The paralyzed dog

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Chapter 3: The paralyzed dog

"Woof, woof, woof!"

When Chen Beiwu arrived at his front door, excited barking rang out from inside.

"Quiet, Iron Egg." The barking stopped the instant he spoke.

Click!

Chen Beiwu pushed the door open, and a black shadow instantly lunged toward his feet. It moved so fast that only late-stage Qi Refining cultivators could barely make it out, yet it could not escape his hands.

"Woof." Iron Egg did not resist, but gently nuzzled Chen Beiwu's palm, looking perfectly obedient.

"What is it? Are you hungry?" Chen Beiwu asked with a chuckle.

"Woof, woof." Iron Egg barked twice to say he was not hungry at all.

"You can eat a little more even if you aren't hungry. You're still growing." Chen Beiwu crouched down and gently stroked Iron Egg's fur, which resembled satin woven from the night.

Iron Egg was a black dog, covered in glossy black fur except around his paws, where patches of white provided an accent.

Those white markings resembled flawless snow. From a distance, he looked rather like dark clouds blanketing snow.

But more than any of that, what concerned Chen Beiwu most was Iron Egg's hind legs, which lay limp on the ground.

"I'm at the seventh level of Qi Refining now. I can apply to the school to buy some Bone-Tempering Powder," Chen Beiwu said softly. "You can try a little then, and we'll see whether it helps."

"Woof, woof."

Hearing this, Iron Egg immediately barked twice. His powerful forelegs stood straight like two black spears, declaring how strong he was.

So what if his hind legs could not move? He still had his forelegs.

"No refusing. We're doing this my way."

Noticing Iron Egg's stubbornness, Chen Beiwu flicked his forehead, then stood and walked toward the cultivation room.

Iron Egg gave a low growl and obediently followed behind Chen Beiwu.

In the era of the Immortal Alliance, every parent who hoped their children would soar like dragons and refused to let them fall behind others set aside a cultivation room at home.

There was no helping it. After tens of thousands of years of development and exploitation by the Immortal Alliance, the vast majority of the spiritual energy filling heaven and earth on Heavenly Abyss Star had been nationalized. Apart from certain special regions, only enough remained to ensure that spiritual vitality never died out within the Immortal Alliance's territory.

These days, any cultivator who wanted to absorb spiritual energy to cultivate had to purchase official permission from the Immortal Alliance to establish a cultivation room, then pay monthly spiritual energy fees.

Still, some ordinary cultivators would sneak into the wilderness to absorb spiritual energy to save money. Such spiritual energy theft triggered the Immortal Alliance's formations, and the thieves were almost invariably caught.

As far as Chen Beiwu knew, in Far Sky County alone, hundreds or even a thousand people each year received seven days' detention, warnings, and fines from the Immortal Alliance Enforcement Team for stealing spiritual energy.

Clearly, in the era of the Immortal Alliance, cultivating immortality without money was simply impossible!

The cultivation room in Chen Beiwu's home was not particularly high-grade, only first-tier middle-grade. Even so, merely purchasing permission to establish it had cost twenty low-grade spirit stones back then.

The Immortal Alliance also charged roughly one spirit stone a month in spiritual energy fees, adding up to twelve spirit stones a year.

One spirit stone could be exchanged at the Immortal Alliance Bank for one spirit yuan, and one spirit yuan could be converted into ten tenths or a hundred cents.

A meal of three dishes and a soup, with both meat and vegetables, currently cost Chen Beiwu only a few cents at the school cafeteria.

This little fellow is as loyal as ever.

Before closing the cultivation room's door, Chen Beiwu glanced at the faint little cluster of half-green, half-blue light above Iron Egg's head.

That glow represented Iron Egg's fate, which was already approaching the second tier.

Normally, fate was ethereal and elusive, beyond the sight of ordinary people. But Chen Beiwu was different. He possessed Nine-Breath Chaos, an ultimate cheat passed down through his lineage, which allowed him to see the fate of everything in heaven and earth, and even convert his own fate into fortuitous encounters.

Iron Egg was someone Chen Beiwu had picked up after triggering a fortuitous encounter five years earlier.

He had been a junior high student at the time. On his way home, a Dayun truck suddenly lost control and struck a black bundle that had rushed onto the road. By sheer coincidence, that black bundle landed right at Chen Beiwu's feet.

Without hesitation, Chen Beiwu scooped up the black bundle and rushed to the Veterinary Hospital for emergency treatment.

