Chapter 553: A Unique Pairing And An Alternative Method

Lin Mu was sure that the Black water snake was here to attack the Fire Fang Snake, but he instead saw it bringing a corpse of another beast instead. It placed it at the side of the Fire Fang Snake who was resting with its eyes closed.

~Hiss~

The Black Water Snake woke up the Fire Fang Snake because of its movement.

~hiss~

The fire fang snake weakly hissed before looking at the beast's corpse. It then lifted its head from the large tree hollow and revealed the rest of its body. The Fire Fang Snake was actually quite big, but because it was all coiled up, it was hard to see the rest of its body.

The Black Water snake was smaller compared to it. The Fire Fang snake opened its mouth and swallowed the beast's corpse whole. 

Upon seeing this, Lin Mu realized that the Black Water Snake was probably the mate of the Fire Fang Snake.

"Strange…" Lin Mu muttered upon seeing this.

He felt a bit confused and took out the Jade slip to go through the beast records he had.

"Hmm… Fire Fang Snakes primarily live in the southern part of the Great Zhou continent near the Scorch Sand Desert." Lin Mu read.

He continued reading more about the Fire Fang Snake and learned a few more things such as the fact that the Fire Fang Snakes make couples when they are young. But seeing as this one was at the peaks stage of the core condensation realm, Lin Mu reckoned it was brought here when it was much weaker.

"Looks like when the Ripple Mist sect brought it here, it must have been a child. They let it off here to grow, and it formed a pair with the Black Water snake when it could not find another Fire Fang Snake." Lin Mu stated.

"This is indeed a rather unique pairing, I must say. Both the beasts are of opposite elements and yet they managed to pair up." Xukong said, finding it interesting as well.

Lin Mu nodded his head and observed the two beasts for a while. 

The Black Water Snake was weaker than the Fire Fang Snake and was at the late stage of the Core condensation realm instead. Seeing its submissive attitude with the Fire Fang Snake and its cultivation base, it was evident that the Fire Fang Snake was the one who had probably forced it to pair up with it.

While Lin Mu was watching them, an idea suddenly appeared in his mind.

"Senior, beasts have the same kind of a breakthrough as humans when they reach the Nascent Soul realm, right?" Lin Mu questioned.

"Yes, mostly it is the same. Though beasts are likely to have stronger bodies than most other Nascent Soul realm cultivators at the same level as them." Xukong replied.

"Then is their tribulation lightning the same too?" Lin Mu asked.

Hearing this, Xukong got an inkling of what Lin Mu probably wanted to do.

"Yes, it's the same. No matter where you go Tribulation lightning will be same, the only difference will be in its quality and strength." Xukong replied.

"Then, if the Fire Fang Snake has a heavenly tribulation, I should be able to steal it as well." Lin Mu said with a smile.

"YES!" Xukong exclaimed. "The Nurturing Heart Sutra! If you use it on the Fire Fang Snake, it should improve its talent which would probably cause it to start its breakthrough and trigger the Heavenly Tribulation." 

"Exactly senior. This way I won't have to piss off any other cultivators and would still be able to break through to the Nascent Soul realm. Even if this Fire Fang Snake is not able to trigger a heavenly tribulation, I'm sure there should be more beasts that are in the same stage as it is." Lin Mu said.

"Indeed, that could work." Xukong agreed.

Having made a decision, Lin Mu decided to act on it. He first left the tree and found a better place so that he could chant the nurturing heart sutra and create the Beast Qi. Lin Mu was not as proficient with the Nurturing Heart Sutra as he was with the other three ones and thus needed to be undisturbed.

The first three sutras he now had for over two years, while the Nurturing Heart sutra in his possession for barely a day now. Lin Mu thus found a rather isolated tree and sat at its crown. It was a large tree, quite like the one the Fire Fang Snake was nesting in. Expect this one was still alive.

Lin Mu closed his eyes and chanted the Nurturing heart sutra, making the spirit Qi within his Dantian boil. It then started to reduce at a rapid pace until half of it was gone in less than five minutes.

All of this spirit Qi was converted into a thin string of energy that floated above the spirit Qi sea of Lin Mu. This was none other than the Beast Qi!

Lin Mu opened his eyes as he realized he didn't have much time before the Beast Qi would become unstable and leave his body forcefully. Either that would happen or it would just dissipate, since Lin Mu was not a beast.

At least this time, there was no reaction from the beasts of the forest when he chanted the Nurturing heart sutra. Though the sutra was also in the first level of external comprehension while the other three sutras were at the second level of the external comprehension.

Lin Mu didn't know how long it would take for it to reach the same level and what changes would happen when it really did. 

~huu~

Lin Mu let out a breath as he observed the string of beast Qi in his Dantian.

"Well then. No use waiting, let's get to it," Lin Mu said before jumping down from the tree and approaching the location of the Fire Fang Snake.

~hiss~

The moment he got within two hundred meters of the beast, he heard a loud hiss.