The giant pair of eyes wore a surprised expression at being confronted by a miniscule snail.

“A mere Pillar of Will thinks he can speak to me like this? Your owner hadn’t even bothered sharing a sliver of his soul with you, and yet you act like you’re king of the world.”

Snail’s biting words did not improve the situation as the gigantic pillar’s eyes furrowed once more and the weight above Kenja’s head doubled. Sakura was standing on her tip, spectating the ensuing conflict without any sign of concern.

“You’re just a slightly big rock. Do you think I won’t turn you into mud?”

Snail’s question was followed with a loud and sudden crash of rocks hitting the platform. Without Snail making any movement, a large chunk of the pillar’s edge had fallen onto the platform. To the astounded horror of Kenja and all the pillars present, the segmented rock collapsed on itself into a pile of sticky clay.

“Leader!”

Cries of concern came from the multitude of floating heads watching the scene unfold.

“To call me a ‘pet snail’...YOU must be tired of living! And to interrupt Your Majesty while he is lecturing his disciple…”

Snail paused to demonstrate the extent of his anger.

The pair of eyes that had been switching between poses of anger and surprise now held a look of terror. He had thought that this measly snail had an insignificant cultivation that barely allowed him to speak in human tongues. Only now did he realize that he could not fathom the true strength of this ‘pet snail’.

The weight pressing down on Kenja disappeared in the blink of an eye as the pillar’s ominous aura pervading the area dissipated, replaced by an awkward silence that made one fearful of what would come next.

“Senior, this humble slab was too blind from just having woken up. And my manners have rusted with age. Please forgive this junior for interrupting your important lecture.”

Pillars of Will don’t degrade with age like living beings, so this ‘I’m getting old’ excuse was an attempt to garner the snail’s mercy.

Snail harrumphed at the apologetic face of the giant pillar before turning to the baffled audience. “And what are you all looking at? Do you all think I’m putting on some kind of show?”

Many of the heads shuddered before they ducked back into their pillars and out of Snail’s sight. Even the giant pair of eyes took the opportunity when Snail wasn’t looking to dissipate.

Kenja was surprised and moved by Snail’s domineering strength. He had yet to see a force that could scare this mollusk into inaction.

Acting as if the interruption never occurred, Snail turned back to Kenja and earnestly asked, “Do you see how much trouble your sensei here has gone through for you? Don’t you feel bad making your master here do so much work?” He took every opportunity he could to label himself as both, a sensei and a master.

“…”

Kenja did not respond to Snail. He closed his eyes and pinched his glabella as he decided what to do next.

At this time, he no longer held feelings of animosity or resentment toward Snail, only regret. He regretted expecting anything good to come from Snail, and he blamed himself for the resulting situation.

After making that promise and ‘refining’ his behavior, Snail led Kenja to believe that he could control himself. Even Kenja’s impression of him had improved greatly after receiving a sign of good will in the form of a hair ribbon, but now he knew that it was a ploy to cover his tracks and manage his guilt.

Kenja kept his eyes closed. He sat down, crossed his legs and regulated his breathing.

Meditating was a practice all cultivators performed on a daily basis and for a variety of reasons. While, most of the time, they circulated their Qi to enhance their cultivation or practice techniques, Kenja’s condition placed him far from that point, but over the past three years, he had diligently acquired this habit.

Now, whenever he faced a cumbersome task or thought-provoking problem, he would meditate before coming up with a solution.

PAT PAT PAT

Two hours had passed, and as he ended his meditation, he heard a patting sound coming from somewhere in front of him. Kenja opened his eyes and saw that Snail had already withdrawn back into his shell. He turned to the giant pillar, looking for the source of the sound.

The clay that Snail had created earlier was fitted into the broken part of the pillar, and in front of the newly-sculpted area, Sakura was patting down and smoothening the surface.

Sakura cleaning up after Snail’s mess had created a deep contrast between the two. One was responsible and adult-like while the other was selfish and childish, caring only for himself.

Originally, Kenja had thought that, at some point, Snail might have been a legendary human with worldly wisdom, but what if Snail had always been a snail? An animal driven by his natural instincts and immediate wants.

Ssssss…

Kenja opened his eyes again to look at Sakura. Her tip made a soft sound as it carved out the missing engravings on the patch of clay, trying to bring it back to its original presentation, but to no avail. Not only did Sakura’s handwriting appear several times cleaner and more appealing, but at the end of it all, she proudly signed her name in a tiny font size with several hearts surrounding and replacing some of the letters:

Kimura Sakura

After finishing her work, she turned her hilt to the pillar’s face which had reappeared once more to spectate Sakura work. Without saying anything, he closed his eyes and bowed in appreciation. Sakura turned her hilt towards Kenja.

Kenja smiled and spoke to her sincerely, “Your talent with a blade’s tip exceeds most with a painter’s brush.”

Sakura made no visible motion, but she exuded an air of indescribable happiness after receiving Kenja’s praise.

“Don’t get so happy just because a baby throws you some nice-sounding words, you paintbrush. I have always viewed your talent highly, yet you never appreciated it,” Snail interrupted the pleasant exchange between Kenja and Sakura. He had exited his shell when he sensed Kenja stir from his meditation.

