Beast Taming: I Have an Immortal Mansion

Chapter 221 - 168: Lifebound Talent

It was a tree—a Five-Colored Tree, shimmering with five hues and covered in numerous leaves. The tree wasn’t tall, only about two meters, and its trunk wasn’t thick, roughly two hands’ grasp in circumference. Aside from its main trunk, five branches extended from its upper section, each a different color. This tree occupied merely a tenth of the space in his Sea of Consciousness; the rest was shrouded in a fog-like substance.

The tree’s roots were anchored in Fang Qingyuan’s Sea of Consciousness, hidden beneath constantly churning layers of mist. When a glimpse of the roots was occasionally revealed, the Five-Colored Tree could be seen absorbing a substance from the very bottom of the Sea of Consciousness, something that resembled humus.

This mist was the latent potential of Fang Qingyuan’s soul—his uncontrollable subconscious. The ’humus’ at the bottom of his Sea of Consciousness was the result of this mist settling, a breeding ground for all sorts of negative thoughts. If a Cultivator accumulated too much of this substance in their Sea of Consciousness, they could easily suffer from cultivation deviation and attract the attention of opportunistic Demons from the outside world.

But this Five-Colored Tree was clearly absorbing these things to grow. ’How did something like this appear in my Sea of Consciousness?’

After being stunned for a few moments, Fang Qingyuan snapped back to his senses. No matter how it had happened, he had awakened his Lifebound Talent. Compared to those Foundation Establishment Cultivators who couldn’t, he was incredibly fortunate.

In the Cultivation Realm, less than twenty percent of Foundation Establishment Cultivators ever awakened their Lifebound Talents. Finding one that suited them perfectly was even rarer.

With this thought, Fang Qingyuan stopped dwelling on why a Five-Colored Tree had appeared in his Sea of Consciousness. He extended his Divine Sense toward the tree and began to inspect it.

The five branches on the tree displayed five colors: cyan for wood, yellow for earth, black for water, red for fire, and white for metal. Among the five branches, the cyan wood branch had the most leaves, over a dozen of them. The other branches had far fewer, only three or four each.

Furthermore, the leaves were not all the same size. One of the leaves on the yellow branch was enormous, as large as three or four other leaves combined.

Curious, Fang Qingyuan touched the enormous yellow leaf with his Divine Sense. The next moment, a stream of information flowed into his mind: *Earth-Shrinking Golden Light Divine Movement Technique*.

This was the very same *Earth-Shrinking Golden Light Divine Movement Technique* that Fang Qingyuan had painstakingly cultivated. To improve his chances of survival, he had previously sought out this Earth Element Technique from the Scripture Pavilion of a Southern Border Sect. He had spent a great deal of time on it, and it was the technique he was most proficient in among all those he had practiced.

After receiving the information from the leaf, Fang Qingyuan’s Divine Sense did not withdraw. Instead, he kept it enveloping the leaf. Then, wave after wave of insights and epiphanies from practicing the *Earth-Shrinking Golden Light Divine Movement Technique* flooded into his mind.

These were the same insights he had accumulated bit by bit over the years of practicing the technique. He never expected them all to be stored within this tiny leaf.

As the last of the insights flowed into him, it was as if he had relived years of practice from the very beginning, rehearsing the *Earth-Shrinking Golden Light Divine Movement Technique* countless times. The places where he’d had a flash of inspiration but had since forgotten the details now came back to him with perfect clarity.

For a moment, his mind was completely filled with revelations about the technique. Inspiration burst forth, and he had countless new ideas he wanted to test immediately.

But in the next breath, he came to his senses. His current situation didn’t allow for that. Outside, Lechuan and Zhao Liangde were still waiting for his reply. Although time passed much faster in the Sea of Consciousness than in the outside world, delaying for too long would still be inappropriate.

At this thought, Fang Qingyuan forcibly suppressed the urge to test his new ideas and continued to observe the leaf. He noticed that after transmitting its information and insights to him, the yellow halo on the leaf representing the *Earth-Shrinking Golden Light Divine Movement Technique* had grown much dimmer. Clearly, this transfer was not without a cost.

Even so, Fang Qingyuan was ecstatic. With a tool like this, his future cultivation of techniques would surely advance by leaps and bounds.

’Moreover, all the insights from my practice are stored on these leaves. Doesn’t this mean that once my skill level with a technique improves, it will never decline?’

And this seemed to be just a side effect of the Five-Colored Tree. He had yet to witness its true primary Divine Techniques.

Fang Qingyuan quickly inspected the other leaves and found that they all stored the Five Elements Techniques he had cultivated since he began his journey. For example, the leaves for frequently used Wood Element Techniques like the Poison Vine Python Transformation Skill, Tree Prison, and Wood Spirit Rejuvenation were larger. In contrast, the leaves for infrequently used techniques like the Stone Skin Technique, Xuan Water Seal, and Molten Fire Shield were smaller.

As for the other Five Elements Techniques he had only practiced a few times, they hadn’t formed leaves on the Five-Colored Tree at all. Apparently, his practice was insufficient to meet the tree’s threshold.

Besides the Five Elements Techniques, Fang Qingyuan had also studied techniques of other elements, but they didn’t appear here either. For instance, before awakening his past-life memories, he had practiced the Five Thunders Technique for a time. However, the technique was too profound and couldn’t be quickly converted into combat strength, so he had given it up.

He had definitely spent more time on the Five Thunders Technique than on the Molten Fire Shield, yet the Molten Fire Shield was included while the Five Thunders Technique was not. Fang Qingyuan guessed that the Five-Colored Tree could evidently only absorb techniques that fell within the five elements.

As for why it was limited to the five elements, Fang Qingyuan recalled the Five-Colored Blood Pearl he had swallowed, and a glimmer of understanding dawned on him.