“Byakko, hold the fort.” I waved at the white tiger cub that was seeing me off from the entrance of the cave.

“Nuu~” the little fellow protested. He shot me a resentful look.

I laughed.

The little guy wanted to come together with me. But I adamantly refused him. I mean he was just a newborn. He was all wobbly when he moved around for a long time. If I took him with me, he would be nothing more than a burden. Although he had a lot of potential, he was still very weak. He was simply too young. I had already seen his status due to the bond we shared.

GENERAL

Name

Byakko

Age

1 day old

Race

White Tiger

Realm

Qi Gathering 1

(5/100 Essence)

Lifeforce

110/110 (Regeneration: 1% per second)

Qi

100/100 (Regeneration: 1% per second)

ATTRIBUTES

Strength

11

Physique

11

Movement

15

Control

15

Soul

10

Comprehension

5

Charm

10

Fate

10

INNATE TRAIT

Wings of the Heavenly Tiger

Bonded to: Su Ren

The biggest difference between humans and magical beasts, from what I conjectured after seeing Byakko’s status, was the way we cultivated. Humans were required to have a Cultivation Method to cultivate whereas magical beasts had their path to cultivation wide open by the simple virtue of being magical beasts. They could start cultivating as soon as they were born.

Byakko was already at the Qi Gathering Layer 1 while I had yet to cultivate.

Still, his stats were a far cry from mine.

I felt a strange surge of confidence brimming inside my heart. I was much stronger than I had credited myself for.

I plucked some random plants on the wayside and munched on them. Plants rarely provided increase in stat points. But I didn’t care. I was in love with the whole act of eating. The gain of stat points, to me, was a bonus.

I decided to change the location of my hunting ground. The beasts in my previous one were going wild with frenzy. It was better not to prod a hornet’s nest that was already raging.

I moved deeper into the forest.

Ding!

Congratulations!

You have acquired the trait [Photosynthesis].

I spat out the stuff I was eating. What the hell? No matter how I looked at it, this newly acquired trait [Photosynthesis] sounded ridiculous. It must be a troll trait. That was what I thought. It was like the system was telling me that I had eaten so many plants that I was starting to turn into one myself.

Not holding much hope, I checked the details of the trait.

PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Enables you to absorb Pure Yang Qi from the sun and store it in your body. Regeneration of Qi will increase by 5% in areas filled with Pure Yang Qi.

Oh! The trait turned out more decent than I thought. Especially the increase of Qi regeneration by 5%. Even if it was only in places with Pure Yang Qi. From my compendium of xianxia knowledge, I knew Pure Yang Qi meant concentration of high heat energy. So, places with Pure Yang Qi should be locations like volcanic regions.

My Lifeforce and Qi Regeneration was still 0.5% per second, which meant that I would recover all my Lifeforce and Qi in 200 seconds, which roughly translates to a little more than three minutes. But in a battle, there would be many factors at play. I wasn’t very optimistic about my regeneration rate, given the opponent would also have similar or higher regeneration rate.

Smiling in satisfaction, I continued my way forward.

A little while later, I came across a small pond.

I checked my surrounding with [Hawk Eye]. With the growth in my Soul, the range I could see with it was a whooping thirteen kilometers.

I could make out several beasts around. But none of them were close enough for me to be wary about.

I carefully undid the vines that held the leaves together. I didn’t want to wreck it. It was the result of several hours of painful labor. It would definitely break my heart if I damaged it due to mishandling.

It had been a long while since I had last washed myself. Correction. I had not washed myself since I had crossed over to this world. My body was starting to feel itchy. That’s why, the first thing I thought when I saw the pond was to wash myself. I guess it had something to do with a modern person’s sensitivities.

A fat person with dirt and grime all over his body stared back at me.

Is that me? I looked at the figure reflected on the still surface of the water in disbelief. I couldn’t bring myself to believe it because the figure was simply too ugly. Granted, I felt my belly protruding out lately but this…

No wonder I was losing points in the charm stat.

[Innards of a God] was not as OP as I expected it to be. It enabled me to eat anything and a huge amount to boot. But it did nothing about my weight.

