CH 26

If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, Chu Qi would have never believed that the palm-sized thing in front of him could have left shallow tooth marks in Long Yin’s blade with one bite.

Its appearance was somewhat unique.

At first, it only looked like a round stone, but after it dropped its disguise, two small horns appeared on its forehead and a pair of obsidian-black eyes. It had short, fat limbs and was squatting on the ground with its hind legs. There were golden scales along its back and knotted thorns extended from the tip of its slender tail, which flicked up and down according to changes in its mood.

Chu Qi had never seen a spiritual beast like this before.

“Wuwu.” It was still whining at Chu Qi while holding its broken tooth. The emotion that it showed in its small eyes made it look extremely pitiful.

“…”

Chu Qi’s heart softened for a moment and he cast a healing spell on it.

The spiritual healing technique couldn’t regrow the broken tooth, but it could relieve some of the pain.

At the side, Yan Jiuge walked back after he finished tempering Long Yin. Before he even took two steps, he saw the spiritual beast enjoying the healing spell.

“You don’t have to waste your spiritual power on it. It’s just a broken tooth. It’ll grow back by itself.” Yan Jiuge’s voice was cold.

“Lulu!”

The spiritual beast opened its eyes and protested loudly, as if to refute Yan Jiuge’s words.

Chu Qi asked Yan Jiuge curiously, “Ah-Yan, what kind of spiritual beast is this? It looks quite unique and doesn’t seem to be afraid of people.” Not to mention it seemed to have at least some intelligence.

“It’s not a spiritual beast, nor is it a yao.” Looking at Chu Qi’s inquisitive gaze, Yan Jiuge explained carefully, “It’s a rare beast, an existence born from the spirits of Heaven and Earth. It’s called a Gold-Swallowing Beast.”

“Gold-Swallowing Beasts like to eat spiritual stones as well as gold, silver, and iron ore. They will occasionally even drink spiritual essence. Most of the rare treasures in the world can enter its stomach. Their teeth are extremely hard and can cut through iron like mud, and their bodies are invulnerable to all poisons, swords, and arrows.”

“So powerful?” No wonder it could leave teeth marks in Long Yin’s blade.

Chu Qi was surprised.

“It’s just a fool that only knows how to eat.”

After finishing his statement, Yan Jiuge was disgusted.

“Lulu!”

The Gold-Swallowing Beast grunted at Yan Jiuge twice, turned around, and pointed its ass at him.

The two sides looked at each other with mutual distaste. Originally, they wouldn’t have spared the other a second glance, but there just so happened to be Chu Qi among them.

“How did the Gold-Swallowing Beast get under the spiritual spring? We were clearly looking for the core of it just now…” Chu Qi was a little puzzled.

Yan Jiuge: “You’ll have to ask it. If there isn’t a good spiritual mine around, the next best place would be the bottom of the spiritual spring.”

Chu Qi’s gaze fell on the Gold-Swallowing Beast.

“Lu!”

The Gold-Swallowing Beast lifted its forelegs and spread its paws towards ChuQi. There was a crystal-clear sphere in its palm, which was exuding a strong spiritual energy.

This should be the core of the spiritual spring.

“Lulu.” The Gold-Swallowing Beast’s short paw stretched out in Chu Qi’s direction again, displaying a particularly obvious attitude.

“This…” Chu Qi hesitated. He had only found this little creature today, and it wouldn’t be good to take its things for no reason. If the two of them competed for the core, it would be fine for the victor to take it with them, but since the other party took the initiative to offer it up, Chu Qi was hesitant.

“Go ahead. It just wants to take this opportunity to curry favor with you. It probably wants to be your contracted beast.” Yan Jiuge’s voice was a little displeased, but he still explained to Chu Qi, “Gold-Swallowing Beasts generally don’t act so clingy unless they’ve acknowledged someone as their Master.”

Although he didn’t really want Ah-Qi to raise such a thing, Yan Jiuge had to admit that the Gold-Swallowing Beast was at least a useful idiot when compared to some other spiritual beasts and yao.

Hearing Yan Jiuge’s words, Chu Qi’s eyes were filled with surprise.

He knew that after his spiritual root had changed to an extreme wood spiritual root, some pure and kind-hearted spiritual beasts would be attracted to him, like Yun Jiangmiao’s spiritual pet was.

But rare beasts like the Gold-Swallowing Beast were also attracted by his qi?

