novelraw Chapter 39: Art of Life Provisions
Chapter 39: Art of Life Provisions
Five crimson streaks of light shot through the air. They didn't pause mid-flight but dove directly towards the four earth-eating earthworms cocooned in large silk wraps.
They landed on the spider silk, their wings fluttering gently, scattering specks of fluorescent light. They looked like blossoms of fresh blood blooming upon a vast, snowy plain.
Bewitching and beautiful!
Yet, beneath this dazzling radiance, the true appearance of these slave beasts, named Blood-Corroding Insects, wasn't exactly pleasant.
Their bodies weren't large, only about the size of a thumb.
Their wings resembled those of a moth yet bore draconic characteristics. Their heads sported a pair of horns that curved upwards, their abdomens had four pairs of crystal appendages, and their entire bodies were a vivid red.
The Blood-Corroding Insects lacked other organs like eyes, possessing only a tightly closed mouth. When still, they resembled exquisite crystal handicrafts, utterly beautiful.
However, the moment that mouth opened, it could shatter any beautiful dream. Inside was a lamprey-like maw, filled with ring upon ring of sharp teeth, designed to siphon the vitality from all living things.
They perfectly fused extreme beauty with terror!
A significant part of their appearance was inherited from the Native Ancient God of the Heavenly Nun's world, the entity that stirred the demonic tide and reaped the vitality of countless millions of lives.The remainder was subtly adjusted by the Void Matriarch's Nest, making their overall appearance somewhat more aesthetically pleasing.
Lu Yu didn't care much about whether they looked good or not; he only cared about functionality. After all, these insects were positioned as slave beasts.
They were the sapper bugs within the insect nest, consumables. Their primary purpose was to collect flesh and blood vitality to replenish themselves and could also be used as a means to weaken opponents.
Even if lost, they could be recreated using vast amounts of flesh and blood.
But this was the Little Spider's preference.
Like an ordinary young girl, it liked pretty things.
It had even secretly used its silk to make a small Lu Yu doll, occasionally taking it out to fiddle with, holding it in its arms to nuzzle against.
Every time Lu Yu glanced over, the Little Spider would swiftly retract it into the Void Treasure Chest.
It always thought it was hiding it well, but in reality, he was just pretending not to see.
Hiss! Hiss!
As the Blood-Corroding Insects settled, the earth-eating earthworms seemed to sense some great terror approaching and began writhing frantically, trying to break free.
However, the Blood-Corroding Insects wouldn't let go of their first meal after birth.
They directly tore through the spider silk, burrowed into the earthworms' bodies, and devoured their vitality, turning the earthworms one by one into dust.
Finally, sated, the Blood-Corroding Insects flew out unsteadily.
Beneath them, they now carried green bubbles, cradled by their four pairs of crystal appendages. They flew to the top of Lu Yu and the Little Spider's heads and gave them a gentle poke.
Pop!
The bubbles suddenly burst, transforming into showers of green fluorescent light that sank into their bodies. The physical strength and energy consumed from running missions were instantly replenished, leaving them feeling full of power.
According to the Little Spider, these were Life Bubbles collected by the Blood-Corroding Insects from the demonic beasts.
Popping them could replenish one's own vitality and stamina.
They could be stored in the Void Matriarch's Nest for safekeeping. With sufficiently high skill proficiency, they could even be condensed to create Life Honey.
They belonged to a type of low-level life-type treasure within the 【Art of Life Provisions】.
Consuming them could restore stamina.
Long-term use could strengthen one's physique and extend lifespan. Whether for personal use or selling for a large sum of money, it was a good option.
His confidence in soloing seventeen missions in a day stemmed from relying on these Blood-Corroding Insects to feed back vitality.
Moreover, through this high-intensity combat, the Little Spider's skill proficiency and strength were rapidly increasing, now just a step away from the high-tier Servant rank.
This feeling of rapidly growing stronger caused wicked thoughts to sprout in Lu Yu's heart, tempting him to become a Life-slaughtering Great Emperor, butchering a city's worth of living beings.
However, he quickly suppressed this notion.
Not only because wanton slaughter would attract the attention of the Special Division, leading to pursuit by the entire state apparatus, which simply wasn't worth it.
But it also violated his bottom line.
A person can spawn countless evil thoughts in an instant, but reason restrains them all.
He was a refined egoist.
He didn't mind turning his enemies' corpses into nutrients for his own growth—this was the natural law of the weak being prey to the strong. But he disdained directing his blade towards innocent weaklings.
Power should be controlled by people, not the other way around, becoming a slave to power.
In this world where spiritual power was cultivated, one needed something to anchor their reason.
