"My foundation is solid!"
A solid foundation - this was indeed possible, because generally people with solid foundations would have much higher endurance than those with weak foundations.
"I'll make you some tiger bone soup later. This stuff is very rare. By the way, do you want me to add tiger penis? It's very nourishing!" Xiaoyao asked.
"Tiger penis? You can keep that and enjoy it yourself!" Dongfang Wunian's face immediately turned red.
"Don't think that women don't need to supplement with this stuff. This is also good for you women, it will make you more beautiful and charming." Knowing that Dongfang Wunian was embarrassed, Xiaoyao reminded her.
"I don't want it!" Dongfang Wunian said irritably.
"Fine then. I'll make you soup right away. You're hungry, aren't you?" Xiaoyao said indifferently, his tone becoming gentler.
"Mm, I'm hungry!" Dongfang Wunian nodded, very much liking Xiaoyao's gentle attitude. From morning until now, she hadn't eaten much - no, she should say she hadn't eaten anything at all. Now even the Fasting Pills tasted bland to her. Every day she waited for the soup Xiaoyao made.
From morning until now, Xiaoyao had been busy with things - first going to the cliff to gather herbs, then getting involved in the battle between monster beasts. There was simply no time to make soup, so naturally Dongfang Wunian couldn't eat anything.
...
...
Xiaoyao quickly found a place, set up a pot, cleaned the tiger bones with lots of tiger meat still attached, put them in the pot and began cooking. According to his habit, he also skewered large chunks of tiger meat to roast on the side. Soon the fragrant aroma of roasted meat began wafting everywhere.
"Chi chi!" Chi Chi immediately jumped to Xiaoyao's side, drooling at the roasted meat.
"Little glutton!!" Xiaoyao laughed and cursed, then picked up his knife to slice the meat. Thin slices of roasted meat were cut off. Although it had just started roasting, the fire quickly cooked the outer meat, and Xiaoyao cut off this portion first to satisfy Chi Chi's craving while also filling his own stomach.
This knife work wasn't something just anyone could do - those thin slices of meat were like paper!!
"Friend Xiaoyao, could you share some with me!" The elder very impolitely came to freeload again. Xiaoyao was used to this and cut a slice for the elder. As time went on, Xiaoyao could cut more and more meat. One more person didn't matter.
"Give me a roasted piece too. I want a big chunk of meat, not these thin slices!" At this moment, the snow wolf suddenly appeared beside Xiaoyao, lying down next to him.
At this time, everyone also noticed that the wolf pack seemed to have left, carrying away those wolves that had died in battle. They believed that more wolves would come soon, because they needed to clean up the battlefield.
The wolf pack that participated in the battle wasn't their entire tribe. These were all wolves capable of fighting, while those that couldn't fight, or those with relatively weak strength, were still at their dwelling place. They couldn't handle combat, but could still manage cleaning up the battlefield.
"Aren't you going to destroy that black tiger's den?" Xiaoyao set up another meat skewer beside the campfire.
"I'll go after I'm full. It'll be quick!" the snow wolf said, not caring much about it.
"Then just eat something. You can eat it raw anyway." Xiaoyao said indifferently.
"Since I have cooked meat, why would I eat raw? That obviously doesn't taste as good." the snow wolf said. At this moment, it seemed quite humanized.
"That's true. Since that's the case, let's wait until it's cooked. No need to rush over such a little time," Xiaoyao said with a smile.
Just like that, Xiaoyao and the others, plus two monster beasts, sat around the campfire eating roasted tiger meat, and finally drank tiger bone soup. The snow wolf was very interested in both the roasted tiger meat and tiger bone soup, eating who knows how much. Fortunately, it wasn't like Chi Chi - a bottomless pit - just having a slightly larger appetite.
During this time, the wolf pack also came by and quickly cleaned up the battlefield. The scene that was previously littered with corpses was gone, leaving only bright red bloodstains everywhere.
The wolf pack didn't linger here long. After cleaning up the battlefield, they immediately withdrew, leaving only the snow wolf still beside Xiaoyao eating roasted meat and drinking soup.
In between, when Xiaoyao was bored, he asked the snow wolf a question, "Little white wolf, is your fur natural? Why is it different from your pack?"
"My fur is from evolutionary mutation. Originally I was about the same as them, but later, with each advancement in strength, my fur color would change a bit, getting lighter and lighter, until it finally became this color." the snow wolf answered.
"Oh, do you have a mate?" Xiaoyao asked.
"Not yet. My strength makes them all afraid to have any ideas about me." the snow wolf said quite proudly, but it didn't mind that Xiaoyao's question was strange. Perhaps to it, this wasn't strange, just a question.
"Very good! Chi Chi, come eat roasted meat..." Xiaoyao also seemed unconcerned and went to find Chi Chi to feed it.
Time passed unknowingly, and this strange dinner came to an end. Everyone returned to their tents to rest, and the snow wolf also left.
