"Bring me some demon beasts, Grandpa. Not too strong though." Pef demanded as their group stopped to camp in a field at the edge of the forest.
"...Dead ones?" The elder asked after thinking for a second.
"Hmmm. I will need several alive. Try to find something covered in scales as well." Pef decided after thinking for a few moments.
The Earth Ranked elder nodded then rushed into the forest, while retrieving a metal club from his brand-new storage ring. Quite the gift, considering one such ring was worth a million gold coins in auction.
Then the little cultivator turned towards his mother, and observed her for a long minute. She should be much safer now, though a mere Earth Rank was worth little if his memories had any truth to them. "Fly guy, is my mother pretty?" he asked in a careless tone.
"... Errr. Lady Rena is indeed a beauty. As a Holy Maiden she was sought after by a dozen sects...until she...had you." the Supreme Master answered while blushing a little.
Pef nodded as if he had come to a conclusion. "Good. You may pursue my mother after you reach Emperor Rank." he allowed in a dignified voice.
Rena herself turned towards her son in surprise, then glanced furtively at the Supreme Master. Even a Sky Ranked cultivator was a huge catch, but her son still had conditions? And quite the outrageous ones. Emperor Rank!
"..." the man hesitated for a moment, unsure what to say. He kinda felt he was being admonished, yet promised a great gift too...
"Fly guy. Have you figured out how to elongate the inner space of the ring?" Pef asked while deftly flicking a gold coin out from his own storage ring. It was still a pathetic ring, with a mere cubic meter of storage, but it was far better than nothing. It sure beat dragging supplies in backpacks.
"I have a name! Stop calling me fly guy!" the man exploded while flashing his mana out, raising into the air covered in Ice shards and making the entire camp almost flatten by the display.
"Nah! You have potential, but it's not enough yet, fly guy. I may deign it to learn your name, if you ever reach Emperor Realm." Pef replied while waving his hand dismissively.
Rena just stared between the two, while her spirit covered the young boy with an Ice Shield, as to not get harmed by the Ice mana erupting from the Supreme Master.
With a grunt, the man sat down and resumed crafting the next ring, already regretting his outburst as his circuits began to hurt again.
"More tea, Holy Mother." the blonde menace demanded with a graceful smile, that melted his mother's heart.
Rena sighed inward and began brewing another teapot of spirit tea, while Pef stood next by to comment on every little mistake. She felt a bit strange, as a young child could correct her tea preparation with so much ease, yet proud that it was her own son doing it. Also true, with every teapot she felt her skill at making tea increased significantly, as every time she cooled the boiling tea with her ice mana, tiny changes occurred in her soul.
Not long after, the Grand Elder returned with a dozen demon beasts of various strength, including a Spirit Ranked Red Pangolin, rumored to be a distant relative of a dragon.
Pef sprang to his feet and examined the unconscious beasts, eventually picking a single Core Ranked Black Badger and dragging it aside.
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'A badger feels right. Now let's see if this works.' Pef muttered inward as he began punching and kicking the unresponsive beast.
The adults in the group could only stare in confusion, as the young boy soon began to bleed from his hands, as they were getting scrapped to the bone by the more durable beast.
"Do you want my sword, Holy Son?" the Sky Ranked Master asked after a dozen minutes, as Pef stopped to draw breath and recover his mana.
Pef glanced at the offered weapon, then pointed at the pangolin beast. "Just butcher it and scrape the hide from the beast, and don't damage the scales, fly guy." he demanded as he jumped once more on top of the insensate badger and began strangling it between his forearms.
Eventually, the defenseless badger did die, as even Core ranked beasts needed to breathe.
Pef laid in the grass beside it, and began circling his own qi, trying to collect the experience he felt it should come. 'Come on! I killed it without tools. Give me something!' he pleaded inwards.
However, beside the tiny amount of qi deposited into his circuits during cultivation, nothing else happened. A failure.
This set of memories was wrong somehow, or he lacked something. Pef glanced at the stars above, as the sun had set while he struggled with the Core badger.
He raised his right hand, and tried to catch a star in his hand, yet nothing happened. 'Why did I fail? I did everything right!' Pef shouted inwards, obviously upset at this setback.
It seemed he couldn't breeze though ascensions as his former self did in the previous life. All his plans hinged on this trick, yet it didn't work here.
'Something else then. That Taichi method will still work, I guess. I'll just have to find a power source somewhere.' Pef muttered inside, then stood up and went to observe his new armor getting prepared.
"Grandpa, we will cook this pangolin now. Flames, minimum power" the boy demanded as he began to prepare for a cooking lesson.
The group glanced among themselves, and then Rena also stepping in to help portion the meat into thin slices. The little boy had strong opinions how meat should be prepared and served, not that it ever tasted bad.
Well, except that one time with salty frozen cockroaches...but they never spoke of it again. A couple Elders even got sick from them, and they never forgiven the Holy Son for that.
In the morning, the group departed once more, but this time Pef was wearing a scale armor with red plates, including helmet and boots, and looked quite the martial Holy Son of a large sect.
It was then that destiny intervened, as a giant loud howl filled the air, and trees exploded just in front of them.
"It's a Sacred Beast! We have to run!" Rena shouted as a large creature emerged from the forest, green eyes focused on the tiny boy wearing its pangolin race skin.
"We can't escape, Lady Rena. This Divine Purple Pangolin is already at Emperor Realm." The Supreme Master observed in a calm voice. There was nothing he could do, even if he wasn't wounded already. Perhaps a dozen Iceflame Elders could turn it back, if the beast wasn't already enraged.
However, the Holy Son simply tilted his head, then bent to pick up a blade of grass. 'Let's hope not all my memories are wrong. I kinda like this life.' He whispered inward.
The universe fell still, sounds vanishing all around. Pef then sliced the air with his grass blade, releasing his Skill for the first time.