Mechanism Art.
Among the hundred arts of immortal cultivation, some were harder to learn than others. Beast taming, for instance, was relatively easy to get started with.
Even if other cultivators did not practice the Beast Taming Art and could not form a bloodline contract with spirit beasts, they had other ways to control demon beasts, such as pills, magical treasures, and poison arts.
Outside the Beast Taming Sect, it was also quite common for cultivators from other sects to keep a pet or two, or a mount.
Lin Jing knew little about the Mechanism Art, but he had heard that Elder Yu had been obsessed with it for years, yet had never managed to create a mechanical beast whose combat strength matched that of his own contracted pet beast.
"Elder Yu is planning to pass on his Mechanism Art. His love for it really does run deep, but I doubt anyone in the Beast Taming Sect would be willing to learn it." Lin Jing folded his arms across his chest and continued examining the mission notice. Rationally speaking, mechanical beasts without Spirit were far inferior to pet beasts that could think for themselves.
Upgrading mechanical beasts depended entirely on the Mechanists. Some complex ones also demanded enormous effort to control in battle, and repairing damaged mechanical beasts was even more difficult. Pet beasts, on the other hand... could cultivate and fight on their own. Even when injured, they could use healing pills and medicinal herbs, whereas mechanical beasts could not swallow healing pills.
Mechanical beasts might have advantages of their own, but those probably had little to do with most Beast Taming Sect disciples, since the sect had no advanced cultivation methods suited to practicing the Mechanism Art in the first place.
Lin Jing was currently learning the Alchemy Art and was still at the stage of committing thousands upon thousands of pill ingredients to memory. He had yet to try it in practice and had no energy to spare for learning the Mechanism Art.
As such, this reward was not particularly appealing to Lin Jing.
Though, in the longer term, learning a few more things certainly would not hurt someone with a longevity body.
"A bamboo dragon at the Qi Refining Seventh Layer should be manageable."
He withdrew from the crowd. Cultivation was one thing; combat strength was another. Even among cultivators at the Qi Refining Seventh Layer, most types were probably no match for sword cultivators. With "mechanism" and "dragon" combined, it was unlikely to be weak either.
Treasure beasts were stronger still, however. Though the Glazed Immortal Eyes could not let the Pineleaf Squirrel fight across an entire major realm, they gave it unimaginable suppressive power within the qi refinement realm. The Spirit Beans Bombs synthesized from spirit beans using the immortal eyes, for instance, packed quite a punch. They had even startled the Black Bear Monster, and were powerful enough to severely wound an opponent in late-stage qi refining.
"Too bad the rewards aren't cumulative. Once you reach the final tier, you can't claim the reward from the tier below."
The sixth-tier reward, the Dragon Blood Pill, was actually quite good too.
A second-grade pill refined from flood dragon blood, it could strengthen a beast's bloodline when consumed, with a tiny chance of giving it a dragon bloodline!
Of course, in terms of value, even without the Mechanism Art insights, the Mechanism Soul Core alone would certainly exceed the Dragon Blood Pill. But Lin Jing felt that if he won the Mechanism Soul Core, then sold it to buy a Storage Ring, Elder Yu would surely be so furious his beard would twist out of shape.
"Three days until the Rising Dragon Festival." After borrowing books and returning to the courtyard, Lin Jing glanced at the Pineleaf Squirrel sitting cross-legged beneath the bare tree, cultivating.
And... at the Red Flying Leaves and Spirit Beans Bombs piled in the box behind it!
Ever since discovering how formidable the Red Flying Leaves were, the Pineleaf Squirrel had stopped hoarding Spirit Stones.
Its cultivation followed a fixed circuit of several stops.
First thing in the morning, it would groggily go and accelerate the ripening of spirit rice and spirit beans.
Then it would sit nearby, using Spirit Stones and Spirit-Replenishing Pills to replenish what it had expended.
Next, it synthesized golden spirit rice, lay in the pile of rice, and ate the golden spirit rice with a look of grim determination.
Using its perfect digestion state, it converted the nutrients from the ordinary spirit rice it ate into increased spiritual power.
Once it had eaten and drunk its fill, it synthesized Red Flying Leaves and Spirit Beans Bombs and stockpiled them.
