Another month slipped by almost without Li Yuan noticing.

  He was currently ankle-deep in churned earth while the Iron-Hide Earth Bear roared at him.

  After letting out its roar that would've killed an ordinary mortal from its sheer vibration power, the beast reared up to its full height—nearly five meters of muscle, stone-hard hide rippling beneath coarse brown fur as it finally charged at him.

  Li Yuan waited for the beast to reach him, standing calm like a lake's surface.

  The bear slammed its forepaws down, the impact cracking the ground and throwing up a spray of dirt and stone. Li Yuan stepped aside casually, Shadow-Cloud Steps carrying him just out of range, the wind of the blow ruffling his robes but never touching him.

  The beast was fast enough that any other cultivator at Qi Condensation stage would've struggled to match its speed. But with his Shadow-Cloud Steps, which had now reached Complete Perfection, he was able to manoeuvre around the beast with the ease of an adult moving around a child.

  To him, the Spirit beast seemed too slow.

  He slashed once, diverting the strike at the last moment as well as lowering the behind his slash to turn a killing blow into one that only injured it and angered the beast even further.

  The bear howled in pain and rage as it turned and charged again.

  Good.

  Li Yuan flowed backward, feet barely touching the ground, letting the beast swing, stomp, and lunge. Each attack came with enough raw power behind it to crush a tree trunk. But to him, those attacks were too predictable.

  He watched the way its weight shifted before every charge, the brief tightening of its muscles before it struck.

  He had learned these things the hard way over the past two month since he started his career as a beast hunter. Since then he'd killed well over a hundred Spirit Beasts, and had become quite experienced at the craft.

  In fact, he had become so good at it. That the task had become a bit too easy for him at this point. Which is why he let the beast live. To let it serve as a proper challenge and also for him to receive some more combat experience.

  Otherwise, if he truly wanted to kill the beast, then he could've done so the moment the fight begun. After all, despite the beast being at the Peak of its realm while he has only just entered 7th stage, his offensive power was nothing to scoff at. Thanks to Mountain-Splitting Stillness Sword having reached Complete Perfection as well.

  In fact, his offensive power was so strong that at any moment, he could swing his sword and split the beast in half. Which was something even he considered bullshit. Until he remembered for for some ordinary disciple to reach Complete Perfection in this sword art would require decades of training.

  With that realisation, everything made perfect sense.

  Which made it even more of a pity that he wasn't going to use his sword art to its full capability anytime soon. Because as he just said, experience didn't come from effortless victories.

  Maybe he's have had it too easy, and had grown overconfident. But ever since his sword art and movement technique reached complete perfection and gave him a huge boost in ability, these battles with spirit beasts have become too easy for him. Completely without suspense.

  For a while, that pleased him, and he used his advantage to track down and hunt quite a few spirit beasts at the edge of the forbidden forest. But then it became dull and he begin to crave a proper challenge. Like Vegeta.

  He was sure that he would one day make a mistake and then die. Feeling like a complete idiot. But so far, the more battle experience he gained, the further and further away that day seems to be.

  So, for the next while, the beast continued to try and hurt him, and he continued to dodge its attacks easily, leaving small injuries in its body for each of its attack on him.

  Eventually, the injuries added up, and the beasts started loosing too much blood. Its breathing turned ragged as it slowed down, losing both its speed and strength.

  He rolled his eyes, having learned enough from his battles to know that the beast was merely feigning weakness in order to lower his guard.

  Despite being classified as beasts, Spirit beasts were in fact, far more intelligent and cunning than their mortal counterparts. Something that he was sure many cultivators don't realise till they fall to one such cunning scheme and lose their life.

  Thus, Li Yuan maintained his distance and continued to dish out minor wounds till its feigned weakness became real weakness, and it could no longer even swap at him.

  Eventually, it stood to a still, and then simply collapsed with a heavy thud that shook the ground.

