NOVEL WEB Ch. 3
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 couldn’t escape his grasp.
"Woof."
Iron Egg didn’t resist, gently rubbing against Chen Beiwu’s palm with a docile expression.
"What’s wrong, are you hungry?" Chen Beiwu chuckled softly.
"Woof woof."
Iron Egg barked twice, indicating that he wasn’t hungry at all.
"Even if you’re not hungry, you should still eat more to grow."
Chen Beiwu squatted down, gently stroking Iron Egg’s 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 Egg’s limp and paralyzed hind legs.
"I’m 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 didn’t work?
It still had its front legs.
"Don’t refuse, just listen to me on this."
Noticing Iron Egg’s 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 stable—except 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 Alliance’s 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 couldn’t cultivate!
The cultivation room in Chen Beiwu’s home wasn’t 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 school’s cafeteria only cost a few cents.
‘This little guy is still as loyal as ever.’
Before closing the cultivation room door, Chen Beiwu glanced at the faint light hovering above Iron Egg’s head—half green and half blue.
That light represented Iron Egg’s 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 Beiwu’s 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 cub’s vital signs were stable, with no immediate danger to its life.
The bad news: the cub’s hind legs weren’t 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 didn’t 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 Beiwu’s unconscious father out of the blazing flames.
From that moment, Iron Egg’s 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 potential—not 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 Egg’s fortune nearly reaching Second-Tier meant it had the potential to break through its bloodline shackles and become a Second-Tier spirit beast—a 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 wood—completely 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 cultivator’s first beast companion was crucial—it affected their future cultivation speed and the difficulty of breaking through realms.
A fire-element exotic beast that hadn’t even reached Second-Tier would be a burden to Chen Beiwu, even if he did form a contract.
After all, Chen Beiwu’s spiritual roots weren’t ordinary—they were rare dual-element earth-grade roots of water and wood in Far Sky County.
What were earth-grade roots?
According to the Immortal Alliance’s classification based on spiritual root purity, cultivators’ roots were divided into six levels: Immortal, Heavenly, Earth, True, Mixed, and False.
If any one of a cultivator’s 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 cultivator’s overall grade.
Chen Beiwu’s 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.
He’d 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 wouldn’t need to take the Immortal Alliance Entrance Exam.
They’d go straight to the Immortal Exam and might even be admitted into the Five Great Grotto-Heavens, becoming future successors of the Immortal Alliance.