“I’m sorry, family head, I had to leave so sudden, but it was a necessary step in order to properly groom the next stable keeper.” Daiyu said.

Jiao Long unwillingly raised his eyes from the cub in his hands and looked at Daiyu, then at Alex.

“It turns out Ma family had another secret technique after all!” He said in a displeased tone while furrowing brows. The cub in his hands softly growled as if agreeing with his new master.

“Family head, please, don’t misunderstand.” Daiyu smiled back, “I belong to the Long family now and have no secrets from you. It was a calling I heard during the cultivation and had to pursue it, not a technique.”

“Fine!” Jiao Long left only one word behind him and disappeared together with the cub.

‘Damn! She can tame humans better than beasts!’ Alex laughed to himself enjoying his mother’s act.

Normally Daiyu, despite her standing in the family, would’ve received a serious punishment, but the cute rank four cubs acted as an instant pardon. Jiao Long’s obsession with high rank exotic beasts was not a secret and Daiyu didn’t shy off to use it.

The first step of their plan was successful and the next would follow the same afternoon. The moment Jiao Long would start showing off his new ‘toy’, his only son, Muchen Long, who was around five or six years old, would demand one for himself as well. Then Daiyu would be ordered to bring the other beast along with Alex, who will later be assigned to follow Muchen and take care of the cub.

Even that was a fraction of their, or rather – Alex’s, plan. Daiyu stated that she was too old to make any significant changes in this life, but intended to cultivate techniques according to Alex’s suggestions in order to start finding the soul particles and later create her own soul brand that would allow her to carry memories over to her next life. Even if Alex was not hundred percent certain it would work, she was willing to try – this seemed much more interesting than catching ranked beasts around the mountain ranges in order to please the family head.

Alex, on the other hand, had a different road to take – he wanted to find a way to join the most powerful entity in this world – the Immortal Gate sect. Every few years they accepted new disciples and the heir of the Long family definitely was going to attempt to get in. If Muchen managed to become at least an inner disciple, not only it would raise his mediocre aristocratic family to new heights – the Long family would basically become an untouchable existence that could freely throw their weight around the region.

Alex’s idea was simple – to follow Muchen to the sect and then join it on his own. There was no way they would refuse to accept a genius like him as long as he was still young enough. The problem was – it could happen too soon while he was still physically too small, thus there was no other way, but to follow the steps of his older brothers and start feasting on the blood of the rank three and four beasts mixed with milk, basically – the local steroids, drastically enhancing his physical growth.

This was the food he refused right after the birth and even the thought of eating something like that made him nauseated. Alex would’ve much more preferred the natural growth based on a healthy food and Qi absorption, or in the worst case scenario – some kind of equivalent to the Lord’s seeds, but from what it looked like he had not much of a choice.

This was also one of the main reasons for their return – in the wild Daiyu could not provide Alex with the regular cultivation resources the other kids got and even if he was born physically larger than others, according to Daiyu in one year he had completely lost this advantage.

With these thoughts running through his head Alex slowly explored the Long family grounds while holding Daiyu’s hand. It was not an estate or a group of buildings – everything within several days of walking distance belonged to Jiao Long. But here, in the very center, was something like a large town that housed thousands of Long family members – basically everyone who worked for or served Jiao Long had to become the part of his family as well.

Alex was not sure what to think of this feudal system, but as long as he had his relative freedom, it was fine. In addition, contrary to his mother who could take on a pack of mountain lions without breaking a sweat, he was a helpless child, thus having protection was great. Of course, at some point in the future the local boss will expect him to grow up and serve like the others did, but that would be his own problem – Alex had other things in mind.

First of all, with the amount of Qi this world had, Alex couldn’t wait to go back to ‘catching’ the soul particles en masse. The return to Earth during the previous life clearly showed how valuable worlds like the current one was and he was not going to screw up this time. Obviously he had to find an appropriate spot similar to his ‘Qi pond’, but there had to be one or two in the Immortal Gate sect. And until he got there – he could slowly strengthen his existing soul brand.

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Secondly, Daiyu claimed that it was a common knowledge Immortal Gate sect having an actual gate to another realm where immortals resided and that the sect master also was one of the immortals. At first Alex was skeptical about this fact, but his mother swore that one of her cousins from the previous, Ma, family was once an outer disciple of that sect and confirmed that the information was definitely true. Be as it may, Alex already intended to head there, thus checking out all the ‘immortal stuff’ was fine as well.

As it turned out a year of absence was not long at all. While Daiyu was showing Alex around, one after another people came up to them for a chat sharing the nonexistent news and patting Alex on the head while strongly advising him to grow up as strong as his father was. Of course, Alex ignored everyone and used the time to map out the territory in his head.

