Chapter 144: Seven Days of Time Acceleration

He had kind of wanted to see more of its bargaining and acting cute.

Just as that thought passed through his mind, he heard Yao Heng’s next question.

Xiao Shou froze.

Then he suddenly remembered.

He had shared half of Yao Heng’s lifespan with it.

Without the worry of reaching lifespan limits or the need to sever connections before ascending or breaking through, it was technically fine not to cut the link.

However, Xiao Shou still recalled something from the original story.

Xiao Ran once encountered a strange small world.

In that world, spiritual energy could not be used, and all power had to be obtained by sacrificing one’s own lifespan to exchange strength from the world’s deity.

As a result, when she managed to break out, her lifespan had been severely depleted.

Because of that, she had no choice but to form a contract with a long-lived divine beast that had almost no combat power, sharing its lifespan.

Although Xiao Shou did not think he would be so unlucky as to encounter such a situation, caution was still necessary.

He should try to minimize lifespan consumption as much as possible.

Fortunately, severing the connection would only require some extra spirit stones.

He did not have much else, but he had plenty of spirit stones.

Hearing Yao Heng agree so readily without bargaining like the spirit pet in novels, Xiao Shou felt even more that Yao Heng was very considerate.

Feeling a bit pleased with himself, he thought about it.

The reason his cultivation progress had been so fast over the past two months was because he had been consuming third-grade demon spirit cores every day while also using a lightning array.

This strengthened his body, allowing him to cultivate continuously without hitting his physical limits.

But now, two months later, all the demonic beast cores in his possession regardless of grade had already been used up.

As for the lightning array, before deciding to enter the flower space for cultivation, Xiao Shou had searched through inherited knowledge in his mind.

It was indeed possible to set up formations inside the internal space.

That was why he wanted to cultivate for a while first.

After all, although he currently seemed trapped, his situation was actually very safe.

On the other hand, outside the Ice Silk Worm cocoon, no matter how great the opportunities were, without sufficient cultivation strength, they were meaningless.

So in a safe environment, improving his strength was the top priority.

However, the ninth rotation was different from previous realms.

From ninth rotation to Foundation Establishment, the required spiritual energy was equivalent to the total of the previous eight rotations combined.

Without demonic beast cores and relying only on a lightning array, cultivation would take a very long time.

Moreover, after Xiao Shou had his disciple Young’er bring people over to support his presence, he had felt somewhat pleased at the time.

But afterward, he became a little frustrated.

Pretending to be an expert was satisfying for a moment, but if he got exposed later, it would be too embarrassing.

On top of that, his disciple was already at the Foundation Establishment stage while the master was still at the Qi Refining stage.

No matter how one looked at it, the master should be stronger than the disciple.

So recently Xiao Shou had developed a small ambition: to become a real expert and cultivate to a level higher than his disciple.

Now that an opportunity had come, he carefully calculated the time flow ratio and replied, "Maximum time flow. External time set to seven days for now. The connection with the outside world will be severed."

"Seven days, plus the energy required to cut off spatial linkage, will probably consume about eight top-grade spirit stones."

Yao Heng tilted its head and looked at Xiao Shou.

From its inherited knowledge, top-grade spirit stones were extremely precious resources in the lower realms during the early stages of cultivation and it was essential for strengthening spirit veins.

Would its master really be willing to spend so much?

And seven days at ten thousand times acceleration meant two hundred years of cultivation time.

Could its master endure such long and boring cultivation?

Xiao Shou nodded.

He understood his own weaknesses better than anyone else.

On the surface he seemed detached and indifferent, but in reality he was easily distracted and had very little patience for loneliness.

If he were outside, after cultivating for a while he would definitely find excuses to go out and relieve boredom.

But now, in this semi-imprisoned state, it was different.

He could only use the thought of increasing his strength and escaping sooner to force himself to endure.

With a wave of his hand, he took out more than ten top-grade spirit stones and handed them to Yao Heng.

After taking a deep breath, Xiao Shou revealed a resolute expression as if he were facing death and said with difficulty, "I am giving you the spirit stones. If I have not come out when the time is up, continue maintaining the space with the remaining stones until I return or until they are exhausted."

Unlike what was written in Its inheritance, its master was very generous.

He had casually taken out more than ten top-grade spirit stones.

If its behaved better, would he give it one too?

Yao Heng’s eyes were lit up.

Its quickly drooled slightly and waved its little hand.

The dozen spirit stones vanished instantly, though no one knew where it had stored them.

"Master, please rest assured and cultivate. I will properly maintain the space and will not waste even a bit of spiritual energy!"

"You like spirit stones?" Xiao Shou asked thoughtfully after seeing its reaction.

Yao Heng nodded vigorously, its eyes shining.

"Of course! Everything in the world needs spiritual energy to grow. Our Flower of Eternity race is the same. We grow alongside our food, but without spiritual energy nourishment, neither we nor our food can grow. So spirit stones, like food, the more the better!"