Raging Bull was all about power.
How to get the most power possible from momentum-based movements. To move like a charging Rhinoceros, with the power of an Elephant and the aggression of a Bull.
This type of stance was more up Vasari's alley. If Vasari had to categorise what type of fighter he was, he would say he was a brute with an element of unpredictability. Although his body was larger than most, his flexibility was outrageous, and the control he had over his body was something not many cultivators in his age group had.
Vasari took a deep breath before getting into a Gong Bu stance and then breathed out. Taking another deep breath, he punched out with all his strength.
*Zwoosh!*
He breathed out again before taking another breath in and punching out again. He did this over and over while mainly focusing on his breathing and foot placement.
It's a well-known fact that most of your punching power comes from your legs and good footwork, and the Raging Bull stance heavily focused on this.
A full hour of continuous: breathing in, stepping forward, punching, breathing out and repeating; left Vasari exhausted even though it wasn't his real body.
After randomly placing Wyrm meat in the forest for the little dragons to find, Vasari left his sub-space and went to sleep with Hiromi snuggled in his arms.
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"Disciple of the Cloud Haven Sect, as the Town Head of Grimdale, I thank you for protecting us. We are deeply grateful for your aid, even going so far as to risk your lives for people you don't know."
The Town Head deeply bowed along with the Head of the Grimdale Defence Team, who now had a nasty scar on his left cheek.
"We are also grateful to you and the citizens of Grimdale who helped. Their assistance in the battle was invaluable." Vasari replied and clasped his hands together as a farewell. He turned around and unceremoniously left the town of Grimdale. Outside the city gates, the 15 Outer Haven Disciples remaining from the original 22 waited for him with all the mounts. Hiromi and her mother were already seated on Zephyr, and Kurumi sat on Otis. Three mounts were now ownerless, so he allowed DT and Jaxon to ride on one each and also Glenn, who didn't have a mount.
DT and Jaxon tried to convince the girl they had a crush to ride with them, but she politely rejected their offers and decided to stay on the Sect-owned Colossal Roc.
"Everybody ready to head back to the Sect?"
Vasari asked as he mounted Otis and sat directly behind Kurumi, who leaned back and rested her head on his chest.
"Vasari, I heard that the town is planning to build a statue of Chelsea and Dontrall in the near future even though you're the one who saved them."
"Right, if Vasari wasn't there then Dontrall would've died before he could finish setting up the formation."
DT complained, and Jaxon agreed, but Vasari didn't seem to care.
"All I did was punch the big snake really hard. I'm sure anyone else could've done so, and besides, who they decide to build statues of doesn't concern us. This place is just one of the many towns we will visit while on missions."
Jaxon sighed and nodded in understanding. DT was still upset about the issue, but realising that Vasari was unfazed by it, he decided to let it go and move on.
"Alright, let's go," Vasari tapped Otis twice and he readied to take off until Vasari remembered something, "Wait! Does anybody know the way home?"
The disciples looked at each other in confusion until realisation hit them.
"No need to worry, big brother Vasari. The Colossal Roc knows the way." The girl DT and Jaxon had a crush on responded and looked at Vasari with shining eyes.
Not just her but all the disciples had a lot of respect for Vasari after witnessing his strength in battle. Despite being below them in terms of cultivation, when it came to battle strength, he was leagues above them, and only Chelsea and Dontrall were still considered stronger than him.
"Oh, I see, thank you, Miss Willis."
"Please call me Noemi."
"Okay then, Miss Noemi."
Noemi wryly smiled after noticing that Vasari was still being formal with her.
Of course, Vasari knew she was the girl his friends had a crush on. He loved women, but that didn't mean he would go after every woman that showed interest in him. He also didn't want to break his friends' hearts, so he decided to keep his distance from her.
Since there was no other reason to stay, the Cloud Haven disciples departed and followed the Colossal Roc.
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At the Cloud Haven Sect, huge rumours made their way through the Sect in the last few days.
"Have you guys heard about what's happening at the Scented Fjord?"
"What? You mean about the mineral that can help a cultivator comprehend Water Intent?"
