If something happened and He Zhi decided to step in, not only would he be able to take that large and delicious looking fish, but he could search around in these disciples’ pockets. It worked out!

Even if he couldn’t accurately use his super strong attacks, surely he could take these bozos by surprise. Maybe he wouldn’t even have to kill them!

Just stall long enough for the girl to rush back to the Sect.

So he decided to wait.

The trio of goons had patiently waited and successfully hunted three more large fish that looked like sharks compared to these young adults. They seemed to be either in their late teens or early twenties, but he could be wrong. Those that practiced magic seemed to be more mature looking than normal.

The Tournament was a good example.

Nothing happened as they cleaned up, but just as two of the guys were about to leave with the girl into the barrier, the third fell into the lake. He began floundering, pretending he was being pulled under. The stronger looking Mage with the sword rushed over to help the levitating guy as the hypnosis guy remained behind.

His eyes carried a nasty glare as he stared at the panic stricken young girl. His lips moved and the girl curiously turned around and discovered he was casting a spell.

She collapsed onto the ground unconscious.

Well, damn. Now how was she supposed to run off and get help? Even if He Zhi saved her, how was she going to know? If she didn’t know, then she wouldn’t even go ask for help from a senior or elder of the Sect.

Hmm…it seemed that they were being used by someone. A younger looking effeminate boy walked out of the barrier and approached the trio. He had a sinister smirk on his face as he looked at the girl before him. He passed a bag to each of the lackeys and sent them away.

But those idiots were soon fast asleep and they had lost all of their belongings. All He Zhi had to do was make them pass out by removing the air around them. They didn’t even know what was happening until they were almost unconscious themselves.

He Zhi quickly returned to the snobby shithead as he was removing her clothes. The idiot wasn’t even aware that the girl was being tickled by a floating heron feather.

Just something he picked up.

But that was beside the point. The girl awoke to see the idiot’s face and screamed. He cursed and was about to hit her when a shadow appeared and kicked him away. The girl was in shock and stopped screaming.

“Go.”

It was all he said, but the guttural sound produced by his still developing throat scared her and the idiot.

Was this thing even human? It sounded horrible!

The girl didn’t need another warning and ran for the barrier, clutching her clothes to her chest in embarrassment and fear. The idiot, however, tried to chase after her, practically forgetting the opponent before him.

He Zhi sent a palm forward, making the idiot jump.

“Stop! Do you know who I am?!”

“A template character? Enough.”

The fight was one sided as expected. The idiot was literally caught with his pants around his ankles and wasn’t able to get ahold of the situation. He passed out without a fight.

All of his things were taken, even the clothes. Four naked young men were found later that day hanging from a tree over the lake from vines wrapped around their bodies tightly.

Several large fish were leaping out of the water and trying to snatch them up, causing the four to pathetically scream loudly for almost the entire area to hear. It didn’t take them long to be taken down and punished.

However, all of the missing things were counted as the trio’s punishment. The idiot, however, was required to leave on a trip to solitary meditation in the mines. He would be digging up Mana Stones and other good materials and wouldn’t even be able to use any of them. The girl was to be protected by one of the factions within the Sect.

He Zhi had already returned to the bunker and looked at all of the goodies he obtained.

And then frowned.

“What use is money for me right now?! I need techniques and materials! Maybe some medicine that holds special energies! What the heck?!”

All they carried on them were books on spells or talismans that depicted certain incantations to memorize.

How pointless.

However, there was a wind spell that Elder Heron might want. He used wind energy, so that was good. Oh, and there are several water spells. Even if he wasn’t a part of the village anymore, he still felt some attachment.

So he left all of the useless things with the Misty Turtle Tribe and helped Elder Heron learn how to read human writings. He even helped him learn the wind spell directly, giving several ideas that might improve the birds’ intuition of the attack.

He Zhi felt that the humans going to hunt the frogs was getting close so he went to the marshlands to camp out.

A little less than a week later, several people showed up. Thanks to the new clothes, He Zhi had several bags that could hold things and even had a belt for the fire knife and the sword. The round buckler shield was placed on his back and the new hood covered his features.

Now he looked like a common vagrant, just a little on the short side.

The really short side…

When the group came to hunt the frogs, He Zhi couldn’t tell if the brat was angry or not. Back in his last life, the brat was laughing. Maybe it was because the frogs were stronger? Oops, or maybe it was because the monkey died.

No, Richard was actually deliberating. The corpse of the monkey was definitely moved from its original place of death, so he had thought someone was messing with him. But Marcus had explained that the markings on its body was evident of an animal attack.

