Setting Off

At noon, Qing Shan and the Qian siblings gathered at the Mission Hall. It appeared that Qian Yong had also brought along a friend named Ming Bai. She was the second highest ranker of section 17! Qing Shan had not expected her to come along as well.

Now that everyone had gathered, Qing Shan walked over to the front desk, where the missions were chosen. There was a woman around thirty behind the desk. She seemed to be the Elder in charge of the Mission Hall.

Qing Shan looked at the wall behind the long, ovular desk and saw a few categories for missions. He did have any interest in any category of missions other the Beast Subjugation category.

'Miss Elder, may I please look at the missions in the Beast Subjugation category?'

*Inhale*

Everyone in the room inhaled sharply, and some people started shaking their heads.

'Did I do something wrong?'

"Who dares to make fun of my age? A woman's age should never be brought into a discussion! Oh, why 'Elder'? Is there really a need to pronounce the fact that we have a little more age than these young'uns!"

"…"

'So that was my mistake…'

The woman looked down at Qing Shan, her eyes almost ablaze.

"You! Do we need to take this outside little boy? I will whoop your ass!"

'How… crude.'

"From now on, you shall refer to me as Madam Yao! If I hear you call me any other name I will beat you so badly your parents wouldn't be able to recognize you!"

'Ah…'

"My parents are dead."

Qing Shan turned to walk away. He did not want to have to deal with this woman any longer than he had to.

After he returned to his group, he spoke to Qian Yong.

Please get us a mission for subduing Flame Foxes. Whichever yields the best reward. I don't want to deal with that crude old bag.

Qian Yong began to nod, but then froze. Qing Shan immediately knew why. He could feel an overwhelming presence behind him. It was an aura that could only be felt when an Origin Soul expert revealed their power!

Qing Shan turned around slowly.

"Ah, Madam Yao, did you need something."

Qing Shan fell the woman's aura making him heavier. This woman was way stronger than that Origin Soul kid he had met in the alleyway upon arriving in Fallen Sky City. His chance of victory was less than one percent.

'Let's not try to fight a losing battle.'

"If I cannot beat you to the point of your parents recognizing you, then I will beat you to the point of your whole family not recognizing you.

"Go ahead. I need to kill about half of them anyways. Plus, I have never met any family members other than my Father."

*Grr*

"Then I will just beat you until you can no longer see the light of day! Come on, we are going outside."

Qing Shan reluctantly trailed behind the beautiful older woman. He did not see himself getting out of this without a scratch.

"Brat, prepare yourself!"

"-Ak!"

Qing Shan suddenly collapsed to the ground blood trailing from his mouth. It appeared that Madam Yao had shamelessly attacked him before he was ready!

'Ah, that was my fault. I was unprepared, and underestimated her strength.'

Qing Shan stumbled to his feet holding his hands out in front. This tome he would focus enough that he was able to dodge her blows.

"Oh, getting up, are we?"

Qing Shan was stunned as he watched Madam Yao dart towards him. Even with his perception of time, he could not completely track her movements! Qing Shan used his Micro Shift to make the blow hit his rib, rather than his stomach.

*Crack*

The sickening sound of a broken bone rang out, and Qing Shan used Madam Yao's surprise at having missed her target to give her a good punch. Unfortunately, this punch, which used all of Qing Shan's enhanced strength, was only able to knock the older woman back two steps.

Qing Shan stood up tall and nodded his head towards Madam Yao.

'So this is the gap between ranks…'

"I admit defeat."

Madam Yao nodded while smirking, a pleased look in her eye.

"Yes, yes, know your place in the future brat."

The group went back inside, and the crowd that had followed them out to spectate dispersed. Once everyone was settled, Qian Yong took one of the highest ranked Formation Soul Beast Subjugation mission; Subduing Fire Foxes.

The group headed out of Fallen Sky city, toward the direction of the Fire Foxes' hunting ground.

While Qian Zhen poked fun at Qing Shan's incident with Madam Yao, everyone had already put the situation behind them. For Qing Shan, it was only even more incentive for him to grow stronger, faster.

As the group walked and talked, Qing Shan found that he quite enjoyed the situation. This was the first time that he had spent such a long period of time with one group of people since his time in the Arena at Rising Sun city.

After eight hours of walking, the group spotted the border of the Fire Foxes' territory in the distance. They then decided to set up camp, before starting the hunt in the morning.

After setting up two tents, which had come from Qian Yong's inter-dimensional storage ring, or 'IDS ring' The men filed into one while the woman got the other. Qian Yong. Had also provided everyone with sleeping roles.

It was truly amazing what money could buy. While Qing Shan had heard of an IDS before, he had disregarded the idea of getting one due to the absurd price and because of his locket. In a way, he had his own IDS, the Primal Pocket Dimension. However, using the term 'IDS' is degrading to something as amazing as the pocket dimension.

