Back in the Underground City beneath the Green Mulberry Garden, Fang Tong was explaining the toilets and bathrooms to the villagers.
Lin Can had also largely adapted to the outside environment and no longer needed to stay in the Niwan Palace all the time.
This latest cocooning, evolution, and growth had brought about some changes in Lin Can.
She no longer clung to Lin Ke as she had before, as though she had grown from an infant into a child, or even an adolescent.
Lin Can was part of Lin Ke's soul, the artifact spirit of the Niwan Palace, but she also had her own independent personality.
She got along very well with Zong Ya.
And Zong Ya quickly became familiar with the sixth level.
After all, compared with the Spirit Insect Cave, the so-called venomous insects and crawling creatures in the Green Mulberry Garden were utterly ordinary.
With Zong Ya's experience, managing these insects was a breeze.
The moment they brought the Blood Sandalwood Frogs back, Zong Ya had ideas and arrangements in mind.
"Blood Sandalwood Frogs favor places of extreme yin. They eat a great deal every day, but they aren't difficult to raise." Zong Ya looked at the two Blood Sandalwood Frogs with red, bloodlike lines at the corners of their eyes in the pumpkin-sized fishing basket, her voice brimming with delight.
"It's just that people rarely sell breeding Blood Sandalwood Frogs. They're usually killed for their bones as soon as they transform from tadpoles into frogs. I never imagined we'd find any this old."
"Although I can't appraise them, I'd say these two Blood Sandalwood Frogs are around three years old. They should be able to reproduce this winter, at the end of the year."
"They can only reproduce in winter?" Lin Ke froze for a moment at her words, then chuckled despite himself.
When he had been shopping earlier, quite a few people had gathered around the seller, but none of them had bought the Blood Sandalwood Frogs.
He had assumed breeding them was troublesome and everyone wanted to reap ready-made rewards.
He had never imagined this was the reason.
Blood Sandalwood Frogs could only reproduce in winter, and the Year Festival had only just passed, meaning winter had just ended. They would have to wait at least another year to breed them.
By then, plenty of people might already be dead.
No wonder he had been the only buyer.
"That's all right. I have a way." Fortunately, Lin Ke was not without a solution.
The Niwan Palace did not care what season something reproduced in.
As long as he brought them into the Niwan Palace and put the reproductive parts of two creatures together, anything capable of breeding would naturally do so.
"You have a way, junior brother?"
Zong Ya was surprised at first, but then she remembered the Stinger Hawk Moth and Amethyst Longhorn Beetle, these two Spirit Insects. Seemingly realizing something, she asked no further questions.
"Yes." Lin Ke nodded. "Senior sister, what kinds of frogs do we have here on the sixth level?"
Although the Niwan Palace could facilitate breeding, Blood Sandalwood Frogs were neither spirit beasts nor spirit insects. If he bred them with Blackgold Silkworms, they would very likely die violently.
He could only try mating them with other frogs first. That would be less dangerous.
"We have all the Five Poisons and Six Evils Fang Tong mentioned," Zong Ya said thoughtfully.
"As for breeding Blood Sandalwood Frogs... I once heard an elder speak of it. Apparently, a mighty cultivator in the sect manages a Blood Sandalwood Lake. It contains not only Blood Sandalwood Frogs, but also vast numbers of Blood Sandalwood Mosquitoes and Three-Turn Sunleaf."
"I suspect that Blood Sandalwood Lake is specifically used to produce Blood Sandalwood Frogs, whose bones are harvested to forge swords. I heard there are plenty of Red-Striped Frogs there too."
"We raise some as well, though they're all ordinary varieties."
Both inner and outer disciples of the sect were issued a low-grade spirit flying sword, with quality belonging to the very bottom of the barrel.
After hearing Zong Ya's explanation, Lin Ke could roughly guess that their flying swords were probably mass-produced from Blood Sandalwood Frog leg bones.
"Red-Striped Frogs?" Lin Ke nodded slightly. "Sorry for the trouble, senior sister, but could you bring me a few?"
Zong Ya agreed, then went to fetch the Red-Striped Frogs.
Lin Ke crouched down to examine the two Blood Sandalwood Frogs in the fishing basket again.
Blood Sandalwood Frogs were distinguished by their extremely developed hind legs. Each leg was as thick as two ordinary frog legs, and there were bloodlike lines at the corners of their eyes.
