Impact on Cultivation

Chu Yun held the blood from the tip of his tongue in his mouth, but he did not rush to spit it out.

He remained unhurried, taking out the bottle of Pearl Tear from his robes. Pearl Tear was even harder to obtain than Snow Sand, far more precious and exorbitantly expensive. Its effect was to vastly amplify the blood sacrifice, ensuring that once the spirit beast broke through its shell, its level of intimacy with the Spirit Beast Master would be exceptionally high.

With the bottle neck against his lips and a flick of his wrist, Chu Yun poured the entire bottle of Pearl Tear into his mouth.

The cool Pearl Tear mixed with the blood from his tongue, instantly releasing a rich, fragrant aroma. Smelling it made one's spirit feel refreshed and one's heart brighten.

Experienced and seasoned, Chu Yun waited for a moment to let it brew before spitting it out with a sudden, forceful motion. He sprayed the mixture of Pearl Tear and heart blood precisely onto the spirit beast egg.

A strange phenomenon occurred. The spirit beast egg acted like a sponge, absorbing every drop of Chu Yun's essence blood.

In an instant, the fragrance grew even more intense. The Heavenly Fox Egg also began to emit a faint, pure red glow.

Chu Yun watched with satisfaction. Possessing memories of his past life, he knew every detail of hatching a spirit beast egg clearly. He knew that the purer the red glow, the higher the quality of the essence blood.

As he reached this stage, a look of solemnity suddenly appeared in his eyes. He knew in his heart: the most critical step was about to begin.

The sixth step—Spiritual Awakening.

Everything in this world, whether it be stones, trees, birds, beasts, insects, or fish, consists of three things: the body, the soul, and the spiritual light.

The body is the foundation of action, as in the phrase "to practice what one preaches." The soul governs the spirit; those with a powerful soul possess vigorous energy and strong intuition. The spiritual light, however, governs wisdom and comprehension.

When an ordinary person thinks about a problem and suddenly has an epiphany, it is called a "flash of spiritual light in the heart." When praising someone for having great comprehension and extraordinary creativity, one says they have great "spirituality."

The more abundant the spiritual light, the higher the comprehension and the greater the wisdom.

Those with a powerful soul might still be mentally deficient or insane. Such patients may be full of energy day and night, but their spiritual light is sparse, their wisdom is low, and they lack comprehension. They speak incoherently and cannot even grasp the routines of daily life.

The soul produces spiritual light, and the body stores it. This is the relationship between the body, the soul, and the spiritual light.

This sixth step involved using the spiritual light within the Spirit Beast Master to awaken the spiritual light within the spirit beast egg. This step was vital; if it failed, the entire hatching process would be a failure.

Chu Yun felt a bit nervous, unsure if he could successfully awaken the spiritual light within the Heavenly Fox Egg using his own.

His success in his past life was due to Lady Shu's sabotage; the egg had been covered in cracks and was on the verge of shattering. The spirit beast egg acts as the body, and the body stores spiritual light. With the body damaged, the spiritual light was already leaking out.

In this life, however, Chu Yun's Heavenly Fox Egg was completely intact. The spiritual light was abundant, which made Chu Yun worry whether he could use his own to awaken the Heavenly Fox's. If he couldn't, it would be a failure. If the spiritual light backfired, it would be a tragedy.

One must never underestimate the act of hatching an egg; it is equally fraught with danger. Without thorough preparation, even if one succeeds, it will greatly diminish the spirit beast's potential, causing it to be congenitally weak. It might not be apparent in the short term, but it is the Spirit Beast Master who will taste the bitter fruit in the future.

He gently closed his eyes and began to call upon the spiritual light within his body.

With the experience of his past life, he was adept at the process. His spiritual light, like a white orb of light, radiated a halo that flickered and swayed like a candle flame. He quickly drove it into motion, emitting waves of spiritual fluctuations as he reached out toward the spirit beast egg.

It went much more smoothly than Chu Yun had expected; the first wave of spiritual light received a response. This was largely thanks to the Snow Sand and, even more so, the Pearl Tear.

Boom!

Chu Yun fell into a dream.

It was as if he had entered another world. Everything around him was pitch black, and he transformed into that sliver of his own spiritual light, shining brilliantly in the darkness.

Beyond that, there seemed to be an extremely faint source of light flickering ahead, appearing and disappearing.

He was not surprised; calmly, he steered his own spiritual light to probe forward. The light source ahead grew larger—first a mere dot, then slowly expanding to form a mass of spiritual light many times smaller than his own.

By comparison, Chu Yun's spiritual light was like a clenched fist, while this sliver of light was the size of a finger.

Even so, Chu Yun's heart sank. The abundance of the Heavenly Fox's spiritual light exceeded his expectations. An ordinary spirit beast would not even have a tenth of it. Even in his past life, it had only been a fifth of this size.

No wonder they say that among spirit beasts, the fox and monkey tribes possess the greatest spirituality. He was both worried and overjoyed.

He was overjoyed that the Heavenly Fox's spirituality exceeded his imagination, indicating excellent aptitude. He was worried about whether his own spirituality could awaken the Heavenly Fox's.

Calling out to spiritual light and establishing a spiritual connection is an incredibly difficult task. Generally speaking, the greater the difference in spiritual light, the easier it is to call out. The Heavenly Fox's aptitude was too high, while Chu Yun was currently only a thirteen-year-old boy. The gap between their spiritual lights was not large.

Chu Yun struggled to get close to the Heavenly Fox's innate spiritual light and issued a spiritual call.

At first, there was no response. The Heavenly Fox was slumbering within the egg, and his call was like a stone cast into the sea, leaving him feeling desperate.

