me—that's legitimate and recognized by the world will."
"Only such recognized medals become our performance record, and in the end the world will feeds back the corresponding power and soul to us."
"Until… I don't know until when, but my uncles said that eventually a Reborn One can advance and become ■■■."
"What? What did you just say?"
Lin Bei's eyelid twitched; for an instant his mind seemed to be blocked.
Thus he hadn't heard Bailing's description of the next stage of Reborn Ones.
"■■■!"
"Say it again!"
"■■■! Boss, are you alright? You look awful."
Bailing looked at Lin Bei in worry.
At that moment veins bulged on Lin Bei's forehead as he focused all his Spirit, trying to hear Bailing's words.
Yet in the end he failed.
Cold sweat dotted his forehead.
This feeling… was simply too bizarre!