Clan Cultivation: Starting from Beast Taming

A few pieces of golden-yellow ore, and the corpse of a golden giant rat with golden fur all over its body.

Zhou Mingde looked at these two items and, with a quick gesture, drew one of the palm-sized ores into his hand.

After scrutinizing the ore intently, he nodded thoughtfully and said, "If I am not mistaken, this appears to be a mutated ore that has absorbed a rich concentration of earth element spiritual power by accident."

"Didn't you say that the rat's nest was close to an earth vein node? It's very likely that these mutated ores were formed by the Glowing Gold Iron ores being nourished by the power of the earth vein at its node for an extended period."

Upon saying this, Zhou Mingde glanced at the corpse of the Mutant Gold-Devouring Rat King and softly added, "Gold-Eating Rats, by nature, can enhance their own cultivation level and strength by consuming Spirit Gold ores. This Mutant Gold-Devouring Rat King must have devoured a large amount of such mutated ores, causing its own bloodline to mutate similarly, and thus breaking its bloodline shackles."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun's expression changed, and he couldn't help but ask, "My Rock Earth Turtle is also capable of consuming some ores; would it be possible to feed it the remaining mutated ores?"

Zhou Mingde was slightly taken aback by the question, then nodded and replied, "You can let it try consuming a small piece first. If it truly can digest it and benefit from it, it's worth a try!"

"I understand, thank you, Supreme Elder, for resolving my doubts!"

After expressing his gratitude, Zhou Chun was too eager to wait and he took his leave to start experimenting back at his residence.

Once he arrived home, he summoned his Rock Earth Turtle.

"Stone, open your mouth."

In the courtyard, Zhou Chun stroked the Rock Earth Turtle's head, and after it opened its mouth, he directly threw a fist-sized piece of mutated ore into its mouth to let it try and digest it.

After the Rock Earth Turtle swallowed the ore whole, Zhou Chun asked in a low voice, "How do you feel? Can you digest it?"

The Rock Earth Turtle gave a slight nod, responding through their mental link.

It could digest it, but the process was very slow.

"It doesn't matter if it's slow, just digest this piece of ore first and see the results; avoid consuming the Earth Spirit Stone Milk for now."

Zhou Chun patted the head of his Spirit Pet, allowing it to lie in the courtyard and digest slowly, then he went into his room to deal with the corpse of the Mutant Gold-Devouring Rat King.

The reason he said he wanted to study the corpse, of course, was a pretense.

The method of the Mutant Gold-Devouring Rat King's mutation was quite clear, and there was little to investigate.

Zhou Chun had his eye mainly on the Mutant Gold-Devouring Rat King's pelt.

As the Mutant Gold-Devouring Rat King had first been stunned by electricity and then nailed to death, its fur was very much intact, except for the buttocks area which was previously damaged by the "Flying Dragon Snatch."

Such intact fur is perfect for making a Vestment robe.

Zhou Chun had plans to skin this rat pelt to make a coat for himself in the future!

He personally set to work, and quickly skinned an intact rat pelt.

After a little cleaning, the skinned pelt became like a work of art, brilliant and dazzling to the eye.

Zhou Chun held it up, looked it over, and then satisfied, stored it in his Storage Pouch.

He then knocked down all the large golden teeth from the Mutant Gold-Devouring Rat King's mouth. These too were quite excellent Artifact Refining materials, which might perhaps be made into buttons for the Vestment robe.

The leftover flesh and bones he gave as a reward to the Silver Lightning Python Baibai, as it deserved a share for its efforts!

After allocating these gains, Zhou Chun turned over the many Spirit Gold ores he had obtained to his family, exchanging them for Zhou Family merit deeds.

After fleecing the Zhao Family of over ten thousand Spirit Coins, the profits that could be earned from the Spirit Gold ores did not seem that significant to him.

In the days that followed, Zhou Chun's life returned to the regular routine he had before going to Cangzhou—spending his days on cultivation and handling clan duties while practicing his secret technique.

In his spare time from daily cultivation, Zhou Chun was now practicing a secret technique recorded in an appendix of the "Golden Cauldron Profound Technique."

This technique, called "Flowing Light Golden Rainbow," was extremely unique.

Its uniqueness lies in its versatility—it could be used for attack and defense as well as escape.

Once mastered, one could nurture a special spiritual power within the Dantian that, when used, could transform into a golden rainbow light for attacking, defending, and fleeing.

