"He's a beautiful and strong horse. He has large wings, and he is young. Where did you find such an excellent steed."
"Arion became my partner after I encountered him in the forest. He was surprised by my raw destructive power."
"You're very lucky. He would be an excellent battle companion."
Orphelia's mother, Sophia tossed a Spiritual Apple at Arion who caught it in his mouth and ate it.
"Woah, what a delicious fruit," Arion exclaimed.
"It seems he likes it." She said while brushing Arion's white coat.
"He does, a lot." Maxwell confirmed.
"If you like the apples from our orchard so much, I can give you a lot of them," She said, looking at Arion.
Arion whinnied in response. He was happy to be supplied with delicious apples. After that he left once again.
"Okay, you three wait here. I'll send a servant to get a meal while I change."
They had reached the house where Orphelia used to stay with her parents while they conversed. After 15 minutes of waiting, she came out and a servant girl came rushing coincidentally with a huge basket of food.
"Come let's go drag Thomas out of his study."
They encountered him in front of the main building, stretching his arms.
"There you are. Come, we are going for a picnic."
"Huh, okay." He joined them and they headed for their picnic location. They went to an open grass field that was on a cliff. There were various wildflowers in the grassy plains. The cliff overlooked a giant and turbulent river. There was a giant waterfall on the opposite side of the cliff. The water roared and crashed against the rocks below. The area was extremely cool, and the air was fresh. The qi around them was abundant.
Orphelia's father released his divine sense to check for any Spiritual Beasts nearby and after being assured there were none, he sat down on the mat that had been laid.
"So, my daughter, how is the sect?" he asked suddenly.
"It's good, there's a lot of competition but I have good friends with me."
He continued to ask questions, the conversation slowly feeling like an interview. He listened intently to Orphelia's stories and sometimes made blunt comments. Maxwell also shared some stories, and they nearly revealed the fact they went into the ant nest multiple times.
After eating the mother and daughter duo went for a walk in the grassy fields, leaving the two males alone.
"Father-in-law, you shouldn't be so stiff. She's your daughter, your apathy hurts her."
"I know it does, but I don't know how to change that."
"You just have to try to speak to her more honestly, be more open. You can't even give her a gift successfully, how will you be able to express yourself."
"I can't believe my son-in-law is teaching me. How did you realize I wanted to gift her?"
"You were being fidgety, and your hand was going into your pocket. You were unsure when to give it and in the end you didn't." Maxwell told his observations.
"You're quite observative aren't you."
"Well, it's one of my proficient abilities. How about I give that gift to her on your behalf? You can use that as a topic to get comfortable enough to express yourself."
"Fine. You better not pull anything with my daughter." He reluctantly handed over a spatial ring.
"There's a lot of gifts in this. Did you fail to give these many?" Maxwell gave out a long sigh, "You were so scared of being hated by her that in the end you made her sad. She doesn't hate you; you still have a chance."
As if on cue, Orphelia's mother returned with Orphelia still admiring the various wildflowers. Maxwell walked up to her while she was looking at a small patch of daffodils.
"Those flowers have a nice color. They are like the sun."
"So, what did you and my father talk about?" she asked while helping buds bloom with her wood qi.
"Nothing much, we just talked about this and that."
"It's fine if you don't want to tell me."
"Why are you mad at your father? He's just terrible at expressing how he feels. All those questions were his roundabout way of seeing if you were fine."
"Stop trying to comfort me with lies," she said grumpily while plucking a weed.
"I'm not lying," he said while taking her soft hand and placing the spatial ring in it. "He has gotten all these gifts for you, but he could never get himself to give it to you."
"What's …" she checked it and realized. "There's so many gifts in here, 20 of them."
Her surprised expression turned to sadness.
"Does he think gifts will help?"
"Those are the gifts he couldn't give you in the past 10 years. He is scared that you changed a lot and that you will hate him. Once he realizes your relationship is still as close, he will be assured that you won't despise him. Just give him some time and opportunities."
