The Three Origins Immortal Market, Naming Black Mountain

After breaking through to organ refining perfection, Lin Xiye took only half a day to travel from Zichuan City to Qiao Town, even without pushing himself to full speed.

Amid the drifting wind and snow, Lin Xiye had just stepped into Qiao Town when a black figure suddenly charged toward him from afar.

The figure was astonishingly fast, like a bolt of lightning cleaving through the winter chill.

The figure radiated the presence of middle skin refining, and as it drew close, Lin Xiye saw what it looked like!

It was the giant ferocious tiger!

By now, its body had grown a whole size larger!

It had originally stood two meters tall and measured five or six meters long... Now, it stood nearly one zhang tall and had grown to three zhang in length!

After breaking through to middle skin refining, it was as though it had shed its old body and been reborn. Not only had it grown larger, but its fur had also turned glossy black, as though it were clad in armor!

"Not bad..."

"You guarded Qiao Town for half a year. This is your reward."

Lin Xiye took out two Spirit Stone fragments and fed them into the giant tiger's cavernous maw.

"Roar!!"

After catching the Spirit Stone fragments in its mouth, the giant tiger appeared excited. It tossed its enormous head and let out a series of roars toward the heavens!

"It's time I gave you a name, too..."

Looking at the giant tiger, Lin Xiye pondered for a moment before speaking again. "I'll call you Black Mountain!"

"Next, go to Zichuan City..."

"There's no need to guard Qiao Town anymore."

Lin Xiye patted Black Mountain on the head, a faint smile appearing on his face.

The giant tiger's potential was quite good!

Given enough resources, it might even have a sliver of hope of breaking through to the spirit nourishing level.

At that thought, an idea suddenly struck Lin Xiye. He took Black Mountain to a secluded spot, then consumed a gold ingot and tried to use the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror... to improve his aptitude!

Rattle...

As the gold ingot was consumed, waves of mysterious immortal light began to pour from the surface of the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror!

Holding the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror, Lin Xiye hurriedly aimed it at Black Mountain...

The next second, the once-enormous Black Mountain rapidly shrank!!

In just two or three breaths, he went from a colossal beast to the size of a house cat...

Lin Xiye was briefly taken aback.

He had wanted Black Mountain to be his mount and carry him on his journeys...

But now, Black Mountain was small enough to stand on Lin Xiye's shoulder.

"What's going on?"

Lin Xiye was puzzled.

At that moment, Black Mountain sensed the change in his size and panicked too.

But soon, the panic in his eyes turned entirely to excitement!!

He could clearly feel that his aptitude had increased severalfold!

He also had a vague sense that some kind of supremely powerful bloodline had awakened within him.

Though that trace of bloodline was so thin it was difficult to detect, his instincts told him that with it, he would have hope of one day breaking through to the Spirit Nourishing Realm, the Foundation Establishment Realm, or even the Purple Mansion Realm!!

As for shrinking? That didn't matter.

A Demon Beast's combat strength had never been defined by its size...

For example, a Nascent Soul Realm Demon Beast the size of a palm could still swallow a mountain-sized Core Formation Realm Demon Beast in a single bite!

"Roar! Roar, roar!!!"

The shrunken Black Mountain followed behind Lin Xiye. His roars still carried the might of a fierce tiger, but his size... was like that of a house cat in the mortal world, making him look adorably silly.

He acted affectionately in front of Lin Xiye, seemingly hoping Lin Xiye would shine the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror on him again.

"Shoo, shoo, shoo..."

"We'll talk when you've behaved well..."

Lin Xiye looked at Black Mountain, caught between laughter and tears... A perfectly good giant ferocious tiger had turned into an adorable pet the size of a house cat.

Lin Xiye ignored Black Mountain's fawning and affectionate antics, merely dangling a grand promise before him for now.

There was no helping it. With Black Mountain's current aptitude, consuming mortal gold and silver could no longer improve it!

Only by consuming a large number of Spirit Stone fragments, or even low-grade Spirit Stones, could he help Black Mountain improve his aptitude further!

Demon Beast aptitude was divided into mortal grade, ordinary grade, profound grade, earth grade, heaven grade...

Black Mountain's previous aptitude had been at the mortal-grade level!

Mortal-grade potential was much the same as a human cultivator's false spirit root aptitude.

After one upgrade and enhancement, Black Mountain's aptitude had reached the profound-grade level! It was equivalent to the aptitude of a profound-grade spirit root!!

Lin Xiye had previously consumed twenty Spirit Stone fragments without successfully enhancing his profound-grade spirit root to the earth-grade level...

By Lin Xiye's estimate, raising a profound-grade spirit root to an earth-grade spirit root would probably require at least ten low-grade Spirit Stones! That was a thousand Spirit Stone fragments!

In the end, I'm just too poor...

Lin Xiye sighed inwardly and rubbed Black Mountain's head again. After giving him some instructions, Lin Xiye hurried out of Qiao Town.

The struggle over the silver ore vein... could erupt at any moment!!

Lin Xiye had to reach a cultivation market as soon as possible, sell the hundred-year-old Spirit Tempering Grass, and buy some items to improve his strength.

The cultivation market Lin Xiye was headed to this time was not the small one two hundred li from Qiao Town, but the largest immortal market within ten thousand li-the Three Origins Immortal Market!

The Three Origins Immortal Market had been established by the Qian Household of the commandery capital!

Throughout Huai Mountain Commandery, the Qian Household had established fourteen Three Origins Immortal Markets in all!!

Every Three Origins Immortal Market established by the Qian Household had a spirit nourishing perfection cultivator stationed there!

Lin Xiye also knew a little about the Qian Household...

The Qian Household was one of the eight great lineages of the Huai Mountain Commandery capital! It had Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators holding the fort... and more than one of them.

Many Spirit Nourishing Realm stewards and even Foundation Establishment Realm elders in the Falling Rosy Clouds Sect came from the Qian Household!

If the Blood Wolf Hall was merely a regional hegemon, then the Qian Household was a truly powerful clan!

If the Qian Household wished, crushing a power like the Blood Wolf Hall would take almost no effort...

The Three Origins Immortal Market serving the region within ten thousand li of Zichuan City was located in Guyuan City!

Guyuan City was four thousand li from Qiao Town... Even if Lin Xiye traveled at full speed, it would take him several days.

But he couldn't risk traveling at full speed.

When traveling away from home, he had to keep himself in the best possible condition!

But that meant... Lin Xiye would need at least a month to return to Zichuan City.

The silver ore vein would probably have to fall into the hands of the Blood Wolf Hall and the other powers for the time being.

There was no helping it.

The Lin Household's foundations were shallow. Even if Lin Changge and the others did everything they could to stall for time, they probably wouldn't be able to hold the Blood Wolf Hall and the other powers off for long.

But it didn't matter!

A temporary loss didn't mean anything...

As long as they ultimately reclaimed the benefits they had lost, it didn't matter how many twists and turns lay along the way...