Thus, the Red Flying Leaves and Spirit Beans Bombs grew more and more numerous.
While its Spirit Stones and other resources dwindled.
But the Pineleaf Squirrel did not care.
After all, no matter how many Spirit Stones it had, they could not help it in battle. The Red Leaves could.
The Pineleaf Squirrel wanted to seize the opportunity offered by the Rising Dragon Festival to earn more resources, staking a little to win big.
Driven by that fighting spirit, it had already used up most of the resources the sect had delivered that month, along with its mission resources and Spirit-Replenishing Pills, in hardly any time at all.
Unlike Lin Jing, with so many resources poured into it, the Pineleaf Squirrel was making gratifying progress. Even as it synthesized a pile of trump cards, its own cultivation was beginning to approach the Qi Refining Fifth Layer.
Lin Jing had not gotten so much as a single Spirit Stone. At most, he had eaten some leftover spirit rice, making himself a serving of fried rice with leaves.
If there was one difference between Beast Taming Sect disciples and cultivators from other sects when it came to raising spirit beasts, it had to be that most Beast Taming Sect disciples gave their best resources to their pet beasts, while cultivators from other sects gave their pets and mounts little more than scraps.
Lin Jing returned quietly without disturbing the Pineleaf Squirrel and sat to one side to read.
Only half a day later did the Pineleaf Squirrel stop cultivating and ask Lin Jing about the rewards for "Dragon versus tiger"...
Upon learning that the best rewards were the Mechanism Art and mechanism materials, it immediately felt as though the sky had fallen.
"Squeak! Squeak, squeak! Squeak, squeak, squeak!"
"Calm down. The Mechanism Art isn't bad either. Learning it doesn't mean you have to make mechanical beasts."
"Have you ever heard of a 'machine gun'?"
"Using one of those to fire Spirit Beans Bombs would definitely drain you far less than throwing them with the Flying Leaf Technique."
With Lin Jing offering reassurance, time passed little by little.
In the blink of an eye.
The day of the Rising Dragon Festival arrived.
The Dragon-Vying Beast-Battling Event would begin at noon on the day of the Rising Dragon Festival.
In the courtyard, Lin Jing wore a long blue-green robe, the standard attire of an Outer Gate Disciple. Crouched on his shoulder was the Pineleaf Squirrel, which had already reached the Qi Refining Fifth Layer and looked deeply conflicted.
It looked at the slightly bulging cloth pouches on either side of Lin Jing's robe. Inside was everything it owned.
At the thought that the coming battle might wipe out a large portion of those possessions, the Pineleaf Squirrel felt an urge not to go.
"Squeak..."
Lin Jing paid no heed to what it thought. Three days later, he came to the Central Plaza once more.
There were even more people here now. Before the appointed time had arrived, people and pet beasts already surrounded the plaza.
A large number of Outer Gate Disciples in identical attire varied widely in age. The youngest were barely over ten, while the oldest already looked like martial uncles. It was hard to tell whether they were actually old or had simply grown up in a hurry.
At the center of the plaza, a lifelike bamboo dragon hovered in midair with the aid of a small Wind-Walking Technique formation.
Lin Jing looked over. The bamboo dragon was several zhang long, every bamboo scale gleaming emerald green. Its head was exquisitely crafted, with two dragon eyes meticulously carved from bamboo strips, bright and spirited. Its horns were made from tough bamboo joints, tall and sharp, adding a measure of majesty.
Its mouth was slightly open, revealing the complex mechanism within. He could faintly make out delicate bamboo wheels, gears woven from slender bamboo strands, and... a white dragon pearl.
"It feels like Elder Yu put more care into this Mechanism Dragon... than the ones from previous years," a disciple muttered, looking at the bamboo dragon's body.
It was covered with neatly staggered bamboo strips, each seemingly polished with great care. Along its back, rows of tightly linked bamboo joints formed smooth curves, like a true dragon's spine, making the entire mechanism look remarkably fluid.
"Yeah. It doesn't feel like a qi refining beast at all. It's more like a foundation establishment beast forcibly crippled down to the qi refinement realm," another disciple speculated maliciously.
"You're probably overthinking it. It's a festival-we're here for a bit of festive cheer. Why would Elder Yu go to all that trouble just to make things difficult for us?"
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