On the sandy beach of a pond deep within the Atlas mountain range Ian froze in a sleeping bag of bear skin. The sun had yet to rise and even the gentle breeze made him shiver. His breaths were haggard. From the distance the sound could be mistaken for the iron lungs of physicians instead of lungs of flesh and blood. It was there he waited for Meifeng to return. She left him covered in the flesh of the demon bear.

His cultivation was in shambles. Qi leaked from his body while he struggled to restore his cultivation base. Already, he’d fallen to the fourth stage in qi refinery. What little wood qi he could muster was slowly filling in the cracks of his machinery. When one crack was filled another opened. After a moment, he made a decision.

The answer to his problems was staring him in the face. Ian would have to shut his entire system down and repair everything. While shut down his qi would drain without recovery. He was about to face multiple stage falls. It could kill him immediately from the shock. Afterwards he’d take the pills to regain what cultivation he could. With that in mind he cut shut down his own cultivation base and felt himself plummet.

It wasn’t swift or fancy, he used every bit of wood qi he had to repair his machinery. Hours flew by while he worked. Breathing grew more difficult. His body quaked with coughing fits and his shivering worsened. Ian clung to the bear skin, but it didn’t do him any good. He toiled away repairing his machinery.

While he worked, he removed unnecessary parts. With his heightened understanding and greater qi purity, his construct didn’t need as much mass. Once the qi was burned of impurities the wood qi increased his absorption at a much faster rate. He stripped away parts of the Grand Dao of wood and fire and kept only the parts that were needed for his cultivation. By burning away only what he couldn’t use and absorbing the resulting qi faster, he increased efficiency. There was no need to actually burn the parts of his qi that he needed. Since the fire was within him, he could pick and choose what it burned.

He couldn’t breathe, move, or see. All his focus was all in with restarting his machinery. If there was a leak, he would die.

Ian finished repairing his machinery and used what qi he had left to start the fire. A tiny flame withered and threatened to go out. He pulled with all his might. If he could get the qi to the flame in time he’d live if he didn’t, he’d die.

Qi rushed into his body and touched the flame. It exploded to life and more qi rushed down into him. Ian cultivated with all his might.

He’d done it. His eyes snapped open. Ian opened his mouth and a thick cloud erupted from his throat. Strength suddenly returned to his limbs and his machinery was solid once more. The useless parts were fed back to the machine. Still he was only at the first stage of refinery again. To return to the fifth stage, he’d need a lot of items or time.

Ian stared at the spirit stone in his hand. There was a ton of qi within it. He took out all five and began cultivating them quickly. With five spirit stones worth of qi, he quickly climbed back to the third stage. The shivering and coughing fits never stopped.

Death wasn’t at his door, but it was in town. Ian sucked in a breath and began the slow painful act of restarting his hurricane. The only way to live was through painful cultivation. His wounds were healing he could feel it. Slowly, he’d recover. It might take weeks, months, or years but he’d recover.

He felt a force turn him over in his bag. “Oh, you’re alive.” A powerful feminine voice said in astonishment.

Ian looked up with his sky-blue eyes to see a big tittied woman with dazzling pink hair down to her back. She wore a delicate sea blue robe loosely. Some of her breasts peeked out. But frustratingly the rest remained closed to him.

Two curled horns struck out against the heavens and her ears were pointed. Upon her horns were dozens of rings with various jewels on them. Some were storage rings with an unknown space held within. Small pink scales covered her cheeks like an eternal blush. Her hips had a width that dazzled the imagination and the way she carried herself was domineering.

“Yes,” Ian said with all the strength he could muster. Even to his ears his voice could scarcely be called a whisper. Where was Meifeng? Had he been abandoned?

“That’s good to hear. I was going to eat you if you weren’t.” He stared at her. “Only if you were dead, and as a sign of respect. You did me quite the favor. If that portal opened, I’d have had to turn this beautiful mountain range into radioactive hell. Still I’ve seen victims of my breath that looked better than you.”

