Outside the main peak of Enlightenment Peak, in a certain mountain forest, on a slope by the river.
The grasses and trees had snapped, sand and stones flew, and there were chaotic traces everywhere in the mud.
"Roar!"
A black bear with arrows lodged in its neck, eyes, and abdomen roared, slapping Fan Wubing on the back with a thud.
[You have been attacked, HP -148.3, current HP 127.2]
Fan Wubing immediately saw blackness before his eyes, feeling the world spinning and a huge pressure in his chest that forced a mouthful of blood, mixed with foam, to spray out.
This blow almost cost him half his life.
["Unwarranted Qi Creation Skill" is in effect]
[+0.4]
[+0.4]
But the black bear's situation was worse. After being shot with three arrows and sprinting wildly, it lost a lot of blood, and after delivering that slap, it was already tottering. Seeing that Fan Wubing hadn't fallen, its beast nature persisted, and it instinctively lunged forward, wanting to pin him down.
Fan Wubing, with the Unwarranted Qi Creation Skill constantly in effect, lacked nothing but recovery ability. Though he bled heavily, his breath remained steady. After a moment of dizziness, he recovered, immediately sidestepping to let the bear's pounce miss, and counterattacked by drawing a dagger from his waist and plunging it into the back of its head, twisting it fiercely.
The black bear fell to the ground, body flailing uncontrollably.
Soon, it stopped moving.
"Phew... Ha..."
Fan Wubing sat on the black bear, gasping heavily. Seeing that it was completely still, he pulled out his dagger.
He spat out a mouthful of bloody foam, his complexion visibly becoming rosy.
"Damn! To think even on the outskirts of the forest, I encountered a beast undergoing transformation!"
The so-called transformation refers to a wild beast about to gain intelligence and become a magical beast.
These days, he had been exploring the outskirts of this forest, having mostly figured it out. But he hadn't expected to encounter a black bear undergoing transformation on his first visit today; if not for days of heavy eating, supplemented by "Titanic Appetite," which restored a lot of life essence, and the talismans he had exchanged for earlier, he might have been in real trouble.
He glanced towards the depths of the forest, where birds hovered but did not dare to land.
There might be a Great Demon deep in the forest; this place is not safe to linger!
He quickly dissected the black bear's carcass.
He removed the most valuable parts: the claws, the gall bladder, and the demon core that was just beginning to form between its brows, and then quickly cut some meat. He used a Water Purification Talisman to remove the blood stains and the fishy smell from his body.
Having finished, he quickly left.
Soon after he left, a roar like muffled thunder came from deep within the forest, followed by complete silence.
...
There's no denying that the Unwarranted Qi Creation Skill is effective. In the battle with the transforming black bear, he suffered such severe injuries that most people would need ten days or half a month to recover.
But Fan Wubing was back to normal in just a quarter of an hour.
By the time he returned to Enlightenment Peak, he looked no different than before he left.
After a brief rest, Fan Wubing began preparing food. With beast meat from a transformation for the first time, he was eager to experience its effects.
The claws were made into a stew, the gall bladder eaten raw, and the meat stir-fried with freshly picked wild mushrooms. As for the demon core that hadn't fully formed... it was reserved as a dessert.
Although a beast's demon core is priceless, this being his first, Fan Wubing wanted to see if directly consuming it would yield higher benefits.
Over this period, he had tried many types of beast meats, meticulously calculating the benefits of each.
If selling was more profitable, he would sell; if eating was more profitable, he would eat.
After some effort, a feast of bear was prepared.
His appetite now was immense, able to match four or five ordinary adult males.
Moreover, common meats increasingly couldn't satisfy him. Additionally, the more he ate one kind of meat, the less effective it became. Recently, he frequently dreamt of eating dragon meat and swallowing Profound Birds alive, leaving him both startled and expectant.
With three strikes of chopsticks, he cleared the entire bear feast,
[Progress in "Titanic Appetite" cultivation +2.7%, current 14.9%]
["Tongue's Desire": You have consumed a substantial amount of food, expected to increase the life essence cap by 19.7 points]
"This much! Almost twenty points!"
