There was not much difference between owing one spirit stone or two. In the end, he still owed something.

He would surely return these two spirit stones of the Fourth Stage in the future.

Therefore, Song Shuhang nodded and said, "Alright."

The stall vendor quickly delivered the spirit beast crystal to Song Shuhang and took the spirit stone of the Fourth Stage from Venerable White's hands.

The rarer a thing was, the more it was worth. But while spirit beast crystals were rare goods, they were quite useless and thus difficult to sell.

"Fellow Daoist, can I ask you to which spirit beast does this crystal belong to?" Song Shuhang asked as he held the jewel-like spirit beast crystal between his hands.

"It's a 'tiger crystal'. It's a spirit beast crystal that comes from a spirit beast that belongs to the family of tigers," the stall vendor said.

A tiger crystal? Why did this tiger crystal resonate with me, making me feel as though I had to get it at all costs?

Just as he was thinking, Song Shuhang took out the pearl he bought from the businesswoman earlier and asked, "Fellow Daoist, do you know to which spirit beast does this crystal belong to?"

This little fellow daoist likes collecting spirit beast crystals? Had I known earlier, I would have increased the price of the tiger crystal a little! No, I can't do that. Being greedy is bad...

The stall vendor took the precious pearl from Song Shuhang's hands and after examining it for a while, he said, "If I'm not mistaken… this spirit beast crystal should belong to a spirit beast that comes from the family of turtles. The spirit beast crystals of spirit beasts of the snake and turtle category have the shape of a pearl. However, the aura mixed within this spirit beast crystal is more similar to that of a turtle."

"Thank you." Song Shuhang nodded and received his spirit beast crystal.

A tiger-type spirit beast crystal, and a turtle-type spirit beast crystal… why did they resonate with me?

What special relationship is there between me, turtles, and tigers?

Song Shuhang put in order his thoughts and made a list of the all his goods and cultivation techniques… then, he immediately thought of something… the ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Technique❯!

It was the only thing on his body that had something to do with 'beasts'.

It was a unique cultivation technique that could allow one to condense pseudo innate true qi after the birth. There were thirty-three different cultivation methods included in this technique, and Song Shuhang chose to practice the ❮Huge Whale's Technique❯ amongst them.

Aside from whales, tigers and turtles were also amongst the 33 beasts related to this technique.

Is the ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Technique❯ the reason these two spirit beast crystals resonated with me?

❄️❄️❄️

Venerable White brought Song Shuhang and Soft Feather along and kept strolling through the street market.

"Senior White, are there other places that sell spirit beast crystals in this street market?" Song Shuhang asked. He wanted to know whether or not his guess was correct.

If all the spirit beast crystals belonging to animals related to the ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Technique❯ resonated with him, he would be 50% sure that his guess was correct.

And if he were to find spirit beast crystals of animals that weren't related to the ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Technique❯, he could have a try and see if they resonated with him. If they didn't, he would have definitive proof that his guess was correct.

"I think we'll find more if we keep strolling through the street market," Venerable White said with a smile. "Do you have something in mind?"

"Yeah… I think there might be a relationship between the spirit beast crystals and the cultivation technique Senior White taught me," Song Shuhang said in a low voice.

Venerable White thought for a moment.

Soon after, a circular golden rune flashed through his eyes… that golden rune was a section of the ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Technique❯.

At this time, Venerable White was analyzing that section of the technique.

After a short while, Venerable White faintly nodded. "It might be possible… let's keep looking around. We might find other spirit beast crystals."

❄️❄️❄️

After one hour and a half.

After the trio visited all the stalls once, they obtained a total of seven spirit beast crystals.

These spirit beast crystals were of the following types: rabbit, sheep, deer, dog, bear, horse, and crane.

Those sects specialized in raising spirit beasts would raise these types of beasts most of the time. Therefore, the most common and easily found spirit beast crystals in street markets were of these seven types.

If we were to add these seven spirit stones to the count as well, Song Shuhang now owed Senior White a total of nine spirit stones of the Fourth Stage. Little by little, his debt was slowly increasing...

Aside from these, Venerable White and Song Shuhang found other types of spirit beast crystals as well, like those belonging to bees and butterflies. These two types of spirit beasts were also largely raised by cultivators.

However, just as Song Shuhang expected, these two types of spirit beast crystals didn't resonate with him.

Butterflies and bees weren't amongst the thirty-three animals related to the ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Technique❯.

"With that, we are now sure that these spirit beast crystals are related to the ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Technique❯. Perhaps it's another method you can use to condense pseudo-innate true qi..." Venerable White said.

"?" Song Shuhang looked at Senior White in puzzlement. Since the beginning, the one in charge of developing the cultivation technique was Venerable White. Song Shuhang was just in charge of practicing it.

Earlier, Venerable White obtained the first two volumes of the technique from that person behind the organization of assassins, the Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Sect. After revising and improving it, he passed it onto Song Shuhang.

After practicing the Huge Whale Chapter of the technique, a needle-shaped stream of true qi had already condensed in Song Shuhang's dantian, standing upright right in the center. This needle-shaped stream of true qi was the embryonic form of the pseudo innate true qi.

However, they didn't have any idea on how to turn this embryonic form of true qi into pseudo-innate true qi.

