Rebirth of the Prime Dragon Master
Chapter 149 Excelled, Yet Again

The Dark Heaven Insect was able to breed a kind of treasure that could adapt itself accommodating for the need to upgrade the spiritual power of the spirit manipulator. While in this vast Wild Spirit Land, such spirit-manipulated beasts were extremely precious and rare in species. It was said that they amounted to less than ten species. Compared to them, the Dark Heaven Insect was massive. For other species of the spirit-manipulated beast of its kind, these quantities were peculiarly uncommon. Although, those rarer species could breed treasure, as the Dark Heaven Insect were the most wanted creatures. In order to upgrade their power, spirit manipulators of Supernal Stage often wandered around the Wild Spirit Land to capture similar spirit-manipulated beasts which could breed treasure. It was certain that the Wild Spirit Land was a boundless realm and the rare spirit- manipulated beast lived in the darker recesses or in the more dangerous parts of it. The opportunity to catch these insects was mostly negligible, but the search in the wilderness of the Wild Spirit Land continued irrespectively. After all, their power could be manifested once captured. Who would not want to fight for that?

'What a pity! I should not have killed it. Had I known the Dark Heaven Insect was such a golden species, I would have captured it alive. It could have elevated my powers to a higher level.’ Rocky regretted his haste actions after discovering the possibilities. He knew he couldn't bring it back to life. It was too late. This couldn't have been undone. Somehow, he managed to acquire two medium-level Black Heaven Eggs from the dead Black Heaven Insect. These two medium-level eggs served as a major catalyst for the elevation of his powers at this stage.

Rocky was content. After all, half a loaf is better than none.

On the other hand, Marin and the deputy commander stared at the body of the Black Heaven Insect with the same regretful face. Although, it was a good news that the culprit which ruined the village was annihilated, yet the better outcome was that the insect would've been captured alive. If only they had reached sooner...

"The base camp of the Crimson Dragon Group, thanks to the good timing and the advantageous position of the camp, only keeps two Dark Heaven Insects of this species. Even if it is in the royal Palace City, there are only four to five insects of this kind that were caught alive. Which spirit manipulator blindly murdered such a rare spirit-manipulated beast? Such a reckless waste of godsend treasure!" Deputy Commander Chen sighed as he shook his head in disapproval. The culprit's justification could not make the remorse go away. After all, the Black Heaven Insect was a spirit-manipulated beast that one could not have asked for.

"Deputy Commander Chen, did you see Captain Rocky anywhere on the way here?” Marin inquired the moment she noticed.

"I did not. Neither did you, Commander?" Deputy Commander Chen shook his head in silence. They hadn't seen Rocky anywhere on their route. When they saw the Dark Heaven Insect in front of them, an unpleasant thought suddenly crossed his mind. He realized that if Rocky had encountered this Dark Heaven Insect, he probably wouldn't have survived. He did not want to imagine that. Jerking off the negative ideas, he went on.

"It's so weird that we haven't seen any traces of Rocky anywhere. Where on earth did he go? Or was he..." Marin, gawking at the Dark Heaven Insect, frowned upon the thought of Rocky being killed by the creature.

"Commander, could he have been..." Neither of them could finish those sentences. Both of them knew what they were asking each other. Deputy Commander Chen's eyes ran up and down the body of the Dark Heaven Insect as if he was scanning it.

"If he is dead, we can only hope that he is in a better place. There's nothing more we can do about it. It was praiseworthy that he could successfully bring the Dark Heaven Insect out of the village to avoid greater casualties. It was tough for him under his current base of power. But he made it. I was proud of him,” Marin said in a pitiful tone. But she was truly surprised by Rocky's audacity and calmness considering the fatal situation. The Dark Heaven Insect was way more powerful than him. He was merely a second- or third-level spirit manipulator of Mortal Stage. Yet, he maintained his composure and made a decisive response to avert the crisis. Eventually, he led the Dark Heaven Insect out of the village successfully and stopped further destruction. This was truly beyond a regular spirit manipulator's power. Adding to this, during the execution of this task, the sixth unit under Rocky's leadership captured the Three Powers at the Gehenna Border, the principle criminal wanted by the northeastern military camp. This exceptional performance is also credited to Rocky. After all, the sixth unit surprised everyone, especially those laughed at them, with their successive achievements ever since he assumed leadershipy.

