The Azure Serpent Lake became an island of tranquility in the turbulent sea of the Green Mountain Sect. The story of the auction had settled into a legendary tale, whispered in awe by outer disciples and discussed with grim respect by the inner sect. Elder Jin, as his master had predicted, had withdrawn into a resentful seclusion, his faction's public activities curtailed by their catastrophic financial loss and the humiliation of their prodigy. This provided Li Yu with a precious, much-needed period of peace. He was no longer a target of active aggression, but a subject of intense, watchful curiosity.
He used this time to solidify his foundations, both for himself and for his small, loyal faction. The first order of business was the unadorned wooden box resting in his storage ring. He gathered his three subordinates in the main hall of the pagoda, the air thick with anticipation.
"Master has given me a great opportunity, and a great risk," Li Yu began, placing the box on the table. He opened it, revealing the withered, black Serpent's Breath Root. Even in its dormant state, the root exuded an ancient, powerful aura that made the Qi in the room feel heavy.
"The Serpent's Breath Root," Brother Kai breathed, his eyes wide with a mixture of awe and reverence. "I have only read about such a treasure in the ancient texts. It is said to contain a trace of a true dragon's bloodline."
"Master has said that it can help Crimson evolve," Li Yu explained. "It could awaken its dormant Flood Dragon bloodline and push it from a Rank 3 Spirit Beast into a true Rank 4 Fierce Beast."
Hu Jian's eyes lit up. "A Rank 4 beast! Junior Steward, that would make Crimson as powerful as an early-stage Qi Condensation expert! Your own strength would increase tenfold!"
"But the master also said it was dangerous," Lin Tao interjected, his gaze sharp and analytical. "The draconic energy is violent. If the evolution fails…"
"Crimson could be crippled, or even die," Li Yu finished, his expression serious. He looked at his three most trusted advisors. "That is the choice before me. Do we risk a loyal companion for a chance at greater power?"
The three men fell silent, the weight of the decision settling upon them.
"Crimson is your contracted beast, Junior Steward," Brother Kai said finally, his voice grave. "The bond is yours. The choice must be yours alone. However," he paused, choosing his words carefully, "a beast tamer's path is one of mutual growth. A beast's greatest desire is to evolve, to reach the peak of its own bloodline. To deny it that chance, out of fear, could be a cruelty in itself."
Li Yu nodded, his gaze distant. He closed his eyes and extended his spiritual sense, not just to the Beast Bag at his waist, but deep into the bond he shared with his companion. He did not ask a question. He simply presented the feeling of the root, the raw, potent draconic energy, and the two possible outcomes: glorious evolution or catastrophic failure.
The response from Crimson was not one of fear or hesitation. It was a wave of pure, unadulterated, and ferocious desire. It was a primal, instinctual scream to become stronger, to reach for the nobility that slept in its very blood.
Li Yu opened his eyes, his decision made. "Crimson has chosen."
The evolution was a carefully planned affair. Li Yu chose the most secluded part of the valley, a deep, underwater grotto accessible only through a hidden entrance in the lake. He, along with his three subordinates, set up a perimeter, their auras on high alert to ward off any curious beasts.
Inside the grotto, Li Yu released Crimson from the Beast Bag. The powerful Marsh-Drake looked at the withered root in Li Yu's hand, its intelligent eyes burning with a hungry, primal light. Li Yu placed the root on the ground, and Crimson devoured it in a single gulp.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the drake's body began to tremble. A low, pained groan rumbled in its chest. Its dark green scales began to glow with a faint, crimson light. The light grew brighter and brighter, until the entire grotto was bathed in a fiery, red glow. Crimson threw its head back and let out a roar of pure, unadulterated agony. The draconic energy was a violent fire, burning through its veins, tearing its body apart and reforging it anew.
The process was brutal and terrifying to watch. The drake's scales began to crack and fall away, revealing raw, steaming flesh beneath. Its muscles spasmed, and its bones audibly creaked and groaned. Hu Jian, Lin Tao, and Brother Kai watched with pale, tense faces, their hands clenched into fists.
Li Yu, however, remained calm. He sat before the writhing beast, his spiritual link a soothing, steady anchor in the storm of its pain. He could feel its agony, but he could also feel its unyielding will to survive, to be reborn. He focused his will and began to channel the pure, vital energy of his Koi spirit, not to interfere, but to provide a gentle, nourishing support, helping to soothe the most damaged parts of Crimson's body and guide the violent energy.
The ordeal lasted for an entire day and night. Finally, as the first rays of dawn pierced the grotto's entrance, the violent, fiery light began to recede, coalescing around the drake's body. The agonized roars softened into a low, powerful rumble. The cracked, broken form began to heal and reshape at a visible rate.
When the light finally faded, a new creature stood in the center of the grotto. It was still recognizable as Crimson, but it was profoundly different. It was larger, its body more sleek and powerful. Its scales were no longer a simple green, but a deep, iridescent jade, each one shimmering with a faint, crimson light. A single, small, sharp horn, like a shard of black jade, now jutted from its snout, and the frill around its neck was a brilliant, fiery red. Its aura was no longer just that of a powerful beast; it was the aura of a king, a true descendant of a Flood Dragon.
It had succeeded. Crimson was now a Rank 4 Fierce Beast.
It turned its head and looked at Li Yu, its eyes no longer just intelligent, but filled with a deep, ancient wisdom. It lowered its horned head in a gesture of profound, unwavering loyalty. Li Yu smiled and reached out, not with his hand, but with his spirit. The Koi's Sanctuary opened, and Crimson, feeling the irresistible pull of the nourishing, high-level space, dissolved into a stream of light and vanished. The Beast Bag at Li Yu's waist remained, a perfect decoy to hide his spirit's heaven-defying ability.The Deep-Sea Naga egg was also within the sanctuary from when he got it, allowing the potent, life-giving mist to slowly incubate the dormant life within.
