Half a month later, Jinbao slowly awoke. Fang Qingyuan had stayed by his side the entire ti, so he was the first thing Jinbao saw upon waking.
After his advancent, Jinbao had grown a bit larger. Fang Qingyuan estimated he was now nearly fifteen feet tall. His fur was still a mix of black and white, and it seed his two dark eye circles had beco even more pronounced.
Upon waking and seeing Fang Qingyuan, Jinbao instinctively nudged his head forward. Faced with such a massive head, Fang Qingyuan had to stretch his arms wide to give it a hug.
A mont later, satisfied with the nuzzling, Jinbao began to grunt and whine for food. Fang Qingyuan pulled so prepared food from his storage pouch, and Jinbao ate for a full hour before finally stopping.
Only then did Fang Qingyuan have a chance to inspect the changes from Jinbao’s advancent. Jinbao was now a Tier One Middle Grade Spirit Beast. Besides his considerable increase in size, he had improved in all other aspects as well.
His four Divine Technique Talents, which usually grew on a slow curve, had spiked upwards with his advancent.
Furthermore, with this advancent, Jinbao had awakened a new Talent: [tal-Seeking Spirit Sense].
This was a support-type Talent, completely unrelated to combat. It existed purely for the convenience of a tal-eating Spirit Beast like Jinbao, awakened to help him find his own rations.
In the wild, this Talent would allow Jinbao to locate large-scale tal ore veins, enabling him to obtain ample spirit tals to et his growth requirents.
But now, Fang Qingyuan provided Jinbao with three als a day. The fact that he still awakened this Talent truly revealed his gluttonous nature.
When Fang Qingyuan learned the specific function of Jinbao’s newly awakened Talent, his eyes lit up. ’It’s just what I needed, right when I needed it!’
It had been half a year since they finished excavating the last mineral deposit, and the pack of Shrimp Turtle Beasts were just eating without doing any work. It was a waste of resources to keep them, and Jiang Kui had even considered selling them off.
Now, with Jinbao’s Talent, they could go out and find a few small mining pits, and the herd of Shrimp Turtle Beasts would be useful once more.
In the Cultivation Realm, prospecting for ore veins was a highly technical skill. Unless you were a Foundation Establishnt Cultivator proficient in Earth Elent Techniques, you generally couldn’t detect ores buried deep underground.
Furthermore, without specialized knowledge, even soone who knew the Earth Escape Technique could only wander blindly and hope to get lucky.
With Jinbao having awakened the [tal-Seeking Spirit Sense] Talent, they could save the expense of hiring a Foundation Establishnt Cultivator to prospect for ore.
Hiring a Foundation Establishnt Cultivator was expensive, costing a great many Spirit Stones. If they failed to find an ore vein, or only located a few small ones, it would be a complete waste of money.
Once Jinbao had eaten and drunk his fill, Fang Qingyuan went to tell Jiang Kui. While Jinbao’s newly awakened Talent was rare, it wasn’t unprecedented. It wasn’t so heaven-defying skill that had to be kept secret at all costs, so there was no harm in letting her know.
Besides, once they found an ore vein, it would need to be excavated, and many of the subsequent tasks would require Jiang Kui’s approval. There was no point in hiding it from her.
When Jiang Kui learned of Jinbao’s new Talent, she couldn’t resist running over, hugging Jinbao, and giving his little tummy a good rub.
Then, Jiang Kui said:
"Jinbao is such a good boy! You have to treat him well. The three to four hundred li surrounding our Yuanling Mountain are completely desolate. I refuse to believe there are no valuable ore deposits around here. You must search thoroughly. Once you find a vein, I’ll give you twenty percent of all the ore we excavate."
Jiang Kui was being quite generous. A twenty percent share was more than enough to satisfy Fang Qingyuan. All he had to do was find the ore—for him, it was practically free money.
With Jiang Kui’s promise secured, Fang Qingyuan was filled with motivation. He imdiately left Yuanling Mountain and began the search for ore with Jinbao.
...
「One month later.」
In an unnad mountain forest three hundred li from Yuanling Mountain, a three-inch Wood Spirit Dragon Form circled Fang Qingyuan. With a point of his finger, the dragon form unleashed a ray of light. The branches on the trees ahead sprang to life like waking pythons, stretching out and tightly coiling around a ten-foot-tall elk.
The elk’s antlers, shaped like tree branches, glinted with a sharp, cold light. It was ensnared by four or five branches. A faint yellow light surged from its body as it struggled to snap them, but its efforts were fruitless.
As the elk let out a mournful cry, a thick branch shot out, wrapped around its neck, and with a sudden surge of force, strangled it to death.
Seeing the magnificent elk fall, Fang Qingyuan released the spell controlling the branches and stepped forward to begin processing the carcass.
Velvet antler was a valuable prize. This elk was a Yellow Tier Lower Grade Earth Elent Spirit Beast, and its antlers were a Tier One Middle Grade spiritual material. If sold, they could fetch around twenty Low-grade Spirit Stones.
Besides the antlers, the hide was also valuable, worth more than ten Spirit Stones. The blood, at, and pizzle were not to be wasted either.
Fang Qingyuan spent half a day ticulously butchering the elk. He didn’t waste the leftover parts, either. Instead, he sent them into his Immortal Mansion and tossed them onto the black soil to decompose.
Killing the deer had taken only a mont, but processing it took half the day. Just as Fang Qingyuan finished, a look of delight suddenly crossed his face, and he flew off in a specific direction.
After flying for only a few li, he saw Jinbao in a clearing, pacing back and forth restlessly. Every so often, the big beast would stretch out a paw and try to dig a hole in the ground.
’Has he found an ore vein?’
Fang Qingyuan landed beside Jinbao. Seeing the look on his Spirit Beast’s face, he was overjoyed. He gestured for Jinbao to move closer. As Fang Qingyuan channeled his Magical Power, the earth before him suddenly seed to liquefy, rippling like the surface of water.
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