Earth Spike Technique

The tea had grown cool, 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 ultimately did not call out. He could only draw back his gaze.

Xu Xiuqing and they were people walking different paths in the end. He could not go all out 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 apparent interest.

Under Ye Xinghe's gaze, Ye Jingcheng naturally felt uncomfortable all over. Making an excuse, he retreated to the rear courtyard and began examining the Golden-Scaled Beast.

Since Xu Xiuqing had given the Golden-Scaled Beast to him, he naturally would not stand on ceremony. At this moment, he planned to grow closer to it and seal the blood contract.

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

The Golden-Scaled Beast had been listlessly crouching in its cage because of the gloomy rain. Seeing Ye Jingcheng approach, it scrambled to its feet, letting out low growls as it repeatedly pawed at the ground with its two front claws, visibly excited.

The Golden-Scaled Beast was extremely intelligent. After swallowing the spirit pills, it took the initiative to stretch its head toward Ye Jingcheng.

Following his usual practice, Ye Jingcheng infused it with a trace of the precious book's spiritual radiance.

Unlike the Crimson Flame Fox, which had experienced copious amounts of the precious radiance, the Golden-Scaled Beast only received a fleeting instant each time. Thus, once the precious book's spiritual radiance faded, it would lie down peacefully, 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 activating the blood contract.

As a drop of blood essence fell, just as expected, that same sensation from the precious book appeared once more.

As the blood contract formed, Ye Jingcheng could clearly sense the Golden-Scaled Beast's emotional fluctuations.

At this very moment, the Golden-Scaled Beast was even thinking that the precious radiance had not been satisfying enough.

It eagerly anticipated the next appearance of that precious radiance.

It had simply failed to consider that it was not Ye Jingcheng refusing to give it enough precious radiance, but that Ye Jingcheng's precious radiance had already been used up.

Besides that, a new pill formula appeared within the ancient book. The spirit image engraved beneath the formula differed somewhat from that of the Crimson Flame Fox.

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

As for the Golden-Scaled Beast, its scales would grow spikes, and it would become even larger and more imposing.

However, when Ye Jingcheng examined the pill formula, he found it exceedingly complicated. Most of its spirit herbs had been replaced with earth-attributed spirit herbs.

Still, the formula's grade remained high-grade first-tier, so it had not exceeded his means by too much.

Ye Jingcheng released the Golden-Scaled Beast from its cage. At this moment, it was somewhat hesitant; clearly, after spending more than half a year in a cage, it had grown rather accustomed to it.

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

It began running wildly through the inner courtyard, even roaring at the other spirit beasts there!

It bared its sharp fangs. If the Crimson Flame Fox's strength lay entirely in its fire-controlling abilities, then the Golden-Scaled Beast's lay entirely in its scales, claws, and fangs.

Ye Jingcheng let the Golden-Scaled Beast wreak havoc in the inner courtyard while also using the Ye Family's specialized beast-taming methods to cultivate its ferocity.

Any spirit beast kept in a cage for too long would see its ferocity and combat ability deteriorate. However, Ye Jingcheng had already trained the Crimson Flame Fox; he was even more confident in training the Golden-Scaled Beast.

Of course, while training it, Ye Jingcheng was also curious whether the Golden-Scaled Beast could master beginner-level spells.

The next moment, he communicated with the Golden-Scaled Beast through their blood contract.

Apparently, the Golden-Scaled Beast could not. It stirred up a burst of earthy yellow spiritual radiance, then pressed down with its two front claws and raised two stone pillars.

Not only was it slow, but it had failed to form earth spikes at all.

Ye Jingcheng was not disappointed. After being confined for so long, the Golden-Scaled Beast was already doing quite well to be able to stimulate its power to this extent.

It could still be cultivated further later on.

Moreover, the Earth Spike Technique was a rather good casting method in actual combat.

During the Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment stages, although cultivators could ride swords through the air, 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 from which they could be attacked.

Ye Jingcheng had also learned the Earth Spike Technique before, though his casting was not only slow, its power was also limited.

But using it to guide and correct the Golden-Scaled Beast, setting its Earth Spike Technique on the right track, would be extremely useful.

Furthermore, he could give it more of the precious book's spiritual radiance and more spirit pills, allowing the Golden-Scaled Beast to improve more quickly.

After an hour had passed, the Golden-Scaled Beast was beginning to lose interest.

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

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

The Golden-Scaled Beast's spiritual energy fluctuations had clearly only reached the middle first tier, roughly equivalent to the fifth level of Qi Refining, slightly weaker than Ye Jingcheng himself.

Naturally, it was utterly suppressed by the Crimson Flame Fox. And because of the Golden-Scaled Beast, the Crimson Flame Fox became even clingier toward Ye Jingcheng, practically lying in front of him and never straying far, like a loyal guard.

This left the Golden-Scaled Beast somewhat afraid to approach, and it could only growl lowly from the side.

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

It squeaked furiously and bit at the Golden-Scaled Beast as well, but the Golden-Scaled Beast's thick scales allowed it to pin the rat down and toy with it completely!

Its enormous buck teeth were fine for biting other spirit beasts, but against the Golden-Scaled Beast, they fell far short.

This made Ye Jingcheng look forward to the day when the Golden-Scaled Beast's golden scales were fully developed and it had cultivated the Stone Armor Technique. Then, in battle, it could pair with the Crimson Flame Fox—one up close, one at range!

Ye Jingcheng grew even more satisfied.

Squeak, squeak, squeak!

Pinned beneath it, the Jade Ring Rat frantically flapped its two enormous ears, letting out shrill, urgent cries.

"Little Gold, stop fooling around!" Ye Jingcheng called as well, pulling the Golden-Scaled Beast away.

It was fine to occasionally temper their ferocity, but there had to be limits.

After separating the three spirit beasts, Ye Jingcheng began cultivating as well.

Whether one controlled beasts or refined pills, a cultivator's own strength was still the foundation.

Naturally, Ye Jingcheng had not forgotten that. Moreover, cultivating the Parting Fire Art now yielded twice the result with half the effort, making him all the more eager to cultivate.

After circulating his cultivation through several cycles, Ye Jingcheng began refining pills again!

He still refined Azure Spirit Pills. By now, his success rate in refining Azure Spirit Pills was quite high.

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

Now that he was raising three spirit beasts, his consumption of spirit stones and cultivation resources had also grown 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 slip by.

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

During that time, he attended two auctions. At the second one, he likewise purchased two sets of medicinal ingredients for Crimson Flame Fox spirit pills.

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