Karni and Siduo were looking from behind a cover. It was a rainy, grey day, but they were on a mission. At this very moment, Tie Tiao was watching over the main street far away from the alleyway.
From what they've learned by now, they knew the basic route the three thugs usually took. Tie Tiao should be able to notice them, inform Karni and Siduo and then his job is done. They ordered him to leave the premises after.
The rain today could be considered a blessing. It helped mask the vision and the sound so that the two children could stay hidden from the brothers. They found a small dry area next to the vent Siduo was going to go into and simply waited; Going over the plan one last time to make sure everything went smoothly.
It was only yesterday that Siduo met with Grandma Ying. If she had to be honest, she actually liked the lady. She felt very down to earth and a kind person overall.
It didn't take too long before they heard a call from the soul communicator.
"I see them. They're two streets down, you probably have about 10 minutes before they get there."
"Thanks. Now go, I'll call you when I'm safe so you don't have to worry."
"Be careful you two."
The call ended.
"I guess it's time to vent?" Siduo asked. They finally had some luck, after so many times waiting for these guys to appear, they finally caught them for once.
"Yes. Let's go. We got 10 minutes."
The two stepped into the rain and quickly opened the vent. Siduo went inside. "Thank god it's dry here."
"Remember to stay quiet."
"Don't worry, I value my life more than you think."
Karni nodded, giving her a thumbs up. "Good luck."
Siduo nodded back and gave him a reassuring smile.
The vent was put back on from the outside, before Karni quickly hurried to the other side of the street. He entered a restaurant they scouted out beforehand and took a seat by the window so he could see everything that's going on. From this angle, he could perfectly see the alley. He was just a few seconds away from helping if something went awry.
He ordered the food. It arrived before the three soul masters did. When he finally saw them, he ate the food stiffly while watching the three soul masters slowly enter.
… … …
"Today's pouring. Why'd big brother call us out today?"
"I don't know, but we're half an hour early. Might as well get some drinks." The biggest of the three went to the fridge and grabbed the drinks.
Meanwhile Siduo started sweating while she heard this. Looks like it's time to personally see this big brother of theirs.
… … …
Karni made a quick call to Tie Tiao, telling him that they successfully infiltrated the house and that for now, both are safe.
Now all that was left for him to really do was just wait. Unfortunately, he didn't have the skills to be directly involved in this at the moment. He could only be the back up. He couldn't even apply the skills that would help Siduo because he couldn't actually see her.
He was there for half an hour. The two didn't have any communication devices to contact each other. They thought it was too dangerous. Say the soul communicator made a sound, or if they had a way to see if someone was there. There were too many variables.
As he was there, ordering his second batch of food, he noticed another figure approach the building. The man was extremely tall, but didn't feel as buff as the biggest of the three brothers.
He entered the building and Karni almost spit out his food. Could that be the Big Brother?
… … …
Siduo heard the door open and the three brothers all turned and yelled in unison. "Big Bro! You came! Come, come, we have drinks."
The aforementioned big bro laughed. "Lads, calm down now yeah? I have some good news for us."
"I knew it, Big Bro wouldn't just call us out on our free day." The youngest and shortest seemed merry.
"Fourth Brother, you know I wouldn't just call you the day after we just drank the whole night." The Big Bro patted his fourth brother on the shoulder.
"So tell us the big news." The second brother, who was usually the oldest of the three, encouraged. Despite being wider than his big brother, he still had to angle his head up to look at him.
"I've broken through to Soul Ancestor."
They all hung their mouths wide.
"How? Weren't you a Soul Elder yesterday?"
"I was. I was lucky during cultivation today and achieved a breakthrough." The man grinned.
"This is great news! Now that the boss is away we really won't have to worry as much with you being a Soul Ancestor. The boss would be proud of you."
"Thank you, second brother."
The youngest was a bit nervous before asking. "Big brother, did you find anything about…"
"No. Sorry. Mother didn't tell me anything before, and now it's even harder to contact your father. I'll try again tomorrow."
The fourth brother looked a bit disappointed and sad.
"Tell you what, how about I show my fourth Soul Ring?" The man smiled, trying to cheer up his fourth brother.
He summoned his martial soul. He grew taller, his shoulders widened and he gained giant white scales across his whole body.
Siduo immediately noted. It was the White Armoured Dragon.
"Woah. Big brother. Your scales already look better."
"Wait till you see this." He summoned his soul rings. Two yellow and two purple. The optimal combination.
