The journey on the floating ship has been a pleasant one, especially since the envoy, a girl who appeared in her mid-twenties and went by the name Daylu, has taken a fancy to me. When she noticed me she released a squeal and bolted to pet me. Emboldened by her example some female contestants joined her and soon I was embraced by a world of cuddles.
As I enjoyed the cuddles Huang Long stayed there brooding over my luck until Daylu asked him how he met me and made me his demon beast’s partner.
(Huan Long) “I found him as a cub two years ago. He was thin and malnourished. I didn't know it was a demon beast but after feeding him in my clan it established a familiar bond with me.”
As he finished all the girls were swooning at him and he started chatting with them with an uplifted mood.
We flew swiftly at the beginning over some mountains, then we landed in another city where we did another test for the locals. In the end, we traveled for a few months around the mortal continent.
In these months, other than being pampered by an increasing amount of young girls. I learned a few things from the discussions between Daylu and Huan Long. I found particularly interesting what she said about this continent.
(Daylu) “ This continent is called the mortal continent. That’s because of the little amount of natural qi present in the air, because of that there are very few demon beasts and qi-infused herbs and those who exist are very weak. However, the demon beasts as well as the talented people that live here if taken to the Flowing River Continent, the original place of our five sects, will display a sharp increase in cultivation speed. This is the reason why the five sects even bother to send us envoys to pick disciples from here. It also means that your demon beast is quite special, take good care of it.”
After that discussion, the ships’ journey changed and they flew northeast, and after having flown over an ocean for more or less a week we arrived on a new continent.
I immediately noticed the sharp increase in qi, I immediately circulated my cultivation technique and I broke through the 5th level of the qi gathering realm. After that, the speed of circulation decreased.
‘Daylu didn’t kid about the spike of cultivation. I estimate that in a week at most I would break through another layer.’
I wasn’t the only one to have a breakthrough in his cultivation, I noticed that every kid with a cultivation of the qi gathering stage was having one.
When the five ships arrived over the mainland each took a different direction.
We flew over high mountains and dense forests and at the end, we arrived at a city at the entrance of a valley. Inside the valley, there was the sect. The sect was separated into the outer, inner, and core regions with a wall separating each part of the sect.
We landed on the outer region of the sect.
(Daylu) “You are all now outer disciples of the Myriad Forms Sect. You will all receive a scripture and technique token as well as a monthly stipend of one spirit stone and a qi gathering pill.”
“You can use the tokens to access the inner sect and enter the scripture and the technique halls and you can take your salary at the outer exchange point every month”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Before doing that I will give each of you a residence token. It’s connected to the array of your new residence. Make sure not to lose it or you will not be able to enter. I must emphasize that if someone is found out with a token that is not its own he will immediately be expelled from the sect.”
“Huang Long. When you’re done I will accompany you to the pen where you will have to leave your demonic beast. Sorry sect rules.”
I, who was pretty chill until this point, started to despair. ‘No, I wanted to go to the scripture and the technique halls! I wanted to roam free and enjoy the beauty of the sect. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.’
After Long took the token, he left his nonexistent baggage inside the hut. I could only call the residence that since it was a rectangular construction made of wood, with a wooden bed and a mat.
Then we went to the pen and it was pretty nice. It was a big construction of stone and wood with carvings of various demonic beasts and a lot of enclosures for the various demonic beasts. It gave a clean and welcoming feeling.
I immediately liked it.
(Daylu) “Here your demonic beast will receive the same as your monthly salary and you will be able to pick it up for sect missions or sect tournaments. Don’t worry some outer disciples will take care of him at all times: working here is one of the continuous sect missions.”
“Now let’s go to the elder in charge get your beast appraised.”
We went inside and then towards a young man dozing off on a chair.
(Daylu) “Greetings Elder An”
“Elder An” repeated.
A vein started bulging on Daylu’s forehead.
“ELDER AN!!”
This time the youth woke up and, startled, fell from the chair.
(Elder An) “Oh it’s you little Daylu, what brings you here? I still remember when you were little and sneaked out to play with the animals. And..”
Daylu's eyebrow started twitching while she slightly blushed.
She interrupted him:” Elder An, I brought here a new disciple to have his demonic beast appraised.”
(Elder An) “Ah yes, of course. What do we have here? Hmm, it seems like a bear but I never saw a bear like this. He should be a mutated one. He probably has some special ability. As for his rank, he’s a rank 1 demonic beast.”
(Huan Long)”Esteemed elder, my demonic beast does indeed have some special ability. But what does rank 1 mean?”
(Elder An) “Demonic beasts can’t cultivate so we differentiate them from the strength of their bodies. It goes from rank 1 to rank 7 with rank 1 as the weakest. Rank 1 equals our qi gathering stage but a demonic beast is usually stronger than a practitioner at the same stage.”
‘So I am a low Rank 2 but because my panda evolution has a weaker body than a normal rank 2, elder An has mistaken me for a rank 1’
Explained this elder An registered me in the pen and gave me an enclosure.
My enclosure was a 4x4 meters room with a straw bed and some plants, it seemed nice enough.
After a while, a girl brought me a red pill and a spirit stone. She put the spirit stone under my bed and fed me the pill. Immediately I felt an energy streaming along my muscles and I started circulating the demonic beast body cultivation technique. The effect lasted a while and at the end, I had a breakthrough and ended off at the 2nd layer of muscle refining.
‘That was so good if I receive a pill like this every month, in a year at most I will make a major breakthrough in my physical cultivation. That means an evolution in a year of eating and sleeping. That’s too good. No, wait, that was probably the 1st time effect, now I will probably start to develop tolerance to the pill and the effect will be a lot less.’
At this moment I was eager to test out the effect of the spirit stone. I rested on my straw bed and started cultivating. I immediately felt the difference: before it was like picking sand with a fork and then sifting it to obtain only the finest ones. Now instead is like sifting buckets of sand all at once. If it continued like this in a few days I would have another breakthrough and in half a year I would break through to the Foundation Establishment stage.
I tried my mental cultivation training and found out that it was as slow as always, well you can’t have everything from life. So I decided to cultivate qi until the spirit stone was used up and then concentrate on my mental cultivation until I received next month’s stipend.