"You were the reason the other elders don't know about me?" Alex asked curiously.
"Well, a part of it, but yes. Basically, when Wen Cheng and the rest returned from the crater where the saint realm monster fell, they started talking about how Wen Cheng had gone far and out to make you a disciple even though you were a part of the Hong Wu Sect already."
The man reached into his storage bag and took out a small piece of what looked like dried meat. He put the meat near Pearl's nose and suddenly, Pearl started munching on it, meowing from time to time.
The man smiled and continued, "Wen Cheng justified his action by talking about how talented you were and some other things. So, the few elders that were there came to a decision to only spread the information about the monster, but nothing about you."
"If your information of you being the sect leader's disciple is ever spread, the other elders would target you and make sure you were never high in the rankings. All so they can fight at a chance to become the sect leader themselves."
He then looked at Alex and tilted his head as he said, " In maybe a year or maybe even half a year if she is lucky, little Mei will surely breakthrough to the True realm, at the time, the seat for the first place will be empty and in contention from everyone. Will you be able to do your best and take the seat by yourself?"
Alex was a little surprised, 'Will I?' he started wondering. While his initial speed of breaking through had been very fast, he was starting to slow down. And now that he couldn't eat monster cores as freely anymore, he was starting to doubt if he could reach the higher realms as quickly.
'No. I shouldn't doubt myself. I still have many other ways I can do that. Especially since I have the God Grade talent,' he thought.
"Yes, I am sure I can do it," he replied to the elder.
The elder simply smiled and said, "Anyway, let's get back to what you were here for initially. What exactly did you want to know?"
"Well, I originally came to buy some food for little Pearl here, but now I want to learn as much as I can about beast companions and how to take care of them," he said.
The elder thought for a little and said, "Let's see, I think it would be better if you just go and learn these from the library." The elder said.
"The library? Don't I just get techniques from there? Will knowledge like this also be available there?" he asked in confusion.
"Ah, it seems your time in Hong Wu Sect has clouded what is normal and what is weird. The library is originally made for information to be shared for free."
"You can just go to the library and read anything on the lower 3 floors for free. The techniques and other important records are kept on the 4th floor and up, and will cost you money."
Alex nodded in understanding as he said, "I see. I will do as you say, elder. In the meantime, can I know what I should and should not feed my cat?"
"Stop treating a monster like a house pet. They are used to living in the wild and will eat anything they can. As for beast companions, they need even less food as long as you give them your Qi from time to time. It was probably hungry in the first place since you never fed it your Qi since you didn't know about it."
"Now that you do know it is staying with you, feed in a little Qi every day and it will be satisfied." The elder said.
"Oh, and what about the different monster cores? I heard that monsters can eat other monster's cores to increase their own cultivation. Does that mean, I can feed the cores to my cat and he will increase in cultivation as well?" he asked.
"Yes and No. While it can eat cores to increase its cultivation, if it eats a core from a monster stronger than it, it will not be able to handle all the energy and will die. There have been cases where the monsters simply exploded from eating a monster core from a much stronger monster."
"Also it is better if you don't feed your beasts as many cores. Similar to normal cultivators, they also need to stabilize their cultivation base before breaking through. If you keep on feeding them from very early on without properly maintaining their cultivation, they will end up with a bad cultivation foundation and will end up much weaker than what they should have been."
"Well, that is all I will tell you. Learn other things on your own at the library," the elder said and went back to sitting on the chair and started petting the little rabbit he was petting when Alex first came in.
"I understand, Thank you … uh, what should I call you, elder?" he asked.
"You can call me elder Xian," the elder said.
"Thank you for the information elder Xian," Alex bowed a little in respect as he called back Pearl and started to leave the shop.
"Where do you think you are going boy?" the elder suddenly shouted from behind him.
Alex stopped in surprise and turned around to look at the elder with a curious face, "Do you have some more things to tell me, elder Xian?" he asked.
"No, I don't, boy," the elder simply said which confused Alex even more, but then he followed it up with, "But you should know I am not operating a charity here. You came into my shop and took information from me, it's time you pay up."
"Oh, yes elder," Alex was a little surprised, but still complied and took out some spirit stones and gave them to the elder. The elder took what was handed and simply said, "I have checked your little cat, he is perfectly healthy and you have nothing to worry about."
"I see, thank you, elder." Finally, Alex left the shop and went back to his room.