Deep in the mountains of the Royal Sect, in a specific region controlled by the Zhao Clan and countless other Rider clans, at the peak of the highest mountain which a quarter of the mountain had been carved out and made into a palace, sat a man and behind was a beautiful woman with bright sapphire eyes and long silky black hair.

This was Zhao Rinrin’s father and mother, Inner Sect Elder, Zhao Shizi and his 3rd mistress, Zhao Xin Tiao.

Zhao Shizi, in appearance, was young but he had hundreds of years of age. Being on of the few people how was nearing the Heavenly Tree stage of the Rider system he held an unprecedented prestige among the sect and even the nation’s people.

For the young woman beside him, it is much less as she is a concubine she was of lower talent but as all concubine are their husbands Dao companion they could surpass their talent due to that but only by a small margin.

The greatest advantage of Riders is the results gained through Dao Couple cultivation which is a resource in of itself for the Riders and without it they would have long been a lost cause due to the difficult methods needed to cultivate. It is the reason polygamy is greatly done among Riders unlike common cultivators who would take a single Dao Companion.

The beautiful sword like brows on the face of Zhao Xin Tiao were currently scrunched up as she read alongside her husband. “Is there really a boy who would act so atrociously to my Rinrin?!” She asked.

In the cold eyes of the elder, his brows were raised and a glint of amusement was in his eyes. “This young man is quite interesting.” He said and took another page showing Ning’s information and a small investigation which already said he was taught about the head clan and the three noble clans. Even so he would still so boldly but heads with Rinrin even if she is in the outer sect.

“Such a vulgar boy. Only a Yellow talent thinks he can cover the heavens with his hand. He is a frog in the well unable to see Mt. Tai.” the woman said angry.

“This boy most likely is not Yellow but at the very least green talent if not higher.” Shizi said.

“How do you know?” Xin Tiao asked surprised.

“He has no background, no backing. He came with Elder Lu and that old man likes talents, if he found an outsider with a lot of talent he would obviously protect them at the very least by hiding the true talent rank.” He said.

“Master, this servant was indeed informed by a carrier of Elder Lu who had reported the ‘official’ and the hidden talent but because it was previously only a small time boy I did not wish to take up master’s time with such a small matter.” The elder butler said bowing.

He was the head butler and a long time aide and companion of Zhao Shizi.

“So what is the real information?” the elder asked.

“The report given was that the child, Bo Ning, possessed a Peak Solid Green Innate talent which slowly began to form after flickering and stabilizing. The elder believed that if the boy were to remain and allow the pillars to continuously examine him the blue pillar would show initial signs of lighting up because the speed of which the green pillar lit up was within a minute of time but Elder Lu told him to stop so as to not reveal the full extent and simply kept it at the Green level.” the butler said.

The eyes of the elder opened a bit and raised a brow while a small smile appeared on his face. “For now, watch the boy, do not protect him or anything but don’t hinder him either. Also do not stop Guo Wein from his pursuits. It will be a good test for the boy but you are to stop him from personally going against the boy until he enters the inner sect as dictated by the sect rules. I want to see if this boy’s luck can let him keep his head or if he will be a stepping stone for someone else.” the elder said.

“Yes master.” The butler bowed.

He turned on his heel and went to execute the order and after the door closed the eyes of the beautiful woman narrowed, “Are you thinking of giving my Rinrin to such a vulgar peasant?” She asked.

“If he can reach the inner sect he would not be a peasant anymore. Besides the possibility of getting the attention of a master, he will also be fought over by the families if his talent is sufficient. His full talent is hidden, we spent nearly an entire day to find Rinrin had Blue talent but he got 1 minute only of test and reached Green talent. He is at least on par with Rinrin.” The man said.

“And what of the countless inner disciples wanting her? Guo Wein is indeed right in the fact that he is one of the few people compatible with her.” Xin Tiao said

“And you want to hand over Rinrin to him?” Elder Shizi asked.

“OF COURSE NOT! A mere servant of orange talent dare to desire my daughter. I would rather beggar made prince be her partner because at least he has the talent.” She roared.

“As expected, as for the fact that he can’t be her match, I do not see that. The main difference is that the element of one of their beasts don’t match up and that they do not have each other’s energy.” He said.

“That can cause a big difference since Dao Couple cultivation need to have complementing elements and energy.” Xin Tiao said.

“The Earth and Ice beasts are different, it is a simple problem solved by giving the boy an Ice type Demon Beast and giving Rinrin and Earth type Profound beast. This will stabilize their energies.” He said simple.

