Bai Qi had planned his next weeks before, and the overall plan did not change. At least the parts of spending time refining and having a daily spar with an opponent close to his strength.

But some corrections had to be made, with the most important being his living space. As any cultivator, he could spend months without sleeping or eating, but Beastmen did require both.

"Can we continue like before? You can spend the daylight around and return to the camp for the night! Nothing will happen."

"No." An adamant answer in unison followed.

The Bai sisters were great, understanding, kind, and whatever else he could think of, but there was one thing that they did not allow him to do. Namely, being alone at all.

Bai Qi even pleaded with them, but it ended as they had determined. Thus, their tent now stood next to Bai Qi's creation, and he would spend his resting hours in it. Not that refusing wasn't an option, but Bai Qi knew that it was worry about him, and so after a failed attempt, he merely went along the flow.

An issue that the three found after a few hours was that the link would share most of the thoughts and feelings they had, even if they had nothing to do with each other. It wasn't a matter if they wanted to, but more like an unconscious occurrence. As Bai Qi was preparing the cauldron and deciding on a recipe, Bai Ze suddenly craved something, and neither of them did understand what was going on until Bai Qi found out that he was hungry. Hungry, with him being a Sage?!

But thankfully, it took only a couple of hours of combined effort to get the link under control. Strong feelings would continue to be shared, but occurrences and thoughts would be not. At least not without them consciously doing it. Each of them understood that it was a required thing, lest they found themselves affected during a fight, but it also added a small corrective to Bai Qi's life. In this case, either Bai Rui or Bai Ze always hovered somewhere nearby. Bai Qi laughed it off, but he did feel that probably, just probably, that his plan of taking responsibility failed was a good thing. Indeed, if the sisters were like this as companions, how would they be in another relationship?

___________________________________________________________________

The next day after returning to the camp, Bai Qi began refining. His skill wasn't high even during his original life, and he had only practiced a few days in his current body. But it should suffice to create an Earth-tier armament, at least how he saw it.

Still, he only had a few materials for it, and so, he had decided to proceed gradually, first creating a dozen Common-tier and Spirit-tier items.

But what to create? Beastmen did not use weapons much, and their bodies weren't meant for armors either. But Bai Qi, in his past life, had seen a few equipped Beastmen, using spears, shoulder guards, and chokers.

Even the pouches were akin to treasures, so [Storage] rings would be even more a welcome gift. But Beastmen could not use them well because of their paws either. So maybe change the form to something else?

Thus, weighting everything, Bai Qi settled on three things. Spears, collars, and bracelets.

They would serve as a decent gift to the Beastmen and help him practice.

The good thing about his selection was that even if he did not add runes or formations, the sole material would offer protection against anything below a 3rd level Saint Beast. As for the effects of the bracelets, although Bai Qi was unsure about engraving a formation as he lacked the required tools, he considered that runes for [Storage] would not be so problematic.

Refining an item via a furnace is to liquefy a material first. And then, with the use of a mold, solidify it in the required form. The method was rudimentary and used with low-level Spirit-tier items only.

But cauldron refining was different. The forming process was made with one's aura and qi, while the materials liquified or otherwise were malleable inside the cauldron itself.

Bai Qi had a few sacks of both [Bluesteel] and [Blacksteel] scales in his [Void Ring]. So it wasn't strange for him to choose to create a few collars from them first. Using his aura, wisps of flame, and some of the [Scarlet Bonewolf] skin he had, he formed the image in his mind and immediately threw everything into the cauldron.

He then sat down near the cauldron and sent a wisp of consciousness into it to control the process. True refiners, starting from the Grandmasters, did not require to oversee the process, and probably Bai Qi could also allow his initial wisp of mind power to control it. But his main objective was training, and there was nothing better than starting from the basics.

Time passed, and Bai Qi's mind followed each change that the materials had.

*Clink*

The cauldron's lid unlocked, indicating that he had finished, and Bai Qi summoned the item to his hands. Being a Common-tier item, not individualized as a Spirit-tier one, it would require to be fitted and even manually adjusted. Still, as Bai Qi hit the scaled leather with force comparable to a 9th level Sage, he found that he had not failed.

After, he quickly created a couple of locks with an [Bluesteel] ingot, intending to confirm the collar's quality on someone willing to do it.

