Stealthily cultivating in the chaotic world of demons and martial artists
Chapter 182 - 181 Azure horn Fish Dragon (Seeking Subscriptions)_1

Chapter 182: Chapter 181 Azure horn Fish Dragon (Seeking Subscriptions)_1

Several months passed.

Fang Xi leisurely emerged from his retreat.

Immediately, he learned of two pieces of news, one good and one bad.

Ruan Dan had succeeded in Foundation Establishment and was now an early-stage Cultivator in Foundation Establishment.

On the contrary, even with the aid of a Foundation Establishment Pill, Wei Yixi had failed in her Foundation Establishment.

Of course, Wei Yixi’s explanation to the outside world was that she had acquired an item that aids in Foundation Establishment thanks to Fang Xi’s financial support.

’Sigh... after all, she’s like a flower in a greenhouse, never having weathered the trials...’

Fang Xi held his wine cup, feeling somewhat emotional.

Ruan Dan had better aptitude, had regrown a severed limb, had her temper refined through trials, and had even once failed at Foundation Establishment...

All of these were precious assets in her life experience. With the addition of a Foundation Establishment Pill this time, he wasn’t surprised at her successful Foundation Establishment.

As for Wei Yixi, her overall conditions fell short in many aspects, and Fang Xi had long anticipated this outcome.

"Brother Fang, there’s no need to be discouraged... I think Yixi just had bad luck. With this experience, if we get her another Foundation Establishment Pill next time, she might succeed..."

Opposite him, Ruan Xingling held a white jade wine pot and poured Fang Xi a cup of Peach Blossom Brew, consoling him gently.

"Sigh... without sculpting, jade will not become a fine artifact. I won’t lend her a hand anymore in the future..."

Fang Xi sighed.

Although he still had one lower-grade Foundation Establishment Pill, he no longer planned to waste it on Wei Yixi.

Fate comes and goes, rises and fades...

One genuine Foundation Establishment Pill had exhausted all the goodwill between him, Wei Yixi, and even Wei Yixin and his wife.

Ruan Xingling couldn’t help but feel pity for Wei Yixi.

Without the support of this Foundation Establishment uncle, her hopes of Foundation Establishment in the future had grown even dimmer.

’However, there might still be opportunities during this tide of beasts.’

Ruan Xingling smiled, "Brother Fang... our Pill Tool Pavilion has been doing quite well recently, and we’ve made a profit of a thousand Spirit Stones..."

Business always had its ups and downs. When the Pill Tool Pavilion first opened, in order to break into the market and spread its reputation, they made a loss for promotion, earning only a few dozen Spirit Stones in the first year.

Then the profits gradually increased to four or five hundred Spirit Stones a year.

This income was actually quite good. Save for twenty years, and they could bid for a Foundation Establishment Pill at an auction!

With the power of Fang Xi and Ruan Xingling, it was not impossible to set up shop in the Inner City, but the competition was fiercer, and rents were more expensive... The profit margins would be even lower, perhaps even running at a loss.

Even the Ten Thousand Seas Tower of the Song Family was located in the middle of the Outer City.

After some deliberation, Ruan Xingling chose to stay at the original location of Little Talisman Hall.

As it turned out, her choice was right. With Fang Xi not really invested, they still realized an annual profit.

By now, they had taken advantage of the tide of beasts and made a tidy sum.

"These are the Spirit Stones I borrowed last time, I can finally pay them back now."

Ruan Xingling smiled and pushed over a Storage Bag, which contained the Spirit Stones that Fang Xi had lent her last time.

The Base-building Spiritual Objects that Ruan Dan used for her first failed Foundation Establishment was bought by Ruan Xingling at a major auction, for which she had borrowed a sum of Spirit Stones from Fang Xi.

"Mm... Xingling, there’s no need to be so formal with me."

Fang Xi accepted the Storage Bag without looking into it closely.

...

Ruan Dan had succeeded in Foundation Establishment and was currently in retreat to stabilize her Cultivation. He went to see how Wei Yixi was doing.

