Chapter 41 (Part 2)

The little yellow chicken nodded fiercely, then tried to cling forward again. Song Yuanxi was pounced down once more, lying on the grass and gazing up at the sky, his mind blank for an instant.

Damn it! How did my little yellow chicken turn into a Samoyed?

Ah, wait! Little Yellow isn’t a chicken. Little Yellow is a Dàfeng!

Realizing the root of the issue, Song Yuanxi held the dog head in front of him and studied it. Dàfeng was a descendant of the phoenix. Phoenixes were birds. A bird chick looking like a chicken could be temporarily explained.

He had always treated the little yellow chicken as Dàfeng’s initial juvenile form, thinking that once the cub grew up, it would evolve.

But he had not expected that it had indeed evolved, yet the direction of its evolution seemed a little off. The little yellow chicken had not become a bigger chicken, nor had it become a bird. It had actually become a dog?

A dog that looked like a Samoyed?

“This…” Song Yuanxi expressed that he did not understand.

But no matter how it changed, the little yellow chicken’s clinginess did not change. The degree of mischief and troublemaking had increased even further, while its personality and habits were exactly the same as before.

Watching the Samoyed run back and forth joyfully on the grass, Song Yuanxi slowly accepted the fact that his contracted beast had mutated.

“Fine. I’ll just treat it as having another contracted beast.”

His acceptance level was good. After Song Yuanxi spent a few days with the “new cub,” the relationship between them became close again.

“Little Yellow, you’re not a chicken anymore now, and even the color of your fur has changed. It doesn’t seem suitable to keep calling you Little Yellow.”

Song Yuanxi hugged the dog and began thinking of a new name. After thinking it over, he still felt it was most suitable to name it after the color of its fur. But as for the name Little White, that Cloud Crane from before had already taken it. Having the same name did not seem too good.

Very quickly, however, he felt relieved. “I’ll call you Little White. That fat-headed crane is plump and sturdy, so I’ll change its name to Big White later.”

As for the fact that the name Big White had originally been given to his master’s Cloud Crane, Song Yuanxi selectively forgot it.

The Samoyed liked its newly given name very much. Hearing its host call it Little White, it happily spun circles on the ground, then answered, “Daddy!”

Sometimes, when it was extremely excited, it directly barked, “Woof, woof, woof!”

Song Yuanxi thought of their trip to Tushan Secret Realm that year and how the cub had learned badly after returning. Thinking back on it now, he only felt that his own experience had been too limited.

“Little White, so you had already begun awakening that early. Too bad I didn’t know and thought you had randomly learned dog barking from somewhere.” He had not expected that this was actually the cub’s instinct.

The Samoyed looked puzzled. Wasn’t “woof woof” taught to it by Daddy?

Song Yuanxi firmly refused to admit it. “Impossible. That is absolutely impossible! I have an entire set of crystal spheres given to me by Senior Brother Ji. Although I was a little crazy in the secret realm, I absolutely did not teach you to bark like a dog.”

“Daddy didn’t teach me?” The Samoyed was somewhat hesitant.

Song Yuanxi seized on that hesitation, and his tone became even more certain. “Right, definitely not! Look at you, you’re doubtful yourself, aren’t you? It must be because you were injured and slept too long before, and your brain got muddled from sleeping…”

After repeated rounds of “brainwashing” from Song Yuanxi, the Samoyed accepted that “woof woof” was its instinctive cry. Aside from occasionally not being used to it and giving two “chirp-woof” calls, the little yellow chicken smoothly entered Samoyed mode.

Song Yuanxi’s cultivation was now at the eighth level of Qi Refining. The matter of rising four levels in a row made him feel delighted, and the laziness at the bottom of his heart slowly began growing back. Now that he had a dog in hand, he directly opened retirement mode.

He chopped trees and felled timber to build a house, reclaimed grassland to plant spirit grain, dug pits to store water and make a pond, and by the way planted some lotus roots in the pond. Then he placed a rocking chair beside it to enjoy the breeze and cool air.

In one hand, he ate spirit fruits. With the other, he petted the dog. His little days were truly comfortable and moist!

With the Samoyed keeping him company, Song Yuanxi felt that the days were not boring at all. Wasn’t fifty years of seclusion enough? What was wrong with slacking off for ten years?

“Little White, the weather is nice today. Let’s go wander in the woods on the other side and catch a few red deer. Dad will roast venison for you.”

“Daddy is amazing! Little White wants venison. Little White loves meat the most!”

Dàfeng, who had evolved into dog mode, had become heavier and bigger, and its way of thinking seemed to have changed too.

