I had a few errands to run before we could leave. I stopped at Tamer Hall to see if there was a harness of some kind that I could use for Storm. I didn't plan to ride her, but the Sect might have something that would work to keep me tethered. I could fly now, but my skills were barely developed, and I wasn't certain how long I could last before tiring myself out.

Yvonne had reached the mid-tier level of Nascent Soul Realm, so she wouldn't have an issue during the flight, that was assuming she didn't have a companion animal of her own capable of flight. I thought a harness with trailing straps my serve in a pinch. I could hold on and let Storm drag me, concentrating on staying aloft.

While I was sorting through my spatial device, I came across the beast cores that Storm had gathered. It reminded me of the unique plant I had growing in the torc, and I began to giggle when I realized I hadn't informed the Sect, or Elder Dill, of my discovery. His decision to bar me from Alchemy Hall might just come back to bite him in the ass, hard. If I could figure out what was so special about that plant and how to propagate it so that I could grow fields of plants brimming with seed pods heavy with beast cores that would go a long way to supplying me with the contribution points I would ever need.

I planned on experimenting with each part of the plant, hoping that the Golden Lodoicea's ability to purify and condense Qi could be filtered and incorporated into a new pill formula. There were limits to the number of pills a cultivator could use because of the impurities that even the most Alchemist was unable to remove completely.

Those impurities built up and no amount of honing seemed able to remove them. If I could create a pill that extracted those impurities from the body, it would make a qualitative difference in the advancement of every cultivator who had reached their limit.

The territory I was about to claim was southwest from the Sect, a direction Storm hadn't had time to visit yet. It was about as far from the Sect and the Empire mainland as possible to get while remaining on the island. I was planning on asking Storm to use her ability and map our journey. The benefits of marking the location of interest as we traveled, even those that weren't part of my territory, would be significant.

This new ability of hers would make it possible to explore my territory faster. I planned on having her explore the area surrounding the town I now ruled, using a circular search pattern to create a true understanding of what I controlled. Her ability to sense Qi density should mean that eventually, I might have a map that marked areas for me to identify.

Those areas with stronger Qi resources may point me in the direction to harvest rare resources, it would be better than randomly searching. Her new talent for mapping was in its infancy, as she matured and her ability to identify beasts and plants grew, the map that she could create, and the details for that map should rival even the most exhaustive survey map I could commission.

Storm was more mature, since the tribulation, her intellect and understanding of thoughts and concepts increasing exponentially since our survival. Where before, her mental capacity was about on par with Syha, my sister who was six, she now seemed to have caught up to Geon, my brother who was twelve. It made communication between us easier, with less chance of misunderstanding. We could exchange thoughts with words as well as images and emotions.

Our words carried an additional weight to them that speaking could never convey. The emotions and concepts that were unique to each of us, because of species, had colored our thoughts as we exchanged ideas. Our way of speaking allowed for an understanding that wasn't possible without this mental voice, a perception that defined exactly what we meant for each word we used.

When I said the word 'red' she got the true meaning of that word, what I saw when I thought 'red', but not only the color, the nuances that came along with the word. How the color red was associated with apples and chili peppers, how I associated it with fire and danger.

Other people would filter that word through their own perspective. Usually, that filter was harmless, but there were times when misunderstandings could and did occur because of cultural or family shifts in meaning. Those misunderstandings would never happen between Storm and me.

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"Are you ready?" Yvonne asked, walking over to meet me. She had managed to beat me to the landing pad, but I had needed to stock up on food supplies to last me at least a week.

"I am," I agreed.

"Is there anything specific you said you were looking for as we travel? I assume you mean for us to stop so you can harvest any unique animals we come across so that you can get an understanding of what is available to create new armor?"

"That and a few trees. Pine bark makes for a good source of tannin, but palm trees are more common in this region. I want to collect a few samples for those species that we haven't come across to find out which if any of them can replace the tannins from pines.

"I also need a good source of salt. You said your town is located on the ocean? I'd like to see if your people have an operation going, extracting the salt from the ocean's waters."

"If they don't, I'll have to see if it would be worth the cost to set up a desalination plant," I informed her. "I wonder where the Sect is purchasing their supply from?"

"I think one of the larger cities to the east," Yvonne answered. "I'm not sure what they are paying for it, so it may be worth creating a business model study to see if your town could compete."

I knew that salt was extracted from seawater by allowing the water to evaporate or boiling it off. Delph Island was in a tropical zone, and rainfall annually would be considerable. I doubted the evaporation method would work, not without a method to account for humidity and rainfall.

I was certain I could do something similar to evaporation using my control of water, but I had no intention of spending my days removing water to create a steady stream of salt. But I didn't think I would have to. There had to be a way to use arrays and formations to do the same thing. And if I could figure out a way to do it using the cores that Storm had discovered, it would cost even less.

"Do you have a flying companion?" I asked as Storm swooped down for a landing. Her flying abilities had gotten so much better since I started letting her stay in the Torc. They had only improved now that she had open skies to practice. Storm had named the world I'd claimed with the torc as her Aerie and I had been quick to allow it, even though I still referred to that inner world by the torc that contained it.

Storm bumped my shoulder, telling me clearly through our bond that there was a scratch under her beak that needed to be dealt with. I didn't mind. Even with the small-sized lightning elemental that had taken up residence in her afterfeathers, it was still a sensory delight scratching and petting her. The feathers and lightning both a visceral experience, the lightning giving me small shocks that were enjoyable and stimulating as I gave her the scratches she had demanded.

"I don't have a companion," Yvonne informed me to my surprise. She was at least a decade older, maybe as much as a half-century older than I was. She had to have had the opportunity to bond. She had reached the mid-level Qi Gathering Realm, to not have a companion by now seemed out of the ordinary.

"Why?" I asked before I realized the question might be sensitive and rude.

"Because I won't settle," she informed me with a tinge of anger. "From the first moment I saw Dragon Spire Sect's Qilin companions, I've wanted one.

"I'm tired of people telling me that that isn't going to happen, that cultivators that focus on secondary professions and spent so much time crafting armor are not going to get an egg for such a powerful and fast animal."

"The Sect refused your request?" I asked in disbelief. "Why wouldn't they allow you to get an egg if you had the contribution points to purchase one?"

"Because Qilin are rare, hard to breed, and hard to bond with. The chances of my success are so low the Sect wasn't willing to risk an egg on me, no matter how many contribution points I was willing to spend."

"How would they know that?" I asked.

"They've developed a testing method that has proven pretty effective. They test each person's blood, looking for a marker that increases the chance of succeeding by an order of magnitude. Without that marker, that quirk found in those few rare individuals, you stand almost no chance of establishing a bond," she explained.

"What are you going to do? Never claim a companion?" I asked worriedly. Cultivators that bonded with beast companions managed to maintain a level of sanity and connection to the world that those who didn't lack.

"One of the reasons I gave up the lands I had claimed in Cai'Li was because of Qilin. I have researched and studied everything I could get my hands on concerning their natural habitat and where they nest in the wild. They like forests for their hunting grounds, but build their nests in outcroppings close to water.

"I am hoping to find land where they might breed and grow. If I do, I plan on claiming it for my territory and using every skill in tracking that I have learned to claim an egg of my own.

"Dragon Spire might not be willing to sell me an egg, but Four Elements would have no reason to stop me from bonding with an egg that I found myself," she said as she channeled her Qi to give her lift and flight ending the conversation on that note.

It would have been a more effective end to the topic if Yvonne hadn't started heading in the wrong direction. I laughed at her, her face flushed with embarrassment as I caught up to her and got her turned around and headed in the right direction.