Clan Cultivation: Starting from Beast Taming

But at this moment, he recalled the Earth Escape Skill exhibited by the Mutant Gold-Devouring Rat King, which was a signature Earth Element Technique.

"Could it be that the Mutant Gold-Devouring Rat King mutated its bloodline and advanced to Second Order after consuming these ores?"

Zhou Chun’s eyes flashed with a different color as he ventured a bold guess.

As far as he knew, for Demon Beasts like the Gold-Eating Rat with poor bloodlines, advancing to Second Order or even Third Order generally depended on bloodline mutation.

The Zhou Family had been taming Demon Beasts for over a thousand years, and there were family members who, after forming a deep bond with their Spirit Pets and successfully reaching Foundation Establishment, went to great lengths to find rare Spiritual Objects to purify the poor bloodlines of their Spirit Pets, hoping that this would enable them to advance to Second Order.

But aside from the few cases where Demon Beasts with mutated bloodlines succeeded, all others invariably failed.

Therefore, the Zhou Family came to a conclusion.

If the bloodline did not contain the mixture of other powerful Demon Beast bloodlines, it was very difficult for ordinary low-level Demon Beasts to break the Bloodline Shackles to advance to a higher level.

Currently, the only method seemed to be bloodline mutation!

But bloodline mutation was fundamentally unreplicable; even if the same species of Demon Beast used the same type of Spiritual Objects, it was not guaranteed that another would succeed in mutating just because one did.

So mutation was purely a matter of luck.

Fortunately, the majority of low-level Demon Beasts potentially carried traces of medium or even high-level Demon Beast bloodlines.

Therefore, these Demon Beasts only needed to consume certain specific Spiritual Objects to stimulate the more advanced Demon Beast bloodlines within them, enabling a chance to awaken and strengthen those dormant bloodlines, resonating and sublimating with the main bloodline.

This was much like Zhou Chun’s Spirit Pet, the Rock Earth Turtle, which carried within its bloodline the genetic traces of the medium-level Demon Beast Earth Spirit Turtle and even the high-level Demon Beast Burden Turtle.

If Zhou Chun could find Earth Spirit Stone Milk or Five-Turn Earth Spirit Mushrooms containing pure Earth Element Spiritual Power for it to consume, it might stimulate the awakening of those bloodlines, aiding the Rock Earth Turtle in its evolution.

However, the Gold-Eating Rat species was a type of Demon Beast group with a relatively stable bloodline, rarely carrying other Demon Beast bloodlines within them. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Typically, such stable-bloodlined groups of Demon Beasts had some notable characteristics: they reproduced quickly, lived not very long, and were definitely led by a king.

Thus, for an individual of this species to break the Bloodline Shackles, its only hope lay in bloodline mutation.

But whether it was as he guessed, Zhou Chun could not be certain for now, and could only carefully collect those special ores.

They were not too few in number, roughly fifty to eighty pounds.

After collecting all the Spirit Gold ores from the mutant Gold-Devouring Rat King’s nest, Zhou Chun reunited with Baibai, the sated Silver Lightning Python, and followed it back the way they came.

"He’s coming out, he’s coming out!"

When the head of the Silver Lightning Python Baibai peeked out of the hole first, exclamations immediately rang out from the surface.

By the time Zhou Chun climbed out as well, he saw the Zhao Family cultivator who had previously led him here, looking at him with a face full of joy.

Meanwhile, Zhao Deyan was no longer there.

"How did it go? Taoist Friend Zhou, have you managed to get it?"

As soon as Zhou Chun stood firm upon climbing out from underground, that Zhao Family cultivator immediately asked him the outcome with a look of anticipation.

Hearing this, Zhou Chun gave a faint smile, reached out and tapped on his Storage Pouch, taking out the corpse of the Mutant Gold-Devouring Rat King on the spot.

Seeing the golden giant rat’s body, which was significantly larger than an ordinary Gold-Eating Rat and bearing the residual aura on it, the Zhao Family cultivator’s expression changed in an instant, and he exclaimed with joy, "Indeed it’s the corpse of the Mutant Gold-Devouring Rat King!"

No sooner had he spoken than he quickly gave Zhou Chun a salute, saying, "Thank you, Taoist Friend Zhou, for assisting our Zhao Family in eliminating this vermin. I will immediately go to report your merit to the Elder."

Seeing this, Zhou Chun couldn’t help but speak up, "Taoist Friend Zhao had better ask Senior Zhao to bring a few more junior cultivators and some Storage Pouches, because there are still many Gold-Eating Rat corpses that need cleaning in that nest."

The Zhao Family cultivator, upon hearing this, had yet to grasp the deeper meaning of Zhou Chun’s words.

He simply agreed readily, "No problem, I will surely convey this message to the Elder as it is."

Then he hurriedly flew back to send the message.

Meanwhile, Zhou Chun did not put away the Silver Lightning Python or the corpse of the Mutant Gold-Devouring Rat King on the ground, but changed into a fresh set of clothes, cleaning off the smell of rat droppings from his body, and waited on the spot.

After waiting for less than an hour, Zhao Deyan arrived with the Zhao Family cultivator and three Qi Refinement Realm cultivators.

As soon as Zhao Deyan landed, Zhou Chun stepped forward to greet him with a bow, "Senior Zhao, fortunately I have not dishonored my mission and have successfully completed the task you entrusted to me."

Hearing this, Zhao Deyan’s gaze unmistakably turned toward the corpse of the Mutant Gold-Devouring Rat King on the ground.

Then, with great satisfaction, he nodded and replied, "Very good, Taoist Friend Zhou is indeed capable, no wonder Taoist Friend Hu spoke so highly of you and repeatedly invited me!"

After speaking, he reached out to tap his Storage Pouch, took out a sealed jade container, and handed it to Zhou Chun.

"Inside this is the Earth Spirit Stone Milk you wanted, Taoist Friend Zhou, you can verify its authenticity now."

"Then I shall not stand on ceremony," Zhou Chun replied and immediately opened the lid of the jade container to check it.

Inside the small jade container, there was a pot of mud-yellow liquid with a peculiar fragrance.