Golden Legend

Deep in Four Seas Lake.

Pushing aside the swaying water plants in front of him and dodging schools of brightly colored fish, Chen Beiwu finally found the Darkwater Spirit Turtle he had been dreaming of among a cluster of coral.

Perhaps because they had only recently been born, these Spirit Turtle hatchlings were tiny, about the size of a palm.

Most of their shells were dark azure, with silver formation patterns decorating the edges of their carapaces and their undersides.

Their limbs were short but strong. With just a light stroke, they shot forward like arrows, easily catching fish with their claws covered in tiny scales, revealing something extraordinary about them.

The Darkwater Spirit Turtle possessed a Second-Tier Upper-Grade bloodline and tremendous potential. Even among Water-Attribute Spirit Beasts, it ranked among the best.

It was just that these Spirit Beasts were generally rather lazy. They couldn't be bothered to form Companion Beast Contracts with cultivators, preferring to sleep rather than cultivate. Even the prodigies of the Cavern Mystery Immortal Sect struggled to earn their approval, making them exceedingly difficult to contract.

But there were always cultivators who believed they were the one exception, and that what the Cavern Mystery Immortal Sect's prodigies couldn't do, they might still accomplish.

And so Chen Beiwu saw Qi Refining cultivators coming and going in the underwater world.

"So many people who think they have a chance?"

Seeing the tokens in the cultivators' hands, Chen Beiwu froze for a moment, then breathed a sigh of relief.

It seemed he had been overthinking things earlier.

Perhaps that Golden Core True Person had been in the habit of charging Qi Refining mortals Spirit Stones, rather than having seen anything.

Swimming to the end of the line, Chen Beiwu listened to the nearby cultivators' conversations while using his Divine Sense to observe what was happening in the Coral Grove.

"Another failure."

"That's normal. Yesterday, over two hundred cultivators tried to contract a Darkwater Spirit Turtle, but every last one failed. Not a single person succeeded."

"How do you know?"

"Heh, I was one of them. I didn't believe it, so I came back to try again today."

Not a single Qi Refining cultivator in Fallen Dragon Prefecture has succeeded. It seems contracting a Darkwater Spirit Turtle is even harder than I expected, Chen Beiwu thought.

He took a deep breath and activated his divine ability, observing the Coral Grove.

"Light blue, light blue, blue, dark blue, dark blue..." Chen Beiwu furrowed his brows, quite surprised.

The Darkwater Spirit Turtle was an exclusive Spirit Beast of the Cavern Mystery Immortal Sect, yet not one of the turtle hatchlings in the Coral Grove had Orange Fortune.

Even the hatchling with the highest Fortune only had Interwoven Orange and Blue, which fell short of Chen Beiwu's expectations.

Could these Darkwater Spirit Turtles be the defective ones left behind after the Cavern Mystery Immortal Sect made its selections? Or have I misjudged the Fortune tiers? Is Orange Fortune not Third Tier? The more Chen Beiwu thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

Without conducting specific tests, he didn't dare claim that Fortune tiers could directly determine a Spirit Beast's aptitude and bloodline. But they could serve as an important point of reference, roughly indicating a Spirit Beast's future limits.

To put it simply, a Spirit Beast with poor Fortune didn't necessarily have low potential. If it met a Companion Beast cultivator with deep Fortune, it might borrow their Fortune to change its fate and break through the shackles of its own Fortune. But a Spirit Beast with Fortune that soared to the heavens would absolutely achieve great things in the future.

When their aptitudes weren't far apart, Chen Beiwu would naturally prefer a Companion Beast with excellent Fortune, rather than a Spirit Beast with poor Fortune that might meet an untimely end halfway.

Could my standards be too high? Should I lower them a little? Chen Beiwu began to doubt himself.

If he couldn't find a suitable Companion Beast at the Spirit Beast Pavilion, he would probably have even less luck anywhere else!

Just then, an extraordinarily powerful aura suddenly entered the range of Chen Beiwu's Divine Sense.

He looked down and saw a Darkwater Spirit Turtle hatchling about the size of a basketball, its entire carapace jet-black, poking its head out from a crevice in the rocks. It lazily surveyed its surroundings, and its gaze happened to meet Chen Beiwu's.