At this moment, Xiaoyao and the others all felt that they probably wouldn't have any chance to meet this snow wolf again. After all, it was a monster beast. Although they were both in Heavenly Heart Mountain, there wouldn't be any intersection.
But what everyone couldn't have imagined was that they would soon meet the snow wolf again, and would have to face a very interesting situation.
The next morning, Xiaoyao used the rice he brought to cook a pot of porridge, adding some minced meat, some mushrooms, some wild fruits, then went to wash his face and brush his teeth. After that, Dongfang Wunian also got up and came to wait beside Xiaoyao's porridge. She was very much looking forward to eating this porridge, now she had started eating porridge.
The elder once again came to freeload. Xiaoyao served each of them a bowl, then made a big basin for Chi Chi. Finally, when he was preparing to get himself a bowl, a somewhat familiar, somewhat unexpected voice appeared.
"Give me a basin too!"
"A basin? Are you a pig..." Xiaoyao thought it was a person asking him for food and casually replied, but soon realized something was wrong.
"Eh, it's you. How come you're here again?" Xiaoyao looked at the source of that voice, wasn't it the snow wolf that had left yesterday.
"I want to follow you. Yesterday I went to deal with the black tiger matter and internal affairs of my clan. Now I can follow you!" the snow wolf said.
"..." Everyone was silent, not understanding what the snow wolf meant.
"What do you mean, follow me?" Xiaoyao said somewhat puzzled. "I'm not planning to raise you!!"
"You don't need to raise me. I'll find my own food! I've thought it over, you saved me, and I want to repay you. I want to follow you and become your Innate Spirit Beast!" the snow wolf looked at Xiaoyao and said.
"What? Innate Spirit Beast!?" Dongfang Wunian and the elder's jaws nearly dropped. Obviously this matter was very shocking to them.
At this moment, the way these two looked at Xiaoyao was full of envious gazes. Even these two were like this, one could imagine what kind of expressions others would have if they knew about this!!
At the same time, they wouldn't think Xiaoyao would refuse such a good thing, but what surprised them was—
"No need, I don't need it!!" Xiaoyao shook his head and refused.
"Chi chi!" Chi Chi on Xiaoyao's head called out at the snow wolf, seeming displeased.
At this moment, no one paid attention to Chi Chi's action. Dongfang Wunian immediately said to Xiaoyao, "What did you say? You actually refused? Do you know how lucky it is for an intelligent monster beast, a monster beast of this level, to want to become your Innate Spirit Beast? Even my father doesn't have such an opportunity, and you actually refuse!! Don't you know what an Innate Spirit Beast is!!"
"I..." Xiaoyao wanted to speak but was interrupted by another person, the elder beside him.
The elder said somewhat anxiously, "Xiaoyao, an Innate Spirit Beast means you sign a contract with a monster beast. This contract makes it so the monster beast can never betray you, which means you'll permanently have this monster beast's help! The snow wolf's strength is much higher than mine as an Emperor Level - it's what we call a peerless expert. If you have it as your Innate Spirit Beast, it's equivalent to you possessing this martial power. You could walk sideways anywhere in this world!!"
Once a monster beast becomes an Innate Spirit Beast, it can never betray for life, nor can it change masters. When the master dies, the Innate Spirit Beast will also die, but when the Innate Spirit Beast dies, the master will be injured but won't die!
Unless the master voluntarily breaks the contract, and only the master can break this contract, the monster beast cannot!
However, why was it that with such good Innate Spirit Beasts, not many people had them? Among so many martial artists on the continent, almost no one had Innate Spirit Beasts. Wasn't having an Innate Spirit Beast's help good? Was it to avoid dependency?
No, it wasn't that Innate Spirit Beast help wasn't wanted, nor was it fear of dependency. It was because Innate Spirit Beasts needed their masters to provide them energy to improve their strength and advance their evolution. Their evolution and advancement were much shorter than before, which was originally a good thing, but the problem was that this required half of the master's energy.
In other words, an Innate Spirit Beast would consume half of the master's cultivation results, which would drag down the master's cultivation progress. At the same time, while advancement and evolution were faster, it still wasn't that easy. Calculating it all, it was better to concentrate on improving one's own cultivation progress - this was the result that many people had experimented with.
Generally, those who wanted monster beasts would wait until their strength reached a certain level, or when they hit a bottleneck, then capture high-level monster beasts. This way was much more efficient than cultivating from the beginning.
If someone was pursuing the peak of martial arts, they generally wouldn't choose to have an Innate Spirit Beast. Even if they could possess high-level monster beasts, they wouldn't choose to have them, unless they had no choice but to increase their combat power in a short time. In that case, an Innate Spirit Beast was a very good way to boost fighting strength.
The reason why Innate Spirit Beasts were so rare actually had another very important reason - whether human or monster beast, one could only sign a contract once in their lifetime. Even if the contract was broken, it would be impossible to have another one.
(End of Chapter)