Nightmare’s Call

Smiles slowly faded from the white-clothed man’s face. “Interesting… two Six Wingers at once?”

Reinier was just as alarmed. No matter how talented he was, Six Wing was a qualitative change that he had no way to attain anytime soon. Feeling threatened, he quickly looked at the white-clothed man.

“Let’s leave,” the white-clothed man said calmly. He came only to help, not to risk his life. Even if he had more confidence in his strength, he would not want to get involved in a brutal battle just for a little money.

“Leaving? Shouldn’t you all leave behind something?” The Steel Lord sneered, flames surging in his right hand and materializing into a giant battle-ax. It expanded and started to attract metal debris in the surroundings like a magnet.

“That’s enough!” Lin Sheng snapped. “Be mindful of where you are!” He glared at the Steel Lord.

The Steel Lord looked to his left and right. He gave up on his intention and relinquished the magnetic force of his battle-ax.

Now, Reinier and the white-clothed man had converged. The voice of the white-clothed man was unpleasant, much like the crow of a rooster. “Sending two Six Wingers at the same time, not bad. The Ironfist Society deserves its reputation. But this is the most it could pull off.”

“Who are you people? Who sent you?” Lin Sheng quickly asked.

“I come from the Heaven’s Spire, name Forgotten, nickname Lanyun.” The white-clothed man languidly smiled. “Since the fight does not happen, let us go home.” He grabbed Reinier by his arm and stamped his foot on the water. The salty water splashed up as he rapidly flew toward the warship in the distance.

Lin Sheng squinted, looking at the warship and raising his hands. The blue electric current rapidly surged up his arms and shot out from his hands. Beside him, the Steel Lord summoned his battle-ax and forcefully yanked it out at once.

The electric current and battle-ax converged in the air with a loud boom as if there had been a chemical reaction. After the convergence of the two powerful energies, the power of the battle-ax had surpassed that of the Six Winger. It spun and flew at Reinier and the white-clothed man at high speed.

Just as the two looked back to see what was going on, the battle-ax had come right behind them. Shocked, the white-clothed man immediately summoned a ghostly image of a shield. But the battle-ax changed its course slightly, scraping past him and missing him by mere inches before striking the man beside him. Reinier screeched as the battle-ax hit him on the left of his body, cutting him in half in an instant. The battle-ax exploded into a ball of dark-red fire, just as the Steel Lord had intended to show the power of his Six-Wing capability.

On the deck, Lin Sheng put down his hands, breathing a sigh of relief before squatting down to unplug the power cord under his feet. This was how he feigned the power of a Six Winger. It was just a ruse, where he absorbed the electric current to make it looked as if he was a Six Winger. The Thunderbeast could absorb electric current, but there was also a limit to it.

Lin Sheng possessed the memories of the Steel Lord, and so he knew the power of Six Wing like the back of his hand and successfully pulled off a perfect ploy. At the last moment, with the help of the Steel Lord, Lin Sheng released all the electric current he had absorbed at once, avoiding the energy from overly building-up and exploding in the Thunderbeast’s body. After all, that was how much electricity the Thunderbeast could handle. More so because it was difficult to control the borrowed electric current, and this showed up in his rage. At last, the final strike was a display of the power of a Six Winger.

As a red fireball rose above the sea surface, Lanyun and Reinier emerged from the explosion, their bodies blackened. Without stopping, they flew past the warship into the distance.

Lin Sheng glanced at the Steel Lord, who then nodded back at him like they had come to a tacit understanding. Without saying a word, they simultaneously jumped down from the deck and flew toward Xylond at high speed. While the Steel Lord had transformed into a plume of smoke, Lin Sheng had let half of the Thunderbeast body transmute into electric current, and the other half carried him flying at low altitude. While he went, he had not forgotten to bring along Khadula’s black orb, which was the object in which she deposited her soul after Scales of Sanction destroyed most of her body. But as soon as she collected more new arms, Khadula would recover and be back to normal again.

Meanwhile, Lin Sheng had left behind six vault guards to protect everyone on board until they arrived at Port Assia in the afternoon.

…

Three days later, in the forest on the private hill of Lin Sheng. On the other side of the hill away from the construction site, another structure had popped up. The over a hundred-meter-square white-stone building looked like a church with benches and praying altar inside. But it did not have pointed roof nor windows, less so statues, and anything for praying ritual. The entire building akin to four concrete slabs slapped together to form a rectangular structure.

The vegetation was lush and dense in the forest. The singing and chirping of the birds, however, seemed a little too loud in the quiet forest. Here, Adolf was carrying a large case, escorted by two bodyguards, trudging up the stairs from the bottom of the hill. When he was about to arrive, he looked up at the building and motioned his bodyguards to stay put while he carried the case and continued to ascend to the top. Once he was in the building, he saw Lin Sheng leaning on the prayer altar.

The tall and burly young teacher, who looked like a university graduate and a lion, was concentrating on drawing something on a paper. Lin Sheng appeared tired. But who would not have been after getting bombarded by questions from his relatives for two days? All the more so because he had to help his parents explain the reason for the relocation and then resettle the newly-arrived relatives. But he had managed to settle everything in just two days.

“Teacher, I have brought the ingredients.” Adolf walked up to him, placed the leather case on the floor, and then stepped back.

“Thank you.” Lin Sheng took the suitcase and opened it. Everything he needed to build the conversion mechanism of the sacred power font was here.

“By the way, teacher, is this place you have built a temple? But there is no statue here,” Adolf asked curiously.

“This is not a temple but a sanctum,” Lin Sheng explained. “Why would the Holy Sanctum need statues?”

“The Holy Sanctum?” Adolf was confounded.

“Yeah. Once it is completed, you need to help to do some publicity so that more people could come to pray here,” Lin Sheng said casually.

“No problem, but what protection could the sanctum offer? People come here with different desires and motivations in mind. Without knowing what kind of protection the sanctum could provide, it is difficult to launch a publicity campaign,” Adolf said helplessly.

“Protection?” Lin Sheng softly tapped his fingers on the prayer altar. The confluence of sacred power itself would produce a cleansing effect that helped to alleviate negative energy such as fatigue, sadness, sorrow, hopelessness, and even minor illnesses. He thought for a moment and said, “Protect the bankrupt from jumping off the building?”

Adolf was dumbfounded.

“I was just kidding.” Lin Sheng smiled. “Let the construction finish first.”