Chapter 271: Chapter 268: Beast Taming Limit Break
In an instant, Su Yu felt his soul being violently dragged into a vast, primordial wilderness.
A series of images flashed before his eyes.
He seemed to become an ancient ancestor, following water and grass, using a bone flute to soothe a rampaging primordial mammoth.
Then he was like a Spirit Master from an ancient Beast Taming Sect, standing on a massive sacrificial altar formation, using a drop of heart’s blood to forge a contract with a ferocious bird of prey...
The long, weathered ages of constant Beast Taming intertwined and settled within his soul. When he suddenly opened his eyes, that profound understanding was branded deep within the core of his being.
[Lingxi Beast Taming Technique Limit Break successful. 1 Breakthrough Point consumed.]
[Awakened Trait: Lingxi Blood Pact]
[Trait]: Lingxi Blood Pact. All things have a spirit, and hearts can connect. You can form a unique soul-and-blood pact with a Spirit Beast whose intimacy has reached the required level.
After the pact is formed, the contracted Spirit Beast will receive nourishment from your Qi and Blood, allowing it to break its species’ shackles and undergo an evolution. At the same time, you will share one of the Spirit Beast’s core racial talents. The specific activation effect, duration, etc., will depend on the specific talent.
’Lingxi Blood Pact!’
’This Trait can actually make a Spirit Beast evolve! And it even lets me share and master one of its racial talents! This is just too powerful!’
Su Yu felt a thrill of excitement. ’Looks like this Lingxi Beast Taming Technique isn’t as weak as I thought.’
’Perhaps with continuous Limit Breaks, I can truly restore this Cultivation Technique to its supreme glory from ancient times.’
’Still, the Spirit Beast has to meet the intimacy requirement. That’s a bit of a hassle.’
Su Yu whistled. A moment later, a palm-sized bird with shimmering cyan feathers descended from mid-air. It was precisely the Cyan-Scaled Sea-Exploring Swallow that Su Yu had been painstakingly raising.
Upon seeing the little creature, Su Yu immediately felt a distinct sensation in his soul and instantly understood: his intimacy with it had reached the required level, fulfilling the conditions for a pact.
The familiar ink-wash characters immediately appeared before his eyes.
[Do you wish to form a Lingxi Blood Pact with the Cyan-Scaled Sea-Exploring Swallow?]
’As expected, I can form a pact with the Cyan-Scaled Sea-Exploring Swallow.’
Su Yu nodded but didn’t form the pact right away. He placed the little creature securely on his shoulder and turned to walk toward the lotus pond in the Inner Courtyard.
Arriving at the edge of the lotus pond, he focused his concentration, searching for fish in the water.
This large pond now housed more than ten rare and precious fish, all collected and delivered by that kid, Yang Gang, with great effort. Besides the precious fish, there were also the dozen or so ordinary koi that had been raised here from the very beginning.
The luck of these koi wasn’t bad; they had managed to survive in this pond nourished by Spiritual Qi, and each one had grown plump and robust.
Su Yu’s gaze swept over the school of fish one by one, but no text prompt indicating a possible pact appeared before him.
’Looks like the intimacy requirement is extremely high. I haven’t been raising these koi as long as the Sea-Exploring Swallow, but I’ve always been the one feeding them. Their intimacy should be pretty high, but to think they don’t even meet the threshold for a pact...’
’Since that’s the case, there’s only one choice. This little one has been with me for so long, this opportunity must be its destiny. It’s only right that I grant it this great fortune!’
Without further hesitation, Su Yu turned to look at the little creature on his shoulder and decisively activated the Lingxi Blood Pact.
He formed a sword gesture with his fingers, forcing out a drop of rich, crimson heart’s blood essence from his fingertip.
As the Lingxi Beast Taming Technique’s Cultivation Technique activated, the drop of blood essence rapidly traced and stretched in mid-air, transforming into a complex and ancient, dark-red soul rune.
The rune shimmered with a mysterious, faint light as it slowly drifted down, finally imprinting itself precisely between the Cyan-Scaled Sea-Exploring Swallow’s brows.
