Unaware of the disturbance they were creating and each focused on their own goals, both Herman and Yi Xuan continued to cultivate while taking note of the other's condition. He saw the woman greedily devouring the Yin Primordial Qi of the Lunar Lake, aware of her imminent breakthrough. She, on the other hand, saw Herman condensing an image along his circulation pathways, with ease unbecoming to a newbie such as himself.

If he would've known what she was thinking, he would scoff at her innocence. He tried about six or seven times in his past life, before being able to draw a blurry silhouette he got stuck with, so yeah, he had a bit of practice.

"In my past life, I tried connecting the pathways in the form of a dragon or any other strong mythical creature and failed numerous times. Even the simplest of pictures were out of reach if you are trying to actively draw them with no prior practice. Only after I let go of the reins and allowed my subconsciousness to lead, was I able to draw it."

This time around, he had the experience and he was much more used to having his cultivation run through a specific pattern, therefore he won't be greedy. Having a dragon instead of a fly wouldn't exactly make a difference in terms of cultivation speed, but it would boost the cultivator's confidence in himself, allowing for a smoother path with no bottlenecks. Steadily, Yi Xuan noticed the image of a bull forming. It was slow in the beginning, but it seemed like an instant later it was completed and was now staring at her with its daunting eyes.

Herman was also quite pleased. Unlike his previous life, the image this time around is quite life-like instead of blurry.

"Well met, old friend..."

He couldn't help but sigh when he saw it again. Hoves firmly planted on the ground, tail like a whip, a wide back sporting strong muscles all the way to its powerful neck, two long and sharp horns ready to gore anything that might obscure its path, and finally, a pair of dauntless ruby-like eyes staring into the unknown. Its posture was threatening and it looked as if it was ready to charge at someone. If miss Yi Xuan's mountains represented her staunchness and aspirations for the future, in Herman's case this bull represented his stubbornness and unwillingness to give up. Even in the face of adversity and after trudging through the mud for millennia, he never threw the towel. He continued to cultivate, clinging onto life with his teeth and never letting go. This bull was proof of his hard work and that was the reason for which he didn't want to change it.

Yi Xuan appeared to have fallen into a trance and was completely submerged in the endless cultivation, while Herman kept using the Primordial Qi she was injecting to finish the last details of the bull. That's when, amidst all his concentration, the image of his outfit Immortal Search came to mind. But not all of it! Just a small accessory made out of jade, hanging by a thread and connected to his waistband. The symbol of the snake eating its tail.

"I think there was a legend about it... Oh, f*ck!!!"

While creating an image, the cultivator must keep the said image in his mind at all times and guide the Primordial Qi through it. There cannot be any thought wandering during it, or the formation would fail and he would have to start over.

Sure enough, seconds later, despite his best efforts to keep it from deforming, the image of the bull started distorting in a way that Herman hasn't experienced before. The bull's tail came to life and it attacked the back, smashing hard onto its spine.

This was an imaginary picture, yet Herman could hear the sound of it breaking. The tail continued its trashing until the bull had every bone in its body shattered, but it still had the same dauntless and stubborn look in its eyes. A hissing sound overpowered the snort made by the bull and the tail actually opened a mouth to swallow the latter whole.

It was only at this point that Herman realized that the 'tail' was a snake. Not only that, but it was fighting with his first image for supremacy. The moment the serpent was about to swallow the bull, a sharp movement of the latter's head impaled the snake through its mouth, spilling its blood over himself.

With a proud bellow that seemed to come from the Underworld, the bull exhausted its final strength and placed its head back on the ground. It closed its eyes, seemingly at peace with the result it had achieved, while the snake sneered and finally, devoured him whole.

"What the hell is going on!?"

