Zhang Long pondered the situation for a while.
This egg had hatched a dragon - a kind of celestial beast that could not normally be found. And yet, it seemed that the owners had made no attempt to try to find it. At least, no dedicated attempt or they likely would've found the culprit quickly.
Not only that, but feeding such a creature would also be an issue. While dragons could feed on meat while they were young, as they got older, they would need gold and precious jewels in their diet as well. Not to mention that once it grew bigger, it would be nearly impossible to hide from the outside world.
Just as he was thinking this, the problem seemed to solve itself as other-Zhang Long found a secret realm filled with jewels and that was perfect to hide Xiao Bai in. Not only that, time moved in this secret realm much faster than the outside world, allowing Xiao Bai to reach maturity in a matter of weeks - following which she had learned to hide her celestial beast aura and could transform into a cat, thereby accompanying other-Zhang Long without arousing suspicion.
Meanwhile, this world's Zhang Long continued to cultivate, moving through minor realms at an incredible speed until he broke through to the Qi Refinement realm two months later.
One night, while this world's Zhang Long was cuddling with Xiao Bai, she suddenly transformed from her cat form but she didn't become a dragon again. Instead, she revealed that she had a human form.
Her human form had the shape of a voluptuous woman who said that she had fallen in love with this world's Zhang Long, and wanted to marry him. The only thing that really spoke to the fact that she was a dragon were her pointed ears, two large fangs, and that here eyes were still the same - a dark amber color with slits like that of a cat's.
"I won't treat you like that fiancé of yours who dumped you!" Xiao Bai said enthusiastically. "And I even have a present that'll really help you!"
She then helped Zhang Long make a secret recipe of dragon wine using her powers which tripled his already abnormal cultivation speed so that he was nearly at the peak of Qi Refinement realm a few months later.
'Didn't just six months pass in this time?' - Zhang Long wondered, astounded by this pace of cultivation. "Tomorrow is the sect entrance exam," the other Tang Ze told Zhang Long. "If you go through to it, you can enter in the sect's tournament - and then win big!"
In this world, Tang Ze was the one who paid for Zhang Long's entrance fee to join the Rising Phoenix sect. It was a reversal of what had actually happened.
'So this takes place before I became a member? No, that's not possible, I became a member when I was only fifteen - this Zhang Long is at least nineteen,' Zhang Long thought to himself as he watched the other Zhang Long ace the entrance exam.
'This alternate dimension has too many inconsistencies' - Zhang Long thought to himself when comparing it to real life.
So he was rather sure that he was not meant to take anything that happened here in the literal sense, but he wasn't really sure what the lesson was supposed to be either.
Within a few months, a sect tournament was announced, and with his powerful cultivation base, this Zhang Long was able to beat all of his opponents with ease.
However, trouble began to brew as the finals approached.
"Brother Zhang Long, didn't you hear?" Tang Ze told him before the final match. "Your opponent for the final round is Jin Zhen's new fiancé! No doubt he wants to cripple you so that you don't go after her again. He's a Golden Core cultivator though, you have no chance of winning!"
At this point, the real Zhang Long was following the story with some mild interest - though hyped up and exaggerated at points, it was at least mildly interesting. But at this revelation, even he had to snort and say, "What on earth is going on here? This is completely ludicrous!"
For one, there was no way that they would allow Golden Core cultivators to pair off with Qi Refinement stage cultivators in any kind of tournament like this. That was why the sects had the Novice and Advanced Tournaments as separate events, after all.
And not only that, but this happened to occur in the final round, with his opponent happening to be Jin Zhen's new fiancé?
"Don't worry," the other Zhang Long said, seemingly having no problem with this matchup.
"But Zhang Long-" Xiao Bai said, worried. She was in her cat form, purring as she rubbed herself against other-Zhang Long's leg.
"Like I said, don't worry," other-Zhang Long reiterated. This world's version was at the final minor realm of Qi Refinement, and the ascension to the Golden Core realm multiplied one's strength three times. However, that multiplicative factor of three did not fully do justice to the massive gap in abilities between even the weakest Golden Core cultivator and the strongest Qi Refinement stage cultivator. That was because at the Golden Core, one could use various abilities and skills to augment one's strength that one could not do easily at the Qi Refinement realm.
