Chapter 198 Blowing Snow Column
Spirit beast.
It evolved continuously from wild beasts. Even a sparrow, if it can continue to prey on spirituality, may evolve into a spiritual beast over time.
According to human research on spiritual mysteries, it is determined that even a 9-ring sub-dragon was just an ordinary creature at the beginning.
It is the evolution of generation after generation, the bloodline continues to grow stronger, and finally reaches the peak of the 9th ring.
It's just that the nourishment of spirituality is imperceptible. Apart from the rapid growth of human beings through cultivation, any creature can only complete the leap in bloodline level through reproduction. Often this kind of transition requires iterations of tens of thousands of years.
certainly.
Elves may be an anomaly, after all, it is difficult to define whether it is an animal or a plant.
As for Eudemons, it is also a variable, but it is related to humans after all, and is the result of humans' selective cultivation of spirit beasts.
In short, spirit beasts come from wild beasts, but they are self-contained.
"The evolution of spirit beasts requires tens of thousands of years of iterations, and the degeneration only happens overnight. This is too scary." Duke said with emotion.
Mentor Penrose, who was observing the human-footed owl, responded indifferently: "It takes dozens or hundreds of years for a spirit beast to grow, but it only takes a few minutes for us to hunt and kill it. So, there is nothing surprising about it. It is always easier to retreat than to advance."
"Having said that, sir, don't you feel afraid? If it is a complete shell of an ancient evil, infecting this forest..."
"That's something Bernoulli and the others should worry about, and it has nothing to do with me." Penrose glanced at Duke who was making a fuss.
"Forehead…"
"Go and do your work, don't worry about it. The storm calendar has a history of more than 4,000 years. Only humans have ever conquered forests, and no forest has ever swallowed humans."
Driven out of the Black Beetle by Penrose.
Duke shook his head and laughed. He just expressed his concern and the importance he attached to this investigation.
Since the 3rd ring arcanist Penrose doesn't care, why should he care as a 1st ring arcane mage.
Just like Penrose's attitude-it's none of my business.
"Duke, come to the bonfire party." Assistant Vikas came over, "I have been in Cuihai Valley for research for several days, but I didn't have time to get together. It just so happens that everyone came back early today, so let's have a good time at the bonfire party."
"Okay." Duke readily agreed.
The bonfire had already been lit, and Balza personally skewered the hunted spirit beast meat on a tree branch for barbecue, and Orianna helped him.
Seeing Duke coming, Orianna immediately said: "I want to bake what I want to eat. The theme of the bonfire party tonight is self-reliance, and no one else is allowed to do it for me."
Duke chuckled: "No one knows barbecue better than me."
So I found a suitable branch from the barbecue utensils that had been prepared long ago, and then found a rabbit leg, strung it skillfully on the branch, and started to barbecue on the bonfire.
Dasu Leadman and Daoist Vikas, as well as Blanc, are also very skilled in outdoor barbecue.
Only Ji Liya, who just came over from the shower, seemed a little at a loss, clumsily picked up a branch and put a piece of spirit beast meat on it.
"Where's the mentor, Assistant Vikas, didn't you call the mentor?" Orianna asked.
"The instructor is still busy with the experiment, he said come over after a while, let us eat first." Vikas said, "I will save some snake meat for the instructor later, the instructor likes to eat grilled snakes the most."
Around the bonfire, everyone chatted while grilling meat.
Duke turned the branch in his hand, glanced at Kiria next to him, and reminded: "Turn it over. In addition, you have to get closer and roast it on a high fire for a while, so that the surface of the roast meat will be charred and the moisture in the meat will be locked. Otherwise, the meat will be dry if roasted for too long."
"Oh." Kylia put her barbecue close to the campfire.
"Turn over more to prevent burnt."
"OK."
Kilia devoted herself to the barbecue seriously, and when the shell of the barbecue was charred, she touched Duke and asked, "Is my roast done?"
"Stay away from the fire and continue roasting for a while."
"Um."
Duke had already roasted his own rabbit leg, took out a dagger that he carried with him, and made several cuts on the rabbit leg.
"Duke, Kylia, here are the condiments, you can sprinkle a little on top of the barbecue." Orianna reminded.
