I stepped beyond the light and found myself inside a pristine hallway, decorated with varied and colorful sculptures and paintings that brimmed with Qi. I let my gaze wash in the beautiful environment, the delicate Qi that floated in the air touching my nose, as each breath filled me with new energy.

This place was… something. Was the entire Inner sect like this? The thought that I’d merely been playing with the toys handed to me by this world, as the real treasure sat curled up atop the hills briefly came to my mind. But before I could wander any further into the train of thought, a familiar voice interrupted me.

“This one is glad to see Lu Jie here. Though his arrival was never in doubt,” Liuxiang said, stepping towards me. There was a friendliness to the gaze that I had not found with Liuxiang before. It still felt a bit awkward, to realize that he knew about my past, and I had been wondering if that would change our interactions, but so far, I was glad to see that this was still the same old Liuxiang that I knew.

I glanced at the boy for a moment, eyeing the long robes that flowed around him. Usually, Liuxiang wore simplistic robes for men as his clothing of choice, but today, I noticed the flowing garbs having a far more feminine touch to them than was usual.

I smiled back at Liuxiang. “Close to a breakthrough?” I asked, receiving a nod.

“This one inhabits the Yang Qi still, but not for long. Although the shedding would have to wait until the end of this tournament,” Liuxiang said.

I nodded in reply, noting how even his voice was slightly higher in pitch than before. “I’ll definitely be interested in learning more, if you’d be willing to share,” I added. A sudden flash of light interrupted me, as another person walked into the chamber.

Liuxiang returned a nod. “Let us talk of this later.”

Together the two of us walked to the other side, and I let my gaze follow the many people standing around. There were roughly nine other people present within the hall if I counted myself and Liuxiang as well.

I eyed the various cultivators and found none that were still in the second realm. Almost everyone had broken into the third realm, with most of them in the middle of the third realm. Looking at the cultivators around, I frowned, realizing just how difficult it was to place some of their ages. But from the general looks of it, all of them looked to be somewhere around eighteen. I thanked the fact that my face didn’t look terribly older than any of the kids here, though I certainly felt a lot older. Was I actually forty years old, seeing how I’d lived through my previous lives for about that long, and then somewhat lived for another twenty years here? Was I a secret old man?

The thought brought a smile to my face, as I stood around in silence. It didn’t take long for my mirth to die down, as light flashed once more, and I felt thunder Qi from a source I hadn’t felt in months.

Conversation stopped around the hall, as lightning crackled within. Qi spread outwards, arrogantly probing at everyone inside. I watched as a small figure stepped out from the light, followed by another flash, as two young kids of about fifteen walked into the hall. I felt the Gu in my other core stir, as I watched the twins walk in, arrogantly scanning the hall once before they seemingly lost interest in everybody inside.

My eyes remained set on the two children, as I quietly reached out with my senses toward the two.

Low third realm. The dratted twins had made a breakthrough even without Yan Yun’s help.

Sensing my probing, the twins briefly glanced at me and I wondered if they were going to say something. I tensed, waiting for the two of them to come up, but their gaze passed by me, without any recognition visible in their glance.

They don’t remember me huh? If I was a tad more arrogant, then I may have been pissed off and shouted something like ‘You Dare not remember this grand daddy??!’ But this suited me just fine. More than fine, this was perfect. The element of surprise was exactly what I was hoping to rely on, to prevent anyone from predicting my move set and abilities.

I hadn’t asked Labby and Sheldon to fight merely to flex on my opponents, but also because I didn’t know who was watching, and I intended to show as little to my opponents as possible. The drugnades I’d used were also the very first iteration of the pill, some of the weakest ones I had. With plenty of ideas on modification, I was going to be armed with a lot more varied arsenal for the upcoming tournament.

I grinned, my excitement rising. I wasn’t one for taking revenge, but if given the chance to teach a lesson to two bratty kids, I wasn’t going to say no.

A wave of Qi passed by the area, hushing every conversation as we all turned to look. The same elder who’d been holding the tournament appeared with flowing mist around him, as he stepped out to take a look around.

“I must congratulate all of you, for successfully passing the selection trial,” the man spoke, his words carried by Qi. I dipped my head in response, glancing up to find that even the twins were not stupid enough to disrespect an Elder.

“The Spirit herb hunt itself will begin in three days’ time. You will be gathered here, all twelve of you, in this hall once more, before being taken to the halls to be introduced to the entire sect. Do not think lightly of this spirit herb hunt, for even if it is an event of sport within the outer sect, it is also an opportunity. The Elders will be gathered, as the tournament itself will be displayed to the entire sect gathered at the tournament event, before the martial competition would begin. But before we proceed, allow me to show you at last, what the prize is that you will be seeking to hunt,” the Elder said, turning to the side.

Qi gathered at his palm spreading out in mist as light refracted in all directions before forming a small figure. White flowers blossomed all around, forming a beautiful plant that shone with a dim light. With a sudden jump, the plant rose from the ground, as I saw a little plant spirit standing underneath.

“This is a Silver Spirit Lilly, known to produce the purest Qi that can heal broken meridians and reinforce pathways. It is a great boon, for helping in the foundation of a new circle, and can increase your Qi purity and strength. You will be hunting these within the tournament,” the Elder said. I was about to laugh at the fact that this was quite literally a spirit herb hunt but my attention was only partially on the Elder as Twilight kept tugging on my hair.

“Chii! Chii!” the plant spirit chimed, and I gently reached up to grab her in my palm.

“What’s wrong?” I asked Twilight in a whisper, and the little plant spirit pointed towards the illusion from the Elder, chiming once more.