On top of that, being at Golden Core meant that one's body had undergone a significant transformation, such that ordinary strikes were almost completely ineffective against them. Unless one laced one's blows with Qi, the wounds on a Golden Core cultivator would heal rapidly, and most people at the Qi Refinement stage did not have such abilities.
Jumping from Qi Refinement to Golden Core was a massive jump, to the point that even this other-Zhang Long who was quite prodigal in his cultivation hadn't made the ascension yet. Perhaps that was too unrealistic even for this dream realm.
"If you're up against someone that strong," the old man in other-Zhang Long's ring said, "there may be a way to bridge the gap."
During the final fight, other-Zhang Long used a secret technique the old man had taught him and absolutely broke the bones of his enemy, crippling him not only physically but also destroying his meridians making it nearly impossible for him to resume cultivating.
'Is that really me?' Zhang Long wondered, watching this borderline psychopathic behavior which utterly repulsed him as it came from someone who looked just like him, greatly disturbing him. Was this a warning from the Grimoire of Heaven - that he shouldn't end up like this? That if he walked a path of only gaining power this would be who he would become in the future?
"How did he manage to win at just the Qi Refinement realm? He shouldn't have a chance against a Golden Core cultivator!"
"Didn't you see? That was the [Profound Heavenly Dragon's Fist] technique. I thought it was lost to time, but somehow, this Zhang Long fellow happens to know it."
"Incredible! The fact that it could break through even a Golden Cultivator's defense!"
Zhang Long turned to see who it was who was speaking in the crowd, and he did a double-take.
He noticed two familiar faces - Yin Tiang and Chen Yu, though in this version of events, he had never met them, meaning they were just bystanders.
Other-Zhang Long was declared the winner of the tournament, and as he was about to step out, Jin Zhen ran up to him, tears streaming down her face.
The real Zhang Long was deeply moved, even in this dream realm, by seeing her tears and wanted to be the one to wipe them away, but alas, he could do nothing but watch on.
After all, Jin Zhen was his beloved childhood friend and soon to be wife. Given all the inconsistencies with how this alternate reality presented to him worked, he knew that this 'betrayal' of hers was something that she would never do in real life.
He badly wished to be able to console her and dry her tears, but as he reached for her, his hand passed through her as if she were made of mist.
Right, his emotions had run rampant, making him almost forget that this wasn't really happening.
Other-Jin Zhen began pleading with other-Zhang Long to take her back, and that she had broken off their engagement merely from her parent's coercion and had never truly stopped loving him.
"Go away!" the other Zhang Long said, hatred oozing from his eyes as he latched onto Xiao Bai.
"Yeah, get lost!" Xiao Bai said, sticking her tongue out at this other Jin Zhen.
The real Zhang Long was quite frustrated but hoped that this would be the end of it, only it wasn't.
Right after this, by coincidence, a huge earthquake hit his home village, killing many people there, destroying almost all of the houses, and leaving his parents homeless.
Now, his parents wanted to move back in with him, but this world's Zhang Long not only kicked them out when they came to meet him, but refused to provide aide to any of his former villagers.
No, actually, other-Zhang Long went a step further and actively forbade other people from donating to the villagers, leaving them to essentially die in poverty with a gleeful smile on his face, relishing in the revenge he had gotten.
'Who is this person who looks like me?' the actual Zhang Long thought as he saw these events unfold. He would never be filled with schadenfreude in this way seeing his old companions suffer like this. Even if he harbored hatred towards his parents, the other villagers had done nothing to this other-Zhang Long. Did this world's Zhang Long think they deserved it as they hadn't helped him when he was down?
The real Zhang Long could never imagine himself to be this petty.
Other-Zhang Long would go on to accomplish many things, becoming an alchemist who was better than even Yin Tiang currently was rather quickly, and even turning out to have one of the Five Attributes which he could use better than Chen Yu could. He naturally ascended to the Golden Core a few weeks later with ease, and after marrying Xiao Bai added two additional wives to his harem - Tang Ru of all people for some reason and a girl named Zheng Mei who he had never heard of before.
And with that, a flash of light passed over him, and the elder told him that the six hour time limit was up.