Powerful and dangerous as enemies, loyal and brave as allies, spirit beasts could be a great asset to a cultivator. Beast tamers ranked among the most useful and difficult professions. The common taming method required trust to forge a contract between souls but methods varied from winning loyalty through gifts to brute force.
Spirit beasts possessed intelligence, tradition, and values. Some valued friendship, others power. The contract established a master-servant relationship but many proud spirit beasts would never take a master. What most cultivators didn’t know was that two other professions related to spirit beasts existed.
The beast summoner relied on mystic arts to create powerful spirit beasts. Those, although only copies of the original, carried their might, fueled by spirit energy or rare energies. They had a time limit before disappearing.
The most mystical and rarest was the spiritual beast oracle. Only a handful of people knew about them in the lower realms. Those few possessed deep cultivation, and even they could mistake the oracle for a beast summoner. Oracles mixed the powers of tamers and summoners, communicating with spirit beasts and spirit beast souls, tearing apart the bridge between Heaven and Earth.
Aside from behaving like a beast tamer and summoning beasts like a true summoner, the oracle activated special treasures called [jade spirit beast tokens].
Once the bond between a spirit beast and another being reached a profound level, a superior connection appeared. A true bond of friendship and love, capable of transcending time and defying the heavens. Oracles called this bond [Primordial Thread].
When a spirit beast died, the thread bound its soul to the cultivator. A spiritual beast oracle transferred the soul to the jade spirit beast token, turning it into a jade guardian, a spirit that protected its bonded one. Sometimes the guardian lived on even as the bonded one died.
Yet that wasn’t the true capability of the oracle as he could summon the soul of the spirit beast in its true form and body. The true spirit beast revived, not merely its soul or a temporary invocation!
Spiritual beast oracles were scarcer than unique physiques. The power didn’t appear because of a special bloodline or talent but as a gift from the Heavens, the [Beast God’s Blessing]. With a complex process, the creation of the jade token itself needed a skilled refiner and rare materials. Stronger beasts required stronger containers.
Once an ancient beast that reached the apex of the Upper Realms died with a primordial bond. A great spirit beast oracle transferred its soul to a peerless jade token, creating the legendary guardian of a powerful sect.
It was a power with too many unreachable requirements on the Lower Realms, but one that could dominate an era on the Upper Realms. As long as the jade token stayed intact, the oracle could remold the spirit body of the jade guardian. Even if destroyed, as long as the beast’s soul remained, it could be bound again.
How could Ming Ren not stare in disbelief when this girl pulled out a jade spirit beast token, summoning its true spirit and body? Not its soul, but the true spirit beast. This power surpassed even an ordinary Beast God’s Blessing.
This group thought of it as a common summoning treasure with a spirit beast pet. They weren’t afraid of showing it to outsiders since only low-ranked clans found it valuable, and only the girl could activate it, turning into a common jade in the hands of anyone else. Would they dare carry it around knowing its true value?
“Little Red,” the green-haired girl shouted. The white and red rabbit raised its ears and opened the eyes, spreading immortal sense.
Ming Ren wanted to faint. This wasn’t a mere spirit beast… but an ancient beast! It spread immortal sense instead of spiritual sense, available only to immortals. It was probably an inborn immortal ancient beast that died at the Spirit Sea Realm, or somehow lost power until it stayed in that lower realm. Ancient beasts were rare even in the Upper Realms, how in the Heavens did one appear here?
The elder watched Ming Ren with curiosity. The young man was composed before, why does he look about to faint right now? Was he that hungry?
Little Red finished scanning the surroundings, shook its head, and returned to the jade token. The crumbled token from before reconstructed itself.
“There, are you happy, Little Fu? Little Red is never wrong!” The green-haired girl said with a smile.
“Don’t call me Little Fu! Fine, he can stay for now. Lin Shu, you give him some spices, bowl, and a cooking pot,” Little Fu pointed at Ming Ren, “But we won’t eat with you! Who knows what you might do to the food! And you eat over there!”
Everyone looked at the elder who sighed and nodded. This Little Fu, must he always be this rude?
The other girl, much smaller in stature, took out some things from the bag such as spices, a bowl, and a cooking pot, and passed them over to Ming Ren with a shy smile.
