As he recovers he slowly rises to his feet a smile forms on his face as he looks at the bodies of the other wolves.

“That was way too close”

Walking around he digs the cores from the bodies of the wolves. As he picks them out with his foot he tosses them up, catches them with his mouth, and swallows them. After devouring all fourteen he feels better than ever and reverts his body to normal.

Power surges through his body as his Aura increases. Suddenly he feels a popping sensation, and his Aura becomes a little thicker.

“Oh? What a strange feeling, the book never said cores have different stages like Qi gathering cultivators do.”

Taking a few deep breaths he readies himself.

“Go!” his arms erupt in blue flames as they transform into wings. A loud crunch echoes as the bones in his wings shatter from the tight bindings.

“AhHhH!”

Before they heal, he pulls his shattered wings from the bindings.

The flames on his wings roar as they begin to heal. They heal in a few seconds and he reverts them.

“Well, this was way too close. I need to be a lot more careful in the future.” looking back towards the cave he smiles. “Now what shall I do with you?”

As he gets ready to walk back towards the cave he pauses for a moment and picks up the cloth.

Walking into the cave he glances at the pair. “Tsk tsk tsk, you just had to meet me, I don’t know why you're here but don't blame me, you guys started it.”

Walking up to them he unties their bags. Sitting down he begins to go through them.

In the man's bag, he finds 22 blue stones, 3 yellow Zhu token, a sword, a bottle of pills, a canteen, and dried meat. In the girls bag are 13 blue stones, a yellow Zhu token, a whip, a bottle of pills, a canteen, dried bread and meat, and a bunch of cosmetic products.

Marco moves everything from the girl's bag into the guys. He leaves all four tokens on the ground, as he gets ready to dump out the cosmetic products he hesitates before deciding to keep them.

Tying the bags to his waist he looks at his shredded clothes. “I need to get my other bags" pulling out a canteen he takes a swig, then spits out bloody water, then takes another drink.

While putting away the canteen he pulls out the sword. The sword's sheath is pure white in contrast with the black hilt. Pulling out the sword he feels his Qi fluctuate. His brows raise in surprise from the feeling, if he tried he could easily pour Qi into the blade.

Hooking the sheath to the left side of his waist he waves the sword around a few times.

Walking up to the man he smiles “You saved me from the wolves so I won't make it too hard for you.” infusing his leftover Qi from his second gate he slashes the sword. The sword passes through the man's neck like a hot knife through butter instantly killing him. His head rolls to the side as his body gushes blood.

“Qi gathering cultivators really are like normal people if they can't gather Qi” shaking his head he turns towards the girl.

Tapping the sword on his shoulder he looks her up and down. “What shall I do with you?”

Returning the sword to the sheath he moves over to the girl. Moving her hands behind her back he uses the cloth from his hands and feet to tie her hands.

As her hands are tied behind her back it pushes her chest forward. Looking at them for a moment he reaches out and grabs her breast. Her breast deforms as he squeezes, sending a soft supple feeling into his palm.

Satisfied he removes his hand. Taking a few steps back he releases the illusion.

“I'm out!?!” she struggles to move her hands. Looking around she sees the headless body. “Charles!!!” looking around she sees the man they captured “What did you do!!” Qi begins to pour into her 6 gates.

Seeing this Marco's tomoe revolve putting her back in an illusion.

In the illusion, she is strapped to a cross in a white room, in front of her Marco stands.

“Well, that wasn't the best idea. You'll have to excuse me, I'm still figuring this out.”

Struggling she realizes she once again cannot gather Qi. Gnashing her teeth she stares daggers at Marco. “Who are you!”

“Don't be so self centered, I already told you my name.” doing a slight bow “I'm Marco Uchiha, and I have a few questions for you.”

*Scoff* “Why would I answer anything you want to know?”

“Oh? Are you stronger than your friend? I thought you saw his body?”

Silent for a moment she stares at Marco. “If I answer your questions you won't kill me?”

“Don't give me a reason and I won't kill you.”

“Fine! What do you want to know?”

Thinking for a moment, he finally opens his mouth “Why were you cultivating earlier? Don't you just slam Qi into the gate? Since you can't store Qi, what were you doing?”

The girls face scrunches as she looks at him “You really are stupid. Brute forcing the gates is the most barbaric way and more often than not will kill cultivators. You are supposed to use Qi to slowly whittle away at the gate, as damage done to the gate doesn't heal.”

“Ah, that actually makes sense. I wondered how people dealt with the massive damage to their bodies….” nodding his head he looks at the girl “Why did you guys come after me?”

“Why!?! You killed the grandson of the Elder of the task hall! We had no choice but to come after you!”

“Great! It still ended up happening! Is this elder super powerful?” furrowing his brows he looks at the girl.

“He's an Elder of the outer court, which means he's at least at the early stages of core formation.”

“Is core formation strong?”

“It's said that core formation is the beginning of cultivation”

“Ohh? Interesting. I know that after Qi gathering is Foundation establishment, what is that?”

