Qian Shi’s story was indeed an interesting one.

Master Guo had deemed it necessary for all of them to listen to it, and so they were all in the dining room, listening intently to the mastiff as she spoke. Xiao Ji idly noted that it was the first time he had actually seen his master physically present in the dining room.

Qian Shi finally finished her tale, which made him jealous of her utterly ridiculous trait once more. He consoled himself with the fact that it made her somewhat dependent on the rest of them, which was something he would personally not be a fan of. The room was silent for a minute after she was done. Then their master spoke.

“Do you have any idea what the symbol you saw represented?”

Qian Shi seemed to think for a moment before answering.

“I am not sure. I thought it was some kind of rune for enhancement. I was hoping you would be able to provide insights into its nature.”

A scroll appeared in the old man’s hand. On it, was a strange symbol.

“Is this the symbol you saw?”

“Yes,” Qian Shi nodded with some excitement. “Is it an enhancement symbol?”

“Not exactly. It can serve as a replacement for one, like with the spirit beast you found, but it is not one. Its primary purpose is to act as a conduit.”

“A conduit?” she asked. “For what.”

“For whom, actually. This symbol belongs to the Divine Ming Xi. To think old Ming has started getting bold enough to send bandits to my lands. And they are kidnapping people at that. Disciples, it seems I would need to make a trip outside soon. Some people need to be reminded of certain things.”

“Master, if I may ask, who is Ming Xi?” Qian Shi asked. “ Is it someone we should worry about?”

“Ming Xi is simply an annoying Divine that enjoys being a thorn in my side. There is no need for any of you to worry. I will have to go and give him a warning soon. Lest he forget his place. Regardless, he is not so brave as to go after you personally or to move against this mountain.”

They all relaxed a little after that. If there was one thing that was clear, it was the fact that not a single one of them stood any kind of chance against a Divine. Even combined, they would be slaughtered just as easily. He had, after all, seen his master perform feats of incredible power with casual ease.

“That said,” the man continued once more, putting a little damper on their new found relief. “Although he would not dare to go after you directly, that fool Meng is not above going after you. Whenever you leave the mountaintop, you should always be vigilant. He has no shortage of minions he will be willing to sacrifice.”

That was more sobering. The prospect of having to face life or death battles every time they went out was not something he would say he was looking forward to. At least they would not be leaving the mountain for a while.

The old man vanished after that, leaving them to contemplate what they had heard. Ruo Long went to fret over Qian Shi, showing a surprising amount of care. He seemed to have been the one most worried about her. Though now that he thought about it, perhaps it was not so surprising, especially considering the fact that he had spent a night outside by himself.

Somehow, while they were still discussing the whole situation, Ruo Long managed to slip in what happened with Ji’s pills. That brought on a round of laughter from both of them, much to the rooster’s chagrin.

Mei, for her part, managed to shoot him an apologetic look.

“Did you finally find out what the pills were for?” Ruo Long asked Mei.

That got Ji’s attention too. He looked at her expectantly. Maybe there was some chance to salvage it.

“I am not sure how this got confused in the first place, but I can only assume it was some kind of error in translation. The pills are indeed meant to enlarge something, but they’re meant for human use, not roosters.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“They enlarge humans?” he asked, incredulous. Truly, luck was not smiling on him, it seemed.

“Well, not every part of a human. It only works for a specific male organ.”

Huh.

Both him and Qian Shi looked at her in confusion. Ruo Long on the other hand, seemed to get it quickly enough, bursting into another fit of laughter. He looked at the laughing dragon and the woman who refused to elaborate and thought more about what she said.

A human male organ?

He realised it only a moment later, and he could only curse his luck once more. How that got translated into rooster was beyond him, but he knew that he would have some choice words with the merchant that sold it to him if they ever crossed paths.

Qian Shi still did not seem to get it, and he was not particularly keen on explaining. Instead he excused himself, deciding to go and retire for the day. Regardless of what happened, he was still exhausted from training, and something told him Qian Shi’s tale would only cause his master to push them harder.

Still, for all that he was not a fan of being laughed at, he could not deny the relief he felt at Qian Shi’s return, and he quickly fell into his most peaceful sleep of the week.

*

The next few weeks were a blur of intense training, enough that he went to bed with some type of soreness on most days. That was something he still found himself surprised by. He had tested his body recently and knew how difficult it was to get it to feel sore. It was a testament to how much the forms he was practising pushed him.

He could not complain though, as he was actually seeing results. It was a heady thing to feel himself actually get more skilled. Forms he had struggled with at the beginning now flowed with ease. His movements became more refined, and he knew he would find it easier if he faced the shadow panther once more. Victory would still be difficult, as he had no offensive techniques yet, but he would not be pushed back so easily.

His trait, on the other hand, was not progressing quite as fast, mostly owing to his insufficient mental energy. His master had given him some exercises to strengthen his mind, and the trait itself helped, but imposing his will upon the world was something that took a lot of mental capacity.

At the end of the day though, little progress was still better than no progress, and he found himself slowly getting more familiar with the trait. The water in the bowl he previously struggled to influence was a lot easier to move now. He could even lift a small part of it out of the bowl for a brief moment.

On the last day of the second week after Qian Shi returned, he finally broke through to the fifth stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. The rush of qi and the feeling of progress filled him with a certain high that lasted through the day.

A few days after his breakthrough, his master finally deemed him ready for a proper technique, something that left him giddy with excitement.

Cultivators in the Qi Condensation Realm had a limited amount of techniques they could choose from. Their inability to even control pure qi outside their body, not to mention elemental qi, meant that a lot of options were cut off from them. There were exceptions, of course, like spirit beasts that were born with some type of technique. The shadow panther was one of them.

Those spirit beasts were rare though, and the fact was something even awakened generally could not escape. Thankfully, they at least had traits, which completely ignored the basic rules.

When the day finally arrived, his master took him to one of the other buildings in the compound, one he had not entered before.

“This is the technique hall,” the man simply said.

Ji briefly wondered why he needed an entire building to store techniques when spatial rings existed, but quickly dismissed that line of thought. Trying to figure out the logic of his master was generally an exercise in futility. Mei had said it was a side effect of being so old and powerful.

They entered the first room in the building. Inside, they were greeted by large shelves, each of them filled with scrolls and jade slips. There were far more of the former than the latter though.

“Welcome to the Qi Condensation Room. All the techniques here are things you should be capable of in theory. Of course, realistically, only a small amount will be compatible with you..”

Xiao Ji squinted at the myriad of techniques in the room. When the old man said there were a limited amount of techniques that could be used in the Qi Condensation Realm, he had expected a much smaller amount than what had to be hundreds or even thousands of them. How many techniques would the higher realms have then?

His master led them to a corner of the room, his steps confident like he already knew exactly what he wanted to give Ji. Though to be honest, his master’s steps were always confident.

They stopped at a particular section that had a lone jade slip surrounded by a multitude of scrolls. His master picked it up and continued moving.

“With few exceptions, techniques in jade slips are going to be more powerful than the ones in scrolls. In fact, after the Foundation Building Realm, techniques become too powerful and complicated to be stored on scroll. It would not be feasible for you to search the whole building for what you think would be suitable, so I will select the three techniques I think will suit you best and let you choose one of them ”

He picked three more jade slips, before setting them in front of Ji.

“These are all created for a bird of some kind and are suitable for you. Inject your qi into them and choose wisely.”

The jade slips, each one capable of increasing his combat ability substantially, all called to him, begging to be used.

Tentatively, he pushed his qi into the first one, feeling slightly nervous as he did. His vision went blank for a few seconds, and a sudden sense of nothingness overtook him.

And then the world changed.