Beast Taming: I Have an Immortal Mansion

In an underground tunnel about ten feet wide, Fang Qingyuan rounded a corner and saw a group of Shrimp Turtle Beasts hard at work digging for Spirit Stone Ore.

Patrolling near the Shrimp Turtle Beasts were several enormous Black-backed Spirit Dogs. Whenever a Shrimp Turtle Beast tried to slack off, one of the Spirit Dogs would approach with a low, threatening growl, forcing it to continue digging.

Only after Fang Qingyuan had fully rounded the corner did the Spirit Dogs notice his arrival. It wasn’t that their senses were dull; Fang Qingyuan had used a technique to conceal his presence.

The largest of the Spirit Dogs, evidently the leader, had just bared its fangs to attack when Fang Qingyuan slightly released his concealed aura, unleashing the spiritual pressure of a Late-stage Qi Refining Cultivator.

The Spirit Dog let out a whimper and immediately prostrated itself. The surrounding Shrimp Turtle Beasts also stopped their work and fell to their knees on the ground.

Seeing this, Fang Qingyuan took out the Array Token. The Spirit Dogs stopped struggling as soon as they saw it.

’It seems these Spirit Dogs recognize that I’m here to take over from Zhang Yuan.’ After putting the token away, Fang Qingyuan retracted his spiritual pressure and strolled among the Shrimp Turtle Beasts, preparing to get a closer look at this miraculous species capable of digging mines and leveling mountains.

One of the Black-backed Spirit Dogs saw Fang Qingyuan approach and moved its head forward to lick his hand, but a roar from Jinbao, who was behind Fang Qingyuan, scared it away.

At this, Fang Qingyuan turned and gestured for Jinbao to relax before placing his hand on the head of one of the Spirit Dogs.

These Black-backed Spirit Dogs were actually called Black Contracted Wolf Dogs, a type of Yellow Tier Lower Grade Spirit Beast. The cultivation of the dogs before him was equivalent to the Early-stage of Qi Refining.

When fully grown, a Black Contracted Wolf Dog’s shoulder was as high as a man’s. They were even more intelligent than the border collies from his past life, making them perfect work animals.

Using these Black Contracted Wolf Dogs to oversee the Shrimp Turtle Beasts was far better than hiring a few Qi Refining Cultivators. For one, you didn’t have to pay them wages in Spirit Stones; you only needed to feed them. It also effectively prevented the cultivator overseers from stealing what they were supposed to be guarding.

In the mine pit, just five Black Contracted Wolf Dogs were enough to manage over a hundred Shrimp Turtle Beasts. Their work ethic was impressive.

After petting each of the Black Contracted Wolf Dogs, Fang Qingyuan walked over to a Shrimp Turtle Beast. Upon closer inspection, he discovered its "hands" were a pair of large, heavy, and hard pincers.

When digging for Spirit Stone Ore in the tunnels, they could snip off a large chunk of ore-bearing earth with a single clamp of their pincers.

However, the Shrimp Turtle Beasts weren’t very intelligent. Their heads were narrow and pointed, and the brains inside were hardly bigger than a walnut.

Having observed the Shrimp Turtle Beasts, Fang Qingyuan signaled for the Spirit Dogs to have them resume their work. He then turned to a nearby mine wall to examine the raw ore.

The captivating Spirit Stones were hidden within this ore-bearing earth. With good luck, one might find a raw Spirit Stone after digging through just a few cubic feet of earth. If one’s luck was poor, they might not find a single one even after digging through hundreds.

Fang Qingyuan placed his hand on the mine wall, closed his eyes, and released his Divine Sense, letting it spread outward. Ever since advancing to the Late-stage of Qi Refining, his spiritual soul had more than doubled in strength. The current range of his Divine Sense far surpassed what it had been just a few days prior.

In an open space, Fang Qingyuan could perceive everything clearly within two hundred feet. Between two hundred and five hundred feet, his perception grew progressively blurrier with distance. Beyond five hundred feet, he could only rely on vague premonitions.

Now, as Fang Qingyuan extended his Divine Sense into the dense earth, he found it difficult to sustain after penetrating just seventy or eighty feet.

Moreover, Fang Qingyuan discovered that his Divine Sense was being consumed at a rapid rate. After just a few moments, he already felt himself growing fatigued.

Withdrawing his Divine Sense, Fang Qingyuan rubbed his brow. ’No wonder they don’t send Cultivators to personally prospect for ore,’ he thought. ’I’m exhausted after scanning just a thousand cubic feet of earth. It’s much better to just let these Shrimp Turtle Beasts dig through everything section by section.’

However, his probing hadn’t been entirely fruitless. After a moment of thought, he once again placed his hand against the mine wall. The moment he spread his spiritual energy, the section of earth his hand was touching abruptly vanished.

Meanwhile, inside Fang Qingyuan’s Immortal Mansion Space, a chunk of earth appeared out of thin air and fell onto a newly cleared, empty patch of Black Land.

Now that Fang Qingyuan’s cultivation had reached the Qi Refining Seventh Layer, his Immortal Mansion Space had also increased considerably in size.

It had leaped from half an acre at the Sixth Layer of Qi Refining to about a full acre now, nearly doubling in size.

By now, after several years of development, the original Purple Bamboo Forest had expanded considerably. It currently held three to four hundred stalks of purple bamboo, and the beehive within had also grown larger. In total, this area took up about a tenth of an acre.

Meanwhile, the ginseng, Wooden Sunflowers, and Black-stemmed Ophipogon—the three Spirit Plants he had planted as a set—hadn’t expanded much over the years and occupied a slightly larger patch of land.

As for the rest of the original half-acre, the pond took up a small portion, the silkworm house a larger one, and the final patch was used by Fang Qingyuan as a warehouse to store the spirit materials he had stockpiled from his trading runs over the past few years.

Fang Qingyuan had originally planned out the space in his Immortal Mansion meticulously, making efficient use of every part. However, with his advancement yesterday, another half-acre or so had appeared. It was actually causing him a bit of a headache. ’What in the world am I going to do with all this new Black Land?’

Of course, it was a good problem to have. He had previously expected the Immortal Mansion to expand by only a fraction of this amount. Based on the established pattern, the space only increased by a third with each new cultivation layer.