Bloodline Shackles

Fortunately, Li Tianming still had some family property in Lihuo City. After being driven out of the City Lord's Mansion, mother and son still had a place to stay.

Their new home was a rundown courtyard that had gone untended for a long time and lacked many daily necessities. Li Tianming busied himself for half the day before finally getting settled.

He knew he would not stay here for long. Once he obtained a Yanhuang Order that would allow him to enter Yanhuang Academy, he would leave Lihuo City.

It was not until his mother had fallen asleep peacefully that Li Tianming left her bedroom.

"Not bad today, little brother." Beneath the night wind, Li Tianming lifted the Little Yellow Chick off his head. This fellow had treated his hair like a bird's nest.

"Cut the crap. Hurry up and bring out the Spirit Ore we got today. I'm starving." The Little Yellow Chick was already unable to wait.

The Spirit Ore it spoke of was the Jade Li Yanfeng had "magnanimously" bestowed after divorcing his wife and discarding his son—wealth enough for two ordinary people to live on for a lifetime.

Spirit Ore was ore born between heaven and earth after being nourished for ages by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and the spiritual essence of earth veins. It contained all kinds of miraculous spiritual properties. It could be used to forge weapons and had many other uses as well.

Jade was also a kind of Spirit Ore. It contained vast quantities of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, benefiting both beastmasters and companion beasts. Thus, it was also used as beastmasters' currency. Every piece of Jade was worth more than gold, silver, and jewels.

There were several types of Jade that could serve as currency. Fire Jade, which contained fire spiritual energy, was the most widely circulated in the Vermilion Bird Kingdom. There were also Gold Jade, Thunder Jade, and others. All were commonly used currency and could purchase many cultivation resources.

Li Tianming took out all the Jade he had received that morning and spread it across the table. After counting, he found roughly two hundred Fire Jade and around fifty Gold Jade.

"He was quite generous. Enough for two ordinary people to live for two lifetimes." Li Tianming gave a cold laugh.

A lifetime of love had been exchanged for these things.

"What's this?" The Little Yellow Chick pointed at a pattern present on all the Jade.

"They're called Heavenly Patterns." Every piece of Fire Jade and Gold Jade on the table bore a faint crimson pattern. Even water could not wash these patterns away. They were Heavenly Patterns; only ore with Heavenly Patterns could be called Spirit Ore.

It was said that Heavenly Patterns embodied the will of heaven and earth and contained the secrets of heaven and earth's primordial power. Many high-level beastmasters contemplated Heavenly Patterns to break through their own limits and command the power of heaven and earth. Thus, their full name was Heavenly Intent Patterns.

"There are nine colors of Heavenly Patterns: crimson, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, black, and white. Crimson Heavenly Patterns are the lowest grade, while white Heavenly Patterns are the highest. Spirit Ore with white Heavenly Patterns is absolutely a peerless treasure. They say white Heavenly Patterns are extraordinarily intricate, practically like a formation diagram made of patterns."

So far, Li Tianming had only seen crimson, orange, and yellow Heavenly Patterns.

The Jade before him was all Spirit Ore with crimson Heavenly Patterns. Though it was the most ordinary kind, it still benefited Li Tianming's current cultivation. Once the spiritual energy within the Jade was released, it could accelerate the conversion and condensation of Beast Essence.

"What Heavenly Patterns? What a mess. Before me, it's all food." The Little Yellow Chick muttered, then actually jumped onto the table, opened its beak, and tried to eat the Jade.

"Brother, quit fooling around. This stuff is for refining, not eating." Li Tianming knew what it was up to the moment he saw that posture. Normally, beastmasters and companion beasts did need Jade to speed up cultivation, but they first had to release the spiritual energy within the Jade, then absorb and refine it together.

"What the hell do you know?"

Something astonishing happened before Li Tianming's eyes. The Little Yellow Chick opened its beak and gobbled down the Jade one after another, like little sugar beans.