Sakura’s hilt turned to look at Snail as she emitted a light vibration.

“When have I ever…? Why do you think I sealed your hilt and not your blade all those years ago?! This way, you can still draw however you like!” he claimed with a matter-of-fact tone.

Kenja resisted the urge to pinch his glabella again as Sakura’s anger seethed from her blade’s edges. Being able to hold a paintbrush did not matter if the hand couldn’t move it.

Sakura didn’t bother speaking with Snail any further as she flew off a good distance away from him and dipped her blade into the water, restraining her temper and supplementing the wax with more energy.

Kenja stood up.

“Snail…”

Snail looked at Kenja expectantly.

“You are right. I should have asked if you wanted to buy anything with ‘our’ credits, and I should have spoken with you before imparting some to my sisters.”

Despite Snail’s antics placing him in a difficult situation, Kenja had decided to hold out an olive branch to him for three reasons.

For one, Kenja felt a tinge of guilt for not considering Snail’s feelings when spending the sect credits. Although they belonged solely to Kenja, Snail had contributed to their acquisition, and considering he gave his sisters and the princess a million credits each, it was not entirely unreasonable for Snail to feel neglected and wronged.

The second reason was simple. Snail was extremely prideful. He was unlikely to admit his mistakes even when he knew better, but he had made an obvious effort to mask the problem. He had rushed Kenja away from the bazaar, altered his appearance and hidden the sword. Moreover, Snail could have used the situation to compel him back into his female persona, but he did not, choosing to act like nothing was wrong and allowing Kenja to move unhindered throughout the sect.

And three, he had no choice. Kenja needed Snail. Whether it’s for the disguise or his future cultivation, Snail was a necessity. He was troublesome to deal with, but Kenja wasn’t a quitter. He believed that there was a way to co-exist with him; he just had to find it. This olive branch would be the start of his next attempt!

Snail’s eyestalks bent in a dumbfounded showcasing a bewildered expression, but in the next moment, he quickly straightened them up to hide his surprise. He coughed before responding to Kenja, “It is quite alright, disciple. Let us release our past enmities and start anew.”

Snail scrupulously chose his words to avoid admitting fault while simultaneously receiving clemency, but Kenja no longer cared to drag the matter out.

“Agreed.”

Snail breathed a small sigh of relief as he tried to regain the bearing of a proper teacher.

“And to celebrate our new start…” a number of weapons, pill bottles, cultivation manuals and other accessories materialized in front of them. They formed a pile exceeding Kenja’s height. “...I have attained many things I believed would benefit you.”

Kenja sighed at the pile of items. It was an alluring treasure trove, and he could recognize several of the items that were displayed as prime goods in the shops he skipped over. Although he could have purchased any of these items at the time, they were too expensive and eye-catching for his ‘Rent-Your-Stone-For-Items’ idea, so he had completely avoided their vendors.

Additionally, he wanted to prevent Snail from falling to temptation and demanding to obtain random items like he did the other day, but Kenja knew now that his cautious behavior was pointless.

Bubbles foamed out of the sea near Sakura’s hilt creating a popping sound that could be heard from the platform.

“What do you mean ‘I don’t want to share my personal treasures’?” Snail yelled back at Sakura.

Snapping out of his reverie, Kenja turned his attention back to Snail who was still bickering with Sakura despite the large distance between them.

“My treasures would be wasted on him. He can barely circulate the world’s Qi through his body, and you want me to gift him from my personal collection. He wouldn’t even be able to harness a thousandth of their true might! …I guess the question of whether your brain has rusted or not has been answered.”

A stream of bubbles erupted in a successive burst that reminded Kenja of the time a young Yoshie would stick her tongue out and create a similar sound at Shizuka.

“Snail, how could you steal all these items?” Kenja asked Snail.

Snail grimaced at the surprising question. They had just agreed to let bygones be bygones, and yet Kenja brought it up once more. He spoke with a heavy tone of displeasure, “I already told you…I took what I desired. Nothing more. I am even giving them to you as a gift…”

Sensing Snail had misunderstood his words, Kenja repeated, “No, I meant how were you able to take all these items despite being so far from them?”

Since only a day at most had passed since they were at the bazaar, he remembered the specific details of his trip. For several of the items he recognized, he had only glimpsed them and their prices from a significant distance away, often with several drooling disciples and an entire street in between.

“Oh…naturally, what’s far for you is not necessarily far for me.” Snail puffed out his chest in an overbearing manner as he welcomed the shifted focus from his misdeeds to his talents.

He turned away from Kenja and looked at a pillar several dozen chi away them. Right before their eyes, it blinked out of existence.

Kenja stared at the vacant air with his mouth slightly open from the shock.

He had spectated several introductory lectures on storage bags that delved into the core principles and laws behind spatial creation and expansion. Even the pamphlet he received from Rin had an excerpt on storage items. If that were all, he might have not been surprised, but Kenja had purchased dozens of variable storage bags and rings and chatted at length with the merchants concerning their utility. He even had a high-class ring from the corpse of a Ryu family member!

