Taking an intent look at the youths in front of him, Jason couldn't help but be excited.
The elites of Liun might not look like they had much combat experience, but that was a farce.
Hiding one's true intentions and experience while making a killer move was difficult.
But the moment one perfected concealing these things, the result would speak volumes and take the opponents by surprise.
In fact, the youths in front of him were not perfect at hiding their experience and true intentions.
Nevertheless, it was good enough to make Jennifer believe otherwise for a while.
Only after some time did she find out the truth behind their concealment.
Meanwhile, it was extremely difficult for someone to hide their true intentions in front of Jason.
His eyes saw more than others, and even the smallest details were not hidden from his sight.
As such, he was sure that the 10 Elite of Liun were much more powerful than Jennifer assumed.
After a short minute of silence that turned the atmosphere slightly awkward, everyone introduced themselves.
That was supposed to help each other to break the ice, yet, Elder Ben noticed that only Jason was behaving calmly.
Meanwhile, his Elites seemed to be behaving a little bit weirdly.
They were not tense, but it didn't look like anyone wanted to befriend Jason.
This confused him because he always thought that his Elites were open-minded, and believed in welcoming and accepting outsiders as if they were their friends.
'Maybe I'm missing something?' He wondered, before continuing to look at them.
"You guys can decide who wants to spar against whom.
Today's sparring will replace our martial art practice for the next three days. As such, don't hold back!"
The Elder hoped that everyone would be more willing to fight using their entire combat prowess by replacing the martial art practice with today's spar.
This worked partially according to his plan because some of the City's Elites looked relieved, but the others were slightly displeased.
However, their reasoning was that they comprehended something about their martial art technique which they had wanted to ask about.
Receiving pointers was sometimes more important than sparring and comprehending everything on their own, after all!
Yet, they knew that if Elder Ben decided on something once, everything would be set in stone.
"Can we challenge her too?"? One of the shorter guys asked while looking at Jason, with a distinct glint in his eyes.
He was intently looking at Jennifer, and when Jason noticed this, he gave him a quick once-over to check on the strength of the youth.
From the looks of it, he was one of the oldest, despite his short height.
His cultivation base was at the Low Ascendion stage, which was higher than Jennifer's while his cultivation energy was what they called 'Soul force'.
It was an merged energy of the three cultivation energies, using the strongest traits of each one of the surrounding energies.
Combined together, they made exceptionally powerful cultivation energy from the parts of the existing ones.
Jason felt that this was interesting, but he knew that Jennifer was currently creating similar energy. The only difference was that she had three vessels instead of one.
To be precise, she was still cultivating with the normal energies, and they would only merge when Jennifer utilized them.
As such, she possessed three times more energy than others with only one cultivation path.
Meanwhile, the enhancements she received by cultivating were slightly weaker than what the Soul force allowed the Yinar race to receive.
With that in mind, Jason was not sure how Jennifer would be able to fight against the young man.
Yet, seeing the fighting spirit in her eyes, he didn't say anything to prevent her from fighting the youth.
"I can spar with you!" She thus simply said.
Jason was still staring daggers at the youth, who had challenged Jennifer. Surprisingly, he received a challenge shortly after.
"I want to fight against you!"
It was a lean youth whose height was slightly more than Jason's.
As such, he had to crane his head a little in order to meet the youth's eyes as he nodded his head.
The tall youth appeared to be the friendliest amongst all of them, but the intentions in his eyes were clearly showing that he wouldn't hold back in the sparring.
However, this was something Jason felt great about.
As such, he would be the last one to complain.
Instead, he entered one of the combat rings, while telling Jennifer to be careful.
'If he injures her, I'll twist his neck…' Jason thought while clenching his fists.
By using his Emperor Eyes, it was not difficult for him to figure out the strength of his opponent, and the affinity he possessed.
Even the wandering soul that was stored in the depths of the youth's soul was partially revealed to him.
This was even more interesting because the tall youth's affinity was connected to the wandering soul.
As such, the relation of the wandering soul's affinity to the inherited one the tall youth received was similar to that of him and his soulbonds' affinities.
That was good to know, but not exactly important for the spar that would soon start.
Without the need to answer the youth's challenge, they stood inside the combat ring, and were ready to fight each other.
Both of them were not talkative, and believed that their actions should speak more than words. For them, it was more important to show their capabilities instead of being needlessly arrogant.
As such, the moment they started their fight, Jason quickly enhanced his strength by allowing Artemis to enter his mana core.
It was only a moment later that the wandering soul of a huge bird emerged from the tall youth, enveloping him tightly.
From the outside, it almost looked as if the youth was being embraced by the huge bird. But soon the wandering soul shrunk in size so as to perfectly envelop him tightly, turning into an armor.
The outlines of the wandering souls were slightly unique. They were greenish-azure in color, which was completely different to all the wandering souls he had seen until now.
However, having no idea if this held any significance, Jason could only use his Emperor Eyes to inspect the cultivation base of the wandering soul.
'Peak Ascendion stage? That's strong…but will all of that enhance the youth, or will he have to adjust the strength of the wandering soul to properly control it?'
Even if he didn't want to acknowledge it, fighting against a Peak Ascendion stage beast was not something he was capable of.
Yet, from the looks of it, the wandering soul was partially retracted.
"That's a Garuda, isn't it?"
Jason's sudden question that he asked in a calm voice caused the tall youth to halt in his tracks. It took him a moment before he answered,
"Well, just calling it a Garuda is a little bit disrespectful, but I guess it's not bad that you know this rare type of beast!"
The voice of the lean youth didn't seem like he wanted to insult him, but Jason couldn't help but smile oddly at the answer.
"Well, I don't really care about what type of Garuda it is, but that is a nice wind affinity you have right there!"
Upon seeing the youth's affinity seed, he realized that it was a powerful wind affinity.
As such, Jason could also figure out that the youth was likely to rely on his speed. And, a battle testing his speed was something he would gladly join.
However, instead of fusing with Artemis, he only allowed her to enter his body.
He got the feeling that the fusion was important for a second spar. And, just by looking at the combat ring with Jennifer and the small youth inside, Jason couldn't help but sigh.
'Just take care of yourself, Jennifer…'
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