He activated his fourth soul ring. Giant scales, bigger than his normal ones grew from between the existing scales, he looked like he wore plate armour made of giant white scales.
"I call it the White Dragon Plate. It greatly boosts my defensive capabilities, while having a miniscule boost of strength as well."
The man then grinned. "Come on you three, come at me. Try to move me from this spot."
The three looked at each other excited. They wanted to test how much their big brother has grown.
The first to walk forward was the second brother. He summoned his martial soul. His skin became grey that looked like leather and two giant tusks of golden colour grew from the side of his head.
Siduo noted again. Gold-Tusked Elephant.
Three rings appeared. Two Yellow and One Purple. He was the Soul Elder they heard about.
The man simply approached his big brother and tried to push. The White Armoured Dragon didn't move an inch.
"Big brother, have you become stronger than me?"
The man shook his head. "No, I should be just as strong as you now, but this ability serves as a dampener to these kinds of things as well. It doesn't affect me as much, almost like a spring."
The second brother then activated his second soul ring, he gained clear muscles and grew larger as a whole, his tusks did as well. Their golden colour became a bit darker.
When the big brother of the group saw this he too activated his second soul ring. Both of these served as the overall strength boosts, but the White Armoured Dragon strengthened other aspects as well.
Meanwhile the Gold-Tusked Elephant was a pure strength martial soul. His overall boost of strength was quite a degree stronger than that of the White Armoured Dragon.
The second brother pushed again, but this time the big brother had to push back as well. There was a clear struggle between the two. They couldn't actually fight, so they did a purer test of physical capabilities. This wasn't an arena after all, it was their base of operations inside this old building.
At the end, the Gold-Tasked Elephant wasn't strong enough to even push the White Armoured Dragon.
The second brother turned away both excited and disappointed. At the end, he couldn't actually move him when they were both purely testing strength. If he were to charge it might've turned out different.
Next it was the pale third brother's turn. He summoned his martial soul and clearly became smaller. A long needle-like thing grew from his head and he gained insect wings.
It was a mosquito. Siduo was happy because of her luck. If everything continues the same way, she'll get information on everyone.
The man showed his soul rings. There were two yellow ones. Siduo let out a silent sigh of relief. There was only a single Soul Elder in the group. They should be able to take care of the three on their own, and then take on the Soul Ancestor together while he's alone.
The first soul ring lit up and the mosquito clearly became faster. He tried to pierce the Plated scales. The mosquito specialised in piercing and sucking out blood.
Unfortunately for him, the armour was too tough. It didn't even make a dent. This fourth soul skill was quite miraculous.
The second yellow ring shone brightly and the needle-like proboscis clearly sharpened. The big brother gained a bit of a worried look but still let his third brother build up speed and pierce directly into him.
The man didn't move an inch, but the pale brother didn't move either. Wait. He was stuck. He was clearly stuck right now, in the plated scales. The brothers laughed a bit at the scene.
"Big brother, help me out here."
The man laughed again and pulled on the third brother and pulled him out of the scales. There was a clear hole there, but no blood. He didn't manage to pierce through.
"I feel like my proboscis almost broke. Big brother, this new ability of yours is truly a strong defensive ability."
Siduo was watching this from the vents and had a frown on her face. This fourth soul skill will turn out to be very troublesome. Especially because it enveloped the whole body. There was no true weak spot. Or… She looked closer, perhaps the joints, but they're still well protected.
That wasn't the only problem. The only other soul skill she saw was the second one. The other two were a mystery. Same with the Gold-Tusked Elephant Soul Master. The only one she truly knew right now was the Mosquito Soul Master.
The fourth brother now approached.
He was the shortest and youngest. He appeared to be only about twenty in age. He summoned his martial soul. Like the Mosquito Soul Master, he became shorter as well. His skin resembled a brown rock. Like the ones people would see in the sea. He gained fins and needle-like protrusions all across his body. It was like a pointy rock with fins.
Siduo wasn't quite sure what this martial soul was yet.
His soul rings appeared. One White and one Yellow.
The man didn't try any sort of special attack tactic. He just activated his first, white, soul ring.
Blue, almost glowing azure spikes that were partially translucent, filled with venom appeared all over him. Specifically, they appeared out of the spikes that were previously there, like a pulled back skin. He just put an arm onto the shoulder of his big brother. The scales began melting, but it wasn't for long. The liquid melted through about half the scale.
