The white tiger silently followed Brian Carter, waiting until he had finished packing up some miscellaneous items. It accompanied him all the way to the edge of its territory before finally stopping. With a fierce roar, it sent him off, startling all the beasts nearby into a frantic scatter, and causing birds to drop from the sky in alarm.

Brian Carter was also feeling terrible. He had lived on this mountain, spanning dozens of miles, for nearly four years, and was truly reluctant to leave. Carrying Xuanyue on his shoulder, he walked backward, silently gazing at the mountain. He walked slowly for about half a mile when, all of a sudden, another tiger’s roar rang out. Brian Carter looked back in surprise to see the white tiger dashing toward him like lightning.

“Brother Tiger, there’s no need to see me off any further.” Brian Carter waved his hand and said, “Hurry back. Maybe when we’ve all achieved the Dao, we’ll have a chance to meet again.”

The white tiger let out a rare, low growl, nodding its head to indicate that Brian Carter should get on its back.

Brian Carter was stunned, pointing at the tiger’s back, “Brother Tiger, do you mean for me to ride on your back?”

The white tiger impatiently glared at him and urged him on with a few more roars. Brian Carter said softly, “Alright then, I really don’t know what you’re up to.” With that, he stepped forward and sat down on the white tiger’s back.

Once Brian Carter was settled, the white tiger immediately dashed off in the direction Brian Carter had been heading. Feeling the wind whistling past his ears, Brian Carter suddenly realized and shouted, “Brother Tiger, are you planning to come with me?”

“Roar!” The white tiger’s answering roar confirmed it.

Brian Carter, being naturally bold and forthright, laughed heartily, “It’s good to have you with me. From now on, I’ll have a companion and won’t have to worry about a lonely journey. Brother Tiger, let’s join forces and roam the world together!”

Man and tiger howled together, shaking the mountains and forests, changing the very color of the landscape.

However, contrary to Brian Carter’s expectations, the road out of the forest was not easy. Even with the white tiger’s incredible speed, it took nearly a month to travel just a few hundred miles. Most of the time was spent fighting. Once outside the white tiger’s territory, its former prestige was gone. Various fierce beasts, ignorant of their own limits, often attacked Brian Carter and the white tiger in groups.

After almost growing numb from the constant killing, they still had to deal with all kinds of leader-level beasts. In just a few hundred miles, they even encountered an innate-level beast—a creature that was neither quite wolf nor tiger, at the mid-innate stage. As a result, the white tiger had to fend off over a hundred of its underlings, while Brian Carter, relying on Xuanyue, managed to slay the beast after a dangerous battle.

He also absorbed the spiritual energy that dispersed after its death. Ever since entering the innate realm, Brian Carter had realized that absorbing energy from postnatal creatures yielded almost no spiritual energy. But this innate beast brought him considerable benefit. After wiping out this group of fierce beasts, man and tiger had to spend two days healing their wounds. After this battle, Brian Carter decided to slow down their pace. Who knew how many powerful creatures lay ahead? Who knew how long it would take to find other humans? If not for rushing, they wouldn’t have been surrounded by that beast and its followers.

So, after slowing down, and being more cautious, they safely survived all subsequent attacks. Another benefit was that Brian Carter could study the basics of alchemy and artifact forging along the way. Whenever they found effective spiritual herbs or exotic fruits, Brian Carter and the white tiger would share them without hesitation. They also discovered quite a few mineral veins—mostly ordinary ones, but occasionally some black iron ore. With the lesson from the immortal stones, they thoroughly searched the black iron mines, but unfortunately didn’t find even a single low-grade immortal stone. As for other high-grade mineral veins, they hadn’t encountered any in over a year.

---

Chapter 10: The Cold Peach Blossom Pool

“Damn it, when will this journey ever end?” Brian Carter stood by a high mountain cliff, gazing as far as he could. All he could see was endless forest and wave after wave of rolling mountains—there wasn’t a single sign of another person. It had been over a year, and they’d traveled two or three thousand miles, yet still hadn’t made it out.

However, over the past year, man and tiger had experienced hundreds of battles, large and small. Both their combat experience and true energy cultivation had improved greatly, especially Brian Carter. Within a year, he and the white tiger had joined forces to kill seven innate beasts, one of which was as powerful as the white tiger itself, at the late-innate stage. Any beast that could reach the innate realm was fierce and unruly; befriending one like the white tiger was no easy feat, unless one was willing to spend years communicating. Of course, Brian Carter was not willing to do that, so he could only turn their energy into his own strength.

After absorbing so much spiritual energy from innate beasts, plus his own progress, a few days ago, after a session of fusion meditation, Brian Carter successfully entered the late-innate stage. He was now only half a step behind the white tiger. Of course, if he used Xuanyue to fight, he could probably battle the now stronger white tiger to a draw.

Brian Carter certainly wasn’t naïve enough to think that reaching the late-innate stage meant he was close to the Golden Core Dao. Based on his experience advancing from the postnatal stage, at his current pace—absorbing beast energy, sweeping through and eating potent exotic flowers and fruits, plus the powerful effects of immortal stones—it would still take several years to reach the peak of the innate realm. Unless he was lucky enough to find another supreme treasure like the Vermilion Fruit. But that was just wishful thinking. Even in the entire cultivation world, such things were rare treasures, worth no less than a mid-grade immortal stone.