Chapter 9: The Beginning of Cultivation, Beast Origin Art, Soul Guiding Art
Chapter 9: The Beginning of Cultivation, Beast Origin Art, Soul Guiding Art
Green Caterpillar looked at the giant dragon on the paper, then looked at the other paper with itself.
“Ss-woo?”
The huge difference between the two made it, even with a Spiritual Intelligence of only about six or seven years old, feel a strong doubt.
But Wang Che knew.
It had just hatched two days ago and knew very little about the world.
And this was the perfect time for a Soul Pet’s enlightenment.
Wang Che did not want to twist the truth.
He just wanted to help the child build an idea in its mind.
Wang Che coughed twice and pointed at the drawing paper with his brush.
“You think I’m tricking you, right?” Wang Che looked at Green Caterpillar.
“Ss-woo!” Green Caterpillar nodded.
Wang Che smiled and continued, “Then, do you want to become this when you grow up?”
As he spoke, Wang Che pointed at the giant dragon in the drawing.
Green Caterpillar glanced at the giant dragon in the drawing, first nodded, then shook its head.
The meaning was clear: it wanted to, but it felt it probably couldn’t.
Its Soul Pet instincts told it that the giant dragon in the drawing was a powerful Soul Pet high above, looking down on all living beings.
It was not from the same world as itself…
“Well, then next, I’ll tell you a story.”
Wang Che pointed at the Green Caterpillar on the other drawing and said, “A story about it.”
Green Caterpillar straightened its body and obediently looked at Wang Che.
Its eyes were full of curiosity.
“Once upon a time, there was a Green Caterpillar. It often looked at the endless sky and ocean, and in its mind, it had a distant and unreachable idea: to fly in the sky and swim in the ocean.”
“So, it told its other Soul Beast companions about its idea.”
Hearing the beginning, Green Caterpillar’s eyes became focused.
It began to look up at the sky.
It also longed for it.
“But it was too weak.”
Wang Che continued to draw on the paper, “Any Soul Beast could easily bully it.”
On the paper, various Soul Beasts began to appear, bullying the Green Caterpillar.
“Sky Song Swallow caught it in mid-air and mocked it: ‘Look, you don’t even dare to open your eyes in the air, yet you want to fly in the sky?'”
“Longtail Fish dragged it into the ocean and mocked it: ‘Look, you can’t even breathe in the water, yet you want to swim in the ocean?'”
“Spark Cat burned Green Caterpillar with flames while giggling, Thorn Grass whipped it with grass whips, and even Sharp Sting Bug, another insect, poked it with its sharp tail…”
“They all laughed at it, thinking it was too weak to have such wild dreams…”
As he drew, Wang Che told the story.
At the same time, he observed Green Caterpillar.
“Ss-woo! Ss-woo!!”
Wang Che’s drawing skills were excellent. Although the story was very fairy-tale-like, Green Caterpillar listened intently, and the strong sense of immersion from the drawings made it angry.
Its eyes turned red… and its tail thumped the leaves.
Wang Che continued, “The beaten Green Caterpillar was very unwilling, but it didn’t know how to get stronger. What could it do?”
“Then, a human Soul Pact Master appeared. He saw the injured Green Caterpillar and, instead of rejecting it, formed a Life Soul Pact with it.”
Green Caterpillar’s eyes sparkled.
“When the Soul Pact Master learned about Green Caterpillar’s idea, he didn’t mock it but instead encouraged it.”
“And, to help Green Caterpillar achieve its dream, the Soul Pact Master began to train it and made a training plan for it.”
“Running 1,000 meters every day, 100 pull-ups every day, 100 sit-ups every day, 100 repetitions every day…”
A gleam flashed in Wang Che’s eyes as he swiftly drew several special poses on the paper.
“At first, it couldn’t even do one-tenth of the training. But after a month, it could complete all these exercises accurately every day, and it felt much stronger.”
“And then, it met those Soul Beasts that had bullied it before…”
At this point, Wang Che put down the drawing board.
He didn’t plan to continue.
The story was simple.
