There are many spiritual beasts inside, among which Emperor Beasts are far from few.
In the original work, You Feng had obtained an Emperor Beast from there, and it was solely thanks to that Emperor Beast that he narrowly managed to become the female protagonist's thirty-sixth direct disciple.
During their previous duel, seeing that You Feng kept delaying the summons, he decided not to wait any longer; besides, he had backup plans to handle the situation.
He never expected that You Feng hadn't even subdued that Emperor Beast yet at this point in time.
Upon second thought, this also made sense.
The original work never described how or when You Feng subdued the Emperor Beast; it simply had one by his side the moment he made his debut.
"Disciple! Why is your expression so solemn? Did you see something bad?"
Su Muchan's eyes were filled with deep concern.
Jing Mingxuan finished his inspection, gently shook his head, and said, "It's not something bad. To be precise, it's something I don't recognize!"
The You family members were momentarily stunned, their hearts brimming with curiosity.
You Woxing realized something, though he wasn't entirely certain, and could only narrow his gaze as he watched.
Without keeping everyone in suspense, Jing Mingxuan directly produced a black token inscribed with the character for "Beast" from his spatial ring.
In an instant, many in the audience were taken aback.
You Woxing's mouth even twitched wildly as he muttered, "The Heavenly Beast Token! Why would Feng'er keep this thing inside his own spatial ring?"
Thinking further, You Woxing understood!
It was highly likely that You Feng intended to use this to save his own life, or even the life of the entire You family.
"Isn't it just a token? Does it really warrant such an exaggerated expression of astonishment from you experts of Tianyan City?"
Jing Mingxuan's words were like a stone creating a thousand ripples, shattering the composure of the many discerning experts present.
Chapter 12: A Small Goal
"Damn it! You unworldly Jing family brat, the Heavenly Beast Token in your hand allows entry into the Myriad Beasts Small World, which houses Emperor Beasts."
The audience wore puzzled expressions; they knew nothing about the Myriad Beasts Small World.
However, they were exceptionally sensitive to the words "Emperor Beast."
In the Xuantian Realm, any spiritual beast worthy of being called an Emperor Beast was bound to possess Great Emperor Tier bloodlines.
Such spiritual beasts were extremely rare; even Great Emperor Realm cultivators might not lay eyes on a single one in their entire lifetime.
Hence, the Heavenly Beast Token appeared all the more precious.
"An Emperor Beast? Tsk tsk! This haul is massive!" Jing Mingxuan put on a radiant, beaming smile.
The next moment, a deep voice rang out.
"Jing family brat, don't celebrate too early. This Heavenly Beast Token has been tampered with."
Jing Mingxuan's expression tightened; he knew things wouldn't be that simple.
"Two months from now is the annual opening day of the Myriad Beasts Small World. The trick that You Feng fellow pulled is that you must participate, or else the Heavenly Beast Token will automatically become void."
Jing Mingxuan's expression relaxed, and he smugly declared, "Then I will definitely participate!"
"Heh! Jing family brat, to enter the Myriad Beasts Small World, your cultivation must be at least the Fifth Layer of Qi Ocean Realm."
As soon as these words fell, everyone immediately took Jing Mingxuan for a clown.
Yet Jing Mingxuan's lips curled up into a faint, subtle smile. That's right, this was a provocation tactic he used to extract crucial information.
Normally, while these experts wouldn't dare to make a move, they should have enjoyed mocking him verbally, or perhaps remained completely silent.
Yet they had just been explaining everything to him, and even carried a sense of guidance, which indicated that these experts intended to sit back and watch him make a fool of himself.
Since he didn't know much about the Heavenly Beast Token, why not take this opportunity to learn all about it and then pull off a face-slapping flex? Wasn't that wonderful?
"Oh! The Fifth Layer of Qi Ocean Realm, is it? Then I'll set a small goal: reach the Fifth Layer of Qi Ocean Realm two months from now."