"Not bad. Nice and chewy." After swallowing more than ten Fire Jade containing fire spiritual energy, flames were already rising from its body. Its face was red as if drunk, and it even let out several full belches.

"Damn it, you eat rocks? Aren't you afraid of getting constipated?" Li Tianming gaped. He had never seen a companion beast directly eat Spirit Ore.

"You country bumpkin, so ignorant. I'll digest this trash in a quarter hour. Why would I need to shit it out?" The Little Yellow Chick belched again. Too much spiritual energy had gathered inside it at once, and scorching waves erupted from its body. It had successfully turned into a burning turkey.

It took Li Tianming a while to recover. On second thought, this thing was a Primordial Chaos Giant Beast. Just hearing that name sounded awesome. What was so strange about eating Spirit Ore raw?

"You should try one too. It tastes pretty good. We real men naturally specialize in eating this kind of hard stuff." Still unsatisfied, the Little Yellow Chick picked up a Fire Jade and handed it to Li Tianming.

"Is this why you forcefully attacked that male Fire Plume Bird during the day?"

"Get lost!" The Little Yellow Chick was incomparably embarrassed and shoved the Fire Jade into Li Tianming's mouth.

Li Tianming had wanted to spit it out, but then he thought carefully. After his body had been reforged through his companion beast's bloodline, he could be considered to possess an Eternal Purgatory Body. If it could absorb and refine it by eating it raw, could he not do the same?

The Fire Jade entered his mouth and scorched his throat like strong liquor, yet it did not seem very painful. Then it entered his stomach like a bowl of hot soup swallowed whole. He could clearly feel that, surrounded by gastric fluid, the Fire Jade actually began to melt. A massive amount of fire spiritual energy erupted, burning throughout his entire body!

Huff!

He opened his mouth to breathe and directly spewed out a string of flames. A great deal of fire spiritual energy rushed out.

"Don't spit it out! What a waste!" The Little Yellow Chick looked at him with disdain.

Li Tianming's face was flushed red from the heat. Looking at his body engulfed in flames, he felt as though he were dreaming. He was practically a monster like this!

But there was no denying it: just like the Eternal Purgatory Phoenix, he could eat Spirit Ore raw! This was also one of the bloodline abilities of the Primordial Chaos Giant Beast!

"With the same Fire Jade, if I refined it normally, I could absorb at most one-third of it. But by eating it raw like this, it feels as though nothing is wasted. The absorption is also more direct. The fire spiritual energy gathers in my abdomen, then the Eternal Purgatory Scripture refines it and directly converts it into Beast Essence that enters my beast pulses."

"If that's the case, as long as I have enough Jade, my cultivation should become even more ferocious."

He smiled. No wonder the Little Yellow Chick could keep eating without the fire spiritual energy making it explode. While it was "eating," it was also circulating the Eternal Purgatory Scripture to convert it into Beast Essence. In that way, both of their Beast Essence was rapidly expanding.

If anyone saw what was happening in the dilapidated courtyard now, it would utterly overturn their worldview.

One man and one chicken sat together, swallowing Jade one piece at a time as if cracking sunflower seeds, chatting while they ate. The key was that both man and chicken were on fire.

Li Tianming now understood perfectly that the Primordial Chaos Giant Beast hidden within his Companion Space was absolutely a terrifying existence. In such a short time, the innate abilities this Little Yellow Chick had brought him were already frightening enough.

Enormous beast pulses, the Eternal Purgatory Body, fire-attribute immunity, eating Spirit Ore raw, and more...

"Brother, how much do you know about the Primordial Chaos Giant Beasts and yourself?" Li Tianming found some fine wine and drank it with the Little Yellow Chick alongside the Jade.

"It's not that I'm deliberately acting mysterious. I'm genuinely more confused than you. The moment I opened my eyes, I only knew that I was called the Eternal Purgatory Phoenix, one of the Primordial Chaos Giant Beasts. Nothing else." The Little Yellow Chick lay drunk on the stone table, feet in the air.

