The wyvern’s gaze fell on Aksai’s right arm.
The poison vein glowed faintly. Aksai felt it then.
The wyvern was not angry. It was hungry.
To it, Aksai was not an enemy or a threat. He was food. An essential one. A being filled with rich poison essence. The intruder druid was a perfect nutrient to help the wyvern settle its new realm.
The wyvern lowered its head slowly. Poison dripped from its fangs, sizzling as it hit the ground. It took a step closer.
Aksai took a slow breath and steadied his stance.
Golden Aurous Qi flowed under his skin, making his muscles tense and heavy with power. His bones felt solid, like they were made of tal. This was the strength of his Aurous Body realm. It was the path he trusted the most when Spirit essence failed him.
He looked at the wyvern.
Its massive body filled the bone cage. Poison mist leaked from its scales. Its draconic aura pressed down on him like an invisible weight, making his heart beat faster than usual.
"I won’t lie," Aksai thought. "This thing is scary."
The pressure was real. The gap in cultivation was real. But his mind did not freeze.
"As long as I can return to the Enchanted Everwood Farm, I won’t die here," he reminded himself. That thought gave him calm. He shifted his feet and prepared to charge.
Then a familiar voice echoed in his head.
[Master, why don’t you try your newest druidic blessing? It is ant to deal with problems like this.]
Aksai froze for a brief mont. It took him only a fraction of second to understand what Nuri was hinting at. His eyes widened, as if suddenly realizing the sheer ridiculousness of not finding sothing that was right in front of him. He slapped his forehead lightly.
"Damn it," he muttered. "Why didn’t I think of that?"
Without wasting another second, he stopped gathering Aurous Qi for attack and changed his focus inward. He activated his druidic transformation first.
Warm energy surged from deep within his body. His vision shimred.
His black eyes turned gold, shining like molten tal. His black hair shifted color, turning red strand by strand. His body grew slightly taller, and his muscles beca more defined, dense, and alive with power.
A strong nature aura burst out from him, spreading across the cage. The poison mist trembled. The bone walls creaked.
Aksai straightened his back and lifted his head. He no longer looked like a tired traveler trapped in a cage. Across from him, the wyvern stiffened.
Its pupils narrowed. It did not rush forward.
Instead, it lowered its head and stepped back half a step, its wings shifting slightly. Its breathing slowed. Its gaze stayed locked on Aksai, sharp and focused.
The beast had realized sothing had changed. This prey was no longer simple.
Aksai t its gaze calmly, golden eyes steady.
"Good," he thought. "Be careful. That ans you’re thinking. Kekeke. Sotis it is the idiots who are harder to deal with. Thankfully, you are not an idiot."
Aksai did not rush to attack after seeing the beast’s hesitation.
He stood inside the bone cage, golden eyes fixed on the poison wyvern. The beast’s wings were half spread, its claws digging into the ground. Both of them were waiting, asuring each other.
Then Aksai slowly raised his right hand.
The wyvern snarled low in its throat, poison mist leaking from between its teeth. It did not understand his words completely, but it felt sothing strange coming from him.
Aksai closed his eyes.
He activated his newest druidic blessing.
[Druidic Blessing Activated: Beast Taming]
There was no surge of Spirit essence. No flow of Qi. No movent of Aether.
Instead, sothing far deeper stirred inside him.
Aksai felt a quiet pull from his own life force. It was gentle but firm, like a slow tide being drawn away. His heart skipped a beat as a thin thread of warmth left his body.
His lifespan was being used as a fuel for this particular blessing. He did not panic.
He had already made his choice.
An invisible force spread out from Aksai, not through the air, but through existence itself. It bypassed flesh, poison, and bones. It went straight toward the wyvern’s soul.
If the soul was a page, then this force was a brush. And the ink was Aksai’s own life.
The wyvern’s body froze as he realized that there was sothing wrong and he couldn’t see it much less stop it. Its roar died in its throat.
Inside its mind, sothing shifted. There was no pain.
