Akata was seated cross legged, forcefully recovering his body and energy. He had sustained severe injuries from the Scarlet Tiger named Tibet a few minutes ago, and knew that he would be back in three short hours. Akata had to fully recover by then otherwise he would be in some serious trouble.

‘That dumb beast! How am I supposed to recover from these serious injuries in a mere three hours. I probably couldn’t fully recover from them within two or three days. Now’s not the time to think about that, I should be thinking of a way to heal faster.’ Akata let out a long sigh as he continued to heal himself.

He reached into his bag of holding and took out a medicinal pill that he had and popped it into his mouth. The pill released a soothing energy all over his body, restoring him by a large amount. ‘These pills are useful, but I only have three of them. If that beast attacks me more than that, I will still need a way to heal without these pills.’

Akata thought and thought of many ways to recover from any future injuries he would receive from the beast. He looked through his bag of holding at the many contents that he had.

Inside he saw medicinal pills that could be used for different things such as body enhancement, healing, cultivation, recovering energy, etc. He saw robes he had packed in there, food, water, and weapons.

‘Eh?’ Akata reached into the bag and took out a blood colored rose. The rose held a deep crimson color that made it look like it was completely made of blood. ‘Peizhi Xiuying’s blood lotus…’ It was the flower he had plucked from the ground after Peizhi Xiuying had planted it in Misty Forest.

After holding the lotus in his hand for a while, Akata’s red rune started to rotate on its own. His face immediately changed as his eyes went wide with shock. ‘Wha… what is going on?! No stop STOP!’

The red rune started to release a suctioning feeling. The red lotus started to tremble as Akata held on to it. He threw it away from him, but even then it didn’t stop shaking. The flower rose up into the air emitting a buzzing sound. The buzzing sound was only heard by Akata as it seemed to resonate with his red rune.

The red rune inside of him spun around in his soul region and glowed brightly. In response the flower also did the same. A red glow emanated out of the flower as it washed over Akata. The glow seemed to baptize Akata, and his nature energy was sent to in turmoil also.

‘Just what is going on? What is happening right now?’ He couldn’t help but think to himself.

As the glow from the lotus spread out over Akata, his body sucked it all in, absorbing it into himself. His red rune drew in the glow and seemed to control it. It also seemed to control a bit of the nature energy within him as the energy washed over the red rune and a piece of it was absorbed also.

‘This rune is taking in my nature energy? How? Why?’ Akata was at a loss right now. ‘And why is it absorbing Peizhi Xiuying’s lotus?’

The lotus became lighter and lighter as the redness from it was drained into Akata’s rune. The rune sucked in all the blood that was in the lotus along with some of Akata’s nature energy. Once all the blood was sucked into the rune the lotus became completely white. Yet even after that, the white lotus started to sparkle with white light. White motes of light rose up from within the lotus.

‘What are those? They seem soft and gentle, calm and soothing.’ The motes of light then floated over to Akata’s body to be absorbed into his body and into his red rune. The white motes of light seemed to nourish the red rune. ‘What’s this feeling? It’s like these motes of light are completing the red rune.’

Soon all the motes of light were absorbed into his red rune and the white lotus had completely disappeared. Akata closed his eyes and sensed throughout his body. He could feel that his red rune was somewhat different than before. He sensed that it took on a change that felt familiar to him.

‘Nature energy? It’s like my red rune can control nature energy in a sense. Almost like it is apart of nature.’ Akata rotated his red rune and felt a rush of nature energy burst forth. He felt a connection to nature like he had never felt before. He could sense the grass, trees, bushes, flowers, all the plants in the area, all of nature in the area.

That wasn’t all Akata felt. Inside of his body he felt something different going on. The red rune started to rotate and soon the white motes of light it had absorbed started to pour out of it. They passed through his body, from his soul region and made their way to his dantion region where his cultivation base was.