In that instant, the bodies of both human and bird trembled in unison. An invisible bridge, connecting their bloodlines and merging their souls, was established between them with a thunderous boom.
[Lingxi Blood Pact successful. Spirit Beast is beginning to evolve!]
The moment the pact was forged, the vast Qi and Blood within Su Yu’s body seemed to give rise to a mysterious energy that surged madly across the invisible bridge, pouring into the Cyan-Scaled Sea-Exploring Swallow’s tiny frame.
"SCREECH—"
The little creature let out a pained and high-pitched screech.
A layer of visible, blood-red gaseous flames instantly ignited on its body. Its originally fine cyan feathers burned away and fell off like withered leaves. Immediately after, a series of grating sounds of bones extending and popping echoed densely throughout the courtyard!
In the bloody light, its body madly expanded and elongated at a speed that defied all logic.
In just a dozen breaths’ time, a magnificent, giant bird with a body over one and a half meters long and a wingspan of a full two zhang tore through the blood-red flames, revealing its true form!
Its entire body was covered in sharp, hard, cyan scale-feathers that resembled lapis lazuli, as if it were clad in Heavy Armor. Its barbed beak and curved talons glinted with a terrifying cold light, while its pair of hawk-like eyes, like violet-gold glazed glass, radiated an untamable arrogance that looked down upon the heavens.
[The Cyan-Scaled Sea-Exploring Swallow has successfully evolved into a Cyan-Scaled Eagle.]
"SCREEE—!"
The successfully evolved Cyan-Scaled Eagle tilted its head back and let out a long cry that could pierce gold and shatter stone, its voice shaking the very heavens!
It violently flapped its wings, which were like cast iron, and the ferocious Qi Flow instantly whipped up a whirlwind in the courtyard.
The Cyan-Scaled Eagle transformed into a bolt of cyan lightning and shot straight into the clouds. It quickly ascended to a height of a thousand zhang, where it soared and tumbled with wild abandon, fully releasing its ecstatic joy at having broken its species’ shackles.
After circling several times above the Su Mansion, it suddenly folded its wings and dove down like a meteor. Just before hitting the ground, it decelerated with extreme grace and landed steadily beside Su Yu.
Its huge, fierce-looking eagle head rubbed back and forth against Su Yu’s palm with immense affection, making soft, cooing sounds.
’Wow, so this is a Cyan-Scaled Eagle?’
Su Yu stroked the cool, hard scale-feathers as the ink-wash text appeared before his eyes once more.
[Cyan-Scaled Eagle]
[Fledgling]
[Has successfully awakened a sliver of the diluted bloodline of the ancient great demon, the "Cyan-Scaled Wind Demon Eagle." It is born with the innate ability to control Qi Flow and ride the wind. Its scale-feathers are as hard as refined steel, and its talons can crush gold and shatter stone. Its potential is immense, with the possibility of further evolution.]
[Note: A being bound by the Lingxi Blood Pact will never betray you and is the host’s most intimate Spirit Beast companion.]
’Wow, it’s this big and it’s still just a fledgling? This Cyan-Scaled Eagle’s future potential must be off the charts. If it really can evolve into a Cyan-Scaled Wind Demon Eagle in the end, that would be incredible!’
Su Yu looked at the magnificent and powerful creature, growing more and more satisfied.
’Then again, I can’t really call it a "little one" anymore. It’s a meter and a half tall—almost up to my waist when it stands. Compared to it, a common goshawk would be the real "little one."’
"From now on, I’ll call you Qingyuan."
Su Yu patted its head and eagerly opened his panel. ’So, what racial talent did I get?’
Sure enough, a new line of information had appeared at the very bottom of the panel.
[Racial Talent]: Eagle Eye
[Talent Effect: After forming the blood pact, the host can achieve absolute shared vision with the Spirit Beast. When activated, your vision can soar with the eagle to the highest heavens, granting terrifying dynamic-tracking and micro-magnification abilities. It can easily pierce through clouds and simple Blinding Techniques.]
