The Joy of Cultivation

The next day, Zhao Yi lit a fire in the stone house at the harbor and roasted a sea turtle's head over it.

His cooking was mediocre, and he had charred it so badly that the sight alone turned the stomach. Zhao Yi did not care in the slightest, however. As he roasted it, he sliced pieces off with his sword and ate them in great mouthfuls.

When had Zhao Yi ever eaten the meat of a spirit attraction stage demon beast?

However awful it tasted, it was still delicious. Better yet, once it reached his stomach, a warm current surged out, even easing his injuries a little.

While he was eating, a commotion broke out outside!

Zhao Yi walked out the door. Wang Liuzi had brought a few people down from the mountain, and the enormous shark and sea turtle had startled them as soon as they reached the harbor.

Zhao Yi shouted to them.

"Come here!"

Hearing someone call, the four or five men hurried over. When they saw Zhao Yi, they hastily knelt and paid their respects.

Zhao Yi looked at them, pondered for a moment, then pointed at one of them and said, "Wang Liuzi, you men, carry that sea turtle over here! If there aren't enough hands, go up the mountain and find more people! These two demon beasts must be carried to the Daoist temple by tonight!"

Wang Liuzi hurriedly nodded, and they headed out in a cluster to find more people.

Zhao Yi returned inside and continued eating.

Wang Liuzi called another twenty-odd people down from the mountain.

Zhao Yi divided them into three teams. One carried the whole sea turtle, and another carried the cut-up Giant-Toothed Shark.

The third team used iron spades to dig three feet into the soil where the Giant-Toothed Shark's and sea turtle's blood had flowed, packing up all the bloodstained earth and carrying it up the mountain as well.

They made three trips back and forth, only finishing the move to the mountaintop Daoist temple late that night.

It was late. Looking at the islanders who had worked all day, Zhao Yi cut a piece of meat weighing a good hundred jin or so from the Giant-Toothed Shark and gave it to Wang Liuzi.

He motioned for Wang Liuzi to give each of them a share and told them that this was demon beast meat, which would strengthen their bodies when eaten.

Upon hearing this, the islanders all bowed in thanks, expressing their gratitude for Zhao Yi's great kindness.

Once the meat had been divided, Zhao Yi waved them down the mountain. Everyone bowed in thanks once more and left the Daoist temple with gratitude in their hearts.

After closing the temple gates, Zhao Yi began butchering the sea turtle and the Giant-Toothed Shark.

The Giant-Toothed Shark was easy to butcher. Zhao Yi recut the chunks he had sliced up at the foot of the mountain into forty pieces, each weighing a good sixty or seventy jin, and placed the shark meat in the front courtyard.

The sea turtle had an enormous shell and was difficult to butcher. Zhao Yi thrust the Long Ji into the side of its shell and swept it about in broad strokes, chopping all its internal organs to pieces before scooping them out bit by bit.

Zhao Yi butchered the sea turtle so carefully because, of these two demon beasts, the sea turtle was at the spirit attraction stage, while the Giant-Toothed Shark was at the spirit awakening stage.

A spirit attraction stage sea turtle was stronger than a spirit awakening stage Giant-Toothed Shark. Since the Giant-Toothed Shark had dared to pursue and attack this sea turtle, however, it must have discovered that the turtle had become weaker than itself for some reason.

That was why the Giant-Toothed Shark had set its sights on it, hoping to seize the chance to swallow the sea turtle and advance to the spirit attraction stage.

A spirit attraction stage demon beast's strength declined for only a few reasons: old age, accidental injury, or impending reproduction.

Zhao Yi looked at the sea turtle, unable to tell whether it was male or female. Presumably, it had been accidentally injured.

Putting that aside, Zhao Yi continued scooping out the sea turtle bit by bit.

Zhao Yi yanked out the last bit and felt something different. Feeling the turtle offal in his hand, he took out a dagger and sliced it open. On closer inspection, there were actually three sea turtle eggs.

"What... what are these?"

"Could this be a female?"

"Then what was I scooping out?"

Zhao Yi shook his hand and took out the three sea turtle eggs. They already felt ice-cold. After all, the sea turtle had been dead for two days.

Zhao Yi circulated the true qi within his body, carefully probing the three sea turtle eggs for signs of life.

Two showed no response, but one reacted, and he could sense a faint trace of vitality within it.

