While the Little Cyan Snake was asleep, he studied the system's Dream Training Space.
He currently had 1 Achievement Point, which could be exchanged for several days of training time.
The system specified that the Dream Training Space could only be used to train Skill Level and could not actually raise one's Cultivation.
The Little Cyan Snake hadn't learned any Skills yet, so using it now wouldn't be worth it. He had to give up on the idea for the time being.
In the afternoon, Gu Ming returned to work at the community shop.
Sister Ruan was a little puzzled at first and asked him, "Where's your Little Cyan Snake? Why didn't you bring it to work?"
"It's in my pocket."
Gu Ming took the little snake out. It had been sleeping, but was awakened by its master's movement. It slowly opened its large, intelligent eyes and blinked, looking full of spirit.
Sister Ruan looked at the little snake, let out a soft "Huh?", and then sensed it carefully. She discovered that the Little Cyan Snake was in much better condition than it had been in the morning, and a faint fluctuation of Mana was radiating from it.
This was a Little Cyan Snake that had gone through a round of Cultivation, not one of those little snakes that only knew a simple Breathing Technique.
"You've already taught it a snake-type Breathing Skill?" Sister Ruan asked in surprise.
Gu Ming shook his head. "I just played 'finger gymnastics' with it for a while. After that, it relied on its own natural breathing."
"It developed Mana just by breathing, without a Cultivation Technique?" Sister Ruan looked skeptical.
Generally speaking, there's a huge difference between a Spirit Pet that breathes purely on instinct and a Pet Beast that knows a Breathing Skill.
Modern Cultivation Techniques have been refined countless times. Their breathing efficiency has long surpassed a Spirit Pet's natural instincts, and they have been subdivided into various branches.
The Little Cyan Snake is the most basic type of Snake Species Pet Beast, and there are over a dozen Breathing Skills available for it.
Choosing a Cultivation Technique is also equivalent to choosing its future Evolution path.
When Gu Ming took the Little Cyan Snake home, it didn't come with a corresponding Cultivation Technique. Sister Ruan had only suggested pursuing the Poison Attack route.
She had no idea that it had managed to develop Mana purely thanks to the Spirit Stone.
The Spiritual Qi inside a Spirit Stone is extremely pure and easy to absorb, quickly converting into Mana after entering a Pet Beast's body.
Sister Ruan didn't know about the Spirit Stone. Seeing Gu Ming's serious expression, her own expression changed.
"Are you really not kidding?" Sister Ruan asked.
Gu Ming nodded, then added, "I fed it a Spiritual Energy Pill."
A look of realization dawned on her face. So that was it. No wonder.
A Spiritual Energy Pill is an Elixir containing a large amount of concentrated, pure Spiritual Qi, which can help a Pet Beast quickly replenish its Spiritual Qi.
However, even with the help of an Elixir, the Little Cyan Snake's efficiency at converting it into Mana was still very impressive.
It had digested an entire Spiritual Energy Pill relying solely on the instinctive Refinement process.
This showed that the Little Cyan Snake really did have some innate Talent.
If it learned a snake-type Breathing Skill, it would probably become a little prodigy among Zero-star Pet Beasts of its species.
"It's a shame it's a Little Cyan Snake, though," Sister Ruan said with regret.
The Little Cyan Snake's potential was just too low.
Even with diligent Cultivation and consuming elixirs, the most it could achieve was the Two-star Realm.
For a Cyan Snake to advance from Zero-star to One-star, it needed to complete one hundred Circulations of Cultivation, refine its Mana, and form an Inner Core.
This Inner Core was the standard for a One-star Pet Beast.
However, Cultivation for a Pet Beast was not easy.
Most Pet Beasts in their Juvenile Stage were naturally active, unable to sit still, and lacked self-control, often slacking off after just ten minutes of Cultivation.
Secondly, when Spiritual Qi entered the body, it also required a Cultivation Technique to operate and convert it into pure Mana.
This was also a process that required painstaking effort, as well as a certain degree of comprehension.
Don't be fooled by how simple these steps sound.
The "patience" and "comprehension" thresholds alone barred ninety percent of ordinary Pet Beasts.
If a Little Cyan Snake wanted to reach the Three-star Level, that was a Realm it couldn't reach through its own efforts alone; it would require a more detailed nurturing plan.
For example, transplanting organs from other species to achieve a fused Evolution.
Or a mutated Evolution brought about by genetic modification.
Or an atavistic Evolution by tapping into the power of ancient genes.
Besides the methods above, there was one final, most difficult path to Evolution: focusing on developing the Pet Beast's abilities, honing its skills until it surpassed its own Star Level limits, and in turn, affecting its body and soul to form a new Inner Core and achieve Super Evolution.
"Sister Ruan, can you teach it a Cultivation Technique?" Gu Ming asked.
"Have you decided which one it should learn?" Sister Ruan said.
"Let's go with the Poison Attack path," Gu Ming said.
The Little Cyan Snake had multiple Evolution paths. Ten of them only led to One-star, while the remaining seven could lead to Two-star.
