The Strongest Businessman

"Sir Dylan!" Mary could not control her emotions anymore. She jumped into Dylan's embrace and cried tears of joy. "Thank, god..."

"Where is this..." Dylan stared blankly at the two individuals who was in front of him and scanned his surroundings. His mind was still elsewhere as he recalled the memories that he and her mother shared.

"I knew it! You definitely won't die on me! Hahaha!" Rian merrily chimed. He let out a sigh of relief after having a hearty laugh.

After blinking a few times, he began to remember about Mary's abduction and the fight with the alliance. When his mind became more clear, his eyes lit up. "Rian! You're okay? Great! When the leaders came back, instead of you, I thought something might have happened to you."

"Heh, you think those old farts could kill me? Hmph, you think too highly of them! As I am now, I could take care of the entire alliance single handedly!" Rian unhappily snorted yet as he looked away, there was a faint smile on his face. He was really happy that he could still talk with Dylan like this.

"Arrogant as always, I see. Mary, why are you here? Didn't I tell you to run as far as possible?" Dylan then turned to the crying damsel on his shoulders.

" I..." Mary suddenly realized how inappropriate her actions were. She immediately detached herself from Dylan and answered. "I heard a large explosion. I felt something bad happened to you so I..."

"You shouldn't have! What would happen if the... The alliance leaders! They... Ugh!" Dylan, who was in the middle of speaking, could now fully feel the enfeeblement that lurked within his body. With the clarity of his mind returning, the sensation of his body had also done the same.

"Huh?" It was only now that he discovered his chest was shrouded with bandages which were now drenched in blood because of its' attempts to stop excessive bleeding. When he tried to move his body, pain was the only thing that he could feel.

He, then, looked at Rian and Mary with an inquiring stare, "What happened to me? Why am I injured like this?"

Rian answered. "I don't know what happened exactly. When I found you, you were already like this. I thought that you might have fought the demon warriors of the clan leaders which resulted you being heavily injured."

After hearing Rian's assumption, he remembered his arduous fight with the demon warrior, " That's right! I fought with a demon warrior because I thought they already killed you. The last thing I remember was using my strongest attack against them, then, everything went white. I guess I fainted quickly after."

"But, still, you were able to destroy their demon warrior because when I found them, they were already lying on the ground so I cleaned up your mess and killed them." Rian mentioned Dylan's feat and mentioning his right after. He even grinned when he said 'I cleaned up your mess'

"Okay, okay. I get it." Dylan rolled his eyes in response.

"Hmph, how ungrateful! If it were not for me, you would have died!" Rian growled in a dissatisfied tone.

"Well, that's what comrades are for, stupid. I would do the same if you were injured like I was." Dylan wore a warm smile while he laughed.

"Anyways, you should also thank Mary. Regarding your injury, it was even more worse initially but Mary helped you with that. She was the one who took care of you when I went to kill those bastards." Rian spoke with a knowing tone.

"Thank you, Mary. I owe you one." Dylan turned to Mary and smiled gratefully.

Mary became flustered as she looked at Dylan's captivating smile. She turned her head away and waved her hands while talking hurriedly, " I only stopped the bleeding, sir. Your body was already recovering at a visible rate when I arrived. It was continuously taking in spirit energy from its' surroundings and refining it to help your body recover. I only took off your shirt and..."

She abruptly stopped talking when she mentioned the matter of her taking off her shirt. Her hands stopped moving and she placed on her flushed face. Despite covering her face, there were gaps on her hands. Even if she was embarassed, a part of her wanted to see Dylan's reactions.

"Even so, you helped me keep my life. That's why I'm really grateful." Dylan smiled warmly as he expressed his thanks.

"Mhm." Mary stared at Dylan in amazement. His smile suddenly became more brilliant which made her heart skip a beat. She lowered her head and smiled secretly.

"Let me meditate for a bit. I want to inspect what happened to my body. Plus, the pain in my chest is killing me." Dylan joked.

"Sure, we'll guard you." Rian guaranteed without heistation.