Zhao Yi looked at that sea turtle egg and restrained his excitement. Cradling it carefully, he went to his room.

He folded his quilt into the shape of a bird's nest, brought over two fur garments to surround it, and finally set out three spirit stones to arrange the simplest of Spirit Gathering Arrays.

Placing the sea turtle egg on top, Zhao Yi nodded in satisfaction, then went outside to continue cutting up the sea turtle.

Time flew like a white steed flashing past a gap, and in the blink of an eye, it was April 1.

Over those three months, Zhao Yi had finally experienced the joy of cultivation.

There was no other reason: nourished by demon beast meat every day, Zhao Yi's cultivation speed had greatly increased.

In three months, he had opened two meridians and was working toward the third.

Of course, this swift pace came with the rapid consumption of demon beast meat. The spirit attraction stage sea turtle had ultimately yielded over eight hundred jin of meat, while the Giant-Toothed Shark had yielded nearly three thousand jin.

Zhao Yi had originally planned to save some for Liu Yu and the others, but he discovered that the spiritual energy in the demon beast meat dwindled as time passed.

Left with no choice, Zhao Yi had to eat it all.

The two demon beasts had provided over thirty-seven hundred jin of meat in total, and Zhao Yi had finished it all in three months of eating day and night.

That was right, day and night. With such an opportunity for cultivation, Zhao Yi had cultivated like mad without resting, day or night.

Once full, he practiced his cultivation method, and once he finished practicing, he ate again. The fire beneath the kitchen's great meat-boiling pot had never gone out. Zhao Yi had even cut down quite a few trees on the mountain to burn as firewood.

With disheveled hair and a scruffy beard, Zhao Yi left the Daoist temple and came to the harbor. The ice had begun to melt, and the islanders had started mending their fishing nets and cleaning their fishing boats. Watching this busy scene, Zhao Yi smiled faintly.

"It's time to return to Linghua Island."

Before returning, he needed to make some preparations-at least shave his beard and comb his hair.

That night, Zhao Yi went to Jade Pearl Spring.

Sure enough, as the accumulated snow melted, the fish came with the water. Looking at the school of fish he had not seen for months, Zhao Yi first counted them.

He counted twice. There had originally been fifty-seven fish, but now there were a hundred and twenty-two, an increase of sixty-five.

Zhao Yi was delighted. The school had grown, which meant greater opportunities to earn spirit stones in the future.

At this thought, Zhao Yi hurriedly tore the last little bit of dried shark meat he had into shreds, rubbed it into crumbs, and scattered it into the water, throwing the school of fish into a frenzy.

Only the three-inch Spirit Fish refrained from fighting over the meat crumbs. Instead, it stared at Zhao Yi and blew bubbles. Zhao Yi smiled. This little fish is quite shrewd. It knows I still have something good!

With a faint smile, Zhao Yi produced an inner core. This was the shark's inner core, though it could not really be called one. It was more of a Spiritual Power Crystal, only the size of a grain of rice.

Still, the presence of this crystal showed that the Giant-Toothed Shark had been only one step away from the spirit attraction stage. If it had actually swallowed that sea turtle, it probably would have advanced to the spirit attraction stage on the spot.

Demon beasts at the spirit attraction stage all condensed an inner core, also called a Demon Core. Demon Cores were highly valuable and could be used as medicinal ingredients to refine certain spiritual pills.

They were quite precious in the Overseas Cultivation World and could be used in place of spirit stones.

A spirit attraction stage demon beast's inner core was worth around two hundred spirit stones.

The meat, blood, bones, and internal organs of a spirit attraction stage demon beast were worth only a hundred spirit stones combined, which showed just how precious its inner core was.

However, a spirit attraction stage demon beast's young or eggs were worth far more than a Demon Core. They represented a demon beast that could be bound by a contract and were worth around five hundred spirit stones.

Zhao Yi split the rice-grain-sized Spiritual Power Crystal in two, crushed the larger piece completely, and scattered it into the water. Spiritual energy spilled from the crystal, sending the Spirit Fish into an even greater frenzy, with fish leaping out of the water from time to time.

Zhao Yi offered the remaining crystal in his hand to the three-inch Spirit Fish. The fish swallowed it, blew a large bubble as though belching, then sank groggily to the bottom of the pool.

Zhao Yi peered into the pool a few times. Seeing nothing unusual, he continued watching the Spirit Fish scramble for food.