Chương 56: Chapter 55 – The Storm’s Aftermath

The baby snake was adorable and harmless in appearance, but its aura told another story entirely. As Ren approached to examine it, the unconcealed energy it emanated marked it as stronger than him in cultivation. This tiny snake was born a core formation beast! At that, Ren hesitated. The newborn clearly lacked control. What if a nudge from it erased him from existence? Superior beasts should never be underestimated.

As he struggled to decide, the little snake was munching on the fragments of the eggshells scattered around it. That pushed Ren to act. What if it turned its eyes toward the other two eggs? He would have lost two valuable yang treasures to its gluttonous appetite. He snatched them up and put them away carefully. The little one just watched him curiously. Seeing as it didn't immediately attack when he approached, Ren grew a little more confident.

His studies of spirit beasts didn't much prepare for handling their young. He only knew some basic things. He pulled out some snake meat from the python and slowly placed it in front of the baby core formation beast. It looked at him and then slithered over to the meat. The small chunk Ren had placed was almost the size of its head, but that didn't stop it from swallowing it whole. The meat of a foundation realm beast wouldn't be harmful to a core formation beast, but that was the case for adults.

Ren was pleased to see the meat wasn't refused. Spirit beasts had strong ingrained instincts from birth, and stronger beasts had even stronger instincts still, so even the young ones would be capable judges of their meals. Now an entirely new set of thoughts was racing through Ren's mind. Thoughts of taming a strong beast companion. It was well known that taming a young beast was far easier than forming a bond with an adult. If he actually managed to tame it, then he would have an incredibly strong ally.

Born a core formation realm beast, it would surely have great potential and maybe ascend even further! There would be risks too. If he failed to raise it properly, it could turn against him or not live up to its potential. Or even worse, some other cultivator would desire it and steal it from him. Treasuring a jade ring was a crime for the weak, and Ren had no doubt he was still far from strong enough. Still, these plans could wait. For now he needed to leave this place and find out what happened to his mountain.

So he lured the beast in with more meat and used a large patch of cloth to fashion a temporary pouch. He scooped up the snake and made sure it had plenty it could eat in the pouch, which he tied to his waist. It hadn't shown any indication of aggression, and hopefully that would remain true. With that taken care of, Ren looked around the cavern one last time. The shed skin still lay somewhere off to the side. He'd handle it later and maybe come up with some use for it.

The hot springs where he had made his temporary camp were no longer simple hot springs. All that energy being diverted into the aquifer had influenced it, turning it into a weak spirit spring. It emanated very little energy, but the waters were now boiling hot. Further examination could wait for another time. Ren was eager to leave this cavern that had been his home for a month.

He had made a lot of progress here and even saved his mountain, but repeatedly experiencing the killing intent had soured every memory of this place. It was a strange feeling to fear memories, but Ren pushed it to the back of his mind as he began making his way out. The talisman he had used to toughen his clothes had long since worn off, making it much more dangerous to be attacked by those blind vipers. However, this time his divine sense could extend far enough to give him ample warning.

He would lop off the snakes' heads with perfect timing as they lunged from their burrows. As he continued to slowly hike back up, he realized the number of snakes attacking had increased almost twofold. His spatial pouch was quickly filling up with their corpses. If he hadn't eaten much of the meat of the python, he wouldn't even have space for these thin foundation realm vipers.

The snakes had been attracted to the mountain in the first place because of the eggs and had failed to consume them, likely because of their well-hidden location and the shed snakeskin protecting them. But the hatching must have drawn even more beasts. A young snake of the core formation realm was nothing more than a treasured cultivation resource to other beasts.

Fearing unwanted attention, Ren stopped to draw his strongest concealing formations on the pouch carrying the baby snake using the blood of the spirit beast snakes. It hid the newborn's aura temporarily. It wasn't a proper formation without flags and wouldn't last long, but it would be enough for him to reach home and set up proper defenses. When Ren finally saw the first hint of daylight up ahead, a weight lifted off him.

Being hidden under a mountain for a month without ever seeing the sun or stars had been much harder than he realized until that very moment. The cool of the cave was left behind, and Ren basked in the warm rays of the sun. Sudden roars nearby of clashing beasts snapped him back into focus, and he began climbing the mountain. There were signs of conflict everywhere he could see. He had to take a circuitous path up because of the numerous ongoing battles he encountered.

The increased number of inhabitants on the mountain had shifted all the existing territories, and new lines were being drawn and redrawn all the time. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. But the increased number of snakes wasn't the only change. The qi on the mountain was greater than he remembered. It was a testament to just how much of an impact his actions had caused.

