Chapter 116 - 114: Promotion Conditions

Chapter 116: Chapter 114: Promotion Conditions

The streak of Escape Light swiftly reversed its course, descending toward Dong Xing.

As the light scattered, Jin Fang appeared. He looked at Dong Xing’s wretched state and exclaimed in surprise, "You’re Dong... What happened to you?"

Dong Xing opened his eyes. He struggled to move and said weakly, "Dong Xing greets you, Lord Steward."

Jin Fang glanced at the Cultivator standing gravely at the entrance. His mind stirred, and he asked doubtfully, "The Demon Hunting Corps did this?"

Dong Xing nodded with a wry smile.

Jin Fang nodded, asking no more questions. He crouched down and channeled Spiritual Power into Dong Xing’s body.

CRACK...

Dong Xing’s shattered sternum snapped back into place, and his breathing became much calmer.

After a moment’s thought, Jin Fang channeled Spiritual Power into the white jade stone in his hand. Fine golden patterns on its surface lit up.

A burst of brilliant white light erupted, enveloping him and Dong Xing. They shot into the sky, heading straight for the Ten Thousand Snake Lake Heart Island.

At the entrance to the Demon Hunting Corps’ station.

The young man hurried back, cursing under his breath. "What abduction? That old man was just looking for trouble!" he muttered. His gaze shifted forward. "Lucky for him he ran so fast!"

It seemed he was still looking to take his anger out on Dong Xing.

Another young man beside him suddenly smiled and said, "Junior Brother, I forgot Senior Brother Liu invited me to do something today. Can you handle the watch by yourself?"

The young man waved his hand dismissively. "Go ahead, Senior Brother."

"Thank you, Junior Brother."

With that, he hurried off into the station.

The island at the heart of the lake.

Li Changsheng and the others, busy building the frame of a wooden house, suddenly felt an oppressive pressure.

Then, they saw a streak of brilliant white light descend from the sky, landing in the small courtyard.

Li Changsheng looked over curiously.

The light dissipated, revealing Jin Fang and a blood-soaked Dong Xing.

"Hmm?"

Startled, Li Changsheng dropped the wooden beam he was holding and hurried over. He frowned at Dong Xing’s faint breathing. "What happened?"

Sensing a familiar presence, Tan Hu strode over. He frowned at Jin Fang, then his gaze fell upon Dong Xing.

Jin Fang held up his hands. "I was on my way to the outer Spirit Field Zone and passed by the Demon Hunting Corps’ station. I saw him lying at their gate. As for the reason, I have no idea."

"Thank you, Steward Jin."

Li Changsheng cupped his hands at Jin Fang and thanked him.

He took out a Mid-grade Blood Pill for Dong Xing to swallow. While channeling Spiritual Power to help him absorb the pill’s effects, he frowned and asked, "Weren’t you looking for Dong Yao? How did you end up like this?"

"Heh..."

Dong Xing let out a bitter laugh. "I didn’t even make it through the gate before someone kicked me out..." He then haltingly recounted his encounter at the Demon Hunting Corps’ station.

After hearing the story, Li Changsheng’s expression turned grim. He thought for a moment before saying in a low voice, "We’ll discuss this when Senior Brother Lan returns."

Although he was furious, he knew the Demon Hunting Corps was not an organization he could afford to provoke.

"Mm."

Dong Xing understood and gave a slight nod.

Tan Hu remained impassive and said nothing.

’What happens to Dong Xing is none of my business. But if this were Li Changsheng, I would risk grave injury—or better yet, sustain a grave injury while rescuing him.’

’With such a life-saving debt, once Li Changsheng becomes a Spirit Plant Master, my own path to the Dao Foundation would widen severalfold.’

Jin Fang nodded to Li Changsheng and glanced at Tan Hu. Then, his body transformed into a streak of light and vanished over the horizon. Having extended this small favor, any future contact with Li Changsheng would now be perfectly natural.

Tan Hu watched the streak of light with a look of derision. He nodded at Li Changsheng, then turned and walked up the hillside.

After Jin Fang had set his bones and he had taken the Mid-grade Blood Pill, Dong Xing was already able to stand.