Figuring that the reason was most likely due to his spiritual root, Chu Qi still looked forward to raising the Gold-Swallowing Beast. He was quite fond of the little guy, but Yan Jiuge didn’t seem to like it very much.

He had been with Ah-Yan for a long time. If he were to raise a spiritual pet that he didn’t like there may be headaches in the future.

After careful consideration, Chu Qi decided to ask Yan Jiuge for his opinion, “Then would Ah-Yan mind if I raise it?”

As soon as Chu Qi finished speaking, two pairs of eyes flashed in his direction.

A gleam of pleasure flashed across Yan Jiuge’s eyes. He didn’t expect that Ah-Qi would ask for his opinion. Seeing that the arrogant Gold-Swallowing Beast suddenly became nervous, Yan Jiuge raised the corners of his lips.

“I don’t mind.”

No matter how useful a Gold-Swallowing Beast was, it was still him that had the most important position in Ah-Qi’s heart.

Thinking like this, when Yan Jiuge looked at the Gold-Swallowing Beast again, he even found that it looked a bit more pleasing to the eye.

“Make a contract with it. It’ll be able to help you find herbal spiritual veins in the future.”

Yan Jiuge’s voice softened a lot.

“Lululu…” The little Gold-Swallowing Beast lost a lot of its momentum. It never expected that it would have to rely on the ‘enemy’ to speak up for it.

But staying by this person’s side was so comfortable. It was even better than if it had eaten an entire spiritual mine for a year!

“Little guy, are you willing to follow me?” Seeing that Yan Jiuge didn’t object, Chu Qi turned his head and asked the Gold-Swallowing Beast.

“Lulu! Lulu!”

The Gold-Swallowing Beast nodded its head like it was pounding rice. As if it was afraid of Chu Qi going back on his word, it took two steps forward, opened its palm and used two of its sharp claws to pierce its skin.

A drop of blood was drawn, not too much and not too little. Just enough to sign the spiritual pet contract.

There were three types of spiritual pet contracts. The first was with a cultivator whose cultivation base was higher than the spiritual beast’s. They could take the blood of a spiritual beast and force it to sign a master-slave contract. Such a contract unilaterally bound the spiritual pet, and the cultivator did not have to bear any consequences.

The second kind was when spiritual beasts took the initiative to sign the contract. No matter the strength of the cultivator, the two parties would support each other to follow the contract.

The last was when the spiritual beast and the cultivator exchanged their heart’s blood. As a life contract, this kind was extremely rare. If one of them died, the other would soon follow. Cultivators would normally never take such a big risk.

The contract that Chu Qi signed with the Gold-Swallowing Beast was the second type. Based on the contract, if their fate came to an end, they would be able to undo it without any consequences.

After signing the contract, the Gold-Swallowing Beast ran around Chu Qi’s feet with its tail in the air, looking very happy.

Chu Qi sealed the core of the spiritual spring inside a jade box and placed it into his qiankun bag.

Looking around inside, Chu Qi saw how little space was left and said to Yan Jiuge, “Now that we’ve collected all the treasures, let’s go find Liu-shixiong and the others.”

“Lulu!”

A gurgling sound came from Chu Qi’s feet and the Gold-Swallowing Beast, which was still playing around, stopped and yelled at Chu Qi.

“What’s the matter with xiao-Jin1?”

Chu Qi decided to just call the Gold-Swallowing Beast xiao-Jin for the sake of convenience.

“Lululu.” While shaking its head, it pointed with its tail to the spiritual spring that had lost its core, signaling Chu Qi to go over.

After they had signed the contract, Chu Qi was able to understand what it was trying to say.

“There’s something under the spiritual spring? You want me to go there?” Chu Qi asked it.

“Lu!”

The Gold-Swallowing Beast nodded.

After getting a clear answer, Chu Qi turned around, “Ah-Yan, let’s go have a look.”

“Yes, it should be something good.” Knowing the habits of a Gold-Swallowing Beast, Yan Jiuge could roughly guess what was under the spiritual spring.

Like this, the Gold-Swallowing Beast led the way, bouncing at the front, while it was followed by Chu Qi and Yan Jiuge back towards the spiritual spring.

The sword energy that Yan Jiuge released hadn’t dissipated, and the spring water was still split. Two people and one beast easily walked to the bottom of the spiritual spring. 

Unlike the lake bottom that Chu Qi had envisioned, the sand and gravel beneath their feet wasn’t soft from being soaked in water, but rather as hard and stable as rock.

Shing—!

