NOVEL WEB Ch. 43
Chapter 43: Companion Beast’s Three Meridians
"That's right, it's a Mystic-Grade Origin Meridian."
Seeing the radiant innate water-form essence within Golden Egg’s Origin Meridian, Chen Beiwu felt a surge of joy.
The Origin Meridians of a Companion Beast were divided into five grades, ranked from lowest to highest as Inferior, Mixed, Proper, Mystic, and Legendary.
Among them, the Inferior-Grade Origin Meridians had already lost their innate five-element essence and were commonly found in Zero-Tier Ordinary Beasts.
Such Origin Meridians could neither provide any boost to a cultivator’s Spiritual Root Purity nor enhance the efficiency of refining the world's spiritual energy.
The Mixed-Grade Origin Meridians were slightly better than Inferior ones. Although the innate five-element essence was jumbled and converted into acquired elemental essence, they were still barely usable.
These usually appeared in First-Tier Exotic Beasts. They also couldn't increase a cultivator’s Spiritual Root Purity but could raise refining efficiency by ten to twenty percent.
Proper-Grade Origin Meridians contained a complete strand of innate five-element essence and were generally found only in Second-Tier Spirit Beasts. They could grant a minor increase in a contract cultivator’s Spiritual Root Purity (acquired) and improve spiritual energy refining efficiency by forty to fifty percent.
As for the Mystic-Grade Origin Meridian within Golden Egg’s body, it was truly remarkable.
As the saying went, the Five-Element Essence contains immortality, and the innate One Qi is what defines the Mystic grade.
Mystic-Grade Origin Meridians contained a trace of the Dao's rhythm and generally only appeared in Third-Tier Treasure Beasts.
This level of Origin Meridian not only granted a three-point boost to a contract cultivator’s Spiritual Root Purity (innate) but also doubled the efficiency of spiritual energy refinement.
What did that mean?
Simply put, the Origin Meridian within a Companion Beast was akin to an amplifier for Spiritual Root Purity.
The Proper-Grade Origin Meridians couldn't help a contract cultivator break through their spiritual root limits—for instance, upgrading from True Root to Earth-Grade Root.
However, Mystic-Grade Origin Meridians contained a trace of Dao’s rhythm, enabling transformation from acquired to innate, thus breaking the shackles of the contract cultivator’s spiritual roots.
In other words, Chen Beiwu’s current Water Spiritual Root Purity was no longer an Earth-Grade Root at 79, but had reached 82 under the Mystic-Grade Origin Meridian’s boost, qualifying as an Immortal Root.
‘Just the Mystic-Grade Origin Meridian is already so terrifying. Who knows how outrageous the Legendary-Grade Origin Meridian of legend must be!’
Chen Beiwu suppressed his distracting thoughts. With a shift of his divine sense, he turned to observe Golden Egg’s second meridian: the Attribute Meridian.
The Five-Element Attribute Meridian represented the bloodline potential of the Companion Beast, akin to the Five-Element Spiritual Roots of human cultivators, though much harder to detect.
Thus, the Immortal Alliance classified beast creatures based on the upper limits of their bloodlines into Exotic Beast, Spirit Beast, Treasure Beast, and Mystic Beast, rather than by individual aptitude.
However, once a contract was formed, the cultivator could gauge the strength of the Companion Beast’s Five-Element Attribute Meridian based on their own Spiritual Root Purity.
"Metal 89, Wood 82, Water 93, Fire 18, Earth 79."
Seeing Golden Egg’s Five-Element Attribute Meridians through the Beast Seal, Chen Beiwu’s heart trembled.
According to the Immortal Alliance’s standard, Golden Egg’s attribute meridians showed aptitude equivalent to Immortal Root among human cultivators—specifically Metal, Wood, and Water Immortal Roots—surpassing his own by far.
So this was the true worth of the Golden Legend!
"Hoo—"
Chen Beiwu exhaled a deep breath, trying to calm his inner excitement.
After settling his thoughts, he used his divine sense to examine Golden Egg’s third meridian: the Law Meridian.
Heaven steals from all, all steal from life.
Unlike cultivators who refined Golden Cores or studied Dao Scriptures, beast creatures used their bloodlines to steal heavenly secrets and condense Dao Marks within themselves, eventually forming their Law Meridians.
The Law Meridian in a beast creature contained not only years of cultivated Dao Path but also the innate arts derived from stealing the world’s energy.