Siduo was horrified. She knew what this martial soul was now. It was a Stonefish. An incredibly venomous martial soul, which usually appeared in sea cities. It was also a decent defensive martial soul due to its stonelike skin. What was it doing here?
The big brother and the fourth brother both let out a sigh when they saw that. One was disappointed he couldn't defeat the armour, while the other was relieved the armour held up. He's been stung by that venom before, the after effects lasted for almost a month. It was a truly terrible experience, making one feel paralysed in the stung place for so long.
This was only a white soul ring! If it were yellow, it might have actually melted through the armour. It might have melted through a fourth soul ring!
The man didn't use his second ring. The others didn't question it, but Siduo could only guess what kind of ability it was. Was it dangerous or not useful for attacking? Personally, she wasn't keen on finding out.
Siduo's mind went into overdrive while the four brothers began drinking after testing the new ability. Now that she's seen these abilities, even if Karni and Siduo will be Soul Elders, she wasn't confident of their safety. This guy was a Soul Grandmaster who actually damaged a Soul Ancestor with a White Soul Ring. Combine this with the fast Mosquito and the Pure Strength Gold-Tusked Elephant, they'll most certainly be in great danger.
She had to admit, she was a bit overconfident. She didn't expect these three to have such unique martial souls. Looks like there was a reason these people were able to stay in the dark. Now the only problem was that they had limited time to prepare.
Even with her rich experience in battle, she was limited to what her martial soul could do, she couldn't just transcend such barriers with ease. Running away would be simple, but actually attacking?
… … …
Karni's been in the restaurant for about 2 hours now. He was getting restless. He was already getting weird looks from the workers for staying for so long alone, but he was even more worried about Siduo.
It was still raining outside in various degrees of intensity. That was the only reason that the restaurant hasn't shooed him off yet.
He had to wait for another 10 minutes and then he saw four figures leave the old building. Seeing that they appeared a bit drunk, Karni let out a little sigh of relief.
He waited for another 5 minutes to make sure that the four people left and then went to the vent after paying.
He opened it and immediately noticed Siduo who was deep in her thoughts.
"We'll need a strategy for these guys. They're quite strong." She explained everything she just saw and Karni equally started thinking of countermeasures.
Siduo was the first to begin. She already had a few things in mind. She had time to think about it alone in the vents after all.
"We'll need to learn their schedule. If I'm correct, they should be drinking weekly. If we can get them at their weakest we have quite a bit of a chance. Separate the Big Brother from the rest and it will greatly increase our chances."
"I don't think that's enough to be honest. I'll think of some soul tools to create. We need to catch them by surprise in a single swoop. If we separate them, we'll be fighting the Soul Ancestor, enraged and completely sober." Karni added his opinion.
"I think that's better. The four of them will overwhelm us no matter the preparation. Prepare some trap soul tools, offensive ones. Paralysis, flashbangs, things like that should work. I'll learn their schedule in the meantime."
Karni looked into her eyes as they were talking. "Sisi. Thank you."
She waved her hands. "Don't mention it. Besides, I like the grandma. It's unfair what they're doing to her."
… … …
Four months passed. Karni was in his room, drawing up blueprints. As he drew another part of the soul tool he was making, he picked up another soul tool from the side.
The soul tool was an ordinary Sonic Bomb, created with Hundred-Refined Metal. He was pulling it apart and comparing it to his own blueprints. This Sonic Bomb was made by him, but it was made back when they first thought of the plan.
The first thing they did back then was to tell Grandma Ying everything that they found out, their plan of action and so on. After she heard their meticulous plan, she had to admit that it was well thought out and was glad they weren't rushing into things.
Since then, they have officially become 3-star Mecha Engineers. They were finally allowed to give their work to the association to rank up. This now allowed them to, for the first time, buy Thousand-Refined Metal.
The current plans he was making looked the same as the previous Sonic Bomb but more extreme in every way.
He was using Thousand-Refined Vibrating Orange Gold. It was a metal that was capable of extreme bending of its very molecules. This made Karni rethink his original design.
He upped the core which produced sound, then made it so the sound keeps on getting amplified by bouncing around inside the actual bomb. When it opens up, the screeching sound it releases is 5 times stronger than the first iteration. This was mostly possible because the metal itself amplified the sound as well.
It was divided into three parts. The core, the middle and the outside. The core released it, then the middle, which was made of only Vibrating Orange Gold, made it more intense by bouncing it in between, amplifying the volume. Then the middle opened up and sent it to the outer layer which intensified the frequency between the sound even more through the soul arrays. The soul arrays written on the inside of the outer layer were sending their own frequencies which collided with existing ones at equal measure, creating resonance. Finally the bomb opened at the end and… boom.
