“Byakko, it’s time to eat,” I called out.

I heard some rustles coming from some part of the cave. The cave we were living was much deeper than I had expected. But I never felt the need to explore it. As long as it provided shelter, I was fine with it. The little white tiger cub, on the other hand, took to exploring the area. I couldn’t blame him. I forbad it from going outside. The outside was still not safe for the little guy. He must be feeling stifled inside.

I soon saw the tiny figure dart out towards me.

I took out an assortment of fruits.

Ever since I found the Clear Spirit Fruits, which was about a week ago, I had been foraying the forest for fruits with effects similar to it. Over the course of days, I came across many fruits that provided boosts to the stats but none of them came close to the potency of the Clear Spirit Fruits. Heck, they didn’t even reach a tenth of the efficacy of the Clear Spirit Fruits.

As of now, my status ran like this.

GENERAL

Name

Su Ren

Age

10 years old

Cultivation Method

N/A

Realm

N/A

Lifeforce

890/890 (Regeneration: 0.5% per second)

Qi

0/990 (Regeneration: 0.5% per second)

ATTRIBUTES

Strength

87

Physique

89

Movement

89

Control

92

Soul

99

Comprehension

99

Charm

6

Fate

8

INNATE TRAITS

Innards of a God

Hawk Eye

Photosynthesis

Bond:

Byakko (White Tiger)

As for Byakko…

GENERAL

Name

Byakko

Age

8 day old

Race

White Tiger

Realm

Qi Gathering 2

(17/200 Essence)

Lifeforce

250/250 (Regeneration: 1% per second)

Qi

250/250 (Regeneration: 1% per second)

ATTRIBUTES

Strength

20

Physique

25

Movement

23

Control

23

Soul

25

Comprehension

18

Charm

10

Fate

10

INNATE TRAIT

Wings of the Heavenly Tiger

Bonded to: Su Ren

It was some great growth, especially for Byakko. The fruits that we ate enabled him to reach Qi Gathering Layer 2 really fast, which added extra five points to all the six basic attributes on top of the stat points he earned through eating fruits. The increase in comprehension was doing wonders for him. His learning speed and capacity had increased by leaps and bounds. I could already hold conversation with him in my head. Well, sort of.

That was not the only thing I did.

I tried my best to search for signs of other humans. Every time I saw the two stat values that were stuck at 99 and refused to budge no matter what I did, it frustrated me to no ends. I needed to get my hands on a cultivation method. But so far I had no luck.

After the meal, I accompanied Byakko and lazed around in the cave.

Thump! The cave shook. More thumps followed.

Before I could do anything, a giant pair of eyes appeared in my mind. An unreasonable primal fear struck my heart. I didn’t know what was happening. But I knew what I had to do. I had to get away from here. Fast.

I tried to flee. But to no avail. My body refused to listen to me. It was frozen. The eyes that appeared in my head held me captive.

The ground a few meters in front of me cracked open. The head of a huge snake, the likes of one I had never seen in my life, rose up from it.

Byakko, run! I sent a mental message to the little guy. He was behind me, near the entrance of the cave. The serpent had all its attention drawn on me at the moment. He should be able to make it if he made a run for it.

Byakko replied with a whimper. I could sense his reluctance to leave.

RUN! I yelled in my head with all my might. I threatened to cut all ties with him if he refused to leave.

Finally, he left. I sighed in relief. I could sense his presence leaving further from the cave through the link of our bond.

The entire body of the snake came out of the ground. The eyes that were really similar to the ones that appeared in my head held disdain and disregard for me. I was its prey. Nothing more. Nothing less. It leisurely made its way towards me and opened its big mouth. And swallowed me whole…

I gained some semblance of movement after about a minute.

The leaves that covered my body were already dissolved by the strong digestive fluid of the creature. I got the sensation that I was being digested slowly.

I fought off the panic building inside of me. It was imperative that I remained as calm as possible in such situations, although it was proving to be a difficult task. I opened my status window and quickly dismissed all the other distracting information, leaving only lifeforce bar.

Lifeforce

737/890 (Regeneration: 0.5% per second)

I learnt to do it while I was playing with the status window when I had nothing to do. I never thought it would be useful.

My lifeforce was depleting fast. My body was weakening at the same time.

I observed the process for a few seconds. I was losing 7 lifeforce per second. My 0.5% per second lifeforce regeneration added 4.45 to my life force, but I still lost out 2.55 lifeforce per second. It was a matter of minutes before my lifeforce depleted completely and I lost my life.

I needed to do something.

An idea stuck me. Whether it would work or not was a gamble. Rather, it was my only hope. Well, there was only one thing I could do.

I sank my teeth into the membrane that surrounded me and took a bite. I was in no mood to savor the taste. I swallowed it.

Ding!

You have consumed the meat of a Nascent Soul being.

Congratulations!

You have gained +2 to all attributes.

It worked. I only gained stat points after eating the whole thing, so I wasn’t sure I would be able to gain any if I ate something partially. There was the case with Byakko I could draw from but I wasn’t sure it would work with me.

Now that I saw some light, I continued eating the inside of the giant snake. The snake on its part thrashed around. I didn’t relent. I could do nothing to it outside. But now that I was inside its body, there was nothing it could do to me.

After several notifications, I scanned my status.

