Putting the thoughts of the distant future out of my mind, I stepped back, letting Yin work with the device. After sending pulses of Qi and shifting levers that physically altered the flow of the Qi across the giant formation construct in this cave, I watched as the entire cavern lit up, glowing lines circling all around each other.A second later, I saw the entire chamber light up.“We’ve run our own tests, and currently, there are three enter connected cores with pairs of Gu and Qi crystals, diluted to be as pure as possible set. Upon beginning, they’ll spin and rapidly ignite the core, which is a metal sphere inside of which grounded spirit and demonic herbs filled with Qi and Gu have been added in a mine mixture with just enough earth Qi to keep the ball stable and from igniting on it’s own.”“Took us some time to figure the right mixture, it almost kept exploding,”one of the other boys said.“All that said… we’ve never actually run this… and don’t know what will happen if we do,”

“Flee has been growing!” She proudly exclaimed, and I smiled. The way spirit grew was not like normal children, and in Flee’s case, it was even harder to say, but so far, she’d grown like any ten year old child would grow. I had a feeling that if I didn’t pay attention, she would shoot up in height any day.I looked back at Ren, awaiting the answer to my question.“The lost child. Wishes to say something,” Ren replied, gesturing at Flee.Flee seemed to shrink at his words, almost squirming as if uncomfortable that she was in my arms.“Can… we go down… first?” She asked. “Flee doesn’t like heights.”I followed along, gently descending back down, before I let go of Flee, putting her down at her feet.“So, what do you want to say?” I asked.Flee looked away from me, glancing at Ren.“Flee?”“Flee… Flee thinks the great master should rest more!” She shouted suddenly, before looking away again. “Great Master is working a lot. You should spend more time resting. Yes. That’s what I wanted to

I focused my attention, reaching out to both Flee and Ash as they sat besides me. My will met theirs, our bonds shivered before they connected. For a moment, I felt hesitation. There was still a chance that things could go wrong. But in response to my hesitation, I felt resolve, coming from both of them, pushing me forward.I continued, and reached into my spirit. Chi began to swirl, flowing around my spirit before heading out towards both Flee and Ash. The Chi mingle in their spirit, I continued to process for a while, feeling their spirits reach back out.Gu and Qi both joined themselves in my spirit, and in harmony, the two combined to form a greater whole, as Chi manifested.The spirit ring of the first Law shone in my soul, and I began to channel it. From Flee I drew Qi, and from Ash I drew Gu. Together, the both began to mingle, and Chi formed. Then, I began to reverse the process.From within my spirit, the Chi within me broke down into Qi and Gu, flowing and resonating, shiver

I sat in my chamber back at the sect, an empty page with scratched out and scribbled notes in front of me. It had been a week since I had gone to Taizhou to run the weapon tests and then reforge the spirits of Flee and Ash.Ash now lived at the sect as well, after he had gained a human form through his transformation. The wolf had become a rather tall and muscular man, with the wolf pelt forming hunter like robes that he wore, carrying scars of all battles on to his body and sharp eyes that could peer through your soul. He cut a rather intimidating figure and most of the sect members tried to stay away from him.Though I knew that the man was a softy through and through inside. It had taken a lot of wording and fretting on his forehead before he had even left the wolf pups in Yin’s care. Though I did not feel too concerned, the place was protected with powerful spirit wards that Yueling had set up and taken directly from the lord himself. And I trusted Yin to be responsible for managi

Another week had passed by in the blink of an eye as I had made the preparations for our departure to the Azure city, the capital of the empire. There were quite a few things to prepare for, the auction for one, the logistics of travel, getting enough carriages and people, tents, food, firewood to keep us warm in winter, among other things.Even if most of us were cultivators, it did not stop a long journey like this from sucking the life from one’s soul, especially if he did not prepare well for it. Thankfully Yueling had been helping me make these preparations and though it came a little close, we had managed to get everything ready in time.I stood watching the disciples of the sect move the different items around. Two entire carriages were dedicated solely for the things that I would need for the auction. And then we had to borrow one more from the Lord to be able to fit everything. After which we had to get enough guards to protect the carriages from bandits.Though I did not hav