“Thank you,” Ming Ren smiled and bowed. The girl slightly blushed. Ming Ren didn’t insist since they didn’t object to Little Fu. He took the scaled greenbeast and moved further away. Inquiring about the girl and the jade spirit beast token would only give birth to suspicion.
Ming Ren didn’t need to eat inside the scripture so he skipped it. However, he also studied cooking, and once fed thousands of troops about to go into battle. At a royal banquet of some obscure nation, he served as the royal cook. He read thousands of cooking books and fed thousands of people!
‘Do I really need to finish this by myself?’ It would be a waste to put it back into the space ring after preparing the dishes. Cultivators ate a lot more than common people, although at higher cultivation they didn’t need to. The space ring was an amazing treasure, but being low-grade and fake it had flaws. It slowed down decomposition but wouldn’t preserve things for a long time, all the stored meat would eventually rot.
Ming Ren went into the woods, took the unranked peak sword, made a huge fire, a medium fire, support for the meat, and a very large pointed stake. Making such a big fire was dangerous, but he had spiritual sense up, why would he be afraid?
The elder wanted to warn him against it at first, but the boy walked around the Vagrant Woods by himself, so he had a few tricks up his sleeve. In any case, Little Red already scanned the surroundings. Little Fu looked at Ming Ren and laughed, “What an idiot, does he want to attract every spirit beast in the area? Even if we light a fire, it’s a small one! How is he going to cut through the scales to the meat? Look, it has no exterior wounds, it probably died naturally.”
Ming Ren raised the sword in his hand. The moment he got serious the surrounding air seemed different, sharper.
Little Fu burst in laughter, “Hahahahaha… that’s so funny, using a sword to cut a scaled greenbeast? Does he think the sword is a treasure or something? It looks normal to me!”
The elder sighed and kept looking at Ming Ren. Wait until I report your behavior to the patriarch, Little Fu, let’s see who will keep laughing then…
Ming Ren would rather use a butcher’s knife, but where would he find one sharp enough? He could only do things this way. With a kick, he tossed the beast upward in the air.
Elder, Little Fu, others: “😱😱😱😱😱”
He weaved the sword up and down at greatest speed without stopping, slashing as he moved around. Lin Shu and the green-haired girl couldn’t help but become mesmerized at the beautiful sword dance.
Ming Ren Style Sword Art – [Dance Of The Clear Sword!]
Each slash looked random, but he aimed at the weak spots of the beast, avoiding the scales and cutting only skin and flesh. The scales flew on one side, the rest of the body on the other. Before the body could land on the ground, Ming Ren once again kicked it upward. He cut it up with ease without the scales, raising the very large stake and letting it fall on it.
Elder, Little Fu, others: “😱😱😱😱😱”
He put it on the support, finished cleaning the insides, and saved the good parts. Not a single drop of blood fell on him, it all landed on purpose inside a circular-shaped scale. Ming Ren took the cooking pot and tossed in the spices and some herbs from earlier. He tempered the meat and put it over the large fire using the support.
Roasted scaled greenbeast meat-on-a-stick!
He used some blood along with the good parts of its inner organs on the cooking pot, tossed spices and put it on the other fire.
Scaled greenbeast bloody stew!
Little Fu and the others couldn’t close their jaws, was this young man in front of them a master cook? Spirit beast parts nourished cultivators since they also absorbed the Qi of Heaven and Earth. The meat tasted better, spiritual energy enriched blood cleansed impurities and strengthened the body, but most cooks only used the meat and wasted the rest. They didn’t have enough resources to experiment, a small mistake, and it tasted terrible. Ming Ren used everything else that benefited the cultivator, including blood and inner organs.
“S-Show off! It probably doesn’t even taste go-”
A heavy and irresistible aroma filled the air. Sort of familiar, sort of unknown. Little Fu’s mouth instantly became watery. The stew.
Little Fu still suppressed his upcoming urges to criticize again when another aroma came with the killing blow. The roasted lizard meat.
Lin Shu couldn’t help but ask, “Elder, should we eat together…?”
She really wanted to but didn’t dare be too forceful about it. It also tempted the elder, “Little Fu, how ab… Little Fu?”
When he looked to the side, Little Fu was already gone.
The green-haired lady giggled and pointed to the front. Little Fu was already over at Ming Ren’s place carrying his bowl!
“Hehe, good brother, why are you going to eat over here alone? We must eat together!”
Elder, Ming Ren, and the rest: ‘SHAMELESS!!!!’