His senses caught on Bai Ze's presence, and as Bai Qi wanted to test another thing, he decided to ask her to find the [Grey Singlehorn] girl.

"I wonder if there is a kind-hearted tiger somewhere nearby that can do me a favor?" Bai Qi asked no one while inwardly laughing. *Swoosh*

"Do you need anything?" And indeed, not more than a moment later, Bai Ze's head poked inside.

"I want to fit one of the items. Can you please call Xi Ai?" He asked while turning around and holding the scale-covered leather band in his hand.

"Xi Ai? But why her?" She asked casually, but Bai Qi saw and felt that she was scowling inside.

"It's a common-tier item, hardly enough to protect against a 1st or 2nd level Saint Beast, you don't need it, but she may find it useful for a few months." He explained, before adding, "The Spirit-tier will be for you."

***

Xi Ai did like the lightly shimmering scaled choker. Although, Bai Qi was unsure if the reason was more its looks as an accessory than the actual protection for her neck. And it was protection indeed. After all, if even Beastmen instinctively went for their opponent's neck, what to say about the demon beasts?

Using hers as a model, Bai Qi created eleven more such articles. Half of them being [Bluesteel] and the other made from the [Blacksteel] scales. Their quality and effect did not change much because of the material. Both were capable of resisting a couple of his full-power attacks before breaking. After gifting three black ones to Chi, Bowu, and Dian, he sent the rest to Huo Laohu. To be handed out as rewards or something.

Gifting one to Bowu could be seen as something strange, but Bai Qi felt that the [Mist Cat] wasn't a bad one. After all, he had not attempted anything even after their fight. Thus, Bai Qi decided to continue as if nothing had occurred.

___________________________________________________________________

The next day, Bai Qi concentrated on the spears. He had close to no Spiritual wood materials, so he decided on refining them purely of one of the steels he had. And while the first one was not better than a mortal-crafted weapon, smelted back to its original material right away, it took Bai Qi only a couple of attempts to reach a quality comparable to a Spirit-tier weapon.

"Hmm, I think it's time to try out a Spirit-tier one." Bai Qi murmured as he examined the six-feet long, leaf-bladed, black-colored spear made from two pieces. It was only his 4th spear from the ten he had set up as an objective.

A Spirit weapon could absorb qi by itself and be covered entirely by the user's qi or aura. Thanks to it, it would be far more helpful than a simple weapon, as it allowed to use weapon martial skills and would be more resistant than the material provided.

Usually, only Grandmasters dedicated themselves to Spirit-tier armaments, as such effect was reached by cleaning the impurities and refining the material without affecting its natural spirituality.

***

"Hmm, quite close, but no." Bai Qi examined the next spear he created and found it lacking. Undoubtedly a good weapon, and one that with a couple of runes would turn into peak common-tier one, but that wasn't his objective. Still, he did not plan to smelt it back and stored it to the side, intending to attempt rune-engraving it later.

In the end, only the last two of the spears that Bai Qi created could be called Spirit-tier weapons. Not higher than a low-level one, but still. The process also gave Bai Qi enough insight into what he was lacking.

Picking up the two identical spears, he used the 'Ghostflame' to carve out a small symbol on the blue-colored blades. He had not signed anything before, but a Spirit-tier item without a signature could not be called one. Bai Qi chose his emblem without much thought, just a closed scroll with a small demon-like face on where the seal should go. After tempering them with his aura, the only thing left to do was to name them.

Bai Qi had previously asked Bai Rui about the Beastmen that knew how or used weapons and found out that he was slightly mistaken about the amount of them that did. Bai Rui explained that at least a fifth of the pack had trained with some, though not more than a few dozens kept and used them. But one of the names that she had named along with the word spear was what Bai Qi wanted to hear - Heise Zhao.

***

"Are you sure you want to gift me such a precious item?" The man-lynx's eyes went wide as Bai Qi visited his tent at nightfall with a spear in hand.

"If unsure, I would not be here, right?" Bai Qi grinned before adding, "It's not precious thought, just a product of my training. No special effects, but the tip will gather and reinforce itself with natural qi thanks to the [Bluesteel], and the pole is of [Blacksteel], so you can use it for defense as well."