Seeing that he was out of danger, Li Changsheng told him to rest and got back to his work.

「Three days passed in a flash.」

On the Ten Thousand Snake Lake Heart Island, in a small courtyard.

Wisps of smoke drifted up, and from the kitchen on one side of the courtyard came the crisp sound of chopping.

Since there were no Spirit Beast cubs to feed, only two stoves had been built in the kitchen.

Now, water roiled in a large cauldron, emitting a foul, complex stench.

It was as if rotten, salted fish had been mixed with socks left to fester for a month.

Li Changsheng’s expression remained unchanged. He dumped the chopped stink-fern and stink-sock-tree leaves into the large cauldron and gave it a few stirs with a wooden stick. Then, he turned to two rice vats in the corner, which were hollowed-out logs.

One was filled with golden-colored Yellow Seed Spirit Rice, the other with off-white Mortal Rice.

He scooped out several ladles of Mortal Rice, then added half a ladle of Spirit Rice to another large cauldron. Finally, he chopped up some wild mountain greens and tossed them in.

As time passed, the mixture of stink-fern and stink-sock-tree leaves in the cauldron gradually grew dark and viscous. At the same time, a peculiar aroma began to fill the air.

It was neither fragrant nor foul, but contained a hint of fresh grass and trees—a truly bizarre combination.

Of course, Li Changsheng, who was using Spiritual Power to block his nasal passages, couldn’t smell a thing.

An hour later, Li Changsheng emerged from the kitchen carrying two wooden buckets.

OINK OINK...

Outside, smelling the aroma, Little Xiaohua scrambled to its feet and trotted over to him, oinking nonstop.

Big Flower and Xiaohua, leading the little piglets, ambled over unhurriedly.

Li Changsheng chuckled, patting Little Xiaohua on the head. He walked to the center of the courtyard and dumped the two buckets of slop into a wooden trough.

OINK OINK...

Big Flower, Xiaohua, and Little Xiaohua oinked as they began to GOBBLE GOBBLE down their meal.

Li Changsheng stood with his hands on his hips, his gaze fixed upon them.

[Target: Xiaohua] [Tier One Mid-grade: 87%]

[Target: Big Flower] [Tier One Mid-grade: 76%]

[Target: Little Xiaohua] [Tier One Mid-grade: 45%]

As the first family to follow him, Xiaohua’s family of three had progressed slowly over the past three years due to a lack of nurturing materials. Even the most advanced, Xiaohua, was only at 87%, still a ways from reaching high-grade.

’But now that I have the stink-sock tree, I can continue their training.’

This thought gave Li Changsheng a bit of a headache.

Several months ago, the two Red Foxes he was raising had reached 99% of Tier One Mid-grade, but they showed no signs of breaking through to high-grade. It seemed they had reached their limit.

’Maybe I haven’t met the conditions for the Golden Finger, or maybe it just doesn’t have an advancement method for them.’

Then there was the swarm of Red-winged Blood Bamboo Insects. Many of them had reached 99% of Tier One Low-grade, and their cultivation had stagnated as well.

The Golden Finger had provided an advancement method for them, but Li Changsheng had been too busy cultivating the Three-leaf Spirit Absorption Vein Map to act on it.

As he watched the swarm undulating outside the courtyard, an idea came to Li Changsheng.

Two Red-winged Blood Bamboo Insects, slightly different from each other but both covered in dark patterns, flew before his eyes.

One of them was slightly smaller; it was the one he had obtained from the Hundred Beasts Valley.

The other was a size larger. In addition to the dark markings, it had faint, snake-scale-like folds on its body. This one was birthed by the Insect Mother.

Li Changsheng focused his gaze.

[Target: Slave Insect]

[Race: Mutated Red-winged Blood Bamboo]

[Tier One Low-grade: 99%]

[Talent: Blood Devouring, Blood Toxin.]

[Status: Healthy.]

The information for both was nearly identical; they were both at 99% of Tier One Low-grade.

Li Changsheng focused his gaze on the cultivation level of the insect he had obtained from the Hundred Beasts Valley. An instant later, a message flashed through his mind.

