Strange Blue Silver Grass

Back home, Xu Bai released Number One again. It was still fast asleep, its body rising and falling in a rhythmic pattern, which was quite an interesting sight.

He didn't disturb it, turning instead to continue studying the handbook in his mind.

He clicked on the entry for the mutated Green-Red Tiger among the recorded soul beasts. He pondered over the "Yes" following the "Deduce Evolution Route" option for a long time, but ultimately decided against clicking it, not wanting to court death.

He then clicked on the "Deduce Cultivation Method" option, and a screen appeared:

[Initiate Second Stage Cultivation Deduction]

[Condition]: Must have completed the first stage of cultivation at least once.

"Sigh, why is there a prerequisite for the second stage?"

Xu Bai let out a soft sigh and glanced once more at the sleeping Number One by his feet. "I wonder how long it will take for Number One to unlock its racial skills. If it takes ten days or half a month, wouldn't all the mental energy I recover every day go to waste?"

Although deducing the first stage yesterday had consumed most of his mental energy, Xu Bai was amazed to find that after just one night of sleep, he had recovered seventy or eighty percent of it, and he felt refreshed upon waking up this morning.

While he didn't understand why a simple night's sleep could restore so much of his expended mental energy, he was certain that this recovered energy could not be stockpiled.

If he didn't use it up today, he would still have the same amount tomorrow—it was a complete and utter loss!

"Forget it, forget it. A loss is a loss; I can't just go courting death by deducing evolution routes."

Xu Bai shook his head and was about to stand up to prepare lunch when a childish voice echoed in his ears: "Black, black, so ugly."

Xu Bai was startled and whipped around, but there were no soul beasts behind him.

That voice had come through his Telepathy talent, which meant that the words had been spoken by a soul beast.

He had activated Telepathy when he first came in, intending to have a heart-to-heart with Number One. He hadn't managed that, but he had unexpectedly discovered an intruder.

His gaze swept across the entire courtyard, but he found nothing.

Xu Bai frowned slightly.

What was going on? How could there be another soul beast in his house? This was a human city, right? How could a soul beast be so bold?

Even if it had an invisibility ability, it couldn't be this arrogant. If he, a one-ring soul master, couldn't perceive it, surely a Soul King or Soul Emperor would have?

Huangshan City was a medium-sized city. The city lord and the branch master of the Spirit Hall were both Soul Emperors, and there were plenty of Soul Kings. According to Xu Bai's knowledge, there were at least two Soul Kings guarding the city walls.

"Whatever the reason, I'd better slip away first..."

Xu Bai muttered to himself, raised his hand to recall Number One into his Beast Taming Space, and prepared to leave as if nothing were amiss.

He hadn't taken more than a few steps when that childish voice rang out in his ears again: "Why did that ugly guy suddenly disappear? And that bad guy, what is he going to do?"

"Bad guy? Is it talking about me?" Xu Bai paused, his expression intrigued.

This soul beast knew him, and judging by the tone, he had provoked it before?

But when had he ever provoked another soul beast?

Was it something he had accidentally done in the Hengduan Mountain Range, or...

Xu Bai suddenly thought of something and his gaze snapped toward the corner of the wall to the southwest, where a delicate Blue Silver Grass was growing, looking as if it had just broken through the soil.

"It grew back?" Xu Bai raised an eyebrow slightly.

When he first bought this small courtyard, it was full of weeds. There had been a Blue Silver Grass in that exact spot, and when he was clearing the weeds, he had naturally pulled it out along with them.

He just hadn't expected the Blue Silver Grass to have such tenacious vitality; even after being pulled out by the roots, it had managed to grow back.

"But is it really the one talking?" Xu Bai remained skeptical.

As the most common soul beast on the Douluo Continent, he hadn't seen a hundred-year-old one, but as a beast tamer with the "Telepathy" talent, he had the most say regarding the intelligence of ten-year-old Blue Silver Grass.

They could only express simple words like "so cold," "so hot," or "so thirsty"; anything more complex was beyond them.

And the owner of that voice just now had a much higher level of expressive ability.

Just then, the voice sounded again: "Is the bad guy looking at me? With that expression, does he want to pull me out again? Wuwuwu, the bad guy is so mean, it was so hard for me to grow back..."

"It really is it!" Xu Bai was surprised and walked over quickly.

Blue Silver Grass was common, but this was the first time he had seen one with such high intelligence.

After approaching, Xu Bai crouched down and reached out.

"Wuwuwu~ don't..."

Watching the large hand drawing closer, the Blue Silver Grass let out a desperate wail.

However, the pain of being pulled out by the roots that it had imagined did not occur. Instead, a force pushed it, causing it to sway uncontrollably in place a few times.

"So it's another mutation. No wonder its intelligence is so high. I thought it might be a Blue Silver King or a Blue Silver Emperor."

Xu Bai withdrew his hand and focused his mind on the handbook in his sea of consciousness:

[Name]: Mutated Blue Silver Grass.

[Attribute]: Wood, Life.

[Racial Potential]: Millennium.

[Evolution Route]: None.

[Introduction]: Even in a desperate situation, a glimmer of life remains. This is a mutation of Blue Silver Grass that thrives in the face of death, with an occurrence rate reaching a terrifying one in ten million.

Note: Consume a small amount of mental energy to deduce the evolutionary path and method? (Yes/No).

Consume a small amount of mental energy to deduce the cultivation method? (Yes/No).

"No wonder I didn't notice it before; it turns out its intelligence only recently improved."

Xu Bai gazed at the handbook, clicking his tongue in wonder. "The racial potential has also increased. The handbook lists the racial potential of Blue Silver Grass as ten years, but this one jumped straight to a thousand years—it's almost catching up to a Blue Silver King."

Blue Silver Grass becomes a King at ten thousand years and an Emperor at one hundred thousand years. Xu Bai surmised that Blue Silver Grass, the Blue Silver King, and the Blue Silver Emperor likely did not belong to the same species; at the very least, the handbook would certainly have classified and marked them separately.

"Still, I suppose my luck isn't half bad. It hasn't been long, and I've already encountered two mutated soul beasts. If this were a beast-taming novel, this would definitely be the standard protagonist setup."

Xu Bai felt a bit smug, and his gaze toward the Blue Silver Grass softened considerably.

"Forget it, I'm idle anyway. I'll give today's mental energy to you, Blue Silver Grass."

Thinking this to himself, Xu Bai shifted his gaze to the handbook. Just as he was about to tap on the cultivation method deduction, he suddenly noticed something amiss.

"Consume a small amount of mental energy to deduce the evolutionary path and method..."

Xu Bai read it word for word, confirming he hadn't misread it.

Deducing an evolutionary path usually consumed a large amount of mental energy; why had it changed to a small amount?

The moment this doubt arose in his mind, he discovered that some information had inexplicably appeared in his brain.

The content of this information was precisely the other functions of the handbook, or more accurately, the user manual.

Only then did he realize that the mental energy consumed by the deduction function was determined by Xu Bai's existing knowledge of the soul beast being deduced.

He might not know much about other soul beasts, but he knew Blue Silver Grass like the back of his hand.

However, this understanding was limited to theory; he knew the evolutionary direction of Blue Silver Grass, but knew nothing about practical cultivation.

This was the reason why the mental energy cost for deducing the evolutionary direction and method had decreased, while the cost for deducing the cultivation method remained unchanged.