He read through all three and he couldn’t decide on any of them. One of them was a beast taming art, the other one was about forming wind blades and the last one was just an ornamental body art. It was cosmetic and not even worth the effort.

He was racking his brains and the idea hit him. He was going about this all wrong. I shouldn’t think about getting my hands on a soul art. Instead, I need something that’s related to the soul tangentially.

The only one related to the soul was the beast taming art. It had to, even though it wasn’t quite clear on the underlying concepts.

He took out his webnovel and fished around for the beast stone he’d just acquired. It was gone. He placed the webnovel and searched his robes. He patted and rummaged around for it but there was nothing.

He was thinking that he must’ve dropped it. It was odd but he threw it to the back of his mind after twenty minutes of searching, and retracing his steps. It’s not worth the effort.

He copied the beast taming art over. That sense of clarity with each word being etched into his brain was amazing. I need to practice.

He understood it but he still had to apply it in order to get some hands-on experience. Mental understanding didn’t translate to his body following.

He walked out and Wind was passed out in his chair. The flask was in his lap, it was about to tip over and fall to the ground. Musnf grabbed it and placed it on the table. Reminds me of myself. He was like this a few weeks ago, except his method of distraction was video games and junk food. Social interaction, physical exercise, or mental exertion were non-existent.

He didn’t want to go back, if he did he would just fall back into the same old patterns and be miserable. The prospect was terrifying.

What kind of creature should I get? There were a few types of creatures but the most common ones were the one-eyed leopard’s. There wasn’t going to be that much ‘variety’ since it was the sect’s territory. The Elders would get rid of any unwanted creatures.

He had to circle back through the sect’s abode. He was just caught up in his own thoughts when he stumbled onto someone. She had smooth long black hair. It was Swallow Forest. She smiled and Musnuf found himself returning it.

He’d purified beast skins with Swallow when he’d just arrived. She was quite helpful in that she’d provided him with a lot of pointers.

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“How did the examination go?” Swallow asked.

“It was great. I came in number one.”

Swallow was surprised. “So you’re the one who pulled that stunt.”

“How come you know about it?”

Musnuf couldn’t tell if she was grinning or not. “Everybody knows about it. You can expect an audience at that duel of yours.” She squeezed his shoulder.

“Don’t lose. If you need any pointers, come find me.”

“Wait. I got my hands on a beast taming art. I’m thinking of what to tame.”

“It depends on how your art works, its efficacy and limitations.”

Musnuf knew about those off the top of his head. “It’s a bonding type where you raise the creature and tame it.”

Swallow brushed her hair back. “The strongest and maybe the only creatures you’ll find around here are the leopards. There was a cropping of screaming monkeys but the Elder sent us to deal with them.”

“Oh, I know what you’re talking about. I had a run-in with them. Those screams did a number on me.”

“So, that just leaves us with the leopards?”

“Don’t be so down about them. The blue-eyed ones are the weakest. You need to find your way past that mountain into the valley. That’s where you’ll find the purple-eyed ones.”

Munsuf frowned, it was far into their territory. He was much stronger now but it wasn’t going to be easy. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m delivering a set of robe’s to Elder Wind.” That’s why he’d found her along the way. He still had Wind’s promise in mind and didn’t tell her that he was learning from him.

“What are you doing after?”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

Musnuf scratched his chin. She was just as straightforward. “Yes, I might not be able to handle them if there’s too many of them.”

“I can do that but while I deliver this get some Beast Bait. It’ll be useful.” He hadn’t even thought about that.

“Ok. Anything else?”

“No, I have my sword on me. Meet me by the gate.” Musnuf nodded and they walked off to perform their respective tasks.

Swallow came down a quarter of an hour later. “How much beast bait did you buy?”

“Four pouches.”

She nodded. “That’s going to be more than enough.” They headed down the mountain. It took them close to half an hour to climb up the blue-leopard mountain and make their way to the valley.

There was a deep mesh of trees and vines. The ground was a little soft and muddy. The leaves muffled their footsteps.

“Look for a tree like this.” She patted a tree. It had wide leaves larger than his hands in a clover shape. “They cluster around these.”

It didn’t take long to stumble on a few leopards. They snarled and growled. Musnuf scanned their eyes. All of them were blue. They didn’t antagonize them any further and continued on their way.

They headed deeper and deeper into the forest until they stumbled on a golden eyes leopard. It was languishing on top of a tree. Its tail swished around behind it.

On the ground was its partner, it was splayed out and feeding two cubs. “Give me the bait. I’ll take the one on the tree. You take the mother. Just hold her off and exhaust her. She’s going to be stronger than the father.”

Musnuf nodded, the adrenaline was pumping in his veins. This was going to be exciting.