Duke refused with a smile: "I said that no one knows barbecue better than me, Orianna, you should try my exclusive barbecue secret ingredient."
He took out a small bottle, sprinkled a layer of secret ingredients on his rabbit legs, and passed it to others.
"What secret ingredient is this?" Assistant Vikas took the small bottle first, imitating Duke to sprinkle a layer on his barbecue.
Take a bite, and immediately exclaimed: "Oh, fragrant!"
He swallowed a mouthful of barbecue, then held up the small bottle, and exclaimed loudly: "What kind of spice is this, Duke, it makes the barbecue more delicious!"
"Let me give it a try." Orianna took the small bottle, put it under her nose and sniffed it, "Well, it's really fragrant, but is the taste really as good as Vikas exaggerated for you?"
"You will know if you try it yourself." Vikas said, then turned his head and asked Duke, "What kind of spice is this?"
“I call it ground cumin,” Duke said with a smile.
This cumin powder, cumin is not the cumin powder on the earth. When Duke lived in Snake Town, he often ventured into the forest.
Naturally, barbecue in the forest is indispensable.
But he couldn’t find cumin powder on the market, nor could he find any barbecue seasoning similar to cumin powder, so he searched for the spices he could find, and after countless deployments, he finally formulated a spice that could greatly improve the taste of barbecue.
It is the secret ingredient that he calls "cumin powder" in the small bottle now.
Director Vikas nodded in praise and said: "Cumin powder...sprinkling this secret ingredient on the barbecue really makes the barbecue more delicious. You should all try it."
Olianna has already tasted it, and her eyes are shining: "Indeed, the effect of cumin powder is really miraculous. It not only makes the barbecue more fragrant, but also feels that when you eat it, it also eliminates a lot of the greasyness of the barbecue itself!"
Under the praise of the two, everyone tried it.
and get consistent approval.
Even Ji Liya, who is not very interested in barbecue, but just wants to blend into the atmosphere of the bonfire party, nodded repeatedly: "The effect of cumin powder is more mellow than most of the spices I have tasted before, especially when combined with barbecue, it is just right."
"What are you talking about, what cumin powder can make the barbecue more fragrant?" Mentor Penrose joined the bonfire party.
Oriana handed a piece of barbecue she had grilled to Penrose: "Taste it, instructor. The cumin powder provided by Duke has raised the quality of the barbecue at this bonfire party by a whole level."
After tasting it, the instructor agreed: "It's really good."
"Duke, how did you prepare your cumin powder? I can only taste four spices, fennel, chickpea, woodgrass and chicken bone flower." Balza poured a little cumin powder into the palm of his hand, and then carefully distinguished it.
Duke said with a smile: "This should be kept secret. I still want to open a chain barbecue restaurant with cumin powder, but since you like it, I will share the recipe of cumin powder... full root grass, beef tongue tip fruit... mixed in a certain proportion, it becomes cumin powder."
"So complicated?" Orianna was speechless.
"No way, I originally wanted to find a single spice to relieve the smelly smell of barbecue, but I couldn't find a suitable spice after searching, so I had to try to mix spices. In the end, after tens of thousands of trials, I came up with the ideal cumin powder."
"If you open a barbecue restaurant, I must go to apply for a membership card." Assistant Vikas said.
Didn't say much all the time, but the leader of Leadman, who was silently grilling meat, gave a rare nod of approval: "I second."
Mentor Penrose joked: "You have mastered a new skill, so I won't worry that you will starve yourself to death after graduation."
Kilia also admired in a low voice: "I really can't see it. You know life very well. You have tried so many times to find a spice that can match barbecue. Most people will give up after trying a few times. There is absolutely no way to mix cumin powder."
People who are not passionate about life cannot do this kind of thing.
Duke responded with a soft smile: "It's not that I never thought about giving up, I just firmly believe that spirituality will guide me to find the taste I want, and this taste will definitely exist."
"Yes, spirituality cares deeply about you." Kylia agreed with this very much.
Promoted to be an arcanist at the age of sixteen, learned how to make cards at the age of seventeen, and invented such a magic weapon as a portable lamp, and now even prepared cumin powder for barbecue.
