After showing their gratitude and respect to their master, the trio played around with their new siblings.

Siblings indeed. Fan Yueyin warned them again and again to not mistreat them and act like the ‘little ones’ were their own blood.

She seemed excessively worried about the matter. So much so that even Sun Jian put on his most serious expression to assure her.

Of course, Fan Yueyin knew her disciples wouldn’t mistreat these living tools.

Her gaze seemed to linger on Li Ao’s face while she warned them though...

When the general affairs were done with, Li Ao changed back to Xu Liao’s face, and Fan Yueyin’s gaze also went away.

Li Ao felt deeply aggrieved at the implication, but he had no way to vent his grievances. So he watched the little substance bubble and sludge around his arm.

Its little body rose and fell like waves on the sea. Much like a snail, it trudged up through his elbow to reach the shoulders, bubbling every few seconds to rest. Li Ao noticed that this guy was the only one who kept bubbling—Sun Jian’s seemed to ripple and jump, highly energetic, while Qing Yan’s refused to even move a single inch.

The girl thought it was dead and almost cried. Fan Yueyin explained in time that he was just the laziest among the siblings.

‘’Laziest?’’ Qing Yan’s eyes brightened for a moment. ‘’I will name him Sloth!’’

The little thing produced his first reaction of the day, which was to move a single centimeter closer to Qing Yan.

The movement caused the girl to squeal with happiness and rub the thing all over her face.

Watching for a moment, an idea appeared in Li Ao’s mind.

‘’Oh,’’ Li Ao exclaimed. ‘’I’ll call you Bubbles then!’’

Bubbles, who tried to make another attempt at climbing the steep mountain that was its new brother, bubbled at the name.

‘’Bubbles.’’

Bubbles moved up and down as if it understood, dancing.

‘’Bubbles!’’

Bubbles moved left and right, shaking its liquidy body.

‘’Bubbles!!’’

‘’Pipe down!’’

Fan Yueyin’s shout caused him to reel back, but Bubbles seemed to be in high spirits.

Sighing, she gathered their attention with a clap. ‘’Use these—’’

Fan Yueyin took out three jade seals and put them on the table. They reflected a brilliant green color, had thin width and a palm-sized length. The round shape reminded Li Ao of a bagel.

They were called Contract Seals, and generally people would use them to connect with either Beasts, Spirits, or Spiritual Tools. Using one on a non-spiritual tool could make it traceable over long distances, making sure it wouldn’t be lost.

However, few people would use it that way. After all, if one side of the contract perished, the other side would also suffer a big backlash. The potential risk wasn’t worth the investment for anything lesser than a Spiritual Tool.

Picking one of the seals up, Li Ao nudged Bubbles towards his finger.

The little guy stopped for a moment, bubbled, then turned into a stream. He flowed down his arm to his knuckles and stood atop the contract.

‘’Look at how cool you are~’’

Sending a bit of Qi into the Seal, Li Ao watched a white light engulf the little creature. Its body broke down for a moment, flowing down his hands, then a moment later gathered into its usual liquidy silverish state.

Li Ao felt a faint connection being established with Bubbles.

It was something like empathy, perhaps. There wasn’t anything tangible, but when he looked at Bubbles, and Bubbles looked at him, they could better understand each other’s feelings and thoughts.

The current Bubbles only held excitement, curiosity, affection, and determination.

Last one puzzled Li Ao, but Bubbles' next action cleared it up.

The little guy flowed up his finger, turned into a half-solid form, then began climbing up his arm again.

‘’That one is a challenger.’’ Fan Yueyin said. ‘’She likes proving herself the most.’’

‘’She?’’ Li Ao looked down.

‘Thank heavens, I picked a good name.’

‘’They don’t exactly have inherent genders. It’s just that I raised them in particular ways, so they have a faint idea of where to fall off.’’

Fan Yueyin’s explanation made Li Ao turn towards Sun Jian. What was his like?

The answer made him grimace at the sight.

Sun Jian was jumping up and down like a monkey, while his ‘sibling’ kept rising and falling like water.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

‘’You have a long way to defeat me, Sun Jian 2!’’

Li Ao felt like passing out right then. Fan Yueyin slapped her forehead, echoing a loud thunderclap across the hall, and looked at the jumping duo.

Cheeks twitching, she deeply looked at her disciple. ‘’You really named her Sun Jian 2?’’

‘’She picked it, not me!’’

The little thing stopped for a moment, faced Fan Yueyin, then rippled as if to give her consent. Then she returned to rising and falling with her big brother. Fan Yueyin let out a deep sigh.

Qing Yan didn’t even notice the mentally challenging event unfolding. She had just raised Sloth over her face when the thing jumped off. He slithered at lightning speed and landed himself on her shining, round head. Stretching itself all the way to the limit, he now looked like a metal plating encased over Qing Yan’s bald head.

Qing Yan froze where she stood.

‘’Qing Yan?’’

Li Ao poked her shoulders.

‘’Sis Yan? Senior Sister Qing Yan?’’

After a minute, the girl trembled, then started crying.

‘’He likes the top of my head...waaaaaaaa!’’

Li Ao looked at the still Sloth, then at the jumping Sun Jian 2.

‘’My little Bubbles is the only normal one...’’

