Chapter 3: The Paralyzed Dog
"Woof woof woof!"
As Chen Beiwu arrived at his doorstep, an excited barking came from inside the house.
"Quiet down, Iron Egg."
As soon as he finished speaking, the barking immediately ceased.
"Clack!"
Chen Beiwu pushed open the door, and a black shadow instantly pounced to his feet.
Its speed was so fast that only cultivators in the late stage of Qi Refining could barely make it out, but it couldnât escape his grasp.
"Woof."
Iron Egg didnât resist, gently rubbing against Chen Beiwuâs palm with a docile expression.
"Whatâs wrong, are you hungry?" Chen Beiwu chuckled softly.
"Woof woof."
Iron Egg barked twice, indicating that he wasnât hungry at all.
"Even if youâre not hungry, you should still eat more to grow."
Chen Beiwu squatted down, gently stroking Iron Eggâs fur, which resembled black silk under the night.
Iron Egg was a black dog, its glossy black fur covering its entire body, except for the paws, which were adorned with patches of white fur.
These white spots resembled pristine snow.
From a distance, it gave the appearance of dark clouds pressing down on snowy ground.
However, more than its fur, what concerned Chen Beiwu most were Iron Eggâs limp and paralyzed hind legs.
"Iâm now at the Seventh Level of Qi Refining, so I can apply to the school to purchase some Bone-Strengthening Powder."
Chen Beiwu said softly, "Once I get it, you can try a bit and see if it helps."
"Woof woof."
Upon hearing that, Iron Egg barked twice.
Its sturdy forelegs stood tall like two black spears, showing its strength.
So what if its hind legs didnât work?
It still had its front legs.
"Donât refuse, just listen to me on this."
Noticing Iron Eggâs stubbornness, Chen Beiwu flicked its forehead and then walked toward the cultivation room.
Iron Egg let out a low growl and obediently followed behind Chen Beiwu.
In the Immortal Alliance Era, every parent who hoped their children would succeed would set up a cultivation room at home.
There was no other choice.
After tens of thousands of years of development by the Immortal Alliance, nearly all the spiritual energy across Sky Abyss Star had been nationalized.
Only a small portion was left to ensure the spiritual ecosystem within Immortal Alliance Territory remained stableâexcept in special regions.
Nowadays, if a cultivator wanted to absorb spiritual energy for cultivation, they had to purchase a cultivation room license from the Immortal Alliance and pay a monthly spiritual energy fee.
Still, some ordinary cultivators would sneak off to the wilderness to absorb spiritual energy to save money.
This spiritual energy theft would trigger the Immortal Allianceâs formation systems, making it nearly impossible to avoid capture.
As far as Chen Beiwu knew, in Far Sky County alone, hundreds to thousands of people were detained and fined each year by the Immortal Alliance Enforcement Team for stealing spiritual energy.
This showed that in the Immortal Alliance Era, if you had no money, you basically couldnât cultivate!
The cultivation room in Chen Beiwuâs home wasnât high-grade, only mid-grade of the First Tier.
Even so, just purchasing the license for it had cost twenty low-grade spirit stones.
Every month, he had to pay around one spirit stone for spiritual energy, which amounted to twelve a year.
For reference, one spirit stone could be exchanged at the Immortal Alliance Bank for one spirit yuan, and one spirit yuan was equivalent to ten cents or one hundred points.
Right now, a balanced meal with three dishes and a soup at his schoolâs cafeteria only cost a few cents.
âThis little guy is still as loyal as ever.â
Before closing the cultivation room door, Chen Beiwu glanced at the faint light hovering above Iron Eggâs headâhalf green and half blue.
That light represented Iron Eggâs fortune, and it had nearly reached the Second-Tier level.
Normally, fortune was intangible and invisible to most people.
But Chen Beiwu was different.
He possessed a top-tier inherited cheat called Nine-Breath Chaos, which allowed him to perceive the fortune of all things and even trigger fortuitous encounters by converting his own fortune.
Iron Egg was something Chen Beiwu had stumbled upon during a fortuitous encounter five years ago.
Back then, he was a student in middle school.
While walking home, a large transport truck suddenly lost control and struck a black bundle charging onto the road.
