Instant Kill, Planning for the Future

The Lightning Rabbit poked its entire head out, cautiously observing the surrounding environment. At the slightest sound, it would immediately shrink back into its hole.

After repeating this three times, the Lightning Rabbit finally felt at ease, emerging fully from its burrow and running into a patch of Blue Silver Grass not far away.

Seeing the Lightning Rabbit come out to graze, Xiao Feng did not act immediately, as the rabbit remained vigilant, its ears twitching constantly to pick up any movement in the vicinity.

After nibbling on a few mouthfuls of Blue Silver Grass and finding no signs of natural predators, the Lightning Rabbit finally relaxed completely and began to gorge itself on the grass.

At this moment, Xiao Feng finally made his move, stepping slowly out of the bushes and arching his body.

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Feng vanished from Xiao Qing's line of sight.

By the time Xiao Qing saw Xiao Feng again, the latter was already carrying a Lightning Rabbit in his mouth, its lips still stained with Blue Silver Grass.

Xiao Feng bit down hard, and the Lightning Rabbit, which had been struggling and squeaking just a moment ago, grew weaker and weaker until it finally lost all signs of life.

At the same time, Xiao Qing suddenly sensed a surge of inexplicable energy entering the Prism Ball.

Is this experience points?

Curious, Xiao Qing tried to absorb the energy, but it remained motionless within the Prism Ball, completely ignoring him.

Seriously? I thought I had a chance to cheat! It turns out only Xiao Feng can absorb the experience points; I can't touch them at all.

Just as Xiao Qing was grumbling to himself, Xiao Feng brought the Lightning Rabbit over and dropped it at his feet.

"Come back, Xiao Feng!"

Xiao Qing tossed the Prism Ball to recall Xiao Feng, wanting to see how he would use the experience points to increase his age.

Once Xiao Feng returned to the Prism Ball, the previously stagnant experience points suddenly became active and were slowly absorbed by him.

Seeing this, Xiao Qing picked up the dead Lightning Rabbit and, following the markers he had set earlier, carefully headed toward his cave.

Before he had walked many steps, Xiao Feng finished absorbing the experience points and wanted to come out of the Prism Ball.

Eager to know the effect of the experience points, Xiao Qing immediately released him.

As the experience points manifested, the age information of the Lightning Rabbit simultaneously appeared in Xiao Qing's mind.

An eighty-four-year Lightning Rabbit; he wondered how many years of age this would add to Xiao Feng.

Having emerged from the Prism Ball, Xiao Feng shook his body, ran excitedly to Xiao Qing, and wagged his tail frantically.

"Did his age increase by eight years? Does killing an opponent grant one-tenth of their soul power as experience points?"

Sensing that Xiao Feng's age was now thirty-one years, Xiao Qing couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. He prepared to test how much experience he could gain without killing the opponent.

Admittedly, Xiao Qing felt no burden in killing soul beasts, but relying on it for experience was only viable in the early and middle stages.

If Xiao Feng were to reach the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast level later on, it would be unrealistic to rely on killing opponents for experience.

There were only so many Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts that had appeared in the Douluo Continent; every one killed was one less.

Of course, Xiao Qing hadn't yet considered opponents with lower ages than Xiao Feng, but based on his past life's experience, the returns might not be high. To what extent, he would have to verify for himself.

After a simple meal, Xiao Qing followed Xiao Feng to search for another opponent.

During the search, Xiao Qing instructed Xiao Feng to find a soul beast with an age similar to the Lightning Rabbit and to avoid killing it immediately—preferably just knocking it unconscious.

Though he didn't understand why Xiao Qing would do this, Xiao Feng still obediently searched for a target that met the requirements.

Fortunately, there were plenty of soul beasts in the Star Dou Forest, and it didn't take long for Xiao Feng to find a suitable one.

"Goo-goo-goo!"

Crouched behind a large tree, Xiao Qing stared quietly at a rooster not far away, which was using its claws to dig through the soil in search of worms.

"The beak and claws of a Colorful Feather Chicken are formidable, Xiao Feng, be careful. If you can't knock it out in time, just kill it!"

