LGHTNOVELBOOK 20: "Big Black Handsome"
Spirit beast eggs!
Common beast tribes are usually demonic beasts, but besides them, there are some special races, such as magic beasts and spirit beasts.
Magic beasts are of two types: one forms spontaneously from demonic energy in the demon realm, while most common magic beasts are transformed from ordinary demonic beasts.
Whether the former or the latter, they are exceptionally fierce and violent, with strong aggression. They are not suitable for human cultivators to contract and raise. Some magic beasts even feed on human cultivators, requiring regular extermination.
Spirit beasts, on the other hand, are nurtured by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. They are more precious and rare than ordinary demonic beasts, with gentle temperaments and human-like intelligence, and are friendly to cultivators. Most spirit beasts have their unique innate skills, and the probability of awakening skills through nurturing is higher than that of ordinary demonic beasts.
In the cultivation world, cultivators who contract demonic beasts are not uncommon, but those who can contract spirit beasts are few and far between.
Spirit beasts are priceless. Even the lowest-grade spirit beast egg would cause a scramble among thousands of people upon its birth, difficult to buy even with a fortune.
Judging from the fluctuations of spiritual energy around the five spirit beast eggs Wen Renyue presented, their quality was at least middle to high grade.
Among these five beast eggs, three were cultivated by herself. Two had beast parents of the same species, so the egg species was clear. One was a crossbreed between two different species of beasts, so its species was currently unclear, though it would likely take after one of its parents.
The last two were obtained by chance from a secret realm, their species currently unknown—this was like opening a mystery box.
Wen Renyue introduced the racial attributes of these five spirit beast eggs to Chu Sang. After looking around, Chu Sang pointed to the only out-of-place large black egg, “I want this one.”
She had fallen for this “Big Black Handsome” at first sight.
This was a spirit beast egg that Wen Renyue had accidentally picked up in the secret realm where they had gotten lost last time. It contained abundant spiritual power, but she couldn’t determine its racial attributes or quality. There was a high chance it could turn out to be a “bad egg”.
“Are you sure you want this egg, Little Junior Sister?”
Chu Sang displayed a very confident smile, “I’ve always believed in my luck.”
Wen Renyue gave this spirit beast egg to Chu Sang, along with a spirit beast pouch containing several bags of high-grade feed for young spirit beasts. Most crucially, she taught her the method of hatching eggs using spiritual energy.
Spirit beasts are highly malleable. Although the species of the spirit beast is determined at the egg stage, the quality of the spirit beast that hatches depends on the careful nurturing by its owner during the incubation process.
Simply put, this crucial step also relies heavily on luck. What hatches is up to fate.
Chu Sang also gave small return gifts to her two senior siblings.
She had added the previous five points to her comprehension, and now could draw some middle-grade talismans, including the Spiritual Gathering Talisman. Since Lingqing Sect currently lacked spiritual energy the most, she had been intensively producing these, drawing no less than a hundred Spiritual Gathering Talismans.
Wen Renyue put the talismans into her qiankun bag and couldn’t help but scan the lush mountain peak, “No wonder! How did the spiritual energy on the back mountain become so rich that we can even plant spiritual fields? I clearly remember it wasn’t like this before I left!”
Tantai Ming said, “Little Junior Sister has set up a spiritual gathering array on our back mountain. Although its effect can’t compare to a sect-protecting spirit vein, it’s now comparable to the spiritual energy of several surrounding sects.”
“A spiritual gathering array, made by Little Junior Sister alone?” Ling Yu’s face showed surprise.
Although talisman and array inheritance are of the same lineage, with arrays originally evolving from talismans, and one of the Eight Great Immortal Sects, the Eight Trigrams Sect, cultivates both, arrays are much more demanding than talismans in terms of both drawing difficulty and materials.
Little Junior Sister being a talisman cultivator was already surprising enough, but he didn’t expect that at such a young age, she had also mastered the way of arrays, and her first attempt was the extremely difficult spiritual gathering array.
However, as a talisman cultivator, Little Junior Sister must have studied talisman scripts from a young age. Being able to create such a small-scale spiritual gathering array by herself, although truly shocking, wasn’t entirely implausible.
Ling Yu thought.
To celebrate Second Senior Brother and Third Senior Sister’s return to the sect, Chu Sang picked a basket of spirit vegetables from her small garden, intending to personally cook a welcoming feast.
Second Senior Brother voluntarily came to help.
“Oh my, Second Senior Brother, you’re too kind. Today is to welcome you and Third Senior Sister back. How can we let you work?” Chu Sang handed the kitchen knife to him.
Ling Yu’s lips twitched slightly, his face still gentle, “It’s no trouble. With my help, it will be faster.”