A feeling of absolute worry and fear passed through him. Smells that he couldn’t identify and had no context flew through their connection. She felt anxious and frightened. Ian could only breath and gather what qi he could. Only time would heal his wounds.

“My name is Imo, devourer of sun gods, the nuclear tyrant, eternal death, and my personal favorite bunny slayer. I’m here because these lands are a part of my territory and a group of demons thought they could open a portal to hell in my backyard.”

To his qi sense she felt like a dense mass of qi with no end or beginning. The power within her felt like something beyond imagining.

“Sorry, I don’t have the strength to pay my respects.” Ian said.

Imo looked at him before nodding. “You’re excused this once for your infirmity. Do you know why I chose the southern kingdom as my territory?” Ian shook his head slowly.

“Its beautiful, from the shimmering mountains, to the lush forests, and the shinning gold filled rivers this land is a jewel of a territory. I’ve gotten my hands dirty and slain many an arch demon who tried to corrupt what is mine. But each battle scars the land and puts a blemish on my beautiful territory. That bear was clever he hid his portal from me with many talismans. When I sensed the portal from my home, my true body flew quickly. When I arrived, you had already stopped the portal.” A truly pleasant smile appeared on her face.

“I like this mountain range too. The fish are great.” Ian whispered. She chuckled. Her eyes turned quizzical and he felt her sixth sense flash over him. Quick, powerful, and dominant her sixth sense tore out his mysteries like a dragon steals a princess from a keep. In a moment, he felt all his secrets were laid bare before her.

“I could heal you. No, I can do one better. You did me a favor. With this vessels power, I can infuse your body with the blood essence of an ancient beast. You’ll heal stronger than before. What do you say?” It was a gift most couldn’t refuse. The pain he was in was incredible. The breeze from his own hurricane chilled him to the bone. But he didn’t want it. To defeat evil only to be mutated wasn’t what he wanted. Slowly, he shook his head.

She froze for a moment then started pacing. An overbearing pressure erupted from her. He felt his bones grind under her assault. Clumps of skin peeled off painfully under the sudden powerful force. His machinery began to crack under the force. Blood oozed from his wounds.

Blinding pain wracked his body and he shook. This was it. The realization came and went. The pain was too much, and he couldn’t keep his cultivation base together any longer. He remembered his sister and the laughing red vine demon. What was he going to do? How could he get his revenge now?

Just as his cultivation threatened to collapse the force let up. She stared at him with contempt.

“You wish for me to owe you a favor. Fine, one favor and once completed never ask for anything again.” Ian shook his head.

He wanted her gone. Ian wanted isolation and time to heal. Thinking quickly, he breathed out a world.

“Sutras,” The words were feeble. She raised an eyebrow.

“Knowledge is something I have. Rarely has a human showed such wisdom and foolishness in a single breath. What sutras could I give you to equal the value of a mountain range’s beauty?” Ian felt delirium ring conscious thought from his body. She’d done a number on him and machinery was in shambles.

“Water, earth, metal,” he felt himself slide every closer to death’s door. And he thought death would come for him.

“What no secrets of the universe, cosmic defying techniques, or sword skills that cut lesser worlds. Water, earth, and metal I could give you anything in my collection.” Ian looked up at her. She was beautiful but also terrifying. The look in her eyes were predatory to the bone.

“There are techniques in my possession that man has forget and relearned a thousand times. Some approach the strength of arc celestials and demons.” He was sure she had such sutras in her possession. As the lights faded, he remembered tales of great dragons that lived for millenia. They were the bane of the heavens and the hell. If earth had an equivalent to arch demons, then they were the dragons.

Ian didn’t want legendary abilities. He could make his own. What he needed were the tools to cobble together his own skills? If he didn’t consume sutras how could he learn anything.

“Those are not the ones you requested. You wanted water, earth, and metal. Even the top tier of my collection is barely demi ascension level. Far beyond you but inconsequential. So, I will do one better. I’ll give you those sutras you want and make you my younger brother.” She pulled one of the many golden rings from her horns. From her storage ring she pulled out a single pill. It was small and brown. He had no idea what it did.