[Advancement Requirement: Consume one hundred drops of Snake Saliva Spirit Tree Juice, consume a large amount of flesh and blood rich in Spiritual Qi. High probability of unknown mutation.]

Then, his gaze fixed on the insect bred by the Insect Mother.

[Advancement Requirement: Battle its own kind. The strong will devour and advance; the weak will become food.]

Li Changsheng dismissed the panels and closed his eyes, focusing his mind. He reached out through his spiritual contract to sense the connected insects.

In an instant, a dense web of connections materialized in his consciousness.

Counting only the Red-winged Blood Bamboo, there were 491 in total.

Among them, 85 were obtained from the Hundred Beasts Valley.

The other 406 were bred by the Insect Mother, and 151 of them were on the verge of a breakthrough.

’The cannibalism method would mean losing half of them right off the bat...’

Li Changsheng opened his eyes, shooed away the two insects, and muttered to himself, ’And as for consuming the Snake Saliva Spirit Liquid... last time, only three out of twenty insects survived. Their cultivation was low back then, sure, but those odds are still terrible...’

After some contemplation, Li Changsheng took the buckets and returned to the kitchen.

A short while later, he entered the beast pens carrying two buckets of thick porridge mixed with Spirit Rice.

After pouring the porridge into the trough, Li Changsheng looked at the Red Foxes and snow goats in the pen, his brow furrowing slightly.

’Now that I have three mu of Tier Two Spirit Fields, I have a decent bit of property.’

’Continuing to breed Red Foxes and snow goats won’t bring in much profit anymore; the help to me is negligible.’

’What to do with them in the future is another problem.’

Just as Li Changsheng was pondering this, a shout came from outside.

"Is Chief Steward Li home?"

"Dong Xing? Xu Li? What are they doing here," Li Changsheng muttered, striding out of the beast pens.

Returning to the small courtyard, he saw Dong Xing and the other two at the gate, each carrying a wooden cage.

"You’re here, just come in. Do you really need me to open the gate?"

Li Changsheng said this as he opened the gate and let the three of them into the courtyard.

"Hehe, we were just afraid of imposing on Chief Steward Li."

Dong Xing, now fully recovered, chuckled and lifted the wooden cage in his hand. "Here. Heard your refined insect beasts eat poisonous snakes. We caught these for you."

Xu Li and Fang Fan weren’t as casual. They lifted their cages and just smiled bashfully.

"Perfect timing. We just ran out of the snake beasts that Senior Brother Tan caught the other day." A smile touched Li Changsheng’s face as he took the cages and set them aside. "I appreciate the thought, but please don’t catch any more. If something were to happen to you, I couldn’t bear the responsibility."

Dong Xing plopped down on a chair in the courtyard and waved his hand. "They’re all just Mortal Snakes. And we didn’t go into the lake to catch them, we just set a few traps by the shore."

"Mm, that’s good then."

Li Changsheng nodded and gestured for Xu Li and Fang Fan to sit down.

"Are your wooden houses all built?"

Xu Li and Fang Fan replied gratefully, "They’re finished. We have Steward Tan to thank for that. Otherwise, just dealing with all that timber would have been a huge job for us."

Li Changsheng nodded in agreement.

Noticing their slightly awkward expressions, he asked, "Did you three need something from me?"

Xu Li and Fang Fan immediately turned their heads to look at Dong Xing.

COUGH COUGH...

Dong Xing cleared his throat and gave an awkward smile. "Well, there is one little thing."

Li Changsheng said, a bit exasperated, "Just spit it out. Why be so secretive?"

"Hehe..."

Dong Xing chuckled, rubbing his hands together. "So, uh, is it possible to move our three Spirit Fields over here to Ten Thousand Serpent Lake?"

Their Spirit Fields had been assigned long ago—they had even chosen the plots themselves. They were located by the great hall where they first arrived.

"And here I was, wondering what it could be."

Li Changsheng shook his head and smiled. "When Steward Lan returns, I’ll ask for you."

"Thank you, Steward."

The three men beamed at his words.

As they were chatting, a White Jade Flying Ship appeared on the horizon, flying rapidly toward the island.