Chapter 327: Beast, Look at Me!

You Fei stared at the crimson blood bead on his fingertip and the faint sting on his cheek, falling into a long daze.

He, a battle-hardened warrior, had actually been wounded by a greenhorn youngster?!

Is this the unique quality of a life born from Lingdi?

Though still young, its edge has already begun to show.

At that moment, the fight with the young man seemed to replay before his eyes—those still-raw, somewhat numerous flaws in his bladework maturing with every exchange, until that final strike, as natural as an antelope's hanging horn, a stroke of divine inspiration.

Gone was the earlier rawness; it had become unusually vicious, lethal!

In that instant, he seemed to faintly glimpse a fierce beast—neither cat nor tiger—extending its claws from the darkness…

"Clap clap clap…"

After a long pause, You Fei smiled faintly and gently began to clap; the crisp sound of applause rang clearly through the Lianwuchang that had suddenly fallen silent.

What a terrifying little fellow!

"Clap clap clap…"

"Good! Well done, Zhou lad!"

"A young man to be feared!"

"Brother, spar with me next time too."

A few breaths later, a wave of warm applause erupted from around the Lianwuchang.

At that moment, everyone knew that the youth slumped on the ground before them would surely have an extraordinary future!

After all, whether it was the two of them and one cat charging out of Lingdi Gucheng alone, or stepping into Outer Strengthening within a mere month and sparring with experts of the Tusha Beast squad, even drawing blood from an opponent…

Every feat silently proclaimed that his potential was absolutely extraordinary!

Outer Strengthening was definitely not his endpoint, and even leaping past Transparent to step into Rank 1 was not impossible.

'Looks like little Zhou is doing quite well.'

In the crowd, a little cat with a belly round from just eating, walking with a slight wobble, nodded in satisfaction. He had just finished his autumn-harvest raid and happened to witness the young man's final strike—finally grasping a hint of the rhythm hidden within his practice.

Watching the lively crowd, Baichuan turned around and wobbled off.

……

Meanwhile, at the Shoupeng.

"Ah! Sha Sha, Xiao Tu, Peng Peng… everyone, what's wrong with everyone?"

A woman in coarse grey linen clothing cried out in disbelief.

"Sa~~"

"Sa~~"

The reply came in a chorus of weary tones. These Tusha Beasts, each over five meters long and resembling flying fish of the sea, lay limply on the ground one by one; before them sat food troughs piled with large quantities of fresh beast meat.

"Everyone, why aren't you eating? Is today's meat not fresh?"

The woman stared at the food troughs before her, each seemingly untouched, frowning and murmuring to herself in puzzlement.

She seemed unable to understand why the Tusha Beasts, who normally wolfed down fresh meat the moment it was set out, hadn't touched it today. Was the meat not fresh? Or had something gone wrong with the beasts' bodies?

She had clearly been gone less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, and before she left, the Tusha Beasts had been full of vigor…

Of course, the puzzled woman did not notice that the seemingly untouched fresh meat in each trough was missing an almost imperceptible corner.

Time rewinds to one incense stick's worth earlier.

"Ding! Ding! Feeding time, feeding time!"

A woman lightly rang a clear meal bell, calling the Tusha Beasts over to eat, then gently set down the fresh-meat cart and closed the Beast Pen's wooden door with a creak.

Yet, in the darkness above the Shoupeng, a pair of golden pupils shone brightly, brimming with longing.

Watching the woman leave, the owner of those golden pupils slipped soundlessly down from the rafters, reaching the food troughs before any of the Tusha Beasts arrived, and planted himself in front of them all.

A closer look revealed—a cat!

A fluffy little grey-white kitten!

He nimbly leapt down from the rafters, landing among the Tusha Beasts, in front of the food troughs.

Hard to imagine—a cat, whose entire body, tail included, measured no more than thirty or forty centimeters, daring to leap into a group of Tusha Beasts averaging five meters or more in length!

Such a disparity in size, compared, would not be an exaggeration to call an infant facing an adult.

Normally, a creature this tiny would avoid such enormous beasts at all costs.

Even in a world where animals possess extraordinary power and size no longer decides everything, the larger ones are absolutely not weak—especially when the giants are Tusha Beasts. If they weren't strong, they wouldn't serve as mounts in Sand Castle reserved only for elite squads.

Tusha Beasts are predators fierce even by the standards of this boundless yellow Desert Land. Individually they may not be terribly strong, but once they gather in packs, countless living things in the Desert give them a wide berth. Even the Sand Dragon—one of the Overlords of the Desert Land—would avoid them on sight.

