Vessel of Worlds

Beyond carving out the stone rooms and the passage, Andy also took particular care in renovating the earth-fire chamber to better suit his working habits.

The whole undertaking took several days, and by the end of it Andy was thoroughly drained, his spiritual sense and spiritual power both heavily depleted. He collapsed onto his bed and slept soundly for two full days.

When he woke, his spiritual sense had mostly recovered; the rest needed only further rest. He picked up a high-grade water-attribute spirit stone to replenish his spiritual power while reading a red jade slip with his spiritual sense.

This slip had come from the storage pouch of the Great Void Sect's Kuang surnamed cultivator. That Senior Brother Kuang had truly been worthy of the title of master craftsman—though his own cultivation had only been early-stage Foundation Establishment, his understanding of artifact forging had been profound and his experience vast. The jade slip contained detailed methods and insights from the several hundred artifacts he had forged across his lifetime. To Andy, this slip was worth no less than the Red Cloud Thirteen Needles themselves.

He intended to use some of his beast materials to craft a few spirit tools that would boost his strength without drawing too much attention. His Frost Dragon Bow and Ice-Fire Shield—one offensive, one defensive—were both superb mid-grade spirit tools, but he didn't dare display them openly. Both required mid-grade ice-attribute spirit stones to operate, and stones that expensive were far too conspicuous.

To improve his forging success rate and further raise the quality of his artifacts and spirit tools, it was well worth the effort to read, absorb, and fully integrate every crafting text in his possession.

Deep in the jade slip, Andy suddenly remembered something. He set aside the crafting text for the moment and took out the slip containing A Thousand Talks on Spirit Beasts, obtained in Dragon Descent Valley from a Hundred Spirits Sect cultivator.

He had skimmed it once before without paying it much mind. Later, after acquiring the Bitter Cold Flood Dragon eggs, he had read it through again and found the method for incubating them.

The method was simple enough. Even left entirely alone, the eggs might hatch on their own at any time—but that could take years, decades, or even more than a century. If the eggs were placed beside a spirit eye object rich in spiritual energy, however, the incubation could be accelerated, generally hatching within a few months to a few years.

Since leaving Dragon Descent Valley, Andy had been either sealed away in the crafting workshop or on the road, never able to settle anywhere long enough to incubate the eggs. Now he had a Spirit Eye Spring. Tiny as it was, it still counted as a spirit eye object—it should serve perfectly well for hatching the eggs.

Before incubation, though, he needed to perform a master-bonding ritual on the eggs. That way, the beasts that hatched would obey his every command, becoming his spirit beasts and lending him their strength. Given the Bitter Cold Flood Dragon's power and the boundless evolutionary potential of the flood dragon line, Andy held high hopes for these future companions.

Andy took out a jade bowl, filled it halfway with water from the Spirit Eye Spring, then nicked his finger with a small knife artifact and squeezed several drops of vital blood into the bowl.

The blood floated on the springwater like blossoming red flowers, gathering without dispersing.

He then took up a talisman brush, stirred the blood evenly through the water, and soaked the brush thoroughly. Following the instructions in A Thousand Talks on Spirit Beasts, he painted a circular rune more than two chi across on a patch of level ground. That done, he removed all five Bitter Cold Flood Dragon eggs—four green and one white—from his spirit beast pouch and placed them upon the rune.

He cut his finger open again and dripped several drops of vital blood onto each egg. Then, as the jade slip directed, he softly recited a brief incantation and struck a hand seal into the circular rune.

The rune flared with a faint bloody light, and the vital blood on the eggs abruptly sank into the shells and vanished, leaving not the slightest trace behind.

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Andy felt a stir of satisfaction. By all appearances, the bonding had succeeded.

He then lowered the bonded eggs into the Spirit Eye Spring and placed several high-grade ice-attribute spirit stones beside them to enrich the spiritual energy. After a moment's thought, he added a high-grade wind-attribute spirit stone as well.

Back at the market, Andy had deliberately exchanged for a number of mutated-attribute low-grade spirit stones across several separate transactions—wind, ice, and thunder stones—and had enhanced them into high-grade stones, keeping them in reserve.

With the bonding ritual complete, Andy immersed himself once more in the crafting texts.

...

Half a month later, Andy took his crafting materials to the earth-fire chamber.

