"Hup, hup, hup..."
Li Changsheng called out, using a wooden stick to herd it. "Get in there, Xiaohua."
OINK OINK...
After dawdling for a while, Xiaohua, still chewing on its feed, reluctantly walked into the new pen.
Li Changsheng leaned on the railing and reached out to securely close the pen’s gate.
OINK OINK...
Xiaohua ambled up to the side of the pen, its small, dark eyes watching him as it let out a soft grunt.
Li Changsheng glanced over and immediately knew what was wrong. The trough in the new pen was empty.
"Wait here. I’ll go get you some feed."
Li Changsheng was in a good mood. He chuckled and was about to leave the pen when he suddenly turned back.
Li Changsheng looked at Xiaohua, his eyes shifting slightly as the panel quietly appeared.
[Target: Xiaohua]
[Species: Tusked Pig (Male)]
[First-Order, Low-Grade: 50%]
[Talents: Hard Skin, Sharp Teeth.]
[Status: Healthy.]
Looking at the panel, Li Changsheng’s mind stirred. ’The Cultivation Eye has the ability to detect, collect, record, and analyze. When I played games in my past life, I remember all I had to do was click on an item in the panel, and all sorts of information would pop up.’
But this panel, while it looked solid, was intangible; he couldn’t touch or feel it.
Li Changsheng thought for a moment and focused his gaze on [First-Order, Low-Grade: 50%]. The next instant, a piece of information suddenly surfaced in his mind.
[Cultivation requirements: Stink Fern, 50 jin (daily); Blood Essence Grass, one stalk (daily).]
Seeing the information, Li Changsheng’s face lit up with elation. ’It’s really true!’ Then, his expression faltered for a moment. ’Stink Fern? That common weed with the foul-smelling sap?’
’Blood Essence Grass...’ Li Changsheng felt it sounded familiar, too. Suddenly, an image flashed through his mind, and he remembered.
Blood Essence Grass was the main ingredient for Hemostatic Powder. Ten stalks for one spirit stone fragment.
He remembered that while searching for ironwood in the mountain forest, he had passed a low-lying area where dozens of stalks of Blood Essence Grass were growing.
He had even picked some once, but because his cultivation was too weak, he didn’t dare leave the valley. He had left the harvested Blood Essence Grass on the roof of the pen to dry.
More than half a month had passed since then.
At this thought, Li Changsheng hurried out of the pen.
「Outside the pen.」
The sky was clear for miles, and a gentle breeze was blowing.
This was a wide valley, surrounded on three sides by steep, mountainous cliffs.
In the distance, a waterfall RUMBLED, its water flowing into a stream that cut through the valley.
For convenience, Li Changsheng had built his pen in a slightly remote spot, right up against a corner of the cliff face on the left.
Next to the pen was a crude wooden hut and a small yard where a few vegetables were grown.
Li Changsheng looked ahead.
As far as he could see, there were countless pens just like his, and many that were even larger and taller.
About a thousand meters away was another pen for raising Tusked Pigs, just like his. But while he only had two, that pen housed a full ten.
Compared to him, its owner was practically a rich man.
And this place was one of the livestock-rearing areas for the outer sect disciples of the Cyan Yang Sect, known as the Hundred Beasts Valley.
Li Changsheng retracted his gaze and walked back to the front of the pen, where a foul stench immediately assaulted him.
Not far from the pen was a pile of Tusked Pig manure a meter high and three meters across.
It wasn’t that he was unhygienic and neglected to clean it. Rather, Tusked Pig manure could be used to fertilize Spirit Fields, making it quite popular among the outer sect disciples who chose to focus on planting. Someone would come to collect it every month.
Every part of a Tusked Pig is valuable—that’s no exaggeration! A pile this big was worth about three Spirit Stones.
Li Changsheng was used to the smell and paid it no mind as he looked up at the pen’s roof.
A few stalks of dark red Blood Essence Grass, each about ten centimeters long, lay quietly on top.
’They’re still here.’
Li Changsheng felt a surge of joy. He channeled his Magical Power to his feet, leaped up lightly, and retrieved the bone-dry stalks of Blood Essence Grass.
[Blood Essence Grass: Contains the essence of Qi and Blood. Consuming it can strengthen one’s Qi and Blood.]
