Kapitel 197: New Faces - A Worrying Situation.

Having dealt with the meeting atop the central mountain, Shu He decided to return to his normal activities; He already had a plan once he left his short seclusion – That was to prepare to set out for the Keystone Pilgrimage!

He had put it off long enough, he could have set off more than a month ago but he had wanted to achieve the first Heaven of the Nine Heaven's Divine Body for assurance, now that he had he felt he was plenty prepared for the journey ahead of him, he just needed to retrieve a few items before he set out and he would be ready; The first place he was heading to was simple.

The Beast Taming Division.

He peacefully waited for the elevator to descend as he further acclimated to his body, it wasn't taking long at all, despite only finishing the first transformation earlier today he was already comfortable with it, it was truly a miraculous technique, though he would still need to test the full extent of his transformation later on.

As soon as the lift came to a stop and the door opened Shu Xue ran out ahead and shouted, "Can I go play?" to which Shu He nodded with a smile "I'll be off visiting some other places so stay here for little while" to which she yelled "Okay!" before running off into the bushes, turning back in to her silver white duck form as she went.

He shook his head as he chuckled, in the end she was still a young spirit animal, following him as he participated in meetings or small talk was probably boring to her, the joy on her face as she ran off told him that clearly.

She was definitely looking forward to leaving the sect on a journey.

Shu He made his way to the main sanctuary building, outside were three people feeding the animals since it was mid-day, one of them was Jian He, Shu He's senior brother and the head of the Best Taming Division – It was only a couple months back that he and Na Xue had returned from their mission looking a little worn for wear with multiple herds of spirit beasts trailing behind them.

At first, Shu He was worried, yet as he glanced at his Senior Brother's expression he knew something good had happened, and since he had made the contract before he could sense the same thing from Jian He, he had finally made a contract with Yingzi!

He wasn't too privy to the details since Jian He felt too embarrassed to admit it, but his Senior Sister had no problems giving an overview – Jian He had felt too inferior, he didn't want to drag Yingzi's potential down and had no confidence in himself to improve as a cultivator, at one point they were only surviving because of Na Xue and the Lunarflame Ursa they brought with him.

In the end, it was Yingzi itself that slapped the lack of confidence right out of him, quite literally according to Na Xue before dragging him to make a contract, Shu He wishes he could have seen such a spectacle but in the end all that matters is that Jian He seems to have gained a new level of confidence.

That could be seen in the fact that he was currently teaching two new disciples that joined the Division! Though, the fact is it was Shu He that managed to get them to join during the time they were away, in the end the work was too much for just him and Elder Bai who quickly became lazy after a month.

There were three new disciples, one female –

Cai Lian, she was an inner disciple at the Balance Attainment stage, she had long black hair that was braided in two at the back, a freckled face and hazel eyes.

And two male –

Yao Hu, he was an inner disciple that was close to becoming a core disciple – he was at Elemental Infusion, his spiky brown hair and sharp amber eyes gave him a look that resembled a wild animal to some.

And finally, Wan Ye who was an outer disciple on the edge of Balance Attainment, apparently, he had joined the sect in the batch before Shu He, so he was still fairly new, he had long dark green hair and clear blue eyes yet was rather shy.

Truthfully, Shu He didn't find it too hard to recruit these three – they were all disciples that had been interested to join before yet had all been put off from joining, not because they weren't interested but the antics between Elder Bai and Na Xue had been taken as targeted harassment, making it seem like they weren't needed.

After some convincing he managed to get them to join and since Na Xue was away, he managed to restrain Elder Bai and get them settled in which reduced his workload, one the other two returned they had been overjoyed at having more members, praising Shu He endlessly for his work, especially Jian He.

Anyway, the two that Jian He was teaching right now were Cai Lian and Wan Ye who diligently followed his instructions as Shu He strode up to them.

"Hey, everything seems to be going well here" He greeted them as the two newer members nodded to him before carrying on with their tasks, despite them being seniors as a sect disciple, inside the division they were his juniors, which was a weird feeling for Shu He.

"Oh, Shu He? You're finished with what you were doing?" Jian He replied as his eyes suddenly snapped to Wan Ye as he yelled "Ah! Be careful when feeding those Shock Boars! Don't touch their tusks!" which caused the long-haired man to fall on his behind in fear "S-sorry Senior Brother!".

"It's fine, just try to remember the traits of the animals, especially the spirit animals or you'll have a hard time" He reminded his junior.

"Thank you for your guidance, senior brother!" Wan Ye hopped up and bowed before he returned to filling the trough, carefully avoiding the long tusks that were on the yellow furred boars this time.

