Immortality: Raising an Ant Queen to Cultivate by increasing stat point - Chapter 190
Chapter 190: Chapter 185: Struck It Rich_1
Translator: 549690339 |
You should know, his Blade Qi was capable of slaying even the King of Pigs that had cultivated an inner core.
Toads and frogs possessed a unique ability known as Toad Skill. They could absorb air to swell their body, which would then become full of elasticity and possessed an unimaginable level of physical defense.
This Golden Toad was as large as a human head, which was already quite exaggerated.
Its body was covered with granular bumps.
The larger ones were the size of fingernails, while the finer ones were only as big as mung beans.
It looked extremely disgusting to the observer.
The skin on its back was predominantly golden yellow, with vertical stripes.
When Qin Niu had attacked Old Master Huang, it had actively blocked the attack with its body to protect its master. By rights, it should have been subdued by Old Master Huang.
Only a subdued pet would shield its master with its life at critical moments.
But strangely, after Old Master Huang’s death, the Corpse Bee Qin Niu had trapped in the Insect Jar, along with the Bee General, all died silently. Yet this Golden Toad was unscathed.
Instead, one could see the return of its wild nature in its gaze.
It lay on the ground, desperately opening its mouth and ceaselessly scraping its own head with its front paws, as if trying to vomit something out.
There were two types of contracts.
One was an equal contract, somewhat similar to a mutual defense alliance.
In the force of the contract, the master and the pet were equals, with no master-servant relationship. The master could not fully control the pet, only coexist with it as friends.
When encountering enemies, the pet might help or might ignore the situation entirely.
If the pet died, it would cause minimal soul trauma to the master. Similarly, if the master died, the impact on the pet would also be very minor.
If either party died, the force of the contract would automatically dissipate.
A contract was more like a lock that linked the souls of two creatures together.
If one side died, the lock would lose its function.
The most overbearing was the master-servant contract.
When a master died, the pet would also die. This was not only overbearing but also somewhat vicious.
However, some masters, in consideration of their master-servant affection, would dissolve the contract actively before dying. This way, the pet could avoid the misfortune of dying along with its master.
Even though masters might have this intention, sometimes they were killed before they could dissolve the contract.
Therefore, when forming soul contracts with insects, beasts, or birds, they would fiercely resist.
Apart from not wanting to lose their freedom, they were even more unwilling to willingly become servants to humans. That innate threat to their life would uncontrollably cause them to resist.
No creature wanted to place its life in the hands of another.
Qin Niu stared intently at the Golden Toad.
“Could it be that this Golden Toad wasn’t subdued, but indirectly controlled by Old Master Huang using insects?”
That was indeed a possibility.
Because the Golden Toad was a unique creature of heaven and earth, subduing it was extremely difficult.
At this moment, the Golden Toad was likely trying to vomit out the insects in its stomach.
Logically, when Old Master Huang died, the insects inside the Golden Toad’s stomach should have died as well.
If that were the case, why was the Golden Toad in such a hurry to spit out the corpses of the insects?
And judging by its appearance, it seemed very anxious.
There was only one possibility, not spitting out the corpses of the insects would threaten its life.
“A gentleman should be open and upright, a petty person loves to take advantage of others’ misfortune, and today I must play the part of the petty person!”
Qin Niu eyed the human-head-sized Golden Toad, intensely desiring to make it his own.
However, it was an opportunity granted by heaven.
It was like a rogue anticipated to have a chance with a beautiful woman; under normal circumstances, there would be no chance. But if something happened in the beauty’s home requiring borrowing a large sum of money, or if her brother was about to be arrested and needed rescue, the rogues would then see their opportunity.
As for taking by force, that was intolerable to heaven and a breach of the law of the land.
Qin Niu always acted calmly and decisively.
Without a second thought, he directly took out that Advanced Contractual Talisman.
This thing was worth a Hundred Taels of Silver Money, after all!
When the price of land was cheap, that was enough to buy more than ten acres of fertile land. Even in a normal year, it was no problem to buy six or seven acres of fertile land.
Without the slightest hesitation, he bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood onto the activation area of the Talisman.
The Golden Toad saw this human before it, with a gaze filled with ill intent and even pulled out an item that it was extremely wary of. This instinctively made it feel fear and urgency, wanting to escape.
But with the insect still inside its stomach, it couldn’t run.
This thing could cost it its life.
It chose to speed up its vomiting, trying to expel the contents of its stomach as quickly as possible.
Qin Niu, however, didn’t give it that time.
Once the Advanced Contractual Talisman was activated, a ray of solid golden light shot forth. It was very spirited, constantly changing in the air, and actually formed into the vague shape of a golden snake.
Countless intricate talismans rolled across the surface and within the body of the golden snake.
When this golden snake appeared, Qin Niu felt his soul tremble and almost couldn’t maintain control.
“Go!”
Under his mental command, the golden snake shot straight towards the Golden Toad.
The golden snake directly engulfed the Golden Toad in one bite.
Then it coiled on the spot, continuing to wriggle.
One could vaguely see the Golden Toad struggling within, faintly visible.
“Submit to me and I shall immediately grant you a great opportunity, aiding you in advancing to become stronger. Otherwise, you have no chance of survival,” Qin Niu was certainly not joking with it.