I thought of controlling my diet but quickly dismissed the idea. Eating to my heart’s content was my raison d’etre. I was not going to compromise it no matter what. So what if I looked a little unsightly?

I quickly washed myself and checked my status.

GENERAL

Name

Su Ren

Age

10 years old

Cultivation Method

N/A

Realm

N/A

Lifeforce

640/640 (Regeneration: 0.5% per second)

Qi

0/540 (Regeneration: 0.5% per second)

ATTRIBUTES

Strength

35

Physique

64

Movement

43

Control

42

Soul

54

Comprehension

23

Charm

6

Fate

5

INNATE TRAITS

Innards of a God

Hawk Eye

Photosynthesis

Bond:

Byakko (White Tiger)

My charm had upped by two points. No. I should say my charm had recovered by two points.

I closed the status window.

It had already been several hours since I set out. Yet I still had to find eggs that I could take to my cave. It was not that I didn’t see any eggs. In fact, with my [Hawk Eye], I saw many eggs on my way here. The thing was, it was not left unguarded like in my previous territory. One or other beast would be constantly guarding it. As I moved deeper into the forest, the presence of ferocious beasts was getting more and more. Maybe that was the reason the beasts around here were so guarded.

In the end, I could only give up.

I turned and retraced my steps.

I tried to look for other alternatives. Like fruits. Although, it wasn’t as fulfilling as the eggs and didn’t give as much boost in stat points, it was still delicious. At the end of the day, it was all that mattered. It was fine as long as I could get eat something.

Before long, I found a bunch of fruits some two kilometers away from where I was. And most important of all, there was no beasts around that area. It was like the ferocious beasts were all avoiding that place.

I cautiously made my way towards that spot.

As I neared the area, a clear stream of energy entered my head that made my mind unusually clear. Every step I inched closer, that clearness in my head grew. At that moment, it felt like nothing would confuse my head.

The fruits were extraordinary. I could feel it in my gut.

I picked one of the fruits. It was the size of an apple.

I paused.

I had already verified that nothing I ate would harm me. Well, except, maybe make me fatter. Still, I couldn’t shake off the hesitation in my heart. Yet at the same time, I had a huge urge to eat it.

In the end, I gave in to my natural instinct.

With a crunch, I took a bite of the fruit. Super sweet and juicy. It was the nature at its best. I wanted to describe the whole sensation vividly but there’s simply no word to describe what I savored. Otherworldly. That’s the only thing I could say.

I quickly gobbled up the rest of the fruit.

Then I had the weirdest experience ever. Add frightening while we are at it.

My stomach started to churn and a huge amount of energy began to spread all over my body. My body began to inflate like a balloon. At one point, it became as round as a ball. My body was frantically absorbed the rampant energy. I so regretted my reckless act of eating the fruit against my better judgment.

There was nothing I could do but wait, fearful and helpless.

Slowly, to my relief, the out of control energy was absorbed in its entirety. My inflated body also shrank, thank the heavens above. The most surprising thing was, my insatiable stomach was full with just a fruit. That was really shocking.

Ding!

You have consumed Clear Spirit Fruit.

Congratulations!

You have gained +1 Physique, +20 Soul, +40 Comprehension

Holy! That was the highest amount of stat points I ever gained. I quickly checked my status.

GENERAL

Name

Su Ren

Age

10 years old

Cultivation Method

N/A

Realm

N/A

Lifeforce

650/650 (Regeneration: 0.5% per second)

Qi

0/740 (Regeneration: 0.5% per second)

ATTRIBUTES

Strength

35

Physique

65

Movement

43

Control

42

Soul

74

Comprehension

63

Charm

6

Fate

5

INNATE TRAITS

Innards of a God

Hawk Eye

Photosynthesis

Bond:

Byakko (White Tiger)

I could already feel the effect of the increase in my soul and comprehension. My thoughts felt much clearer than before. Things that appeared difficult were much easier to understand now.

Thinking that I had enough excitement for the day, I headed back. Naturally, I didn’t forget to pick the fruits. There were seven of them. A nice haul, if you ask me.

