Chapter 19: Ingenious Soul Core

Chapter 19: Ingenious Soul Core Elder Mo's words got Lin Jing and the Pine Leaf Mouse excited. They both felt they should do something. Immediately, they swallowed and cooled down. "Zhi! Zhi!" However, Lin Jing seemed fine, but for the Pine Leaf Mouse, which had grown up in the sect, the Beast Taming Sect was its home. Now, hearing that its home was struggling so badly and that the hope of its whole family rested on it, a sense of responsibility suddenly surged within. It tugged at Lin Jing’s hair, indicating it wanted to compete with other prodigies from immortal sects. "Calm down first; that’s something for decades later," Lin Jing said. "Decades, for you, it’s just a blink of an eye." Elder Mo was in an extremely good mood as he laughed heartily. "You’ve been tired from cutting the spiritual bamboo these past few days, so you can rest well tonight. I’ll go with Elder Yu to claim your task reward. I’ll have Tianyu Crane deliver it to you later!" "Focus on preparing for the Dragon Ascension Festival. You've been in the sect for a while now, and it’s time you participated in some sect activities." "Yes!" Lin Jing and the Pine Leaf Mouse cupped their fists. The Dragon Ascension Festival... They had cut the bamboo, so they could certainly cut the bamboo dragon too! Seven days of training had honed their bamboo cutting skills to an impressive level. If the rewards were rich, they had to participate. After Elder Mo left, Lin Jing and the Pine Leaf Mouse found a package on the stone table in the yard. Opening it, they found ten Spirit Stones and a bag of Spirit Rice. It turned out that their one-month period had ended, and after days of hard work in the bamboo forest, new resources had been delivered. With this new batch of resources, along with the special treatment promised by Elder Mo for the Pine Leaf Mouse, and the Spirit Stones earned from the bamboo cutting task, Lin Jing felt that he wouldn’t have to worry about Spirit Stones for a long time. "Since Elder Mo said so, we’ll focus on preparing for the Dragon Ascension Festival," Lin Jing said, holding the Spirit Stones. "Without such good tasks like cutting spiritual bamboo, it will slow down the process of earning money to buy storage bags through other tasks. But since there are rich rewards in the Dragon Ascension Festival, if we perform well, we might even have a chance to get a storage bag directly!" After Lin Jing spoke, the Pine Leaf Mouse grabbed the Spirit Stones from him and dragged the Spirit Rice away without looking back, as if it had made up its mind. "Zhi!" Its eyes were full of fighting spirit. On the other hand, it didn’t want Lin Jing to touch the Spirit Stones. Otherwise, it would be a total waste. It would rather use them for its own cultivation. As for the Beast Tamer, it would just wait for the spiritual energy feedback. Besides that... it planned to stock up on a few hundred Spirit Energy Bombs in these few days and blow up the Bamboo Dragons! --- Time passed quickly, and several days later, Lin Jing could hardly be considered idle. There were too many things waiting for him to do. For example, these days, Lin Jing had been working with the Pine Leaf Mouse on the Glazed Immortal Eyes. Through their exploration, they discovered that perhaps the synthesis conditions hadn’t been met, or maybe the Pine Leaf Mouse's realm was too low, and the Eye Technique wasn’t perfect. The Glazed Immortal Eyes... for now, it seemed they could only synthesize resources related to plants and trees. Lin Jing tried to give the Pine Leaf Mouse some soil, hoping it would synthesize Spiritual Earth, but it failed. He pointed at the pond, wanting it to synthesize a drop of Spiritual Spring, but it failed again. He bought over a hundred common cloth bags, trying to have it synthesize a storage bag, but of course, that didn’t succeed either. Even attempting to synthesize low-grade Spirit Stones to summon medium-grade Spirit Stones was also a failure. This situation could mean one of two things: either the number of low-grade resources was insufficient to trigger a qualitative change, or the Glazed Immortal Eyes were still at too low a level. For now, the Pine Leaf Mouse could only synthesize plant-related resources. The Pine Leaf Mouse was still at the Qi Refining stage, so it was likely unable to synthesize more complex items. Additionally, the Glazed Immortal Eyes might not be able to synthesize high-grade items yet. The day after Elder Mo left, Tianyu Crane brought extra resources for the Pine Leaf