Before Su Ping could react, he found himself knocked onto the soft grass for the second time.
Then that wet tongue started licking him.
There wasn't a trace of Old Sha's earlier readiness to face death left in him.
Hah. Pet beasts.
Su Ping wiped his sticky, slobber-covered cheeks in disgust, then used True Eye to examine the uncontrollably excited Old Sha again:
[Forest Wolf (wild)] [Current level: commander tier two] [Racial potential: elite tier ten] [Skills: Sunlight Absorption (perfected), Tree Vine Strangulation (advanced), Self-Healing (proficient), Accelerated Growth (advanced), Wolf King (beginner), Woodheart (beginner)] [Woodheart (beginner): Increases the power, effectiveness, and casting speed of wood-element abilities to a certain extent, and allows the user to absorb wood-element energy to rapidly recover.]
Just as I thought!
Excitement shone in Su Ping's eyes.
Not only had Old Sha gained Woodheart, but his level had also risen another tier!
Had adding Wolf Smoke Grass caused such an incredible chemical reaction in the Woodheart Potion?
Su Ping didn't understand. The shallow knowledge of beast-rearing principles he had learned at school clearly wasn't enough to explain this.
But he did know exactly what this meant.
To put it bluntly, an ordinary Forest Wolf cub would sell for only 800,000 to 1.2 million at most.
A Forest Wolf that had awakened Woodheart, however, would be worth at least three to five times as much!
If it had good aptitude, practiced its skills diligently, and improved its skill proficiency quickly, its value could rise even further.
It might even rival the cubs of some relatively low-end beasts with commander-rank potential.
Woodheart was simply too powerful a skill.
Skills that enhanced the power of their corresponding elements weren't so-called transcendent skills, but as passive abilities, they were often more useful than some transcendent skills!
Even at beginner proficiency, Woodheart's enhancement made Old Sha thirty to fifty percent stronger than before.
If he fought in a jungle, mountain forest, or grassland, he would be even more terrifying!
But precisely because they were so formidable, skills like Woodheart were extremely rare and difficult to obtain.
Yet now, with the Myriad Spirits Codex's help, adding just one ingredient to the original Woodheart Potion had produced such a transformative effect.
Su Ping's eyes burned with excitement. At that very moment, another notification appeared in the log at the bottom of the Forest Wolf Record, the only illuminated entry in the Myriad Spirits Codex:
[Successfully granted an associated pet beast the skill: Woodheart, and increased its tier. Record experience +30!]
Su Ping paused, then looked again at the illuminated Forest Wolf Record:
[Record: Forest Wolf] [A special wolf species adept at using wood-element abilities, with extremely strong vitality. Ordinary adult Forest Wolves are elite rank. Their signature skills include Sunlight Absorption, Tree Vine Strangulation, Self-Healing, Accelerated Growth, and others.] [Current Record level: 1 (152/500)]
Its experience had reached 152.
If he hadn't spent 285 points improving the Woodheart Potion formula earlier, he would now have been only a little over a hundred points away from raising the Record to level two!
Looking at it that way, leveling up the Record didn't seem so hard!
But...
Su Ping's gaze soon moved past Old Sha toward the Forest Wolves, each of whom had become exceptionally well-behaved.
Clearly, the more Forest Wolves he had, the better-and the more whose bond with him met the requirement, the better-if he wanted to level up the Record quickly!
Old Sha had been with him for so many years that they were already like family. That went without saying.
Xiao Qing had formed a Soul Contract with him, binding them directly together, so the same naturally applied.
But although he had brought Old Sha along to feed these twenty-odd Forest Wolves before and was familiar with them, their bond clearly still fell short of the Myriad Spirits Codex's requirements!
Clearly, increasing the number of Forest Wolves whose bond met the requirement was his highest priority if he wanted to level up the Record as soon as possible.
And how could he get their bond to meet that requirement?
Spending time together, feeding them, and training them.