“Ss-woo!!!”
Green Caterpillar anxiously wriggled to Wang Che’s side, looking at him with eager eyes.
The sense of immersion was too strong.
“Want to know what happens next? First, you have to train.”
Wang Che said seriously, “Otherwise, you’ll be bullied easily by those Soul Pets in the story later on.”
“Ss-woo!” Flames seemed to ignite in Green Caterpillar’s eyes, as if it saw itself being bullied in those drawings.
It straightened its body, and its blood seemed to be burning.
Wang Che’s words made it excited, thrilled, and angry.
“If you want to know whether it can defeat those Soul Beasts,” Wang Che pointed at the poses in the drawing, “then you must train according to the methods shown here from now on.”
Green Caterpillar’s Spiritual Intelligence was only about six or seven years old, so Wang Che didn’t need to tell a complicated story.
This simple and straightforward story was enough to maximize the fighting spirit in the child’s heart.
Moreover, the poses on the paper were not just simple pull-ups or sit-ups.
They were a special cultivation technique.
Beast Origin Art.
As the name suggests, this was the most basic and widespread cultivation technique for demon beasts in the Cultivation World.
When demon beasts absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, most started by training their bodies. But demon beasts had different life forms from humans, and they were varied and strange.
This method was the most widespread and suitable for the vast majority of ordinary demon beasts.
This technique recorded thousands of special body-training poses for different demon beasts.
By practicing these body-training poses, demon beasts could quickly absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth through their bodies.
And there were no side effects.
In Wang Che’s previous life, it was a treasured text for countless demon beasts.
Even though it was just the most basic entry-level body training technique for demon beasts.
Of course, Wang Che had made some creations and improvements based on Green Caterpillar’s life form and characteristics.
Wang Che obtained several body tempering stances suitable for insects and drew them on the drawing paper.
“The life forms of Soul Pets are similar to spirit beasts. Of course, their internal structures still have significant differences… But after I modified the Beast Origin Art, it should be applicable to the Green Caterpillar.”
“If it succeeds, not only can this child quickly absorb Soul Power, but it can also strengthen its physical body.”
Wang Che thought to himself.
This was an experiment.
In the future, he was definitely going to awaken his Martial Soul and cultivate Soul Power.
Whether the modified Cultivation techniques could be applied to Soul Power could be seen through Soul Pets.
Soon, the excited Green Caterpillar started mimicking the movements from Wang Che’s drawings.
Sometimes it straightened its body, touched the ground with its tail tip, lifted its head straight up to look at the sky, and stood upright on the ground.
Other times it twisted its body like tying a knot, with its head and tail connected like a spring, coiling back and forth on a branch.
…
Almost the moment the Green Caterpillar started training, Wang Che could clearly feel the Soul Power between heaven and earth rapidly flowing into the Green Caterpillar’s body.
“It works!” Wang Che nodded slightly, as if everything was within his expectations.
He was naturally happy inside.
Based on his current understanding of this world, there were no cultivation techniques here.
But there were things similar to cultivation techniques.
Soul Guiding Art.
Different Soul Pets had different Soul Guiding Arts.
To develop a Soul Guiding Art required significant effort and even posed some danger to the Soul Pet’s life.
Therefore, Soul Guiding Arts were quite expensive.
At the same time, they required matching Soul Guiding Devices to be worn by the Soul Pet.
Only then could the full effect of the Soul Guiding Art be realized.
This way, the Soul Pet’s speed of absorbing Soul Power would undergo a qualitative change.
But all of these were very expensive.
According to Wang Che’s knowledge, for young Soul Pets like the Cooing Bird, the starting price for a basic Soul Guiding Art was fifty to sixty thousand, and the dedicated matching Soul Guiding Device cost over a hundred thousand.
The improvement in Soul Power cultivation speed was only about 1.5 times.
As for the Green Caterpillar, sorry, the Green Caterpillar didn’t deserve a Soul Guiding Art.
No company or powerful individual would develop a Soul Guiding Art or Soul Guiding Device for a Soul Pet like the Green Caterpillar…
Its value was too low.
