Fang Qingyuan lay inside the hive, mimicking the Bee Queen’s posture as he stared up at the dark ceiling. After a mont, Fang Qingyuan sat up.
Having gotten a taste of the Bee Queen’s laze-about ntality, Fang Qingyuan gazed at her, lost in thought.
’A Golden Jade Scorpion-tailed Bee Queen from the outside world is rely a Yellow Tier Middle Grade Spirit Beast—a Spirit Insect. By all rights, she shouldn’t have been able to advance this quickly. Besides, as far as I know, other Bee Queens don’t beco so humanoid in their physical transformations.’
’While I’ve always provided her with plenty of Flower Nectar, that can’t be the only reason for such a rapid advancent. The biggest difference between my Bee Queen and others is that she’s always been inside this Immortal Mansion. Could the Immortal Mansion be the cause?’
The thought flashed through Fang Qingyuan’s mind, but he would need to verify it to be sure.
At this thought, Fang Qingyuan began to summon the Scorpion-tailed Poison Bees within the Immortal Mansion. Thousands of Scorpion-tailed Bees sward around Fang Qingyuan’s soul, a dense, unnerving cloud of buzzing wings.
Fang Qingyuan had only ever summoned these Scorpion-tailed Bees when he needed to use them. This was his first ti inspecting them one by one so carefully.
Half a day passed. After inspecting each of the Scorpion-tailed Bees, Fang Qingyuan discovered that a small portion of them had beco different from their kin.
These mutated Scorpion-tailed Bees had grown stronger and larger. An ordinary Scorpion-tailed Bee was only the size of a walnut, but these mutated ones were two to three tis the size of their brethren.
That wasn’t all. The tail stingers and legs of these Scorpion-tailed Bees glead with a cold, tallic luster, as if forged from tal and exceptionally sharp.
Furthermore, after a thorough examination, Fang Qingyuan found that these Scorpion-tailed Bees had a much stronger life force. Even after being decapitated, they could survive for half a day, only ceasing all movent after their entire bodies were chopped to pieces.
Looking at the changes in these mutated Scorpion-tailed Bees, Fang Qingyuan was for so reason reminded of his own Five Elents Spirit Root.
’My tal Spirit Root is currently my strongest, and these Scorpion-tailed Bees’ limbs are becoming tallic. My Wood Spirit Root has also reached the top grade, and their life force has increased dramatically. It all seems connected.’
’Normal Scorpion-tailed Bees don’t have tallic limbs. But my Earth Spirit Root is also top-grade now. How would that manifest in these Scorpion-tailed Bees?’
An idea struck Fang Qingyuan as he thought of the Bee Queen’s exceptional reproductive abilities. Earth represents the nurturing of all life; the Bee Queen’s incredible fertility was a perfect match for this aspect.
Fang Qingyuan felt he had unearthed another of the Immortal Mansion’s secrets. Ever since he had acquired it, the mansion had never ceased to surprise him. He originally thought its only benefit was its vast space, but then he discovered it could absorb spiritual materials to enhance his own aptitude.
He had thought that function alone was heaven-defying enough, but now it could even grant Five Elents traits to the Spirit Beasts living inside. A Spirit Beast of his would possess all five elents and command Five Elents Divine Techniques. How could any other Spirit Beast possibly compare?
’And my Spirit Root aptitude isn’t even at its strongest yet. My Water and Fire Spirit Roots haven’t shown their true power. When those two elents also reach the top grade, just how powerful will these Scorpion-tailed Bees beco?’
’Unfortunately, the mutations in these Scorpion-tailed Bees are random. It would be so much better if I could control it at will—strengthening their Five Elents traits based on the Spirit Beast’s species and my own needs. That way, I could cultivate even the most ordinary Spirit Beast into an outstanding War Beast.’
At this thought, Fang Qingyuan sighed. ’Greed is never easily satisfied. The Immortal Mansion is already powerful enough as it is.’
After counting the four to five thousand Scorpion-tailed Bees before him, Fang Qingyuan found that the mutation rate was about one in ten. The remaining Scorpion-tailed Bees, while not obviously mutated, had faint tallic specks on their bodies. It seed they just needed more ti to mutate.
Fang Qingyuan stayed with the Bee Queen for a while longer, communing with her to strengthen their bond, before leaving the Immortal Mansion Space. He erged into the outside world and saw Jinbao playing with Yinbao, a wave of hesitation washing over him.
Upon learning that the Immortal Mansion could cause Spirit Beasts to mutate—no, "evolve" was probably a more fitting term. Now that he knew the Immortal Mansion could induce evolution in Spirit Beasts, Fang Qingyuan considered letting Jinbao live inside for a while.
’But if I do that, Jinbao will learn my greatest secret. Right now, Jinbao’s intelligence is only at the level of a seven or eight-year-old child. It might not understand for a while, but once Jinbao reaches Foundation Establishnt, forms a Golden Core, or achieves the Nascent Soul realm, it will realize how special the Immortal Mansion is.’
It wasn’t that Fang Qingyuan didn’t trust Jinbao, but the secret of the Immortal Mansion was too heavy and shocking. He didn’t want to cause Jinbao any unnecessary worry over it.
So, after much deliberation, Fang Qingyuan decided not to let Jinbao into the Immortal Mansion for now. He planned to find a suitable Magical Artifact for storing Spirit Beasts, one that could fool Jinbao. It wouldn’t be too late to let Jinbao in then.
With these thoughts settled in his mind, Fang Qingyuan began to ditate and cultivate in peace. A few days later, Fang Qingyuan went to the Yuanling Square Marketplace, sought out Zhao Laqian, and bought so low-end Spirit Beasts from him.
