Ethan Carter remained perfectly still as the red-and-white particles seeped into his body. Rather than showing any fear, however, his face lit up with surprise and excitement.
There was only one reason a Mystic Spirit's death would produce such a phenomenon.
Pet Transformation.
Just as a Guardian Hound could become a Mystic Spirit pet after death, certain Mystic Spirits were capable of undergoing Pet Transformation upon being killed. Their dead bodies would dissolve into particles, merge with a cultivator's body, and become that cultivator's Spirit Pet.
Not every Mystic Spirit could undergo Pet Transformation after death.
Only a small percentage possessed that possibility, and no one knew the exact probability. Whether it happened or not seemed to depend entirely on fate.
After undergoing Pet Transformation, a Mystic Spirit retained the same state and abilities it had possessed while alive. There was, however, one fundamental difference—it could no longer exist independently.
Having already lost its own life force, it had to attach itself to a cultivator and share its host's vitality in order to continue existing.
Furthermore, a Mystic Spirit would only choose the cultivator who had killed it.
This came from the Mystic Spirits' instinctive belief that the strong deserved supremacy. Anyone capable of killing them was naturally stronger than they were, and therefore qualified to receive their acknowledgment.
If a Mystic Spirit was killed by another Spirit Pet, then after undergoing Pet Transformation, it would instead attach itself to the body of that Spirit Pet's master.
The final red-and-white particle disappeared into Ethan's body.
At the same moment, the Evil Bunny's corpse vanished.
The butcher's knife disappeared with it.
Even the blood that had sprayed across the surrounding bones vanished without leaving so much as a single drop behind.
Then new information appeared within Ethan's mind.
Bloody Evil Bunny — Unique
Spirit Pet: Level 1
Origin Energy: 1
Growth Rate: 1.91
Innate Talent: Bloody Revival — Unique
Secret Art: Bloodsucking Art — Level 1, Unique
Secret Technique: Bloodsucking Blade Art — Level 1, Unique
Mystic Treasure: Bloodsucking Blade — Level 1, Unique
"No wonder this Evil Bunny was so terrifying."
Ethan stared at the information in astonishment.
"It's actually Unique-grade."
He had never heard of an Evil Bunny reaching such a high quality before.
Originally, Ethan had assumed that the creature was simply much higher level than himself and Warlord.
He had been completely wrong.
The Bloody Evil Bunny was only Level 1.
Its overwhelming combat strength came entirely from its extraordinary quality.
More astonishingly, its Innate Talent, Secret Art, Secret Technique, and Mystic Treasure were all Unique-grade.
That was exceptionally rare.
Just because a Mystic Spirit itself was Unique-grade didn't mean all of its abilities would automatically possess the same quality.
In fact, the opposite was generally true.
Most Mystic Spirits possessed talents and abilities of a lower quality than their own.
Only a small number of exceptional specimens possessed abilities equal to their inherent quality.
Abilities exceeding the Mystic Spirit's own quality also existed, but the probability of encountering something like that was lower than winning the lottery.
Many Spirit Pets didn't possess an Innate Talent, Secret Art, Secret Technique, or Mystic Treasure at all.
Of those four, Mystic Treasures were the rarest.
The overwhelming majority of Mystic Spirits possessed no Mystic Treasure whatsoever. Only a small percentage were fortunate enough to have one.
An ordinary Evil Bunny wouldn't possess a Mystic Treasure, let alone something comparable to the Bloodsucking Blade.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Most didn't even possess Secret Techniques.
Some Evil Bunnies might have an Innate Talent or Secret Art, but those abilities were entirely different from the ones possessed by this creature.
Their quality couldn't even be compared.
The meaning behind the Unique grade was relatively straightforward.
For something to receive that classification, there might be only one example of it in existence.
In other words, this Bloody Evil Bunny was probably one of a kind.
Quality represented innate potential.
Growth Rate, on the other hand, represented developmental potential.
The higher a Spirit Pet's Growth Rate, the faster it could level up and the greater the enhancement it would receive with each level.
The Bloody Evil Bunny possessed a Growth Rate of 1.91.
That was extraordinarily high.
For an ordinary Spirit Pet, anything above 1.5 was already considered excellent.
Warlord, Ethan's Five-Red Hound, had a Growth Rate of only 1.14.
It possessed no Mystic Treasure.
It had no Secret Technique.
Its Secret Art was merely the Common-grade Longevity Art it had learned by imitating Ethan's cultivation.
As for its only Innate Talent, Loyalty, it provided no direct combat ability whatsoever.
Among Spirit Pets, Warlord could be considered part of the lowest tier.
Whenever the Bloody Evil Bunny gained a level, its maximum Origin Energy would increase by 1.91 points.
Warlord, by comparison, would gain only 1.14.
There was also a corresponding difference in the growth of their hidden attributes—strength, speed, constitution, intelligence, and various other qualities.
Those attributes couldn't be accurately displayed as numerical values because they were filled with too many variables to calculate precisely.
And those hidden attributes were exactly what Cheerleader's Soul enhanced.
In other words—
Potential.
Secret Arts worked differently.
A Secret Art was essentially a method for absorbing Origin Energy and increasing one's level.