In Duke, Kylia deeply felt what spiritual care is.
She quietly approached Duke's ear, and whispered: "I thought your character was very similar to Leadman's assistant."
"Leadman's assistant should be very sad when he heard this. It sounds like he is saying that he is a person who doesn't understand life."
"I didn't say that, don't blame me."
"Don't explain, no one knows reading comprehension better than me."
"I won't admit it anyway."
The two sat next to each other, laughing and teasing each other. Compared with the unfamiliarity between colleagues before, now they are more close among friends.
Olianna had been staring at the two of them for a while, and when they stopped talking, she laughed and joked: "You two have been whispering for a while, and you don't even bother to eat barbecue, are you talking bad about us?"
Duke waved his hand: "But no."
"Yes, no." Kylia responded with a smile.
"Then what are you talking about? You said it in such a low voice, obviously you didn't want us to hear it." Orianna joked after her.
Duke smiled lightly: "It's not convenient to disclose the specific content."
Vikas said with emotion: "I am old, and there is already a generation gap with young people. Seeing Duke and Kylia so energetic, I really feel that I am old."
Mentor Penrose snorted: "You are old, so what am I?"
Vikaston smiled sarcastically.
He is sixty or seventy years old, but compared to the 150-year-old life span of a 2-ring arcanist, he hasn't even passed half of it.
It is too early to say old.
A bonfire party, with the help of cumin powder, let everyone go home happily.
Duke took a bath on the black beetle, returned to his tent, sat down to practice, merged with the chick, and performed breathing techniques.
Once again, in Kylia's large shuttle, the 2-ring spiritual plant is the focus of attention to observe the world in another way.
Hurrah.
You can see and hear the hazy figure of Kylia taking a bath, and the faint sound of water. This scene made his blood flutter a little, and the allure was too strong, especially the more hazy it was, the more suitable it was for brain supplementation, and it was more exciting.
certainly.
Duke is a gentleman, and performing the "Rainfall Breathing Method" is definitely not for peeping, and he can't see the real appearance, it's just a special sensory experience.
He is to cultivate the "eye of nature".
Blessed in the form of an elf, he called the ability to use the 2-ring spiritual plant as an "eye" to perceive the surrounding details in this state of breathing resonance as the natural eye.
means the eyes formed by the force of nature.
The Eye of Nature is undoubtedly a powerful detection method.
It is worth Duke's daily hard work.
"I definitely didn't go for Kylia, just because there was a 2-ring spiritual plant on her large shuttle."
"That's it."
The fit lasted for an hour and a half. The exhausted chick condensed his body, gave Duke another look of "old color criticism", and then returned to Qihai to rest.
Duke looked indifferent and shook his head: "How can you understand my good intentions."
He touched Xiaodou who was slowly waking up, and said, "Xiaodou still understands me."
"Chichi!" Xiaodou nodded repeatedly, as if it really understood Duke.
"Then you grow up quickly. One day earlier, I can advance to a ring-1 spirit beast, and I can break through to a ring-1 great knight one day earlier, and strengthen my fighting spirit."
Duke must admit that grudges have value.
Especially when investigating some weird things, the defensive effect of the fighting spirit armor is first-class, and it can play an absolute defense against explosions and pus and blood splashes.
He is a hygienic person, with the fighting spirit armor, no matter how dirty the forest is, he will not be polluted.
The next day, during the investigation, he encountered something "dirty".
"What is this stuff?"
Among the pile of dead leaves in front of him grew a plant that was about two meters high and as thick as an adult's thigh. It also had an aura similar to fang lichen and mutated konjac flowers. They were all things that grew after being infected by evil.
It is not considered to be an evil-born creature, but at best an evil plant.
Wrapping his arm in the battle qi armor, he held the dagger and touched the straight and strange plant, preparing to cut some samples.
The color of the plant is white and green.
Green is the color of its body, and white is the dense white hair growing on its surface, as if dyed with a layer of snow.
When the wind blows, the white hair trembles like hair.
"Chuixuezhu, this thing is tentatively named as Chuuxuezhu." While speaking, Duke cut a knife on the Chuuxuezhu with a dagger.
The next moment.
