Chapter 28: Special Mission, Preparation, and Heading Out

Chapter 28: Special Mission, Preparation, and Heading Out

(A/N: I am providing a small status sheet of Xue Tie's updated abilities at the end of the novel. I'll be making these every so often with the larger time skips)

On a lovely afternoon day, a young man with long red hair tied up into a ponytail and simple black robes is seen walking up a few sets of stairs before arriving near a set of doors with a pair of guards by the sides. The guards bow to the figure and knock to reveal that the person whom the owner of the room was waiting for has arrived.

"Come in"

The doors open wide to reveal a golden hair man, seemingly in his middle age sitting at a desk. The man adopts a solemn appearance as the Red hair young man enters and the doors close behind you.

"Greetings to the Supreme Pontiff" The young man states his welcome and receives a nod in return

"I have a new assignment for you. It's a special task just for you as the mortality rate is quite high at the location you're going to. This is for your growth too. I am sending you to Slaughter City to acquire the death god's domain. This mission may take quite some time, so you have a month to prepare before setting out. Do you accept this task Xue Tie?" The red-haired young man is Xue Tie, he has recently become 18 years old, and his height has momentarily settled at 6' 5". His red hair and dark brown eyes along with a handsome face naturally attract quite a bit of attention, but that is not important now.

'I was wondering how to get permission to go to Slaughter City for a long time to deal with the inheritance of my clan. I didn't expect them to outright give me permission on a silver platter' Xue Tie thinks to himself

"I accept"

Qian Xunji nods and gives Xue Tie some documents related to Slaughter City so he is prepared and then he lets Xue Tie go and make his preparations. Xue Tie takes the papers and looks through them. It informs him about how the city places restrictions upon all but the enforcers. This restriction makes it so that Spirit power cant be used.

'It is suspected that it has to do with their armor. The entrance is through a bar, seemingly on the outskirts of Slaughter City. They have a hidden entrance that will only be revealed after consuming a drink completely composed of blood called a Bloody Mary. There is also poison in this drink that can be activated by the guards to suppress anyone they want. Though the guards in question are somehow loyal to only the Slaughter King…or maybe it's another chain by the Asura god?'

Xue Tie finishes reading all the information but it's mostly stuff he already knew, maybe even more so as he knows the Slaughter King is Tang Chen, the previous Clear Sky Douluo before Tang Hao. The Grandfather of Tang Hao and great Grandfather of Tang San. Xue Tie can go on and on about his relationship with other characters, but that isn't important. What is, is the fact that Xue Tie has to infiltrate such a place with a blood-crazed but most importantly mind-controlled Limit Douluo who is also the lackey of that bitch of an Asura God.

Xue Tie has plenty to do as so many things require his attention so he starts it off one by one. He spends a few days setting up hundreds of letters in response to various scenarios. All of them are neatly labeled for all scenarios he can think of. From business to personal.

He hands the Box over to Bibi Dong who only looks at him in confusion.

"I was given a mission and it is going to take me some time to complete it, so I might be away for quite some time." He reveals which shocks Bibi Dong.

"There is another matter, I will be transferring my team to officially be under your care, so make sure they're not slacking off."

"Will where you are going be dangerous?" Bibi Dong asks curiously

"Oh most definitely, but I am assured that anything less than a level 99 Titled Douluo won't be able to take me down in that location. So, if you hear news of my death one way or another, know that without you getting my storage device and finding a letter I have written here for you. Assume that they are lying." he says and flashes a red enveloped letter from his armband that he quickly puts back.

"Alright, I still have to inform my team of my departure and how they should carry on in the meantime. I'll see you later Dong'er." He takes his leave while saying goodbye affectionately. Bibi Dong only has a pout on her face as she watches him run off.

'Goodness, can't he simply stay still for a bit so we could have some sort of normal conversation?' She mentally asks in annoyance.

'But, if he has to go so far as to warn me that he won't die, it means that he is going to be in a lot of danger. I should pray for him' She concludes as he disappears around the corner. She sets out the box she just received of letters and begins looking through all the circumstances Xue Tie had arranged. Some of them are for people like his team or some friend she doesn't know about called Dugu Bo. While 3/4th of them are about business and situations where something could go wrong. Essentially letting Bibi Dong hold the reins for his company.

