Over the past few years, Ji Yuan didn't just focus on cultivation, he also spent plenty of time poring over all sorts of classics.

There was once a cultivator named "Beilin Sanren" who wrote a book called "Exotic Chronicles of Demon Beasts", in which he gave a detailed description of this Big-Mouth Eating Toad.

This Big-Mouth Eating Toad, to be honest, isn't actually violent. In fact, among all the demon beasts, it's considered one of the more gentle types.

But there's one trait… it's greedy and has an enormous appetite.

And once it tastes something good, its tastes get extremely picky—only quality food will do.

Some cultivators often take advantage of the Big-Mouth Eating Toad's gluttonous nature to poison it to death, or lure it away from beast-concentrated areas to kill it solo.

In truth, when Ji Yuan first confirmed this toad was a Big-Mouth Eating Toad, he also considered poisoning it.

Coincidentally, Ji Yuan had some extremely potent poison in his storage bag.

He'd refined it himself from Tu Yue's stock.

But just as he had that thought, he reconsidered and changed his mind.

If he could settle this Big-Mouth Eating Toad… and later build a cave mansion on this island, wouldn't it be the perfect place to hide out?

This whole Mist Area was already a prime hiding spot, and with the Big-Mouth Eating Toad here on the island…

Other cultivators would be even more afraid to mess with it.

The mists here are thick, and once Ji Yuan upgrades his [Cave Mansion] to Level 3 and gains access to the Star Spiral Cloud Barrier array, that formation would blend perfectly with the local fog.

By then, could there possibly be a safer place?

Ji Yuan's mind immediately started churning with ideas.

And when he finally advances to Foundation Establishment, gets permission from the Water Dragon Sect to open an island, he'd be able to have one for his public cave mansion, and secretly treat this as his real hideout.

When an idea strikes, the world opens up.

Ji Yuan had been worrying that his little house in Zengtou City was neither secure nor spacious enough. If he could settle down here, wouldn't that be ideal?

Given all this, the problem now is to keep the Big-Mouth Eating Toad pacified first.

Otherwise, it's all just empty talk.

Ji Yuan lowered his gaze again to the toad squatting at the mountain peak. Its look was still clear and stupid, occasionally opening its mouth in a never-satisfied posture.

Spirit Pig meat… it probably has never tried this stuff before.

Especially since Ji Yuan's Spirit Pig meat had buffed stats from the system panel, with a bit of body-refining effect, so of course it tasted far better than ordinary Spirit Pig meat.

The problem was, at this moment Ji Yuan only had three Spirit Pigs in his storage bag. If he was going to feed it, it'd have to be parcelled out bit by bit.

Staring at the toad's constantly gaping mouth, Ji Yuan thought for a moment, then slowly lowered his flying boat, inching towards the toad's attack range.

He then stopped, took a piece of Spirit Pig meat from his storage bag, and tossed it over.

This time, the toad reacted even faster—its tongue swept out in a flash and rolled the meat into its mouth.

After gulping it down, it even let out a sound of pleasure from its throat.

It gazed at Ji Yuan with clear, expectant eyes, ever more puppy-eyed.

But no matter how it looked at him this time, Ji Yuan didn't give it more meat.

The toad croaked a few times. Seeing Ji Yuan still hadn't responded, it got anxious and turned to hop down the mountain. After only a few steps, though, it looked back at Ji Yuan.

"Guwaa—"

This means… you want me to follow?

Ji Yuan sort of got what the toad was trying to say.

He mulled it over, called out the Hundred Fish Shield to protect himself, activated his high-grade protective talisman, and switched on the Xuanlight Barrier on his wrist—only then did he lower the Dharma Ship and follow along at a slow pace.

Just in case this toad turned out to be cunning and pulled a sneak attack, he'd be well-defended.

The man and the toad strolled on for a while.

Ji Yuan found that as long as he didn't show aggression, the toad really was quite tame. After hopping a few times, if Ji Yuan lagged behind, it would stop and wait.

Only when Ji Yuan caught up would it move on again.

One man, one toad.

One jumps, one flies.

So Ji Yuan just followed it from the mountain top down to the base, finally arriving beneath a cliff.

The toad stopped and waited for Ji Yuan to catch up, then again stuck out its tongue.

Ji Yuan braced himself, half-expecting a sneak attack, and even summoned his flying sword. But unexpectedly, the toad stuck its tongue out toward the base of the cliff.

Its huge scarlet tongue swept by, rolling up all the shrubs and weeds under the cliff in one go, swallowing them down on the spot.

Having just tasted delicious Spirit Pig meat, sampling these weeds only made the toad retch. Still, it forced itself to swallow.

A thrifty little toad if there ever was one.

With the weeds cleared away, Ji Yuan finally got a good look at what lay under the cliff.

On the stone wall were many carved inscriptions, and in some spots even human-shaped meridian diagrams… spell techniques!

This was exactly the lucky chance Qiu Qianhai's grandfather once found—the Tier Two body technique!

Ji Yuan had expected getting this opportunity would be an ordeal, but who'd have thought… a bit of Spirit Pig meat did the trick?!

And it hadn't even been taken by anyone else. Clearly, this body technique was meant to be his!

