Chapter 36: Spiritual Aura Intensifies
Early in the morning, white mist filled the valleys.
In the depths of the forest, a long howl was heard from time to time.
Dark blue streaks of light swept through like a gust of wind, rolling up a whirlwind.
Three streaks of light suddenly stopped in the bamboo forest. The dark blue hair swayed in the wind and the muscles on the bison-sized bodies were very well-defined.
The golden pupils were sharp and piercing.
At this moment, they seemed to smell something and once again turned into three streaks of light.
The white mist was especially dense beside a creek with clear water.
Four elks the size of a horse drank from the creek in a group, flicking their ears back and forth from time to time, and their heads looking around warily.
The pair of antlers on their heads, each nearly two meters long, was crystal clear like jade, but with sharp angles and extremely sharp tips, showing their differences everywhere.
Three dark blue streaks of light suddenly burst out of the forest. After a few consecutive booms, the heads of the three elk were slammed into the mud on the bank and passed out!
Before the remaining one had time to escape, a brown figure suddenly flew out of the shadows in the bushes by the creek and bit the remaining elk by the neck!
The three wind elemental wolves and the lynx, Fei, each bit an elk effortlessly.
They darted into the depths of the valley, even faster than when they came!
Very soon, they came from the side of that creek to the shore of the Spirit Lake and placed all the dying prey under Lin Ming's body.
Swish, swish!
Four Razor Leaves accurately hit the heads of the four elk and penetrated deeply!
They struggled feebly before but they had completely stopped moving at this point.
[Ding! You killed an Unranked Grade-2 elk and gained 50 Evolution Points!]
[Ding! You killed…]
The system's voice sounded in sequence and Lin Ming was satisfied that the number of evolution points on the personalized dashboard had increased by another 200 points!
Sure enough, hunting these mutated animals was the fastest way to increase evolution points.
"Okay, you may enjoy your feast now."
The subordinates obtained consent under the gentle caress of the bamboo branches before they dared to drag the prey to somewhere they could enjoy.
Looking at the wolves and lynx tearing at the elk with big mouthfuls, Lin Ming looked at his evolution points and once again felt grateful for his sudden whim at that moment.
Since the last time humans came here, two months had passed.
Lin Ming kept track of the time passing by engraving on the boulder and also used this to make himself less confused.
He was stuck on Rank-1 Grade-9 for almost two months now.
The length of the bamboo roots was limited to about 300 meters and no longer grew. Mutated creatures with spiritual intelligence were smart enough to move more than 300 meters away from Lin Ming.
Although Lin Ming could sometimes kill some mutated bugs with less intelligence, the evolution points he gained were indeed pitiful.
At that time, Lin Ming had a sudden thought. What if he asked his subordinates to bring some half-dead prey for him to kill?
This arrangement could kill two birds with one stone.
Not to mention that he could get evolution points, but having his subordinates hunt animals for him could also be regarded as a contribution to him.
After all, the spiritual fluid that contained extremely powerful spiritual energy was for these subordinates to enjoy at will.
In this way, letting them hunt and giving it to him to increase his evolution points was also the proceeds of their labor.
However, Lin Ming also had some doubts. He did not know if the spiritual aura had become denser and more widespread, or if the reawakening of the spiritual aura had intensified, but the mutated creatures were increasing in numbers, and even the worst prey that his subordinates hunted at random were at least Unranked Grade-1.
Like the four elks hunted by the wolves and lynx today, Lin Ming discovered that they had reached Unranked Grade-3, which was indeed quite powerful.
However, even in Lin Ming's detection, the strongest mutated creature in this valley was only Unranked Grade-4.
Compared to his surroundings, that was really far behind his subordinates that had become very strong.
Of course, that was excluding the little bear cub that was now the mascot. Although this little one had grown a lot in these two months, the height was still less than 1.5 meters, it still had the appearance of a bear cub, and its level remained at Unranked Grade-1.
However, a curved crescent moon that appeared on the abdomen at some point also proved to Lin Ming that it was also growing.
Among the subordinates, the three wind elemental wolves had reached Rank-1 Grade-2, while the other four still maintained their original appearance and still at Unranked Grade-9.
Like Lin Ming, they were also stuck at the barrier of advancement.
Previously, Lin Ming speculated that leveling up seemed to require fighting and killing humans.
Now, that thought seemed more and more likely.
However, in the depths of the mountain, since those people retreated two months ago, there was no sign of them returning.
Thus, Lin Ming also had no opportunity to verify if the idea was correct.
Adorable Little Snake now looked the size of a normal snake and had reached Unranked Grade-7. The green patches on both sides of the eyes also became longer and slenderer, covering almost half of the body.
The panda's strength also increased significantly and had reached Unranked Grade-7. Even so, Lin Ming always felt that the combat effectiveness of this one was no less than the wind elemental wolves.
Lin Ming, who could hardly name someone to save himself, finally named the two jackals Polka and Dot, and the two little fellows had also reached Unranked Grade-5.
The lynx, Fei, was Unranked Grade-7.
The pair of egrets and the pair of red-crowned cranes progressed quite slowly but had also reached Unranked Grade-4. However, this was still very far from Lin Ming's requirements for aerial combat effectiveness.
A few days ago, he even saw a golden eagle flying between the clouds and the mountain peaks. That one had reached Unranked Grade-6. Although not a part of this valley, as long as that guy was in the sky, Lin Ming really could not bring himself to allow these four birds to fly freely.
After all, one grade made a lot of difference, especially since the golden eagle was a predator at the level of a tiger in the air. He could not let these four subordinates whose ornamental value was greater than practical value serve themselves on a silver platter.
The three monkeys had now reached Unranked Grade-5.
The changes on them were a little strange and gave Lin Ming the feeling similar to the four wolves.
Lin Ming found that as the levels increased, the fur on these three also corresponded to the three colors of red, green, and blue.
Red should be a fire attribute, right? What about green? Could it be wind too? In that case, what about blue?
Lin Ming was confused.
What the hell was this?
However, these three somewhat noisy guys were quite diligent. Once in a while, they would bring him a large grasshopper, or a bug, or a hare. The quality was not high but it made up with quantity. Lin Ming got a considerable amount of one or two evolution points that added up to quite a significant total.
Last but not least was a relatively special subordinate, and the only one among all the subordinates who need not worry about food, the serow.
The evolutionary development of this one seemed to be completely different from most mutated creatures. Even after reaching Unranked Grade-5, the original shape and appearance remained unchanged.
Looking at this creature with a goat's head and antelope's antlers, it could be gnawing at some grass one minute and snatching bamboo with the panda the next minute. It always looked very calm and collected, aloof when the others were excited.
To be honest, Lin Ming also regretted catching this one back then.
It just looked like an old herbivore with a slightly grumpy personality, neither cute nor mighty.
Asking this one to hunt was also really difficult. Lin Ming even felt that it would be breaking news if it could trample an earthworm to death.
Looking at the flowing mane on the back of its neck, Lin Ming was also helpless.
Ah, just keep it around. Maybe there would be a sudden mutation in the future or something?