Take the Longevity Art, for example.
It relied on specific physical movements and breathing techniques to guide the body in absorbing Origin Energy from the surrounding environment.
Its absorption rate was relatively slow.
Naturally, that meant leveling was slow as well.
At higher levels, cultivators required increasingly enormous quantities of Origin Energy to advance.
By that point, the effects of the Longevity Art became increasingly insignificant, making further advancement extremely difficult.
After all, it was only a Common-grade Secret Art.
The Bloody Evil Bunny's Bloodsucking Art was entirely different.
Instead of slowly absorbing scattered Origin Energy from the environment, it could directly extract Origin Energy from blood.
And the stronger the Mystic Spirit, the greater the amount of Origin Energy contained within its blood.
This method was vastly faster than absorbing the Origin Energy drifting naturally through the world.
Its potential was also much greater.
Eventually, the Longevity Art might become so inefficient that advancing further would be nearly impossible.
The Bloodsucking Art had no such limitation.
As long as there was blood from sufficiently high-level Mystic Spirits available, its cultivation could theoretically continue advancing.
Fortunately, Secret Arts were ultimately only cultivation methods.
Human cultivators could practice many different Secret Arts over the course of their lives.
Mystic Spirits weren't nearly as fortunate.
For them, replacing their innate Secret Art was extremely difficult.
For humans, however, the quality of one's Secret Art had an even greater impact.
It determined not only how much their maximum Origin Energy increased after leveling up, but also the degree to which their body was strengthened with each advancement.
In that sense, a human cultivator's Secret Art served essentially the same function as a Spirit Pet's Growth Rate.
The higher the quality of the Secret Art one cultivated, the greater the increase in maximum Origin Energy after each level.
That meant Ethan desperately needed a high-quality Secret Art.
If he continued cultivating the Longevity Art, his future achievements would inevitably be limited.
Fortunately, obtaining new Secret Arts was relatively straightforward.
Kill Mystic Spirits.
Whenever a Mystic Spirit died, there was a certain probability that it would leave behind the inheritance of its Secret Art.
In fact, every Secret Art currently practiced by humanity had originally come from Mystic Spirits.
Ethan's immediate goal was therefore simple.
Stay alive.
Then hunt Mystic Spirits until he obtained a high-quality Secret Art.
Before today, Ethan's original plan had been to obtain an Exceptional-grade Secret Art first, use it to raise his level, and only then attempt to hunt stronger Mystic Spirits for even higher-quality cultivation methods.
Such an approach would inevitably cause him to lose some potential during the early stages of his cultivation.
But it was much safer.
Low-level Mystic Spirits rarely possessed high-quality Secret Arts.
Yet hunting high-level Mystic Spirits while remaining low-level himself was obviously extremely dangerous.
Now, however...
Everything had changed.
Ethan possessed the Bloody Evil Bunny.
And he had Cheerleader's Soul.
Under the enhancement of Cheerleader's Soul, Warlord—a low-quality Five-Red Hound—had actually managed to fight the Unique-grade Bloody Evil Bunny almost evenly.
Then what would happen if Ethan used Cheerleader's Soul on the Bloody Evil Bunny itself?
Just how powerful would it become?
If Ethan raised the Bloody Evil Bunny's level first, obtaining a high-quality Secret Art afterward would become far easier.
For the first time since entering the Blessed Land, Ethan felt that his future looked incredibly bright.
All he needed now was to obtain a Peerless-grade Secret Art.
Of course, such a thing couldn't simply be found whenever someone wanted one.
Only an extremely small number of Peerless-grade Mystic Spirits possessed Peerless Secret Arts.
Finding one of those creatures was difficult enough.
Even if Ethan somehow managed to kill one, whether its Secret Art inheritance would actually drop was another matter entirely.
Still, he finally had a path forward.
Ethan recalled the injured Warlord, allowing the Five-Red Hound to recover from its wounds within his body.
Then he summoned his newly acquired Spirit Pet.
The Bloody Evil Bunny materialized before him.
Its body was comparable in size to a polar bear, yet its appearance resembled an oversized adorable mascot from an animated show.
It stood upright before Ethan.
In its left paw was the butcher knife-shaped Bloodsucking Blade.
Apparently, the creature was left-handed.
The combination made it look both bizarre and strangely adorable.
"This appearance is way too conspicuous."
Ethan looked the Bloody Evil Bunny up and down.
"If anyone sees you like this, we're definitely going to attract a crowd. It'd be much better if you could hide that Bloodsucking Blade somehow."
The Bloody Evil Bunny appeared to understand him.
It casually flicked its paw.
The Bloodsucking Blade spun several times around its claws—
And vanished.
Ethan blinked.
He had absolutely no idea where the weapon had gone.
"You can even conceal your Mystic Treasure?"
His eyes lit up.
"Now that's a good pet."
Without the enormous black butcher's knife in its paw, the Bloody Evil Bunny looked much closer to an ordinary Rare-grade Evil Bunny.
It was still somewhat larger than normal and would undoubtedly attract a few curious glances.
But compared to its previous appearance—
It was nowhere near as outrageous.