“Upon my travels I’ve slain many creatures. When I see a nice storage ring, I take them. The items within are useless to me. The qi expert was only a refinery cultivator like yourself. This is a regeneration pill crafted with a miracle. The miracle has yet to face.” She held it out to him. His hand struggled but he couldn’t move it.

His eyes bulged in frustration. He unleashed all his will but couldn’t lift a single finger. Imo placed the pill between her lips and kissed him. Her tongue charged into her mouth and danced around. She forced the pill down his throat and continued the kiss while messaging his throat.

The second the pill was inside of him; power flooded his body. His skin peeled away leaving a layer of freshly grown scar tissue. Ian opened his mouth and screamed. He didn’t know if it was in pleasure or relief from pain. The pain in his lungs subsided and the shaking, shivering, and quaking all over his body finally calmed down.

Blackened skin peeled away leaving him a scar covered mess of a human. Only his eyes and eyelids remained somewhat normal. That only made him look all the more tragic. The only place left of his body unburnt were his eyes. Sure, he was functional, but he’d never look like himself. The only connection he had left of his past were his blue eyes. Even his ears were scarred to hell.

“Why did you insist on remaining human? With the ancient beast blood, you’d be beautiful.” Imo asked.

He stared at himself in the water of the pound. Ian looked like he’d been spat out of hell itself. His flesh had been too weak to withstand his own power. If he had more knowledge, then it would have been different. With a simple water technique, he could have mitigated most of the damage.

“I accepted that I might die to stop the hell gate from opening.”

He turned to the alien beauty behind him. She was powerful, wise, and beautiful and everything he wasn’t.

“If I wasn’t human, I might have run or tried to fight the bear instead. It was clever. So, I flipped the table and took the fight to my domain.” She nodded and took three sutras out of her storage rings.

While most sutras were only a page these were each heavy scrolls. Each contained a vast amount of the qi of each element. They were also color coated.

“When the heavens were open some humans plotted to strike out against the sky itself. In those early days, I was sent to deal with uprisers. On occasion, I took trophies. These were their tools of rebellion. Each scroll contains techniques passed down and improved by countless generations. There are only three in each.” She held up the silver scroll.

“The Wu clan’s strongest steel. A defensive technique that eagates tribulation lightning, Heaven Defying Babel, an armor forging technique that withstood a microsecond of my presence, Infinity Wyrm’s Scales, and a striking technique that bypasses the weakness to fire, Sun Extinguishing Finger.” Ian stared at the scroll and wondered if he should bother learning any of the techniques fully. She coughed lightly.

He took hold of the scroll and placed it in his storage ring. She held up the blue scroll. “I always keep this one close at hand. These three techniques were based off the power of another dragon. This is the Jiang clan’s Black Mud.” She paused for a second.

“If you ever join the hells, I’ll hunt you down and reclaim the scroll myself.” Imo said. “The techniques within are three territory types Black Mud Swamp, Communion of Salt and Fresh, and Ancient World Cradle. Only the first technique can be fueled by a refinery expert. The other techniques require hundreds of core experts or a single demi ascended level.” He took the scroll and placed it in his storage ring.

“This last one is different. They chose body forging to compete against the heavens. The first technique is Mountain’s Image, the second is Ascension Burial, and the last is Emergent Titan. They fielded titans capable of engaging this clone body of mine. These techniques were forbidden by the heavens, but the heavens are no longer an issue.

“Thank you,” he kowtowed to the dragon.

“Grow strong quickly, I don’t have time to heal you again.” Imo said. She vanished in a flash of speed leaving him alone with three priceless scrolls. Slowly, Ian crashed down on the sand. Sweat beaded down his face and his heart raced. Being near such a powerful being was terrifying.

Meifeng slipped out of her hiding place. Her body was shaking worse than his was. He could sense that she was only a step from her cultivation base collapsing. Ian fell down in the sand. Now that he was healthy, hey needed to return to the Atlas sect. There was still time.