Martial Immortality: Starting with the Spirit Beast Scroll

Zhao Lin was so excited because he had realized something: the Pipa Catfish’s powerful self-healing ability would be a massive boon to his cultivation!

Cultivating the Dao wasn’t something that could be accomplished through "hard work" alone.

The notion that you could achieve better results than others by simply cultivating for four sessions a day—or even longer—when they only cultivated for one, was completely unfounded.

Just like with scholarly pursuits or martial arts practice, cultivation was subject to the law of diminishing returns. The most diligent person wasn’t necessarily the one who came out on top.

Seven-tenths effort might yield seven-tenths reward, but with nine-tenths effort, you’d be lucky to get seven and a half.

That was one reason. There was another, more crucial one: the meridians and qi apertures had a limited capacity. Cultivators just starting on their path could only practice for a single session each day at most.

Exceeding this duration would drastically increase the risk of injury.

If one did get injured, a few days of recovery delaying their cultivation was a small matter. But if it left behind a hidden ailment that damaged their very foundation, the loss would far outweigh any gain.

That was why, at the start of their journey, the elders and senior brothers of the Spirit Dao Institute repeatedly warned disciples to act within their limits and not be overly "diligent" in their cultivation.

But... with a healing ability like the Pipa Catfish, those concerns would vanish!

Even if his meridians were damaged or his acupoints ruptured, he could recover in an instant.

Zhao Lin had an even bolder thought: ’If my cultivation hits a bottleneck, I could even use brute force to break through my qi apertures. Even if I fail and get injured, I’d recover quickly, with no lasting consequences to worry about.’

’Though the grade of my Spiritual Root won’t change, my cultivation speed will surely increase significantly, closing the gap between me and those with high-grade Spiritual Roots.’

’You can read all you want, but some things you have to see for yourself... If I hadn’t come here, I never would have imagined that the most suitable Essence Soul for me would be a Pipa Catfish!’

At this thought, Zhao Lin’s heart pounded with excitement. He immediately looked at the Pipa Catfish in the hands of the cultivator surnamed Hu.

To his surprise, he found that in the brief moment he had been lost in thought, the cultivator had already chopped it in two. The Essence Soul was long gone, flown off to who knows where.

’Damn it, my Essence Soul!’

Zhao Lin’s heart tightened, but he immediately remembered there was surely more than one Pipa Catfish in the lake. He could just catch another one. At this thought, his expression relaxed.

"Junior Brother Zhao, what did you just say? ’That’s the one?’ Who’s the one?"

His sudden shout had startled the cultivator surnamed Hu, who quickly asked for an explanation.

Zhao Lin, now calm, raised a hand in apology and explained with a smile, "Senior Brother Hu, you may not know this, but I am a Martial Cultivator."

"Though my Mana is weak, I have some attainment in the martial path. I just thought of a Cultivation Technique that could help you hunt the Pipa Catfish."

This explanation not only justified his outburst but also gave him a reason to go after the Pipa Catfish. Killing two birds with one stone.

"Really?"

The cultivator surnamed Hu paused, his tone a mixture of belief and doubt.

Zhao Lin just smiled. Without a word, he flicked his finger, and a stream of white mist shot from its tip.

The mist, straight as an arrow and radiating a frigid aura, shot into the water with a WHOOSH. It transformed into an ice dart that struck a pebble on the lakebed with a sharp CRACK.

After reaching the Primordial Realm, Zhao Lin had created several of his own Cultivation Techniques. This "Cold Ice Finger" was one of them.

He had actually also developed a Thunder Attribute Boxing Skill that was even more powerful, but using it in the water might harm the other fish.

Moreover, this Thunder Attribute Boxing Skill was lethal even to cultivators. Zhao Lin kept it as his trump card, not to be used unless absolutely necessary.

"Junior Brother Zhao, you’re amazing!"

The cultivator surnamed Hu blurted out his praise, but then sighed. "Actually, once you find a Pipa Catfish, killing it isn’t hard. The hard part is finding it in the first place."

"This fish usually lurks at the bottom of the lake, still as a rock. Even Divine Sense can’t detect it, which makes it incredibly hard to find."

Divine Sense serves as an extension of a cultivator’s eyes and ears, and one of its uses is to scan the surroundings.

At the Qi Refining First Layer, Divine Sense could cover a radius of ten zhang. At the Qi Refining Second Layer, it reached twenty zhang... and so, with each increase in cultivation level, the range of one’s Divine Sense increased by ten zhang.

Divine Sense is extremely important for a cultivator; its range determines the maximum attack distance of their Magic and artifacts.

But Divine Sense was not omnipotent. It struggled to penetrate solid objects, and its detection ability was greatly diminished in water.

The Pipa Catfish itself has the ability to conceal its aura, and being underwater, it was naturally difficult to find with Divine Sense.

