Xiao Ji woke up the next morning feeling surprisingly refreshed. Perhaps it was the fact that he was going on a break and would not have to see the old man for the next week that left him in a good mood. Either way, he was not going to complain about it. Feeling down all the time was draining.

From the short time he spent with the others eating, it seemed like he was not the only one feeling happy. Qian Shi practically radiated excitement, muttering something about getting to see Bai again, whoever that was. Even Ruo Long had lost the reserved arrogance he often affected, instead chatting happily and even laughing at the inevitable tease from Shi.

Unfortunately, the food was quickly finished and their time at the table came to an end. Still, that did not do much to actually dampen Ji’s mood. They had the rest of the day to themselves after all, and they would finally be off the mountain.

Truth be told, Ji did not particularly dislike the mountain, or even his Master. The man had taught him cultivation and given him tools to defend himself. Regardless of the fact that he was likely just a tool in the eyes of the ancient cultivator, he could not deny that another encounter with the shadow panther that nearly killed him would be much less dangerous to him because of those teachings.

None of that, however, was enough to negate the fact that the pain from the body strengthening art had come close to breaking his mind. He was gradually getting better, but what little he had learnt about mental health from his uncle implied that time away would only help him.

Before he left his room, he made sure to put his painting on the bed. He had been tempted to take it with him, but there was always the unacceptable risk of something happening to it. Keeping it on the mountain was safer for him.

When he went outside, he saw Mei sitting leisurely on a wooden chair and realised that he was the first outside. That was not surprising. He had neither properties to pack nor arrangements to make. Which meant he needed almost no time to actually prepare for the journey.

The other disciples came out a few minutes later. He could see something glinting on one of Ruo Long’s fingers.

Spatial ring, they had called it. His fellow disciples had likely packed whatever things they thought necessary in it. More importantly…

“There is enough food in the ring to last all three of you for two weeks. Don’t finish it all in one day,” Mei warned when they were gathered. She had a warm smile on her face, and not for the first time, Ji was reminded of how human mothers looked at their chicks.

“Be at ease Mei,” Ruo Long declared. “I know Qian Shi is ravenous, but I will protect our rations from her!”

“Hey, how am I the ravenous one? You eat more than me!”

Ji smiled at their antics, though he silently promised to test the full power of his new found cultivation if anyone ate his precious spirit worms. The way Mei prepared them was simply a step above anything he had ever experienced. He did not even know his taste buds were capable of experiencing such a wonderful sensation.

“Because this is a break,” Mei said, putting strange emphasis on the last word. “Master will transport you to the foot of the mountain, though you will have to go the rest of the way by yourselves. Consider it part of the fun. Bye.”

Just as he was about to ask how they would be transported, an impossibly dense wave of qi washed over them, making him feel slightly sick. The next time he opened his eyes, he was no longer on the mountain top. Instead of the hard smooth floor he had slowly gotten used to, he felt soft, lush grass underneath his claws. In front of him was a large field of grass that stretched as far as he could see. His senses had improved to some extent with his cultivation, but he still saw no sign of an end in sight.

The true surprise however, came when he looked back. Just behind where he stood, the grass field ended abruptly and was instead replaced with hard rock covered in white. This stretched on for miles before rising up into an elevation he instantly recognised as the mountain range. Though he had seen it from above and even lived on top of it, looking at it from the ground was a truly humbling experience. The mountain stood there, vast, immovable and seemingly unchanging. It felt like no matter how great he became, he would forever remain miniscule compared to it.

He simply stared at the vast mountain range in admiration before noticing something strange. He did not have much experience with geography, but the abrupt way the grass ended and turned into hard, frozen rock was something that felt odd. It reminded him of the fields that humans kept in the village and how they tended to abruptly give way to stony pathways, a result of meticulous cutting down on grass.

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Qian Shi, ever the font of knowledge, seemed to notice what he was looking at and came to his rescue.

“Wondering why the grass ends so suddenly?” she asked. “It’s because the whole place used to be grassland. But then Master created the mountain range here.”

