Loot drops.

  They were a classic RPG trope, the ultimate wet dream of every loot goblin.

  But seeing something like that happen in real life?

  That was shocking, to say the least.

  “So…” Ning broke the silence, staring at the pile. “What exactly just happened?”

  “Uh… I don’t know,” Xiao Fan admitted, equally bewildered. While it was true that he often found treasured items on monsters he defeated, this was the first time the loot had literally appeared out of nowhere.

  Ning studied Xiao Fan’s expression carefully.

  It didn’t look fake.

  Which meant, after eliminating all the impossible explanations, there was only one answer left.

  If Ning were wearing glasses, they would’ve flashed brilliantly.

  “It must be a bloodline ability.”

  Monster beasts could awaken latent potential within their bloodlines, manifesting strange abilities that bordered on the supernatural.

  Such phenomena were rare. Only beasts with highly exalted bloodlines, or high cultivation, or those who ingested some rare heaven and earth material could do something like this.

  That got Xiao Fan’s attention. He turned back to the corpse, eyes lighting up slightly. “You think that rabbit had one?”

  “Given how absurdly stacked it was?” Ning shrugged. “Yeah. I’d say it fits.”

  “Huh…” Xiao Fan nodded slowly, then glanced back at the loot pile. “That actually makes sense.”

  “It’s probably something like a stomach pouch,” Ning concluded. “An internal space used to store items.”

  After all, his second home was the Scripture Pavilion. He had read more than enough to make an educated guess.

  There was a brief pause, as Xiao Fan stared at the mangled corpse with intensity.

  Then Xiao Fan coughed lightly. “Uh… Ning?”

  Ning looked up. “Yeah?”

  “I’ve got a small favor to ask.”

  “Oh?” Ning raised an eyebrow. “You’re being polite now. That’s rare.”

  Xiao Fan turned toward the corpse. “I want the demon core and the body of this Red-Eyed Rabbit. In exchange, you can take everything else, even the rest of the rabbits.”

  It was a fair deal.

  A fully charged demon core and the corpse of a rare, bloodline-reverted beast were immensely valuable. While the other rabbits were numerous, quality ultimately trumped quantity, so the difference was only a few spirit stones at best.

  Ning considered it for a moment.

  “Is that it?” Ning said after a moment.

  Xiao Fan nodded. “That’s it.”

  “Then sure,” Ning said easily. “Take it. We fought together so well. As teammates, I won't cry about some meager differences.”

  Xiao Fan paused, then looked at him. “Really?”

  “What, you want me to haggle?” Ning laughed. “After watching you punch that thing into paste? No thanks.”

  Xiao Fan snorted. “Fair.”

  Besides, Ning had already gained more than enough from this mission.

  With that settled, Ning turned his attention to the loot dropped by the boss.

  Two Moonlight Grass stalks on the verge of reaching first grade.

  Several monster bones.

  At least ten kilograms of monster meat.

  And finally,

  A spirit stone.

  Ning’s gaze locked onto it instantly.

  It was an unblemished spirit stone. Though its spiritual energy was nearly exhausted, its purity far surpassed anything he had ever seen.

  “This spirit stone must be the reason that the rabbit reverted its bloodline and advanced so quickly,” Ning said.

  For a monster to grow stronger, it needed to devour massive amounts of spiritual energy, and such activity always left traces. A late-stage rabbit appearing out of nowhere had clearly stumbled upon an opportunity.

  “You’re right,” Xiao Fan agreed after examining it. “This doesn’t look like an ordinary spirit stone… but it’s a pity the energy is almost gone.”

  A stone of this quality couldn’t possibly be low-grade. At the very least, it had once been mid-grade, perhaps even high-grade.

  “Yes,” Ning sighed. “What a waste.”

  The loot was decent, but not jaw-dropping.

  By the time they finished sorting everything, the fighting on the other side had ended as well.

  Patriarch Mi approached with several guards, his expression still pale.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “I never expected a late-stage rabbit to be involved,” he said solemnly. “If not for the two of you, we would have all perished.”