Then why would the animal bring the body over?

And why did a stack of money and spells find themselves at their doorstep?

Something was happening and Richard didn’t know what it was. He was too distracted to watch the hunt. He was only here on a formality. He really wanted to prove to his siblings that he wasn’t some loser kid being given pity all the time.

Especially from his dad.

If he could win this thing, then maybe dad would have a better opinion of him!

His heart resolved, Richard turned towards the battle. Now that he was paying attention, He Zhi sent a small shock at Arthur, scaring him out into the open. When the large frog appeared, the villagers were all extremely happy.

They quickly knocked him out and carted him off along with several of the guards. Arthur was too confused to even understand what happened to him.

Chuckling to himself, He Zhi took the remaining guards and several of the best looking frogs back with him. He even found the five girls from before! He was surprised that he could even notice them. He made sure to bring them along as well.

They proved to be extremely loyal so maybe they could become his first group of regular Froglings.

When he returned to the bunker, he set to work on training the new frogs and giving the five girls their new training. He gave them strict orders and spent the next week hammering it into them.

By the time he left, the five girls were holding weapons and training themselves how to move appropriately. Since he had the Riverweed, the girls were more than able to keep up with a sped up training session. He looked around and knew this would be a deciding factor for him. The last time he left to go participate in the Tournament, he never got to see his larger siblings again.

He even hugged them goodbye, making sure they didn’t leave by sealing the entrance.

He decided to go to the large lake upstream and enter that way.

Well, he shouldn’t have worried. Nothing happened. He was a frog, after all. The barrier was to only deter the weak villagers from trespassing into the Sect. Any amazing Mage would be easily able to just smash the barrier apart and enter anyway.

He Zhi quickly sped up to the Sect to watch the Tournament. Once there, he noticed that the Misty Turtle Tribe sacrificed their chances at the first platform and sent Gui Ya to the fifth platform where he won magnificently.

The Drifting Dragons won with first and second place, while one of the Lava Lizards got third place. One of the kids from the Misty Turtle Tribe actually managed to reach the final match in the third platform, but oh well.

Obviously the Wood Bear Tribe member won the fourth platform.

The First Young Master wasn’t interested in the Tournament anymore, the Third Young Mistress had graduated, and the Poison Snake Tribe wasn’t meant for actual combat. So when the only one left of the elder four decided to attend, there was nothing the younger siblings could do.

If Gabriel was there, maybe, but he was off exploring the world. He was a rarely seen genius, after all.

Gui Ya probably chose the technique he got from before and Derik won this time, getting him the privilege to let the members of the Drifting Dragon attend the Sect.

He Zhi quickly returned to the bunker and helped the others grow. Now that the frogs were big enough to start having kids of their own, He Zhi sent them all, even his family, back to the marshlands.

He selected some more frogs from the regulars to train and returned to the bunker.

Weeks pass by, then months.

It was almost as if nothing was going to happen.

However, soon, a year had passed since He Zhi’s birth.

The marshlands were filled with giant frogs and the bunker was manned by incredibly well trained Froglings. Not in combat, but in education. They could communicate in the human language very well and had taken to using tools rather well.

The Heron Family was doing good, their training leading to one of the young male herons, the one named Li Ru, actually developing his own spell.

They had managed to show off to the other herons back at the large lake and brought back several new females, and even a couple of strong looking males.

None of these new herons held any wind energy since they didn’t have the contract with the wind comb. However, they soon did. The herons were growing, the frogs were growing, and He Zhi was living a peaceful life. He had already successfully combined most of his threads and had eight large ponds of different colors.

When he had combined enough of the threads, they grouped together to become puddles. Over time, the puddle grew into the ponds they were now. Unfortunately, He Zhi had no idea how to combine the ponds together.

He could now wield power equal to that of a Master Mage, just one level shorter than the head of the Marshall Family himself, although he didn’t know that. He had no one to compare to.

The other Froglings, frogs, and herons, however, were everywhere from Beginner to Adept.

Now if someone wanted to attack He Zhi, they would need to go all out. Even if he could normally dish out Master level attacks, he could still combine his attacks like he did when he killed the Immortal Cauldron student.

If that were to happen, even the Sect Masters would have to watch out!

But they had lifesaving treasures and special tools that helped with their magic. Even if He Zhi had the versatility with his attacks, he still didn’t have the diversity that Mages had. He couldn’t transform in the middle of combat or hypnotize his opponent.

No, but he could drown them.

Even with all of the energy he had absorbed, He Zhi felt that water was still his best weapon.

He just hadn’t used it much.

Until today.