The companion beast's three meridians

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Chapter 43: The companion beast's three meridians

"Excellent. It's a mystic-grade origin meridian."

Chen Beiwu's heart leaped with delight when he saw the innate water essence shining brilliantly within Golden Egg's origin meridian.

A companion beast's origin meridian came in five grades, ranked from lowest to highest: inferior, mixed, true, mystic, and heaven.

Inferior-grade origin meridians were relatively common among zero-tier mortal beasts, having already lost their innate five-element essence.

Such meridians could neither increase a cultivator's spiritual root purity nor improve their efficiency in refining the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

Mixed-grade origin meridians were slightly better. Their innate five-element essence had become impure and transformed into acquired five-element origin essence, but they were still barely usable.

They generally appeared in first-tier mutant beasts. They likewise offered no increase in spiritual root purity, but could improve a cultivator's spiritual energy refining efficiency by ten to twenty percent.

True-grade origin meridians contained one complete strand of innate five-element essence and generally existed only within second-tier spirit beasts. They could grant their contracted cultivator one point of acquired spiritual root purity and improve their spiritual energy refining efficiency by forty to fifty percent.

The mystic-grade origin meridian within Golden Egg was even more extraordinary.

As the saying went, the essence of the five elements harbored immortality; only a breath of innate qi attained the mystic.

Mystic-grade origin meridians contained a trace of the Dao resonance of heaven and earth, and generally appeared only in third-tier treasure beasts.

An origin meridian of this grade could not only grant its contracted cultivator three points of innate spiritual root purity, but also double their efficiency in refining spiritual energy.

What did that mean?

Simply put, the origin meridian within a companion beast was an amplifier for spiritual root purity.

The spiritual root purity supplied by a true-grade origin meridian could not break through the limitations of its contracted cultivator's spiritual roots-for instance, elevating a true spiritual root to an earth spiritual root.

But because a mystic-grade origin meridian contained a trace of the Dao resonance of heaven and earth, it could transform the acquired into the innate, breaking through those limitations.

In other words, Chen Beiwu's water spiritual root purity was no longer 79, an earth spiritual root. With the mystic-grade origin meridian's enhancement, it was now 82, giving him aptitude equivalent to a heavenly spiritual root.

Just a mystic-grade origin meridian is already this terrifying. How outrageous must the legendary heaven-grade origin meridian be?

Chen Beiwu extinguished the distracting thoughts in his mind. With a movement of his divine sense, he examined Golden Egg's second meridian: the attribute meridian.

The five-element attribute meridians embodied a companion beast's bloodline aptitude, equivalent to a human cultivator's five-element spiritual roots, though they were difficult to examine.

Thus, the Immortal Alliance broadly classified demonic beasts as mutant beasts, spirit beasts, treasure beasts, and mysterious beasts according to their bloodline's upper limit, rather than individual aptitude.

However, after forming a companion contract, cultivators could judge the strength of their companion beast's five-element attribute meridians by comparing them with their own spiritual root purity.

"Metal 89, wood 82, water 93, fire 18, earth 79."

Chen Beiwu's heart jolted as he used the Companion Beast Seal to "see" Golden Egg's five-element attribute meridians.

By the Immortal Alliance's standards, the aptitude displayed by Golden Egg's attribute meridians was equivalent to a human cultivator's heavenly spiritual roots-and heavenly spiritual roots in metal, wood, and water at that. Its aptitude far surpassed his own.

Was this how much gold a golden legend truly contained?

"Whew!"

Chen Beiwu exhaled a turbid breath, suppressing the excitement surging within him.

After taking a moment to calm down, he directed his divine sense toward Golden Egg's third meridian: the technique meridian.

Heaven and earth stole from all things; all things stole from living beings.

Unlike cultivators, demonic beasts did not cultivate golden cores or contemplate Dao treasuries. Instead, they used their bloodlines as a guide to steal heaven's secrets, condensing Dao marks within their bodies until they ultimately formed technique meridians.

The technique meridians within demonic beasts contained both the cultivation accumulated over many years and the Innate Spells they possessed by stealing the qi of heaven and earth.

But cultivation was difficult to accumulate. How long a demonic beast had cultivated did not necessarily reflect how much cultivation it possessed.

For example, some fourth-tier mysterious beasts with terrifying bloodlines could accumulate a thousand years of cultivation after cultivating for only a few centuries, successfully advancing to fourth-realm demon kings.

