As long as he can father children, who cares if he's dark?

The sun sank westward, stretching the shadows in the Great Wilderness long.

The yellow earth at the village entrance shook.

Shi Linhu led the way. Instead of a weapon, he carried an enormous haunch of wolf meat over his shoulder. The flesh was red and still dripping blood.

The men behind him had backs laden with good things.

Dozens of Dirt Wolf carcasses, plus the Redflame Bull and Dragon-Horned Elephant the Hunting Team had originally brought down.

This trip had left Stone Village swimming in riches.

"They're back! They're all back!"

The elderly and infirm waiting at the village entrance spotted them and shouted at the tops of their lungs.

The doors of the stone houses opened one after another.

Lin Yun wiped her hands on her apron and rushed out carrying a basin of warm water. She ignored the mountain of meat on the ground, swept her gaze over the crowd, and fixed it on that pitch-black figure.

Shi Hou was dragging the headless Dirt Wolf King's carcass with one hand.

Thousands of pounds of dead meat dangled from his grip like a cloth sack.

"Husband, are you all right?" Lin Yun first checked Shi Shoushan. Seeing that her husband had suffered only superficial wounds, she relaxed, then turned and hurried toward her son.

"Skinny Monkey, come here. Let your mother wipe you clean."

Lin Yun soaked the cloth in the water, wrung it half dry, and raised it to wipe Shi Hou's face.

After all that dust and blood on the journey, he had to be filthy.

Shi Hou did not dodge. He let his mother scrub his face.

Once.

Twice.

Lin Yun had a strong grip. She scrubbed so hard that the skin of Shi Hou's face shifted with her hand.

She lowered the cloth and looked at it.

White.

There was only a little surface dust. The cloth was mostly still its original color.

Lin Yun froze. Refusing to believe it, she rinsed the cloth again and scrubbed hard at the base of Shi Hou's neck with even greater force.

Still white.

The skin of Shi Hou's neck gleamed black, giving off a cold metallic sheen. It was about as hard as the rim of a water vat. That was no dirt.

"This..." Lin Yun's hand froze in midair, and her eyes instantly reddened. "Why won't it wash off? Has he really turned into charcoal?"

Several aunties nearby gathered around.

Ermeng's mother reached out and pinched Shi Hou's arm.

She could not pinch it.

Instead, the pressure hurt her fingernails terribly.

"Oh my, he's harder than our millstone." Ermeng's mother shook her hand, clicking her tongue in wonder. "Sister Lin Yun, what are you fretting about? This is a good thing in the Great Wilderness."

"Exactly." Dazhuang's mother joined in, looking Shi Hou up and down. "Look at that build. You can tell he can take a beating. Besides, when we find wives here in the Great Wilderness, nobody cares whether a man's face is fair. What matters is whether he can hunt and stay alive."

Lin Yun still worried. "But he's so dark. Once we blow out the lamps at night, we won't even be able to find him."

"As long as he can father children, who cares if he's dark?"

Some outspoken auntie called out, "With Skinny Monkey's physique, I'd say he's got plenty of virility! He'll surely give your Shi family a whole litter of big, chubby boys!"

The men around them burst into laughter.

Shi Shoushan laughed along and tossed the Broken Sword onto the ground. "Enough of this womanly fussing. We won big today. Those bastards from Bei Village won't dare come back anytime soon. Skinny Monkey, get the pot going!"

Shi Hou breathed a sigh of relief and quickly took the cloth from his mother, giving himself a hasty wipe.

If this conversation went on, who knew what kind of filthy talk it might turn into.

"Coming right up!"

He beckoned with one hand.

The great pot, now completely blackened, landed with a crash.

Kang flew down from his shoulder and dutifully circled the Dirt Wolf King's carcass, snuffling through his nose as though choosing which part would taste best.

Shi Hou chose nothing else, chopping off the choicest meat from the Dirt Wolf King's back.

He paired it with the Dragon-Horned Elephant's trunk, then added several Spirit Herb Pheasants seized from the people of Bei Village before they had a chance to eat them.

