novelraw Chapter 207 - 204: Breeding
Chapter 207 - 204: Breeding
’I have perfect, meticulous control over my own body; otherwise, I never would have discovered it.’
’The cultivation to open a Life Acupoint can begin in the Early Stage of Refining God, but the prerequisite is observing the Life Acupoint’s location.
This is also the most difficult step in opening a Life Acupoint.
Life Acupoints are so named because every living being possesses them. Furthermore, their locations can change, potentially appearing in any part of the body.
Their function is to absorb Void Power. This power is similar to the Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy, only it is much harder to capture and absorb.
According to the information recorded in the Taiyin Life Acupoint Atlas Divine Summoning Technique...
...the notes explain that the more Life Acupoints one opens, the denser the absorbed Void Power becomes. Eventually, after forming a Life Map, one can use the three Divine Treasures of Essence, Qi, and Spirit, in combination with the Life Map, to undergo another transformation and reach a new realm. Those ancient beings named this realm the Void Realm.’
Hu Qi mused to himself.
However, this was all merely the ideal scenario envisioned by the Taiyin Life Acupoint Atlas Divine Summoning Technique.
Even its creator never had the chance to truly take that step.
He was destroyed along with the Miwu Civilization.
Drawing back his attention, Hu Qi looked at his palm.
With a thought.
The next moment.
A frigid chill spread from his palm.
In an instant, both the desk and the coffee table before him were covered in a layer of silvery-white frost.
’The intensity is just average. But the strength of the power should be related to the amount of Void Power stored within the Life Acupoint.’
Hu Qi concluded.
He wasn’t surprised by this. After all, this was only the first Life Acupoint, and its ability was merely a side effect. What truly mattered was the Life Map that would eventually be formed.
...
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, more than two months had passed.
During this time, the Spiritual Materials and Treasure Medicine promised by the Holy Rain Sect and the Sword Pavilion had arrived, totaling a hefty six hundred kilograms.
As Hu Qi had expected, the vast majority were low-grade Treasure Medicines effective only for Secret Martial Artists in the Qi Blood Realm.
The small remaining portion was barely useful to the Martial Arts Families, and as for Treasure Medicines that could affect Qi Dao Grandmasters or Refining God Venerables, there were none at all.
Hu Qi didn’t mind.
He had made the demand just to spite them. He never expected to receive anything good; they certainly wouldn’t have given it to him.
Even so, six hundred kilograms of Treasure Medicine was a huge sum for the Shexin Sect.
Previously, due to the system Hu Qi had established, the Shexin Sect’s demand for Treasure Medicine had risen sharply.
But now, with the news of Hu Qi becoming a Refining God Venerable spreading, the surrounding Schools all rushed to curry favor with the Shexin Sect, sending over large quantities of Treasure Medicine and Spiritual Materials.
This had refilled the Shexin Sect’s treasury once more.
To please and latch onto the Shexin Sect, after learning that the sect was capturing Black Blood Species and law-breaking Secret Martial Artists, as well as collecting Exotic Beasts...
...they even took the initiative to dispatch their own disciples to help with the collection and capture.
And the Shexin Sect didn’t have to give anything in return.
The reason was simple.
The Shexin Sect was no longer the Middle-tier School it once was.
With a Refining God Venerable presiding over it, it had become the eighth Upper-tier School in the Xia Federation.
It was only because so little time had passed that the strength of its disciples couldn’t compare to the other Upper-tier Schools.
However, this was a minor issue.
When it came to a School’s power, the strength of its disciples was secondary.
What mattered was the upper limit of the strongest Secret Martial Artist’s power within the School.
With Hu Qi’s power to shatter the Divine Barrier, even if he were a commander with no army and only a few Qi Blood Realm disciples, his School would still be considered an Upper-tier School.
Conversely, even if a Middle-tier School had a dozen Qi Dao Grandmasters, it would still remain a Middle-tier School.
The division of Schools into lower, middle, and upper tiers already explained everything.
At this moment, thanks to Hu Qi.
The Shexin Sect’s resources of various Spiritual Materials and Treasure Medicine had increased. Coupled with the recent abnormal surge in Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy...
...some geniuses were gradually emerging, and even some Secret Martial Artists who had been stuck at bottlenecks for years were showing signs of their blockades loosening, on the verge of a breakthrough.
Of course, for the time being...
...this situation was more obvious for Secret Martial Artists in the Qi Blood Realm. As for the Martial Arts Families and Qi Dao Grandmasters, while there were changes, they weren’t particularly significant.
