Taking risks is unavoidable

It only took her a short while to even out her breathing. Once she stopped denying her conflicted mind she found slipping into a cultivation state much easier. She was also able to absorb her new insights with greater ease. There were still a lot of things she needed to work out of course. But at least she'd stopped choosing to live in denial. Although there was a small part of her that still wondered if she'd gotten into some kind of accident and were in a coma for the most part she accepted this new was of life. It was a very small part of her that was tied to her desire to go home.

A few hours before morning she found that she reached the mid seventh layer of the Qi mastery level. It was reassuring to know that the risks she'd taken had bared fruit.

She got up and stretched. After a night of cultivation she was back at one hundred percent, she only needed a few hours to sleep then she would get up and start a new day. She decided that she would explore some areas that she hadn't previously explored before. Of course she would do this alone. She couldn't possibly take Xiao Jun he was too young, and even though she couldn't sense him that didn't mean other things couldn't. She wouldn't risk it while she was so weak. Eventually though she would have to experiment with and see what were the limits were with Xiao Jun'ers ability…. Or the the artifact he was carrying. She'd tried to ask him, but he hadn't really understood how he did what he did. So either it was an innate talent of or his parents had placed something on him as protection. No matter what it was she needed to know for sure what she was dealing with.

After a good long stretch she crawled into bed snuggling Xiao Jun against her and then fell asleep.

A few hours later Xiao Jun woke her up like usual and she went about her daily routine of cooking breakfast, feeding Xiao Jun, and then cleaning him up. She cultivated while he played until lunch, fed him again and then cultivated until it was time to cook dinner.

Today she cooked dinner earlier as she wanted to do some exploring. Xiao Jun was a bit more reluctant then last time to let her go because she'd taken so long to come back. It had actually taken quite a bit of coaxing before he was willing to let her leave. In the end she promised to be back by morning. After he was good and settled she set out.

Bai Mei Li looked back at the cave one last time before leaving and sighed. She clearly understood that a cave wasn't a permanent living solution. They'd have to leave this place sooner rather than later. After all it was only a matter of time before something she couldn't handle found them, she wanted to find a safer place to stay before that happened.

As she thought she moved speedily and silently through the forest. She was getting better and better at using her abilities. For things like this she no longer had to give it much thought she just moved.

She'd thought about returning to the sect, but that would have to be something that she put of for a while. After all even though she had the old Bai Mei Li's memories she didn't have her instinct or intuition for battles. If she went back now the elders of her sect would certainly discover that something wasn't right… Let alone the previous Bai Mei Li's parents. If she wanted to go back and try out that place it couldn't be for a while. She needed to get it stronger. She needed to become a real cultivator… one that could survive the many challenges of the world of practitioners.

As it stood right now she probably wouldn't last very long in front of a real cultivator. She needed time to mature and grow into this new roll. The forest seemed to be the best place, but that cave just wasn't secure enough. She needed to find a safer place to hide out.

She paused for a moment as she heard the sound of a waterfall. Since the whole purpose of her going out today was to explore and see if she could find a new place for Xiao Jun and herself she went over to take a look.

She honestly couldn't believe was she saw when she got there.

There was a enormous turtle. She recognized it immediately to be the Pear Turtle. Though the turtle produced Chi gathering pearls that could greatly increase ones cultivation very few cultivators messed with the Pearl making Turtle. Not only was it at the peak of the mid range for Damon beasts which made it a level ten. It's defense was impenetrable for those under the rank of Soul Manifestation. And a cultivator in the level was scarce in the lower bound, the likelihood of finding one willing to fight a Pearl Turtle for you was basically slim to none.

Since she had no intention of doing a crazy thing like bothering something that could insta kill her she quickly went on her way.

She'd been moving swiftly until she caught the scent of something. It was quite fragrant. She was surprised as she was only a few miles away from the cave. She was wondered why she'd never smelled it before… it was so fragrant that it was impossible to miss.

It must of just bloomed.

Bai Mei Li was curious now. From the smell she could tell that it was a spiritual plan but she found herself hesitating. She wasn't sure if she should take another risk so soon after her last one. But that spiritual plant would defiantly be helpful for her cultivation.

Even though she felt indecisive about what she was going to she still found herself moving cautiously in the direction of the smell.

She moved as stealthy as she could. She didn't know what type of beast would be guarding the spiritual plant and before and if she acted this time she'd be a lot more careful.

She moved atop the tallest tree she could find and found a large valley. In the middle of the large valley was snake bigger then anything she could of every imagined.

She'd once saw that movie Anaconda with Jennifer Lopez in it and she remembered being completely freaked out by the thought of such a large snake. Now seeing the snake before her she had to reevaluate her past sentiments and finally decided that the Hollywood film makers simply hadn't tried hard enough.

Seriously… the thing in front of her had two gigantic heads just laying there actually sleeping peacefully.

Bai Mei Li was stunned for a moment… but then she saw it. The thing that the Wyvern was protecting.

It was a Tiger Lily. This was a actual mid grade spirit plant. This could really help her when she was ready to break into the eighth layer. She was tempted… sorely tempted.

But how was she supposed to fight that thing? It was impossible. This thing was just as powerful as that turtle. If she wouldn't dare fight the turtle she certainly wouldn't dare fight this thing. She wasn't suicidal.

She frowned thinking carefully. There had to be a way to get that plant safely. The tiger lily would only bloom for a day every thousand years. It was a night flower so it it wasn't finished blooming and that was obviously what that Wyvern was waiting for. It would certainly gobble it up as soon as it was fully bloomed.

She tapped her chin with her forefinger as she thought. After a few minutes of consideration a thought occurred to her.

She a satisfied grinned she jumped down and sped in the opposite direction. After about thirty minutes she stopped and started to cultivate. She didn't stop until she was at peak condition. She took out her sword and started circulating her Qi. She'd formed a very dangerous plan so she needed to prepare as much as possible.

Once she was finished she stood up and with a movement she appeared on land beside the waterfall where the pearl turtle was resting in the water. She formed several hand seals and used the most powerful ice technique she knew.

The temperature dropped to below freezing and everything from the water of the plants began to freeze over. She gathered the water in the river above the turtle in the shape of a extremely large spear. She'd used thirty percent of her power to create this thing and then attacked the turtle inside of it's shell.

Sixty percent of the shell froze over and roar that shook the earth sounded from inside the shell.

Bai Mei Li's heart leapt in her chest.

The pear turtles shell shook violently and it's head broke through. It roared again and looked in her direction. It's feet where the next thing to break easily through the ice and it stood up.

Bai Mei Li swallowed hard and shoved her fear down. Without further hesitation she turned and ran. She ran like her life depended on it because it did. She didn't even have to look back to know that it was chasing her.

(Edited)