However, Zhao Lin had his special skill: echolocation. Ultrasound traveled even faster in water, so this obstacle meant nothing to him.

Feeling confident, Zhao Lin chuckled and said, "I used to catch fish in the river all the time as a child. I have some experience with this. May I give it a try?"

"Well... alright then."

The cultivator surnamed Hu hesitated, then said, "Junior Brother is a disciple of the Spirit Dao Institute. Isn’t doing this kind of work a bit beneath you?"

Zhao Lin waved his hand. "Not at all. It’s a small effort. Senior Brother, there’s no need to be so formal."

Seeing his determination, Senior Brother Hu said no more. He picked up the oars and asked, "Which way should I row?"

"Senior Brother, you must be familiar with the places where the Pipa Catfish usually appear. Just row as you normally would!"

Zhao Lin didn’t want to reveal his echolocation ability, so he deliberately widened his eyes and stared intently into the water, putting on an act of searching carefully.

Although Senior Brother Hu didn’t think Zhao Lin could find any Pipa Catfish, the young man was a proper disciple of the Spirit Dao Institute. As a cultivator with a mere Mortal Spirit Root, he felt he couldn’t refuse, so he began to row.

Zhao Lin’s throat vibrated rapidly, and ultrasonic waves spread out silently in all directions, circle by circle.

With his current cultivation level, his echolocation was far more effective than Divine Sense. Not only did it have a greater detection range, but its positioning was also more precise.

Plankton drifting with the current, schools of swimming fish, swaying waterweeds, the uneven lakebed...

As the ultrasonic waves continuously bounced back, a clear picture of the underwater world formed in Zhao Lin’s mind.

About fifteen minutes later, Zhao Lin "found" a Pipa Catfish attached to a rock.

He didn’t immediately call it out. Instead, he pretended to peer in that direction for a while before pointing and saying in a low voice, "Senior Brother, look. There’s one over there."

Senior Brother Hu was stunned. He stopped rowing, leaned over the side of the boat, and peered into the water for a long moment. "There really is one!" he exclaimed in pleasant surprise.

He then turned back. "Junior Brother Zhao, you have sharp eyes! Let’s attack together so it doesn’t get away."

"Alright."

Zhao Lin nodded with a smile.

Senior Brother Hu rowed the boat forward a bit, stopping directly above the Pipa Catfish. He shouted, "One, two, three!"

As his voice fell, both of them struck at once—one with martial arts, the other with Magic—hitting the Pipa Catfish.

A moment later, the Pipa Catfish, now unconscious and unable to control its swim bladder, slowly floated to the surface.

Senior Brother Hu let out a couple of chuckles, grabbed the fish, slammed it onto the boat’s frame, and reached for an axe.

Zhao Lin quickly stopped him. "Senior Brother Hu, wait!"

Senior Brother Hu’s hand froze. "What is it?" he asked, confused.

"Could you let me handle this fish?"

"Why?"

Senior Brother Hu was taken aback. He glanced at the Pipa Catfish, and then, as if understanding, he immediately said, "Junior Brother, you may not be aware, but these Pipa Catfish are scavengers. Their meat is toxic—you must not eat it!"

Zhao Lin smiled and said, "Senior Brother, you’ve misunderstood. I don’t want this fish to eat it; I want to use it to practice my Magic."

Hearing this, Senior Brother Hu was even more baffled. "Practice Magic?"

"That’s right! To be honest, Senior Brother, I’m currently cultivating the Spirit Blade Skill, but when I cast the spell, it just hits empty air. It’s not very interesting."

"I noticed just now that this Pipa Catfish is tough and hard to kill, so I figured that practicing my Magic on a living target might be more effective."

"That sounds like a good idea. Why didn’t I think of that before?"

After hearing Zhao Lin’s explanation, Senior Brother Hu scratched his head and grinned. "By all means, Junior Brother, take it!"

With that, he took out a fish basket from behind him and tossed the Pipa Catfish inside.

Zhao Lin didn’t want to absorb the Essence Soul in front of someone else, so he asked, "This fish doesn’t die easily out of water, right?"

Senior Brother Hu laughed. "Don’t worry, Junior Brother. This fish can survive out of water for three days."

One Pipa Catfish was enough to absorb the Essence Soul, but Zhao Lin felt it would be rude to leave right away. So, he circled the lake for a while longer, catching two more Pipa Catfish before calling it a day.

Senior Brother Hu was incredibly grateful, thanking him profusely. He escorted him far beyond the boundary of the restricted area before waving goodbye.

Watching Zhao Lin’s departing figure, Senior Brother Hu nodded and muttered to himself, ’This Junior Brother Zhao is a really good person. Humble, kind, and warm-hearted.’

’He’s not like some of those other Spirit Dao Institute disciples who have no respect for us cultivators with Mortal Spirit Roots!’