Ye Xiu looked at the tiny bundle of fur that he had held in his arms in a cradle hold. "I really don't know what to do with you. The only thing that I'm happy about is that you won't develop a taste for anything until I start feeding you regularly instead of having you stuck inside my soul space."

The little lion cub in Ye Xiu's arms purred quietly as he ticked its belly. "I still need to come up with a name for you. I can't just keep calling you young one forever. That inner beast of mine shoved quite a large amount of information into my head to make sure that I took care of you but even if he did shove so much information, I still don't have experience in taking care of a baby. Animal or not."

He continued to tickle his lion cub, not afraid that Tian Bai would notice anything weird since he blocked Tian Bai's senses from noticing anything happening outside of the soul space. He looked at the lion cub once again, before sighing and placing it back into his soul space. "I'll come up with a name when you do wake up. There's no point in giving a name when you don't like it."

What Ye Xiu didn't know was that the lion cub wouldn't be waking up any time soon. Though the dragon had trusted Ye Xiu to take care of his own familiar, the dragon still had its reservations when it came to trusting others. He made sure that the lion cub would be in a hibernating state and would only wake when Ye Xiu truly proved that he loved the cub.

After the cub was placed safely into his soul space, Ye Xiu walked out of the residence and looked for a nice secluded spot in the training yard. He had the four technique manuals that he had to go through. He was going to go through each of the technique manuals one by one since he didn't want to overload himself. Learning new things is great but excess is harmful.

He took out the first manual technique that he had chosen. It was probably the technique that had the most use out of all the techniques that he had chosen since he should be able to learn the technique and have the most progress with it before the tournament came. He read out the technique's name that was written on the cover of the manual. "Divine Gem Fortification."

Ye Xiu read the instructions of the manual that was on the very first page. It told him to push his Qi into the manual as it would automatically force the information of the different stages of the technique into his head. Though the information is stuffed into the brain of Ye Xiu, only the information of the first stage was open for him. It told Ye Xiu enough. It meant that the information would only unlock after he mastered the previous stage.

The foundation of the technique was one that was definitely familiar to Ye Xiu who had lived in an age where such things were measured in their hardness. The technique was based on the different gems that existed though there were definitely more gems than he had thought possible in this world considering that there were over ten stages in the technique. The first stage of the technique would be able to allow him to have the hardness of a quartz gem.

Ye Xiu felt like the technique was definitely bullshit. If he eventually got the same hardness as a diamond then he sincerely doubted that he would be able to be touched by many attacks. However, he couldn't be complacent with such an idea. The cultivation world was definitely strange and Ye Xiu had no doubts that they would be able to pierce through his defence easily at higher realms of cultivation. After all, from the stories that he had read before, they could literally travel faster than light.

The technique was rather simple to start learning, however, the process to progress in the technique required more than a little effort on Ye Xiu's own part. He was required to have the technique on the entire time. If he wanted to progress with the technique, a layer of the gem of the particular stage is formed on top of his skin and the layer must be destroyed continuously until the gems were strong enough to no longer be broken.

Ye Xiu glared at the ground when he processed that information through his head. He basically had to cause himself harm or have others do it for him. He likened the process to self-flagellation but to a worse extent considering that he or his friends would have to use more force to simply get through the gems protecting him. He wondered who, of his entire group of friends and mentors, would allow themselves to help him with the technique. He definitely wasn't going to master the technique himself.

He supposed that Yan Guo, Shi Die and San Guo would most likely help him but the others would definitely not. Xiao Tu and Shang Yang were likely to hover around him as often as they could to make sure that he couldn't train in the technique. Ye Xiu didn't want to keep this a secret from his two friends that he had known the longest but he felt like keeping it a secret would be a lesser crime since he could be strong enough to protect them.

As Shi Die had noted when Ye Xiu had first come back from the Dimension, his demeanour had changed to a more serious outlook. He had shed blood, though not human and some his own, he had gained enough experience from his fights with the Qi Beasts that he knew that it would definitely be best for him to keep this technique's training method a secret.

