Chapter 115: Chapter 115: Bloodline Atavism

In the pavilion.

Hearing Li Ping’s words, the Meng family Ancestor couldn’t help but chuckle, looking at Li Ping with great interest. "How much does Fellow Daoist Li want?"

Li Ping smiled back and held up two fingers. "Two hundred Spirit Stones!"

Upon hearing this, the Meng family Ancestor just gave a light laugh and waved his hand. "I am willing to give you five hundred Spirit Stones, Fellow Daoist Li. All I ask is that this matter is settled."

"Five hundred Spirit Stones?" Li Ping raised an eyebrow, but his expression quickly relaxed. "The Meng family can await good news."

After accepting the Spirit Stones and promising to act as a matchmaker for the family’s descendant, Li Ping stood and saw the Meng family Ancestor off.

Once he had left, Li Ping called for Bai Lin and had her deliver the Storage Bag containing the five hundred Spirit Stones to Zhang Tie.

He also told her to inform Zhang Tie that the matter of marrying the Meng family’s daughter could now be considered settled.

「...」

Back in his training room.

Li Ping took out the Fierce Arrowhead Eagle’s egg and placed it in the center of the room. He then stared at its crimson shell, lost in thought.

He was pondering what Zhang Tie had said earlier.

According to Zhang Tie, Fenglan Master had found this egg on a captured Demon Cultivator.

Before that, he himself had killed a Demon Cultivator and given the deceased’s belongings to Fenglan Master. It was possible that Fenglan Master had used the items he provided to follow the trail and capture another Demon Cultivator.

The question was, just how many Demon Cultivators were there in this Immortal City?

However, Fenglan Master didn’t seem worried about secrecy, having directly bestowed the Fierce Arrowhead Eagle egg upon Zhang Tie.

Li Ping couldn’t help but speculate, ’Perhaps Fenglan Master has already wiped out all these Demon Cultivators.’

Shaking his head, Li Ping stopped thinking about the Demon Cultivators. He placed his palm on the crimson egg and slowly began to infuse it with his Nourishing Life Skill Power.

According to what Fenglan Master told Zhang Tie, when the Demon Cultivator stole the egg, it was still tainted with the aura of two adult Fierce Arrowhead Eagles. If the Sealing Spirit Talisman were removed, the adult eagles would immediately come looking for it.

But so much time had passed that the residual aura had all but dissipated.

Furthermore, the female Fierce Arrowhead Eagle, which had a closer connection to the egg, was already dead. The remaining male was highly unlikely to come searching for it anymore.

Therefore, Li Ping prepared to use his Nourishing Life Skill Power to replenish the egg’s lost Origin and hatch the small life within.

He sent in a wisp of Magical Power, which was absorbed instantly. Soon, a craving, a feeling of ’hungry, hungry,’ was transmitted through his touch.

Li Ping smiled and increased the rate of his Magical Power infusion.

But the egg was like a bottomless pit; no matter how much Magical Power he poured in, it was devoured in an instant.

It went on until Li Ping’s Magical Power was nearly depleted, forcing him to stop.

Yet that ’hungry, hungry’ feeling continued to emanate from it, unusually strong and powerful.

「...」

Lifting his hand from the egg, a grave expression appeared in Li Ping’s eyes.

He sensed that something was wrong. Back when he was treating the dying Xiao Yunzhi, she had shown no reaction at all, except on the very last day.

Even on that last day, when he had pulled his hand away, Xiao Yunzhi had suddenly grabbed his arm, but that had been an unconscious reflex.

And even after he had completely purged the toxins from her body, Xiao Yunzhi hadn’t woken up immediately.

That was how a patient should be.

But this fledgling life inside the egg... wasn’t it supposed to be a dead egg, nearly impossible to hatch?

Li Ping was filled with deep suspicion. ’The life force inside the egg is so intense. It devoured so much of my Nourishing Life Skill Power and it’s still hungry—enough to replenish the Origin of nearly a hundred years of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s lifespan. What part of that is a dead egg?’

If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, Li Ping would have suspected a Tier Three Demon Beast was hiding inside.

"Something’s not right, not right at all!" he muttered. Li Ping put the crimson egg into a specialized Spirit Beast Pouch and set off toward the Meng family’s ancestral grounds.

He planned to use the Meng family’s Scripture Treasure Vault to find out what was going on.

Upon arriving at the Meng ancestral grounds and explaining his purpose, the Meng family Ancestor agreed to his request without much hesitation.

Of course, the Meng family’s collection of Cultivation Techniques, Secret Techniques, and inheritances would not be shown to him.

He was only allowed to consult the miscellaneous records: geography, natural history, anecdotes, and the like.

「...」

A few hours later, Li Ping emerged from the Meng family’s Scripture Pavilion, his face a mixture of shock and delight.

After searching through a large amount of material, he had finally found a situation similar to that of the egg in his hands in a miscellaneous text titled *The Notes of Master Cold Moon*.

Master Cold Moon had raised a pair of Black-footed Birds, and the female had laid an egg.

Unexpectedly, just when Master Cold Moon thought he was about to get another Black-footed Bird, the egg inexplicably lost most of its Origin, leaving an amount insufficient for the chick to hatch.

Considering that a Black-footed Bird could only reach the Tier Two Late Stage at its peak, while replenishing the egg’s Origin would be so costly it could bankrupt a Core Formation Cultivator, Master Cold Moon didn’t try to save it. He simply allowed the life force within the Black-footed Bird’s egg to gradually fade due to the lack of Origin.

But when the egg had completely died and Master Cold Moon was preparing to have it for a meal, he was astonished to discover that what had been developing inside was not a Black-footed Bird, but a Wu Feng!