  He decided that it was enough combat experience for now, and finally used his sword art to its full ability. His sword flashed once and a crescent of compressed Qi tore through the bear's neck as if it cutting through air. Its head slid off a moment later as the beast finally met its end, never having scratched him even once.

  Li Yuan exhaled slowly and wiped his blade clean.

  "Good enough."

  He knelt beside the corpse and began harvesting its valuable parts with with practiced efficiency. Its hide, claws, fangs, tendons. Even it's paw sold for quite a pretty penny here. As these people considered it a delicacy.

  He wouldn't claim to understand these people's taste, but he certainly didn't mind taking their money.

  Then, as he opened the beast's chest cavity—

  And froze.

  "…A core!?" He exclaimed in great surprise.

  Nestled within the heart of the bear was a dull, earthen-colored crystal, faintly pulsing with Qi.

  A Beast Core.

  Li Yuan stared at it for a long moment, then carefully extracted it, holding it up to the light to take a proper look at it.

  The beast core was a faintly translucent spherical crystal, and within it, he could see the faint image of a small, glowing figure of an Iron-Hide Earth Bear moving about.

  Beast cores had value. Serious value.

  They could be refined into pills—some of which directly increased cultivation. In fact, the infamous Foundation Establishment Pill alone required the core of a 2nd grade beast (Foundation Establishment level beast) as one of its primary ingredients, which was part of why the pill was so freaking expensive.

  Aside from that, the Beast core could also be absorbed directly and placed within the dantian to be used like a Gu.

  Doing so granted partial abilities of the beast—strength, resilience, affinity. Doing this also brought some negative effects to the cultivator, though he didn't know enough on the topic to say what those negative effects were.

  The wild tribes south of the Empire were said to specialise in such techniques, turning themselves into half-beasts through ritualistic absorption, and gaining far more strength, speed and vitality than a cultivator of their level would otherwise have.

  Usually, only Beast at the 3rd grade (Golden core) produced a Beast Core upon their death. For 2nd grade beasts, it was uncommon. About a one in a ten chance. And for 1st tier beasts… it was absurdly rare.

  So rare in fact, that he could only look up at his halo and assume that it was his own Fortune at work.

  After all, ever since he grew strong, he has not faced any other misfortune that would lower his Fortune. Hence it has been gathering till his halo started glowing like a light bulb. Its effect spilling over in his everyday life.

  During cultivations, every so often, he would reach a brief moment of enlightenment. While out on a stroll, he would see more and more disciples with fortunes or misfortunes he could benefit from. And when out on a hunt, he would encounter spirit beasts quite easily without having to spend hours searching for them.

  Basically, it would not be a lie to say that he was currently swimming in good fortune. Not that he minded that at all.

  He slipped the core into his spatial ring, finished harvesting the remaining materials, and placed the corpse within his Spatial ring before he stood up.

  Having recently broken through to the 7th Stage of Qi Condensation, he now had even larger Qi reserves. And not only had his reserves grown larger, but his internal Qi had become even more compressed, so that each unit of Qi was now worth much more than it had been before.

  That was why despite his long and 'hard' battle against the Iron-Hide Earth Bear, he still had a lot of juice left in his tank. Enough to go through another battle or two.

  So he didn't stop. And continued prowling the forest.

  With his absurd fortune, it wasn't long before he noticed the Qi residue of another Spirit Beast. He followed those signs calmly and soon came across a Shadowcat that was currently trailing the tracks of an outer sect disciple.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Sensing that the Qi Residue were quite fresh and that the disciple must be nearby, he used his Veil to sneak up on the Shadowcat and finished the battle in one strike.

  The third put up more of a fight. A Flame-Scaled Lizard lurking near a warm, mineral-rich stream, its body covered in scorching flame hot enough to melt iron.

  After a long 'battle', it finally collapsed as well. And he begin harvesting its corpse.

  He almost expected to find a Beast Core within its corpse as well but it seemed like there was a limit to how ridiculous his fortune was, because he found no such thing in there.