While he was arguably a freshborn baby in the world of cultivation, Kenja’s experience and knowledge with storage items was not small, and they all seemed to follow the same rules.

The items acted as a gateway to another space only when a person tried to open it. Putting an item into the space required both, the owner and the storage item, to be in close proximity to it.

Kenja was unable to fathom what Snail had just done, and how he had done it.

His explanation was unhelpful and cryptic, but it did conform to the rules of artificial spaces. Perhaps ‘close proximity’ was relative based on the storage item’s quality or the user’s own abilities, but he didn’t see any tear or gap leading to the other items…

He shook himself out of his trance and turned back to Snail with a look of determination.

“How long did it take you to learn how to do that?” Kenja probed snail. He was unsure whether this was due to Snail’s shell or Snail himself.

Snail’s tone improved with the newfound opportunity to gloat. “I am me! I can do anything I set my mind to. Something like this, you can count the ripples of a pond, and I’ll have attained a mastery in it that far exceeds any others!”

Kenja was unfamiliar with the ‘count the ripples of a pond’ phrase, but he imagined from the context that it was a short amount of time. His mood improved alongside Snail. “In that case, could you to teach me how to do it too?”

Snail pre-emptively nodded his head along with Kenja’s words, expecting some praise or sounds of astonishment. “Yes, yes, I can do anything—wait, what did you say?” Both his eyestalks bent away from each other as if he were pricking both of his imaginary ears up.

“I would like to learn how to do what you just did, transport distant items into my own shell—er, I mean storage space…but only if Snail-sensei is ‘capable’ of teaching me,” Kenja appealed with an innocence unbefitting of a seventeen-year-old male.

Snail froze. For a good ten breaths, Snail did not move a sliver.

Kenja could hear a stifled hum coming from Sakura’s direction. Anyone could tell that she was laughing at Snail’s predicament.

Snail had promised to teach Kenja any two techniques he wanted, so even though Kenja had phrased his words respectfully, Snail did not have room to dismiss or reject him.

Moreover, Snail had made several clear declarations that he was capable of doing anything. To take back his words by saying he was unable to teach Kenja would be a slap to his own face in the presence of not only Kenja and Sakura, but all the pillars he gloated in front of.

Most important of all, Kenja had called him ‘Snail-sensei’ for the first time. This was an unforeseeable event for Snail. If he backed down now, where could he put his face in the future? Would this brat ever take him seriously again?

His left eye twitched several times before he spoke up. “Ahem…well…you see…are you sure? Of course I am capable of teaching you, but it isn’t as useful as you think. These techniques here are much better and more suitable for someone like you,” he tried convincing Kenja.

More than two dozen manuals and pamphlets of varying lengths materialized on the floor in front of Kenja. Kenja picked them up one at a time, skimming the front covers with a mesmerized look. Although he considered himself lacking in the knowledge towards cultivation and techniques, he could discern that the quality and profoundess of each text was beyond his imagination.

Once he finished skimming the final book, he placed all of them into his storage ring.

“What are you doing?” Snail inquired with both eyes leaning forward in confusion.

“I think I will stick to my first choice. I appreciate Snail-sensei’s consideration towards me, so I would like to inspect the books in-depth at a later time for the second technique.”

The books were extremely eye-catching and irresistible, but Kenja knew better. The best treasure one could take was the one not offered. If Snail was willing to impart these valuable techniques in an effort to avoid teaching another, the skill must truly be heaven-defying. Kenja was sure of this.

This time, Snail’s right eye twitched repeatedly before both eyes drooped down.

“Disciple sure knows how to take advantage of a poor snail. Fine…”

A purple bag materialized and fell into Kenja’s palm. It was small, similar to the bag of marbles that the well-off youths carried around in their childhood except its opening was sealed tightly without a string.

Kenja circulated some Qi and attempted to peer inside the bag, but it wouldn’t open. Furrowing his brows in confusion, he circulated as much Qi as he could and tried opening it again, but it still remained shut. Believing there might be a trick to the bag, he stopped circulating Qi entirely and decided to peer inside its physical space to look for a hint.

It still wouldn’t open. His eyes widened with intense surprise.

All his storage bags could be opened normally, but without Qi, one would only see the actual physical contents of the bag which, for cultivators, would hold nothing except maybe a few mortal coins.

Why would they store anything in the physical space if they could store it in its implanted dimension? They wouldn’t have to bear any weight this way, and it hid one's treasured items safely from external detection.

“First, you need to open that bag. Once you can do that, we can move on to the next step.”

Kenja nodded his head while turning the bag over in his hand, looking for any clues on its surface.

“Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get these challenges done with. Snails hate dreary places littered with hardened dung. Dragon’s Basin? More like Dragon’s Toilet.”

Kenja winced at the harshness of Snail’s words before putting away the purple bag. He turned to the sea where the abducted Pillar of Will originally stood. “Snail, shouldn’t you return the pillar?”

Snail turned to look in the same direction. “Ah, they won’t miss him.”

A meek voice resonated through the air, “Senior…”

Snail turned to look at the giant pillar with hateful and threatening eyes. “What?!”

“...Nothing.”