There was no command or harsh control.
Instead, a strange warmth blood in the center of its awareness.
The wild hunger that filled its thoughts slowed. The urge to kill weakened. The poison wyvern felt confused, then uneasy, then calm.
And then it noticed Aksai again.
But this ti, he felt different.
Aksai’s presence settled into the wyvern’s consciousness like sothing that had always belonged there. Like a newborn recognizing the warmth of its parent without knowing why.
There were no fake mories. No false images. Just a deep, natural feeling.
Protect him.
Stay close to him. Do not let harm co to him.
Feeling of bond and protectiveness washed over the poison draconic beast. Born and raised in the separate dinsion that was nothing but a ho to those who only believed in the survival of the fittest, the beast had not felt these feelings for anyone, which shocked the beast more than wondering how Aksai had managed to pull off such a thing.
The wyvern’s massive body trembled. Its wings slowly folded back. The poison mist around it thinned.
Aksai opened his eyes.
The golden light in them dimd slightly as fatigue washed over him. His legs felt heavy, and his chest felt tight. He could clearly feel the price he had paid. His lifespan had shortened.
[ Estimated Lifespan Used: 500 years ]
[ Remaining Lifespan: 2000 years ]
[Estimated Ti required to regain the lost lifespan without external influence: between 3 weeks to 2 months]
[ Extre Fatigue Incoming in: 3.7 seconds]
500 years!
Aksai had used the lifespan of 500 years to ta a draconic beast, turning him into his familiar. One could say that he had paid a massive price, considering a normal Spirit cultivator in the Core Formation realm generally having 600 years as their overall lifespan.
But it was still worth it considering Aksai had tad a 4th Order beast. Technically speaking, the beast was more powerful than his new master himself. If one were to look at Aksai now, they would be forced to think that the wyvern beast was soone Aksai had raised from the mont it was born.
Otherwise, there was no way to explain how Aksai subdued such a beast using normal Spirit essence thods available to talented beast tars.
The wyvern lowered its head as soon as the blessing stabilized. Slowly. Carefully.
Its large eyes, once full of hunger and cold intent, now carried sothing softer. It let out a low sound, no longer a roar, but a deep, steady rumble.
The bone cage cracked.
The poison bone Spirit spell collapsed on its own as the wyvern stopped blocking its new master’s path.
Aksai swayed slightly and placed a hand on his knee to steady himself.
"So that’s it," he murmured. "You’re mine now."
The wyvern stepped closer, stopping just a short distance away. It did not attack. Instead, it stayed still, as if waiting for his reaction.
Aksai looked up at the massive creature and let out a tired breath.
"I’ll need a few days to recover," he said with a weak smile. "So don’t cause trouble, alright?"
The wyvern tilted its head slightly, as if trying to understand. Then it stayed right where it was, standing guard.
Aksai sat down on a flat rock near the poison wyvern.
The massive beast stayed close, its tail curled around its body as it watched the surroundings. It no longer looked restless. Instead, it felt calm, almost protective.
Aksai leaned back and let out a slow breath. He closed his eyes and focused inward.
Beast Taming.
"It worked," he thought. "Better than I expected." After all, this was his first ti using the blessing in real life even though he already had insights regarding it.
He opened his eyes and glanced at the wyvern again. A creature at the initial stage of the 4th Order. A being that could have killed an ordinary Spirit cultivator of his realm without much effort. And yet, here it was, standing quietly at his side.
"That’s the biggest advantage," he thought. "No battle or risk of death. No long struggle between the two souls. This thing is actually more advanced than the Slave Mark technique of those pseudo Lords with ghost cultivators occupying their bodies."
He clenched his fist slowly.
"With this blessing, I don’t need to overpower beasts. I don’t need to trap them or break their will. As long as I can afford the cost, even a creature stronger than can beco an ally."
That alone made the blessing terrifying.
There were no soul marks. No Spirit chains. Nothing that could be detected or removed. Even if a powerful Lord or expert examined the wyvern, they would find nothing strange.
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