Inside the transparent glass containers, an earthworm dug for survival, a jade mantis strutted its might, and a squirrel lay motionless, its belly rising and falling faintly. It had clearly fainted from sheer fright.
Good, I can bring living things along too. Chen Beiwu's spirits lifted.
This meant he could bring companion beasts, or even an army of cultivators, to another world to plunder resources.
The former was easy enough: he could raise them like venomous creatures in a gu vessel, improving his companion beasts' cultivation as quickly as possible.
The latter would require finding the right opportunity, such as when he reached the pinnacle of power in the Immortal Alliance or took charge of one of its Three Major Institutions.
He was too weak now, like a child carrying gold through a bustling market. Once exposed, he would have no way of holding on to Nine-Breath Chaos.
He pushed open the cultivation room door, and Iron Egg immediately came over with a cup of water balanced on its head.
"Woof, woof, woof!"
"Stop barking, you dumb dog! Don't you even recognize me?" Chen Beiwu took the cup and slapped the dog on the head.
Hearing the familiar voice, Iron Egg blinked its bewildered eyes, its nose twitching slightly.
This time, it finally caught Chen Beiwu's scent. The demon power gathering in its throat instantly dissipated, and it obediently lay down on the floor.
"Not bad. Here's something good for you."
Chen Beiwu nodded in satisfaction, took out a piece of Illusion Weasel Wolf meat, and placed it before Iron Egg.
Iron Egg looked at him without moving, but the saliva rapidly spreading around its mouth had long since betrayed its thoughts.
"Go on, eat."
The moment Chen Beiwu finished speaking, Iron Egg seemed possessed by a ravenous dog, opening its jaws and tearing madly into the Illusion Weasel Wolf meat.
The Illusion Weasel Wolf meat contained a mild poison. To be safe, he stayed beside Iron Egg and watched it eat.
Five minutes later, Iron Egg licked the corners of its mouth contentedly.
Looks like there shouldn't be any problems, Chen Beiwu thought.
Yet the next second, Iron Egg began coughing violently, as though its throat itched.
At first, it spat out nothing but saliva. As time passed, the saliva gradually turned into wisps of sparks that scattered through the air, finally surrounding Iron Egg completely.
The meat of a great spirit monster really packs a punch! Chen Beiwu's eyes flickered.
With his knowledge, he could naturally tell that Iron Egg had not been poisoned. Rather, the dao practice accumulated within its body had reached a breakthrough.
That made sense. After eating the spirit deer meat the family had treasured for so long, then a large chunk of great spirit monster meat, even a pig could awaken its intelligence and gain dao practice, let alone Iron Egg, whose aptitude was already quite good.
"Break through all you like, but don't burn the house down!"
Feeling the indoor temperature rise steadily, Chen Beiwu mobilized his magic power. His fingers flew through hand seals as he used the moisture in the air as a medium to cast the first-tier variant art, Water Prison Spell.
In an instant, twenty-four ice-blue necklaces circled the area within ten feet of Iron Egg, forming overlapping layers of water curtains that confined the seething fire-element demon power while dispersing the violent spirit power within it.
After a minute of this, the rampaging demon power around Iron Egg gradually grew docile, and the white markings on its four paws became increasingly flawless.
"How do you feel?"
Chen Beiwu crouched down and tentatively extended his right hand.
Iron Egg leaned its head forward to rub against his palm, letting out an eager bark.
"Woof."
Under Chen Beiwu's astonished gaze, Iron Egg growled and spat out a ball of pale golden flame.
The flame slowly rose, hovering above its head and spreading into a crude star chart of fire, with points of different-colored light spilling through it.
Chen Beiwu looked closely and discovered two faint green points of light steadily approaching the center of the star chart.
Click.
Just then, the sound of the door opening and his parents talking came from downstairs, and the star chart above Iron Egg's head dissipated.
Chen Beiwu's eyes lit up, and he immediately understood.
"Dumb dog, did you awaken a reconnaissance spell talent?"
"Woof?"
Iron Egg blinked its bewildered eyes.
What was a reconnaissance spell talent? It had no idea!
It was only a dog. It did not understand the strange things humans came up with.
Chen Beiwu drew a deep breath and said calmly, "Can you use that again?"
"Woof." Iron Egg shook its head.
"Not right now? Then roughly how many times can you use it a day?"
Iron Egg tilted its head and gave four somewhat uncertain barks.
Four times a day is enough. It could come in handy at a critical moment, Chen Beiwu thought.
Iron Egg's estimate most likely did not account for methods such as recovering with spirit stones or replenishing itself with pills. Otherwise, the number of uses should increase somewhat.
"Very good. From now on, you're the number one search dog under my command. Perhaps you can even become a Hound General someday." Chen Beiwu stroked the dog's head.
Only demon beasts with over five hundred years of dao practice could be called demon generals.
Such beings could condense demon cores and assume half-human, half-beast forms. They were terrifying existences whose strength rivaled Golden Core True Persons.
"Woof!" Iron Egg responded excitedly.
It did not know what a search dog was, nor what a Hound General was. It only knew that Chen Beiwu was very happy right now, and that was enough.
After removing his equipment and washing up, Chen Beiwu went downstairs and caught the aroma of food.
He turned to look and saw his father, Chen Dong, sitting in the living room smoking.
They had only gone a day without seeing each other, yet his father seemed to have aged several years, his face full of exhaustion.
"It's almost time to eat. Leave your cultivation until later." Chen Dong pushed his cigarette into the ashtray and stubbed it out.
Chen Dong was a body cultivator at the sixth layer of Qi Refining who worked at the Azure Radiance Tile Factory. Because his Qi Refining cultivation was relatively high, he worked as an inspector, a comparatively easy job.
Cultivators with lower Qi Refining cultivation could only work firing bricks at the Tile Factory.
Firing bricks was exhausting work, and cultivators frequently had to expend their own magic power to resist the encroaching earthfire poison.
If they worked for too long, earthfire poison would damage their bodies. Some unlucky ones would even become plagued by fire poison, suffering withered meridians and declining cultivation.
But the more dangerous the work, the higher the pay.
As an inspector at the Tile Factory, Chen Dong earned a fixed monthly wage of six low-grade spirit stones. Including brick-hauling jobs, he could earn roughly twelve spirit stones a month by working himself to the bone.
Meanwhile, a newly hired apprentice brick-firer at the Tile Factory could earn twenty spirit stones a month, and a master brick-firer's monthly wage reached as high as fifty low-grade spirit stones.
However, this was a young person's trade, exchanging one's health for spirit stones.
Every single master brick-firer in Far Sky County who worked for more than five years would eventually develop fire poison syndrome, and most of the spirit stones they risked their lives to earn would go toward medical expenses.
But some master brick-firers who wanted to fight for a future for their descendants would forgo treatment entirely, spending every spirit stone they earned on raising the next generation, attempting to produce a Foundation Establishment Cultivator from the pockets of several generations.
That way, their descendants would no longer have to fire bricks for a living.
If fortune favored them and the family produced another Foundation Establishment Cultivator within four or five generations, they might even have a chance to bring glory to their ancestors and establish a Foundation Establishment Lineage.
Dad's been firing bricks! Sensing something wrong, Chen Beiwu's heart sank.
Although his father had used cigarette smoke to cover up the residual aura of fire poison on his body, Chen Beiwu could still spot a trace of it.
That shouldn't be necessary! A spirit beast loan isn't like a cultivation loan. It can be repaid slowly.
Could something have happened at home?
(End of chapter)
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