Huohuo Wrecks the House (Seeking Collection! Seeking Follow-up Reads!)

For the next few days, Zhou Lu spent most of his time in his room, guiding Huohuo in practicing its headbutt by crashing into the wall. The only interruption was a day when Wu Xiaoqing called him out.

Even though the last experiment had failed and nearly cost him his life, Wu Xiaoqing hadn't given up on her mushroom project.

After several days of dedicated research, she had finally found a new evolutionary path that she believed was harmless, and invited Zhou Lu to test it by stir-frying some mushrooms.

Zhou Lu didn't know if the new mushrooms were edible.

Because he hadn't fought it.

The mere thought of that day filled Zhou Lu with shame, and he resolved to train his combat skills, at least so he wouldn't be humiliated by a mushroom.

If he hadn't also been somewhat skilled in combat and had Huohuo's help, he would have been beaten to a pulp by a mushroom.

"Are you really researching food?" The disheveled Zhou Lu looked at Sister Xiaoqing with utter helplessness, "I feel like this mushroom could take on three of me."

The key was that once this thing entered its explosive growth phase, one culture medium could grow dozens of identical mushrooms in a single day.

However, this mushroom seemed to only activate its combat mode when its life was threatened; normally, it would just lazily sleep while hugging its wood.

The mushroom that fought him only suddenly attacked when Zhou Lu took out a knife intending to slice it.

Despite the repeated failures, Wu Xiaoqing clearly hadn't given up on the project, as it was her chosen graduation thesis.

During these days, Zhou Lu didn't rush to train [Body Feed] or explore Secret Realms. Instead, he had Huohuo consolidate its previous skills while practicing its headbutt.

As Xiao Xi had said, the [Body Feed] skill was indeed very difficult to train. It required the Beast Tamer and their Spirit Beast to reach a certain level of emotional connection, where they could sacrifice themselves for each other, and even then, it could only be trained under specific conditions with a chance of success.

Furthermore, without guidance from someone experienced, even if you followed the instructions, you might not be able to grasp the flow of energy between the two parties.

Fortunately, while Zhou Lu didn't know who could use [Body Feed], he could make himself use [Body Feed] a few times.

The task [Exam Interference] was impossible to complete, but by using this task, he could obtain a few single-use skill cards for [Body Feed].

Zhou Lu could only hope that this task wouldn't end up like the previous one, where the failure reward turned into a different skill.

Otherwise, he would have to rely solely on recalling his previous experiences to practice [Body Feed].

Thump!

Thump!

While Zhou Lu was contemplating his next training plan, Huohuo was enthusiastically smashing against the wall.

This time, Zhou Lu had learned his lesson and specifically bought metal planting pots used for plant-type Spirit Beasts. Although they weren't as hard or aesthetically pleasing as the shell of the White Jade Snail, they were sufficient for training.

"Say, are you really not going back to your room?" Zhou Lu asked Xiao Xi, who was sipping tea by the rim of her cup.

Xiao Xi glanced at Huohuo, who was continuously smashing the wall, and glared at Zhou Lu irritably, "Are you speaking human words? Can anyone stay in my room right now?"

Zhou Lu, knowing he was in the wrong, coughed twice, unsure how to respond.

Xiao Xi yawned and continued, "I don't know why, but watching it smash the wall doesn't sound like noise to me anymore. If it were on the other side of the wall, it would be pure torture."

Following Xiao Xi's gaze, Zhou Lu saw that the previously smooth wall had already been dented by Huohuo's impacts, revealing the stone layers beneath.

The teacher's dormitory was built with the highest standard of defensive architecture. The outermost layer was energy-absorbing cement, which provided a certain degree of defense against various elemental attacks.

The innermost layer consisted of stacked stones, specifically Blackwater Stone, one of the hardest stones in this world.

While the outer cement was equally sturdy, it developed dents under Huohuo's persistent impacts. However, the Blackwater Stone remained an insurmountable wall for the current Huohuo.