Coincidentally, that bundle landed right at Chen Beiwuâs feet.
Without hesitation, Chen Beiwu picked it up and rushed to the veterinary hospital for emergency care.
After the operation, the doctor gave him both good and bad news.
The good news: the surgery was a success, and the injured cubâs vital signs were stable, with no immediate danger to its life.
The bad news: the cubâs hind legs werenât injured in the accident but were congenitally disabled.
Treatment would be extremely costly and might ultimately fail.
So, Chen Beiwu brought the black cub home and gave it the humble name "Iron Egg," hoping to raise it well and see it grow strong.
Iron Egg didnât disappoint.
It grew taller day by day, and its constitution became increasingly robust.
A year ago, when the brick kiln caught fire and collapsed, Iron Egg risked its life to drag Chen Beiwuâs unconscious father out of the blazing flames.
From that moment, Iron Eggâs status in the family soared.
Chen Beiwu even considered forming a contract with Iron Egg.
The difference between ordinary beasts and exotic beasts lay in whether or not they possessed cultivation.
Iron Egg rescuing his father from a fire showed that it was an exotic beast with a trace of cultivation.
Unlike cultivators, whose strength was divided by realms, the Immortal Alliance measured beast creatures by their cultivation years, while bloodline rank only determined theoretical potentialânot actual power.
For instance, beasts with no cultivation were considered Zero-Tier ordinary beasts, destined to remain so unless they encountered a rare opportunity.
A First-Tier exotic beast, upon maturing, would usually gain cultivation.
Such beings were called spirits by cultivators and were comparable in strength to Qi Refining practitioners.
A Second-Tier spirit beast could theoretically possess between fifty and four hundred ninety-nine years of cultivation.
Such beings were called lesser beasts and were comparable to rogue Foundation Establishment cultivators.
A Third-Tier treasure beast could theoretically possess between five hundred and nine hundred ninety-nine years of cultivation.
These were known as beast generals, with power equivalent to transcendent Golden Core cultivators.
As cultivation years were hard to define precisely, Chen Beiwu could only roughly estimate that Iron Egg had less than ten years of cultivation, placing it in the category of lesser spirits.
However, Iron Eggâs fortune nearly reaching Second-Tier meant it had the potential to break through its bloodline shackles and become a Second-Tier spirit beastâa lesser beast.
The only problem was that Iron Egg was close to fire and liked eating hot foods, clearly identifying it as a fire-element exotic beast.
Meanwhile, Chen Beiwu had dual spiritual roots of water and woodâcompletely mismatched and even mutually restraining with fire.
Because of this incompatibility, Chen Beiwu ultimately gave up on the idea of forming a contract with Iron Egg after much internal debate.
A cultivatorâs first beast companion was crucialâit affected their future cultivation speed and the difficulty of breaking through realms.
A fire-element exotic beast that hadnât even reached Second-Tier would be a burden to Chen Beiwu, even if he did form a contract.
After all, Chen Beiwuâs spiritual roots werenât ordinaryâthey were rare dual-element earth-grade roots of water and wood in Far Sky County.
What were earth-grade roots?
According to the Immortal Allianceâs classification based on spiritual root purity, cultivatorsâ roots were divided into six levels: Immortal, Heavenly, Earth, True, Mixed, and False.
If any one of a cultivatorâs five-element roots exceeded 40% purity, it was considered a true root of that element.
If purity exceeded 60%, it became an earth-grade root.
Among different elements, the highest purity determined a cultivatorâs overall grade.
Chen Beiwuâs spiritual roots were: Metal 15, Wood 76, Water 79, Fire 18, Earth 17.
If his Water Root purity increased slightly to 80, he would no longer just be a dual earth-grade root holder.
Heâd be recognized as a Heavenly Root cultivator in the water element.
As for the legendary Immortal Root, that required breaking through the Heavenly Root limit of 99% and reaching the mythical 100% purity.
A cultivator with such a root wouldnât need to take the Immortal Alliance Entrance Exam.
Theyâd go straight to the Immortal Exam and might even be admitted into the Five Great Grotto-Heavens, becoming future successors of the Immortal Alliance.