The Fourth Young Master, Neil Marshall, was busy trying to get the Immortal Cauldron Sect to continue trading resources with the Marshall Family. He was a pasty weak man, one who already found a wife and was expecting a child.

He was responsible for most of the main export and import witnessed throughout the city. He also oversaw the more…unique of investments that weren’t quite known by the public.

Ever since his mother died all those years ago, he was disgusted by his father’s actions with easily picking up and moving on with the next pretty woman he came across.Instead of a normal spoiled noble brat, Neil was a man with a single love. He may have had to boost her anonymously through his expertise, but when she became the owner of a pretty popular restaurant chain, his father approved of the marriage.

Living with the woman he loved and having an easy life, it was easy for him to take things for granted. But, his ability to make money was amazing.

He was the backer of the Poison Snake Tribe, but instead of training the tribe members, he managed to get ahold of poison and medicine formulas. The Poison Snake Tribe wasn’t meant for warriors or Mages, but Alchemists, Potion Makers, or even Poison Masters. If they had people who could fight, they would make use of their poison to win.

Unfortunately, that is not allowed during legitimate matches.

Because his tribe was next door to the Misty Turtle Tribe, the home of the Froglings, Derik came over to convince him to help find He Zhi. But the problem was, Neil had completely forgotten about He Zhi!

His wife was going into labor, so he made an excuse to stay home. However, he didn’t really think much about the whole ordeal. He was only angry because he was played around with by a stupid frog. That had changed when he heard that that very same frog could cast a Level 4 Spell!

Oh well.

When he sat back and thought about it, Neil began to realize that he was in the wrong. If anything, he would have to go and apologize. Especially when he heard of the reason why Father and Brother Derik were trying to find He Zhi. If he wanted a chance to be able to awaken a more powerful Bloodline, he would need to be polite.

He would have to prepare a sort of gift or something, wouldn’t he?

While pondering the thought, Neil returned to his master bedroom to his pretty wife and future child.

================================

He Zhi was meditating in the Mana Room, as he called it. It was a strange cavern that had all sorts of glowing stones in the walls. He had finally reached a wall. Not a literal wall, but a bottleneck in his cultivation.

He could only hold one hundred threads of each color. There were eight, each with a different energy.

Judging from his current knowledge, He Zhi guessed that he already knew what the red, blue, and green were for. Obviously, they were fire, water, and wind, respectively. There was also black, purple, white, yellow, and brown. According to the different tribes, He Zhi hypothesized that these were night, lightning, day, earth, and wood, respectively.

The gray and colorless stones were different, and He Zhi could not draw in the energy from them.

He could draw out ten threads from each stone, but once he did, he didn’t know what else to do!

He tried using the new energies during his cultivation or during training, but only two colors actually were easy to use. Blue and green.

Shame, He Zhi really wanted to use fire or lightning. Maybe later, he thought.

For example, He Zhi could use the fire element, but all it would be good for is a cigarette lighter. The lightning was more like a static shock, and He Zhi couldn’t even begin to understand night and day. How were those even elements?

Maybe they were like Yin and Yang? Either way, he couldn’t use them well at all. Neither could He Yi or He Yu. The children still had a long ways to go.

But the herons were completely unfortunate. They could only use wind Mana well. It didn't help that everyone else could only draw from the blue and/or green stones.

In the meantime, He Zhi tried combining the different elements with each other, but he wasn’t successful.

“If I can’t make a new element, then can I increase the elements I already have?”

With that thought, He Zhi took two blue threads and combined them. He could! And it was far easier than trying to combine it with the wind! It didn’t take long for him to make fifty double threads. Unfortunately, he still couldn’t take in more blue threads.

Then why did he still have the turquoise threads?

Not wanting another headache, he tried combining the double threads. This time, he felt a severe pain. He had to quit, it was that bad. So instead of skipping along, He Zhi performed his rotation using the double threads. He found his meridians widening and strengthening naturally.

With this, maybe he could combine the double threads!

Of course, he will need to practice some more. Even if he expanded his meridians, they still weren’t wide enough for four of them to go through. Thankfully, using the turquoise became incredibly easy. Maybe he should have waited since he ran out of room for small blue threads…

So he went through the infuriating process of undoing one double thread to see if he could.

He could.

After making the maximum of fifty turquoise threads, He Zhi had also made fifty double wind threads. He was incredibly lucky to find all of these amazing stones, but he had to be careful. He didn’t have a permanent source of them, and he was using them like chewing gum!