So, in this situation—especially at feeding time—a tiny creature had leapt in. The Tusha Beasts, possessing only faint instinctive intelligence, grew angry. One burly Tusha Beast stepped forward first; its somewhat shark-like head glared with a vicious gleam in its triangular eyes, and as its fish-like body moved on its pair of hind legs, its long tail fin swayed constantly, making the ground tremble faintly.

This was the leader of this pack of Tusha Beasts!

Baichuan understood that when it came to animals, no one here could claim to understand them better than he.

Because he himself had fought his way out of that chaotic, lawless world of beasts, and now, daring to leap in with such a tiny body, he naturally had his reasons.

"Sa!"

The next instant, a stench of blood assailed his nose.

A massive bloody maw lunged to bite!

In response, Baichuan—who was already extraordinarily agile—merely leapt lightly upward, clearing the lunging jaws, and landed squarely on the beast's head.

Yes, on its head!

For any creature, the head is an extremely vital spot, and now Baichuan stood on it.

To the Tusha Beast, this was nothing short of humiliation!

And so—

The next instant, the Tusha Beast grew even angrier!

Its thick hind legs suddenly exerted force, intending to drive its forward-shifted center of gravity in a violent heave, to fling this little thing straight up into the air, then leap up with nowhere for it to borrow leverage, and tear into its belly.

For the Tusha Beasts living in the Sea of Sand, this was basically the most commonly used trick.

In ordinary hunts, they would usually burrow beneath the sand like this, and upon spotting prey, suddenly charge to fling the target into the air, then immediately spread their flying-fish-like wings and shoot skyward, tearing open the airborne prey! A rain of blood would fall, proclaiming that this was their territory.

Yet this usually most skillfully employed instinctive technique didn't work this time!

The tiny but extremely agile cat, the very instant it sensed the other's head beginning to move, perceived its intent, then took the lead a step ahead—when the other was gathering strength to heave—it suddenly flipped and kicked!

This explosively powerful kick, especially coming from the exceptionally agile Baichuan—don't forget, speed of agility often represents extremely high explosive muscle power!

Even if this kick couldn't harm the thick-skinned, fleshy Tusha Beast, it was enough to throw off-balance a creature that was already gathering strength to heave!

The Tusha Beast, whose center of gravity was already forward-leaning, under the heave of its thick thighs driving its long, narrow body, flipped high up and lost its center of gravity and balance.

"Boom!"

The heavy sound of a crash rang out.

The Tusha Beast fell flat on its back, exposing its fish-white belly!

The next instant, having delivered this kick, the cat nimbly arrived before the Tusha Beast lying on its back, a pair of golden cat pupils brought right next to the Tusha Beast's small triangular eyes that had fallen into confusion, bewilderment, and even fiery anger.

'Beast, look at me!'

In an instant, Baichuan shouted inwardly.

The golden cat pupils met the Tusha Beast's small triangular eyes.

An invisible might surged forth from Baichuan's golden cat pupils, pouring into the Tusha Beast's eyes, transforming within its chaotic consciousness into a giant beast roaring toward the sky!

It was a mysterious giant beast with one claw completely metallized, carrying an unparalleled sharpness, resembling a cat yet not a cat, resembling a tiger yet not a tiger. Its entire body was white, with streaks of gray interspersed throughout this white body, countless purple lightning leaping and flickering across it, carrying an aura of terrifying destruction. Within its pair of golden pupils, it seemed as if endless majesty filled them.

"Saa-woo—"

In an instant, the Tusha Beast leader let out a wail, a single large crystalline droplet seeped from its small triangular eyes, and its body, which had still been somewhat tensed, relaxed once more, completely abandoning all resistance.

Accompanying the appearance of this wail of surrender from the Tusha Beast leader, as if by some contagion, all the surrounding Tusha Beast also immediately followed with a wail of surrender, and flopped down with a thud.

At this moment, all the giant beasts lay prostrate on the ground, as if clustering around a king, submitting before a tiny cat!

The immense and the tiny presented an enormous contrast!

Then, the tiny cat lightly leaped, unhurriedly as if patrolling its own territory, its tail swaying gently, stepping and glancing with pride as it arrived at the edge of the Shoupeng, where the food bowls were uniformly placed.

Looking at the food bowls each filled with large amounts of fresh beast meat, Baichuan no longer held back.

He directly cut an extremely thin strip of beast meat from every food bowl—this was to avoid being discovered by others. Of course, even if thin, it was only relatively speaking, and with accumulation, even he would eat until stuffed!