Herman was confused but had nobody to answer, therefore, he could only sit tight and wait for the end. Seconds later, the entire image was absorbed and digested, in its place now slithering about a long emerald snake. Its eyes were originally closed in satisfaction after a good meal, but once they were opened, it turned his head and seemed to look at Herman directly. Such an incredulous sight baffled him beyond words, making him fall in a temporary daze. To his bad luck, that's all the serpent needed as it continued devouring Primordial Qi along the paths created by the connecting meridians, passed through his Dantian, and continuing with the hidden acupoints in the small circulation.

By the time Herman came back to his senses, the serpent already reached the point where it started from, opened its gigantic maw, and bit on the tail.

"This... What in the actual f*ck just happened!? Is that even allowed!? Damn! Is there any damage!?"

Checking every single cell of his body, he was surprised to see that there was no damage done to his acupoints, meridians, or his cultivation pathways in general. The issue was that instead of the bull he imagined, there was a snake coiled around something, completing a huge and complicated circle by biting on its tail. None of this made sense until he realized what was the serpent coiled around.

"Shit! Isn't that my spiritual world!? Don't tell me this f*cker can enter it, else I might just commit suicide here and now..."

One's spiritual world was visible only to oneself. Take Yi Xuan for example. She was able to see Herman's circulation pathways, his Dantian point, and how they all connected, but wasn't able to see his spiritual world. As for the reason why, that's because, for each person, this starts as an imaginary world. Only after reaching the Foundation realm, does it become visible for others. That begs the question, how the f*ck did this imaginary snake knew!? In his case, this spiritual world was situated in the middle of his thoracic cavity, right above the Dantian and in the middle of the circulation pathways. Now, all of these were changed into a serpent coiling around it a glowing light...

Unable to make heads or tail of the current situation, Herman gave up when he realized that there was nothing he could do about it. He tried erasing the snake, but the only result was a sneer on the latter's face that he hoped he imagined. In any case, with an image already created, it meant that his cultivation can properly begin, even if he was highly rattled by what just happened.

First off, he allowed the Primordial Qi injected by Yi Xuan to flow through the pathways designed by the snake while paying attention to each small detail. At the sight of something going even remotely wrong, he would stop. To his surprise, however, there was nothing wrong. On the contrary, the speed of the Primordial Qi going from the serpent's tail to its mouth, was incredibly fast, with no obstructions. Furthermore, as the Qi traveled through its body, runic patterns would light up on the scaly fellow, making it appear more primordial... more ferocious... more...

"...scary! WTF!? The speed is ridiculous... I was expecting this with the bull since I know how to move the Qi along its body due to thousand of years of experience. But why the hell is it that easy with the snake!? I don't like this one bit..."

His complaints were cut short once more after he noticed a bit of unprocessed Primordial Qi making its way into his Dantian. He was dumbfounded! He could absorb on its own already!? Passively!? That shouldn't be possible until he reached the Foundation realm. Until then, he would have to spend most of his time meditating and drawing Primordial Qi into his body actively, enforcing his mental image up to the point where it can maintain the circulation on its own. It's like cranking an old engine by hand. First, you need to use your strength to start it, but once it does start, all you need to do is let it do its own thing.

"Why does it feel that I somehow skipped a couple of steps!? System, bring up the interface... What the hell is going on? No changes?"

Seeing that there were no changes except for some lacking attributes now that he unequipped the Mortal Things set, Herman kept racking his brain to figure out what just happened. It was a good thing that there were no obstructions on this mental image and that Qi could flow uninterrupted. That way, he could make use of 100% of his Perception, instead of wasting some because the image he created was not complete, was blurry, or had other faults. He also tried interacting with the snake in an attempt to figure out what the hell it was, but no matter what he did, he got no response from it.

Since that was the case, all Herman could do was to actively try and cultivate now that the mental image problem was 'solved'... more or less. Increasing the speed of the Primordial Qi flowing through him, he interlocked fingers with Yi Xuan making her come out of her trance and jolt slightly.

