Before leaving Qing Stone Market, Qi Ping had initially considered selling everything he owned to buy the Illusion Moon White Fox.
After all, talents related to spiritual perception and illusion-type spirit beasts were rare, and losing such an opportunity would be a shame.
However, after weighing the risks, he ultimately decided against it.
First, to scrape together another two thousand spirit stones, he would have to sell the four-sword formation artifact looted from the late Qi Refining stage black-robed bandit, as well as the high-grade blood ginseng he had cultivated himself.
Both of these carried significant risks.
Secondly, spending over four thousand spirit stones in one go at Qing Stone Market would inevitably draw the attention of certain well-connected individuals.
That amount of wealth was enough to tempt even Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Faced with these three risks, Qi Ping decisively abandoned the idea of purchasing the Illusion Moon White Fox. Besides, at his current stage, he lacked the spare resources to raise it properly.
For now, it was better to focus on utilizing the talents of the Solar Crow and channel all his resources into improving his cultivation base. There was no need to take such a huge gamble.
After all, his bees were self-sufficient, and the Solar Crow only needed sunlight to thrive. Aside from diligently cultivating his own strength, Qi Ping only needed to grow enough blood ginseng and fire spirit grass.
Beyond that, the only other important task was researching the Fire Spirit Body-Tempering Pill (Honey Edition).
As for the Illusion Moon White Fox, he could only hope for another opportunity to acquire one in the future.
Moreover, there were still four even rarer and more powerful spirit beasts within Qing Stone County. Qi Ping figured that once his strength grew further, he would have more options available.
Who knew? Perhaps even more astonishing spirit beasts would appear in the future.
…..
Peak No. 7 of the Misty Cloud Mountain Range, Deep Within the Forest.
A vast swarm of High-Speed Cutting Bees and Golden Marrow Bees spread across the entire mountain, tightly guarding a young man with a resolute and delicate appearance.
Standing before the young man was a raven-black bird, its feathers as dark as ink.
A ray of sunlight pierced through the treetops, casting a glow upon the bird and illuminating the fiery mark on its head with an extraordinary brilliance.
Occasionally, a wisp of solar energy would seep into the bird’s body through that fiery mark.
This young man and bird were none other than Qi Ping and the Solar Crow, who had just returned from Qing Stone Market not long ago.
“The contract is about to be formed… I wonder which talent I’ll obtain?”
A flicker of anticipation rose in Qi Ping’s heart.
Wasn’t the whole reason he sought out powerful spirit beasts for this very moment?
As long as he obtained a talent suitable for cultivation, breaking through to Foundation Establishment would be practically guaranteed!
Fortunately, all three of the Solar Crow’s talents were excellent—whichever one he got would greatly aid his practice of the Woodflame Art.
The Solar Body, Solar Flame, and Solar Perception were all rare talents for cultivating fire-attribute techniques.
“There’s an 80% chance of obtaining the primary talent. As long as I’m not unlucky enough to get one of the Solar Crow’s other traits…”
With a slightly nervous heart, Qi Ping summoned the Druid’s Animal Companion contract formation.
Amidst a surge of mysterious energy, an emerald-green, human-sized mystical array slowly took shape between him and the Solar Crow.
Then, Qi Ping guided the formation into the black bird’s body.
As the energy of the formation merged with the crow, a burst of emerald light erupted from its body, and an identical glow rose from Qi Ping as well.
This process took far longer than his previous contract with the Golden Marrow Bees—lasting over half an hour before the ritual was finally complete.
…..
More than half an hour later…
Qi Ping, who had been immersed in comprehending his new talent, finally opened his eyes.
The moment he did, his gaze was already filled with excitement.
“Success!”
“Solar Body!”
This time, luck was finally on his side—not only had he avoided the 20% chance of getting a useless random trait, but he had also obtained the talent he wanted most: Solar Body!
While Solar Body, Solar Flame, and Solar Perception could all enhance his fire-attribute cultivation aptitude, the latter two were not as direct as Solar Body in boosting his training efficiency.
Solar Flame required learning how to harness the innate flame for cultivation, while Solar Perception depended on sunlight.
But Solar Body? Just having it was enough!
[Solar Body: Your blood contains a trace of the True Sun’s flame, granting you a high affinity for fire-attribute cultivation. Refining fire-attribute spiritual materials will rapidly increase your strength.]
“Compared to the Solar Crow’s original talent, there are some changes…”
After reviewing the information in his mind, Qi Ping quickly noticed that the shared Solar Body had undergone some modifications.
The original description of the Solar Crow’s talent was:
[Solar Body: Contains a trace of the ancient Golden Crow’s bloodline, granting high fire-attribute cultivation aptitude. Devouring fire-attribute spiritual materials will rapidly increase strength.]
“Perhaps because I’m human, the ‘trace of Golden Crow bloodline’ became ‘a trace of True Sun’s flame’?”
“That’s fine—having a trace of demonic bloodline in a human body would’ve been troublesome anyway.”
“The effects are still similar: high fire-attribute cultivation aptitude and the ability to rapidly grow stronger by refining fire-attribute spiritual materials.”
Qi Ping was quite satisfied with this change. The True Sun’s flame was also more versatile for his purposes than the Golden Crow’s bloodline.
Next, he checked his Druid status panel:
[Name: Qi Ping]
[Level: Lv. 3 (33/400)]
[Class: Beast King Druid (Primary), Forest Druid (Secondary)]
[Talents: Animal Companion, Nature’s Affinity]
[Animal Companions: (2/3) Golden Marrow Bee, Solar Crow]
[Wild Shapes: (1/1) Golden Marrow Bee (Includes: Golden Marrow Bee, High-Speed Cutting Bee, Big-Bellied Bee, Balanced Bee, Venomous Bee, Ink-Armored Bee)]
[Shared Talents: Master Brewer, Solar Body]
[Skills: Lv. 2 Plant Growth (86/200), Lv. 1 Beast King’s Blessing (17/100), Lv. 3 Bark Skin (312/400), Lv. 1 Healing (2/100)]
[Permanent Skills: Speak with Animals, Befriend Beast, Heart of the Wild]
(Level EXP +25, Plant Growth EXP +19, Beast King’s Blessing EXP +2, Bark Skin EXP +44, Healing EXP +2)
“Level and skill experience are steadily increasing—good!”
Seeing the additional animal companion and shared talent on his status panel, along with the steady growth in level and skill experience, Qi Ping felt a deep sense of satisfaction.
Watching his stats consistently improve was always a joy.
…..
After completing the contract and obtaining his shared talent, Qi Ping resisted the urge to immediately start practicing the Woodflame Art and first checked on the Solar Crow’s condition.
Once he confirmed the crow was fine, he planted the two newly acquired fire spirit grasses and five seeds, casting [Plant Growth] four times. Only then did he take out the Woodflame Art to study.
The reason Qi Ping did things in this order was to ensure he had enough mental energy to research the Woodflame Art while still being able to cultivate blood ginseng and fire spirit grass continuously.
Right now, both the Golden Marrow Bees’ explosive reproduction and the Solar Crow’s bloodline restoration required large amounts of spiritual herbs. Qi Ping’s own cultivation also demanded a steady supply.
As a broke cultivator, Qi Ping had no choice but to meticulously optimize his mental energy for maximum efficiency.
