Nightmare’s Call

Lin Sheng possessed the divine ability to detect evil in a person. With just a flash of the golden light in his eyes, he had seen the rising level of evil in the spiritual lights of Dao Ling and Luo Xinna. With this evil-detecting divine ability, anyone who practiced sacred power but doubted it would be revealed in the person’s spiritual lights as seen through the divine ability.

The revelation, however, was more of the extraction and magnification of specific contents in the mind, spirit, and soul. Lin Sheng had not seen any weakening of Sarroux’s spiritual light. Instead, he found it to be getting stronger. Sarroux deserves the core training, while the other two will be dealt with accordingly. Lin Sheng had quickly decided so.

“Put out the fire and clean up the mess, everyone. Dao Ling, comfort the families of the death, and call the contractor to renovate the place again.” Lin Sheng said, his tone very matter of fact. “Sarroux, come with me,” he said, then turning to walk deeper into the premise.

Sarroux gritted his teeth and followed from behind. Meanwhile, Dao Ling and Luo Xinna were feeling miserable, as they knew that Lin Sheng had begun to despise them. When an Ashen Seal inscriber formed an opinion about them, the outcome was plain to see.

The two exchanged a look and saw the desire to leave in each other’s eyes. They had leveraged the sacred power to break through human ability. They had nothing to lose even if they lost their strength and returned to their original state. What was more important to them was Ashen Seal and Sacred Power, the information of which they could sell for a handsome profit. At that time, it happened that someone was looking for information about Ashen Seal and Sacred Power of the Ironfist Society; these things would fetch a high price in the black market. They could trade the information for resources to regain transcendence later. To them, life seemed to be much freer without the restrictive rules of the Ironfist Society.

They had made up their minds. No matter how strong and secretive it was, a civilian force like the Ironfist Society would never have the power to defy the authority of a country, such as the Redwin military. It was still not too late for them to leave.

They would not worry so much about whether the Ironfist Society would be hunting them down or not. They would buy a flight ticket and fly out of Xilin to any place they wanted. Finding them in a city of a million population was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. So, they were determined to leave. Meanwhile, standing in the yard, they were only going through the motions of directing the other students to help clean up the aftermath. After all, it was still necessary to put on a façade.

In a quiet room. Lin Sheng stood there with Sarroux kneeling before him. The atmosphere was as devoutly solemn as it could get.

“The female military officer could speak for neither Redwin nor the Defense Affairs Division. She only speaks for herself. There is no need to complicate the matter,” Lin Sheng said, voice unruffled.

“Big Brother, I will do as you say!” Sarroux said assuredly, kneeling on one knee.

“All you need to do now is wait.” Lin Sheng looked up at a giant character on the wall: Spirit. It referred to a mental state, of which martial art practitioners had high regard. The spirit controlled everything, from physical energy to preternatural abilities. It was the linchpin of all linchpins. The core of Sacred Power. Spirit was an expression of the soul, so it was only natural that it represented Sacred Power.

“Wait?” Sarroux was puzzled.

“Yup. The emissary of the Headquarters will arrive soon. By then, the emissary will get back everything for us.” Lin Sheng said, his voice calm with a murderous look in his eyes. Today, right at home, someone almost took away the murderer who killed three of his disciples. If he did not flash the name the Headquarters of the Ironfist Society to scare off the body seizer, he would be facing investigations by the Defense Affairs Division of the Redwin’s military.

From the perspective of war, Redwin was now the de factor government as Xilin was too inept at fighting back. While they might be busy guarding against the possible retaliation from Xilin, they were still able to divert their resources to burn the Ironfist Society to the ground.

Lin Sheng sighed. Had he been strong enough, he would have obliterated those who dared to mess with the Ironfist Society. Unlike now where he had to eat dirt and groan inwardly.

“Big Brother, will the emissary from the Headquarters be able to settle the score?” Sarroux could not help asking softly.

“Who knows? What is certain is that the Headquarters will not sit by and watch.” Lin Sheng sat down slowly. “I supposed you have transcended?” He looked at Sarroux. A golden light flashed in his eyes, and he instantly knew the state of Sacred Power in Sarroux.

“Yea, almost there,” replied Sarroux quickly.

“Keep it up, and don’t let me down,” Lin Sheng said calmly. “Select some grateful and well-natured seedlings from among our disciples; we will focus on training them into the Transcendents.”

“Aye, Big Brother!” Sarroux answered with great reverence. He knew Lin Sheng meant it.

Lin Sheng could summon powerful monsters at his whim, but he still needed the Ironfist Society. The reason was that the summoned creatures did not possess the ability to think independently. They executed commands efficiently as if a computer did. But that was all about it. Such as when a Blackfeather swordsman transcribed a letter, he would do that task to the letter. But if something beyond his duty happened and needed him to take care of it, he might be stuck and end up running away from the problem so that he could continue the original task of transcribing the letter. As for how urgent and vital the unexpected event was, it was not his concern.

People with independent thinking was the reason why Lin Sheng had to keep the Ironfist Society. Unless he could develop a self-directed personality in the summoned creatures, he would not give up on the Ironfist Society. All the more so because the existence of the society was useful. After all, he was a human, and humans needed money and resources. His family needed support and protection. What was more critical was that summoning creatures also required resources.

“Prepare me something. I need them for my praxis.” Lin Sheng instructed Sarroux; it was time for the Ironfist Society to contribute something back.

“Big Brother, just tell me!” Sarroux came forward at once.

Lin Sheng had listed those materials that were no readily available and asked Sarroux to get them for him. Such as the white spiders, which could only be caught in the wild.

The sky outside began to turn bright. After giving the list to Sarroux, Lin Sheng further instructed him to find out the reason behind the monster attack. As he suspected that, the monster would not have attacked them suddenly. That said, Lin Sheng strode out of the quiet room into the large sparring room.

“Send for me Dao Ling and Luo Xinna.” Lin Sheng commanded the two students standing guard at the door. As the Ironfist Society grew larger and wealthier, some of the students and their families began to live off the club. Most of these students came from a rather miserable background. They were pushed around, had nowhere to go, and lacked the means to survive or the necessary skills to get a job. These people had nowhere to turn to but to join the Ironfist Society, willingly becoming chore boys. But these chore boys were also the most loyal of all.

The two students standing guard at the doorway came precisely from such a background. Upon hearing Lin Sheng’s command, one of them skittered toward the direction of the main hall.

Lin Sheng quietly waited. He had seen the wavering faith of Luo Xinna and Dao Ling, and he needed to fix it when he saw a problem.

Not long after, hurried footsteps approached. The disciple who went looking for Dao Ling and Luo Xinna reappeared in the doorway, face pale and panting. “President! I have looked everywhere in the entire building but couldn’t find Mr. Dao Ling and Mr. Luo Xinna. Earlier, they were heard saying that they were going to the library, but there was no one there!”

“Huh?” Lin Sheng turned around. The murderous looks that had faded from his eyes had returned.