He was satisfied with the design. This was the first one which he truly considered to be a 3-star soul tool by both metal and complexity.
When they first returned, Karni got a basic floor plan from Siduo and started designing various soul tools they could use. This particular one was made perfectly to be in the limits of that room. If there was a particularly thicker wall in between, the sound would lower drastically. This was made by design. They didn't want to announce their attack to the whole neighbourhood after all. The frequencies released by the Sonic Bomb were incredibly high for that exact reason.
At the beginning, he started with Tear Gas. These soul tools were as low as 2-star soul tools at the least, while he was actually capable of creating 3-star ones due to their simplicity even before being promoted to a genuine 3-star Mecha Designer.
Besides the Soul Ancestor, the others will be greatly impaired by these. Well, perhaps the Stonefish person would be resilient as well, but he was still only a Soul Grandmaster.
The second thing he created were Paralysis Rays. Another incredibly helpful device which focused on sending electricity to affect the nervous system for a short period of time.
These two soul tools were, just like the Sonic Bomb, going through revision at the moment thanks to their promotion. The reason they got promoted was that during the last four months, they have both reached the rank 30 bottleneck. It was then that Mo Qing gave them permission to register as 3-star Mecha Engineers. They even bought some plans at the association to further their soul tools for the plan. Of course, Mo Qing and Teacher Ye weren't aware of the reasons why.
Meanwhile Siduo kept on tailing during these months. She didn't learn that much as most of the time they were simply on their duty as policemen, but she did learn the most important piece of information.
They drank during fridays and even stayed the night at their base most of the time. The three younger brothers began first and after some time the big brother joined them as well.
It was then that he thought of using Sonic Bombs for the first time. It was also then that he decided that flashbangs are a must have, even though he already planned to use them. When one is drunk or hungover they're usually very sensitive to light and sound, this should be perfect for the ambush.
Sonic Bombs were his latest creation, and once he finished them, he immediately started attempting the design for Thousand-Refined Sonic Bombs, the blueprints were still fresh in his mind.
Now that he was finished, he passed the plans to Siduo while he began on his next task: flashbangs. Thousand-Refined Soul Tools were being created in reverse order than originally. It was easier for him this way.
He was only creating a single piece of Thousand-Refined Soul tools, he didn't have the luxury of messing them up. Thousand-Refined Metal was just too expensive. Both of them had to put money together to buy enough for a few pieces.
Now all that was left was to think of ways to actually defeat the White Armoured Dragon. This was where the Tang Sect came in. They have dabbled in poison arts since ancient times, and Karni and Siduo just so happened to have originally gained access to Hidden Weapon Hundred Separation.
The plan for the White Armoured Dragon was to first get him poisoned to slow him down. Then use the other soul tools they created to help with defeating him. This was the main reason for the Thousand-Refined Soul Tools.
They were going to wait until they're both Soul Elders before truly making the hidden poisonous weapons as neither of them was used to making them. It should be easier once they're stronger.
There was only one problem that Karni and Siduo didn't agree on. How to deal with the perpetrators afterwards.
Since they were in the business of weapon trafficking, they had a lot of indirect blood on their hands. If a normal person was able to get a 4-star railgun before, then let's not speak about where else they might have sold their true merchandise.
It was almost a guarantee that Evil Soul Masters were their clients at some point in time as well. There weren't many other organisations that would buy illegal weapons in the federation.
Karni simply wanted to incapacitate them, then turn them over to the police with supervision and knowledge of the academy so that they couldn't get away with it. Siduo on the other hand, was simply thinking of getting rid of them all together.
It has been months now and while all the other preparations were almost complete, their own cultivation had hit a bottleneck, this was still a problem. They could tell that in about 3 months, they should be able to become Soul Elders with 3 Purple Soul Rings. It's been a total of half a year since the exchange started.
They were hoping they could actually reach the rank of Soul Elders before the boss lady returned. They still didn't know anything about her. The group of thugs rarely talked about her.
Karni has been progressing in his Spiritual Power as well. The Purple Demon Eyes technique was incredibly useful to him. He's actually already reached more than 300 points of Spiritual Power.
They've progressed by leaps and bounds, but they still weren't strong enough to face the thugs.
Before they could face them, there was another event that they had to take part of. The exchange was coming to an end, and Tie Tiao was soon to face his adversary.