allonlinenovel Chapter 8 Low-level Beasts
Chapter 8 Low-level Beasts
Shen Yao hadn't slept so comfortably and soundly until dawn in a long time.
Last night, I was thinking about my past life and recalling Bai Luo's memories. I fell asleep while thinking about it. I didn't even know when the golden beetle returned last night.
Of course, she didn't know that the golden beetle went out again at dawn.
"Knock knock knock, junior sister, junior sister."
Shen Yao woke up but didn't want to get up, still lying in bed enjoying the fragrance of flowers and the tranquility. Then she heard a knock on the door and a clear, playful female voice calling out "Junior Sister".
Shen Yao whispered to the Purple Cloud Golden Beetle, "Is it calling me?"
Golden Beetle: "It's Lu Qingqing, she's calling you."
Shen Yao quickly stood up and responded loudly, "Coming, coming!"
Shen Yao opened the door, and sure enough, it was Lu Qingqing.
Lu Qingqing, wearing a pink short-sleeved shirt and with her hair in two buns, looked at Shen Yao with a beaming smile: "Junior Sister, you're finally up."
Lu Qingqing handed Shen Yao a package of oil paper: "Senior Brother called everyone to go hunting early this morning. I've called you several times already. I didn't know how long Junior Sister would sleep, so I went to the kitchen to get some food because I was worried you'd be hungry."
Shen Yao took the oil paper package; it was still warm, presumably because her junior sister had been keeping it warm with her fire elemental power.
Such a thoughtful junior sister, no wonder the whole sect dotes on her, who else would they dote on if not her!
"Junior sister is so kind, senior sister likes you!" Shen Yao praised enthusiastically.
Lu Qingqing said shyly, "Junior Sister likes you too."
Shen Yao liked this junior sister more and more as she looked at her: "Wait for me a moment, senior sister is going to wash up."
"Okay, Junior Sister."
The disciples' quarters have a separate washing area, with men and women separated. The washing area has four raised platforms, and water flows out from between leaf-shaped stone slabs on each platform. There is a water trough on each platform, and the water flows into the trough and then into the drainage ditch outside.
Beside the platform stood two small trees, each a little over a meter tall, with many small, oval-shaped green fruits growing on them.
Shen Yao picked a fruit, removed the stem, and white juice gushed out.
Squeeze the juice into your mouth and gargle for a moment to clean your oral cavity.
After washing up, Shen Yao went back to her room to change her clothes and set off with Lu Qingqing.
Passing the Spirit Herb Hall, Shen Yao realized that this was the direction leading to the back mountain: "Isn't the back mountain a forbidden realm? How can we go in?"
"The Grand Elder said that demons appeared in the woods behind the mountain, and they have already dealt with them. Now, strange beasts have all come out and are blocking the entrance, so he asked the disciples to go hunting them down," Lu Qingqing replied.
Lu Qingqing said happily, "There are so many strange beasts. The sect leader said to keep the small ones and give the big ones to us as an extra meal."
Shen Yao had never seen a strange beast in person before, so out of curiosity she quickened her pace and soon arrived at the entrance to the back mountain.
The clansmen were already showing off their skills inside. When Shen Yao took a look, she thought, "Good heavens, this is no hunting ground. It's more like a breeding farm, with exotic beasts everywhere. You can catch one just by reaching out."
The second elder stood guard at the entrance, forming a hand seal to open a gap in the barrier, urging them: "Go in quickly, you are only allowed to hunt the big ones, not the small ones."
These strange beasts were oddly shaped, most of them were ugly, and their colors were all grayish; not one of them was brightly colored and pleasing to the eye.
The scene was chaotic, with the beasts charging and crashing in all directions. The clansmen mostly fought in groups of three or five, working together to deal with these low-level beasts.
There are just too many.
A strange beast that looked like a wild boar but had no tusks charged towards Shen Yao, and Shen Yao turned and ran.
As he ran, he raised his sleeve and said to the golden beetle, "What should we do? I can't use Bai Luo's spiritual power. So many of my fellow clansmen are here. If I don't make a move, my identity will definitely be exposed."
Golden Beetle: "You hurry up and run away, create some distance from the others, I'll help you kill them."
Shen Yao ran like the wind, heading deeper into the area where there were no clansmen.
The fangless beast pursued relentlessly. It seemed that since the other disciples were too difficult to bully, this one was finally easy to provoke, and it was determined to vent its anger.
Having distanced herself considerably from her fellow clansmen, and estimating that none of them were paying attention to her, Shen Yao turned around to face the strange beast directly.
The golden beetle's bamboo-like antennae twitch, gathering energy for its attack.
A golden beam of energy shot out, instantly killing the low-level beast.
"Amazing! Amazing!" Shen Yao exclaimed.
