19: Mid-tier spirit beast, the Xuanjia Turtle!
Li Qing felt like he had become a seed buried in soil containing infinite vitality, struggling to break free from its shackles and sprout from the earth.
Severe pain!
Indescribable severe pain, as if every inch of bone in his body was being shattered and reconstructed, and every inch of flesh was being torn and remade.
After the extreme pain came an even more extreme sense of comfort.
Surging waves of life energy washed through his entire body.
On the turtle shell, the originally light blue spiritual patterns now erupted with blinding light, turning from blue to green, and then from green to a deep ink black.
Complex lines were redrawn and spread across the shell, eventually forming an ancient and mysterious profound diagram, like a natural Formation, indestructible.
His body size was skyrocketing!
One point seven meters, two meters, two point five meters... The narrow river cave was forcibly split open, with dirt and rocks rustling down.
When they came within half a foot of the shell, they were pushed away by an invisible field.
Finally, his size settled at around four meters.
Like a massive black rock sunk at the bottom of the water, he was full of a sense of oppression.
His limbs became thicker, and his claws and teeth grew sharper, shimmering with a metallic cold light.
The turtle's head rose, and those eyes no longer just flickered with eerie light.
They gained a touch of spirituality and majesty.
After an unknown amount of time, when the energy storm inside him subsided, Li Qing's consciousness finally returned to clarity.
Looking at his brand-new body, a feeling of unprecedented power welled up within him.
The System panel had also been completely refreshed.
[Host: Li Qing]
[Age: 15]
[Cultivation: None]
[Clone: Black Armored Turtle (Mid-tier Spirit Beast)]
[Clone Talents: Water Respiration (underwater breathing for five shichen), Mysterious Armor (can withstand attacks from low-to-mid tier Martial Artists), Longevity (1,000 years), Mystic Water Manipulation (freely control a small area of water, condensing water into walls and gathering currents into whirlpools), Great Strength (Power of Six Elephants), Basic Domination (can apply mental deterrence and give simple commands to beasts of a lower rank than oneself, up to ten Vicious Beasts)]
[Sharable Talents]
[evolution value: 73.52/5000 (When evolution value is full, evolution can be initiated)]
He evolved!
From a Spiritual Patterned Turtle to a Black Armored Turtle.
A Low-tier Spirit Beast had become a Mid-tier Spirit Beast.
A qualitative leap!
Li Qing's heart surged with excitement.
His lifespan had directly doubled, reaching a thousand years.
Armor Defense had become Mysterious Armor body protection, and his defensive power had skyrocketed.
The description of the Great Strength talent had changed from 'Strength of Nine Bulls and Two Tigers' to 'Power of Six Elephants'; a difference of a single word, yet worlds apart.
The Strength of One Elephant is 12,500 jin.
The Power of Six Elephants is 75,000 jin of force.
That was over fifty thousand jin more than before!
Water Control had even been directly upgraded to Mystic Water Manipulation, which sounded domineering.
What surprised Li Qing the most was that brand new talent—Domination!
This meant he would no longer be fighting alone.
He could control underlings to hunt monsters, find Spiritual Plants, and Precious Medicine for him.
Danger would be far removed from him.
With this talent, Li Qing could also rule over a territory!
Becoming a local overlord!
It was just that the evolution value required had increased tenfold.
It now required 5,000 points of evolution value to initiate evolution.
Retracting his thoughts.
He couldn't wait to try out these new abilities.
With a thought, his thick hind limbs suddenly exerted force.
"Boom!"
The massive rock originally used to block the cave entrance was instantly smashed to pieces as if it were made of paper.
His massive body easily slid out of the cave he had split open, returning to the tributary channel.
This small tributary, which was previously quite spacious, now seemed somewhat narrow under his four-meter-long body.
He tried to feel the power within him; it was an illusion as if he could move mountains and fill seas.
[Great Strength]!
He lightly swung a front claw toward a millstone-sized reef at the bottom of the river.
"Puff."
There was no earth-shattering sound; that hard reef was like a piece of tofu, silently sliced into by his claw and then collapsing into countless small pieces.
Li Qing himself was stunned for a moment.
This was the Power of Six Elephants?
It was simply too terrifying.
He suppressed the shock in his heart and turned his attention to [Mystic Water Manipulation].
His consciousness extended out, merging with the surrounding water flow.
A wonderful sensation came over him, as if the entire tributary had become an extension of his body.
