The urge to make money didn't last very long.
After all, he had only just set the rule of cultivating at most one beast per week. Changing policies on a whim wasn't a good habit.
Besides, he was only breaking down and researching Wolfsmoke Grass—there was no real need for top-tier equipment!
What was wrong with his own medicine cauldron?
Sure, it couldn't seal off odors—if he didn't wear a gas mask, he might get smoked unconscious.
Sure, it didn't have automatic stirring, so he had to pound everything himself with a handheld pestle.
Sure, it lacked decomposition functions and could only crudely mash things into liquid or powder.
Sure, it—
…Alright. Even Su Ping felt he couldn't keep bullshitting himself.
Still, as long as his mindset didn't collapse, there would always be a solution.
There was no reason to halt research on Wolfsmoke Grass altogether. Using basic experimental facilities first was perfectly fine.
After all, even if he lacked high-quality instruments, he had people.
So, after bringing the still-weak little Lin Wolf, Old Sha, and another Lin Wolf back from the Lingxi River behind the forest, Su Ping went to find Li Shu, who was training Songzi.
The task itself wasn't complicated—control the temperature, wear a gas mask, and keep shoveling Wolfsmoke Grass into the cauldron.
At most, he'd need to add some water in the middle, heating the whole bundle until it was fully condensed into liquid.
No technical difficulty to speak of.
But without a doubt, this was a path every breeder had to walk.
Yes.
Everything above was exactly what Su Ping told Li Shu.
Facing Su Ping's trusting gaze, Li Shu buckled on his gas mask and nodded firmly.
Not easy at all!
He'd been here at Wood's Heart for a whole week.
Finally—finally—he could do something that truly counted as hands-on breeder work.
Although Li Shu knew that Wolfsmoke Grass was rare within the city, out in the uninhabited wilderness it grew everywhere, covering mountains and plains.
These things were clearly brought back on purpose by Su Ping to train him.
I absolutely can't let my godfather down!
"Go on."
After teaching Li Shu how to operate the heated cauldron, Su Ping called over Old Sha—who was already wearing a wolfhound-specific gas mask—to keep watch in case anything went wrong. Only then did he finally relax.
Then, Su Ping walked over to Songzi.
Although its owner was away, Songzi knew that Su Ping was its master's closest friend.
And it was precisely because of this person that it had grown so straight and vigorous during this period.
It had even broken through to Ordinary Rank Three.
Plant-type pet beasts generally lacked mobility, but their utility was exceptionally diverse.
If not for the fact that Falling Seed Pine (Luòzǐ Sōng) was extremely difficult to cultivate and required too much space—making large-scale planting impractical—Su Ping might have chosen it as his second contracted pet beast.
Still, even if he couldn't choose it, that didn't diminish his fondness for this type of creature.
The small pine tree swayed gently. Though it had no face, the slight movement of its trunk and branches clearly suggested a lively soul within.
Over the past week, Su Ping had poured a great deal of effort into this little fellow.
Even before returning to Wood's Heart, while staying with Li Shu, he had interacted with Songzi many times.
But in the end, it wasn't a wolf-type pet beast. Without a wolf king's guidance, even after so long, there had been no prompt indicating that affinity had reached the threshold.
That left Su Ping rather helpless.
Now that he thoroughly understood Lin Wolves—and with the Lin Wolf Codex already at LV2, plus Old Sha's guidance—even Lin Wolves sent in for cultivation could reach the affinity threshold in as little as one day, or at most two or three.
Yet this little pine tree had taken far longer.
From this, Su Ping could roughly infer that if he wanted to get wild pet beasts of other species to reach affinity thresholds and light up their Codex entries in the future, the difficulty would only increase.
However, today, Su Ping came prepared—with absolute confidence.
Because today, he held something extra in his hand.
It shimmered with faint strands of fragrance, yet had no tangible form.
Calling it a treasure wouldn't be wrong. Calling it useless wouldn't be wrong either—at least to ordinary pet beasts and beast tamers.
Life Ancient Tree (Shēngmìng Gǔ Shù)—Qin Xiaoxue's second pet beast.
That day, after seeing Xiao Qing, another mutated pet beast, Qin Xiaoxue had answered Su Ping's curiosity.
The mutation direction of her Life Ancient Tree was—
Death.
Yes. Although Su Ping had long suspected that Qin Xiaoxue's mutated pet beast was extraordinary, he never imagined it was a coexistence of life and death.
Such mutations involved completely opposing attributes, making cultivation unimaginably difficult.
Compared to Lin Wolves, the difficulty was on an entirely different level.
Qin Xiaoxue hadn't been stingy either—she had shared some of her cultivation insights.
The Life Ancient Tree couldn't be handled carelessly; its life and death attributes had to be constantly balanced.
However, since it was still fundamentally a Life Ancient Tree, its core attribute remained life, with the death attribute suppressed.
Thus, to maintain balance, Qin Xiaoxue's Life Ancient Tree periodically expelled excess life energy, giving rise to death energy.
Only in this way could the balance of its mutated attributes remain intact.
And yes—the faint green mass in Su Ping's hand right now was precisely the life energy expelled by the Life Ancient Tree.
Normally, this energy had little effect beyond healing injuries.
But for plant-type beings, it was priceless.
It not only accelerated growth but also enhanced potential and intelligence.
After all, the Life Ancient Tree possessed Monarch-tier racial potential!
If not for the fact that this energy dissipated naturally after some time, Su Ping would never have been willing to use it on Songzi.
But now—
This was his trump card to drag this little pine tree onto the ship.
As expected, the moment Su Ping took out the pale green life energy, he could clearly sense Songzi's excitement. Its branches swayed faster and faster.
Su Ping shot it an exasperated glance.
Pet beasts really were all the same—no benefits, no effort.
The life energy slowly merged into Songzi's body.
A soft green glow bloomed from its trunk.
Then, as Songzi swayed, a fruit appeared on one of its branches.
The next instant—
The fruit shot out like a cannonball and exploded in midair!
This surge of life energy had directly helped the little fellow comprehend its strongest combat skill:
Pinecone Cannonball.
Though its power was still negligible for now, its future potential was immense.
And just as Su Ping had expected, almost the moment the phenomenon ended, the Myriad Spirits Codex in his mind slowly flipped open.
A brand-new page—one he had never seen before—appeared before his eyes.
Songzi's affinity had finally reached the threshold!
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read 60 chapter ahead on P@treon if you're interested: patreon.com/Nishaat