Chapter 40: The Third Spirit Beast!!
Within the sacred spring, dense water spirit energy rapidly converged, forming a deep blue vortex.
Gong Lianyue, with her Dual Soul Body and two innate soul cores, required twice the spirit energy to break through, but she also stored twice the amount. Overall, it wasn’t a disadvantage.
As the pure blue water continued to accumulate, putting immense pressure on the two soul cores within her, they both reached their limits.
She could no longer absorb any more spirit energy.
Seeing this, Gong Lianyue quickly consumed a Dawn and Dusk Stage, mid-rank spirit crystal. The surging spirit energy erupted, shattering the barriers of her cores.
Bang!
With a resounding boom, the spirit energy within the two cores exploded, dispersing like water.
The shockwave coursed through the girl’s body, her head spinning, her limbs numb and weak, a thrilling sensation like ascending to a higher plane.
Immersed in this strange afterglow for a moment, Gong Lianyue finally came to her senses and quickly checked the condition of her soul cores.
The two cores were no longer dim, but covered in a faint halo.
One radiated a pure, ocean-like brilliance, calm and elegant, with a touch of noble grace.
The other radiated a halo like a mysterious purple starry sky, filled with faint, shimmering specks of dust.
This was the mark of a breakthrough from the Illumination Stage to the Dawn and Dusk Stage. The overflowing brilliance, the more abundant spirit energy, greatly enhanced both the power of her spirit techniques and her recovery speed.
It had only been less than a month since she broke through from the Illumination Stage to the Dawn and Dusk Stage, despite having two soul cores…
It all boiled down to one thing: money makes the world go round!
Having successfully reached the Dawn and Dusk Stage, she could now contract a fourth spirit beast, and both the little fox and the Water Element had also leveled up.
Gong Lianyue turned towards the Iron Jade Ice Scorpion. It was playing happily with the Nine-Colored Cloud Dream Flower, tossing the little fox around in the air like a ball with its pincers.
“…”
“…”
“You two seem to be getting along well.”
Emerging from the sacred spring, the blue-haired girl, covered in glistening droplets, looked rather alluring.
This time, the contract shouldn’t fail!
She took a deep breath and gently pricked her finger on the Iron Jade Ice Scorpion’s tooth.
Her cold blood slid down the massive scorpion’s esophagus. After waiting for a few seconds, the spirit energy within Gong Lianyue erupted.
Boom!!
Fragments of memory flooded her mind, revealing the Iron Jade Ice Scorpion’s short life.
It had been no different from other spirit beasts bred by the Sea Concubine Palace, raised by a servant, eating, excreting, sleeping, and training, day after day, year after year, nothing unusual.
However, one day, the servant girl was jolted awake from a dream, almost scared to death by the massive monster by her bedside.
The Iron Jade Ice Scorpion conveyed its desire to form a contract with her, to become her companion spirit beast.
She refused. As a mere servant, she wasn’t qualified to form a contract with an Iron Jade Ice Scorpion.
After hundreds of rejections, the scorpion finally gave up, immersing itself in training within the Sea Abyss Secret Realm, putting the matter aside.
Through countless battles, it mastered a battle technique, standing out among the other bred spirit beasts and being chosen as a reward for the Saintess selection.
The servant girl happily told it that if it became the Saintess’s spirit beast, it could easily evolve to the peak of a high-rank spirit beast—the Nether Traverse Stage.
“…”
“…”
These scenes were fragments Gong Lianyue had extracted from the chaotic influx of memories. They made up less than one percent of the scorpion’s total memories.
The remaining ninety-nine percent were memories of its seven or eight years living with the servant girl. Compared to the instinct to reach its evolutionary peak, it cherished the memories of its peaceful life.
The memories faded, and Gong Lianyue returned to reality, a new entry appearing in her soul core.