Wang Che found no Soul Guiding Arts or Soul Guiding Devices for sale specifically for the Green Caterpillar on online shopping platforms.
Generally, the more popular the Soul Pet, the more varieties of Soul Guiding Arts and Soul Guiding Devices were available for sale.
Without Soul Guiding Arts and Soul Guiding Devices, the normal speed at which a Soul Pet absorbed Soul Power from the world was only related to its Racial Potential.
High Racial Potential also meant high affinity with the world’s Soul Power, resulting in faster Soul Power absorption speed.
Lower Racial Potential naturally meant slower absorption.
The Green Caterpillar had low evolution requirements; it could evolve with just ten years of Soul Power cultivation, so raising it was very simple.
In reality, the Green Caterpillar’s Soul Power absorption speed was very slow.
However, Soul Pets with high Racial Potential generally needed at least several hundred years of Soul Power cultivation to evolve.
For example, that Zhiyun Snake, if it wanted to evolve, needed to reach about a thousand years before it could undergo its first evolution.
Its second evolution required four to five thousand years.
The cultivation cycle was very long.
The higher the Racial Potential, the higher the Soul Power cultivation required for evolution.
So, even though the Green Caterpillar’s Soul Power absorption speed was slow, it could evolve quickly.
If cultivated quickly, the Green Caterpillar could reach ten years of cultivation in one week.
If it were the Zhiyun Snake, it could reach thirty years of cultivation in one week.
But to evolve, it needed to be cultivated for at least a year or more.
Because the speed of Soul Power cultivation slowed down as it progressed.
“Rare Soul Pets, although costly for a family, even with casual cultivation, their strength and Soul Power cultivation easily surpassed those of ordinary Soul Pets…” Wang Che sighed.
This was why many ordinary families gritted their teeth and bought better Soul Pets for their children.
They had higher ceilings and better growth.
If you invested a lot of resources into raising them, they would definitely become stronger and be more helpful to the Soul Pact Master.
Even without many resources for cultivation, they could still grow on their own and become much stronger than ordinary Soul Pets.
It just wasted the potential of those Rare Soul Pets.
Now, with the Beast Origin Art, Wang Che wasn’t very sure how much his Green Caterpillar’s cultivation speed would improve.
But it definitely wouldn’t be slow.
Because he could already feel it now.
Two hours later.
The sun set in the west.
By then, the Green Caterpillar had run out of strength, with many sticky liquids oozing from its body, making it wet all over.
It lay on a leaf, as if it had no energy left.
The Beast Origin Art was not simple; maintaining each body tempering stance for a long time required tremendous effort.
Just then, a faint white light suddenly shimmered around the Green Caterpillar’s body.
“Its cultivation improved!”
Wang Che’s eyes lit up.
This cultivation speed was indeed fast.
Under normal circumstances, if cultivated quickly, the Green Caterpillar could gain over one year of Soul Power cultivation in a day.
And this was only after two hours.
“The White Birch Milk Fir Leaf played a certain role… but the main reason was definitely the Beast Origin Art. It shows my idea was correct. The Cultivation World’s techniques, after some modification, had remarkable effects on Soul Pets.”
“Those Soul Guiding Arts probably worked on similar principles. But relatively speaking, they were far less effective than the Beast Origin Art.”
The Beast Origin Art was originally the basic cultivation technique for countless spirit beasts in the Cultivation World.
It was summarized and refined over countless years by numerous powerful spirit beasts, so it was naturally extraordinary.
Its greatest characteristic was its versatility and stability. Even the weakest spirit beasts could use the Beast Origin Art for cultivation.
There were no barriers to entry.
Modifying this level of technique posed no difficulty for Wang Che.
The faint white light that appeared was a sign of improved Soul Power cultivation.
It was like leveling up.
That white glow was an effect produced when Soul Power condensed to a certain degree.
Wrapped in that white glow, the Green Caterpillar’s body grew slightly longer, the skin looked tighter, and all aspects improved a bit.
“Sii-woo!”
