He Zhi swam back into the main area of the pond and noticed his siblings were still alive. He didn’t talk to them, but he still felt a sort of connection to them. He wouldn’t give them power since it would just lead to more possibilities of being found out. He would return after making his round of the mountain and make the secret area behind the waterfall.

After that, he would make sure his siblings were raised well and correctly. If he didn’t teach his siblings the ways of the world, they would be led astray and cause him problems.

In fact, he knew it would be trouble to even worry about them, but decided against it. If he didn’t have help, if something ever happened, then he would be up the creek and without a paddle.

Wait, that phrase doesn’t work since he could just swim.

Or walk on air.

After checking on the others, He Zhi went to trouble the catfish. Not even waiting to see its reactions, He Zhi swam over and sent a bright light towards it. There was a lot of thrashing that kicked up the sediment at the bottom of the pond, but when it settled down, there was a dead catfish and a free serving of Riverweed.

He Zhi decided to nibble on the Riverweed first, making sure he could use the water energy to scare off others who wanted a piece.

After several days, both the catfish and the Riverweed were gone. Even the bones were kept by He Zhi in case he wanted to make an amateur weapon.

He used the water sword to sharpen a rib into a makeshift blade and cut up the eel. However, he wasn’t gifted or knew what he was doing and ended up screwing the skin up. He didn’t mind, since all he wanted was to portion off the meat.

The skin was no good, but he decided to keep it just in case. Maybe a passing person could make some sort of article of clothing for him. He didn’t want to be flashy, so maybe a cloak. But eel skin wasn’t good for a cloak, so maybe gloves?

After another couple of weeks, He Zhi was finished with the food and set off for the swamp. He snuck around the marsh and the other bodies of water and went directly to the location of the stone.

Once it was back in his hands, he was satisfied. But he needed somewhere to put it. He quickly went back and dropped it off at his secret place. He needed to get some sort of bag to help him carry things, but he couldn’t let himself be known to the humans.

So how?

Luckily, he met a soldier that belonged to the Fourth Young Master that was there to watch over the warriors’ training. The soldier disappeared and was never found by his comrades. They assumed it was a beast.

The mantle the soldier wore was barely enough to shroud He Zhi’s froggy figure to make it hard to tell what he was. Unfortunately, he was still obviously a frog if you were to get closer. Even if he could walk on two legs and wield tools, he was not human in the slightest.

But now he had a small bag that could hold the stone. He ran back and grabbed them both. However, he was surprised to see only one stone fall into the bag.

“Huh?”

When he looked at the regular stone, he noticed a hint of static. Had the two fused? What a peculiar piece of rock. Maybe it had other uses besides letting someone retry their life.

The armor of the soldier wouldn’t fit him, so he buried it near the waterfall for the future. Instead, he kept the sword and shield to help make sure he didn’t use magic.

Or whatever this energy was.

He quickly hunted a wolf and skinned it, not knowing how to tan the hide and ruining it. He still kept it, unsure if he wanted to waste the parts. The bones could be easily used for other things, but the meat was all eaten by the gluttonous frog.

Continuing on was the land to the West, the home of the Second Young Master and supporter of the Drifting Dragon Tribe. He didn’t cause trouble and only hunted a flying squirrel he found. The hide was in tatters so he left it behind.

To the Southwest was the land of the Lava Lizard Tribe and the place that Alyss, the Sixth Young Mistress, watched over. He finished eating a magma slug on his way. This mountain was smaller than He Zhi thought, but this trip had already cost him two days.

In the south was the land owned by the Fifth Young Master, Gabriel, the home of the Illuminating Hawk Tribe. He Zhi captured a dazzling butterfly that was giving off a strange heat. It wasn’t the burning kind, like in the last place, but a warm and kind feeling. He actually felt bad by eating it.

Oh well.

Next came the place where the Dusk Rat Tribe lived, the same location led by the First Young Master, Michael. He caught a shadowy bat and ate it, the crunching sounds giving even him the creeps.

Then he went to the land of the Lightning Tiger Tribe that followed the words of the Third Young Mistress. A strange beetle that was slightly bigger than him was caught and finished off. He Zhi thought it tasted like chicken.

Then he was in the forest, the haven of the Wood Bear Tribe. This place was guarded by the Seventh Young Mistress. After eating one of the boars, He Zhi returned to the waterfall and carved out a place to live.

He walled it off at first, making it as if there was no hole behind the waterfall to begin with. From there, he went about remaking the extravagant bunker for several weeks. During this time, He Zhi absorbed as much of the energy as possible.