Ignoring her questioning look and the slight annoyance in her stare, he forcibly drew Primordial Qi from her left hand at a ridiculous pace and injected it back into her right. Seeing such a turn of events, turned Yi Xuan at a loss of what to do. Unfortunately for her, she didn't have many options since Herman's fingers were like clamps, holding her own small fingers in place. Doing her best to ignore the embarrassing situation, she focused on making the path the Qi traveled smoother and the cultivation speed increased once more.

Already used to being surprised again and again, she sighed and let herself fall back into the same cultivation trance from before, allowing her subconsciousness to take over. Herman tried to do the same and got the scare of his life... well, the current life.

"What the hell is wrong with this snake!? As soon as I tried to dual cultivate with her, it wanted to devour her cultivation. This greedy bastard scared the crap out of me!"

As soon as Yi Xuan began cultivating earnestly, Herman followed suite. Being left unsupervised, the snake actually wanted to enter the woman's body and devour the mountains and the clouds. When he was stopped by his creator, the snake was dissatisfied and hissed at him, making Herman not know if to laugh or cry. With no other option but to do this the hard way, the snake opened his mouth and began sucking in everything in Herman's surroundings. Coupled with the immense absorption Yi Xuan was creating due to her high cultivation realm and now another vacuum cleaner added in the mix, the small but noisy whirlpool transformed into a freaking tornado.

While the two were focused on doing their own things, three pairs of eyes were focused on them. Each one of these silhouettes had one particular feature in common with the other: a gaping mouth. Originally, there was only the Junior sister Lan Yue and the Chief Disciple Ling Ye following the two when they saw it was already night time, speculating what indecent things those two might be doing.

Wu Xinyan came after the first two when the sect master asked her to bring them back before they create a ruckus and interrupt Herman's first cultivation session, but when she was in the middle of scolding the two minxes, a whirlpool formed above the cultivating pair, surprising her. She didn't think anything much about it since she saw her big sister creating that sort of phenomenon before, however, the speed of it kept increasing until she wasn't sure what was happening anymore.

[Sister Xinyan, what's happening? Why are they holding hands?](Lan Yue)

[Little Yue, don't ask such obvious questions. They are dual-cultivating!] - Ling Ye answered proudly

[Dual-cultivating your head! Get your mind out of the gutter you little troublemaker! Big sister Xuan is guiding Herman through his first cultivation attempt...](Wu Xinyan)

[Oh? But I don't remember the cultivation speed to be this amazing the first time I was guided by big sister...](Lan Yue)

[That's probably because of big brother being a genius. Didn't sect master said that he destroyed ten late Golden Core cultivators on his own in the Training Room?](Ling Ye)

[It has nothing to do with him being a genius. You are just as much a prodigy as he is, but I don't remember you being able to create such a mess back then.](Wu Xinyan)

[Maybe it's because of big sister Xuan?](Lan Yue)

[Probably. She did go up to Nascent Soul VI two months ago, so her strength must've increased...](Wu Xinyan)

Unfortunately, she wasn't very confident in the words she just spoke making it obvious for the other two that she wasn't sure of what was happening either. One way or another, the new 'big brother' was quite amazing to be able to hold their big sister's hands for such a long period of time and still have them attached to his body. Not to mention that she actually ate the meal he cooked for her before and now they are holding hands with such passion... who knows what would happen next!

While the two airheads were letting their imagination run wild and Wu Xinyan was about to scold them again, something happened that made her choke on those words.

[Damn! This big brother truly has balls! To interlock fingers with sis Xuan like that...](Wu Xinyan)

[He did what? Really!? Wow! Sister Xuan is not moving away or kicking him... amazing!](Ling Ye)

[Sis Ye, what sort of balls did he give to big sister Xuan to let him do that?](Lan Yue)

[[...]](the other two)

Seeing the innocent look on the girl's face and realizing that she had no idea what the two were talking about, the older girls blushed and remained silent. Just as they were about to start explaining the male anatomy to her, something occurred yet again, making Wu Xinyan draw her sword and almost attack Herman. Seeing such a thing, the other two were petrified and didn't know what to say or do. Just as she was about to lunge at him, a gentle breeze stopped her in place.