This meal was called "Tenfold Tonic."

The system panel lit up in his mind.

That familiar BGM started up again, right on cue.

Shi Hou expertly chopped the ingredients.

His movements now had less of their early stiffness and embarrassment, and more of a violent beauty in their sweeping, powerful strokes.

With two hundred thousand pounds of blood qi behind him, the Stone Knife felt as light as a straw in his hand.

Every downward cut left an afterimage.

Every toss of the pot sent faint explosive cracks through the surrounding air.

The village children had long since brought over small stone stools and sat in a row, bowls in their hands, waiting with yearning eyes.

The adults worked nearby on the remaining wolf meat, some skinning it and others salting it.

The firelight painted half the village red.

An hour later.

"Food's ready!"

With Shi Hou's shout, the lid came off.

There was no pillar of light shooting into the sky, nor any miraculous phenomenon.

All the vital essence had been perfectly sealed inside the broth.

The meat broth was so thick it almost stretched into strands. Every piece of meat had been stewed until tender enough to fall off the bone, yet still retained its complete shape.

Shi Hao was the first to rush up.

The little fellow had fought a battle today and run so far that his belly had long since shriveled with hunger.

He did not even use a spoon. He simply lifted the earthenware basin, larger than his head, and gulped it down.

A huge chunk of wolf king meat slid into his mouth and went straight down his throat without even being chewed.

As the food entered his stomach, a faint glow began to shine from Shi Hao's body.

His runes were rejoicing, devouring that immense energy.

He ate faster and faster, and the light from his body grew brighter and brighter. By the end, he looked like a little glowing furnace, lighting up everything around him.

[Ding! Diner "Shi Hao" has finished eating.]

[Assessment: tier-three spirit food (Dirt Wolf King + Dragon-Horned Elephant)]

[Host gained Blood Qi Value: +50,000!]

Shi Hou felt a rush of heat instantly wash through his entire body.

The little stamina he had spent in the fight was replenished in an instant. The energy even seemed to be pushing his body outward.

That sensation of tightening skin and faintly creaking bones returned.

He glanced at the panel.

[Blood Qi Value: 250,500]

Two hundred and fifty thousand.

The number looked rather auspicious, though it also sounded a little like an insult.

Shi Hou ladled himself a bowl of soup and drank it slowly.

He stopped looking at the panel and watched Shi Hao instead.

Little One had already finished three large basins.

That was the concentrated flesh essence of high-level fierce beasts. If it had been Ermeng or the others, one bowl would have given them nosebleeds and sent them running laps around the village.

Yet Shi Hao patted his little belly, burped, and actually held his bowl out again.

"Skinny Monkey, is there more?"

Shi Hao licked his lips, his eyes bright and clear. "I feel like I'm only half full."

Shi Hou's spoon hand paused.

Only half full?

This was meat from a wolf king whose bloodline approached that of a primordial remnant.

Watching the broth rapidly dwindle in the pot, Shi Hou felt the joy that had just risen within him cool by half.

As Shi Hao's cultivation advanced, especially as he went further and further in the blood moving realm, his appetite had become a bottomless pit.

Even cooked by the system, the energy ordinary fierce beast meat provided was barely keeping up with his consumption anymore.

It was like filling a supercar with 92-octane gasoline. It could still run, but it could not get up to speed.

"Yes. As much as you want."

Shi Hou ladled the entire remaining half-pot of soup into Shi Hao's basin.

Watching Little One bury his head in his food again, Shi Hou looked up. His gaze passed over the fence at the village entrance and settled on the depths of the dark mountains in the distance.

From time to time, muffled thunder rumbled there.

True pureblood creatures roared there, too.

"Looks like I'll have to get my hands on some truly good stuff."

Shi Hou rubbed his black face, harder than iron, and drained the soup in his bowl.

At this rate, this wolf king probably would not even last three days.

If he wanted to properly feed this future Desolate Heaven Emperor, picking up bargains alone would not do.

He had to plunder.