How wonderful!

A weak Spirit Beast, to avoid becoming a burden to its master, continuously trains to become stronger.

And this Spirit Beast is a plant-type Spirit Beast, just like me.

This is the most standard plot progression!

Xiao Xi sat on the cup, watching Huohuo train diligently, feeling a sense of awe.

But while Xiao Xi was lost in thought, Huohuo stopped.

Its metal pot had become slightly deformed from the continuous impacts, making it look somewhat endearingly clumsy as it moved around with the pot on its back.

Huohuo nudged its body towards the indentation it had created in the wall.

It gazed at the seams between the Blackwater Stones, lost in thought.

Huohuo extended its vine step and attached itself to one of the seams.

The sudden silence surprised both Zhou Lu and Xiao Xi. However, the faint sound that then emanated from the wall sent a wave of panic through them.

"Holy crap! Huohuo! What are you doing!" Zhou Lu shouted, trying to stop it.

But by the time he tried to intervene, it was already too late.

With a deafening roar, the wall collapsed, and dust filled the entire room.

Huohuo, the cause of the commotion, was startled by the scene and its vines coiled and retracted.

Huohuo quickly burrowed into Zhou Lu's embrace, then poked out a small leaf, peeking cautiously towards the direction of the collapsed wall.

Xiao Xi clasped her hands over her face, "No! My room!"

The direction of the wall's collapse was towards Xiao Xi's room.

As the Blackwater Stones tumbled down, Huohuo's root that had entered the seam suddenly lost its anchor. It tentatively probed around, feeling a bit lost.

Zhou Lu was about to ask Huohuo what it was doing when it saw Huohuo retract its vines from the collapsed pile of rubble.

Several small pieces of clothing were wrapped by its vines and handed to Xiao Xi.

"Your clothes are dirty..."

Huohuo shook its vines, gesturing for Xiao Xi to change.

Xiao Xi looked at the tea stains on her skirt hem, feeling a mix of amusement and exasperation.

This clumsy grass, it actually tore down the wall just to get me clean clothes.

Seeing Xiao Xi fall into a brief moment of emotion, Huohuo, its plan successful, swiftly stuffed the small undergarments into its own flowerpot.

"..." Xiao Xi stared at the scene speechlessly.

Huohuo patted Zhou Lu's arm with its leaves, pretending to want to chat with him.

"Hey, stop pretending. I saw everything," Xiao Xi said with a cold expression.

Huohuo pretended not to hear.

"Give me back my underwear! You perverted wild grass!" Xiao Xi said angrily, hands on her hips.

Huohuo immediately became unhappy, extending its vines to argue with Xiao Xi: "I'm not a wild grass! I'm a houseplant!"

Zhou Lu helplessly intervened: "Alright, the most important thing for us now is to quickly call someone to handle this. A collapsed dormitory is no small matter."

He never imagined that Huohuo would instinctively learn to burrow through gaps with its roots and cause the wall made of black water stone to collapse.

"Speaking of which... why is Huohuo so interested in your clothes?"

Xiao Xi was still a bit angry, and when she heard Zhou Lu's question, she replied irritably, "My personal clothing is actually leaves from the Seeking Dao Wood's mimicry. For plant-type Spirit Beasts, it's excellent nourishment for growth, and it even gives them a slight attribute boost. Spirit Beasts are very sensitive to things that benefit them."

"So that's how it is..." Zhou Lu nodded thoughtfully.

"Do you have any more clothes like that?" he asked, looking at Xiao Xi and blinking.

"..." Xiao Xi looked at Zhou Lu as if he were a pervert.

"Look... they're all dirty anyway, right?" Zhou Lu quickly explained, realizing the question was strange.

"No need to say more, you two, master and servant, are both perverts!" Xiao Xi said, hands on her hips in anger, declaring her conclusion.

Seeking collection! Seeking follow-up!