The news of a personal disciple successfully evolving his companion into a Rank 4 beast sent another shockwave through the inner sect. It was a rare achievement, a clear testament to Li Yu's profound and mysterious affinity. His reputation, which had been built on luck and cunning, was now cemented with a foundation of undeniable, tangible skill.
And with that reputation, came requests.
The first came from Su Ling. She did not send a messenger, but arrived at the Azure Serpent Lake herself, her presence as cool and elegant as ever.
"Junior Brother Li," she said, her tone polite but direct. "My master, the First Elder, has a problem that even our most senior beast tamers have been unable to solve. He has asked for your assistance."
She led him to the First Elder's personal menagerie, a place of profound power and quiet dignity. In a large, specially constructed ice-bound enclosure, a magnificent beast lay listlessly. It was an Ice-Crystal Kirin, a Rank 5 Tyrant Beast, its body like a statue carved from a glacier, its horn a single, perfect shard of unbreakable ice.
"It has not moved from that spot in a month," Su Ling explained. "It refuses to eat, and its aura grows weaker by the day. We have found no signs of sickness or injury."
Li Yu approached the enclosure, his spiritual sense extending. The Kirin was a creature of pure, noble ice, but it had an ancient aquatic ancestry, a lineage that traced back to the primordial, frozen oceans. He could connect with it. He was met not with pain or sadness, but with a feeling of profound, overwhelming boredom. It was a king with no kingdom, a creature of immense power with nothing to do.
He stood before the enclosure for a long time, his brow furrowed in a look of deep concentration. "The issue is not with its body, Senior Sister," he said finally, his voice grave. "It is a sickness of the spirit. It is deep and complex. I cannot offer a solution immediately. I will need time to observe, to attempt to commune with its spirit. I ask for three days of undisturbed observation."
Su Ling looked surprised by the request but nodded. "I will inform my master. You will have your three days."
For the next three days, Li Yu sat in a small pavilion overlooking the Kirin's enclosure. He did not move, did not eat. He sat in a deep meditative trance, his eyes closed, his aura completely still. To Su Ling and the other disciples who watched from a distance, it looked as if he were engaged in a profound, silent, and exhausting spiritual battle. They could occasionally see a faint, crimson light flicker around his body, a sign of his spirit's exertion.
In reality, Li Yu was perfectly relaxed. He was spending the time consolidating his own cultivation, absorbing the pure, cold energy of the enclosure, and subtly feeding the Kirin small, almost imperceptible threads of his Koi's vital Yang energy to pique its interest and confirm his diagnosis.
On the morning of the fourth day, he "awoke," his face pale and his brow beaded with sweat, a perfect performance of a cultivator who had just completed a difficult task. He approached Su Ling, who was waiting patiently.
"I believe I understand now," he said, his voice slightly hoarse. "This Kirin is not sick. It is… lonely."
Su Ling raised an eyebrow. "Lonely? We have tried introducing other ice-attribute beasts. It ignores them."
"It does not need a companion," Li Yu corrected, his voice filled with the certainty of a scholar who had just solved a great puzzle. "It needs a rival. A challenge. Something to stimulate its pride. Its spirit is that of a conqueror, a king of the frozen peaks. Here, it has no kingdom to rule, no subjects to awe, no rivals to crush. Its spirit is starving for a purpose."
He looked at the massive, empty enclosure. "The ice here is smooth, perfect. But in its natural habitat, its territory would be constantly challenged by lesser beasts. It has no one to hunt, no one to display its dominance over."
He turned to her, his hard-won solution on his lips. "I suggest you introduce a school of Rank 3 Frost-Scale Pikes into the enclosure. They are aggressive, fast, and too weak to pose a real threat to the Kirin, but they are annoying enough to be a sport. Give it something to hunt."
Su Ling stared at him, her analytical mind processing the logic. It was a simple solution, but it was born from an insight that had eluded all of their master beast tamers. It was an insight that, in her eyes, had taken three days of profound spiritual communion to achieve.
Two days later, a message arrived from the First Elder's peak. The Kirin was active, its aura strong, and it was amusing itself by flash-freezing and shattering the unfortunate Frost-Scale Pikes. Li Yu had earned the deep, profound gratitude of the sect's most powerful elder.
His fame grew. He was no longer just Elder Ning's prodigy; he was the sect's miracle worker, the boy who could speak the silent language of beasts. Each solution he offered came only after days of quiet, intense observation, further building his reputation as a reclusive genius whose methods were as mysterious as they were effective. He solved a problem for a reclusive artifact refiner whose water-elemental forge-salamander had gone dormant. He helped a powerful core disciple whose prized school of armored battle-fish were suffering from a strange, shell-rotting disease.
With each problem he solved, he asked for no spirit stones or reward. That only made others have good opinions of him and they gave him a reward anyways. Things they had they thought would be useful for him, aquatic herb, a piece of deep-sea ore, or an ancient, forgotten text from their personal libraries. He was quietly building his own personal fortune, his own deep well of resources and favors.
He was becoming a central, yet invisible, node in the sect's network of power. And all the while, in the dead of night, his true cultivation continued its silent, terrifying ascent, his secrets hidden deeper than the abyss itself. The peace was holding, but he knew it was a peace he had forged with his own skill and the help of others. And he knew, with absolute certainty, that he would need every ounce of that skill for the storm that was still gathering on the horizon.