Seeing that Jing Mingxuan was not discouraged, but rather proactive and motivated, everyone's mouth twitched, finding it utterly incredible.
Before long, another voice piped up.
"Do you think breaking through in the Qi Ocean Realm is as easy as the Transcendent Realm? Do you have any idea that breaking through a single minor level in the Qi Ocean Realm is equivalent to traversing an entire Transcendent Realm?"
Had they not been wary of Su Muchan standing beside Jing Mingxuan, this remark could have been far more vicious and dripping with sarcasm.
Yet there was still someone who found an alternative angle.
"Jing family brat, two months from now, as long as you clear the threshold to enter the Myriad Beasts Small World, this old man will crawl on the ground and let you step on me to enter the teleportation array."
"Great Elder of the Ye family, you really shouldn't say things like that!"
The face of Ye Jiang, the Great Elder of the Ye family, turned pitch black.
Damn it!
He just wanted to show off; he never once intended to honor the promise.
And now look! The other party had gone and stated his identity outright.
Given Jing Mingxuan's vengeful and unforgiving nature, if he really did clear the threshold when the time came, he would definitely force him to follow through.
At this thought, he grew furious and set out to investigate who on earth had spoken those words.
The moment he checked, he was completely dumbfounded!
The person who spoke was none other than Jing Ziang, the Great Elder of the Jing family.
Damn it!
This was clearly a deliberate trap to screw him over!
"Great Elder of the Ye family, since you've put it that way, this junior can only repay your kindness in two months with my Fifth Layer of Qi Ocean Realm cultivation!" Jing Mingxuan cupped his fists with a calm smile.
The various experts were inwardly alarmed, realizing at the same time that they must never provoke Jing Mingxuan, because this fellow held grudges, repaid every slight, and often exacted his revenge on the spot!
Jing Mingxuan's heart sank.
In truth, Emperor Beasts couldn't even catch his eye at his current level.
Therefore, he had no need to visit the Myriad Beasts Small World and could completely auction off this Heavenly Beast Token instead.
However, being familiar with the original work, he knew there was an unhatched Immortal Beast inside the Myriad Beasts Small World.
This Immortal Beast remained unhatched all the way until the finale of the original story.
The reason wasn't that the Immortal Beast was unwilling to be born, but rather that the spiritual energy levels of the Myriad Beasts Small World—and indeed the entire Xuantian Realm—were far too low, causing it to likely perish the moment it was born.
Normally, Jing Mingxuan would have found this problem a headache.
Yet with the Divine Cultivation Method from the Divine Book, this issue was effortlessly resolved.
Thinking of this, he realized that the thirteenth male lead of the original work could have obtained the Immortal Beast long ago, yet failed to do so right up until the finale.
As for this, Jing Mingxuan felt it was quite easy to explain.
Influenced by his experiences as a mere mortal, the thirteenth male lead found it difficult to trust others.
Coupled with the fact that the Divine Book was so immensely powerful, the thirteenth male lead was even less likely to impart the Divine Cultivation Method to an Immortal Beast.
After all, even the female protagonist whom he adored the most had not been informed of the Divine Book's existence by the thirteenth male lead even by the finale.
Jing Mingxuan didn't see any issue with this; it was simply that the thirteenth male lead had missed out on many opportunities as a result.
However, the Divine Book was the greatest opportunity of all. Immortal Beasts and the like were merely icing on the cake; whether he had one or not truly didn't matter.
"Master, let's go. It's time to take care of another matter!"
With those words, Jing Mingxuan gently grasped Su Muchan's soft, tender, and fair little hand.
Inside the meeting room of the duel arena.
The senior executives sat around in a slovenly and lazy manner.
Bang!
The heavy doors of the meeting room were pushed open. Jing Mingxuan walked in holding hands with Su Muchan, followed by Jing Cheng and Jing Ziang.
Though there were only four of them, every single one was a pivotal figure.
