039 Soul Pet Evolutions

The expedition had finally begun. Though, they were still a bit far from the Grand Forest where their training will take place. All of the outer court disciples form the Mystical Turtle Sanctuary were on the move.

"How long will we have to walk for." Liam asked from boredom, they were on a relatively wide path, but their group still stretched for 10 kilometers.

"Our sect is the nearest to the grand forest, in about 3 days, we should reach it." Ralph said calmly. They will need to walk for 3 days nonstop, luckily for cultivators, that was easily manageable. The bigger problem was the boredom.

Moving in a big group slowed them down, if one walked alone, they should reach the grand forest in 2 days but The Mystical Turtle Sanctuary over 70 000 disciples made quite the line. If one looked from afar, he would only see a white mass moving slowly forward, the white robes of the outer court disciples were the only recognizable thing when one looked from afar.

To maintain order, on every 100 or so disciples, one inner court disciple was distributed. The grand elder was at the back of the line, to manage them and make sure nothing went awry. The sect leader and other elders, as well as the core disciples and the rest of the inner court disciples remained at the sect.

"Aria, you're so lucky. With molly by your side, you'll never be bored." Liam said to Aria, when he looked how she played with the white cat in her arms. "I wish I had my soul pet right now. What kind of soul pet will I get? A dragon? No, a Cerberus, or even a wyvern. Maybe a more water-based creature? A Kraken. That will be so cool." Liam fantasized about his soon to be soul pet, imagining all types of mythological creatures.

"You know that soul pets evolve with the master, right?" Aria asked Liam.

"Yea, they grow stronger along with you, right?" Liam wasn't sure if that was what Aria meant.

"That too, but that's growing, not evolving. You see, this isn't Molly's final form. If I ever reach the kink realm Molly will evolve into something much greater." Aria started explaining. "For example, you might get a simple lizard at first, but when you reach the king realm, it will evolve into a dragon. It's a rare case when someone gets a strong evolved beast from the start."

"Does that mean I won't be able to get a kraken, or a wyvern until I reach the king realm?" Liam asked in disappointment.

"Yes." Aria said with a smile.

"Then I'll just wait until then to get a soul pet, what's the point of a weak soul pet." Liam said in even greater disappointment.

"You'll most likely get an unevolved soul pet then and you'll never be able to evolve it. The sooner one gets a soul pet, the higher the chances it will evolve sooner." Aria said.

"Why don't we get soul pets from the beginning of our cultivation journey?" Liam wasn't sure if he understood how these soul pets worked.

"It's generally believed that it's not worth it. The amount of growth your soul pet receives from the first human realm to the fifth is minimal and doesn't make much difference in weather it will evolve. I hope you remember what they thought us in classes, when your breakthrough, your soul pet also becomes stronger but not fully, you have to feed it monster crystals to match you. That's why most prefer to get a soul pet before breaking to the sixth human realm, just so they don't have to feed in any more monster crystals than they have to." Aria said.

"I think I understand, you have Molly from the very start, correct?" Liam asked.

"Yes, Molly has been with me since I started cultivating." Aria said with a smile.

"Do you know what she will evolve in?" Liam was very interested in the evolutions of soul pets.

"No one knows, but you can try and predict. She is a white cat with my metal element and it's a very low chance that you'll get a mythical creature, most likely it would just grow bigger and stronger, but have you heard about the white tiger?" Aria asked.

"The white tiger, one of the four guardians, The white tiger of the west?" Liam asked in surprise.

"Yes, if there's any hope, its fit's Molly perfectly. Metal element white tiger." Aria said with hope beaming in her eyes.

"It's just that, in the whole of the southern continent, only the head of the royal family is at the king realm, what chances do we have to get to that level as well." Liam said and as he said those words, he realized something.

"There is always a chance and." Aria was about to say something but Liam interrupted her.

"How do you know so much about evolutions, that happen after you reach the king realm, when only the king is at that level?" Liam was confused, there weren't enough king realm cultivators for that information to be wine spread.

"That is what I was about to say. That's only in the southern continent. The southern continent only has one king realm cultivator because of 2 reasons. First, the way that it is ruled and second that most that get to the ninth human realm, move to the center on northern continent. The cultivation techniques and qi density are a lot grater over there. I was hoping to get to the eighth or ninth human realm before the age of 250 and then go to the center continent, where I'll reach the king realm and evolve Molly." Aria explained hers and most cultivators plan of leaving the southern continent.

"250! You can live that long?" Liam was greatly shocked. At home, the general public could go on average 150 years and the royal family only survived 100 years. Liam was greatly shocked when he heard a voice in his head.

"That was because of your previous technique, when you merged with my soul, and absorbed the darkness element, it changed your body. Now you can also live for 200 years. A being at the ninth human realm can easily live past 400 years of age.

"Yes, of course I can, if I reach a high enough cultivation level.

"This is so amazing!" Liam almost screamed out, then he thought in his head. "I have to grow stronger and return home with Hayley and these news. Mom and dad, you'll be able to live longer." Liam smiled as a small tear appeared on one of his eyes.

This reminded Liam. "If Only I could go to the back of the line." Liam starred at the inner court disciple behind him. The we're tasked with keeping order and they did not allow for anyone to travel backwards or forward within the crowd. It was understandable, as it was needed to keep order and prevent even further slowing down of pace, but Liam wanted to get to the back of the line.

Where the grand elder Grant stood, so did the first team. Consisting of Kyle, ranks 5, 6, 9 and most importantly Hayley.

"I've never been so close, but at the same time so far away from her, since that day." Liam thought back to the day the grand elder took Hayley away from him.

"I've never felt so weak, I wonder how she's doing." Liam sulked. "At Coraopolis, I was the best of the best, top of my generation. Here I am not even in the top 5000." Liam thought about his rank. He was a lot stronger than his rank gave him credit for. When Liam and Ralph received their rank, they fought two on five and we're at the fourth human realm. If they had a full team, with their now fifth human realm strength. They would be a at least in the top 2000, nearing the top 1000.

Liam was also comparing himself with the best of the best in the young generation of the whole of the southern continent. When one looked at the enormous envoy that was still on their way towards the grand forest, it was an army. An army, where everyone was at least at the third human realm. An army consisting of the 70 000 best young cultivators in the southern continent.

Of course, the other sects have talented cultivators, but the best cultivators from the all of the other sects could not amount to the talent in the Mystical Turtle Sanctuary. There are only 3 four star rated sects. The mystical turtle sanctuary, the Silent Monastery and The Golden Lotus Temple.

The next few days continued to pass without anything notable happening. The night before the last day, the borders of the grand forest were visible. Enormous trees that seemed to stretch into the clouds above, if Liam's guess was correct, they had to be at least 50 meters in diameter and several thousands of meters high.

"We're finally here!" Liam said in excitement.