Time to leave

The tiger was stunned when it felt the gentle rub on its head.

Spirit beasts were far more intelligent than ordinary beasts, and spirit beasts with extraordinary bloodlines were even more so.

Spirit beasts could easily understand human language, and when they became Demons, they were even able to speak human language.

From that gentle rub on its head, the tiger understood that this human didn't want to kill him. However, he didn't get his hopes high, as humans often enslaved spirit beasts as their pets.

If this human also had that thought, then he would rather die than be enslaved.

He opened his eyes and looked at Jiang Hao warily. Jiang saw that look and smiled while still rubbing its head.

He then took out a spirit herb that was of Foundation Establishment grade and placed it in front of the tiger.

He had already sorted out all the herbs according to their value inside his ring while traveling.

Beasts were more tolerant to spirit herbs than humans, and given this beast's extraordinary bloodline, it would definitely be able to digest it easily, even if the spirit herb was of Foundation Establishment grade.

Seeing the spirit herb in front of his face stunned the tiger again. Was this human bribing him? There's no way I will sell my dignity for a mere Foundation Establishment grade herb, he thought.

Although he reminded himself sternly, he was still a little tempted. If he could eat that spirit herb, not only would his wounds heal, but he would definitely be able to break through.

Although the fight had been deadly for him, it had also pushed him to his limits, which helped his body immensely. He was already at the peak of stage 5, and if he could have the herb, he would be able to break through to stage 7. After all, it was a Foundation Establishment herb.

Although his territory was directly above a spiritual vein, its quality wasn't that good. The spirit herbs that grew here would take many years to reach the Foundation Establishment realm.

So he was really tempted, but he still denied himself at the thought of being enslaved.

Jiang Hao didn't know what was going on in the tiger's head. After placing the spirit herb, he stood up, dusted himself off, and spoke.

"It was a good fight. Eat that and heal yourself. I will come again in two days; we will fight again then."

The thought of enslaving the beast didn't even come to his mind.

When the tiger heard that, he was stunned again. This human had given him many surprises, and he didn't even know what to make of it.

When he saw that the human had really left, he didn't mull over it too much and ate the herb in front of his mouth before closing his eyes to cultivate.

Jiang Hao knew that once the tiger absorbed the spirit herb, it would definitely break through to stage 7. So, he also intended to break through to stage 4 of Qi Refinement. He was already at the peak of stage 2, so a single Core Formation grade spirit herb was enough for him to break through.

He went away from the pond and found himself a good tree. In this valley, there were no other spirit beasts as they were afraid of the tiger, so it was a good place to break through.

He sat against the tree and brought out another spirit herb. This time, it was a normal spirit herb without any elemental property, but it was still of Core Formation grade.

He immediately consumed it without even checking the information about it.

For the next six months, he would stay in this valley and fight with the tiger. He would also help the tiger grow, as he had enough Foundation Establishment grade herbs too.

Six months were more than enough for him to reach stage 9 of Qi Refinement, and after that, he would leave.

---

Six months passed gradually.

There was a boy and a tiger standing in front of a pond. The boy was at the peak of stage 9 in the Qi Refinement realm, and the tiger was in the early stage of Grade 2.

The boy was naturally Jiang Hao, who had reached the deadline of his six-month stay in the valley, and the tiger was the beast who ruled this valley.

For the past six months, they had fought countless times. They didn't hold back at all and beat the life out of each other.

Although Jiang Hao could have broken through to the Foundation Establishment realm, he held back for the time being. There were some reasons for this.

First, he could already beat the spirit tiger, which was in the early stage of Grade 2, while he was only at the peak of the Qi Refinement realm. So, if he had broken through, he wouldn't have had any enjoyable fights with it.

Second, he didn't know the standards of this world right now. He was just 15 years of age and too young.

If he reached the Foundation Establishment realm at this age, he might attract unwanted attention. He wasn't afraid because he had the ring, but it was unnecessary to always be on the run.

His strength was already equal to the late stage of the Foundation Establishment realm. Although he wouldn't be able to beat a late-stage cultivator, he had no doubt he could fight them on equal grounds.

And once he reached the Foundation Establishment realm, he would be unmatched in the whole Foundation Establishment realm.

Right now, he was only left with five Core Formation grade spirit herbs, and even though he was at the peak of stage 9, he had no doubt that he would need to consume all of them to advance to the Foundation Establishment realm.

The Qi Refinement realm was the same for every cultivator. They only advanced by refining their bodies with Qi, but at the Foundation Establishment realm, the paths of Qi cultivators differed from the paths of body cultivators.

Qi cultivators focused on opening meridians inside their bodies, while body cultivators cultivated their bodies. In Grade 2, body cultivators cultivated bones in the early stage, muscles in the mid-stage, organs in the late stage, and blood at the peak stage.

Qi cultivators in the Foundation Establishment realm had to open meridians to advance. There were a total of 12 meridians. Those who opened 1 to 3 were in the early stage, 4 to 6 were in the mid-stage, 7 to 9 were in the late stage, and 10 to 12 were at the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm.

The resources required by body cultivators far exceeded what Qi cultivators needed to advance, hence not many followed the body cultivation route. After all, other than resources, it was also time-consuming.

Not everyone could refine spirit herbs like Jiang Hao in mere seconds. They needed to make pills, and even then, they would need hours to refine the energy completely.

The cultivation of Qi was already time-consuming, so dividing attention to cultivate the body was difficult. Only peerless geniuses could cultivate both and maintain a cultivation speed similar to others.

Additionally, Qi cultivators could easily suppress body cultivators by maintaining distance from them. So it was really not worth the effort.

Jiang Hao was different. He didn't have a say in what to cultivate; his physique cultivated both no matter what his thoughts were.

For others, even if they had resources, they might not cultivate because of the time requirements. But Jiang Hao didn't have to worry about that. His only concern was resources.

If he could get resources, he could advance without wasting time at all. To get resources, he would definitely have to travel the world and explore dangerous regions.

The place he was from couldn't satisfy his need for resources, so he could only venture out. His spirit herbs were almost gone, although he wasn't the only one who consumed them as he gave some to the tiger too, and he didn't regret it at all.

His experience in melee combat had increased far more than he could imagine, and it was only possible because of the tiger. Every single fight with it was very intense. He also felt that his body had learned to respond intuitively.

Although he had only trained for six months, he wasn't an ordinary human to begin with. His senses were already quite sharp even without training, and now they were on a whole different level.

The tiger had also grown quite close to him. Even though they fought intensively, there was always a tacit understanding between them.

It had also begun to trust him and didn't show any hostility, even when he slept against it. After all, its fur was soft and warm.

But it was time for him to leave. He needed to visit his mother again to reassure her that he was fine.

He also needed to visit the nearest city to gain general knowledge about this world. After all, all his knowledge revolved around his mortal perspective.

He had only visited the city a few times with some villagers. The first time he visited, he was truly awed by its magnificent appearance. It was really very big, and this was one of the outermost cities in the kingdom.

It was also during this time he met real immortals. After all, there were a lot of cultivators in the city. He didn't know if this was usual or not, but the number of cultivators present in the city was alarming, to say the least.

"It's time for me to leave now," he said, patting the tiger's head.

"Growwlll..."

"Eh? What's with the sad tone? It's not like we won't meet again. Cultivate well because next time we meet, I'm going to beat you into the dust again."

"Grhh..."

The tiger snorted and moved its head away from his hand

Jiang Hao laughed when he saw that.