"I once saw a scene. A Dark Giant Hand appeared." Li Tianming recalled.

"You had that dream too?" The Little Yellow Chick sprang up with a jolt and stared at Li Tianming excitedly.

"You saw it too?"

"Of course. I've had that image ever since before I was born. So I guess that I was once an existence that ate suns raw, but then I was hunted by that Dark Giant Hand. Before dying, some opportunity must have let me find life amid death, and I became your companion beast. I survived in another way." The Little Yellow Chick spoke seriously.

It seemed it had actually given its current situation quite a bit of thought.

Of course, this was only its guess. Whether it was correct remained unknown.

"Do you know of any way to restore your power and bring me along too, so I can become as awesome as you once were?" Li Tianming asked.

"I don't know. I only know that countless things are still hidden in my bloodline, but I need a great deal of fortune and opportunity to unearth them." The Little Yellow Chick said.

It certainly was not powerful now. Like Li Tianming, it was only at the third level of the Beast Pulse Realm. But there was no denying that once the power hidden in its bloodline was unleashed, it would surely shake the entire world.

As for what opportunity it needed, Li Tianming was also pondering it.

"The Symbiotic Cultivation System lets us grow stronger together. That may be one such opportunity." Li Tianming said thoughtfully.

"That's right, but I definitely need more things. Like this Spirit Ore—I knew at a glance that I could eat it raw to grow stronger. But its effect is too small. There must be something more effective." The Little Yellow Chick said.

When it had been hunted by the Dark Giant Hand, it had transformed its life form. There must be shackles within its bloodline that could not be opened. Therefore, the most crucial thing in the future would be to thoroughly break these bloodline shackles and let it truly return to its peak.

By the time they reached this point in their discussion, the more than one hundred Fire Jade on the table had actually been eaten up by the two of them!

"Damn it, I'm still not satisfied!" The Little Yellow Chick said greedily. Its stomach was simply a bottomless pit.

"Aren't there still some Gold Jade?" Li Tianming was extremely generous. All this Jade had been put to good use, so he did not mind spending in one night the lifetime's funds Li Yanfeng had given him.

"This stuff is full of metal spiritual energy. It tastes awful." The Little Yellow Chick said disdainfully.

It was clearly fire-attributed, so making it eat metal really was difficult. Li Tianming still had some appetite for Fire Jade, but the remaining Gold Jade truly left him with no interest.

"That's easy. Tomorrow, I'll go to the Starfall Chamber of Commerce and exchange this Gold Jade for Fire Jade."

Fire Jade and Gold Jade were both Jade, both circulating currency, but they suited beastmasters and companion beasts with different attributes. Therefore, Lihuo City's largest commercial organization, the Starfall Chamber of Commerce, had established a Jade exchange counter and charged only a modest fee.

"Let's first convert tonight's Fire Jade into Beast Essence."

There was still a vast amount of fire spiritual energy inside their bodies. After a night of cultivation, Li Tianming could clearly feel that he was not far from breaking through to the Fourth Beast Vein Realm.

Only upon reaching that realm could he possibly gain the initiative in the Yanhuang Academy Selection!

After talking with the Little Yellow Chick tonight, many of Li Tianming's doubts had been resolved. Now that he and the Eternal Purgatory Phoenix were mutually symbiotic, he roughly had a direction for how the man and chicken should advance in the future!

Strengthen themselves, awaken their bloodline, break through the shackles!

As for exactly what they needed, the Little Yellow Chick would have the answer when it encountered it.

Early the next morning, after Li Tianming prepared breakfast for his mother, he took the remaining fifty Gold Jade and headed for the Starfall Chamber of Commerce.

He had a feeling that the Fire Jade obtained after exchanging the Gold Jade should be about enough for both him and the Little Yellow Chick to break through together!

When Li Tianming stepped outside, Lihuo City was exceptionally bustling because of the city lord's marriage. Rumors of Li Tianming and his mother being divorced and discarded had already spread...