"Holy crap, a Golden Legend!" Chen Beiwu's pupils contracted, his brows twitched, and his gaze locked onto the top of the hatchling's head.

It wasn't Blue Fortune, nor Orange Fortune, but Golden Fortune, something he had never seen before.

With Fortune like that, this turtle hatchling's future was absolutely limitless.

It's decided. This one! Chen Beiwu's chest rose and fell slightly, and his breathing grew a little hurried.

A Companion Beast with such aptitude came along only once in a thousand years. If he carelessly missed this chance, he would definitely regret it for the rest of his life.

The Qingyi Cultivator standing in front of Chen Beiwu spoke, unable to conceal his excitement. "Fellow Daoist, you have a good eye. You've taken a liking to this Variant Spirit Turtle too?"

At those words, Chen Beiwu showed no surprise. He looked around, and his heart sank slightly.

Sure enough, the other cultivators present weren't fools either. One after another, their fervent gazes fixed on the Variant Spirit Turtle.

Among the many palm-sized turtle hatchlings, a giant of a different color had suddenly appeared. Anyone could tell that its bloodline was exceptional and its aptitude outstanding; it was absolutely one of the finest Darkwater Spirit Turtles.

"Fellow Daoist, please wait here. Let me try first." The Qingyi Cultivator rushed to the front, impatient to give it a try.

Chen Beiwu had wanted to follow, but when he noticed the faint smiles on the faces of some of the cultivators around him, he stopped and watched the Qingyi Cultivator put on a show.

Standing in front of the Variant Spirit Turtle, the Qingyi Cultivator took a Jade Box from his Storage Ring and carefully set it down in front of him before opening it.

Seeing this, curiosity appeared in the turtle's eyes.

Ever since it had arrived in this underwater world, large numbers of cultivators had fed it Spirit Materials or Spirit Fish every day, nearly spoiling its appetite.

It wondered what delicacy the cultivator in front of it could offer.

As the Jade Box opened, a Spirit Fish came into view before everyone. Its body was long and slender, its tail fin shaped like a fan, and its scales as smooth as jade.

"Is that a Spirit Jade Carp?" a cultivator murmured.

The Spirit Jade Carp wasn't a Spirit Beast and couldn't be transformed into one. It was an extremely precious Second-Tier Spirit Object, containing a trace of pure Acquired Water-Element Spiritual Energy.

Water Spiritual Root cultivators who ate it could wash away bodily impurities, increase magic power purity, and Slightly Enhance Water-Attribute Spiritual Root Purity. (Only effective for cultivators with a True Spiritual Root; the effect diminished with repeated consumption and couldn't break through the limits of a True Spiritual Root.)

Water-Attribute Spirit Beasts could eat it to Stimulate Bloodline, Increase Dao Practice, and accelerate their growth.

If a Spirit Beast hatchling swallowed one, the effects were even more significant, comparable to a Second-Tier Supreme-Grade Elixir.

Noticing everyone's surprise, the Qingyi Cultivator confidently looked at the Variant Spirit Turtle, meeting its gaze.

"My name is Guan Ange. I'm sixteen years old, at the Seventh Layer of Qi Refining, with a Water-Attribute Earth Spiritual Root. If you're willing to become my Companion Beast, I can give you one Spirit Jade Carp every month."

"One Spirit Jade Carp a month, and his surname is Guan. Could this cultivator be from the Fallen Dragon Guan Household?" Chen Beiwu couldn't hide his envy.

The Fallen Dragon Guan Household controlled nearly forty percent of the Spirit Lakes in the Six Counties Within the Prefecture. It was a renowned Golden Core Aristocratic Clan in Fallen Dragon Prefecture, whose members had made a living raising fish for generations.

The Spirit Fish they bred came in a wide variety and were of exceptional quality. The Spirit Jade Carp was just one of them. What had truly made the Fallen Dragon Guan Household famous beyond the prefecture was its Third-Tier Treasure Fish, the Jadeheart Treasure Carp-a treasure even Golden Core True Persons would covet.

That's it? The Darkwater Spirit Turtle raised its head, yawned, and wandered off on its own.

It was only a Spirit Jade Carp. It had thought it was some kind of treasure.

(The End of the Chapter)