Barbecue

Su Hao and Lin Yaoyao went down the mountain to pick some spirit vegetables. They also planned to catch a couple of pretty-feathered spirit beasts and make chicken stewed with mushrooms, but a mad dog chased them all the way to the mountaintop.

The mad dog was immensely powerful, its black fur sleek as satin. It turned out to be the demon beast that guarded the vegetable garden and spirit beasts at the foot of the mountain, at the seventh level of Qi Condensation.

Had Su Hao not been fast enough to drag Lin Yaoyao in a dash to the summit, they would surely have been bitten black and blue.

Back in the courtyard, the two prepared a meal. Though it was all vegetarian fare, it tasted delicious and was rich in essence, beneficial to cultivation.

Xiao Wuji emerged after catching the scent, plopped himself down carelessly, and began wolfing down the food.

Amid a fierce scramble, the meal was swept clean like clouds scattered by the wind.

At last, Xiao Wuji tossed down his chopsticks, wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth, and said, "Your master has some private business to attend to outside. I may not return for a month or two. While I'm gone, no one will be looking after you. You two must be careful."

Su Hao could not be bothered with him. When had he ever looked after them?

After saying a few words to Su Hao, Lin Yaoyao returned to the thatched hut. Having lost to Zhang Yuan today, he had suffered a severe blow and intended to enter seclusion and work hard toward breaking through to a higher level.

Su Hao, meanwhile, left the courtyard and headed straight for the Great Wilderness Mountains below, planning to hunt some demon beasts there and finally have some meat.

Xiao Wuji stood there awkwardly. At last, he shook his head and said, "No gratitude at all. I've given so much already—how come they don't know to thank me? Hey, big guy, remember to wash the bowls and chopsticks. And deal with those few dirty sets of clothes I haven't washed while you're at it. This Elder is in a hurry, so I'm off first."

With that, he transformed into a streak of rainbow light and shot into the sky, vanishing beyond the horizon in the blink of an eye.

Inside the thatched house, Lin Yaoyao muttered, "Brother Hao's master really is unreliable. He passes down no techniques, gives no treasures as rewards, no pills, no spirit herbs—yet he makes us do rough work every day."

Su Hao entered the forest. With the map bestowed by Xiao Wuji, he could roughly distinguish directions here and would not accidentally wander into any deathtraps.

As he traveled through the woods, he soon hunted down a low-level demon tiger. Finding a small lake, he cleaned and dressed it before roasting it directly.

While waiting for the meat to roast, Su Hao sank his consciousness into his body. A streak of black Sword Qi rose and fell over his sea of qi, looking extraordinarily nimble, truly like a sword soul.

Within that sword soul, two words could vaguely be seen: Godslayer!

The name was domineering; one could tell at a glance it was no ordinary thing. Yet in Su Hao's senses, the sword soul carried no majesty at all. It had suffered a devastating blow, and the fact that it had survived was already no easy feat.

"Fine. Since I obtained you, at least I'll save myself some trouble when forging a magic treasure. And with this sword soul, the magic treasure I forge can steadily grow stronger."

Su Hao muttered inwardly. He planned to forge a longsword and infuse the sword soul into it, allowing its power to surge several times beyond magic treasures of the same grade.

Moreover, as the sword soul recovered, the grade of the magic treasure would gradually rise as well.

The tiger meat sizzled and dripped with oil over the fire, its fragrance spreading in all directions and making one's mouth water. Su Hao still had some seasonings in his storage bag, and after sprinkling them over the meat, the aroma became even richer.

The Bald-Furred Chicken crawled out of the storage bag and complained, "You locked me up for a full five days! I am a generation's divine phoenix, yet you made me live in such a tiny place. You have no regard for me at all! Be careful, or I'll breathe fire and burn you!"

Su Hao ignored it, grabbed a tiger leg, and began devouring it. The meat was tender and soft, melting in his mouth; Su Hao nearly swallowed his tongue along with it and could not help praising himself. "My barbecue skills have improved a lot."

Flapping its featherless wings, the Bald-Furred Chicken rushed over. Its beak kept cursing, but it did not forget to snatch food, pecking away with the speed of a chick pecking grain.

"Aren't you vegetarian?" Su Hao glanced at it.

"It's fine. Meat will do in a pinch. Things can't compare to home out here; it's good enough if there's something to eat." The Bald-Furred Chicken replied, though it only sped up. It quickly pecked two tiger legs clean, not even sparing the marrow oil.

The food truly was delicious, and ordinary people would find it hard to resist such temptation. Even some demon beasts were lured over by the fragrance. While Su Hao ate, several green-furred wolves crept closer, their emerald eyes gleaming with chilling menace.

Su Hao kept eating. At the same time, he grabbed the Bald-Furred Chicken and viciously hurled it out. Though the fellow was not large and had no cultivation, its body was incomparably hard.

With Su Hao's brutal throw, the head of one green-furred wolf split apart on impact.

"It hurts, it hurts this great me..." the Bald-Furred Chicken howled miserably. In truth, it was not injured in the slightest, but its cries enraged the remaining green-furred wolves. Baring their fangs, they pounced forward.

Su Hao ate as he watched the battle between chicken and wolves. By the end, the feathers on the Bald-Furred Chicken's head had vanished completely. It was utterly bald, without even the slightest trace of a divine phoenix. Looking like this, anyone who saw it would buy it as a plucked chicken to take home and stew.

Naturally, it was the one that won in the end. The green-furred wolves were merely demon beasts at the first level of Qi Condensation, and the Bald-Furred Chicken tore them into several pieces with its sharp claws and pointed beak.

"Su Hao, I'm angry. I'm really angry!" The Bald-Furred Chicken glared, beside itself with rage, then burst into tears, lamenting that its feathers had died a more miserable death than its own father.

"I saved the tiger whip for you. If you don't come over, there won't be anything left." Su Hao knew its temperament and did not care in the least.

"That thing is a great tonic. With so many beauties in my harem, if I don't nourish myself properly, how will I rule as king in the future?" The Bald-Furred Chicken stopped crying and shot forward.

Su Hao began dealing with the remains of the green-furred wolves. Lin Yaoyao was still eating vegetarian food in the thatched hut; bringing this meat back would be enough for them to eat for several days.

That huge mad dog at the foot of Spirit Creek Sect's mountain was someone Su Hao truly could not afford to provoke.

Roar! Roar!

At that moment, a strange sound suddenly rang out. Su Hao immediately turned around and saw a huge black creature emerge from the woods ahead.

It was a black bear. Standing upright like a man, it lumbered out of the forest, its blood-red eyes fixed firmly on the Bald-Furred Chicken—or rather, on the scant tiger meat the Bald-Furred Chicken was enjoying.

"No way. Is my barbecue really that powerful? It even drew in this big fellow?" Su Hao became alert. The black bear before him stood three men tall and radiated an enormous aura. At the very least, it had reached the fifth level of Qi Condensation.

The Bald-Furred Chicken naturally sensed the danger as well. Like it was eating bugs, it rapidly swallowed the tiger whip clean, then hid behind Su Hao.

A demon beast at the fifth level of Qi Condensation already possessed considerable intelligence. Seeing that only scraps stripped even of their marrow oil remained, its blood-red eyes immediately twisted with savagery.

ROAR!

The bear's roar crashed like thunder exploding from level ground. Its massive body strode forward, making the earth tremble and whipping up a gale. In that gale, its fur flew wildly, and golden color appeared at the roots of its hair.

"Damn it, this is a demon beast at the sixth level of Qi Condensation, a powerful beast on the verge of turning into a Golden-Furred Bear!" Su Hao was greatly startled.