Mixed-Element Mage!

Before long, the Great Water Rhino Beast howling miserably in Li Junshan's Spirit Space suddenly went rigid. With a shrill hiss, the Xenomorph finally burst out through the Great Water Rhino Beast's chest and swiftly began tearing into its corpse.

"Fused with a new species' genes. Strength increased by ten percent. Special ability acquired: Hardened Cartilage. Special ability acquired: Ice Spike Technique."

A string of information flashed through Li Junshan's mind the instant the Xenomorph broke free.

"Awesome." Li Junshan was overjoyed. It was indeed just as he had first imagined. What surprised him was that while its strength had increased, this Xenomorph had actually gained two special abilities at the same time. He was instantly wild with delight.

By then, the Xenomorph had already devoured the Great Water Rhino Beast's Beast Core. A pale-blue orb of light rose like the sun, and when the halo faded, the Xenomorph appeared in his Spirit Space.

This Xenomorph looked no different from the previous few on the outside, except that the countless strips of cartilage over its body were a little darker, giving off a metallic sheen.

"Maybe the Xenomorph's genes for body shape and appearance are already perfect. Unless it runs into genes more perfect than its own, its form won't change too much."

Li Junshan thought this, and with a shift of his will, that Xenomorph appeared before him.

"Use an Ice Spike Technique and let me see. Mm, aim at that Great Water Rhino Beast's corpse." Li Junshan could not wait and immediately gave the Xenomorph an order.

The Xenomorph opened its mouth, and at once, a blue, glowing ice spike as thick as a child's arm shot out, pinning the Great Water Rhino Beast's massive body firmly to the ground.

Hiss...

Wisps of white smoke rose from the Great Water Rhino Beast's corpse, and a burnt, foul stench instantly spread through the air.

"It even comes with a corrosive effect?" Li Junshan watched black water seep from the Great Water Rhino Beast's corpse, and another wave of pleasant surprise swept over him.

"Try another one." He still did not feel satisfied.

The Xenomorph opened its mouth. After a long while, however, nothing came out. It blinked its eyes and looked at its master innocently.

"Looks like this thing isn't inexhaustible. It's like a skill in a game—it needs some cooldown time."

Li Junshan said inwardly. Even so, he was still very excited.

Fate was not particularly surprised. A Summoned Beast that knew magic was nothing rare. Though this magic was a little perverse, the man in front of him had never once played by common sense. Fate felt that he had already gotten used to it.

"Oh no." Li Junshan slapped his forehead and cried, "How long have we been here? I remember the sun was overhead when I started meditating, so why has it run back to the east now?"

"A whole night has passed," Fate said strangely. "What's wrong, Master?"

"The tavern still has to open for business." Li Junshan hurriedly sent the injured Xenomorph back into his space to recover on its own, then directed the other Xenomorphs to tear every corpse at the scene, including the dead Xenomorph, into pieces, destroying the bodies and wiping out all traces.

Commanding the Xenomorphs to carry him and Fate back the way they had come, Li Junshan thought of the expression Anna would have right now and could not help shuddering.

Time passed day by day just like that. In the early morning and morning, they were busy in the tavern; in the afternoon, Fate cultivated magic inside the tavern, while Li Junshan went alone into the Falling Moon Mountains to capture magical beasts. It was thrilling and fulfilling.

There were now only nine Xenomorph Eggs in his Spirit Space sending out the mental request to hatch. The other countless Xenomorph Eggs showed no movement at all. Li Junshan had tried summoning the motionless Xenomorph Eggs out into the real world and placing magical beasts before them, but those Xenomorph Eggs had remained completely still.

Fate's analysis led to the conclusion that perhaps Li Junshan would have to advance his Summoning Technique before more Xenomorph Eggs could hatch.

Like warriors and mages, Summoners were also divided by rank. The three ranks of junior, intermediate, and advanced Summoners could summon magical beasts below level five; Grand Summoners could summon level-six magical beasts; Summoning Scholars could summon level-seven magical beasts; Summoning Saint Masters could summon level-eight magical beasts; Summoning Imperial Masters could summon level-nine magical beasts; and magical beasts above level nine belonged to the saint level. Only Saint Realm Summoners had any chance of successfully summoning them.

Li Junshan thought about it for a long time and felt that it should be just as Fate had analyzed: it was a problem with his own Summoner rank. Unfortunately, Windfire Town only had a guild for appraising mage levels, and there was no way to appraise Summoners. Li Junshan had no way to determine what rank he was at now.

Aside from the Xenomorph that had died, Li Junshan now had four ordinary Xenomorphs and one special Xenomorph that could release corrosive ice spike magic. Since he did not know when his Summoning Technique would advance, Li Junshan did not dare use low-level magical beasts as hosts for the Xenomorphs, for fear of wasting them.

He ran through the Falling Moon Mountains for a whole month straight, yet he did not encounter another magical beast above level six. It seemed he had only been lucky that time, running into two Great Water Rhino Beasts. He did encounter quite a few level-five magical beasts. As long as they had magic skills, and if he could manage it, he forcibly summoned them through coercion and threw them into his Spirit Space as reserves. Those he could not summon, he killed on the spot, skinning them and taking their cores.

Li Junshan did not dare go into the depths of the Falling Moon Mountains—at least, not now. Fate had also told him this many times over. If a magical beast above level seven popped out, no matter how many Summoned Beasts Li Junshan had, they would not be enough to fight it.

Although he had not encountered any magical beasts above level six, during this month, he had gone through countless battles with magical beasts. Whether it was his method of operating the Xenomorphs or his way of commanding them in combat, Li Junshan felt he had made great progress.

