The tricolor deer had already been at the lower tier of the third rank when Qi Ping purchased it.
As for the Cloud Dream Immortal Tiger, it was a bit higher, with its bloodline rank sitting at the upper tier of the third rank.
Qi Ping couldn’t currently determine the little stone spirit’s bloodline rank, but at least judging from the strength of its Golden Stone Body, it was in no way inferior to the Golden Blaze Body provided by Caw-Caw or the Water Marsh True Lord granted by the Cloud Dream Immortal Tiger.
Moreover, as a special type of innate being, the little stone spirit could continuously improve as long as it had enough ores. By the time Qi Ping got out this time and had it devour all the ores from the spoils of war, both its strength and bloodline should receive a considerable boost.
“By the way, would it be possible to have the little stone spirit devour all the spirit artifacts from the spoils?”
In the world of cultivation, aside from a small number of spirit artifacts, most were forged from metal, so the little stone spirit shouldn’t have too much trouble consuming them.
“Besides, spirit artifacts are typically made from extremely precious ores and have been tempered with all sorts of spiritual materials and special techniques. In terms of spirituality and value, they’re leagues above ordinary ores!”
“And then there are the unique features of spirit artifacts—things like spiritual essence, killing intent, and even traces of Dao rhythm. They might just cause the little stone spirit’s bloodline to evolve into something even more special and powerful…”
After giving it some careful thought, Qi Ping felt it was quite feasible and well worth a try.
However, in most ancient texts, records of stone spirits usually involved them being made into spirit artifacts. There was almost no documentation on what would happen if a stone spirit devoured a large number of weapons.
That’s because the stone spirit race wasn’t naturally inclined toward conflict, so it was basically impossible for them to improve their strength on a large scale through weapons.
And spirit artifacts were outrageously expensive. The cost of amassing that many for devouring was simply not something an ordinary person could bear.
“It’s definitely worth a shot!”
After some deliberation, Qi Ping decided to give it a try.
With the unique spiritual nature of spirit artifacts, there was a real chance of raising an exceptionally powerful stone spirit. And given that stone spirits were innate beings, the possibility was actually quite high.
At worst, Qi Ping would just be using up a portion of his spoils. As for spirit stones, he had enough for now.
It just so happened that Qi Ping currently didn’t have a large stockpile of resources to nurture the little stone spirit anyway.
Having made this preliminary decision, Qi Ping called over the little immortal tiger and asked it to do a simple divination on whether it was auspicious or ominous for the little stone spirit to devour spirit artifacts.
Since spirit artifacts were pricey and this decision also concerned the little stone spirit’s future development, Qi Ping ultimately decided it was better to play it safe and have a reading done.
“Just a simple reading will do—no need for anything too detailed. Try not to strain your lifespan or your origin essence,” Qi Ping cautioned.
“Rawr—(Got it, boss. Don’t worry! With my Bai Ze bloodline, a simple reading every now and then won’t trigger any heavenly backlash!)”
The little immortal tiger patted its chest, signaling Qi Ping to rest easy.
Soon, a flash of golden light darted through the little tiger’s eyes, and it had roughly calculated the outcome.
“Rawr—(Great fortune!)”
Great fortune!
Hearing that result, a genuine smile spread across Qi Ping’s face.
Was there even any need to hesitate anymore?
At the same time, a sense of anticipation welled up inside him. Just what kind of heights would the little stone spirit reach after devouring such a large number of spirit artifacts and weapons?
“For now, the short-term nurturing plans for just about all of my animal companions are settled. That just leaves the bees…”
The Golden Marrow Bees were Qi Ping’s oldest animal companions and the hallmark of the Bee Daoist.
But now, at only the lower tier of the second rank, they could no longer provide him with much help in high-end battles.
These days, the bees mainly helped Qi Ping clear out ordinary Qi Refining cultivators during fights, as well as hide spoils and scout for enemies.
In the territory, their primary role was farming, and their function in surveillance and early warning had diminished considerably.
“Next up, I need to raise the bees up!”
In Qi Ping’s mind, the bees were still the most useful to him—not just in combat, but also in farming and various other mechanisms.
When used well, their abilities in reconnaissance, transformation and stealth, and hiding spoils were all incredibly valuable.
“Once I get out this time, I’ll first see if I can gather enough materials from the spoils for the second-rank metamorphosis potion. If not, I’ll buy some more from the Mysterious Black Market…”
At the second rank, evolution was no longer as simple as it was at the first rank.
To evolve the bees to the middle or upper tier of the second rank, Qi Ping first had to nourish their bodies with Insect Nourishing Elixir. Once their bodies had undergone a preliminary transformation and absorbed enough resources, he could then use Blood Spirit Dew Elixir to induce mutation. Only then would it be possible to evolve the bee brood to the middle or upper tier of the second rank.
Still, Qi Ping was fairly confident.
The Golden Marrow Queen had successfully advanced to the early second rank a few years ago and had already cultivated the balanced bees needed for evolution.
All that was left now was to gather the spiritual herbs required to refine the metamorphosis potions.
With [Beast King’s Blessing] boosting the success rate of evolution and [Potential Activation] unlocking the bees’ latent potential, their chances of success were much higher than normal.
And once the queen and the swarm advanced to the upper tier of the second rank and produced the highest-quality balanced bees, the swarm would be in for a truly monumental leap forward!
Once they successfully devoured the corpse of the Demon Insect King, their bloodline would undoubtedly ascend to an unimaginable level!
After setting aside the matter of comprehending the Demon Eye Illusory Realm, Qi Ping began planning to retrieve the spoils from the fallen affiliated forces of the Immortal Alliance.
He needed reference cultivation methods for creating his water-fire dual-attribute technique, weapons and ores for the little stone spirit, spiritual herbs for the bees’ metamorphosis…
And he could also purchase his eighth animal companion ahead of time.
To upgrade the Natural Sanctuary, Qi Ping would also need to buy and contract new spirit trees…
“Seven or eight years have passed by now—there shouldn’t be any danger left!”
And this time, Qi Ping was confident that his methods for cleaning up and preventing tracking were far beyond what they had been the first time. The likelihood of running into trouble wasn’t high.
Still, staying true to his cautious nature, Qi Ping set up a second-rank high-tier water-fire compatible formation and made ample contingency plans before setting out to retrieve this massive haul of spoils.
Perhaps thanks to the considerable improvements in his cleanup and anti-tracking measures, the retrieval process went rather smoothly this time around. Unlike last time, he didn’t encounter any late-stage Foundation Building cultivators tracking him down.
Because there were so many spoils, it took Qi Ping over two months to finish inventorying everything and selling off all the unwanted items to the Mysterious Black Market.
He even managed to fully process the remaining two-tenths of the spoils from last time, as well as the loot from those few Foundation Building cultivators—all of it converted into lovely, gleaming spirit stones!