Considering his previous instruction not to kill the opponent immediately, Xiao Qing specifically cautioned Xiao Feng.

Xiao Feng nodded at Xiao Qing and quietly stepped toward the Colorful Feather Chicken, the distance between the two beasts closing rapidly.

Five meters, three meters, one meter!

Xiao Feng suddenly lunged from behind the tree and swiped a claw at the Colorful Feather Chicken.

Caught off guard, the Colorful Feather Chicken was sent flying, crashing hard into a tree.

It slid down the trunk and hit the ground with a thud, struggling a few times to get up before finally collapsing into unconsciousness.

As the Colorful Feather Chicken lost its ability to fight, the experience points appeared in Xiao Qing's Prism Ball.

Hmm? Knocking out this eighty-nine-year Colorful Feather Chicken gave about the same as killing the Lightning Rabbit. Could it be that knocking out and killing grant the same amount of experience?

Looking at the Prism Ball in his hand, Xiao Qing muttered to himself. To prove his theory, he had Xiao Feng finish off the Colorful Feather Chicken.

Following Xiao Qing's command, Xiao Feng bit the chicken's neck and shook his head violently, snapping the neck through inertia.

With a sharp crack, Xiao Feng spat the bird out, and the Colorful Feather Chicken lying on the ground was now completely devoid of life.

Xiao Qing stood there for a long time, but he sensed no further increase in experience points within the Prism Ball.

"As expected, knocking out and killing grant the same amount of experience. In that case, it's most profitable to just knock out the opponents."

Relying on killing to gain experience was indeed like draining a pond to catch fish; he just wondered if an opponent knocked unconscious could be knocked out again after recovering to gain more experience.

Xiao Qing walked over to Xiao Feng, picked up the carcass of the Colorful Feather Chicken, and placed it into his cloth bag.

"Xiao Feng, let's go! You're the big hero today, I'll roast a chicken for you!"

"Awoo?"

"It tastes just like the roasted rabbit leg you had today, it's delicious!"

"Awoo!"

Hearing Xiao Qing say that the roasted chicken tasted the same as the roasted rabbit leg, Xiao Feng couldn't help but wag its tail happily.

The sun set, and night fell.

In front of the tree hollow, Xiao Qing and Xiao Feng sat by the campfire, eating their dinner while warming themselves.

Because the Lightning Rabbit and the Colorful Feather Chicken were both quite large, six-year-old Xiao Qing only ate a small portion of the meat, while the rest of the meat and bones were devoured by Xiao Feng with enthusiastic crunching sounds.

Staring at the crackling, burning dry branches, Xiao Qing began to consider his future development.

Based on the current situation, he feared that every time he broke through ten levels, he would need to capture a Spirit Beast as his pet to serve as a substitute for his Spirit Ring.

At the same time, if he wanted his pets to grow, staying in the Star Dou Forest remained Xiao Qing's best choice for now.

With so many Spirit Beasts in the Star Dou Forest, there were naturally many that could serve as opponents for Xiao Feng and his future pets. Furthermore, since Xiao Feng and the others didn't need to kill their opponents to gain experience points, there was plenty of room for Xiao Qing to maneuver.

However, what Xiao Qing cared about more right now was Matthew; during the Spirit Beast riot, Matthew had been the calmest person present.

Xiao Qing didn't know if Matthew had noticed anything, nor did he know if Matthew would investigate him after returning, so he had to be prepared just in case.

After thinking all this through, Xiao Qing crawled into the tree hollow, which he had cleaned and lined with a quilt.

For the past few days, Xiao Qing hadn't been sleeping well and would always wake up in the middle of the night. Fortunately, with Xiao Feng helping to keep watch now, Xiao Qing finally had the time to get some more sleep.

Before sleepiness took over, Xiao Qing's final thought was to stay in the Star Dou Forest until he reached level thirty before leaving.

The Star Dou Forest was, after all, the territory of Spirit Beasts, and he also needed to know if Xiao Feng could still gain experience points by defeating Spirit Masters.