Chapter 222: Little Monster
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Since the day of the battle against Ethan, Feng Huang had been questioning how her disciple had managed to achieve such a high level of power in so little time.
As someone who had reached the highest cultivation stage in the mortal plane, she was well aware of how difficult it was to attain that level.
She knew that talent alone wasn't enough; immense time and patience were also required to cultivate to that extent.
Feng Huang herself was born with extraordinary cultivation talent, which had allowed her to reach the Fifth Stage in a far shorter time than other Fifth-Stage cultivators.
In fact, she was the youngest high-stage cultivator among the three reigning sect masters of the empire.
Although she didn't show it, she took pride in this accomplishment, but that pride was utterly shattered when Ethan defeated her a few days ago.
The level of power he displayed wasn't something one could achieve in a mere two years.
It wasn't even feasible to reach such heights in a century, and yet here he was, claiming he had no cultivation two years ago when she saved him.
Even she knew that was true because back then, she hadn't sensed any trace of spiritual Qi within him, and judging from his condition, it was hard to believe he had suppressed his cultivation.
And yet, here he was, after only two years, a Fifth-Stage cultivator.
To make matters worse, his appearance wasn't that of someone barely past twenty but rather of a full-grown adult.
The more she thought about it, the more inconsistencies she found in him.
In the end, she decided to wait for him to tell her everything as he had promised.
So, after her defeat, she no longer hesitated and accepted the soul contract.
When she arrived at his residence, she noticed it didn't seem like it had ever been used.
The conditions of the place were akin to those of an abandoned building.
Dust could even be seen settling on some of the furniture, clearly not just due to a lack of cleaning.
She didn't dwell on it for long, and when she finally reached Ethan, he asked if she was ready.
She didn't understand the meaning of the question, but as soon as she answered yes, she was struck by a brief sensation of dizziness.
Her senses were scrambled, thrown into chaos for a fleeting moment before they returned to normal.
Although the experience lasted less than a second, it was enough to leave her bewildered, especially when she realized she was no longer in the residence.
What she now perceived was a completely different place.
She immediately examined her surroundings and realized they weren't even within the Phoenix Sect, nor for that matter, within the Phoenix Kingdom.
Since it was her territory, she would've immediately recognized it with her spiritual senses. This wasn't it.
A flash of confusion crossed her mind as she began observing more details of the place.
'Hm? This concentration of spiritual energy…'
The first thing she noticed was the overwhelming density of spiritual Qi in the air. It far exceeded anything she had ever encountered.
Just by breathing it, she could tell that her cultivation had progressed, albeit to an infinitesimally small extent.
As she grew more puzzled by this mysterious location, Ethan, standing a few meters away, smiled and said:
"Welcome to my world."
Another month passed.
During this time, Ethan mostly stayed at the Peng family residence, helping the group of seven alchemists increase their productivity.
He spent the first day within his minor dimension, helping Feng Huang adapt to her new environment.
He also assisted her in expelling all the errors in her cultivation base.
Naturally, this caused her cultivation to regress. By the end of the process, she was left at the Third Stage.
Normally, it would've been even lower, but Ethan managed to preserve fragments of her previous cultivation while removing all the problematic aspects.
Even so, she ended up two stages lower than before.
Afterward, he taught her the correct technique and helped her find a compatible spirit beast.
Thanks to his mastery of soul manipulation, he quickly guided her through the proper methods.
However, he had to admit that with Feng Huang's talent, she handled most of the process independently.
To their surprise, the spirit she summoned was a fire elemental in the form of a miniature phoenix.
Seeing it, Ethan could only conclude that this was likely due to her having assimilated a phoenix beast's soul in the past.
Once she was settled and left in the minor dimension to recover her cultivation properly this time, Ethan returned to the outside world to deal with his affairs.
By the end of the month, the alchemical abilities of the seven had improved dramatically.
Currently, five of them had reached the rank of Expert, with one of them at the peak of this rank.
The remaining two managed to advance to the rank of Master Alchemist, an achievement that thrilled everyone, especially the Peng family patriarch.
One of the two was the alchemist who had doubted Ethan's abilities. Now, he was nearly at the Two-Star level.
The other, to everyone's surprise, wasn't his colleague, who had already been at One-Star Expert rank, but rather a young woman among the five who had only been an Apprentice at the start of their training.
The young woman, named Ming Yu, was a member of a Peng family branch.
During Ethan's teachings, it was discovered that she possessed an extraordinary natural talent for alchemy, a talent even Ethan had to admire.
Eager to see how far she could go, Ethan pushed her to her limits.
To his surprise, she learned three times faster than her peers, and by the end of the month, she had reached the entry-level rank of Master Alchemist.
If word got out that a girl barely nineteen years old had achieved such a rank, many Master Alchemists would probably die of shock, questioning what they had done with their lives.
Although she was currently second in skill, the Two-Star cultivator knew it was only a matter of time before she surpassed him, and he was right.
One month later, she outpaced him, reaching the rank of Three-Star Master Alchemist.
Ethan praised the young woman and decided to appoint her as the leader of the alchemist group he had formed.
No one objected to this decision since everyone had witnessed her capabilities firsthand.
The only person to comment was Bai Yu, who teased Ethan, claiming he was more interested in young girls than in mature and beautiful women like herself.
By now Ethan had got used to the dragon woman's teasing.
Instead of arguing back, he threatened to withhold Coke from her for a month before returning to his lessons.
The patriarch, proud that his family had produced such a talent, felt he could finally die in peace, but he was approached by Ethan who seemed to have other plans for him