"It is still a Spirit-tier weapon, isn't it?" Heise Zhao still could not believe such a fortune to arrive at his doorstep as he held the spear and sensed how it was slowly absorbing qi from the surroundings.

"Mmm, it is. It also has a pair." Bai Qi summoned the other spear before asking casually if the man-lynx knew of someone who would be interested in it.

"Would you sell it to me?" Heise Zhao's eyes glimmered as he asked.

"You need two? Just take it as well." Bai Qi threw the spear towards the Beastman.

But Heise Zhao would be a poor Beastman if he just accepted two such spears without offering anything in turn. He had pledged to protect Bai Qi before. But now, with the [White Tiger] sisters around, that was not required. So he asked if he could repay Bai Qi in some way.

"I will not accept a repayment, but if you are interested in helping my training, any Spirit herbs, materials, and cores could do." Bai Qi shrugged. In truth, he did anticipate the man-lynx helping him gather some of that, but only if the latter wanted to do it.

"Understood." Heise Zhao nodded and went into thought, recalling where he had seen or sensed anything that could be of use. Beastmen did gather herbs and materials, as well as hoarded cores from the hunts. Some were used by them, while the remaining would go to the pack's depository as funds. Thus, he had to select a place that he could reach outside the hunts, as otherwise, it was the pack resources and not his own.

"Don't worry much about it anyway. But I am curious, who is the other spear for?" Bai Qi shrugged again and then asked while standing up.

"Oh, a relative of mine, Zhua. She's a great spear fighter, far better than me, and she has been longing for a spear for a long time. Someone stole her weapon before she came here, and no one in the pack here has anything even close to a Spirit-tier spear for me to trade for." A fanged grin crossed Heise Zhao's face as he mentioned the relative and her combat prowess.

"Hoh? Trained with a weapon and better than you? I am intrigued. By chance, her level isn't lower than yours?" Bai Qi's interest was piqued indeed, as one of the things he definitively lacked was an opponent that would use a weapon. And what would be better than if the opponent used one of the weapons he created?

"Hmm? It is. She is just a 2nd level. But she participated in the battle meet and was one of the best from Huo Laohuo's words." Heise Zhao did not know why the human asked, but he did not need to hide it from anyone, less from him.

"Interesting, so, would she be interested in sparring?"

"After I give her the spear and mention that you created it? Definitively! Even more, you will implore that she stops asking you for more combats!" Heise Zhao lightly laughed as he exclaimed the last words.

"Perfect, I already like her. Please ask her if she can come over the day after tomorrow." Bai Qi smiled. And after saying his farewells left the tent.

___________________________________________________________________

There was a reason why Bai Qi asked for Zhua not to come today. He had more-or-less finalized most of the simple items he wanted to refine, and so, it was time to advance to the next step. To create a Spirit-tier bracelet and engrave it with the runes for [Storage].

As a test, and to confirm his previous observations, he first refined a simple bangle of [Fiery Ore]. As expected, albeit the material was spiritual, the item was slightly lacking. Still, it was perfect for testing the runes, as even if he failed, he could smelt it again, something that a Spirit-tier item would not survive intact.

The difference between a spiritual and a non-spiritual [Storage] treasure was the qi required to activate it. The spiritual one would naturally amass enough and only need a wisp to activate. But a non-spiritual could not gather or store qi, thus requiring the user to infuse the entire amount, which was at least four times the one of a Holding Pouch.

After taking out the old engraving pen he had since the [Three Hills Sect], Bai Qi quickly recalled and used a mix of mind-power and qi to carve the four different runes - [Void] [Boundary] [Space] [Owner].

"Hmm, done!" It was a success, and although the space wasn't more than a few cubic feet, it was an impressive result for his first attempt. He even added a security rune to avoid the ring being open by anyone but the set owner.

***

"Now for the Spirit-tier one. I do not have any cores that could serve, and I would like it to look better." Bai Qi muttered as he examined the previously created bangle. It was functional, but the simple red metal he had used had no decorations and looked more like a bracer than a bracelet.

Engraving runes on a spiritual object was something that not every runemaster would dare to attempt, as any failure meant that the item was now useless as well. But Bai Qi was interested in the challenge, so after preparing some [Saint Metal], he formed the image of the bracelet in his mind and imbued the cauldron with it and his Ghostflame...