[Low-rank Dawn and Dusk Stage: Water Element]
[Bloodline Talent: None]
[Spirit Beast Battle Techniques: Ice Binding Contract]
[High-rank Dawn and Dusk Stage: Nine-Colored Cloud Dream Flower]
[Bloodline Talent: Cultivation Amplification]
[Spirit Beast Battle Techniques: Deep Sea – OO]
[High-rank Dawn and Dusk Stage: Iron Jade Ice Scorpion]
[Bloodline Talent: Five-Leaf Clover]
[Spirit Beast Battle Techniques: Jade Shatter – OO]
“Five-Leaf Clover?”
Gong Lianyue paused. This must be the talent the Iron Jade Ice Scorpion randomly received upon becoming a companion spirit beast.
Unlike Saint-rank spirit beasts with their limited talent pool, high-rank spirit beasts had thousands of possible talents. Anything was possible.
It was like a gacha game. Saint-rank spirit beasts were valuable not only for their strong base stats but also because their talent pool had fewer useless options. Some, like the Variant Water Emperor, only had two. But ninety-nine percent of the high-rank talent pool was trash.
The Eight-Headed Mist Crow’s Fear talent had been like striking gold in a pile of dung.
Five-Leaf Clover… The name didn’t seem to fit the offensive Iron Jade Ice Scorpion. It sounded more like a healing or support talent.
“The Soul Prison Trial is about to start. I need to hurry back…”
Her time in the sacred spring was almost up. Gong Lianyue didn’t have time to check the scorpion’s talent and quickly walked towards the cave entrance.
The timing between the sacred spring bath and the Soul Prison Trial was always so tight, making her rush every time.
Seeing the blue-haired girl emerge, the two maids at the entrance immediately stepped forward to dry and dress her.
“Transfer 1000 contribution points to the servant who was taking care of the Iron Jade Ice Scorpion.”
“Yes!”
The two maids responded respectfully. It seemed the Saintess was satisfied with her new spirit beast. A happy ending for everyone.
[Soul Prison Trial, Second Level: Monolith Temple]
The sky was painted a beautiful crimson by the setting sun, a boundless sea of clouds stretching in all directions. Before her stood a massive boulder.
After two attempts, the Water Element had finally managed to leave a white mark on the monolith. A commendable achievement.
A massive Iron Jade Ice Scorpion stood before the boulder, the blue-haired girl beside it looking on with anticipation.
Just what could this ferocious species, praised even by the Sea Concubine Palace higher-ups, achieve…?
The scorpion’s body shimmered with a faint blue light as it pulled back its massive jade pincers, their amber-like luster swirling.
[Jade Shatter]
Bang—
The two giant pincers, like siege rams, slammed into the monolith. One moment, calm, the next, utter destruction.
Boom!!!!
A deafening roar, a violent hurricane erupting outwards.
The blue-haired girl, like a fragile piece of paper, was thrown several meters by the blast, tumbling pathetically across the clouds.
Coughing from the dust, Gong Lianyue looked up in shock.
A massive, ten-meter-wide crater had been blasted into the monolith, spiderweb cracks spreading across its surface, rubble raining down.
The incredibly hard boulder had been shattered like tofu by the Iron Jade Ice Scorpion’s pincers.
Terrifying, shocking the Saintess!!!
So this was the power of a high-rank, offensive spirit beast that could comprehend battle techniques on its own…
Spirit Master-chosen techniques and spirit beast-comprehended techniques were two different concepts.
The techniques they comprehended were usually hidden within their bloodline, unavailable for direct selection by Spirit Masters, like [Jade Shatter], which permanently modified the scorpion’s pincers.
If Gong Lianyue had contracted with another Iron Jade Ice Scorpion, she wouldn’t have been able to choose this technique. She would have only seen a dark, hazy area in that slot. She had seen many such hazy areas when choosing the Cloud Dream Flower’s techniques.
Gong Lianyue suspected that this Iron Jade Ice Scorpion, honed by countless battles in the Sea Abyss Secret Realm, wouldn’t even fear the Eight-Headed Mist Crow.
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