The Evil Bunny was large and strong enough to serve as a mount.
Unfortunately, when it ran on all fours, it moved by repeatedly bounding forward, making the ride so violently bumpy that Ethan Carter could barely keep himself seated.
Trying to wield a weapon and fight while riding it would be practically impossible.
Even during ordinary travel, riding the creature was uncomfortable enough to make Ethan reconsider the idea entirely.
At best, it could serve as an emergency mount when he needed to escape for his life.
Strangely enough, the Evil Bunny was completely different when moving upright.
Its two enormous hind legs were extraordinarily powerful, allowing it to run quickly, forcefully, and surprisingly steadily.
It still preferred jumping, though.
With a single leap, it could easily rise several meters into the air.
Its jumping ability was genuinely astonishing.
Ethan didn't immediately use Cheerleader's Soul on the Evil Bunny.
He had already discovered that Cheerleader's Soul's enhancement wasn't permanent. After a certain period of time, the effect naturally faded, and he would need to activate it again if he wanted the enhancement to return.
For now, Ethan wanted to observe the Evil Bunny's true combat strength without any outside enhancement.
Afterward, he could use Cheerleader's Soul and compare the difference.
That would give him a much clearer understanding of both the Evil Bunny and his own Innate Talent.
There were no other Mystic Spirits inside the valley.
Ethan ordered the Evil Bunny to scout ahead while he cautiously followed behind it toward the valley's exit.
He had no idea what had happened to this place.
The interior of the valley was filled with mountains of white bones, yet as soon as he reached the entrance and looked outside, there were almost no bones at all.
Instead, several enormous characters had been carved into the stone wall beside the entrance.
The characters were blood-red.
"Ziwu Yin-Yang Valley..."
Ethan hadn't expected such an unremarkable valley to actually have a name.
While he was still wondering about it, he noticed several Evil Bunnies outside the valley.
They were eating plants.
Each was roughly the size of an adult husky, nowhere near as enormous as Ethan's own Rouge.
Rouge was the name Ethan had given the Bloody Evil Bunny.
The creatures outside were what Ethan considered normal Evil Bunnies.
Judging by their size and appearance, they should all be Common-grade.
Ethan gave the order.
Rouge immediately charged.
Its enormous hind legs pounded against the ground as it rushed toward the group.
When only seven or eight meters remained between them—
Rouge leaped.
Its massive body shot through the air.
At the same time, the Bloodsucking Blade appeared in its paw.
The black butcher knife came crashing downward.
Slash!
An Evil Bunny's head flew from its shoulders.
Rouge landed among the remaining creatures and immediately began slaughtering them.
There was no real battle.
Only carnage.
Within moments, all six Evil Bunnies had fallen beneath Rouge's blade.
Not a single corpse remained intact.
"Brutal..."
Ethan stared at the scene.
"That's seriously brutal."
He couldn't help marveling at the difference.
A Unique-grade Mystic Spirit truly deserved its reputation.
Its combat strength at the same level was overwhelmingly superior to that of ordinary Mystic Spirits.
Rouge walked toward one of the corpses and drove the Bloodsucking Blade directly into its heart.
Something strange immediately happened.
The Evil Bunny's corpse began visibly shriveling.
Its blood was being drawn into the blade.
A streak of brilliant crimson gradually appeared across the otherwise black weapon.
At the same time, Rouge's snow-white body began emitting a faint bloody aura.
Within moments, the corpse had been reduced to a dried husk.
Rouge leaped toward another dead Evil Bunny and plunged the Bloodsucking Blade into its heart as well.
A blood-red mist began rising from both Rouge and the blade.
The blood was being refined and evaporated while the Origin Energy contained within it was absorbed.
This phenomenon was unique to the Bloodsucking Art.
Rouge drained the blood and Origin Energy from all six Evil Bunnies.
Yet even after absorbing that much energy, it still failed to reach Level 2.
An ordinary Mystic Spirit would probably have advanced already after absorbing such a large amount of Origin Energy.
Clearly, higher-quality Mystic Spirits required significantly more energy to level up.
Fortunately, Evil Bunnies were plentiful in the surrounding area.
After Rouge absorbed the blood and Origin Energy of its tenth Evil Bunny, its level finally increased.
Level 2.
Its appearance immediately changed slightly.
Its snow-white fur became noticeably more lustrous, resembling strands of silk woven from snow and translucent jade.
Rouge's maximum Origin Energy rose to 2.91.
Its 1.91 Growth Rate clearly wasn't just for show.
Its strength, speed, and other physical capabilities also improved significantly, although those were hidden attributes and couldn't be directly represented with numerical values.
Bloody Evil Bunny — Unique
Spirit Pet: Level 2
Origin Energy: 2.91
Growth Rate: 1.91
Innate Talent: Bloody Revival — Unique
Secret Art: Bloodsucking Art — Level 2, Unique
Secret Technique: Bloodsucking Blade Art — Level 2, Unique
Mystic Treasure: Bloodsucking Blade — Level 2, Unique
When a Mystic Spirit leveled up, its Secret Art, Secret Technique, and Mystic Treasure would automatically rise in level alongside it.