GENERAL

Name

Su Ren

Age

10 years old

Cultivation Method

N/A

Realm

N/A

Lifeforce

541/990 (Regeneration: 0.5% per second)

Qi

0/990 (Regeneration: 0.5% per second)

ATTRIBUTES

Strength

99

Physique

99

Movement

99

Control

99

Soul

99

Comprehension

99

Charm

6

Fate

8

INNATE TRAITS

Innards of a God

Hawk Eye

Photosynthesis

Bond:

Byakko (White Tiger)

The whole rationale behind my action was, the bigger the lifeforce pool, the more lifeforce will be regenerated with my 0.5% per second regeneration. I ran a quick calculation in my head.

Not good. I was only able to regenerate 5.95 lifeforce per second as opposed to 7 lifeforce per second I was losing. I was still running a deficit of 1.05 lifeforce per second. I had only been able delay the problem, not solve it.

My sense of hopelessness gripped me.

No. I could not give up like that. I continued eating the inside of the snake while it thrashed itself on the floor. I could hear its roar filled with rage and pain. I felt a sadistic sense of joy when I heard it. Even if I died, I wanted to take this bastard with me.

Notifications that did nothing to my stats appeared in front of me. I dismissed them all.

Soon, I noticed peculiar masses of energy amassing here and there in my body. The more stats I gained, the more it would increase. I didn’t know what it did but I upped my speed of eating. The speed of the formation of the masses of energy increased. They tried to flow and gather together to the place where my heart was located but something in my body obstructed them.

I willed the masses of energy to force through the obstacles. To my surprise, they easily crushed through the obstacles. The obstacles couldn't even put a decent fight against the huge momentum the huge masses of energy generated. I heard cracking sounds come from all over my body. The masses of energy become a big whole for a moment before they dissolved into my cells. It was really a curious case.

Ding!

You have accomplished an unprecedented feat that was deemed impossible. You have broken through the first shackle of a mortal without any cultivation.

Congratulations!

You have acquired [Eternal Stratum (Incomplete)]

I had grown stronger. I could feel it. I didn't need my status to tell me that.

I checked the details of [Eternal Stratum (Incomplete)].

ETERNAL STRATUM (INCOMPLETE)

Adjusts your Lifeforce and Qi Regeneration to 10% per second.

(Note: The trait is incomplete.)

I wanted to laugh.

A few moments ago, I was furiously fighting for my life. Now, even if I stayed like this, I would have no problem. The lifeforce regeneration provided by [Eternal Stratum] easily outstripped the lifeforce I was losing. There was no reason to worry. Not anymore. I checked my status while I was at it. I had some leisure time now. There was no need for me to hurry. It could be said that I was in the safest place I could be.

GENERAL

Name

Su Ren

Age

10 years old

Cultivation Method

N/A

Realm

N/A

Lifeforce

754/1340 (Regeneration: 10% per second)

Qi

0/1430 (Regeneration: 10% per second)

ATTRIBUTES

Strength

124

Physique

134

Movement

135

Control

132

Soul

143

Comprehension

150

Charm

6

Fate

9

INNATE TRAITS

Innards of a God

Hawk Eye

Photosynthesis

Eternal Stratum (Incomplete)

Bond:

Byakko (White Tiger)

Closing the blue screen, I moved to the next order of things on my to-do list. Mainly, devour this snake. Let’s see if it remains alive without any of its internal organs.

A few minutes later, the serpent stopped thrashing. Another few minutes later, it stopped moving altogether.

Ding!

You have killed a Nascent Soul Stage Basilisk.

Congratulations!

You have gained +23567 essence.

A huge amount of energy flowed into me and made to accumulate. But finding no reservoir, the energy quickly dissipated into the air. I felt a huge sense of loss. I would have levelled up my cultivation realm if I had been able to retain the energy. The fact that I had no Cultivation Method rendered me unable to absorb essence or use Qi.

Ding!

Congratulations!

You have acquired the trait [Basilisk’s Eye]

Before I could check the detail of the trait, another notification hit me.

Ding!

You have two traits related to eyes.

Would you like to fuse them?

(The abilities of the previous traits will be retained. There is a chance of acquiring an all-new ability.)

Didn’t sound like a bad deal. Fuse, I thought.

Ding!

Hawk Eye and Basilisk’s Eye are fusing together.

Fusion complete.

The new trait [Kaleidoscope Eye] has been created.

I checked the details of the newly created trait.

KALEIDESCOPE EYE

Mode Silver: Enables you to see into distance. Range: 36 KM

Mode Yellow: Freezes the soul of your opponent. Depends on the differences between Souls.

Mode Black: Can identify and appraise anything. Limit: Above two Realms of user.

(Note: Further eye-related traits will automatically be assimilated into this trait.)

It sounded really useful. I couldn’t wait to try it out. But it would have to wait.

I tore a hole and crawled out of the body of the basilisk. I went to an area that was relatively neat and lay there. The whole cave was a mess of cracks, blood and flesh. My lifeforce was almost recovered to full but I felt too weak to stand. The mental strain I suffered was huge.

I wondered how Byakko was doing. I felt worried about the little fellow. I resolved to look for him as soon as I was able to muster up enough strength. At the moment, I wasn't in any condition to move.

I closed my eyes and let fatigue take me away.