Testing

"Awakened Rank Spirit Beasts aren't that easy to find, but we should still be able to find ordinary Spirit Beasts. When we do, we can test the exact cost of your enhancement."

Once they were outside, Su Ren once again controlled the spiritual energy nearby to vibrate and block out the sound, explaining the purpose of this trip to Su Shijie.

"Alright."

As he entered the nighttime forest, Su Shijie felt both nervous and faintly excited.

With his old man beside him, there was no need to worry about safety. The perilous nightscape even took on a certain beauty.

As his eyes gradually adjusted,

with the remnants of the campfire, the faint glow of fireflies, and the fluorescence of certain fungi, he slowly became able to see in the darkness.

Then Su Ren took the lead, choosing a direction and leaping forward.

Su Shijie was already Mortal Tier Level 8. Combined with his one Bloodline Transformation, he was no weaker than an ordinary Mortal Tier Level 9.

He was no worse than Bai Xinxin.

His burst speed could already reach roughly six seconds per hundred meters.

As for balance and bodily control, since he had endured the pain of the enhancement directly, he had no trouble mastering them.

The roots of those giant trees sprawled across the ground, thick and sturdy. In the shadows of the night, they formed all kinds of clawing, twisted silhouettes.

Drops of two or three meters were commonplace, while drops of four or five meters were not uncommon either.

Yet Su Shijie leaped and climbed, moving swiftly through the forest like he was doing parkour. It reminded him of a movie called Avatar that he had watched in his previous life.

The rough bark posed no problem for Su Shijie, who had Tough Skin.

Whenever he encountered somewhere he could not jump up to, he could easily climb over it by gripping bark fissures as thick as his wrist.

The nighttime forest was filled with all kinds of dangers. Venomous insects, fierce beasts, and even poisonous mushrooms that gave off a glow could all prove deadly.

But under Su Ren's careful guidance, they encountered no trouble along the way.

They came across wary nocturnal animals twice, but unfortunately, both were ordinary beasts without Gene Imbuement.

Unlike humans, who could actively guide spiritual energy and learn different methods,

beasts were usually imbued passively, so the proportion of Spirit Beasts was not particularly high.

Only high-level Awakened Rank Spirit Beasts gradually developed intelligence and began truly conducting simple guidance on their own.

By the time a Spirit Beast's Gene Imbuement was nearly complete, its intelligence usually was not much lower than a human's.

It was simply that they had no civilization, no language, no writing, and no inheritance. They generally had to learn through instinct, making their overall state similar to that of uncivilized "savages."

Likewise, at the higher Awakened Ranks, the original gap in physical ability between humans and beasts rapidly narrowed.

Perhaps the current Mortal Tier Level 8 Su Shijie, in terms of physical ability alone, was not even a match for many Mortal Tier Level 3 or 4 Spirit Beasts. Against large-bodied ones, he might even be weaker than ordinary wild beasts.

But Su Ren, at Late Awakened Rank 9, could deal with and even kill most Awakened Rank Level 9 Spirit Beasts with nothing more than a melee weapon.

He had agility against large creatures and strength against small ones.

Of course, the most important thing was having a suitable melee weapon.

If firearms were involved, it would be even more one-sided. He could slaughter them freely.

There was a reason terrifying upright apes had remained at the top of Earth's food chain.

"Found one."

After the two had searched for nearly half an hour, Su Ren suddenly smiled.

Then Su Shijie felt a terrifying blast of air rush toward him from ahead.

It was not a Spirit Beast attacking, but Su Ren, who had been maintaining the same speed as him, suddenly exploding forward and producing a violent shockwave.

Su Shijie's ears began ringing.

By the time he reacted, Su Ren had already appeared before him with a black Spirit Leopard in hand, more than two meters long even without counting its tail.

The Brown Ironwood rod serving as his old man's left leg struck the winding giant roots with dull, tapping thuds.

He casually tossed the Spirit Leopard onto the root in front of him.

Although the Spirit Leopard had already passed out, the lines of its muscles showed how much power it contained.

If Su Shijie had encountered it alone, even if the Spirit Leopard's Gene Evolution was not as advanced as his, there was still a high chance he would have been finished by a sneak attack.

His Soul Tendrils could kill it instantly, but if he were ambushed and had his throat locked, he would be killed instantly too...

Yet in Su Ren's hands, the thing had been knocked unconscious and brought here in a single exchange, without even the ability to struggle.

"Give it a try."

Since it could undergo Gene Imbuement, it was clearly a Spiritual Creature.

Su Shijie began controlling his Soul Tendrils, slowly extending them outside his body.

Remembering the expenditure from before, he did not let them flail about wildly this time. Instead, he slowly pierced the Spirit Leopard's body with the tendrils at minimal cost.

An indescribable sense of comfort welled up from the depths of his heart. Then he swiftly drained the Spirit Leopard's soul completely, leaving not the slightest wound on its surface. It had not even struggled.

After its soul was drained, the Spirit Leopard's aura became chaotic for a while. Its heart was still beating, as though it had merely suffered brain death.

"Roughly one percent of that evil spirit, but far more than emotions."

Su Shijie carefully savored the sensation. The improvement to his mental hardware allowed him to calculate the difference with relative precision.

The amount of emotion was simply too small for him to grasp, but once it reached one percent, it fell within the range his current control could quantify.

"This is only a Mortal Tier Level 4 Spirit Leopard. Getting this kind of result is already pretty good."

Su Ren nodded as well.

"Try improving your Bloodline Trait."

Hearing that, Su Shijie injected the newly gathered pure Soul Power into his only Bloodline Trait.

He likewise sensed an increase in the trait.

The increase was not large, also around one percent, but the implications behind it were enormous!

Su Shijie needed five evil spirits for his next Bloodline Transformation. According to his old man, the innate boost provided by a trait from each transformation was more or less the same.

In other words, if Su Shijie used it purely to strengthen his trait, the cost would only be one-fifth of his next transformation.

Bloodline Traits would also increase alongside Gene Evolution. According to what his old man had said and some knowledge he had learned himself, if a trait came from exactly the same Bloodline Transformation,

then whether a person underwent that transformation at the Mortal Tier or at the Awakened Rank, as their evolution level increased, the trait's power would be the same at the same rank.

Other creatures would only gain another innate increase if they underwent another Bloodline Transformation and received an enhancement to their traits.

After completing the test, Su Shijie asked tentatively,

"Then should I use all the Soul Power I save up to improve my trait first?"

"Even if this trait is mediocre, once it's strengthened to the limit, it'll still be like stacking on the thickest armor."

Su Ren fell into thought upon hearing that, as though considering something.

Only then did he offer his advice.

"My personal suggestion is to save it for improving your bloodline unless you encounter special circumstances. Calculate the balance between trait enhancement and Bloodline Transformation. Before you obtain an Imperial Bloodline, prioritize your bloodline."

I asked my wife what I should do if a rich woman wanted to keep me. She said as long as the money was enough, she could drive me around.