What Lucas did not know was that after he carried off the black bear cub, inwardly grinning, its mother did indeed come after him once she shook off the bee magical beasts.
She found the mud pit where Lucas and the cub had rolled around, then sniffed it carefully before pursuing them in the direction Lucas had left. Before long, she reached the second puddle where Lucas and the black bear cub had coated themselves in mud.
This time, she clearly spent longer sniffing than before, but she still found the right direction and continued her pursuit.
Lucas was a crafty old fox. From the moment he decided to abduct this black bear cub, he understood from the way its mother had schemed against him that she possessed intelligence no lower than a human's.
Lucas also knew that creatures like magical beasts should be like the animals of his previous life, with an ability to distinguish scents far beyond that of humans. So every time he ran some distance, he coated himself and the cub in his arms with another layer of mud.
Although doing this would slow him down at first and leave behind his scent and the cub's, as they coated themselves in mud more and more times, those scents would gradually be diluted by the smell of the mud.
Lucas also understood that because this area was rainy, other magical beasts would come to drink from these pools after the last rainfall. Magical beasts would therefore leave their droppings here, and these pools would contain their scents as well.
Once the scents of those other magical beasts mingled with Lucas's and the cub's, they would greatly mask the pair's scents, making it harder for the magical beast mother bear to find them.
Sure enough, after pursuing them for a while, the mother magical beast gradually became unable to distinguish her cub's scent and the human's. What Lucas did not know was that after losing her targets, the mother bear roared there and went on a destructive rampage before leaving.
Lucas had not dared pause for even a moment. After running for half a day, he stopped to take a drink of water, intending to rest briefly before continuing his flight.
At this point, whether because the little bear cub knew it was out of danger or for some other reason, it began resisting Lucas. It was no longer willing to let Lucas carry it obediently as he ran, as it had at first.
Lucas had no intention of indulging it now. Although he had already been running for half a day, he still felt it was unsafe to stop, so he simply used his strength to subdue the cub, which had only just reached the third level, and continued fleeing with it. Lucas ran like this for five days.
He stopped in a valley and put down the little fellow, which was now trying to act fierce despite its babyish appearance. After killing several sixth-level magical beasts occupying the valley, he found a cave and built a fire, intending to roast some meat and properly replenish what he had expended over the past few days.
The bear cub was right in the midst of its fastest growth period. Having gone without food for more than five days, it still maintained a basic wariness toward the creature that had been carrying it around all this time. But faced with the meat Lucas tossed it, hunger overcame that trace of wariness, and it could not resist approaching the food.
To carry it away, Lucas had not given it anything to eat before. Now, before he had even given it meat to eat, it had already approached. Lucas was confident that cubs like this, born only recently, were nowhere near as clever as their mothers.
Just as Linley could lure Bebe away with roast chicken, he could win this little fellow over with good food. Watching it begin eating the raw meat he had given it, Lucas smiled. It seemed the first step of his plan had succeeded. Although he did not know what level this magical beast cub was, in Lucas's estimation, its black bear mother was at least an eighth-level magical beast. So no matter what, abducting a high-level magical beast that would be at least eighth-level was no loss for him.
Afterward, Lucas began roasting meat for himself. As he ate the magical beast meat, sizzling with fat, he immediately felt all the exhaustion from his days of fleeing swept away. Sure enough, of all the things in the world,
Aside from cultivating for longevity and familial affection, good food was not to be neglected either! Before roasting the meat, Lucas had gathered some flowers. These edible flowers could provide just the vitamins and dietary fiber he lacked from eating meat for so long. After sprinkling his meat with some salt he had crudely refined a while earlier, he found it even more appetizing.
Sure enough, after finishing the meat Lucas had given it, the bear cub gazed pitifully at the meat in his hand. Naturally, Lucas would not be fooled by its cute display. The cub was not familiar with him yet, and he could not give it the best roasted meat right from the start. So Lucas gave it no more food. After finishing his own meal, he planned to find a dry place in the cave to rest!
Although the cub remained wary because Lucas was not the mother it knew, when it heard the roars of other magical beasts in the valley outside the cave that night, it still instinctively edged closer to him. In these surroundings, Lucas was now the only one familiar to it!
Lucas did not dare let himself fall into a deep sleep either. Instead, he lay down to sleep on a narrow ledge high enough that a third-level magical beast black bear cub could not attack him.
At daybreak the next morning, Lucas woke and found the bear cub lying asleep beneath the ledge where he lay. He got up and headed outside the cave.
When Lucas woke, the noise startled the cub awake as well. Last night, Lucas had also known that the group of sixth-level magical beasts he had killed earlier was still nearby. The cub was only third-level and had no sense of security at all!
So when it saw Lucas get up, it wanted to approach but did not dare get too close. Lucas ignored it. After washing up, he began his new day of cultivation. His battle qi had previously been at the sixth level, and after the exertion of rushing and fleeing over these past few days, his body's ability to absorb battle qi had improved enormously. Cultivating battle qi now would definitely yield twice the results with half the effort.
At noon, Lucas gave the cub another foreleg from a magical beast he had killed yesterday, then roasted the other foreleg for himself! After eating, Lucas paid the cub no attention and went back to rest on the ledge where he had slept earlier!
Lucas intended to use the method of taming a hawk, slowly keeping the cub wanting more. He would let it gradually lower its guard toward him and slowly become dependent on him. Since he had not obtained a method for directly forming a contract with a magical beast, this was his only option!
These ten days passed quickly, and Lucas went out hunting several times during that period. Now, the magical beast cub clearly insisted on sitting beside him at mealtimes! Lucas also understood that, from now on, he could give it some roasted meat.
Before you continue