Beast Taming: Invincible Breeder-Chapter 56 - 31: Hundred-Day Curse

Chapter 56: Chapter 31: Hundred-Day Curse
It turns out there’s a shimmering azure Water Storage Pearl at the bottom of the pool.
[Water Storage Pearl, an item that can store water. Wearing it reduces damage from water-based skills.]
Not all the underground river water is being stored away by the Water Storage Pearl; the Pearl’s capacity isn’t that vast.
Instead, the Water Storage Pearl is nurturing itself, absorbing a large amount of water to grow.
"A level-three Water Storage Pearl can store fifty-eight tons of water. If left here to continue nurturing, it might break through to level four."
Li Cunxu won’t leave it to nurture further, because waiting for it to reach level four would take forever. Besides, this is a public resource secret realm, and if left until the next visit, it might be taken by someone else.
However, Li Cunxu doesn’t immediately interrupt its nurturing. If he does, without it absorbing the underground river water, the water here will quickly rise.
Then, the digging work for the Earth Slime would become underwater, increasing the difficulty several folds.
Li Cunxu would also have to leave due to the lack of sufficient underwater breathing potions.
The fifth day of digging.
The team digging to the left discovered a silver mine.
The sixth day of digging.
The team digging forward discovered the hidden space of the Blood Demon Treasure Pearl.
The bodies of the Blood Cultists who died here gathered into a small blood pool, with the Blood Demon Treasure Pearl at its center.
One must not rashly enter the blood pool, otherwise, one might be polluted by the Blood God’s power within, or even transformed into a Blood Cultist.
"Xiaoyi, weave a net with spider silk and stick it to the center of the blood pool."
The little white spider tried fourteen times before successfully sticking and fishing up the Blood Demon Treasure Pearl from the blood pool.
Li Cunxu repeatedly washed the Blood Demon Treasure Pearl with water balls more than a dozen times to clean off the blood stains.
To avoid contamination by the aura of the Blood Demon Treasure Pearl, Li Cunxu used tongs to pick it up and placed it inside a concealed wooden box.
Suddenly, there was an anomaly on Li Cunxu’s left arm, and he quickly rolled up his sleeve.
There were eight golden scales tinged slightly red on his left arm, indications of the Golden Dragon Curse devouring the Red Dragon Curse.
But now, the scales were rapidly disappearing.
In the end, only two remained.
Li Cunxu squinted his eyes, "This is a sign of the Golden Dragon Curse’s weakness."
Immersing his mind in the curse of the heavenly heart, perceiving the state of the curse, Li Cunxu immediately understood the reason.
The Peach Blossom Tribulation curse had been enhanced again.
"There have been no women around me to trigger the characteristic of the Peach Blossom Tribulation curse growing upon encountering females. Why, then, has the curse strengthened?"
He couldn’t figure it out.
Li Cunxu took the Blood Demon Treasure Pearl and headed to the source of the underground river, climbing into the water column from the source of the underground river.
His first guess from before was wrong.
There was no other underground river above the pool.
His second guess was correct.
There was a treasure.
[Extraordinary Object · Pure Water Source]
[Quality: Two-Star]
[Carrying Points: 6]
[Introduction: Inlay in the Beast Taming Space to spawn a freshwater spring that never dries up, creating a suitable environment for water-element pet beasts.]
"Indeed, the player’s rules are correct; nothing abnormal should be overlooked."
And just like that, he obtained a top-level two-star extraordinary object.
The resource-type extraordinary object aligned with Li Cunxu’s plans, so he immediately embedded it in the Beast Taming Space.
Moreover, without embedding it, he couldn’t take it out.
Put inside the space backpack, the Pure Water Source would still produce water. In no time, the space backpack would be filled with water, causing the backpack to expel the excess water.
At the moment the extraordinary object Pure Water Source was embedded, the Foundation Dice shook.
[Foundation Dice: 1 point]
6-1=5
Li Cunxu only consumed five carrying points to bear the Foundation Dice, which required six points.
