22: Chapter 22 Promotion, Full Beast Taming, Excellent Aptitude!

After eating at Aunt Zhao's house, Qin Ding returned home carrying a large bowl of meat, only to find Dahei already waiting at the door.

It had its massive dog mouth open, drooling, staring straight at the meat Qin Ding was carrying.

"Woof! Woof!"

[I knew Aunt Zhao would tell you to bring me some meat to eat, Boss!]

Qin Ding: ...

Sighing, Qin Ding walked over to the doghouse and dumped all the meat from the bowl into Dahei's dog bowl.

Dahei, unable to wait, lunged like a hungry dog, sticking its head precisely into the bowl and began eating rapidly. Listening to the slurp, slurp sounds, Qin Ding took the box containing the blood spirit fruit out of the bag.

He tapped it lightly, his voice inexplicably turning gentle.

"Eat up. Get full. There's a great trial waiting for you to handle afterwards."

"Fixed!"

The eerie tone and incomprehensible words drifted into Dahei's ears like a paralysis spell. Its entire dog body instantly stiffened; it stopped chewing the meat in its mouth, and fear flashed in its dark, Black Dog eyes.

"Hmm? Why did you stop eating? Weren't you just clamoring for meat? Hurry up and eat."

Qin Ding, who was planning to feed Dahei the blood spirit fruit after it finished eating, felt puzzled when he saw Dahei stop moving, his tone carrying a hint of impatience.

What's wrong with this Earth Dog?

Every other time, whenever it saw meat, it would drool like it hadn't eaten in days. Why did it suddenly stop halfway through this time? He didn't even say anything, did he?

Its stiff body slowly relaxed, and Dahei turned its head back with a look of grievance.

"Woof."

[Big Brother, I thought you were going to kill me for meat after I finished eating. Can you talk normally next time?]

Qin Ding never expected that Dahei's change in behavior was due to this. He sat stunned on his chair for a moment before letting out a cold laugh.

"So that's it. Fine, fine, go ahead and eat."

Realizing there was serious business to attend to, Dahei sped up its eating. In a few minutes, it had chewed up and swallowed all the meat and bones in the dog bowl. It then trotted over to Qin Ding, wagging its tail.

"Woof! Woof."

[Boss, what's inside this box? There's a smell drifting out; it smells fishy and sweet.]

"Good stuff."

Qin Ding, lowering his gaze to glance at Dahei, opened the box containing the blood spirit fruit. "Open wide."

There's more good food?

Dahei's eyes lit up, and it immediately complied. A wave of intense stench rushed straight into Qin Ding's face. Unable to help himself, Qin Ding angrily slapped Dahei, held his breath, took out the blood spirit fruit—which was the size of an adult's fist—and shoved it in.

"Don't chew it up. Tilt your head back. Don't let a single drop spill out."

This time, Qin Ding's voice carried unquestionable seriousness. His eyes were fixed intently on Dahei, as if he would... if Dahei didn't obey.

Dahei, rarely seeing Qin Ding with such an expression, felt a tightening in its heart. When the Boss is like this, he really might kill a dog.

Dahei decided to simply close its mouth, using its tongue and the roof of its mouth to crush the blood spirit fruit, then swallowed it whole.

Once the blood spirit fruit was in its stomach, within seconds, Dahei felt a small, warm current. This current began to flow from its abdomen at an extremely fast speed, spreading toward all its limbs and bones.

Hmm? What kind of good stuff is this?

Feeling comfortable all over, Dahei affectionately rubbed against Qin Ding's pant leg.

"Woof! Woof."

[Boss, this stuff is great. It feels warm in my stomach, and my whole body feels comfortable.]

Warm, and the whole body feels comfortable?

Qin Ding raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. Instead, he silently took out his phone and checked the page he had been browsing earlier: the reactions of spirit beasts after eating the blood spirit fruit.

