179: Chapter 179 Cultivating the Art of Beast Taming

The soup stewed from the two Treasure Fish was thick. Lin Tian drank the soup and ate the fish, and the Internal Energy in his Dantian swelled once again.

Sitting cross-legged on a futon, he circulated the Purple Qi Diagram to completely refine the spiritual energy. Feeling the dark energy in his Meridians, which was now slightly denser than before, he opened his eyes and shook his head slightly.

The hurdle from the Fourth-Grade Late Stage to the Fifth-Grade Transformation Realm was deeper than he had expected. Even after consuming the spiritual energy of two Treasure Fish, the Qi Sea in his Dantian had only expanded outward by another circle, and there was still some way to go before a true Breakthrough.

However, he was in no hurry. His days as a captain at the Yunhai Fishery were still long, and with two Treasure Fish guaranteed every month, many mickles would make a muckle. A Breakthrough was only a matter of time.

In the days that followed, Lin Tian continued to perform his duties as the captain of Team 7 in an orderly manner. Every morning, he would punt a bamboo raft to patrol the fish ponds, inspect the net cages, arrange shifts for his team members, and handle the team's miscellaneous chores.

All of his time outside of official duties was spent on cultivation.

He had been constantly practicing the Shadow Movement Technique and the Beast Taming Technique.

He made rapid progress with the Shadow Movement Technique.

This movement technique was somewhat similar to the Cloud Shadow Step, both excelling in dodging and shifting within a small area. However, the Shadow Movement Technique had an extra layer of bizarreness—it did not rely solely on speed, but rather used the cover of light and shadow to make one's figure briefly disappear from an opponent's field of vision.

Having stayed at the Yunhai Fishery for nearly a year, Lin Tian knew every tree, every rock, and every patch of shadow by the lake like the back of his hand, allowing him to practice the Shadow Movement Technique with half the effort and twice the results.

A few days later, he tried it out in the old willow forest by the lake—with a sway of his body, he moved silently among the tree shadows. Even though he was standing less than thirty feet away from Chen Lang, Chen Lang actually rubbed his eyes several times before recognizing him amidst the dappled tree shadows.

On the proficiency panel, both the Shadow Movement Technique and the Beast Taming Technique had reached the entry level.

The Beast Taming Technique, however, was the most difficult of all his martial arts to get started with.

This Cultivation Technique was completely different from other martial arts—practicing swordplay and fist techniques trained one's own body and Internal Energy, practicing movement techniques trained one's footwork and rhythm, while the Beast Taming Technique trained the connection with another living creature.

According to what was written on the scroll, the caster had to use Internal Energy to condense an extremely thin "spiritual thread" at their fingertip, probe this spiritual thread into the Vicious Beast's body, establish resonance with the beast's own vital energy and blood, and then use a specific incantation frequency to suppress the beast's consciousness, making it dependent on and obedient to the caster.

The step of condensing the spiritual thread was not difficult for Lin Tian, as his control over Internal Energy was top-tier among those in the same Realm. However, once the spiritual thread entered the Vicious Beast's body, it would face the instinctive backlash of the beast's vital energy and blood. When an ordinary Martial Artist controlled a Vicious Beast for the first time, their spiritual thread would often be shattered before it could suppress the opponent's consciousness.

A month later, Lin Tian's Beast Taming Technique broke through to the proficient stage. He caught a gray wild rabbit by the lake, condensed a pale-purple spiritual thread as thin as a hair at the tip of his right index finger, and gently pricked it into the back of the rabbit's neck.

The rabbit first kicked its legs frantically in fright, but within just a few breaths after the spiritual thread entered, it quieted down.

Lin Tian tentatively used his mind to transmit a simple command through the spiritual thread—raise the left front paw.

The gray rabbit actually raised its left front paw, its long ears twitching and its red eyes filled with confusion. Lin Tian then made it put it down, spin in circles, and jump onto a nearby rock, all of which it did obediently. He then withdrew the spiritual thread from the rabbit's body.

Having regained its freedom, the rabbit dashed into the bushes and ran away with a whoosh.

As the Beast Taming Technique grew stronger, wouldn't he be able to control even stronger Vicious Beasts in the future? Lin Tian withdrew the spiritual thread back into his Dantian, and a thought suddenly popped into his head—he wondered if he could control Treasure Fish.