"Yeah, apparently us, the Eastern Knights Sect, the Scorch Hallow Sect, the Millguard Sect, and the Glacier Bay Sect are currently at a standstill on who has the rights to mine the Fjord."
"Oh yeah, I heard about that. I also heard that all the Sects sent a Core Elder there to negotiate."
"But won't the Scorch Hollow Sect and the Eastern Knights Sect be at an advantage since their Sects are situated closest to the Fjord?"
"True. I think the Glacier Bay Sect and our sect will probably be the most desperate for the mine since both sects have a lot of disciples whose main element is water."
"Oh, I didn't think of that. And with the Continental Sect Tournament approaching, the other sects don't want to give us something that would be disadvantageous for them."
This was just one of the many conversations happening on the first floor inside the Cloud Bar. Last week it was how the Church of Prasufis found a castle belonging to a dead general of the now-ancient Spartan Army and heaped tons of rewards before Elder Equus drove them away and claimed a lot of good techniques and rare artefacts for the Cloud Haven Sect.
At one of the larger tables on the first floor, 8 youths, 4 females and 4 males ignored the chatter around them. They had just finished a delicious lunch and were now having some alcoholic beverages to wash it all down.
If one paid enough attention, one would notice that all 8 youths had a badge on their shoulder indicating their affiliation with a faction.
"When did Hiromi say they would be back again?" A girl with long honey blond hair, dark eyebrows, ocean blue eyes and delicate fair skin while looking at her wine glass with boredom.
"She said in 2-3 days and that was yesterday, so either tomorrow or the day after." Another girl with exotic caramel skin, bewitching green irises, slender eyebrows and luscious lips tempting all those who saw them.
"Aww, why'd my faction have to send me on a mission in 5 days? Now I only have such a little time to spend with Vasari." Witney complained and the boys sitting on the opposite side of the table rolled their eyes, but the other girls felt the same way she did.
"Why do we have to cross nearly a quarter of the continent for a dumb mission? You know how long that's going to take!?"
It must have been a big coincidence, but Witney, Talia, Jiang Xia, Gia, Jude, and Jett were all participating in the same mission. Not many details were revealed, only that they would be heading to the Scented Fjord on the orders of Core Haven Elder Shufen and that the mission was highly classified.
"It takes 3 months to get there on an Alpha stage beast," Jett stated to rub salt in their wounds.
"""WHAT!!"""
Witney, Gia and Jiang Xia screamed in disbelief while Talia frowned.
"Fortunately, my mom has generously offered to take us there and back on her Ancestor-Stage Mount, a Star Wyvern!" Jett exclaimed with sparkling eyes.
"Really? Damn, bro, your mom is a real one." Jude commented. The excitement was evident in his voice, but who wouldn't be excited about riding on a wyvern, the closest beast to a true Dragon there was?
"How long would it take on a Star Wyvern?" Jiang Xia asked while tucking a few strands of hair behind her ears. The four boys sitting opposite the girls all noticed their beauty seemed to increase to another degree after the graduation party. Their skin looked smoother, their hair shinier, their eyes sparkling, and their bodies more curvy. However, they didn't look at them with lust-filled eyes but with admiration for their beauty.
"About 10 days, excluding the time for breaks in between," Jett's answer calmed the young women down a notch.
"What about your little girlfriend? Is she also going on this mission?" Asher elbow-nudged Jett from the side and winked suggestively at him.
"Yes, her faction was also told to send members on the mission, and she was told to join." Although not showing it on his face, his tone suggested that he was proud, and the boys noticed that he didn't deny that they were going out now.
Timo's eyes widened when he realised this and a beaming smile appeared on his chubby face. "Woohoo, look at you getting a girlfriend already. Man, I'm so jealous, Rena is super cute too."
"Woah, keep your junk in your trunks, dude!"
"I didn't mean it like that, chill."
"Hahaha, I know, I'm just playing with you."
"Wait, you're dating Rena? The teacher's pet?" Witney curiously asked. What lady, regardless of age, doesn't enjoy some relationship gossip?