Meanwhile, some first-tier mutant beasts with inferior bloodlines could labor at cultivation for a thousand years and still accumulate only forty-nine years of cultivation, unable even to break through to become second-realm lesser demons.

"Golden Egg actually has only ten years of cultivation." Chen Beiwu was somewhat surprised.

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The way to examine a demon lay in its origin, its attributes, its marks, and its meridians.

For every year of cultivation a demonic beast accumulated, the number of basic Dao marks within its technique meridian increased by one.

To make cultivation realms easier to measure, contracted cultivators called one Dao mark within a companion beast's technique meridian one year of cultivation.

Golden Egg's technique meridian contained only ten basic Dao marks, indicating ten years of cultivation. That made it equivalent to a first-realm spirit monster, an especially weak lesser spirit monster whose realm was roughly the same as Iron Egg's.

Yet the divine sense Golden Egg had unleashed while forming the contract rivaled that of a second-realm lesser demon. That proved its extraordinary natural gifts-the Innate Spells contained within its technique meridian had to be exceptional.

With that thought, Chen Beiwu extended his divine sense deeper into the technique meridian, sensing its deeply hidden Innate Spell.

[Talent]: Flowing Golden Scales

[Grade]: Second-tier supreme-grade spirit art

[Effect]: Its scales are like gold, yet also like flowing water. They possess both water's suppleness and metal's fierce rigidity. Enhances the body and divine sense according to the strength of its cultivation, ignores first-tier variant arts, and grants immunity to damage from certain second-tier spirit arts.

Note: Golden Scale's scales are its foundation.

The stronger its scales' defenses, the more the power of its innate spirit art, Sea Absorption, increases in turn.

It's actually a second-tier supreme-grade spirit art. Chen Beiwu's spirits surged.

Second-tier spirit arts were the exclusive hallmark of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Qi Refining cultivators lacked the necessary cultivation realm. Forcing themselves to unleash a second-tier spirit art would only bring harm upon themselves.

At best, their divine sense would be drained dry. At worst, the spell would backlash, snuffing out their lives.

Even conceding ten thousand steps, supposing a Qi Refining cultivator possessed extraordinary talent and managed to unleash a second-tier spirit art by a stroke of luck-

The resulting spell would still be like a fire without fuel, unable to exert its power. It might even be weaker than certain first-tier supreme-grade spirit arts.

But the Innate Spells demonic beasts awakened naturally were different.

Even with meager cultivation, a demonic beast could unleash its own Innate Spells as easily as moving its own arm, without suffering spell backlash. At most, the spell's power would be greatly reduced.

These were instincts hidden within their bloodlines, and proof of the exceptional advantages demonic beast bloodlines enjoyed on Heavenly Abyss Star.

With the second-tier supreme-grade spirit art Flowing Golden Scales protecting it, Golden Egg could claim unrivaled defenses among first-realm spirit monsters despite possessing a mere ten years of cultivation.

With that thought, Chen Beiwu continued extending his divine sense deeper into the technique meridian.

His intuition told him Golden Egg's talents went far beyond this.

[Talent]: Sea Absorption

[Grade]: Second-tier supreme-grade spirit art

[Effect]: As the sea accepts a hundred rivers, devour all things to nourish oneself. By activating Sea Absorption, Golden Scale can devour demonic beasts, spells, magical artifacts, talismans, spiritual energy, and myriad other things to strengthen its innate talent, Flowing Golden Scales.

Sensing the effects of the Sea Absorption spirit art, Chen Beiwu was momentarily stunned.

Flowing Golden Scales could increase the power of Sea Absorption, while the increase in Sea Absorption's power could, in turn, strengthen the defenses of Flowing Golden Scales.

Without exaggeration, combining these two supreme-grade spirit arts was like stepping on the right foot with the left: they could continually complement each other and keep growing.

"Incredible. So this is how powerful a golden legend ought to be."

Chen Beiwu withdrew his divine sense and opened his eyes, looking at Golden Scale as though he were staring at a monster.

His gamble had paid off!

With a companion beast of this caliber, his future would be even brighter.

"Gurgle."

Golden Egg blinked in bewilderment.

It did not know what its contracted cultivator was so excited about. It only knew it was hungry again.

(End of chapter)