Beasts Gather

Perhaps the eaglet heard the sounds outside the cave and thought its mother had returned. Its high-pitched chirping never stopped, so Ye Yun couldn't help flying toward the cave.

The cave wasn't deep, only five or six meters, and it was nearly six meters wide, so there was plenty of light inside. Ye Yun immediately spotted a huge nest made of branches, with a pile of snow-white bones on the other side.

The bones were piled up in a disorderly fashion, and Ye Yun couldn't tell what species they belonged to. But his sharp eyes picked out two yellowing skulls among them. They didn't look recent. He wondered which unlucky passerby had happened to wander by and been killed by the giant eagle.

After carefully checking the cave and confirming there was no danger, Ye Yun flew inside on his sword. As soon as he jumped down, the cries from the nest grew even more urgent. It seemed the eaglet had mistaken him for the parent who'd gone out to forage.

Curious, Ye Yun walked closer to the nest and finally saw the eaglet that had been crying nonstop. It was a bright red chick about the size of a hen. Just as Ye Yun had expected, its eyes hadn't opened yet, and only a few sparse feathers dotted its body. It must have hatched quite recently; otherwise, it wouldn't have mistaken Ye Yun for its parent.

Ye Yun fell in love with the eaglet at first sight. It was ugly now, but once its feathers grew in, it should be no less impressive than its parents. When Ye Yun was a child, he'd watched The Return of the Condor Heroes and dreamed of raising a divine condor of his own, then soaring through the sky on its back. Now he had a little eaglet right in front of him. How could he let such an opportunity pass? Besides, quite some time had passed since he killed the giant eagle. And since food wasn't scarce beneath the cliff, it seemed there had only been one adult eagle in the nest. In other words, if he didn't take the eaglet in, it would starve to death.

There was no need to hesitate. The male eagle he'd seen was proof that this eaglet would grow into a magnificent bird. Once it was grown, it would make a fine companion or mount. Ye Yun pulled several thick branches from the nest and shaved them down, then used some of the nest's tough, dry grass to make a simple cage. He added thin twigs and dry grass to fashion a makeshift nest inside. Then he lifted the eaglet with his magic power, placed it in the cage, secured it, and carried it out.

At the cave entrance, Ye Yun looked around before forming a sword seal and flying back to Border City. He'd already found the vermilion fruits and had unexpectedly picked up an eaglet, so he'd made a pretty good haul. He planned to spend the coming days cultivating with the fruits and feeding the eaglet while he waited for the beast tide. Since he'd come all this way, how could he miss out on something so interesting?

Eagles were carnivores, so Ye Yun caught a wild rabbit along the way. After skinning it, he used a small knife to cut off all the meat and feed it to the eaglet. As he entered the city, a cultivator who seemed to have spent years in Border City recognized the eaglet's potential and offered a high price for it. Ye Yun refused to sell.

Ye Yun had raided plenty of birds' nests as a child and raised quite a few fledglings, so he knew the basics. When he got back to the inn, he carefully carved a simple warming array into the makeshift cage to make sure the eaglet had a comfortable environment.

To Ye Yun's relief, the eaglet was much like an ordinary bird: it ate its fill and then went to sleep, sparing him a lot of trouble.

After settling the eaglet in, Ye Yun lay on the inn bed and fell into thought. He'd picked six vermilion fruits in all, and each one could increase his magical power by sixty years' worth. A person could only eat three; any more would have no effect. Over time, the body developed resistance to the medicine, and the energy in pills or vermilion fruits could only replenish spent magical power. Any excess would dissipate. If refined into pills, each fruit could produce two pills, each of which could increase a person's power by fifty years. A person could still only take three pills. Ye Yun wasn't sure whether he should eat the fruits directly or refine them into pills.

"System, are there any side effects from using vermilion fruits or pills to increase my magical power?" After thinking it over for a while, Ye Yun decided to ask the system. It couldn't help him directly, but it could answer questions.

"If other people used rare treasures or pills to increase their magical power, it would indeed have an impact. But as long as they didn't overuse them and took care afterward to temper and refine their power, there wouldn't be a problem. As for the host, you needn't worry at all. You can have the system refine and purify the energy as it enters your body. As long as you don't increase your magical power so much that you can no longer control it, there won't be a problem."

"So that's how it is! Does that mean I can take pills and level up without limit?" Ye Yun shot upright in bed.

"In theory, yes. But, host, you can't get fat from a single bite. Even if you gave a child a machine gun, he might not be able to control it. He might even break a bone—or shoot himself dead if it went off."

"Relax, System. I'm not going to blow myself up. I know how to stay within my limits."

"If the system can purify my magical power, then what's there to hesitate about? Of course I should refine the fruits into pills." After getting a clear answer from the system, Ye Yun was eager to start refining them at once. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough ingredients, and he didn't own a pill furnace, so he had to give up on the idea.

Ye Yun spent the following days in complete comfort. He devoted most of his time to cultivation, and only took the eaglet out to hunt animals during mealtimes. He sold the materials from his kills to the shops in Border City, earning a small surplus after covering his daily expenses. Every now and then, he even managed to hunt a demon beast and make a tidy profit.

Time flew by, and half a month passed in the blink of an eye. In that time, Little Gold—the name Ye Yun had given the eagle—had opened its eyes and grown a good number of golden feathers. It was beginning to look like a proper eagle, and its appetite had grown considerably. It could easily eat an entire sheep in one meal. Ye Yun had also collected quite a few materials, and had even traded a demon beast's claw for half a kilo of iron essence, which was excellent for forging magical treasures.

One morning, after getting up, Ye Yun checked on Little Gold in its cage. He fed it some beef he'd warmed up, which he'd kept overnight in an ice array, then went downstairs. To his surprise, the usually packed dining area was nearly empty. Only a handful of people were eating breakfast, and they were all rushing through it as if in a hurry. Puzzled, Ye Yun turned to the innkeeper and asked what was going on.

"Immortal Master, haven't you heard? The beasts outside the city have started gathering in large numbers. The others have gone out to hunt demon beasts among them before the beast army grows too large. You should hurry too, Immortal Master! If you wait, you'll miss your chance. When the beast tide attacks the city, the demon beasts won't go off on their own. Now's the best time to hunt them."