The First Also Has an Uncle

"That's a Green-Red Tiger, two purple rings on its tail—it's a two-thousand-year-old Soul Beast! How could a Soul Beast of this age appear on the outer perimeter?"

Xu Bai felt a jolt of alarm and hurriedly looked toward Di Yi beside him.

Di Yi was a tiger cub abandoned by the Green-Red Tiger pack; seeing his own kind now, Xu Bai was truly afraid he might have an extreme reaction.

That was a thousand-year-level Soul Beast, something he was in no position to handle right now.

Fortunately, Di Yi did not lose his composure or lash out upon seeing his kin. He only stared at the giant tiger with cold eyes, as if suppressing the hatred in his heart.

"Don't look, Di Yi. It's a thousand-year Soul Beast; we can't afford to provoke it for now. Once some time passes, I'll help you break through to the thousand-year mark, and it won't be too late to take revenge then."

Through their mental link, Xu Bai sent a comforting message to soothe Di Yi's emotions.

Hearing his Beast Tamer's voice, Di Yi's suppressed emotions eased slightly. He shook his head and forced himself to look away.

"Let's go, Di Yi. We're leaving to avoid its edge and bide our time; you don't need to carry any mental burden."

Xu Bai rubbed Di Yi's head and continued to offer words of comfort.

Di Yi nodded, fully agreeing with his Beast Tamer's reasoning.

With that, man and tiger carefully retreated from the spot, heading toward the edge of the mountain range.

Long after the pair had departed, the massive Green-Red Tiger looked over in confusion. Just a moment ago, it had caught a whiff of a familiar scent, one very similar to that discarded piece of trash.

It leaped a few times to reach the source of the scent and sniffed carefully, only then letting go of its doubts.

The scent was indeed similar to that trash, but there were clear differences. Besides, there was the scent of a human here; even if that trash were still alive, given its cowardice, it would never be hanging around a human.

After leaving the Hengduan Mountain Range, Xu Bai finally relaxed his guard. He recalled Di Yi into his Beast Taming Space and took the opportunity to ask about his relationship with that giant tiger.

Di Yi's answer was crisp and clear: it was his second uncle, the very tiger who had first proposed abandoning him.

Second uncle?!

Xu Bai was surprised at first, then a look of gratification appeared on his face.

Even the seniority of the enemy is the same—well done, Di Yi, we really are fated.

Inside the Beast Taming Space, Di Yi could not see Xu Bai's expression, but he could faintly sense his Beast Tamer's current mood through the Beast Taming Mark.

Di Yi: ?????

After a moment of hesitation, he tentatively asked:

'Beast Tamer, I feel like you seem to be... gratified...'

"Gratified? You felt wrong."

Xu Bai denied it flatly, then said with a straight face, "I was just thinking about how to help you increase your age, calculating how long it would take me to save up enough money for the materials."

'Is that so?'

Di Yi was doubtful.

"What else? Use your tiger brain and think about it—even if I were to mock you, I wouldn't be gratified."

Xu Bai was logical and spoke with righteous indignation.

Di Yi thought about it and felt that his Beast Tamer made sense, suddenly feeling deeply ashamed.

He was still too sensitive; to actually suspect a Beast Tamer who truly had his best interests at heart—he really was a piece of work!

This little episode eventually ended with Di Yi's self-reflection.

By the time they returned home, it was already dark.

After finishing chores like eating and washing up, Xu Bai lay on his bed and opened his Manual.

[Note]: Consume a large amount of mental energy to deduce the second stage of training? (Yes/No).

"Yes!" Xu Bai thought to himself. The image on the Manual shifted, and it began to deduce...

The next morning, at dawn.

Xu Bai slowly opened his eyes, feeling that he had slept exceptionally well last night.

Normally, when a Soul Master uses external forces to increase their mental energy, their mind becomes extremely agitated, which often leads to insomnia that night.

Don't ask how Xu Bai knows this; he had suffered a rare bout of insomnia the night he spent in the Hengduan Mountain Range.

The next day, he had recorded over sixty types of Soul Beasts, which meant that even though he had been sleepless the night before, he remained energetic all day, until he went to bed that night and still felt no sleepiness.

Then, he had decisively opened the Manual and started deducing the second stage of training for the Mutated Blue Silver Grass.

Facts proved that the Manual's sleep-inducing effect was truly heaven-defying; he would never have to worry about insomnia again.

Xu Bai chuckled, muttered a complaint to himself, and turned his attention to the Manual:

[Second Stage]: Create Thousand Wood Spirit Powder to accelerate the growth rate of herbaceous Soul Beasts under one thousand years old.

[Required Materials]: Thousand-year Ancient Spirit Tree Heart, hundred-year Wutong Tree Twig, thousand-year Da Hong Pao Leaf, Scale Armor Stone...

[Production Method]: Grind the Ancient Spirit Tree Heart and Da Hong Pao Leaf into powder, calcine with the Wutong Tree Twig, then use the Scale Armor Stone...

[Usage Method]: Once every three months, one portion per use.

"As expected, it's still producing something similar to Hundred Herb Liquid, but... the scope of application has actually been narrowed. Is it because of the increase in age?"

Xu Bai murmured to himself, then looked at the "required materials" and felt a sudden headache.

The cost of a single portion was only slightly cheaper than Spirit Ascension Liquid; the total price of all the required materials added up to around one thousand Gold Soul Coins.

He had assumed that something as cheap and effective as Hundred Herb Liquid was just the beginning, but he hadn't expected it to peak right out of the gate.

"At least the method is simple and doesn't require too much trial-and-error cost," Xu Bai sighed softly. He glanced at the fifty Clear Heart Orange Trees in his Beast Taming Space and decided to continue increasing production—to increase it ruthlessly.

It was a pity that Thousand Wood Powder was only useful for herbaceous Soul Beasts; otherwise, he might have been able to replace the Soul Beasts in his orchard with century-old ones in the future.

The profit margin might not be as high as the Clear Heart Orange Trees, but the number of Gold Soul Coins earned would certainly be greater.

With a sigh, he cast his gaze toward First, who was sleeping not far away. A complex and sympathetic look flashed in his eyes, and finally, amidst a pang of heartache, he silently whispered an apology.

To make everyone stronger, he would just have to let First suffer a little more; he would bear the resentment himself.

In its deep slumber, First, who seemed to be having a pleasant dream, suddenly shuddered, a look of terror appearing on its face as it inexplicably began to have a nightmare.

Just like that, time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, over two months had passed.

Xu Bai had finally saved up enough Gold Soul Coins to purchase the cultivation materials for First and Little Blue.

First deserved much of the credit for being able to save up the Gold Soul Coins so quickly.

He cast his gaze into the Beast Taming Space, where a small island had now formed at the center, and standing on that island were over three hundred densely packed Clear Heart Orange Trees.

Of course, Little Blue had also contributed quite a bit during this time.

With over three hundred fruit trees bearing fruit at the same time, it would be both time-consuming and exhausting if Xu Bai had to pick them by hand.

Therefore, Little Blue, with its many vines, had become an excellent tool and helper.

Actually, there was an even more time-saving and effortless method, which was for Xu Bai to directly use his authority within the Beast Taming Space to pick the Clear Heart Oranges and stack them up.

But none of that mattered now; the most important thing now was to go buy the materials!

After such a long period of silence, the strength of Xu Bai and his two tamed beasts was finally about to see another rapid surge.