Chapter 514

The box for the Rou was very large, and the lining inside made the Rou look exceptionally tiny, as if it could fall out through the gaps at any moment—yet Da Wang still wrapped it outside with an iron chain.

Zhe Tian stood on top of the cage, peering through the gap at the dazed little thing inside, then lifted his head to glance at Da Wang. Really, I can't count on you at all—your hunting skills are getting worse and worse!

And Da Wang was still frenziedly urging it on the side, telling it to use that icy ultimate move to greet the Rou.

Zhe Tian tilted his head and stared at him for a long while, waiting until he confirmed Da Wang was telling the truth, then stood on the iron cage and flapped his wings—golden Rou instantly froze into a lump of ice…

"Wow!"

The enthusiastic onlookers stepped back cleanly, afraid of being caught in the blast—everyone retreated two steps. It's been so long since I've been on the battlefield, I'd forgotten Zhe Tian had this move—this isn't some ordinary bird!

Da Wang felt pleased: "Even if it doesn't freeze to death, it's fine—doesn't it roar to attack? If its mouth is frozen shut, it can't open it, right?"

"Lord Zhe Tian, from now on it'll be your little brother—entrust it to you to take care of, okay?" Da Wang quickly passed the buck.

Zhe Tian, meanwhile, was happy, and on the way back he kept squatting on top of the cage.

Wei Shen heard they were about to return, and grew increasingly bewildered: "Dawn just broke—so we really came all this way just for this thing?"

Da Wang: "Mm-hmm."

Wei Shen: "This is the ferocious beast?"

Da Wang pointed at the soldiers gathering arrows: "Still not fierce enough?"

Wei Shen spoke honestly: "This isn't fierce—it's sinister, isn't it?" He still couldn't quite believe his own eyes.

When that ice lump let out a cry, the arrows were blocked; it leapt up with a swipe and slapped the black wind horse to death. If Bai Ze hadn't acted first, slapping a few people to death, I'd believe it too.

Da Wang also straightened his expression: "Everyone listen—this king will say this only once. This thing is called Rou, a truly formidable ferocious beast, especially its roar. Don't think we've temporarily caught it—killing it is very hard. If it ever escapes, don't provoke it."

Wei Ke examined it closely—it was indeed a novel little beast he'd never seen before, not even in books. With Bai Ze and Zhe Tian as precedents, he calmly accepted it.

The only surprise was Xie Yuan, who estimated Da Wang wouldn't let go of this until dark and couldn't come back—but who knew that at noon that day, the troop marched into the city in grand array.

Mr. Xie watched as they dragged back the "ferocious beast," and gained a new understanding of Da Wang's mental circuits…

Da Wang had originally planned to take the Rou to Sui Fu Dian for close supervision, but feared that if it unleashed its power, Xiong would be the first victim. After thinking it over, he decided to toss this dangerous item into the garden, shamelessly asking Bai Ze and Zhe Tian to pay more attention to it.

The cage was carried to a secluded pavilion in the garden—at this time the ice hadn't melted yet. He asked Bai Ze whether the creature was living well, and Da Wang also abandoned the idea of hacking at it with his sword twice. After all, it was a young Rou—there was still hope.

Da Wang placed a miniature version of a Winnie the Pooh rice bowl in the cage, painfully took out two low-grade beast-feeding pills and put them inside. "May you be a good child, Ling Spirit—hope you only need to eat once a month." Meng Fei flew out of the skylight.

Who would have thought—Da Wang, who had fled the morning court session, specially summoned people to Lan Tai Dian for discussion that afternoon.

The Chancellor, the Grand Tutor, Xie Yuan, and Dong Fu, plus Lu Tong—this lineup wasn't much yet, but soon Zhang Tu, Chang Li, and Zhao Chuan arrived, and Xie Yuan began to frown—something felt off.

Sure enough, as soon as Da Wang arrived, he dropped a bombshell: "Accurate news hasn't come through yet, but the south is about to descend into great chaos."

The Chancellor spoke first: "Your Highness means the south will again face large-scale warfare?"

