He used his quill to draw the formation on the leopard’s underbelly. It woke up and hopped away. It was looking at him with terror. Musnuf sighed. He let it go for a few minutes and started drawing his own formation.

He did it in the middle of his forearm. It was the most convenient spot and it could be hidden by his sleeve. His arm spasmed with a little bit of pain every now and then but he kept on going. He didn’t want to quit halfway through. Once he was done with the last stroke a strange sensation travelled through his body.

It felt like he had a separate limb that wasn’t there anymore. He stared at the formation. Somewhere in there was a soul aspect. He needed to extract that.

He grabbed the leopard and it clawed at his hand. He almost dropped it. It’s going to hurt the little guy. He went through it as fast as he could. It whined and tried to flail its paws but once Musnuf was done the pain disappeared.

It wandered around on its paws and yawned. Then the jolt came. A shock of electricity travelled through Musnuf’s arm. The leopard jumped up in fright.

Scared, scared, pain…

A different bundle of emotions was sitting in his gut, it didn’t belong to him. He prodded it a little bit and it was the leopard’s emotions. Musnuf leaped up in joy. He was elated for a quick moment. He’d just combined the fine control and precision of the cosmetic art with the formation required for the beast taming art. It was a step in the right direction.

He decided to run down to the market. He got some meat for the leopard, some milk and a pillow for it to sleep on. He wandered around for any esoteric arts or manuals but nothing caught his eye.

The fight with the other leopard had made one thing clear for him. He needed a combat art. The staff was good but it didn’t provide him with an outsized advantage. He needed something that levelled the playing field. Something that would blow Treasure of the water.

He decided to wander back to his house. He opened the sliding door and the little cub was nowhere to be found. It was hiding from him. He placed the food on the floor, along with the pillow and went to sleep.

Exhaustion tore into him.

…

..

.

He woke up to the little leopard lapping up his milk. It reminded him of a cat. Musnuf focused on the bundle of foreign emotions. The fear and the anger had lessened a little bit. Musnu reached out to pet it but it hopped away. Too early, huh?

It wasn’t touching the meat which meant it wasn’t old enough yet. He left the bowl there and started meditating. He cultivated until noon and then decided to head down to Wind’s abode. He had to spend a few minutes chasing the little leopard. He didn’t know how long he would be gone for.

It was just a mess. He was annoyed at the sight. How had he managed to do this in a few hours?

“You don’t have to clean it. Leave it as it is.” He turned around, and he was in a different set of robe’s. His last pair had been white at some point but it’d devolved to dull brown. This was a pair of white robes with a green sash. He’d managed to get a drink stain on it so soon.

“So, you managed to learn the beast taming art?” He extended his hand to the little leopard and petted it.

“There’s a few healing potions formulas in there. I put them out on the table. You should practice with them. Brewing is how you learn alchemy.”

“Do you have any more combat arts? You have so many alchemy recipes.” It was just a little odd. He was acting a bit entitled when he was asking for it but he needed every advantage he could get his hands on

Wind pursed his lips. “I’m not allowed to have access to combat arts or to teach them.” Not allowed? It sparked a lot of questions in his mind but he didn’t ask. If he wanted to tell him, he would.

“Why are you so desperate to get your hands on all these arts?”

“I have a duel coming up and I’m not confident I can win. I can only use the Green Dragon Flame for chains, fireballs and the occasional flame wall.”

Wind rubbed his forehead. “Is that all you’re using it for?”

Musnuf wanted to nod but it was a rhetorical question. “Why do you think the sect is teaching you the Blue Tiger Mantra?”

“It’s not just a body-cultivation art, it's a healing art.” The little disparate pieces of information clicked in and Musnuf realized the dual nature of the two mantras. It was something he should’ve realized when he’d purified the beast skins or even when he’d copied over the mantras. Enhanced Understanding gave him the ability to narrow down to the basic components of a technique but assembling them was dependent on him.

“I’m such a fool.” Wind nodded and started walking away. It was the first time Musnuf had seen him walk outside. He was a hermit through and through.

“Where are you going?”

“The patriarch’s awakening ceremony.” A chill crawled down Musnuf’s spine. Time was running out.

He placed the little leopard on the ground and it hopped away. Musnuf tried to communicate to it. Don’t eat anything…

His essence was bubbling in his core. He raised his hand and conjured a flame ball. He broke it down into a smoke tendril. His practice with the ribbon was paying off.

He placed the flame on himself and it started spreading around. Unbearable pain spread through his body. He could maintain it for a maximum of ten seconds.

The next step was to use the Blue Tiger Mantra to push his essence out to his skin and heal himself with it. All this time, I had a healing art right under my nose.

It felt like he’d reached a breakthrough. That day he reached the fifth stage of the Green Dragon Mantra and the third stage of Blue Tiger Mantra.