Chương 74: Chapter 73 – The First Tortoise of Its Name

The 18 Myriad Path tortoises had hatched well over two years ago. For a species of spirit beasts where the hatchlings matured over many years but still mostly settled on a qi alignment within their first year, the tortoises Ren raised were definitely outliers. From the very beginning, he had provided them an excellent, qi-rich environment. When he first noticed the oddity, Ren had learned that the young of spirit beasts could, under ideal circumstances, refine their bloodlines.

While adult beasts could do so as well, it was mostly under special external circumstances such as consuming a natural treasure. A spirit beast's bloodline was simply more adaptable while they were maturing, which is why their parents would gather the best natural treasures to feed their young. By refining their bloodlines, a spirit beast faced less difficulty in ascending to higher realms of power.

They had stronger bodies, more potent abilities, and even lived longer, all of which gave the next generation a potential boost to rise higher than their parents. Unlike cultivators who concentrated all their gains on themselves, this was how beasts cultivated. After Ren claimed his current abode, he could provide his adorable pets an even better environment. Furthermore, he never forced them to settle on a qi attribute.

He instead treated them like darling pets and gave them free rein to wander his fields, eat pests, and laze in whichever qi-rich regions they wanted. They fed on the assorted beast cores he provided and the Flesh Eating Moss which was particularly rich in vital essence, which was a different form of energy than qi. With such perfect conditions, it was no surprise that the first of the tortoises had only settled on a qi alignment 9 months ago, around a month before Yu Ran hatched.

From then on, more of them settled into an alignment, the last being a month ago. Counting them from when the first one settled on an attribute to the time the storm broke, there were 2 of water, 2 of earth, 1 of yin, 2 of metal, 1 of wood, 2 of fire, 1 of wind, and 1 of lightning. 12 of 18 had gained a qi attribute after refining their bloodlines as much as they could. Most of them belonged to the common elements but a few stood out as rare, such as yin, wind and lightning qi attribute.

In the past 6 months, the other five had settled into their attributes, the first of which was wood. Having two tortoises for each of the five elements of the Wuxing was strangely pleasing to Ren. But that was the last of the normal ones. A tortoise that had preferred to stay in caverns below the mountain had settled into a yang qi attribute, another very rare attribute. What Ren didn't expect was the last 4 settling into even more exotic alignments. He could only blame the influence of his mountain.

The next two tortoises settled into a combination of 2 qi types, which he couldn't find any example of even after spending a lot of time researching. They were of the Yin-Water and Yin-Earth alignments. He didn't even know a combination of more than one element was even possible for Myriad Path Tortoises! The second to last of the tortoises was single qi type but even there, Ren was stumped when he looked closer. The sensation of qi it released was like facing a spirit snake beast!

It was also the only one who's behavior changed after it settled into an attribute. The others merely showed external changes such as small but growing patches of color on their shells or the qi they emitted. After some study, Ren concluded that the now aggressive and combative tortoise had settled into a draconic qi attribute! By retracing his memories, Ren realized that particular tortoise had preferred to consume beast cores more than all the others.

By itself, it had consumed most of his spare beast cores from the inheritance trial and those of the snake-type beasts he slayed while trying to nurture his formation eyes. Some mysterious combinations of qi had pushed the tortoise into one of the more powerful qi attributes. Draconic beasts were renowned for their might, and even a beast with an extremely diluted bloodline would be far stronger than its peers.

Unsure how to deal with the tortoise that was starting to grow sharp ridges instead of a patch of color, Ren had continued to leave it be. It was already ostracized by its siblings, which crushed Ren to watch, but it was now the most active defender of his fields. The increased density of qi on his mountain meant even the pests were more correspondingly powerful. The insects that came to feed on his spirit herbs and plants used various approaches.

They would infiltrate, some even using shadowy yin qi to hide from ordinary senses. Others flew in and out as quick as thunder. Others burrowed from deep beneath the earth to nibble on roots. The draconic tortoise defended against them all. The small beast, only slightly larger than Ren's palm, had excellent senses and could respond with a powerful burst of strength to intercept even the speediest pest. Its sharp claws could slice through soil to dig out hidden intruders.

Ren worried for his delicate plants, but the tortoise did more good than harm, and he had learned to accept some damaged roots as the price of the little one's services. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. But the final tortoise trumped them all. It had refined its bloodline longer than all the others.

In the final months, Ren had detected some fluctuations emanating from it only to watch with widened eyes as the little tortoise forcibly suppressed its own alignment! It clearly was striving to hold on for as long as it could. When he saw that, Ren couldn't help but respond to its desire and supported it all he could, even lavishing upon it a foundation realm spirit herb. The little one's efforts paid off when it finally settled on a combination of two types of qi.

