**Chapter 3: The Power of the Ancient Book**
At the foot of Mount Lingyun, scattered around were several low, green-tiled brick houses. Ye Jingcheng's room was among these.
He opened the door to find his room sparsely furnished.
An empty stone table, two wooden racks filled with herbs and ancient books, and a wooden bed were the only items.
The room's only notable feature was its cleanliness and tidiness.
Ye Jingcheng sat on a stool, carefully placing the Jade-ring Mouse aside and gently setting the Crimson Flame Fox on the stone table.
At this moment, he had already channeled a significant amount of the ancient book's spiritual light into the Crimson Flame Fox.
The wound on the Crimson Flame Fox was still blackened and dried.
However, its blue-purple eyes had become noticeably brighter.
Its whimpers had become more crisp, rather than the previous weak and dying sound!
Ye Jingcheng did not dare to stop and continued to channel the light from the ancient book.
Under his observation, the fox's fur grew increasingly bright, radiating an incredibly warm temperature, like a burning furnace.
The dried and blackened wound began to gradually heal and return to its original color.
"There's hope!" Ye Jingcheng's eyes sparkled with excitement!
The ancient book's special spiritual light could indeed heal spiritual beasts.
Yet he still did not understand the significance of the nine-tailed fox depicted in the earlier pages.
He could only continue treating the Crimson Flame Fox!
The Crimson Flame Fox consumed the spiritual light at an enormous rate, and after a quarter of an hour, the light was completely depleted.
The ancient book reverted to its previously dim state.
"Slurp!" The Crimson Flame Fox began licking Ye Jingcheng's arm.
Its small tongue repeatedly brushed against his skin, creating a tickling, warm sensation.
The fox's wounds had largely healed, leaving only a small scar on its foreleg.
It was miraculous!
Ye Jingcheng's heart raced with excitement. With the book's miraculous ability, as long as he had enough spiritual light, he would no longer need to worry about spiritual beasts getting injured!
The Crimson Flame Fox's calls were now more pleasant. It moved to the edge of the table, close to Ye Jingcheng's chest, and lay down lazily.
Seeing this, Ye Jingcheng quickly performed a blood contract. He pressed his finger, bit it to draw blood, and began drawing spiritual runes!
[Translator: sauron]
Although it was his first time performing a blood contract, he had practiced many times as part of the Beast Taming family, so he was not unfamiliar.
However, as the blood fell onto the Crimson Flame Fox's forehead, the first page of the ancient book seemed to light up, becoming exceptionally bright.
The spiritual fox on the page became extremely clear.
The fox was now breathing fierce flames, looking extremely proud, and continued to evolve.
In no time, it transformed into a two-tailed red fox, looking even more majestic, with its head held high and its two tails flickering behind it.
Additionally, numerous spiritual herbs and leaves appeared.
"Heartless Flower, Red Ginseng, Falling Flame Grass, Red Dragon Fruit…"
Ye Jingcheng muttered the names of the herbs. As an alchemist, he was familiar with most spiritual herbs, though there were still some he did not know.
According to the illustrations, using these herbs to refine elixirs or pills for the Crimson Flame Fox could help it evolve into a two-tailed form.
These herbs were all fire attribute and some were extremely precious.
As an alchemist, Ye Jingcheng knew that while the concept of such elixirs was extraordinary, their feasibility was not insignificant.
However, more than the value of the herbs, what fascinated him was the future potential of a two-tailed Crimson Flame Fox compared to an ordinary one, and the nine-tailed fox from the book's initial pages…
Ye Jingcheng's eyes shone brighter.
"Yip yip!"
The Crimson Flame Fox continued to make noises. At this moment, Ye Jingcheng understood its meaning.
It was hungry.
It needed to eat!
Ye Jingcheng hesitated. The blood contract for the Crimson Flame Fox seemed different from what he had learned. It felt as though it was completed through the ancient book.
He took out a bottle of Spirit Nourishment Pills, removed two, and fed them to the Crimson Flame Fox.
The fox sniffed for a while, then happily consumed both pills.
Its fur began to shimmer with a red light, like rolling flames, incredibly beautiful.
Ye Jingcheng, however, was not in the mood to admire it. He turned his attention to the Jade-ring Mouse, wanting to test it.
He wondered if the ancient book could affect the Jade-ring Mouse.
The mouse squeaked, seemingly interested in the spirit pills, but its spiritual sensitivity was far less than that of the Crimson Flame Fox.
Ye Jingcheng was not frustrated but extended his finger to perform the blood contract again.
He carefully drew the spiritual runes, taking more time to understand the details to assess the book's abilities.
Soon, the blood fell onto the Jade-ring Mouse's forehead.
The blood contract was completed, and a different feeling emerged, but the ancient book showed no changes, and no spiritual herbs or images appeared.
Disappointed, Ye Jingcheng used the last bit of spiritual light on the Jade-ring Mouse.
The mouse made louder noises, seemingly enjoying it, but still, the ancient book did not change.
After studying for a while, Ye Jingcheng concluded a few points.
First, ordinary spiritual beasts were clearly not within the ancient book's scope.
Second, the ancient book's spiritual light could heal wounds and even improve physical condition. For exceptionally talented beasts, it could provide growth or evolution formulas or elixirs!
Third, the ancient book's blood contract was more domineering!
Ye Jingcheng was exhilarated by his findings about the ancient book.
However, he soon frowned. His 400 contribution points had been spent on various items including spiritual beast meat and spirit refining pills for his own cultivation, leaving him with fewer than 50 points.
Now, with two spiritual beasts to care for, the pressure was unprecedented.
He finally experienced why the Ye family, despite being a major foundation-building family, was notorious for its financial issues in the Taihang Mountains.
Although the Beast Taming family's reputation was impressive, it also meant higher resource consumption.
Before him were two options: join the family's demon-hunting team or continue alchemy at the family's marketplace.
He looked at the Crimson Flame Fox, which, when larger, could spew flames like ground fire, making it a potential substitute for alchemical flames.
This might save him some rent in the future.
(End of Chapter)