Realizing this, Ji Yuan suddenly found this toad much more lovable.

"Guwaa guwaa—"

The toad, seeing Ji Yuan unresponsive, hopped up and down in place, croaking disgruntledly, as if saying, "I gave you the good stuff, so where's mine?"

This time Ji Yuan didn't hold back—he chopped off two pork trotters and tossed them over.

The toad bounced up and snapped them up, but instead of swallowing immediately, it held them in its mouth and savored them, only then eating them slowly.

Ji Yuan seized the moment to record the spell diagrams from the stone wall.

He channeled spiritual qi into his brush and ink, using Artifact Manipulation Technique to quickly copy everything he saw in just a glance.

This Tier Two body technique was called "Shadow Follows Form".

It was divided into two volumes. The first, "Shadow", focused on short-range maneuvering—in essence, a combat technique.

Once activated, it allowed your movements to stick to an opponent's shadow, with extremely fast short-range bursts.

Great for dodging attacks or launching sneak attacks.

Ji Yuan was already imagining how this technique could be comboed with Spirit Water Needle for a sneaky attack chain.

The latter volume was "Form"—where the first was for fighting, the second was for escaping.

With "Form", you could flee at incredible speed. Go all out and you could even briefly match the velocity of a flying spiritual artifact!

Above high-grade magical artifacts are top-grade magical artifacts.

Go even further and you have spiritual artifacts.

So this Tier Two spell was honestly damned powerful—excellent for getting away!

Worth it!

This trip was seriously worth it!

To be absolutely sure, Ji Yuan even made two copies of the spell diagrams.

Of course, that called for giving the toad another piece of Spirit Pig meat.

With the copying done, Ji Yuan could finally relax. He hadn't expected things to go so smoothly; he'd originally thought he'd have to brace for a life-or-death struggle with a Tier Two demon beast.

But now… Ji Yuan turned to look at the poor puppy-eyed toad.

Spell diagrams copied, it was time to see if he could win over the toad for good, so he could settle down on the island.

To open a cave mansion here, he first needed the toad to understand him.

He had to make sure it wouldn't resist, so it could serve as his free guard.

So Ji Yuan thought a moment—pointed at himself, then at the stone wall in front, and then made a sleeping gesture.

Tier Four demon beasts can attempt lightning tribulation to take human form, so their intelligence isn't far off from humans.

Tier Three demon beasts, their smarts are about the level of a teenager.

This Tier Two demon beast, well, not so much. At best, it's like a small child—eats when hungry, sleeps when tired. Which is exactly why Ji Yuan had such an easy time dealing with it.

The toad's eyes were full of confusion and cluelessness.

It had no idea what Ji Yuan was trying to communicate.

Helpless, Ji Yuan went off to the side, swung his flying sword to fell a nearby old tree, then lay on it and pretended to sleep.

The toad finally seemed to catch on, a glimmer of understanding in its eyes.

Ji Yuan pointed at himself again, then at the ground.

The toad now looked enlightened, but judging by its eyes, still a little conflicted?

Conflicted?

About what—was it torn about not having enough meat?

This time Ji Yuan decided to be direct. He only had three pigs anyway, so he just hacked off an entire pig's head and tossed it over.

When the toad saw such a huge chunk, its eyes shone. Without hesitation, it leapt over and gobbled it up.

Ji Yuan wasn't in a hurry; he just waited quietly for it to finish swallowing.

After a long while, the toad finally finished its pig's head. It looked rather satisfied at last, and didn't hesitate to hop off towards another direction.

"Guwaa guwaa—"

It urged Ji Yuan to catch up.

Ji Yuan was happy to oblige—he wanted to see what other goodies the toad might have in store…

When they rounded the cliff, they arrived at the island's northern side. It was the shaded side, and with the ever-present mist, it felt especially chilly and damp.

The toad, once there, barely moved, just crept forward a little at a time.

Even the sounds in its throat had a hint of melancholy.

Ji Yuan trailed leisurely behind, until he reached a bend and saw a giant boulder protruding from the stone wall nearby.

The toad stopped here and, with another flick of its tongue, moved the boulder aside.

Behind the stone was a pitch-dark cave entrance.

It turned its head, shaking as if beckoning Ji Yuan to come over.

But… faced with this scene, Ji Yuan couldn't help guessing.

Maybe this toad was originally raised here by some Foundation Establishment cultivator. Later, who knows—maybe the cultivator left or died, and the toad was simply left behind.

This cave ahead must've belonged to that cultivator.

Once he was gone, the toad blocked the entrance… If that's true, there might still be treasures hidden in the cave!

Ji Yuan was already thinking—could it be a Foundation Establishment cultivator's cave mansion?

With all his leftover relics stashed inside.

Like spiritual artifacts, piles of mid-grade spirit stones, Tier Two spells, talismanic elixirs, and so on.

Could Ji Yuan really have stumbled upon such a lucky chance?!

The toad was still urging him, so Ji Yuan stepped up to the cave entrance. Peering into the black hole, he forced himself not to rush, and tossed a Lighting Talisman inside.

He also stuck a Night Vision Talisman on himself for good measure.

The cave wasn't deep. As the talisman illuminated the interior, everything inside was revealed to Ji Yuan's eyes.

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