All of those would work, but they clearly wouldn't meet the requirement quickly.
Su Ping glanced at the ecstatic Old Sha, whose tail he was seeing wag for the first time, and immediately understood.
If he could improve these little fellows' strength and abilities-and let them gain those improvements without lifting a paw-he would undoubtedly strengthen their bonds with him considerably.
Su Ping immediately made up his mind!
He would keep brewing potions!
But before that, he wanted to see how Old Sha had changed!
"Old Sha, use Tree Vine Strangulation on that tree!"
Old Sha's green eyes instantly lit up. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that something even Su Ping's grandfather had failed to accomplish, something Su Anyong had simply given up on...
Would miraculously be accomplished in Su Ping's hands!
He had known it! The young master he had watched grow up would never hurt him!
Old Sha immediately fixed his gaze on a massive tree in the woods.
A moment later, dark green branches and vines either burst straight out of the ground or materialized out of thin air.
They instantly wound around the enormous tree serving as his imaginary enemy.
The vines were as thick as the mouth of a bowl and incredibly tough, with even a metallic sheen on their surfaces.
As they continued winding around the tree and tightening, Su Ping soon noticed that extremely sharp barbs had also emerged along the vines.
Their power had increased dramatically once again!
After only a little constriction, enormous gashes, as though cut by saw teeth, appeared across the thick trunk of the towering tree in his family's little forest.
The speed of activation and the vines' power were on an entirely different level from before!
Even a commander-rank opponent of the same level would probably be drained of blood in an instant if caught in this strangling web of vines, its body covered in wounds as though it had suffered a thousand cuts.
Even Su Ping couldn't help drawing a sharp breath.
Xiao Qing, who had been quiet in his arms until now, suddenly perked up too.
The cub stared intently at the entwining vines, as though suddenly grasping something.
Come to think of it, Xiao Qing had risen to ordinary tier two in just one day after forming a contract with him. That wasn't slow, but the cub still only had the Forest Wolf's basic skill, Sunlight Absorption.
It allowed the cub to reduce food requirements and consumption by basking in sunlight while also growing rapidly,
But the cub still had no combat abilities.
Su Ping hadn't been in any hurry, but judging by what he was seeing now, things seemed a little different.
Sure enough, Xiao Qing lightly jumped out of his arms and landed in front of him, then opened that little mouth and let out an extremely youthful howl:
"Awooooo..."
A moment later, several tender vines no thicker than strands of yarn burst out of the ground!
There was one slight difference, however. Aside from being thin, these vines were also a slightly different color, tinged with purple.
Su Ping blinked, staring at his pet beast in disbelief.
Just like that?
Of course, ordinary Forest Wolves generally learned their racial skills as they grew.
Tree Vine Strangulation was their primary means of combat, so naturally it was no exception.
But a pet beast's talent was judged by how quickly it learned and mastered skills.
Take yesterday's class group chat, for example.
Their class monitor, Zhou Shuchen, had proudly announced that the Red Fang Tiger he had only recently contracted had mastered one of its main combat skills, Flame Pounce, in just half a month.
That was indeed quite impressive.
But how had his Xiao Qing learned Tree Vine Strangulation simply by watching Old Sha use it once?
Still finding it hard to believe, Su Ping used True Eye to examine his pet beast:
[Mutant Forest Wolf (contracted)] [Elements: wood, poison] [Current level: ordinary tier two] [Racial potential: elite tier ten] [Skills: Sunlight Absorption (beginner), Poison Vine Strangulation (beginner)]
Wait.
Su Ping froze. It wasn't the Tree Vine Strangulation ordinary Forest Wolves mastered.
It was this so-called Poison Vine Strangulation?
Su Ping gave Xiao Qing a strange look. Could it be that this Mutant Forest Wolf his dad had supposedly selected after searching far and wide-though he had probably just stumbled upon it through sheer luck-
Not only had the potential to wield the poison element, but also possessed extraordinary aptitude?
Before you continue