The Unlucky Crimson Blood Battle Pig

"Hehehe, Bulbasaur, guess what I saw? A wild Thousand-Year Crimson Blood Battle Pig!"

After 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. Mere 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 particularly rare, and Crimson Blood Battle Pigs were hardly an uncommon species, the Star Dou Great Mountain Range was enormous.

With the overwhelming numbers of Ten-Year Soul Beasts and Hundred-Year Soul Beasts scattered throughout the mountain range, finding a Soul Beast of roughly the right age would normally take quite some effort.

But there was no need for that now, because his target was already right in front of Qing Mu.

"Da Na, Da Na~"

Upon hearing this, Bulbasaur's mouth curled into a smile. Its eyes fixed on the Thousand-Year Crimson Blood Battle Pig as though it were looking at some precious treasure.

At Qing Mu's current cultivation level, fighting Hundred-Year Soul Beasts did very little to raise their levels anymore. The Thousand-Year Crimson Blood Battle Pig before them was the perfect opponent.

Qing Mu immediately used Mind Link to transmit his thoughts to Bulbasaur. "Bulbasaur, sneak over there and use Sleep Powder on that Crimson Blood Battle Pig!"

Bulbasaur made a gesture as if to say, "Leave it to me," then slowly approached the Crimson Blood Battle Pig under the cover of the forest.

Once it felt the distance was right, Bulbasaur immediately fired pale green powder from the seed on its back.

Thanks to Bulbasaur's control, the powder was not especially noticeable once it dispersed through the air. By the time the Crimson Blood Battle Pig sensed that something was wrong, it 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, "Bulbasaur, Leech Seed!"

"Da Na, Da Na~"

Without the slightest hesitation, Bulbasaur immediately fired several seeds glowing green at the Crimson Blood Battle Pig.

The moment the Leech Seeds touched the Crimson Blood Battle Pig's body, countless vines grew from them, wrapping around its massive body in an instant.

The sleeping Crimson Blood Battle Pig let out a pained squeal in the next moment as the Leech Seeds began draining its strength.

But as the Leech Seeds continued to take effect, its cries grew quieter and quieter, because it was gradually losing even the strength to scream.

Still, Qing Mu did not let down his guard, because he knew that this type of Soul Beast had one final counterattack.

Sure enough, in the next moment, the Crimson Blood Battle Pig abruptly woke up. Its eyes flew open, and the skin all over its body turned blood-red.

This was the Crimson Blood Battle Pig's Innate Ability: Berserk!

Once activated, this ability allowed the Crimson Blood Battle Pig to ignore most negative conditions and greatly increased all of its attributes.

However, this move had one drawback—it could only be used when the user was severely injured.

It was a drawback, but also an advantage for the Crimson Blood Battle Pig. Otherwise, with the strength of this Innate Ability, it would have long become a popular Soul Ring hunting target. How could it possibly have lived so comfortably?

Awooo!!!

After waking, the Crimson Blood Battle Pig stared at Qing Mu and Bulbasaur not far away with blood-red eyes and prepared to charge at them.

But Bulbasaur had already planted quite a few Leech Seeds on its body. How could it break free so easily?

Just as the Crimson Blood Battle Pig barely managed to tear apart some of the Leech Seeds with its vastly increased attributes, several Vine Whips lashed out from Bulbasaur and sent it sprawling to the ground.

Then Bulbasaur fired several more Leech Seeds, which once again tangled around the Crimson Blood Battle Pig's body.

Feeling its body grow weaker and weaker, two streams of tears could not help flowing from the Crimson Blood Battle Pig's eyes. It had never felt as aggrieved as it did today.

Berserk came quickly and faded just as quickly. A moment later, the Crimson Blood Battle Pig's Berserk state disappeared, and it fell unconscious once more.

At the same time, Qing Mu immediately felt the Soul Power in his body increase slightly. It seemed that the system had confirmed his defeat of the Crimson Blood Battle Pig.

Qing Mu then glanced at the Crimson Blood Battle Pig lying on the ground and said, "Forget it. I was the one who came looking for you, and your Soul Ring isn't suitable for me anyway, so I'll spare your life."

With that, Qing Mu left with Bulbasaur. Before leaving, he also removed the Leech Seeds from the Crimson Blood Battle Pig's body.

A moment later, the Crimson Blood Battle Pig opened its eyes. After confirming that Qing Mu and Bulbasaur had left, it could not help letting out a sigh of relief.

It never wanted to run into those two fiends again for the rest of its life.

However, just as it was about to leave, a deep chill appeared behind it once more.

It immediately turned around, only to see that Qing Mu and Bulbasaur had somehow reappeared there.

Qing Mu looked at the Crimson Blood Battle Pig before him and greeted it with a smile. "Hello. We meet again."

A moment later, the Crimson Blood Battle Pig collapsed once 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 grow weaker? Or does the experience gained from the same target gradually decrease?"

"Looks like I'll need to run more experiments."

With that, Qing Mu turned his gaze toward the Crimson Blood Battle Pig before him once again.

Immediately afterward, pale green ripples spread outward from Qing Mu. In an instant, the surrounding grass and trees began growing wildly at a visible rate upon touching those pale green ripples.

This was Qing Mu's First Soul Skill, Grassy Terrain!

Although its effect was not particularly powerful, Grassy Terrain truly possessed the ability to heal allies. As for who counted as an ally, that was naturally up to Qing Mu.

Feeling the wounds on its body gradually lighten, the Crimson Blood Battle Pig looked at Qing Mu with a trace of bewilderment in its eyes. What exactly was this human trying to do? He was actually healing its injuries.

But the Crimson Blood Battle Pig soon understood Qing Mu's sinister intentions. Once it had been more or less healed, Qing Mu and Bulbasaur launched another attack on it.

Three days later, Qing Mu and Bulbasaur finally left the secretly weeping Crimson Blood Battle Pig alone and headed deeper into the Star Dou Great Mountain Range.

Over those three days, Qing Mu used the method of defeating then healing Soul Beasts to finally gain a preliminary understanding of the mechanism for gaining experience by defeating them.

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 directed Bulbasaur to fight that Crimson Blood Battle Pig multiple times, the experience gained in the final battle had actually increased compared to the first.

At the same time, over those three days, Qing Mu also broke through the level-thirty bottleneck during his repeated battles with the Crimson Blood Battle Pig.