"Junior Steward," Brother Kai finally broke the silence, his voice a low, hesitant rumble. "You… you succeeded?"
Li Yu opened his eyes and he gave them a small, reassuring smile. "I did."
The two simple words were a confirmation that sent a wave of joyous feelings through the three men. He had done it. At the age of fifteen, after just four years of cultivation, he had stepped into a realm that they, with their decades of bitter struggle, had only just begun to touch.
"Foundation… Establishment…" Hu Jian whispered the words as if they were a sacred prayer, his usual boisterousness completely gone, replaced by longing. That was a realm that he dreamt of reaching but it felt so far away. To see one of his friends reach it gave him mixed feelings of happiness and longing.
"We must inform your master immediately," Lin Tao said, his voice sharp with a new, fierce protectiveness.
"That is where we are going now," Li Yu said, his gaze turning towards the highest, cloud-wreathed peak.
He went from the lake to his master's pagoda. He left his friends at the base of the mountain, a silent understanding passing between them. This was a meeting that he had to attend alone. They would wait for him down below.
He walked the familiar path up Azure Cloud Peak. His steps were light, his presence a perfect harmony with the vibrant, spiritual energy of the mountain. He arrived at the nine-story pagoda to find Elder Ning waiting for him, not in her study but on the highest open-air balcony. She stood with her back to him, looking out at the vast and sprawling domain of the Green Mountain Sect.
Li Yu knelt, "Disciple Li Yu greets Master."
"Rise, no need for politeness" she said, her voice quiet, without its usual sharp authority. She did not turn around. She was silent for a long moment. "Show me," she said slowly and softly.
Li Yu understood. He did not speak. He simply relaxed the perfect control of his «Myriad Rivers Returning to the Sea Art».
For a single moment, the calm, unassuming pond of his aura vanished, replaced by a bottomless, abyssal ocean. The full unrestrained power of his First Stage Foundation Establishment cultivation washed over the balcony. The air grew heavy, the spiritual energy of the peak itself seeming to swirl around him. The bonsai tree in the corner trembled, its leaves rustling in a wind that was not there.
Elder Ning, a powerful expert at the mid-stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm did not flinch but her hands, hidden in her long sleeves, clenched into tight fists. She slowly turned around, her face usually a mask of calm, stern control now a canvas of pure unadulterated shock. Her spiritual sense, which could see through mountains and calm raging beasts, was telling her something that her mind refused to believe.
She could not see the details of his foundation, but she could feel its quality. It was a presence so deep, so dense and so impossibly stable that it made her own hard-won foundation feel like a fragile glass ball in comparison.
"Your foundation… I've never sensed a foundation as stable and deep as yours," she whispered, her voice shaking with a mixture of disbelief and a dawning, terrifying excitement. "How… how is this possible? Such a foundation…"
"I do not know, Master," Li Yu replied truthfully. "It was… an accident."
He recounted the story of his breakthrough, a carefully edited version of the truth. He spoke of his secret training methods to purify his Qi, the pure energy of the pavilion but left out the strange benevolent presence in the abyss below. He described the moment of his breakthrough, the disturbance in the grotto and the feeling of a strange, warm, green energy being drawn into his forming foundation by chance. He made no mention of Khaos as well.
Elder Ning listened, her mind racing to process the implications. An accident. It was a foundation that was profound, a path that led directly to great heights. What's more important than laying a proper foundation? Almost nothing.
She looked at her disciple, this fifteen-year-old boy who was now a Foundation Establishment expert and a great booming laugh of pure unadulterated joy erupted from her.
"Good!" she roared, her voice echoing across the peak. "Excellent! My disciple is not just a dragon; he is a divine beast that will devour the heavens!"
Her laughter slowly subsided, replaced by a look of keen focused interest. Her earlier fears about his safety had been answered in the Blackwood Forest. The sect had chosen to protect him, not suppress him. The question was no longer about survival but about his future.
"You have stepped into a new world, Li Yu," she said, her voice now serious and full of a teacher's pride. "A foundation like yours… It is a blessing but it is also a burden. Its potential is high but it will surely attract envy as well. What is your plan? What do you require to continue your journey?"
This was the question he had been preparing for. "Master is wise," he said, his expression turning grave. "My new foundation is powerful, but it is also… hungry. I can sense the passive energy it devours is immense. I will need more qi than others to advance."
He looked his master directly in the eye, his ambition laid bare for the first time. "I do not wish to leave the sect, Master. This is my home. Instead, I wish to make myself and my home stronger. The sect's aquatic beast division is profitable but it is small, an afterthought compared to the mining, alchemy and herb-gathering divisions. I wish to change that."
He took a deep breath. "I want to expand it. I propose we build a new, much larger facility in the sect's southern river valley. A 'Deepwater Menagerie,' a place capable of housing and breeding beasts up to the Rank 6 Hegemon level. It will provide me with the resources I need for my own cultivation and to build my army of beasts."
"But more than that, it will become a new massive source of income and power for our sect. We can supply the entire region with high-grade beasts, form new alliances and solidify the position of our Beast Taming Hall."
Elder Ning was silent as she studied her disciple. She saw no childish fantasy in his eyes, only a calm, calculated and incredibly ambitious plan. He was not just asking for resources for just himself; he was proposing a strategy that would benefit them all. He was starting to think not just like a cultivator but like a true elder, a pillar of the sect.
A slow, proud smile spread across her face. "You are no longer just a disciple, Li Yu. You are a true partner in our lineage here at the beast hall." She made her decision. "Your plan is ambitious but it is sound. I will present it to the Sect Master and the council myself. With the political capital we gained from exposing Elder Jin and your current status as a raising cultivator, it should be approved."
She placed a hand on his shoulder. "This project will be yours to command. You will have the full authority and resources of the sect at your disposal. This is your new mission. Build your menagerie. Build your army. And show this world the true, untapped power of a beast tamer."