Van rested his axe on its throat, "Lead us to the bottom of the Ice Caves!"

The fishman's big round eyes blinked rapidly. He opened his mouth.

BANG!

Abruptly, the fishman's head burst open.

Van was splattered with brain juice. Recoiling, he dropped the corpse onto the ground. Vaguely Van heard the sound of retching from behind him.

Ryan came up and peered at the fishman's corpse, "Did you see that? It seemed as if there was something planted in the fishman's forehead. The moment he tried to tell us how to get to the bottom."

Van nodded, "There is something afoot. This mission is not as simple as there being a simple higher level demon beast at the bottom. Something is controlling the fishmen in the Ice Caves and I suspect they are the same ent.i.ty behind the corrupted Luminous Ice Worm eggs."

Delphine s.h.i.+vered.

Blackie cleaned his paws and came back to Van. His black fur glittered.

Delphine instinctively took a step back at the newly transformed wolf approached her, "There, there Blackie…such big teeth you have!"

Ryan looked at the wolf warily, "What happened? Why does Blackie seem so much more powerful?"

Van told them that he had found an ancient beast bloodline during the Mystery Object Sale.

Delphine showed an expression of envy, "Why wouldn't you use it on yourself?"

Van shook his head and smiled mysteriously.

Delphine saw this and felt that Van was simply too enigmatic.

[Maybe the level of the bloodline didn't reach his eyes… so he gave it to his pet instead…]

She shook her head and tried not to think about it anymore. Van was too mysterious – it seemed he was always able to achieve things and do things ordinary people could only dream about. The Body Strengthening Powder, the 5th level of Qi Distillation only 3 months from first circulating Qi, high martial ability, ability to identify ancient treasures, high leaders.h.i.+p ability, an impressively loyal and powerful pet subordinate, a powerful and loyal friend who would follow him to death and back…

As Delphine kept thinking about it, a small glow of awe filled her chest.

[Sure enough, he is unordinary.]

Van saw her misty thinking expression and shook his head. Actually, he first thoughts when he saw the beast bloodline was to consume it himself, but Jet had told him that absorbing it would not be possible. There was something in Van's blood that would immediately attack impure bloodlines.

[Apparently, I can only a.s.similate pure, ancient bloodlines. Anything else will simply be eliminated from my bloodstream by the will of flame in my blood.]

Van felt hungry thinking about the immense improvement Blackie had shown upon a.s.similating the Vampire bloodline.

[I wonder when I will be able to find a pure bloodline that I can a.s.similate myself. What would it be like…?]

"What do we do now?"

Ef, Gef and Phern looked at Van questioningly. The young man in front of them looked thoughtful. He was not in a rush to go rescue Cyrus or his arrogant cronies.

Smiling, he handed them some unmarked beast hide he had made from the beasts they had hunted. Then he pa.s.sed them some charcoal.

"Let's make a map of the place. We have about three weeks of time to explore the place and prepare for the final attack at the bottom of the Ice Caves."

Van wanted to train everyone and increase their cultivations. Most importantly, he wanted to increase their battle experience. Of course, improving his leaders.h.i.+p ability was also a must.

[I will be leading a group of 30 disciples into the Monster Mausoleum. From Tutor Zhang's tone, I know that the sect's performance in the Mausoleum is close to the Sect Master's heart. I must perform well in this. Then I can become an Inner Disciple and bring Finn to come live with me!]

Van was filled with renewed vigor when he pitched his little sister's cherubic face and messy blonde tresses.

A week pa.s.sed.

Van and the team had explored everything but the lowest three levels of the caves.

That night, they began to sort through the materials they had gathered from fighting off the various demon beasts inside the caves.

"Two-hundred Ice Lizard Claws, Sixty Frost Dandelion Seeds, Ten Luminous Ice Worm cores…"

Van split the loot into their respective portions. He got 40% of the loot while Delphine and Ryan each got 20%. Ed, Gef and Phern got about 7% each.

At the end of that week, Delphine reached the 5th level of Qi Distillation. Phern was the only one of the militia to enter the 4th level.

Van consumed a large amount of beast cores and was getting closer to breaking through once more.

[I must spend my time fighting and practicing my martial skills to consolidate my cultivation. If I level up to quickly between stages, it can cause a shaky foundation that will make problems in the future.]

Van's days were filled with leaders.h.i.+p training and martial practice.

Soon Van and his ragtag teams became a well-oiled machine that easily slaughtered 6th level demon beasts and could handle weaker 7th level beasts.

Their map of the Ice Caves became more and more detailed. The leather maps contained details such as were demon beasts were more likely to be sighted, or where they liked to sleep and eat.

There were quite a lot of interesting findings from their explorations.

First, there was an unnaturally high amount of demon beasts in the Ice Caves.

Secondly, not all these demon beasts had something planted in their brains. Only the humanoid beasts with some intelligence were corrupted. Each time they tried to interrogate one, they would immediately explode.

Thirdly, a few more of Cyrus's gang were found. All were dead or recently dead and stuck in the centre of an egg nursery. Some were dried corpses. Some were fresh. Van hypothesised that Cyrus and his followers were not all dead – they were being kept alive as blood supplies, and only killed when the corpse in the egg nursery was depleted of blood.

Thirdly, there were a few hotspots of activity.