"Open!"
A single thought.
The river water in front of him was sliced open as if by an invisible giant blade, silently parting to both sides.
Revealing the wet riverbed below and several panicked fat fish.
The water flow formed two transparent water walls on either side, standing steadily and without leaking a drop.
Moses parting the sea?
Li Qing felt playful and sent out another thought.
The parted water flow slammed back together, turning into a massive vortex that spun wildly in the river channel, kicking up the silt from the bottom and forming a murky water tornado.
"Disperse."
The vortex instantly subsided, and the water flow returned to calm as if nothing had happened.
Fortunately it was night; if it were day, the nearby fishermen would have probably been in an uproar!
Li Moses Qing expressed great satisfaction.
This ability, whether used against enemies or for escaping, was a divine skill!
Finally, there was [Basic Domination].
Could he control ten Vicious Beasts of a lower Realm than himself?
As Domination advanced, the number would surely increase as well.
This talent could help him grow rapidly.
He raised the turtle's head out of the water, his majestic eyes scanning the entire tributary.
An invisible pressure, stemming from Bloodline and rank, instantly enveloped this area of water with him as the center.
"Come here."
A simple command spread out on a mental level.
The next moment, there was no reaction in the river.
No reaction?
That shouldn't be!
Maybe only Vicious Beasts can be controlled.
True.
Ordinary fish and shrimp have no consciousness, so naturally they cannot be controlled.
This test could only be carried out at the Great River next time.
Li Qing still had one doubt in his mind.
Why were all the ones he encountered Vicious Beasts?
While his own System marked him as a Spirit Beast.
He had searched many materials at the book stalls in Jinling City but hadn't found the reason.
Forget it, he would find out in the future.
After testing the new abilities, the sky had already begun to turn light.
Li Qing was satisfied and controlled the Black Armored Turtle Clone to dive back into the deepest part of the riverbed.
He would endure for one more day and go to the Great River tonight to claim some territory!
Consciousness returns to the main body... inside the Servants' Quarters.
The familiar snoring and smell of sweat pulled Li Qing back to reality from the Black Armored Turtle's Divine Might.
He opened his eyes, his gaze deep and bright, flashing through the dim room for a second.
The next second, an unprecedented feeling of power surged from every cell in his body.
The Clone had completed a qualitative leap, and the energy fed back to the main body was likewise massive!
He felt as if his body had undergone a process of cleansing the marrow and tendons.
Every inch of muscle was filled with explosive power, and his five senses had become sharper than ever before.
At this moment, the sound of the person in the next bed grinding their teeth could be heard perfectly clearly.
Li Qing slowly sat up, his movements very light for fear of making too much noise.
He clenched his fist.
"Crack."
A slight pop sounded in the air.
He even felt that if he wanted to, he could easily crush the wooden bed beneath him.
This sense of control brought by the explosion of power was intoxicating.
However, a more realistic problem followed immediately.
"Gulu~ gululu~~"
A rumbling sound came from his stomach.
In the quiet morning, this sound was even louder than his roommate's snoring.
Li Qing's face instantly fell.
Hungry!
An unprecedented sense of hunger, like a maggot on the bone, was crazily gnawing at his stomach.
The Clone's evolution and the main body's strengthening had resulted in his metabolism reaching a terrifying level.
He now felt like he could eat an entire cow.
The pig feed—no, cat food—at the Martial Arts Hall Dining Hall would likely not even be enough to fill the gaps between his teeth.
He shook his head with a bitter smile; it seemed that from now on, the daily expense of going into the city for extra meals...
...was going to double again.
Just as he was thinking, he prepared to get out of bed, his hand subconsciously bracing against the bed frame.
"Creak, crack!"
A crisp sound of breaking.
The fairly sturdy wooden bed frame had actually been lightly pressed by him into a clear five-finger print.
The wooden board directly shattered.
Li Qing's movements froze, and he quickly withdrew his hand, looking at his palm and then at the hole.
He blinked, a trace of helplessness appearing on his face.
The strength, I still haven't controlled it well.
However, his heart was burning with excitement.
Lu Yunfei?
Inner Sect Disciple?
You all had best not let him find an opportunity!
By day I am submissive, by night I strike with heavy blows.
With this strength, as long as I'm full, if anyone comes to clash with me, it's not certain who will be the stone.
The feeling of becoming stronger is truly great.
It's just a bit expensive and food-consuming!