The Green Caterpillar opened its eyes and gazed spiritedly at Wang Che.
Wang Che patted the Green Caterpillar. From how it felt, the rise in its body’s strength seemed fairly big.
He nodded slightly.
Because of its low Racial Potential, the Green Caterpillar got very little body strength gain from one year of Soul Power Cultivation.
It was like adding some strands of thread to a ball of cotton.
Right now, this little one’s body strength jump was much more noticeable.
At minimum, it felt as if a bunch of threads went into a cotton ball.
If it cultivated long-term, the results would definitely stand out.
But the Beast Origin Art used up a lot. Even with top-notch food, this little one probably couldn’t cultivate many times a day.
‘The Green Caterpillar’s Racial Potential is set and can’t change… but Racial Potential just means how much Soul Power Cultivation boosts a Soul Pet. Like in online games on Little Blue Planet, every level gives set attribute points.’
‘But attribute points can also be gotten other ways… like with outside training.’
Racial Potential was fixed.
Unless a Soul Pet’s life form shifted, Racial Potential just wouldn’t alter.
Eating some Natural Treasures might change it too.
But that was way too tough.
For building a Soul Pet’s body strength, training could be split into inside cultivation and outside training.
Inside cultivation was Soul Power Cultivation, raising Soul Power Cultivation. Based on varied Racial Potentials, each year added to Soul Power Cultivation gave different boosts to all parts of a Soul Pet’s body strength.
Outside training meant differing tricks for each Soul Pet’s separate skills.
For example, to boost speed, it could run far with weights. For toughness, it could do lots of sports.
Outside training also raised a Soul Pet’s body strength.
It burned the most resources as well.
Outside training needed really fine food, plus proper spots and gear. Different Soul Pets called for different plans too.
All that cost money.
‘The Beast Origin Art, starting as a demonic cultivation skill, aimed to strengthen the body while pulling in natural energy. With my tweaks, it’s more like a Soul Power Cultivation technique mixing inside and outside methods.’
‘But its best way to cultivate tied into food. Top-tier food held much energy on top of Soul Power…’
‘White Birch Milk Fir Leaf worked as a good leaf. But it wasn’t the best… And better stuff meant spending much cash…’
‘Earning cash isn’t hard for me…’
Wang Che’s mind filled with many ideas to make money.
But for then.
Wang Che played with the Green Caterpillar a bit, strolled it around their neighborhood block, and eased its mood.
A young Soul Pet should not cultivate too much.
Back home, Wang Che showed the little one some cartoons about Soul Beasts, and also played some brainy mini-games on his phone.
Until the little one spotted those pictures on the A4 paper from Wang Che once more.
Right away, it began practicing the Beast Origin Art with fiery zest.
Truth was, several cartoons had like-hearted tales.
But none starred a Green Caterpillar as the lead…
So, this little one just couldn’t fit into their stories much…
After a second Beast Origin Art session, the Green Caterpillar’s Soul Power Cultivation hit three years.
It stretched out a full three centimeters. The Soul Power from the White Birch Milk Fir Leaves had been sucked dry by it too.
Till Father Wang and Mother Wang got back.
“This child,” Mother Wang peered at the Green Caterpillar, munching on the table, amazed, “why does it seem bigger? In only one day… Old Wang, tell me, am I seeing things?”
“It did grow a bit…”
Father Wang thought over it. “Hold on, son, you only did its awakening today, right? Could it have started cultivating already?”
Wang Che nodded and grinned. “It might be… remarkably gifted.”
“Is that so?” Mother Wang poked the Green Caterpillar’s head and felt it was a bit hard now…
Not at all like the soft touch that morning.
Hearing her son, she didn’t doubt a thing.
She gently pet the Green Caterpillar’s head still.
The Green Caterpillar, crunching on milk fir leaves, turned to face Mother Wang.
Green Caterpillar: “(>_<)"
"Keeping it as a pet isn't too bad," Mother Wang said cheerfully.
That was how it went.
Until three days passed.
Mother Wang stared at the Green Caterpillar, now twenty centimeters long, and sensed something odd…