’Eagle Eye? An incredible talent. I wonder how it performs in actual combat.’
’Eagle Eye, activate!’
Su Yu tried to activate it by chanting the command in his mind.
The next moment, he felt a slight jolt in his mind, and his field of vision suddenly split in two, as miraculously as enabling a dual-monitor display while playing a game in his previous life.
He immediately focused, immersing his consciousness completely into Qingyuan’s perspective.
"Go, fly up!"
Su Yu felt a powerful flap of wings as the scenery on both sides blurred into retreating afterimages. An intense feeling of weightlessness and the g-force of shooting into the sky hit him at the same time.
The fierce wind howled silently in his ears as Su Yu’s vision rose with Qingyuan, rushing straight into the clouds.
Piercing through the thick, damp, cold cloud layer, a dazzling golden sunlight instantly flooded his vision.
Su Yu’s perspective followed Qingyuan as it flew levelly at a height of a thousand zhang. The entire Black Stone City, like a colossal ancient beast lying dormant on the earth, was laid bare before his eyes.
In the very center of his view, a wide, straight avenue, Black Stone Avenue, ran through the massive city like the beast’s grayish-white spine.
At the front of the avenue was the Inner City with its carved beams and painted rafters. Behind it was the Outer City, which seethed like a pot of boiling oil.
"Let’s see the east side of the city!"
At Su Yu’s thought, Qingyuan immediately understood. It slightly tilted its right wing, smoothly gliding on the high-altitude turbulence over the eastern part of the city.
With Eagle Eye’s superior dynamic vision, the orderly rows of glazed tiles below reflected dazzling specks of light. On the wide streets, a dense stream of luxurious carriages, like ants, passed by endlessly.
His vision cut like a sharp blade into a hidden, dark alley. Su Yu clearly caught sight of two men in black exchanging a blood-stained package in the shadows—a black market transaction for stolen goods.
"To the north!"
"SCREE—"
Qingyuan let out a long cry, flapped its wings hard, and caught an updraft, abruptly turning north.
Looking down from high above, Martial Arts dojos of all sizes were scattered like stars. The Eagle Eye’s vision zoomed in rapidly. On an open-air Martial Arts Arena, more than ten bare-chested, burly men were sweating profusely as they pounded on Ironwood Stakes. The sparks from the hammers striking the stakes mixed with their Qi and Blood, rising like invisible smoke signals.
This was the new Martial Arts tournament stage established by the Four-Family Alliance; it was almost completely set up.
Qingyuan continued its flight, heading west.
The wind tore at his ears, and the colors in his vision instantly shifted from vibrant to bleak and gray.
This was the place where the poor of Black Stone City struggled to survive!
The Eagle Eye pierced through the low-lying, dilapidated shantytown. Beneath the stretch of rooftops, which looked like a dense patch of gray ringworm, were narrow, muddy alleyways. A scrawny man was carrying a burlap sack that far exceeded his own weight, struggling through the sewage like an ant, his numb and desperate face splattered with muddy water.
"Let’s go. Let’s check outside the city."
A trace of gloom flashed through Su Yu’s heart. He had seen such sights many times in this world, but there was little he could do about them for now.
Qingyuan’s wings beat powerfully, and it transformed into a bolt of cyan lightning, flying out of Black Stone City in the blink of an eye and arriving at the Black Water Riverbank.
The next instant, it continued its rapid dive. Just as it was about to hit the water’s surface, it imperiously spread its wings, forcefully leveling out its body, and sped south, skimming along a turbulent tributary of the Black Water River!
The spray of water hit his face, and the scenery on both banks flew backward. The ultimate dynamic vision allowed Su Yu to take in all the beautiful scenery on both sides.
’This feels amazing! So this is the effect of Eagle Eye!’
In the next moment, Su Yu retracted his thought, cutting off the shared vision, and his consciousness instantly returned to his own body.
He continued to sense his connection, discovering that even at such a great distance, the link with Qingyuan was still perfectly clear. The next moment, he issued the command to return in his mind.
