Activation

"Could these fruit shells have been left behind by other Furred Beast Slaves?" Yuan Ming glanced around, but found nothing else unusual.

Suddenly, his gaze sharpened as he looked toward a large tree not far away.

On a slender branch sat a Silver Cat about half a foot tall, roughly the size of an ordinary housecat.

Its fur was entirely silvery white, without a single stray hair, making it exceptionally beautiful. One of its eyes was golden yellow and the other amber, like two glittering gemstones, and it was looking directly at Yuan Ming.

Their gazes met, and the Silver Cat immediately turned and darted away. It leaped with astonishing agility from tree to tree, vanishing in an instant.

"Why are you running? It's not like I was going to eat you! That Silver Cat is far too timid." Yuan Ming paid it no mind and continued searching the area.

A short while later, he gave a soft exclamation and stopped, staring at the ground amid the grass ahead.

There was a shallow human footprint there, and the mark looked very fresh.

After pondering briefly, Yuan Ming headed in the direction the footprint pointed.

The owner of the footprints had made no effort to conceal their trail, so following it was not difficult.

After walking for roughly a quarter of an hour, he came upon a stretch of hard rocky ground, where the footprints abruptly ended without a trace.

Yuan Ming frowned. After standing silently for some time, he continued onward.

Once he crossed the rocky terrain, his view suddenly opened up before him, revealing a vast expanse of emerald-green lake water.

The lake was not large, perhaps ten-odd mu in area. Its surface looked calm and still, while weeds as tall as a person grew thickly around its shores. Though it was clearly summer, the temperature near the lake was noticeably lower than in the forest.

Yuan Ming crouched beside the lake and touched its water with his hand. A bone-chilling cold seeped into him.

Just then, the grass beside him rustled, and a silver blur shot out.

Yuan Ming had just assumed a defensive stance when, upon seeing what it was, he looked slightly surprised.

The silver figure was none other than the Silver Cat he had encountered earlier. It had a black object clenched in its mouth, its tail held high.

At the sight of Yuan Ming, the Silver Cat seemed startled and immediately turned to burrow back into the grass. However, the black object in its mouth fell to the ground.

"That Silver Cat again." Yuan Ming quickly took two steps forward, but the weeds were too tall. Once the cat entered them, it was like a clay ox vanishing into the sea, disappearing without a trace.

He sighed regretfully. Come to think of it, he rather liked that handsome Silver Cat. If he could catch and tame it, it could keep him entertained during breaks from cultivation.

Yuan Ming continued forward, then suddenly recalled something. He turned back a few steps and picked up the object on the ground—the black thing the cat had been carrying—and examined it closely.

It looked like a piece of leather, covered in exquisite patterns. It was undoubtedly something made by human hands.

"There shouldn't be anything like this in such deep wilderness. Could someone have left it here?" With that thought, Yuan Ming hurried to search the grass where the Silver Cat had emerged, but found nothing.

He carefully examined the black leather in his hand again and brought it beneath his nose for a sniff.

A fishy stench rushed into his nostrils, but it was not the foul smell of an animal's mouth. Rather, it resembled the odor of rotting aquatic plants.

Yuan Ming's gaze shifted toward the emerald lake. He began searching along the shore and quickly found something.

Several shallow cat paw prints were stamped into a patch of wet soil by the lake.

Following the paw prints, Yuan Ming pushed aside a clump of dense grass nearby, and his pupils contracted slightly.

Before him lay the corpse of a large-bodied man. Its upper half had nearly become a skeleton, while its lower half was embedded in the mud by the lakeshore. It had clearly been dead for a long time. Its clothing had rotted away from soaking, but it wore a black leather coat on its upper body, and the fragment carried by the Silver Cat had come from that coat.

Yuan Ming's eyes fell upon the corpse's waist, where a piece of black beast hide was wrapped around it. It appeared to be a Furred Beast Hide.

He crouched beside the corpse, reached out to fiddle with it a few times, and removed the black beast hide.

It was completely different from his White Ape Beast Hide. Not a single hair covered it, and dull white patterns ran across its entire surface. Its back was also covered in gelatinous material resembling scales, as though it were the outer hide of some savage aquatic beast.

The beast hide was largely undamaged elsewhere, but a palm-sized tear marked its back, as if some sharp weapon had pierced through it.

Yuan Ming carefully pulled the corpse out of the mud. Several ribs near the heart on its back had been broken. It had likely suffered a fatal wound from an attack launched from behind.

He searched around the corpse for a while, but found no other clues. He did not see the man's blood storage pouch either.

"It seems this man most likely wasn't killed by a savage beast, but by another furred beast slave." An inexplicable chill passed through Yuan Ming's heart.

Furred Beast Slaves were beasts, but they were slaves as well.

Trapped within the Hundred Thousand Mountains, where the weak were meat for the strong and only the fittest survived, when one eyed prey with restless desire, was one not also prey in another's eyes?

"Right. Elder Huohuo once hinted that Jade Luo Cave had gone to considerable lengths to refine these Furred Beast Hides. They are quite valuable, and every hide bears a magical mark. Once a furred beast slave dies, the sect sends someone to retrieve the hide by following the mark. Why haven't they taken this one?" Yuan Ming suddenly recalled this and found it deeply puzzling.