Akata’s cultivation base was just like every other mortals. It was located within his dantion region. His dantion region was like a small piece of land surrounded by a small body of water. On the small piece of land was a small figure. The small figure was glowing completely white. It was the spitting image of Akata, and was seated cross legged on the small island. Each time Akata grew in cultivation power it would grow and make a qualitative change.

Soon the white motes of light approached the small piece of land and combined into a small sphere, almost like a seed. The seed settled into the land behind the white figure that looked like Akata. Soon the seedling sprouted a small plant that was barely visible. The small plant was completely white in color and glowed with a dim light.

The plant brought a sense of power to Akata. It felt familiar but at the same time felt completely different to him. ‘What is this? It feels like it’s giving off a cultivation base of its own, yet it’s not like what I’m used to. I feel nature energy swirling all around it.’

Akata thought for a moment then came to a conclusion. ‘A plant sprouted in my dantion region and fluctuates cultivation power. This must be the Plant Realm… But how can I cultivate in the Plant Realm if I’m not a plant?’ Akata was extremely confused.

‘I’ll have to ask the Elders at the sect when… if I get back. Or I can ask Peizhi Xiuying about it later. Either way I have to survive long enough to get out of here.’ Akata opened his eyes and looked out at the trees ahead of him.

‘I have a little more than two hours left until that beast comes back. My injuries are about healed thanks to that pill earlier. But I can’t continuously use pills for two months straight. Maybe this plant cultivation base can help me out.’

After an hour and a half of meditating and recuperating Akata stood up. ‘From what I know about immortal cultivation, you absorb the energy of heaven and earth. Would that be the same principle of plant cultivation.

Peizhi Xiuying absorbed the blood of beasts to increase the cultivation of her Grand Life Vine. So if I can absorb the blood of beasts then I can give some to my plant cultivation and increase that… This all sounds too weird.’ Akata just couldn’t believe what he was thinking right now. Cultivating in the Plant Realm? That sounded absurd for anybody.

‘Well how should I prepare for this battle then. Well it’s more like a one-sided fight so I should be thinking of how to defend myself. I don’t have any armor so that’s out of the equation. Ah! Maybe I can attack to diffuse the power of his blow. Damn that Tabet, had to mess up my plans. Well at least I got something out of it.’

Akata sat back down and began to absorb the energy of heaven and earth to cultivate. Cultivating this way was an easy way to become stronger, but it was also the slowest method to use. Absorbing the blood of beasts was way faster as it allowed someone to take in some of the energy that the beast had absorbed into their own body.

Thirty minutes passed and it was almost time for Tabet to come back. Akata opened his eyes and jumped up. He then looked around searching for any trace of Tabet. He couldn’t feel any living existence in the area so he turned and ran off into the distance. He headed toward the coast of the island so that the next time he was pushed back by the beast he wouldn’t crash into all of the trees and rocks.

After a while Akata could see the coastline of the island. He could even hear the waves crashing on the shore of the island. “Ah there is the ocean!” Akata said with a bit of happiness.

“Why are you so happy to see the ocean I wonder? Does it perhaps have to do with the love of swimming? Or maybe you just like the view? Care to share?”

As Akata was getting closer to the shore he heard a calm cheerful voice right beside him. He unconsciously turned his head to see a crimson red tiger laying on the ground watching him. His eyes went wide and his body froze in place.

“It’s about time that we get back to training don’t you say? Huh?” Tabet’s face abruptly changed as he focused in on Akata. He got up and took a step forward and was instantly in front of Akata. When he appeared in front of Akata his appearance had changed. He no longer was a four legged tiger with two tails and red fur. Now he stood on two legs and had frizzy long red hair. He also had a red beard that hung down low. Red hair covered over its body and it stood with its hands behind its back.

“Something has changed about you… something about your cultivation base… but I can’t figure out what. It’s almost like you have a second cultivation base.” Tabet lifted his hand to rest on his chin as he pondered over this. His eyes went wide as he made an, “Ah!” sound. “This cultivation base feels like it comes from the Plant Realm! Hehe maybe I can use you for something besides just a training partner.”

A smile formed across Tabet’s face as he reached out toward Akata.