A Wu Feng, a celestial Spirit Bird possessing a trace of the True Spirit Celestial Phoenix bloodline!

If provided with enough resources, a mature Wu Feng could be powerful enough to rival a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator!

Seeing this, Master Cold Moon wrung his hands and sighed, filled with endless regret.

After some research, he theorized that the egg had lost most of its Origin because something extremely rare had happened to the chick: it had undergone atavism, awakening its latent bloodline to become a Wu Feng, and this process had consumed a vast amount of its Origin.

The remaining Origin was not enough to support the Wu Feng’s development!

The result was that Master Cold Moon tearfully ate a meal of roasted Wu Feng.

In the end, Master Cold Moon summarized: If you encounter an egg that has inexplicably lost most of its Origin, you must carefully inspect its contents. If the aura within is weak and lifeless, it is most likely a dead egg.

But if the aura within is strong and vigorous, it is highly probable that the chick inside has undergone bloodline atavism.

At such a time, you must never abandon it, never give up. If you can obtain a Spirit Beast that has undergone atavism, it will be the greatest aid on your path to the Immortal Dao.

「...」

Li Ping went to the market district and purchased several sets of Beast Taming Restriction techniques. After returning to Immortal Peach Mountain, he used the Blood Ban method to implant all of them into the fledgling inside the egg.

Furthermore, he planned to place another Restriction every few days to ensure that once the Spirit Beast hatched, it would recognize him as its master and never betray him.

In truth, Li Ping’s actions were probably superfluous.

After all, he would be continuously supplying the Spirit Beast chick with Origin via his Nourishing Life Skill Power to ensure it hatched successfully.

During this process, as the Spirit Beast chick constantly devoured his Magical Power, it would develop a deep dependency on him.

By the day it hatched, it would already be thoroughly his. It would be incredibly affectionate, see him as its father, and the possibility of betrayal would be very low.

However, just to be safe and to prevent any potential rebellious phase, Li Ping still intended to set up a large number of Blood Bans and contracts.

This would reduce the probability of betrayal to its absolute minimum.

「...」

’Right, if a Fierce Arrowhead Eagle’s bloodline undergoes atavism, what kind of celestial Spirit Bird will it become?’ Li Ping wondered, looking at the crimson egg with renewed curiosity.

He guessed with anticipation, ’A Red-Horned Crow? A Fire Phoenix? Or something else?’

As far as he knew, the Fierce Arrowhead Eagle was a descendant of some kind of Fire Element True Spirit.

After endless crossbreeding and devolution, its bloodline had become so mixed and diluted that it could no longer be called a celestial Spirit Bird.

But there were only a few types of celestial Spirit Birds to which it was most closely related.

If its bloodline reverted, it would likely become one of them.

But regardless of which celestial Spirit Bird it became, Li Ping had no complaints; on the contrary, he would be clapping with joy.

After all, as long as he raised it properly to adulthood, he would have a helper capable of rivaling a Nascent Soul Cultivator.

「...」

He meditated to recover his Magical Power, infused the atavistic egg with life force, and at the same time, began refining Tier Two Lower Grade Pills to absorb their ’Innate Qi’ and advance the evolution of his Nourishing Life Skill Power.

Before he knew it, the end of the year arrived.

After more than a month of hard work, the deficit of Origin within the egg was finally replenished, and it returned to a normal state of development.

At this stage, as long as no other mutations occurred, the probability of the life inside successfully hatching had reached over thirty percent.

Naturally, Li Ping was not satisfied with this success rate.

He would continue to feed the Spirit Bird chick inside the egg with his Nourishing Life Skill Power to ensure it had a one hundred percent chance of survival.

This process might take several years, but Li Ping had enough patience to wait.

「...」

The day of the Friends Association’s New Year gathering quickly arrived. Bai Lin had already returned to Gaoji Mountain several days prior.

In the afternoon, figures began to arrive at Li Ping’s cave residence. Long before sunset, Zhang Tie and the four others were all present.

Having not seen each other for a year, all five had changed in their own ways.

There was no need to elaborate on Zhang Tie; he had successfully reached Foundation Establishment, becoming the second Foundation Establishment Cultivator in the Friends Association.

Gumu Sheng had broken through to the eighth level of Qi Refining just last year. Although he had dedicated himself to bitter cultivation over the past year, limited by his own aptitude, he had only made some progress at the eighth level and had not managed to break through to the next realm.

Cheng Yao, judging by her aura, had already reached the peak of the Qi Refining Seventh Level and had a good chance of attempting to break through to the eighth level next year.

What Li Ping found strange, however, was that her Magic Robe was gone, replaced by a common over-dress.

Qi Hanmo was at the Qi Refining Sixth Level. He estimated that he would need about two more years to reach the peak of the sixth level and attempt to break through to the Late-stage Qi Refining.

Of course, with his Four Spirit Roots aptitude, he would likely be stuck at the Late-stage Qi Refining bottleneck for some time.

Bai Qing was at the Qi Refining Fifth Level. He was confident he could break through to the Qi Refining Sixth Level next year.

From the look of things, his irresponsible father hadn’t affected his cultivation; he was still advancing at a rapid pace.

Of course, it was also possible that after being warned by Li Ping, his father no longer dared to bother him.

After they had all shared their situations, the other five members, including Li Ping, smiled and congratulated Zhang Tie in unison on his successful Foundation Establishment.

Hearing the congratulations from the five of them, Zhang Tie couldn’t help but scratch his head.

He was happy, but also seemed a little unused to the attention.

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