  Instead, he harvested its hide, horns, scales, tendons, fangs. Some items would be sold to alchemists, a few choice body parts to spirit chefs, while the remaining items would be sold to artefact refiners.

  Ears were cut last and stored separately as a clean and unmistakable proof for the spirit beast's bounty at the Sect's Merit Hall.

  Finally, once most of the items of worth had been harvest, the remaining corpses went to the Stele. And the numbers climbed once again.

  NAME: Li Yuan

  AGE: 14

  CULTIVATION: 7th Stage Qi Condensation

  SKILLS

  Heavenly Star Refining Sutra — 1/4000 (Major Accomplishment)

  Mountain-Splitting Stillness Sword – 600/600 (Complete Perfection)

  Shadow-Cloud Steps – 800/800 (Complete Perfection)

  Veil of Borrowed Heaven – 824/2400 (Perfection)

  Spirit Residue Following Technique – 1/1000 (Perfection)

  1st-Tier Formation Breaking — 800/800 (Complete Perfection)

  2nd-Tier Formation Breaking — 1/400 (Moderate Accomplishment)

  1st-Grade Spirit Herb Cultivation – 800/800 (Complete Perfection)

  1st-Tier Formation Crafting — 800/800 (Complete Perfection)

  2nd-Tier Formation Crafting — 1/400 (Moderate Accomplishment)

  CURRENT POINTS: 461

  As he glanced at the Stele, Li Yuan reflected on just how much had changed over the past month.

  Veil of Borrowed Heaven had completed the Major Accomplishment and reached the Perfection Realm. Thanks to that, his concealment now become instinctive, his presence thinning the very moment he willed it. And the skill could be kept active for long periods of time with very little usage of Qi.

  Aside from Mountain-Splitting Stillness Sword and Shadow-Cloud Steps, his First-Tier Formation Crafting had also reached Complete Perfection. Giving him the skill and ability to craft entirely new Formations if he so wished it.

  And the Heavenly Star Refining Sutra… it had also recently stepped into the Major Accomplishment. The same realm that his previous Cultivation Technique had been at when he discarded it. Yet, the difference between the two techniques was obscene.

  His cultivation speed had exploded. The steady, distant flow of stellar energy fed him continuously through the entire night, refining his qi with ruthless efficiency. Compared to this, his old cultivation method felt laughable.

  In fact, just in the last month, he had gone from 6th to 7th Stage of Qi Condensation completely thanks to his new cultivation technique.

  Yes, he had not consumed a single Spirit herb or other such treasure in the past month. And yet, his cultivation was so fast that he already halfway into the 7th stage and would reach 8th stage in another week or two.

  In fact, his cultivation speed was so fast, that consuming low level spirit herbs, if anything, would slow down his cultivation.

  Hence why, instead of placing those points into his cultivation speed, he instead placed them in Veil of Borrowed Heaven. Intending to take the technique to Complete Perfection as swiftly as possible.

  With that done, he recalled the stele back into his mind and returned to the sect. Making a beeline toward the Merit Hall as soon as he entered the sect.

  Once into the Merit Hall, he moved toward the counter related to Spirit Beast. The outer sect disciples who had been standing on a line thus far, moved out of the way. Automatically giving way for him to go to the counter without having to waste any time spending in the line.

  Yes, his fame has grown even further in the past month. So much so that it was now starting to become a burden. Though every now and then, like in this moment for instance, it did have its benefits.

  He placed the ears of the three beasts he'd hunted upon the counter. One of them still carrying the oppressive residue of a Peak First-Tier spirit beast.

  Murmurs spread immediately. Some of the disciples who hadn't seen him bring back the ear of a Peak Fist-tier Spirit beast, or hadn't believed the rumour were now staring openly in shock. Not even bothering to hide their stares.

  Their reaction was understandable. The gap between low-tier cultivators and spirit beasts was something everyone understood. For someone in the Qi Condensation Realm to kill a Peak First-Tier spirit beast was extremely rare. And only those who had spent decades stuck at the peak of Qi Condensation Realm could accomplish such a feat.

