“In the path of the immortal Dao, one can hardly find a way to easily trust another.. for it takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.”

‘Team up!?’

Qai paused for a moment and appeared to be in deep thought.

His face filled with reluctance.

Even if the female cultivator's offer seemed to be very beneficial to him, Qai, of course, was not the one to trust easily.

Seeing this, the female cultivator cleared her throat and began to appear friendly.

“My bad, I forgot to introduce my self. My name is Shu Liang and you can just call me Big sister. You don't have to worry, I don't have any ill intention. It's just that a month already passed and I still haven't successfully explored a single ruin. If not for that damn Scorpion, I could have already found some treasures.”

Qai felt that Shu Liang was somehow sincere so he accepted the offer in the end.

Shu Liang became excited.

Of course, even if she really had no bad intentions, it was clear that she needed Qai's help to be her first line of defense—in other words, a cannon fodder!

Qai had never crossed the core ring before so he had no idea what to expect. However, Qai proved to be more than just a cannon fodder as he fought hard against Spirit Beasts along the way—and evidently, his physical strength was more than what Shu Liang hired for.

The two then evenly shared the beast cores they collected—something that surprised Qai a bit.

During their trip, Qai had the opportunity to ask Shu Liang some questions that he had been itching to know the answers for. And to his elation, Shu Liang replied without hiding any detail.

Qai learned that the Trial by Fire was only meant for disciples who reached the Formation Establishment stage before 20 years of age. And that explained why the disciples present were all young. They were the cream of the crop—the geniuses of the sect.

As for the disciples’ cultivation bases, they were either in early or mid-Foundation Establishment stages.

Shu Liang shared some introductory concepts about Array formations and Pill alchemy as well.

As a result, Qai felt that he was like a fish thrown into a pond of knowledge. So his eyes beamed in gratitude as he listened.

He asked about a storage pouch and learned that such treasure needed to be refined to access it, especially when it was restricted by a previous owner.

“But in order to store and withdraw items from it, you need to use Spiritual Sense.”

Qai was not totally ignorant about Spiritual Sense. As a matter of fact, his cultivation method had something to do with it.

Unfortunately for him though, he was far from developing his own Spiritual Sense this early since, ordinarily, it can only be attained in the Foundation Establishment stage.

Then Qai finally learned the true use of beast cores—apparently, they were a good source of spiritual Qi energy but they needed to be purified first by refining them into a medicinal pill; otherwise, the effect would be toxic.

‘That Old Bu sure was a trickster!’

When he heard it, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

‘I guess I now know why there was a pill cauldron in Old Bu’s cave.’

While Qai didn’t know how to concoct pill himself, he still felt he practically made Old Bu rich. But now that Old Bu died, there was no way he could get the mountain of beast cores in the immortal cave with Elder Li still in there.

‘No wonder Elder Li was all smiles when he came out. Those were my hard-earned beast cores.’

Of course, Shu Liang did not forget to say something about the Precious Tree Sect.

“It's because the sect has a treasure tree called Nine Spirit Leaf Tree that bears Spirit Leaf Fruits every 100 years.”

Qai did not know how to react—he never thought a tree could be considered a treasure.

“One Spirit Leaf fruit, when eaten, can directly help any cultivator in the great circle of Foundation Establishment stage to form a core in his dantian and eventually become a Core Formation stage cultivator."

“What!?”

Shu Liang saw Qai’s amazement and thus continued to educate the latter in pity.

She felt that Qai was an example of a true bloom country bumpkin who only knew of things within the confines of such a backwater island.

“Not many are able to achieve the Core Formation stage. In fact, one could even die in the process. Take a look at Old Bu, he was once considered a genius in the Qi Condensation stage and was a decent Foundation Establishment stage cultivator, but he ended up consuming most of his 5 60-year life cycles without being able to form his core. But with the Spirit Leaf fruit, it wouldn't be too difficult.”

“Senior sister, why then did he not use such fruit?”

“Well, the truth is, it can only be given to those who achieved the great circle of Foundation Establishment stage within 2 60-year life cycles. In short the geniuses among genius disciples. Not even among us here are certain to achieve such feat. Besides, after a hundred years, the fruits produced by our precious tree numbered only to 9.”

‘So that’s why it’s called Nine Spirit Leaf Tree.’

“We’re finally here.”

When Qai looked at the surrounding, they were in the middle part of lowest peak of the 3 mountains within the core ring.

And they were staring from a certain distance at a ruined small-sized hall that definitely belonged to the old Soaring Sky Sect.

“That hall seems to be some sort of a personal repository of an elder. When I swept my Spiritual Sense over it when I last entered, there was an herb garden and two other rooms attached to the main hall. But inside the front corridor, the level 4 Scorpion lies in wait.”

“Senior sister, if I may ask. Why didn't you team up with the other disciples to enter this hall?”

Qai wasn't actually suspicious, he was just curious that after a month on the island, nobody else had the same interest as her to enter it.

Shu Liang sighed before she replied.

“There are two reasons for that. First, those greedy bastards aren't trustworthy fellows. So I never asked any of them to come here. Secondly, and most probably the truth, this place doesn't meet their eyes. Many of us had set their sights on that peak.”

When Shu Liang said those words, she pointed at the direction of what was known to the villagers as ‘Evercloud,’ the peak that had always been covered by clouds.

“Some of them probably died already. It’s way too dangerous for me to go there. I heard there are level 7 Spirit Beasts lurking in that peak.”

“Alright, then how are we going to fight the Scorpion? Any plans?”

“You be the bait!”

“Eh!?”

For some reason, Qai had already been expecting something like this.

If he were alone, he could just summon his giant Ant colony. But he cannot just reveal his trump card—not without fully knowing if Shu Liang can be trusted. She might even turn into another Old Bu and stab his back.

“Okay, I agree. But do you have some kind of treasure to kill that Spirit Beast? With my physical body, I could probably last only 2 hits.”

Of course, Qai was trying to be cautious.

In truth, with his Master rank Knight physique, he could probably take on some 4 or 5 hits but he would be badly injured. After all, level 4 Spirit Beasts, just like his Ant Soldiers were comparable to the early Core Formation stage in terms of cultivation base.

He just lowered his own value to deceive Shu Liang in case she planned on attacking him halfway. After all, he already determined that cultivators were generally unreasonable.

‘If she thinks she can kill me after the Spirit Beast attacks me twice, then she will be in for a surprise.’

“Good! I have fire talismans from my master. You just need to buy me some time. I’ll be sure to kill it in no time.”