The woman thought it over but begrudgingly accepted the logic. Dao Couple cultivation had to have a balance and a connection between the two. If they cultivate different paths they would obviously suffer later on but as long as the element of the beast is the same and they have at least one beast of the partners energy they will cultivate that energy along side them. Each of them getting a beast of the others type will resolve the problem and cover up problems previously present. Infernal Energy and Qi are compatible energies as well. Both carry very dense energy of origin from the cosmos above and both refine the body. When mixed it can find a much more peaceful balance when compared to mana and Qi who hold completely different natures.

“The boy still needs to prove he is enough for my daugher. Now let us not talk about this anymore.” Xin Tiao said.

“Alright, for now let us go look into that report of a Wind Dragon caretaker. Although it has been reported a week ago there is no other news of this coming in so I was thinking of going myself.” the elder said.

“Just to see a caretaker? Even if it is a dragon it can’t be that powerful right?” Xin Tiao asked.

“It’s a caretaker, even amongst beasts, caretakers are the most powerful or else they would not be caretakers.” Elder Shizi said.

“I see, do you wish to go alone or call someone?” Xin Tiao asked.

“Elder Lu got the information so call him in as I want to hear from his lips what he knows.” the elder said.

The woman nodded, “I will see to calling him then.” She said and stood upright like a proud flower and walked off showing off her beautiful curves which her clothing could not hide.

***

“Urg!” Ning exclaimed as his muscles were twitching in pain.

His mother sighed as she looked at him after hearing how Ning felt the carriage was heavier than before. After recounting the last few days of what happened she could only shake her head and think, “To men, women will always be their downfall.” letting out a sigh she called the little maids and told them to take Ning to his room and ordered the head maid to massage his body to relieve the pain.

She than walked over to the personal medical garden and after touching it she inserted her Qi and controlled the garden to open and entered it.

Inside the previously 5 acre garden had grown to 6 acres due to the week long refining it had received from Ning gaining a full acre more but the speed of the growth was decreasing now since Ning’s cultivating capabilities were shallow. Until the Dao Beasts made breakthroughs it would take a little while to further advance this but it did allow her to do more. 4 acres was dedicated solely for spirit grass and 1 acre was several other herbs which was growing nicely already having become sprouts.

She walked to the final acre which had fully grown transplanted herbs.

Unlike the other sections this one was filled with vibrant life of different herbs. During the night she had taken the garden to a nearby medical mountain, one of the poorer quality ones which was left unguarded. Many low leveled herbs were removed at the root and transplanted into the garden before Bo Rei returned secretly. At this moment she walked around and stopped at a specific bush with a strange tear drop leave and giving off a bitter smell.

“Let's see, common rank Bitter tear bush, fifty leaves should do.” She muttered and plucked the leaves and walked over to a large berry bush which was Crimson Blood Fruit which aided in making more blood in the body and purifying the dead blood from the body. She picked several other herbs in a small basket and then exited the garden before walking to the bath. Calling the maids they filled the large tub before Bo Rei began to crush the fruits and drop the leaves inside and slowly the crystal clear water slowly turned a dark green.

“Good, let this bath sit for an incense stick’s time than help Ning into this medical bath. Have him call his Dao Beasts into it as well. This will heal the body and help body refining.” She said.

“Yes Mistress!” They bowed.

The maids lit an incense stick, which would normally be used to meditate, and filled the room with a soft nice smell and once the first stick burned Ning was brought in with sore muscles.

“Young master, Mistress Rei has prepared a medical bath for you. She told us to say you should have your Dao Beasts join you because it’s good for bodybuilding.” Ma Nanyun said with a smile.

“Is that so.” he said somewhat out of it but he looked at his ring and soon Tora and Tyrant appeared and the maids slowly helped him into the bath. He called the two over and with some help Tyrant was put into the bath and, after connecting, slowly allowed his body to sink while Tora simply entered and began to swim freely like a fish.

Ning began to slowly circulate the Qi between the two and himself and slowly he felt the medical energy enter their bodies and his own causing the pain in his body to slowly vanish and instead an itching feeling was felt in his body as the medical energy passed through.

Ning through a moment and activated the ‘Titan Bull Titan Body’ and very quickly all that rapidly accumulating medical energy started to undergo refining. In the body of the three of them, to Ning’s surprise, the medical energy began to wash their skin and muscles which had been worn down to the limits today.

It was also during this time that Ning slowly thought about the day and found that something was curious. Unlike the last days he had gone to do his job, a younger boy had showed him the way to his carriage instead of the foreman who usually designated this. He hadn’t noticed at first but the smile on the boys face was one that carried some kind of malice but Ning did not know who the boy is or what he did to offend him.

After a while Tyrant appeared and let out a little moo of excitement and Ning knew why. He had reached High Success in Level 2 but Ning hadn’t expected that Tora would be swimming excitedly because he had already surpassed level 1 and was at Low Success level 2. Ning himself was on par with Tyrant and muscles were already getting more firm.