“How do you not know these things?? Are you really a cultivator?”

“Tsk” clicking his tongue he scowls at her “Just answer the question”

“Fine fine, for Foundation establishment it involves strengthening the body. There are six levels, and by using Qi from the 10 gates you slowly infuse it into the major parts of the body. The bones, brain, heart, liver, lungs, and kidneys. Doing so allows the body to connect all 10 gates, turning your entire body into a circuit for gathering Qi, and not just through 10 gates. When all 10 gates are linked you develop what is now known as meridians.”

“Why can't you just begin infusing Qi into those six parts now?”

“You can, but you will lock your remaining gates. Even if you succeed you will have crippled meridians and it will be very difficult to keep advancing.”

“Oh? Why would you tell me that, if you lied you could have crippled me?”

“If I lied and you became cripple, would I be able to beat you?”

“Wow, you're smarter than you look"

“What does that mean!?!?”

Looking at her chest he remains silent.

“Bastard!! Let me down and I'll show you!”

“Ok ok stop, my bad. Hmm, that's all I want to know for now.” waving his hand the cross disappears and he vanishes from the white room.

In the real world, Marco stands in front of the dull eyed girl.

“I really need to learn to effect time in my illusions, that took way too long. Ah, I never asked her name"

Shrugging his shoulders he picks her up and carries her over his left shoulder. As her breast press against his back he smiles.

“With my upgraded Aura I should be able to manage the stamina drain and power the illusion for a while.” walking forward he leaves the cave.

“I now have ¾ of my Qi left over from the 2nd gate, what a strange feeling it is having Sharingan activated with leftover Qi.”

Walking in the darkness he moves towards where he met the wolves. His eyes dart about to prevent an ambush, paranoid he draws his sword.

With a girl over his left shoulder, a sword in his right hand, scarlet red eyes, and tattered clothes he looks like a total villain.

After walking for a bit he finally arrives back. The bags were destroyed, spilling their contents onto the ground. Sheathing his sword he puts down the girl. He takes off all his clothes and throws them to the side. Picking up undamaged ones off the ground he puts them on. Picking up the last set of clothes he places them in the bag with the cosmetics.

Looking around he notices the saber. Hesitating for a while he realizes the saber must be of lower quality than the sword, so he places it into his main bag. Picking up the blue gems that give off Qi he places them in his bag as well, giving him 41 in total.

Marco decides to only pick up the two books he hasn't read, the one about treasures and another called “How to tame demonic beast"

Placing the books in his bag he decides he should still head for the river. Looking at the girl he squints his eyes.

“I don't know how they tracked me, but I probably left a trail. So I need that trail to disappear.” moving forward he stands over the girl “I have some confidence now with two gates opened.”

His arms and legs suddenly transform to that of a Phoenix, he tries to keep the fire burning on his body to a minimum, revealing beautifully blue feathers. Gently flapping his wings he hovers above the girl as she lays on the ground. Using his talons he grabs her by the shoulders, careful not to hurt her so she doesn't wake from the illusion.

Picking her up he flies towards the river in the darkness as his flames give off a subtle glow.

Moving through the forest he’s easily able to avoid obstacles using his Sharingan, and in around forty-five minutes he arrives at the river running through the forest.

Flying to the crown of a tree he sets the girl down on a branch before landing. Reverting his body he sits down with his back facing the trunk. The girl is laying in front of him with her hands behind her back and legs straddling the branch, a very provocative pose.

Pulling out a piece of dried meat from the bag he begins to eat while staring at the girl. “What am I going to do with you? If I had access to Kamui I'd just throw you in there till my illusions improved. But as of now, you're a liability.” silent for a moment he shakes his head “If I'm afraid now, how will I ever build a clan?”

Reaching into his bag he pulls out a blue stone. Focusing on it, he feels as though he can pull out the Qi. Turning the stone over in his hands a few times, he tries using it.

The Qi pours out of the stone and into his two gates. Doing it this way uses no stamina, allowing his Aura to actually start recovering. Pleasantly surprised he reaches into his bag and pulls out the beast book and begins to read as his Aura recovers.

“Demonic beast are our enemies, but why can't they be our friends? Using a certain technique human can turn other humans into soul slaves, but that doesn't work on people who can use Qi. Demonic beast don’t have Qi, so why won't this technique work on them? The simple answer is Demonic beast’s souls are fundamentally different from humans. To a Demonic beast their core is everything. This is how you tame a demonic beast, first you must incapacitate the Beast, second is to open a wound on the best, and third is to use Qi to guide your blood to the Demonic beast’s core. When you're blood arrives inscribe this symbol onto the core with your blood.”

At the bottom of the page is a very intricate symbol. Scanning it with his Sharingan he quickly commits it to memory and continues reading.

“Two possible things will happen, either the creature's bloodline is stronger than yours and you die, or you have a new friend. For this reason, its recommended not to try this on any creature with an ancient bloodline or one whose strength is greater than your own. You can only use this technique once in your life, so choose wisely.”

Reading up to here the book finishes.