If compared to human growth, then in little yellow chicken mode, it had been like a baby around one year old. When speaking, it could only pop out a few words at a time. It could not understand many things and was ignorant and innocent, relying entirely on the instincts of a demonic beast.

Now, in Samoyed mode, it was like it had suddenly grown several years older, about the same as a three- or four-year-old child. It could speak coherently and express its likes and dislikes clearly.

And the biggest change was that the cub had become especially fond of eating meat. Originally, it had only liked eating white fat worms, but now it could not be happy without meat.

Song Yuanxi had originally thought that since it was a demonic beast, eating raw meat directly would be fine. He deliberately caught two Snowdown Rabbits, cleaned them, gave one to the cub, and roasted the other for himself.

In the end, the cub had a special fondness for roasted meat and was completely unwilling to eat raw meat. After roasted meat, braised, stewed, stir-fried with vinegar, oil-braised… it could handle every kind!

Song Yuanxi was depressed over this for several days, seriously suspecting that his contracted beast’s Dàfeng bloodline was not pure.

But in the end, it was still his own cub, so he still had to spoil it.

“Let’s go. Dad will take you hunting. Today, I’ll make a whole roasted deer feast and let you eat to your heart’s content!”

The Samoyed happily charged forward, running as fast as the wind. After Song Yuanxi’s cultivation rose, he could run even faster, but even when he ran with all his might, he could only barely keep pace with the Samoyed.

The more he ran, the more pleasantly surprised he became. His family’s cub was such a little one, yet it was incredibly amazing!

The spirit beasts in the secret land were basically all very docile, so Song Yuanxi did not spend much effort. He very easily caught two red deer. One was braised, and the other was marinated and roasted. One person and one dog ate until they were perfectly content.

After eating, they took a brief rest. As usual, Song Yuanxi lay down on the rocking chair, narrowed his eyes, and began to doze off.

Before falling asleep, he did not forget to give one reminder. “Little White, when it gets dark later, don’t run all over the place. When the forest is big, every kind of bird can be found. Don’t get lost.”

The Samoyed gave two “whimper” sounds and lay beside the rocking chair, happily wagging its tail.

However, after Song Yuanxi fell deeply asleep, the originally quiet dog suddenly rose. It changed from lying down to squatting, its two white ears standing upright in an instant. Its nose sniffed in midair, and its eyes immediately turned into vertical pupils.

Whoosh.

The Samoyed ran out like the wind. Its speed was so fast that it was like a fighter jet flashing quickly across the sky.

Song Yuanxi had a comfortable little nap. When he woke, half an hour had already passed. Out of habit, he reached toward the area beneath his right hand, wanting to stroke that fluffy fur.

In the end, he felt nothing.

He turned his head to look. Where was there still any Samoyed beside him?

“Little White? Little White?” Song Yuanxi called a few times, but heard no response. His heart skipped, and he quickly jumped up from the reclining chair.

Using his original position as the center and fifty li as the radius, Song Yuanxi searched back and forth all around. In the end, he had no choice but to accept a cruel reality: his dog was lost!

“I only closed my eyes for just a little while. Where on earth could that cub have run off to?”

This forest was neither particularly large nor particularly small. Catching a few spirit beasts inside was as easy as turning over his hand, but finding a Samoyed that ran as fast as flying was more than just a little difficult!

The secret land was not his own home, and the other side of the forest had not yet been fully explored by Song Yuanxi. Afraid that the Samoyed might encounter danger inside, he directly took out seventeen or eighteen Giant Voice Talismans and shouted as he ran.

“Little White! Little White, where are you?”

“It’s dark. Your dad is calling you home for dinner!”

“You little brat, who let you run off by yourself without making a sound? Hurry up and come back!”

Song Yuanxi sprinted wildly through the forest, using one Giant Voice Talisman after another. The spirit beasts in the forest were frightened into fleeing everywhere, and the scene instantly became utter chaos.

At this moment, at the entrance of a cave at the end of the forest, the Samoyed stood in a fighting posture.

Its two front legs stretched forward, its hind legs bent slightly, its body arched, and all four paws pressed tightly against the ground, taking on a stance as if it might charge forward at any moment. Its two eyes glowed faintly green, and all the fur on its body stood on end.

“Grr… grrr…”

The Samoyed bared its teeth and gave a low, muffled growl, its expression fierce. If one looked closely, within that fierceness, there was also a trace of excitement.

