Chang Bo is an orphan who was raised by a retired low-level adventurer after finding that he was born with high-quality ether.
Despite being poor, his early life went well but when he was twelve, the old man died of a heart attack, leaving behind heavy debts that cost him the house and the boy was on the streets once again.
Thankfully, by then, he's already broken through the 2-circle realm and could fend off himself. Although his cultivation realm is low, he was still a swordsman. So, the Swordmasters guild took him in.
In the past three years, he changed different teams but in the end, he only became an errand boy.
Like other citizens, he too attended the public trial and had seen Lu Zhen and the other two.
When he realized the situation, Chang Bo saw an opportunity and immediately volunteered to sell out Mo Jiang despite the fact that he was once teammates with the latter.
Naturally, Chen Shi didn't like it. "Chang Bo, what are you doing here?"
"I… I…" The boy flinched by Chen Shi's yell. He stuttered in fear.
Meanwhile, Mark inspected the boy with Sage's eye.
Name: Chang Bo
Age: 15
Species: Human/???
Spirit path: Magician
Rank: 2-circle realm
Ether energy: 743
Ether quality: High
Bloodline: Unknown
Attribute: N/A
Life span Limit: 5644 years
Description: He is suspected to be born as half human and half werewolf/vampire considering his long life span. But, the system might need 10 ml of his blood to confirm the details.
"A hybrid species?" Mark was naturally surprised by the sudden turn of events. Who could have expected that he will meet such an interesting species when he came to meet Mo Jiang for another matter?
He felt like the encounter is really a fate. But, seeing his low-level strength and crappy armor, he couldn't help but assume that either the boy might not have known about his own strength and probably picked up the sword because he doesn't have any attribute or the boy might have been trying to hide his identity by staying low key like this way.
Whatever the case, Mark felt like he could use it to his advantage.
Maintaining his stoic expression, Mark stepped forward towards the boy, "So, your name is Chang Bo, huh! Anyway, take me to him. I'll handsomely reward you in return."
Now that there's someone who knows where to find Mo Jiang, he felt like he no longer needed Chen Shi.
Chen Shi attempted to stop them, "no, you cannot leave."
Just as he was about to take out the sword from the sheath, Mark called Alina's name.
Without even requiring a formal order, she understood it and dashed towards Chen Shi like lightning and caught his wrist before forcefully pushing the sword handle back to the sheath. Staring directly at his eyes, she gave a warning, "We came here in peace. Don't escalate the situation and meet your doom."
"You…" He tried to free his hand but found that her grip was really too tight. In the end, he bowed, "I apologize."
She freed him and walked back to Mark whose eyes were fixed on the boy, "let's go."
As Mark followed the boy towards the exit, Chen Shi said to his team, "Guys, we will have to postpone the mission. You guys take rest for a while, I'll return soon."
As Chen Shi also disappeared from their view, the five of them looked at each other, wondering what to do. It was then, an adventurer nearby scolded them, "Hey, what are you doing? Don't you know who that man is?"
As the five of them appeared to be clueless, the fellow adventurer slapped his forehead, "I forgot that you just returned this morning from the mission. That man is Lu Zhen, the owner of Genesis store, an Exalt realm expert who killed the seven circle beast king Cerberus, defeated Sui clan's Grand Elder Sui Rong, and a while ago, he even defeated Minister Song Yun in front of everyone. Chen Shi might not even return if he goes against him."
"Eh?" The five of them quickly realized the situation and hurried outside.
Meanwhile, the others around started to wonder why a mighty figure like Lu Zhen is looking for someone like Mo Jiang. Did the latter offend him?
Unknown to them, from the top floor, an old man, who was wearing magnifying glasses (spectacles) due to poor eyesight, was watching the scene intently. He's the Commander that controls all the guild branches of Swordmasters located in the Phoenix Empire. "So, this is the weapon seller of firearms, huh. Not less arrogant than any major noble clan heir."
At around fifteen minutes later, the boy took Mark and his Android assistants to an inn.
"Lord Lu, give me a second. Let me go and confirm it." The boy politely said Mark to wait outside as he went inside and had a talk with the receptionist who is also the owner of the inn. As soon as he revealed Mark's identity, the receptionist hurriedly came outside and welcomed him.
He was treated as an esteemed guest but Mark firmly told him that he wanted to meet Mo Jiang first. The owner hesitated at first but eventually, took them to the first floor and he knocked on the room thrice before a woman opened the door.
"Zhuan Bai, Lord Lu wishes to meet Mo Jiang. You go downstairs and wait." She didn't who they are but seeing the owner's attitude made her think they might be nobles. She bowed to them and hurriedly left the place.
As they stepped inside, Mark saw Mo Jiang was in the middle of drinking and is swaying a lot.
He looked at the guests and pointed his finger in a different direction, "who are you lot." Everything is blurry for him.
"Oh boy." Mark felt like slapping his forehead. He came here for a simple purpose but still faced difficulty. "I guess even 5 points of luck aren't enough."
"Owner Dai, bring me a tub of water," Mark said to him.
After a while, as Chen Shi and his team came to the room, they saw Mo Jiang was being tortured. At least, that was what they thought as Allen was grabbing his hair and keep pushing Mo Jiang's head into the tub and then pull out. Mo Jiang was screaming for help and struggling to get free. Meanwhile, Mark, Alina, and the boy were standing on the side, calmly staring at the scene. The owner, on the other hand, seemed like he doesn't know what to do.
Chen Shi hurried inside and roared, "What are you doing? Stop it."
"Hmm?" Mark turned his head. As he saw Chen Shi was dashing towards them, he called Alina once again.
She immediately dashed forward and gave a powerful knee strike to the latter's abdomen. A crack appeared on his low-quality gold-grade armor. It's obvious that he was also deceived on buying a piece of tungsten armor, which appears hard but breaks easily when enough force is applied.
"Why do you keep trying to come in my way, Chen Shi?" Mark asked him with a cold gaze on him. He inspected the man earlier with Sage's eye and found that this adventurer was actually a beginner stage 6-circle realm swordsman. It was then Mark realized he was no match for Alina.
Before, he was in the guild, so, he restrained his actions but here, he wouldn't need to but Mark knew that they don't have any personal enmity. So, he tried to be patient.
Letting out a heavy cough, he spoke, "I won't let you harm Mo Jiang. He is like my brother. If you have grievances with him, Lord Lu, I will compensate. Don't kill him."
"Are you an idiot? Who said anything about hurting him?" Mark got annoyed and barked at him. He cleared the misunderstanding by pointing his finger at Mo Jiang, "I'm just trying to bring him back to a sober state. There's something important that I need to talk to him about."
"Lord Lu, isn't there a sober pill for that?" One of the adventurers in Chen Shi's team voiced his opinion.
Mark displayed a look of surprise at first. He doesn't know the existence of such a pill. He asked, "Do any of you have one?"
"I have," Chen Shi hurriedly took out a black-colored pill from his storage card, handing it to Mark, who handed it to Allen, who then put it into Mo Jiang's mouth and forcefully made him swallow.
Within just ten seconds, Mo Jiang came to his senses and looked at his surroundings. His eyes fell on Mark. "You… what do you want?"
Mark calmly took out a gold ring from his inventory, "I came to return your storage ring."
"Huh!"