He looked at the tear in the black beast hide, thoughtful. Forming a hand seal, he dispelled his White Ape transformation, then circulated his magic power into the black beast hide and activated the Fur Transformation Technique. Yet the hide did not react at all.

"Looks like it's broken. That's probably why no one came to collect it. What a waste of all that time." Yuan Ming muttered to himself, tossed aside the black beast hide, and turned to leave.

But after taking only a few steps, he seemed to think of something. He picked up the black beast hide again and headed toward the woods beside the lake, soon arriving at a concealed spot.

Yuan Ming sat down on the ground and spread the beast hide flat before him, then summoned the mysterious incense burner.

His White Ape Beast Hide had undergone a slight transformation after touching the incense burner. Perhaps it could also affect this black beast hide—one could not say for certain.

Naturally, he did not expect the incense burner to repair the black beast hide. He merely wanted to use this opportunity to learn more about the azure incense burner.

Yuan Ming placed the incense burner atop the beast hide. The instant they touched, the mysterious incense burner abruptly lit up. Azure light shone from it, carrying a warm current that flowed into the black beast hide.

The dull white patterns on the surface of the black beast hide spread out after merging with the azure light, like river water flowing into channels. Wherever the light passed, the previously dim patterns all brightened, and the entire hide began to tremble faintly.

The azure light soon spread throughout the beast hide, then converged toward the tear on its back. The white patterns there were extraordinarily dense, as though that spot were an important node.

With such a place destroyed, no wonder the beast hide had become utterly useless.

Azure light surged around the tear as the white patterns there flickered continuously. Then a somewhat blurry phantom emerged from the tear. It had a large head, a round body, and limbs spread wide. It was unmistakably a toad.

"What is that? Could it be the soul of a savage toad beast? My White Ape Beast Hide also manifested a White Ape phantom under the incense burner's influence before. It seems every Furred Beast Hide contains a beast soul." Yuan Ming thought to himself.

The toad phantom gradually solidified within the azure light. After letting out a Croak!, it flashed and vanished into the tear.

With soft sizzling sounds, the white patterns around the tear suddenly stretched outward as though alive. They bypassed the opening and reconnected with one another.

"It can do that too?!" Yuan Ming was both shocked and delighted.

The moment those white patterns reconnected, faint ripples of aura emerged across the entire black beast hide. It had clearly been completely repaired.

Not only that, but the black beast hide now looked brand-new. Its natural patterns had become far clearer, as if it had just been skinned, exactly like the White Ape Beast Hide after it had been affected by the incense burner.

Yuan Ming circulated magic power into the black beast hide and activated the Fur Transformation Technique.

The black beast hide wrapped around him like a living creature, covering every part of his body. His transformation was completed in moments.

His whole body was covered in black beast hide, and large bulging black lumps grew over his back, looking extremely sturdy. Webbing appeared between his fingers and toes, while his eyes became far more upturned.

Yuan Ming put away the incense burner, walked to the lakeshore, and looked at his reflection in the water. At that moment, he resembled a humanoid toad.

"No wonder I heard some strange sound just now. So it was a Toad Hide. I was already miserable enough when I got a White Ape Hide without much offensive power. Who would have thought someone had it even worse than me? What can a toad even do?" Yuan Ming looked at his ugly reflection in the lake and spoke helplessly.

Yuan Ming moved his body and sensed the abilities he possessed after transforming into a toad.

He felt a faint current of air stirring within his chest. His entire abdominal cavity seemed to have expanded significantly, and every breath was far deeper than before, allowing him to go longer and longer between breaths.

Yuan Ming drew in a deep breath with all his strength. Air poured into his body as his abdomen and belly swelled continuously, soon becoming like those of a woman ten months pregnant.

Yet he felt no discomfort. Holding his breath, he stood where he was.

A full quarter of an hour passed, yet Yuan Ming still did not feel the slightest shortness of breath and could move about freely.

He leaped into the lake and dove toward its bottom.

Ripples rolled across the lake's surface before quickly settling, restoring everything to calm.

Another quarter of an hour passed. With a splash by the water on the far shore, Yuan Ming emerged, raised his head, and leaped ashore.

Excitement flashed through his eyes. This Toad Beast Hide allowed him to go without breathing for a full half hour.

Wulu had once mentioned that some places deep within the Hundred Thousand Mountains were filled with highly toxic miasma. With this Toad Beast Hide, should he encounter it unfortunately, he would at least have enough time to escape.

Furthermore, after transforming into a toad, he could swim quite quickly in water, which counted as another decent means of escape.

Compared with a toad's ease and freedom in water, its ability to move on land was much poorer. It could only walk by hopping rather clumsily, and its offensive ability was practically nonexistent—at least, Yuan Ming had not discovered any.

Thinking of this, he could not help feeling some sympathy for the fellow whose Furred Beast transformation was a toad.

Yuan Ming formed a hand seal to dispel the toad transformation, then carefully put away the black beast hide.

For now, the black toad's combat strength was far inferior to his White Ape transformation, but in particular environments, it might prove highly useful.

However, his greatest gain today was still his deeper understanding of the azure incense burner.

This mysterious incense burner seemed capable of repairing damaged beast hides through some method. Perhaps it could even awaken some latent abilities within them. That was something he could make use of in the future.