While directing his disciples to cage the Spirit Beasts, Zhao Laqian asked curiously,
"Hey, why are you suddenly buying these low-end Spirit Beasts? Don’t you know? These are all just for show. The really good stuff is over at Celestial Gate Mountain."
Fang Qingyuan sized up a snow-white rabbit Spirit Beast in front of him and replied casually,
"I know. I’m buying these for the little ones on the mountain. I want them to try raising so Spirit Beasts ahead of ti, so they at least get familiar with our sect’s most basic craft."
Hearing Fang Qingyuan’s explanation, Zhao Laqian slapped his forehead and said,
"Oh, so that’s why! In that case, as their ’uncle,’ I should show so support too. Here, I’ll give you a pair of tortoises. Consider it my support for those two juniors of yours on the mountain."
Fang Qingyuan shot him a sideways glance and said,
"So gift. You’re really offering sothing worth a asly ten or so Spirit Stones?"
"So, do you want them or not?"
"Of course I want them. Pack them up for ."
"The gift is given, so no discount this ti. These Spirit Beasts co to a total of seven hundred Spirit Stones. Pay up."
"..."
When Fang Qingyuan returned to his mountain gate, he tossed the two tortoises to Liu Xun and Qu Wujie, then threw all the newly purchased Spirit Beasts into the Immortal Mansion.
Inside the Immortal Mansion, looking at the small, unranked Spirit Beasts like rabbits and spirit mice, Fang Qingyuan no longer hesitated. He closed his eyes, focused his mind, and tried to completely disperse his soul.
A Cultivator’s soul was mysterious and extraordinary, able to both gather and disperse. Fang Qingyuan had previously always focused on making his soul more solid, but after several days of contemplation, he had an idea: if he dispersed his soul within the Immortal Mansion, could he gain a greater degree of control over it?
As it turned out, he could.
When Fang Qingyuan completely dispersed his soul, every wisp of his Soul Power attached itself to every blade of grass and every tree in the Immortal Mansion. He could clearly perceive the black soil on the ground, down to every tiny speck of dust.
Fang Qingyuan ’saw’ the Bee Queen in the hive roll over, exposing her snow-white belly as she continued to sleep soundly. He also ’saw’ the roots of the thousand purple bamboo stalks in the Purple Bamboo Forest, their fine root hairs drawing nutrients from the black soil. He even saw the corpse of the White Mountain Cultivator, which he had buried a few days ago, being slowly devoured and broken down by the Immortal Mansion.
All these novel perspectives felt fresh and exciting to Fang Qingyuan, but he didn’t forget his true purpose: to try and channel the Five Elents Power and infuse it into the bodies of these Spirit Beasts.
Currently, of the Five Elents Spiritual Power within the Immortal Mansion, Gold Spiritual Power was the most abundant. This was because Fang Qingyuan’s tal Spirit Root had the highest aptitude, which in turn led to the Gold Spirit Power being the most plentiful in the Immortal Mansion.
After ten long years of being irrigated by the Gold Spirit Power of a Nascent Soul Giant Beast, the Gold Spirit Power in the Immortal Mansion now accounted for one-third of the Five Elents Power, with the other four elents making up the remaining two-thirds.
His dispersed soul began to extract Gold Spirit Power from the Five Elents and pour it into the dozen or so Spirit Beasts in the cages. These were unranked Spirit Beasts with a low selling price; the whole lot had only cost seven hundred Spirit Stones. Even if they all died, Fang Qingyuan wouldn’t feel the slightest bit of heartache.
Moreover, these Spirit Beasts covered all five elents. Fang Qingyuan wanted to experint and see what would happen when different types of Spirit Beasts were infused with Gold Spirit Power.
As the Gold Spirit Power trickled into the bodies of these Spirit Beasts, the teeth of several of them began to turn tallic, while their claws and fur started to gleam with a faint tallic luster.
Everything was transforming in the direction Fang Qingyuan had anticipated. However, this favorable situation didn’t last long. With every quarter of an hour that passed, the changes in the Spirit Beasts began to spiral out of control.
By the end, when Fang Qingyuan gathered his soul back together to replenish his depleted Soul Power, he discovered that several of the spirit mice had already beco cold corpses.
The remaining Spirit Beasts were also on the brink of death, and it looked like they wouldn’t last much longer.
This sight caused barely a ripple in Fang Qingyuan’s heart. It was just a failed experint, a perfectly normal outco.
’All I need to do now is dispose of these failed experints’ corpses safely, summarize the lessons from this failure, and restock the consumables for the next experint.’
Having lived two lives, Fang Qingyuan felt little burden about experinting on animals. Whether by the standards of this world or his previous one, it was a perfectly normal practice. As long as one wasn’t torturing animals for amusent, it wouldn’t impact his cultivation mindset.
Just as Fang Qingyuan was about to bury the dead spirit mice in the black soil to be absorbed by the Immortal Mansion, he made a surprising discovery: the teeth of the spirit mice seed to have transford into a type of spiritual material.
He removed the teeth and examined them closely. After a mont, Fang Qingyuan recognized them as the Tier One Lower Grade Gold Attribute Spiritual Material: ’Iron-Sucking Giant Teeth’.
A single Iron-Sucking Giant Tooth sold for around ten Spirit Stones, and he could harvest three teeth from one spirit mouse. By that calculation, even though his experint had failed, he hadn’t actually taken a loss on these spirit mice.
At this thought, Fang Qingyuan’s eyes lit up. He felt as though he had just found a new way to earn Spirit Stones.
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