Chapter 69 - The Auspicious Beast Bai Ze
"She is also stubborn—while she is capable of flying using spirit clouds, she stubbornly refuses to do so, and she only eats a specific spiritual grass that we have to import from a mist-shrouded valley where she was found. Since she is useless for combat and difficult to handle, she has been sitting here for fifteen years. We have priced her at twenty-five thousand sect points just to clear the stable space, which is well below the standard thirty thousand baseline for such high-grade beasts."
Twenty-five thousand sect points was still a significant sum for an ignored beast, but compared to the sixty thousand points required for a combat or flying beast, it was far more manageable for his wallet.
Su Ming looked at the white deer, who had not moved since they approached. He wanted to test the stability and latent nature of the beasts in the area. Keeping his movements subtle, Su Ming quietly released a tiny thread of his latent Dragon Will, letting the aura of the Void Dragon Soul sweep outward across the valley.
The reaction was immediate.
In Silver Bamboo Glade, the docile herbivorous mounts panicked. The mountain goats and spiritual deer bolted in all directions, crashing into the wooden fences and running in blind confusion to escape the unseen terror.
Only the white deer did not move. She did not run, she did not whimper, and she did not even tremble. She simply stood by the stone wall, slowly chewing a blade of white grass, and looked back at Su Ming with calm, dark eyes.
Su Ming’s interest was instantly piqued. He quietly activated his Essence Sight.
The vision did not show any name tag, but as he focused on the white deer, he observed a faint, golden-white auspicious mist wrapping around her core. The mist resonated with a high-frequency spiritual purity that was completely different from the chaotic energy of the other beasts.
Su Ming cross-referenced this visual feedback with the books he had read on ancient beasts during his afternoons in the restricted library archives. The ancient texts had noted that while legendary beasts were long extinct in this world, many modern beasts carried tiny, dormant traces of their bloodlines.
’Is it a Qilin, as the elder suspects?’ Su Ming thought, analyzing her skeleton. ’No, the physical attributes do not match. A Qilin lineage would show scales and a natural fire affinity, even if dormant.’
’Is it a Pixiu? No, the skeletal structure is different. What about a Xiezhi? No, she has branching antlers rather than a single pointed horn, and her aura lacks any trace of thunder element qi.’
He looked at her calm, dark eyes and her complete disregard of his presence.
’Then... does she carry a dormant trace of the Bai Ze lineage?’ Su Ming thought. ’White fur, mist-dweller, completely nonchalant in the presence of dragon pressure...’
Su Ming recalled a specific passage from the library scrolls: ’The descendants of the Bai Ze lineage, even those with highly dormant bloodlines, are almost unaffected by any mental or spiritual attacks targeting their mind.’
That explained why she remained completely unaffected by his Dragon Will. Her outer appearance was that of a mutated White Mountain Deer, which was why the peak elders had misidentified her as a defective Qilin-lineage beast, but her true, ancient bloodline lay buried deep within.
Su Ming closed his Essence Sight and turned to Elder Han. "I will take her."
Elder Han stared at him, blinking in surprise. "Are you certain, Peak Master Su? For twenty-five thousand sect points, you could purchase a very decent Middle grade beast. This deer has a stubborn temper and requires imported feed."
"I am certain," Su Ming said, pointing to the deer. "The price is fair, and she suits my peak."
Elder Han paused, looking from Su Ming to the silent white deer. "Very well. But before I deduct the points, you must try to form a bond. In our stables, we do not force any purchase. You must use the Blood Essence Pact.’
’You have to offer a single drop of essence blood onto the beast’s forehead. If the beast willingly accepts it, the blood dissolves into light and forms a spiritual bridge between their souls. If she rejects it, the blood simply evaporates. Nothing is forced."
Elder Han let out a dry cough, his expression skeptical. "To be frank, she has rejected every single elder and disciple who tried to bond with her over the last fifteen years. Not a single person has succeeded. If she rejects you, the transaction cannot proceed."