Among them, the nurturing plan for the Poison Attack route could lead to a Two-star Evolution. Not only was it easy to raise, but it also had two paths: a budget-friendly one and an expensive one.
For the budget-friendly path, the Little Cyan Snake only needed to soak its Poison Fangs daily. The poison would cost around a thousand yuan, and the basin of poison soup would be replaced monthly.
As for the expensive path, there were many more options: soaking the whole body, soaking the Poison Fangs, and even consuming poisons internally to refine a Poison Pill. The monthly cost could range from ten thousand to over a hundred thousand yuan.
Its toxicity would also depend on the price of its upbringing. You could say that among commoner-level Pet Beasts, this was one with a very high ceiling.
If used cleverly in battle, it could easily defeat a top-100 city-level Pet Beast owned by a high school senior with its poison damage.
But the prerequisite for all of this was to have the Little Cyan Snake first master the Venomous Snake Breathing Skill.
Gu Ming stroked the Little Cyan Snake's head and looked at Manager Ruan.
As the manager of the community shop, one of Ruan Jing's duties was to teach Pet Beasts Cultivation Techniques.
As a high school student, Gu Ming had only learned the theory and couldn't teach a Pet Beast a Cultivation Technique himself.
A Pet Beast's Cultivation Technique wasn't something it could learn automatically just by having a Beastmaster stand on the sidelines and offer a few pointers.
Gu Ming first paid the fee for learning the Cultivation Technique. Then, Sister Ruan took out a Visualization Scroll, a row of Silver Needles, and a jar of Antitoxic Liquid.
The Little Cyan Snake itself was non-venomous, but that was only in relation to humans.
In reality, it still had a slight toxicity within its body.
These Silver Needles were for expelling that toxin, making it easier for the Little Cyan Snake to soak in various poisonous concoctions later on.
It was also possible to skip expelling the toxin to save money. This wouldn't affect the little snake's future Cultivation, but it would, at most, sacrifice its future poison damage potential.
The Little Cyan Snake saw the row of Silver Needles but had no reaction.
It had spent its whole life in a Pet Beast cage and had never been pricked by a needle before, so it had no idea what the pain of a needle piercing flesh felt like.
Therefore, it was actually quite interested in the Silver Needles, flicking its slender tongue as it stared at the row.
Seeing this, Sister Ruan first unrolled the Visualization Scroll.
The moment the Visualization Scroll was unrolled, a mysterious world seemed to slowly unfold before their eyes.
An ink-wash sky stretched out, with layers of clouds and mist obscuring the horizon. The landscape in the image was picturesque, with majestic mountain ranges like a dragon's spine, winding and undulating.
Between the cliffs, a waterfall plunged down, splashing water everywhere, its majestic power like that of a dragon soaring through the nine heavens.
A Cyan Snake moved like a shadow through the scene. The faint shimmer where its body met the water's surface was barely visible, as if the Spiritual Qi between heaven and earth was gathering around it.
In the center of the scroll, the massive yet hazy figure of a giant elephant appeared, lifelike and majestic in form.
However, it was struck down by a sinister, cold aura and corroded by an invisible poison, struggling, unwilling to submit.
The one controlling the giant elephant was none other than the Little Cyan Snake.
It was coiled on the giant elephant's body, its tail wrapped around the elephant's head and its Poison Fangs sunk into the skin. The contrast between its slender body and the elephant's massive form was striking.
Outside the scroll, the Little Cyan Snake and Gu Ming couldn't see the poison's path beneath the skin, but they watched as the elephant's body instantly stiffened. Its limbs went limp, and it turned purple-black bit by bit, until finally, its skin ulcerated and it collapsed with a crash.
BOOM!
The Little Cyan Snake snapped back to its senses, breaking out in a cold sweat.
A sharp, stinging pain pricked its skin in multiple places, one after another, making it instinctively want to resist.
"Xiaqing, visualize the Snake Devouring Elephant Diagram in your mind."
"Memorize the sequence of the stinging sensations and circulate your Mana along that path."
Gu Ming's voice jolted the Little Cyan Snake back to reality.
'That's right, I'm learning a Cultivation Technique. I'm not fighting someone, nor am I fighting the elephant in the scroll.'
It visualized the diagram while memorizing the pain from the Silver Needles.
The trace amounts of toxin in its body began to burn away rapidly as its Mana surged toward the stinging points, passing through them one by one in the correct sequence.
In less than eighteen seconds, it had opened up all eighteen acupoints of the Cultivation Technique, connecting the meridians in its body.
In that instant, the Little Cyan Snake felt the Spiritual Qi in the shop rush into it even faster. Furthermore, the Mana in its body began to circulate more smoothly.
"So fast... Right, your Little Cyan Snake had already refined its Mana, so it didn't need to absorb Spiritual Qi to activate the Cultivation Technique. The difficulty was different." Sister Ruan couldn't help but marvel a little at this point.
'What a lucky little thing.'
A Little Cyan Snake with no Mana would have taken at least several minutes, or even more than ten, to get past this stage.
Just as Gu Ming was about to thank the manager, the system, which had been silent for three hours, suddenly spewed out several bullet comments.