Celestial Beast Taming

Chapter 491: Chapter 278: The Sprouting Blood-Brewing Grape Vine

Funnie had not only stabilized her realm as a Blood Race Count, but her Bloodline had also improved beyond that baseline.

As for the Celestial Craft Ant Queen, she had already produced over ninety Building Ants, which were the standard for the assessment.

According to the standards Fang Ze had told him, Zhong Yi had not only met the criteria but had actually surpassed them.

On average, the Soul-Controlling Flower could reliably produce a Soul Taming Seed every thirty-or-so hours.

After setting aside two Soul Taming Seeds for Zhong Ling and Shen Xuan, Zhong Yi obtained another one on the eighth day.

Over the past few days, Funnie’s power had been steadily increasing.

Funnie’s power had already broken through the Third Level and reached the Fantasy Tier.

Moreover, her power was still growing at a visible rate.

The only issue was that Funnie had to eat six to seven Blood Demon Litchis every day, costing around twenty Divine Origin Value.

Spending six hundred Divine Origin Value a month to support Funnie’s growth was no big deal for Zhong Yi at his current level.

However, relying solely on Blood Demon Litchis, a single type of Bloodline Material, wasn’t enough to meet Zhong Yi’s expectations for Funnie.

So, Zhong Yi took the Blood-Soaked Swamp Soil he had acquired along with the Blood-Brewing Grape Vine cuttings. He had the Celestial Craft Ant Queen command the Building Ants to construct a stone basin, where he then spread the soil evenly.

Then, he planted the Blood-Brewing Grape Vine cuttings, which were clearly still full of life, into the Blood-Soaked Swamp Soil.

Once the cuttings made contact with the Blood-Soaked Swamp Soil, Zhong Yi could feel them begin to absorb the Energy within it.

However, the rate of Energy absorption was extremely slow.

Even after absorbing Energy from the Blood-Soaked Swamp Soil, the cuttings showed no change whatsoever.

’A single cutting can sell for nearly ten thousand Divine Origin Value. This Blood-Brewing Grape Vine must be an incredibly precious, production-type Creature of the Blood Attribute.’

Zhong Yi simply buried the Soul Taming Seed right next to the Blood-Brewing Grape Vine cutting.

Since the vine hadn’t grown any roots yet, Zhong Yi nudged the Soul Taming Seed closer to it.

He made sure the Soul Taming Seed, buried in the Blood-Soaked Swamp Soil, was touching the cut end of the vine cutting.

Zhong Yi couldn’t see what was happening beneath the soil, but he could sense that the cutting had absorbed the Soul Taming Seed.

The Blood-Soaked Swamp Soil in the stone basin was extremely dense, more than five times heavier than ordinary dirt.

Yet, Zhong Yi could feel a subtle tremor on the surface of the soil.

This indicated that while the cutting on the surface showed no changes, it was already frantically extending its root system beneath the soil.

Two tender new vines sprouted from the withered cutting, one on each side, one higher and one lower.

When the vines first emerged, they were a vibrant, dewy green.

But not long after they stretched out, pale red, blood-like spots began to appear on them.

As the vines grew, these spots multiplied and deepened in color until the fully unfurled leaves took on the dark red hue of dried blood.

With the help of a single Soul Taming Seed, the withered cutting not only filled the basin with roots but also sprouted two vines, each nearly four meters long.

The ends of the vines were already as thick as Zhong Yi’s index finger.

So, Zhong Yi had the Celestial Craft Ant Queen command the Building Ants to carve three stone pillars, each about ten meters long.

He set up these three pillars, each less than five centimeters in diameter, in the stone basin to form a simple grape trellis.

Zhong Yi didn’t even need to wrap the vines of the Blood-Brewing Grape Vine around the stone frame himself.

The moment he finished setting up the frame, the vines coiled around the three stone pillars like Spiritual Snakes.

Through All Things Exploration, Zhong Yi learned that the Blood-Brewing Grape Vine was not a massive, plant-type Guardian Beast.

The trellis made from the three ten-meter-long pillars would be more than enough for the vine.

Once it covered the trellis, it would bear fruit containing pure Blood Element Energy, provided it was watered with sufficient blood.

Zhong Yi was uncertain about the Blood-Brewing Grape Vine’s yield.

