Cultivation begins with forming a bond with a spirit bee.

A moment later, a faint white light emanated from the bee's corpse.

With the blessing of the Daoist energy, a blurry phantom gradually emerged from the corpse.

It hovered in mid-air, its body no bigger than a thumb, its eyes somewhat vacant, as if it had not yet adapted to the situation before it.

It wasn't until it felt Qu Ye's gentle gaze that it turned its head and its antennae gently brushed against Qu Ye's face.

Next, in Qu Ye's sea of ​​consciousness, the animal skin book shone brightly, and a suction force surged from between his eyebrows, causing the phantom in front of him to slowly dissipate, but the scene in the book's pages gradually solidified.

Staring at this miraculous scene before him, Qu Ye was stunned, and couldn't help but recall the events of three years ago:

At that time, he had just transmigrated and was struggling to cultivate the Gold-Refining Technique. His spiritual energy often went astray, causing him to break out in a cold sweat from the pain.

Just as he was lamenting the difficulty of the path to immortality, he suddenly noticed a strange movement in his mind.

Using his divine sense rather clumsily, he discovered a wordless book floating quietly in his sea of ​​consciousness.

He was immediately overjoyed. Having read numerous online novels, he knew that this was clearly his cheat code.

Upon touching it with his divine sense, he had some vague sensations:

"...Heaven and earth possess a spirit; all birds, beasts, fish, and insects are born from this single breath..."

"...Record its origins, expand its nature, and preserve its spirit..."

"Books do not choose their subjects based on their own nature."

After a moment of confusion, he roughly understood the function of the animal skin book in his mind.

By forming a bond with a beast, when its life comes to an end, you can record the beast's name on a blank page of a book, thus imbuing yourself with one of its talents.

There are four levels of affinity: chance encounters, mutual appreciation, intimate friendship, and life-and-death commitment.

Each level affects the specific strength of the talent enhancement, namely 50%, 70%, 90%, and finally, an excess enhancement.

Furthermore, Qu Ye discovered upon examining the animal skin book that it only had nine pages, meaning he could only acquire a maximum of nine talents at a time.

These nine talents can be replaced by new talents, and they do not take effect simultaneously; only one talent can be applied at a time.

The conversion of the talent enhancement requires Qu Ye to communicate with the beast hide book through his divine sense, which undoubtedly involves a certain amount of time interval.

Of course, this is only the limitation of the Qi Refining stage; he doesn't know what will happen in the subsequent stages.

After reading the animal skin book, Qu Ye quickly calmed down and began to make some cultivation plans based on his memory of the world.

Because he needs to form a bond with a monster, he cannot acquire talent by purchasing monsters to kill; he can only take it slowly.

Therefore, long-lived demonic beasts are not worth considering; you might die before they do.

After much deliberation, he set his sights on the Hou family, one of the three major foundation-building families in the market.

The Hou family has been established for over three hundred years, making its fortune by raising mythical beasts. The family has as many as five or six related industries!

Fortunately, I majored in veterinary medicine in my previous life, so it was a good match for my major.

Next, he went to great lengths to pass the Hou family's test and became an external spirit contract worker, raising jade spirit bees for the Hou family.

until today.

……

Back to the present.

As the phantom completely dissipated, a message traveled from the book into Qu Ye's mind.

[Clan: Insect/Bee]

[Rank: Tier 1, Low Grade]

[Talent: Gathering Spirit, Finding Fragrance]

[Bound by Fate: Intimate and Close]

[Choose one of your talents to integrate]

Qu Ye remained silent for a few moments.

Both talents have only been given names. Gathering Spirit should be the Queen Bee's talent of absorbing pollen and condensing spiritual essence. As for Seeking Fragrance, it's not hard to guess that it's mostly the perception of spiritual flowers.

These two are listed side by side. The former can stably produce cultivation resources; the latter, although it can find spiritual flowers, has uncontrollable risks and returns.

Is it even necessary to say which one to choose?

With a thought, Qu Ye immediately chose the "Gathering Spirit" talent.

As he made his choice, a golden light flashed around the animal skin book, and the first page froze completely.

【Gathering Spirits】

[Original effect: Absorbs spirit flower pollen, expends energy, and transforms it into crystalline substances through organ pollen sacs.]

