Returning to the shelter while carrying the bodies of four beasts did attract some attention.
Not because of the beasts but because Long Tian was carrying them by hand, not in a bag or anything like that.
After entering the shelter, Long Tian headed straight into one of the markets he passed while leaving the shelter earlier when it was still day.
Right now, the lights on the shelter had already turned on.
Some mysterious type of energy allowed these lights to shine, as no electricity worked in the sanctuary.
Finally reaching the market, Long Tian quickly found someone shouting that they were buying meat.
Approaching the man, Long Tian rapidly asked.
"Hey brother, do you accept Ordinary Beast meat, how much are you paying for it?"
Alerted by the voice, the man rapidly looked over before responding.
"Hello brother, I indeed am buying any type of meat."
"For Ordinary Meat, that would depend on the size of the carcass. With these four Small Jackals, hmm... i am willing to pay 50 credits each."
The merchant said as if making a difficult decision.
Long Tian, being the Young Master of the richest clan in the alliance, obviously was taught how to negotiate, and, more importantly, how much the things he could get were worth.
"Sorry brother, but you are not being sincere, the price of an ordinary beast carcass is at least 100 credits, even if you count in the size and the difficulty to eat all of it, it can't be lower than 90 credits."
The merchant, upon hearing this, realized that this rookie-looking young man knew his stuff, so he simply said.
"Alright, alright brother, you are right, I ended up forgetting and underestimated the price. How about this, 75 for each carcass."
"85", Long Tian countered.
"Brother, that's too high, I also need to pay rent to operate here."
Long Tian then smiled and said.
"87"
The merchant became even more flustered, and when he looked like he was going to get angry at Long Tian.
"82, last offer brother."
Hearing that, the merchant rapidly shook hands with Long Tian and prepared to take all four, but Long Tian said.
"Only three. I am selling only three, brother."
The merchant shrugged and took his comm device, connecting with Long Tian's one and transferring 246 credits.
"Pleasure doing business with you brother!"
Long Tian said happily while the merchant grumbled about overpaying in a moment of carelessness.
Long Tian then continued walking through the market buying everything he would need to cook the small Jackal Carcass he still had.
Pots, seasonings and even a fork and a knife, the Long Clan did not allow him to bring anything else, only the clothes and the sword.
While he shopped, he haggled each and every item, using every trick his clan taught him to pay at least 10% less than what they were asking initially.
Sometimes he failed, but then he just left and tried another store, some merchants even caved in just because he was leaving.
Walking back home, now with only 5 credits, a bag and everything he would need. Long Tian murmured to himself,
"I am something of a capitalist myself."
While chuckling, Long Tian returned to his room and started preparing the meat.
As he was expected to enter the sanctuary, the Long Clan obviously taught him how to skin and butcher the beasts of the sanctuary.
So, using his kitchen for the first time, Long Tian started preparing the jackal.
The kitchen had something that was supposed to be an oven but had only one mouth, it was native to the sanctuary, a mystery that most people were just glad was there.
There was also a countertop and even a sink with water. From where the water came, no one knows, not from the river, at least, but it was seemingly infinite and safe to drink, so very few people died of thirst nowadays in the alliance.
Long Tian was simply going to grill the meat, as he didn't have any other ingredients, so he went with the basics.
An hour later, the full 25 kilograms of meat that he obtained were done.
As the fire on the sanctuary oven was stupidly strong, capable of melting even Z-Metal pans if one were not careful, the meat was rapidly roasted.
Now, if Long Tian were in his old world, he would have taken almost a month just to eat this amount of meat.
But this was not earth, and people didn't give much care to logic and nature's laws.
So, they invented Gene Arts, a magnificent invention that apparently his ancestor had created.
And one of the Gene Arts that he had practiced, more specifically, one of the Cultivation Arts he had practiced, helped create a fearsome stomach capable of eating way too much for it to be healthy.
However, that was also not a problem, as any human with more than 5.0 fitness would tell you, stomachache is not really a thing when you reach superhuman levels of biological function.
Fortunately, the sanctuary also had a bathroom that was equipped with a super toilet for one to recycle all the meat and eat more.
