Chapter 18: Gaining a Innate Talent!
Fang Yuan strolled back to his Cave Dwelling in a leisurely mood.
Then he hurried into the cultivation chamber, activated all the shielding Formations, and only then took out a demon beast corpse.
It was the body of a Black Scale Rat.
Not a small one either — roughly the size of a calf.
Fang Yuan pressed a finger against the corpse and silently mouthed the word: "Decompose!"
In a fleeting moment, golden light washed over the entire demon beast corpse.
Fang Yuan closed his eyes slightly. When he opened them again, the whole corpse had dissolved into a scattered array of items.
[Rat Bones] + [Beast Blood] + [Rat Meat] + [Rat Hide] + [Rat Claws] + [Various Organs] + [Demon Power] + [Innate Talent] + [Bloodline]
A single corpse had been decomposed into many parts, all neatly separated.
Among them, he spotted two glowing orbs and something that resembled a Spiritual Energy Orb.
He quickly pressed his finger onto the Demon Power orb — decompose in a moment!
The Demon Power instantly split into two things.
[Spiritual Power Orb] + [Demonic Aura]
Without hesitation, Fang Yuan immediately released a large surge of Spiritual Power, forming a sphere around the rapidly dissipating Spiritual Power Orb to contain it.
The orb that had been on the verge of scattering was immediately bound by Fang Yuan's Spiritual Power.
He then dragged it into his mouth and swallowed it in one gulp.
Pure, ownerless Spiritual Power exploded inside Fang Yuan's body, spreading throughout every inch of him.
At that moment, his Cloud Qi Art, Cloud Body Art, and Minor Yan Nine Truth Art all began running at full force.
That single mouthful of pure Spiritual Power Orb was rapidly absorbed and refined in just a few breaths.
"That one mouthful of Spiritual Power Orb was worth two Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pills!"
Fang Yuan broke into a smile.
At least nothing had gone to waste. He had been fretting ever since he watched a Spiritual Power Orb dissipate before.
It was a shame that once a demon beast died, the Demon Power remaining in its body was already scarce.
But free gains were always sweet!
This kind of pure Spiritual Power Orb was so easy to refine — even more effective than Pills.
The absorption speed was far faster than using Pills.
He then glanced at the dissipating Demonic Aura and shook his head. "Demonic Aura? I'm not a demon beast — I can't absorb that. It's useless to me, though if I had a spirit pet, I could put it to use."
He muttered to himself.
Fang Yuan then turned his attention to the two special glowing orbs — one golden, one red.
He pressed his finger onto the golden orb to perform an appraisal.
[Item]: Gold-Devouring Innate Talent
[Grade]: Yellow Grade, Lower Tier
[Effect]: Can devour metal to strengthen the body; absorbable.
Fang Yuan stared at the orb in delighted surprise. He hadn't expected to decompose an innate talent ability from a demon beast corpse — and the key thing was, it could be absorbed!
Demon beasts were born with certain innate talents: gold-devouring, fire-spitting, earth-burrowing, and countless others.
Once awakened, these abilities required no understanding of their principles — they could be used instinctively.
And with continued use, the talent would keep growing stronger, which was something many envied.
But now, it seemed he was about to have one of his own.
"If I use this, will I actually gain the ability to devour gold?"
Fang Yuan gripped the orb and pressed it against his body.
Quickly, the orb merged into his flesh and vanished without a trace.
Fang Yuan looked himself over with a puzzled expression — he didn't feel any different.
He thought for a moment, then retrieved a piece of Refined Iron from his Storage Bag.
Looking at the Refined Iron, Fang Yuan was startled to discover that he seemed to smell something like the aroma of food — and it was coming from the Refined Iron.
"Really?"
Fang Yuan broke off a tiny piece of Refined Iron, no bigger than a grain of rice, and tentatively placed it in his mouth and swallowed.
The Refined Iron quickly flowed down into his stomach.
Shortly after, a gray metallic qi released from his stomach and spread throughout his body.
A thread of metallic qi reached his teeth first, merging into them and strengthening them.
Other threads of metallic qi seeped into his bones, reinforcing them as well.
"It actually works!" Fang Yuan drew a light breath.
