txolops Chapter 254 Spirit Beast Advancement
Chapter 254 Spirit Beast Advancement
Soon after.
Xiao Yunzhi left with the Blazing Sun Bird, but she did not tell Li Ping whether she returned to the Western Wilderness or went to Yong'an City.
Jiezi Heaven and Earth, and Gaoji Daoist who dwells within Jiezi Heaven and Earth.
Following Gaoji Daoist's own wishes, he preferred to follow Li Ping, so Xiao Yunzhi was not brought along, but left with Li Ping instead.
……
In the courtyard, Li Ping was checking on the earth spirit rats.
He wasn't a beast tamer, but he had no problem performing basic checks on spirit beasts.
When he killed the Seven Immortals of the North Pole and seized the Earth Spirit Rat from them, the Earth Spirit Rat had already reached the second-tier, low-grade level. Over the years, it had followed Li Ping and consumed many second-tier spirit pills, and not long ago, it refined one-third of a Dragon Blood Grass.
The Earth Spirit Rat is finally about to advance.
Unlike humans and other beings, demonic beasts do not have spiritual roots or cultivation techniques. Their cultivation process is actually a continuous process of stimulating their bloodline to obtain the power passed down from their ancestors.
Generally speaking, how far a demon beast can go is closely related to the bloodline within its body.
The stronger the bloodline, the higher the potential, and the more likely one is to become a great demon.
The Earth Spirit Rat's bloodline is inferior to that of the Wildfire Sparrow, a spirit beast that has awakened its true spirit bloodline. Therefore, whether it is the speed of advancement, the ease of advancement, lifespan, or combat power, it is far inferior to the Wildfire Sparrow.
Just like comparing a cultivator with mixed spiritual roots to a cultivator with celestial spiritual roots, this is a difference in the origin of their bloodline.
Therefore, the Firebird's advancement is a natural progression, while the Earth Spirit Rat's advancement will be much more difficult than the Firebird's.
After examining it, Li Ping discovered that although it had reached the edge of advancement thanks to the power of the Dragon Blood Grass, the success rate of advancement was actually not very high.
This made Li Ping somewhat worried.
After all, if it fails to advance, even if Li Ping heals it with the power of the Nourishing Life Technique in time, it will miss the opportunity to advance again, and who knows when it will be.
"The Earth Spirit Rat possesses a talent for finding rare and precious materials. After it advances, its talent will likely be enhanced, allowing it to find even more precious spiritual items."
After a moment's hesitation, Li Ping decided to do something.
The things that can increase the probability of a monster advancing to the next level are either spiritual herbs like dragon blood grass, or elixirs specifically for monsters, or the cores and essence blood of high-level monsters of the same attribute.
Li Ping plans to take a three-pronged approach.
He asked Shi Yutong for help in searching for spiritual objects, earth-attribute demon cores, and essence blood.
As for elixirs.
The Earth Spirit Rat is an earth-attribute demon beast. Li Ping plans to refine a second-tier mid-grade spiritual pill called "Yellow Jade Pill" to feed it to the rat during its advancement, which will increase its chances of advancing.
As he pondered, he heard Gaoji Daoist's voice: "That spirit bird should be a celestial spirit bird with true spirit bloodline, and this spirit rat with treasure-hunting talent... Tsk tsk, Fellow Daoist Li, your luck is truly amazing, I am quite envious."
During his cultivation, Li Ping would seal Gao Ji Dao Ren inside a jade box to prevent Gao Ji Dao Ren from discovering his secrets.
However, when he wasn't cultivating, he would feed the spirit beasts or take a short rest.
For example, right now, he would let Gaoji Daoist come out for some fresh air.
Li Ping shook his head: "I'm sorry to have troubled you, senior. My two spirit beasts are only at the second tier, nothing to be envied."
Gaoji Daoist disagreed: "For a spirit bird with true spirit bloodline, passing the transformation tribulation is not difficult. As long as you nurture it patiently, Fellow Daoist Li, you will eventually have a Nascent Soul level spirit beast."
Li Ping smiled but remained silent.
"If Fellow Daoist Li is worried about your current combat strength, I once hid some spiritual materials for refining third-tier puppets in a treasure vault somewhere," Gaoji Daoist suggested. "Go and retrieve them; they will be more than enough to refine a third-tier puppet. With a third-tier puppet in hand, you will be able to protect yourself without worry."
In fact, this was not the first time that Daoist Gaoji had made such a suggestion.
He didn't care about the spiritual materials he had collected over the years. Compared to the spiritual materials, he hoped to see Li Ping craft a third-tier puppet with his own eyes.
Upon hearing Gaoji Daoist's suggestion, Li Ping simply shook his head: "I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you, senior. I'm currently focused on cultivating and breaking through to the Core Formation stage, and I really can't find the time to retrieve the treasure trove that you've stored away."
Gaoji Daoist continued to persuade, "Actually, this treasure vault is less than a million miles from Feixue City. With your speed, it won't take long to make a round trip."
Li Ping shook his head and refused again: "I don't have time to go out."
Master Gaoji sighed and stopped trying to persuade him.
……
After placing the Jiezi World where Gaoji Daoist resided into a jade box and sealing off his spiritual senses, Li Ping turned and walked back to the training room.
He certainly wanted a third-tier puppet.
If he could find the spiritual materials needed to craft a third-tier puppet, he would have already started crafting one.
However, Gaoji Daoist now says that his treasure trove contains spiritual materials needed to refine first and third-tier puppets, and he is willing to give all of these spiritual materials to Li Ping.
Based on Gaoji Daoist's previous reputation, Li Ping was willing to trust him.