  Yet, while he had hidden his cultivation, he hadn't hidden his facial features, and it clearly belonged to a young teenager.

  If nothing else, it should make it clear to them that he was destined to rise to the position of an Inner Sect Disciple.

  The middle-aged disciple at the counter, having long since become accustomed to his work, quickly tallied up the sect merit points and transferred them to his Sect Identity Token.

  He nodded to the middle-aged disciple and left the Merit Hall, ignoring the attempts of the few disciples who tried to chat up with him in order to make his acquaintance.

  The first few times he'd been polite enough to give them his time was something he would regret for a lifetime Basically, let's just say that it was best for everyone if he ignored social climbers like those people.

  —————

  The next day, Li Yuan went down the mountain.

  The Nine Peak City was already awake when he arrived—streets crowded with mortals and cultivators alike, stall owners shouting for customers, adding to the general humm of the city that just blended into the background.

  He headed over to the various shops he'd have prior dealings with, and sold them the remains of the various spirit beasts he'd harvested in the past month.

  After making a hefty profit of well over 20,000 spirit stones, he entered a quite alley where he changed into the garb of a robe cultivator and wore a plain bronze mask to hide his identity. Finally, he used the Veil of Borrowed Heaven to hide his cultivation before he headed straight for the auction house.

  There, he met the manager, who received him rather warmly, and then one by one, he brought out the more valuable items from his spirit ring to be appraised behind closed doors.

  By the time the lots were finalised, even Li Yuan was mildly surprised by the projected returns. Not shocked as he'd already run the numbers on his own, but seeing the value written down in neat, official script made it feel more real.

  "All of these items would be sold later in the afternoon." The auction manager told him respectfully. "Would you like to attend that auction, honoured customer."

  "I would." He said with a nod. "But did you have what I asked for?"

  The manager nodded like a duckling before he clapped. At his gesture, a woman entered the room, holding a silver platter with a book placed upon it.

  "I did as I promised, honoured customer. The price for the knowledge of this particular formation is 12,000 Spirit stones. Though remember, the formation only works on 1st Grade Spirit Lakes."

  Li Yuan nodded, and paid the necessary amount, barely hiding his giddiness as he finally got his hands on the formation that he'd had his eyes on in the past few weeks.

  It was a formation that he'd heard about distantly before, but never thought that he would get his hands on it and get to use it himself.

  The name of the Formation was: Heaven-Nurturing Lake Refinement Array.

  And it did one thing and one thing only. Which is to use an obscene amount of spirit stones to upgrade the level of a spirit lake by a minor realm.

  A Low-Grade spirit lake, would get upgraded to a Mid-grade spirit lake, while a Mid-grade spirit lake would Reach Top-grade Spirit Lake.

  This is how his Li clan, who only had a single Mid-gade Spirit Lake at the start, were able to upgrade another one of their Spirit Lake to a Mid-grade Spirit lake a few decade ago.

  Of course, the destruction of that same Mid-grade Spirit Lake pushed them back to the starting line but that was neither here nor there.

  The point was, this Formation can be used to elevate the Level of a Spirit Lake.

  Of course, it goes without saying that using this formation was extremely difficult. Otherwise everyone and their mother would have a Spirit Lake in their backyard, And the reason why this Formation was so hard to use was very simple.

  It's because the Formation required and an obscenely large amount of wealth to work.

  To be more exact, the formation required an upfront investment equal to one thousand times the lake's annual output to work.

  Meaning that to upgrade a Low-grade Spirit Lake that produced a 100 Spirit Stones a year, you would require 100,000 Spirit Stones.

  Of course, once upgraded, the amount of spirit stones the lake could produce would jump by roughly 10 times. Now able to produce a thousand spirit stones a year. But even with that jump, it would take a hundred years to make up for that investment.

  Of course, that number only applies when you talk about cold, hard Spirit Stones. A Spirit lake also produces a large amount of ambient Qi, which can be gathered with a Qi Gathering Formation and used to speed up one's cultivation.