In less than five minutes, under Baichuan's seemingly elegant, unhurried, but actually vanishing-food rapid devouring, he ate until his belly was perfectly round, then as the Shoupeng wooden door creaked lightly, he somewhat reluctantly jumped back onto the roof of the Shoupeng and quietly left.

As for why it was reluctant—Baichuan said he was too full!

Then, being too stuffed to lie down, he began to leisurely wander around the Hunting Ship, until the earlier scene occurred.

……

After leaving the Lianwuchang, Baichuan once again leisurely strolled around, looked at some scenery that remained unchanged as always, and finally discovered the girl's figure in the Yiwushi.

'Looks like after finishing her blade practice, the girl came to the Yiwushi again, preparing to act as an assistant to those seemingly-doctor older sisters.'

Pretending not to hear the girl's delighted call, Baichuan gently swayed his long fluffy tail, recalling the harmonious scene of the girl and the sexy girl pounding medicinal juice as he walked away.

He looked just like a good-for-nothing rich second generation.

Sigh, the life of a cat is just this monotonous and boring.

Baichuan let out a long sigh.

……

From that day on, the large group of people from Lingdi on this ship gradually adapted to life on this Hunting Ship and began to blend in.

The Zhou Yun siblings were even more in their element—one became a "celebrity" at the Lianwuchang, often sparring with many experts to hone technique, while the other, after normal training, gradually gravitated toward roles like a doctor.

And Baichuan, who had conquered a large group of Tusha Beasts, finally had a stable food source, and no longer had to worry about not eating enough for the time being.

Every time he got hungry at mealtime, as long as he went to the Shoupeng, there was bound to be a feast waiting for him.

The only thing that gave him trouble was that tall, elegant woman who delivered the food (averaging two meters tall), who sometimes squatted nearby with a worried face, muttering to herself: why aren't the Sha Sha eating? Oh no, will Lord Dan blame me?

Regarding this, the mastermind behind the scenes—Baichuan squinted and said he didn't know.

Things like the Tusha Beasts waiting for the leader to eat first before daring to break the rules and move, or having to save the tenderest, most beautiful meat for the leader to eat first—he knew nothing about any of it.

Fortunately, that girl was also perceptive—after noticing that every mealtime, once she put down the food and left, after waiting a while she could see the Tusha Beasts had finished eating, she didn't dwell on it too much.

Time moved forward step by step like this.

Baichuan's accumulated Energy Point also grew more and more. On a certain night half a month later, he enhanced 【Shenjing Fanying LV2】 and 【Qiangzhuang LV3 (Banzhu)】—the two abilities cost a total of 700 points.

Just about all the Energy Point he had accumulated were used up.

As for why he didn't first enhance the giantization aspect of his body size, it was mainly because Baichuan saw that the hole leading into the Shoupeng was too small, and reluctantly gave up for now.

Once his body size increased, it would mean his energy source would once again become a headache. He decided to first strengthen some necessary hard capabilities before anything else.

Otherwise, having the size but lacking the strength to dominate at that size—this kind of empty show wasn't suited for him.

Moreover, his current enhancements had also reached a limit. After all, this was an ordinary Gold Finger he had crafted himself, and the body wasn't his own. This kind of enhancement, similar to a Biochemical Agent, had temporarily reached the limit of what this cat's bodily functions could handle.

After all, frequent bodily mutations inevitably involved genes and other aspects, as well as the overall architecture, requiring the body to ease and adapt.

But this was fine, because his Energy Point were also just used up.

As the saying goes, when one door closes, another opens.

His somewhat crappy Gold Finger had temporarily been squeezed dry of value, but his mutated right claw, under sufficient energy supply, had finally gained a trace of new change.

Wisps of special structure extended from the right claw like threads, beginning to spread throughout the entire right forelimb, gleaming with black stripes on his gray-and-white fur, and those stripes seemed alive, flickering bright and dim with his breathing.

His intuition told him that now this right arm, even if extended to directly withstand attacks like blade chops, axe cleaves, and piercing, could to a certain extent remain unharmed.

And in terms of strength, it had increased considerably compared to the left side.

One must know this was on the foundation of his having enhanced 【Qiangzhuang LV3】!

Now, he alone, relying on this mutated right claw, could send flying objects several times his own weight!

Under the Burst, briefly pinning down the relatively frail Earth Sand Beast for a moment was not impossible.

This was undoubtedly a tremendous change.

Everything was thriving, and Baichuan grew even more expectant of the future.

……

(End of Chapter)