“I think its best if you wait till you’ve healed up some. Your injuries are not light.” Lei Zhi said after taking a close look at him.

“No can do Lei. If I wait any longer my stomach is going to rupture and burst from starvation.” Bing began preparing the various different types of fishes.

“What are you even talking about?” Wan Qing didn’t believe that’s how starving worked for anyone.

“Heh. He’s just excited to eat all the delicacies here. It wouldn’t have hurt if he waited till his injuries recovered but, youth is the time to be reckless. Even if it's over something like this.” Lei Zhi happily chuckled.

“Sounds stupid to me.” Wan Qing replied.

“Well, we’re all different.” He smiled at her.

“Haha! I knew bringing all these spices would be worth it!” Bing excitedly exclaimed.

  In between his meaty fingers were spices of all sorts of colors. He sprinkled them across every beast they successfully killed. Ni Xong was very interested in what Bing was doing now that they weren’t pulling out anymore beasts to fight. To him, now that all the strong fish were dead or gone, no more scary things would happen. He scampered out of Qing’s lap and closely watched Bing preparing the fish. Ni Xong’s sensitive nose couldn’t handle the spices and he started sneezing all over the place, making Wan Qing more annoyed and Lei Zhi to chuckle at him cutely sneezing.

  Ni Xong didn’t understand why he was sneezing and got scared. Bringing him straight back to Wan Qing’s lap once again. Unfortunately, unlike last time, Wan Qing did not comfort him about this.

“Quit being such a girl! Man up! You’re just sneezing. Nothing bad is happening to you.” She explained harshly.

  Ni Xong didn’t understand why Wan Qing was yelling at him but he did recognize the words man and up. It was when she wanted him to do the opposite of what he felt. Ni Xong went over to the nice old man instead and was stopped in his tracks before he could reach Lei Zhi. A terrifying aura latched onto him from behind.

“Where do you think you’re going?” She asked in a frightening tone.

“Raor!” He sneezed trying to respond.

“Get back over here and stop crying over every single thing! If I tell you sneezing isn’t anything to be afraid of, then it isn’t!” She told him.

  He sorrowfully walked over to Wan Qing, still sneezing horribly. Bing just got done seasoning the fish and was now cooking them all. Now he had to wait till they were done cooking. In the meantime, he should cultivate. His innate skill that allows him to know whenever food was done cooking would wake him when it was time.

“I wish Ying was here...” Bing muttered when he saw how slowly the fish were being cooked.

“I don’t think she would appreciate you thinking of her in that type of way.” Lei Zhi told him.

“That’s true. She’d probably punch me across the desert if she knew I was thinking of having her use her flame martial arts to help cook the food.” Bing agreed.

“Why wouldn’t she? No one likes being used.” Wan added.

“Yeah but... it would be so helpful.”

“True but also inconsiderate sometimes.” Lei said.

“How?” Bing asked.

“How would you feel if someone only wanted you around because you could cook for them? And the only reason they would talk to you was regarding your cooking and nothing else.” Lei Zhi asked back.

“What does that have to do with Ying?” Bing cluelessly asked.

"Idiot.” Wan Qing bluntly stated.

“What?!” Bing felt insulted. What were they trying to get at?

“Let me try and explain it in a different way for you...” Lei said to him. “There is more to Ying than just her ability to make fire.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Yeah, I know that.” Bing agreed.

“But you don’t get how it would be insulting if you used her for that one purpose?” Qing asked while staring at him with an insulting look in her eyes.

  Then it all clicked inside Bing’s head.

“Ooh! No, no, no guys you got it all wrong. I didn’t mean to imply that I thought that Ying was only useful for her fire. I know there are several other sides to her that are equally as good, I was just saying that her fire would be so helpful right now. Not that she’s only useful because of her fire.” Bing clarified.

“There ya go.” Lei Zhi smiled. He knew the boy didn’t think of Ying like that, he just needed to think of his words more carefully.

“Hmph. You’re still dumb but at least you’re not that dumb.” Wan Qing complimented.

“Heh... Sorry about the misunderstanding.” Bing felt a small tug on his leg.

  He looked down to see Ni Xong saying something to him while pointing to the cooking food. Bing guessed he must be wondering when the food will be ready. He carefully sniffed the barely cooked fishes to estimate the time when they would be ready.