The familiar jumble of thoughts reached me, which usually did when Twilight was trying to talk, but this time, one word echoed itself within the chaos that I could recognize.

“Sister!”

I turned to glance up at the white plant spirit displayed by the Elder, and then back down at the little red flower spirit in my hand.

“Guess we’ll be getting you a sister,” I muttered, and Twilight chimed in response, smiling brightly.

“Chii!~”

“Now, prepare well, disciples. We look forward to your performance,” the Elder said, vanishing in a plume of mist again.

I turned to the side, watching Liuxiang as I gave him a nod. Taking one last look at the hall that we’d all been teleported to, I began to make my way out.

Three days remained, it was time to do the last of my preparation, before I jumped in.

***

“Brother, don’t you think that the boy there had been similar to that odd book we’d grabbed?” Li said in a quiet whisper, as he walked with his brother.

“Perhaps. But he looked to be older than everyone else around, and I noted nothing special about the boy, besides the fact that he had a turtle next to him. The girl sitting right next had caught my attention a lot more,” Lei replied, glancing over at his brother, who crackled with barely contained energy.

The two of them had quickly fought and grabbed a hold of the medallions, passing the selection round with ease. Lei wondered why they ever bothered conducting these, it was obvious that the only competition the two of them had was from each other.

“Do you think we should perhaps share the book with the Elder?” Li asked.

“And achieve what? Strength is all that matters Li, you know this. And cousin Yan Yun is still the clan heir. A mere book or two will simply be brushed to the side and taken care of. Not to mention, how will you explain how we got our hands on it?” Lei snapped back, crackling with lightning as his brother nodded.

“But what if we use it after she’s disgraced herself? If we can have her perform poorly, and show that we’re clearly better than the renowned prodigy, and right then, if it is revealed to the Lords that she has such shameful books with her then her marriage proposal may fall through. It might be our chance to get brought into the main line of the sect as well!” Li announced, turning to look at Lei with eyes crackling with lightning Qi.

Lei hummed thoughtfully, before turning towards his brother with a delighted grin. “You make a fair point brother. Let us keep the book hidden for now,” Lei said, as the two twins laughed in delight as they ran off into the woods.

***

Qi and Gu pulsated within my core, as I cultivated in tune with the Heavens and the Earth. Labby sat nearby, drinking in the Lunar blossom’s Qi as she honed it into lightning, circulating the Qi within her core.

I let out a misty breath, feeling the sweat covering my half naked body, as I reached out for a piece of cloth to wipe the gunk off. There was almost none, by now. My muscles quite accurately rock hard, though still fairly lean, yet my skin remained supple and softer than ever. It was an odd mix, and when I saw my own reflection, I looked like a lean athlete, more than I did a superhuman capable of lifting a literal truck.

I wiped the sweat off, feeling at my two cores inside my core. I could sense Lu Jie cultivating alongside me, as we both worked through the Cultivation of Heaven and Earth. It had reinforced the link between our souls, joining the two cores stronger than ever before through the little seed of vitality that ran through the middle.

I smiled, feeling the sense of refreshment that came after a good workout. My cores were almost at their peak capacities, my Qi reserves having quadrupled in the last month alone. It was such insane progress that I could feel myself choking sometimes, as I remembered the grueling months of work that Lu Jie had put in to gain the minimum of benefits.

I felt something stir in my chest, a vague whisper that I could not make out playing in my mind. But the sentiment was conveyed. Together.

I nodded, feeling a strange sense of joy. This was another aspect that had arisen over time from my cultivation of Heaven and Earth. I could hear Lu Jie speak even while awake, if I paid enough attention. He seemed to be a lot more aware and conscious than before, at all times.

Quickly draping on my robes after cleaning myself, I popped in a rare pill to refill my Qi resources. I’d never needed to, as I rarely spent my Qi outside alchemy, and the number of spirit herbs in my room had already saturated the air with Qi enough for a quick recovery of my small reserves.

I walked around, grabbing at spirit herbs and fire herbs of all sorts that I could find. Glancing to the side, I noted Labby next to the lunar blossom as she took in the Qi. I’d found that spirits did not truly cultivate as cultivators did, instead, they relied on the herbs, pills and their bonds to grow alongside cultivators. They absorbed the Qi matching nature of their Path from their surroundings, filling their bodies, which allowed them to break past into new realms, not merely from their cores, but from their entire beings.

So far, there hadn’t been many changes with Labby’s physique. But I already know how it’d been for Sheldon when he’d broken through to the 7th realm. I could only wait and see how my little baby rat grew up.

Taking my eyes back, I checked the disassembled Gu-nade put carefully in a sealed drawer set with a powerful formation that had been made by Liuxiang. I had been worried about keeping something like this before I’d realized that with just the base individual components, leaving the Gu portions aside, I was essentially just picking up firecrackers and putting them together to create a nuke.

I put the fire herbs together, flicking my wrist to light a flame under the cauldron. I tried to reach out to the water in a jar nearby and move it, but of course the notion was entirely silly as sending Qi to the water would merely make it ripple.

I poured the water in the cauldron, sprinkling in the spirit grass as I began to go through the notes of my various grenade models. It wasn’t just Gu and Qi I could mix up in the grenade chassis, and the true power of the Drugnade 2.0 will soon be witnessed by the entire Cloud Peak Sect!

I grabbed the fire herbs, lit a fire above my palm purely for the heck of it, and then sent the herbs within the cauldron with a roaring flame, as I began to make my final batch of drugnades.

It was time to quite literally explode my way to victory.