Chapter 162

That day, Lin Jing sent a message to Xu Zhi, calling this Long Gong mastermind over.

"You finally returned." Xu Zhi said: "You missed a class!"

"It's fine." Lin Jing said. The harvest from this trip was more precious than one or two academy classes.

Matters of the Desolate Domain were not so easy to spread to the Ancient Domain. Xu Zhi only thought that Lin Jing had returned to his hometown and did not know that Lin Jing had become the Beast Taming Sect's Holy Son and harvested many resources, and naturally even less knew Lin Jing's true purpose for going out—to help the Ice Soul Gu reach Foundation Establishment.

After a trip out, Lin Jing's strength was not what it used to be. Before the Ice Soul Gu reached Foundation Establishment, he and the Pine Leaf Rat could only be considered to have rare opponents below the Golden Core stage, but now, he could even contend with ordinary Golden Cores.

"Nothing happened in these few months, right." Lin Jing asked. He couldn't go out for a trip only for the Long Gong to disperse and follow in the footsteps of the Beast Taming Sect.

"No. After you ascended the Heaven's Pride Ranking, many people joined the Long Gong, and no one dared to find trouble for the Long Gong." Xu Zhi shook his fan and smiled: "In a while, it will be the new student enrollment. At that time, I plan to do something big!"

"Not bad." Lin Jing continued: "Brother Xu, help me do one thing. I need a large amount of high-level grass and wood, requiring third-rank or above, containing rich life force. You tell the Long Gong crowd that at that time, they can find me to exchange for Dragon Ascension Pills with high-level grass and wood."

"Besides this, I need a fire-attribute cultivation art and an ice-attribute cultivation art. They need to have sufficient aptitude, at least cultivation arts that can be cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage. I will also use Dragon Ascension Pills to exchange for them."

"As for the exchange ratio, we will decide after seeing the quality of the spiritual plants and the quality of the cultivation arts." Lin Jing, Long Li, and the Pine Leaf Rat went into seclusion for three years. The Dragon Ascension Pills created by synthesizing mutated spiritual plants were now Lin Jing's hard currency for exchanging resources.

Xu Zhi heard this and fell into deep thought. After hesitating for a moment, he said: "Spiritual plants are definitely no problem, but as for cultivation arts... cultivation arts that can be cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage are already considered important inheritances of some sects. These students probably don't have the qualifications to take them out for trading."

Lin Jing nodded. Cultivation arts that can be cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage are indeed considered quite good. Even the Azure Emperor Longevity Art that Senior Shen Song taught the Pine Leaf Rat, when cultivated to the perfection realm, only benchmarks the Nascent Soul stage.

This is not to say that the potential of the Azure Emperor Longevity Art only reached here, but that this is a cultivation art specifically for grass and wood spirits to cultivate, not a cultivation art for demon beasts to cultivate. Senior Shen Song being able to let the Pine Leaf Rat cultivate it meant that he had already improved the Azure Emperor Longevity Art.

After being improved, the cultivation race was relaxed, and the upper limit of the cultivation art naturally became much lower.

"Try it. There are always some sects with deep foundations. Besides their own cultivation arts, they also treasure many other cultivation arts." Lin Jing smiled and said: "I believe there will be people who want to 'make use of waste'. After all, a Nascent Soul-level cultivation art is very difficult to create a Nascent Soul, but a King-level bloodline dragon pet has a high probability of becoming a Demon King."

…………

Not long after, Xu Zhi left, replacing Lin Jing to issue "sect missions".

After Xu Zhi left, Lin Jing let Long Li start working to refine Dragon Ascension Pills. As for the Pine Leaf Rat, it was to hurry and provide the special materials for refining Dragon Ascension Pills.

For Long Li, over the next two years, Lin Jing had no cultivation arrangements for it—just pure alchemy!

Only if it produced plenty of pills could the Pine Leaf Rat obtain plenty of spiritual plants to let the Azure Emperor Longevity Art reach major success.

Only if the Azure Emperor Longevity Art reached major success could Lin Jing have greater certainty of winning first place on the Heaven's Pride Ranking, obtaining enough Qianlong luck to help Long Li perfectly transform into a dragon.

Wanting to let Long Li catch up to the King-level bloodline Ice Soul Gu, the Pine Leaf Rat with Senior Shen Song's inheritance, and transforming into a dragon with massive Qianlong luck, was an indispensable link.