Another half month after that, he emerged well satisfied, returned to his dwelling, and began producing a batch of high-tier Qi Condensation talismans.

For a Foundation Establishment cultivator, such talismans were admittedly somewhat lacking in power—but in sufficient quantity, they could still be a great help.

And for Andy at early-stage Foundation Establishment, both mastering high-tier Qi Condensation spells and committing them to talisman form had become effortless, as natural as water finding its course. His success rate at talisman-making was still not especially high—around three in ten—but that was more than enough to yield a sizable stockpile.

Several months later, judging his preparations complete, Andy left Luojia Island and flew toward West Star Island.

Before departing, he checked the flood dragon eggs and found no sign of hatching—they would simply have to keep soaking in the Spirit Eye Spring. As for the high-grade spirit stones, after much deliberation, he retrieved them one by one and returned them to his storage pouch.

The Six-Wheel Spirit-Severing Formation and the Heaven-Covering Twin Poles Formation stood guard, but if some cultivator with an unusual secret art managed to breach the dwelling and laid eyes on high-grade spirit stones, the consequences would be dire.

As a further precaution, he arranged subtle telltale mechanisms throughout the dwelling. They offered no defensive value, but if anyone ever intruded, he would know at a glance.

With all that done, Andy flew for West Star Island.

In the West Star Island market stood the largest beast-material shop in the region, which bore a name better suited to a poetry house or teahouse—the Dao Discourse Pavilion.

The Dao Discourse Pavilion occupied an expansive plot and rose three stories. The first and second floors held counters selling beast materials of every description, while the third floor was, quite literally, a tearoom—serving cultivators of Foundation Establishment rank and above free of charge.

Naturally, it had become the favorite venue for Foundation Establishment cultivators of West Star Island and its subordinate islands to socialize and meet friends.

As the Dao Discourse Pavilion's fame grew, the third-floor tearoom gradually became the place where Foundation Establishment cultivators got acquainted and assembled beast-hunting teams.

As it happened, the current season was the peak period for beast hunting, and the tearoom held a good number of Foundation Establishment cultivators—far livelier than usual.

For Foundation Establishment cultivators, hunting in teams of four or five was both much safer and much faster than hunting alone. Andy, too, felt it prudent to join a hunting team first and build experience before considering whether to operate solo.

He had assumed he was an unknown here—yet the moment he stepped into the tearoom, someone recognized him.

"Fellow Cultivator Zhao! More than half a year since we last met—how have you been?" The big man's voice boomed out, and not by transmission either, instantly drawing the attention of the twenty-odd cultivators in the tearoom to the refined young man who had just entered. The speaker was none other than the stubble-faced big man who had once contested Luojia Island with him and become an acquaintance through that bout—the self-styled Xun San.

"Fellow Cultivator Xun! Half a year, indeed—your cultivation has grown even more refined!" Andy clasped his fists toward the big man and returned each gaze that turned his way with a smile. Every person here was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, most of them mid-stage or above, with two or three at late-stage.

Yet Andy noticed something odd: though these people were seeing him for the first time, the looks they gave him varied wildly. Some were quite friendly, others icily indifferent—and a few even carried an unmistakable trace of anger, which left him baffled. Most, though, remained flat and unreadable.

Under the big man's enthusiastic welcome, Andy had little choice but to take a seat at a tea table near him. Also seated nearby was a cold-faced young man, likewise at mid-stage Foundation Establishment. The moment Andy sat down, a shapely, beautiful young woman brought over a cup of fragrant spirit tea.

As she drew near, Andy caught a faint, elegant scent—he couldn't name it, but it was deeply pleasant, and he let his gaze linger on the girl a moment longer.

The girl tactfully offered him a courtesy. "Please enjoy, Senior," she said, and glided away.

Seeing Andy's lingering glance, the big man said in a low voice: "What does the fellow cultivator think of her? Though if we're talking beauty, West Star Island has more than a few who outshine that girl. Take our Fourth Sister—now there's a true beauty, fresh as spring water. Isn't that right, Second Brother?" This last was directed at the cold-faced young man beside him.

Before either Andy or the cold-faced young man could reply, a gentle female voice drifted from the tearoom entrance: "Third Brother Xun, flattering me like that—aren't you afraid people will laugh?"