He let out a breath and lifted Tyrant out of the bath while Tora swam up to the surface before jumping into the air and splashing a bit of water before he began to fly.

Ning also got up and out of the bath himself and the three maids were there ready for him and began to dry and dress him.

What was interesting was that Ning’s previously somewhat skinny body had suddenly showed signs of muscle development.

This was in direct contrast to the medical baths effects for body refining. His blood flowed smoother, his muscles were stronger, his skin was softer yet tougher, his eyesight was sharper and his senses were at their peak.

“Amazing, mother’s medical bath is quite impressive. I wonder why she never made one before?” Ning said out loud.

“It’s probably because the herbs are hard to find.” one of the maids, a blue haired girl with slightly tanned skin and brown eyes, named Mu Yu Xin, replied.

“Ah, that makes sense.” Ning nodded as he let the girls dress him.

He had grown somewhat accustomed to this but was still embarrassed by having others dress him since he had done so since little though some types of clothes he needed help due to the sash which are hard to tie. As for his clothing now, it was simply outer sect disciple robes. They weren’t too complex but even so he still had to let them do their job and help him dress.

After getting dressed Ning headed to his mother and told her what he noticed while in the bath.

“Most likely it is that Guo Wein or his followers who bribed that boy to increase the weight of your carriage.” She said.

“What can we do about that?!” Ning said frowning.

A mischievous grin appeared on Bo Rei’s face, “Leave it be. If they keep increasing the weight it is better. As you get stronger you will need to force your body even more to temper your body more. You could say they are helping you train. From today on you will do the daily job, no matter how hard it is, and will come back and take a medical bath to heal and train your body refining technique by absorbing the medical energies.” She said.

“Do we have enough herbs for that?” He asked.

“A medical bath like that is good for 10 uses. There is no worry, if we need more we can search the nearby common rank medical mountains the sect leave open for disciples to gather their own medical herbs. Oh right, here go eat this and feed one to each Dao Beast as well and make sure to completely refine every bit.” She said as she threw three small balls.

Ning caught them and when he looked his jaw dropped. “Are these pills!?” He shouted and looked at them close up, “I remember seeing one close up. These are Skin and muscle Tempering Pill.” Ning said and looked at his mother, “Where did you get them?”

“Heh, mama has her methods.” She smiled in a cheeky manner.

“Does mother know how to refine pills?” He asked with wide eyes.

She simple put her finger over her lips before taking a small crystal vial from her robe. “Take these to sell and get some contribution points.” She said and handed the vial to him.

He looked inside and saw Peak Grade Common Rank healing pills which are perfect for low ranking disciples. One vial usually sells for 200 contribution points and comes with 10 pills meaning 20 points each pill. It pretty much brings back most of the points he used to buy the garden and seeds.

Then he looked at his mother, “What about pill poisons?” He asked.

“Mother will help with those later on. For now just go sell those after you refine those three pills properly.” She said.

With a nod Ning stores the pills away and runs to his room before feeding his two companions the pills and eats one himself and sits down as he felt the pill turn into a liquid and enter his stomach.

As he began to circulate the Qi of the two beasts through their bodies the three pills began to release their energies through their bodies and rapidly the Medical energies burst out into the meridians and flowing to the skin and muscles rapidly tempering them.

The three were hit with a rampaging pain as the muscle and skin felt like there were ants under the skin and the pain was quite painful but Ning could feel his progress in the second level rapidly increase as could the other two. Ning was circulating the technique in all three of them even if it wasn’t compatible with Tora but the first 4 levels he could use to refine the skin and muscles. Then Ning would need to comprehend the Natural Law of Earth from Tyrant to refine his and Tyrants body but he did not know if it would work for Tora from then on.

Still 4 levels were good enough increase because it would increase his endurance and defensive power as well as his strength by several fold. Just his defense would disregard anything below High Success Qi refining with just his body.

After several hours, the overbearing power of the three energies mixing into the body of the three connected beings began to subside but Ning kept refining the energy more and more to make sure all the energy was refined so they wouldn’t waste it.

At this time Tyrant’s seed began to resonate and the energy once again burst forth fiercely through their muscles. The reason was because Tyrant had reached the Peak of Level 2 and broke through which caused his cultivation to solidify greatly increasing the foundation of the Dao Beast Seed.

This caused a chain reaction on Ning which pushed him to Level 3 as well and Tora also began to strengthen and his seed began to grow more dense and perfect.