Just as Chu Qi started to get suspicious, Yan Jiuge, who was standing beside him, pulled out his spiritual sword and slashed at the gravel under his feet.

The sword energy penetrated deep into the ground, cracking the solid layer of rock.

The strength of Yan Jiuge’s sword was superbly controlled. It didn’t cut apart the entire layer, but only opened up a crack. With a muffled rumbling sound, the crack continued to extend deeper.

The Gold-Swallowing Beast jumped up to Chu Qi’s feet when Yan Jiuge drew his sword, and its tail stood up in fear.

It thought of how that sword had hurt it before, and realized that he had probably been holding back.

The tip of its tail brushed across its back to where the skin had been broken earlier. It was already healed by the healing technique, but seeing Yan Jiuge holding his sword now, the Gold-Swallowing Beast still had some palpitations.

The sword also broke one of its teeth! It would take a lot of spiritual stone ore to repair it.

When the movement underground gradually subsided, Chu Qi reached down to pick up the Gold-Swallowing Beast at his feet and asked, “Are we going to go down through the crack?”

The crack that Yan Jiuge cut looked to be very deep. The bottom was dark, without a hint of light, and no details could be seen.

“Lulu.” The Gold-Swallowing Beast nodded and jumped down from Chu Qi’s hands, ready to continue leading the way.

In fact, the Gold-Swallowing Beast had dug many tunnels for itself, but none of them compared with the crack that Yan Jiuge just opened. In addition, its Master couldn’t transform himself, so it would be easier to walk through this passage.

“Wait a minute.”

Yan Jiuge spoke up and stopped the Gold-Swallowing Beast that was about to jump down.

“Lu?”

The Gold-Swallowing Beast turned to look at him in bewilderment.

“You take this.” Yan Jiuge took out a night pearl from his qiankun bag and tossed it to the Gold-Swallowing Beast.

The Gold-Swallowing Beast caught it in a daze and looked down at it. This gleaming bead looked very beautiful.

“Don’t eat it!”

Almost at the same time as Yan Jiuge’s words sounded, the Gold-Swallowing Beast had opened its mouth to take a tentative bite of the night pearl.

“…”

When it heard Yan Jiuge, the Gold-Swallowing Beast raised its head with innocent eyes, but its mouth swallowed subconsciously, taking the bitten piece into its stomach.

The bitten night pearl was still emitting light, and it seemed that it could still be used.

However—

Chu Qi’s eyes uncontrollably drifted to the belly of the Gold-Swallowing Beast. The piece of the night pearl that it had swallowed was shining through its stomach.

Miraculously, it seems that the light would still shine through the belly of the Gold-Swallowing Beast.

“Xiao-Jin must have swallowed it into its stomach…” Chu Qi was a little worried. The appearance of a glowing Gold-Swallowing Beast was quite disturbing.

Yan Jiuge sneered at it. He had specifically reminded it before, but he still couldn’t hold back the mouth of the Gold-Swallowing Beast.

Seeing that Chu Qi was worried, Yan Jiuge said, “It’ll be fine. It’s immune to all poisons, but eating strange things will have an effect on its appearance. If it eats some poisonous ore for example, its whole body will turn black for a while. It’ll go back to normal after its been digested.”

“Lulu…” The Gold-Swallowing Beast was aggrieved. It thought it looked strange with a glowing belly. If it had known it would be like this, it wouldn’t have eaten the pretty thing.

Yan Jiuge raised his eyebrows, “Lead the way. This will at least save you from having to carry the night pearl in your arms. You can just be a night pearl directly.”

Originally, the purpose of giving the Gold-Swallowing Beast a night pearl was to let it light up the path ahead.

Although Golden Core stage cultivators could see in the dark, doing so used up a lot of energy. Yan Jiuge wasn’t sure how deep the treasures underground were, so it would be easier to carry a night pearl.

Unexpectedly, the Gold-Swallowing Beast took a bite out of the night pearl, and could directly replace it.

As the Gold-Swallowing Beast walked forward, it looked a little depressed at having eaten something strange. With its head drooping, it didn’t make a sound.

Chu Qi originally wanted to comfort it, but whenever he mentioned the night pearl, the Gold-Swallowing Beast became even more depressed. After thinking about it, he decided that it would be better to keep silent and avoid poking at its sore spot.

—

Entering the fissure, Yan Jiuge could initially fly with Chu Qi on his sword, but as they went deeper, there was only enough room for a single person to fit through.

