Everything was ready! Breaking out of the shell!

With the mulberry trees in stable condition, Lin Ke released the Blackgold Silkworms.

The farmers knew these Blackgold Silkworms were worth more than their own lives, so after enjoying the Sweet Rain Art, they forced their exhausted bodies back to work.

Never mind them-even Lin Ke was exhausted.

He was a cultivator at the ninth layer of Qi Refining, just one final step away from breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm.

But he had spent the entire day casting spells, replenishing his Spirit Power whenever it ran low, then draining it again.

Like a sponge endlessly soaking up water and being squeezed dry, even he was struggling to bear it.

Still, the Blackgold Silkworms really were important.

Over the past two days, the Blackgold Silkworms had stayed alive inside his Niwan Palace, but they kept crawling everywhere, clearly unhappy with the picked mulberry leaves.

They ate when hunger drove them to it, but seven or eight stubborn ones had starved to death.

Blackgold Silkworms might be the lowest-grade spirit insects, but they were still spirit insects!

A single one was probably worth dozens, perhaps even a hundred spirit stones.

So he took the Blackgold Silkworms out of his Niwan Palace one by one and handed them to the farmers as quickly as possible.

The farmers formed a long line, cupping their hands to receive four or five Blackgold Silkworms at a time before hurriedly carrying them over to the mulberry trees.

The moment the Blackgold Silkworms reached the trees, they began crunching away at the fresh mulberry leaves. They were clearly starving.

Just returning the Blackgold Silkworms kept the entire Green Mulberry Garden busy until late into the night.

The farmers had never been so tired, but they could also tell how much easier and more convenient their work would become once all this was done.

Previously, they had needed to scatter the Blackgold Silkworms across the mountains, with each farmer watching dozens or hundreds of them from dawn to dusk, terrified something might happen to them.

And now?

All the Blackgold Silkworms were on a single mountain!

Lin Ke had even told them to put together something called a "shift schedule," so they could simply take turns watching the Blackgold Silkworms.

So once everything was done, the exhausted farmers returned to their lodgings full of hope.

Only Lin Ke remained, standing atop the mountain.

He was utterly worn out too.

Having his Spirit Power repeatedly squeezed dry and replenished was painful enough, but his mental power had also been drained again and again.

Still, all this work had not only resolved the problem of the sect assignment due in a month, but also considerably purified both his Spirit Power and mental power.

Now, Lin Ke stood there pondering his breakthrough.

Dao Foundation!

After the Qi Refining Stage came the Dao Foundation Stage.

In Lin Ke's eyes, this was the most important stage.

Forge a Dao Foundation!

What foundation was he building?

A Dao Foundation!

The Dao Foundation Stage was also called the Foundation Establishment Realm, for what one established was the foundation for cultivating immortality and the Dao.

Only with a solid foundation would the towering structure above it remain unshaken.

And establishing that foundation was not like the novels he had read in his previous life, where all one needed was some Foundation Establishment Pill.

To establish his foundation, he needed to transform the originally attribute-less Spirit Power within his body into Spirit Power suited to him.

It was like altering a one-size-fits-all outfit into clothes tailored to fit.

More importantly, Foundation Establishment was also the best time to decide on a secondary profession.

The six most famous secondary professions in this world were seamstress, forging master, alchemist, spirit planter, ore prospector, and beast taming master.

There were other professions outside these six, such as formation master, but none were as famous.

The original owner of his body had tried three years ago, upon reaching the ninth layer of Qi Refining, but unfortunately, not one of the six professions suited him.

Even formations and spellcraft were unsuitable.

Simply put, he was not cut out for a side job.

As he was now, Lin Ke would ordinarily have been unsuitable too.

But now he had the Niwan Palace!

He could set aside artifact forging, alchemy, spirit planting, sewing, and the rest, but beast taming suited him perfectly!

To become a beast taming master, he needed to learn the corresponding Spell Arts and cultivation arts before reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm, and he also needed a spirit beast of his own.

The cultivation art was easy enough. The Miaojiang Gu Art was a beast taming master's cultivation art, and the Golden Wing Sect had risen to prominence through that very profession.

As for a spirit beast?

Without some unexpected opportunity, he would probably have had to choose a Blackgold Silkworm. After all, buying a spirit beast likely cost more than buying a slave who was a Qi Refining Stage cultivator like him.

But again... he now had the Niwan Palace!

As long as the egg in his mind, which had joined with the Mysterious Seed, could hatch, it would surely be far better than an ordinary Blackgold Silkworm.

Everything was ready!

Now he only had to wait for the egg inside his Niwan Palace to hatch.

Once it hatched, if it was suitable, he would refine it into his life-bound spirit beast, then break through to become a Foundation Establishment cultivator in one fell swoop!

After that, he would wait a few days to see how these environmental changes affected the Blackgold Silkworms' silk production.

The pressure of the Sect Grand Tournament and the sect assignment-two mountains weighing on him-seemed to have eased somewhat.

Yet just as Lin Ke started down the mountain to return home, he felt his Niwan Palace shudder.

"It's hatching? So soon?"

Lin Ke was astonished.

Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arrives!

He did not even have time to head back. He sat down cross-legged right where he was.

He had thought the egg formed by combining a Blackgold Silkworm and a bee would take as long to hatch as a Blackgold Silkworm egg or a bee egg, or at least something close.

But fewer than five days had passed before it began hatching. Lin Ke suspected this might have something to do with the Mysterious Seed.

He turned his gaze inward, and his mental power coalesced from nothing inside the Niwan Palace.

The Niwan Palace was vast. Lin Ke did not know how wide or tall it truly was.

All he could sense was its boundlessness.

Yet in all that vast space, he could currently use only two small patches to either side of him.

His mental power was too weak. Even bringing a chicken in from outside would have been a struggle.

Now, before his eyes, the black seed and the fused egg were entwined, trembling faintly.

As they trembled, tiny cracks slowly appeared across their surface, accompanied by waves of longing.

As the master of the Niwan Palace, Lin Ke instantly understood that longing.

"You need blood and mental power to acknowledge a master?"

Lin Ke raised his eyebrows.

This thing needed a drop of blood to acknowledge its master?

How could an insect egg combined with a seed need to acknowledge a master like a spirit artifact?

But Lin Ke did not dwell on it. He hurriedly withdrew, bit his fingertip to draw blood, then returned to the Niwan Palace.

He placed the blood on it, then touched the seed with the right hand of his manifested mental body.

The next instant, the seed shuddered.

An aura of profound terror seeped from the seed, making even Lin Ke's Niwan Palace tremble slowly, as though it could not contain that wisp of aura.

The body Lin Ke had formed from mental power shattered outright, and his awareness returned to the outside world.

But a second later, he pulled his consciousness back into the Niwan Palace.

"What in the world is this?!"

Shock filled Lin Ke's eyes.

A mere wisp of aura-and seemingly just an aura the seed carried through something like a bloodline inheritance-had made the Niwan Palace tremble?

Then if this seed fully developed and matured, wouldn't it burst right through the Niwan Palace?

Lin Ke immediately tried to take the seed outside, only to discover that he could no longer remove it.

Before his expression could darken, however, the Niwan Palace conveyed a feeling of joy.

It was still joy, still the sense of a "weighty harvest," rather than a burden.

Like the pleasant fullness after a meal.

In that brief moment, the seed before him absorbed the blood and rapidly shriveled, while Lin Ke's mental power was drained dry in an instant.

"Pop~"

With a soft sound, the thing before him fell to the ground and split open. A little fellow, golden all over, crawled out.

The little fellow raised its head and stared blankly at Lin Ke.

"Daddy~"