Chapter 292

Wang Yu quickly found a thick yellow-covered book among the stacked shelves, its cover inscribed with four black characters: "Feng Xiang's Records."

Wang Yu opened the book and flipped through it at a glance, reading ten lines at a time.

Though this book was thick, eighty to ninety percent of its content recounted the travels of a Foundation Establishment cultivator named "Feng Xiangzi" across Yu State, documenting his encounters with rare beasts and strange creatures; only a small portion contained his modest insights on taming spirit beasts.

Unlike Wu State, which was mostly flat plains, Yu State was filled with barren mountains and treacherous waters—places even low-level cultivators avoided.

Thus, after spending most of his life in Yu State, Feng Xiangzi had indeed discovered several peculiar spirit beasts, but also narrowly escaped death at the claws of powerful demonic beasts multiple times.

Wang Yu soon found the section concerning spirit beast mutation and studied it closely.

This section recorded how Feng Xiangzi encountered a troop of Earth-Tail Monkeys in a place called "Flower Language Forest." During the battle with these demonic apes, he witnessed one monkey sink directly into the ground and begin mutating; when it burst back out, it had grown an extra tail and two additional arms—becoming a double-tailed, four-armed creature whose power had surged so greatly that even this mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator was forced to retreat three paces and flee in haste.

The following passages recorded the cultivator's reflections and comments on the immense power of mutated demonic beasts after his escape.

According to Feng Xiangzi, demonic beast mutation was a low-probability event, with unpredictable and random forms: sometimes it directly enhanced the beast's power, sometimes it merely altered its quality and potential, making any prediction impossible; once mutation occurred, three outcomes were possible.

First, the mutation failed, and the beast died during the process.

Second, the mutation succeeded, but the result was poor, possibly weakening the beast further.

The third outcome—the rarest—was a successful mutation in a beneficial direction, granting immense advantages and a sudden leap in power, like the Earth-Tail Monkey.

Feng Xiangzi also named several demonic beasts prone to mutation and mentioned that some had fixed mutation patterns, including one called the Stone Rock Python.

This demonic serpent's mutation involved spitting a special liquid that enveloped its body in an egg-like shell, which hardened within an extremely short time; upon breaking free again, the mutation was complete.

"Giant Egg"

Wang Yu's heart stirred as he read this.

Though the Ironhead Crocodile and the Stone Rock Python were entirely different species, and whether their mutation patterns shared commonalities was unclear, this passage at least gave him some idea.

To confirm whether Xiao Bai had truly mutated, he needed to consult an expert at the Spirit Beast Hall and ideally have someone examine it in person.

With this thought, Wang Yu no longer hesitated. He returned the book to its place, left his cave dwelling, and headed straight for the Spirit Beast Hall.

About twenty minutes later, Wang Yu stood with a white-browed old man clad in a loose hemp robe at the pond before his cave entrance.

"Wang Shixian, you say that mutated Ironhead Crocodile is in the water?" The old man stepped to the pond's edge, sniffed the air, peered into the water, and asked eagerly.

"Master Li, the Ironhead Crocodile is indeed at the bottom of the pond. Once I clear the water, you'll see it clearly." Wang Yu spoke with great respect.

The old man was none other than the "Master Li" who had originally sold him the Ironhead Crocodile; though only a few years had passed, his face had grown even older, yet now beamed with excitement.

"Why bother clearing the pond? I have a device that can easily contain this much water." Without hesitation, Master Li pulled a bronze gourd from his sleeve, tossed it above the pond, formed a hand seal, and murmured an incantation.

The next instant, the bronze gourd inverted, its mouth pointing downward as a golden-yellow light surged forth and sank into the water's surface.

"Boom!"

The pond's surface churned violently; a water column as thick as a bowl's mouth shot skyward, then thinned and streamed into the gourd's mouth.

The pond's water level dropped rapidly; within a dozen breaths, every drop had been sucked dry by the gourd's artifact, revealing the black mound beneath and the dark-green, mottled Ironhead Crocodile lying atop it.

Dali had been agitated by the sudden disappearance of the water, snarling at the bronze gourd in the air—but upon seeing Wang Yu's figure by the pond, it let out a low whimper.

Wang Yu leapt into the pond, his feet wrapped in a faint golden mist, keeping the mud from clinging to him. He stepped forward, lightly tapped Dali's back twice, offered reassurance, then signaled for the spirit beast to move aside.

Dali clearly hesitated, pouting as it flicked its tail twice before slowly hopping off the mound and shuffling to the side.

"So this mutated spirit beast is inside? Is this the egg?" Master Li had already retracted the gourd and now stood at the pond's center, eyes locked on the black mound, his voice urgent.

"Yes, Master Li. Xiao Bai is inside—the shell is merely coated with mud." Wang Yu explained briefly.

The only person he knew at the Spirit Beast Hall was this Master Li, who frequently bought beast feed from him, so he naturally came to him.

Upon hearing that the spirit beast he had once sold might have undergone a second mutation, Master Li had been overjoyed and volunteered to come see it.

Wang Yu was only too happy to agree.

"The Ironhead is a water-earth attribute demonic beast. Covering the egg with mud underwater suits its nature well. But you mentioned it could control the entire pond's water—that may be the key to its mutation, since such beasts typically rely on earth as primary and water as secondary. Let me examine it closely before drawing a conclusion." The hemp-robed old man spoke as he pulled another object from his robe: a translucent white crystal, the size of an egg. At first glance, it resembled a large spirit stone, but upon closer inspection, it was vastly different.

Its surface appeared composed of countless tiny prisms, utterly unlike the smooth, uniformly radiant texture of a spirit stone.

"This is a Spirit-Testing Crystal, specifically for spirit beasts. When brought near one, it reveals the approximate nature of its core—but it's useless on humans and causes no harm to the beast." Master Li explained, then pulled out a handkerchief and gently wiped a small patch of the mound's top, revealing the pure white eggshell beneath.

He first pressed his ear against the shell, listening for a moment, then lifted his head and gently placed the fist-sized crystal against the shell, channeling his cultivation energy into it.