I pried open crusted eyes. My vision was blurred. My face was numb, the slick stone surface of the Stormwall road sapping away my bodyheat. The first noise I heard was a serious of offended chirps.

“Littlebird?” I asked. Then, remembering what had happened, I shoved myself up.

Where was the Alligator?! And my qi reserves… a trickle of power was flowing into me instead of out of me. Two pinprick connections connected to my dantian, reaching out like invisible strings.

I froze when I realized what Littlebird was chirping at. He danced back and forth on the Stormwall road, chirping up at the towering form of The Emperor.

The Emperor. The name came to my mind unbidden, through the connection we shared.

I had formed a pact with it.

A Gloomrot Boar hung limp from The Emperor’s mouth, partially torn to shreds. Saliva spilled over the side. The Emperor groaned and dropped the corpse with a plap into the rubble.

“The Emperor? Is that your name?”

The giant Alligator rumbled with pride. It turned its head to the side as if to show off, smiling with rows of monstrously sized, razer sharp teeth. It stood tall, using only four of its massive legs, it was able to raise the front of its body until its nose nearly scraped the ceiling. I rubbed my head. A headache from qi deprivation still lingered.

The Emperor seemed to sense it. He sniffed loudly, closed his jaw, and nudged the corpse of the Gloomrot Boar toward me with his nose.

Eat. Weak. Human.

“I can’t eat this.” I said. Then I paused. “You hunted this for me?”

Yes. Food for weak human.

“I… can’t eat this raw.” I said. I started cycling my own qi, trying to warm myself up. Void and Storm qi were illsuited to the task. The Emperor reared up again, giving a condescending look. A string of images flashed between us; broken trees being used as burning logs. Then he turned away and meandered back down the storm road.

“Wait up.” I said.

The Emperor growled discontentedly and continued on. I guess the pact didn’t make him obey me. My stomach rumbled with hunger. I sighed and turrned to Little Bird.

“How long was I out?” He climbed onto my shoulder and pecked dirt from the veil hanging from my hat.

Littlebird chirped angrily at me for being reckless.

“Yeah. I wish the system had told me more about the pact.” I said, looking around the room.

Littlebird chirped more.

“Oh, about attacking Long? He would’ve found me holed up there eventually. He clearly had tempered Spirit. Besides, we beat him just fine, didn’t we?”

I flexed my arms. I had beaten him.

A Middle Third Realm cultivator. I defeated someone so far above me.

That was stupid. Nearly suicidal for any other Second Realm cultivator. A well trained cultivator would have defeated me even through all my System granted advantages.

Every time our techniques had clashed, my bones had creaked and protested. I was covered in bruises and minor scrapes; I didn’t even know the origin of them. My meridians ran raw from the power I had forced through them.

My hands shook with excitement as I remembered the fight. At the same time, feeling returned to my limbs as I rubbed myself back to warmth. My breath was visible.

“So cold. I’m surprised I’m not injured from the chill.” I said outloud.

Littlebird communicated a string of outraged images, including one of The Emperor curling up around me to keep me warm. I laughed at the absurdity of it, but Littlebird seemed serious.

Once I recuperated, I began to butcher the second Gloomrot Boar. Lighting the wet wood from the Stormwall’s forests would be difficult, but not something I couldn’t overcome. I had more time left. I pulled out the flat stone I had used before and collected rubble into a firepit.

The Emperor returned with entire trees between his jaw, dropping them to the ground with a thud. Water and mud and insects exploded off the side as the leaves shook.

“I… don’t think I can use wood this green.” I said.

The Emperor growled, but leaned down and snapped the trees in half. Then, with three gigantic logs in his mouth, made a sucking noise.

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The trees snapped and parts of them flecked and crumbled away as the water was drained completely from them. The Emperor dropped three drained logs to the ground. I stared up at him. That seemed like a prototypical technique — external water manipulation. I studied The Emperor before walking over to touch him. He reflexively recoiled back.

I tried to signal a peaceful intent between us. He calmed. I pressed a hand to his side.

A fluctuating aura reacted to my touch. Unlike Long’s, it was tightly controlled and held close to the scales of The Emperor. He emanated pride to the touch, cool scales filled with a sense of regal majesty.

“Your Body and Spirit are tempered… so you chased me because you need to eat something to temper your Mind.”

I looked around the cave. There was nothing left but stains and damaged weapons where the Cultivators had been. Not even their clothes remained.

“Did you… eat Rainshadow Long?”

A connection of incredible pride and contented fullness resounded through our connection. The image of the Gloomrot Boar The Emperor hunting for me came across the connection after.

I sighed.

“I guess thats fair payment for keeping me warm and bringing me a meal in exchange. I have to continue my journey onward after this. You probably wont want to come.”

The bond between us absolutely recoiled at the thought of me and The Emperor splitting up.

No. You feed me more. Tasty cultivators.

“I am not… feeding you cultivators!” I said, taken aback.

