Chapter 2234 — A Contract Spirit Beast?

The Great Fire Lion knew perfectly well how much true qi and spiritual power it took to upgrade a spirit beast—far more than a human cultivator would ever need. How much of Wei Zhao's own true qi would it drain to upgrade the little Fire Lion?

The Great Fire Lion understood that Wei Zhao had been moved by the Fire Lion clan's warmth and their wish to repay a debt of gratitude, and that he wanted to give something back in return. But there were many ways to repay a kindness—surely there was no need for this? Everyone knew that true qi was cultivated through bitter, unrelenting effort.

To simply give it away for nothing—would that not send one's own strength plummeting by several grades at once?

At this thought, the Great Fire Lion wanted to intervene, but then it recalled that Wei Zhao was at that very moment earnestly channeling true qi into the little Fire Lion. The slightest mishap could mean all his efforts wasted, or worse, a deviation of his inner qi running amok. So the Great Fire Lion did not dare disturb him.

Meanwhile, the little Fire Lion had already crossed into the Profound Rank, becoming a spirit beast of the early Profound Rank!

And that was not the end of it. Wei Zhao kept pushing its strength higher without pause!

Peak early Profound Rank, mid Profound Rank, peak mid Profound Rank, late Profound Rank... only at last, at peak late Profound Rank, did Wei Zhao finally stop. He let out a long breath and set the little Fire Lion down beside him.

Painful as it had been for the little Fire Lion to break through its rank each time its armband was upgraded, the Fire Lion clan was born with formidable willpower—otherwise it could never have fought those three Yellow Rank experts to the bitter end, unyielding, when they had surrounded it.

"My abilities are limited—this is all I can do. Peak late Profound Rank is the utmost I can raise it to," Wei Zhao said, looking at the dumbstruck Great Fire Lion.

"This... Mr. Lin, you've channeled all your power into the little Fire Lion, so you..." The Great Fire Lion regarded Wei Zhao hesitantly.

"Ha, I'm fine. A little rest and I'll be right as rain," Wei Zhao said. "Mother Lion, this time it's your turn!"

The Mother Lion was an ordinary lion. Had Wei Zhao never appeared here, whether it could even reach the Yellow Rank would have been a question—let alone advance further! Put plainly, it came down to her bloodline. She had no ancient spirit beast blood flowing in her body. Even if she ate precious fruits of heaven and earth as her daily food, reaching the Yellow Rank in this lifetime would already be a remarkable feat!

Spirit beasts were not like humans: once they reached the Yellow Rank, their lifespans could be extended indefinitely. The Great Fire Lion had set its heart on seeing the Mother Lion step into the Yellow Rank, but strength was not something one could command at will. After all, every ancient spirit beast had been passed down generation after generation, its bloodline accreting and evolving bit by bit—it took far more than one or two generations to become an ancient spirit beast. Hampered by her bloodline, the Mother Lion's cultivation progressed slowly to begin with; if she could not be brought into the Yellow Rank within a few decades, then she could only fade away in sorrow. That was not something the Great Fire Lion was willing to see!

So when the Great Fire Lion heard Wei Zhao's words, it was beside itself with excitement and astonishment.

"She... can she do it too?" The Great Fire Lion looked at Wei Zhao hesitantly and reminded him, "She doesn't have the bloodline of an ancient spirit beast..."

After all, the Great Fire Lion feared Wei Zhao had forgotten that the Mother Lion was no ancient spirit beast. For an ordinary animal to step into the Yellow Rank was a thousand times, ten thousand times harder than for an ancient spirit beast! Never mind that upgrading an ancient spirit beast was already arduous enough—for an ordinary animal, it was all but impossible!

Otherwise, if it were truly so easy, if ordinary animals could enter the Yellow Rank as well, then spirit beasts would have long since filled the world and would not be so rare.

"Ha, of course there's no problem." Naturally, without the living example of General Weiwu, Wei Zhao would not have dared make such a guarantee. But with General Weiwu as precedent, Wei Zhao could certainly be sure that, through his upgrading, the Mother Lion too would become a knockoff "ancient spirit beast"!

After all, Wei Zhao's Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art and his jade pendant space were already close to being a bug in the system.

"If only she can enter the Yellow Rank... entering the Yellow Rank is all that matters!" The Great Fire Lion looked at Wei Zhao excitedly, then prostrated itself on the ground before him and said respectfully, "Mr. Lin, you are the great benefactor of our Fire Lion clan, a benefactor of the highest order. Though I already have a contracted master, I swear that whenever Mr. Lin has need of us, our Fire Lion clan will treat Mr. Lin as we would our contracted master!"

"Ha, let's see the results first." Wei Zhao had not expected the Great Fire Lion to be so overcome. He simply felt that the help he had given the Fire Lion clan was far less than the worth of the Fireflow Divine Pellet and the Wildfire Fist manual, and that was why he had helped upgrade the elder and younger Fire Lions.

As he spoke, Wei Zhao crouched down and pressed his fingers to the Mother Lion's meridians!

The Mother Lion was rather large, so Wei Zhao could not scoop her up the way he had the little Fire Lion. Though he could have lifted her, he found it too much trouble.

With the little Fire Lion's example before her, though the Mother Lion felt a powerful, pure true qi surging into her body, she was not overly startled. She simply gritted her teeth in silence and endured the inner force as it pushed back and forth through her meridians, expanding them...

The Mother Lion was only an ordinary lion, and her meridians had never been fully opened. Wei Zhao had to open them for her first. Fortunately, all of it was accomplished automatically by the second layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, so Wei Zhao did not have to expend any thought or effort.

He needed only to keep the second layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art's inner cultivation method circulating ceaselessly within the jade pendant space! Put plainly, Wei Zhao neither gained nor lost anything—he was simply doing useless work all along, his body serving merely as a medium to pass the energy from the jade pendant space through himself and into the Mother Lion!

The Yellow Rank! It took the Mother Lion longer than the little Fire Lion to enter the Yellow Rank, but in the end she crossed that threshold—the most important barrier of her life. To enter the Yellow Rank meant she had become a spirit beast!

The Mother Lion naturally understood what this signified. From now on, she could stay by the Great Fire Lion's side for all their long years together, and she would not have to depart this world before seeing the little Fire Lion grow up... She was overjoyed!

The Great Fire Lion and the little Fire Lion were just as excited. They had never imagined that the ailment that had plagued them for so many years could be so easily resolved in this moment!

After entering the Yellow Rank, the Mother Lion's rate of advancement became much faster, almost on par with the little Fire Lion's. In no time at all she rose from early Yellow Rank all the way through peak early Yellow Rank, mid Yellow Rank, peak mid Yellow Rank, late Yellow Rank, peak late Yellow Rank...

Such a rapid pace of upgrading could be called unprecedented and never to be equaled again. The Great Fire Lion watched, at a loss for words, unable even to express what it felt! Even the little Fire Lion, which had already endured Wei Zhao's upgrading, was stunned at this moment!