Whether giving Xiao Yunzhi the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Jade or the entire "Myriad Spirits Divine Technique," Gaoji Daoist acted with utmost sincerity. The system has matched you with a Xianxia (fantasy martial arts) novel category. Click here.
However, he knew very well.
All honest and trustworthy behavior in human society is actually a prelude to the final act of dishonesty and deception.
Who knows if Gaoji Daoist's repeated keeping of promises was to gain his trust and thus deceive him?
What if he excitedly led Gaoji Daoist to try and take the spiritual materials from the treasure vault, only to find that there were no spiritual materials at all, but only a third-order puppet that Gaoji Daoist had refined?
When he faces a third-tier puppet equivalent to a Core Formation cultivator, even if he manages to escape using the "Bloodwing Escape Technique," he will likely be chased around by Daoist Gaoji and unable to cultivate in peace.
This was something he didn't want to see; he had no desire to participate in a "Feast at Hongmen" orchestrated by Gaoji Daoist.
He didn't want to be like "Li Paopao" (a character from a popular Chinese novel who fled during the Cultural Revolution); he just wanted to focus on his cultivation and attempt to reach the Core Formation stage.
In any case, given his current situation, a third-tier puppet is not something he urgently needs.
It's quite nice to spend my days cultivating in Flying Snow City.
Gaoji Daoist's treasure trove won't magically disappear. Li Ping estimates that he will reach the Core Formation stage within the next ten years or so. What's wrong with waiting until he reaches the Core Formation stage before retrieving it?
Before he reached the Core Formation stage, no matter what Gaoji Daoist said, he would always reply, "Too lazy to go out."
……
Several months later, with Shi Yutong's help, Li Ping finally gathered enough spiritual materials needed for the Earth Spirit Rat to advance, and successfully refined a batch of Yellow Jade Pills for the Earth Spirit Rat to refine.
Witnessing him consume all the spiritual items and transform into an earth-yellow phantom that disappeared into the ground, Li Ping nodded slightly.
The protective array around the cave is actually spherical, and the underground area is also within its protection. The Earth Spirit Rat went underground to sleep in order to make its advancement easier by taking advantage of the special underground environment.
"Everything is prepared for you. Now it's up to you to work hard." Li Ping said softly, then returned to the training room to cultivate diligently.
Fortunately, the Earth Spirit Rat did not disappoint Li Ping.
At the end of that year, Li Ping sat in the pavilion and chatted with Ji Shuxuan, who had come to pay his respects.
Every so often, Ji Shuxuan would take the initiative to visit Li Ping and inform him of the recent events in Feixue City, and this time was no exception.
Ji Shuxuan looks older than he did at the Xu Guike Daolu Ceremony last year.
His very essence was damaged. He was alright when he was young, with a strong vitality that was suppressed.
But now that I'm older, I change almost every day, and I'm aging terribly.
His hair was white and his face was dry and wrinkled like old tree bark. There were also some light age spots all over the valleys and hills, just like dried tangerine peel.
Ji Shuxuan whispered to Li Ping about the recent events that had happened in the city.
Through this face with its vaguely handsome features, Li Ping's gaze seemed to pierce through time and space, seeing the youthful appearance of him and Yan Hengchuan more than seventy years ago when they were brought to Fenglan Immortal City by Daoist Ji and asked to be taken care of by him.
Time flies!
Li Ping sensed that Ji Shuxuan probably wouldn't live to see him reach the Core Formation stage; he likely had several years left to live.
"Should we keep him alive?" Li Ping ultimately shook his head.
Ji Shuxuan's essence was severely damaged, and it could not be cured by minor treatments. It was beyond the reach of medicine. Even if he were to take action, it would require a great deal of magical power and expose the unique features of the health preservation technique.
Li Ping had previously used his health preservation techniques to heal all but himself in four separate instances.
The patients being treated were the third senior brother, Xiao Yunzhi, the fetal Wildfire Sparrow, and the dying Seven-Colored Illusionary Butterfly.
The third senior brother was a mortal and could not know the extent of his extraordinary abilities.
When Li Ping treated Xiao Yunzhi, she was already unconscious, and he deliberately changed his appearance and used a false identity to treat her.
The remaining two spirit beasts were not very intelligent, so Li Ping was not worried about them revealing the secret.
Treating a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator like Ji Shuxuan would almost certainly expose the unique nature of the Health Preservation Technique.
Li Ping wasn't sure if Ji Shuxuan would keep his secret.
"For an ordinary person to live to such an age is considered a long life. He should be content to have lived this long," Li Ping sighed.
……
Just as Ji Shuxuan was reporting the information to him, the spiritual energy in the courtyard suddenly fluctuated.
Immediately afterwards, a powerful aura slowly rose from the ground in the courtyard.
Ji Shuxuan was taken aback: "Uncle Li, what happened?"
After sensing it slightly, Li Ping smiled and said, "It's nothing. One of my pet spirit beasts has advanced in rank."
Just now.
With the help of many precious spiritual items he had prepared, after more than half a year, the Earth Spirit Rat finally did not disappoint him and successfully advanced to the middle grade of the second tier, reaching the same level as the Wildfire Sparrow.
Upon hearing Li Ping's explanation, Ji Shuxuan quickly smiled and congratulated him, "Congratulations, Uncle Li, on gaining another powerful spirit beast under your command."
"Haha..." Li Ping was in a good mood.
The Earth Spirit Rat's successful advancement is equivalent to a treasure detector, which may be able to find many precious natural treasures in the future. Li Ping has high expectations for it.
If they weren't currently in Flying Snow City and the Earth Spirit Rat wasn't strong enough, he would have already ordered the Earth Spirit Rat to go out and search for treasure on its own.