Used for attack, it could split the earth and open mountains, incomparably sharp.

```

Impenetrable to water and fire when used for defense, unbreakable.

When used for escape, it can be wrapped around the body, taking the person away at extreme speed, several times faster than Flight by Controlling Qi.

Only a cultivator with exceptionally high-quality mana like Zhou Chun could successfully cultivate such a powerful and versatile secret technique.

For an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator, even if they possessed the method of Secret Art Cultivation, they would not meet the necessary conditions for cultivation.

But the cultivation of this technique is extremely difficult.

After practicing for a month, Zhou Chun hadn't found the right approach, and his progress was very slow.

Fortunately, his strength was not weak to begin with, so he was not in a hurry, maintaining a steady mindset.

About three months after returning from Cangzhou, the Rock Earth Turtle finally digested the mutant ore it had swallowed.

"You feel like your bloodline has become more active? Are you sure you're not feeling wrong?"

In the courtyard, Zhou Chun looked at the Rock Earth Turtle with surprise and delight, astounded by its response.

He had only tried it out with a tentative mindset and did not expect the mutant ore to actually have an effect on the Rock Earth Turtle.

It made him fantasize further.

If the Gold-Eating Rat could mutate into a Mutant Gold-Devouring Rat King after consuming mutant ore,

then could the Rock Earth Turtle also undergo a bloodline mutation?

Clearly, compared to a normal breakthrough evolution, a bloodline variant evolution is far more powerful.

Typically, after a bloodline variation, a Demon Beast's potential limit is raised, and there could even be the possibility of second or third mutations in the future.

At the same time, this kind of mutation also ensures that after the Demon Beast evolves, its strength will be significantly stronger than that of a normal evolutionary breakthrough.

If the Rock Earth Turtle could really evolve through a bloodline mutation, then its future potential might not be much less than that of the Silver Lightning Python, Baibai.

With this in mind, Zhou Chun couldn't help but look at the Rock Earth Turtle with burning eyes and said, "Stone, how about we take a gamble?"

"I'll feed you all the remaining mutant ore and Earth Spirit Stone Milk at once, and then bury you under the Earth Vein beneath Jiufeng Ridge. You just calmly hibernate and sleep there using the Tortoise Breath Technique!"

Let's do it!

Zhou Chun quickly went to see the Supreme Elder, Zhou Mingde, to report his idea.

After listening to his idea, Zhou Mingde also thought it was worth a try.

So the two of them went together to find the Array Master of the Zhou Family, Zhou Chongshan, who led them to the Earth Vein node under Jiufeng Ridge. Then, they buried the Rock Earth Turtle, which had swallowed dozens of pounds of ore and Earth Spirit Stone Milk, inside.

After watching the Rock Earth Turtle, which looked just like a stone with not even a trace of breath leaking out, be completely buried in soil, Zhou Mingde couldn't help but exclaim to Zhou Chun, "If this is really successful, then the potential of your Rock Earth Turtle will be boundless in the future, and you might even forge a new path for the Zhou Family in breeding this kind of Demon Beast!"

"Let's hope for success!"

Zhou Chun sighed softly. At this point, he wasn't as confident as before.

In the following time, Zhou Chun continued to painfully cultivate the secret technique at home while waiting for good news about the Rock Earth Turtle.

After more than five months of cultivation, Zhou Chun was close to grasping the threshold of the "Flowing Light Golden Rainbow" secret technique, feeling that he would soon be able to start mastering this technique.

But before Zhou Chun could get started with cultivating the "Flowing Light Golden Rainbow" technique, he was forced to leave home once again.

It turned out that the Zhou Family had received news that a secret auction was to be held at Dongling Marketplace in Lingzhou, where Foundation Establishment Pills might appear.

Since the Third Elder Zhou Daoquan of the Zhou Family was not at home and the Second Elder, Zhou Chongshan, could not be readily mobilized, only the Clan Leader Zhou Daoyi and Zhou Chun were suitable to take on this interstate trading task.

But Zhou Daoyi's Green Flood Dragon was not convenient to carry around in case it needed to fight and reveal its existence.

So Zhou Chun had to take the Fire Divine Jackal to Lingzhou.

"Dongling Marketplace, huh? I wonder if I could take this opportunity to lure out Master Jiang this time!"

Zhou Chun, tasked with the mission, had a glint in his eye, and couldn't help but remember the loss he had suffered years ago.

```