Li Ao looked down to see Bubbles down at his feet.

‘’What happened?’’

Bubbles projected a greater determination from before. Its little body bubbled, then shot forward to his feet, trying to rise up to his knee.

However, because of the gap between the two, no matter what she did little Bubbles couldn’t go up. Watching her struggle with climbing over the gap instead of taking the long way, Li Ao’s eyes burned with anger. He swung an arm and shouted at the two lunatics.

‘’Look at how they made my Bubbles retarded! Look how I teach them a lesson!’’

‘’For heaven’s sake shut the fuck up!’’

*********

The night ended rather safely(?) and everyone returned to their homes.

Li Ao carried little Bubbles in his spatial ring for now. Though she was a sentient being, she was still a Tool, and she didn’t need breathing or anything else to live. She only needed ample Qi, and she could find it inside the ring itself.

Li Ao had a million ideas about how to decorate one side of the ring for her as a home on the way, trying to remember all the carpenters and shops that sold the related materials.

When he came before the brothel, however, he stopped.

‘I can make a spatial ring for her!’

‘I’ll make her a complete mansion!

‘I am a genius!’

Li Ao himself wasn’t aware of how much Bubbles charmed him. He just thought of these things as a natural thing to do. If he tried to think of a reason, only three came to his mind.

Because Bubbles was Bubbles.

Because Bubbles was cute.

Because Bubbles was cute.

The little ball of liquid metal could actually act cuter than those damned house cats in the Li Family Estate!

Sighing, Li Ao went back to his room. Once he activated the sound barrier and illusion formations, he felt Bubbles’ curiosity through their contract.

Li Ao let her out to play by herself in the room. She seemed to make it a challenge to herself to climb all over, and her first target was the bed he sat upon. With a determined bubbling, Bubbles latched herself to the side and started climbing like a nail. She moved up four or five centimeters, rippled and bubbled, then fell with a soft splash.

A moment later, she gathered her form again and climbed once more.

Li Ao watched her attempts for a little while before turning his attention back inside his body.

Inside his physique, his heart pumped out thick bronze blood that revitalized his muscles. His tendons, bright white in the past, now carried a tint of bronze within them. Every time he moved a muscle, they let out a bronze aura that enveloped the red flesh.

Tempering his tendons had been a torture. Not only did they hurt like hell, concentrating on tempering them without touching the muscles was just pure suffering. If not for the constant concentration it required, he could have moved on to tempering his muscles a long time ago.

Still, it was now done. Li Ao swept his Divine Sense through his body and began practicing the fourth layer of the Bronze Body.

Tempering the muscles required him to infuse them with the bronze aura and make exercises that taxed the muscles he targeted. Given the room’s state, Li Ao didn’t have much free space to exercise as he wished.

Instead, he took out the second level of Scarlet Path Martial Art.

First Level of the Scarlet Path Martial Art consisted of two things, control of Fire Qi, and shaping of Fire Qi.

Li Ao practiced the first level to perfection a long time ago in his childhood. It was one of the reasons for his fame across the Holy Capital. With the constant life and death battles he endured, as well as his cultivation increase, he had been waiting for a good chance to practice the second level.

Second Level required one thing, and that was to condense the Fire Qi into a path! That was the first foundational aspect of the Scarlet Path martial art. This path was not tangible, but was a certain aura illusion that burned the Qi and body of the enemy.

The entire martial art was focused on defeating Dragons, who long ruled over humanity with their invincible bodies and Qi reserves. As such, few techniques could come close to its ferocious nature. There was even a saying in the Holy Capital about facing Li Family members because of its fame: ‘One step on the Scarlet Path, nine steps towards Grandma Meng’.

At the third level, one could turn the Scarlet Path from illusory to real, causing a real path of hellish fire to descend. The red fires would also turn Blue.

Li Ao hadn’t seen what Fourth and Fifth levels did, nor know about it. Only, he once heard a story of how his Grandpa slayed a Demonic Emperor after taking five steps.

Now, thinking of the story, Li Ao stood straight in the room and took a step forward. Fierce flames spawned on his body, but he controlled, then condensed them down to his feet. A heavy weight gathered upon his waist and thighs as he took a step forward.

His foot landed with a soft thud, and the bronze aura from his bones, organs, and tendons rushed all around his body, feeding the already strained muscles with more pressure. This double-training method taxed Li Ao’s body, but he had no qualms about its difficulty.

After spending a few years on the run, with little food and rest, he long got accustomed to facing difficulties. It wasn’t easy, and he struggled, of course, but he still did while gritting his teeth.

He also didn’t refrain from cursing.

Without him being aware, the little Bubbles watched Li Ao’s struggling form with great interest. She could feel the pain he was in, and could somehow feel the tone of his curses. After a while, she started to bubble and wave her sublime form around, cheering him on.

The night ended when Li Ao passed out on his bed. Bubbles watched the sweat and tears falling off his body, then with a greater determination began to climb the bed.

Three hours later, her little form triumphed over her first dangerous foe. She bubbled twice, flowed down the mattress, then came near Li Ao’s feet. With a lunge, she slipped through Li Ao’s clothes, stopped near his chest, and went still.

Next day, she promised herself to defeat a much larger foe...