The golden beetle said smugly, "Isn't Dad awesome? How about it, aren't you impressed by Dad's coolness?"
"So cool! So cool!" Shen Yao showered him with compliments without restraint: "Awesome! As expected of the sect leader, amazing!"
The golden beetle spread its wings and flew out: "Go and collect that beast corpse, we'll have it as a treat when we get back."
"Yes, Master!" Shen Yao smiled and happily went to collect the beast's corpse.
Shen Yao thought no one from her clan had noticed her, but Zhao Cheng had actually seen everything.
As the senior disciple, Zhao Cheng naturally had to ensure the safety of his junior disciples while participating in the hunt himself.
He had seen Junior Sister Bai being chased to the side by a low-level adult earth spirit beast early on, so he quickly dealt with the other beasts he was fighting and caught up with Junior Sister Bai.
He found it strange when he saw Junior Sister Bai being chased by a low-level earth spirit beast without fighting back.
Just as he caught up and was about to make a move, he saw Junior Sister Bai suddenly turn around and unleash the energy of her Golden Spiritual Root. He quickly concealed himself and hid to the side.
Zhao Cheng knew that Bai Luo possessed mid-grade spiritual roots of wind, wood, and water, so when he saw his junior sister Bai unleash her golden spiritual power, he knew there must be a secret behind it.
Then, a red and black insect flew out from Bai Shimei's body, and Bai Shimei even talked to the insect, which made it even more unbelievable.
While Junior Sister Bai collected the beast carcasses, Zhao Cheng hurriedly returned. He would hunt down the strange beasts first, and then report to his father.
The hunt for the strange beasts was very fruitful, and the clan members were overjoyed. After washing up and resting, they all gathered in the kitchen to wait for a big meal.
"How was the Qiu beast we hunted today? Pretty fat, huh? I hunted it!" Zhao Bin said, patting his chest.
"Let me tell you, the fatter the Qiu beast, the tastier it is. Hey, don't be fooled by its fat body. Cut it into small pieces, boil it to remove the blood, dry it, then fry it for half a minute, and then pour boiling oil over it."
Zhao Bin made a gesture of inhaling with delight: "Mmm~ It smells so good, it's so rich but not greasy!"
The junior disciples surrounding Zhao Bin, seeing his blissful expression, also swallowed hard, their stomachs growling even hungrier.
Shen Yao got to know quite a few strange beasts today.
The strange beast that chased her, resembling a wild boar but without tusks, was a low-level earth spirit beast, skilled at digging and burrowing.
If these low-level earth spirit beasts encounter the right opportunity, they have a chance to grow into high-level earth spirit beasts.
Advanced earth spirit beasts not only grow tusks, but also grow sharp spikes all over their bodies. When Shen Suyao listened to the Golden Armor Beast's explanation, she imagined that it was just a wild boar wearing a hedgehog's skin.
High-level earth spirit beasts can also produce earth spirit pearls, which contain a large amount of earth spirit power and are of great benefit to cultivators with earth spirit roots.
While low-level earth spirit beasts are everywhere, high-level earth spirit beasts are extremely rare and very difficult to kill. Therefore, earth spirit beads are also very scarce. If a mid-level sect obtains an earth spirit bead, it can be used as a treasure to protect the sect.
The Qiu beast that Fourth Senior Brother Zhao Bin described had large ears, a short and stocky body, and no tail.
Shen Yao didn't know yet whether it would taste good or not, but the ears were indeed quite big.
Most low-level beasts cannot evolve again. Like most cultivators, whatever spiritual root they awaken at the beginning is basically what they are for their entire lives.
Cultivators with a fifth-grade or higher spiritual root have a chance to awaken a new spiritual root if they encounter the right opportunity. However, fifth-grade spiritual roots are extremely rare, and the probability of awakening a new spiritual root is even more extremely low.
If you pin your hopes on awakening a new spiritual root, you might as well just kill yourself and be reincarnated.
Reincarnation is also a skill; even an elder couple with a third-grade high-level spiritual root in a major sect wouldn't dare say they could give birth to a third-grade child.
Ordinary couples with ninth or tenth-grade spiritual roots will also have children of the same ninth or tenth grade.
That's why people say the Bai family's ancestral graves are emitting auspicious smoke. In ordinary families, it's rare for generations to produce a child who surpasses the parents' status. Yet, the Bai family produced two in one generation.
Zhao Zhen, a fifth-grade sixth-level spiritual root, married the daughter of the town chief of Xuanhu Town, an eighth-grade lower-level third-level spiritual root. Their eldest son, Zhao Cheng, and second daughter, Zhao Xuan, were respectively eighth-grade upper-level third-level spiritual root and seventh-grade middle-level fourth-level spiritual root.