When Ye Bai was treating Da Hui, he truly realized how powerful the Eye of Insight was—it could even identify information about fifth-level treasures.
Now he finally understood why individuals with the Eye of Insight talent were so rare in the Yanguo Alliance.
This talent not only allowed one to see a pet's evolutionary path but also to analyze and identify various items.
It was a great asset to the Yanguo Alliance's research efforts, especially in advancing the evolution studies of pet beasts.
As a first-level beastmaster, Ye Bai was incredibly lucky to have identified a fifth-level life spirit seed.
If the life spirit seed hadn't fed its life essence back to Ye Bai, he might have gone blind.
Of course, not all information about the life spirit seed was visible—much of it was obscured in a gray fog. Ye Bai would need to grow stronger to uncover the rest.
The reason he couldn't identify Da Hui earlier was similar—its strength was too high, and it was under a life curse, preventing Ye Bai from reading its data.
Additionally, Ye Bai discovered that when using the Eye of Insight to examine items, some of the item's essence flowed into his eyes.
To confirm this, he deliberately pulled out a first-level Thunder Stone from the resource box.
His eyes turned blood red as he focused on the Thunder Stone.
He saw a layer of gray mist shrouding it. With a single thought, the mist vanished, and detailed information about the Thunder Stone appeared before him.
A cool sensation seeped into his pupils, replenishing the consumed pupil power.
In an instant, his pupils felt overcharged, overflowing with clarity. His vision became sharper, allowing him to see even distant leaves and their delicate veins.
He then tested the second-level Insect Stone he had won from He Qingyuan in a bet. Even with full effort, he couldn't penetrate the fog around it.
On the contrary, excessive strain made his eyes sore and unbearable.
"It seems I can only easily identify first-level items for now," Ye Bai concluded.
"Second-level ones are still beyond my limit. If I fail to identify them, the pupil power used isn't replenished."
"The only reason I could see the life spirit seed's information was probably that the treasure itself had a spirit and voluntarily revealed it."
"Otherwise, with my current strength, there's no way I could glimpse the auras of Da Hui or the life spirit seed."
Ye Bai was aware of his limits.
As for the black crystal stone marked with a skull, it was shrouded in even more gray mist than the Insect Stone. It too, appeared to be a treasure.
---
Hai Shi – A Secret Research Institute
Inside a hidden lab, a group of researchers in white coats bustled around, conducting experiments.
Behind them stood a row of petri dishes, inside which several Gray Night Totoros were confined.
These creatures were restrained even tighter than with heavy chains—barely able to move.
The researchers injected a prepared reagent into the bodies of the Gray Night Totoros.
Their eyes widened; their bodies began to swell.
Threads of dazzling light flickered from their fur—then exploded into countless fragments with a loud bang.
The petri dishes were strong enough that the shockwaves from the self-destruction only splattered blood and flesh against the glass. Sighing, the researchers pressed the cleaning button.
Jets of high-pressure water sprayed out, cleaning the remains from the petri dish walls.
In the center of the lab stood a man leaning on a heavy cane, flipping through the latest experimental data.
His face twisted in anger. Three years—three whole years—and not a single successful experiment.
With a loud slam, he threw the records onto the table, startling the other researchers into silence.
"All this time... and you still haven't uncovered the evolutionary path of the Gray Night Totoro?"
"The only successful leader specimen escaped again."
"And now it's missing."
"You have three more months. If you still can't produce results—don't blame me for what happens next."
Ignoring their protests, the man left the lab on his cane.
Through the corridor window, he looked up at the starry night sky and let out a heavy sigh.
The research on the evolutionary path of the Gray Night Totoro had been his personal project.
From his studies, he believed that once evolved, the Gray Night Totoro—already large and powerful—would become unstoppable.
If he could create an army of them, he could enter the secret realm and recover his lost pet beast.
Staring into the stars, he was lost in memory.
He had crushed a fifth-level treasure, Thunder Crystal, and used it to create a liquefied Thunder Source. Injecting it into the heart of a Gray Night Totoro through a micro-needle, he triggered a violent reaction.
Electric currents surged from the Totoro's body, shattering all the petri dishes in the lab.
It transformed into a three-meter-tall Thunder Giant and went on a rampage.
The man had no choice but to summon his own pet beast—the Death God from Hell—to stop it.
Cloaked in shadows, the Death God wielded an ancient scythe wrapped in dark energy and wailing souls. Its face was hidden under its cloak, save for two glowing red eyes.
Despite being struck by the scythe, the transformed Totoro fought on relentlessly. Even a deep gash in its abdomen didn't stop it.
Left with no choice, the man had the Death God use its own Source of Death to cast a deadly curse—at the cost of dropping a level in power.
Even then, as the death curse took effect, the Gray Night Totoro burst through the lab's ceiling and escaped into the night.
A heavy rain fell that evening, masking its escape.
His Death God had been severely injured. For the next three years, the man sent countless teams to search for the escaped creature—but to no avail.
He personally ventured out several times, but there was no trace of it.
It was as if the Thunder Source and the Death Curse were locked in conflict within its body, obscuring all signs of it.
Only recently had his Death God regained its original level, at which point he realized—the death curse was completely gone.
This was what reignited his fury.
"I don't have much time left… I must accelerate the research."
A streak of white hair emerged among his dark locks, as the Hellish Death God continued to draw on his vitality.