Alex continued cultivating with the same sense of time as he had before, which was none.
How many days had it been? 3, maybe 4? He had never cultivated for this long before, but he knew that this was something common amongst the cultivators. So, he should start doing this more often as well.
Some cultivated for weeks on end, maybe even months. His cultivating for a few days was nothing.
However, there was one problem with his cultivation that took him a while to figure out.
Since he was so focused on healing himself, the cultivation hadn't really helped towards his cultivation base.
At least, his healing had been better. By now, everything that was torn or broken was healed. His meridians were three-fourths of the way back to normal.
The only problem was he was still very skinny, almost skeletal. It seemed his muscle mass wouldn't return from simply cultivating.
If it did, he would have to do it for a really long time. So, Alex went on to continue cultivating for a while longer.
* * * * *
5 men and women walked into the forest, a hint of hurried walking in their footsteps. They wore reddish-brown robes, tied in the waist by a yellow sash.
"Brother Yun," one of the 3 men called the other man that looked like the leader of this small group.
"What is it?" the man asked.
"That," the man pointed to something in the trees.
The leader and the rest of the group looked in the direction he pointed at and saw something up in the tree.
It was a bird. Not a simple one either. It was an Azure Silverbeak. Silverbeaks came about in many colors that ranged from red to purple. However, one with pigment that looked blue was rather hard to find.
"Woah! Good job, little brother, you found a fortune for us today," the leader said and propped up his ax to fight.
He had a cultivation base of the 1st True disciple realm, the strongest of the group.
2 of the other men held swords in their hands and had a cultivation base around the 8th Mind Tempering realm.
The 2 girls held a bow and a saber with them, and have a cultivation base of 7th and 9th Mind Tempering realm.
"Alright, slowly fan out, and get your nets ready. Make sure not to hurt it too bad. We don't want to spend money on pills to heal the bird," the leader said.
The rest of them nodded and slowly moved around the bird. Once they were in position, they got their nets ready.
The four of them looked towards the leader for the sign, and as they did, the leader nodded.
At once, all 5 of them threw their nets at the bird on top of the tree. The nets flew through the air, reaching the bird.
However, just then, the bird dived down from the tree and escaped the nets.
"Follow it!" the leader said, and the 5 of them started running towards it.
The Azure Silverbeak was a Mind Tempering realm beast, likely in the 8th or 9th realm. However, due to the fact that it wasn't very good at fighting, it had instead come to become very fast at flying.
The bird zipped through the air at such a speed that only the leader could even keep track of where it was going.
Even then, the leader was slowly falling behind.
The bird flew in between the trees, zigzagging its way through the branches high above.
The leader started to worry that he would lose it. The bird would fetch him at least 20 True spirit stones, if not more.
That, spread among the 5 of them, would mean he would get at least 5 True spirit stones.
5 True Spirit stones a week was far more than anything the 5 of them had earned in the last months.
He couldn't let that bird get away. He decided to employ his speed to the highest, maybe even using his blood essence for it.
However, just as he was about to do that, he saw something white flash from ahead of the bird and move towards it.
As the leader kept watching it, the bird flew down to the ground, with something else on top of it.
The leader stopped when he got close and saw the thing that was atop the bird.
A little white cat was licking its paw, while the other paw held the Azure Silverbeak to the ground. The bird was still alive, but it seemed to have something broken in it from the attack.
'What the hell?' the leader thought. The other 4 members of his group arrived not long after to see the scene as well and were equally shocked.
"Oh my god! So cute," the two girls said the moment they saw the little white cat.
The other two men didn't say it, but they nodded it as well.
The leader kept on looking at it with a confused look. "Have you guys ever seen a cat beast before?" he asked.
The group looked confused as well and realized that they had indeed never seen one before.
"Maybe it's a mutant feline beast. It should be very rare," one of the men said.
"It's a little kitten too. The rich folks would pay a fortune for it if we can get it. Not to mention it's so cute," one of the girls said.
"9th Mind Tempering realm… we should be able to," the leader said. "Alright, get your nets ready."
The group got into their stance, ready to capture the cat in front of them.
Pearl looked at the 5 people with a confused look on his face. Just moments ago, he had been sitting comfortably —well, maybe not very comfortably, given how hot it was— on top of the tree branch, when suddenly a bird flew its way.
He knew that Alex couldn't be distracted right now as he had been ordered to protect him, so Pearl took down the bird.
However, now these 5 humans had appeared out of nowhere.
Humans, they are good people, right? He thought. He had only known humans that loved him and cared for him, so he assumed they were the same.
However, when he saw them get into a fighting stance with weapons and other things in their hand, he couldn't help but cock his head in confusion.
"ENIMI?" he asked, pronouncing the word as well as he could.
The group of 5 froze. They looked in awe and surprised, at Pearl and then at each other.
"IT TALKED!" one of the men whispered as loudly as possible in a slow cadence.
"HOLY SHIT! We will be so rich if we get it," one of the girls said excitedly.
The leader looked towards Pearl and numerous thoughts ran through his mind.
"Alright, let's hurry and capture it. We will be in trouble if someone stronger comes here," the leader said.
The group nodded and got ready.
Seeing that they were really trying to fight him, Pearl understood that they were his enemy.
Claws slowly came out of all 4 of Pearl's paws as he too got ready to fight.