Without delay, he crossed his legs with difficulty and entered a meditative state. He scanned his body for any major injuries, blocked spirit veins or internal bleeding. After a thorough check, he could only bitterly smile as he witnessed how messed up his body was. '6 broken ribs, a cracked sternum, severed chest muscles, 30 clogged spirit veins and ancestral veins... It's a good thing I managed to angle the strike to my upper torse or else my dogestive system would have been severely damaged...'

'My Supreme Core already has spirit energy within it?' Dylan was stunned to find that his body was already recovering from energy depletion. After using the Lightning Breaker Piercing Blade, his body lost all the energy it contained. To his shock, he had already recovered 10% of his spirit energy. But, he soon understood that this matter was because of his Ancestral Veins System

'The ancestral veins could even absorb and refine the invasive energy in my body from the explosion earlier... Huu, I guess I don't have to worry about hidden injuries with the tandem of the Ancestral Veins and Supreme Core in my body.' Dylan was satisfied with the results of his hardwork paying off like this.

His Ancestral Veins System could guide any type of energy that entered his body to his Supreme Core while his Supreme Core cleanses and converts those energy into his very own energy. With the power of these two, the Cosmic God did not fear just any type of poison unless it was one which could corode one's Divinity or anything of that level.

But, Dylan knew that one of the greatest advantages of the Ancient Veins Realm is that it could absorb spirit energy from his surroundings indefinitely and involuntarily. Though this absorption was lesser than if one cultivates manually, it could decrease the time which a cultivator has to restore his energy and it could even be done without the user's will as it becomes an involuntary function.

Sadly, Dylan's body could still not absorb the energy from nature for some unknown reason. He thought that if he were to successfully cultivate the Ancestral Veins System, he could finally absorb nature energy even if his original Spirit Veins System could not do so. Thus, he was really despodent once he had this discovery, 'Just what is wrong with my body?'

'I hope I can unveil the mystery of my body somehow... someday.' Dylan helplessly thought but he had immediately cast away that thought as he crushed several Primal Stones and recovered some of his spirit energy.

He also noticed that as he refined his Primal Stones and Deca-Stones, he could use some of it to aid his body in recovering. With the rate of his conversion, he was able to fill his Supreme Core in less than two minutes. After doing so, he guided some of his spirit energy to his abdomen to up the speed of the clotting of the wound.

Several minutes later...

"Help!!" A cry filled with fear broke the silence of Dreamy Forest. This cry has also jolted Dylan, who was in meditation, awake! Rian and Mary was also alarmed by that abrupt scream.

After the shout, the ground seemed to be shaking with loud rumbling sound coming from the north.

*Rumble* *Rumble* *Rumble*

"What was that?!" Rian, Mary, And Dylan stood up and looked around them with caution.

To their north, they saw a group of people who was running towards them at really fast pace. They seemed to be running away from the dustwave behind them.

There were a total of seventeen people where majority of them were in handcuffs. There were six people at the front with three of them carrying a person each. The people which were being carried seemed to have lost at least a single limb.

"Help us! Please!" The leader of the Ford Protection Squad cried for help as he ran with all his might.

"The Ford Protection Squad?!" The trio was shocked when they saw the distressed faces of the mighty squad which fended off every assassin which threatened to take Dylan's life.

With some effort, they were finally able to reach Dylan and their group. They all had ghastly complexions with them while they were panting nonstop. They came to a stop when they saw that the dust wave could not just be found to their north but in all eight directions. It seemed as if they were being slowly cornered and trapped inside a cage.

"We-we're done for!" A sect leader dropped to his knees and cried out.

"We're going to die!" Another sect keader wailed in fear and crouched while trembling.

With the approaching figures within the dust clouds, they could finally see what the group was running away from. It was an army of giant spiders which had varrying number of legs. These spiders were either a meter to 3 meters in height and 4 to seven meters wide. They were all dark purple in color with portruding horns from the sides of their heads. Their numbers would most likely reach beyond a hundred if they were counted.

"A beast tide!!" Dylan's face became dark as he uttered those words. He turned around and asked the sect leaders in a deep voice, "What did you all do?!"