Ji just stared unsure of how to even reply to that. The scrolls said Divines were powerful and he had seen his Master do incredible things but to create an entire mountain range? Just a few minutes ago he was thinking about how the mountain would always stand above him yet now he realised it was actually made by a cultivator. Perhaps he was truly underestimating the path of cultivation. Maybe all those talks of destroying mountains with a single strike were not actually exaggerated

The thought evoked a certain hunger in him. If this was what a Divine could do then he wanted to see them in action. Could the Titans also achieve similar feats? Would he one day also be able to create mountains? He felt his drive reawakened in a way he hadn’t experienced in months. Of course, all through this, there remained a nagging worry that wormed its way into his heart. How could he achieve the same level as these greats when he could not even cultivate a body strengthening art.

He shut up the voice fairly quickly. It was unthinkable for him to go back to that technique

Soon enough, they were off, walking through the grass without a care in the world. The journey was largely quiet, with Qian Shi throwing out random tidbits of information once in a while, but it was a pleasant silence.

Ji found a few worms and seeds scattered around, but they all tasted rather stale compared to what Mei prepared. Thankfully, he had enough of that in stock and unlike the large chunks of meat that the others fought over, no one else cared about his food.

He wasn’t sure how long they had spent walking when they finally saw something other than grass, but it was likely a few hours. It started with a few trees that were spread out before eventually thickening into what could be called a forest. The change in scenery was certainly appreciated, as he was starting to get bored of seeing only grass. They were about to enter the forest when Qian Shi gave a warning.

“We’ll have to start being careful from here. The forest is not completely safe and there’s always the possibility of running into hostile spirit beasts.”

The warning was likely meant for him, since Ruo Long had definitely passed through the forest before. Sure enough, they had not even gone far into the forest when they saw the first possible threat.

Just ahead of them was a fairly large animal that looked like a dog of some kind. It was clearly a spirit beast, something he could somehow feel even though his qi senses did not extend that far. He had no idea what realm it was in, which made him cautious. Size certainly did not favour him.

Thankfully for him, it favoured both of his companions. The dog was large, but it still fell short of Qian Shi’s massive bulk. From the bored look on Ruo Long’s face, the dragon likely did not even see it as a threat.

“Forest wolf,” Shi growled, identifying its species.

A wolf was something he had heard of in stories, but this was his first time seeing one in real life. Once he realised what it was, stories of wolves came to his mind and he immediately went on high alert, hoping it was far from a pack.

Qian Shi did not seem to share those reservations and instead pounced on the wolf. It tried to fight back, but was completely outclassed by Shi. It only took a few moments before the dog lay unmoving, its neck bent at an unnatural angle and its murderer looking no worse for wear.

Any relief Ji felt was instantly evaporated, however, as loud sounds of howling suddenly filled the forest. Within moments, a dozen wolves surrounded them, growling angrily. He also noticed one of them was noticeably larger than the rest. Enough to rival Shi in size.

Most of them pounced on Shi, perhaps recognising her as the murderer of their packmate. The large wolf and two others stayed back, however. He noticed it staring at Ruo Long with something that resembled wariness.

One of the smaller wolves pounced on the dragon, only to be slapped down with contemptuous ease. It did not rise again.

The other wolf seemed to have learnt its lesson and avoided the dragon, leaving the big one to handle it. This unfortunately, put it on a path that led to Ji. His first instinct when he realised that was to run. That idea was immediately discarded. Even taking aside the fact that turning his back to a wolf was a bad idea, part of his reasons for cultivating was to stop being prey. How would he achieve that if he ran from the first predator he came across.

He was a cultivator and a talented awakened beast now. Certainly far from what he had been before meeting his Master. And even then, he had stayed to fight a predator much bigger than him. He steeled his heart and faced the wolf, meeting its pounce head on.

The first thing he did was to enhance his body to the maximum with his qi. He felt his confidence rise as his physical attributes shot up. A simple leap easily propelled him over the wolf. When he landed on its back, it was with enough force to send it crashing down. Qi went to his claws, reinforcing them and though he could not feel it, he knew they were much sharper and stronger. This was proven correct when a simple slash aimed at the wolf’s throat ripped it open, letting out a fountain of blood. It struggled for a long moment before giving up running out of strength before he died.

He looked up to see Qian Shi surrounded by a pile of dead wolves. Ruo Long held the dead body of the large wolf and looked at it with disgust.

As they stood there, surrounded by dead wolves that they had killed effortlessly, he thought that maybe being a disciple of Master Fan Guo did have some perks after all.