Thinking back now to the battle against the Great Water Rhino Beast, Li Junshan felt it had been full of holes. To put it simply, a Xenomorph's tongue bone was more lethal than its tail bone, yet during that fight, he had not let the Xenomorphs fight in that way. And when the Great Water Rhino Beast opened its mouth to spit out magic Water Arrows, he had been worried the Xenomorphs would be injured and made them dodge quickly, but he had not thought to have the agile Xenomorphs seize that chance to pierce its mouth—or its eyes would have worked too.

The Xenomorph's own fighting style was extremely flexible. That much could be seen from the original movies and games. They were everywhere, able to launch a fatal strike in any environment. But that time, he had clumsily made the Xenomorphs fight according to his commands; compared to letting them attack freely, it had been rather stiff.

While accumulating experience, Li Junshan's Spirit Space gained a huge pile of level-five Summoned Beasts, and Fate's bag also gained a huge pile of Beast Cores.

That enormous sense of happiness moved Fate so much that he nearly shed tears. But while he was happy, he also began to worry.

For the cultivation of magic power and spiritual power, if one cultivated inside a magic array laid out with Beast Cores, the speed would increase several times over. If the Beast Cores were high level, that speed would reach an astonishing multiple.

Fate now possessed one level-six Beast Core, twenty-three level-five Beast Cores, and forty-seven level-four Beast Cores. Those below level three were of little use and had all been taken by Anna to sell off.

Seventy Beast Cores were enough to form a Magic Spirit Gathering Array, and the quantity was sufficient. There was also a level-six Beast Core to serve as the array eye. The problem was that these Beast Cores were far too mixed—wind, fire, earth, water, everything was there. There was even a level-five Bloodthirsty Shadow Snake dark-attribute core.

A Spirit Gathering Array could only provide a mage of the corresponding attribute with large amounts of elements for cultivation when it was arranged with Beast Cores of the same attribute. Facing a huge pile of Beast Cores in all colors and shapes, Fate's head swelled as large as a bushel basket.

"When will you ever save up seventy high-level water-attribute Beast Cores? Only those who dare to fight can win. Do you want to keep squatting here forever? I don't, anyway. When a man dies, his balls face the sky—just try it. Maybe you'll even find another road, and when that time comes, you'll stand above other men."

Li Junshan spoke with both voice and emotion, then patted Fate on the shoulder, encouraged him with that "I have high hopes for you" look, turned, and went out.

"Besides, you're only a junior water mage. What are you afraid of? Even if the attributes get mixed up while you cultivate, maybe you'll become a high-level mage of some other element. Who knows, maybe you'll even cultivate into a dual-element, tri-element, mixed-element mage."

Li Junshan tossed out another sentence like that.

Fate automatically ignored his previous sentence, but the latter one suddenly enlightened him.

"That's right. It's not like mixed Magic Spirit Gathering Arrays have never existed before. At most, their magic attributes were affected, but there was no danger to their lives. I'm only a junior water mage right now. Even if it gets thrown into chaos, so what!"

After thinking it through, Fate followed the instructions in the Magic Manual left behind by Anna's husband and used these Beast Cores of mixed attributes to set up a Magic Spirit Gathering Array. When he placed the final Great Water Rhino Beast Beast Core on the array eye, he immediately felt all kinds of elements around him madly surging into the array.

"My springtime has come." Fate sat down excitedly in the Magic Spirit Gathering Array and entered meditation to communicate with the elements.

Time was like a Xenomorph's hard tongue-bone, flicking out and retracting with a whoosh, and it was gone. A month later, while Li Junshan was meditating and cultivating his spiritual power in the tavern's back courtyard, he suddenly felt something was off. He opened his eyes and saw Fate standing not far from him, looking as if his soul had left his body.

Excitement, disappointment, regret, joy... complicated emotions flashed across his face like flowers glimpsed from a galloping horse.

"What's wrong?" Li Junshan found it strange.

Fate's face instantly turned bitter, and he said mournfully, "What kind of thing is this!"

"Say it. Don't look like I owe you several million gold coins."

Fate still wore that same expression and said nothing. He chanted a few magic incantations in a low voice, and from the flat ground, an Earth Spike suddenly broke through the soil, only extending about half a meter.

Fate chanted an incantation, and a Water Arrow struck the wall, punching out a small hole.

Fate chanted another incantation, and a Wind Blade struck a tree, shaving off some bark.

Fate still chanted an incantation, and a small fireball appeared out of thin air, igniting the withered leaves by the wall.

Fate continued chanting incantations...

Uh... Li Junshan's eyes blurred in a dizzying whirl, and he hurriedly cut Fate off, asking in surprise, "How many elements is that for you now?"

Fate smiled bitterly and said, "I did what you told me and used Beast Cores with mixed attributes to set up the Magic Spirit Gathering Array. Who knew that after only a few days of cultivation, I'd be able to communicate with all kinds of elements? The Magic Manual had introductions to magic of every element, and I got curious for a moment, so I learned a bit of all of them. But who knew that after more than half a month, I can still only cast these powerless low-level spells? No matter how I cultivate, whichever element it is, I'm still only a beginner!"

Li Junshan broke out in sweat and said, "It's only been half a month. What are you rushing for? Take it slowly. Besides, I'm a layman and don't understand this stuff. I just said it offhand, and you believed me?" As he spoke, he turned and ran out.

"What kind of thing is this!" Fate said gloomily, almost about to cry.