Earth Spike Art

Earth Spike Art

The tea had gone lukewarm, and the person had left.

Ye Jingcheng stood there in a daze, wanting to call her back, but by the time she reached the end of the street corner, Xu Xiuqing had vanished completely from sight.

Ye Jingcheng did not call out after all. He could only withdraw his gaze.

Xu Xiuqing and they were ultimately people walking different paths. He could not possibly risk everything to save Old Xu, nor could he keep Xu Xiuqing in the Ye Family.

When he turned around, he found Ye Xinghe watching him with an intrigued look.

Under Ye Xinghe's gaze, Ye Jingcheng naturally felt uncomfortable all over. Finding an excuse, he retreated to the backyard and began checking on the Golden Scale Beast.

Since Xu Xiuqing had given the Golden Scale Beast to him, he naturally would not stand on ceremony. He now planned to grow closer to it and complete the Blood Pact.

He directly took out Spirit Feeding Pills and Body Tempering Pills and began feeding it.

The Golden Scale Beast had been listless in its cage because of the gloomy rain. When it saw Ye Jingcheng approach, it repeatedly scrambled to its feet. It gave low growls, constantly pawing with its two front claws, visibly excited.

The Golden Scale Beast was extremely intelligent. After consuming the spirit pills, it voluntarily stretched its head toward Ye Jingcheng.

As usual, Ye Jingcheng sent in a trace of Treasure Book spiritual light.

Unlike the Crimson Flame Fox, which had experienced abundant Treasure Light, the Golden Scale Beast only received a fleeting instant each time. Thus, after the Treasure Book spiritual light vanished, it would peacefully lie down, its pair of earthy yellow eyes rolling as it watched Ye Jingcheng.

From time to time, it rubbed the hard armor on its forehead against Ye Jingcheng's palm.

Ye Jingcheng then began circulating the Blood Pact.

As a drop of essence blood fell, just as expected, the sensation from the Treasure Book appeared once more, exactly as it had last time.

As the Blood Pact formed, Ye Jingcheng could clearly sense the Golden Scale Beast's emotional fluctuations.

At this very moment, the Golden Scale Beast was even thinking that the Treasure Light had not been nearly enough.

It looked forward to the next appearance of Treasure Light.

It simply had not considered that it was not Ye Jingcheng who refused to give it enough Treasure Light, but that Ye Jingcheng's Treasure Light had already been exhausted.

Besides that, a new pill formula appeared within the Ancient Book. The spirit image engraved beneath the formula was somewhat different from that of the Crimson Flame Fox.

After the Crimson Flame Fox consumed the pill, it should be able to grow a second tail.

As for the Golden Scale Beast, sharp spikes would grow from its scales, making it even larger and more imposing.

However, Ye Jingcheng found the pill formula exceedingly complicated at a glance. Most of the Spirit Herbs within had been replaced with earth-element Spirit Herbs.

Still, the pill formula's grade remained First-Order Grade-High, so it had not exceeded his expectations by much.

Ye Jingcheng released the Golden Scale Beast from its cage. At that moment, it was somewhat hesitant. Clearly, after spending more than half a year in the cage, it had grown accustomed to it.

But with Ye Jingcheng outside, it too charged out after him.

Within the Inner Courtyard, it began running about ceaselessly. It even roared at the other Spirit Beasts in the Inner Courtyard, baring its sharp fangs. If the Crimson Flame Fox's strength lay entirely in its fire control, then the Golden Scale Beast's lay entirely in its scales, claws, and fangs.

Ye Jingcheng let the Golden Scale Beast wreak havoc in the Inner Courtyard while using the Ye Family's specific beast-training methods to cultivate its ferocity.

Any Spirit Beast kept in a cage for too long would see its ferocity and combat strength deteriorate. However, Ye Jingcheng had already trained the Crimson Flame Fox, so he was even more confident about training the Golden Scale Beast.

Of course, amid the training, Ye Jingcheng was also curious whether the Golden Scale Beast had mastered any beginner-level spells.

In the next moment, he communicated with the Golden Scale Beast through the Blood Pact.

