Chapter 95: Chapter 24: The Three-Form Being
After Lin Jing decided to establish a preliminary contract with the Ice Soul Gu, he no longer wasted any time and immediately sat down to meditate on the snow.
"Pine Needle Mouse, protect me."
Pine Needle Mouse listened, frozen in shock, not expecting the Ice Soul Gu to bump the Dragon Carp out of its contract spot, quickly becoming the second in command.
Poor Dragon Carp, not only did it miss out on the opportunities of the Grotto Heaven, but now even its second contract spot is taken!
"Squeak..." It manipulated the grass and trees to build a wooden fortress, protecting Lin Jing within it, while standing on top of the fortress to fend off demon beasts from the Dragon and Phoenix Grotto Heaven, preventing them from obstructing Lin Jing from contracting the Ice Soul Gu.
Regarding Lin Jing’s decision, Pine Needle Mouse knew persuasion would be useless and directly followed the order.
Sealing the space.
Lin Jing’s consciousness manifested, gazing at the still sleeping but cultivation-wise already at the peak of the Qi Cultivation stage Ice Soul Gu, his thoughts stirred.
"Back then, the Companion Gu of the Ice Soul Gu hadn’t absorbed nutrients to feedback to the mother Gu before being completely exterminated by the Cold Moon Sword Immortal, causing the Ice Soul Gu to be somewhat underdeveloped..."
"After entering my body, it was sealed and suppressed, its growth extremely slow. However, now under the nourishment in the Dragon and Phoenix Grotto Heaven, with its bloodline, it may establish its Foundation, awaken after leaving the Grotto Heaven, and by then if the Dragon Carp isn’t contracted, it will likely be difficult to balance it. Only by contracting it before its Foundation awakening can balance and suppression be achieved."
The current Beast Taming Technique modified by the Beast Taming Sect, though not the life-and-death master-servant contract of the past, claims equality, but in reality, the Beast Master still has a suppressive effect on the Pet Beast, like "brothers and sons," not absolute equality, but lacking the extreme situation where the Beast Master’s whim can decide the life and death of the Pet Beast.
"Blood, go." With a thought at the drop of his hand, a golden gleam flickered over the sealing space, and a huge drop of golden blood descended from the sky, slowly approaching the sleeping Ice Soul Gu.
This situation seemingly isn’t the traditional contract method of the present Beast Taming Sect, but more like the earlier Beast Taming Sect, where the demon beast was knocked unconscious, sealed, and unable to resist when contracting was forced.
Golden contract blood flowed into the Ice Soul Gu’s body through the cracks in the divine wood seal. Though the Ice Soul Gu didn’t seem to resist, Lin Jing still felt enormous pressure during the process. The bloodline power of the Ice Soul Gu was too strong, and even with his current Beast Taming Body, the contract wasn’t smooth sailing.
Crack... crack...
Lin Jing’s consciousness gradually froze.
It could be said, as one of the Ten Great Strange Gu, its power level isn’t necessarily weaker than the same level Divine Body.
Inside the wooden fortress, as the contract progressed, a more terrifying chill emerged from Lin Jing’s body, instantly freezing the wooden fortress. Seeing this, Pine Needle Mouse was trembling, immediately flying with leaves to protect him in the air.
"Squeak squeak..."
During the protection, Pine Needle Mouse nervously glanced back a few times. Inside the wooden fortress, Lin Jing was enduring immense pain; the reason he didn’t make a sound was because he had already become an ice sculpture. If not for the contract connection indicating Lin Jing still had consciousness, Pine Needle Mouse would have thought Lin Jing died during the contract.
...
Inside the sealed space, during the contract process, the sleeping Ice Soul Gu struggled as if in a nightmare, impacting the seal, luckily the seal was placed by the divine pine, not by Lin Jing and Pine Needle Mouse, otherwise it might have been broken long ago.
"This Ice Soul Gu..."
"Is forcibly changing my constitution!" after a while, Lin Jing sensed something unusual, perhaps due to the strong bloodline of the Ice Soul Gu, or because of the uniqueness of the Gu, during the contract, it reacted differently compared to contracting a normal spirit or demon beast.