If it dared to resist and couldn’t be subdued, death was the only end it faced.
The Golden Toad naturally didn’t listen to him and dismissed his words as nonsense.
It struggled even more fiercely.
“I don’t speak the language of beasts, but since you possess a certain level of intelligence, you should understand human speech. I know you are unwilling to submit easily because you think I am not strong enough. This tree is merely a trinket of mine. You can try to escape, using the area covered by this tree as the boundary. If you manage to escape, I will let you go. If you cannot, then you will submit to me. How about that?”
Qin Niu stared at the Golden Toad.
Under his mental command, the golden snake temporarily ceased its assault on it.
It was clearly contemplating.
At this moment, fine threads of blood began to appear on the surface of its body, and it seemed to be in extreme pain.
“Your time seems to be running out. As soon as you agree, I will allow you to vomit the poison within your belly first. Although we humans are cunning, a true man stands between heaven and earth, and his word is his bond. You can trust me this once—it will also be our first mutual trust.”
Qin Niu looked at it sincerely.
He really went to great lengths to subdue this Golden Toad, brazenly claiming that the Ancient Banyan Tree was his trinket.
Others wave a tiger’s banner to claim kingship, but he is even more exaggerated and shameless, treating the treasure of the world as his private property.
With his current strength, he might not even be one ten-thousandth as powerful as the Ancient Banyan Tree.
The Golden Toad was pushed into a corner.
If it didn’t agree, the thing in its stomach would soon claim its life.
If it agreed, at least there was a glimmer of hope for survival.
Its toad eyes shifted slightly, probably assessing the range of the Ancient Banyan Tree’s coverage.
“Croak!”
In the end, it actually lay down and nodded its head three times, agreeing to Qin Niu’s proposal.
“Just let the golden light enter your body. I can control the golden light not to attack your soul right away, until after you’ve vomited the poison from inside your belly,” Qin Niu said to it.
Mutual trust was mutual trust, but he couldn’t let himself be played by a toad.
As long as the golden light entered its body, even if it reneged later, it would be much easier for Qin Niu to subdue it.
The Golden Toad stopped resisting, and the golden light rapidly entered its body.
True to his word, Qin Niu didn’t rush to subdue it.
Just like in a relationship between a man and a woman, it all starts with establishing initial trust and then gradually deepening it, until feelings develop.
“Nowyou can exert all your strength to vomit the poison inside you,” Qin Niu said as he noticed the fine threads of blood on its body becoming more and more numerous.
It probably had started to take effect.
It couldn’t wait any longer and began retching to vomit the substance from its belly.
Qin Niu waited patiently.
Looking at Old Master Huang’s corpse, he didn’t waste time and instructed the Termite Army on him, “Fourth, take some termites and investigate to see if these silver notes and the surface of that corpse are poisoned.”
Under Qin Niu’s command, Fourth led a group of termites to quickly investigate.
“Master, there is no poison,” Fourth reported back to Qin Niu after completing the investigation.
“Very well, come back,” Qin Niu said before bending down to pick up the scattered silver notes.
Counting them, there were a total of thirteen thousand and seventy taels.
The smallest denomination was silver notes worth ten taels each.
The largest were gold notes worth a hundred taels each and silver notes worth a thousand taels each.
Although the exchange ratio between gold and silver remained stable at ten to one, there were occasional fluctuations.
When the price of gold was low, one tael of gold could only be exchanged for nine taels of silver.
To avoid losses, many people chose to exchange for a thousand-tael silver notes.
All these silver monies were Old Master Huang’s entire fortune.
He really was wealthy, having over ten thousand taels in cash.
Now, all these riches fell into Qin Niu’s hands.
In the past, when he saw that young master paying five thousand taels of silver for a scroll of Dragon Chant, he could only long for it enviously.
Now, he could buy two scrolls and still have money left over.
But he had no intention of buying a cultivation technique.
The Medicine King Sutra and the Everlasting Spring Technique he was currently practicing were already enough.
Biting off more than one can chew is never good.
Practicing too many cultivation techniques is not advisable.
Practicing multiple techniques simultaneously could lead to conflicts, especially if one technique cultivated water attribute energy and another fire attribute energy. The incompatible forces would clash within the body.
At best, one might experience deviation in cultivation; at worst, it could cause the body to explode and lead to death.
Furthermore, clashing cultivation techniques might result in stagnation of one’s cultivation level or slow progression.
Generally, practitioners stick to cultivating techniques that are similar or derived from the same source.
Qin Niu planned to save the silver to purchase land and farms.
Having a large amount of land resources would allow him better opportunities to research planting and breeding.
It would also provide a continuous stream of income.
Though thirteen thousand taels of silver might seem like a lot, if he only spent without earning, it would quickly run out.
But by acquiring land, whether leasing it out or hiring others to cultivate, he could continuously earn silver.
Look at the Yan Family and other such noble clans; which among them didn’t possess their own industries?
Only with a steady income could he support the considerable expenses of his cultivation.
“Let’s see if there’s anything valuable on the body!” Qin Niu said after he finished picking up the silver notes, approaching the corpse that had been split in two.
