"Father!" Megan Bruce screamed out tearfully. Her heart felt like it had just been burned by the flames of purgatory. She was so enraged that her nails dug deep into the flesh of Monica who was currently holding her protectively. Monica was totally shocked, as with her cultivation this girl should be utterly incapable of scratching her, let alone breaking her skin.

What was this?

"Mr. Jupiter, please," pleaded Megan with all her strength as she struggled in her foster mothers embrace, "Please save my father! Please kill this man!"

Jodye looked back at the crazed young girl behind himself. He sighed inwardly, but his heart didn't waver at all. A decisiveness that seemed to come from his soul was firmly implanted in him, he would never change his decision once it was made. Consequences be d.a.m.ned.

"Your father is already dead," said Jodye Trill indifferently as he sauntered towards this Hemp Saver, his words sending a cold chill through Megan's body. Her eyes dulled, and her body relaxed as she laid limply in Monica's arms. Monica panicked and quickly investigated Megan's body. When she found nothing was wrong, she sighed in relief. Her gaze s.h.i.+fted to the small back of the boy in front of her.

"Will it be enough?" Monica whispered.

"Boy, take another step and not only will this wretch die, but you will also die very miserably," Hemp Saver licked his lips as he observed the approaching Jodye Trill. Only ghosts knew what his twisted mind was thinking. "Surrender to this n.o.ble now, and I may just let you experience a good life."

"For these words alone, your life is now forfeit," said Jodye naturally as his body erupted with a raging force momentum. His nascent slaughter force fused with his refined might as the combat glaive boosted his combat strength by a shocking 80%. As a master blacksmith, Jupiter t.i.tan knew how to double the efficacy of combat gear. This meant that his combat strength which was really boosted by 40%, became boosted by 80% instead. Without activating his astral points his battle power had already reached 169 BP! The force momentum growing around him was slowly raising his battle power as he approached his opponent without fear.

When Hemp Saver saw this growing force momentum, his eyes finally narrowed. A spirit pipe manifested in the air and Hemp grabbed it and placed it in his mouth. He pulled some medicinal herbs from the magic pouch on his hip and ignited a flame with his thumb. An orange atmosphere combined with a baleful purple force momentum that burst from his body.

"Source Artifact detected," a faded and bland voice suddenly ring through Jodye's mind, catching him off guard.

Source artifact!

The tools that sage path martial artists use to activate their powers. This meant that Hemp Saver was preparing to attack as well. However, Jodye was now distracted, 'What the h.e.l.l was that? Why do I keep hearing all of these strange voices? Is someone trying to find me?'

Jodye had no idea what to think. He paused his steps and observed the newly appeared pipe with his divine sense. He sensed strong heat and a gaseous smell emitting from this spirit pipe. 'This should be fire law and gas law.'

He also felt the mysterious laws of fate. His inherited memories made him feel fascinated by this. It was rare for Jupiter t.i.tan to encounter such laws, as his interaction with the hero race was very limited. Only the hero race had such a powerful resonance with the laws of fate. Although Jodye Trill identified the laws fused into this source artifact, the crimson slaughter energy around him slowly faded and became an icy pink-blue. At this moment he sensed Hemp Saver's spiritual sense attempt to lock-on to him, but he destroyed it with his divine sense, which he immediately cast around himself in a protective bubble.

'80% increase? Did he use a secret technique, or was he hiding his strength somehow?' thought Jodye's opponent inwardly. The primary force phenomenon manifested in the air behind Hemp Saver as he pulled out a long and beautiful spear from the pouch on his hip. There were 63 white light spheres surrounded by 60 purple light spheres in the shape of a serpent, making his total battle power 123 BP, "That combat gear is of the Grade right, how the h.e.l.l can it raise your strength so much? Do you think you're impressive with that thing, or that you could fool be by holding back? You are nothing but a foolish foul. I am a mighty Sage at the Junior Spirit rank. With my C-Grade Combat Soul as well as a small army at my disposal, what can you even do to me?! Allow me to show you the power of Earth Science!"

As he finished speaking, the image of a devilish imp seemingly dipped in oil appeared in his atmosphere. This was his combat soul, Oil Imp. The imp smiled evilly and dived into Hemp's body, and his battle power increased again! Hemp's appearance became disgusting as oil started dripping from his pores.

"Soul form!" yelled the proprietress of Little Brothel, Monica. Soul form was a sage's ability to fuse with their combat soul and take on its features. This was one of the options available to sages that they had to decide on as children, on the platform of destiny.

Hemp Saver poured his origin powers into his combat spear, and his strength was instantly boosted by 19%. His total battle power reached 166 BP, as his force momentum similarly begin to superimpose with his atmosphere and raise his battle power. Only the rate at which his battle power increased was just a bit faster than Jodye's, shocking the latter greatly!

So this was the advantage of origin energy.