There seemed to be countless red fingers growing on the blowing snow column, and it looked like countless red bugs, and these little bugs sprayed sticky juice at Duke together.
Patter!
Under Xiaoyi's control, the vindictive armor quickly covered Duke's body, blocking all the juice.
"My lord, be careful!" Vivienne and other great knights approached quickly, preparing to chop off Chuuxuezhu with his sword.
Duke raised his hand to stop it: "Stop, don't hack and kill, let me study this disgusting evil plant like Chuixuezhu."
Although at this time Fuxuezhu had red bug-like tentacles all over his body and sprayed juice, it was disgusting.
But Duke has been used to investigating evil infection in the forest these days.
This level of nausea is not taken seriously by him.
He waited until the little red bug tentacles of Chuuxuezhu stopped squirting juice, and then he continued to cut Chuuxuezhu with his dagger.
Dig out a small bug tentacle.
The tentacles were really like small bugs, twitching in Duke's hands, and wanted to get into Duke's hands, but they were blocked by the fighting spirit armor.
"The vitality is very strong, just like the fang lichen, it has already activated the plant part." Duke squeezed lightly, and the tentacles of the little bug burst.
Immediately, he injected spiritual energy into the tentacles of the dead bugs to explore.
I found that the spiritual power in the tentacles of this little bug was mixed, like a big spiritual dye vat: "Well, it's very interesting! This is a spiritual pool. You can find what kind of spiritual power you want in it."
Duke was overjoyed.
Slightly more complex spirit cards require a lot of spiritual power of different attributes to draw energy lines.
The spiritual power of these different attributes needs to be extracted from different spiritual materials.
However, the tentacle bug of Chuanxuezhu contains complex spiritual power, which is like opening a big gift bag of spiritual power.
He immediately cut off a little bit of white hair and body from Fu Xuezhu's body.
After careful perception, I found that there is no mixed spiritual power on these two things.
When he dug out a tentacled worm again, after some exploration, he found that only the structure of Fuxuezhu's tentacles contained complex spiritual power.
"Good stuff!" Duke collected a little sample and put it in a glass test tube.
Immediately he said to Zina who was following behind him: "This blowing snow pillar is definitely an important resource of spiritual material. Your mercenary group, the next task is to search for it with all your strength... It would be even better if you can figure out a planting method."
"Yes, my lord." Zina replied.
Duke looked up at the sky, and combined with the map information recorded by Xiaoyi, he judged his current position.
After a few days of research and rushing, they have already climbed over the mountains and entered the Cuihai Valley.
"It's not far from the No. 3 well area. There are obviously more animals and plants infected by evil spirits, and their potential value is getting higher and higher... But once these valuable evil plants and special evil-born creatures are wiped out..."
The evil leak in the No. 3 well area will be resolved sooner or later.
Once the support of evil spirits is lost, things such as blowing snow pillars, tiger bugs, and fang lichens will all perish.
"I can't bear it!"
Duke sighed in his heart.
The day before yesterday, he was still worried about the existence of the ancient evil, which would molt and revive on this land, causing a terrible impact.
Now I have begun to worry that if there is not enough evil, the resources discovered will be short-lived.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help laughing at himself, and said in his heart: "Sure enough, Mentor Penrose is right, worrying about nothing! Only humans have ever conquered forests, and forests have never swallowed humans. Spiritual beasts are no match for humans, let alone ancient evils!"
After a whole day of research, after returning to the campsite, Duke sent the collected samples to the Black Beetle vehicle and found Mentor Penrose.
Expressed his thoughts on the ephemerality of evil plants: "The snow-blowing column I discovered today is of great value. At least in terms of the value of spiritual materials for card making, it can greatly reduce the cost of card making...Unfortunately, without the support of evil spirits, it is difficult to cultivate again."
"Evil Qi is just an introduction." Mentor Penrose had a different idea, "Evil Qi infection formed Fuxuezhu instead of degenerating it into a slime mold like fang lichen, which means that Fuxuezhu has found a new evolutionary method."
"what do you mean?"
"Perhaps the blowing snow column will degenerate after leaving the evil infection, but its evolutionary prospects have been opened up in the fight against the evil erosion." Penrose said with narrowed eyes, "Didn't you open a farm, why not try to cultivate the blowing snow column."
