Chapter 43: The Self-Cultivation of Spirit Fish

Su Yuan happily watched Little Cai absorb the spiritual energy.  Then he simply placed them all into the Yuan Pool.  He kept a close eye on these spirit fish, fearing something might happen to them, which would be unfortunate.  Fortunately, his worries never came true. Because of the formation, the spiritual energy couldn’t be taken away with a bottle, and the same applied to the spirit fish.  Once the spirit fish absorbed spiritual energy to their limit, even if they swam vigorously inside the Yuan Pool, no additional spiritual energy would enter their bodies, preventing them from exploding and dying. However, since they were still immersed in the spiritual energy, their growth speed was definitely boosted several times over.  Little Cai persisted for a while, then eventually also reached a temporary absorption limit and could no longer take in more.  Su Yuan discovered that Little Cai’s maximum absorption of spiritual energy was equivalent to forty pieces of low-grade spirit stones. It turned out that the usual amount Little Cai needed was relatively small—just half full. Was this little guy afraid of scaring him and making him stop giving spirit stones?  Afterward, Little Cai’s absorption speed depended entirely on its digestion rate. The faster it could digest, the faster it could absorb. But Su Yuan wasn’t worried about this. He had already witnessed how astonishingly fast Little Cai refined spiritual energy.  It was only within the Yuan Pool that Little Cai’s absorption speed seemed slow.  Su Yuan thought for a moment and suddenly said, “There’s so much spiritual energy here, Little Cai, you can’t waste it!”  He pointed with his finger, sending a strand of spiritual sense into Little Cai’s sea of consciousness.  Little Cai looked at Su Yuan in confusion.  Seeing no reaction, Su Yuan continued inputting the cultivation methods he had created.  Seven Stars Mystic Truth Body Tempering Art  Seven Stars Mystic Truth Spirit Forging Art  Two techniques: one for forging the spirit, one for tempering the body!  Little Cai absorbed both techniques but still looked clueless, obviously unable to understand these methods.  Su Yuan was not surprised; he had a backup plan.  The spiritual sense, accompanied by spiritual power, entered Little Cai’s body. Then he started exploring Little Cai’s body structure. He found that the meridians inside the Nine-Colored Celestial Fish were extremely complex. What surprised Su Yuan even more was that he found 118 acupoints already enlightened within the fish! Although these spiritual orifices were still very small, they were gradually expanding with the absorption of spiritual energy, so there was no need to open them further!  “Wow, Little Cai, you were born with all your orifices connected?”  Su Yuan took a deep breath again. Little Cai’s bloodline was truly extraordinary!  He quickly gathered his spirit and began circulating the meridian rotation in accordance with the requirements of the two cultivation methods.  Fish meridians were indeed different from human ones, and even the locations of the orifices varied, but to Su Yuan, these were trivial. These two techniques were originally created by him, so he knew all the details well. With some modifications, they became suitable for fish cultivation.  The paths of the two techniques circulated inside Little Cai’s body without interference, continuously drawing spiritual energy to temper both its soul and body.  Little Cai completely cooperated with Su Yuan’s manipulation.  “Remember the meridian rotation path I’m helping you with. Try cultivating it on your own!” Su Yuan sent a message through their contract.  Little Cai nodded repeatedly, then began learning Su Yuan’s rotation path.  As expected of the Nine-Colored Celestial Fish, although it was just a fish and quite naive, it grasped the meridian rotation path as if by instinct, easily and naturally.  In just half an hour, Little Cai actually mastered it all!  Su Yuan released his control over the spiritual sense.  Then he saw that Little Cai could now circulate the techniques on its own. With the two cultivation methods combined with Little Cai’s innate talent for absorbing spiritual energy, the three major energy-consuming forces began exerting power!  The rate of spiritual energy consumption immediately increased dramatically!  Su Yuan laughed right away, “Not bad, every bit counts! This raises Little Cai’s upper limit to 120 pieces of spirit stones.”  Su Yuan then glanced at the other spirit fish and tried letting them attempt the same cultivation methods as Little Cai. In the end, he found these spirit fish were too low in intelligence and had no special bloodline, so they couldn’t learn the techniques.  Just as Su Yuan sighed.  A tri-colored light shone from Little Cai’s body!  To Su Yuan’s astonished gaze, the light connected to forty-nine spirit fish.  Then these spirit fish gradually increased their spiritual energy intake, as if instinctively learning the two cultivation methods under Little Cai’s influence!  Su Yuan was shocked, “Little Cai, you’re really awesome!”  Little Cai happily wagged its tail, raised its head, poked out of the pool, and blew out a few spiritual energy bubbles with pride.  The consumption limit of those spirit fish also rose to about the level of one low-grade spirit stone, no longer mere fragments.  Su Yuan smiled silently, then noticed his own body was also absorbing spiritual energy unknowingly.  Looking carefully, Su Yuan was stunned.  He saw that the Seven Stars Mystic Truth Body Tempering Art and Seven Stars Mystic Truth Spirit Forging Art were autonomously circulating.  Su Yuan glanced at the system panel and saw that no rest time had been deducted.  “What’s going on?”  