However, the Golden Scale Beast clearly did not know any. It stirred up a burst of earthy yellow spiritual light, and with a press of its two front claws, raised two stone pillars.

Not only was it slow, it had not formed earth spikes at all.

Ye Jingcheng was not disappointed. The Golden Scale Beast had been confined for so long; being able to invoke it to this extent was already quite good.

It could still be cultivated further later on.

Moreover, Earth Spike Art was also a decent casting method in actual combat.

During the Qi Training and Foundation Establishment stages, although cultivators could fly on swords, doing so consumed an enormous amount of spiritual power. They would generally stand on the ground to cast spells.

This conserved spiritual power while also effectively reducing the area exposed to attack.

Moreover, Ye Jingcheng had studied Earth Spike Art before. However, not only was he slow at casting it, its power was also limited.

Yet using it to guide and correct the Golden Scale Beast, setting its Earth Spike Art on the right track, would be extremely suitable.

And he could give it more Treasure Book spiritual light and more spirit pills, allowing the Golden Scale Beast to improve faster.

After an hour passed, the Golden Scale Beast had also lost interest.

Ye Jingcheng brought it into the room, then took out the Crimson Flame Fox and the Jade Ring Rat, letting the three beasts get more familiar with one another.

The Crimson Flame Fox and the Golden Scale Beast did not get along very well. Whenever the Crimson Flame Fox bared its teeth, the Golden Scale Beast could not help backing away.

The Golden Scale Beast's spiritual energy fluctuations had clearly only reached the middle First-Order stage, roughly equivalent to Qi Training Stage 5. It was even slightly inferior to Ye Jingcheng.

Naturally, it was suppressed completely by the Crimson Flame Fox. And because of the Golden Scale Beast, the Crimson Flame Fox became even more attached to Ye Jingcheng. It practically lay before him and never strayed too far away, like a loyal guard.

This made the Golden Scale Beast somewhat afraid to approach, and it could only growl softly from the side.

In the end, the Jade Ring Rat was the one constantly chased around by the Golden Scale Beast.

It squeaked furiously and bit at the Golden Scale Beast as well, but the Golden Scale Beast's thick scales allowed it to pin the rat down and toy with it! Its huge incisors were useful enough against other Spirit Beasts, but against the Golden Scale Beast, they fell far too short.

This made Ye Jingcheng look forward to the day when the Golden Scale Beast's golden scales reached completion and it cultivated Stone Armor Art. Then, in battle, it could pair with the Crimson Flame Fox, one fighting up close and the other at range! Ye Jingcheng became even more satisfied at the thought.

Squeak, squeak, squeak! The Jade Ring Rat was pinned down, its two huge ears flapping wildly as it let out shrill, strange cries.

"Little Gold, stop messing around!" Ye Jingcheng shouted, pulling the Golden Scale Beast away.

Occasionally tempering its ferocity was fine, but there had to be a limit.

After separating the three Spirit Beasts, Ye Jingcheng began cultivating as well.

Whether it was Beast Taming or pill refining, a cultivator's foundation was still their own strength.

Ye Jingcheng naturally would not forget this. Moreover, cultivating the Li Fire Art at this time yielded twice the result with half the effort, making him even more eager to cultivate.

After completing several Heavenly Cycles, Ye Jingcheng began refining pills again! He was still refining Azure Spirit Pills, and his success rate in refining them was now quite high.

Moreover, Azure Spirit Pills fetched the highest price in Spirit Stones, and there was no need to worry about finding buyers.

He was now raising three Spirit Beasts, so his consumption of Spirit Stone resources had grown even greater.

Each time he finished feeding the Spirit Beasts, Ye Jingcheng gained a deeper understanding of just how poor the Ye Family was.

The days that followed continued to pass.

Before he knew it, Ye Jingcheng had already spent his second year in the market town.

During this time, he attended two auctions. At the second one, he also successfully bid on two sets of Spirit Herbs for Crimson Flame Fox spirit pills.

On this day, Ye Jingcheng spread the Spirit Herbs across the stone table and took out the Three-Eared Pill Furnace.