The Rou's abnormality will certainly spread—Da Wang, at this moment, passed the buck without hesitation: "Yes. I've already received the news. Chaotic times are approaching, ferocious beasts have appeared in the world, and we must prepare. We captured that Rou this morning—if not properly cared for, it will eat people. Even in its youth, one swipe killed a warhorse; arrows can't pierce it. I didn't believe it either, but Bai Ze said so himself."

This time Xie Yuan's face turned solemn, everyone raised some urgent points, and Da Wang had no objections. After everyone spoke, he opened his mouth again: "All the gates of the Jin Dynasty are now in our hands—our task still has one most important point: prevent the Xiongnu and Xianbei from taking advantage of the internal chaos to move south. I've also gathered thirty thousand sets of armor and weapons; in three to five days they'll reach Youzhou, where they'll be urgently sent to the frontier. Ten thousand to Shuofang, five thousand each to Shanyang, Shanggu, and Luo Shui, and the remaining five thousand to Changzhou. The Western Qiang also need guarding—the court won't care whether Changzhou lives or dies. Zhang Tu will handle the arrangements, sending them as fast as possible."

Zhang Tu received the order.

Da Wang, however, couldn't stay put—he went out during the day to inspect the grain workshops, and at night went to Bai Yang to demand payment, chasing those who owed him grain debts.

Then, the largest supermarket chain in the Magic City suddenly began to run out of food. Not only were the rice and flour shelves emptier day by day, but even the miscellaneous goods were gone. Shelves of various beans, oatmeal, and other convenient foods were also depleted. Finally, it even hit the hot search list—unaware customers thought another rumor had sparked a buying frenzy? No one had heard of any recent typhoon or flood either!

Finally, the supermarket's official account announced it was conducting internal restructuring, evaluating new supply chains, and invited potential partners to proactively contact the official account, etc.

Da Wang's situation here wasn't great—Bai Yang had emptied the supermarket's grain reserves, and he couldn't just let it slide. He didn't actually fire everyone outright, but reassigned positions and cities, taking advantage of the transition between old and new staff to drain the supermarket's entire inventory. Da Wang's reserves were directly pulled to a new high, his waistband strapped even tighter.

With a large batch of grain in hand, he also felt like going to the garden to check on the Rou's dry meal—who could have guessed this thing was a ferocious beast that didn't distinguish between meat and vegetables, eating the vegetable base of fields and gardens!

The first time he saw Wei Shen squatting there feeding the Rou carrots, Da Wang jumped a little—Ling Spirit didn't just eat spirit beasts, but could also eat spirit grasses, even stretching to the white cabbage produced by the black-tech field base and garden base!

Bai Ze was also a bit surprised, looking at the Rou with eyes full of sympathy, glancing at this ancient ferocious beast—what has it come to!

Now the iron chains on the box have been removed—since it started eating grass, this young Rou has, in Da Wang's heart, transformed from Madame Niu into Little Sweetheart.

Besides nibbling cabbage every day, this thing can also happily claim a chunk of meat from the pasture base. Once the meat is finished, if it still scratches the cage, Da Wang will painfully give it a beast-feeding pill.

After swallowing the supplemental beast-feeding pill, this thing goes back to snoring loudly. At this point, even if Da Wang poked its belly, it would endure it. After a few days like this, the Rou's menu had basically stabilized, and Da Wang began to feel pleased, thinking this ferocious beast had already been tamed by him.

Perhaps his dream dream truly changed its mind—Da Wang was feeling pleased when he discovered his main task had refreshed.

Before, the first two main tasks had remained unchanged for ten thousand years—happiness index and hunger index—but this day was strange, as a new task appeared and jumped straight to first place.

【Main Task One: End the chaotic era, unify the world. (Actual occupation of all lands under Jin Dynasty rule. PS: Calculated based on the Jin Dynasty's peak territorial map.)

Time limit: six years (countdown: 2189 days)

Task reward: Full-domain 3D full-terrain map, Capital architectural complex set x6, A-level lottery wheel draw x10

Task penalty: 60,000,000 ingots (increases by 6,000 ingots per day overdue)】

Just four short lines of text—Da Wang read them twice, then counted the penalty digits twice: "……Sixty million ingots, equals six hundred million silver?!"

Da Wang lay flat on the bed, slowly: "……I've already lost all the strength to work for Meng Meng."