Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Beast Soul Power
"Goodbye, Jiang! Goodbye, Great Black!"
As evening fell, Little Xiangtao stood in front of the shop, waving goodbye reluctantly to Jiang Zuo and Great Black.
Blacksmith Li watched Jiang Zuo’s figure recede into the distance, then glanced at the adorable Little Xiangtao beside him, a thought crossing his mind.
’Jiang Zuo is only seventeen now, and Little Xiangtao is eight. In another seven years, Little Xiangtao will be old enough to marry.’
’By then, Jiang Zuo will be twenty-four. It doesn’t seem impossible.’
’But then again, Jiang Zuo is a real hot commodity in the eyes of the town’s Matchmakers.’
’He’s young but already independent, has a steady personality, and is quite handsome.’
’If he dressed up a bit, he’d look very sharp—just like a scholar.’
’Excluding the town’s wealthy families, Jiang Zuo is already a top-tier marriage prospect.’
’As far as he knew, Matchmakers had been knocking on Jiang Zuo’s door to introduce him to young women since before he was even sixteen.’
’It’s only because Jiang Zuo hasn’t taken a liking to any of them; otherwise, he’d probably have children by now.’
’Seven years is a long time from now.’
Thinking of marriage, Blacksmith Li couldn’t help but be reminded of his own rebellious son.
His mood, which had just started to improve, soured considerably.
’Compared to Jiang Zuo, my own son is completely worthless.’
’Is this just fate?’
Blacksmith Li sighed inwardly and turned to go back into his shop to continue forging.
...
The sun hadn’t set yet, so the shops along the street were still open, and many street vendors hadn’t packed up to go home.
Jiang Zuo needed to prepare some delicious food tonight to satisfy the foodie Porcupine Obsession.
He was very curious to see what the Beast Soul Obsession would give him.
While the shops and vendors were still open, Jiang Zuo browsed for a while and bought a large pile of ingredients.
"Jiang Zuo, it’s so late. Why are you buying so many groceries? What are you planning to make?"
Someone who knew Jiang Zuo asked curiously.
Jiang Zuo lived alone; that amount of food was enough to last him several days.
"I’ve been learning to cook some new dishes recently. Just practicing my skills. If it doesn’t taste good, I’ll just feed it to this guy."
Jiang Zuo replied with a casual smile.
Hearing this, Great Black’s eyes lit up.
’All this food... could it all be for me?’
At this thought, Great Black perked up, its pace quickening as it ran home.
A little over ten minutes later, Jiang Zuo arrived back at his wooden cabin.
Next door, Mr. Yang and the others were still busy.
Many hands make light work. In just one afternoon, the foundation for his neighbor’s new home was nearly complete. They could start building the house proper tomorrow.
At this rate, the house would be finished in two weeks at most.
Jiang Zuo wasn’t particularly interested in his new neighbors.
’As long as they don’t bother me, I don’t care who they are.’
In the kitchen.
Jiang Zuo had already thought it through and decided to first make stir-fried pork with green vegetables, a common dish he often cooked.
He needed to find out if an ordinary dish could satisfy the Porcupine Obsession.
’Is it enough for the food to just taste good, or does it require high-grade ingredients to be satisfied?’
’If it will eat simple stir-fry, then things will be easy. But if it only eats high-end dishes, that would be a bit troublesome.’
’All these ingredients I bought would just end up as a treat for Great Black.’
’In any case, I have to try it to find out.’
To make it easier to track, Jiang Zuo controlled the portion size, making just enough for one person.
The pork was already marinated and had been kept cool in the well, and the green vegetables were ready to use.
Stir-frying fiercely over a high flame, he had a single portion of stir-fried pork with green vegetables ready in less than five minutes.
’How do I get the Porcupine Obsession to "eat" it?’
Jiang Zuo thought for a moment, then placed his finger on the dish, opened his status panel, and mentally connected with the Porcupine Teeth inside the Obsession Relic.
In the next instant, the entire plate of stir-fried pork with green vegetables turned to ash, looking much like the remnants of a burnt incense stick.
’Excellent!’
’It can eat!’
Jiang Zuo’s spirits lifted.
However, Jiang Zuo waited for a moment, glancing around, but saw no notification.
’Is the portion too small?’
’Thinking about a pig’s appetite—and a porcupine, at that—it must be a big eater.’
Jiang Zuo immediately started cooking again, continuing with the stir-fry but greatly increasing the portion size this time.
「Twenty-something minutes later.」
『You have obtained 1 point of Beast Soul Power!』
After Jiang Zuo offered the tenth single portion of stir-fry to the Porcupine Beast Tooth, the status panel finally reacted.
By the time he offered the tenth portion, Jiang Zuo’s scalp was starting to tingle; he felt like he was throwing food into a bottomless pit.
’Thankfully, it finally reacted.’
’It eats a lot, but it’s not unacceptable.’
’As expected of a pig-type creature, it has a huge appetite.’
’The Porcupine Beast Tooth is still here, which means nothing has changed, and I can continue to obtain Beast Soul Power. I can keep offering the stir-fry, but I’m running low on both pork and vegetables, so I’ll have to switch to something else.’
Jiang Zuo studied the changes in the Beast Taming System, pondering.
His Beast Soul Power had gone from 0 to 1. Jiang Zuo tried to select it, but there was no response. It seemed the amount was too small.
He could continue making the stir-fry, but the vegetables were being used up much faster than he had anticipated. He didn’t have enough to make another ten portions.
’I might as well test other dishes to see what satisfies the Porcupine Obsession. I can buy more ingredients in bulk tomorrow.’
Next, Jiang Zuo used the ingredients he had on hand to make a series of dishes.
While cooking, Jiang Zuo also started boiling a sweet mung bean and sweet potato soup on the side.
