Chapter 14: Spit Thread Soul Skill, School Begins
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
"But you only have 25 years of soul power cultivation now..." Wang Che muttered while patting the green caterpillar's head.
He had to find a way to increase the thread's durability.
Over the next week, Wang Che began to train the caterpillar in this soul skill.
However, there was not much improvement.
Though the results of soul power cultivation were apparent, any further progress was halted by the low species potential of the green caterpillar.
If it had been a rare spider type soul pet instead, the Spit Thread Soul Skill would definitely be much more powerful.
In addition to being structurally stronger, the threads would likely be poisonous and deadly to enemies as well.
As such, with varying physical attributes across life forms, it was definitely possible for the same soul skill to look very different when used by another soul pet.
Take a soul skill like the Rumbling Tail Strike for example. If it was being used by a soul pet with the same soul power cultivation but greater strength, the attack would be much more powerful than when a physically weak soul pet used it.
In this case, the threads may be of the same nature, but it was evident that they were worlds apart.
"Thinking about it, the Spit Thread Soul Skill seems more like a spell, while the Rumbling Tail Strike is similar to a martial arts technique.
"After all, the Beast Origin Skill focuses on strengthening the body. The various stances it utilizes also serve as basic martial arts skills for demon beasts. To increase the power of the thread, do I have to modify the formula?"
An idea suddenly occurred to Wang Che.
Demonic beasts had their demonic arts, and Immortal Cultivators had magic jade slips.
Regardless, they all consumed the spirit or demonic energy in their bodies to release powerful attacks.
"I'm afraid that's not possible. No matter how much I further the demonic art, it'll still be very difficult to learn."
Wang Che could only shake his head.
Though the Beast Origin Skill involved simple methods, such as certain body postures and physical movements, demonic arts by nature were extremely hard to comprehend.
It might be too big a demand for the child.
"If this doesn't work, I can only try another method... It may be much simpler."
The alternative was to use medicinal pills.
In his previous life, Wang Che had adopted a green bird.
It was initially very weak, but later on, after being fed fire-attribute medicinal pills, the green bird's body underwent some drastic changes.
Eventually, it learned how to cast fire-elemental spells that could set the world alight.
Any flames it spewed out could raze several hundred thousand miles of mountain ranges.
Then, after consuming a heavenly material and a few drops of the phoenix's blood essence, the green bird had even been reborn as a demon king divine beast.
There may have been no such pills in this world, but there were still various kinds of drugs available.
Some were used to heal soul pets.
Others could be consumed as medicine to increase a soul pet's soul power cultivation and speed.
Nevertheless, they were all extremely costly.
On top of that, it was also relatively difficult for Wang Che to refine pills at the moment.
Without any soul power, he couldn't catalyze the growth of basic spirit flames or use any alchemy techniques.
However, this did not mean that it was completely impossible for him to refine pills.
Having lived a long life as a great cultivator at the Immortal Ascension realm, he was naturally proficient in all sorts of skill sets.
Before this, he had already confirmed that all the medicinal herbs he knew of in the cultivation world couldn't be found anywhere in this world.
After all, different civilizations made different discoveries, and as such would go on to invent different products.
However, that did not stump Wang Che in the slightest.
Pill refinement at its core simply involved fickle changes in energy, since medicinal ingredients themselves were created from the energies of heaven and earth.
With the right combination of ingredients, the tempering of spiritual flames would create new and powerful forms of energy.
Though this process was often found in the history books of various worlds, they all involved different developments and acclaim.
Technological civilizations, for instance, referred to it as chemistry.
In the magic civilizations, it was called alchemy.
...
Realistically speaking, it would be impossible for Wang Che to refine powerful medicinal pills at present.
It would require both a high level of cultivation and rare materials, which he did not possess.
"I only need to boil some food that can help strengthen these threads. This won't be difficult..."
Wang Che immediately sprung into action.
Seeing as the green caterpillar's diet only consisted of simple food like leaves and branches, he narrowed his search to such medicinal ingredients.
In the end, Wang Che spent the entire day looking for leaves and plants in the many different soul pet markets.
During his search, he came across more than 30 types of leaves.
Most of them were leaves that plant-type soul beasts had shedded as they grew.