In the guest room of the Dongfu, Wei Yixi’s face was pale, her features haggard, looking as though she had suffered a significant loss of vital energy, "Uncle... I’m sorry... "

"It’s alright, you should focus on recovering for now."

Fang Xi comforted her with warm words.

"I will definitely repay those five thousand Spirit Stones," Wei Yixi asserted firmly.

"There’s no need to rush. Yixi, since your Foundation Establishment has failed, you’ve passed the age of sixty. Have you thought about your future?"

Fang Xi asked gently, "With your Beast Controlling Skills and knowledge of veterinary medicine, you could find a place for yourself anywhere... and you should also consider the matter of marriage. Do you have someone in mind?"

Yes, for Cultivators, sixty years old is not old at all, and they can still bear children.

In fact, many Cultivators are committed to the Dao and do not consider marriage before sixty. A lot of them don’t start thinking about starting a family until after they have given up on the Dao when they’re past sixty.

If Wei Yixi marries and has children, establishing her own family after that, Fang Xi would not need to worry about the debt going bad.

After all, children will pay their parents’ debts, and grandchildren their children’s debts, perpetuating endlessly...

He was quite confident that he could recover his investment slowly over generations and live to see that day!

"No..."

Wei Yixi’s head hung low, her ears turning slightly red.

...

"Sigh..."

After leaving Wei Yixi’s room, Fang Xi let out a sigh.

At this moment, within Peach Blossom Pavilion, Ruan Xingling had already returned to Blue Wave Cave; Jin Ling and Wei Yixi were in their respective rooms.

He thought for a moment and then waved his hand, releasing several Array Flags.

A hazy mist emerged, shrouding the courtyard, especially around the pond, covered in layers of fog with rune patterns swimming within.

"Daqing..."

Fang Xi whistled, and a large fish resembling a catfish immediately leapt ashore.

"I believe I mentioned before that if you don’t advance in years, I’d stew you up, right?"

He looked at the large fish, his face expressing contemplation.

The big green fish, frightened, bulged its eyes, wanting to argue that the time had not yet come.

’Sigh... it seems threats won’t make it advance, but seeing its Demon Qi, it’s already at the peak of the first rank, just one step away from a breakthrough.’

’With the tide of beasts approaching, all aspects of strength must be improved.’

Fang Xi casually flipped his hand and produced a blue Demon Pill with water attributes.

He had only used one demon pill for alchemy last time, and the remaining one was just right for use here.

The moment the Blue Fish saw the demon pill in his hand, its dead fish eyes widened, filled with a certain longing.

"If you still can’t advance to the second tier after swallowing this demon pill, I’ll turn you into a salted fish!"

After the threat, Fang Xi tossed the pill with a flick of his hand.

The water-attributed demon pill turned into a beautiful arc of light, entering the Blue Fish’s mouth.

Having swallowed the demon pill, the Blue Fish immediately began to refine it.

Suddenly, its body flashed with azure demon qi, restlessly writhing and rubbing against itself as scales fell off...

Boom!

In an instant, a surge of demon qi shot up into the sky but was concealed by layers of arrays, causing little disturbance to the outside.

In the Inner City Area of Baize Immortal City, the spiritual energy is of the second tier, enough for cultivators to use for their Foundation Establishment.

The spiritual energy of Peach Blossom Pavilion is of medium quality among the second tier, which also aids monster beasts in advancing to the second tier.

Fang Xi remained expressionless, waiting quietly.

Splash!

The Blue Fish flipped over with a twist and plunged into the pond, splashing countless water droplets.

Then, several hours later, a three-zhang-long azure monster beast leaped out of the pond, soaring and riding the clouds in midair.

Second-tier monster beasts can basically fly.

Fang Xi’s face showed a trace of satisfaction as he looked on.

After its advancement, the Blue Fish had grown three zhang in length, with an almost ten-meter-long body as thick as a water barrel, covered in azure scales, resembling a great blue water snake.

Moreover, its pectoral and ventral fins retained the shape of sickles, resembling the four limbs of a Flood Dragon, and a small horn had emerged on its head.