Chu Yun did not give up; he persisted. In truth, his own talent was quite excellent—compared to ordinary people like Shu Da and Shu Er, the spiritual light within his body was twice the size of theirs. But alas, the Heavenly Fox was considered a peerless treasure; its aptitude was simply too superior!

After a full half-day of effort, the Heavenly Fox's spiritual light suddenly surged, like a lamp wick flaring up. Breaking its usual silence, it began to slowly revive and become active.

Chu Yun felt both anxious and joyful; he had finally awakened the Heavenly Fox's spirituality, but he himself was reaching his limit.

I have to push through! He gritted his teeth, continuing to vibrate his spiritual light and issue his call.

Benefiting from his thorough preparations and his wealth of experience, once the Heavenly Fox's spiritual light was awakened, it acted positively, even actively responding to Chu Yun's call.

A tight connection grew stronger and stronger until it finally reached its limit.

Chu Yun felt as if he heard a boom!

In this dreamlike world, everything around was dark. Yet his own spiritual light had already closed in, wrapping the Heavenly Fox's spiritual light within his own.

An indescribable sense of intimacy rose in his heart. The spiritual awakening had been arduously successful!

"Break through the shell; I am waiting for you." Leaving behind this message, Chu Yun withdrew his spiritual light and exited the vision.

Returning to reality, he felt as if his body had been hollowed out. He was drenched in sweat, and a sense of exhaustion washed over him like a tide.

His eyes narrowed into slits, and he desperately wanted to collapse right there and sleep soundly.

He curled his tongue, and the pain from the wound struck him, causing his whole body to shudder. He absolutely could not fall asleep now, or all his efforts would be for nothing!

The greatest hurdle had been overcome; now was not the time to grow careless and let success, already within his grasp, slip through his fingers.

He waited quietly for the Heavenly Fox to emerge from its beast egg.

This was the seventh step—breaking the shell to achieve Foundation Establishment.

Soon, the Heavenly Fox Egg began to stir. The egg, the size of a large bowl, had been lying quietly in a nest constructed of pitch-black Baleful Earth Stone and pristine white Snow Sand. Now, however, it began to tremble slightly.

Immediately, the tremors grew in magnitude, escalating into violent vibrations.

Crack, crack...

As the crisp sound reached his ears, the white-based, red-patterned shell of the Heavenly Fox Egg became covered in spiderweb-like fractures.

Chu Yun suppressed his excitement, holding his breath.

The vibrations of the beast egg continued; one could imagine the newborn Heavenly Fox struggling and exerting itself within, a process quite arduous. Yet, this was a step where he absolutely could not assist.

Helping it peel away the shell would be to deprive it of an opportunity for growth and tempering. For the future of the Heavenly Fox, that would be an absolutely terrible thing.

This step was meant to instill in it a firm conviction and a tenacious fighting spirit, digging out the combat instincts buried deep within the beast's bones.

The higher the quality of a beast egg, the harder the shell was to pierce. The Heavenly Fox was a peerless-grade beast; the difficulty of breaking its shell was more than ten times that of a Sea Burst Crocodile or a Green Fang Snake.

The vibrations of the beast egg gradually weakened, and Chu Yun's expression froze. In his past life, the Heavenly Fox Egg had been covered in cracks, which had greatly reduced the difficulty of its birth. But things were different now; it was relying entirely on its own strength.

Is it going to fail? This unexpected situation made Chu Yun instinctively clench his fists, his palms slick with sweat. His concern clouded his judgment, and he struggled within: should he intervene, help the Heavenly Fox inside, and peel the shell open himself?

After a fierce internal struggle, he finally let out a long breath and unclenched his fists. He decided to trust the Heavenly Fox, this combat partner who had accompanied him for most of his life! It was resilient, intelligent, full of fighting spirit, and indomitable. It often made him, its master, feel a sense of inferiority.

The Heavenly Fox had done it!

It truly lived up to expectations. The earlier weakening of the movement had been it gathering strength for a final strike. It had indeed succeeded in one fell swoop, piercing the shell and revealing a small head with half-closed eyes.

The Heavenly Fox's head was pointed and long, covered in wet, sticky amniotic fluid. Its eyes were half-closed, and it seemed dazed, not yet accustomed to the intense light.

But in an instant, it adapted. Guided by an incredibly strong sense of intimacy and belonging in its heart, it found Chu Yun's figure. It let out a joyful cry, its young body fluttering, the movements becoming more vigorous.

It finally broke through the shell and crawled out completely. Its body was snow-white, and its tail was almost as long as its entire body; the amniotic fluid clinging to it made it look a bit disheveled. However, its eyes were now fully open, pitch-black and shining like two large black gemstones, truly eye-catching.

It let out a joyful cry, showing great affection for Chu Yun. It made a move to pounce forward and nuzzle him.

Chu Yun hurriedly stopped it. Through the call between their spiritual lights, he conveyed warm affection and instructed it to be obedient and begin absorbing essence energy.

The newborn Heavenly Fox was very well-behaved; it immediately stopped in its tracks, planted its four limbs on the ground, and began consciously absorbing the surrounding essence energy.

A look of concern appeared in Chu Yun's eyes. For a newborn beast, the first session of absorbing energy upon breaking from the egg could cause its cultivation to skyrocket. The more its cultivation surged, the better the beast's aptitude.

Generally speaking, in an environment rich in essence energy, a superior-grade beast could see its cultivation surge by six or seven years. Those with even better aptitude could even reach eight years of cultivation.

In Chu Yun's past life, the Heavenly Fox's cultivation had immediately surged to seven years upon birth. Now that the Heavenly Fox Egg was intact and had hatched under Chu Yun's perfect preparations, he wondered to what extent it could reach during its first absorption of essence energy.