The urge to make money did not last long.
After all, he had only recently decided to train at most one beast a week. Changing orders from morning to evening was not a good habit.
Besides, he was only breaking down Wolf Smoke Grass for research. Su Ping felt there was no need to use such fine equipment!
What was wrong with his own Medicine Furnace?
So what if it could not isolate odors, and the fumes could easily knock him headfirst into it if he forgot his gas mask?
So what if it lacked automatic stirring, and he had to crush everything himself with a handheld Medicine Pestle?
So what if it had no decomposition function and could only pound things into liquid or powder?
So what if...
All right, even Su Ping could not keep making excuses.
Still, as long as his resolve did not slide downhill, there would always be more solutions than difficulties.
Su Ping certainly had no reason to stop researching Wolf Smoke Grass over this. There was nothing wrong with starting with basic experimental equipment.
After all, while he lacked high-quality equipment, he had manpower!
And so, after returning from the banks of the Spirit Creek River behind the woods with the still somewhat weak little Forest Wolf, Old Sha, and another Forest Wolf,
Su Ping found Li Shu, who was training Pinecone.
After all, it did not require any difficult operations. He just had to control the temperature, put on his gas mask, and keep shoving the grass into the Medicine Furnace.
At most, he would need to add some water along the way, heating and concentrating this large bundle of Wolf Smoke Grass into liquid. That was all.
There was nothing technically difficult about it.
But without a doubt, this was a path every Breeder had to walk.
That was right.
Everything above was what Su Ping had told Li Shu.
Then, under Su Ping's trusting gaze, Li Shu fastened his gas mask and nodded firmly.
At long last!
He had been at Su Ping's place for a week.
He could finally do something that truly let him participate in a Breeder's work.
Although Li Shu could tell that Wolf Smoke Grass was scarce in the city, it blanketed the hills and fields in many parts of the Uninhabited Zone outside it.
Clearly, Su Ping had deliberately brought these things back to train him.
I absolutely cannot betray my godfather's trust!
"Go on!"
After teaching Li Shu how to use the heated Medicine Furnace, Su Ping called Old Sha over, fitted with a gas mask specially made for Wolfhounds, to watch over him and make sure nothing went wrong. Only then did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Then Su Ping came over to Pinecone.
Although its master had left, Pinecone knew that Su Ping, standing before it, was its master's best friend.
At the same time, it was precisely because of this person that it had grown so tall and straight recently.
Its level had even broken through to ordinary third rank.
Plant-type pet beasts generally lacked mobility, but they offered a great many functions.
If Falling Seed Pines had not been so difficult to raise and taken up so much space, making large-scale planting in great numbers difficult, Su Ping would have wanted to choose one as his Second Pet Beast.
Still, even if he could not choose one, that did nothing to diminish his fondness for this kind of pet beast.
The little pine swayed gently. Although it had no face, its softly rocking trunk and branches clearly showed that an interesting soul dwelled within.
Over the past week, Su Ping had put no small amount of effort into this little thing.
Moreover, even before returning to Woodheart, Su Ping had interacted with the little fellow many times while spending time with Li Shu.
But it was not a Wolfhound-type pet beast that could benefit from a Wolf King's guidance. Even after all this time, there had not been the slightest notification that its affinity had reached the threshold.
This left Su Ping rather helpless.
By now, he knew the temperament of Forest Wolves well. With the Forest Wolf Record at LV2 and guidance from Old Sha, a Wolf King, even the Forest Wolves sent over for training could reach the affinity threshold in two or three days at most, or even a single day at the least.
This little pine, however, had truly taken a long time.
From this, Su Ping could tentatively infer that getting other wild pet beasts to meet the affinity requirement and light up the Myriad Spirits Codex in the future would only be more difficult, never less.
Today, however, Su Ping had come with the certainty of victory.
Because today, Su Ping had something extra in his hand.
It shimmered and gave off wisps of a fresh fragrance, yet it had no physical substance.
Calling it a treasure was certainly fair. Calling it worthless was also fair, for it had little use for other pet beasts or human Beast Tamers.
The Life Ancient Tree was Qin Xiaoxue's Second Pet Beast.
However, that day, after Qin Xiaoxue saw Xiao Qing, who was also a mutated pet beast, she had answered Su Ping's questions and satisfied his curiosity.
Namely, in what direction had Qin Xiaoxue's Life Ancient Tree mutated?
Death!
That was right. Although Su Ping had already sensed that Qin Xiaoxue's mutated pet beast was extraordinary, he had never imagined that her Life Ancient Tree was a mutated pet beast in which life and death coexisted.
With such diametrically opposed attributes, the difficulty of raising this kind of mutated pet beast was unimaginable.
Compared with a Forest Wolf, it was on an entirely different plane, who knew how many levels higher.
Qin Xiaoxue had not been stingy, either, and had shared some of her breeding insights with him.
The Life Ancient Tree could not act recklessly. It had to maintain the balance between its death and life attributes at all times.
However, despite its mutation, the Life Ancient Tree's fundamental attribute was still primarily life, so its death attribute was more heavily suppressed.
Thus, to maintain this balance, Qin Xiaoxue's Life Ancient Tree needed to discharge some life energy at regular intervals and stimulate the production of some death energy.
Only under these conditions could the mutated Life Ancient Tree's attribute balance remain intact.
That was right. The mass Su Ping held in his hand at this very moment was actually the life power discharged by the Life Ancient Tree.
Ordinarily, this power did little beyond healing injuries. For plants, however, it was good stuff.
Not only could it accelerate the growth of plant-type pet beasts, it could also improve their potential and intelligence to some extent.
After all, no matter what, the Life Ancient Tree was a powerful pet beast with monarch-rank racial potential!
If this energy did not dissipate on its own after a while, Su Ping would honestly have been reluctant to use it on Pinecone.
And now, this substance was Su Ping's trump card for luring the little pine aboard his pirate ship!
Sure enough, once Su Ping took out the mass of pale green energy, he could clearly sense the little pine's excitement, and its branches began swaying even faster.
Su Ping rolled his eyes at the little fellow in exasperation. Pet beasts were all the same: they would not release the hawk until they saw the rabbit.
The life energy slowly merged into the little pine's body.
A faint green glow slowly blossomed from its body. Then, as Pinecone swayed, a fruit actually appeared on one of its branches.
The fruit then shot out like a cannonball and exploded in midair!
This burst of life energy had actually helped the little fellow comprehend its strongest combat skill: Pinecone Cannonball.
Although its power was still negligible for now, it had great room to grow.
And, just as Su Ping had expected, almost as soon as this unusual phenomenon faded, the Myriad Spirits Codex in his mind slowly opened.
A brand-new record, one he had never seen before, appeared before Su Ping's eyes!
The affinity of Pinecone the Falling Seed Pine had reached the threshold!
Before you continue