All it wanted now was to spit out the human it had just swallowed, but swallowing someone was easy, spitting them out was difficult. It wished it could cut open its own belly and pull Shi Xuan out, but it was powerless to do anything about it.
Shi Xuan thought to herself: It's all thanks to her cultivation technique that allows her to grow from all things. Otherwise, even if she were a Nascent Soul cultivator, she would have been gradually weakened by the digestion inside such a giant beast's belly. Attacking it would only reduce the damage, but as it digests its "food," its self-healing speed would increase.
As one side grows stronger and the other weaker, it's easy to imagine who will ultimately prevail.
As Shi Xuan gained more and more spiritual energy, the barrier to her cultivation level was once again under immense pressure. This wasn't the first time Shi Xuan had experienced this feeling, so she simply concentrated her energy on breaking through to a higher realm.
Since the wound on Taotie was opened, Shi Xuan has never let it close again. The blood flowed more and more, and the struggle for spiritual power between the two became more and more intense. Taotie, which was injured and attacked mentally, became less and less competitive, and Shi Xuan gained the upper hand.
The advantage was expanding at an extremely slow pace. Shi Xuan felt that a long time had passed, perhaps one or two days, when her realm barrier finally broke through, and her cultivation level rose from the eighth level of Qi Refining to the ninth level! During the consolidation of her cultivation, spiritual energy surged into Shi Xuan's body.
After this small step, the rate at which Wanwusheng absorbed spiritual energy increased, and Shi Xuan was able to strike its wound with greater force.
The tug-of-war continues, but for Taotie, it has entered a vicious cycle. The more it struggles to cope, the more it suffers; the more it suffers, the less it can cope.
After an unknown amount of time, Shi Xuan once again felt his cultivation level weaken.
As the familiar intense pressure intensified, Shi Xuan broke through once again, reaching the Great Perfection of Qi Refining!
At this moment, Shi Xuan became even more powerful, and the spiritual energy from Taotie's body swirled and concentrated towards Shi Xuan's position.
The Taotie's fatigue became more and more obvious. Shi Xuan mechanically repeated the previous actions. After an unknown amount of time, with the continuous infusion of spiritual energy, her spiritual palace was filled again.
The spiritual palace was full, but Wanwusheng was not satisfied. At this moment, Wanwusheng was more like a ferocious beast than Taotie, only knowing how to absorb power from Taotie's body.
As spiritual energy was continuously poured into her spiritual palace, Shi Xuan felt her body swell to the point of pain. If she were of ordinary constitution, she would probably have already reached the Foundation Establishment stage by now. However, Shi Xuan's spiritual roots were complex, and compared to normal cultivators, she needed dozens of times more spiritual energy to advance each time.
If even those at the Lesser Stages are like this, let alone those at the Foundation Establishment stage.
Shi Xuan felt unbearably bloated and sensed that the time was right. She took a handful of Foundation Establishment Pills that she had prepared in advance, a handful of six pills.
A large amount of Foundation Establishment Pill energy converged in the Spiritual Palace. Under the regulation of the Foundation Establishment Pill, the spiritual energy in the Spiritual Palace began to form a vortex and sink downwards. At the top, the myriad life force continuously exerted pressure, and the spiritual energy below swirled. Gradually, at the end of the spiritual energy vortex, a batch of spiritual energy was compressed to the extreme and turned into drops of spiritual liquid that fell down.
As more and more spiritual energy transformed into liquefied liquid, more space was freed up, giving all things more room to operate. In this way, Shi Xuan devoured a large amount of the Taotie's own spiritual energy, gradually liquefying the spiritual power within his own spiritual palace.
Suddenly, as if a quantitative change had led to a qualitative one, a large amount of spiritual energy began to liquefy, with an unstoppable force. The concentration of spiritual energy around Shi Xuan had reached an almost viscous level.
The gluttonous beast felt itself growing weaker and weaker, a weakness for no apparent reason, as if it had been "eating" others in the past, but was now being "eated" by others.
Shi Xuan has completed the foundation building.
She never imagined that she would actually build her foundation inside the belly of a ferocious beast; the feeling was actually quite... good.
After Shi Xuan established his foundation, he became even more powerful, entering a new realm where his spiritual energy needs were even stronger. All things also progressed to a higher level, and Taotie felt his power was draining away even faster.
It could sense that if things continued like this, it would be worn down and die here!
What can we do? It can't just sit here and wait to die!
In desperation, it tried to find the key to breaking the curse in the tradition.
It's found a way!
A moment later, a faint light appeared beneath the Taotie's enormous body. It patted the wound that Shi Xuan had inflicted on it earlier, splattering its blood onto the magic array beneath it. It was a contract array, and a master-servant contract array at that! If it weren't facing a life-or-death dilemma, it would never have used such a magic array on itself!
Even contracts can be divided into equal contracts and master-servant contracts. An equal contract requires the blood of both parties, while a master-servant contract only requires the blood of the "servant".
Now that Shi Xuan is inside its belly, it is impossible to draw blood. With its life at stake, it had no choice but to use the Master-Servant Formation.
A master-servant contract requires the blood of the contracted beast and the master being within the formation. It can accomplish this, since even if it can't defeat Shi Xuan, it can still control where she is kept in place.
While Shi Xuan was repeatedly attacking inside the Taotie's belly, he suddenly felt a connection with the ferocious beast without warning. A muffled voice echoed in his consciousness: "Alright, alright, I've already acknowledged you as my master!"
Shi Xuan felt completely bewildered. When did she agree to adopt this Taotie?! She was even planning to wear it down to death and taste what Taotie meat was like. If she really adopted it as a spirit pet, how much would this thing eat every day? Wouldn't it eat her out of house and home?!
Taotie probably sensed what Shi Xuan was thinking through his divine sense, and hurriedly clarified, "I can go out and find food myself!"
Shi Xuan stopped the drumming. "You're so big, it's inconvenient to take you out. Let's just kill you."
"No!" Taotie finally gave in. "I can shrink! And I'm very useful. I can carry heavy loads, and I can go out and fight. Plus, I don't need to eat!"
Shi Xuan: ...This is the first time I've heard someone say that Taotie doesn't eat.
Okay, considering how hard it's been working, let's give it a chance.
“From now on, you’ll be called Red Hair,” Shi Xuan named it without further ado, “and get along well with Zhao Cai.”
The Taotie wanted to say: Where do I have hair?! Those are red scales!
But with its life in someone else's hands, it could only mutter to itself, "It's just a name, just a name. The person called Er Gou isn't a dog, so why should it take it seriously?"
It has to be said that the spirit pets around Shi Xuan all have a way of comforting themselves.
Now that he had turned enemy into friend, Shi Xuan emerged from the Taotie's belly. Having been inside for so long, the sudden appearance felt like seeing the light of day again.
Shi Xuan took a deep breath, feeling refreshed!
Compared to before she entered, she advanced three levels and stepped from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment. Her perception of everything around her became different, her spiritual energy became more abundant and active, and her whole body was full of power.
"I feel like I'm missing a spirit pet space, so it won't be convenient to take you out later," Shi Xuan said, looking at the Taotie that looked like a small mountain in front of him.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