And eating more was all that Long Tian did for almost 10 hours, using the Dragon Foundation Art, his stomach had reached a very fearsome level, which would only continue to improve as the level of the art increased.
After the first bite, Long Tian heard a lovely sound.
*Ding*
[Flesh of Small Jackal eaten. One Ordinary gene point gained.]
And this continued throughout the entire eating session, almost every beef he ate gave him a Gene Point, motivating him to eat even more.
"At long last, I finished all the meat."
*Burp*
"Ahhh… That was good, however, now I am really tired, Long Tian must have been awake for at least 6 hours before entering the sanctuary, and I have been here for almost 20 hours… So yeah, time to sleep."
So, Long Tian took a rapid shower, using soap he bought in the market.
'The Long Clan is really serious about this test, huh? Even soap I can't bring.'
And went to sleep in his room inside the sanctuary, as the test also determined that he could only stay one hour outside the sanctuary per day unless he was going to die and needed medical treatment urgently.
…
Back on Long Planet, on the Long Hall.
A woman knelt before the patriarch, only the two of them in the hall.
"So, how is Tian'er doing, Rue'er?"
The patriarch asked while smiling.
"The Young Master is doing very well; he managed to hunt 5 Ordinary Beasts close to the Long River but only managed to bring 4 back. He is clearly inexperienced but is very talented with the sword, I believe with a bit more of experience he will be a formidable force."
She said while maintaining a respectful tone.
"However…"
She started but seemed to hesitate.
Seeing this, a light flashed in the eyes of the Patriarch, who smiled and said,
"It's okay Rue'er, I've noticed that he seemed different, what did he do in the first sanctuary to make even you, the Dragon Queen of the First Sanctuary, hesitate?"
She immediately said,
"Patriarch, you know I am not deserving of such a title."
She said with clenched fists.
"Whether you are worthy or not, that old man would have already knocked on your door if you were not worthy of using the Dragon on your name."
He said with a chuckle.
"But that's beside the point, pray tell me, what did that boy do?"
The patriarch said, bringing the conversation back to focus.
"Yes. Well, he did a multitude of things that were strange, first he spent more than an hour inside his room when he entered for the first time in the sanctuary. Second, after entering back into the sanctuary, he seemed normal at first, but when he reached the gates of the shelter, something in him changed. The sensation I felt from him was that he had at least 15.0 of fitness. But that should be impossible."
"Third, his speed outside of the shelter. He ran way too fast for someone with only 5.0 of fitness, and he was clearly holding back his speed."
"And finally, the strangest thing of all. When he hunted those 5 ordinary beasts, he clearly used strength and speed above 5.0 fitness. He crossed at least 20 meters in less than half a second and slashed with such force that he sent one of the beasts into the river, losing its corpse."
"But the most strange comes now. After killing the beast, he started to throw up. I won't enter on the merit of whether someone with his level of training should throw up simply for killing a beast, even if he did bisect it. But when he was defenseless and the beasts pounced on him, they could not do anything to him. It was almost like seeing an ordinary beast trying to hurt a sacred blood one."
"After that, he killed all beasts and returned and nothing strange occurred. But these things really don't make sense."
Having finished her report, the woman bowed her head again and waited.
"Hmmm…"
The patriarch thought for some seconds and spoke.
"Indeed very strange, no one managed to break the fitness limits in any of the ranks."
"Everything points to what caused him to be 1 hour in his quarters in the sanctuary without reason to being the origin of this change."
The patriarch then seemed to go over everything again in a split second and decided.
"Make sure that anyone that saw these inconsistencies remains silent. Use memory alteration over killing, we really can't give away Tian'er's position right now."
The patriarch declared his decision.
"It shall be done, Patriarch."
The patriarch then smiled and said,
"Go rest then, after this one you can finally ascend. I hope you will continue to impress, Long Rue."
The woman, called Long Rue, nodded, bowed and then disappeared.
'Interesting, I wonder how many surprises you will bring to us, newest Young Master.'
Long Han's eye shone with a profound light while he created a bit of expectations for Long Tian's future.