Su Muchan, acting as the ultimate combat powerhouse, kept these senior executives from harboring any thoughts of staging a rebellion.
Jing Cheng and Jing Ziang, serving as the current chief administrators of the Jing family, would prevent Jing Mingxuan from getting entangled in the rhetoric of these executives.
As for Jing Mingxuan, he was naturally the one making the decisions.
If he hadn't come, this meeting wouldn't have produced any results whatsoever.
"Young Master Jing, hello. I am Xiang Feiwen, the general manager of the duel arena."
Jing Mingxuan glanced at him. The man had a fleshy face and a stout build, clearly having stuffed himself fat off the resources of the duel arena while letting his cultivation stagnate, or he wouldn't have ended up with such a physique.
A sweeping glance revealed that the physiques of all the senior executives were much the same as Xiang Feiwen's.
Originally, he had considered recruiting these executives into his service to avoid taking too large a step all at once.
But looking at it now, he either had to oust these executives and completely overhaul the duel arena's management, or demand that the duel arena immediately and instantly cough up the cultivation resources won from the bets.
Upon further reflection, after his recent purge of the elders who harbored disloyal intentions, the current Jing family could only manage itself and completely lacked the manpower to run a duel arena.
Therefore... weighing all factors, he leaned heavily toward the latter.
"Elder Xiang, what conclusion did you and the others reach regarding the matters my father discussed with you earlier?"
Management figures like Xiang Feiwen looked at the youthful Jing Mingxuan with eyes full of contempt. In their view, he had simply latched onto a female devil cultivator; otherwise, they wouldn't have even deigned to look at him twice.
After a moment of silence, Xiang Feiwen squeezed out two fake tears and said with a heavy, grieving expression, "After our intense discussions, the conclusion we've reached is agreement."
"Splendid! I just love how sensible you all are." Jing Mingxuan wore a triumphant smile, looking utterly delighted, though inwardly he was extremely disgusted.
Could these spineless wretches not grow a spine even once?
They just had to force him to do heartless things.
Sigh!
Why... why did they have to force him to do this?
"In that case, starting from right now, all of you are dismissed. Please leave the duel arena."
When these words dropped, not only were Xiang Feiwen and the other high-ranking officials of the duel arena stunned, but Jing Mingxuan's father, Jing Cheng, was dumbfounded as well.
Only Su Muchan and Jing Ziang maintained completely calm expressions.
Su Muchan simply didn't care about such matters.
Jing Ziang, on the other hand, understood the intent behind Jing Mingxuan's words.
Normally, downsizing and dismissals were carried out gradually, never all at once in a single wave.
By doing this, Jing Mingxuan was deliberately provoking the anger of Xiang Feiwen and the other executives, making them lose their composure and revoke their agreement.
Behind these duel arena executives stood essentially the top hundred clans of Tianyan City.
While the duel arena couldn't afford to pay out so many cultivation resources on its own, relying on the backing of Tianyan City's top hundred clans, coupled with joint fundraising, they could still scrape it together.
Of course, it would still be a slight loss for the Jing family since they could have otherwise completely seized the duel arena.
However, considering the Jing family's shortage of manpower, the cost of forcibly taking it over would be far too high, and instead of becoming a source of income, the duel arena might turn into a financial drain.
Thus, Jing Mingxuan's approach was exceptionally correct.
Jing Ziang's eyes were filled with gratification, and his heart surged with boundless emotion.
Fifty years! The Jing family could finally continue its climb upward!
Recalling the vision Jing Mingxuan had shared not long ago—of forging the number one cultivation family in the world—he truly hoped he could live to see that day.
The reaction from the duel arena executives was exceptionally intense.
In the end, Xiang Feiwen wore a dark, furious expression as he said, "Young Master Jing, since you've made such a decision, our stance is that we do not agree! Even if we have to smash our pots and sell our iron, we will gather the winning cultivation resources from your bets and deliver them to you!"
