Chapter 61: Inheritance Scroll
The journey back went smoothly. Within just a few days, Zhou Ming saw the heavily armed walls of Qinshan Base.
Upon entering the base, Zhou Ming immediately hailed a cab and headed straight for the Hunter Guild.
The Hunter Guild was as bustling as ever. Inside the grand hall, hunters were either submitting mission items or selecting suitable new ones.
As before, Zhou Ming took on a long-term medicinal herb acquisition mission and exchanged all the herbs he had collected for bounty rewards.
Five million two hundred and thirty thousand Alliance Coins — about the same as he had expected.
Since very few hunters ventured into the Green Mist Jungle and no one lay in ambush on the return route to rob others, Zhou Ming didn’t gain any extra profit this time.
However, when he thought about the meditation scroll in his backpack, he felt this harvest was not less than the previous one — in fact, it could even be said to have far exceeded his expectations.
Thinking of that meditation method, Zhou Ming, feeling slightly excited, did not linger in the Hunter Guild and went straight back to his rented lodging.
“This trip to the wilderness almost ended in disaster, but since I managed to obtain this meditation method, I guess my luck wasn’t all that bad.”
Beside the desk in his bedroom, Zhou Ming gazed at the ancient scroll before him, his heart unable to calm down.
In the Beast Tamer System established by the Blue Star Alliance, meditation methods were simply divided into three levels — Basic, Low-grade, and High-grade.
The Basic Meditation Technique was the most accessible to the public. Its main trait was universal adaptability and absolute safety.
Over the hundreds of years since the emergence of the Basic Meditation Technique, various improved versions had appeared. These improved methods were essentially the highest level that ordinary people could access.
Low-grade Meditation Methods, however, were treasures stored only in the major Beast Tamer universities within large bases, or among the great families and powerful factions.
As for High-grade Meditation Methods — based on Zhou Ming’s understanding, the number of factions within the entire Blue Star Alliance that possessed them would not exceed the fingers on both hands.
“Why didn’t I touch the Dragon Crystal?”
Zhou Ming still couldn’t let go of that thought. After all, if he had managed to obtain a Dragon Crystal, he would never have to worry about cultivation resources as a Beast Tamer — at least not during the Apprentice Rank.
He looked at his right hand, feeling an urge to slap it. “So useless.”
But in the end, Zhou Ming restrained himself — he wasn’t a masochist.
After clearing away his distracting thoughts, Zhou Ming focused his full attention on the “White Bone Contemplation Meditation Method” before him.
Carefully unrolling the ancient scroll, he feared the old parchment might crumble with age.
As he gently unrolled it, Zhou Ming saw at the beginning of the scroll an introduction to the White Bone Contemplation Meditation Method.
Before the Doomsday Era, Blue Star was still a technology-driven planet. But in an even older age, there had existed a group of people who sought transcendence beyond the mortal flesh — they were known as Ascetic Monks.
Their goal was spiritual transcendence, to free themselves from the suffering of the body.
When humanity on Blue Star later established the Beast Taming System, aside from considering their own circumstances, they had also drawn inspiration from the ancient meditation methods of those Ascetic Monks.
By combining those teachings with transcendent knowledge from other races, the Beast Taming Cultivation System was successfully completed — for creating such a transcendent system was far from a simple task.
The White Bone Contemplation Meditation Method before Zhou Ming’s eyes was one such Low-grade meditation method, created by adopting certain principles from the Ascetic Monks.
Judging from the age of the beast-skin scroll, Zhou Ming estimated that it was an original meditation method preserved from the founding days of the Alliance.
Original meditation methods allowed for rapid enhancement of Spiritual Power — but they were extremely dangerous to cultivate. After all, during the early days of the Alliance, their dire situation required them to quickly produce elite Beast Tamers, leaving no room for slow, safe progress.
Zhou Ming guessed that the Scorpion-Lion had willingly given him this meditation method precisely because it understood the risks of original meditation techniques.
Despite its flaws, to Zhou Ming, this was already a rare and precious treasure.
After briefly understanding the origin of the White Bone Contemplation Meditation Method, Zhou Ming continued to unroll the scroll to examine the specific cultivation instructions written within.
“‘The spirit like jade bones, the light of glazed glass shines.’”
“Is this the core principle of the White Bone Contemplation Meditation Method?”
Before Zhou Ming’s eyes were just eight simple characters — yet each stroke carried an unfathomable depth, as though the writer had infused the essence of the method’s philosophy into them.
Although the words felt profound and mysterious, Zhou Ming, who had no clue of the specific practice steps, couldn’t yet grasp their meaning. He set the general principle aside and continued reading.
Suddenly, a change occurred — as Zhou Ming continued to unroll the scroll, a flash of silver light burst forth, and his consciousness was instantly drawn into the scroll.
In a vast, illusory space, Zhou Ming slowly recovered from a wave of dizziness.
“So this is the inheritance space that only exists in Low-grade and higher meditation methods?”
Zhou Ming showed no panic at the sight of the boundless void, recalling the information he had once learned.
Low-grade and above meditation methods were too complex, involving truths too profound to be recorded in mere text.
Therefore, those at or above the Official Rank usually engraved their learned meditation methods onto special vessels using their Spiritual Power as ink.
Such engraved scrolls were typically divided into Temporary Scrolls and Inheritance Scrolls.
Temporary Scrolls consumed little Spiritual Power from the Beast Tamer but could only be used a limited number of times. Inheritance Scrolls, on the other hand, could last for centuries and had no usage limit — but creating one permanently reduced the creator’s Spiritual Power.
Usually, Inheritance Scrolls were left behind by Beast Tamers at the end of their lives as a blessing to their descendants.
“It seems the scroll Scorpion-Lion gave me must be an Inheritance Scroll... Looks like I owe it another favor.”
Judging by the scroll’s age and the environment of the inheritance space, Zhou Ming made a quick analysis.
As he surveyed his surroundings, an elderly man with rosy cheeks and snow-white hair appeared not far ahead.
The old man, whose face radiated vitality despite his age, seemed to possess a trace of awareness.
Upon seeing Zhou Ming, he nodded slightly before sitting cross-legged on a stone platform and beginning his meditation.
Knowing what was happening, Zhou Ming quickly approached to observe the man’s every movement carefully.
The elder formed mysterious hand seals, and an aura of decay and withering spread from his body.
Starting from his forehead, his once healthy, ruddy skin began to rot. Maggots and pus appeared before Zhou Ming’s eyes.
As the old man’s body continued to transform, countless black serpents emerged, devouring the rotting flesh.
Before long, the once vibrant elder before Zhou Ming had turned into a bare skeleton — countless black snakes slithering through the gaps between his bones.