Double Joy

[Name]: Mutated Blue Silver Grass.

[Attributes]: Wood, Life

[Species Potential]: Millennial

[Evolution Path]: None

[Introduction]: Even in the depths of despair, a thread of life remains. This is a mutated strain of Blue Silver Grass that was reborn from death, with a terrifyingly low chance of appearing: one in ten million.

[Note]: Consume a large amount of mental power to deduce an evolution method? (Yes/No).

Consume a tiny amount of mental power to deduce a cultivation method? (Yes/No).

"Something's changed again."

Xu Bai raised an eyebrow. The mental power needed to deduce an evolution method had dropped from a massive amount to a large amount, while the amount needed to deduce a cultivation method had become tiny.

It seemed he knew neither the Manual's upper limit nor its lower limit.

A tiny amount of mental power...

Xu Bai pondered for a moment, then stirred his thoughts and began the first-stage deduction.

The deduction went faster with only a tiny amount of mental power. It was finished after what he estimated to be half an hour.

As for the cost, it was about half of his current mental power, leaving him feeling only slightly groggy.

After yawning, Xu Bai looked at the Manual:

[First Stage]: Make Hundred Herb Liquid, which can accelerate the growth of plant Soul Beasts less than a hundred years old.

[Required Materials]: Soul Beast bones, Blue Silver Grass, Sunlight Mushroom, Water Lotus...

[Preparation Method]: First, boil the bones into broth...

[Usage]: Once a month, one serving each time.

Emmm...

Xu Bai stared at the required materials and preparation method in silence, silently estimating the cost of making a serving of Hundred Herb Liquid.

Leaving aside the losses caused by his inexperience, each serving of Hundred Herb Liquid would cost about ten Gold Soul Coins.

"Fine, I can afford to play around with it. I just don't know how well it works."

Xu Bai glanced at the Beast Taming Space. Five and a half stacks of Gold Soul Coins sat piled in one corner.

He had organized them when he had nothing better to do. Ten piles made a stack, and each pile held ten Gold Soul Coins, so five and a half stacks meant more than five hundred coins.

Over the past seven days, Number One had grown bigger and bigger, and naturally, its appetite had grown too.

By now, Number One could eat an entire Gold Soul Coin's worth of food in a single day. It made Xu Bai's heart bleed.

One Gold Soul Coin a day, and that was just for food...

"No, once Number One awakens its racial skill, I'll have to make serious money. Otherwise, forget helping it get stronger—even keeping it fed will be difficult."

Xu Bai grumbled to himself. He glanced at the Hundred Herb Liquid noted in the Manual, his eyes shifting as an idea came to him.

If the Hundred Herb Liquid worked well, perhaps he could cosplay as Han Li.

With that thought, he hurried off.

Time was money. He couldn't waste it on meaningless rest.

Huangshan City's public order was decent, and Xu Bai was a Soul Master to boot, so buying the ingredients for the Hundred Herb Liquid went smoothly. He didn't run into one of those brainless troublemakers from old-fashioned novels.

With the Beast Taming Space, Xu Bai didn't have to worry about carrying everything. He bought ten sets of ingredients in one go, along with some Soul Beast food.

The Soul Beast food was for Number One, of course. With its appetite now, preparing meals from ordinary ingredients took too much time and effort. Left with no choice, Xu Bai had to make up for quantity with quality. Otherwise, Number One couldn't possibly be eating a whole Gold Soul Coin's worth of food every day.

When he got home, Xu Bai splashed cold water on his face, then shut himself in the kitchen to tinker with the Hundred Herb Liquid.

Fortunately, the Manual's instructions were precise, and the preparation process itself wasn't complicated.

Xu Bai figured that with his intelligence, he should be able to replicate it in no time.

First, boil the bones into broth, then juice the Blue Silver Grass. Once the broth changed color, add the juice; ten minutes later, put in the sliced Sunlight Mushroom...

Time passed. After ruining four sets of ingredients and a pot, Xu Bai finally managed to replicate the Hundred Herb Liquid. It was now stored in a palm-sized porcelain bottle.

Looking through the bottle's mouth, he saw that the Hundred Herb Liquid was a pale, verdant green. When he brought it closer, he could even smell a faint grassy fragrance. It made him want to gulp it down just to see what it tasted like.

Xu Bai shook his head, suppressing that dangerous thought, and left the kitchen.

The sky had already turned dusky yellow. In other words, he'd spent the whole afternoon replicating the Hundred Herb Liquid.

"I really am exceptionally talented."

Thinking with a hint of pride, Xu Bai slowly walked over to the Blue Silver Grass.

Sensing someone approach, the Blue Silver Grass raised its leaves in confusion. Then a pale green, unidentified liquid rained down from above and drenched its "face."

What was this?

It was just about to ask when the powerful, strange energy coming from the soil made it clamp its mouth shut.

Did it even need to ask what this was?

This was a fortuitous encounter—a heaven-defying one!

The Blue Silver Grass could sense that if it absorbed all this energy, it could increase its age by at least two or three years.

Two or three years might not seem like much, but the boost it gave was real.

Every bit more strength meant a little more ability to protect itself, and one more reason to believe it could survive safely through another day.

"I mistook you for a bad person, good person! I was wrong. You've been so good to me. I'll never call you a bad person again. You're a good person, the greatest good person of all!"

Filled with gratitude, the Blue Silver Grass worked hard to absorb the strange energy in the soil. At the same time, it secretly memorized the weeds and wildflowers that were competing with it for the energy.

How dare they steal the fortuitous encounter the good person had given it? It would never play with them again!

Xu Bai, who had awakened the Telepathy talent: ...

Good. Like Number One, this was a Soul Beast that knew how to be grateful!

It just didn't seem very bright...

But it didn't matter. If it could reach a hundred years of age before he reached level twenty, he'd make it his second pet beast.

Xu Bai secretly dangled that carrot in front of the Blue Silver Grass, then decided to go back and rest.

He figured he must have been running on fumes from all the excitement just now.

Now that the excitement had passed, his spirit had crumpled.

This felt only a little better than when he'd "consumed a small amount of mental power."

Xu Bai had barely taken two steps when a sudden disturbance came from the Beast Taming Space.

His spirits jolted, and he hurriedly looked over. Sure enough, just as he'd expected—

Number One had finally awakened its racial skill, and its age seemed to be advancing toward a hundred years as well.

"Is this what they call double joy?"

Anticipation shone in Xu Bai's eyes. After growing for the past few days, the little fellow that had once been so small had become about the size of a medium-sized dog.

Once Number One's age broke through to a hundred years, its body would surely grow dramatically. Perhaps one day, when he traveled far from home, Number One could carry him on its back.

Time passed by. Number One's appearance gradually began to change. Its yellow fur turned golden, even seeming to glint faintly.

As for its white fur, the Magnet Powder made it impossible to see any change for now.

At a certain moment, the transformation finally stopped.

A white tiger with golden stripes, about one meter tall, appeared before Xu Bai.

At the same time, the feedback from the breakthrough arrived.

First came his physique and mental power, both of which he could clearly feel had improved across the board.

Then came his Soul Power, which seemed to have increased by two or three levels as well.

Finally, his Soul Ring appeared on its own without Xu Bai summoning it. Before his eyes, its original yellowish-white color rapidly turned yellow.