Down in the caverns amidst Ren's second garden of herbs, where it preferred to stay, the tortoise had settled into a Yang-Wood qi alignment. The qi it emanated was by far the strongest among its siblings. If that wasn't enough, Ren was even more surprised by how taken Yu Ran was by the tortoise with the golden-green shell. Their common yang affinity may have played a part, but Yu Ran didn't act this affectionate with the solely yang attribute tortoise.

It would nuzzle with and coil atop the shell of its new friend and could almost always be found in its company. The small black snake with glowing red scale patterns curled on the small, shiny shell made for a striking figure. Ren had laughed at how much the pair resembled the legendary Xuanwu Beast, which appeared as a black turtle-snake. The Xuanwu of the North was one of the four symbolic cardinal beasts alongside the Azure Dragon of the East, the White Tiger of the West, and the Vermillion Bird of the South.

To see his pets try to enact a representation of the 4 mythical beasts was endlessly amusing to Ren. To this day, Ren had never named the tortoises. They had been functional creatures at first, which had since become pets. He also didn't bother naming 18 different little tortoises, which he could barely tell apart. He once again recalled his old classical studies tutor, who would repeatedly remark,"Young Master, you have but a hair from nine oxen when it comes to classical creativity.

Don't waste it and leave the poetic couplets for when you need to bring home a bride!" But Ren couldn't let the efforts of the last tortoise remain unacknowledged, and as a reward, he bestowed a name upon it. He named it Wu Meng, meaning "martial" and "dream," because of how it dreamed of being the Xuanwu, which also had the title "Black Warrior of the North." Ren had been immensely proud of himself for giving it a most suitable name. In the month since, the bond between the two had only grown deeper.

Yu Ran had also started to communicate more clearly across the bond it shared with Ren around that time. Starting with single words, which were still colored by the impressions the little snake sent alongside the word. But of late, it had picked up a few favored words like his name, Ren, food, and sleep. The most recent addition had been 'Meng.

Ren had been a little jealous at first when the small snake abandoned its previous perch around his neck for its new companion, but their adorable antics more than made up for it. Indulging them sometimes meant more work for Ren, like when he built them a secure route to the underground caverns filled with yang qi, where they both preferred to stay during the day. Ren had always found that odd about his mountain.

Caverns were usually hidden and cold, filled with yin qi, and mountain peaks, which saw a lot of sunlight in the open, were more prone to yang qi, but his mountain reversed the usual order. Seeing the pair had come to greet him or, more specifically, ask if he brought them a snack, Ren patted them and offered them some berries and the meat from a small beast he had found. As they joyously feasted, Ren retreated to his cultivation platform to read the book given to him by elder Yun Peng.

Like the ones before, it was an account from a cultivator attempting to reach the core formation realm. But the difference this time was that the cultivator had failed to reach the new realm. Something had gone wrong, but the cultivator failed to gather enough qi to properly condense a strong core and instead of settling for a low-quality core, had pushed ahead recklessly. In the end, their core crumbled, and they were crippled. Somehow Ren gained more from this account than the previous two put together.

Failure often taught more, and Ren combined this knowledge with his theories and patched a few flaws in his planned cultivation. Even though none of the cultivators whose accounts he studied were karmic cultivators, Ren still found new inspiration for his own manual, Causality of Karma. He already completed the manual for all the layers of the foundation establishment realm. He was now fast developing a plan to break through to the core formation.

He only needed to finalize the meridians and pathways to follow during cultivation in those initial layers of the next realm. Ren meditated on all he read for a while. He would no doubt read it many times again later, but he was done for today. He faced the direction of the outer court and once again bowed deeply in gratitude. This bargain he had struck with the elder had brought him countless unseen benefits. And not just in cultivation.

In the course of teaching others, Ren had thought deeper and learned more about arrays and formations, identifying his blind spots and shortcomings even as he taught the basics. Noting the setting sun, Ren prepared his dinner. While he ate, a thought occurred to him. Something about his state of mind all day and all his melancholic thoughts was leading him to think that perhaps tonight was the night. While he was no expert, after it had happened a few times, Ren had learned to recognize certain signs.

The signs of fate gathering. Ren had previously planned to survey all the challenges he had set up in the outer and inner sects once before the selections began, but he might have to delay that a little. He looked up at the stars that were emerging in the night sky. A cool breeze ruffled his robes, and he breathed in the pleasant aroma of willow resin laced with countless other scents.

"Yes. I think tonight might be the night I break through to the next stage of body cultivation!"