Tan Hu stepped inside. The sound of a mechanism activating rang out again, and the tunnel slowly sealed shut.
STEP... STEP...
In the dark, silent tunnel, only the sound of his footsteps echoed.
Before long, a faint light appeared at the end of the tunnel. As he drew closer, the CLANKING of chains could be heard.
Tan Hu strode inside.
It was a secret chamber, less than a hundred square meters, with a pool filled with viscous, bloody plasma at its center.
In the middle of the blood pool was a stone platform.
Lying on it was a Blood Wolf with crimson fur, as large as a stallion. With every rise and fall of its chest, wisps of crimson mist floated up from the blood pool and flowed into its nostrils.
Several refined steel chains, as thick as a man’s arm, extended from the chamber walls, tightly binding the Blood Wolf’s four limbs and neck.
Tan Hu’s arrival awakened the Blood Wolf on the stone platform. Its vertical, blood-red pupils locked onto him, its fangs partially bared.
"Do you want to get out?"
Tan Hu’s expression was indifferent. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back as an aura even more savage and ferocious than the Blood Wolf’s erupted from him, instantly overwhelming the beast.
"Whimper..."
.
Li Changsheng, currently feeding his pigs, had no idea that a crisis even more perilous than the one last night was about to befall him.
He watched Xiaohua noisily gobbling down its food.
It suddenly occurred to Li Changsheng that he hadn’t checked Xiaohua’s new cultivation requirements since its advancement. His gaze fixed on the Tusked Pig.
[Cultivation Requirements: 100 catties of Stinking Fern (Daily), Three stalks of Blood Essence Grass (Daily)]
’It really did change...’
’But that’s a relief. It’s just a larger quantity, without any new, more complicated requirements.’
Looking at the cultivation requirements, Li Changsheng breathed a sigh of relief.
Stinking Fern grew everywhere, and Blood Essence Grass wasn’t a particularly precious Spirit Medicine. As expected, Big Flower and Xiaohua were very low-maintenance.
’What effect does Xiaohua’s innate Magic have?’
Curiosity piqued, Li Changsheng focused his gaze on Xiaohua’s Magic column.
[Hardened Armor: Softens fur and reshapes it into a layer of heavy armor.]
Before he could look away, another faint box appeared before his eyes.
[Magic Amplification: Grind soil and Spirit Stones into a fine powder. Mix thoroughly with oil. Have the Tusked Pig soak in and absorb the mixture to greatly increase its defense. (No limit)]
’Amplification?’
’Magic can be amplified?’
Li Changsheng froze for a moment, then a joyful expression spread across his face.
’No limit? Does that mean it can be strengthened indefinitely?’
Li Changsheng shook his head. ’That seems impossible.’
If it could be strengthened infinitely, Xiaohua, an ordinary Spirit Beast, might eventually become more powerful than the mythical creatures from his past life.
Shaking off the wild speculation, Li Changsheng grabbed a wooden bucket, hurried out of the beast pen, and made a beeline for the kitchen.
He soon returned, carrying a large wooden basin and a barrel of oil.
Li Changsheng glanced around, his eyes finally landing on the vegetable garden. He walked over, picked up a shovel, and started digging up soil.
Before long, the basin was more than half full.
Figuring that was enough, Li Changsheng stopped. He took a Spirit Stone from his robes, channeled Spiritual Power into his palm, and ground it forcefully.
Spirit Stones were a type of soft jade and weren’t very hard; otherwise, he wouldn’t have dared to feed them to Big Flower when she was giving birth.
CRACK...
With a squeeze of his palm, the Spirit Stone instantly turned into sparkling specks that fell onto the soil.
He crushed three Spirit Stones in a row before stopping.
Then he began to pour in the oil and started stirring.
「Ten minutes later.」
Looking at the muddy slurry sparkling with a crystalline light in the wooden basin, Li Changsheng nodded in satisfaction and carried it into the beast pen.
At that moment, Xiaohua was lying on the ground, digesting its meal.
CREAK...
Li Changsheng opened the pen’s gate and walked in with the slurry.
SNORT... SNORT...
Xiaohua glanced up at him, then lay its head back down.
Li Changsheng set down the wooden basin. He looked at Xiaohua’s size, then back at the basin.
’The basin is too small. It won’t fit a pig as big as Xiaohua.’
’I’ll help you soak then...’
