Spirit Beast Bloodlines

Holding the jade slip, he poured his divine sense into it, and a book immediately appeared in his mind.

[Yun Household Magazine]

According to its introduction, this was a compendium of basic knowledge about the cultivation world of the Tian Nan Region, painstakingly compiled by the Yun Household. It encompassed all manner of things and covered a vast range of subjects.

Cultivation realms, the hundred arts of cultivation, heavenly materials and earthly treasures, dharmic instruments and pills, spirit pets and puppets... all were included.

Chen Jianghe read through them carefully, one by one.

The first section was a geographical gazetteer, primarily introducing the terrain of the Tian Nan Region and the territories controlled by its various factions.

The Tian Nan Region was vast, spanning ninety thousand li from north to south. A river seventy thousand li long stretched from east to west, cleaving the region across its middle.

This divided the Tian Nan Sect into its Southern and Northern Branches.

The Yun Household of Mirror Moon Lake was located within the jurisdiction of the Tian Nan Sect's Southern Branch. The sect entrance examination Gao Peiyao had attended had been held by that branch.

Chen Jianghe spent a day committing the gazetteer's contents to memory. He was only staying with the Yun Household temporarily and would leave sooner or later.

The gazetteer would be of great use to him.

It would keep him from becoming a blind man with open eyes when he left the Yun Household and traveled the Tian Nan Region in the future.

The second section covered heavenly materials and earthly treasures, recording the various precious treasures the Yun Household's forebears had encountered.

These included such rarities as spirit herbs, immortal stones, and wondrous flowers... Nearly all the heavenly materials and earthly treasures recorded there came with illustrations.

Chen Jianghe likewise committed these immortal materials and precious treasures firmly to memory. They might prove useful someday.

Next came the section on the hundred arts of cultivation.

"You need to reach the mid Qi Refining stage before you can begin studying the Dao of Alchemy or the Artifact Dao, and the Formation Dao actually requires late Qi Refining stage cultivation!"

When he opened the section on the hundred arts of cultivation, the first things he saw were formations, artifact crafting, alchemy, and talismans—the Four Great Arts of the Hundred Crafts.

And the basic requirement for studying the Artifact Dao and the Dao of Alchemy was actually mid Qi Refining stage cultivation.

This was because both artifact crafting and pill refining required pill fire, yet pill fire was a flame possessed only by mighty Core Formation cultivators.

Other unusual flames therefore had to be used as substitutes, such as earthfire, which was drawn from the earth's core through the medium of a formation.

Although a formation drew out the fire from the earth's core, a cultivator still had to control the flames, which consumed a great deal of magical power.

The magical power of an early Qi Refining stage cultivator simply could not sustain that expenditure.

As for the Formation Dao, only late Qi Refining stage cultivators could barely begin to study and comprehend it.

This was because the Formation Dao placed extremely high demands on divine sense and was particularly taxing on the mind.

The Talisman Dao was much simpler by comparison and could be attempted at the early Qi Refining stage. Most importantly, its early stages did not require an inheritance as the other arts did.

Of course, it was only in its early stages that the Talisman Dao did not require an inheritance.

To become a first-tier superior-grade talisman master, one still needed a corresponding first-tier Talisman Dao inheritance. Otherwise, even exhausting a hundred years would scarcely enable one to draw a superior-grade spirit talisman.

Chen Jianghe had only just begun learning the Talisman Dao and could barely draw inferior-grade Water Arrow Talismans. Superior-grade spirit talismans were still a long way off.

Thus, a Talisman Dao inheritance was not so urgently needed.

Once his cultivation had risen and his talisman skills had also reached first-tier middle grade, he would find a way to obtain a Talisman Dao inheritance.

From the moment he stepped onto the immortal path, he had planned his pursuit of the Immortal Dao with the intention of managing things prudently, advancing gradually, and securing each step before taking the next.

Then came cultivation arts such as medicinal cuisine, medicine, puppetry, brewing, spirit plant cultivation, beast taming, and spiritual construction.

Although Chen Jianghe did not intend to take up these arts, he still read through them carefully, ensuring that he at least had some understanding of them.

After those came dharmic instruments, pills, and spirit beasts.

"It seems that fat shopkeeper wasn't lying to me. Spirit beasts generally don't have anything called an inheritance cultivation art."

According to the [Yun Household Magazine], spirit beasts had nine tiers of cultivation, from lowest to highest, corresponding to the nine major realms of cultivators.

For third-tier spirit beasts-or demonic beasts-their spirit cores transformed and sank into their dantians, condensing into demonic cores, and they could speak human language.

