Surprisingly, the rest of the night went by as smoothly as it could. 

A couple of smaller beasts showed up in some of the tunnels, mostly from falling down through the huge gaping holes on the ground but they didn't raise any commotion.

As a matter of fact, Qin Hua or the members of the main team didn't even have to get involved. 

Four to five people who were close to each other teamed up together and took care of the couple of intruding beasts.

And as per the rules of the group, the person who contributed the most got to absorb the respective beast cores.

The other parts of the beasts were equally distributed among the rest and every single item was used down to the bones and the last bits of blood and hide.

Of course, whenever a battle took place, Qin Hua's clone always hovered in the background, ready to jump in if needed.

The clone by itself wasn't all that powerful but she had the ability to switch her position with the clone which made everything a lot easier.

[Woof! These people are not too bad!] Qin Hua growled silently. 

Especially, after observing how much they had improved in their recent fights, she would be lying if she said that she wasn't impressed.

Since they had to face the centipedes by themselves without her, Lu Chen or Guan Ye, that one battle had strengthened everyone tremendously.

Qin Hua calmly breathed in and out, inhaling the mana wisps and circulating it to her beast mana core. 

This breathing technique was the one she had purchased from the system and it was effective wherever she did it, but it was particularly more effective when she practiced it near the dense mana ore.

She continued cultivating silently while thinking about various things when she suddenly realized something.

[System, can I teach this method to others? Can everyone form this mana core that I have in my body?]

After forming a mana core, her strength and power had definitely improved manifold, and considering that they were sitting among mana deposits, this seemed to be the perfect opportunity for Lu Chen and also others to form their own mana cores if possible.

That would probably make everyone a lot stronger!

<Ding. All living beings who are able to comprehend the technique are capable of forming mana cores>

Qin Hua was somewhat surprised to see that the system didn't place any restrictions on her teaching this method to others.

Perhaps it was not some ancient secret method.

But then again the knowledge was now hers and so it also made sense for her to be able to teach it to whoever she wanted.

However, there was still another issue that was remaining which was communication. 

She couldn't even easily convey simple sign language. How was she supposed to teach this complex breathing method?

[Woof! Woof! Never mind. Maybe later.] She sighed and rested her head on the ground, a bit disappointed about still not being able to communicate.

She lifted her paw and absentmindedly drew circles and squares on the ground in front of her, taking a small break in between mana cultivation and absorbing.

It was too tiring and mentally exhausting to maintain focus constantly. In some aspects, fighting with brute strength was a lot easier compared to this.

Having nothing else to do, Qin Hua messed around with Su Yan's hair for a while, cutting it into various shapes and sizes using her paw. Her dexterity had surprisingly improved a lot after being a dog for several days now.

Soon that got boring and she started messing around with the cat and the two of them ran here and there as if they were playing hide and seek in between the tunnels.

After some time, she came back to her cave opening again to start cultivating near the mana ore. Break time was over.

But before she could begin, she noticed something weird. There was something very obviously missing from the cave opening, the mana ore! 

The big rock had almost entirely disappeared and only Su Yan's body was laying alone without anyone else besides him.

[Eh? What in the name of... Woof! How could it suddenly disappear like this?]

[Wait a second. Did its size decrease before? Maybe it gradually disappeared?] She hadn't paid attention to that detail so she couldn't recollect.

Qin Hua jumped front and back and took a second to really make sure that the mana ore had disappeared but the reality didn't change. 

The peculiar fruity smell and the dense mana rich air had also disappeared.

[Woof! Let me see if other mana ores have also disappeared.] 

She used her clone to walk around and observe other cave openings but their mana ores were intact. Only hers had disappeared.

[Woof! What the hell happened?]

No matter which angle she thought about it… it was abundantly clear that the only culprit and the main suspect was the unconscious figure in front of her!

Woof! Qin Hua growled and then began dragging the poor guy's body unceremoniously on the ground. 

With every passing day that Su Yan remained unconscious, his treatment was noticeably getting worse and worse.

Now when she dragged him, she didn't even bother about the small rocks and the uneven ground and just dragged him wherever she wanted by the scruff of his shirt.

The only thing that was preventing her from applying more force was the shirt material which would probably rip if she treated him any rougher.

Thud! Qin Hua dropped his body near another mana ore, determined to see if it was him who was sucking all the energy like a black hole.

[Woof! This guy is so hateful!] She growled. 

She couldn't understand why his absorption rate was so much faster than hers even though he was not even doing it consciously!

Here she was struggling with this boring monotonous breathing technique, but the damned guy was simply sleeping through it all!

It just seemed a tad bit unfair!