“Ahh…. This feels better….”

　　After a long time had passed within the stone cave, Fang Xing opened his eyes and stretched. From his arms and shoulders down along his entire body, the movement caused all of his bones to crack like an uncountable number of firecrackers. It was as though numerous locks on his body had been unfastened, and all of his pores opened up to draw in streams of Qi with a euphoric sensation.

　　He then felt his cultivation level and was immediately overjoyed.

　　“Spirit Stage tier six…. Mid-tier or high-tier?” With a quick sense, Fang Xing released a loud laugh. Not even he had imagined that after a single night, his cultivation level would increase by two tiers. From the peak of tier four to mid-tier six, and even then he was only a single step away from high-tier.

　　This had happened because the Purple Mist Orchid’s medicinal powers were extremely powerful. Just how strong was it? A tenth of the Golden Core Stage beast king’s cultivation had been contained within the herb. If it had been consumed without any waste, it would have likely been possible to bring more than ten cultivators up to the ninth tier. However, Fang Xing had refined every single strand of Qi a total of nine times each before finally storing it within his body. Despite this, the total amount was still very abundant and it had allowed him to advance two tiers.

　　It was only now that Fang Xing noticed the stone walls surrounding him had all turned glassy. As it so happened, while he had been digesting the Purple Mist Orchid, his body acted like an oven that melted the surface of the cave walls which soon cooled.

　　Fang Xing rose up with a hop and nearly hit his head. He finally realized that now that he’d increased two tiers, not only had his strength and speed increased manyfold, it had also temporarily become difficult to control his body. When he lowered his head, he found that his body was completely bare. All of his remaining clothes had been burned off in the process, and so he covered his crotch as he walked out.

　　Once he arrived at the cave’s entrance, he found a white-dressed woman sitting atop a moss-covered rock with her eyes lightly closed in meditation. The early morning’s sunlight lay gently upon her face, making her skin appear as though transparent, while her long lashes projected a beautiful shadow against her soft cheeks. Not far from her, a white crane was enjoying a bath beneath the waterfall, with its neck arched outward, and the setting caused Xu Linyun to appear even more dreamlike.

　　“Your wound has recovered?” Upon hearing the footsteps, Xu Linyun opened her eyes to look towards him, only for her expression to suddenly change. Her face turned bright red as she turned away and yelled, “What are you doing!” The moment she had looked his way, she’d seen a naked Fang Xing; if Fang Xing weren’t covering himself with his hands, she would have seen everything.

　　Fang Xing also felt aggrieved. “I activated the spell too quickly and it burned all my clothes. Shijie Linyun, where’s my storage ring and the storage sacks? Give them to me quickly, my clothes are all inside….”

　　Xu Linyun wordlessly waved her hand, causing a storage ring and eight storage sacks to all fly in Fang Xing’s direction. Fang Xing opened his palm and accepted them, but instead of returning back to the cave, he instead ran towards the waterfall.

　　Xu Linyun still did not dare to open her eyes. “Why aren’t you getting changed inside?”

　　“Wait, I’m going to bathe first!” Fang Xing replied. There might not have been a lot of impurities, but there were still some. He wanted to wash before putting on clean clothes.

　　SPLASH

　　As Fang Xing jumped into the water, he made a huge splash that hit the white crane nearby. When he saw the white crane staring at him, he cursed, “Spying on me while I bathe, huh? Are you daring me to pluck all of your feathers?”

　　This left the white crane feeling wronged and it carefully turned its head away. It still remembered when Fang Xing had tortured it three years ago, and it was still scared of this little bandit even to this day.

　　“He’er, no need to be scared of him. Come over here!” Xu Linyun called out to her white crane, and it immediately went into hiding next to her.

　　Fang Xing smirked and dove into the water. After two rounds of swimming and bathing, he then began to pick out something from his storage sacks. He saw the spirit robe he had taken from Shen Hujun and—itching to try it out—he climbed onto shore and dried himself before placing the spirit robe onto his bare body.

　　At first, he was worried that the robe might be a bit too big for him, but as soon as he put it on, it immediately received a small amount of his Qi and began to change. The robe soon became smaller and thinner, actually turning into a perfect fit for his slender and shorter body.

　　“All done!” Fang Xing returned back to Xu Linyun with a laugh.

　　Xu Linyun finally opened her eyes and looked to him, her blush not yet faded. She was actually quite upset; this boy wasn’t playing his cards the usual way, to be running around butt-naked.

　　Fang Xing, on the other hand, didn’t notice Xu Linyun was upset whatsoever. He looked around and asked, “Where’s the rest of that bunch of turtle egg bastards?”

　　“You’ve already been inside for three days. They couldn’t wait that long for you, so they already left,” Xu Linyun calmly replied.

　　“Three days?” This left Fang Xing dumbstruck. He thought he’d only used one day to digest the herb; he hadn’t expected it to have actually been three.

　　“Even those damn bastard from the Duanzhen Valley left. What happened to our brotherhood!” Fang Xing angrily cursed once he realized what had happened.

　　Xu Linyun released a sigh. “It’s not entirely their fault; I asked them to leave. They decided to go to the location of the seal first. Without the Duanzhen disciples there, many problems would crop up. Furthermore, entering Mount Desolation was also for the purpose of gaining resources. If they waited for you here, it would just be a waste of time; it’s better to just let them go with the others to hunt for more resources!”

　　Fang Xing responded with disdain, “What sort of resources can that bunch of blacksmiths hunt? They should be thankful if they’re not sold off!” He then turned to look at Xu Linyun. “Hehe, Shijie Linyun, you’ve been waiting for me this entire time? Thank you so very much!”

