Chapter 20: Dragon Struggle, Beast Fight

Mechanical Art.

Among the hundred arts of cultivation, there are also differences in difficulty. Like beast-taming, it is relatively easy to get started.

Even if other cultivators don't practice the Beast-Taming Art and cannot sign bloodline contracts with spirit beasts, they have other means, such as pills, magic treasures, and poison arts to control demon beasts.

Besides the Beast-Taming Sect, it is also very common for cultivators of other sects to keep one or two pets or mounts.

As for Mechanical Art, Lin Jing didn't know much about it, but he heard that Elder Yu had been obsessed with Mechanical Art for many years, yet had never been able to manufacture a mechanical beast with combat power comparable to his own contracted pet beast.

"Elder Yu is planning to pass on his Mechanical Art. He can be considered to have deep love for it. However, within the Beast-Taming Sect, I'm afraid no one would be willing to learn Mechanical Art." Lin Jing crossed his arms and continued to size up the mission announcement. Rationally speaking, a mechanical beast without intelligence is far inferior to a pet beast with its own thoughts.

The upgrading of a mechanical beast relies entirely on the mechanic himself. For some complex mechanical beasts, the mechanic has to invest huge energy to control them during battle, and if the mechanical beast is damaged, it is more difficult to repair. But pet beasts... not only can they cultivate themselves, but they can also fight themselves. Even if they are injured, there are healing pills and herbs that can be used, while mechanical beasts cannot eat healing pills.

Mechanical beasts might also have their benefits, but they should have nothing to do with most Beast-Taming Sect disciples, because the Beast-Taming Sect itself does not have high-level cultivation methods suitable for practicing Mechanical Art.

Lin Jing is currently learning "Alchemy," in the stage of rote memorization of thousands of alchemy materials, and has not yet started practice, so he temporarily has no energy to spare to learn Mechanical Art.

Therefore, this reward, for Lin Jing, is not particularly attractive.

Although from a longer-term perspective, there is no harm in a Longevity Body learning a little more.

"A seventh-layer Qi Condensation bamboo dragon should be manageable."

He withdrew from the crowd. Cultivation is cultivation, and combat power is combat power. Just like being at the seventh layer of Qi Condensation, most types of cultivators might not be the opponents of sword cultivators. And with the two elements of mechanical and dragon superimposed, it shouldn't be weak.

However, rare beasts are more powerful. Although the Glazed Immortal Pupils cannot allow the Pine-Needle Rat to fight across a large realm, within the Qi Condensation stage, they give it unimaginable suppression power. For example, the spirit bean bombs synthesized by the Immortal Pupils using spirit beans have considerable power, which even startled the Black Bear Monster, and the power is enough to severely injure a late-stage Qi Condensation cultivator.

"It's a pity the rewards are not cumulative. Once you reach the final tier, you cannot claim the rewards of the previous tiers."

Actually, the sixth-tier reward "Dragon Blood Pill" is also not bad.

A second-grade pill refined from the blood of a flood dragon, after taking it, it can strengthen the beast's bloodline, with a tiny probability of causing it to produce a dragon vein!

Of course, in terms of value, even excluding the insights on Mechanical Art, the "Mechanical Soul Core" alone would definitely exceed the Dragon Blood Pill. But Lin Jing felt that if he obtained the "Mechanical Soul Core" and then sold it to buy a storage ring, Elder Yu's beard would definitely be twisted in anger.

"Three days until the Dragon Ascension Festival." After Lin Jing returned to the courtyard from borrowing books, he glanced at the Pine-Needle Rat sitting and cultivating under the bare tree.

And... the red flying leaves and spirit bean bombs piled up in the box behind it!

Ever since discovering the power of the red flying leaves, the Pine-Needle Rat no longer hoarded spirit stones.

Its cultivation was focused on one thing.

Early in the morning, it would dizzily ripen spirit rice and spirit beans.

Afterwards, it would sit to the side, using spirit stones and Spirit-Replenishing Pills to replenish consumption.

Immediately following, it would synthesize golden spirit rice and lie in the pile of rice, eating the golden spirit rice with determination.

With the help of the perfect digestion state, it would convert the nutrients brought by eating ordinary spirit rice to enhance spiritual power.

After eating and drinking its fill, it would then synthesize red flying leaves and spirit bean bombs, hoarding them.

