Before heading back to the teleporter area, I evaluate my situation and what’s going to be coming up. Not only that, but I go through what I might need to put myself in the best possible position.

I’m currently 7 days in on the 16-day time limit senior song gave me. I have numerous alchemical materials, including several star renewal flowers, so as long as I can get them to her, I should be all set on that front.

During the fight with Ao Jin, I released my taming and healing contracts.

There’s also released the contracts for all the rats in the outer city.

The vast majority of rats had the contract long enough for their intelligence to grow enough to know to lie low and wait for further instructions. The newer rats followed the crowd and retreated along with them.

I got lucky in that respect.

If the current batch of rats hadn’t had been safe because of the rats sent out by the Ascending Myriad Monsters group and the Eight Winds Alchemical Research society… they would have been too ‘young’ to not handle the situation carefully.

I’m also getting the sense that the hero group might have been involved.

There’s also an (at least) Peak Nascent Soul expert running around with a vendetta.

Though, now that I think about it, He mentioned his daughter before he ran off. And even if he was going for a vendetta, after just a waking he’s probably information gathering and trying to get back to his old stores of treasures, like every cultivator seems to have.

So, hopefully I won’t have to worry about him too much. Maybe if I’m lucky, he’ll only do something after 100 years.

… Who am I kidding? Of course, he won’t.

The next thing that comes to mind is my previous thoughts about getting stronger.

Subconsciously, I can’t help but take a glance toward Ao Jin’s body.

If I didn’t have those creatures, I would have been here for even longer, probably even killed after I had attacked him. While the swarms held him off temporarily, the spirit beasts were the ones that weakened him enough for me to finally kill him.

I should take some of them with me.

Since my abilities are primarily support oriented, my best chance for survival is surrounding myself with people and beast to support.

They have to be strong enough in the first place, though. Unless they are a strategic tame, in which trying to raise them up because their abilities would be even more effective as they grow, like my resident slime girl, Dana.

I can’t assume that these groups won’t figure out that I can heal, tame, and scan.

While there would be benefits to that, there are also major downsides. Having beings next to me I know are completely on my side will be central to navigating those situations.

So that made me reconsider something.

Why wouldn’t I bring all of them?

The only reason that comes to mind is that it would be extremely questionable how I brought all of these creatures under my control in such a short time.

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Without a doubt, I’d be getting a call from the myriad monsters' group. It would also raise up the assumption that I might be the one controlling the rats.

Once again, there are benefits and downsides to that.

More benefits than downsides, though.

I could quickly gain the support of the myriad monsters' group. An opportunity to get access to many more creatures through them that, I normally wouldn’t have a chance to. And if there’s any group that would be able to protect me from the anger of the outer city gangs, they would. No one wants to annoy or fight people that can work with and control spirit beasts.

It’s easy to plan for human cultivators’ tactics. Definitely not so for spirit beasts, which can come in any shape or form.

In addition, I also need to get in contact with the eight winds alchemical research society. Since I’m already basically blacklisted by the alchemy Guild, the best way to become a true and certified alchemist would be through this society.

Not only that, but only they would be left to purchase all the items I’ve collected out here at a fair price. Anywhere else would likely be influenced by the alchemy Guild, even my own sect, in some respects.

It could actually work in my favor with them, that I’m the one that controlled the rats from before.

Similar to the Monster’s group, none of the outer gangs will want to mess with the alchemical society either.

If I’m part of both, it will give me some protection from even the Alchemy Guild.

With this thought, I come to a decision.

I’ll try to join these groups.

In both cases, I’ll need the titles they can provide, if anything else. It is only to a point that you can call yourself an alchemist or tamer.

Case in point would be my feud with the alchemy Guild. Not only did I take business away from them, I wasn’t even accredited. The first would be reason enough, while the second makes it somewhat legalized to come after me.

So, I’ll need that if I want to continue any further legally.

With the Tamer title, it’ll allow me to take on jobs that will give me more opportunities to tame a rare spirit beast. While getting paid for it.

The best of both worlds.

I need to get prepared to leave.

But there are a few things I will want to grab before I go: the spirit beasts; some seedlings so I can grow rare ingredients; and some final tames I think could be useful over time.

Immediately, I reactivate all the spirit beasts that I previously had access to. And let them know that they’ll be coming with me. They’ll be set at the same level of percentage increases as I have with the hero team. It’s massively lower than they were getting when I was in that desperate battle, but overtime it’ll allow them to grow more over a long time.

They seem excited, because not only do they get that, but also access to my healing.

As could be expected, being constantly healed and optimized really helps your cultivation and body strength. This is even more important for spirit beasts who rely on their bodies and natural abilities.

To make things more realistic for anyone who may actually see this scene, I also do something that I haven’t done yet with any creature I’ve tamed.

Initiate a traditional connection with them. A sharing of Qi within each other’s bodies. An imprint of sorts.

This is how most tamers actually go about making an initial agreement with the spirit beast and, in other cases, demons or demonic creatures.

Depending on the dynamics of the relationship, Qi can go either way.

Here, I’ve imprinted on them, which shows that they at least agree to follow my orders. It shows up as a small symbol somewhere on their bodies. This is in contrast to a mutual marking, which would mean both of us have an agreement with each other.

Of course, there are more complex versions of these which are more specific and binding, but wouldn’t be realistic for someone of my cultivation and with the resources I have available, to make.

Next, I go back through the poison area, while using as much of the healing as I can, to quickly grab a few seeds and plants that I think would grow into useful materials and potentially tames. Of course, outside of that area, I also grab a large number of other seeds and growth items.

Since the creatures with me can’t move as faster or as far, I had to go by myself for these forays. Instead, I have them collect, capture, and knockout any creatures they would think would be useful for me to tame and bring along. Not only that, but I have them collect parasites and symbiotes from around their areas.

With a permanent contract in place, they seem to work together seamlessly, as they can actually trust each other now to stick around for the long haul and not betray each other.

With this being the case, they seem to use this as an opportunity to get back at some creatures in each of their areas while also bringing them along.

By the time I get back to the central location that I set up for them to hold everything, there are literal piles of creatures knocked out here.

Only one thought goes through my mind by the time I’m done with my errands and come back to this.

Would they even let me through the teleporter with this many creatures?