"Sigh! Bad luck, only rolled the guaranteed one point."
Had the Foundation Dice been affected by luck-based items, Li Cunxu would have utilized hundreds of them to boost luck before embedding the extraordinary object.
Not long after, Li Cunxu found that embedding the Pure Water Source wasn’t a good idea.
This Pure Water Source was too adept at producing water, soon, covering the ground of the empty Beast Taming Space with water.
Given more time, it could turn the Beast Taming Space into a water world.
"Fortunately, there’s a remedy. Otherwise, Yiyi would never be able to return to the Beast Taming Space without becoming a water-attribute water spider."
Li Cunxu swam back to the downstream end again, tossing the nurturing Water Storage Pearl into the Beast Taming Space.
Normally, the Beast Taming Space only accepts contracted pet beasts and nothing else. However, there’s a loophole: every time a pet beast enters or exits, they can carry weapons and items.
Li Cunxu had Xiaoruan bite onto the Water Storage Pearl, then retrieved Xiaoruan into the Beast Taming Space. Once inside, Xiaoruan spat out the Water Storage Pearl, then was let out, taking the pearl into the Beast Taming Space.
He exploited a bug in the Beast Taming Space.
"It’s fortunate the nurturing of the Water Storage Pearl wasn’t interrupted. Truly lucky."
Items can’t be moved casually during nurturing, doing so disrupts the process. Even slight movements bear a fifty percent chance of interruption.
With all treasures collected, Li Cunxu had fulfilled his purpose in the secret realm. Next, meditation and mining.
Li Cunxu was striving for a breakthrough to the Intermediate Black Iron level, and the Miner Slime and Earth Slime discovered silver and gold mines while digging.
Another day passed.
The last two scales on his left arm disappeared, and the power brought by the Dragon Curse also faded. Sensing the curse of the heavenly heart, he perceived that the Peach Blossom Tribulation curse had strengthened again, almost suppressing the Golden Dragon Curse.
Yet another day passed.
The Peach Blossom Tribulation curse grew stronger again, fully suppressing the Golden Dragon Curse.
Simultaneously, a new dynamic emerged.
Originally, the Golden Dragon Curse was devouring the Red Dragon Curse while suppressing the Peach Blossom Tribulation Curse.
Now the Golden Dragon Curse ceased devouring the Red Dragon Curse. Instead, the Golden Dragon Curse and Red Dragon Curse united to resist the Peach Blossom Tribulation Curse.
"A curse can’t grow stronger out of thin air, especially thrice in three days, stronger each time, unless... the one who cursed me used the Forbidden Curse Technique: Curse Connection."
"It doesn’t make sense! Could it be that I have a deep-seated enmity with the person who cast the Peach Blossom Tribulation curse? That they intend to fight me to the death?"
Curse Connection, also known as the ’Hundred-Day Curse,’ is a Forbidden Technique in cursing. Even a Holy Curse Master dares not use it lightly. Once used, it’s a relentless life-and-death struggle where only one survives.
A curse master sacrifices their own life and lifespan to reinforce a curse previously placed upon the cursed. Within a hundred days, the curse grows stronger until it completely kills the cursed.
Why is Curse Connection described as relentless?
If the cursed withstands the curse within a hundred days, then the curse master must die, even if they’re a Holy Curse Master.
Additionally, the life and lifespan spent reinforcing the curse are permanently consumed.
Li Cunxu couldn’t understand why this curse master would use a life-and-death Curse Connection against him?
What grudge or resentment is there?
He’s so weak, and as a Great Curse Master, they could easily kill him without a curse, perhaps just by hiring an assassin, with no need to pay such a hefty price for a Curse Connection.
After much thought, Li Cunxu could only think of one possibility.
This curse master might not be able to leave for some reason but still needs to ensure his death, thus resorting to this desperate measure.
"They can’t leave, yet must curse me to death—could it be that this curse master is performing some special ritual? Unable to extricate themselves, and my demise is a key part of the ritual?"