Aaron left a few times in the following two days to buy materials, some of which he used to inscribe a formation on the middle floor of the three-floor store.

Arcane Formation Arts: Omniscient Ward.

It was a weak formation, a simple One Star one, as that was the limit of what he could do. Its purpose was merely to warn him if something he would consider lethal danger trespassed on the ward. If that happened, he would be ready to defend himself.

Thanks to his dantian, body, spirit, and soul having already been baptized by three energies — Qi, Arcane, and Divine — he would be able to stop his cultivation of a third energy midway through. It would gravely injure him and could only be done once, but it was better than dying.

Aaron took a deep breath and looked at his sleeping clan. He had forced Lana to sleep, as she could do nothing but wait anxiously for him to finish. Worse still, traumatized people sometimes did stupid things. Not only didn't he want her to hurt herself, but he also didn't want her to break his ward and hurt him.

He had seen too many powerful people fall for trusting the goodwill of stupid people around them. Lana wasn't stupid, but her suffering made her prone to stupidity.

After his cursory glance at them, he checked the ward one last time.

The formation was made of gold dust, Arcane onyx sand, and the blood of six different Five Star beasts. Each beast had been attuned to one of the six Divine Laws when alive, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, and Mind. He elected to use the very expensive blood of powerful beasts to make up for his lack of power.

The ward could determine the intentions of anyone up to the Five Star level and could pierce any stealth skill up to the Three Star level. Maybe up to Four Stars if their skills weren't particularly good. He could only hope it was enough.

Aaron took a deep breath, calmed himself, and closed his eyes. He was completely recovered. It was time to cultivate once again.

He created a third formation layer on his dantian, filled it with Vital Energy from his body, and used that to create a new vortex to absorb Vital Energy from his surroundings.

In this world, plants held mostly Nature Energy inside them, and some Wood Elemental Energy. Animals, sapient included, held Vital Energy instead. There was some Vital Energy in the air, but most of what Aaron's vortex sucked in came from people in the city. He obviously wouldn't kill them, but they would feel extra tired in the coming days.

It only took him seven minutes to create a new formation layer in his dantian and absorb enough Vital Energy to become a One Star Vitamancer. His Arcane cultivation would take half an hour though, and his Qi cultivation, an entire hour. He could only hope no enemy would take the opportunity to attack.

Back when he had become a Three Star Qi Manipulator, he had absorbed Earth-attuned Qi particles into himself. Now, it was time to choose an additional element, and he knew exactly what he wanted.

Wood.

Of the Five Divine Physical Laws, Wood was the one most closely related to Life, so focusing on Wood Laws would increase the potency of his Vital Energy a bit. It would also passively increase his survivability, regardless of the Vital Energy. Lastly, it would help with anything he did related to nature, from taming beasts, to forming soul contracts, to alchemy.

Considering he also planned to open an alchemy shop on Illyria, it was a perfect choice.

Wood Laws flooded his being.

Aaron grew stronger.

There was darkness, there was pain, and there was cold.

Agony.

Suffering.

Despair.

And then there was light. A warm light that filled everything, that touched everywhere. It was weak, almost unnoticeable. But it was there, and it gave birth to a new sensation.

Hope.

With hope came strength. It-

No, not it.

She.

She was a she. She remembered.

In that hope for a better tomorrow, she found strength where there had been none. She fought. Valiantly so.

Yet, she could only resist the advance of the End.

Yes, that was a fitting name. The cold, dark, painful End was just that, an End to all that she was, all she had been, all that she could become.

The End.

But the light wasn't the only thing that helped. There was something else that appeared one day.

It was a black wisp of power that seemed to jump and play in the vast world that was her soul. It looked like a formless ball at times. It looked like the shadow of a cat at other times.

As carefree as it looked most of the time, it also protected her in its own way. Once, the End had approached in a sudden attack, but the cat just... pawned it away. Almost as if it were pushing the End out of the edge of her soul, just to see it fall.

The light remained, a guide in the darkness, a silent promise of a brighter future if she only held on. It comforted her in ways she didn't know possible.

The shadow remained, a strange guardian, a disinterested sentinel that would hold — if nothing else because it had decided she was its playground. That she belonged to it and no one else. It decreased her fear in ways she didn't expect.

She hoped and fought, and time passed. And then, one day, everything changed.

The light shone brightly. Bright like the sun. Bright like a fire just before his eyes.

The shadow entered the light somehow, and the light-shadow burned.

It burned her very essence.

Her soul.

Her everything.

It burned!

And it burned so painfully!

And it burned so good!

It filled her with meaning, purpose, and self.

She was Alys Tyren, and she was not allowed to die today.

The cultivation session was over. Aaron was now a Four Star Qi Manipulator, a Two Star Arcanist, and a One Star Vitamancer. Power coursed through his veins. No one in that kingdom was a match for him anymore, and he would be able to level up again in only three days.

He was confident of defeating any Five Star Cultivator except an Entropomancer just by using his Qi alone. If he also used his Arcane and Vital Energies, he was confident of defeating a Five Star Entropomancer, or holding his own against a Champion Cultivator of any energy for very few instants.

More importantly, he could now directly affect souls. That's what he was doing right now: treating Alys' soul with his Arcane Energy.

