The cold wind swept across the wilderness outside Steel Armor Shelter as Chen Yu moved quietly through the beginner hunting grounds.
Dry grass bent beneath his footsteps while distant creature cries occasionally echoed through the forest.
Several days of hunting had already changed him.
Not dramatically.
But enough.
His movements were steadier now.
His breathing calmer.
The fear that once followed every fight had gradually faded into caution.
Inside God's Sanctuary, surviving itself was a kind of adaptation.
Rustling sounds suddenly came from nearby bushes.
Chen Yu stopped moving instantly.
His grip tightened around the military knife in his hand.
Several seconds later, a white figure slowly crawled out from the grass.
Ragged White Rabbit.
An ordinary creature.
Its body looked harmless at first glance, but its claws were sharp enough to tear human flesh easily.
The creature noticed Chen Yu immediately.
Its red eyes flashed violently before it lunged forward.
Chen Yu stepped sideways calmly.
Then—
he slashed downward.
Blood sprayed across the ground.
The rabbit rolled several times before collapsing motionless.
A familiar notification appeared inside his mind.
[Ordinary Creature: Ragged White Rabbit killed.]
[Beast Soul discovered.]
Grey light slowly emerged from the corpse.
The moment Chen Yu saw it, the familiar pulling sensation appeared inside his consciousness again.
Darkness covered his vision briefly.
Then—
he appeared inside the Sea of Consciousness.
An endless dark ocean stretched beneath him silently.
Floating above it was the cracked grey-black Hōgyoku.
The ordinary beast soul transformed into light before entering the orb directly.
The Hōgyoku absorbed it completely.
Then everything returned to normal.
Chen Yu slowly opened his eyes again.
The beast soul had vanished.
He looked toward the silent Hōgyoku within his Sea of Consciousness thoughtfully.
The cracks covering its surface remained exactly the same.
No recovery.
No repair.
No visible change.
As if the absorbed beast souls were merely disappearing inside it.
Chen Yu frowned slightly.
At first, he believed the Hōgyoku absorbed beast souls randomly.
But after repeated hunts…
he realized something different.
The Hōgyoku felt less like a living thing and more like a container.
A vessel slowly filling with something invisible.
That thought remained in his mind as he continued deeper into the hunting grounds.
Several hours later, Chen Yu discovered another ordinary creature near a shallow stream.
Wild Rabbit.
Smaller than the Ragged White Rabbit.
But still aggressive enough to injure ordinary humans.
This time, Chen Yu attacked much more cleanly.
The creature barely reacted before his knife pierced through its neck.
A notification appeared immediately.
[Ordinary Creature: Wild Rabbit killed.]
[Beast Soul discovered.]
Grey light floated upward from the corpse once again.
Chen Yu silently waited for the familiar absorption.
But this time…
nothing happened.
The Hōgyoku remained completely silent.
The beast soul floated quietly before him without reacting.
Several seconds passed.
Still nothing.
Chen Yu narrowed his eyes slightly.
The beast soul slowly drifted toward him before entering his Sea of Consciousness naturally.
A new notification appeared.
[Beast Soul gained.]
Chen Yu stood silently beside the corpse.
The Hōgyoku had stopped absorbing ordinary beast souls.
Not because it rejected them.
Not because it selected specific souls.
But because…
it had reached its limit.
A simple thought suddenly appeared inside his mind.
A bottle completely filled with water could not hold more water.
The Hōgyoku worked the same way.
It had continuously absorbed ordinary beast souls since the beginning.
Black Iron Rat.
Ragged White Rabbit.
Several other ordinary creatures.
Now the ordinary stage was full.
That was why ordinary souls no longer entered the orb.
Chen Yu's breathing slowed slightly.
"The ordinary capacity is complete…"
That explanation made the most sense.
The Hōgyoku was not intelligent.
It was simply collecting evolution data stage by stage.
Ordinary.
Primitive.
Mutant.
Sacred-blood.
Super.
Each stage likely possessed its own limit.
To confirm his theory, Chen Yu hunted another Ragged White Rabbit later that afternoon.
The fight ended quickly.
[Ordinary Creature: Ragged White Rabbit killed.]
[Beast Soul not gained.]
No beast soul appeared.
No absorption happened.
Nothing unusual.
Chen Yu cleaned the blood from his knife quietly.
The rules had finally become clearer now.
When ordinary beast souls appeared before:
the Hōgyoku absorbed them automatically
Now:
ordinary souls could be gained normally
or not gained at all
Just like normal sanctuary hunters.
The Hōgyoku no longer reacted to ordinary-level evolution.
Because that stage was already complete.
Chen Yu slowly looked toward the deeper wilderness beyond the beginner hunting grounds.
If his theory was correct…
then once he eventually obtained a primitive beast soul—
the Hōgyoku would probably begin absorbing again.
At that thought, Chen Yu instinctively glanced inward toward the cracked grey-black orb floating silently inside the endless dark sea.
Still damaged.
Still dormant.
Still incomplete.
And yet…
for some reason, it felt far more mysterious now than before.