Looking at the piles of creatures in front of me, I can already see that having this many creatures go through the teleporter would be untenable.

And even though I will already be seen to have a taming ability or something that allows me to have influence over creatures, this would definitely put me in the category of possibly dangerous. Especially with this many spirit beasts and the fact that they’re growing in how they are; Not needing food, water, or even anything to support their cultivation.

In fact, this would essentially be a growing army of creatures.

Not only that, but revealing this many could undermine Gong, making it appear as if I’m the only one controlling her spiders instead of her using her natural abilities. A big distinction, and an important one in terms of leverage and leadership.

People may already suspect as much, once it is revealed that I’m the one that controlled the rats, but it would be better to keep some measure of opaqueness to the issue.

Not only that, but it may be better to keep some cards hidden regarding this ability. I’ll take a few more than I was originally intending, but I won’t take this whole army of creatures here.

With this in mind, I still send out a retainer type taming contract to every one of these creatures. The vast majority accept, and the few that decline I let go.

The taming contract is a mutual thing, and I can’t force anyone into it. Coercing them into a contract wouldn’t benefit me, especially if they’re already under the pressure with this many creatures here.

I let them know they are free to contact any of the creatures around here to set up a contract with me, if they want.

I suspect that things around the jungle are going to change with these many allied spirit beasts. Not only that, but at the baseline, the contract removes the need for food or water. Which means they don’t need to hunt anymore.

Ironically, removing the need to eat will probably make them hunt in the same ways they were doing before, to further their cultivation.

Spirit beasts cultivate differently than humans. They have their cultivation methods they can follow, but largely they could do without and grow automatically Through Following their normal habits and absorbing Qi naturally.

Personally, I’d like them to not kill things regularly, So I pressure some of the creatures that seem to have gleaned some spirit beast cultivation methods into revealing them.

I spend the whole day doing this and building together a generalized and adaptive cultivation method for them. One that won’t require them to feed on other creatures. It will also allow them to unleash certain Qi based abilities.

Unlike the human cultivation world, there doesn’t seem to be that many protections and secrets for this type of knowledge. It is obviously still valuable, but because they can be learned naturally and are not required to progress, they have less of an impact outside of certain spirit beast clans.

Just by getting these small aspects of different creatures’ methods allowed me to pull from my scan to fill in the gaps.

I hope that over time, as I learn from more creatures, I’ll be able to add to the cultivation method and improve it further.

But there is also a secondary goal for this.

Demi humans can learn spirit beast cultivation methods alongside human ones.

To be specific, restrictions that come from human cultivation methods don’t affect the spirit beast ones. And vice versa.

This is why they were so feared by both spirit beasts and humans.

Not only could they grow automatically and utilize spirit beast techniques, but they can also use human cultivation methods and techniques, which in some ways are naturally more refined than the spirit beast ones. The best of both worlds.

Once I get back to Gong, I’ll give both this and the human cultivation method to them.

I Quickly turn my mind back to the current situation, though. Them having the spirit beast cultivation method means that all the creatures will have fast advancement and if they find something better, they can always switch it out with this one.

It also makes it more efficient for them to not hunt and instead cultivate using the method.

Fitting my goals.

Considering I already had 13 spirit beasts, I’m only planning on taking seven more with me. The several hundred others will just remain on retainer.

My mana has grown to the point with all the taming that’s happened and healing, that I can sustain these types of numbers, although spirit beasts use more mana normally. The retainer fee amount is around the amount it took to grow Dana.

However, it increases the higher in cultivation they are. Obviously, because they’re consuming more resources.

I originally had:

3 birds

3 giant centipedes

2 moles

2 butterflies

1 snake

1 turtle

1 praying mantis

Now I Also have:

1 earthworm

1 crocodile

1 carp

1 giant frog

1 tiger

1 walking plant

The carp is actually sitting in the mouth of the giant frog, which is filled with water. There seems to be some type of symbiosis between them, which allows the frog to carry the carp to new water sources.

The earthworm is just a giant worm. A really, really big worm. The thickness of a double-decker bus and the length of a train.

Apparently, it was really difficult to hold down

The walking plant was one of the few plants that had gained sentience and, surprisingly, could move around, albeit slowly. A symbiotic/parasitic plant, it can hook into other plants and control them, either boosting them or stealing their nutrients.

I think it could be useful against illusions and other plant spirit creatures, as most won’t be able to affect it or it could potentially fight for control.

Plants can actually communicate near instantaneously, so it’s method of chatting with me was crazy fast. And it was actually slowing down for me. I felt like I couldn’t keep up with it mentally, even with my improved body and cultivation.

It’s currently perched on one of the other creatures coming with us.

For the last tame, there was one creature I knew I had to bring with me.

The Panther.

… I honestly expected to have to go through a long process of trying to convince it, but as soon as I started approaching, it started acting like a friendly cat to me. Rubbing its head on my side affectionately meowing and talking back.

In fact, it wouldn’t stop talking, and since I understood it, I talked back. Which sounds like a bunch of bass-y meows.

Mainly it was about what I’m planning on doing and who I’m bringing. I quickly found out it was a she, based on these conversations. It seems to be focused on what we will do next, as it had fun.

It ran away after the initial situation, because it wanted alone time.

Fair.

Obviously, with this positive interaction, it accepted the taming contract and imprinting as long as it could do what it wanted (generally). It also promised not to kill people, unless necessary.

This was easy to accept, as that’s the plan for most of these creatures.

With this all done, and the other creatures going back to their natural areas to cultivate but also work together, I’m all set to head over to the teleportation area.

With 20 creatures.

Since this would raise some alarms in normal cultivators, I had them hang back, while I head straight to the teleporter.

Using my scan to scout ahead, I’m able to see that the cultivator’s family is here and is currently in one of the homes, ready to be healed.

However, other than the other cultivators, there is something that worries me. There’s a woman covered in black, casually chatting with the cultivator guards.

But she has the alchemy Guild symbol on her.

… Why is there always a catch?

Sigh.

How am I going to handle this one…?