During the establishment stage of the bloodline contract, the Ice Soul Gu didn’t strongly resist, but this increasingly close bloodline connection made the Ice Soul Gu emit a layer of power, forcibly changing Lin Jing’s flesh!
"So cold..."
"What’s this..." Lin Jing didn’t realize how long it had been, but he felt the extreme cold power of the Ice Soul Gu seemingly integrating entirely into his body. Even without using the Ice Soul Gu’s power, he could wield it; the ice attribute power seemed to become a part of his own body.
The most absurd thing is that as the body temperature dropped lower, Lin Jing felt his lifespan decreased much slower; though he had a Longevity Body with prolonged life, his life span decrease rate was similar to an ordinary person, one year passing meant a year’s lifespan reduction.
But now Lin Jing sensed, during the contract process with the Ice Soul Gu, his physique change process, his lifespan was extended in an unusual way.
He... became more immortal.
"They say cultivators with ice attribute physique... tend to appear younger than normal cultivators, not easily aging. Am I in a similar situation now?"
Inside the wooden fortress, ice on Lin Jing’s body slowly sublimated into white chill, contract blood perfectly merging into the Ice Soul Gu’s body. In the sealed space, the Ice Soul Gu still slept and hadn’t awakened, being contracted by Lin Jing somewhat obliviously, not knowing what its reaction would be upon fully waking.
"But this power seems to still have a price."
Outside.
Lin Jing’s figure reappeared, airborne through Qi-control. At this moment, Pine Needle Mouse was cautiously observing the four Dragon Blood Centipedes attacking from all sides.
"Let me handle it." Lin Jing instructed Pine Needle Mouse not to act.
As these words fell, his body erupted with cold energy; nine spirals of Spiritual Qi expanded forcefully, surrounding Dragon Blood Centipedes instantly coated with white frost, numerous centipede legs cracked and fell off.
Meanwhile, Lin Jing felt, even with the same force, using this ice attribute power still resulted in "frostbite."
"I am not naturally ice attribute constitution, but influenced by the Ice Soul Gu’s power, resembling post-natural ice spirit body. Cultivated post-natural ice attribute characteristics, unlike innate qualities, aren’t perfect, hence using the more domineering ice attribute power than an ice spirit body still results in frostbite as before."
"Not only the flesh, even the soul gets frostbitten together. However, the extent of frostbite is much less than before, which is the benefit of the contract. As long as it’s not abused and mitigated frequently with top-grade fire attribute, yang attribute spiritual medicine, and pills, it should be fine."
"Yes, let’s call you the Post-Natural Ice Soul Body." Lin Jing was delighted, as his own strength had greatly increased, and this Ice Soul Body could even disguise as the Ice Spirit Body, misleading others about his constitution.
"Squeak?!!" After the Dragon Blood Centipede died, Pine Needle Mouse looked at Lin Jing flying with the wind and discovered his hair color and eye color had reverted, indicating he had preliminary mastery of the Ice Soul Gu’s power.
"Squeak squeak squeak!!" Pine Needle Mouse was also happy for Lin Jing, surprisingly not feeling jealous because Lin Jing contracted another Pet Beast.
It often worried about a specific problem, that certain resources it had stored, if not maintained with wood attribute True Qi, would easily rot over time.
But now Lin Jing contracted an ice pet, there shouldn’t be such troubles anymore; as long as the place storing the fruits is cold enough, the shelf life of food would be greatly extended, no longer needing its own maintenance!
From now on, the Ice Gu will handle preservation, the Dragon Carp will refine grass and trees into pills, Pine Needle Mouse thinks it’s a good arrangement!
"Thanks, I have resealed the Ice Soul Gu, the power just now transformed into my own power. Although not as strong as using the Ice Soul Gu’s power, it’s not much different, enough to instantly kill these Dragon Blood Phoenix Blood Demon Beasts." Lin Jing spoke, surrounded by chill.
"Let’s continue." He wondered if the changes in his body meant he had two more unique physiques; if so, then wouldn’t he be similar to that Prince Gu, becoming Three-Body People?