"Jeez Jett, why didn't you invite her over for lunch?" Gia wasn't in their class so she didn't know what Rena was like, but she had seen her before after and during school.
"She's busy cultivating. She is nearing the Mana Body stage and wants to break through before the mission."
The girls all had startled expressions when they heard this. They were all still in the Qi Conversion stage since they never had enough time for cultivating recently due to training the mounts, spending time with Vasari or tending to their new property. Vasari had given Witney the leftover tree and plant seeds for her and the others to plant around the property to make it more private and add some life to the boring grassy farm, so for the last few days, they have been busy with that.
Now that they heard a girl, the same age as them was further ahead of them in cultivation, their will to cultivate was ignited. They deftly excused themselves from the table and dashed to their mounts stationed in the Cloud Bars' designated mount parking space and flew back home.
It was time for them to seriously cultivate, and they would all be shocked by the speed of Mana conversion compared to before. For the next 2 days, they cultivated practically non-stop only taking a break to eat and feed their mounts before immediately heading back to cultivate.
The first to break through was Witney. Black gooey substance escaped from her pores, but it was barely enough to fill a small plastic cup. An average cultivator would excrete enough impurities to fill a 3-litre bucket.
Talia was next to break through a few hours later, with Gia breaking through next and Jiang Xia soon after. They were all surprised by the lack of impurities within their bodies. That was until they remembered the Dance of Dragons technique and the potentness of Vasari's yang. But that wasn't the sole reason why. Inherited genes played a significant role, as bloodlines were not limited to beasts. Cultivators also passed down their bloodline, and the more powerful a cultivator was when they had children, the purer their offspring's bloodline would be. For this reason, many believe a cultivator should only have children when they think they've reached their limit in cultivation.
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*WHHHIIIRRRR!*
The massive Void portal of the Outer Haven whirred to life and a few seconds later, a group of disciples wearing white robes, 3 women wearing casual clothing and a myriad of beasts consisting of a black Cloud Pegasus, a rare Flash Thunderbird, a Colossal Roc, 4 mischievous wolves and a few other beasts walked out of the portal.
"What do we do now?" A man sitting on a white Cloud Pegasus without any hair on his head asked out loud.
"Now we go to the Missions Hall to collect our pay." Noemi Willis, DT and Jaxon's crush, answered.
"How do they know how many Cloud Points to give us if they weren't there to confirm it?" Jaxon asked. His brown eyes glistened whenever he heard Noemi talking.
"The receptionists all have an artefact on their desk called the Truth Orb. When someone lies it will light up red, and when someone is telling the truth, it will light up green?"
"Wait, what if we weren't counting the number of beasts we killed?" DT asked, and all the disciples looked at him as if he was a fool.
Noemi quietly sighed before explaining the process to him. "If you don't know, the receptionist will ask you what you honestly think the number of beasts you killed was. You can even give a range from like 50-75 beasts for example, but you need to be truthful otherwise you won't get paid."
After hearing that, Vasari frowned and turned towards Glenn. "Glenn, what about you? How do you get paid if it works on the number of beasts you killed?" Vasari asked. If he was getting paid for the number of beasts he killed, then he felt that Glenn was wasting his time by joining this mission.
DT and Jaxon had similar questions when they remembered the nerdy-looking Glenn.
"I get paid beforehand depending on the rank of the mission."
"Rank?"
"Yeah, didn't you know missions had different ranks? It starts from F rank which are the miscellaneous jobs like house sitting, then ends with S rank which are missions that only the strongest Outer Haven Disciples can take part in."
"I see," Vasari nodded in understanding, "and what ranked mission did we just complete?"
"A-rank." Noemi quickly answered for Glenn.
"Although it was A-rank, I think if the Sect knew it was a peak Beta-stage Wyrm leading the Beast Tide, it would've been up put as an S-rank mission," Glenn added his opinion and many of the disciples agreed with him.
"Anyway, none of that matters now. Let's get our rewards so we can have a proper rest."
With that, the group of disciples and the Nakata girls made their way to the Missions Hall.