I stupefied watched the two koi fishes swimming inside the pond and I started to ponder. They mutated after eating the heart demons present inside the black mist ball. But I couldn’t help thinking that, if they continued growing, maybe one day I would have two true dragons inside my mind lake.

I banished those thoughts from my mind, there is still a long way to go before that could happen and it would need a big quantity of resources. Resources that I didn’t know where to find.

As I was musing we arrived at the Sect, here we separated from Gray and then moved towards the exchange pavilion, where we would receive our rewards.

Once the outer disciple working there saw our mission report, he excused us and then went to call an outer elder.

Once the elder arrived he said to us: “Good job out there. You demonstrated why you are the most prized outer disciple of our sect. Since the difficulty of the quest was so much higher than our expectations, we outer elders have decided to raise your rewards with a particular bonus to Huan Long because of his exemplary contribution.”

(Thai Hua) “The bonus rewards should go to Zhao, he is the one that contributed the most, hell he even saved all of us and part of the city.”

Red nodded along.

(Elder) “Zhao is the demon beast of Huan Long and as such as the rules state his accomplishments are his owner's accomplishments. But, once the rewards are given, how to make use of them is your own business.”

Thai Hua and Red stared at Huan Long, who, after some moment of thinking said: ”Right now Zhao is far stronger than me so I need more resources to catch up. I will give him half of the bonus reward and use the other half to break through the formation establishment realm.”

Red and Thai Hua accepted the decision even if Thai Hua didn’t seem completely satisfied. The clerk then gave each of them a bunch of spirit stones and, after saying that mine would be delivered to my enclosure, he bid us farewell.

The next day an outer disciple came to my enclosure with a bag containing 15 spirit stones and the girl tending me put them under my straw bed.

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I immediately settled in and started to meditate. The speed wasn’t much higher than with one spirit stone but I assumed that they would last much longer.

The following year was spent cultivating, with only the visits of Thai Hua to keep me up to par with what was happening outside.

She seems to treat me as a friend and seems to understand that I have some wisdom because she always talks to me like a peer.

We also did some sparring but it ended up more for her sake than mine. With the breakthrough to a rank 3 demonic beast and my subsequent mutation and evolution, I have become much stronger. Originally rank 3 demonic beasts were on par with foundation establishment cultivators and, since demonic beasts are generally stronger than cultivators of the same rank and I was stronger than the average rank 3 beast, her attacks couldn't even scratch me.

Not only that but her lightning arrows, once extremely fast, now in my perception appear quite slow. So I just used our spars as a means of entertainment while keeping Thai Hua under pressure to make her improve.

After one year I finally reached the 16th level of qi refinement and was thus preparing for a breakthrough. I needed a great amount of qi to do it though, so I started saving up spirit stones, the ones from the mission were long finished.

At the same time, my mental cultivation had also reached its peak: the 9th layer. This was because the two koi fishes after mutating seemed to have decided that the lake wasn’t deep and large enough: so they started actively helping me expand. Without them, I would have needed another 7-8 months to reach the peak.

To break through I needed to condense part of the water to create a crystal-like pillar from the bottom of the lake to the top. The pillar would become the foundation of my mind palace. In this case, I also needed a surge of mental energy to condense the pillar. Usually, it would be pretty difficult to find resources that enhance mental energy and are ridiculously expensive too. But I have the perfect solution: my imminent qi cultivation breakthrough.

The breakthrough to foundation establishment indeed gives the cultivator a surge of mental energy. Usually that energy would be used to unlock the spirit sense but, since I already have it, I will use it to condense my crystal pillar.

‘That’s all well and good but now what do I do? My qi cultivation and mental cultivation can’t advance until I accumulate enough resources and my physical cultivation needs or even a greater amount of resources or cultivation at the foundation establishment realm.’

‘Practicing the bear combat style would destroy the enclosure, stealth would scare the hell off other people if not done at night and regeneration would need to harm myself: something I am not ready to do. So in the end I can only practice qi infusing my muscles with YinYang qi and my paws with separate Yin and Yang qi.’

And so I spent my days trying to enhance my qi infusion skills until one day Thai Hua appeared with wonderful news: the opening of the sect’s secret realm.