The Emperor rolled his massive eyes, then his neck. The action approximated a shrug.

Fine. Just the ones who try to kill you. Spiritbeasts okay too.

The Emperor transmitted another string of thoughts, vvery rapidly this time, which carried an almost embarrassed tone. It was a matter of honor to him. He would follow me to the ends of earth to guard me in exchange for saving his life.

I used [Identify] on him to see if anything had changed.

[The Emperor, Level 1 Omen Alligator, Middle Third Realm Water/Life Spiritbeast]

[A Spiritbeast selectively evolved in a tropical paradise. Semi aquatic. The Omen Alligator was once ranched and revered, kept as a common animal of burden in the Heavenly Cloud. Highly intelligent. The Omen Alligator was onced considered the guardian beast of the Heavenly Cloud, with one of their kind ascending into an Elder in the sect.]

There was new information at the end. A guardian beast? It was the kind of role typically occupied by phoenixes or dragons. If The Emperor could ascend to the point of being an elder in a sect, he definitely had immense potential.

The Emperor glowed with pride.

“You can come with me. But…” I was going to say don’t eat anyone. But there may be situations where eating people was a good idea. Like with Rainshadow Long. “Ask before you eat anyone.”

The Emperor grumbled, eyes half lidded as he stared down at me. But then he lowered his head, seemingly in assent. I petted the scaled top of his head awkwardly, unsure of where to scratch an animal like this.

The Emperor rumbled.

“Okay. Yes. We can make this work. I’ll need a new mount anyway… We’ll find you a better meal to work on your Mind temper. Long didn’t seem very intelligent. In the mean time…” I looked down to the dried logs The Emperor brought me. “Dinner.”

I turned back and started piling the dry logs up. The Emperor helped, and we quickly had an entire bonfire going in the tunnel. The Emperor snapped up the raw remains of the boar while Littlebird hunted the bugs crawling off the tree. Smoke crawled along the ceiling.

After The Emperor finished eating every last scrap of the boar I hadn’t, he started chewing the trees, eating off the bark before spitting out the broken wood. A giant tongue hung from his mouth, picking at his teeth.

“Are you well healed?” I asked the Alligator. He smiled again. The wounds on his side had closed, but oddly, his scales seemed to be taking on a darker color. I wondered if that was my cultivation affecting him. Would he become a Storm Omen Alligator? Or Void? Or… Anti-Light?

I stared for a little too long.

“You don’t look like a very comfortable mount.”

The Omen Alligator transmitted offense at that, leaning forward. I gathered myself and climbed atop his back. Littlebird flew around us in circles before shooting forward toward the other end of the tunnel. And then we were off. It was slow at first; The Emperor moved with heavy steps that slapped along the ground. I practiced my cultivation, slowly refilling my drained Dantian so I wouldn’t be helpless if any other threats came.

When we exited back out of the mountain along the rain road, part of the canopy had collapsed. Littlebird squeaked in offense, landing on my shoulder and nestling his way under my veil. He flapped his wings, splattering water on my face.

We rode like that across the Stormwall. The Emperor was far faster than any mount I had before.

I wondered how I was going to feed him once I arrived at the tournament grounds.

The ground became less hilly and started to slope downwards as we continued along the Stormwall. We stopped and rested for another night, repeating our hunt and bonfire. The Emperor was a much more competent hunter than I was.

Littlebird must have put on an entire pound in weight. Not only that, but he reached level 5 entirely by eating bugs.

The first sign that we neared the tournament grounds surprised me. It started as a golden plane that slowly brightened as I grew closer. The winds grew tempestous and the rain heavier and heavier. I didn’t understand what was happening until I got closer and realized what I was seeing was the body of a lake. It stretched into the distance, the opposite shore invisible as the Stormwall road continued across it. The road twisted and turned, plunging into the water.

The rain and wind seemed to oppose me the closer I got. Water and wind buffeted me, seeming to try to push me back. The sky grew brighter as the canopy over the road disappeared entirely; it wasn’t broken here, it was simply never built. A dozen other roads converged to a single point, a towering circular building that stabbed into the sky, visible through the rain. Sunlight glinted off slick stone.

The wind rose to a horrible pitch, buffeting me until I had to hold onto my hat. Littlebird’s talons clung into my shoulder until he jumped forward and landed in my palm.

Then the storm broke.

The wind still roared… but it roared behind me. Instead, I felt the power of a formation on the scale of a city manipulating the qi in the air. The downpour of rain turned to a drizzle. I looked up as the Emperor continued carrying us forward.

A hole in the clouds revealed the sun above. It must have been nearly noon.

“Greetings to the Scion.”

I nearly jumped as two cultivators in the black and purple robes of the Grim Tempest greeted me. They stood guard beside a door that led into the monolithic building before me. They grabbed opposite handles and began to pull open the towering door with the sound of grinding stone.

I finally arrived.