❄️❄️❄️

"Shuhang, do you remember those several assassins from the Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Sect? Each of them practiced the chapter related to a particular beast," Venerable White said with a smile.

Song Shuhang nodded. He remembered particularly well that Whale Eight who practiced the Huge Whale Chapter just like him. He had tears streaming down his face as he thought of the cruel and deadly hug of that man.

While he was experiencing Chu Chu's life in the dream, he also got a good taste of that deadly hug.

"However, there wasn't any embryonic form of true qi inside the bodies of those assassins, right?" Venerable White said with a laugh.

Song Shuhang nodded. He still remembered that when Venerable White mentioned the matter about the 'pseudo-innate true qi' to Whale Eight, the latter had a dumbfounded expression on his face. From the looks of it, he didn't know that the cultivation technique he was practicing could condense pseudo-innate true qi.

"The cultivation technique they were practicing was modified… just like the two volumes that the person behind the Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Sect gave us," Venerable White continued his explanation. "Those guys were being trained up as 'true qi seeds'."

Although the ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Technique❯ had the words 'Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' in its name, one person couldn't practice all the thirty-three different chapters of the technique.

However, if they wanted to condense that stream of pseudo-innate true qi, they still needed to combine the true qi of the thirty-three beasts into one.

In ancient times, when the Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Sect was at its peak, they surely had some secret technique to let their disciples combine the true qi of the thirty-three beasts into one.

Perhaps they had thirty-three disciples cooperate and have the thirty-three types of cultivations unite in one body through a secret technique.

Or perhaps they relied on external tools to unite the true qi as one.

However, this ancient school had already declined, and the method to unite the true qi was also incomplete.

Thereupon, this person pulling strings behind the scenes thought of a way.

They trained thirty or so disciples and had them practice a chapter of the ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Technique❯ each. However, these chapters had undergone a modification, and each of the disciples turned into a seed of the ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Technique❯. That person behind the scenes only needed to wait until the conditions were ripe to gobble down the 'origin true qi' inside their body.

At first, this was nothing but Venerable White's conjecture.

However, when that person behind the scenes ransomed their subordinates, they made a circle around all the captured subordinates before choosing the three to take away.

While they were making a circle around the subordinates, they quietly swallowed down the origin true qi inside the bodies of the subordinates.

❄️❄️❄️

However, that person behind the scenes didn't know that Venerable White had secretly tampered with the true qi inside the bodies of subordinates. Given the time, it should be just about time that the origin true qi they gobbled up starts showing problems.

Venerable White was now waiting for the opposite party to contact them again and seize the opportunity to get the complete version of the ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Technique❯, as well as the method to combine the pseudo-innate true qi.

❄️❄️❄️

But from the looks of it, these spirit beast crystals seemed to be the secret to merge the innate true qi into one…?

Perhaps these spirit beast crystals could substitute for those 'true qi seeds'?

If that was really the case, Song Shuhang could try to condense the 'innate true qi' once he had obtained the merging method and gathered the thirty-three different types of spirit beast crystals.

❄️❄️❄️

"In that case, should I try my best to collect as many spirit beast crystals as possible?" Song Shuhang had now nine spirit beast crystals. He still needed quite a lot to gather all thirty-three.

"Collecting as many spirit beast crystals as possible…? You have to condense the innate true qi inside your body before you reach the Third Stage Battle King Realm." Venerable White nodded and said, "After I'm done exploring those ancient ruins together with the other fellow daoists from the Nine Provinces Number One Group, I'll get the complete version of the ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts' Technique❯ and study it. Therefore, Shuhang, you should take advantage of this period of time to gather the spirit beast crystals with all your might!"

"No problem!" Song Shuhang said as he clenched his fist.

"Next, let's take another look around and see which things might come in handy during your one-month trip in space," Venerable White said as he narrowed his eyes.

"..." Song Shuhang.

"Senior, a month is just too much. We should make good use of our time. No, that wasn't it… what I meant was, how about reducing the time? For example, half a month...?" Song Shuhang begged.

"A real man can't go back on his word." Venerable White turned his head around and said, "We agreed earlier that it would be one month, so it will be one month. Not a minute less."

Song Shuhang braced himself and asked, "Then, when will I have to go to space?"

Venerable White gave the thumbs up and said, "I'll send you there once this session of the street market is over! Don't worry, I've already developed a new type of disposable flying sword. After delivering you into space, it will automatically bring you back in one month. There won't be any problems!"

"Senior, is it possible to delay the trip by a few days?" Song Shuhang said hurriedly. "My ghost spirit is currently stuck inside the express delivery box of the ancestor of the Chu Family and doesn't want to come out. How about waiting until I deliver the express delivery box to the ancestor of the Chu Family together with Little Jiang?"

"So that was it!" Venerable White held his chin and said, "However, I'll head toward the ancient ruins together with the other fellow daoists as soon as the street market is over... and I have no idea how long it'll take to explore the ruins. It seems I won't be able to deliver you to space personally."

"There is absolutely no problem. I'm in no way in a hurry. Not even a little bit," Song Shuhang said excitedly… that was precisely what he wanted to hear!

"Alright, I'll need to change the plan then," Venerable White said.

He would now have to revise the method to deliver Song Shuhang into space...