After thinking about it for a while, he sent a reply to Stella telling her that he was fine. He also sent a message to the broker of the gambling pool to wire him his 10 million low-grade energy stones.
Then he left his cultivation room and went to the forging room. As he passed by, Roar was startled awake by his heavy presence.
At first, Roar thought they were being attacked. So he jumped up in fright and looked around warily.
Then he spotted the source of the heavy presence, and he became confused.
He was confused because Arthur now looked similar to what he looked like at the third mortal coil, but he was bigger and taller now. This could mean two things.
Roar thought hard and asked carefully, "Are you Arthur's elder brother?"
Roar thought of two things. It was either that this was Arthur's elder brother that he didn't know about or this was Arthur who had advanced.
He first asked if the golden core person that appeared was Arthur's brother because it would be disrespectful to them if they were truly Arthur's elder brother, and he asked if it was Arthur who had advanced.
He may be a little slow at times, but he recognizes the most dangerous option here and asks the question with the least chance of offending the golden core person.
Arthur chuckled and asked, "What is wrong with you? Can't you sense through your beast link that I'm your boss?"
Roar's eyes lit up as he asked, "Is it really you? When did you advance? Why didn't you tell me you were going to advance?"
As he asked his barrage of questions, he rushed over to Arthur with his long fluffy tail wagging in excitement. His behavior made Arthur unable to be mad at him for failing to recognize his owner.
He said to Roar, "I just advanced spontaneously. I didn't plan it. Everything felt ready, and clearly, it was."
Rpar jumped onto him and licked his face in excitement. But he couldn't because Arthur's force field repelled him.
The force field didn't push him away. It just scrambled the mana in his body, which was an uncomfortable experience.
The scrambling of the force field made Roar, who was excited, jump away in surprise and fright.
Then he asked in fear, "What is that?"
Arthur replied with pride, "It is a little something I made to prevent indiscriminate contact with my body. You might be able to have something like this if you successfully advance to the fourth mortal coil."
Roar lost interest and said, "Never mind then. I guess it is not for me."
Roar gave up on the fourth mortal coil because he doesn't want to risk bus life for power. In fact, he doesn't want to cultivate and transform his foundation because of this reason.
He didn't have a pleasant time the first time he transformed his foundation. He didn't like the experience of dying at all. Arthur had to coax and force him to perform the subsequent ones.
Maybe if he were still a dull beast, he would listen to Arthur unconditionally and would want to grow stronger. But he is smart enough to know that he has a good life and a long one at that. He doesn't want to risk what he has for more power at all.
Arthur had tried to convince him many times to seek strength, but Roar is hell-bent on not dying, so the dog refused to transform his foundation.
If it were at any other time, he would have tried to convince Roar now to transform his foundation. He would also prepare some tools and medicine to assist Roar during the breakthrough.
But after experiencing the breakthrough to the fourth mortal coil, he knows now that he can't force Roar to advance to the fourth mortal coil if the dog doesn't want to.
The process of transforming the foundation is an automatic process. He just needs to start it, and the rest will happen without his input. As long as he survives the process, he will succeed.
But advancing to the fourth mortal coil is not automatic or easy. He has to actively run the host technique and maintain control of his energy during the entire process. Even the process of transformation after the core is formed requires his input and control.
So he can't force Roar to start the process of advancing to the fourth mortal coil and ensure his success by keeping the dog alive. This means that unless Roar gets a good reason to risk his life, the process will end in failure.
Most importantly, Roar is too lazy. He doesn't bother with mastering the host technique, which will make the process of advancing even more difficult.
Since Roar isn't motivated himself, Arthur didn't bother to waste time trying to convince him to cultivate.
Instead, he snorted at Roar and said, "Whatever. But prepare to live on a floating island from now on. You must overcome that fear."
Roar wailed, "Noooo. Not that. Anything but that."
Arthur insisted, "Yes. You will live on a floating island with me."
Roar rushed up to him, lay at his feet, looked up at him with pitiful eyes, and begged, "Please don't make me step foot on that abomination."
Arthur's eyes glinted as he said, "I will only let you off if you advance to the fourth mortal coil."
Roar gave up immediately when he heard that. He turned away from Arthur as he said, "Forget it then. I guess I have to face my fears. At the very least, the island won't kill me."
He went back to snooze as if he had nothing to worry about in the world. Arthur's face twitched in annoyance when he saw this.
But he didn't say anything else. He turned away and resumed his journey to the forging room while saying to himself, "This is my fault. I have spoiled him too much. He has been too carefree and has never had to struggle for anything."