Feeling the rapidly increasing momentum and seeing the sneer on his opponents face, Jodye smirked. He hadn't yet had a good fight in this life. Now, there was a great opportunity. He would enjoy the contest with this sick b.a.s.t.a.r.d before cutting off his dog head. The nature of force momentum was not nearly as terrifying as core strength. Force momentum would decrease as long as it was attacked enough. This was the reason movement skills were so crucial to warriors; the more you get attacked, the less your advantage.

Jodye's weight s.h.i.+fted slightly forward, as he poured astral power into his legs before he took off like a rocket, his Baleful Glaive slicing out rapidly like a menacing death-reaping scythe!

Mighty Step x Fist of Might!

The atmosphere around Hemp Saver suddenly turned fiery, and his battle power exploded upwards again. This was his C-grade combat ability, [Ignition]. [Ignition] was an ability of Hemp's entire body went ablaze and he looked like a man made of fire as he slammed down with his spear to meet Jodye's strike surrounded in a fiery atmosphere.

Clank! Due to the addition of force momentum in their attacks, it was a collision of Jodye Trill's 279 BP versus Hemp Saver's 230 BP.

"Argh, so strong?" After a fierce collision, Hemp Saver found himself knocked back several feet, while Jodye took only three steps back. Jodye's force momentum had decreased by bit, but his current battle power with his force momentum was still 267 BP, so the 206 BP of his opponent showed who suffered a more significant loss.

This was in spite of Hemp using his combat ability to boost his sudden fire force!

"Now, this is a fight!" Jodye shook his glaive and stabbed out again forcing Hemp to guard. Hemp grimaced and revolved his origin energy as he started to execute combat skills. His spear suddenly stabbed out thousands of times in an instant, overwhelming Jodye with its force. Jodye was forced to retreat a full meter, as the Qi of those spear strikes actually left a small cut on his cheek.

However, this didn't discourage Jodye Trill. Instead, his eyes almost seemed to spit fire as his astral points tried activating on their own as he repressed them. However, in that small amount of time Hemp Saver's battle power had already recovered to 176 BP (+60), shocking Jodye greatly. He realized at this moment he just couldn't afford to hold back against a sage, it was excessively dangerous. Their force momentum seems to be backed the heavens themselves! His own battle power was only 169 BP (+105), and Hemp's was still rapidly increasing.

"Attack!" Jodye launched himself forward, and his astral points exploded to life increasing his battle power to an excellent 355 BP and rising. However, Hemp Saver was oblivious to this increase as his body exploded with flames that swarmed to the blade tip of his spear, which he suddenly launched at Jodye! The flaming spear took on the form of a fire serpent as it swiftly tore through the air.

276 BP, Flame Strike!

Immediately after releasing the spear, Hemp Saver fell back several meters with his hands rapidly forming various seals. As his hands started to blur, black curse marks manifested and was carried by his spiritual energy, with some crawling up his arms onto his body. Hemp knew that his flame strike wouldn't really maim this little madman, but he felt it should buy himself the time to complete a couple of curses. Once the brat was cursed, he would be able to slowly turn the situation around.

However, who was Jodye Trill?

Well, perhaps Jodye was not even sure who he was currently. It was just that with the inherited memories of a mighty t.i.tan it didn't matter! Jodye Trill's body radiated a serene frosty force as he calmly watched the approached flame. The origin energy was difficult for his current strength to resolve, and he just didn't fear the fire at all. Serenity force was of a higher tier than fire force, and the two couldn't even compare to each other. Jodye sidestepped the fiery serpent spear and reached out the grab it with one hand.

Astral Serenity Palm!

This was a combat skill Jodye invented at this moment by merely using his serenity force with his astral power to use Fist of Might on the astral points in his hand. As Jodye touched the spear the flame wasn't extinguished but instead frozen as blue crystal ice one-centimeter thick spread from his hand to cover the entire flame serpent. Jodye then uses his heel to spin rapidly creating a small vortex of pale gold astral force, before he threw the ice serpent back at Hemp Saver at speed surpa.s.sing 1,000 miles per hour.

Meanwhile, Hemp Saver had just completed his curse art, and there was the inky image of a flame glowed with purple light before vanis.h.i.+ng, and a seemingly alive serpent hieroglyph was now slowly coiling around Hemp's arm. At the moment Jodye released his opponent's spear, he felt something invade his divine sense barrier at an absolutely insane speed. Before he felt a searing pain burst to life from his neck, making him grunt. If felt like this searing pain was actually killing him.

"Haha, punk you eat th…is?"

Boom! Cras.h.!.+

The ice serpent spear carried the might of more than 500 BP as it crashed into Hemp Saver's chest before he even realized it was approaching. It tore through his force momentum like b.u.t.ter before the serenity force, flame force, and combat spear backed by Jodye's t.i.tanic rage force impaled his chest and shredded his heart to pieces. The impact sent his body cras.h.i.+ng into the next room. Jodye grit his teeth through the pain and rushed forward with his Baleful Glaive in hand.