For example, there was an underground spring which contained an enormous number of Ice Salamander. They were 5th level Qi Distillation beasts but their extreme numbers made probing the underground spring a difficult job. In the worst cave, there were more than 100 beasts in the underground spring at once.

Though it was dangerous, Van and co. were able to clear the underground spring over a period of 2 days. Extreme use of his area attacks – such as 'Tide Swallows the Earth' and 'Depths of the Dark Seas" – as well as copious use of his 'Scattering Smoke Steps' movement skill – was implemented. All while his human troops blocked the entrance to the underground spring so that the prey could not escape or find back up. The plan just managed to work at the neck of the entrance to the cave was too small to fit more than two Ice Salamander's side by side. This allowed his troop to concentrate their attacks and slowly whittle down the numbers. Blackie was used to thin the crowds as well as take away some attention from the human troops if too many monsters were trying to flee.

Two days later, they cleared the underground spring. It was discovered that the spring had healing properties. The water was gentle and mildly nouris.h.i.+ng.

The chamber containing the underground spring quickly became their new base camp. Every night, the crew enjoyed a thorough bath, healed their wounds and improved the strength of their bodies.

Delphine was the one who showed the most improvement in battle ability and sense. Every fight, Van would instruct her.

"s.h.i.+elding!"

"Yes!"

"Use your thorn ability to create s.p.a.ce between us and the enemy!"

"Yes!"

"Throw some fatigue-lessening powder!"

"Yes!"

"Pa.s.s me a healing sol-"

"Here!"

"… Well done…"

Delphine became better and better at watching the state of her comrades and antic.i.p.ating the flow of battle.

Ryan, unlike Delphine, had more instinct when it came to fighting. His silver mask gave him a skill that shot silver bullets that were able to travel hundreds of metres. Van had also seen him use some sort of confusion-inducing ability that would reduce the strength of the enemies.

Van dragged the crew back and forth through the Ice Caves in order to hunt and gain experience.

Another week pa.s.sed.

A large number of monsters were killed. Ryan reached the 5th level of Qi Distillation. Ed and Gef entered the 4th level of Qi Distillation.

With the consumption of an incredible amount of beast materials, as well as a few Pure Snow Lilies in the coldest parts of the Ice Caves, Van achieved the 6th level of Qi Distillation.

"Finally!" Van exulted. He stood up and felt the roaring power within his meridians.

[I have reached the cultivation requirement for the Monster Mausoleum.]

Delphine and Ryan came over to congratulate him.

"Jumping 2 levels in 2 weeks…" Delphine shook her head, "Even if I consumed as many beast materials and herbs as you, I still wouldn't have half the increase in cultivation. Your absorption efficiency is too astonis.h.i.+ng."

Van smiled, "Surely not. I just don't sleep as much as you guys do." He tried to blame his fast cultivation speed on training even while the others were sleeping.

Delphine accepted his answer. She had indeed woken up many times while sleeping to see Van dedicatedly cultivating even late at night. However, she wasn't so naïve to think that this alone would allow him to make such a fast advance in cultivation!

"The 6th level of Qi Distillation is the level in which your ident.i.ty as a cultivator is taken seriously. You are no longer a rookie. Only 20% of disciples in Cloud River's top sects are a higher cultivation level than you," Delphine informed Van.

Van smiled again and patted her on the head, "20% is 20% too many."

Delphine huffed, "So arrogant!"

Soon, there was only one week left before the time limit for completing the mission was up.

Their cultivations were thus:

Van (6)

Blackie (7)

Delphine (5)

Ryan (5)

Ed (4)

Gef (4)

Phern (4)

At this point in time, Van decided to start preparing seriously for the final attack. If he was honest with himself, he would have admitted the he seriously questioned investigating the final level of the Ice Caves at all.

Was it worth risking his life? Undoubtedly the foe on the lowest level would be incredibly tough to kill – they all might lose their lives.

Although Van doubted, he was also unwilling to give up.

[If I give up here, how will I ever become an undefeatable hero? Giving up one time is a slippery slope that may lead to more failures in the future.]

Van turned to his troops, "What say you?"

They looked back at him. Each had a steely look of determination in their eyes. Over the past 3 weeks, they had all developed a healthy respect for their young leader. They were also no longer the inexperienced fighters they were at the start.

"We are confident in this team and your leaders.h.i.+p ability, Sir," Phern said respectfully. Starting from the first week, Ed, Gef and Phern had adopted the habit of calling Van by 'Sir.'

"Together we can get to the bottom of this mystery. We will find out what has been terrorising the Ice Caves and return victorious!"

Delphine and Ryan were no less determined.

"We have confidence," Ryan said.

"Let's do it!" Delphine enthused.

"Arf!"

The intimidating black wolf barked enthusiastically, shattering his fearsome and devilish image.

Van was warmed by their reactions.

[I did not waste my investment in their training. Few people can say they have such a loyal and well-trained team!]

"Let's go!"

___

They travelled back to the five-way split they found in the beginning and took one path they had not investigated. It was the left-most one which Synthia had gone down.

"The slope is quite steep, be careful," Van commented. They descended in silence.

Soon, the tunnel plateaued out.

The crew saw a tunnel branching off for the main one and peered into it. Their faces went pale white.

"another egg chamber…" Delphine whispered, "but this time…"

"This time...!"