In this way, the red flying leaves and spirit bean bombs became more and more numerous.

Spirit stones and other resources became less and less.

However, the Pine-Needle Rat didn't care.

After all, no matter how many spirit stones there are, they cannot help it in battle, but red leaves can.

The Pine-Needle Rat wanted to seize the opportunity of the Dragon Ascension Festival to earn more resources and win big with small stakes.

Holding onto a fighting spirit, not long after, the resources newly sent by the sect this month, as well as mission resources, and Spirit-Replenishing Pills, were more than half used by the Pine-Needle Rat.

Unlike Lin Jing, with so many resources piled up, the Pine-Needle Rat's cultivation effect was gratifying. While synthesizing a pile of trump cards, its own realm also began to approach the fifth layer of Qi Condensation.

Lin Jing didn't get a single spirit stone, at most he ate some leftover spirit rice and made himself some tree-leaf fried rice.

If there is any difference between Beast-Taming Sect disciples and cultivators of other sects in raising spirit beasts, it must be that most Beast-Taming Sect disciples give the best resources to their pet beasts, while cultivators of other sects at most give their pets and mounts some leftover resources.

Lin Jing returned quietly, not disturbing the Pine-Needle Rat, and sat to the side reading a book.

Until half a day later, the Pine-Needle Rat stopped cultivating and learned about the rewards of "Dragon Struggle, Beast Fight" from Lin Jing...

Upon learning that the best rewards were Mechanical Art and mechanical materials, it immediately felt the sky had collapsed.

"Squeak! Squeak-squeak! Squeak-squeak-squeak!"

"Calm down, Mechanical Art is not bad either. After learning it, you don't necessarily have to manufacture mechanical beasts."

"Have you heard of a 'machine gun'?"

"Using that thing to fire spirit bean bombs will definitely consume less energy than your throwing with the Flying Leaf Art."

Under Lin Jing's comfort, time passed bit by bit.

In the blink of an eye.

It was the day of the Dragon Ascension Festival.

The Dragon Struggle, Beast Fight activity started at noon on the day of the Dragon Ascension Festival.

In the courtyard, Lin Jing was in a cyan long robe, the standard Outer Sect disciple attire, with the Pine-Needle Rat, which had already reached the "fifth layer of Qi Condensation" and had a tangled expression, squatting on his shoulder.

It looked at the slightly bulging cloth pockets on both sides of Lin Jing's Daoist robe, which contained all its worldly possessions.

Thinking of the upcoming battle, which might make most of these possessions disappear, the Pine-Needle Rat had an urge not to go.

"Zhi..."

Lin Jing didn't care what it thought. After three days, he came to the Central Plaza again.

There were even more people here. Before the time, the crowd and pet beasts had already surrounded the plaza.

A large number of Outer Sect disciples in the same attire were of different ages. The young ones were only in their early teens, and the old ones looked like Senior Uncles, not knowing if they were old or just looked old.

And in the center of the plaza, a lifelike bamboo dragon was floating in mid-air with the help of a small wind-travel array.

Lin Jing looked over. This bamboo dragon was several zhang long, and every bamboo scale shimmered with emerald light. The dragon head part was very exquisite, with two dragon eyes carefully carved from bamboo pieces looking bright and spirited; the dragon horns were made of tough bamboo joints, upright and sharp, adding a bit of majesty.

The dragon mouth was slightly open, revealing the complex mechanical structure inside, where one could vaguely see exquisite bamboo wheels and fine bamboo threads intertwined into gears, as well as... a white dragon pearl.

"I feel that the mechanical dragon Elder Yu manufactured this time... is more attentive than the mechanical dragons of previous years." Some disciples muttered in low voices, looking at the bamboo dragon body.

That was covered with scattered bamboo pieces, all looking like they had been finely polished. On the dragon spine, rows of bamboo joints were closely connected, forming smooth curves, like the spine of a real dragon, making the entire mechanical structure look very smooth.

"Yeah, this feeling doesn't look like a Qi Condensation beast at all, as if it's a Foundation Establishment beast, forcibly castrated to the Qi Condensation stage." Some disciples speculated maliciously.

"Should be overthinking it. It's a festival, just for celebration. Elder Yu has nothing better to do than to spend that effort to make things difficult for us." ===== CHAPTER 21 =====