147Chapter 142 Beast Core l

Translator: 549690339 |

“Didn’t I tell you not to come looking for me?”

Qin Niu, however, couldn’t bear to reprimand her.

“I was worried I’d make you angry, so I didn’t go up the mountain this time. But when it got so late and you still hadn’t returned home, I just couldn’t help but worry. I couldn’t sit still at home, so I brought an oil lamp and waited for you at the foot of the mountain.”

Her response struck a particularly tender spot in the depths of Qin Niu’s heart.

“Can you carry this little calf on your back?”

“I’ll try!”

Xiao Qing’s small frame possessed more strength than that of a full-grown, sturdy man.

With Cultivation Technique that could reach the peak of the human Twofold realm, even as a child, she could take on ten strong men as if she were playing.

She could easily lift a person and throw them flying.

At the human Twofold realm one could lift up to two hundred kilograms with bare hands.

An adult, strong man, particularly tall and robust, might weigh around one hundred and seventy to eighty kilograms.

Xiao Qing carried the little water buffalo on her back, not seeming particularly strained.

Qin Niu dragged two large wild boars back home, and along the way, the villagers looked on with envy.

Since the pigskin from last time wasn’t worth much, Qin Niu this time only planned to skin the skin of the boar king. The other large wild boar would be scalded to remove its hair, and then its meat would be consumed.

In the courtyard, he skillfully scalded off the boar’s hair, then opened the carcass.

Xiao Qing was overjoyed seeing the two big wild boars her master had brought back.

The little water buffalo had been tossed into the cowshed, where it slept soundly, not moving an inch.

The little turtle took more than a month to evolve.

It’s unimown how long it would take for the water buffalo to evolve.

Anyway, there was no rush.

Qin Niu didn’t expect this lazy creature to do any work anyway.

“Master, with so much pork, we can eat for a month or two,”

“Isn’t that great? You’re at the age where you need to grow, so you should eat more.”

While carefully skinning the boar king, Qin Niu laughed without looking up and said to Xiao Qing.

“It’s truly a blessing to be with master! Every day I have meat to eat and a new house to live in.”

“Haha, think this is bliss? The good days are still to come!”

He skilfully peeled the boar king’s skin little by little.

It felt much thicker than that of a regular wild boar, and the texture was different as well.

It felt somewhat heavy in hand.

It looked extraordinarily dense and sturdy.

“Xiao Qing, spread out this pigskin, smooth it out, and nail it onto those two door planks.”

“It’s so big! It could make a large quilt.”

She took it and ccommented in amazement at the size of the boar king’s skin.

“Making it into a quilt would be a waste, I’ll give you a little surprise in a couple of days.”

Qin Niu planned to go to the city in a few days, sell some bugs, get some money, and then turn the skin of the boar king into armor.

Leather armor not only keeps one warm but can also save a life at critical moments.

This boar king’s skin had a defensive strength even stronger than ordinary iron armor, making it a rare and invaluable treasure.

After skinning the boar, he proceeded to open up the carcass.

Upon cutting open the boar king’s belly, something at the heart’s location emitted a faint, dark yellow glow.

Qin Niu couldn’t help but recall the moment he had slain the boar king, when a dark yellow glow had also shone around its neck.

Back then, he had thought it was either an illusion or a reflection of the light from his treasured sword.

He hadn’t had the time to think too much about it.

Now that he witnessed this strange phenomenon, he immediately understood he might have hit the jackpot and come across a treasure.

Carefully opening up its heart, he found a small bead near the back of the heart, which was only slightly larger than a soybean.

It was quite heavy for its size, and it felt incredibly peculiar to the touch.

When he pinched it, it was as though he was holding a highly compressed ball of gas.

After washing away the blood on its surface, the dark yellow glow it emitted became even brighter.

“But wild boars aren’t known to have Luminous Pearls inside them!”

Holding it in his hand, Qin Niu examined the strange bead.

“It must be a Beast Core. I’ve heard from Grandfather that some wild beasts in the mountains can cultivate just like humans. It’s just that their intelligence is limited and they don’t understand cultivation techniques, so very few beasts can successfully cultivate.

Only those who have lived for many years, drawing on the essence of the sun and the moon, might stumble upon some methods of cultivation.

Or perhaps, if they’re lucky enough to discover spiritual fruits or herbs in the mountains and consume them, they can undergo a transformation.

There are also fierce and ferocious beasts that evolve by preying on other cultivated beasts and birds.”

All in all, the cultivation of wild beasts is a hundred times harder than that of humans.

But once they achieve some success in their cultivation, the energy within their bodies slowly compresses and ultimately condenses into a Beast Core. This is the foundation of their cultivation, as well as the first step towards becoming demons. If they transform into demons in the future, their Beast Core will turn into a Demon Core, also known as a Demon Pearl. It is the source of their magical powers and cultivation.”

Xiao Qing knew much more about these matters of cultivation than her master Qin Niu.

She had access to much more information living in the city.

Qin Niu, living a secluded rural life, enjoyed a peaceful existence but lacked opportunities to interact with the outside world.

“So it’s a Beast Core; is it valuable?”

Qin Niu had gained some knowledge.

“Of course, it’s valuable! Even the worst Beast Cores, the size of a sesame seed, can sell for a good amount of money. This Beast Core is as large as a soybean, which indicates that the boar king had attained some level of Dao. Theoretically, with your current cultivation level, you shouldn’t have been able to harm it. You managed to kill it, perhaps because it was already injured and in a weakened state, or maybe there was some other reason.”

Xiao Qing had her suspicions that Qin Niu possessed some sort of divine weapon, but she didn’t say it outright.

Despite her young age, having adventured through the Jianghu with her grandfather, she knew well how treacherous the human heart could be.

For a servant to pry into the secrets of their master was a serious taboo.

“Wild boars have a very diverse diet; they like to eat snakes, insects, rodents, and ants, and also enjoy searching for various plant roots to chew on in the mountains. Some powerful wild boars specialize in digging up wild ginseng to eat. Grandfather and I once encountered such a situation where, within nearly a hundred miles of that forest, not a single ginseng plant could be found. They’d all been eaten up. It’s highly probable that this boar king consumed some kind of spiritual medicine from nature, which allowed it to have such a large Beast Core.”

Xiao Qing analyzed the possible reasons for the formation of the Beast Core within the boar king.

“Wiry don’t you think it’s possible that it lived many years and cultivated to form the Beast Core?” Qin Niu asked.

“That possibility is very small. Because the lifespan of wild boars isn’t particularly long, it’s about the same as humans. It’s very rare to hear about a wild boar that has cultivated to form a Beast Core. They mostly get lucky by consuming treasures of heaven and earth, which eventually allows them to condense a Beast Core and set foot on the path to becoming a demon.

Furthermore, if this boar king really cultivated such a large Beast Core through its own efforts, even the Gang Leader of the Black Tiger Gang might not be its match.”

Xiao Qing didn’t directly say so, but she implied to Qin Niu that,

With Qin Niu’s current level of cultivation, it would be impossible for him to defeat a boar king that had cultivated a Beast Core.

Like humans, beasts also have twofolds of cultivation.

One type increases their cultivation through arduous practice — these are capable of fighting well.

The other is like hitting the jackpot, consuming heavenly materials and earthly treasures, or by chance eating the corpse of another demon beast, and condensing a Beast Core. This is similar to humans who enhance their cultivation by consuming elixirs; it’s considered ‘faux fat.’

Their strength is much weaker.

“If the Beast Core is the source of a wild beast’s cultivation, then if I eat it, I should be able to obtain its cultivation, right?”

Qin Niu asked with great interest.