Chapter 2: Ling Qingyu

Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Ling Qingyu

Curiosity haunted him. He had two sets of questions for now.

First, who was this white snake lying in his lap? Why had the formation locked it away? Was it dangerous? Could it be the beast that once threatened the cultivation world?

Second, what was this return system? How did it work? Who had given it to him? Why had he received this ability? Has anyone else received it too?

To get answers to those questions, Ye Xuan clearly had to use the system and help the white snake recover.

A Mortal Stage monster core sat in Ye Xuan’s hand. He offered it to the snake. The scent of the core made its eyes open, and it slowly drew out the energy stored inside.

Ye Xuan watched the core in his palm fade, its glow dimming until the item crumbled into dust.

[Congratulations! You have given an item to your partner.]

[Item given: 1x Mortal Stage Monster Core]

[Item returned: 100x Mortal Stage Monster Core]

[Multiplication Level: 1]

[Raise affection with your partner to raise the return stage. The higher the return stage, the greater the multiplier.]

[Affection: 10/1000] [+10]

He gasped as the panel appeared in front of his face again, showing the results of the return system. Now he clearly understood how it worked.

Whatever item he gave the snake, he would get back in huge amounts.

But what caught his attention were the Multiplication Level and Affection sections. According to the description, to raise the multiplication level, Ye Xuan had to raise the snake’s affection toward him.

There are probably many ways to raise this snake’s affection for me. That means I really can’t leave it behind, especially with it injured like this.

Affection has to do with emotions, feelings, and attitude. In this case, the white snake’s. But what am I supposed to do?

Maybe taking care of it until it heals will help raise its affection.

Ye Xuan used this valuable opportunity for two things.

First, to heal the snake, since it was his only way out of here. Second, to use the infinite return to cultivate.

A low-grade spirit stone appeared in his hand, and he held it out in front of the snake’s head. He had learned about this from a scroll in the hall.

It said that besides monster cores, spiritual beasts could also absorb spiritual qi under certain conditions, either through a qi-gathering formation or with spirit stones.

With his current cultivation base, he couldn’t set up a qi-gathering formation.

All he had was a low-grade spirit stone, and he was betting it on the snake.

The white snake was still for a moment, then surprisingly pecked at the low-grade spirit stone and drew spirit energy from it.

Ye Xuan watched the spiritual energy flow into its body until the stone dimmed and lost its glow.

[Congratulations! You have given an item to your partner.]

[Item given: 1x Low-Grade Spirit Stone]

[Item returned: 100x Low-Grade Spirit Stone]

[Multiplication Level: 1]

[Affection: 25/1000] [+15]

A black pouch suddenly appeared in front of his face. He reached for it and opened it, and inside was a huge number of spirit stones.

"This is great... maybe I can cultivate with these spirit stones," Ye Xuan said.

The white snake rose and looked at Ye Xuan. He noticed and turned to look back at it.

Without warning, the snake’s fangs sank into his hand, shocking him and making him cry out in pain.

"Akkhh!"

"What are you doing?" Ye Xuan snapped.

He tried to pull the white snake off, but unexpectedly its body wrapped tightly around his hand.

Ye Xuan fell to the ground and felt a burning sensation in the bitten hand, flowing like blood into his dantian and meridians.

This snake... is going to kill me?!

His sword appeared, and Ye Xuan tried to swing it at the snake to cut it in half.

But the white snake’s tail quickly knocked the sword away, sending it flying until it stuck in the ceiling.

My body feels hot... my heart is pounding.

What... is it actually doing?

[Congratulations! The spiritual beast contract has been formed.]

[Master: Ye Xuan]

[Cultivation Stage: 9th Qi Gathering]

[Beast: Ling Qingyu]

[Bloodline: White Python]

[Beast Stage: Spirit]

W-What is that...? A spiritual beast contract?

Before Ye Xuan could begin to make sense of what had happened, a wave of weakness took his consciousness.

He closed his eyes and passed out, with the snake named Ling Qingyu still biting his hand.

***

Several hours passed before Ye Xuan finally regained consciousness. He opened his eyes and felt a throbbing pain in his head, and nothing more.

He sat up, startled to find he wasn’t dead. The heat in his chest was gone, and his heart no longer raced.

"What happened?" Ye Xuan asked, stunned.

