The next morning, the sky was clear and bright.
Xu Bai walked out of the luxurious hotel, left Heaven Dou City, and headed straight for the Sunset Forest with a clear goal in mind.
He had enjoyed himself immensely the night before. It had been the most comfortable day he'd had since crossing over.
As expected of the imperial capital—the service in its tertiary industries deserved a perfect score.
Even as he walked, Xu Bai still couldn't get that soft bed from the night before out of his mind.
"Extravagant. Absolutely extravagant. I can hardly believe people can live in such luxury. It's really opened my eyes."
He sighed inwardly, then lamented, "Too bad I'm still so young. There were a lot of places I couldn't get into. Otherwise, I could've satisfied the curiosity that's been bothering me for two lifetimes..."
Well, it was just plain curiosity. He didn't have any other ideas.
Of course, if he got the chance in the future, at most he'd go there with a critical eye and give everything a thorough tongue-lashing.
Shaking his head, Xu Bai pushed aside his distracting thoughts and focused on the road.
The Sunset Forest lay beside Heaven Dou City, with a straight official road running between them. Its surface was packed smooth, and riding at a gallop took less than half an hour.
When he arrived, the first thing he saw was a large market town that had sprung up outside the Sunset Forest, where Soul Masters could buy supplies or rest.
It was the middle of the day, and the market town was bustling with people. Hawkers' cries rang out without end.
Xu Bai didn't linger. He walked straight into the forest.
After finding an unoccupied spot, he opened the Beast Taming Space and let First out.
When First emerged, it walked with graceful steps and an aloof bearing. Its bright tiger eyes gleamed coldly. Anyone who saw it would surely praise it, saying, "This beast is no ordinary creature. It has the makings of a Beast King."
But the moment this Beast King-to-be saw Xu Bai, it turned into a resentful wife and began to complain:
'Eleven days. A whole eleven days. I've never spent this long in the Beast Taming Space before. Beast Tamer, do you know what I've been through these eleven days!?'
"I do." Xu Bai nodded calmly. "You ate and slept, slept and ate. Although I couldn't enter the Beast Taming Space, I knew everything that happened in there."
'Uh...'
First froze, its tiger head instinctively drooping, its expression sheepish. 'You really knew everything?'
Xu Bai chuckled. "You're pretty clever. You knew not to keep plucking from the same tree. You've had plenty of Clear Heart Oranges these past ten days, haven't you? How did they taste?"
First's massive frame shuddered, and for an instant, its expression turned unnatural.
But that unnaturalness quickly became shameless defiance:
'I—I ate them. So what? You left me in the Beast Taming Space for so long, and the food you left behind tasted awful. What was wrong with eating a few...'
"That's why I didn't call you out on it in the first place."
Xu Bai's tone was perfectly natural. "I was partly to blame, after all. So let's put this behind us, and don't do it again."
First was stunned. It hadn't expected its Beast Tamer to let it off so easily, and it was somewhat delighted.
But outwardly, it still wore an expression that said, "I did nothing wrong. You're the one who's decided to forgive me."
As a Beast Tamer with the Telepathy talent, Xu Bai couldn't quite make out what First's expression meant, but he knew exactly what it was thinking.
Still, Xu Bai didn't pay it much mind. It was only natural for a glutton to feel resentful after going more than ten days without anything good to eat. He was a pretty open-minded Beast Tamer.
With that, he leaped onto First's back.
"Let's go, First. Let's see how lucky we are, and how long it takes us to find your new companions."
First now stood more than four meters tall, with a body over ten meters long. Xu Bai could not only stand on its back with ease, he could roll around up there without a problem. It had truly entered the ranks of giant beasts.
Still, it was a size smaller than the giant tiger he'd seen before.
But that wasn't a problem. First would probably make up the difference once it reached four or five thousand years, and completely surpass it by the time it reached seven or eight thousand.
As for revenge, Xu Bai planned to wait until First broke through to ten thousand years.
The Green-Red Tiger's racial potential was a thousand years. No matter how high the clan leader's cultivation was, it couldn't possibly reach ten thousand years.
By then, First could simply crush it head-on, saving time and effort.
Below him, feeling the slight weight on its back, First's ears twitched involuntarily. Its eyes narrowed as it remained immersed in the joy of having escaped punishment.
Hearing its Beast Tamer's instructions, it obediently followed the order.
But after only a couple of steps, it suddenly realized something was seriously wrong.
'Wait, wasn't I the one berating my Beast Tamer at the start? How did it end with my Beast Tamer forgiving me?'
Xu Bai's initial idea had been right. The Sunset Forest was huge. He had only wandered around its outermost reaches for a short while, yet he'd encountered over a hundred kinds of plant Soul Beasts, not to mention countless other small Soul Beasts.
Unfortunately, he still hadn't become a proper three-ring Soul Elder. His increased Soul Power Level had raised the upper limit of the spiritual power he could withstand somewhat, but he was still far from a qualitative change.
Otherwise, he reckoned that he could have pushed his spiritual power to a new upper limit in just that short time.
After wandering for most of the day, Xu Bai had found quite a few Soul Beast cubs, but not one of them caught his eye.
Their bloodline levels weren't high, and they weren't mutated Soul Beasts either. The investment required to contract one of them would be too high to make it worthwhile.
Most importantly, they all seemed kind of stupid.
Their intelligence was low, and they seemed dazed and muddleheaded—only a little better than Blue Silver Grass.
Only now did he realize just how lucky he'd been to contract First and Little Blue. It wasn't just a matter of their bloodline talents.
After chatting briefly with a few Soul Beast cubs, he suddenly remembered that the original story had mentioned the issue of Soul Beast intelligence. Only once they reached ten thousand years did their intelligence become comparable to that of humans.
Soul Beasts like First and Little Blue, with low bloodline levels but no shortage of intelligence, could absolutely be called one-in-a-million geniuses among their kind.
And so, several more days passed.
Xu Bai and First had gradually approached the inner reaches of the Sunset Forest. Thousand-year Soul Beasts had become common, and they'd even spotted one or two ten-thousand-year Soul Beasts in the distance.
But he still hadn't found the dream Soul Beast in his heart. Even after lowering his standards to accept one with higher intelligence and a weaker bloodline, he still hadn't found one.
"First, the inner reaches are just ahead. Let's go look somewhere else."
Xu Bai sighed. He knew that the deeper they went, the better the quality of the Soul Beasts.
But the inner reaches were still too dangerous. He wanted to go in and try his luck.
Still, his reason floated up like Paimon and told him, "Let's explore the places ahead another time..." Then it forcibly made him give up on the thought of courting death.
'Do we have to go somewhere else? My skill tells me there might be precious metal in there...'
First stopped and asked him.
Precious metal?
Xu Bai's brows drew together as he sat up. "How precious?"
'I'm not sure. Anyway, it's really, really precious.'
"Is it far from here?"
'Not far. It seems to be in that mountain up ahead.'
Xu Bai: To hell with reason. I've already deleted Genshin Impact!
Of course, the main reason was that it wasn't far away, and the potential gain seemed greater than the risk. It was worth taking a chance.
If the precious metal First sensed was on the same level as Cold Heart Refined Iron, then even a piece no bigger than his fingernail would be enough to buy the materials needed for First's evolution.