  Similarly, the Spirit lake can be used to nurture many acres of Spirit Fields, and grow Spirit fishes and what not. So the actual value of a Spirit Lake was clearly much more than the spirit stones it produced annually.

  All, in all, the reason he had bought this Formation was because he wanted to improve the Spirit Lake that lay in his Ancient Spirit Ring.

  After all, it was his personal spirit lake that he could take anywhere with him, and use for just about anything. Why would he not want to upgrade it.

  The thing was, after some calculations, he'd figured out that his spirit lake produced roughly 330 Spirit stones a year.

  Which meant that upgrading his lake to a Mid-grade Spirit Lake would require 330,000 Spirit stones.

  Even for a wealthy bastard like him, that number was a bit much and would require months of saving to collect. Which is yet another reason why he'd come to the auction. To sell his excess opportunity items and make some cash.

  Maybe once he'd upgraded his Spirit Lake to Mid-grade, he could save some more money and take some time to return home and upgrade another one of their Low-grade Spirit Lake into a Mid-grade Spirit lake.

  It would place is family back into a firm position, and give him some much needed peace of mind.

  But, that could wait for later. For now, he opened the book and started studying.

  It was hours later when Li Yuan was pulled out of his study by the gradual hum of voices rising in the hall below him.

  The auction hall was filling up. From his VIP room, he watched cultivators file in below and take their respective seats, waiting impatiently for the auction to finally start.

  He closed the manual he'd been reading and set it aside. He was bored of reading the dull text and decided to waste some time by watching the auction.

  The auction began soon enough. And it begin in the the way all auctions did.

  With small items first.

  A stack of low-grade talismans was the starting item, followed by a damaged artifact salvaged from a ruin. Then came a bundle of spirit herbs barely old enough to be useful. Prices hovered in the dozens of spirit stones, sometimes brushing into the low hundreds when tempers flared.

  Li Yuan watched with half an eye, more interested in the crowd below in the hall for any opportunities. One of them did, the opportunity was such a distance away that it wasn't even worth the time it would take him to go to that place and steal it.

  Eventually, though, the Auction picked up pace and more and more valuable items started to appear.

  Pills refined by reputable alchemists. Formation components from a verified source. First-tier artefacts that carried real killing power. And as the quality of the items improved, so did their prices as they quickly went from a few hundred to a few thousand spirit stones.

  "Next item," she announced, a note of practiced excitement creeping in. "A First-Tier Peak Stage Spirit Beast Core. Yes, you heard me correctly ladies and gentlemen. A First-tier Beast Core. Valuable enough for its rarity alone if nothing else."

  A silk-covered tray was revealed, and the dull, earthen-coloured sphere rested atop it, the spirit of the beast within it faintly pulsing under the hall's lights.

  "It was extracted from the corpse of a Iron-Hide Earth Bear only yesterday and has earth aligned properties. The bidding price will start at 3,000 spirit stones, with an increment of at least 100 spirit stones. Please place your bids. Now!"

  Li Yuan straightened slightly at the sight of his Beast Core being sold. If only out of curiosity at how much it'd sell for.

  The bidding started immediately And the prices leapt by a hundred spirit stone each time someone placed a bid.

  It wasn't long before the price climbed to four thousand. Then five thousand. Around that time, the bidding started to slow down, and he found himself slightly disappointed at that, only for the bidding to immediately jump by another thousand spirit stones as someone from the VIP room beside him placed a bid on it.

  The cultivators in the other VIP rooms also decided to show interest in the item at that exact moment, and so the price of the Beast Core started rising once again until finally—

  Li Yuan watched in silence as the final bid landed.

  "Seven thousand two hundred spirit stones," the auctioneer called out. "Sold!"

  Polite applause followed and Li Yuan's gaze shifted.

  Till now, he hadn't bothered paying attention to the other VIP rooms. But now he was curious to see just who had bought his Beast Core.

  He stepped closer to the viewing screen and adjusted its angle slightly.

