Rations

Well, so be it if it's aloof, as long as it doesn't confiscate the perks.

Sys is still quite reasonable.

Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu arrived outside Banxiang City, at the place where they had previously captured various demonic beasts.

The areas they usually inhabit would definitely have food they can eat.

Since the system would reward them with the seeds of their favorite plants or insect eggs whenever they captured five of a specific demonic beast for the first time, Lin Xiao's goal was very clear: just look for the items the system had given.

They thought it would go smoothly, but they unexpectedly ran into a problem.

That is, the two of them searched all over the mountains and plains for a long time based on what the system provided, yet they only found a very, very small amount of each demonic beast's favorite food.

Lin Xiao confirmed several times that they hadn't looked in the wrong place or missed anything. Thus, they had to pause their work of searching for demonic beast rations.

The efficiency was too low. After more than half a day, the amount they found wasn't even enough for a single bite for those demonic beasts.

Why was this?

Logically speaking, the places where demonic beasts live should be areas with plenty of food for them...

Lin Xiao opened his private storage and examined the ration seedlings issued by the system again.

Seeing that he seemed deep in thought, Jiang Youfu, who was beside him, didn't disturb him. Instead, he went around collecting various exotic flowers and rare herbs nearby, planning to ask Senior Liao and Brother Xiao later if they were edible.

Lin Xiao looked over the ration seedlings several times, and finally, his gaze landed on the words [Favorite Food].

Could it be that although these demonic beasts live here, they don't usually eat their favorite food, but rather fill their stomachs with other foods that aren't their favorites?

Hmm, thinking about it this way, it does seem possible.

Including humans, not everyone can eat their favorite things every day. It's perfectly normal; he had just been thinking about it the wrong way.

Looking at it this way, the demonic beast rations the system gave him must all be good stuff...

Just looking at how hard they are to find in the wild proves it. They are so scarce that even the demonic beasts that love them the most can't eat them to their hearts' content. At most, they can only occasionally stumble upon a few scattered ripe ones to satisfy their cravings. Rarity makes things valuable; they are definitely good stuff.

It seems that after going back, he will have to carefully cultivate these ration seedlings given by the system. Perhaps they won't just be for the demonic beasts to eat, but might have other uses as well.

But for now, he still needs to find more ordinary substitute rations for the demonic beasts. It would be best to dig up some seedlings to take back, providing a transition for them before the ration seedlings from the system fully grow.

With this in mind, Lin Xiao grabbed a Golden Porcupine from the live creature storage area, tied a thread of spiritual energy around its neck, and then let go of it.

The area they were currently in was the habitat of the Golden Porcupines.

The Golden Porcupine, which was already quite frantic from hunger, was placed into a familiar environment. It immediately ignored fighting for its life against Lin Xiao, the culprit who had imprisoned it, and instead sprinted wildly toward its food source.

Holding the spiritual energy thread, Lin Xiao followed effortlessly.

Seeing Lin Xiao walk forward, Jiang Youfu stopped picking those exotic flowers and rare herbs and quickly caught up.

Watching the frantically running Golden Porcupine ahead, he asked Lin Xiao:

"Brother Xiao, are we letting it lead us to its food?"

Lin Xiao nodded:

"It's my fault for not thinking of this method earlier, wasting so much time for nothing."

Jiang Youfu shook his head, his cheeks jiggling as he said:

"Not at all, not at all, Brother Xiao, I picked a lot of things today. I'll show you when we get back! If they aren't poisonous, I'll study whether they can be cooked into food, hehe, and I've collected seeds for everything."

"Alright, I'll help you see what they all are when we get back later."

The two of them chatted as they followed behind the Golden Porcupine, which was running hard for the sake of food.

Not long after, they saw it stop in front of a large patch of bushes growing blue berries the size of an infant's fist, and then it started eating with big, grunting mouthfuls.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao sighed softly. Sure enough.

They had seen a lot of these blue berry bushes in this area before, but because they were completely different from the Rainbow Jade Flower, which the system stated was the Golden Porcupine's favorite food, they hadn't considered this thing at all.

Fortunately, they had discovered it now.

Watching the Golden Porcupine eating with its head buried in the bushes, Lin Xiao didn't rush to put it back into the live creature storage area. He simply began to collect a large amount of these blue berries from around it, and dug up many fruit tree seedlings along with the soil to put into his private storage.

Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu were very fast. In no time, they had picked all the berries in this patch clean, except for the ones immediately surrounding the Golden Porcupine.

The Golden Porcupine, having just eaten until it was half full, prepared to change spots to continue filling its stomach. To its surprise, when it looked up, it found that the bushes around it, which had been laden with fruit just moments ago, were completely empty.

The Golden Porcupine, which had finally been able to eat after starving for many days, burped in dumbfoundment. Then, while it was still dazed, it was 'swish' sucked right back into the live creature storage area by Lin Xiao, who had already finished his work.

"Let's go, we'll head to the next place."

Although Yuan Qing didn't have much of a background, he still had some good friends among his fellow disciples in the Sky Profound Sect.

While not everyone among them was willing to help him, those he could call good friends would at least not harm him.

And among these friends, the ones he had the best relationship with, aside from Xu Juan, were the few people Lin Xiao had rescued from the Green Field Secret Realm back then.

Because it was Lin Xiao who had called him over back then, and then they had carried those people out of the secret realm together, the rescued individuals all believed that he and Lin Xiao knew each other.

Because of this, even though the person they were most grateful to in their hearts was Lin Xiao, they were also deeply thankful toward Yuan Qing.

That kind of despair from being trapped was hard for ordinary people to comprehend.

When they were truly rescued, they didn't even want to spend any energy hating the culprit who had thrown them into that enclosed space; they just wanted to live their lives well and earnestly.

Due to the physical toll taken over the years, these people were unable to perform sect missions after coming out. They were originally only at the Qi Condensation realm and weren't any sort of favored geniuses, so they weren't highly valued. When they hadn't come out initially, the sect assumed they had died in the secret realm, and there was no longer a place for them within the sect.

Later, although they made it out, so much time had passed. Some who had been trapped for a long time had aged quite a bit. Having not cultivated properly for years, their cultivation bases hadn't improved. The sect's attitude toward them could be easily imagined; naturally, they wouldn't receive much care.

After all, resources were limited. With their bodies depleted, they couldn't make contributions, yet the sect still had to support them for nothing.

Moreover, it was unknown whether their minds had been damaged. Future advancements might be problematic, and it was highly likely they wouldn't even be able to reach Foundation Establishment.