For the first time, since obtaining the "Tongue's Desire" from "Titanic Appetite," it was the first time a single meal broke into double digits. The most before, he practically ate an entire fawn in one sitting and only increased by 9.1 life essence points.
"And this is just the meat of a beast undergoing transformation. If it's genuine magical beast meat..."
Fan Wubing swallowed greedily, his appetite instantly piqued.
He shook his head, promptly taking out the unformed black bear demon core.
It was rough, not at all like a real demon core with its luster, but just holding it between his fingers, he could feel a wild rhythm.
He felt a little apprehensive.
Although he hadn't formally embarked on the cultivation path, he knew a lot about it.
Such demon cores are inherently wild, essentially strange objects, and generally need professional handling to be used as medicine or for forging magic items.
If consumed directly, the wild and strange qi would pour into the body. An ordinary person absolutely couldn't withstand it.
Of course, ordinary people wouldn't eat it directly because their digestion capacity couldn't unleash the full potential of a demon core.
But Fan Wubing is an exception.
With "Titanic Appetite," consuming and digesting can maximize its effects.
He didn't dare be reckless, first waiting for the earlier food to digest and for the predicted life essence cap to fully increase. He then consumed a large amount of water, planning to immediately expel it if something went wrong.
After preparing, he took a deep breath and swallowed the unformed black bear demon core.
Within moments, bear roars echoed in his mind, as if seeing hundreds and thousands of black bears charging at him.
Unexpectedly, apart from feeling very full, his stomach had no discomfort.
Instead, various scenes appeared in his mind, as if he had taken some Mind Confusing Pill.
[Progress in "Titanic Appetite" cultivation +6.3%, current 21.2%]
["Tongue's Desire": You have consumed a strange item, expected to increase the life essence cap by 112.3 points]
"112.3?"
Fan Wubing thought he was mistaken.
Just one unformed demon core added so much? Not only the life essence cap, but progress in the "Titanic Appetite" cultivation shot up by 6.3%.
He hadn't yet recovered when another prompt appeared,
["Tongue's Desire": You have consumed a strange item, gaining significant insights, obtaining "Its Life"]
Suddenly, he entered a strange perspective.
It seemed... to be the perspective of a newly born black bear.
The scenes changed rapidly, yet he could follow them seamlessly.
From the perspective of the black bear, within a brief time, Fan Wubing witnessed its entire life from birth to death, including the moment of its transformation.
Vaguely, he saw it was after drinking the blood of some unknown wounded magical beast that it began transforming.
It appeared that some magical beast was injured deep within the forest.
Yet just a sip of blood could trigger a beast transformation... that magical beast must be extraordinary.
Fan Wubing didn't dare entertain thoughts of confronting that magical beast, only noting it mentally.
"It seems the basic benefit of 'Tongue's Desire' from consuming otherworldly items is just to increase the life essence cap. The real great use lies in the insights gained from digestion."
"'Tongue's Desire' has immense potential, with many aspects worth exploring."
After digesting the incomplete demon core, Fan Wubing checked his status panel,
[Fan Wubing]
[Age: 14]
[Life: 585.9/585.9]
[Cultivation: None]
[Attributeless Cultivation Technique: "Titanic Appetite," current progress 21.2/100, complete perfection grants innate passive "Tongue's Desire"]
[Constitution: Heavenly Deficient Body... ]
[Innate Talent: Unfated End. No life cap limit]
[Innate Talent: Unwarranted Qi Creation Skill. Restores 0.1% life per second]
"585.9, it has already reached 585.9!"
This level has surpassed the limit a normal Qi Refining Stage cultivator can achieve.
But Fan Wubing knew he couldn't yet claim to be equivalent to a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator.
Overall strength obviously couldn't be measured by life strength alone.
"It's not enough. I still lack the means to convert life into cultivation!"
Fan Wubing also understood that nothing could be rushed, so he would bide his time for now.