6: Life Seed, Cultivation

Ultimately, after struggling for a while, Xu Yan still went to the kitchen, grabbed a disposable glove, and, frowning, rummaged through the trash can.

Fortunately, the family had spirit beasts specifically trained for daily chores that regularly cleaned the trash. Coupled with the fact that Xu Du wasn't the type to spit directly into the trash can, Xu Yan was spared a more unpleasant task.

He quickly found the fruit pit that had given him that special feeling earlier, took it to the kitchen, cleaned it thoroughly, and then returned to the living room.

This was a peach pit, and judging by the fruit basket on the coffee table, it should have been from a white jade peach, looking very plump.

Although he was a bit conflicted about whether the peach's growth time was too long, he ultimately trusted that his Innate Talent wouldn't betray him and handed the peach pit to Zhu Yan.

"Next, let's test the effect of your Innate Talent. Use this white jade peach pit as your first spirit seed to open your Life Seed space."

Hearing Xu Yan's words, Zhu Yan raised a claw to take the peach pit from Xu Yan's hand. With a casual jab, it pierced through the outer endocarp, extracting the kernel.

Then, using both claws, it put it into its mouth. The Innate Talent: Life Seed immediately activated, and a Life Seed space was opened within its body.

The peach kernel landed precisely on a patch of ground within, slowly being buried by an invisible force.

At the same time, a piece of information, following the connection between them, was transmitted into Xu Yan's mind.

Life Seed: white jade peach

Enhancement Effect: Hardness +10%

Mutation Effect: Toughness +10%

Life Seed Progress: Seed (0/21)

Life Seed progress is divided into four stages: Seed, Sapling, Growth, and Maturity.

Feeling the information transmitted into his mind, Xu Yan couldn't help but reveal a satisfied smile.

Although not an overly outrageous enhancement, these were indeed two extremely practical attributes.

No need to say more about hardness; while increasing defense, Zhu Yan's eight spider legs would also gain higher attack power under this enhancement effect.

As for toughness, it reduces the duration of being controlled. Although a 10% effect might not be strong in the early stages, in the later stages, even a single instant could determine victory or defeat.

What's more, both hardness and toughness are still in the first stage; there are three more opportunities to increase these values later.

Once the white jade peach fully matures, this value will become extremely significant.

However, looking at the (0/21) progress and recalling the germination time of white jade peaches he had just searched for,

it seems that for quite a long time, he shouldn't expect any more Life Seed enhancements.

Xu Yan, returning to his senses, saw Zhu Yan curled up with its spider legs, asleep on the ground.

It seems that opening the Life Seed space consumed a lot of its strength and energy.

He bent down, picked it up, took it back to his room, found a spot to put it down so it could continue sleeping, and then Xu Yan took out his phone to download banking software and check the card Xu Du had given him.

The card held approximately 13 million. Not counting the 1 million Xu Du gave, the rest was Xu Yan's New Year's money over the years and income from selling spirit food and potions. Of course, the former accounted for the bulk of it, and this was without even calculating costs.

Looking at the balance on the card, Xu Yan nodded in satisfaction.

At least, he wouldn't be short on initial funds for a short period, and he wouldn't need to expend extra effort earning money.

While Zhu Yan was asleep, Xu Yan went next door and began to prepare customized spirit food suitable for Zhu Yan, based on its current condition.

It was only because his crafting skill had successfully stabilized at the General Rank level, boosted by his 'feel' for it, that Xu Yan was able to attempt custom-making spirit food for Zhu Yan, even if it was just Soldier Rank spirit food.

Using Sunpetal Flower and Moonshadow Grass as primary ingredients, adding various auxiliary and neutralizing materials, and after several failures, he finally completed the final recipe, resorting to using Heavens Mandate Guidance in a moment of frustration.

There was no other way; light and darkness themselves were relatively rare attributes, and they were also in a state of mutual suppression and repulsion. Relatively speaking, the difficulty was much greater than other types of spirit food.

And Xu Yan's efforts were not in vain. After Zhu Yan woke up, Xu Yan fed it the special spirit food he had prepared, receiving rave reviews for its enthusiastic eating.

Over the next three weeks, Xu Yan took Zhu Yan to the farm and began an arduous training life.

Cultivating, learning new skills, practicing skills, studying physics and optics, battling... Backed by an entire farm, Xu Yan naturally wouldn't lack opponents. Opponents of any rank below Commander Rank could be found on the farm.

As for those above, they weren't non-existent, but for Xu Yan and Zhu Yan at this stage, they held no meaning.

Over three weeks, with Xu Yan's unsparing feeding, Zhu Yan's physique once again improved, reaching a size of about four meters under normal circumstances.

The entire spider's stats had also undergone tremendous changes.

Species: Shadow Light Spider

Strength: Soldier Rank Level 6

Attributes: Dark (65%) Light (35%)

Innate Talent: Life Seed (Hardness +20%, Toughness +15%)

Skills: Light Shadow Strike (Passive), Silk Spit (Mastered), Glimmer Healing (Mastered), Shadow Submergence (Mastered), Light Shield (Proficient), Shadow Assault (Proficient), Shadow Curse (Proficient), Potent Poison (Proficient), Light Shadow Phantasm (Proficient)

Compared to before, its strength increased from Soldier Rank Level 0 to Soldier Rank Level 6.

Given Xu Yan's investment, this wasn't too outrageous.

The Life Seed also successfully grew from the Seed stage to the Sapling stage, with Hardness and Toughness increasing by 10% and 5% respectively. This was a good improvement and also gave Xu Yan a guess about the magnitude of future stage improvements.

To outsiders, the most unbelievable aspect was Zhu Yan's skill pool.

In three weeks, all of its original skills, except for the passive one, reached the Mastered level.

In addition, it learned five new skills and cultivated all of them to the Proficient level.

Just this information, if spread, would be enough to make most Beast Tamers incredulous.

Spirit beasts' skill proficiency is divided into six stages: Beginner, Proficient, Mastered, Minor Accomplishment, Major Accomplishment, and Microscopic, as well as realms above those that Xu Yan himself doesn't know (actually, the author hasn't thought of them yet).

Normally, a novice Beast Tamer, after just contracting a beast and diligently focusing on skill training with it, would only barely be able to train one or two skills to the Proficient level in a month.

As for the next level, Mastered, that is even more difficult. Even among some General Rank spirit beasts, most of their skill pools are at the Proficient level, with only a very few, perhaps two or three, reaching the Mastered level.

Even this is considered quite powerful among General Rank beings.