[Enhancement and Adaptation: When a cultivator absorbs spiritual energy, it can gather outside the body and form crystals, though this is relatively inefficient; alternatively, spiritual energy can be injected to accelerate the formation process. It also provides a slight acceleration to the conversion of spiritual energy.]

In an instant, Qu Ye felt a change within himself, something indescribable, like the emergence of some kind of instinct.

He quickly looked inward and then at his appearance, finding nothing unusual, before finally letting out a sigh of relief.

As long as I don't grow any strange new organs, that's fine.

Then, he sat cross-legged, closed his eyes to calm his mind, and began to practice the Iron-Refining Technique.

During his cultivation, he felt that his speed of converting spiritual energy had indeed improved, but the increase was very small, only about 10%.

Don't underestimate this small percentage; over time, it can give Qu Ye a significant advantage over other cultivators with the same spiritual root.

At the same time, a small portion of the spiritual energy that had been dissipating from his body slowly condensed in front of him.

An hour later, Qu Ye opened his eyes.

A crystal, smaller than a sesame seed, appeared before me.

"I knew it would be slow, but this is way too slow..."

The queen bee can condense three thumb-sized pieces of spiritual essence in just two hours!

However, each has its advantages and disadvantages.

The queen bee condenses her essence quickly, firstly because she has a large amount of pollen and special organs, and secondly because it consumes her own life force.

Although he was slow, he was persistent. By this calculation, he could condense six pieces of spirit essence in a month, which would be equivalent to six spirit stones.

If you're really short of money, can't you just inject magic power to speed up the generation of spiritual essence?

The test of the Spirit Gathering talent came to an end, and Qu Ye nodded secretly.

Then, he looked at the dead bee and silently took it into his hand.

With a soft sigh, a mixture of joy and sadness, she whispered, "Thank you."

In his mind's eye, the page that had been turned seemed to vibrate slightly, as if in response to Qu Ye's words.

Qu Ye was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter.

"It's probably just my imagination."

But he still carefully placed the dead bee into a wooden box.

Once everything was done, his eyes returned to calm.

Looking at the sky, it was already evening.

He sat down cross-legged again and began to cultivate silently.

Spiritual practice is inherently a tedious affair.

Soon, the night passed.

The morning air was slightly chilly. Qu Ye got up, packed his things, casually activated the non-ranking restriction that came with his residence, and walked out of the courtyard.

Although it was still early, groups of two or three cultivators were already walking and talking along the roadside.

Seeing Qu Ye leave, the old man sitting on the doorstep across the street, smoking a pipe, chuckled and teased, "Young Master Qu, didn't you go to Miaoyin Pavilion with that kid Zhou Ming yesterday?"

This old man was a spiritual farmer from the Hou family. Everyone called him Old Liu. Like Qu Ye, he was at the third level of Qi Refining. He usually liked to sit on the doorstep, smoking a pipe, and happily watching the cultivators come and go.

Qu Ye turned her head and found that the gate to the neighboring courtyard was locked, and the owner was obviously not there. She immediately raised an eyebrow:

"Brother Zhou summoned me yesterday, but I didn't go."

Old Liu tapped his pipe on the ground, took a slow puff, and said, "Brother Qu, even cultivation requires a balance of work and rest. You should relax a bit every day."

Qu Ye rolled his eyes inwardly.

Old Liu used to be a womanizer, but he thought Miaoyinfang was too expensive, so he only went after those female cultivators who only half-closed their doors.

It's only in recent years, with my age and excessive physical weakness, that I've started to restrain myself.

Qu Ye chuckled, skipped the topic, said goodbye, and left.

Old Liu watched Qu Ye's departing figure and sighed, "Alas, still so young. Dual cultivation is also a great path."

the other side.

Qu Ye walked out along the street, recalling what Lao Liu had just said, her eyes filled with complex emotions.

How could he not want that? In both his past and present lives, he was Xiao Chunan.

However, it is said that having a primordial yang body can slightly enhance the breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment stage, so even if it is just a rumor, one should be extremely cautious.

With the great path ahead, fleeting pleasures are nothing but passing clouds!

After regaining his composure, Qu Ye continued on his way.