Yan Jiuge initially wanted to slash with his sword energy again, but he was stopped by the Gold-Swallowing Beast.

“Lululu!”

This place was very close to the spiritual jade vein. If Yan Jiuge used his sword, it may damage it.

That’s right, deep beneath the spiritual spring, there was a vein of spiritual jade that had been accumulating for tens of thousands of years. It was likely to contain— no, it should be said that it must contain spiritual marrow jade. After all, since the Gold-Swallowing Beast had led them here, it was hard to imagine just how rich this spiritual jade deposit was.

When there was no longer any way forward, Chu Qi and Yan Jiuge stopped in place. The Gold-Swallowing Beast then opened its mouth and began to eat through the rock in front of them.

The Gold-Swallowing Beast ate so fast that Chu Qi couldn’t even discern the movement of its mouth. In the blink of an eye, the stone in front of them was gone.

Chu Qi looked at the little guy and wondered aloud, “Xiao-Jin eats so much, but his body doesn’t change size. Where does it all go?”

The amount of rock swallowed by the Gold-Swallowing Beast just now was many times its own size.

“The Gold-Swallowing Beast digests the stone it eats very quickly. The residue will be secreted out of its skin and fall off. It repeats this in a cycle, similar to our cultivation.”

“Incredible.” Chu Qi thought that when he returned to the sect, he would have to go to the Library Pavilion to take a good look at the records of rare beasts and catch up on some knowledge that he had overlooked before.

While the two were talking, the Gold-Swallowing Beast had already gnawed through a passage that could accommodate a person, and was calling them over.

The passage led directly to the center of the spiritual jade vein. With just a step, Chu Qi could already sense the profound spiritual aura contained inside.

Even the stone that was gnawed out by the Gold-Swallowing Beast was covered in half-exposed spiritual stone veins!

As long as the concentration of spiritual energy was sufficient, they could be directly cut into the size of a spiritual stone and used for currency or for cultivation.

Chu Qi took a closer look and found that the concentration of spiritual energy in these spiritual stone veins was very high. It was not at all inferior to the spiritual stones he had in his qiankun bag.

Who would have thought that just before entering the Yunxi Secret Realm that Chu Qi was worrying about how to save money, and that right after he entered, he would directly discover a whole vein of it!

It was a pity that his qiankun bag was running out of room. It was impossible to stuff a whole vein of spiritual stones into it and bring it back.

Putting that aside, Chu Qi turned his attention to the path ahead. The further he went, the thicker the spiritual energy became.

Towards the end, just by standing there, the surrounding spiritual energy rushed to the two of them. Without even spending effort to cultivate, their bodies were absorbing spiritual energy spontaneously.

“There will probably be a large piece of ten-thousand-year spiritual marrow jade inside. Otherwise the spiritual energy would not be so thick.” Yan Jiuge speculated.

Chu Qi knew how valuable spiritual marrow jade was.

Spiritual marrow jade was a legendary treasure. It was a piece of pure white chalcedony condensed inside a ten-thousand-year spiritual jade vein. Cultivating near it would achieve twice the results with half the effort. It was also an extremely rare refining material. It was said that spatial spiritual tools that could carry living things and form a small world of their own required a piece of spiritual marrow jade.

Although Chu Qi and Yan Jiuge had some guesses in their hearts, when they saw it with their own eyes, they were still shocked by what they saw.

This piece of spiritual jade was ten chi wide, and it was embedded in the center of the spiritual jade vein. Around it, there was dark blue spiritual jade that was thickly piled up to a length of a hundred chi, and the depth was self-evident.

“Lulu!”

The Gold-Swallowing Beast ran to Chu Qi’s feet and pointed its tail in the direction of the ten-thousand-year spiritual marrow jade to signal him to take it.

It was important to remove the spiritual marrow jade without damaging the spiritual jade vein surrounding it.

A cultivator needed to condense spiritual power to disconnect the marrow jade from the jade vein. The whole process needed to be done using spiritual power.

After listening to Yan Jiuge explain the necessary precautions, Chu Qi took out several bottles of spiritual rejuvenation pills from his qiankun bag, taking half for himself and giving the other half to Yan Jiuge.

“The two of us each deal with half?” Chu Qi asked Yan Jiuge for his opinion.

“Okay.” Yan Jiuge nodded.

The Gold-Swallowing Beast at the side didn’t say anything as it rubbed its bulging belly. The night pearl had already been digested, but it ate too much when it was clearing the way.