However, Dao Path was difficult to cultivate, and the length of time a beast creature trained did not necessarily reflect the depth of its Dao Path.
For example, a Fourth-Tier Mystic Beast with a terrifying bloodline could, after only a few centuries of cultivation, accumulate a thousand years’ worth of Dao Path and ascend to become a Four-Realm Beast King.
Conversely, a low-bloodline First-Tier Exotic Beast might struggle for a thousand years and accumulate merely forty-nine years of Dao Path, unable to even break through to become a Second-Realm Lesser Beast.
"Golden Egg actually only has ten years of Dao Path." Chen Beiwu was slightly surprised.
In the art of beast analysis, one observed the Origin, the Attribute, the Mark, and the Meridian.
With each year of Dao Path accumulation, a new foundational Dao Mark formed within the Law Meridian.
To standardize realm measurement, contract cultivators referred to one Dao Mark within a Companion Beast’s Law Meridian as one year of Dao Path.
Golden Egg’s Law Meridian contained only ten foundational Dao Marks, indicating ten years of Dao Path, placing it in the First-Realm Spirit category—a particularly weak Lesser Spirit, about the same level as Iron Egg.
However, the divine sense Golden Egg unleashed during contract formation could rival that of a Second-Realm Lesser Beast, suggesting extraordinary innate talent and undoubtedly extraordinary innate arts within its Law Meridian.
Thinking of this, Chen Beiwu delved deeper into the Law Meridian with his divine sense, seeking the deeply hidden innate arts.
Innate Ability: Flowing Gold Scales
[Grade]: Second-Tier Peerless Spiritual Art
[Effect]: Its scales resemble both gold and flowing water—possessing the flexibility of water and the strength of metal. Enhances physical body and divine sense based on Dao Path level. Ignores First-Tier Exotic Arts and partially nullifies damage from Second-Tier Spiritual Arts.
Note: The Golden Scales are rooted in the scales themselves. The stronger the scale defense, the greater the power of the innate spiritual art [Sea-Absorbing].
‘It’s actually a Second-Tier Peerless Spiritual Art.’ Chen Beiwu’s spirit trembled.
Second-Tier Spiritual Arts were exclusive to Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Qi Refining cultivators lacked the realm to wield them—forcing a release could cause backlash.
At best, they would deplete their divine sense; at worst, the art would rebound, costing them their life.
Even if, by some miracle, a Qi Refining cultivator managed to cast a Second-Tier Spiritual Art, it would be like fire without fuel—lacking true power, and often weaker than a well-executed First-Tier Peerless Spiritual Art.
However, the innate arts awakened naturally within beast creatures were different.
Even with weak Dao Path, a beast could wield its innate arts as if they were extensions of its limbs, with no risk of backlash—at most, the art's power would be significantly reduced.
This was proof of the exceptional inheritance of beast bloodlines on Sky Abyss Star.
With the protection of the Second-Tier Peerless Spiritual Art [Flowing Gold Scales], even with only ten years of Dao Path, Golden Egg was virtually unmatched in defense among First-Realm Spirit creatures.
With that thought, Chen Beiwu probed further into the depths of the Law Meridian.
His instincts told him Golden Egg’s potential went far beyond this.
[Grade]: Second-Tier Peerless Spiritual Art
[Effect]: The sea accepts all rivers, devouring all to nourish itself. When Golden Scales activate Sea-Absorbing, they can consume beast creatures, arts, artifacts, talismans, spiritual energy, and more, to enhance the innate ability Flowing Gold Scales.
Sensing the power of the Sea-Absorbing Spiritual Technique, Chen Beiwu was briefly stunned.
Flowing Gold Scales boosted Sea-Absorbing’s might, and Sea-Absorbing in turn fed back into Flowing Gold Scales to strengthen its defense.
It was no exaggeration to say that this pair of peerless spiritual arts formed a synergistic loop, endlessly complementing and evolving.
"Incredible. So this is the power a Golden Legend should have."
Chen Beiwu withdrew his divine sense and opened his eyes, looking at Golden Scales as if staring at a monster.
He had made the right bet!
With a Companion Beast of this caliber, his future would be infinitely bright.
"Grumble—"
Golden Egg blinked in confusion.
It didn’t know why its contract cultivator was so excited. It only knew it was hungry again.