somewhere between the end and the beginning of the first and second tier, was Mau in a meditative state. He was using a breathing technique given to him by the shiny man.

 In this process, the Qi around him was gathering at a steady rate, flowing through his entire body, causing him to feel like he was filled to the brim with Qi. 

This was a dangerous process because if he were to be overfilled with Qi, he would explode, and everything around him, including himself, would be destroyed.

As soon as his body started to feel like it was reaching its limit, he condensed the Qi to compress and bring his body back to its original size. This process prevents the risk of an explosion in the surrounding areas and helps you ascend to different levels and eventually reach higher realms. 

However, repeating this process for a while is necessary to make real progress. While there are various breathing techniques that are better than the one he is using, he only knows one for now. 

But it will do for now . He doesn't really plan on fighting magical beasts too often, out of fear for his life. However, he also knows that doing so will definitely help him along his cultivation journey since this is how magical beasts are supposed to cultivate. 

But he would rather rely on martial cultivation because it doesn't heavily rely on having to fight, unless you want to progress faster. Mau was okay with taking his time if he needed to. Technically, he was still a child, so he didn't need to do too much, but he still needed to be strong enough to join a clan. 

Although Mau hadn't really gone over that information too much, but if he wanted to survive in this world and gain a lot of resources, that was his best option.

Be that as it may, his cultivation was actually going pretty well. He had been practicing this breathing technique for several hours, and he could feel himself slowly reaching past the peak of the first tier. 

This would normally be unusual, but Mau had entered this world, merging his soul with a second-tiered beast before he regressed to a first tier. Somehow, even though that had happened, he was still at least a late-stage first tier, so it wouldn't take much to reach the peak or even the second tier. 

But if he was going by martial cultivation scaling, he was no more than a mid-level mortal realm cultivator, which honestly wasn't bad for the age he appeared to be

"This feels strange. It feels like I'm about to breakthrough something that was fast. Maybe it's because I ate both those magical beasts and I believe some of those herbs and spices have some benefits of their own. Oh, here it comes. I'm about to breakthrough to the second tier." 

A bright purple light glowed around him as he slowly rose a few centimeters off the ground before a circle of dark energy burst out of his body and hit the walls of the cave with a loud BAM! 

This caused the entire cave to vibrate ever so slightly, leaving just the tiniest of cracks on the rocky surface of the inside of the cave where the blast of energy had hit. Mu then fell a few centimeters out of the air and quickly opened his eyes, and for a quick second, a purple glow could be seen coming from his pupils before it dimmed out, leaving no trace of it ever happening.

"That was dramatic but effective. So, I guess I'm a second-tiered beast now. Yeah me! Maybe I shouldn't make it a habit using the magical beast system to rank my growth, wouldn't want to slip up one day and say it in front of some human. Hmm, let's say mid-stage Mortal Realm. There we go."

While Mau was monologuing, a tall man with long, beautiful black hair and a face so pretty that he could be mistaken for a beautiful pale-skinned woman if it wasn't for his chin hair, he was overseeing a four-foot child with fluffy silvery dog ears, beautiful golden dark skin, and a long, hairy silvery tail while he was fighting a 1st tier magical beast with two sickles, with swift movements that were stealthy and calculated. The tall man was wearing a beautiful dark black robe with purple lining and tiny engravings.

BAAM!!

Soon after the boy had decapitated the beast, the wolf child and the man's attention was directed towards a loud sound that didn't seem too far away. They looked at each other and nodded before vanishing altogether. 

Meanwhile, Mau had finally finished monologuing and made his way outside. He sat in front of his cave to get some fresh air after had cultivated in the cave until the next morning. He was bursting with energy and decided that maybe he should test out his newly attained strength.

 Luckily for him, because of the little performance he had put on, he had attracted the attention of some beasts that were making their way in his direction. However, they weren't the only ones heading towards him.

As soon as Mau made it out of his cave, seven silvery-white wolves could be seen creeping out of the forest surrounding Mau's cave. Mau felt their presence and felt them making their way towards him, but he didn't expect them to be here so soon. They were all mid-ranked stage one magical beasts, but the seventh one that stood a few feet in front of Mau and the cave was in the late stage. Mau assumed he was the leader because while the others were moving, he stood still. 

"You know what, fuck it! You won a piece, huh? Well, come at me, mutts! Haha, what a funny word!"

Soon after, 3 beasts ran at him.  DARK CLAW!   5 slashes of dark energy came flying at them. One was caught off guard and cut down the middle before two lumps of flesh hit the floor. The other two dodged the other slashes before they separated and quickly moved in opposite directions. 

They made it to the right and left side of him, facing his shoulders, and launched blue fairy flames out of their paws, attacking him from each direction. At once, he was able to dodge them before another wolf launched at his back, scratching it and leaving 3 big claw marks.

 

Dark energy formed around Mau's tail before it hit the beast that attacked him, violently flinging him against the cave and smacking into the rocky surface with a resounding  "BAAM!!"  The impact broke some of his bones, incapacitating him. In the midst of his vulnerability, two other beasts quickly pounced on him from behind.    

Mau immediately retaliated, swiping his tail at them and hitting both in the torsos, sending them flying in the opposite direction. With dark claws, he threw five more black energy slashes at them before they  could act , slicing both creatures in half. 

However, two more beasts suddenly appeared behind him before he could react, slashing at his back. "FUCK!!!!!!!!" Mau screamed in pain, quickly turning to face them. Opening his mouth, he attempted to use another move he had observed from a previous beast he fought.

  he opened his mouth and blasted a dark energy beam right at there head.

 SEEEESH!!!

  blasting both of there heads  before 3 more blue flame slashes came at him giving him only enough time to dodged, two while the third one sliced off his arm.  "Aaahhhhhh!!!" he screamed before incasing his body in dark shadowy energy, and runing at the beast at light spead, using his claw to chop off  his head.

He then fell to his knees in pain, with his hands on the area where his arm was amputated. The last wolf that was sitting there watching slowly walked up to the little cat boy, like it was stalking its prey.

"I can't die, not again. I have to prove to my mother that I'm not weak anymore. Come on, get up. You need to get up," he muttered to himself.

"Are you talking to yourself, fool?" said the wolf with a taunting undertone in his deep, echoing voice, as he got closer and closer.

"DARK CLAW!!!" The wolf quickly dodged the 5 slashes aimed at him and proceeded to creep up on Mau. 

Just when the wolf was a foot from Mau, a blue flame in the shape of a sword slash decapitated the wolf in the blink of an eye, and the head of the wolf rolled toward Mau. 

Then, a dark-skinned wolf boy  emerged from the forest surrounding the cave and walked in front of the barely conscious cat-child as he held his wound.

"Are you okay?" the wolf boy asked.

Mau looked up at the wolf boy with a pained face as tears fell from his eyes. He opened his mouth to try  to form a sentence before he felt a wave of exhaustion hit him. His eyes grew heavy, and all he could hear was the faint sound of footsteps before falling to the floor unconscious.