Looking behind her, she saw her sect master smiling calmly at her.

[But big sister Qian, he's about to devour her cultivation!](Wu Xinyan)

[Not really. Look closer.](Feng Qian)

[This... what the hell is going on!?](Wu Xinyan)

[Strange... I couldn't sense or see anything. What happened sect master? Was big brother really about to devour sister Xuan's cultivation?](Ling Ye)

[That's so bold! To want to eat up big sister... they haven't even kissed yet!](Lan Yue)

[[[...]]]

While the three were reassessing how innocent their Junior Sister was, yet another changed occurred. The speed of their cultivation increased again, this time by multiple folds, shocking even the ever-so-calm sect master. When the other three saw their leader's gaping mouth, they were even more amazed.

That's when realization hit Wu Xinyan.

[Dual-cultivating! They are dual-cultivating! Sect Master, lend me a recording talisman, please! I am not letting Xuan live this one down anytime soon.](Wu Xinyan)

[You... hmm... that's actually not a bad idea. Maybe we can finally convince her to do some of the chores she kept refusing by blackmailing her.](Feng Qian)

[Sect Master... Main Elder... mind your positions please...](Ling Ye)

[So they are dual-cultivating! So bold! Under the moonlight, near the lake... so romantic!](Lan Yue)

[Romantic your head! It's not actual dual-cultivation... it's more like... Uhm... sect master!?](Wu Xinyan)

[Yes... It's a pseudo-dual-cultivation method. By synchronizing their cultivation pathways, they can increase the speed with which they draw Primordial Qi in.](Feng Qian)

[That sounds familiar... I think I heard that before somewhere...](Ling Ye)

[You didn't only hear about it, you have also done it. It's possible only one time with each person you meet. Rings any bells?](Wu Xinyan)

[A cultivation covenant!? But how!? I had to be at the Golden Core realm before trying to attempt that. How is this possible?](Ling Ye)

[Amazing!](Lan Yue)

[It's possible if you are very familiar with your mental image of the cultivation pathways and if you reach 100% cultivation speed. As long as there are no obstructions and you have a high enough Perception, it is possible in theory.](Feng Qian)

[That's true... however, to do it the first time after you have seen another cultivator's image? Not to mention a higher realm cultivator... Sect Master, how confident are you in being able to do a cultivation covenant with a Nihility realm?](Wu Xinyan)

[Uhm... I think... not possible! It will be difficult even with an Ensoulment realm cultivator. This is truly bizarre...](Feng Qian)

While the quartet was wondering what the hell was going on with the pair, they noticed dark clouds obscuring the moon in the skies and the wind getting harsher. Such an event wasn't created by the two but had a close connection with their hard-work. These clouds signified someone's breakthrough to a higher cultivation realm.

[No way! Sis Xuan just broke through a couple of months ago! How is this possible!?](Wu Xinyan)

[Nevermind that now! Go and grab ten Nascent Soul pills from the sect's storage. Fast!](Feng Qian)

[Right! I don't think she was properly prepared for this...](Wu Xinyan)

[Wait...](Feng Qian)

Just as she was preparing to run like the wind, she heard the low voice of her sect master stopping her. She turned around puzzled to see the latter's eyes turn as big as saucers. Looking above the two, the skies were initially parted in two: one half that held tribulation clouds right above her older sister's head and a clear side above Herman's. Now, however, Herman's side was also fully covered in dark clouds, making the running woman almost trip and fall.

[Sect Master... this...](Wu Xinyan)

[This is truly ridiculous... Bring over some Foundation pills as well.](Feng Qian)

[Eh!?](Ling Ye)

[Big brother Herman is about to undergo tribulations!? How come? Isn't he only at Qi Gathering I!?](Lan Yue)

[Sis Qian, are you sure?](Wu Xinyan)

[Yes. Also, bring twenty pills for Xuan. This night is about to get very long and complicated...](Feng Qian)