Her body shook violently as her soul mended. At one point, her mind tried to fight his influence over her, but he used a simple spell to force even her subconscious mind to go to sleep.

The treatment of her soul was completed successfully. That alone was enough for her mind to mend until it became nine separated parts instead of the bits from before. She was mostly out of danger — as long as he kept his ethereal blanket on her — and might even wake up in a few weeks. Most likely though, she would keep in a coma until Aaron could heal her mind.

That done, he turned to Lana, whom he had woken up a few moments ago. "Are you ready for the soul contract?"

She was holding Tatou in her arms and nodded once. Aaron gestured with his hand for her to enter a formation he had already drawn on the ground.

This formation had been even more expensive than the ward formation. It was made of pure Arcane crystal dust. While he was strong enough to interact with souls at the Two Star level, making a soul contract was an energetically costly operation. He simply didn't have enough Arcane Energy in his dantian to do it, which the dust would supply.

Using formations wasn't something he took lightly.

Just like with external living help, Aaron refused to become dependent on formations or powerful items to fight. Doing so hindered a cultivator's progress, sometimes permanently. If they saw no reason to grow strong, if they could already find the power they needed in external help, it became hard to find the motivation to keep cultivating.

However, sometimes he had needs that couldn't be met without external help, or at all. Only a Prime Immortal or a formation could have allowed him to take his items out of his defective ring. Only an ally — so external help anyway — or a formation could've kept sentry while he cultivated. Now, only someone else giving him energy — also external help — or a formation could supply him with the energy he needed.

In all cases, only extra personnel or someone unfeasibly stronger could've replaced a formation. Doing the impossible or substituting just another kind of external help for a formation greatly decreased the chances of him growing dependent on it.

But he never stopped considering the dangers. The human heart was deceitful. No matter how powerful one was, no matter how focused on their goals, humans always found a way to self-sabotage.

A cultivator's greatest enemy always was oneself.

Lana sat in the center of the formation and placed Tatou on her lap. Aaron approached but stayed outside, then used a sliver of Arcane Energy to activate the formation. It came to life with only a low glow because there was still one thing required for it to flare to life.

"Lana, repeat after me. I, Lana..."

"I, Lana, take Tatou as my soul beast," she said. It was a simple declaration, but one that was needed to be said out loud for her to focus on the task at hand.

As soon as the words left her mouth, the formation acted. The Arcane crystal dust shone a bright purple that startled the pup. At the same time, Aaron sent an Arcane Energy needle straight at the beat's soul.

Tatou's soul was powerful, reinforced by Divine Energy, but it couldn't deal with Aaron's willpower. The needle pierced the soul, leaving an opening that the formation took advantage of to invade. The beast was about to cry, but Aaron magically forced it to remain silent, as it might make Lana doubt her decision.

He felt the resentment coming from the beast but ignored it. Much like how a kid with an atomic bomb was too dangerous to be let loose on the world, so was the pup. Aaron would at least keep Tatou in the clan until he was confident the pup understood how dangerous he was. Though he didn't have atomic-bomb level power yet, it was only a matter of time.

Tatou was resistant, but the formation expected that. It caressed the wolf's soul and whispered of bountiful prey ahead. It only had to submit.

Like the naïve child it was, it submitted, and a flood of Arcane Energy entered both Lana's and Tatou's souls, linking them together.

The soul contract had been established.

Lana was the mistress, Tatou was the servant. It was a soft contract, as Aaron had promised Lana, though it was a bit more than making her a mere pack leader.

Tatou would be unable to do anything that might hurt Lana and had to obey her every will. Lana could order him to do anything but sacrifice his life for her. Should Lana abuse her power over Tatou, a hidden clause of the contract would activate to allow the pup to leave her services after a day if he wanted.

"Hidden clause" indeed. A soul contract wasn't just two souls being linked together. There were rules that would be enforced for as long as the contract was in place. Rules he had written and perfected over the eons. There was no loophole for Tatou to abuse.

A few minutes later, the contract seeped deep enough in their souls, and the light died. All the Arcane Energy in the crystal dust had been spent, and it now resembled soot.

"How do you feel?" he asked Lana.

She was looking dazedly at Tatou, but she raised her eyes to Aaron when he spoke.

"I feel... Dislike? For... you?" she asked, scared.

"This is Tatou's feeling, not yours. It's the aftereffect of linking two souls together, it'll pass in a couple of hours. After that, you'll still be able to tell what the pup is feeling but won't be affected by it. The same will hold true for it. That said, this is a great opportunity for you to grow more intimate with your soul beast, so take the chance to exchange feelings."

"But why? Why does Tatou dislike you so much?"

Aaron shrugged. "Leftover resentment for hurting his soul a bit to put the soul contract in place? Common envy toward the pack leader of his pack leader? I don't know; that's for you to find out."

She hugged the pup and said nothing.

Aaron turned to Alys and walked her way. The panther was resting on her body as usual. Aaron extended his hand to take the beast and link it to himself when a hand grabbed his wrist.

Alys had woken up and looked straight into Aaron's eyes.

"Please, Patriarch," she said with a crackling voice. "Let me have her instead."