After a moment of thought, Li Changsheng decided to do it himself. He plunged his hand into the basin, scooped up a handful of the slurry, and smeared it onto Xiaohua’s body.
It was quite magical. In just a few breaths after the slurry touched Xiaohua’s body, it vanished completely.
Furthermore, the fur in the spot where the slurry had been applied became harder and a little shinier.
’The effect is so obvious.’
Li Changsheng was surprised, a look of delight in his eyes. He then proceeded to give Xiaohua a full-body ’massage’.
SNORT... SNORT... Xiaohua seemed to be enjoying it, occasionally rolling over to present another side, letting Li Changsheng smear on layer after layer of the slurry.
「Two hours later.」
Li Changsheng wiped the sweat from his forehead and nodded in satisfaction, looking at how Xiaohua’s fur had turned from light brown to dark brown.
He didn’t know how much the Hardened Armor effect had improved, but the Tusked Pig certainly looked much more formidable.
Li Changsheng focused his gaze on Xiaohua once again.
[Magic Amplification: Grind rock and Spirit Stones into a fine powder. Mix thoroughly with oil. Have the Tusked Pig soak in and absorb the mixture to greatly increase its defense. (No limit)]
Li Changsheng was stunned. ’I can do it again?’
’The soil has become rock, and it needs twice the Spirit Stones...’
A thoughtful look flashed in Li Changsheng’s eyes as he picked up the wooden basin and left the pen.
BANG... BANG...
At the cliff face, Li Changsheng wielded a gleaming long saber, prying off two large chunks of rock and placing them in the wooden basin.
Back in his small courtyard, just grinding the rock into powder took him a full two hours.
Next, he mixed in the powdered Spirit Stones, added the oil, and once it was all stirred together, carried the basin into the beast pen.
Xiaohua snorted contentedly, once again enjoying the ’massage’.
As he finished smearing the last patch of fur, Xiaohua’s body trembled slightly. A spiritual light flickered across its surface, and its dark brown fur visibly deepened in color.
「A Cup of Tea’s Time passed.」
Li Changsheng was stunned as he looked at the completely transformed Xiaohua.
Xiaohua’s originally brown fur had completely turned a lustrous, jet-black. Its formerly goofy demeanor had suddenly become fierce and aggressive.
Li Changsheng called out softly, "Xiaohua?"
SNORT... SNORT...
Xiaohua turned its head. Its brownish-yellow eyes still held their familiar goofy look.
"That’s you all right!"
Li Changsheng breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. "Alright, you can go back to lying down."
His gaze flickered as he looked at Xiaohua.
[Magic Amplification: Grind spirit ore and Spirit Stones into a fine powder. Mix thoroughly with oil. Have the Tusked Pig soak in and absorb the mixture to greatly increase its defense. (No limit)]
"It can still be amplified?" Li Changsheng said, stunned.
’Spirit ore...’
Li Changsheng furrowed his brow and muttered, "This is going to be a problem."
Spirit ore is a type of mineral that contains Spiritual Qi. It comes in many varieties and is mostly used for forging Magical Artifacts, refining Flying Ships, and so on.
Given his current financial situation... well, one could only say his pockets were empty.
Li Changsheng shook his head. It seemed that continuing to amplify Xiaohua’s Magic was impossible for the time being.
He glanced at Xiaohua one more time, then picked up the wooden basin and walked out of the beast pen.
Just as he stepped out of the pen, a stocky man carrying a bundle on his back walked toward him.
Recognizing the man’s face, Li Changsheng froze, blurting out instinctively, "Senior Brother Mu, what are you doing here?"
"Huh?"
Hearing the voice, Mu Feng turned his head. He, too, was taken aback when he saw the young man holding a wooden basin at the entrance to the beast pen.
’He’s not dead?’
Mu Feng glanced at the bundle on his back, a blush flashing across his dark-skinned face. He forced a dry laugh. "That’s right. I haven’t seen you in a long time, Junior Brother Li, so I came to pay you a visit..."
Li Changsheng, suspecting nothing, said enthusiastically, "You shouldn’t have! Senior Brother Mu, why did you bring a gift!"
"There’s no need to be so formal between us. Don’t do it again next time!"
As he spoke, Li Changsheng put down the wooden basin and walked toward Mu Feng with a broad smile.
He also took the bundle from Mu Feng’s back.