If its yield was high, getting just one more cutting in the future would be enough to cover all of Funnie’s needs.

As he thought about this, his mind shifted. He looked at the two vines that had sprouted from the original cutting.

’I could just cut one of these vines into several sections and try to cultivate them.’

’If that succeeds, I’ll never have to spend extra Divine Origin Value to raise Blood Race members again, no matter how many I have.’

’Not only that, but if I ever need Divine Origin Value, I can sell some of the Blood-Brewing Grapes on the Virtual Source Network.’

’A niche Bloodline Material like Blood-Brewing Grapes is bound to have a massive market on the Virtual Source Network.’

’Otherwise, a single cutting wouldn’t be worth nearly ten thousand Divine Origin Value.’

Zhong Yi kept an eye on the time. With five minutes left in the Creation Martial Arts Demonstration assessment, he retracted the Blood-Brewing Grape Vine, which had been growing wildly in the stone basin, into his Soul Base.

He took a quick count of the Building Ants produced by the Celestial Craft Ant Queen. The number exceeded 2,300.

After the assessment, Zhong Yi would need to temporarily leave Funnie and the Celestial Craft Ant Queen with the Wanyu Creation Company.

They would be evaluated by the woman on the high platform, Zhao Xiyue, and the other Third Level Creators.

Zhong Yi didn’t see anything wrong with this.

He wasn’t worried that raising the Celestial Craft Ant Queen and Funnie so well would make others jealous. He wasn’t afraid they would use dirty tricks to swap out Funnie, a Blood Race Count who had awakened her Ancestral Bloodline.

Zhong Yi currently considered the Guardian Beast World his home, as it was the world he had created in his past life.

However, he didn’t feel much of a connection to the Ecological Realm.

Although the Guardian Beast World wasn’t part of the Nine Great Ecosystems, it was still a world within the greater Ecological Realm.

If he felt goodwill from the Ecological Realm, he would be willing to become its protector.

But if he encountered such dirty tricks even during an assessment at the Wanyu Creation Company, he would have to re-evaluate his view of the Ecological Realm.

For now, his impression of the Ecological Realm was excellent. As he saw it, both the Four Major Companies and the Nine Great Ecosystems were pouring resources into cultivating new talent.

Otherwise, he never would have been able to earn materials worth hundreds of thousands of Divine Origin Value just by using his Talent on the Virtual Source Network.

There were two envelopes on the stone platform. Zhong Yi was very familiar with them; they could be used to hold the Creatures for the assessment.

After giving some instructions to Funnie and the Celestial Craft Ant Queen, Zhong Yi placed each of them into an envelope.

Then, acting very low-key, he left the Ruins World using the Realm Passage Token and submitted them.

Zhong Yi had spent a full ten days on the Creation Martial Arts Demonstration.

The Life Healing Totem he had placed on Ren Suxin using the Resurrection Celestial Lord’s Seal would only last for about twelve days.

During that time, Zhong Yi had to ensure that the severity of Ren Suxin’s cracked bones didn’t worsen.

If her bones started cracking faster, the totem’s duration would decrease.

Zhong Yi was in a hurry to re-apply the Life Healing Totem for Ren Suxin, so he decided not to go looking for Fang Ze.

He sent messages to Fang Ze, Song Zhixu, and He Yan through his Soul Fighting Bracelet, then logged out of the Virtual Source Network.

Having spent ten days in the Ruins World, his soul had already recovered to its peak condition.

Even after just using the Realm Passage Token, Zhong Yi didn’t feel tired upon his return to the Guardian Beast World.

After reapplying the Life Healing Totem for Ren Suxin, Zhong Yi went to Tao En’s room.

He found Tao En with a sly grin on his face, scribbling calculations on a piece of paper.

Seeing Zhong Yi, Tao En let out a chuckle. For a moment, Zhong Yi found his smile a bit sleazy.

"Young Master, I also participated in the Creation Martial Arts Demonstration."

"Right at the start, I tried to help that female Celestial Craft Ant on its nuptial flight evolve into a Celestial Craft Ant Queen, but I failed."

"It was probably because my Soul Strength wasn’t high enough. I couldn’t connect with the soul of that rather irritable female Celestial Craft Ant."

"As a result, my soul wasn’t really affected."