  And froze.

  In the adjacent room sat a man in his early twenties. Tall. Broad-shouldered. His posture was relaxed in the way only the strong allowed themselves.

  Qi rolled off him in slow, controlled waves, and the slight oppression he felt told him of the man's cultivation level.

  Foundation Establishment Realm.

  That alone was enough to draw attention. But more than that, the man wore Inner Sect robes of the Nine Peak Sect. The same sect as him. Yet, Li Yuan barely registered any of that.

  Because above the man's head...

  Was a Purple Halo.

  Li Yuan's pulse quickened at the sight of it.

  Purple halos were rare. Incredibly so.

  In the months since gaining his ability, he'd only ever seen three. One of them he couldn't touch because the opportunity was placed inside a Separate realm that was entire too dangerous for him. Another one was an opportunity that only existed for women, and hence was skipped by him.

  Only one of those Purple Halo abilities had he ever been able to take advantage of. And the result of that sat under his robes, tied to the string necklace wrapped around his neck.

  It was none other than the Ancient Spirit Ring that he used so frequently.

  Now, there was another purple halo opportunity right in front of him. How could he ever miss it.

  Slowly, carefully, Li Yuan focused. And a vision unfolded.

  ——

  The man, sometime in the future, carefully moved through the Outer Belt of the Forbidden Forest.

  No, he was not talking about the outer edges of the Forbidden Forest where the Outer sect disciples liked to wander around, searching for Spirit herbs. This was actually inside the actual Forbidden Forest. Or at least at the Outer Belt of it.

  Upon the man's shoulder sat a small spirit beast—a treasure-seeking rat, its whiskers twitching as it sniffed out hidden qi currents.

  The rat was an incredibly rare spirit beast that he had found with a stroke of luck as a child and had since been raised carefully ever since he started cultivating, feeding it many treasures to slowly and steadily improve its cultivation.

  And it just so happens that only recently, the Treasure-Seeking rat broke through as to an Early stage 2nd grade beast, thanks to consuming an Earth-aligned Beast Core that he'd bought at a recent auction.

  This excursion out into the Outer Belt of the Forbidden forest was to test if the Teasure-Seeking Rat's improved abilities could be used to find any hidden treasure. And lo and behold.

  The rat eventually led him to a concealed underground cave. And inside it lay—

  Heavy Spirit Water. A small pool of it.

  Heavy Spirit Water was rare treasure that increased one's chances of breaking through to Foundation Establishment realm by 40%.

  It was inferior to the Foundation Establishment Pill which increased one's chances of breaking through by 80%. But it was still priceless.

  And there was an entire pond of it right there. Enough to fill hundreds of bottles.

  Even pricing one bottle at a conservative ten thousand spirit stones…

  The small pool was worth millions of Spirit stones.

  Li Yuan's breath caught. And the vision ended.

  ——

  Li Yuan leaned back slowly, fingers tightening against the edge of the viewing screen at what he'd just seen.

  He'd never gone into the Forbidden Forest's outer belt before. The place was said to be too dangerous. Even for those at early Foundation Establishment Realm.

  And despite his recent overconfident, he knew his limits, and had done his best to not even think about going to that place.

  But now… it seems like it was finally time for him to take a risk.

  It was time for him to stop circling the forest from the outside, and step inside it properly.

  Because this was not an opportunity he could afford to miss.

  For those who wanted to understand the colour theme on Fortunes and misfortunes, it goes like this.

  White: The most common halo. Shows no fortune or misfortune in near future.

  Yellow: Shows small fortune. Worth a few hundred spirit stones. Though that number will rise as Li Yuan himself grows stronger and more capable.

  Green: Shows a mid-sized fortune.

  Purple: Shows a life altering fortune. The kind that changes a person's entire life trajectory and sends them up a major realm or two.

  Gold: Fortune of Sons or Daughters of Heavens.

  Light to Dark Grey: The darker the grey, the greater the misfortune.

  Pitch Black: Future death.