Chu Sang was very touched. Indeed, every sect has an indispensable gentle Second Senior Brother. The last trace of doubt in her heart disappeared.
Half an hour later.
Chu Sang looked at the charred mass in the pot before her and fell silent.
She belatedly recalled Tantai Ming’s previous complaints… It wasn’t an exaggeration, but a fact.
The gentle Second Senior Brother was a facade; he was a directionally challenged and clumsy beautiful fool.
“Um, Second Senior Brother, you should go rest. I can handle this.”
Ling Yu tried to argue, “Really, I don’t need help. I think I can try again.”
“No need!”
She pushed him out and pulled in Tantai Ming, who had rushed over thinking the kitchen was on fire, “Leave this hard work to me and Seventh Senior Brother!”
⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱
To ensure the spirit beast would hatch successfully, Chu Sang specially cleaned up the room with the best lighting and even set up a small spiritual gathering array.
However, days passed, and the spirit beast egg showed no movement, no sign of hatching.
“Could it be a dud?”
She tapped on the eggshell, “Baby, sweetheart, darling, come out and let mommy see you.”
The egg, “……”
Still no movement.
She sighed, put the beast egg into her dantian, and went out, coincidentally bumping into Tantai Ming.
The two agreed to go down the mountain to Treasure Pavilion.
Today happened to be Treasure Pavilion’s biannual auction. Tantai Ming had learned in advance that several spirit veins would be auctioned. However, when they arrived, they found that even the cheapest sect-protecting spirit vein cost five million spirit stones.
This was the lowest quality, buying it would be useless. It would be better for her to set up more spiritual gathering arrays.
Spirit veins of slightly better quality were priced in units of millions of high-grade spirit stones.
“Damn, are they robbing us?”
Tantai Ming wailed, causing nearby customers to turn and stare. Their looks, as if viewing country bumpkins, made Chu Sang cover her face and pull him away.
“Recently, there have been frequent reports of magic beast disturbances in the cultivation world. I heard that various major sects have issued many commissions with generous and reliable rewards.” Ling Yu took out a communication jade disk.
The jade disk was only as large as an adult’s palm, very convenient to hold. Its functions were similar to modern smartphones. Not only could it add friends for chatting, voice calls, video calls… but it also had a large area on the homepage, similar to the chat in the game world, where various commissions were posted, and one could accept orders to earn spirit stones.
“Look at this.” He opened the top pinned commission post, which was also the hottest discussion topic. “This is an A-grade commission jointly issued by the Eight Great Sects.”
“Magic beasts have gathered near several towns in the Central Continent. In just a few days, over a hundred villagers have lost their lives. At first, the nearby sects didn’t take it seriously, only sending some inner and outer disciples to exterminate them. But the dispatched disciples haven’t returned, and many of their soul tablets have shattered.”
“Only when the sect leaders and elders realized the seriousness of the matter was it reported to the Eight Great Sects.”
“The Eight Great Sects issued an urgent commission, recruiting cultivators at Foundation Establishment realm and above to exterminate the magic beasts. Completing the commission will earn one million spirit stones. Additionally, each magic beast head can be exchanged for an extra hundred thousand spirit stones, with no upper limit.”
One million spirit stones!
Chu Sang’s eyes were practically glowing with gold. She had never seen so much money in this life.
“However, this matter carries some danger. I’ll go with you.” Ling Yu, already at mid Golden Core realm, naturally took on the responsibility of protecting his junior siblings in the absence of the eldest senior brother.
“I have a Fire Soaring Snake about to give birth, so I need to take care of it. I’m afraid I can’t go with you.”
Wen Renyue sat cross-legged on the ground, tending to the small fire-red snake. The communication jade disk by her leg vibrated. She irritably picked it up and glanced at it, “Why is it this guy again?”
“Is someone looking for you, Senior Sister?” Chu Sang asked.
Wen Renyue waved her hand, “It’s nothing major. Just that since a year ago, some mysterious creep keeps trying to ask me out. Hah, he’s obviously one of those sleazy old men in the cultivation world who like to stalk female cultivators. I’ve seen plenty of such male cultivators. I just need to reject him firmly!”
“Poor Senior Sister.”
Who would have thought that even in the cultivation world, beautiful women would still be targeted by perverts.
Chu Sang shook her head and sighed. The world truly is declining.
“Just rejecting isn’t enough, you need to thoroughly humiliate him.” Chu Sang kindly suggested, helping her senior sister send a string of messages. Sure enough, there was no response from the other side.
When Wen Renyue saw clearly what she had sent, her hand trembled. This little junior sister… was quite wild.