'The first technique could be learnt at the same time he practised another technique. It would be killing two birds with one stone if I do different pieces of training simultaneously. Good thing that I have my multi-mind technique which allows me to do such a thing with ease.' With such reasoning, Ye Xiu took out the second technique manual that he had chosen from his dimensional storage and placed the first technique manual back into the dimensional storage. Once again, he read out the name of the manual technique.

"Pulsing Force." As he read the name out, he noticed that Shang Yang was walking over to him. He placed the manual into his dimensional storage since he didn't want her asking any questions.

"Hey, Ye Xiu. What are you doing out here?" She was curious as to what he was doing since nobody else was currently training.

Ye Xiu thought of a suitable answer. "Nothing much, I was just out here to clear my mind and to meditate. The residence felt rather cramped and enclosed to me and I wanted some fresh air." He wasn't lying since he actually liked the open space that the stages were set in. He preferred to be out in the wild now that he thought about it. He had so much more freedom. He decided to ask Shang Yang his own question.

He inquired. "Shang Yang, do you have free time later on today?"

"Of course I do. Do you need something from me?" Shang Yang confirmed that her schedule was free of any important events and any activities that she would be obligated to complete.

"I just want us to make some more of the seeds. I've used up all of mine recently and I think that we should step up in the production speed since the tournament is coming up in two months or so. I've also had several ideas on how we can improve on our seeds and I also have a few ideas that I wish for you to try out with your illusions."

Shang Yang raised her eyebrows. "What did you do to use up all of your seeds? There were over two hundred seeds that we made and how did you manage to use them in such a short period of time?"

Ye Xiu didn't bother answering Shang Yang, instead, he simply smiled at the memories he had of trapping Qi Beasts using the seeds or using them to attack. Shang Yang rolled her eyes at Ye Xiu's silence before agreeing. "I don't mind. We'll at least be able to work out the kinks in our seeds and I'd love to see what you've thought up in regards to my illusions."

Shang Yang waved goodbye to Ye Xiu when she sated her own curiosity. Ye Xiu shook his head and took out the technique manual once again. This time he read the entire manual since it didn't have the same function as the previous manual. "The technique is to use your Qi to cause vibrations as you attack. The attacks don't have to physically hit the enemy and they would still be affected by the technique as long as they are not too far for the vibrations to travel."

"When an attack physically hits a target, constant contact with a target allows the user to continuously send pulses of force into the opponent's body. This would disrupt their internal organs, blood flow and eventually Qi flow. The technique can also break bones if the vibrating force that is sent through the body is strong enough. These effects can be diminished in several ways, the most effective way is having a Qi barrier blocking the force. The strength of the technique increases as you progress through the stages."

Ye Xiu stopped reading at that point and allowed himself to digest what he had just read. 'That's certainly a powerful technique though it would definitely have its own repercussions. If someone is able to reflect the technique, then I'd cause myself harm. I'll need to learn how to protect myself from my own technique, though I have to admit it would probably help me if I can use that Qi barrier to diminish the impact force from attacks.'

He continued to read the manual. "The technique doesn't require the use of the user's physical body but can also be used through weapons. The same principles apply and the user is definitely advised to use a sharp weapon or a long-range weapon in order to achieve the best results for the technique." Ye Xiu smiled at the information.

'I'll definitely be able to abuse this specific technique when I use my whips. I didn't have too much of an offensive skillset with my whips compared to my katana. This'll definitely allow me to pulverize my enemies without even moving close enough for them to touch me.'

He read the steps for the initial stage of the technique. He placed it back into his dimensional storage. He wasn't going to practice either of the two techniques today since he had something else he had to do. Ye Xiu walked back into the residence, took a quick shower, changed his clothes and left the residence to go to the Auction House. The sooner he dealt with what he had in his dimensional storage devices, the better.

He moved quickly in the night and that was when he noticed his stalkers. His skills in detection had increased during his time spent in the valley. It was further enhanced when he started his training in the transformation. It also helped that he gained the so-called danger sense that many beasts possessed. His own brand of danger sense was much sharper and would sense anyone that had ill intentions towards him.

If he transformed into his Dragonoid form, his danger sense would encompass a much larger area.

Ye Xiu moved much faster when he noticed his stalkers. He wasn't going to deal with them since he had a feeling that they had been stalking him for a long time and they were probably acting on orders.