Chapter 8: The Home of Beast Tamers, Rapid Expansion!
"Fight, my ancestral tablets!"
Before the screen, Li Xiang was ablaze with passion, battling for the Beast Blood Fruit.
[Ancestor’s Wrath] x5!
Li Xiang controlled five ancestral spirit tablets in this game, having realized that each tablet represented the pinnacle of Qi Refinement cultivation. Clicking on a tablet allowed him to control its trajectory; pressing A would attack the target, while pressing R unleashed a powerful ultimate move—
An explosion!
Whenever an ancestral tablet’s light dimmed during battle with the Thunderlight Python, it signaled that the tablet’s energy was nearly depleted, the perfect moment to press R.
Though this Thunderlight Python was thick-skinned and imbued with formidable lightning energy,
it could not withstand the relentless attacks from the ancestral tablets.
By the time all five tablets were exhausted, the Thunderlight Python was battered and scarred.
A roar bellowed!
After the last tablet exploded, the Thunderlight Python was consumed by rage, roaring fiercely at the Li family, vowing to devour them all to quench its fury.
“How dare you be so insolent?!” Li Xiang’s eyes blazed.
Another tablet materialized before the python’s eyes. The once furious beast froze mid-action, intimidated by this spirit tablet barely the length of its arm.
Surprisingly, it lowered its massive body in submission, its gaze filled with a desperate will to survive.
Meanwhile,
the Li family was far from idle.
“The ancestor has triumphed! This giant python is no match for our forebear!”
“Long live the ancestor!”
As the family celebrated the defeated python, they noticed the giant nets used to capture other beasts also held two offspring of the Thunderlight Python.
[Descendants of the Li clan feel the great power of the ancestor; Spiritual Devotion +30!]
The python’s eyes grew duller with despair.
At the center of its head emerged a diamond-shaped crystal pulsating with arcs of lightning.
[The Thunderlight Python is filled with fear, begging for mercy for itself and its young, offering its life core.]
[Consume 50 points of Spiritual Devotion to contract the Thunderlight Python as a temple guardian beast?]
“Hm?”
Li Xiang raised an eyebrow as he read the message on the screen—this was the first time such an option had appeared.
The python’s life core only surfaced when it came into contact with the ancestral tablets, and the game clearly had many features yet to be explored.
“Yes!”
Without hesitation, Li Xiang clicked ‘Yes’. The spiritual devotion recently offered by his clan barely afforded him the ability to make the contract.
[You have contracted the Thunderlight Python as a temple guardian beast. It will protect your ancestral hall, guard your spirit tablets, and convey messages from the ancestor!]
Above the tablets,
a purple light bathed the python. A circular icon appeared in the upper left of the screen, engraved with the image of a python roaring to the sky.
Li Xiang opened it and found the python’s details.
One feature particularly excited him—
[Please enter the message you wish to convey—]
“Can I now communicate with the descendants of the Li clan?!!”
Eagerly, Li Xiang tested it.
He sent the message: Instruct my descendants to bring back the Beast Blood Fruit tree for cultivation.
The python on the screen appeared to sense this unknown message and paused briefly, then began dragging its heavily wounded body to circle the Li family around the ancestral tablets.
Finally, it climbed up to the stunned Li Dalong standing nearby, affectionately rubbing its massive head against him.
Then, it began circling the Beast Blood Fruit tree in a loop!
The Li family exchanged glances.
“The ancestor has tamed this giant python.”
“Father, it seems to be trying to tell us something.”
“Long live the ancestor!”
In the end, eight-year-old Li Yaoqing looked at the python, then at the ancestral tablet, tugging at Li Dalong’s sleeve, “Father, is the ancestor telling us to take this tree back to plant?”
At her words, lightning sparked atop the python’s head as it nodded vigorously.
“It nodded! It can communicate with the ancestor!”
Li Dalong beamed with joy. “Let’s harvest the fruits first and bring all the spoils back home. The tree is too large; we’ll have to plan carefully on how to move it.”
Nice!
Seeing his descendants understand his meaning, Li Xiang jumped to his feet in excitement.
Until now, he could only roughly express ideas through ‘Ancestor’s Love’.
But now, through the Thunderlight Python,
he could accomplish so much more!
...
In the days that followed, the Li family returned to their ancestral home laden with spoils.
The action interface on the screen dazzled Li Xiang with the bounty.
From then on,
the Li family began an unprecedented period of rapid development!
[Year 16 of the Li clan: Xu Cuihua has fully tamed all spirit beasts, released them into the Wild Boar Forest, which has been renamed—]
[Spirit Beast Park]
Since Xu Cuihua married Li Dalong, she had quietly borne children and tended the farm, but now her contributions rivaled even Li Dalong’s!
After mastering beast-taming techniques, she astonished even Li Xiang.
The Spirit Beast Park, enriched by frequent expeditions into the Silver Iron Forest with Li Dalong, now hosted over thirty species.
