In a corner of the cave, the aura stood out like a sore thumb as Qian Yu cautiously approached it. 

‘Is it a treasure!’ Qian Yu was ecstatic as he walked forward.

Yet Qian Yu wasn’t sure if he was correct as he got closer to the purple object and could see it clearly. On the ground, Qian Yu saw a cocoon of purple lightning about half his height.

‘...’ Qian Yu silently observed it for a minute or so before he decided to get closer to the cocoon.

Just as he walked a few feet closer to the mysterious object however, he saw the purple cocoon quickly dissipate before he could register that something happened.

“Zzzziittt!” a noise was heard as Qian Yu saw his vision turn black. 

“Bop…” Qian Yu fell down onto the hard floor.

Meanwhile next to the side, a 4 legged beast with small horns stood by the side. It wasn’t that big as it stood a couple feet tall yet it had wounds all over its body. With tired eyes, it looked down at the unconscious Qian Yu before it bent down and bit Qian Yu’s arm so that some blood flowed out. 

*Swoosh!* A sound was heard as it silently disappeared.

A couple hours later, Qian Yu woke up as he rubbed his head, ‘Ow, what happened?’ Qian Yu cursed as he clutched his head in pain. After a few seconds, the pain dissipated as he finally could focus on what happened. 

‘The treasure ran away?’ Qian Yu was dumbfounded. ‘No, it must be something else then. Maybe some rare spiritual beast?’ Qian Yu thought as he managed to barely see the silhouette of a moving beast before he lost consciousness. 

‘At least I’m alive,’ Qian Yu sighed in relief. The beast was without a doubt, much stronger than the Wolfen Beast he fought. He didn’t know why it didn’t kill him but Qian Yu assumed it was because it wasn’t interested in a qi gathering fighter like him.

‘Well, time to go back. I should get out of here as soon as possible,’ Qian Yu thought as he put the matter at the back of his mind. He didn’t know how long he had been knocked out so it was best to leave the mountain ranges and go back to find out the date. Additionally, there were numerous spiritual beasts fighting here and it was best to get the hell out of here.

Knowing that, Qian Yu traced his path back and over a day later, Qian Yu managed to return to the village just outside the mountain range. 

As he walked outside the mountain range, he saw a familiar looking man currently working alongside with some other villagers. 

Seeing him, Qian Yu walked towards him as he respectfully said, “Greetings Elder”. Although his warning wasn’t extremely helpful as it was vague, the man had good intentions and it was just natural of Qian Yu to be respectful towards eldery people. 

“Ahhh, young man it's only been three days since you entered and you’re back!” the man smiled as he realized Qian Yu was the young man he had seen the other day.

“Yes, thank you, it seemed to be really chaotic in there like you said,” Qian Yu replied as he inwardly thanked the man for telling him how long he had been in there. 

‘Seems like I was out cold for about half a day?’ Qian Yu was a little frightened as he thought about this.

‘Well, I don’t have to worry about it anymore haha,’ he laughed as he said his goodbye to the man. 

Afterwards, Qian Yu decided to take a break in a small “inn” at the village. Entering the room, he saw the run downed wooden walls as he took a deep nostalgic breath. Sitting down on the bed, Qian Yu proceeded to focus on cultivating. Even though it wasn’t really efficient cultivating like this, he had nothing to do and he hadn’t been really cultivating since he entered the mountain range. 

Silently a few hours passed in the room before Qian Yu opened his eyes in confusion. 

‘Something’s wrong,’ Qian Yu thought. Although he knew that cultivating like this was really slow compared to dual cultivating and absorbing yin qi, it felt rather different to the previous cultivating sessions. 

‘What could it be?’ Qian Yu was a little annoyed.

A few minutes passed as Qian Yu didn’t know what was the cause of it.

‘Ughh guess I’ll sleep,’ Qian Yu was getting a headache as he continued thinking. The past few days were too weird and confusing that he had gotten pretty stressed out. While cultivators didn’t need much rest, sleep was still important for mental health. 

Laying down, Qian Yu closed his eyes as he went to sleep. 

…

“Tschh, ” a voice sounded out in Qian Yu’s consciousness waking him up from his slumber.

“AHH!” Qian Yu shot upright as he looked around. Cultivators were naturally more sensitive to their surroundings than normal people as they had better senses. 

‘Nobody is around,’ Qian Yu sighed in relief upon noticing that the small room was the same as before. ‘Was it my imagination?’ he thought quickly before he went back to sleep, covering his head with the blanket. 

Yet after falling asleep again, he soon heard the murmurs again. 

Darting upwards, Qian Yu again looked around the room as he heard the voices. ‘What the fuck, there’s no way it was my imagination?’ Qian Yu swore in his mind as he started getting serious. 

Laying down, he closed his eyes as he focused on spreading his awareness out and remaining alert. Yet a couple hours passed and he didn’t hear any voices so he decided to just go to sleep. 

“Hahailo…” Qian Yu soon heard voices in his slumber as he woke up screaming, “WHERE ARE YOU!”. 

Getting up, Qian Yu looked around expecting to see nothing again, however, he was left in shock as he noticed the figure in front of him.

“Y-y-you!” Qian Yu stuttered as he saw the 4 legged spiritual beast with two small horns on top of its head. Its body was like a deer but it had shiny purple scales on its torso while the posterior end of its body had a small tail. Overall, it wasn’t that big as it stood half the height of Qian Yu, mainly around three feet.

Still, Qian Yu knew that its small height didn’t necessarily mean it was weak. Without a doubt, its current power was no weaker than a late stage uncommon ranked spiritual beast. ‘Is this a qilin?’ he thought as he remembered the pictures of the beast in many books he had read. 

Taking his spear out from his storage ring, Qian Yu instinctually prepared for battle as adrenaline rushed throughout his body. However, what happened next was out of his expectations. 

“H-h-hel-hello!” a high pitched voice of a girl resounded in his mind. 

“I-it’s m-m-my first time talking to a human!” the voice continued.

… Silently, Qian Yu and the beast just stared at each other for a couple minutes.

When the spiritual beast first talked, Qian Yu was already given a scare as he didn’t expect it to talk with him. Yet when he heard the voice of a small girl he was even more bewildered. 

Seeing Qian Yu not say anything, the spiritual beast started walking around in circles as Qian Yu heard her murmur in a low voice, “This isn’t right, my bloodline memories tell me that humans should be in awe and respect whenever they see our race… am I doing something wrong?”

“HAHAHAHA!” Qian Yu suddenly had an urge to laugh seeing the spiritual beast pace around like that. While he knew that spiritual beasts had their own families and were similar to humans in a way, it was the first time seeing such a unique scene. Along with how his last few days had been, it felt like he was just pranked.