89: Immortal Sword Soul Bloodline, the Second Beast Tamer

It was the middle of the night.

Half-asleep, Lin Chuan felt something touching his hand.

"Old Hei? Stop messing around."

Lin Chuan's first thought was Old Hei.

Then, he realized that with Old Hei's usual ruckus, this villa would probably need to be torn down and rebuilt.

Besides, Old Hei was currently sleeping soundly in his sea of consciousness space!

"What the hell?"

Lin Chuan instantly sobered up.

He secretly opened a slit of an eye and peeked.

He saw a small, translucent, spirit-like creature carefully prying at his fingers, trying to steal his Storage Ring.

"Damn it, I'm really seeing ghosts!"

Lin Chuan immediately got up, startling the little creature.

Before it could react, Lin Chuan reached out and actually caught it!

Turning on the light, he saw that the creature was about the size of a doll, and its touch was icy cold.

"Waaah..."

The little creature, realizing it had been caught, didn't try to escape—either it forgot how or was unable to—and instead covered its face and started crying.

Lin Chuan felt helpless. This thing wasn't a Yao Beast, and it seemed to have a bit of intelligence, so he couldn't just crush it to death.

"Tell me what you want to do, and I'll let you go," Lin Chuan asked gently.

"Drink... wine."

Drink wine?

This thing was a little alcoholic; how did it know I had wine in my ring?

Lin Chuan chuckled, then took out the remaining half-bucket of spirit wine.

The little creature didn't run. Seeing Lin Chuan take out the wine, it couldn't wait for Lin Chuan to pour it. It phased directly through the plastic bucket and started swimming in the spirit wine.

It turned out this fellow had the ability to etherealize and pass through solid objects.

The wine visibly decreased at a rapid rate, and in no time, it was completely absorbed.

After absorbing all the wine, the little creature became more solid, gradually changing from translucent to milky white.

Then, it simply lay down at the bottom of the bucket and fell into a deep sleep.

Lin Chuan: "..."

Seeing that it posed no immediate danger, Lin Chuan didn't bother with it. While still sleepy, he went upstairs and continued sleeping... The next day, Lin Chuan slept until noon before waking up.

Vaguely, he felt like he had forgotten something.

He went downstairs and, lo and behold, the little creature he had 'caught' yesterday was thrashing around in the empty bucket!

Damn it, don't you have phasing abilities?

Lin Chuan was exasperated by the creature's intelligence. He then grabbed a pair of scissors and let it out.

"Wuwu... Wine!"

As soon as the little creature was out, it started clamoring for wine.

"Crap, is it clinging to me now?"

Lin Chuan was helpless. He had scanned it last night, and it wasn't a Yao Beast; he couldn't detect any attributes.

Keep it as a pet? Lin Chuan felt he wasn't that extravagant or free-spirited.

His spirit wine was quite valuable; he didn't have the time to feed a pet.

"One last drink, then there's no more," Lin Chuan said.

With that, Lin Chuan poured a full cup for it.

The moment it touched the creature, the golden tree suddenly reacted.

[Divine-Grade Immortal Sword Soul Bloodline detected. Contract it?]

What the heck?

Again?

It seemed to have been like this when he contracted Old Hei before.

Old Hei wasn't originally a Yao Beast, but he became a master beast.

This thing also didn't seem to be a Yao Beast, but it could also become a master beast?

This was too unscientific!

Lin Chuan complained while stroking the little creature's head.

The little creature sipped the spirit wine and enjoyed Lin Chuan's massage, its expression blissful.

Lin Chuan could guess a thing or two about the little creature's origin. It probably resulted from some change when he poured the spirit wine in front of the tombstone yesterday.

Li Changqing's master beast was a Monarch Rank Sword Spirit, and this creature had the Bloodline of an Immortal Sword Soul. It was hard to say there was no connection.

However, that was all there was to it.

The Sword Spirit was dead; everything returned to dust.

This little creature might have originally been a remnant soul, activated by the spirit wine.

As for whether to contract it?

Hesitating for a second would be disrespecting the golden tree!

Lin Chuan was already considering how to choose his second master beast. Given the conditions in District 81, it would likely be difficult to find one that met Lin Chuan's requirements.

He couldn't really pinpoint what his specific requirements were.

But when it came to making a choice, even King-level potential didn't seem to satisfy Lin Chuan much. What's more, there were no King-level potential options for him to choose from.