However, this was of great benefit to the development of the Shexin Sect.
As the number of lower-level Secret Martial Artists in the Qi Blood Three Transformations Realm grew, the number of them breaking through to the rank of Martial Arts Family was bound to increase as well.
...
「Anshan City.」
Near the outskirts, inside a massive, shell-shaped silver building.
The interior was divided into numerous areas of varying sizes by panes of transparent glass.
In a corridor.
Dai Shu walked in the lead. Hu Qi had reverted to his original appearance.
Every few steps, they passed armed guards and staff members in white uniforms.
Upon seeing Hu Qi and Dai Shu, these people would respectfully stop whatever they were doing to greet them.
Before long.
Hu Qi and Dai Shu stopped in front of a transparent glass wall.
"Minister, just last night, the pregnant White-backed Black Bear successfully gave birth to three cubs.
Currently, after a series of comprehensive examinations by professional staff, the cubs are all in normal condition."
Dai Shu then pointed to a corner and explained to Hu Qi.
Inside this enclosure, in front of a man-made cave, two enormous, black-furred bears were nestled together.
From their appearance, they seemed to be a male and a female.
Nearby were three smaller, fluffy little cubs.
However, these bears were different from ordinary black bears. At a glance, they were incredibly robust, and they even had a ridge of bone-white spines, like a dorsal fin, running from their heads to their tails.
This was the origin of their new name, White-backed Black Bear.
The name was chosen for better differentiation; what they were originally called was not important.
In other enclosures, there were other Exotic Beasts, such as the Two-Headed Blood Crow—a crimson creature with two heads that could emit an extremely piercing and unpleasant cry.
And there was the Winged Pig, which looked as round and pink as a domestic pig but had six feathered wings on its back, allowing it to fly and fart continuously.
These were the Exotic Beasts that Hu Qi had collected during his time in the Inner Earth World. He had used the Twisted Light to alter their forms and bring them to the surface.
There were twenty-six in total, comprising thirteen species, with one male and one female of each.
At the time, he was limited by time, and because he needed a male and a female of each species for breeding, he had only managed to find this many.
After returning to Zhu Xi, he had arranged for people to specialize in raising and breeding them to see if large-scale artificial farming was possible.
As for his own identity, he used his Helinta alias to grant himself the authority to manage this breeding facility.
Now, after several months.
The breeding of these Exotic Beasts was already showing initial success. Through artificial intervention, some of the Exotic Beasts had become pregnant.
For example, the White-backed Black Bears before them.
Being an Exotic Beast really made a difference.
The gestation period for an ordinary black bear is about six to eight months.
But for this White-backed Black Bear, from successful conception to birth...
...it took just over two months to successfully deliver three cubs.
ROAR!
Seemingly noticing Hu Qi’s gaze, the larger and more robust of the two—clearly the male—stirred.
It was a full six meters long. If it stood up, it would be as tall as a two-story building, like a small moving mountain, exuding a terrifying sense of pressure.
At this moment, the fur all over its body stood on end like steel needles, and its eyes were blood-red.
Its blood-red eyes were filled with fury and rage.
It opened its massive maw and let out a deafening roar. Its enormous body charged straight toward Hu Qi and Dai Shu like an out-of-control war chariot.
Its momentum seemed powerful enough to shatter anything in its path.
However, just as the White-backed Black Bear was about to crash into the glass wall, several blinding flashes of electricity erupted from the ground.
The powerful current coiled around the bear’s body in an instant, like a swarm of vicious vipers.
The bear’s charge came to an abrupt halt. Its body stiffened, and the electric current made its fur stand on end.
Then, almost instantly, the legs of this mountain-like White-backed Black Bear gave way.
Its massive body collapsed as if all support had been pulled from under it, crashing heavily to the ground.
Due to inertia, it slid forward some distance before finally coming to a stop.
Beside the cave, the female White-backed Black Bear saw this and let out a low growl, her body trembling slightly.
She then pulled her three newborn cubs into her embrace, clearly afraid of something.
The intelligence of a black bear is in the upper-middle range of the animal kingdom. As a mutated Exotic Beast, the White-backed Black Bear’s intelligence was nearly equivalent to that of a seven or eight-year-old child.
Combined with their much stronger physique and the inherent aggressiveness of most Exotic Beasts...
...many control measures had been put in place to better manage them.
This floor taser was one such measure. It could instantly release a powerful voltage exceeding the beast’s tolerance, causing it to lose all ability to resist in a moment.