The level of seeds are decided by how many layers of energy is gathered. These are called nutrient layers which would feed the seed after it was formed and aid in the formation of the sprout but only strong seeds can make a strong sprout. The denser the energy gathered during the seed formation stage the better. This also means the stronger the body foundation will also translate to a better seed as such for one to have a strong seed, the body is the best foundation for a Dao Beast.

At this time, Tora had 3 layers while Tyrant had just formed his second and at this time they were rapidly sucking in Qi and becoming denser instead of absorbing to form another layer.

This resulted in slowly the power of the seeds increasing and the body followed as well.

Visible to the naked eye, the whiskers on Tora slowly formed a single black stripe and some scales on his body began to grow darker towards black while some became brighter towards blue.

For Tyrant, his skin grew thicker while the small rock like protrusion began to thicken. His stub like horns began to extend a bit and form a small rounded peak as the formation of his horns advanced a bit.

These were signs of maturation for these beasts that came as they cultivated or aged.

As the rest of the medical energies finished Ning felt the pain go away and relief spread through his body as he felt his pores open all over and a smelly liquid came out from his body. This was result of the Skin and Muscle Tempering Pill ejecting impurities from the body.

As soon as he saw he also noticed the two next to him were in the same condition and the next second he felt mana in the air shift and rain clouds formed and began to rain on him.

“Ah…” one of the maids muttered. “We didn’t know young master was about to wake up. We smelled the stink here and figured master had cleansed his body so we were going to wash master while you meditated.” The maids said.

“No need, I know it was for my best. Please continue and include these two.” Ning said with a smile and stood up while poking the two little ones.

The maids nodded and did a quick clean and removed all the impurities leaving him completely clean and very comfortable. The reason was because he had reached Level 3 along with Tyrant and Tora had reached High Success of Level 2 and just needed a bit more to match them.

At the mastery of Level two Ning’s strength had increased by 10% of what it was when he started, his skin could decrease blunt damage by 20% and even his muscles could dissipate 10% more.

This boost in strength was very welcomed because now he could pull the extra weight the others were making him will.

Wanting to get out he left his house and flew to the city. This was going to be his first time entering the Alchemy and Pill refining hall and after using his map he soon found his way to it.

The building was incredibly large with 5 stories and taking up as much space as half a street while the inside was filled with customers and pedestals with display pills. The medical smell around here made Ning have a relaxed but a sudden voice drew his attention so he moved from the door.

“Sir, how may I help you?” A young man asked looking at him with a business smile.

“How much for this?” Ning asked and fished out the vial with 10 Peak Grade Common Rank healing pills.

The young man took the vial and opened it slightly and sniffed, “Peak Grade Common Rank healing pills. We can buy these off you for 15 contribution points each.” He said matter off fact.

Ning looked to the side, the low ranking pills were all on the first floor and this included Common Rank pills and by chance right near them was the same pill selling for 25 points a pill.

The eyes of the young man followed Ning and his mouth twitched slightly, “17 is the best offer I will give.” He said.

“Alright.” Ning nodded. That is still 170 points and Ning was a child with no background in the mercantile trade. How could he be able to negotiate. That said, his small look around had given him a favorable bargaining chip and increased his gains by a large margin.

With the points received during the working days he already had 280 points and that instantly rose to 450 closing in on 500 again.

The man took out a blue card and put it over Ning’s card and transferred over the points. Ning checked to see if the correct amount was transferred and then left thanking the young man for his help. Afterwards he returns home to train and study for the school days to come next.

***

“What did you say?!” A forced intimidating shout came from an outer sect disciple.

“L-like I said sirs. The boy takes the carriage in a stride. The first day he suffered but the following days he quickly grew accustomed to it!” the young man said.

This person was specifically the one that was leading Ning to his carriage which was over the weight limit. Even the carriage was a bit bigger to fit an extra 30 kilos but the last five work days Ning went from suffering to taking it in stride pulling them as if he was in the middle of a work out without complaining and would return the next day stronger and pulling it a bit faster.

“You idiots! Put an extremely large amount or break the cart, make him fuck up! That was Boss Wein’s orders before he was taken to Isolated cultivation.” The boy shouted. Clicking his tongue he turned to the others near him, “Seems we have to deal with this ourselves. Maybe we should kill his cow or something?” He said.

“I know, you take this and disguise yourself among the people travelling back. When you open the bag be very careful not to touch it and put it into the carriage of the brat. This is beast bait and it can draw in the many beasts along the path.” The other one said.

“Heh! I knew senior brother was cunning but this is just cruel. To think you want to draw all the other brats into it as well.” the other one laughed.

“The less brats, the less competition.” the taller one laughed. “Now get going!” He roared at the young man.

“Y-yes sirs!” he shouted and ran off carefully storing the bag making sure it was hidden away properly.