"I see." Duke suddenly became concerned.
Ancient evils can be seen as the opposite of spirituality. Spirituality promotes the evolution of all things, and then evil erodes spirituality and degenerates all things.
For example, the 3-ring spirit beast-the human-footed owl, after being infected, gradually degenerated into an owl with an ordinary physique.
The same is true for plants. Under the infection of evil spirits, they will gradually degenerate and degenerate into slime molds like fang lichen.
But the birth and grams of all things are in balance.
Evil will certainly degenerate plants, but plants can also gain new opportunities for evolution while resisting degeneration.
For example, Fuxuezhu, in the fight against evil infection, stores all the spirituality in the tentacles of small insects, thus gaining new vitality and becoming a more valuable new species.
Wait until the evil energy dissipates and the confrontation ceases to exist, perhaps its evolution will also fall along with it.
But as long as this new direction of evolution is started, it can be cultivated artificially, keeping its little red bug tentacles.
Over time, Chuixuezhu will be able to multiply.
Even directional cultivation, to cultivate special red tentacles with different spiritual powers, so as to develop more value.
"This is the direction of spiritual planting, but as an arcanist, I am not limited to a single field." Penrose continued, "I teach students, and I never limit students' interests. Card making is difficult. You can find this way, but you can also show your strengths in other fields."
"Thank you, mentor, for clarifying the confusion." Duke decided to go back and try to breed Xuezhu on the Duke-James Farm.
If the cultivation is successful, maybe you can get a title of Lingzhi scholar.
In the field of card making, natural history, and spiritual planting, although it has been a short time for Duke to be promoted to an arcanist, his research fields have covered three directions.
"Another point, I went to the meeting on Keyston's battleship yesterday and listened to the information exchange of other arcanist research teams. This time, the evil leak and infection incident has a profound impact on Cuihai Valley, but the benefits brought by the new changes are also huge."
Penrose said.
As the arcane mage leading the team, meetings are naturally inevitable.
continued: "Based on everyone's opinions, we held an emergency meeting of the five towers, and prepared to keep the area around the No. 3 well area as a base for evil research when cleaning up the evil pollution... In addition, your gag order will also be lifted soon."
"Keep the No. 3 well area?" This is really a surprise, "It's just a teacher, the shell fragments of ancient evil things, there will be a day when the breath will dissipate?"
Penrose said meaningfully: "As long as you don't drive it out artificially, evil spirits will continue to be generated and never stop."
Duke also wanted to ask, what kind of existence is the ancient evil.
Penrose shook his head and said no more. Maybe he didn't know what an ancient evil was. After all, he hadn't been involved in the Battle of the Forbidden Land, and he hadn't seen the shed shell of an ancient evil.
…
Two days later, as Penrose announced the completion of the investigation of the mysterious changes in Cuihai Valley, the airship Loop slowly lifted off.
Return to Shenjiao City.
Did not encounter any crisis, as if the Black Jade Horseshoe Dragon deliberately hid, and even the Black Jade Scorpion never showed its face again.
Although spirit beasts are not civilized, high-level spirit beasts have a certain IQ. They know that they cannot eliminate the evil spirit in Cuihai Valley with their own abilities, so they hide in order to facilitate humans to wipe out this crisis and protect the habitat of Cuihai Valley.
The Loop soon arrived at the Penrose Mage Tower.
Penrose announced in time to give everyone a two-day holiday.
Saying goodbye to each other amidst the cheers, the arcane mages left the mage tower one after another, returned to their homes, and had a good rest.
Duke did not relax. He immediately took a batch of samples of the blowing snow column to the Duke-James farm.
"Let your spiritual plant envoys wear anti-corrosion protective clothing and cooperate with me to plant these blowing snow pillars in the field." Duke directly ordered James, "In addition, you go to the Union Tower and continue to buy 500 acres of land around the farm."
"My lord, what kind of spiritual plant is this blowing snow pillar?"
"A very evil spiritual plant, I don't know yet, whether it can grow alive, anyway, let's cultivate it first."
If you have a date or not, hit a shot first.
Looking for tickets~
(end of this chapter)