“It’ll take some hours before they’re ready for eating.” Bing told him.

“Don’t disturb me while I'm cultivating.” Wan Qing said to the two.

“We’ll wake you when the food’s ready.” Lei Zhi told her.

“When did I ever say I was hungry?” Wan Qing coldly responded as an uncountable number of colorful butterflies surrounded her and encompassed her figure in a dome of butterflies.

“I guess we should get to cultivating as well, huh?” Lei Zhi said to Bing as he took a seat and crossed his legs.

“One of us should keep an eye out.” Bing said.

“Don’t worry about that. Xiurong and Quon can keep watch for us. They don’t need to cultivate like us humans who need to concentrate to cultivate.” Lei Zhi explained.

“Alright then. I’ll wake you when the food is ready.” Bing got into his meditative pose to begin cultivating.

  The two men closed their senses off and focused solely on absorbing the plentiful qi around them to bring into their dantian. They cycled this qi throughout their body, slowly nourishing every cell within them. This nourishment for the cells would increase their strength ever so slightly. Cultivators would repeat this cycling of qi hundreds of times during cultivation until their body couldn’t accept anymore. Then they would use the qi that they absorbed to try and break through the natural barrier placed within their dantian to breakthrough to the next cultivation stage. The process differed for everyone as no cultivator had the same body. Even those who practice the same cultivation skill wouldn’t have the same progress as the act of cultivating was also different for everyone.

  Some are taught to cultivate in a specific manner by those older than them who were also taught by someone who taught them. Others learned instinctively and on their own through trial and error. There is no telling which way is correct or incorrect as both cultivation practices have seen great success through several famous cultivators sharing their methods. It is still highly debated to this day which practice method is superior. Natural or taught.

  Wan Qing’s hundreds of butterflies circling around herself meant that her cultivation technique was somehow connected to the butterflies. Lei Zhi had no such special event taking place around him while he was cultivating. Not even an aura of qi that surrounded his body, which was highly unusual. Most cultivators emitted some type of qi while absorbing the natural energy within the air. Ying emitted a hot flaming aura while she cultivated. Hu Tao emitted an electrical aura or a heavy aura while he cultivated. Bing was also included in this category.

  Bing had multiple arms shooting out from different parts of his body while he was cultivating. A barely visible black and white aura formed around his body. His cultivation technique was somehow able to merge or connect with his Devil Arts. It was surprising as it was incredibly rare to find cultivation techniques that can combine with other martial arts. Even elemental martial arts don’t merge so easily with martial techniques of the same element.

  The spirit beasts who didn’t need to meditate to cultivate looked at each other. Ni Xong went over to Xiurong and Quon to play. Xiurong grew herself to the panda cub’s size and Quon floated above them both. It was their job to protect the humans from being attacked.

‘We train?’ Quon blorped.

‘No training. We protect humans.’ Xiurong clicked.

‘I don’t like fighting...’ Ni Xong roared.

‘You must. Or humans will die.’ Xiurong told him.

‘I don’t want her to die.’ Ni Xong responded.

‘Then you gotta fight! To protect her!’ Quon said.

  He still didn’t look too comfortable with the idea of fighting but if it was to protect his owner then he had to try at least.

‘Okay... I will fight.’ He gathered his nerves.

‘Good. You are weak male but you are not worthless.’ Xiurong praised.

‘You’ll be a strong male in no time Xong! Just do what I do!’ Quon floated around the panda quickly.

‘I can’t float like that.’ Ni Xong said.

‘No! That’s not what I meant! You just need to be brave like me! I’m not scared of anything!’

‘I can’t do that either. I’m scared of a lot of things.’

‘It is okay to be afraid. What is not okay is letting that fear take control of you. A strong male must be able to recognize danger and learn whether to avoid it or destroy it.’ Xiurong explained.

‘I’ll try my best Xiurong.’

‘Good. Because something is coming now. Prepare yourselves.’ Xiurong turned around and faced in the direction where the threat was coming.

‘I’ll handle this!’ Quon floated in front of Xiurong, oozing with confidence.

‘I’ll go get my gloves!’ Ni Xong clumsily ran over to the meditating Wan Qing to get his golden gauntlets next to her.