"He's a little stiff, but at least he's diligent" Jian He sighed "Anyway, what was I saying?"

"I'm done with my preparations" Shu He reminded him "Do you know where Elder Bai is?"

"He should be at his usual place" Jian He's expression dropped "The moment we return, he stops being helpful… would it hurt him to act like an Elder for once?".

"Well, there's nothing we can do unfortunately…" The two of them sighed in sync "Do you know if he's prepared what I asked for?".

"Yeah, he's got it with him… said he didn't want you to set off without seeing him".

"I'm flattered he cares, but would I hurt him to care more all the time?" Shu He shook his head "By the way, where's Senior Sister?".

Jian He shrugged his shoulders "She's been lethargic since we returned, probably off sleeping somewhere again… well, I think it's fine for now" he said as he looked off in to the distance with a bit of worry.

Shu He glanced in that direction, extending his territory as he sighed "I'll see if I can do anything".

"Thanks" Jian He replied with heartfelt gratitude, Shu He could tell he felt guilty for her current situation, in the end he organised how his parts of the work would be covered for the time he was away before setting off.

…

A similar sight sat before Shu He, in fact it was almost identical to the first time he met her, the Lunaflame Ursa laid on its back with its large tummy rising up and down, its large dark blue furred body was covered with fresh scars that it had gained from their recent expedition, atop the black fur was a figure fully nude, her fresh pink hair loose as her limbs were flat out as she slept peacefully, unlike before she hadn't noticed his arrival at all.

It wasn't because she had gotten careless, it was because she was that physically exhausted that she couldn't move well, their expedition had turned in to something far beyond the initial scope as they had encountered a stampede of multiple spirit beast hurds putting them in the middle of a spirit beast territory war, Na Xue had exhausted herself defending their small group before Jian He finally took command.

Shu He still doesn't know what technique she uses, as she still refuses to reveal it to him, yet it was clear that conventional recovery medicine wouldn't help her at all. He steadily made his way to the Ursa as he sent a weak pulse of Qi toward it, announcing his arrival.

Its head slowly rose up as one of its eyes opened, seeing Shu He's figure it seemed to sigh as it lifted its paw and gently lifted Na Xue on to some large leaves nearby as she stirred from her sleep.

"Hmn… who is it?" her eyes opened "Oh… Shu He? What brings you here?" her reaction felt underwhelming, missing the usual bubbliness that she had before. Shu He felt it was wrong, seeing her like this, before he felt annoyed how brazen she was, but now he found he slightly pitiful to see her figure like this.

"Senior Sister, I'm leaving the sect in a few days for the Keystone Pilgrimage, so I was doing some rounds before I left".

"Oh… So, you came to say goodbye? I'm happy you thought of me." Her feelings were genuine, but her low energy almost made her words seem sarcastic.

Shu He dug in to his robes and pulled out a vial containing three different types of pills, and a small scroll as he knelt down and handed them to her.

"These are?" She looked confused as she glanced at them, still half asleep.

"I asked my teacher about your situation, and she gave me these recovery pills, they're a set that work for recovering every aspect of the body so they should be helpful" he said as he placed the vial into her hands.

"And this…" He showed her the small scroll, unfolding it "It's the new version of the Elixir you gave me, I consulted Elder Jiang this time to make it even better".

Na Xue looked between the scroll and Shu He before a small tear welled up in the corner of one of her eyes "You did this for me?... Ah… Thank you, Shu He, I have such a good junior brother…" She steadily look the scroll from him, standing from the large leaf she was stood on.

It was to be said, she was still nude; It's just that Shu He had seen it too many times now along with dealing with patients, he had gotten used to it, for better or worse.

Yet, as she stood up she tumbled, falling in to Shu He who caught her while bewildered.

"Senior Sister, are you okay?!" He asked with worry.

"Sorry... I slipped… I just…" she said, but then she went silent.

"…Senior Sister?" Shu He asked, only getting silence in response; For some reason he began to have an uneasy feeling as he gently lifted Na Xue away from him, glancing at her face.

'What the?!' he was bewildered, she was, of course, fine; Except those grass green pupils of her had been dyed a crimson red as her mouth stuttered while a hint of drool fell from the corner of her lips.

"…Senior Sister?!" He asked with worry this time.

Her red pupils slowly looked up at him, locking with his eyes as he felt an odd chill, he didn't feel like he was looking at another person right now but rather… a beast.

"Shu He…" A slightly sensual voice came from his senior sister yet he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand at attention.

"Do you mind… If I had some of your blood?".

"…What?!".