Song Yuanxi ran all over the forest. After searching for a long time, he finally relied on the faint connection from the contract seal to find the Samoyed. Looking at the cub showing only its butt to him, he instantly switched modes, and the old father came online.

“Little White, what did I tell you? I told you not to…”

“Shh.”

The Samoyed suddenly turned its head and shook it at the person behind it. “Daddy, don’t make noise!”

“Hey! I said, you little brat…”

“There’s something yummy!” The Samoyed’s tone was very excited, its eyes fixed tightly on the cave entrance. “It’s coming out soon!”

Inside the cave, something yummy?

Song Yuanxi was still stunned when red light suddenly flashed before his eyes. He had no idea what the thing was, but with a whoosh, it darted out of the cave. Then, at a speed invisible to the naked eye, it fled in one direction.

The Samoyed gave an “Awooo!” and chased after it.

Song Yuanxi froze for one second. When he came back to himself, he quickly chased after them, shouting as he ran, “Little White, what is that thing? What are you chasing?”

“Yummy! Yummy!” What answered Song Yuanxi was the Samoyed’s incomparably excited cries.

One person and one dog chased for one day and one night, and finally caught up to that unknown thing. At this moment, that unknown object, which looked red with a little white mixed in and was very much like a cloud of gas, was curled up beneath a cliff wall.

There was no way back behind it, and the road ahead was blocked. It had nowhere to flee.

The Samoyed drooled wildly at the thing in front of it, constantly making “Awooo” sounds. If Song Yuanxi had not been afraid that an unknown thing might upset its stomach, it probably would have already charged over.

“Don’t rush. First figure out whether it’s poisonous. Don’t act like you’ve never seen the world, getting greedy over everything you see. Haven’t I told you before? Eating everything will kill you sooner or later.”

The Samoyed shook its head wildly, its voice urgent. “Yummy. Fire. Body gets hot after eating. Will grow bigger!”

“That red-and-white thing is fire?”

“Mm, fire. Very yummy. Little White likes it.”

“No! How do you know? This thing is fire? Then how can it come through water and rain? And how can fire run?”

This somewhat exceeded Song Yuanxi’s understanding, but very quickly, he thought of that scene from when he was young, one that had once terrified his divine soul.

Back when Daoist Master Fanjian had not yet been his master, he had once used Nine Netherworld Flame to let him experience something. That fire seemed to have a spirit, and it could leap happily on his master’s fingertips.

“The fire seeds on the Heavenly Fire Ranking all seem to have spirits. Fire with a spirit can give birth to consciousness, and after it has consciousness…”

Song Yuanxi’s expression filled with great joy. Could this clump before him be Heavenly Fire? And Heavenly Fire that had already given birth to consciousness and possessed a spirit?

“Master said that all who achieve grand completion in Body Cultivation must have Heavenly Fire accompanying them. Originally, I didn’t even hope that I could possess Heavenly Fire, but now this little flame is actually so afraid of the Samoyed. Doesn’t that mean I could…”

Song Yuanxi was still fantasizing when the Samoyed beside him could wait no longer. With speed as swift as thunder before one could cover one’s ears, it pounced forward and swallowed the trembling clump of fire in one bite.

After eating it, the Samoyed felt its whole body become warm, and even because it was too comfortable, it gave a satisfied burp.

Then it turned back and showed a mouthful of white teeth to the person behind it. Its expression was both silly and cheap. “Daddy! Yummy! Burp—”

“?”

“!”

“…”

At this moment, the complexity inside Song Yuanxi’s heart and the subtlety of his feelings were simply difficult to describe.

Falling from ultimate joy straight into the deepest abyss in an instant, one second in heaven and one second in hell—this was nothing other than that!

What was the saddest thing in the world? It was not being unable to obtain something, nor was it having already lost it. It was that you had almost obtained it. Truly, only the tiniest bit away!

“Daddy! What’s wrong? Are you hungry too?”

The Samoyed looked at the other person’s somewhat twitching expression and felt a little embarrassed. The little thing had been too yummy, and it had forgotten to share.

Song Yuanxi worked hard to maintain his smile, then told himself that this thing had not been his in the first place. It was something the cub had discovered on its own. There was nothing wrong with someone eating the “prey” they found themselves!

But why was his mood still just a little bit depressed?

“Daddy! What’s wrong?”

Song Yuanxi hugged the dog, buried his head in it, and gave a long sigh. “Son, in the future, if you find something good, hide it and eat it secretly by yourself. Your dad here is shallow-eyed, and his heart isn’t too good either.”

He absolutely, absolutely did not want to experience this kind of stimulation a second time…

Next Chapter >