However, with the beasts consuming all the chickens, ducks, cattle, sheep, vegetables, and medicinal herbs, Xu Cuihua dared not tame any more spirits recklessly.
Yet these beasts had become the Li family’s hidden strength!
Not merely kept as pets, these beasts actively aided the family’s development.
Iron-hoofed oxen plowed the fields, Frostwing birds watered the crops, and Hundred-Mile pigeons with anteaters managed pests. The Li family’s farmland flourished, saving them much labor.
Tracking hounds accompanied Li Dalong on hunts, while a swift leopard assisted in capturing prey. Ironwood horses pulled carts, ensuring bountiful harvests from the Silver Iron Forest.
Eleven-year-old Li Yaozu remained busy as well.
He preferred martial training, with over a dozen powerful spirit beasts as sparring partners, honing his combat skills daily.
Li Yaoqing, ever enamored with plants,
maintained a herb garden inside the Spirit Beast Park, guarded by the beasts.
There, she tended to a remarkable tree—the Beast Blood Fruit tree!
She built a grass hut beneath it, watching its growth daily, but strangely, despite the tree bearing abundant fruit in the Silver Iron Forest, it hadn’t blossomed in a year.
She regularly drew blood from the beasts to sustain the tree’s vitality.
Strangely, beneath the tree, various herbs began sprouting robustly.
Among the Li family, the most gifted was Li Yaotie, now just seven years old. Unlike his brothers who favored fighting, he developed a keen interest in crafting after meeting a passing blacksmith.
Now,
a simple forge was built in the Li family’s courtyard for Li Yaotie’s metalwork.
Beside him, a Flame-Tail Spirit Cat and a Fiery Lizard, capable of breathing fire, assisted in tempering iron tools. Nearby, Ice Spirit Fish cooled the glowing metals in a stone trough with blasts of ice.
The entire family labored diligently for the Li clan’s prosperity.
Only the youngest, two-year-old Li Yaowen, enjoyed quiet days. Naturally calm, the little girl already dipped brush in water, scribbling awkward characters on stone every morning, her soft, sometimes indistinct, voice reading aloud.
[Year 17 of the Li clan: Li Dalong breaks through to the seventh layer of Qi Refinement!]
[After over a decade of hunting, Li Dalong suddenly felt a unity with the forest environment during a hunt, gaining the trait: Forest Ranger!]
[Trait: Forest Ranger]
[Wood-elemental spiritual roots are slightly enhanced within the forest. Years of hunting experience deepen his familiarity with the woods, doubling his combat power there!]
Though Li Dalong’s aptitude remained poor even after consuming the Celestial Spirit Tonic,
after five Beast Blood Fruits and two years of digestion, he began to break through!
Especially with three traits, he compensated for his lack of talent.
Not only him,
the Li family’s strength surged across the board this year!
Except for young Li Yaowen, who was just learning to write and read, every member had advanced a minor realm.
And even after giving twenty Beast Blood Fruits to the Thunderlight Python, more than half remained!
“Progress is good.”
Li Xiang watched his family’s development on the screen, a paternal smile on his face.
He occasionally dealt with bandits and robbers disturbing the clan during drought years. In two years, he had encountered only two cultivators, using [Ancestor’s Wrath] just once.
“I wonder when the Thunderlight Python will awaken.”
The ancestral temple built for his family was the finest structure in their base. Beneath the towering tablets, the python slept, its skin shedding as it broke through a stage!
During this time, Li Xiang could not send messages to the family.
Of course, he could awaken the python anytime but hesitated, not knowing if disturbing its shedding would cause harm.
[Year 18 of the Li clan: A decade-long drought persists, yet the Li family’s fields remain lush. The Wild Boar Forest revives gradually. More people discover this fertile land. Despite frightening rumors of bandits never returning from the Li estate, many still covet this rich territory!]
“Father, someone has broken into the Spirit Beast Park!”
On screen, Li Yaoqing hurried back from the herb garden with beasts in tow. “They are eating everything in the herb garden. I harvested all the herbs, but they’re heading toward our home!”
The Li family gathered swiftly.
A sentient Hundred-Mile pigeon landed on Xu Cuihua’s shoulder, chirping urgently in her ear.
Her expression darkened as she told the family, “Among them are cultivators, stronger than any who’ve harassed us before.”
“Hmph! If they dare come, none shall return!”
Li Dalong strode forward to the courtyard gate, brandishing two large machetes, exuding the aura of a lone warrior blocking ten thousand foes.
Behind him, the Li family bristled with battle intent, each accompanied by beasts prowling watchfully, ready to repel any intruders.
A fierce beastly wind swept through the base, stirring dust but never diminishing the Li family’s accumulated resolve.
Li Xiang’s ancestral tablet shone brilliantly above the ancestral hall.
Li Dalong raised his machetes high.
“Ancestors, protect the Li clan—”
“Unbeatable in battle!”