Meanwhile, Xue Tie finds his team next. He sees them doing some light basic training to start. He gathers everyone to make an announcement

"I would like to inform everyone that I have been given a special mission by Spirit Hall that I have to accomplish by myself. As such, I leave you in the care of Bibi Dong. You all are already quite capable but with me gone, the three of you need to have your rank reach ours too. As such, Du Lie will be first, then Qi Ming, and finally Shu Xin. I shouldn't have to explain the reason for that as it's obvious. Du Lie is my replacement as a tank and offensive spirit master, Qi Ming is the agility master, and Shu Xin, you're control power. With just Xia Wei, we already have plenty of support" Xue Tie explains the plan forward to his team, even if it's a bit blunt and hurts Shu Xin's feelings but he understands his role and with years of experience. He knows the essence of what it means to be a team

With these matters handled, Xue Tie returns to his room and brings out the untouched emperor Ginseng he has had. He hopes to reach level 50 before heading out. He quickly consumes the herb and begins cultivating it as new energy begins flowing through his body. Enlarging his meridians while also solidifying his foundations further. He also finds that his blood is being refined. Black tar begins to seep out of his body as his spirit level begins increasing up to 49. And when the future looks bleak, and it looks like Xue Tie is finished just short of level 50. The last spurt of energy and increment of impurities released from his body allow him to cross the gap and reach level 50.

Xue Tie breathes a sigh of relief before choosing to not breathe until he wishes off the gunk on him. He sprints to the bathroom to wash it all off. The most annoying parts to wash off were his hair and balls. With his head, he had to vigorously scrub to get it all off but that was not an option for his balls. In the end, he had to spend an hour bathing.

'Why do all the cultivation novels describe the cleaning process so simply when this shit is borderline waterproof. Most of the novels only have simple baths and nothing like showers here. I need to have my people figure out how pressure washes work so a hose can be made for the convenience of all humankind. I can't imagine if these people are rubbing their skins off to clean themselves. This is akin to the relationship between oil and water.'

He sighs in deep annoyance as he finally finishes and tests to make sure he was actually at level 50 and it wasn't some illusion.

Xue Tie finishes the rest of his prep and even visits Yu Xiaogang to learn that he is finally leaving Spirit Hall and returns the Guardian Token to Xue Tie.

"Are you satisfied with what you have learned?" Xue Tie asks offhandedly, to which Yu Xiaogang, who has only grown 1 level, to level 26 over these years nods his head. Xue Tie can only shrug in response since he isn't told more than a thank you as he leaves. Xue Tie stores his token away. Shaking his head as he refocused on what he needed to do. He sets off to Sunset City as his new 10k-year-old spirit ring I'd waiting for him in the ancestral Lands, after all, Sunset Forest has a high rarity of beasts above 10 thousand. It is set up to be a beginner's method of getting spirit rings. Not that it's not a dangerous place but less so than Great Star Dou Forest.

He runs instead of using a carriage as his speed is faster. He arrives at Sunset City 5 days later. He goes straight to the ancestral land. Following his father's example long ago. He puts a token against a tree which reveals the underground path. He slides on the grind rail and makes his way to the beast pens as he has before. He finds the beast he is looking for with relative ease.

It is an 11-thousand-year-old Blood Zephyr Blast Raven. A blood red and black bird with a wind affinity and Blood due to selective breeding, along with a penchant for suicide.

Xue Tie is excited about the prospect of his next spirit ring. As the breed of bird was set up long ago. It has proven to provide 2 notable abilities for the Xue Clan. Xue Tie is hoping for the 2nd as it's another version of Nihil.

The other aspect he is excited about is that Spirit Bones become a higher chance. He knows that emotions are tied to a higher chance of spirit bones. His greed is to such an utmost that he is willing to not corrupt it.

As such, he spends the next 2 weeks agitating the bird in an arena until it has grown past its taming program and becomes hostile to Xue Tie. But he didn't stop there. He kept going until the Raven looked like it was bleeding tears of rage that they had a….supposedly epic fight that lasted for half an hour. The bird flew around and shot out bloody feathers that exploded, or powerful wind gusts to blow Xue Tie away. Yet it was all for naught as Xue Tie dodged its Divebomb and unleashed a Nihil on it. With it already weakened from the suicidal dive. The raven was finished off and a black ring rises. Xue Tie dismisses his trident and begins absorbing the ring. It's his first time absorbing a pure ring and as such is locked within an illusion.

He finds himself back in the arena in his fight with the raven but he only has his glove armor on (by this point, the armor has progressed past his shoulders and covers most of his chest. No hood yet)

With no access to Spirit Power, Xue Tie begins a far more epic fight of dodging and clawing against the raven as it still has its Powers available. Without his trident, he couldn't use Nihil.