"Splendid! You have backbone," Jing Mingxuan praised, his gaze instantly turning chillingly cold as he spoke with a smile, "Because you broke our agreement, I will no longer give you any chance to go back on your word. Furthermore, you must deliver everything to the Jing family within twenty-four hours, or else you will share the exact same fate as You Feng."
The indifferent and merciless words left Xiang Feiwen and the other executives dazed.
Jing Mingxuan's smile made them panic, feeling utterly terrifying.
"Let's go!"
With that, the four of them turned and left.
The meeting room plunged into a dead silence.
After quite a while, Xiang Feiwen narrowed his eyes as a realization suddenly dawned upon him.
"We've all been played by that Jing family brat! His target was never the duel arena at all—it was the cultivation resources we have no way of paying back!"
Things had reached this point, and hindsight was utterly useless.
Terrified of death, the high-ranking officials had no choice but to contact their respective clans behind the scenes, dropping heavy hints that if they didn't pay up, Jing Mingxuan would have his Master slaughter their entire clans.
Consequently, Jing Mingxuan's actions left the patriarchs of Tianyan City's top hundred clans filled with both terror and rage.
Inside Jing Mingxuan's courtyard.
Su Muchan hooked the corners of her lips into a faint, smiling arc and said with an amused expression, "Disciple! The cultivation resources won from the matches have all been delivered into my hands, and I've already given the Jing family's share to your father."
Jing Mingxuan gave a calm "Mhm," as if this wasn't a matter worth getting excited over.
Filled with doubt, Su Muchan looked closer and noticed that Jing Mingxuan was intently gazing at the very first page of the Divine Book.
"Disciple, are you hesitating over whether to turn to the second page?"
She asked this purely because she knew that once Jing Mingxuan's cultivation broke through to the Qi Ocean Realm, he would be able to open the second page.
Chapter 13: Master is So Clingy
Jing Mingxuan didn't answer immediately.
In truth!
It wasn't because he was afraid to turn to the second page, as Su Muchan assumed.
Upon returning, he had already mentally prepared himself, resolving to open the second page no matter what to acquire new techniques.
Yet the moment he turned back to the first page, his eyes immediately caught several additional lines of text compared to before.
After reading through them carefully, Jing Mingxuan was completely dumbfounded!
The newly added content was none other than a secret dual-cultivation technique meant for the two of them.
According to the Divine Book's feedback, if he engaged in dual cultivation with Su Muchan, he would gain an extra hour and forty-five minutes of cultivation time.
In other words, his cultivation time would increase to three and a half hours.
Naturally, this was a tremendous boon.
The problem was that he simply couldn't bring himself to trick the innocent Su Muchan into dual cultivation!
He felt that doing so would make him look like a big bad wolf swindling a little fluffy sheep.
Of course, this was also because Su Muchan was the most special person in the world to him.
Slowly exhaling a breath of murky air, Jing Mingxuan raised his head and looked at Su Muchan—whose eyes were filled entirely with him, possessing a crystal-clear and utterly innocent gaze. The sense of guilt in his heart reached its absolute peak at that moment.
No!
I cannot do this right now.
I'll wait until the day we become formal Dao companions to dual cultivate.
Therefore, casting aside thoughts of dual cultivation, Jing Mingxuan spoke in a soft voice, "Master, I'm still a little scared. Why don't we turn to the second page together?"
"Okay! Okay!" Su Muchan cheered in a brisk tone.
She then walked to Jing Mingxuan's side, her slender, delicate hand resting upon the edge of the page.
Jing Mingxuan immediately placed his hand over Su Muchan's, feeling the warmth and softness within, and together they turned to the second page of the Divine Book.
Just like the first page, the second page was filled with numerous characters.
Su Muchan scanned them once, but as before, she couldn't make sense of these characters at all.
Only Jing Mingxuan, bound to the Divine Book, could understand them.