That was somewhat different from human cultivators.
Ding!
Now that Rouge had reached Level 2, killing ordinary Evil Bunnies was even easier.
They might as well have been vegetables waiting to be chopped.
After Rouge killed yet another Evil Bunny, tiny specks of white light suddenly began rising from its corpse.
Ethan's attention immediately sharpened.
At first, he thought the creature was undergoing Pet Transformation.
But instead of flowing into his body, the white lights gathered together in midair.
Slowly, they condensed.
Within moments, they formed a white crystalline core roughly the size of a ping-pong ball.
The crystal suddenly shot through the air like a meteor.
Ethan instinctively raised his hand.
The object landed directly in his palm.
"A Mystic Core..."
A smile immediately appeared on Ethan's face.
Mystic Cores were the source of humanity's Secret Arts and Secret Techniques.
Whether a Mystic Core contained a Secret Art or Secret Technique depended entirely on luck.
Ethan hoped this one contained a Secret Technique.
Any Secret Art dropped by an ordinary Evil Bunny would almost certainly be Common-grade.
Something like that would be useless to him.
A Secret Technique, however, was different.
Even a Common-grade combat technique could immediately increase his personal fighting ability.
Ethan picked up the Mystic Core and held it tightly in his hand.
Then he circulated the Longevity Art and examined it.
A strange stream of information immediately entered his mind.
Secret Art: Vegetarian Health Art — Common
Ethan's excitement disappeared.
"...Useless."
The thing was practically worthless to him.
Even if he took it outside and sold it, he wouldn't get much money for it.
With Rouge accompanying him, Ethan continued onward.
Finding a high-quality Secret Art wasn't his only objective.
He also needed to locate one of the Teleportation Stations within the Mount Pingdu Blessed Land.
Only by using a Teleportation Station could he leave Mount Pingdu.
More importantly, once he had successfully activated one, the next time he entered the Mount Pingdu Blessed Land, he would be transported directly to that station instead of being randomly thrown somewhere inside the enormous realm again.
Ethan traveled slowly, stopping frequently along the way.
Rouge killed quite a few Evil Bunnies during their journey.
This entire region seemed to contain only a single type of Mystic Spirit.
Evil Bunnies.
And all of them were Common-grade.
Their drop rate was also painfully low.
Aside from the Vegetarian Health Art Mystic Core from earlier, Ethan obtained nothing else.
There was another problem.
The Bloodsucking Art couldn't endlessly absorb Origin Energy without pause.
Rouge needed time to digest the enormous amount of blood-derived Origin Energy already stored inside its body.
It had stopped drinking blood some time ago.
If Ethan wanted Rouge to continue leveling, he would first have to wait until it had digested most of the accumulated energy.
Until then, continuing to slaughter Evil Bunnies served almost no purpose.
"This place isn't nearly as dangerous as I thought."
Ethan surveyed his surroundings.
Mountain ranges stretched endlessly in every direction, while the basin around him was covered in thick green grass.
Since there was little reason to remain here, Ethan decided to take Rouge into the nearby forest and search for different Mystic Spirits.
There were still no signs of human activity anywhere nearby.
But shortly after Ethan entered the forest—
He stopped.
Shouting.
And the unmistakable sounds of fighting.
They were coming from somewhere ahead.
Ethan immediately recalled Rouge into his body.
Then he quietly moved toward the source of the noise.
The sounds were coming from a stream near the foot of the mountain.
Ethan concealed himself among the vegetation and looked toward the water.
A human was fighting a Mystic Spirit.
The creature looked almost like a skeleton at first glance.
But when Ethan focused, he realized that its body was actually wrapped in a thin membrane of skin.
The skin was pale and smooth like white jade.
Only its left hand was different.
That hand was crimson.
Blood-red.
And considerably larger than its right hand.
Ethan was too far away to clearly make out the man's face.
He could only tell that the person appeared relatively young.
The man held a wooden bow in his hands, and a quiver filled with arrows was strapped across his back.
Unfortunately, the Mystic Spirit was already far too close.
There was no time for him to draw an arrow, nock it, and fire.
All he could do was run.
The man's speed was considerably greater than Ethan's.
Yet compared to the bizarre skin-covered skeletal creature chasing him, he was still slightly slower.
With no other option, the man fled deeper into the forest, weaving around one towering ancient tree after another in an attempt to keep the Mystic Spirit from reaching him.
The creature's blood-red left hand was terrifying.
Whenever it struck a tree—
BANG!
Bark exploded.
Even the thick, ancient trees were torn apart beneath its hand as though they were made of tofu.
Ethan continued watching from hiding.
Then, finally, the fleeing man turned enough for Ethan to see his face clearly.
Ethan froze.
"...Old Bird?"