Version Nerf

"I... what happened to me?" Two hours later, by evening, Feng Wu slowly woke up in the pool.

"Your Soul Power was completely exhausted. You couldn't hold on and fainted," Yao Chen, who had been watching over him, answered.

At the same time, he handed over a grilled fish from the fire rack. "You must be hungry. Here."

"Oh." Taking the grilled fish from Yao Chen, Feng Wu looked at Xiao Yan cultivating in the distance, then at Yao Chen and the pool he was in. He had more or less pieced together what had happened.

He silently cursed himself for being careless, for actually fainting to the point where he had no power to resist. Fortunately, neither Yao Chen nor Xiao Yan had harbored any ill intent toward him.

Without needing anyone to attend to him, Feng Wu put his clothes back on after eating and sat down directly before the Pill Refining Furnace again.

There was more than just Blood Coagulation Grass to extract. He still needed to process two other ingredients.

However, with the experience of extracting the essence from Blood Coagulation Grass, refining the Vitality Fruit and Poppy Flower became much easier by analogy.

After ruining each type of herb only five or six times, Feng Wu successfully extracted the finished essences.

If not for the need to accumulate enough materials for trial-and-error fusion attempts, Feng Wu could have immediately tried the final step.

But Feng Wu had no intention of reaching too high and expecting success in a single attempt.

Instead, he honestly continued extracting the essences from the other two ingredients.

The Vitality Fruit yielded black granular powder, while the Poppy Flower produced a pale red liquid.

Seeing Feng Wu take the initiative to continue refining pills and repeatedly extract more materials without impatience or agitation, Yao Chen found himself admiring him more and more.

It was not until early the next morning, when Feng Wu finished refining the last portion of Poppy Flower liquid, that he stretched lazily. "Finally finished!"

Other than meditating to recover his Dou Qi, he had barely slept all night.

This time, however, Feng Wu paid attention not to let his Soul Power become so depleted that he risked fainting again.

Glancing at Xiao Yan, who was still meditating, and Little Er Ha, who was sleeping soundly, Feng Wu stepped out of the cave to find something to eat.

Only Yao Chen opened his eyes briefly at the instant Feng Wu left the cave.

"Hmm... what should I have for breakfast today?" Feng Wu hesitated as he watched a cow, a deer, a sheep, and even a wild boar peacefully drinking by the nearby pool.

"Forget it, let's have deer. Venison is great for replenishing vitality and blood!" Once the elk had finished drinking and walked a short distance away, Feng Wu ended its life with a single palm strike.

System Notification: Killed one elk. Obtained 0.15 experience.

"Huh? What's going on?!" Feng Wu stared at the fallen elk, his heart jolting. Why was there so little experience!?

The elk was weak, but it should still have counted as a beast. Why did killing it yield less experience than killing a domestic chicken?

"Something's wrong!" System experience was tied to Feng Wu's cultivation growth. Nothing could go wrong with it!

Feng Wu did not dare delay. He hurriedly searched the area and killed nearly every beast nearby. At last, he confirmed why the experience gained from killing enemies had decreased.

There was nothing wrong with the system's experience gain.

It was because Feng Wu had grown stronger. When creatures below his rank were killed by him, the experience gained was naturally weakened.

The reduction differed at every rank. For example, ordinary fish caught in the water, which Feng Wu classified as livestock rank, now yielded only 0.01 experience—one-tenth of what they had before.

Beasts like elk yielded only one-fifth of their original experience. Slightly stronger, unranked Fierce Beasts gave one-third of their former experience.

Only Rank 1 Magical Beasts and above still gave their full, unchanged experience.

However, Feng Wu estimated that if his cultivation reached the Dou Master realm, even the experience from Rank 1 Magical Beasts would probably be weakened!

Feng Wu's expression was not pleasant. Anyone who encountered a Version Nerf would probably be unhappy.

This was clearly meant to restrict Feng Wu's growth. Otherwise, he could simply farm weak creatures and still ascend beyond the ordinary into sainthood. Wouldn't that be far easier and more comfortable?

Feeling depressed, Feng Wu dragged the elk's corpse back to the cave. By then, Xiao Yan and the others had all awakened.

He had spent quite a while outside. This could probably count as lunch already.

"You're back?"

"Yeah, I'm back." Feng Wu began preparing the elk outside the cave. Seeing his gloomy expression, Yao Chen was puzzled but did not ask further.

However, Feng Wu soon got over it. In truth, he had never intended to rely on killing poultry and livestock to cultivate anyway.

The entire slaughter business of Wu Tan City needed more than two days to match a single day of Feng Wu's slaughter in the wilderness.

In reality, Feng Wu had lost nothing.

Once he saw it that way, he felt much better.

But as soon as his mood improved, Feng Wu spotted another little troublemaker that immediately soured it again.

"Little Er Ha, what are you doing!?" Feng Wu had just finished preparing the venison and was about to roast it when he saw a seductive little rear bobbing up and down behind the medicine cauldron!

"Don't tell me it's secretly eating the herb essences I worked so hard to refine?" Alarmed, Feng Wu hurried over to check.

Little Er Ha had a prior record of wrecking homes and gardens.

Feng Wu's shout clearly startled Little Er Ha. Its rear trembled, then shot upward as it buried its head deep beneath the medicine cauldron's base and refused to come out.

When Feng Wu arrived and saw that none of the refined herb products were missing, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Still, Little Er Ha looked quite ridiculous. Its rear was raised so high that it was nearly level with Feng Wu's face!

Feng Wu slapped Little Er Ha's rear, making it tremble, and scolded, "You've hidden your head but not your tail. What are you trying to hide for?"

"Awoo! Awoo! Awoo!" Little Er Ha shuddered from the slap and instantly yanked its head out, howling at Feng Wu with a resentful expression.

But the gray grime covering its pointed snout made it look utterly comical!

"Don't tell me you ate all my herb residue?" Seeing the grime on Little Er Ha's face, Feng Wu found it familiar and was greatly alarmed. "You can't eat that stuff!"

Looking down, where was the pile of herb residue? Only a few scattered traces remained. The rest had probably already gone into Little Er Ha's stomach.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine." Just as Feng Wu was anxiously grappling with Little Er Ha and preparing to "open" its belly to check that nothing was wrong, Yao Chen came over and stopped him with a smile.

"Feng Wu, don't worry. A Magical Beast's digestive ability is several times, even dozens of times stronger than a Martial Artist's.

"It'll be fine after eating some herb residue. In fact, it will even bring considerable benefits. It can digest the remaining essence within the herbs, as well as certain parts we discard because we cannot use them.

"If it eats enough, it can greatly aid a Magical Beast's cultivation growth. There's no need to stop it."

Yao Chen explained to Feng Wu.

"Is that so?" Feng Wu was still somewhat doubtful, but he finally released Little Er Ha's mouth.

Opening the system panel, he saw that it was indeed as Yao Chen had said. Little Er Ha's experience panel had increased considerably. Only then did Feng Wu feel relieved.

He hadn't expected there to be such a benefit!