They looked more like toads or bullfrogs than ordinary frogs, crouching motionlessly on the ground.
"Daddy, are these red frogs?" Beside him, Lin Can stretched her head as far as she could to look. "Can I eat them?"
"No." Lin Ke did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Now, Lin Can's first reaction to anything she saw was to eat it.
In truth, she should have been full, but she still wanted to eat.
"I digest things quickly," Lin Can explained pitifully.
Since she shared part of Lin Ke's soul, Lin Can also understood what digestion meant.
In fact, in Lin Can's mind, digestion and refining spiritual energy were the same thing.
"Lin Can, you need to work hard!" Lin Ke covered the fishing basket so she would stop thinking about it, then said with a smile:
"Only if you produce more Stinger Hawk Moths and Amethyst Longhorn Beetles can I earn more money. And only if I earn more money can I buy tasty spirit insects for you to eat!"
"I can produce ten Stinger Hawk Moths and two Amethyst Longhorn Beetles now!" Drool immediately trickled from the corner of Lin Can's mouth.
"No, save it up for now." Lin Ke smiled. "I'll give you something new later. You can produce that instead."
Why produce Amethyst Longhorn Beetles?
Because they were easy to sell!
Why were they easy to sell?
Because they had advertising!
After all, during the Sect Grand Tournament, Lin Ke had blocked Lin Quan-meng's attacks with just a single Amethyst Longhorn Beetle Spirit Insect.
Anyone with discerning eyes could tell that, if Lin Ke had not wanted to try the Mountain-Moving and Sea-Overturning technique at the end, the power of the Amethyst Longhorn Beetle after the Moisture-and-Egg Transformation Method alone would probably have been enough to wear Lin Quan-meng down to defeat.
During the days of the Year Festival afterward, Lin Ke had also heard rumors and conversations around the marketplace about people wanting to buy Amethyst Longhorn Beetles.
If he spread the word that he was selling Amethyst Longhorn Beetles, plenty of people would probably come seeking to buy them.
If he shone just as brilliantly in the Dao Foundation Stage Sect Grand Tournament in the future, Amethyst Longhorn Beetles would sell even better.
Unfortunately, the Amethyst Longhorn Beetle's ceiling was too low. It was only low-grade spirit.
If he bred a mid-grade spirit or even high-grade spirit variety, some personal disciples of Golden Core cultivators might be tempted.
But now that he intended to practice artifact refining, he naturally needed Lin Can to produce something else.
Namely, the new breed he was about to create by mating the Blood Sandalwood Frogs.
"Something new? Okay!" Lin Can nodded adorably. "Then I'll cultivate first. Mm! Cultivate!"
Then she went still right where she was.
Lin Can's eyes were gemlike compound eyes, without eyelids or similar organs, but he could see her compound eyes dim a little, much as though she had closed them.
"Cultivating? All right." Lin Ke smiled and said nothing more.
Lin Can's cultivation currently looked quite convincing.
However, he knew that Lin Can's eventual growth would still depend more on consuming flesh and blood, just like most demon beasts.
As he was thinking this, Lin Can also brought over several Red-Striped Frogs.
He wasted no time, taking the Red-Striped Frogs and Blood Sandalwood Frogs straight into the Niwan Palace.
If the two Blood Sandalwood Frogs mated directly in the Niwan Palace, they would ultimately produce only a single egg, and both original parents would die.
But if he mated the two separately, he would obtain a new species as long as the mating succeeded.
Most importantly, Lin Can could devour the resulting eggs and mass-produce them.
Otherwise, if he truly bred them himself, who knew what problems might arise later?
"Mate, then." Lin Ke held the male Blood Sandalwood Frog in his left hand and the female Red-Striped Frog in his right, bringing the two together.
The male Blood Sandalwood Frog immediately clasped the female Red-Striped Frog with its forelegs.
The Blood Sandalwood Frog, which normally only mated and reproduced in winter, had clearly developed the urge to reproduce inside the Niwan Palace as well.
And to Lin Ke's astonishment, the Red-Striped Frog had not burst apart and died?
Previously, Lin Ke had experimented by mating quite a few insects, but whenever mating failed, the lower-grade partner would usually burst apart and die.
Did that mean the mating had succeeded on the very first attempt?
Before you continue