The increased qi was creating new channels, and to his senses, Ren could almost predict where new natural treasures would arise where the qi pooled and flowed. He had reached the middle heights of the mountain, and the qi only continued to increase. A seed of anticipation was taking root in Ren's heart as he wondered how the mountain would look in a month or a year. Now that he had crossed the biggest hurdle, sooner or later, the mountain would be under his complete control.

He started seeing the remnants of his formation all around. Some of the plants he had planted as nodes had withered and dried. Others had simply blown up. Many more had been consumed by beasts when their security formations were disrupted. Rarely, he would spot a plant that had tried to adapt to the shifting qi and formed strange mixed attribute spirit plants. Those would have to be studied and adjusted. Despite all the carnage, parts of his formation still stood.

It was weak and teetering on the brink of failure, but it still stood. Some places he couldn't even touch until the flows of qi settled, and that would cause more delays. As he climbed, Ren idly planned repairs and modifications to the formation. When he finally reached the peak, the amount of qi was incredibly dense. When he crossed his damaged security formations, a cultivation paradise lay before his eyes! Thin mists of condensed qi wafted in places, and everything looked vibrant.

Like a true immortal's mountain abode, filled with mysterious treasures. Ren's heart was thumping hard with excitement. He extended his divine sense to get a better feel for the changes. The very first thing that stood out was the excessive amounts of yin qi in the air. The whole mountain peak was doused heavily with yin qi to the point it had caused some physical changes. His short mountain had, for the first time, formed a thin layer of frost despite the daytime.

Other than the cold air, the mountain didn't exactly feel gloomy, but there was a curious sensation of it being darker than it should be. He broke from marveling at the changes on his mountain to go check on his tortoise companions. The little ones were thoroughly enjoying the rich cultivation paradise, looking healthy and happy. To his surprise, three more had settled into an attribute. There was another water attribute, one earth attribute, and most impressively, a yin attribute tortoise.

He supposed it was inevitable, as the Myriad Path Tortoises were influenced by their surroundings, and his mountain peak was undeniably abundant with yin qi. It had a delicate appearance, with soft white spots on its shell. When he first purchased those eggs, he had hoped for a few outliers to study. He had provided them with a varied environment but didn't expect much. In his opinion, this one tortoise was already reward enough given just how rare such an attribute really was.

After he finished checking on them, he took the pouch with the little snake to his cave. The tiny snake was bulging around its midsection and was snoozing without a care. All he could think at that moment was how charming it looked! Then he noticed that the pouch he had filled with enough meat to fill a snake its size ten times over was gone. So the little snake was a big eater. After making sure his concealing formations still functioned properly, he left the snake to sleep in a warm place.

Ren continued to look over his home. Without anyone to care for it for over a month, his private garden looked poorly. The one spirit herb he had started to grow for the mission from the Hall of Contribution had failed and withered. He was a little disheartened, as failing a herb-growing mission would go on his record, which was already meager to begin with.

He consoled himself with how it would balance out his unreasonably high rates of success in future but couldn't bring himself to believe his own words entirely. He headed towards the main formation. The corpse silk moths looked a little weak without their regular feedings, but it turned out that was actually because they had laid eggs. He recalled triggering their mating instincts, and it had clearly taken hold. The eggs had been laid on the branches of the Ghost Face tree.

These moths sure had some peculiar requirements. Laying eggs on a death tree, forming cocoons like he found on one rich with life. Their habits caused a thought to half form, but he was distracted, causing it to fade back. The distraction was naturally his main formation. The spirit spring underwent a small transformation. The waters looked clear as ice, and it glowed faintly. A mist of condensed qi hung around it.

It had grown in depth and size, now almost brushing against the inner ring where he planted the yang attribute plants. Those looked surprisingly healthy. Ren would have thought the intense amount of yin qi would have smothered them, but on the contrary, they looked even better than normal. The Mutating Bamboo sprouts he had placed at the nodes of earth, metal, and wood had almost doubled in height. It was yet unknown if they had any mutations, but that could wait for later.

The bamboo placed at the wood node had grown even more than the others to the point that it was actually pushing out new shoots of its own! Having learned a lot more of the Turning Seasons Sword Array technique, he knew that having more flying swords would only be beneficial. His future sword array would be very impressive indeed! The treasures in the formation eyes also looked extremely well. Clearly they had benefited from the increase in qi. The moss had turned a darker red and grown thick.

The silvery cloud around the metal staff shimmered beautifully. The lotuses were blooming, wafting out an enchanting aroma. The willow tree looked lush, dripping with resin. And finally, the yin flame was roaring. The flame had grown to a size even beyond the original, and its increased consumption had nearly depleted his stock of bones. But it was finally ready for forging or alchemy or even body cultivation if he desired. Ren couldn't wait to dive into it all!