  His voice carried genuine fear. A force like that, led by a late-stage beast, already qualified as a minor beast tide, more than enough to wipe out the village.

  “We just got lucky,” Ning replied with a polite smile.

  Yes, lucky.

  That rabbit had been far stronger than Ning initially realized. But it had been countered on every front.

  It was a speed-type beast, so its defense wasn’t much higher than a mid-stage rabbit’s. Its attribute was completely suppressed by Ning’s spatial sense and poison.

  And most importantly, its opponent was Xiao Fan.

  A protagonist whose attack power blatantly ignored cultivation gaps.

  Combined with their near-perfect teamwork, the disparity in cultivation had been forcibly flattened.

  But even with all those debuffs stacked, it still took everything they had to bring the beast down.

  “You’re being too modest,” Patriarch Mi said earnestly. “You’ve both broadened our horizons as cultivators."

  He hesitated, then bowed deeply. “Please allow us to host you. Rest and tend to your wounds. We will gather all the beast corpses and salvageable materials for you.”

  Once again, he bowed. “Thank you for saving us all."

  Xiao Fan waved a hand. “It’s just a job.”

  Ning glanced at him and grinned. “You know, for someone who says that, you’re surprisingly heroic.”

  “Tch,” Xiao Fan looked away. “Don’t start.”

  “Yep,” Ning stretched lazily. “Hard mouth, soft heart. Couldn’t be more obvious.”

  Before Xiao Fan could comment or retort, Ning walked away.

  After all, you can never lose a fight if you are not even there.

  "I am exhausted. Imma take a nap. Bye."

  …

  Ning, now dressed in clean clothes, sat quietly in a guest room, his right arm wrapped in fresh bandages.

  Two days had passed since the battle. The Mi Family estate was still in a state of chaos, counting losses, tending to the injured, and assessing the damage to the spiritual fields.

  “Let’s see the damage,” Ning muttered, going over his expenses.

  Ten black boar tusk arrows.

  Two qi-replenishing pills, twenty spirit stones gone.

  Twenty well-made standard arrows.

  Miscellaneous items like his robe.

  Ning sighed.

  Then he glanced at the gains again.

  “…Hmm.”

  Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.

  Setting aside the boss loot, just the corpses of five mid-stage rabbits and fifteen early-stage ones could easily net him at least two hundred spirit stones on the market.

  On top of that, combat experience like this, fighting a late-stage beast head-on, was invaluable.

  The only downside was the injury.

  Fortunately, it was just a minor one. After applying the medical ointment provided by Patriarch Mi, the wound had already begun to close. His body-refinement technique also significantly enhanced recovery speed.

  As Ning leaned back to rest, a knock sounded at the door.

  “Come in.”

  Patriarch Mi stepped inside.

  “Brother Ning, how is your injury?”

  “It’s fine,” Ning replied reassuringly. He wasn’t lying. With his cultivation and the ointment, the wound would be fully healed in a few days.

  “I’m glad to hear that,” Patriarch Mi said, visibly relieved. “I’ve also brought the spirit stones for the demon beasts.”

  Since Ning didn’t want to deal with hauling sacks of corpses, he had sold all the remains to the Mi Family.

  “Thank you,” Ning said with a smile as he accepted the storage pouch.

  “There are three hundred spirit stones inside,” Patriarch Mi explained. “Two hundred for the demon beast corpses, and one hundred as the mission reward. I’ve also prepared five kilograms of grain and some Red-Striped Barley seeds, as you requested.”

  “One hundred?” Ning blinked, surprised.

  “Yes,” Patriarch Mi said seriously. “The mission changed unexpectedly, and a late-stage beast appeared. Proper compensation is only fair.”

  He paused, clearly still shaken by the incident. A late-stage beast appearing in his spiritual fields was something he still couldn’t comprehend.

  If Ning knew what Patriarch Mi was thinking, he would’ve pointed at Xiao Fan and said, Look at that guy.

  “I appreciate it,” Ning said instead.

  Patriarch Mi hesitated, then took out a scroll.