An excited Byakko greeted me at the cave entrance. It went, “Nuu~ Nuu~” as soon as he saw. ‘Father’ was still the only word it could understand and utter, if you could count the whole telepathy thing as talking. But somehow, I was able to vaguely understand him. It must be due to our bond.

It was simply impossible to hate this little guy. He seemed to grow on you the more time you spent with him.

I picked him up in my arms and went into the cave.

“Nuu~” the little fellow purred. He was hungry.

I belatedly realized that, apart from the Clear Spirit Fruits, I had found nothing to eat. Our stock of eggs was already gone. Well, Byakko had destroyed all the eggs, apart from the one that I had brought. We already finished it that every evening. I took out one of the fruits and hesitated. The fruit was too potent. Even with my [Innards of a God], I had a difficult time ingesting it.

But leaving little Byakko hungry just didn’t sit right with me.

I scrapped a real tiny piece of the fruit and brought it to Byakko’s mouth.

He licked the piece in with his tongue.

I fearfully observed if there was any weird changes with the little guy. Luckily, there was none.

Byakko looked at me as if he was asking for more. No. He was asking for more.

I scrapped another tiny piece and gave it to him. I continued this process for five more times. Finally, Byakko purred his trademark “Nuu~” in satisfaction and then fell asleep.

I checked Byakko’s status.

GENERAL

Name

Byakko

Age

1 day old

Race

White Tiger

Realm

Qi Gathering 1

(9/100 Essence)

Lifeforce

110/110 (Regeneration: 1% per second)

Qi

100/100 (Regeneration: 1% per second)

ATTRIBUTES

Strength

11

Physique

11

Movement

15

Control

15

Soul

11

Comprehension

7

Charm

10

Fate

10

INNATE TRAIT

Wings of the Heavenly Tiger

Bonded to: Su Ren

There was increase of one point in soul and two points in comprehension. Not a bad growth. I decided I would feed scraps of Clear Spirit Fruit and raise Byakko’s soul and comprehension. And maybe, find other fruits with similar effect on other attributes.

I took out a new fruit and ate it. I felt the effects were bigger when taken as a whole. I saved the previous one for Byakko. It just might be my misplaced misunderstanding playing with me.

This time, I took the fruit slowly, letting the rampant energy sink in with each bite. Even when I finished the whole fruit, there was no repeat of the previous episode.

I learnt a valuable lesson. Eat slowly.

Ding!

You have consumed Clear Spirit Fruit.

Congratulations!

You have gained +1 Physique, +20 Soul, +40 Comprehension

I thought there would be a loss of efficacy or something but the effects were the same as before.

I mumbled, “Status.”

GENERAL

Name

Su Ren

Age

10 years old

Cultivation Method

N/A

Realm

N/A

Lifeforce

660/660 (Regeneration: 0.5% per second)

Qi

0/740 (Regeneration: 0.5% per second)

ATTRIBUTES

Strength

35

Physique

66

Movement

43

Control

42

Soul

94

Comprehension

99

Charm

6

Fate

5

INNATE TRAITS

Innards of a God

Hawk Eye

Photosynthesis

Bond:

Byakko (White Tiger)

Wait a minute. The math didn’t quite add up. Wasn’t comprehension supposed to be 103?

The only explanation I could think of was a bottleneck. From what I knew, it was a very common occurance on the journey of cultivation. I wondered if that was the limit of a non-cultivator.

I needed to find a cultivation method if I wanted to break through the limits imposed on me.

It was about time I tried to come in contact with other humans.

The monster opened its eyes that were like slits. Why did it wake up? It shouldn’t be more than a few millenniums since it started to rest. It was not yet the time for it to wake up. The wound on its body that it sustained during that battle was still festering. It had yet to recover fully.

It felt some disturbances coming from the ground above. A nostalgic scent of hot blood running through veins hit its nostril. Saliva started to accumulate its mouth.

Why not partake on the prey that had willingly delivered itself to its doorstep? It wouldn’t hurt to have some snacks in-between his rest.

The monster stirred its body.