From now on, he too was someone with an innate talent — people like that were said to have a special constitution. Famous ones included the Profound Yin Body, the Nine-Star Sword Body, the Fire Spirit Body, and so on.
His could be called the Gold-Devouring Body — though the grade was a bit embarrassing to show off.
Fang Yuan then looked at the other blood-red orb.
[Item]: Black Scale Rat Bloodline
[Grade]: Yellow Grade, Lower Tier
[Effect]: Contains a strand of the Black Scale Rat's bloodline; absorbable.
Fang Yuan looked at it, brow furrowing slightly. This time he chose not to absorb it — instead, he decomposed it again.
In the next instant, the blood-red orb split into two items: a grayish-red pebble and a pure red orb.
[Blood Core] + [Bloodline Power]
He pressed his finger onto the grayish-red pebble.
[Item]: Black Scale Rat Blood Core
[Grade]: Yellow Grade, Lower Tier
[Effect]: The bloodline core of the Black Scale Rat; gives ordinary rats a certain chance to evolve into the demon beast Black Scale Rat.
Fang Yuan then looked at the other red orb.
[Item]: Ownerless Bloodline Power
[Grade]: Yellow Grade, Lower Tier
[Effect]: Can supplement and strengthen bloodlines, and slightly improve bloodline quality.
Fang Yuan picked up the Ownerless Bloodline Power and pressed it against his chest.
The orb easily merged into his body.
He immediately felt a faint warmth spread through him, and the flesh and blood within his body seemed to pulse with greater vitality.
"Strange — the effect isn't very obvious?"
Puzzled, Fang Yuan experimented with various changes, and soon discovered that when cultivating the Cloud Body Art, his cultivation speed had noticeably increased by about ten percent!
This was an improvement to his physical constitution!
The increase wasn't large, but this was something he could keep obtaining. If it accumulated over time, how high might his physical constitution eventually reach?
He continued experimenting and finally discovered another special change.
The Gold-Devouring Innate Talent he had just acquired had also grown slightly stronger!
"I understand now!"
Fang Yuan said with sudden clarity. "The Gold-Devouring Innate Talent originates from the bloodline. Now that the Gold-Devouring Innate Talent has taken root in my body, it's connected to my bloodline as well — strengthening the Bloodline Power naturally strengthens the Gold-Devouring Innate Talent."
Fang Yuan's eyes gleamed. "And in the future, if I obtain the same Gold-Devouring Innate Talent again, it might keep stacking and further enhancing the gold-devouring ability!"
The decomposition golden finger was simply too overpowered! Wasn't this just getting two meals out of one fish?
Eat the innate talent once, then eat the Bloodline Power again!
And that Blood Core was certainly no simple thing either. Such treasures didn't appear naturally on demon beasts — for a Beast Tamer, something like this was truly a heaven-and-earth treasure.
"I feel like I could actually start raising some spirit beasts. I shouldn't let these Blood Cores or the Demonic Aura from before go to waste."
Fang Yuan scratched his head and looked over the remaining materials — blood, meat, hide, claws, and so on. Upon inspection, he found nothing wrong with them; they were comparable to materials normally stripped from a demon beast, but cleaner and more intact, with a quality that appeared nearly perfect.
"If I sell these materials separately, I could probably make a tidy profit!"
Fang Yuan knew that breaking down a demon beast was both a skilled and laborious task. Preserving the completeness of the materials and preventing the loss of their spiritual essence required considerable technique. On top of that, the hide, flesh, and bones of a demon beast were extremely tough, making the process physically demanding — it was no simple matter.
That was precisely why selling a whole carcass came with a significant discount.
Materials of this quality, he could probably sell directly to the Treasure Pavilion for a decent sum.
If he processed them further himself — crafting spirit ink, spirit talismans, Magic Artifacts, and the like — the value would be even higher.
"If selling the materials really could turn a profit — or at least break even — wouldn't that mean I could keep buying demon beast corpses indefinitely?"
Why did this feel so much like freeloading?
Fang Yuan felt that after running through this whole process, he had turned it into an all-win situation!
Zhanchun Peak won, because they sold Spirit Stones.
Fang Yuan won, because he gained innate talent, bloodline, and Spirit Stones.
The other disciples won too, because they could obtain large quantities of near-perfect raw materials.