Then, to confirm their effects, Wang Che tried to consume the leaves himself.
Naturally, he was cautious to exclude poisonous ones from his search.
"Iron Needle Leaf, this feels quite hard. It's very tough and has a sharp sting. The medicinal effect is strong as well..."
"Thousand Pines Leaf, this one isn't as tough. It has a gentle taste and mild medicinal properties..."
"Flower Fruit Leaf, the leaf itself is soft to the touch, but it's very rigid. It produces a mild medicinal effect when put into the mouth..."
Without divine senses, Wang Che couldn't tell the leaves' properties from a single glance.
His only option was to try them one by one.
However, unlike ordinary people, he was able to analyse the medicinal effects of the leaves quite easily from tasting them.
'Legend says that there once lived a Shennong who had tasted a hundred herbs during ancient times. I may very well have just done the same...'
Wang Che thought as he smiled to himself.
In the cultivation world, there were many unknown natural treasures that even the divine senses of immortal cultivators could not distinguish.
Since there were no records of such leaves in the ancient books, this was the only way for him to confirm their medicinal effects.
"This may look like an ordinary leaf, but there's some medicinal properties within.
"That white birch milk leaf was also processed to become food. It's a way to prevent the soul power contained in the leaves from dissipating."
After trying out more than thirty leaves, Wang Che got an idea of the ones he thought would be feasible to him.
He immediately began classifying and extracting the leaves he bought.
Seeing as his parents were not back yet, Wang Che secretly used the pots in the kitchen to brew the medicine.
'Back when I was a pharmacist, I often used this primitive method.'
As he cooked, Wang Che suddenly felt nostalgic. 'At that time, this process hadn't been called 'refining'. The effects that the brewed herbs would create were also relatively simple. It could be seen clearly after consuming them for a period of time.'
To make sure it wouldn't leave a bad taste, he added a few sweet leaves into the mix.
After about half an hour, a pot of medicinal liquid started to boil.
Without spirit fire or a specific pill refinement method, it was impossible to shape the brewed medicine into pills.
Instead, Wang Che poured out the liquid into the mold of a tree leaf before cooling it.
The result was a black-colored leaf biscuit the size of a palm.
Without hesitation, he took a bite out of it.
Surprisingly, the biscuit tasted light, sweet, and refreshing.
It looked a little like chocolate, and tasted quite good too.
Though it contained less soul power than the white birch leaf, the biscuit had many other medicinal properties, due to the large combination of leaves that it was made from.
"In theory, it should work well on the green caterpillar, and improve the quality of its silk. There may not be any improvements in other aspects though... since its main ingredient is just leaves."
After making sure it was fine, Wang Che fed the leaf biscuit to the green caterpillar.
To the little one, it was the equivalent of a snack.
"The effects will only be apparent after a long period of time..."
The green caterpillar felt that something was amiss as it ate the biscuit.
However, the sweet taste immediately made it lower its guard.
After devouring the entire piece, it even let out a satisfied burp.
Lying there comfortably, the green caterpillar looked quite content with its meal.
Wang Che narrowed his eyes.
This leaf biscuit seemed more like dessert for the caterpillar.
A week later, it was the day before school started.
"Green caterpillar, Spit Thread!"
"Hiss..."
The green caterpillar immediately reacted and did as it was told.
The snow-white threads clinged onto Wang Che's hand.
Its appearance did not seem to have changed much.
However, when he tried to cut it off with a pair of scissors, Wang Che suddenly noticed that the threads wouldn't break at all.
It was extremely tough!
On top of that, the sticky fluid made it impossible for him to even spread his fingers apart.
Seeing this, Wang Che's eyes lit up in satisfaction.
"It has clearly improved! After the past week, its soul power cultivation base has increased quite a bit. As a result, its Spit Thread Soul Skill has also become much more powerful. As expected, it seems the leaf biscuit was quite effective. There's no change appearance wise, but the tenacity and rigidity of the threads have been greatly enhanced!
"In its current state, the threads can probably be compared to those spit out by a hundred-year-old green caterpillar.. If the little one continues to eat the leaf biscuits for a long time, the toughness of its threads will only increase further."
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