Chapter 111: Three Arts
The contract was done and Fengyu breathed a sigh of relief.
There was nothing major, everything happened smoothly and his panel didn’t act up.
He looked at the dissipating tower and asked, "Is this a totem?"
"Fellow daoist has good insight. But this isn’t a totem - rather, it’s a combination of the Human Dao’s Royal Path and the Wu Dao’s Shaman Path. This is the foundation of our city, created by countless cultivators’ work." the man said proudly after regaining his power.
"I shall also give a feedback according to your abilities. Since most cultivators know themselves best, we will try to find a task for you now before testing you, this is to speed up the process. So, what do you think are your three strongest abilities?"
Fengyu looked at the man and thought for a moment, "My strongest strength should be Spiritual Breeding, followed closely by Healing and finally general Spiritual Herding."
"The city has many breeders. Although our inheritance in herding isn’t large, we still have several Inner Citizens that focus on feeding the city. Still, we could find a minor task for herding, tell me which beast you herd. And finally, your main task will most likely be on the Medical Path, that is, as long as you’re willing to take the Medical Path Inheritance."
Fengyu looked at this but didn’t reply directly, instead asking, "Senior, I herd ducks. Also, contract said that I can take one Cultivation Art and one Creation Art Inheritance. May I take them first?"
"No problem. Here, this is a catalogue of all our Transcendent Arts and Inheritances." the man seemed prepared and directly took out a small catalogue, presenting it to Fengyu.
Fengyu took it and saw dozens of arts - but most had basic names. Such as Wood Transcendent Art. Reading the description, he saw it was a ’foundational transcendent art’ that should be practiced by cultivators who haven’t decided on their path yet. This art can work as transitional art before switching to another art, or it can be modified by the cultivator.
There were a few more specific arts, like the ’Lava Fountain Spiritual Art’, ’Great Lake True Art’, etc.
He looked over them, trying to find arts directly related to the two production creation arts and five crafting creation arts. As a creation artist, he naturally preferred a cultivation art that could directly play into his strengths.
At the end of the catalogue’s Chapter for cultivation arts, he did indeed find what he was looking for - but, to his surprise, they were quite lacking.
In the creation arts, the two arts each have yin and yang sides. The orthodoxy is that Spiritual Herding is yang, while Spiritual Planting is yin. There was no issue in this regard, and he could guess why there wasn’t yin herding and yang planting...
But when he looked at the five crafting arts, he was surprised that even they weren’t complete.
Fire Weapon Refining, Water Alchemy, Wind Sewing, Wood Talismans and Earth Formations.
This was the orthodoxy, even though he didn’t quite understand why, since it was, he could only say that it was.
This orthodoxy was also complete. What should have followed were the other elemental variations of these crafting creation arts...
But these were sparse. Only Fire Alchemy, Wind Refining, Fire Sewing and a few others could be found, which was rather lacking.
’No, I am confused. These are all transcendent arts - this means having them creates a true lineage. How many practice them is a different matter, but simply having them is proof of the city’s inheritance! But this also means a cultivator cultivating either of them will have a big advantage in that regard, while other cultivators trying to follow these arts will have a minor disadvantage.
Of course the problem isn’t that large, and there are many people like me, who practice two or three arts. This means that specialised cultivators will have an advantage, while non specialised cultivators won’t have a large advantage.
And this advantage being small is only for cultivators who also practice these transcendent arts. Compared to those that don’t... well, the difference will likely be huge.’
Fengyu calmed down after a moment of thought, instead returning to the Spiritual Herding cultivation art and the other two beast taming cultivation arts he found -
< Spiritual Herding True Art: Lead your herd onto the path of Immortality! >
< Spirit Beast Lord Art: Create a Beast Clan leading all Spirit Beasts! >
< Beast Soul Wu Art: Extract the souls of beasts to enhance yourself! >
Fengyu read through their short description and was rather confused. The first was naturally fitting for his own situation, but the other two...
One seemed more like the art of a beast rather than that of a human, while the other seemed more like a battle art rather than a taming art.
"Fellow daoist, you’re probably looking at the three Beast Taming Arts listed here. I have to remind fellow daoist that these arts are only the part open to the public, but the founding families each have their own unique inheritances. If you wish to gain their inheritance, I also have a catalogue regarding this. But you will have to make different contracts with them." as the cultivator said this, he already took out another catalogue.
Fengyu shook his head, "I am satisfied with the choice here, I just want to ask these two arts, the Lord art and Soul art... they don’t seem quite fit for normal tamers."
"Oh, that’s because they’re not. Fellow daoist should know that our city is called the Spirit Beast City. So naturally, we also offer arts for Spirit Beasts! They usually live in the south-west, which is why fellow daoist probably hasn’t met them yet. Once you enter the north or west parts of the city, which are a lot larger, you will realise how many there are.
Once some beasts reach the third stage, they have the intelligence of a human cultivator. By then, they will usually have awakened an Innate Beast Cultivation Art. But not all their arts are suitable, especially not those of minor beast races.
The Spirit Beast Lord Art is an art dedicated to the clan lords of these beasts whose own innate inheritance is weak, giving them the chance to create a new inheritance. The speciality of this art is that it can create sub-arts for its beast clan.
As for the Beast Soul Wu Art, well it’s an art based on the shamanic Beast Soul Warriors of the Warrior Path in the Wu Dao. It is a great battle art and not a beast taming art."