As it turned out, the Porcupine Obsession was not picky at all and accepted everything.
Whether it was mapo tofu, steamed carp, or the sweet mung bean and sweet potato soup, it ate them all.
Jiang Zuo even began to suspect that the thing would eat anything edible.
He couldn’t resist a sly idea and threw together a random dish to see if he could fool it.
’If that works, things will be much easier.’
However, Jiang Zuo was ultimately disappointed.
The Porcupine Obsession didn’t really eat just *anything*. If a dish wasn’t delicious to a certain degree, it would ignore it completely.
’I can’t make anything else, but I still have a lot of sweet potatoes and flour at home. I can make a lot of fried sweet potato slices and more of the sweet mung bean and sweet potato soup. This should allow me to determine the Porcupine Obsession’s acceptance limit for a single dish.’
He had grown the sweet potatoes himself. After harvesting, he had dusted them with lime and stored them in the utility room.
He only ate a small amount each month, so he had more than enough sweet potatoes for now.
He had to make meat buns every day, so he also had several large bags of flour.
He didn’t have a lot of mung beans and sugar, but it should be enough.
He could fry the sweet potato slices and boil the sweet soup at the same time.
And so...
Two hours flew by in a flash.
『You have obtained 1 point of Beast Soul Power!』
After offering fifty portions each of fried sweet potato slices and sweet mung bean and sweet potato soup to the Porcupine Obsession, it no longer reacted to those two foods.
From this, Jiang Zuo obtained a total of 10 points of Beast Soul Power, bringing his total to 11.
Jiang Zuo looked at the Beast Soul Power on his status panel again.
This time, there was finally a reaction.
『Enhanced Bloodline』!
『Enhanced Power』!
『Enhanced Physique』!
『Enhanced Agility』!
By consuming 10 points of Beast Soul Power, he could choose one of these attributes to enhance for Great Black, and the success rate was 100%!
’So Beast Soul Power is used to strengthen a Pet Beast!’
Jiang Zuo’s gaze burned with intensity as he looked at the options.
’This finally feels like raising a proper pet!’
’This is more like it! What kind of Beast Tamer just raises Pet Beasts to sell them?’
’Especially Enhanced Bloodline... could it make a Pet Beast undergo a Mutation?’
’If so, could I complete the mission to make a Pet Beast mutate?’
Gazing at Great Black, Jiang Zuo felt a restless urge to act.
However, Jiang Zuo quickly calmed himself down.
’A Pet Beast Mutation probably isn’t that simple.’
’This Porcupine Beast Tooth is only a tier-one Obsession Relic. The amount of Beast Soul Power it contains can’t be that large, and what I’ve obtained is only a fraction of it.’
’It’s unlikely that this small amount of Beast Soul Power could cause a Pet Beast to mutate.’
’I’ll probably have to enhance its bloodline multiple times to trigger a mutation.’
’Especially for a dog like Great Black, who is as ordinary as they come. Its own bloodline is far too unremarkable; making it mutate won’t be easy.’
’If large black dogs were easy to mutate, given their sheer numbers, there would be countless mutated ones by now.’
In reality, Jiang Zuo had never even heard of a mutated large black dog.
’First, I should drain all the Beast Soul Power from the Porcupine Beast Tooth. I need to see how much a tier-one Beast Soul Obsession can actually provide.’
After some thought, Jiang Zuo made his decision.
...
It was getting late, so Jiang Zuo used the remaining ingredients to make dinner.
Tears streamed down Great Black’s face. It could finally have dinner.
When it saw Jiang Zuo cooking earlier, Great Black had been incredibly excited, thinking all the food was really for him.
Who would have thought that time and time again, Jiang Zuo had no intention of feeding him at all?
Great Black had started to get depressed watching him, feeling like its trust had been betrayed.
But under Jiang Zuo’s training, it didn’t dare to bark wildly. It could only lie at the kitchen entrance, staring intently at Jiang Zuo with a mournful gaze.
However, even though dinner was late, it tasted exceptionally good.
Great Black’s mood improved rapidly the moment the food entered its mouth.
After dinner, Jiang Zuo spent some more time kneading dough for the meat buns he would make the next morning.
By the time the dough was ready, it was just after nine at night.
Jiang Zuo lay back on his bed, ready to sleep.
In this world, ordinary people didn’t have much entertainment at night, so they would go to bed early and wake up early for work the next day.
Jiang Zuo went to sleep, and not long after, Great Black also lay down on the floor.
However, it remained in a half-asleep state. If it heard any noise, it would immediately get up and look alertly toward the source of the sound.
...
「Four in the morning.」
Jiang Zuo woke up and opened his eyes.
A new day had begun.
After washing up, Jiang Zuo went to the front hall of the house.
On the left wall of the front hall hung a shrine. Inside the shrine stood two memorial tablets, inscribed with the names "Jiang Rulin" and "Zuo Qing’e."
These were the names of his parents in this life.
In years past, Jiang Zuo would offer a stick of incense to them on the first and fifteenth of every lunar month.
This world also had tales of the Underworld and an afterlife, but as far as he knew, these were just ethereal myths, not reality.
However, it was better to believe they existed than to believe they didn’t.
Jiang Zuo very much hoped his parents were living well, so he had never stopped offering incense all these years.
Now, having learned that his parents might still be alive, Jiang Zuo hesitated for a moment before lighting incense for them as usual.
Then, he prepared the meat buns as usual and placed them in the steamer to proof.
Jiang Zuo had Great Black watch the house while he ran toward the pork butcher’s stall in town under the cover of the morning twilight.
He planned to finish dealing with the Porcupine Obsession this morning and see what kind of reward the mission would give.
This was the second mission Jiang Zuo was able to complete, and he was quite curious about the reward.
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