Chapter 27: The Secret Rivalry Among Spirit Beasts
Watching Yu Jin's furtive, sneaking figure disappear into the distance, Fang Yuan let out an amused smile.
The whole thing felt like something out of a spy thriller.
He turned and stepped into the Cave Dwelling.
His first stop was the spirit beast room.
One by one, the spirit beasts poked their heads out, gazing at him with wide, eager eyes.
Fang Yuan laughed. "You're all hungry, aren't you!"
With a wave of his hand, twelve Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pills flew into the mouths of the spirit beasts.
Each one swallowed immediately and began digesting the Pills.
If the disciples who had scrambled to buy Pills could see this scene, they would never believe their eyes — these were Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pills, and they were just being casually fed to spirit beasts.
Fang Yuan left five more Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pills in each of their rooms, then returned to the cultivation chamber to begin his training.
A full half hour after Fang Yuan entered the cultivation chamber.
In the third room, the Thunder-Wing Tiger — Xiao Lei — opened its tiger eyes.
It glanced at its own five Pills, picked them up in its mouth, hid them away in its room, then walked out and padded over to the door of the neighboring room.
Moo!
The Mighty Bull seemed to sense the Thunder-Wing Tiger's gaze and opened its bovine eyes to look over.
"Roar!" (Give me one.)
The Thunder-Wing Tiger let out a low growl, lightning flickering across its entire body. It extended a claw and reached toward one of the Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pills.
"Moo!" (Get lost.)
The Mighty Bull gave a cold snort and refused to budge an inch, driving its horn toward the Thunder-Wing Tiger's claw.
The Thunder-Wing Tiger's claw and the bull's horn collided.
The Tiger's claw was actually knocked back by the Mighty Bull — but the Mighty Bull seemed to suffer the paralytic effect of the lightning, freezing stiff on the spot.
The Thunder-Wing Tiger spun around and swiped, seizing the opportunity to snatch one Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pill into its palm.
The Mighty Bull flew into a rage, all four hooves stomping as it charged at the Thunder-Wing Tiger with full force.
Its massive body barreled forward without hesitation.
The Thunder-Wing Tiger let out another low growl: "Roar!" (Wait.)
The sound carried a clear message — don't disturb the master.
The Mighty Bull halted, glaring at the Pill in the Thunder-Wing Tiger's palm.
"Roar!" (Giving it back.)
The Thunder-Wing Tiger growled softly and, in the end, set the Pill back down.
Then it took a step forward and headed to another room — the Black Scale Rat's.
The Black Scale Rat froze in shock, watching helplessly as the Thunder-Wing Tiger snatched away one of its Pills.
It hurriedly scooped up the remaining Pills, then leaped out of its room, bounded over in a few hops onto the Mighty Bull's back, and held a Pill up to the Mighty Bull's mouth.
"Squeak squeak!" (This is for you.)
The Mighty Bull shook its head: "Moo!" (No need.)
"Squeak!" (Eat it.)
Xiao Hei insisted on giving it.
The Mighty Bull thought it over and swallowed the Pill Xiao Hei offered — a mutual alliance had been struck.
Xiao Hei let out a sigh of relief, clutching the remaining three Pills tightly, eyes fixed warily on the Thunder-Wing Tiger as it emerged from its room.
The other spirit beasts watched this unfold, each with their own thoughts.
Seemingly inspired by the Thunder-Wing Tiger, the Blazing Demon Wolf burst out of its room, eyes locked on the Flash Shadow Rabbit's Pills, and charged straight at it.
The Flash Shadow Rabbit was fast — wind Spiritual Energy swirling around its body — and it scooped up its Pills and leaped to the side of the Blazing Fire Horse, crying out for help.
The Blazing Demon Wolf was halfway through its charge when it opened its mouth and spat a jet of flame at the Flash Shadow Rabbit.
The Blazing Fire Horse gave a loud snort, raised one hoof, and kicked the flame head-on, scattering it into sparks that vanished into nothing.
The Blazing Demon Wolf pulled up short — this horse countered it. Its gaze swept over to the Five-Brocade Pheasant.
"Cluck cluck!"
The Five-Brocade Pheasant immediately spread its wings and flapped up onto a crossbeam, staring down at the Blazing Demon Wolf with sharp vigilance.
