The Lord brought a man back, and a human at that?!
Hiss... The beasts gasped, exchanging glances. Each saw unmasked shock in the others' eyes, yet they all collectively held their breath and remained silent.
Only the large golden cat, the moment she saw Huo Yuhao, fixed her three eyes intently upon him, refusing to look away for even a second.
...
While Huo Yuhao's appearance caused some initial stir, all controversy vanished once he revealed his two silver-glow Soul Rings and unleashed his aura through the phantom of the Eye of Destiny.
Soul Beasts are far simpler than humans; the vast majority follow the rules of the jungle—survival of the fittest and respect for the strong.
The reason both Elder Yi and Huo Yuhao earned the respect of this group—aside from the "Artificial Soul Ring" and the "Ring-Breaking Seal"—was their own formidable strength.
After a brief introduction, Huo Yuhao got down to business.
"I want to know if there is a type of Soul Beast that breeds quickly, feeds on Blue Silver Grass, and preferably has excellent digestive capabilities."
Facing the many Soul Beasts before him, Huo Yuhao stated his requirements.
Recall when Huo Yuhao previously packed away all the Immortal Herbs at the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well? He had found Blue Silver Grass that was roughly equivalent to 10-year-old Soul Beasts but did not drop Soul Rings upon death.
Seeing that grass had sparked two ideas in his mind.
The first was to find Tang Ya and study the devouring trait within her Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul. Using that as a foundation, he hoped to breed a strain of Blue Silver Grass capable of devouring Heaven-and-Earth Primordial Energy to grow rapidly.
Ideally, such grass could reach the 100-year level at extreme speeds, at which point it could be harvested and its contained energy purified for use.
He even imagined taking it a step further: by fully utilizing the "Devouring" trait, the Blue Silver Grass could act as a core, frantically consuming Heaven-and-Earth Primordial Energy and converting it into Soul Power, effectively becoming a "Blue Silver Soul Power Machine."
It was a bit fantastical, but not impossible to achieve.
The second idea involved using this special Blue Silver Grass to breed specific Soul Beasts.
For example, under normal circumstances, the chaotic Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi surrounding the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well—laden with the auras of Ultimate Ice and Ultimate Fire—cannot be directly absorbed by people.
However, an adaptable plant like Blue Silver Grass can take root there, absorbing that special energy and retaining a trace of pure Ultimate Fire or Ultimate Ice within its body.
Though the amount of energy is pitifully small and usually dissipates the moment the grass dies, it does exist.
Based on this, Huo Yuhao hypothesized whether he could breed a specific Soul Beast to consume this grass in large quantities, thereby obtaining that trace of pure energy to trigger evolution.
In short: use the Blue Silver Grass as a filter to make the violent Heaven-and-Earth Primordial Energy absorbable for the Soul Beasts.
Then, use the evolved Soul Beasts as resources: their bones as materials for "Artificial Soul Bones," their energy-rich flesh sold as food, and their dropped Soul Rings crushed for energy. Total utilization!
Of the two plans, the first required waiting for the second semester at Shrek Academy to find Tang Ya, so it was temporarily shelved. Huo Yuhao naturally turned his focus to the second: farming exploitable Soul Beasts.
"Eats Blue Silver Grass... breeds quickly... I can think of one," Brigadier Wan Yao spoke up.
Since Elder Yi taught him the techniques to perfectly control his Mental Power, every blade of grass and every tree in the Star Constellation Great Forest had become his eyes and ears.
This technique of mentally linking all plants in the forest had significantly boosted his strength and information-gathering abilities. After a quick mental search, Brigadier Wan Yao found a match:
"The Soft-Boned Rabbit. This Soul Beast primarily feeds on Blue Silver Grass and various fruits or vegetables; it is a complete herbivore."
"They have decent speed and strength, and their innate Soul Skills are mostly for self-preservation. Furthermore, their reproductive capacity is extremely high, so they are numerous and distributed throughout the entire Star Constellation Great Forest."
As he spoke, Brigadier Wan Yao raised a hand. From the distance, a vine snaked over, delivering a plump, white-furred rabbit into his palm.
A Soft-Boned Rabbit with only a 100-year cultivation doesn't possess much intelligence. It had been sleeping soundly in its underground burrow, enjoying its cozy rabbit life, only to be snatched away by a sudden vine.
Seeing over a dozen figures staring at it with large red eyes, the rabbit felt an instinctive terror. It trembled violently, let out a tiny squeak, and promptly fainted from fright.
"This is the one."
Brigadier Wan Yao grabbed the rabbit by the ears and handed it to Huo Yuhao without the slightest hesitation.
There is no "solidarity" between different Soul Beasts; they have a strict hierarchy.
For a creature like the Soft-Boned Rabbit—which has no real attack power, invests all its points into survival, and eats only plants—almost every beast present viewed it as nothing more than food.
Compassion was out of the question; they were simply curious how Huo Yuhao would "process" the rabbit.
Huo Yuhao took the rabbit, delivered a few "mental slaps" to wake it up, and then pulled a pile of man-high Blue Silver Grass from his storage ring.
He tossed the rabbit into the pile and commanded it to eat every bit of the grass before it.
Simultaneously, Huo Yuhao asked Brigadier Wan Yao to catch another dozen rabbits: newborns, 10-year-old ones, 100-year, 1,000-year, and even a rare 10,000-year-old specimen.
After assigning enough grass to each, Huo Yuhao activated Spiritual Detection to observe their changes. Meanwhile, he began dissecting rabbits of different ages to become more familiar with their physical structure.
Since the process was somewhat tedious, the interested Soul Beasts eventually dispersed. Finally, Gu Yuena simply ordered the crowd to leave.
Only Gu Yuena, Di Tian, Electrolux, and a certain golden Three-eyed Golden Lion remained.
Gu Yuena and the Three-eyed Golden Lion stared unblinkingly at Huo Yuhao, while Electrolux joined him in observing the rabbits' reactions. As for Di Tian...
He looked at the Three-eyed Golden Lion staring fixedly at Huo Yuhao with a bizarre expression. An indescribable feeling of unease rose in his heart.
Ever since the Three-eyed Golden Lion was born, she—the Auspicious Beast—had been cared for by Di Tian, Bi Ji, and Zi Ji. One could say they had raised her as their own daughter.
The Lord bringing back a human... he could barely accept that, as the Lord had her own plans and it wasn't his place to criticize.
But why did it look like his own "cabbage" was also falling for this human?!
Di Tian fell into a deep, profound silence.