Ronald Bruce, who was initially under the influence of a powerful charm curse that had already started wearing off when the fight broke out. He sat crossed legged, rocking back and forth while holding himself and wearing an expression that changed from timid and muddle, to profound and wise. However, during the fight, his face soon paled as horror painted his face. The man seemed to age 100 years in one instant, as his tear-filled eyes turned to face his daughter. He looked shocked for a moment but then despondent.

Megan had never taken her eyes off her father from the beginning. She, of course, noticed all the changes on his person.

Right as Megan couldn't bear to look any longer, Jodye landed in front of Ronald. When Ronald looked at the handsome boy in front of him, he suddenly smiled peacefully. He appeared to understand why this boy would appear in front of him at this moment. Ronald Bruce took one last glance at his daughter and closed his eyes. His voice was hoa.r.s.e as he called out to Jodye, "Please…"

Jodye Trill's face was indifferent as he beheaded this poor old hero with the Baleful Glaive, putting him out of his misery. His blade was covered in serenity force, which sealed the wound in blue ice upon impact.

No blood was spilled.

Seeing this, Megan buried her face in Monica's bosom.

"s.h.i.+t! It's a curse art. It seems I was still too careless," Jodye Trill winced as he thought that these curse arts were complicated to deal with. Even if the opponent died, the curse would last as long as the energy invested. Not only that, it was continually feeding off his life force to sustain itself. The only way to remove it was to overwhelm the power within or resolve the curse laws that constructed it.

What did this mean?

Had Jodye been heavily injured in this battle, then even if he killed his opponent, he might still die! If his opponent were only near-death, then he would also become the reason his opponent recovered once they recalled the curse glyph! He was beginning to understand how Voodoo pract.i.tioners could manage to take over an entire state. Death curses were a lot more terrifying than life magic. The purpose of life was to reproduce, and the meaning of magic was to create. So although magic was dangerous, it could never be as deadly as death itself. Death's only purpose was to take life. It was a destructive principle.

Jodye seemed to comprehend something as he felt a tingle in his mind, followed by a sharp pain. At that moment he was once again a.s.saulted with the searing feeling of death as a flame-shaped glyph begin to take form on his neck. Jodye frowned and revolved the powers in his body with his divine sense and directed them to attack this curse glyph. Monica caressed the back of the trembling Megan Bruce and watched silently as this boy Jupiter stood with his eyes closed and his arms crossed for a full fifteen breaths, black steam rising from a black flame tattoo on his neck until it vanished completely.

Jodye Trill frowned, as that curse was not very easy to remove. However, after some consideration, he felt that it should have been easier if he could use his calamity force. He decided again to mend his soul as soon as possible! Jodye walked over to the corpse of Hemp Saver, who was impaled to the wall of the secret chamber by his own C-grade combat spear. Hemp's eyes were still opened wide in shock, blood dripping from his lips. He seemed to have only realized how he died right at the end. Jodye removed the magic pouch from his waist and scanned it with his divine sense. Seeing the contents of the pouch, Jodye revealed a satisfied smile.

Monica was curious as to what this boy would do not that he achieved his goal. Technically, Jodye could also take over as mayor if he wanted. However, Jodye had absolutely no intention to do this. He withdrew a golden badge in the shape of an oasis and tossed it over to Monica, who had been staring at him intently, "Here ya go, Ms. Mayor lady. Good doing business with you. I'll see you around, yeah?"

"Wait!" shouted Monica, as Jodye turned to look her in the eyes. "Do you not want to be the new mayor and collect taxes? It would be very beneficial to your cultivation, right?"

"If I'm the mayor, then when someone comes to avenge Hemp Saver who will they hunt?" said Jodye Trill casually, "No, it's better this way. Besides, you'd make a much better looking mayor than I."

Monica blushed for a reason only ghosts knew, before continuing, "Erm. Be careful in the coming days… Hemp Saver was a disciple of the White Serpent Cove. His father is an honored elder of White Serpent Cove and his uncle is an elder of Black Mettle Guild. If any of them discover what you have done…"

"Thank you for the warning. However, I would have visited those places one day, anyway. It doesn't matter if I fall out with a Voodoo Cult," replied Jodye Trill as he walked away. "This should be the first time a woman has taken over the city right? Lead it well, and show this vermin infested country what you're capable of as a powerful woman. If anyone comes looking for the culprit, feel free to give them my profile. Send all of the troubles earned by me straight for me. Protect yourselves over everything."

Monica watched his back with his spiritual sense until he left her range of detection. That little back had left a profound impression on her. The manliest man she had ever encountered in her life was a mere child. This made her feel a little incredulous. "Be safe, young hero. I hope we meet again."