Now it was good; the golden tree's choice must be the best!

"Contract!"

As soon as Lin Chuan's voice fell, a golden light directly landed on the little creature.

Then, it disappeared.

[Contract successful]

The little creature was utterly bewildered, even forgetting to drink its wine, and looked at Lin Chuan with a wronged expression.

"Cough cough..."

Lin Chuan awkwardly rubbed his head, feeling like a creepy uncle.

Then, he checked the little creature's attributes:

master Beast: Sword Spirit Soul (Elite Rank One-star)

Skills:

Sword Armor Armament Lv1 (Active: Manifests Sword Armor, attaching to the master or master beast, providing a 20% all-attribute boost.)

Virtual-Reality Sword Lv1 (Passive: When dealing damage, has a 10% chance to ignore all enemy defenses.)

Phantom Sword Art Lv1 (Active: Splits off a sword shadow illusion Clone. The illusion possesses 10% of its own attributes and can be controlled freely by entering its consciousness. Lasts 10 minutes and can be extended by replenishing energy. Can be used when Sword Armor is attached.)

Sword Nurturing Art (Unique Passive: Immortal Sword Soul exclusive. Constantly absorbs and stores energy in any form, with no upper limit. A single strike releases all stored energy, 100% triggering the Virtual-Reality Sword effect.)

Potential: Unknown

"Hiss, worthy of the golden tree's choice."

Lin Chuan couldn't help but exclaim.

This was the perfect second master beast in Lin Chuan's heart.

Although it currently had few skills, it didn't matter. With the golden tree, he would always imprint suitable skills.

Even if it only had the four skills listed above, each one was more useful than the last.

With Sword Armor Armament attached to Old Hei, Virtual-Reality Sword ignoring defense, plus an Old Hei phantom, Lin Chuan didn't know how he could lose.

What Lin Chuan was most satisfied with was undoubtedly the [Sword Nurturing Art] racial passive.

No upper limit, what did that mean?

Theoretically, it meant he could even cut down a god!

Lin Chuan felt a connection with the Sword Spirit Soul and gently comforted it in his mind.

The little creature also sensed no malice from Lin Chuan, only immense closeness, so it completely dropped its guard and peacefully resumed drinking its wine.

"From now on, I'll call you Xiao Ling."

Lin Chuan casually gave it a name.

As for names like 'God Slayer' or 'Immortal Executioner,' he would just keep those thoughts to himself for now.

"Xiao Ling, eat the fruit."

With that, Lin Chuan took out a large pile of [enhancement fruit] and placed them in front of Xiao Ling.

The fruits also held a considerable attraction for Xiao Ling, and it quickly ate them one after another without stopping.

Lin Chuan, meanwhile, effortlessly maxed out [Sword Armor Armament], [Virtual-Reality Sword], and [Phantom Sword Art] to Lv9.

[Sword Armor Armament] Lv9 now provided a 100% all-attribute boost; the probability of [Virtual-Reality Sword] became 50%; and the illusion's attributes from [Phantom Sword Art] increased to 50%.

These skills were just ordinary skills and couldn't compare to the consumption required for Old Hei's ultimate series of enhancements.

The further one enhanced, the greater the consumption was bound to be.

"Xiao Ling, Sword Armor."

[Sword Armor Armament]!

Xiao Ling waved its tiny hand, and a silver halo instantly enveloped Lin Chuan.

Then, Lin Chuan felt he could freely manipulate the shape and color of this halo.

Referencing old anime designs, a full-body armor instantly formed, with a light sword in his hand. And it could be made transparent.

"Cool!"

Feeling the surge of power within him, Lin Chuan felt that taking on a group of Elite Rank Ghost-Faced Apes by himself should be no problem now, and he'd be able to beat them down.

After all, Lin Chuan wasn't afraid of being attacked; Old Hei would bear the brunt.

It even had a counter-damage effect.

[Phantom Sword Art]

A Clone identical to Lin Chuan instantly formed.

Lin Chuan could instruct it with simple movements, or he could directly enter it with his mind, just like controlling a Yao Beast Puppet through Gray Snake.

Lin Chuan was proficient in such operations, becoming skilled with just a few tries.

Ten minutes later, the illusion was about to disappear. Lin Chuan directly took out an [energy fruit] and extended the illusion's duration by another ten minutes. After the experiment was complete, he allowed it to vanish.