Elder Yu

After Senior Brother Ouyang subjected it to a series of utterly inhuman maneuvers, the tiger demon had already been cowed into submission.

As for the rest, it was merely a matter of threats and incentives. He easily subdued the tiger demon at the qi refining ninth layer.

Though it was supposedly at the qi refining ninth layer, its cultivation had actually come entirely from fortuitous encounters. Neither its Spirit nor its combat prowess had fully matured.

"The danger has been eliminated. You can train here without worry now, Junior Brother."

Once everything was done, Senior Brother Ouyang patted Lin Jing's shoulder earnestly, feeling very optimistic about his future.

After all, Lin Jing was a formidable fellow determined to cooperate with a demon king for the long haul. Ouyang believed that, with a little guidance from him, Lin Jing would surely become a beast-taming genius no less talented than himself.

"Thank you for your guidance, Senior Brother." Lin Jing nodded.

Then Senior Brother Ouyang laughed heartily and rode off on the tiger demon.

"I'll go turn in my mission first, then."

Watching Senior Brother Ouyang depart, Lin Jing hesitated before saying, "I probably can't tame demon beasts the way he does."

"Squeak..." The Pineleaf Squirrel nodded slightly. Better not imitate him. His methods looked thoroughly unreliable.

Lin Jing looked around. "Now that Senior Brother Ouyang has taken away our biggest problem, it's... time for us to hunt. I want fish tonight. Let's go catch one first."

The Pineleaf Squirrel was curious. What kind of fish?

"Squirrel fish."

"???"

On Fierce Tiger Peak, where even the strongest demon beasts were only at the first layer of qi refining, Lin Jing and the Pineleaf Squirrel were invincible.

Unlike those inexperienced Outer Gate Disciples, Lin Jing had been abducted and sold by immortal traffickers and intimidated by Elder Black Bear. His mental fortitude was already formidable; he needed no training here.

He had come purely to stock up on supplies.

As the sun sank in the west, the old man guarding Fierce Tiger Peak saw Lin Jing leave at a leisurely pace with the Pineleaf Squirrel, carrying rabbits, wild boars, pheasants, and all manner of other game strung along a hemp rope.

The old man paid it no mind. Many Outer Gate Disciples chose to hunt when they had nothing left to put in the pot.

Before long, they returned to the courtyard, and the Pineleaf Squirrel began giving Lin Jing some very explicit hints.

They had already formed their contract;

They had hunted down some food, nutritious or not;

Wasn't it time to figure out how to get a Storage Bag?

The Pineleaf Squirrel had not forgotten its Storage Bag. It had left the mountains precisely for that item.

Earlier, it had used the Red Flying Leaf to show off its prowess on Fierce Tiger Mountain, easily defeating numerous wild beasts.

Compared with ordinary leaves, the Red Flying Leaf felt much more satisfying to use.

It decided that it would first synthesize a few hundred million Red Flying Leaves with its Glazed Immortal Eyes.

At the thought of possessing hundreds of millions of Red Flying Leaves but having nowhere to carry them, the Pineleaf Squirrel grew gloomy, its sense of security sorely lacking.

"I remember." Lin Jing also realized that, with the Pineleaf Squirrel's current divine ability, they could probably start making money. A Storage Bag was no longer an unreachable dream.

"The fastest way to make money would be to sell golden spirit rice and pocket the difference."

"But considering how much using your eye technique drains you, and the fact that we haven't reported your racial mutation to Elder Mo yet, we'd better keep the Glazed Immortal Eyes under wraps for now."

"Other than that, sect missions are our only option for earning Spirit Stones quickly."

Although the Pineleaf Squirrel could apply to Elder Mo for better disciple benefits on account of its treasure beast status once he returned, even a genius like Senior Brother Ouyang, whom the sect master favored, was still working hard on sect missions to earn rewards. Lin Jing did not want to be a salted fish living off free food and drink.

Most importantly, promotion to an Inner Gate disciple required not only strength but also sect contribution points. To earn those points, he had to undertake sect missions. There was no getting around it; he would have to do them sooner or later.

Lin Jing yearned to enter the Inner Gate.

Since Senior Brother Ouyang had obtained a Life-Bound Beast-Taming Spatial Treasure while still an Inner Gate disciple, he wanted one too.

Lin Jing was filled with envy. It was better than a Storage Bag. With one of those, he would no longer have to carry the Pineleaf Squirrel around every day.

For some reason, the Pineleaf Squirrel loved standing on his shoulder. Lin Jing thought this was a bad habit.

It had not been long yet, but given enough time, he could already foresee one shoulder ending up higher than the other.

"Squeak!" The Pineleaf Squirrel indicated that it would leave everything to Lin Jing, then... dragged a cloth sack out of the courtyard and ran off to pluck leaves from the roadside trees.

It had already stripped the tree in their courtyard bare. If it wanted to keep synthesizing Red Flying Leaves, it could only gather leaves elsewhere.

As for accelerating growth with spiritual power... wasting spiritual power on something like this was far too extravagant. After all, leaves covered every mountain and field.

It would be better to save that spiritual power for ripening spirit rice paddy and spirit beans.

That evening, passing Outer Gate Disciples saw a squirrel hopping back and forth with a huge sack of leaves.

"How pitiful..." Two female disciples saw the Pineleaf Squirrel gathering worthless leaves and said, "Who's its beast tamer? They can't even feed their own spirit beast properly, and it has to come out and find leaves to eat..."

Even by the following morning, the Pineleaf Squirrel had not stopped. It kept collecting leaves, which were now piled all over their courtyard.

When Lin Jing woke up and was about to visit the Mission Hall to see whether there were any suitable missions, the Pineleaf Squirrel dragged another enormous hemp sack inside.

Besides that, it held a delicate pink cloth bag.

Seeing it, Lin Jing rubbed his eyes and asked, "Where did you pick that up? I don't remember us having a bag like that."

"Squeak! Squeak!" The Pineleaf Squirrel opened the cloth bag. Inside were several pine cones!

It explained that a beautiful, kindhearted senior sister passing by had pressed the bag into its paws, telling it to eat more nutritious food and stop eating leaves.

"You must have given the other senior sisters the wrong idea by collecting leaves everywhere. Don't take things from other people again." Lin Jing felt helpless.

The Pineleaf Squirrel nodded, then scanned the pine cones with its Glazed Immortal Eyes.

Nothing happened.

The outer sect, Mission Hall.

Since it was still early, there were few people inside besides the senior brother in charge. Only four Outer Gate Disciples were looking for missions. They seemed to know one another and wanted to form a team, discussing whether to eliminate a snake demon or a pig demon.

The senior brother in charge was engrossed in a book. His service was nowhere near as good as Senior Brother Ouyang's, so Lin Jing browsed the mission wall himself.

After looking everything over, he discovered that, aside from missions requiring them to leave the sect, very few suited him and the Pineleaf Squirrel.

Leaving the sect was out of the question unless he could find a high-level bodyguard to accompany them, preferably someone above the golden core stage.

As for missions within the sect, such as helping out in the sect's Spirit Fields... the return was far too low. Saving enough to buy a Storage Bag and earn the contribution points needed to enter the Inner Gate through those missions would take until the year of the monkey and the month of the horse.

Though he admittedly had no shortage of time.

Just as Lin Jing was wrestling with his options, the Mission Hall suddenly fell silent. An old man in blue robes walked in.

"Greetings, Elder Yu." The four Outer Gate Disciples noticed him immediately and greeted him respectfully. The senior brother in charge, who had been reading a leisure book, also sprang to his feet and put down his copy of My Sword Spirit Wife.