He didn’t have to worry too badly since he already made the most of the threads he could. He allowed the girls to practice as well, but they couldn’t absorb any energy except for water and wind. So what could he do with the others?

Maybe he will figure it out later. Hmm…could he trade? That would be good, but he had no idea how amazing these things were. If he had to make a guess, people would kill for this. He Zhi decided to not let anyone outside know about this place yet.

Now that he had gotten stronger, he needed to check his strength!

He left the cave and went looking for the other girls. While he was out, maybe he could have the Froglings named by Mr. Black. He wasn’t Chinese in his other world, but he didn’t mind since it seemed easier to remember this way.

He had walked a ways away when he found himself in an environment that had a strange green tint to everything. No, it wasn’t the color, the air was filled with some sort of foul stench that could actually be seen!

Thankfully, He Zhi didn’t seem to mind all that much. This area should have been somewhere behind where the fight had taken place those couple of weeks ago. First things first, he needed to find the crash location.

It took a while, but he found a few broken trees, but not from the collision. They were cut! He Zhi remembered that one of the girls was proficient in water blades since she copied the little fire dagger from the brat.

He looked around, but since the ground was covered in grimy and dirty water, he couldn’t find any tracks. Eventually, he found a place that could have been a campsite, so He Zhi was hopeful. But…wasn’t this a corpse of a large wolf? Why only one? Did…something happen?

No, it was extremely tough. The only wounds he found were located around the throat or the eyes. What a nasty way to go. If the Frogling girl had managed to do this, then the wolf could actually have been a Magic Beast!

Magic Beasts were like Arthur or the herons. But those guys were and are weak. Probably the lowest of Magic Beasts. The magic running through them increases their bodies and allows them to cast magic. It is said that eventually, Magic Beasts could attain human speech. But…they already could, they just didn’t have vocal chords.

Could it be magic? What kind, though?

Lost in thought, He Zhi didn’t realize there was a large pile of bones a little off to the side of the camp. If he had, he would have noticed the skulls belonged to canine creatures. These were the wolves! The leftover corpse that could not be salvaged was left alone, only because it was the Alpha!

While he was training, He Zhi wasn’t the only one getting stronger!

Soon, the sounds of fighting could be heard from the trees. Running forward, he saw a flash as a small Frogling zoomed past, taking him by surprise. Chasing after the frog girl was a large black viper! Its fangs were large enough to compare to a sword!

What kind of trouble did she get herself into?!

“Get back here! I just want to eat you!”

Wait, that wasn’t a soul transmission, it was actually talking! Could this be a really powerful Magic Beast?! The voice sounded slightly feminine, but he couldn’t really tell. He Zhi rushed after the two, determined to stop the fight.

When he managed to track them down to a sort of grove without trees, He Zhi stopped to take a good look at the situation. This was a strangely round place, almost as if man made. This was curious, but the situation at hand was more important!

“Please, don’t eat my friend!”

“Eh? You can talk as well? Hmph, doesn’t matter, I’m hungry and all my food is gone!”

Trying to defuse the situation, He Zhi felt like he could help the snake and get a powerful ally at the same time! But…high reward means high risk. If he gets too involved, it might be his neck on the line.

“What do you eat?”

“Those little furry things with sharp teeth that won’t shut up.”

“Uhh, the wolves?”

“Is that what they’re called? I’ve never really talked with anyone willing to teach me stuff.”

'What? Then how did you learn to talk?'

“Well, can you eat fish?”

“Those aren’t good enough. I like fuzzy things, they tickle my throat as they go down.”

“Have you tried moving somewhere else?”

“And leave my poor Momma?! Never!”

“Mother? Is she in trouble?”

“No, she’s just not back yet.”

It seems that He Zhi was dealing with a child, but did this mean that its mother was incredibly powerful? Wait, where did he hear about this before?

“Do…you know Mr. Black?”

“Who? I haven’t met anyone except for you and Momma!”

“My apologies, but then how did you learn to speak?”

“Obviously Momma taught me!”

“Can we meet your mother?”

“Hmmm…I guess so. She doesn’t like dangerous things, but since you can talk, I guess we can work something out. I just want to eat something.”

“Okay, that should be easy.”

“But make it fuzzy!”

“I’m not sure there are any fuzzy things left here.”

He Zhi turned towards the frog girl and noticed her wrappings were made out of fur instead of the leather they had before. She looked like a short barbaric cave woman with a wide green face. Kind of off-putting, based on human standards, but she seems to have her own charms.

“I am pretty sure we can grab you something fuzzy. We’ll be right back because we want to see your mother.”

“Alright! Be back soon, though! I’m hungry!”