"Second tier... Azure horn Fish Dragon... with the awakened innate Monster Skill, Cloud Ascending Skills... barely passes muster, I suppose."

Fang Xi nodded, quite pleased with himself.

This Azure horn Fish Dragon, while named dragon, was actually still a fish-type monster beast, but it looked formidable enough, resembling a Blue Dragon, and quite presentable as a mount.

"Daqing!"

Fang Xi called out.

The Azure horn Fish Dragon in midair lowered its head, its fish eyes fixating on Fang Xi.

Indeed... the eyes of the Azure horn Fish Dragon still resembled those of a fish, not the vertical pupils of snakes or dragons.

Thereafter, Fang Xi felt a variety of joyous and pleasing emotions coming from the other side through the Master-Servant Contract.

"Even though you’ve advanced to the second tier, you’re still a dead salted fish... Don’t you ever think of biting back at your master?"

Fang Xi sneered.

However, in reality, spiritual pets imprinted with a slave mark will only instinctively resist when there’s a substantial difference in the cultivation level between them and their masters.

In the past, Fang Xi was merely at the Qi Refining level, and naturally, the monster beast would bite back upon advancing to the second tier.

But now, he had already reached Foundation Establishment.

If the Blue Fish thought about resisting, it would truly end up as a plate of sashimi.

The Azure horn Fish Dragon immediately shook its head, forcing out a sycophantic smile... which, on its serpent face, looked particularly horrifying.

"Either way, you’re lucky to have broken through, but had you wasted a demon pill of mine, I would have definitely stewed you!"

Fang Xi stepped on the head of the Azure horn Fish Dragon, releasing his Divine Consciousness, utilizing the methods within his Beast Controlling Skills to further strengthen the slave mark.

The Azure horn Fish Dragon didn’t resist at all, letting Fang Xi reinforce his control. He quickly set several Prohibitions, until finally, with dead fish eyes, the beast sank to the bottom of the pond...

After finishing all this, Fang Xi withdrew the Array to find that it was almost dawn.

Boom boom!

Boom boom!

Just then, within the walls of Baize Immortal City, the sound of thunderous drumming suddenly resonated.

"Could this be... the ’Kui Cattle Drum’ from White Peak Mountain?"

Fang Xi’s eyes flickered with recognition.

This drum was made from the hide of a third-tier Thunder Plow Bull King; it could shake a hundred miles and rarely sounded.

Whenever it echoed, it inevitably meant something big was happening that affected the whole city!

"It’s probably..."

Fang Xi stepped out of the Peach Blossom Pavilion, only to see Ruan Xingling also emerging from the Bi Bo Cave nearby.

Soon after, more and more cultivators gathered on the streets.

"Jin Ling, take good care of the house."

With the Green Horned Dragon Fish to protect the house, Fang Xi instructed Jin Ling and then joined Ruan Xingling in heading to the outer city.

The ancient and towering city walls were crowded with cultivators.

By now, one could see a black ’tidal wave’ sweeping towards Baize Fairy City.

It was an army made up of countless varieties of monster beasts!

Land monster beasts, monster birds... all kinds of monster beasts that would normally be at odds or even mortal enemies were now cooperating to launch an assault on the city of cultivators.

Occasionally, among the dark tide, bursts of spell light would flash; those belonged to the unlucky cultivators who were still lingering in the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Range.

Even as they desperately defended themselves, getting swept by the beast wave meant their lights dimmed after just a few breaths...

"Thunder Horn Pythons? So many Thunder Horn Pythons!"

"And the Land Mountain Turtles, these monster beasts are naturally adept in manipulating earth-moving powers, they are formidable foes against fortified cities..."

"And monster birds... so many Gale Falcons..."

Recognizing the types of monster beasts in the beast wave, many cultivators had extremely grave expressions.

At that moment, the flock of dark clouds parted, revealing a giant bird with a wingspan exceeding ten zhang at the center.

Its feathers gleamed with Thunder Light, with a tuft of golden feathers on its head, resembling a crown.

"A third-tier Monster King — the Golden Crowned Thunder Roc!"

Ruan Xingling muttered, identifying the identity of this Monster King.