Fifth-tier spirit beasts-or demonic beasts-underwent a tribulation to assume human form. Once successful, they could shed their beast forms and become indistinguishable from human cultivators.

Moreover, spirit beasts were stronger than cultivators of the same realm. For instance, a Tier 2 Spirit Beast could defeat a Foundation Establishment Ancestor who lacked a suitable dharmic instrument.

There was another point: like cultivators, spirit beasts also possessed innate talent, and their hierarchy was even more rigid than that of cultivators. Cultivators' talent was ranked by the number of their spiritual roots.

Spirit beasts' talent, however, was ranked by the purity of their bloodlines, and they also cultivated through their bloodline inheritances.

Bloodline purity was divided into grades one through nine, from lowest to highest. The higher the bloodline grade, the greater the potential.

Most beasts in the world had first-grade bloodlines and found it difficult to awaken intelligence, cultivate, and enter the tiers.

Beasts with second-grade bloodlines were born able to draw in spiritual energy. As they absorbed it, they gradually awakened intelligence, successfully entered the tiers, and transformed into spirit beasts.

However, without a great opportunity, beasts with second-grade bloodlines could only reach the first tier of spirit beasts.

Beasts with third-grade bloodlines were born intelligent and cultivated very quickly. They could generally cultivate to become Tier 2 Spirit Beasts.

No spirit beast with a third-grade bloodline had ever appeared within the territory of Mirror Moon Lake.

The only instance recorded in the [Yun Household Magazine] had occurred at an auction in Qinghe Market, where the Zhou Household, a beast-taming cultivation clan, had won one for the high price of three thousand two hundred spirit stones.

That was considerably more valuable than even a Foundation Establishment Pill.

"The Small Blue Fish's bloodline purity is second grade, so Xiao Hei's should be first grade. That would mean a forced transformation into a spirit beast."

"But why does it feel like Xiao Hei hasn't been cultivating slowly since becoming a first-tier spirit beast?"

Since entering the tiers and becoming a spirit beast, Xiao Hei had eaten only one Qi-Nourishing Pill, amounting to seven or eight years of arduous cultivation at most.

Yet the aura of Xiao Hei's fluctuating magical power gave Chen Jianghe the impression of the Qi Refining, Second Layer, and of being about to reach the Qi Refining Third Layer.

In other words.

Xiao Hei's cultivation speed was nearly twice his own.

It was nothing like what the [Yun Household Magazine] recorded, which stated that spirit beasts with first-grade bloodlines cultivated extremely slowly.

It even seemed a notch faster than a second-grade bloodline.

But it did not reach the level of a third-grade bloodline.

"Could it be because of the [Three-Turn Demon Ascension Art]?"

Normally, only demonic beasts with bloodlines of the fifth grade or above possessed inherited cultivation arts. Because of the Spiritual Platform Mark, Xiao Hei had obtained an inherited cultivation art.

After turning it over in his mind, Chen Jianghe felt that only the [Three-Turn Demon Ascension Art] could have increased Xiao Hei's cultivation speed.

"If it really is as I think, doesn't that make my golden finger even stronger?"

The faster Xiao Hei cultivated, the more it benefited Chen Jianghe. He would not only gain a powerful spirit pet.

The upper limit of his lifespan would also keep rising.

At once, Chen Jianghe turned his divine sense inward to inspect his spiritual platform and contacted Xiao Hei, who was feeding the fish.

"Xiao Hei, have you felt any changes since cultivating the [Three-Turn Demon Ascension Art]?"

"Changes? Does my magical power doubling count?"

"..."

Chen Jianghe rolled his eyes.

The Yun Household's core cultivation art, the Origin-Congealing True Water Scripture, only increased magical power by thirty percent.

Yet the [Three-Turn Demon Ascension Art] had doubled Xiao Hei's magical power. Clearly, the [Three-Turn Demon Ascension Art] was stronger than the Yun Household's Origin-Congealing True Water Scripture by far more than a little.

"Two-legged beast master, I feel like I can reach the peak of the early first tier if I eat another Qi-Nourishing Pill."

Xiao Hei's excited, delighted voice came through the Spiritual Platform Mark.

Chen Jianghe froze at those words, somewhat dumbstruck. The peak of the early first tier was equivalent to the Qi Refining Third Layer.

It had only been a little over six years since Xiao Hei entered the tiers and became a spirit beast. Was Xiao Hei already about to become a spirit beast comparable to the Qi Refining Third Layer?

Seven years matched fifteen of his.

Could the [Three-Turn Demon Ascension Art] bestowed on Xiao Hei by the Spiritual Platform Mark improve innate talent and bloodline...

(End of chapter)