"Chu Xiu, are you all right?"
Shui Bing'er and Ah Yin rushed over.
Chu Xiu pulled out his bloodstained right hand, shook the blood off his hand and the Bone Dagger, and grinned. "What could possibly be wrong? Wasn't that stab of mine ridiculously cool?"
"Show-off."
Shui Bing'er laughed as she scolded him.
The two ran up to him and found that the pangolin really was as dead as dead could be.
Chu Xiu's stab had been precise and powerful. It really had been ridiculously cool.
"A pangolin Spirit Beast is a treasure from head to toe. We'll have to bring the whole thing back later. Come give me a hand, you two. Let's first see what ability this fellow's Core has."
Chu Xiu spoke to Shui Bing'er and Ah Yin.
Together, the three turned the pangolin's carcass over, and Chu Xiu cut open its belly with the Bone Dagger.
He had to admit that a thirty-thousand-year Spirit Beast's body really was tough.
The belly was one of the pangolin's weaker areas, and he had both the Bone Dagger's sharpness and his doubled strength on his side.
Even so, it took a tremendous amount of effort to cut it fully open.
Then Chu Xiu reached into its belly, rummaged around, and pulled out an ocher-colored sphere.
[Pangolin Core] Age: thirty-one thousand years Mutation: ocher Effect: upon use, grants the pangolin's bloodline talents, Rapid Keratin Growth and Earth Vein Sense. --------
Earth Vein Sense was easy enough to understand.
Pangolins could sense the earth's veins, detecting the composition of the ground within a hundred meters beneath their feet and clearly distinguishing soil, rock, and sand.
As for Rapid Keratin Growth...
Chu Xiu only knew that keratin was the main component of nails, hair, and the outer layer of skin.
Pangolins also used their nails to dig. Could Rapid Keratin Growth make people's nails grow quickly?
Since he couldn't figure it out, Chu Xiu stopped thinking about it and swallowed the Core.
A moment later, Chu Xiu understood how Rapid Keratin Growth worked.
He raised his right hand, palm up, and used Rapid Keratin Growth. His nails instantly began lengthening at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In less than a second, they had grown over ten centimeters long.
"That's the pangolin's Core ability? Isn't that a bit bizarre?"
Shui Bing'er was rather speechless.
Pangolins used their nails for digging, and Rapid Keratin Growth helped them quickly regrow nails worn down by use.
But what use did people have for such long nails?
"What if I paired it with Golden Sword Fruit?"
Chu Xiu's face lit up with excitement.
Rapid Keratin Growth made his nails grow quickly, while Golden Sword Fruit strengthened keratin and bones.
Combined, the two would make his nails comparable to five fine-steel daggers.
Wasn't that basically Wolverine?
"Oh, right, there's still the Golden Sword Fruit! Ah Yin, is it ripe yet?"
Shui Bing'er asked eagerly.
Ah Yin smiled faintly. "It just ripened. We're lucky. If we'd come a day later, the pangolin might have eaten it."
"Then I won't hold back."
Chu Xiu picked the Golden Sword Fruit, peeled it like a banana, and ate the entire fruit in a few bites.
Then he walked toward a large tree nearby.
Chu Xiu extended his right hand... no, it should be called his right claw now. With his nails like blades, he slashed viciously at the trunk before him.
Clang—crash!
The tree, thicker than Ah Yin's waist, was cleaved straight through the middle. Its upper half came crashing down along with the crown, leaving a smooth, even cut as though a machine had sliced through it.
"Badass!"
Chu Xiu was thrilled.
The Golden Sword Fruit's effects were even more incredible than he had imagined.
His nails were now several times sharper and tougher than the Bone Dagger made from Netherworld Wolf bones.
Moreover, these weapons had grown from his own body, so they could be hidden along with him by his concealment ability.
The next time he encountered a Spirit Beast like this pangolin, he could easily kill it in a single strike, even without resorting to a scheme.
At the foot of the mountain, beside the Spring Pool.
After putting down the straw, Qian Renxue and Ning Rongrong gathered some vines and branches nearby and lit a fire in an open area.
Luo Sanpao's carcass had already been butchered.
When Ning Rongrong first arrived and saw what Luo Sanpao looked like, she was nearly stunned speechless.
"Isn't this Grandmaster Yu's martial soul? How did it end up here?"
"No, this isn't a martial soul. It's a Spirit Beast."
Qian Renxue corrected her, but her brow furrowed even more deeply.
Yu Xiaogang's martial soul was a mutated martial soul, and mutations were usually unique. Even among mutated Spirit Beasts, it was difficult to find two that looked the same, let alone a martial soul and a Spirit Beast.
Thus, Qian Renxue soon reached a conclusion similar to Chu Xiu's.
The Spirit Beasts here had most likely been copied from the Douluo Continent.
Whether a Spirit Beast or a martial soul was copied was random.
"If that's really the case, we might never be able to go back."
Qian Renxue's spirits sank to rock bottom.
Ning Rongrong also found it hard to accept, but she fared a little better than Qian Renxue. After all, she still had Chu Xiu by her side.
Girls her age who left their families behind for their boyfriends were a dime a dozen.
Ning Rongrong was no exception.
"Oh, Chu Xiu and the others are back."
At the sight of Chu Xiu, Ning Rongrong's somewhat despondent mood instantly soared.
She hurried toward him, exclaiming in surprise:
"Wow, what a huge pangolin Spirit Beast! We already have more meat than we can eat."
With that excited little expression, who could tell she had been homesick just moments ago?
"What's wrong with Xue?"
Chu Xiu immediately noticed that something was off about Qian Renxue's expression.
Ning Rongrong snickered. "She's homesick, obviously."
"Aren't you?"
Chu Xiu asked with a laugh.
"I am, too, but I'm still young. Going back sooner or later makes no difference."
"Unlike certain old women who are already so old. If they get stuck here for another few years, no one will want them when they finally get back."
Ning Rongrong mocked her to her heart's content.
Normally, Qian Renxue would have lashed out at her, but today she simply wasn't in the mood.
After dropping the pangolin's carcass, Chu Xiu began assigning everyone their jobs.
"Put everything else on hold for now. For the next few days, apart from eating, we're only doing one thing."
"What thing?"
Ning Rongrong asked.
Chu Xiu smiled faintly. "Digging a cave."
Most of the mountain consisted of rock, but a few crevices were filled with soil. Digging through rock with his nails would be strenuous, but he could dig a large hole in soil in mere minutes.
Having just gained Earth Vein Sense from the Pangolin Core, Chu Xiu had already chosen a site for the cave on the way back.
"An ordinary straw hut offers too little protection, and it's too small, so I've decided to dig a cave nearby."
"I'll do the digging. Rongrong, Bing'er, Ah Yin, you three will carry the soil out."
"Xue will use the soil we carry out to make earthen bricks. Once they're dry, we can use them to build a heated bed inside the cave."
"If there are no objections, let's get to work."
The pangolin hunt had gone smoothly, and it wasn't even noon yet. Before nightfall, they should be able to dig out somewhere for everyone to sleep.
The chosen site wasn't far from the Spring Pool.
Chu Xiu brought Ning Rongrong, Shui Bing'er, and Ah Yin to a mountain wall, then used Rapid Keratin Growth to quickly lengthen his nails to thirty centimeters.
Then Chu Xiu began digging into the mountain with his bare hands, scooping out a great handful of soil with each swipe of his claws.
It was even faster than digging with a shovel.
Before you continue