Spiritual marrow jade was different from other ores. Taking a small bite could make the Gold-Swallowing Beast sleep for a long time, since it took all of its strength to digest it. It was generally not eaten very often.

But now that it planned to leave this place with its new Master, this would have to be taken away. Otherwise, it would be a waste to leave it here.

The Gold-Swallowing Beast hiccupped, and it looked around the place it used to live. A trace of nostalgia flashed through its eyes.

At the other end, after discussing things, Chu Qi and Yan Jiuge began to dig out the ten-thousand-year spiritual marrow jade.

Two strands of spiritual power burst out from their bodies. The wood spiritual energy was gentle, while the fire spiritual energy was aggressive. Wood fuels fire, which adds to its momentum. 

Chu Qi probed the boundary between the spiritual marrow jade and the vein surrounding it using his spiritual power and found that the two were closely connected. It would be a little difficult to separate them.

However, when Chu Qi sent more spiritual power in, he found that the spiritual marrow jade would naturally approach the flow of his spiritual power, as if it was separating on its own.

Seeing this, Chu Qi followed this method to dig out the spiritual marrow jade.

Compared with Chu Qi’s methods, Yan Jiuge’s were much more brutal. The fire spiritual energy was very aggressive as it burnt away any impurities at the boundary.

Although his sword energy hadn’t been condensed, his spiritual power was sharp like a sword, slicing through the boundary.

The two cooperated tacitly, and the speed of digging out the spiritual marrow jade was twice as fast as they had anticipated.

As they were about to dig out the entire spiritual marrow jade, Yan Jiuge paused and was the first to withdraw his spiritual power.

“Ah-Qi, you put it in your qiankun bag.”

Spiritual marrow jade was such a precious treasure and was very beneficial to medical cultivators. Yan Jiuge didn’t need it, so it would be better for Chu Qi to take it for himself.

“Okay.” Chu Qi was a little tired after consistently using his spiritual power for such a long time, so most of his attention was on the spiritual marrow jade, hoping to dig it out and rest as soon as possible.

In the end, his wood spiritual energy wrapped around the whole piece of ten-thousand-year spiritual marrow jade, and dug it out from the spiritual stone vein.

Chu Qi immediately put the whole thing into his qiankun bag.

The pressure suddenly eased and Chu Qi breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to turn his head to talk to Yan Jiuge, he saw Yan Jiuge’s face change suddenly.

“Ah-Qi, be careful—!”

“Lululu!!”

The accident happened in an instant, and the peaceful atmosphere came to an abrupt end.

Before this, they hadn’t noticed any abnormality in the spiritual stone veins.

Boom—!!

After Yan Jiuge’s voice fell, a loud noise exploded over Chu Qi’s head. Spider web-like cracks formed suddenly in the surrounding spiritual stone veins.

A huge hole appeared in the place where the ten-thousand-year spiritual marrow jade used to be, but now that it was gone, it was easily knocked open by an external force.

Spiritual stones and dust kept falling from the hole, hitting them in clusters.

Regardless of etiquette, Yan Jiuge stretched out his hand and took Chu Qi into his arms to guide him away from the falling debris. With a gesture from his empty hand, Long Yin unsheathed itself and flew into his grasp.

“Hold onto me.”

In the chaos, Yan Jiuge spoke to the person in his arms.

Chu Qi leaned his head on Yan Jiuge’s shoulder and his waist was hugged tightly by the other’s hand. That hand was very strong, and it pushed Chu Qi’s body closer to Yan Jiuge’s chest.

Before he realized what had happened, Chu Qi only had time to follow Yan Jiuge’s words. He stretched out his arms and hugged Yan Jiuge’s waist, so that he wouldn’t distract the other.

Boom—!!!

The sound of the collapse expanded, and it felt as if the entire mountain was trembling.

Chu Qi turned his head and looked towards the source of the movement.

Amidst the chaotic falling rocks, the Gold-Swallowing Beast chased after their figures. Behind them, the place where the ten-thousand-year marrow jade had been had turned into a massive hole.

From the hole, half of a ferocious head that looked somewhat like a snake, but was definitely not a snake, protruded out. It stared at them angrily with its reptilian eyes, exuding a terrifying and oppressive aura around it.

After seeing that head, the words that Yun Jiangmiao had said earlier appeared in Chu Qi’s mind—

“What does a yao look like? We will know it when we see it.”

[1] Literally means ‘little gold’