Su Yuan looked at Little Cai thoughtfully, “It seems the contract feedback from Little Cai is causing the cultivation methods within my body to circulate on their own. So, I’m not cultivating; rather, Little Cai is leading me in cultivation, and I’m still in rest mode.”  He looked again at the system panel to confirm it wasn’t broken, then gave a helpless expression.  Could this system really let him loop a bug like this? Would it break?  After waiting an hour without incident, and seeing that both his physical body and soul were slowly growing,  he was completely reassured. He took out a reclining chair and a small table, placed a cup of spiritual tea, and took out a copy of an ancient book to read comfortably.  This was the autobiography of a Golden Core elder from 3,500 years ago, recounting his legendary life spanning over two hundred years, mixed with many interesting stories and cultivation insights. Su Yuan treated it like a novel and read it with great interest.  Inside the main peak hall,  Sect Leader Gu placed his palm on the control core of the mountain protection formation.  He had received the news that Su Yuan had entered the Yuan Pool to cultivate.  Soon, he found Su Yuan’s Yuan Pool location. The hazy mist concealed Su Yuan’s condition to protect privacy. Many female elders had suggested this since they didn’t want the Sect Leader to spy on them. Many female elders directly immersed their whole bodies in the Yuan Pool, and the rule was no improper viewing. Over time, it became impossible to see the cultivators’ conditions in the Yuan Pool, though the spiritual energy consumption could still be monitored.  “Consumption speed: 289 pieces of low-grade spirit stones per hour?”  Sect Leader Gu was shocked, his eyes nearly popping out.  That was 289 low-grade spirit stones absorbed in just one hour. That meant over 3,000 spirit stones in a day!  Even a top-tier single spirit root couldn’t achieve such a speed, right?  “How exactly is this guy cultivating?” Sect Leader Gu was puzzled.  But he quickly calmed down and did some rough calculations. At this speed, ten years would consume about 12 million spirit stones, and since Su Yuan couldn’t cultivate nonstop, the actual consumption would be less. Considering the faster cultivation speed after breakthroughs balancing it out, the total would still be over 10 million spirit stones.  Sect Leader Gu smiled calmly. This Yuan Pool benefit for Su Yuan was paid for out of his own pocket. Su Yuan had no contributions or merits, so there was no way he could get a Yuan Pool spot without reason. Even as Sect Leader, he couldn’t just allocate resources arbitrarily.  This was all at his own expense. If the consumption was too large, he’d take a loss!  “I already overestimated him, but he still surprises me so much. If his cultivation speed can catch up, combined with that once-in-a-thousand-year comprehension, tsk tsk, the Nascent Soul stage will be achieved. As for the Transformation stage… hehe, I haven’t reached it yet.”  Sect Leader Gu put down his hand from the control core and calmly left to handle sect affairs.  Half a year passed in a blink.  By the Yuan Pool,  Su Yuan’s expression was serious. He swung his fishing rod fiercely, the hook moving like a giant swimming dragon, quickly “biting” into the spirit fish group.  The spirit fish scattered immediately. One spirit fish was slightly slowed by its companions and was caught by the hook, dragged to shore by Su Yuan.  Su Yuan scolded, “Little Thirty-Six, why are you so dumb? Didn’t you learn the Seven Stars Radiant Leap? You can’t even dodge this? Have you not studied hard?”  The spirit fish hung its head, looking dejected, obediently accepting the reprimand.  On the surface of the Yuan Pool, a group of spirit fish floated, watching this scene and letting out strange laughter. It was remarkable that fish could laugh.  Su Yuan glanced at those spirit fish and snorted coldly, “You’re all mid-tier Yellow Rank spirit beasts now, equivalent to Qi Refinement stage six. This is an important exam time for fish life cultivation elementary school. If you don’t know the sports subject (Seven Stars Radiant Leap - Step Modification), fine. But aren’t you going back to review language (Seven Stars Mystic Truth Spirit Forging Art), math (Seven Stars Mystic Truth Body Tempering Art), foreign language (Seven Stars Mystic Truth Water Sword Technique - Sword Classic Modification), and other subjects? What are you dazing around here for? If you fail, you’ll all have to retake the exams.”  The group of spirit fish immediately shrank their heads and swam off to practice in the distance.  Su Yuan waved his fishing rod. Little Thirty-Six was released and quickly ran back to its companions, bumping one angrily.  Little Cai came over and comfortingly tapped Su Yuan’s foot with its fin.  Su Yuan smiled wryly, “I’m just joking with them!”  Su Yuan sensed the spiritual orifices inside the Nine-Colored Celestial Fish and found they had all expanded greatly.  In half a year, Little Cai had already broken through to become a high-grade Yellow Rank spirit beast and was advancing toward the peak of the high grade.  It was preparing to break through these past two days.  Su Yuan was shocked by the cultivation speed of the Nine-Colored Celestial Fish!  Thanks to Little Cai’s efforts, Su Yuan’s dantian was almost full. He couldn’t delay his rest time any longer and was preparing to break through himself.  Su Yuan couldn’t help but sigh. If ordinary people got the Nine-Colored Celestial Fish, they could just cultivate by lying flat with it. He was puzzled why others didn’t contract Little Cai; some even sold it for just over a hundred spirit stones! Was it just because of the high spirit stone consumption? Spirit stones could always be found… probably.  He couldn’t understand, but here he must once again thank that fish vendor senior brother. By the way, what was that senior brother’s name again?