When he was a guard at the No. 6 Fish Pond, he had dealt with Treasure Fish every day. Those three-year and five-year silver-white fish did not possess high intelligence. If his Beast Taming Technique went up another tier, he might really be able to use the spiritual thread to establish resonance with them.

However, Treasure Fish were Sect property, and every single one was accounted for. If something went wrong during a rash attempt, it would be difficult to explain.

He temporarily suppressed this thought, but another image surfaced in his mind—the terrifying wake created by that ten-meter Black Crocodile swimming underwater in the depths of that primeval lake.

If he could control that crocodile, that would be truly formidable. However, he quickly shook his head. That Black Crocodile was at least a Fifth-Grade Transformation Realm level Vicious Beast. With his current cultivation and level of the Beast Taming Technique,

before the spiritual thread could even probe inside, it would likely be shattered by the backlash. Unless his cultivation and Beast Taming Technique broke through to a sufficiently high level, it was completely out of the question.

He had discovered a trick: practicing the Beast Taming Technique out of thin air against the scroll made his proficiency grow very slowly, but every time he went to the lakeside to catch a living creature and actually control it, his proficiency would visibly jump by a small increment.

Consequently, the wild animals near the No. 7 Fish Pond began to suffer. One day, a wild rabbit would be caught by him for practice; the next day, an otter would be commanded by his spiritual thread to spin in circles in the lake; and the day after that, a hedgehog would be controlled to actively unfold its curled-up, spiky body.

Occasionally, his team members would bump into their captain squatting by the lake, muttering to a gray squirrel on his palm. Though they were all utterly bewildered, none of them dared to ask.

Just like that, half a year passed.

Over this half-year, Lin Tian's strength was like rice milk ground out bit by bit by a millstone—solid and steady, with every drop accumulating into a river.

Each of his martial arts was steadily progressing. The Cloud Shadow Step, Flying Knife in the Sleeve, Meteor Arrow Technique, Great Strength Vajra Palm, Thunderclap Sword Technique, and Dragon Roar Iron Shirt—through day after day of hard practice and real combat against wave after wave of Vicious Beasts, these martial arts broke through certain critical points one after another.

On this day, after finishing his patrol of the fish ponds, he returned to his bamboo cottage. Closing the door, he sat cross-legged on the futon, brought up his proficiency panel, and scanned his gaze line by line across it.

The Purple Qi Diagram had reached Major Achievement,

the Xiaguang Sword Technique had reached Major Achievement, and the Cloud Shadow Step had also advanced from mastery to Major Achievement. The Flying Knife in the Sleeve, Meteor Arrow Technique, Great Strength Vajra Palm, Thunderclap Sword Technique, and Dragon Roar Iron Shirt had all broken through to the Major Achievement Realm.

The Shadow Movement Technique and the Beast Taming Technique had also firmly reached the Mastery Realm.

His gaze paused on the very last line.

Cultivation: Fourth-Grade Late Stage.

The Internal Energy in his Dantian was dense and full, and the dark energy in his Meridians surged endlessly. He was only a single sheet of window paper away from the Fifth-Grade Transformation Realm.

Just as he was wondering whether he should go into secluded cultivation to charge at the Bottleneck after receiving next month's Treasure Fish, the end of the month arrived.

A deacon disciple brought over a wooden basin, where two three-year-old silver-white Treasure Fish were wagging their tails in the clear water.

Lin Tian squatted by the wooden basin, cleaned the fish himself, and stewed them into a soup. He drank the soup and ate the fish. The crisp, clear spiritual energy exploded from his stomach, surging along his Meridians toward his Dantian. It merged with the dense Internal Energy accumulated over half a year of bitter cultivation and violently crashed against that invisible barrier.

A muffled hum echoed in his Dantian, as if something had been burst open from the inside out.

In an instant, his Meridians were widened by a circle, and the quality of his Internal Energy began to undergo a subtle transformation,

It was no longer pure dark energy, but carried a more solid and sharp aura. With his eyes closed, Lin Tian guided this brand-new power to circulate through his Meridians for a full day and night.

The next morning, he opened his eyes and extended his right index finger. A faint, extremely weak azure glow lit up at his fingertip. This was not the energy glow of dark energy, but the transformed energy unique to a Transcendent Martial Artist,

Although it was still extremely thin and merely a prototype of just entering the Fifth Grade, he knew he had already crossed that threshold.