"It is really a shame,” Marin muttered to herself. No one knew whether she meant the death of the Dark Heaven Insect or Rocky. She then ordered Deputy Commander Chen to bring the creature's body back to the camp to use the iron shell for forging weapons. She didn't want to waste what they had. "I have to go back to the military camp now.” She looked a little low in spirit as she finished her command. Walking away, she approached the Verdanim and drove it away.

Following her, some soldiers worked out how to carry the Dark Heaven Insect back to the northeastern military camp along with other soldiers and two units of spirit manipulators under the guidance of the Deputy Commander.

After all the people had left, Rocky slowly uncovered himself from under the sand dune.

"So, they all thought that I was dead. I wonder if they would be too dumbfounded if I just go back alive and well." An evil smile appeared on his face as he pictured another mischievous idea unfold, then led Uriah to get away from the sand dune.

At the northeastern military camp, the spirit manipulators of the sixth unit were waiting anxiously to hear from Rocky. Their miraculous team leader had unknowingly become the backbone of their team.

"Thor, do you think our captain can make it this time? Is he going to be okay?" Joss muttered to Thor.

"That's nonsense. Of course, our captain will be alright. If anything happened to such a powerful captain, who else would we ever count on?" Thor comforted him. Patting Joss’ shoulders, he masked away his own anxiety.

Just then, a giant dark green shadow of something flew across the sky bringing with it, a strong breeze, arousing the sand and dust, as it slowly descended to the military camp.

"Commander..." Thor and Joss ran hurriedly at sight of its landing, with tears washing away their faces.

Marin had arrived. The Verdanim's was very fast. It didn't take her long to come back.

"Commander, where is our Captain?" Joss asked eagerly.

"The men we sent out to search for him, couldn't find anything. But, I doubt he could...” Marin could not look them in the eyes and gave the unfortunate news. Before coming back to the military camp, she actually went back to look for him everywhere around the village, but there was no luck. Rocky was gone.

"No way! Our captain couldn't have... not so easily.” Thor and Joss read Marin's face instantly. They looked at each other with disbelief. It didn't seem real to them.

"All we found was the wild spirit-manipulated beast that assaulted the village. But it was already killed by some sort of powerful spirit manipulator who must've happened to pass by. Rocky would have been back if he had survived that accident. But now, it seems..." Actually, Marin did come back with a little faith in her. She thought Rocky would be back at the military camp if he had escaped that disaster. But when she saw the look on Thor and Joss’ faces, she knew Rocky wasn't coming back.

"Captain..." Thor and Joss grieved as they heard Marin's explanation. This belittled unit had just risen from ashes because of the new leadership. They could not believe the leader that brought the change and hope to the unit was now...

Other spirit manipulators of the sixth unit stood there beside them, dejected, and sighing in grievance. They won a Third-class Honor under Rocky's leadership, but he just passed away before he could be thanked and rewarded.

"Is the death of that kind of a lowly screwball worth our sorrow?" Evan sneered at the distressed team members of the sixth unit.

"Even though, he did not survive the crisis, he did manage to handle it properly. He prevented that spirit-manipulated beast from causing more destruction. Therefore, I shall confer a Second-class Honor to the sixth unit and the deceased, Captain Rocky.” Marin's sudden announcement surprised all the people there.

Suddenly, the entire military camp seemed to be warmed up by her words.

Three other units which had not received the mission were also stationed here at the military camp. Their team leaders, including Evan, were astonished as they heard Marin's announcement.

Those petty leaders thought it was a sheer dumb luck for the sixth unit to capture the Three Powers at the Gehenna Border. On top of this, Marin conferred a Second-class Honor to the sixth unit purely because Rocky died. This made it even harder for them to accept reality. A Second-class Honor was only conferred to a perfect execution of a fairly dangerous, important mission.

Not to mention the fact that the sixth unit had never received any award before. Among the other five spirit manipulator units of the northeastern military camp, only the first unit had been awarded one First-class Honor and one Third-class Honor. Among the remaining units, only one of them had received two Second-class Honors. For other units, there was only one opportunity to receive the Second-class Honor once.

Also, from all the military guarded area at the Gehenna Border of the Holy Dragon Empire, the location of the northeastern military camp was a relatively peaceful one. So, there were fewer chances for them to execute crucial missions of pretty danger. The first unit was only rewarded with a Third-class Honor when they killed a spirit-manipulated beast of Earthly Stage rioting last time. As a result, other units were definitely unwilling to accept Marin's decision to confer a Second-class Honor to the sixth unit and Rocky.