　　Without an expression on her face, Xu Linyun calmly replied, “I agreed to be your guardian, and I assuredly wouldn’t go back on my word! Enough, we should try to catch up to them as well. After being delayed by these three days, I imagine they would have already arrived at the seal’s location.”

　　Fang Xing laughed. “Okay! Oh, and by the way, where’s my mount?”

　　After a quick moment of surprise, Xu Linyun seemed to finally remember and pointed towards another cave hidden behind a wild bush. “It was annoying me by grumbling and making all sorts of noises nonstop, so I threw it inside that cave.”

　　“I hope you haven’t starved to death….” Fang Xing hastily made his way into the cave, and he was left overjoyed with a single glance. As it so happened, the golden crow was not only tied up just like a rice dumpling, but he was sprawled out on the ground with his beak stuffed full with wild fruits while saliva drooled all around him.

　　The crow’s beak had not been tied shut enough, and although the crow did not dare to speak in front of Xu Linyun, he had made all sorts of noises in an effort to annoy her so she would let him go. However, he hadn’t anticipated that although Xu Linyun did grow annoyed by his commotion, she still wouldn’t let him go and would instead stuff his beak and throw him inside the cave.

　　Fang Xing raised his hand and recalled the [Immortal’s Snare], yet the golden crow still did not move, as though he were solid stone. Fang Xing carefully kicked him. “Are you dead yet?”

　　“I… I’m going to fight you….” The golden crow moved his beak, his eyes slowly rolling about before they fixed onto Fang Xing. Suddenly, he spat out all of the wild fruits in his beak and began to cry before angrily throwing himself at the boy. “As the genius of the Three-Legged Golden Crow Clan, to actually be tied up and thrown into a cave for three days, this is simply abuse! I can’t live with this shame, I’m going to fight you to the death….”

　　Fang Xing reached out and grabbed the crow’s beak to keep from being pecked. “I didn’t think it was going to take this long….”

　　The golden crow flapped his wings and claws in a chaotic pattern, but—with Fang Xing’s enormous strength—he couldn’t cause any damage. However, the crow was merely venting, and after some moments of confused and disordered flapping, he sorrowfully sat down. With a face full of depression, he said, “Can you let me go now? I didn’t offend you in any way, you’ve got your Purple Mist Orchid, and I also got you away from that guy who was chasing you….”

　　Fang Xing sternly replied, “Hmph, the stone golem you controlled killed four of our Qing-Yun disciples. How do you account for that, then?”

　　The golden crow was left dumbstruck and his demeanor calmed. “Then…. What do you say?” He was also worried that Fang Xing might want to avenge these dead Qing-Yun disciples.

　　Fang Xing considered it quickly before replying, “I’ve decided to punish you by having you as my mount. You will redeem yourself slowly!”

　　The golden crow suddenly cried out, “I’m the proud descendant of the Three-Legged Golden Crow! How can I be your mount?”

　　With a ‘swoosh’, Fang Xing pulled out his [Saber of Azure Dragon] and placed it against the crow’s neck. “Is that up to you?”

　　The crow suddenly let out a dry laugh. “How can we properly communicate if you’re always acting this way….”

　　With the blade still in hand, Fang Xing sat on the ground. “Then let’s communicate. Let me tell you the facts, there is no way I will let you go. You’ve only got two choices: either I slit open your stomach and cook you for my food, or you be good and become my mount. I promise you’d have all the food and wine you can imagine, and in the future, I might even find you a phoenix for you to bed. When I—your grandpa—get his hands on cultivation resources, you’ll also be able to have your share.” He then sliced his blade against the ground and demanded, “Pick one!”

　　The golden crow shifted his eyes back and forth, and it was impossible to tell what was going through his head. A short moment later, he suddenly spoke in a hushed tone, “How much?”

　　Fang Xing was dumbstruck. “What ‘how much’?”

　　“How much you’ll give me. We can’t just chatter about it, we need to establish a price first!”

　　Fang Xing hadn’t been expecting him to be so straightforward and was stunned for a short moment. “A thousand Stones per year!”

　　The golden crow’s eyes lit up. “High-quality?”

　　Dumbfounded, Fang Xing answered, “Low-quality!”

　　“Should be at least mid-quality, right?” As soon as the crow began to talk about money, he seemed to have suddenly awakened, as if the one who had been wanting a fight to the death was someone else entirely.

　　Stunned further, Fang Xing replied, “I don’t even know if I can get a thousand mid-quality Spirit Stones myself, aren’t you being hopeful!”

　　Shifting his eyes about one more time, the golden crow suddenly said, “Fine, your uncle crow is not greedy and insatiable. How about this: aside from the one thousand Stones, whenever we work together in the future, whatever it might be—be it big or small—we split the profit fifty-fifty?”

　　The crow looked at Fang Xing with eagerness. As it so happened, the crow was also someone who wasn’t tied down to honesty, and after observing Fang Xing during this time, he felt that the boy would make for a great partner in crime. Plus, there was nothing he could do to escape right now, so he might as well make sure he got his fair share of gain by coming to an agreement on how to split the profits first. At the same time, he was also testing how daring the boy truly was.

　　Outside of the crow’s expectations, Fang Xing’s eyes lit up when he heard this and exclaimed, “Good idea! I’ll take seventy and you take thirty!”

　　The golden crow immediately sat up with a serious expression. “I should take at least forty and you sixty!”

　　Fang Xing considered this carefully. “Deal! Hehehe, let’s go!” he agreed before standing up.

　　“Where to?”

　　“To catch up to them. We’re already three days behind!”

　　The crow then replied with seriousness, “First thing’s first, even if we made the deal, I’m still not going to be your mount!”

　　Fang Xing was instantly infuriated and brandished his saber. “You’re toying with me?”

　　The golden crow quickly laughed it off. “But I can still take you flying….”