The answer he got was: pain. If pain occurs, it means there is a high probability of successfully breaking through the spirit beast's potential. Secondly, there's "no feeling," just like drinking water, which means it was eaten in vain—a waste of a blood spirit fruit.

There was no mention of the "warm and cozy" feeling Dahei described.

Strange... Could the warm feeling be the "rebound from rock bottom" mentioned by the Life Records? It's not impossible; after all, what normal Beast Tamer would choose to contract a spirit beast with inferior potential?

Qin Ding didn't know. Qin Ding was silent. Qin Ding decided to cultivate first and check again tomorrow morning.

If Dahei's potential really improved to Good grade by tomorrow morning, then he could continue to buy advanced cultivation fluid, push Dahei to level eleven, and prepare for evolution.

"Alright, I'm going to cultivate. Go play by yourself."

With that, Qin Ding went straight to his room and began continuing to cultivate his Mental Energy. He had only one goal now.

Before the class exam, cultivate Mental Energy to the second rank. Secondly, have Dahei complete its first evolution. The feedback received at that time would allow his strength to easily reach several hundred jin. At the same time, his body would also become more resistant to beatings.

In the middle of the night, Dahei mysteriously came to Qin Ding's room and silently watched him. After watching for a while, it lay down at Qin Ding's feet, its body twitching. The corners of its mouth curled up involuntarily, and foul-smelling drool flowed out.

Pain, intense pain, pain that went deep into the bone marrow. It felt like countless needles were stabbing around inside its bones. Its muscles were spasming and twitching, forcing out rustling sounds.

Qin Ding, who had been immersed in cultivation, did not notice the abnormality or wake up until the commotion had lasted for over ten minutes and grown louder, at which point Qin Ding suddenly opened his eyes.

"What's going on... what's that noise? Earth Dog, are you..."

After getting out of bed, he subconsciously prepared to shout and ask if Dahei was causing it, but Qin Ding's body suddenly froze because he stepped on one of Dahei's legs and felt it twitching.

!

"Earth Dog, what's wrong with you?!"

At this moment, Qin Ding instantly entered a state of extreme panic, as if the last 'person' accompanying him was about to leave.

Flustered, Qin Ding lifted Dahei's head and placed it on his lap, his pupils trembling. He gently patted Dahei's dog face. "Dahei, Dahei?"

"Wuu..."

[Boss... pain... so painful. Stomach, body, it hurts everywhere...]

Pain?

For some reason, upon hearing this word, Qin Ding's mind calmed down a bit, because pain after consumption was proof that the blood spirit fruit was working. But... didn't Dahei say it felt warm and comfortable?

[Beast: Black Dog (Potential Improving)]

Only when Qin Ding saw the display of the Life Records clearly did he let out a long sigh of relief. He felt much more at ease, because the improvement of potential would not take a spirit beast's life; it would only cause pain.

"It's okay, I'm here with you. Just endure it, and it will pass."

After saying this, Qin Ding gently patted Dahei's head with one hand and stroked its twitching abdomen with the other. His eyes were soft as he softly hummed the tune of a nursery rhyme.

This was a nursery rhyme his mother, Shen Yue, used to hum in the past. When his mother was still around, she would often hum it for him, Dahei, and Bai Muxue. That time was when Qin Ding felt the most satisfied, happy, and blissful.

Whether it was because of the nursery rhyme Qin Ding hummed or because the medicinal effect of the blood spirit fruit was gradually wearing off, Dahei's body began to return to normal. A large amount of sweat and drool soaked through Qin Ding's clothes.

[Beast: Black Dog] [Potential: Good] [Element: None] [Level: 10 (Low Rank)] [Ability: Grudge] [Bloodline: Canine (89%), Wolf (10.99%), Dragon (0.01%)] [Evolution Direction Dragon: (Must complete Wolf evolution direction)] [Evolution Direction Wolf: Must reach level eleven] [Evolution Direction Canine: Must reach level eleven] [Potential Improvement: Must reach level thirty-one.] [Introduction: A common type of meat dog; special individuals have a certain value for cultivation.]