In the morning, the group gathered and started planning how they would deal with the beasts.

"Alright, before we talk about strategies, we need to make sure that everyone is aware of the properties of a Fire Fox. They are an anomaly amongst Formation Beasts, due to their close ties with the Fire attribute. Although they are unable to utilize Qi like Origin Beasts can, Fire Foxes naturally have a coat made of fire over the normal fur coat of a fox. Their four large canine teeth are also boiling hot, and can easily cause a burn when they come into contact with you."

Qian Yong, who had been explaining, waited until everyone signaled their understanding. As the person who had been on the most missions, she had the most information about the beasts of the 3rd Layer.

"Qing Shan, what's our strategy?"

"We will be taking a relatively simple approach. We will stand in an arrowhead formation, with myself at the front and Qian Yong and Ming Bai on either side of me. Qian Zhen will lure the beast over to us, and will attack it from the back while I hold it off in front, and you girls pincer it from the side. Our goal is to fight only one beast a time so that we are not overwhelmed."

Qing Shan looked around, thinking about everyone's weapons. He and Qian Yong had the longest range weapons, while Ming Bai used some sort of three-tailed whip, and Qian Zhen had his sharp shields. Qing Shan was about to mention Qian Zhen's vulnerability to the flame up close, but closed his mouth upon seeing the man pull out a pair of scaled, elbow-high gloves from his IDS ring.

'Just how rich are these siblings?'

"Any objections?'

Ming Bai, who had been relatively quiet until now, opened her small mouth.

"No objections, but try not to harm the pelt or flaming teeth too much. Both sell for a good amount, whether it be for Qi crystals or FSP. If you can, try to focus on dealing damage to the underbelly, or, Qing Shan, under its head."

Everyone nodded.

"Let's do this!"

Everyone got into formation and walked forward until they were within twenty meters from the closest Fire Fox. While the Foxes generally moved in packs, they were spread out and could cover a wide range of land individually.

*Whistle*

"These things are much bigger than I thought."

"Yeah. Who would 'uv thought they'd be two meters tall."

The unexpected size of the beasts did not change the plan any. After confirming that everyone was ready, Qian Zhen started slowly walking toward the Fire Fox. The beast, which was facing away from him, did not notice him. Once Qian Zhen was within five meters of the fox, he stomped hard on the ground and hit his disks together.

Because he was scared of the large flaming beast, he did not hesitate to sprint back toward the group without confirming the approach of the Fire Fox. Even though he could not see it, he could feel it hot on his tail, literally. The heat that radiated off of the fox was amazing. Anyone within a meter of it could most likely be burned just from staying that close. Fortunately, everyone, with the exception of Qian Zhen, had weapons with a range of over a meter.

Once Qian Zhen reached the group, he dove past Qing Shan, and turned around in time to see Qing Shan hit underneath its head with the but end of his spear. This caused the fox to temporarily lose its composure. Taking advantage of the opening, Qian Yong and Ming Bai moved to either side of the fox, and began attacking its sides and underbelly.

Up front, Qing Shan let loose a fast string of attacks, almost as fast as Qian Yong's combo. However, Qing Shan's combo was a bit more diverse, and incorporated many moves. He quickly executed three thrusts, then bashed it while stepping backwards, before slashing across its eyes. All of these moves connected perfectly, as if they were one fluid motion.

The Fox tried to wriggle out of the attack, but the attacks from all four directions held it in place. It tried to focus its attacks on one direction, but there was no weak link in the fence that caged in the fox, as far as it could see. Because of his disadvantage in weaponry, Qian Zhen did not deal that much damage, but he effectively managed to cut off the fox's route of escape.

The fight finished without a hitch, and the group retreated backwards to talk about the fight.

"All-in-all, that went well. We made sure everyone was as safe as possible, and limited the motions of the beast. As long as we do not lure more than one fox at a time, we should be able to kill the required hundred fox's within two days."

Everyone agreed with Qian Yong's opinion.

"Oh right. Qing Shan. I see you have improved a lot with the spear. I'll have you know that I am really itching for that fight when we get back."

Qing Shan rolled his eyes, a smile on his face. This fight had been the safest fight that he had ever participated in, and there were not really any struggles along the way. Because it was like this, he could just enjoy the experience of hunting with others for once. If all went well, he could easily see himself going on more missions in the future.

"Let's get moving to the next fox. We will loot the corpses at nightfall. Since we are required to give evidence of each kill, remember to harvest a fang or hoof that does not fetch any money or FSP. That way, we can each choose to sell that stuff separately on our own accord."

Everyone nodded, and started moving towards the next fox.