You agreed to farm together, but you secretly went to guard the beast?

She carefully examined Qian Ba's condition.

The wolf's size had not changed at all, and its fur was no different from before. Qian Qi anxiously searched every part of it, and then found that Qian Ba ​​was exactly the same as before, as if he had never eaten the Black Demon Fruit.

She couldn't help but glance at the system with suspicion.

"Could this Black Demon Fruit be fake?"

[Impossible! Absolutely impossible!] The system felt its credibility was being questioned. [This is the Black Demon Fruit!]

That's strange...

Qian Qi asked Qian Ba, "Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?"

Qian Ba ​​shook his head. "No."

On the contrary, I felt lighter and more relaxed after passing gas.

Qian Qi: "Do you feel like you've become stronger?"

Turn into a dead guy?

Qian Ba ​​quickly shook his head, "He didn't turn into Dead Man!"

"Fake." Qian Qi said with certainty.

The system, unconvinced, circled Qian Ba ​​once. [Something's wrong, something's very wrong. Make it open its mouth, I'll fly in and take a look!]

Qian Qi hugged Qian Ba ​​and pried open its wolf mouth.

The system crawled inside and wandered around, but found nothing else except that the Black Demon Fruit had disappeared without a trace, as if it had never been eaten.

It flew out blankly, doubting itself for the first time: "Could that really not be the Black Demon Fruit?"

Unfortunately, the Demon Fruit had already been eaten, and the system couldn't rescan, so it could only responsibly say, "This was my mistake. I'll compensate you with another S-rank item."

It spat out a bright green, square seed from its belly. [This is an S-rank Jiangzao seed, which only grows in acidic environments. If fed to a monster below S-rank that hasn't undergone secondary evolution, upon maturity, it has a chance to trigger a wood-type evolutionary form compatible with the monster's genes during its evolution, without interfering with its original near-evolutionary path.]

[If fed to a wood-attribute magical beast, it will rapidly increase its strength while evolving.] The system said smugly. [Think about how rare it is to become a dual-attribute magical beast, but by consuming this Jiangzao seed, you'll have a chance to possess the world's most dazzling contracted beast!]

"You said it yourself, there's a chance," Qian Qi said with a hint of disdain. "You know how bad my luck is!"

System: [What does your luck have to do with it? It definitely depends on the luck of the contracted beast!]

Qian Qi: "Huh? They've all become my contracted beasts, what luck could they possibly have?"

system:【……】

For a moment, I was speechless.

"Don't you have any other S-grade fruits? The kind that will definitely increase strength and evolve?" Qian Qi felt that exchanging a fruit that was guaranteed to succeed for this kind of fruit with only a probability of success was a huge loss.

【Gone. 】

"Tsk, fine, then give me something else." Qian Qi shamelessly reached out his hand.

The system rummaged through its stomach, pulling out all the magical plant materials it probably wouldn't need in the future, piling them up across the entire yard. [Is this enough? They can all improve the strength of magical beasts, though not by much, but every little bit helps.]

"Alright then," Qian Qi reluctantly agreed.

She looked down at the Jiangzao seed in her hand. Among her contracted beasts, the only one that hadn't undergone a second evolution was Qian Ba.

But this unfortunate child's body is like a bottomless pit; he can even completely digest an S-grade fruit like the Black Demon Fruit, which has extremely high energy.

I have a feeling that even if I did eat it, I'd just digest the river algae seed directly, instead of waiting for it to mature and evolve. Rather than giving it to Qian Ba, I'd rather…

She couldn't help but tentatively ask the system, "Can people eat this thing?"

system:【? ? ? 】

The system smacked her on the head, saying with exasperation, "Can't you stop wanting to try everything? Can't you just be a decent human being?"

Why do we have to compete with Warcraft for food?
"I was just asking... why did you hit me?" Qian Qi muttered. "Sigh! Is this the pain of families in Zhongzhou?"

System: ...If you keep babbling, believe me, you'll experience the pain of being a beast-taming protagonist!

Just as Qian Qi fed the Jiangzao seed to Qian Ba, he caught a glimpse of two familiar old men riding beasts and leaping swiftly toward them from the eaves in the distance.

"Huh? Aren't those Grandpa Sun and Grandpa Li?"

Qian Qi ignored Qian Ba ​​and got up to walk towards the two old men. "Gentlemen, what brings you here?"

"We sensed the aura of an S-rank magical beast here, so we rushed over, but the aura only lasted a short while before disappearing, so we came to ask you about it."

After landing, the two old men put their contracted beasts back into their beast-taming space.

Grandpa Sun glanced around the yard, then his gaze fell on the black-gold tiger cub that looked like it could be crushed with a single stomp. "Hmm? This magical beast... it looks kind of familiar..."

"Oh, this is the cub of that black tiger beast from Qingzhou," Qian Qi said, making up a story.

"What?" Grandpa Li's eyes widened suddenly, then he narrowed them again. "Then can't we use its life as leverage to threaten that black tiger beast into not leaving the safe zone?"

Upon hearing this, the black-gold cub suddenly raised its head and stared excitedly at Grandpa Li.

That's right! Take me to Qingzhou! To meet my clansmen!
Grandpa Sun stroked his beard, looking rather cautious. "But after all, we can't beat that black tiger beast. If we anger it, it will be a loss for us."

"So it's better to form a contract with it and influence it. Not only can it persuade its father not to oppose humans, but it also won't pose a threat to Zhongzhou when it grows up."

The black-gold cub rolled its eyes, its expression showing a hint of disdain.

What a joke! You think you can reform me?! I'm lucky I haven't even managed to digest you all!

"That's true." Grandpa Li glanced at the black and gold tiger cub. "Little Qi, why don't you form a contract with it?"

“Well, you two gentlemen are unaware of this,” Qian Qi glanced at the black and gold tiger cub, “it… is mentally challenged.”

Black Gold Tiger Cub: ? Who's mentally challenged?!

Tiger bared his teeth and growled at Qian Qi. The next second, his neck was lifted up by the child and thrown into a large basin of water, where he was covered in laundry detergent foam.

"Who are you yelling at! Hurry up and wash the sheets!"

"Ooh..." Tiger, his body soaking wet, pitifully stepped on the bed sheets he had soiled.

Damn it, I'll reverse the master-servant dynamic sooner or later! I'll make this human brat wash my fur!
Grandpa Li and Grandpa Sun watched this scene in astonishment.

Logically speaking, this black-gold tiger cub should at least be an S-rank magical beast, but now it's being bossed around by a child, without making the slightest move to resist...

It seems he really is an idiot.

The S-rank aura that was present just now must have been emitted by it, but because it was mentally challenged, it couldn't maintain the aura of a king beast, so it disappeared quickly.

The two old men shook their heads regretfully. "If that's the case, then you must hide it well. If the black-gold tiger senses it and thinks its idiocy is caused by us humans, that would be too dangerous." (End of Chapter)