  “There’s one more thing,” he said. “As an apology for my son’s earlier behavior, and because you practice the Pure Qi Sutra, I’d like you to have this.”

  Ning accepted the scroll, his eyes flickering briefly.

  “I hope you can forgive his immaturity,” Patriarch Mi continued. “I’ve already disciplined him.”

  Ever since Ning and Xiao Fan had joined forces to defeat a late-stage beast while only at the mid-stage themselves, Patriarch Mi had already begun viewing them as future Foundation Building seeds. Any earlier missteps had to be remedied.

  “It’s normal for teenagers to be impulsive,” Ning waved it off. “That said… this scroll is important to me, so I’ll accept it.”

  Patriarch Mi visibly relaxed. “Thank you.”

  After a brief pause, Ning asked, “By the way, what’s Xiao Fan doing?”

  “Oh,” Patriarch Mi replied, “he took the corpse and demon core of the late-stage rabbit. He’s been staying in his room for the past two days.”

  “I see…” Ning narrowed his eyes slightly.

  ...

  Demon Subduing Sutra.

  It was something Xiao Fan had discovered within the ring his parents had left behind, a relic far more valuable than it appeared on the surface. Only through this sutra had he been able to untangle and repair his crippled meridians.

  Otherwise, how could some random master conveniently appear, wave his hand, and resolve a problem that even family elders found troublesome?

  That story had been nothing more than a lie.

  A necessary one.

  Xiao Fan had fabricated it to give others a plausible explanation and to keep them at a distance. After all, in the cultivation world, possessing a treasure far beyond one’s strength was not a blessing; it was a crime waiting to be punished.

  Inside the quiet room, Xiao Fan placed the demon core and the massive rabbit corpse on the ground. He arranged them carefully, carving a star-shaped pattern into the floor with measured precision.

  As he began to chant the incantation, the atmosphere grew heavy.

  If anyone else were watching, the scene would have looked disturbingly similar to a demon summoning ritual from some low-budget anime.

  The Demon Subduing Sutra had two parts.

  The first focused on using demon cores to accelerate cultivation. Even that alone was already considered beyond the norms. Demonic energy was violent, chaotic, and corrosive to human meridians. Under normal circumstances, it could only be refined into pills and consumed.

  But the second part…

  That was where the sutra truly defied the heavens.

  Refining demon bloodlines.

  Stripping beasts of their innate abilities and forcibly implanting those traits into one’s own body, gaining powers equivalent to supernatural power.

  Such a method went far beyond conventional cultivation logic.

  For the past two days, Xiao Fan had been preparing himself, sealing the room, stabilizing his qi, and suppressing the instinctive resistance of his body. This was not something that could be rushed.

  The ritual was dangerous. Failure meant backlash, losing a perfect specimen and core. But Xiao Fan was prepared.

  Alas! Who would ever imagine that a mere mid-stage qi cultivator could use demon cores and corpses in such a heaven-defying way?

  Xiao Fan shook his head and smiled wryly.

  No one would.

  ...

  Yeah.

  This guy’s cheat definitely had something to do with demon cores.

  Ning pondered quietly from afar.

  As far as he knew, Xiao Fan wasn’t involved in alchemy, weapon forging, or any profession that demanded demon materials so obsessively.

  This left only a few possibilities.

  Absorbing demonic energy to accelerate his cultivation directly?

  Using demon cores to temper and enhance his body beyond normal limits?

  Refining and inheriting bloodline abilities from powerful beasts?

  Purifying demonic essence into a safer form to strengthen his meridians?

  Or perhaps converting demon cores into a unique energy that bypasses conventional cultivation bottlenecks?

  As a transmigrator, Ning’s thoughts were far less constrained than those of traditional cultivators. Ideas that others would dismiss as madness came naturally to him.

  And every one of those possibilities sounded exactly like the kind of broken cheat a protagonist would have.

  Otherwise, why would Xiao Fan covet demon cores so much?

  Having pieced together another part of the protagonist’s background, Ning smiled faintly.

  Anyway, he had caught Xiao Fan lacking.

  ...

  Thanks for reading~