Mouse—twenty low-grade Spirit Stones and a bottle of Spirit Recovery Pills. Lin Jing tried to have the Pine Leaf Mouse synthesize the Spirit Recovery Pills made from plant materials, but there was no response. After several attempts and realizing that the Glazed Immortal Eyes couldn’t activate resources beyond basic plant materials, they stopped trying. They guessed that secondary synthesis or biological synthesis might not be feasible for now. Thankfully, with the golden Spirit Rice, red Flying Leaves, and Spirit Bean Bombs, they had enough resources for the Dragon Ascension Festival. Sёarᴄh the novёlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "The scent of dragons is growing stronger..." The Pine Leaf Mouse was practicing in the yard, while Lin Jing continued his usual visits to the Scripture Pavilion to borrow and return books. In just a few days, many of the outer sect’s buildings had been decorated with dragon head lanterns. The Dragon Ascension Festival was just around the corner. "I wonder how Senior Brother Ouyang is doing. I’m sure he’s preparing for the Dragon Ascension Festival too. He’s about to establish his foundation, and he’ll need more resources." The Pavilion Guard had changed, and Lin Jing didn’t recognize the new one. They had no interactions, as he only borrowed some free books on the first floor. Through these few days of reading, Lin Jing learned more about cultivation knowledge. For instance, the true energy cultivated from each cultivation method was different. The Beast Taming Sect’s Beast Tamer Technique produced true energy that not only allowed practitioners to form bloodline contracts with spiritual beasts but also enhanced the roots and bloodlines of the tamed beasts. In other words, some fire-based techniques might produce true energy that has a burning effect, and some sword techniques might make the true energy as sharp as sword qi! The different cultivation methods and true energies determined what kind of spells cultivators should practice during the Qi Refining stage, and also affected their battle power at that stage. When one reaches the ninth level of Qi Refining, they can establish their foundation... This process is especially crucial for ordinary body cultivators. With the right foundation establishment technique, they could cultivate a later-stage spiritual body. Though the later-stage body might not be as powerful as an innate body, it would make future cultivation much easier. The ancient prince Elder Mo mentioned was a case where someone with an innate body also cultivated two additional complementary later-stage bodies. "The announcement for the Dragon Ascension Festival activities is out!" "Let’s go, let’s check out the central plaza!" As Lin Jing was about to return, voices of conversation reached his ears. Upon hearing this, he changed his direction and walked toward the central plaza. When he arrived, over a hundred outer sect disciples had already gathered. Although it couldn’t be called a crowd, it was still a bit cramped in front of the bulletin board. "Senior Brother Ziran was right. For this Dragon Ascension Festival, whether outer or inner sect, the main event will still be the ‘Dragon Battle Beast Fight’!" "This time, Elder Yu used spiritual bamboo to create mechanical bamboo dragons for the festival!" The disciples kept talking, full of anticipation. When they saw the rewards, there was an even louder gasp. --- Dragon Battle Beast Fight (Outer Sect) Activity Rules: Any outer sect disciple of the Beast Taming Sect can challenge the "Mechanical Bamboo Dragon (Qi Refining Seventh Level)" in the central plaza during the festival. The Mechanical Bamboo Dragon has a Dragon Orb, which comes in eight colors: white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple. During battle, the Mechanical Bamboo Dragon will change the color of the orb depending on the damage it takes or its own consumption. The orb starts white, and purple is the highest. When the orb reaches the red color, the first-level reward will be granted. The higher the orb color, the more generous and valuable the reward! Lin Jing looked at it, and the highest-level purple reward was... Hmm? Not a storage bag? Uh-oh, the Pine Leaf Mouse is going to be upset! Moreover, it didn’t look like something that could be sold! The highest-level purple reward was actually the "Ingenious Soul Core" and "Mechanical Technique (Basic Beast Creation)." The Ingenious Soul Core is the core material for creating mechanical beasts. Elder Yu... seems like he’s hiding something here!