Chapter 89: Expansion
Chapter 89: Expansion
Word count = 1020 on 9/30/2023
(A/N: warning. This is another short chapter as the final arc starts next. The next chapter will describe the changes brought about by his newest self-refinement in this chapter. Wondering if I should set it up as its own volume?)
Once Nocturn stopped trying to eat him. Xue Tie set down the newly born dragon in the forest which has grown considerably over the past 2 years.
The forest is now 5 times larger than before which is roughly 15 miles wide. The tree types had been expanded and with the cooperation of the 100k beasts core group, a few lower-level plant beasts were relocated under the promise of refinement every few months.
In fact, one of the other things made during the past 2 years was the grand ascension platform. Using the trident martial spirit as its core, the refinement ability was assigned to anyone on the platform itself. The target could easily be changed from body to martial spirit. Allowing hearty cooperation between humans and beasts here.
Yes, Xue Tie stole the name Spirit Pagoda used from SL2/SL3. But what's the point of his people needlessly fighting spirit beasts and absorbing only 1% or something of a beast's power? It was too inefficient to Xue Tie's mind.
If anything, Spirit Pagoda might not even have a chance to exist except to give spirit rings if Xue Tie's new beast land is not made available to all but that is a problem for the future as the scale of it is far too small right now.
As such, part of his plan is to migrate various lower-level beasts to his forest so that they may populate it more. By allowing regular beasts and blood beasts to possibly mate. A new proper beast might arise that would be better than both. To facilitate this, he spent the next week Cooperating with Di Tian to get some lower-level beasts to assist in the experiment of blood clones.
While annoyed, Hong Zu still helped intimidate and coax the dumb beasts to cooperate in return for food, safety, and a boost I'm power which he already offered to many others.
In just the 2nd week, more successes in blood beast creation occurred as lower-level beast blood required less valuable herbs to propagate it and nurture it into a proper blood beast.
Nocturn has mostly been a curious 'little' thing as it explores it's new home, and interacts with new creatures like itself as well as regular spirit beasts that are both curious and frightened as their instincts tell them to not approach while the 'kind' personality of the dragoness calms them down. Some of them who were parents take to Nocturn like a newborn baby which is correct.
On the other hand, Xue Tie watches these interactions with interest as he cleans off the various slop and saliva as he has just gotten done creating a pack of wolves whose instincts told them to eat them as well. Not maliciously, of course, it was more like newborn pups wanting to play with their parent even though they are full-sized wolves.
Speaking of, would that mean that if they biologically have a growth spurt, would they be even bigger?
Xue Tie shakes off the idea of riding giant wolves into battle.
Xue Tie is technically finished with the project until the first test of whether blood beasts give spirit rings. This is why unless for letting others use his trident through a 3rd party mechanical device that can use another's spirit energy as his own for the refinement process.
To a point, Xue Tie is no longer needed to refine things himself and has now shut himself in his training room to cultivate. As Xia Wei is now living her new life as a wife and mother to Ning RongRong. Except for the small scales bonds, most others were canceled as it was found out that there is a numbers limit to the bonds, which are being monopolized by the 7 Glazed Tile Pagoda Clan.
His other students have either started their own families or like Du Lie and Yu Yue who have grown accustomed to being leaders of his organization. Du Lie is just months away from reaching titled Douluo while Yue is gifted ever since she ate the fire peach long ago. The enhancement of fire to her undead have mutated a few of her early spirit rings as well as her martial spirit. Turning it into a proper hellish object as her undead are no different than hell fiends as they constantly emit fire. She has fully embraced swarm tactics of explosive skeletons. With the bodies of thousands of enemy soldiers and her ability to resurrect the blown up skeletons again. Her army is quite endless as seen as the secret force of the Blood Hall as a whole and more specifically the Skull Hall which already has a skull throne. Courtesy of Yu Yues strange interests in understanding death and undeath.
She has long Reached Spirit Emperor and isn't far from Spirit Saint. (Aka past level 60 and nearing 70)
As for his final student. The murderous child who tried to kill him after the Balak Capitals conquest. She is now 8 years old and still regularly tries to kill him. Sometimes being disobedient and trying to assassinate him which only fails. Her cultivation is naturally the lowest and is a level 16 spirit master so far. He truly finds her adorable.
Even Bibi Dong pampers her a bit. Acting as a surrogate child for them which is good for Bibi as she even has the gall to call him impotent when she is the one riding him all the time, forcing him to shoot blanks in pain as he regularly runs out of 'ammunition'..
With all these factors and the state of his own body. He lets his empire run itself while he spends the next year to finally reach level 99 Limit Douluo. Only then did he refine his body once more thanks to his trident.