19 The Spiritual Toad

The Qin family owned three hundred acres of spiritual land. That was the reason the Qin family based themselves in Kun City. It was where they collected the most resources. As the spiritual vein was scattered, the Qin family spiritual fields were also scattered among a large mountain forest behind the family residence.

After so many years of development, generation after generation of Qin family cultivators have managed the spiritual lands with great organization. Each piece of spiritual land was suitable for the growth of a specific plant, all categorized in order.

Even though each year 30% of the spiritual produce from the spiritual land needed to be contributed to the Beastmaster Sect, they received the protection of the sect in return, allowing the family to live peacefully and safely in Kun CIty.

If not for the protection of the Beastmaster Sect, there was no way they could oversee so many spiritual lands when they were the Qin family cultivators when they were short handed on Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators to watch over the lands. It would be possible for people to storm into the family, killing and rampaging to rob them of their spiritual vein.

That was the cross that small families with little power needed to bear. If they did not have the protection of a strong and powerful benefactor, there was the risk of disaster at any time.

In the afternoon, Qin Feng was having lunch with his father. It was his father's day off and he did not need to head to work at the patrol office. When the father-son duo had nearly finished their meal, Fifth Elder Qin Guanshan1 who was responsible for managing the family spiritual lands came looking for Qin Long.

Fifth Elder even though he was in charge of the entire family's spiritual land and everything to do with it. However, his cultivation level was not considered high as he was only a late-stage Qi Refinement Stage cultivator.

He became a family elder because his age was advanced enough, and also because he was the person in the family with the greatest experience out of all the spiritual gardeners in the family. All the cultivators who worked on the spiritual fields had been taught by him.

"Fifth Uncle, what brings you here?" Qin Long and his son saw Fifth Elder. They hurriedly dropped the bowl and chopsticks in their hands as they rushed to their feet to greet him.

Even though the Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators could fast2 to a certain extent, there was no real need for it. Apart from when they were in their Closed Door Mediation stage bitter cultivation, the rest of the time, Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators would normally eat a variety of food.

Especially foods that contain spiritual energy, eating these types of food were beneficial to their cultivation. The Qin family did own three hundred acres of spiritual land and will not be out of pocket if Qin Long had a meal.

"Go ahead and finish your meal," Fifth Elder said, "We can speak once you're done eating." Even though he was from the generation above Qin Long, as his power was not like that of Qin Long, even in front of Qin Long, he did not put on airs.

"It's no trouble, I'm pretty much done anyways." Qin Long invited the Fifth Elder to sit with a smile on his face. "Fifth Elder, if you have a business to discuss please go ahead. You wouldn't be here looking for me without a reason. What can I help you with this time?"

"You're right," Fifth Elder did not beat around the bush and cut straight to the chase, "recently our family's spiritual orchard seems to have thieves. At the start, I thought my staff was untrustworthy. However, after a bout of detailed investigation, I've discovered that it is a spiritual toad wreaking havoc."

"Spiritual toad?" Qin Long looked a little stunned by the revelation and quickly asked, "What kind of spiritual toad? Is it poisonous?" 

As a disciple of the Beastmaster Sect, he always had a keen interest in spiritual beasts. Once he heard that a spiritual beast had entered his own family's spiritual land, he was thrilled. If it was possible, he would be pleased to have another spiritual beast.

"I can't seem to identify it. According to the Spiritual Beast Manual in the family scripture library, no such species of spiritual toads exist."

Fifth Elder shook his head, "I have sent people to capture that spiritual toad. It turns out that that spiritual toad is not weak and a single jump sends it flying. A couple of leaps brings it to the spiritual well. I have also sent people to find it but they have all been unsuccessful.

"If it doesn't reappear, everything would be fine. However, all it takes is a moment of carelessness from the people guarding the spiritual orchard and that spiritual toad will leap out of the well and continue eating spiritual fruit.

"That creature does not appear big but its appetite is astonishing. If it's allowed to continue eating as it pleases, I fear that our contribution of spiritual fruit to the beastmaster sect this year will not be sufficient."

At that point, an expression of deep worry appeared on Fifth Elder's face, "I have spoken to the family patriarch, he said that his Shadow Panther is not proficient in water battles, hence I have come to you for help."

"I see!" Qin Long nodded his head and replied, "Fine, I will take care of this. I'll head over to have a look with you right now."

Qin Feng, who was sitting on the side, was also excited once he heard this. As a soon-to-be disciple of the Beastmaster Sect, he also had a huge fascination with demons and beasts. The truth was that all the young people in the Qin family had the same attitude towards spiritual beasts. After all, they were a vassal family to the Beastmaster sect. They had grown up being surrounded by spiritual creatures and all wished desperately to own their own spiritual beast. Being able to ride them across land and sea, that would be extremely freeing.

"Dad, can I come along to have a look? I've never seen a demon beast of the spiritual toad species before."

Qin Long gazed at his son's pleading face and could not help but laugh, "Fine, we can go together. You can have a good look at that spiritual toad. If it's suitable, we could even catch it to be your spiritual beast. I'm only worried that you might not want it."

The reason for this was because the Beastmaster Sect disciple's first spiritual beast usually ended up as their nascent spiritual beast. Furthermore, the Beastmaster Sect cultivation method is very unique. Once a cultivator has achieved the Foundation Establishment Stage, they can fuse their bodies with their nascent spiritual beast and fight as one.

Hence, for all Beastmaster Sect disciples, selecting their first spiritual beast was an extremely important choice. It was not just a question of how good or ugly you look once after fusion, but it also impacted your fighting power and your future potential.

Qin Feng had heard his father say before that out of the nine vassal families to the beastmaster sect, the number one Long family owned a scaled dragon. If their family produced an outstanding descendant, they would directly provide a young dragon as their nascent spiritual beast. Their potential would be unlimited and in a short time, they could advance leaving more than 90% of the ordinary disciples far behind.

Qin Feng may have never dreamed of competing with that kind of large family heirs, but even then he was not willing to have a toad as his nascent spiritual beast. Otherwise, during battle, when it was time to fuse bodies with his spiritual beast, he would become the frog prince.

As the number one handsome youth in the Qin family, he felt that he had to protect his image. Instead of a toad, he would prefer to find a more ferocious spiritual beast. The matter was of no urgency and could wait until after he had joined the Beastmaster Sect. There would surely be other opportunities to find his ideal spiritual beast.

After all, he had not even entered the sect yet. Even if he really found a spiritual beast, he had yet to learn the cultivation method to make it his nascent spiritual beast!

Qin Feng shrugged his shoulders and did not take offense at his father's teasing. Even though he did not want that spiritual toad as his nascent spiritual beast, however, his heart could not help but develop a few sparks of curiosity. 

Since the number of spiritual beasts that he had seen could not be considered many. Apart from the few spiritual beasts that his father owned, the others that he had seen were the Shadow Panther of the family patriarch and the few earth-shattering bulls raised by the family.

Earth-shattering bulls were an ordinary type of spiritual beast. They were extremely strong and their personalities were gentle. Furthermore, they possess the ability to shatter earth, which was why the family reared a couple to help with cultivating the spiritual land.

The father-son duo followed the Fifth Elder and headed straight to the spiritual orchard located behind the family residence. The family's spiritual orchard was surrounded by walls. The walls were equipped with numerous restrictive spells and seals to prevent any bird beasts from entering and stealing spiritual fruit.

With the restrictive spells defending the orchard, there should not be any beasts that could enter. However, that single spiritual toad has somehow managed to do it. This made everyone scratch their heads in puzzlement as they could not work it out where this little creature had crawled in from.