He still couldn’t combine the energy since his body was still too weak. Instead, he got more used to using the different energies. He made little ponds here and there for the hatcheries and sectioned off places for food to conveniently find its way to slaughter.

Speaking of food, he needed to get the Riverweed! But he didn’t want to alarm the Herons…

So he didn’t.

He grabbed his siblings and all of the other frogs from the pond and moved them into the bunker. From there, he made sure they had adequate supplies to live while he went to look around.

He still had several months before the crew had actually left the pond, meaning he had that amount of time to prepare for the heron attack on the marshland.

Maybe he could convince the herons to not attack. Especially since he still planned on Arthur getting eaten. Sometimes, certain things were just destiny.

He Zhi still wore the mantle over his head when he walked towards the bank of the lake.

The herons looked over in confusion but started when he began walking towards the hidden comb.

“Stop!”

Elder Heron didn’t actually speak, but it was what He Zhi really wanted to hear. He was still upset over the big drama at the end of his last life, but he realized there was nothing he could do about that right now.

Maybe his actions now could lead towards a better relationship between the two groups.

But this time, He Zhi didn’t plan on teaching the herons about the human rotation but the normal heron one.

He Zhi sent a soul transmission to Elder Heron.

“Please don’t attack the marshlands anymore since the humans plan on attacking them at a later point.”

This stopped Elder Heron right in his tracks.

“Huh? How do you know about that?”

“I also know what Arthur did. Don’t worry, he will get his just desserts.”

“What? Why give him more food after he ate my children already?!”

He Zhi nearly lost his composure at the silly bird.

“My apologies, I meant he would receive his due punishment.”

“Oh.”

The big bird drooped, as if he was sighing.

“So? Is there anything else?”

“Certainly. Here, come sit down. I want to teach you something.”

***

He Zhi went and collected all of the Riverweed, observing the Heron Family from the distance.

No one followed him, but that was because they were all training their hardest.

When he returned to the bunker, he sealed the entrance at the waterfall and went about training the frogs how to cultivate. However, he still didn’t teach any of them about the human rotation.

They had all listened intently, especially his siblings. Thankfully, none of them had died even now. Maybe there was some chance after all. They had all been surprised when He Zhi had made a floating ball of water and carried everything to the bunker.

For the remaining period of time, He Zhi trained his family to use the energy. He ended up having to enlarge the hallways and make more rooms, but he felt it was worth it. From here, He Zhi could make large Froglings like his nephew from his previous life.

With this, the power the Froglings would hold would be immense. By the time anyone knew of his existence, they would not be able to do anything about it. But there was still some things He Zhi was thinking about.

The old man who gave him this ability, the special stone in his bag, the mountain itself, the fact that Mr. Black and his sister were also mortals that were reincarnated, and what lay upstream.

Obviously, the last one would be easy to explain. He just needed to go adventure.

He followed the river until he remembered his previous adventure upriver.

The monkey!

He Zhi quickly traveled back to the strange body of water with the massive rock in the middle but noticed there was no trace of the monkey.

Until he turned around and saw that there was a mangled corpse there. It seemed that some of the nearby wildlife had gotten to it first. So the brat was now here…

He grabbed the knife, knowing he wouldn’t be able to give it back this time.

Oh well, he could cut things easier, for now. He still threw the corpse near the village so the brat would know what happened.

He Zhi quickly returned to his journey and found another lake, this one larger than even the one being guarded by Mr. Black, but only because there was no island in the center. Here, there were countless numbers of herons and other animals running around and trying to survive.

It seemed that this place was far more dangerous than the places downstream. However, he noticed that the barrier surrounding the Illusion Seeking Sect blocked off the river that was upstream. It looked like he had come as far as he could. But then he saw several youngsters wearing the robes of the Sect.

Were they here to do something? They appeared to just be sitting there and watching the animals. Were they trying to understand some deep thought that pertained to a special spell?

Or…

Nope. They were just waiting for a massive fish to surface and eat a heron. Once it appeared, the young Sect disciples began to move. One shouted out a spell and the fish was pulled out of the water.

He didn’t realize when it had happened, but that wasn’t the kid’s spell. Someone else had already had the spell ready and this guy was using a hypnosis spell to stop the fish from fighting back.

A third person had taken out a flashy blade and hacked downwards, damaging the fish’s scales. Seeing how tough it was, the young man spoke out a couple of words and his sword was covered in a red light. This time, when he struck down, the fish was cleanly decapitated.

Dang, spells were amazing.

“Wow! Spells are amazing!”

It seems the girl they brought along to show off to was severely impressed. So impressed that she missed the evil glint in their eyes.

Great, perverts.

Ah! But a chance!

For rewards!