After the emergency treatment, the doctor gave him two pieces of news, one good and one bad.

The good news was that the surgery had been successful. The injured pup's vital signs were stable, and his life was no longer in danger.

The bad news was that the puppy's hind legs had not been injured in the accident. His disability was congenital, treating it would be extremely expensive, and he was very likely to die before the treatment was complete.

So Chen Beiwu brought the little black pup home and gave him the humble name Iron Egg, hoping he would survive and grow strong.

Iron Egg did not disappoint Chen Beiwu. He grew bigger by the day, and his constitution grew stronger as well.

A year earlier, when a brick kiln caught fire and collapsed, Iron Egg had even risked his life to carry Chen Beiwu's unconscious father out of the raging sea of flames in his jaws.

From then on, Iron Egg's standing in the household rose dramatically, and Chen Beiwu even began to consider forming a contract with him.

The difference between mortal beasts and mutant beasts lay in whether they possessed cultivation measured in years.

Iron Egg's ability to rescue his father from that sea of flames showed that he was a mutant beast with at least some

years of cultivation.

Unlike immortal cultivators, whose strength was classified by cultivation realm, the Immortal Alliance generally classified demonic beasts' strength by their years of cultivation. Their bloodline tier merely represented their theoretical cultivation ceiling, not their actual strength.

For example, beasts without any years of cultivation were called zero-tier mortal beasts. They could never acquire any throughout their lives unless they encountered a stroke of fortune.

First-tier mutant beasts could generally acquire years of cultivation upon reaching adulthood. Cultivators called such beings spirit monsters, and their strength was comparable to that of mortal Qi Refining cultivators.

Second-tier spirit beasts could theoretically possess between fifty and four hundred ninety-nine years of cultivation. Cultivators called such beings lesser demons, and their strength was comparable to that of Foundation Establishment Rogue Persons.

Third-tier treasure beasts could theoretically possess between five hundred and nine hundred ninety-nine years of cultivation. Cultivators called such beings demon generals, and their strength was comparable to that of Golden Core True Persons who had transcended the mundane.

Years of cultivation were difficult to determine. Chen Beiwu could only roughly estimate that Iron Egg possessed fewer than ten years, making him a lesser spirit monster.

But since Iron Egg's fate approached the second tier, that meant he had the potential to break through the shackles of his bloodline, become a second-tier spirit beast, and advance into a lesser demon.

However, Iron Egg liked being near flames and eating scorching-hot things, so he was clearly a fire-attribute mutant beast. Chen Beiwu, meanwhile, had dual water-and-wood spiritual roots. Their attributes were incompatible-it would not be an exaggeration to call them completely opposed.

For precisely that reason, after agonizing over it several times, Chen Beiwu abandoned the idea of forming a contract with Iron Egg.

A cultivator's first beast companion was crucial. It affected their future cultivation speed and how difficult it would be to break through cultivation realms.

Even if he contracted a fire-attribute mutant beast that had yet to reach the second tier, it would be like chicken ribs-too meager to be useful, yet too much to throw away-and might even become a burden.

That was because Chen Beiwu's spiritual root aptitude was anything but ordinary. He possessed dual water-and-wood earth spiritual roots, which were quite rare in Far Sky County.

What were earth spiritual roots?

The Immortal Alliance divided cultivators' spiritual roots into six grades according to their purity: immortal, heavenly, earth, true, mixed, and false.

If the purity of any one of a cultivator's five elemental spiritual roots reached forty or above, they possessed a true spiritual root of that attribute. A purity of sixty or above indicated an earth spiritual root.

When spiritual roots of different attributes had different grades, the highest grade was used. Chen Beiwu's spiritual root attributes were: metal 15, wood 76, water 79, fire 18, earth 17.

If the purity of Chen Beiwu's water spiritual root rose just a little more to eighty, he would no longer possess dual water-and-wood earth spiritual roots, but a water heavenly spiritual root.

As for the legendary immortal spiritual root, it required a cultivator's spiritual root purity to break past ninety-nine, the limit of a heavenly spiritual root, and reach the fabled purity of one hundred.

Once someone with a spiritual root of that grade appeared, they could enter the Immortal Examination directly without taking the Immortal Alliance's college entrance examination. They might even receive guaranteed admission to the Five Great Grotto-Heavens and become a future successor of the Immortal Alliance.

(End of chapter)