Jing Mingxuan felt somewhat distressed.
If Su Muchan could read them, she would know about the newly added dual cultivation, and would surely ask him what dual cultivation meant.
Or perhaps, once Su Muchan understood what dual cultivation was, she would mentally prepare herself and propose it to him instead.
As for any other possibilities......
Please! The current Su Muchan had eyes only for him; there was simply no room for any other possibility.
"Disciple! What is written on this second page?"
Su Muchan's sweet and gentle voice echoed by his ear, completely snapping Jing Mingxuan out of his train of thought.
Jing Mingxuan looked closely, and his entire person instantly froze in place.
"Divine Beast Taming Method: characterized by exceptionally loyal beast companions, exceptionally powerful beast companions, exceptionally stable foundations for beast companions. Summary... beast companions are invincible..."
Su Muchan understood in an instant. Arching her delicate brows in delight, she exclaimed happily, "Disciple! Since we're heading to that Myriad Beasts Small World two months from now, this Divine Beast Taming Method has arrived right on time."
Jing Mingxuan's mouth twitched slightly.
Right on time, indeed!
It had directly overwritten the original contents of the Divine Book's second page entirely!
In the original work, it was supposed to be the Divine Alchemy Method, yet it had turned into the Divine Beast Taming Method instead.
It seemed that all the alchemy-related preparations he had previously made could only be temporarily shelved in the dust.
At the same time, Jing Mingxuan realized that the contents of each page of the Divine Book likely adjusted according to future urgent needs, rather than following a fixed format as he had previously believed.
"Disciple! I just noticed some extra text added to the first page. What content was added?"
Unable to contain her curiosity any longer, Su Muchan asked the question that was burning in her heart.
Tsk tsk!
Oh, Master...
You finally hit the nail on the head.
Jing Mingxuan rejoiced inwardly, but upon catching sight of the pure innocence written across her pretty face, his voice instantly failed him.
With the exact same excuse as before, he just couldn't bear to deceive his Master!
"The newly added content can't be implemented temporarily, so I didn't tell you."
Su Muchan furrowed her delicate brows, her phoenix-like eyes clear as autumn water and brimming with bewilderment as she asked with naïve innocence, "Why can't it be implemented temporarily?"
He wanted to deceive his Master even less now!
Left with no alternative, Jing Mingxuan could only reply, "It's not time yet."
Time flew by swiftly, and in the blink of an eye, seven days had passed.
Jing Mingxuan was meditating as usual, but before he had practiced for very long, he felt his body being embraced by something soft.
It had been like this for the past seven days.
No matter how good his temper was, he simply couldn't take it anymore.
With a helpless sigh, he opened his eyes—which shone like stars—and looked at Su Muchan, who had pressed her entire delicate body against him and was holding him tightly.
She wore a look of utter curiosity, flashing a smile as gentle as a spring breeze as she softly inquired, "Disciple! Are you willing to tell me now?"
"Master! Can you please let me cultivate in peace?" Jing Mingxuan said, exasperated, a trace of annoyance flashing across his face.
Su Muchan tilted her head slightly, blinking her eyes as if pondering something.
The next moment, that warm, soft body radiating faint whispers of fragrance finally pulled away.
Not gonna lie, Jing Mingxuan felt a slight pang of loss at that moment.
Yet to cultivate properly and tear himself away from this cozy trap was undoubtedly the correct choice.
Slowly closing his eyes, before he even had time to resume his normal cultivation, he felt his back press against an extremely warm and soft figure.
No need to guess; the culprit was none other than his Master.
Having been rejected from the front, she had chosen the back instead?
Jing Mingxuan drew in a deep breath. If he rejected his Master again, their relationship might very well deteriorate.
The test of his willpower had arrived!
He absolutely had to withstand his Master's gentle offensive; only then could he be a dignified, independent man.
Without further hesitation, Jing Mingxuan pressed on with his regular cultivation.