Beast Taming: I Have an Immortal Mansion

Later, as Fang Qingyuan’s cultivation improved, he obtained Yinbao for his meritorious service at Shandu Mountain, but he never considered using any Beast Taming Techniques on the creature.

Fang Qingyuan saw Yinbao as a Camel Beast, not a War Beast. For a Camel Beast, speed was the top priority. Training Yinbao for combat was completely unreliable.

After becoming an Inner Sect Disciple, Fang Qingyuan received his first Spirit Beast for free: a Golden Jade Scorpion-tailed Bee Queen. He didn’t intend to raise this Bee Queen as a War Beast, either.

Among the free Spirit Beasts distributed by the sect, the highest available was only Yellow Tier Middle Grade. For Fang Qingyuan at the time, the amount of Spirit Stones needed to select a better one was an astronomical sum.

He didn’t want a subpar War Beast and couldn’t afford a good one. Left with no choice, Fang Qingyuan chose the Yellow Tier Middle Grade Golden Jade Scorpion-tailed Bee Queen, opting for a production-oriented path. At the time, he figured it would be great if it could just help tend his Spirit Plants and produce some Flower Nectar for him to sell.

After Fang Qingyuan formed a contract with it and nurtured it for a while, the Bee Queen had become a wonderful surprise.

Then came the appearance of Jinbao at the foot of Qingfeng Mountain. A Heaven-tier Middle-grade Spirit Beast! It was as if a mountain of gold had fallen from the sky. Although the process had been somewhat unpleasant, the technique the Nascent Soul Giant Beast had inflicted on him was nearly gone, having been drained away over the past seven or eight years.

It was only at this point, after obtaining Jinbao, that Fang Qingyuan decided to truly follow the path of the Beast Taming Sect, rather than piling all his resources onto his own cultivation like Jiang Kui and other Cultivators.

The Beast Taming Sect was a super-sect, controlling a mortal population numbering in the tens of millions. In terms of territorial expanse within this world, the Beast Taming Sect was second only to Qi Yun.

This meant that the Beast Taming Sect was an inclusive place where many different paths flourished. Although Beast Taming Techniques remained the mainstream and the ancestral path, many members did not choose to follow the beast taming route.

This was because the beast taming path consumed far too many resources, which could hinder one’s own progress. Furthermore, Spirit Beasts developed slowly. It was common for a Master to reach the Golden Core realm while their Companion Beast was still at Foundation Establishment. In some cases, a Master might reach the Nascent Soul realm only for their Companion Beast to have already died of old age.

Thus, some disciples of the Beast Taming Sect felt it was better to keep all those resources for themselves rather than raising a Companion Beast in the early stages. They could wait until they became Golden Core or even Nascent Soul Cultivators, with ample lifespans, and then start fresh with a new Companion Beast.

This way of thinking was quite popular among the new generation of Cultivators. For the past several thousand years, less than half of the Cultivators who advanced to the Nascent Soul realm within the Beast Taming Sect had a Nascent Soul Companion Beast.

’If you can’t get a good Spirit Beast, it’s better to have none than to settle.’ This was what Jiang Kui thought, and Fang Qingyuan suspected Zhang Yuan thought the same.

Fang Qingyuan had originally shared this sentiment, but the appearance of Jinbao made him cast the thought aside.

Jinbao could kill a Late-stage Qi Cultivation Cultivator even when it was only at Early-stage Qi Cultivation. ’Right now, nurturing Jinbao is far more worthwhile than focusing on myself.’

The "Unity" effect of the [Unity Soul-Locking Hammer] could strengthen his connection with Jinbao. With this hammer, he would be able to communicate with Jinbao more effectively, both in and out of combat.

In addition to its "Unity" effect, the [Unity Soul-Locking Hammer] also possessed a "Soul Locking" effect. When used, it could lock onto the soul of any cultivator whose soul was at least three times weaker than his own, making it possible to interrogate them for information.

Of course, this could only be used on a subdued target. If used in the middle of a battle, it could easily be nullified by various Body-Protecting Spirit Shields.

Because their effects were rather peculiar and their attack power was rock-bottom among Second-order Magical Artifacts, this pair of [Unity Soul-Locking Hammers] was not very practical. As a result, they couldn’t fetch a high price, and Fang Qingyuan ultimately acquired them for seven thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones.

And that was considering the [Unity Soul-Locking Hammer] came as a pair; two hammers are always more expensive than one. ’Otherwise, I would have dared to offer five thousand.’

In addition to this pair of [Unity Soul-Locking Hammers], Fang Qingyuan had also purchased several other Magical Artifacts, spending a considerable amount of Spirit Stones. It was just that these artifacts couldn’t see the light of day just yet.

Just as Fang Qingyuan was busy refining his newly acquired Magical Artifacts, a piece of news arrived from Celestial Gate Mountain. It was like a tiny whirlwind born from the duckweed in a pond, which gradually grew into a hurricane that could swallow heaven and earth. By the time it reached Fang Qingyuan, it was powerful enough to devour even a Cultivator like him from the remote wilderness, not even spitting out the bones.

The news was this: Wei Tong—who had lived for four hundred and seventy-five years, reigned as the overlord of the Southern Border for half his life, and annihilated countless powerful foes—was dead, just as the new year festivities were about to begin.