The Crimson Blood Python and the Black Water Snake also slipped out of their rooms, eyes roaming in all directions.
Naturally, they drifted toward each other and formed a small unit.
The White Wood Sheep panicked as well, running over to the Red Leaf Monkey.
The two spirit beasts exchanged a few murmurs, then moved together into the Earth Spike Boar's room.
The Earth Spike Boar lay sprawled lazily, completely unbothered by the arrival of the two spirit beasts. Its defenses were extraordinary — anyone who dared provoke it would get a mouthful of earth spikes!
The Blazing Demon Wolf looked around and suddenly realized there was no easy target anywhere — and worse, it found itself being watched by the Thunder-Wing Tiger.
It let out a low growl toward the Thunder-Wing Tiger, signaling an offer of alliance.
The Thunder-Wing Tiger turned its head and roared back, utterly contemptuous.
The Blazing Demon Wolf then noticed the Crimson Blood Python's head swiveling in its direction — it seemed the python had set its sights on it too.
A chill ran through it. It quickly sidled closer to the Five-Brocade Pheasant and let out a friendly call, clearly angling for an alliance.
The Five-Brocade Pheasant reluctantly agreed, giving the Blazing Demon Wolf a single flap of its wings.
With that, the Crimson Blood Python lost interest and retreated to its room.
The Thunder-Wing Tiger cast a disdainful glance at the assembled spirit beasts, then returned to its own room to cultivate alone.
The dispute among the spirit beasts came to an end.
But in its wake, a hierarchy and set of relationships had been established.
* * *
Back in his room, Fang Yuan had no idea about the confrontations playing out among his spirit beasts.
He took out a hundred Spirit Stones.
Then he decomposed them one by one.
The Spirit Stones crumbled into Stone Dust, and dense, pure Spiritual Energy was released.
The concentration of Spiritual Energy inside the cultivation chamber climbed rapidly.
The surrounding Spiritual Energy surged toward his body in a rushing tide.
The three cultivation techniques within him activated simultaneously, swiftly absorbing the pure Spiritual Energy.
"Two Low-Grade Spirit Stones release pure Spiritual Energy equivalent to one Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pill — Low-Grade Spirit Stones really do have the best value for money."
Fang Yuan smiled and continued decomposing Spirit Stones.
In one go, he decomposed ten thousand Spirit Stones — equivalent to the Spiritual Energy of five thousand Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pills.
A vast torrent of Spiritual Energy poured out into the narrow cultivation chamber, turning the entire space into a sea of white mist, within which droplets of spiritual liquid even began to condense.
The Spirit-Gathering Formation in the cultivation chamber could no longer contain Spiritual Energy this dense and pure, and small amounts began to leak out.
Fang Yuan immediately threw himself into cultivation with full force.
Every pore and acupoint across his body seemed to transform into a channel for Spiritual Energy, devouring strand after strand of it.
Fang Yuan felt as though he were floating, as if he had stepped into an immortal realm.
This state, in turn, aligned perfectly with Cloud Momentum, accelerating the cultivation effects of both the Cloud Qi Art and the Cloud Body Art.
Across the 206 bones in his body, there were now six cloud patterns in total. Three of them were connected — the cloud-pattern formation forged during the early stage — while the other three had been formed during the mid-stage and were not yet linked. The sixth cloud pattern was still incomplete.
But now, the sixth cloud pattern was completing itself at a breathtaking speed.
For an ordinary cultivator, Body Tempering meant training one bone at a time — fully completing one before moving on to the next. This was the standard approach, and also the reason Body Tempering was so grueling. Not just the bones, but the flesh, blood, and fascia all had to be tempered individually — an extraordinarily painstaking process.
But Fang Yuan was different. His Cloud Body Art at the Completion Stage allowed him to cultivate as if by pure instinct.
All bones tempered simultaneously, all absorbing Spiritual Power simultaneously, all tracing cloud patterns simultaneously.
Combined with an unlimited supply of Spiritual Energy, his cultivation speed could only be described as lightning-fast.
Enormous quantities of Spiritual Energy were being seized by his physical body — this was intentional on Fang Yuan's part. His Spiritual Power cultivation could not advance too quickly, but his physical body and Spiritual Sense could continue to grow without restraint.