Holding the Blood Essence Grass, Li Changsheng walked a short distance from the side of the pen.
There, scattered among the green grass, were several umbrella-shaped Stink Ferns, each about half a meter tall.
[Stink Fern: A type of grass whose sap is foul-smelling but nutrient-rich, promoting the growth of beasts.]
Li Changsheng casually pulled up a dozen or so stalks and returned to the pen.
"Hup, hup, hup..."
At the sound of his call, Xiaohua, which had been making the pen CREAK loudly by scratching its rump against the rails, immediately turned its head.
OINK OINK...
When it ambled over, Li Changsheng first placed the Stink Ferns in the trough, then held out a stalk of Blood Essence Grass to Xiaohua, his eyes filled with anticipation.
OINK OINK...
Xiaohua drew close and sniffed it, grunted twice, then took it in its mouth and began to chew. However, it showed no interest at all in the Stink Ferns in the trough, turning instead to lie down in a corner of the pen.
Li Changsheng sighed in resignation and looked at its panel.
After a long moment, the panel remained unchanged.
’It doesn’t like it?’
Li Changsheng shook his head with a wry smile and walked over to Big Flower’s pen, his gaze shifting.
[Target: Big Flower]
[Species: Tusked Pig (Female)]
[First-Order, Low-Grade: 59%]
[Talents: Hard Skin, Sharp Teeth.]
[Status: About to give birth.]
Li Changsheng’s gaze fell on "About to give birth," and a new piece of information appeared in his mind.
[Will give birth to offspring in eight hours.]
’So soon!’
’I need to get things ready.’
Li Changsheng was stunned for a moment. He casually put the Stink Ferns in the trough, tossed in a stalk of Blood Essence Grass, and left the pen.
After leaving the pen, Li Changsheng hesitated for a moment before heading toward the other pen not far away.
Soon, as he approached the pen, an even thicker, more acrid stench washed over him.
Li Changsheng’s expression changed slightly. He quickly circulated his Magical Power to block the smell from his nose and breathed a sigh of relief.
Just then, a burly, rugged-looking man who appeared to be in his forties was inside the pen, feeding the Tusked Pigs from a wooden bucket.
"Senior Brother Mu, feeding the pigs?" Li Changsheng raised a hand and called out with a smile.
Mu Feng glanced at him and grunted in acknowledgement. "Mm." After a pause, he added, "What is it?"
Li Changsheng knew he wasn’t a man of many words, so he cupped his hands and got straight to the point. "Senior Brother Mu, do you have any Peace Talismans or Rejuvenation Talismans? I’d like to buy one of each."
Mu Feng was taken aback by his words and set down the wooden bucket.
"I do."
With that, Mu Feng flipped his hand over, and two bright yellow talismans appeared in his palm. He passed them through a gap in the pen’s fencing.
"Thank you, Senior Brother Mu."
Li Changsheng accepted them happily and took out two lustrous, infant’s-palm-sized Spirit Stones from his robes to hand over.
Mu Feng looked at him and said in his usual gruff tone, "This is too much."
In the Marketplace, a Peace Talisman costs eighty spirit stone fragments, and a Rejuvenation Talisman costs one Spirit Stone.
Li Changsheng knew the prices, but he couldn’t calculate it that way. The round trip to the Marketplace was a huge hassle.
"Consider the extra a treat from me to you, Senior Brother. For a pot of wine."
"I’m off."
Mu Feng didn’t say anything more. He accepted the Spirit Stones and turned back to feeding his Tusked Pigs.
「Time passed quickly.」
「Night fell.」
The stars glittered brightly, and the moonlight flowed like water.
The Hundred Beasts Valley, quiet during the day, began to echo with the rising and falling roars of beasts.
Strangely, around his pens, there were no beast roars, only the occasional soft grunt from Big Flower.
The lamplight flickered. The pens on either side were dim, but Big Flower’s pen was as bright as day.
Li Changsheng stood outside the pen, watching Big Flower lying inside, his expression slightly tense.
This was his first time delivering a Tusked Pig’s young. However, following the instructions from "One Hundred and Eight Methods for Raising Tusked Pigs," he had prepared everything thoroughly.
While he waited, Li Changsheng’s gaze suddenly turned inward, and a subtle, starry light flickered in his eyes.