Golden legend

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Chapter 36: Golden legend

Deep within Four Seas Lake.

Pushing aside the swaying aquatic plants before him and avoiding the brilliantly colored schools of fish, Chen Beiwu finally found the Darkwater Spirit Turtles he had been longing for among the gaps in a cluster of coral.

Perhaps because they had only recently hatched, these turtle hatchlings were tiny, each about the size of a palm.

Their shells were mostly dark blue-green, with silver patterns adorning the edges of their carapaces and their bellies.

Their short limbs were powerful. With a gentle stroke, they shot forward like arrows, easily catching passing fish with claws covered in tiny scales, displaying something of their extraordinary nature.

Darkwater Spirit Turtles possessed second-tier, high-grade bloodlines and tremendous potential, placing them among the finest water-attribute spirit beasts.

However, these spirit beasts were generally rather indolent. They could not be bothered to form companion contracts with cultivators, preferring to sleep instead of cultivate. Even the prodigies of the Cavern Mystery Immortal Sect struggled to earn their approval, making them extremely difficult to contract.

Yet there were always cultivators who believed they were the sole exception. What the prodigies of the Cavern Mystery Immortal Sect could not accomplish was not necessarily beyond them.

And so, Chen Beiwu found the underwater world bustling with Qi Refining cultivators.

"So many people brought here by fate?"

Seeing the token in each cultivator's hand, Chen Beiwu froze briefly before letting out a breath of relief.

It seemed he had been overthinking things earlier.

Perhaps that Golden Core True Person's habit of collecting spirit stones from ordinary Qi Refining cultivators was just that-a habit-not a sign that he had noticed anything.

Swimming to the back of the queue, Chen Beiwu listened to the nearby cultivators' conversations while examining the coral cluster with his divine sense.

"Another failure."

"Nothing unusual. Over two hundred cultivators tried to contract Darkwater Spirit Turtles yesterday. The entire army was wiped out-not a single one succeeded."

"How do you know?"

"Heh, I was one of them. I refused to accept it, so I came back to try again today."

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

He took a deep breath, activated his divine ability, and looked toward the coral cluster.

"Pale blue, pale blue, blue, deep blue, dark blue..." Chen Beiwu's brows drew together slightly in surprise.

Darkwater Spirit Turtles were spirit beasts exclusive to the Cavern Mystery Immortal Sect, yet not a single hatchling in the coral cluster possessed orange fortune.

Even the hatchling with the strongest fortune only had interwoven orange and blue, falling short of Chen Beiwu's expectations.

Could these Darkwater Spirit Turtles be the rejects left over after the Cavern Mystery Immortal Sect made its selection? Or have I misjudged the fortune ranks, and orange fortune doesn't correspond to the third tier? The more Chen Beiwu thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

Without conducting specific tests, he dared not claim that fortune ranks directly determined a spirit beast's aptitude and bloodline. They could, however, serve as an important reference for roughly gauging its future ceiling.

To sum it up in one sentence, a spirit beast with poor fortune did not necessarily have a low ceiling. If it encountered a companion cultivator blessed with profound fortune, it might borrow that fortune to change its fate and break through its constraints. But a spirit beast with sky-high fortune would undoubtedly attain great heights.

When their aptitudes were similar, Chen Beiwu naturally preferred a Companion Beast with excellent fortune, if he had a choice, rather than an ill-fated spirit beast likely to perish midway.

Are my standards too high? Do I need to lower them a little? Chen Beiwu began to question everything.

If he could not find a satisfactory Companion Beast even in the Spirit Beast Pavilion, he probably would not find one anywhere else!

Just then, an exceptionally 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 pitch-black, poking its head out of a crevice in the rocks. It lazily surveyed its surroundings, its gaze meeting Chen Beiwu's.

;psme&;psme&

"Holy shit, a golden legend!" Chen Beiwu's pupils contracted slightly and his brows twitched, his gaze fixed firmly above the hatchling's head.

It was neither 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 boundless.

It's decided. This is the one! Chen Beiwu's chest rose and fell slightly as his breathing quickened.

A Companion Beast of such aptitude was a once-in-a-thousand-years encounter. If he carelessly let it slip away, he would surely regret it beyond measure.

The green-robed cultivator standing ahead of Chen Beiwu spoke with barely concealed excitement. "You have a keen eye, fellow Daoist. Has this variant spirit turtle caught your attention too?"

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

Sure enough, the other cultivators present were no fools either. One burning gaze after another locked onto the variant spirit turtle.

When a differently colored giant suddenly appeared among a crowd of palm-sized turtle hatchlings, anyone could tell that it possessed an outstanding bloodline and superb aptitude. It was undoubtedly exceptional even among Darkwater Spirit Turtles.

"Stay here, fellow Daoist. Let me try first." The green-robed cultivator impatiently rushed ahead.

Chen Beiwu had intended to follow, but when he noticed faint smiles on some of the surrounding cultivators' faces, he immediately stopped and watched the green-robed cultivator's performance.

me&;psme&

Blocking the variant spirit turtle's path, the green-robed cultivator took a jade box from his storage ring, carefully placed it before himself, and opened it.

Curiosity appeared in the spirit turtle's eyes.

Ever since it had arrived in this underwater world, large numbers of cultivators had fed it spiritual materials or spirit fish every day, nearly spoiling its palate.

It wondered what delicacy this cultivator could offer.

As the jade box opened, a spirit fish with a slender body, fanlike tail fins, and jade-like scales came into view.

"Is that a Spirit Jade Carp?" a cultivator asked quietly.

Spirit Jade Carp were not spirit beasts and could not be awakened into spirit beasts. They were exceptionally precious second-tier spiritual resources, containing a trace of pure acquired water-element spiritual energy.

Cultivators with water spiritual roots could eat them to cleanse impurities from their bodies, improve the purity of their magical power, and slightly enhance the purity of their water-attribute spiritual roots (this was only effective for cultivators with true spiritual roots; the effects diminished with repeated consumption and could not overcome the limitations of true spiritual roots).

Water-attribute spirit beasts could eat them to stimulate their bloodlines, increase their cultivation, and accelerate their growth.

If spirit beast hatchlings consumed them, the effects were even more pronounced, comparable to second-tier, supreme-grade pills.

Noticing everyone's surprise, the green-robed cultivator looked confidently at the variant spirit turtle and met its gaze.

"My name is Guan Ange. I am sixteen, at the seventh layer of Qi Refining, with a water-attribute earth spiritual root. If you are 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 could not conceal the envy in his eyes.

The Fallen Dragon Guan Household controlled nearly forty percent of the spiritual lakes across the prefecture's six counties. It was a renowned Golden Core aristocratic clan in Fallen Dragon Prefecture, whose livelihood had been fish breeding for generations.

The spirit fish it raised were not only diverse but also of exceptional quality. Spirit Jade Carp were merely one variety. What truly made the Fallen Dragon Guan Household famous far and wide was its third-tier treasure fish, the [Jadeheart Treasure Carp], a treasure that could tempt even Golden Core True Persons.

That's it? The Darkwater Spirit Turtle raised its head, yawned, and wandered off without a care.

It was only a single Spirit Jade Carp. It had thought there might be some real treasure.

(End of chapter)