While he did enjoy the cleanliness and the natural environment that was incomparable to the urban civilization he just came from, the architecture was relatively primitive and reminded him of the other worlds he had lived in up until now and didn’t catch his interest. The only entertaining part was the Long family stables they were currently heading to.

Daiyu already promised that Alex’s cover will allow him to stay unlimited time in the stable area and he could basically do as he pleases around there. For the next several years no one would look for him and maybe would even forget about his existence if he didn’t show up for the family events and Alex intended to do exactly so.

Unfortunately things didn’t go exactly as he wished. Even though the stables were packed with beautiful and rare beasts almost as if it was the fanciest zoo of the universe, Alex had no opportunity to enjoy the sights and explore it. The moment mother and son passed the gate, they were met with Jiao Long’s annoyed stare. Next to him stood a boy, dressed in a dark leather outfit, who, according to Alex’s understanding, had to be Jiao’s only son, Muchen, but for some reason looked older than ten.

Daiyu didn’t even ask for the reason of their visit. She directly passed the second cub over to Muchen and began to give instructions on how to take care of the little beast.

Before she could finish, Jiao Long interrupted her, “You want your son to become the next stable master, right? From now on he can take care of both cubs – it’ll be his first task.”

“Dad, are you sure? He’s probably younger than the two leopards!” Muchen said while staring at Alex imitating his father’s annoyed look.

“Daiyu trained him for a year in the wild, so it should be fine.” Jiao Long lovingly explained, but then turned to Daiyu and his tone immediately changed to the dry one he previously had, “I need to leave for some urgent matters. When I return in a month or so I want the beasts prepared for the sealing. And … feed your son properly, otherwise he really looks like a newborn. I doubt he’ll be of any use if it continues like this.”

Daiyu hurriedly nodded, but Alex was flabbergasted. He was only one year old and already fluently spoke and ran around, but to others it seemed like he had some development delay. Of course, they boy in front of him was four years older and looked like he could almost go to a middle school, but that was anything but normal. In addition, from how he spoke and behaved, it was obvious Muchen was still a small child.

Luckily it was really so. The moment Jiao Long left, his son began to behave like a ‘normal’ human being, loosing all the bearing of aristocratic heir. He played with the snow-striped leopards for a while and after he lost interest, pulled Alex to the kitchen.

In return to Alex’s pleading look, Daiyu only shrugged while trying to hide her grin. She was the only one who understood that Alex was basically an elderly in a child’s body and how annoying for him it was to behave like one. But befriending Muchen was beneficial to his own plan, so the whole situation was nothing more than amusing.

Alex didn’t find it funny at all. Even though the Long family cook prepared the best food, to Alex it was simply a stew made of blood with added vegetables and few pieces of meat. Muchen wolfed it down as if it was the heavenly ambrosia, but no matter how Alex tried, he couldn’t swallow a mouthful of it.

His brain understood that the other people could eat things like this because they were fed the beast blood from their first meal and it was Alex’s own fault for refusing it in the beginning. But now, no matter how he tried, the relatively good looking dish tasted like lead and made him nauseated.

‘F*ck it!’ In the end he gave up, ‘I’ll find another way to get stronger without eating this sh*t!’

Alex left the table starving. On the way out he stealthily filled pockets with nuts and dried fruits, but there was no way he could survive like this in the long term.

The main reason for their return was Daiyu finally refusing to feed him. Of course, now Alex already knew that women in this world, at least from the cultivator families, rarely fed their children like he expected them to do naturally, but forced on kids the disgusting mix of beast blood and milk, and later switching to bloody stews. He was blessed enough to have a mother who ‘sacrificed her dignity’ and agreed to give him her own milk for a year, although blushing from shame on every occasion, but even she had her limits.

After being forced to become Muchen’s ‘right hand man’, Alex spent the afternoon following him around and finally understood what his mother continued to complain about – thanks to the disgusting diet, the ‘normal’ children grew and matured extremely fast. Compared to them he was basically a physical retard. Of course, their mental development was still ‘regular’ and it was Alex’s only advantage, and he had to use it in order to not fall behind.

Thus, when Muchen got distracted, Alex sneaked away and hid himself in the stables. He settled near the snow-striped leopard cubs and began to cultivate and, as expected, the two beasts lay beside him either cultivating on their own or simply enjoying the Qi flow Alex generated. This was the only thing Alex could do since he refused the ‘steroids’ others took – cultivate Qi in order to reduce the gap between him and his peers.

Unfortunately the Long family heir was not so easy to get rid off. He came came to the stables the next morning and found Alex meditating and the two cubs sleeping. At first Muchen thought Alex was ‘training’ the beasts and patiently waited for few minutes, but then got bored and directly poked Alex on the forehead, waking him up.

Holding back his displeasure, Alex calmed down the cubs who were equally displeased with the interruption, but before he could think of a way to get rid of the young master again, Muchen rained down a bunch of questions.