Su Ming nodded and stepped closer to the white deer. The deer did not retreat, her calm, dark eyes watching him approach her enclosure.
Su Ming looked at her, his thoughts racing. Essence blood was not normal blood; it was a drop of heart blood concentrated with a cultivator’s Qi and spiritual essence. If this deer did not even bat an eye under the pressure of his Dragon Will, trying to use raw pressure or standard spiritual blood would be pointless.
Suspecting her true lineage was that of the ancient, auspicious Bai Ze, Su Ming recalled that such legendary creatures valued purity, cleanliness, and auspicious resonance above all else.
He raised his hand, biting the tip of his finger to draw a single drop of crimson blood. As the drop formed, Su Ming quietly channeled his cultivation, infusing a tiny thread of the Samsara Resin’s power together with his pure Yin-Yang Qi into the blood. The drop immediately shimmered with a faint, clean light, carrying a profound, peaceful resonance of natural balance and rebirth.
Su Ming flicked the drop gently. It floated across the space between them, hovering right before the white deer’s forehead.
The deer’s ears twitched. She stopped chewing the white grass, her dark eyes focusing on the glowing drop of blood. She leaned forward, sniffing it gently. Sensing the absolute purity and auspicious warmth of the Samsara Resin and Yin-Yang Qi, the deer let out a soft breath. She did not nudge the blood away.
The drop touched the center of her forehead, dissolving into a gentle, golden-white light that seeped into her skin. For a brief second, a warm spiritual bridge of light connected their foreheads, humming with a quiet resonance before fading away.
Elder Han stood frozen, his jaw slightly open as he stared at the deer. "She... she accepted it? Just like that?"
Su Ming turned back to the stunned elder, his expression calm. "It seems we have an understanding. Shall we process the points now?"
Elder Han recovered his composure, clearing his throat hastily as he accepted Su Ming’s token and swiped it against the registration stone, deducting the twenty-five thousand points. "Ahem. Very well. The transaction is complete. I will have a disciple prepare the custom reins and the first shipment of her imported white weed feed."
After securing the deer, Su Ming visited the Spirit Beast Peak’s local archives. The building was smaller than the main library, smelling of old parchment and dried herbs. He bypassed the premium taming manuals on the upper shelves, noting their high prices. Instead, he searched the lower shelves and selected several specialized books on beast taming, care, and ancient beast identification that were unique to this peak’s collection and not available in the central library.
When the archive clerk calculated the fees, Su Ming discovered that the highly specialized books, the custom taming reins, and a year’s supply of the imported feed cost an additional fifteen thousand sect points. Su Ming felt a slight ache in his wallet as he handed over his token to authorize the transfer, bringing his total expenditure to forty thousand points. It was a massive investment, but essential to care for her properly.
He loaded the heavy crates of imported grass feed and the archive books into his storage ring. Walking out into the cool evening air, he led the white deer down the winding mountain path.
The path was quiet now, far away from the busy staging grounds. The white deer walked beside him at a steady, unhurried pace. Her grey-black antlers swayed slightly with her steps, and her pure white coat caught the faint silver light of the rising moon.
Su Ming looked down at her. "White Mountain Deer is too generic, and you are clearly not a standard beast. Since you are stubborn about using the spirit clouds, I will call you Yunxiao."
The white deer stopped walking. She tilted her head, her dark eyes looking directly into his. After a quiet moment, she let out a soft, nonchalant snort—as if amused by the irony of being named after the very clouds she refused to step on. But she did not tug against the leather rein.
Sensing their newly formed soul bridge vibrate with a thread of clean, peaceful warmth, Su Ming smiled slightly. He patted her neck gently. Her fur was soft and cool to the touch.
"Let us go home, Yunxiao," he said softly.
She stepped forward, walking in sync with him as they began their descent toward White Lotus Peak.