Early in the morning, just as Su Ping stepped out of the house,
he saw Xiao Qing whining at him with a somewhat aggrieved look.
Clearly, over the past two days, Su Ping's attention had been focused mainly on that little paper man, and he had neglected the care of his very real, contract-bound pet beast.
Rubbing Xiao Qing's head, Su Ping smiled and said,
"Have you been training hard these past few days, Xiao Qing?"
"Awwoo! (Xiao Qing… worked hard!)"
As if eager to prove it, Xiao Qing did something unexpected right in front of Su Ping.
Its body slowly began to grow larger.
Su Ping froze.
He immediately activated the Eye of Truth and looked at Xiao Qing.
Sure enough, Xiao Qing's level was still Ordinary Seventh Rank. However, under the Eye of Truth's observation, a brand-new skill had appeared among its abilities:
[Accelerated Growth (Beginner): Uses Wood-element power to rapidly increase body size, boosting corresponding physical strength.]
Now, with this Accelerated Growth, Xiao Qing had fully comprehended all of its racial skills.
At the same time, it still possessed the mutated skill Poison Wood Heart.
Seeing this, Su Ping's spirits lifted.
Rubbing Xiao Qing again—who had clearly felt wronged by being ignored—Su Ping smiled.
"Good. Perfect timing. Today, I'll continue your poison-attribute cultivation."
"Awwoo!"
Xiao Qing instantly perked up. Its ears shot upright, eyes bright as it stared eagerly at Su Ping.
The tail that had been dragging on the ground began wagging rapidly.
That pitiful, wronged look from earlier vanished without a trace.
Su Ping laughed and scolded lightly, "Look at you. Come on."
Since this involved poison-attribute resources, caution was still necessary. Although Xiao Qing had shown no issues during previous consumption, Su Ping wasn't about to take risks.
He led Xiao Qing into the medical room, skillfully set up the life-monitoring equipment, and only then took out the next poison-attribute resource.
Previously, Su Ping had purchased four poison-type materials in total: Heart-Slaying Fruit, Aconitum Wolfbane, Crimson Oleander, and Devil Willow Leaves.
Among them, Devil Willow Leaves were Elite-tier poison resources, taken from the poisonous plant-type pet beast Devil Willow Tree.
Their toxicity was extreme.
They couldn't be used casually for now.
Earlier, Xiao Qing had already consumed the Aconitum Wolfbane and Heart-Slaying Fruit. That meant the only one left was the Crimson Oleander.
Even seeing it in person, Su Ping couldn't help but sigh—
the more poisonous something was, the more beautiful it tended to be.
Xiao Qing was like that.
And this oleander was no exception.
The deep crimson petals looked like a gorgeous red wedding gown.
The preserved dew upon them resembled droplets of fresh blood falling from the flowers.
Aside from the Devil Willow Leaves, this was the most toxic of the bunch.
If Xiao Qing hadn't already proven complete immunity to both Aconitum Wolfbane and Heart-Slaying Fruit, Su Ping truly wouldn't have dared to let it consume this.
But Xiao Qing was already familiar with the process.
It opened its mouth directly.
"Awwoo!"
"Hm? You want to eat all of it at once? Confident?"
"Awwoo!"
Receiving Xiao Qing's firm and confident response, Su Ping didn't doubt it.
Xiao Qing was his family and companion—and in future battles, his most important partner.
In such circumstances, he couldn't help but trust it.
So this time, instead of feeding it piece by piece like before, Su Ping directly handed over the crimson oleander, which looked as though it had been soaked in blood.
Xiao Qing swallowed it in one gulp.
It wanted to prove that it was no weaker than that little paper man who had recently stolen its master's attention!
After wolfing it down in just a few bites, Xiao Qing sprawled across the table.
Very quickly, changes began to appear.
The Crimson Oleander truly lived up to its reputation as the strongest poison resource below Elite-tier.
In less than a few minutes, waves of energy began to ripple from Xiao Qing's body.
In the next moment, that energy surged to a peak—and then exploded outward!
A surge of feedback power traveled through the soul contract.
Xiao Qing broke through.
Just like Su Ping, it reached Ordinary Eighth Rank.
The speed of this breakthrough even surpassed Xiao Bu Dian's progress back then.
After all, Xiao Bu Dian was still only at Ordinary Seventh Rank.
What's more, under this feedback boost, Su Ping's own spiritual power rose significantly as well.
The threshold of Ordinary Eighth Rank—which he had only recently crossed—began to tremble once again.
This thrilled Su Ping.
But what he hadn't expected was what happened next.
Sparkling points of light appeared all over Xiao Qing's body.
They resembled fireflies—an extremely familiar sight to Su Ping.
They were exactly like the lights that had appeared when Mu Tou's Wood Heart had broken through.
But Xiao Qing was different from Mu Tou.
Mu Tou's lights had been bright and dazzling.
Xiao Qing's lights, however, were deeper, darker.
At the same time, faint wisps of greenish mist coiled around its body.
It looked like a shadowy, plague-bearing wolf hidden within dark green clouds.
This was—
The Eye of Truth instantly focused.
Sure enough, Xiao Qing's mutated skill Poison Wood Heart had advanced from Beginner to Proficient:
[Mutated · Poison Wood Heart (Proficient): A special mutated skill that integrates poison-element properties into the Wood Heart transformation, enhancing the activation effect, power, and casting speed of poison and wood skills.
Additionally, it can absorb plant essence to recover itself, and can consume poison-type resources to accelerate realm advancement.]
At the Proficient level, Poison Wood Heart didn't look drastically different.
But from the faint green mist exhaled with each breath from Xiao Qing's nose and mouth, it was clear—
Xiao Qing's control over poison, and the potency of its toxins, had risen once more.
And this was likely a qualitative leap compared to before!
As Xiao Qing slowly stood up, Su Ping's expression shifted.
Sure enough, with Xiao Qing's breakthrough, the Myriad Spirit Codex in his mind slowly flipped open once more.
A new log entry appeared in the Forest Wolf Codex:
[Progress observed in poison-attribute cultivation of a poison-mutated bloodline pet beast.]
[Further analysis achieved regarding the cause of poison mutation in Forest Wolves. You may spend 47,000 Codex Experience Points to forcibly analyze the cause of poison bloodline mutation and obtain a mutation cultivation method.]
[Poison Wood Heart skill cultivation improved. The Forest Wolf Codex may reference the poison development path for further enhancement. Additional 200 Codex Experience Points obtained.]
The first two entries were one thing.
But the last one made Su Ping's heart jump.
The effect of consuming Crimson Oleander this time was less impactful than before in reducing the required experience for analyzing the poison mutation.
However—
Improving Poison Wood Heart actually granted Codex experience!
And most importantly—
Although the amount wasn't large…
It was the final piece of the puzzle.
Because with these 200 experience points, his Forest Wolf Codex experience finally surpassed 1,700 points.
Which meant—
The evolution of the Myriad Wood Wolf could finally be perfected using the Myriad Spirit Codex!
Had he finally grasped a complete evolution path?
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