So Long Li's current working was all for itself. After Lin Jing analyzed it clearly for Long Li, Long Li could only bury its head and work hard.

As for the Battle of the Heaven's Pride, Lin Jing did not plan to let Long Li appear. Although it had already broken through to the Qi Refining extreme realm, as long as it did not transform into a dragon for a day, there would still be a gap between it and those true heaven's prides.

Therefore, the main force for Lin Jing's Battle of the Heaven's Pride was still the Pine Leaf Rat.

Even at a necessary moment, if the Pine Leaf Rat alone could not take down the opponent, he could expose the Ice Soul Gu!

Although exposing the Ice Soul Gu would make his situation even more unfavorable, changing the perspective, the Ice Soul Gu's name as one of the Ten Great Strange Gu could also let Lin Jing harvest more fame.

Besides wanting to help Long Li transform into a dragon, there were many other places where Lin Jing needed Qianlong luck. As a Longevity Body, his progress in cultivating various spells was already slow, and he was too much in need of Qianlong luck to improve his comprehension.

Especially the Heavenly Demon Body cultivation method that Lin Jing had just obtained, its cultivation difficulty was extremely high. Lin Jing predicted that it would probably need massive luck to deduce and cultivate. He was determined to get first place on the Heaven's Pride Ranking.

Therefore, in unavoidable situations, he could accept the disadvantages brought by exposing the Ice Soul Gu.

Of course, the reason Lin Jing was not too worried was because he planned to continue to go into seclusion in Qianlong City after the Battle of the Heaven's Pride, going into seclusion for several decades, using up the cave dwelling's usage period before saying anything else, absolutely not going out.

As long as he hid in Qianlong Academy, his safety could be greatly guaranteed.

"Besides the Pine Leaf Rat's Azure Emperor Longevity Art being able to be improved, next is to nurture more mosquito beasts."

Lin Jing took out the Ten Thousand Beast Circles presented by the Ten Thousand Beast Sect. Now, two Ten Thousand Beast Circles could let him hatch and control more mosquito beasts.

These mosquito beasts, besides being Long Li's food for the next period, would also be important sacrificial energy for the mosquito-powered mecha.

Over the next period, Lin Jing also planned to perfect the mosquito-powered mechanical creation he conceived, enriching his combat trump cards.

Although controlling the mosquito swarm directly was also very powerful, the power was ultimately too scattered. Further gathering their power could make his combat mode even more powerful without dead ends.

"However... these are all external forces."

"The most important thing is... my own cultivation base."

"Currently, peak of the twelfth layer of Qi Refining."

"Just one step away, I can reach the thirteenth layer of Qi Refining, comparable to that Ancient Kingdom's strongest heaven's pride with the Ancient Emperor bloodline."

"However, this step feels a bit difficult."

"Reaching this extreme realm, unless it is an Immortal-grade resource, it is already impossible to let me make further progress at the Qi Refining stage."

"I am cultivating now, and it already has no effect at all."

"Wanting to rely on pet feedback, there is no chance either. As a beast tamer, my own cultivation base is at Qi Refining, and the Pine Leaf Rat and Ice Soul Gu have reached early Foundation Establishment. Now, it is already the limit. Before I reach Foundation Establishment, the two of them are restricted by the contract and will find it difficult to break through to mid Foundation Establishment. Although the Beast Taming Art can let a cultivator's realm obtain pet breakthrough feedback, regardless of when contracting or after contracting, the requirement for the realm gap between the two sides cannot be too large..."

"Is it to wait for other opportunities and pursue the thirteenth layer of Qi Refining, or directly reach Foundation Establishment?"

"If I directly reach Foundation Establishment, I can learn the Beast Taming Sect's true inheritance secret arts. My strength will definitely increase greatly, and the Pine Leaf Rat and Ice Soul Gu also have a high probability of breaking through to mid or even late Foundation Establishment during this period. The pressure to take first place on the Heaven's Pride Ranking will be greatly reduced, and if no accidents occur, it can be said to be easy."

"And if I still maintain the Qi Refining realm, although my strength will be restricted, there is still a huge advantage."

"Even if I can't achieve the thirteenth layer of Qi Refining later, taking first place on the Heaven's Pride Ranking with a Qi Refining cultivation base will definitely have a greater bonus to fame, which is beneficial for obtaining reputation and luck!"

Lin Jing fell into deep thought. Is it to challenge various heaven's prides at the Qi Refining stage, or directly reach Foundation Establishment and treat them like babies?