Orphelia sat next to the flowers thinking about what he said. Maxwell then left her alone. He returned home to spend time with his sister before she left for the Black Tortoise Kingdom. Maxwell gave Lily many different pills and cultivation resources to use.
Arion was going to take Lily in the carriage Maxwell got in the Treasure Pavilion. It would be able to conceal them while protecting them from the attacks of any strong opponents. Maxwell believed it could even hide them from the powerhouses of a kingdom.
Early next morning.
"Bye Lily. Don't forget to contact us frequently." Maxwell waved at Lily as she got in the carriage.
Arion's wings lifted a torrent of dust as he took off running. He was gone in a matter of seconds as he built up speed. Arion would be back in a week or so. He knew where to go using a map he was taught to read. He could also follow a road that led there.
Maxwell went straight to the training grounds to continue refining the beast core.
'If I refine the other beast cores I got, I should be able to breakthrough to Stage 7. I can't use more than that otherwise the qi I acquired would run rampant through my body.'
Once Maxwell refined the Level 5 core halfway qi surged in his body, threatening to break it.
'It's a bit too much to handle, any normal Formation Establishment stage cultivator shouldn't dream of refining even a rank 4 core much less a rank.'
Maxwell handled it calmly by channeling it to a blocked meridian. The waves of qi acted as a battering ram, destroying the blockage. Impurities flowed out from his skin, layering him in a putrid smelling black and sticky coat.
'Yuck, good thing I prepared the bath.'
Maxwell discarded his soiled clothes and walked in the bath.
'Let's try refining the core with the dragon.'
He used his thoughts to direct the dragon to the core. As soon as the dragon contacted the core it slowly started to break away.
'This doesn't work, it just destroys it. It's perfect to destroy any poison.'
Maxwell quickly refined the rest of the core and broke through before the water got cold and cleaned himself of the sticky black layer.
"Woah, this is cool. My mind feels so much quicker and clearer after unblocking the meridian leading to it. Now I can use space qi techniques for longer without a splitting headache."
Maxwell had unblocked the meridians leading to his limbs and head, he was yet to unblock the ones leading to each eye, each ear and finally his heart. With the meridians he had unblocked, his combat abilities would be much better. He practiced against the training dummy to get used to the increased efficiency of his qi. He also used Instant Transmission a lot to test his limits. He could move 50 meters away. He stopped when he was on the verge of tiring his mind out.
Almost 2 months later, when Maxwell was about to leave for the sect. Arion had returned 10 days after leaving, unscathed. Maxwell broke through the 8th stage of Foundation Establishment. Orphelia on the other hand had reached stage 12 before returning to her sect. She had fixed her relationship with her father, and they were no longer awkward with each other.
"Bye mom, bye dad!" Maxwell shouted from Arion's back as they left. Roaring Dragon Sect was much closer than the capital.
The Roaring Dragon Sect was in a mountain in the center of Azure Dragon Kingdom, it stood alone, with its peak carved like a dragon head. The peak pierced through the clouds. The entrance was a magnificent gateway with twin dragons snaking around the posts, roaring at the heavens. The guards were at Soul Transformation Stage.
Arion landed in front of the gate smoothly, scaring some cultivators.
Whispers spread through the various people gathered around the gate.
"Who's that?"
"That's the winner of the Grand Examination in the capital."
"I heard he has both Lightning and Space affinities."
Maxwell hopped off Arion and helped up a young boy, 4 years younger than him who had been surprised and fell over after being pushed by a cultivator that was running from Arion.
"Th-thank you."
"It was kind of my fault you got knocked over, you don't need to thank me."
The fear in the other newcomers' eyes dwindled after they saw him helping a young boy. They assumed he would be filled with arrogance and disregard for them.
"How come you got into the Roaring Dragon Sect?" Maxwell asked the young boy.
"I'm an apprentice of the Head Alchemist. At least I will be after learning as a helper for 2 years."
"I see, I'll come to you for any pills I need then, in the future. You have good potential, I can sense it."
"Thank you."
Maxwell conversed with the boy, whose name was Jonathan. He had no surname since he came from an ordinary family.