"Kehehe, Bulbasaur, guess what I saw? A wild Thousand-Year Crimson Blood Battle Pig!"
Upon spotting the Crimson Blood Battle Pig not far away, Qing Mu rubbed his hands together and said excitedly to Bulbasaur beside him.
Qing Mu had not expected to be so lucky. Just minutes after entering the Star Dou Great Mountain Range, he had encountered a Thousand-Year Crimson Blood Battle Pig.
Although Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were not uncommon, and Crimson Blood Battle Pigs were hardly a rare species, the Star Dou Great Mountain Range was enormous.
Combined with the overwhelming number of Ten-Year Soul Beasts and Hundred-Year Soul Beasts, once they were scattered throughout the entire mountain range, finding a Soul Beast of roughly the right age would truly take some effort.
But there was no need for that now, because the target was already right before Qing Mu.
"Dana, dana~"
Hearing this, Bulbasaur's mouth curved into a smile as he stared at the Thousand-Year Crimson Blood Battle Pig as though he had spotted some precious treasure.
With Qing Mu's current cultivation level, fighting Hundred-Year Soul Beasts did little to improve their levels. The Thousand-Year Crimson Blood Battle Pig before them was just right as an opponent.
Qing Mu immediately used Mind Link and transmitted to Bulbasaur, "Bulbasaur, sneak over there and use Sleep Powder on that Crimson Blood Battle Pig!"
Bulbasaur made a gesture indicating that he understood, then slowly approached the Crimson Blood Battle Pig under the cover of the forest.
Once he felt he was close enough, Bulbasaur immediately shot a cloud of pale green powder from the seed on his back.
Thanks to Bulbasaur's control, the powder was not particularly noticeable after dispersing into the air. By the time the Crimson Blood Battle Pig realized something was wrong, he was already overwhelmingly drowsy.
Boom~
As the three-meter-tall Crimson Blood Battle Pig collapsed, Bulbasaur and Qing Mu slowly emerged from the nearby woods.
Looking at the sleeping Crimson Blood Battle Pig on the ground, Qing Mu called out to Bulbasaur, "Bulbasaur, Leech Seed!"
"Dana, dana~"
Hearing this, Bulbasaur did not hesitate in the slightest and immediately fired several green-glowing seeds at the Crimson Blood Battle Pig.
After the Leech Seeds touched the Crimson Blood Battle Pig's body, countless vines immediately grew from them, wrapping around his massive body in an instant.
The next moment, the sleeping Crimson Blood Battle Pig unexpectedly let out a pained squeal as the Leech Seeds began draining his stamina.
But as the Leech Seeds continued taking effect, the Crimson Blood Battle Pig's cries grew softer and softer, because he was gradually losing even the strength to squeal.
However, Qing Mu did not let down his guard, because he knew that Crimson Blood Battle Pigs still had one final counterattack.
Sure enough, the next moment, the Crimson Blood Battle Pig suddenly woke up. He opened his eyes, and the skin all over his body turned blood-red.
This was the Crimson Blood Battle Pig's Innate Ability: Berserk!
Once this ability was activated, the Crimson Blood Battle Pig could ignore most negative status effects while greatly increasing all of his attributes.
However, this move had one flaw: it could only be used after suffering severe injuries.
It was a flaw, but it was also an advantage for Crimson Blood Battle Pigs. Otherwise, with the strength of this Innate Ability, they would have long become popular Soul Ring hunting targets. How could they have lived so comfortably?
Awooo!!!
After waking up, the Crimson Blood Battle Pig glared blood-eyed at Qing Mu and Bulbasaur not far away and was about to charge at them.
However, Bulbasaur had already planted plenty of Leech Seeds on him. How could he possibly break free so easily?
Just as the Crimson Blood Battle Pig finally managed, with his drastically increased attributes, to tear apart some of the Leech Seeds, several of Bulbasaur's Vine Whips lashed out and directly knocked him to the ground.
Then Bulbasaur fired several more Leech Seeds, which once again coiled around the Crimson Blood Battle Pig.
Feeling his body grow weaker and weaker, two streams of tears could not help flowing from the Crimson Blood Battle Pig's eyes. In all his life, he had never felt so aggrieved as he did today.
Berserk came quickly and faded just as quickly. A moment later, the Crimson Blood Battle Pig's Berserk state vanished, and he fell unconscious once more.
At the same time, Qing Mu immediately felt the Soul Power within his body increase slightly. It seemed that the system had confirmed that he had defeated this Crimson Blood Battle Pig.
Qing Mu then glanced at the Crimson Blood Battle Pig lying on the ground and said, "Forget it. After all, I was the one who came looking for you, and your Soul Ring doesn't suit me anyway. I'll spare your life."
After saying that, Qing Mu left with Bulbasaur. Before departing, he also removed the Leech Seeds from the Crimson Blood Battle Pig's body.
A moment later, the Crimson Blood Battle Pig opened his eyes. After confirming that Qing Mu and Bulbasaur had left, he could not help letting out a sigh of relief.
For the rest of his life, he never wanted to encounter those two fiends again.
However, just as he was preparing to leave, a deep chill once again appeared behind him.
He immediately turned around, only to see that Qing Mu and Bulbasaur had somehow appeared there again.
Qing Mu looked at the Crimson Blood Battle Pig before him and greeted him with a smile. "Hello. We meet again."
A moment later, the Crimson Blood Battle Pig fell to the ground again.
Qing Mu stroked his chin and pondered, "The Soul Power gained from defeating this Crimson Blood Battle Pig this time was much less than before.
Did the Crimson Blood Battle Pig become weaker? Or does the experience gained from the same target gradually decrease?"
"Looks like I'll have to run more experiments."
Thus, Qing Mu once again turned his gaze toward the Crimson Blood Battle Pig before him.
Immediately afterward, ripples of pale green light spread outward from Qing Mu. In an instant, the surrounding grass and trees began growing wildly at a visible rate upon coming into contact with the pale green ripples.
This was Qing Mu's First Soul Skill, Grassy Terrain!
Although its effect was not especially powerful, Grassy Terrain did indeed possess the ability to heal allies. As for who counted as an ally, that was naturally Qing Mu's decision.
Feeling his injuries gradually ease, the Crimson Blood Battle Pig looked at Qing Mu with a trace of blankness in his eyes. What exactly was this human trying to do? He was actually healing him.
But the Crimson Blood Battle Pig soon understood Qing Mu's sinister intentions, because once he had been mostly healed, Qing Mu and Bulbasaur attacked him once again.
Three days later, Qing Mu and Bulbasaur stopped paying attention to the Crimson Blood Battle Pig, who was secretly shedding tears, and headed deeper into the Star Dou Great Mountain Range.
Over those three days, Qing Mu finally gained a preliminary understanding of the mechanism for obtaining experience from defeating Soul Beasts through the method of defeating and then healing them.
That was, the amount of experience gained was related to the Soul Beast's condition and strength. The better its condition and the stronger it was, the more experience it provided.
This could be seen from the fact that after Qing Mu commanded Bulbasaur to fight that Crimson Blood Battle Pig multiple times, the experience gained at the end was actually greater than during their first battle.
At the same time, over those three days, Qing Mu had also broken through the level-thirty bottleneck during his repeated battles with the Crimson Blood Battle Pig.
Before you continue