His attention shifted to the side, where the white snake lay curled up asleep next to him. Ye Xuan hurried to his feet and moved a little way from it.

It bit me earlier... it did something terrible to me.

Though his mind was full of anger, Ye Xuan froze when he saw a red pattern on the snake’s forehead.

As a disciple of the Spiritual Beast Hall, he knew what that mark meant.

"A contracted beast mark?" Ye Xuan said.

He quickly checked the back of his hand. Ye Xuan was truly shocked to find a beast master’s mark there.

His thoughts were a mess, his lips felt locked and unable to speak, and his heart was beating unevenly. He looked at the master’s mark on his hand, then at the beast mark on the snake’s forehead.

Could this be real? That panel... Did I really form a beast contract with it?

But how? Doesn’t it say a beast contract has to be done through the sect’s formation?

His eyes followed the white snake as it woke and looked toward him. Slowly, it slithered closer.

Ye Xuan tried to calm himself. If what he had seen before passing out was true, then this snake was his beast.

The snake crept up his body, showing no sign of aggression. It reached his shoulder and moved toward his neck, its body draping around Ye Xuan’s neck like a scarf.

His eyes widened as he saw the snake resting on his neck. It wasn’t aggressive. It seemed comfortable. His breathing began to steady, and he felt relieved.

But something worried him, and that was their situation.

If they didn’t find a way out soon, they would die together at the bottom of this chasm.

Ye Xuan turned his head to look at his snake. "Can you understand me?"

The snake turned and hissed at him. He couldn’t tell whether that meant yes or no.

"Nod your head if you can," Ye Xuan said.

To his surprise, the snake gave a short nod. Ye Xuan was a little startled.

"All right."

"I’m going to ask you a few things."

"Are you still hurt?"

It nodded again. Ye Xuan realized it hadn’t fully recovered.

"Do you want a monster core?" Ye Xuan asked. The snake stayed still.

"What about spirit stones?"

This time it nodded yes. Ye Xuan had no other choice. Since he didn’t know the way out, for now he would focus on restoring his snake while cultivating himself.

Ye Xuan summoned the black pouch and gave the snake 50 spirit stones. It perked up right away and leaped off his neck.

He decided to use the other 50 spirit stones to recover his strength and cultivate.

"Let me know if you need more," Ye Xuan said. It didn’t respond.

He reached out and cracked a low-grade spirit stone in his hand, then formed a seal to begin cultivating. He was doing it manually, so it took quite a while to use up all the stones.

When Ye Xuan cracked the 10th spirit stone, he was startled to see his body begin to glow bright blue. He recognized the sign and focused on condensing the qi gathered in his dantian.

He spent an hour condensing the qi. A boom of spiritual energy went off around him, though it didn’t reach far.

I broke through to the 10th layer of Qi Gathering in two hours. Could it be the effect of the low-grade spirit stones?

No! That’s impossible. Before, I had to burn through about 45 low-grade spirit stones to rise one layer. Now it only took 10.

His attention shifted forward to his snake, which was enjoying the low-grade spirit stones as if they were a delicious meal.

"Ling... Qingyu?" Ye Xuan called to the snake, using its name.

Unexpectedly, it turned right away and met his gaze.

"Tell me... did you help me cultivate earlier, too?" Ye Xuan asked.

He thought of it because when Qingyu bit his hand, his meridians had felt so open and comfortable, and his dantian too.

It was possible that event had helped him refine his spiritual qi faster and more effectively.

Ling Qingyu nodded. Ye Xuan finally let out a sigh of relief.

At least now he had someone, or rather something, a beast, who could help him survive in this place.

[Warning.]

[Your partner has an ancient seal.]

[Seal remaining: 99%]

[The seal has been damaged.]

Ye Xuan went still as he stared at the panel. Something about an ancient seal.

A seal?

He slowly turned to look at Ling Qingyu.

The white snake kept eating spirit stones as if nothing had happened.

But before long, he noticed something on it.

CRACK!

A red crack appeared on Ling Qingyu’s body.

For a moment, a terrifying pressure filled the entire bottom of the chasm.

Ye Xuan gasped. He was caught in a brief wave of cultivation pressure before it vanished completely.

[If your partner’s seal opens completely, the power of its ancient bloodline will awaken.]

His face pale, Ye Xuan stared at the white snake in front of him.

What exactly did I just contract...?