"Qianyuan, hurry and thank Elder Yuan!" Listening nearby, Gong Yuan was both surprised and delighted, and promptly reminded Fang Qianyuan.
Fang Qianyuan bowed again. "Thank you for granting me this opportunity, Elder Yuan."
Elder Yuan said, "You needn't thank me. I made this decision only after reading the records. In the end, you earned it yourself."
"The sect may have its share of failings, but its roots haven't rotted yet. What's rightfully yours is yours."
"Still, even a major merit and a reward don't mean you can soar to success from this day onward. From here on, take care how you conduct yourself."
Elder Yuan's final words seemed laden with meaning.
By fighting for this, Fang Qianyuan had, in a sense, refused to follow arrangements. If the Training Institute's higher-ups took a dislike to him and retaliated, he would have brought it upon himself.
Gong Yuan, however, smiled cheerfully. "Quite right, Elder Yuan. Once he receives a reward from the sect, he'll be a promising disciple, and all the more reason he mustn't slack off. I'll make sure to keep him on his toes."
"Oh, will you?" Elder Yuan smiled and said nothing more.
Hearing this, Fang Qianyuan immediately understood that he had cleared this hurdle completely.
Special Envoy Elder Yuan truly had no interest whatsoever in the disputes within the Training Institute. He approached them from a detached position.
One or two major merits and a high-grade spirit creature as a reward really were nothing to him. He could let them slip through his fingers without a thought.
Fang Qianyuan seemed to have offended the Training Institute's higher-ups, but Elder Gong was even more pleased. This meant Fang Qianyuan would have to attach himself to him and serve faithfully as his disciple.
Fang Qianyuan did not mind relying on Elder Gong for the time being and treating him as his backing.
Once the spirit creature reward arrived and he received focused nurturing, he would soon grow stronger and prove his worth.
In the end, strength was what spoke in this world.
Only with strength did one have value.
Before long, Gong Yuan took his leave and brought Fang Qianyuan out of the Heaven and Earth Institute.
Walking along with a broad smile, he said to Fang Qianyuan, "We were truly fortunate this time. We settled the matter without much effort. Elder Yuan's word is worth a thousand pieces of gold. Now you're guaranteed a spirit creature to use!"
Fang Qianyuan asked curiously, "Elder Gong, everyone says a second-class major merit at the Training Institute earns a high-grade spirit creature as a reward. What spirit creature is it, exactly?"
Gong Yuan said, "Heh, I don't know yet either. It isn't a fixed reward, but a chance to choose from a certain selection. Don't be impatient. Once Elder Yuan returns to Headquarters to file the report and it receives approval, the Merit Hall at Headquarters will send a letter listing the spirit creatures you can choose from."
At this point, he added, "But there is another matter I can decide: the mid-grade spirit creature you can receive from the sect after reaching the fourth transformation."
"That spirit creature..." Warm anticipation stirred in Fang Qianyuan's heart.
The Azure Cloud Sect issued a spirit creature to every formal disciple. Though only mid-grade, it was enough to serve as an ordinary Spirit Tamer's primary spirit creature.
Gong Yuan told him, "Actually, I've been applying for your spirit creature these past few days. Approval should come soon. Use that first when it arrives, then consider the reward for your major merit."
Gong Yuan's arrangements were very thorough. After all, reporting, approving, and delivering a major merit reward would take at least ten days to half a month. Even if Elder Yuan returned to the sect's Headquarters immediately to handle it, Fang Qianyuan would still have to wait a while before receiving the high-grade spirit creature he had fought for.
During that time, he could first establish a spirit bond with one of the sect's standard mid-grade spirit creatures.
The next day, a reply indeed arrived from the Training Institute.
Since this was routine procedure, once the Ascension Hall received Gong Yuan's guarantee and confirmed that Fang Qianyuan had fourth-transformation cultivation, it immediately issued an approval slip and forwarded it to the Administrative Hall.
The Administrative Hall happened to have just received a fresh stock of Blue-Eyed Gray Wolves from Headquarters and sent one over immediately.
What Fang Qianyuan received was a Spirit-Sealing Treasure containing the sealed spirit of a Blue-Eyed Gray Wolf: a round-bellied clay jar resembling a wine jar.
"Junior Brother Fang, if possible, please establish a spirit bond with the spirit creature inside now. We still need to go back and close out the records," said the Administrative Hall duty disciple who had delivered it.
Fang Qianyuan nodded, placed his hand on the jar's seal, and focused on sensing the spirit creature within.
Suddenly, a strange sensation welled up in his heart.
The spirit creature housed inside had extended its spiritual awareness to make contact with him.
All at once, a wolf-shaped streak of blue light broke through the jar's seal and entered Fang Qianyuan's body through his palm.
Fang Qianyuan immediately felt the blood and vital energy throughout his body surge. Within moments, the wolf spirit possessed him, and power far surpassing that of his previous Gray Wolf coursed through his entire body.
A hazy spirit creature consciousness guided his spirit essence, racing through the meridians within him.
In an instant, Fang Qianyuan had successfully established the spirit bond. All that remained was to develop and utilize it at a higher level.
"He really is a genius!" Seeing this, the Administrative Hall duty disciple could only envy him.
During this time, Fang Qianyuan had begun to gain a modest reputation, first because of his performance in the Demon Cave, then because of his subsequent disputes with Ye Tianming.
Before long, the Administrative Hall duty disciple took his leave, and Fang Qianyuan continued studying his newly acquired spirit creature.
It was the soul of a Blue-Eyed Gray Wolf, the primary spirit creature of many disciples at the Cang Mountain Academy. Fang Qianyuan could be said to have already learned much about its various traits.
It was, in fact, a mutated variety of Gray Wolf, larger in size and more powerful, but the methods of controlling it were essentially the same.
Drawing on his previous experience commanding a Gray Wolf spirit, Fang Qianyuan quickly grasped the key to refining it. He gradually familiarized himself with its circulation routes, then replaced his former primary Gray Wolf with it.
Whether Spirit Tamers treated their spirit creatures as companions or tools, controlling them required corresponding spirit essence and circulation routes to support them. Wolf-type spirit creatures had circulation routes extending through almost the entire body, providing comprehensive transformative enhancement. Thus, once a wolf spirit possessed the body, it could not accommodate another primary spirit creature.
However, borrowing individual powers from auxiliary spirit creatures was still possible. For example, the circulation routes for a Swift Eagle's Eagle Eye Art were mostly concentrated around the eyes and did not conflict with the wolf spirit's power.
This was part of practicing supplementary abilities within the transformation Dao.
Beyond that, the manifestation Dao and transformation Dao only competed for time, energy, and resources during cultivation. In actual use, they could instead work together.
The former involved spirit creature possession, allowing the host to wield the corresponding powers, while the latter used spirit essence to reconstruct a body for the spirit creature-a completely different approach.
Fang Qianyuan soon began using the manifestation Dao methods he had learned to condense an avatar for the Gray Wolf spirit he had replaced, then refine it into a manifestation Dao summon.
This was part of a manifestation Dao disciple's ordinary cultivation. It required sufficient understanding of the corresponding spirit creature to condense a usable avatar.
But Fang Qianyuan was already familiar with this method and had often pondered it privately. Before long, he actually succeeded in summoning it.
For the moment, he did not know whether this spirit creature could be used in fierce combat, but from the looks of it, it was already more than adequate as a mount for everyday travel.