Indulging without restraint could easily lead to one's will being twisted by certain ancient existences, dragged into eternal darkness, and aberranting into unnamable monsters.
Furthermore, even after the Native God harvested the world multiple times, piling up countless lives and flesh, it still failed to transcend its world.
This showed that the Blood-Corroding Insects also had an upper limit; the higher one went, the higher the level of life essence required.
However, his Key of Truth and Secret Food Creation held infinite possibilities.
He couldn't abandon the fundamental for the trivial.
Most crucially, during these frequent battles, Lu Yu's own strength was also improving.
He was soon about to break through to the mid-tier Red Copper rank, not far from the Silver rank either.
Earning more money now would allow him to later choose a second pet beast suitable for constructing his Spiritual Puzzle.
Although he could use Evolution Secret Food to grant any beast infinite potential!
But what attribute should he choose, to perfectly complement the Little Spider?
"It's a pity the current carrying limit of the Matriarch's Nest only allows for five of each type of slave beast. The Flicker Spiders especially require space fragments, or for the Matriarch's Nest to grow enough to directly devour the Void Turbulence.
That will have to wait for later. Otherwise, with a tide of insects, we could sweep through everything,"
Lu Yu sighed, then patted the Little Spider's head and said with a smile:
"Time to get back to work. Let's try to reach the Abandoned Urban Area before five."
"Ying!"
The Little Spider clenched its fist in determination.
Let's do this!
……………………………
West City, 4:50 PM.
The golden crow traveled west.
Though it hadn't yet set, the light had noticeably dimmed.
Some bloodthirsty demonic beasts, lethargic during the day, began to stir, preparing for the night's hunt.
"Hey, don't walk so fast, wait for me!"
A clear voice rang out. A sweet-looking girl in a white dress quickened her pace.
Even wearing sports shoes, she couldn't move very quickly across the rubble and broken concrete of the ruins.
The two boys ahead heard her and stopped to wait.
One of them, a tall boy with a band-aid on his nose, looked at the panting girl. A trace of tenderness flickered in his eyes, but his words were sharp: "Who wears a dress to hunt Maddened Blood Hyenas? How bizarre."
The girl, hearing this, was unconvinced.
She raised a petite fist threateningly.
"What does it matter? We're Beast Tamers, not warriors.
What we wear doesn't affect anything. Hmph, Zhao Bin, are you picking a fight? Believe me, I'll ride on your head and beat you up like I did in kindergarten!"
"Don't, that's too fishy," Zhao Bin blurted out a line from an internet meme without thinking.
The moment he said it, he knew it was a mistake and immediately took off running.
The girl, Song Yue, was stunned for a second, then her face flushed bright red.
"I'm going to beat you to a pulp, you old pervert!" she roared.
The two chased each other around.
Zhao Bin, while running, yelled to the bespectacled boy nearby, "Chen Chi, save me! Song Yue, this crazy hag, is trying to kill me!"
"Ahhh! How dare you call me a crazy hag! Just you wait, I'll punch you to death!" Song Yue shrieked.
Chen Chi watched this scene, a hint of envy in his eyes, then urged, "Alright, Song Yue, Zhao Bin, stop messing around.
We still have a mission to do. We need to make a name for ourselves in Great Abyss City, no matter what!"
The three of them weren't from Great Abyss City but hailed from a satellite town under its administration, Yuanhai Town.
It was a rather cliché story. They'd known each other since kindergarten, childhood friends through and through.
Both boys liked the girl, but neither had spoken up, afraid of ruining their friendship.
After all, in a trio of three, one is always the extra.
Everyone was afraid they were that one.
They graduated from the local Beast Taming high school, and still, neither boy confessed.
But to avoid separating, they proposed coming to Great Abyss City together to make their fortune, join a top-tier adventure group, and become important figures.
But unfortunately, the first challenge they faced wasn't missions being too difficult or people giving them a hard time, but rather…
The rent was too expensive, and…
Recent graduates found it hard to get jobs!
[Author's Note: It seems some readers are still unclear about the difference between Racial Potential and Strength.
Perhaps I didn't explain it clearly enough, so let me clarify again. Racial Potential is not the same as Strength.
A pet beast might have a Racial Potential of High-tier Elite, but its current Strength might only be High-tier Servant. This could be because it hasn't reached adulthood or hasn't been raised properly.
Racial Potential refers to the average level a beast of that race can achieve upon adulthood under proper cultivation. Simply having enough to eat doesn't count as proper cultivation at all.
Theoretically, everyone has the potential to get into a top-tier university, but some perform better, some worse, leading to different outcomes.]