Dodging left and right from the powerful gusts, rain of feathers, and the kamikaze bird itself. Xue Tie was only able to tire out of the bird's seemingly endless stamina before it collapsed from its injuries caused by his claws.

With the mental will defeated, Xue Tie absorbs the spirit ring. But he is disappointed with his spirit ring ability as it's the other one listed. He realizes that he gained two abilities from it as his gloves evolve once more. They now cover his whole body like how he is while using his third spirit skill. Except he seems far more ominous than before as a pair of Raven Black wings sprout from the back of them.

Xue Tie is overjoyed as this is part of his Martial spirit now and not an external spirit bone. Though he would have accepted it if it was.

But with both his new and improved Robes of Blood and 5th spirit ring. He has leveled up to 53 directly. He then checks the usual update points of the Ancestral lands but finds nothing and so he makes his way out with the map he has. Though he would have flown out the way he came If it didn't close behind him.

After exiting the ancestral lands. He Flies his way over Slaughter City. The beginning of a new journey. An excited and slightly malicious smile on his face as he finally gets to try out a few experiments he wanted to do but had no readily available test subjects.

******************************************

Status:

Name: Xue Tie

Race: Human (transmigrator)

Age 18 (33 if counting previous life's 15 years of age)

Bloodline: Mohg, Lord of Blood.

Martial Spirits: Blood Trident-mutated, Robes of Blood (used to be gloves of blood, gained wings)-mutated by contact with Blood Trident)

Level: 53 Spirit King (there had been a small error here that I wrote as 52 instead)

Robes of Blood Spirit Ring composition: purple, Purple, purple, Purple. Black

Robes of Blood Spirit Ring Ability names: BloodFlame Talons, BloodBoon, Immutable, Blood Trace, Blood Vortex

Robes of Blood Spirit Ring Abilities effect:

BloodFlame Talons: The user's claws are covered in a red aura. Users can claw out to enable a 'scratch' on whatever surface they find (air, rocks, people, etc). That scratch will explode in a flurry of blood flame 1 second later

Divergent applications: Xue Tie has trained to be able to suppress the activation of the follow-up explosion up to 5 seconds later.

BloodBoon: Users' hands manifest blood flame which they may throw at a target. As long as Spirit Energy is provided, more blood flame will be created. Thus creating a flamethrower of sorts for reference.

Immutable: a defensive ability where the Robes of Blood cover more of the body and provide a 5x defensive boost as well as a .5x boost for every ring possessed by the user. Current Bonus = 7x (soon to be 7.5x). The negative is that the user's total weight increases by the same amount as the total bonus.

Blood Trace: As long as the user is either within 20 ft of a target or as long as the user has obtained enough blood, a trace can be established. The trace comes in the form of a red circle around the target. The ring can not be dispelled by anti-status abilities. Can be applied 3 times for better effect.

Application: the trace assists in both Bloodflame talons or Bloodboon to gain the 'Seeking' property. The seeking property lasts for 1 second after activation of mentioned spirit skills. Additional traces extend it up to 5 seconds

App2: trace increases the effectiveness of spirit skill the more traces there are. 2 traces = 25% damage boost. 3 traces = 50% boost.

Blood Vortex: This reveals pertinent information that shall not be revealed just yet

Self-made Spirit Skills

Nihil: a 40ft radius circle of red smog that anyone within loses 30% of their total life force with each usage.

Divergent: With Blood Trace, Nihil's effect is limited to traced targets only but each trace increases Nihil damage by 50%. 3 traces = 150% damage aka 45% of total life each usage. The range is also doubled (80 ft).

Negative: High energy drain that has been reduced after a long study of bloodline

Equipment

Ring of Opening-Vin: 20% increase in spirit skill power in exchange for 25% spirit power usage.

Amulet of Nature-Cruise: 2x Energy regen

Band of HIding-Cy: masks/suppresses one's energy signature

Armband of Storage-unnamed: 8 crystals that each hold up to 15 cubic feet inside

(End Character Sheet)

******************************************

Author Note

So it seems some (at least 1 person commented but maybe there are others) of yall are confused by the last chapter and why it was so food heavy.

Simply suck it up as flavor text and move on. Are you telling me that an anime fan won't try to put references in his anime world? Even if he is the only one to get them?

Bullshit, if yall had the resources and technology, I'm sure most of yall would have made gundams or other bizarre feats worse than this. It's just food.

My only apology is that I did go too far into detail about it but that just sets the stage for later down the line. A gateway into the industrial revolution that doesn't take 10 thousand years to advance.