Chapter 304: Chapter 297 Cultivating the Golden Toad_1

Today, upon entering the maze within the Ancient Banyan Tree, he deliberately did not cut the wound too deep.

Then, he stood by and watched.

Initially, the wound on the trunk healed quickly, but it soon stopped, with the dark green tree blood continuing to drip out.

“Thank you!”

Qin Niu patted the trunk of the Ancient Banyan Tree and, as a token of gratitude, channeled a thread of the Everlasting Spring Technique’s power into the tree.

He began to sit under the tree and meditate with his eyes closed.

His cultivation level was rapidly increasing.

By evening time, his Medicine King Sutra had successfully broken through another layer, advancing him to the sixth level of the Acquired Realm.

This cultivation speed left him very satisfied.

He hadn’t consumed the Peiyuan Elixir bestowed by the Black Tiger Gang Leader.

Since he wasn’t facing any bottlenecks, and his cultivation speed had reached dozens of times faster than outside, there was no need to consume the elixir.

It would be better to save it for when he was breaking through a major realm.

Based on his experience with consuming Boundary-breaking Elixirs, it was best to save such elixirs to break through bottlenecks.

Having killed so many experts without obtaining a single Boundary-breaking Elixir or similar top-tier elixir, it was clear that such elixirs were extremely scarce resources. For this reason, Qin Niu had to be prepared to use common elixirs when facing bottlenecks.

He stood up and checked the five jars placed around the trunk.

Just like yesterday, they had already filled up with tree blood.

After collecting the jars, the wound on the trunk healed slowly.

Through two days of experimentation, he was certain that the Ancient Banyan Tree was showing him goodwill.

This tree indeed possessed a certain degree of sentience.

Today, when he went out, he tried not to use Fourth as a guide.

But he still got trapped.

This suggested that the maze of the Ancient Banyan Tree might naturally exist, and perhaps even the tree itself couldn’t control it.

Carrying the five jars of tree blood, he arrived in front of the Ant Nest; the Zombie Ant was still evolving, and the Ant Queen was in normal condition, not having evolved any special abilities yet.

Qin Niu continued to persist in feeding them.

After all, he was feeding them one Taiyin Yaoyao per day.

Until it advanced or evolved a new special ability.

When he got home, the lotus pond in the backyard was completed.

Tang Fang’s craftsmanship was commendable; the lotus pond was built very sturdily. But he couldn’t use it just yet; it needed a couple of days before water could be poured into it.

Qin Niu also checked on the Green Demon Bee; it seemed to have grown a bit after feeding on fresh blood.

But it hadn’t yet managed to merge with the egg of the Corpse Bee.

On the other hand, after absorbing the fresh blood of Elder Jiu Yin, the Green Silk Worm grew at an astoundingly fast rate.

It was almost changing daily.

“Wart Toad, come here!”

Qin Niu called out, and the Red-eyed Golden Toad lying in a cool corner of the yard immediately hopped over.

“I plan to help you increase your level, but this process carries some risks and could be quite lengthy. What do you think?”

“Croak!”

It let out a croaking sound, indicating its agreement.

All creatures are incredibly persistent in their pursuit of becoming stronger, unable to resist such temptation.

Qin Niu could stay peacefully in the countryside without having to enlist in the army for now, so he thought of taking this opportunity to help the Golden Toad level up one more time.

It was currently at Grade Seven.

Among Elder Jiu Yin’s twelve disciples and their insects, the strongest were around Grade Seven.

The king insect of Elder Jiu Yin’s Taiyin Yaoyao should be at the peak of Grade Seven, not quite reaching Grade Eight. The Four-Winged Demon Centipede might have reached Grade Eight.

In facing these formidable insects, the Golden Toad was clearly somewhat inadequate.

It could only manage to deal with ordinary Taiyin Yaoyao.

This was definitely not enough.

As Qin Niu’s strength continued to grow, so too did the strength of his enemies.

This was also an inevitable process.

The more strength one has, the broader world one can engage with.

As long as the Golden Toad could level up to Grade Eight, there would be no fear when facing the top Insect Masters from the Nine Insect Gang in the future.

Toads are naturally the bane of most insects.

The Red-eyed Golden Toad, being a special creature of heaven and earth, has even greater combat strength. Once it advanced to Grade Eight, it would totally have the power to crush some Level Eight insects.

Don’t look at how it seemed somewhat inferior when it faced the Taiyin Yaoyao king and the Four-Winged Demon Centipede that day.

That was because these two insects were among the rare oddities of heaven and earth.

Their combat strength was ten times, even dozens of times stronger than that of ordinary insects.

Qin Niu meticulously prepared Ancient Banyan Tree Blood for the Red-eyed Golden Toad, and directly fed it to the creature.

After it finished eating, Qin Niu anxiously watched from the side.

Its belly swelled up like a balloon.

When the Green Ox ate the Banyan Tree Blood, there was no significant reaction, and nearly a day later, the Green Ox began to madly dash around in frenzy.

But the Red-eyed Golden Toad, having eaten the Ancient Banyan Tree Blood, inflated instantaneously, with its body starting to swell on the spot.

This was very similar to what happened with the Termite.

As time elapsed, the Golden Toad’s body had swollen into a round ball, its eyes even unable to open.

Its limbs were no longer able to touch the ground.

Because its belly had ballooned into a round sphere.

Even its limbs began to inflate and expand.

Qin Niu was very clear that this was because the Ancient Banyan Tree Blood contained an extremely considerable amount of energy, just like humans consuming a high-grade elixir, with the vigorous energy roaming throughout the body.

They had nowhere to be released, and the body couldn’t immediately absorb so much energy.

This moment was extremely dangerous, and there was even the possibility of the body bursting and dying.

The Red-eyed Golden Toad had extremely strong defenses and was a special creature of heaven and earth; Qin Niu had great confidence in it.

He believed it could get through this difficult phase.

Consuming Ancient Banyan Tree Blood might seem dangerous, but through Qin Niu’s continuous exploration and experimentation, he had come to believe that Ancient Banyan Tree Blood was the ‘high-grade elixir’ for nurturing pets.

As long as the dosage was not exceeded by too much, it was generally safe.

Enduring some hardships was inevitable.

In the early stages, when he used Ancient Banyan Tree Blood to cultivate Termites and bees, the mortality rate was slightly high, which was due to an imprecise control over the dosage.

Finally, the Red-eyed Golden Toad’s body had swelled to the limit.

If it expanded any further, it might very well explode.

Qin Niu watched nervously at the side.

The Red-eyed Golden Toad seemed to be in great pain, struggling continuously with its four inflated legs.

But it couldn’t touch the ground.

Due to the over-inflation, its legs were no longer able to bend.

“Wart Toad, hang in there.”

No sooner had Qin Niu finished speaking than the Golden Toad’s body inflated even more.

Its skin became as thin and transparent as the wings of a cicada.

This caused Qin Niu’s heart to instantly tighten.

He hadn’t expected that the Golden Toad, which he had the most confidence in, couldn’t endure this dangerous phase.

The dosage fed to it had been carefully calculated.

And was already conservative.

Why was it still unbearable for it?

Could it be that each creature has a different standard for calculating a safe dosage?

Just as Qin Niu was feeling distressed, two large bulges suddenly appeared on the Red-eyed Golden Toad’s throat.

One on either side.

They kept expanding and soon were touching the ground.

The swelling didn’t stop, though the rest of the Golden Toad’s body did not keep expanding.

As time went by, after two more hours had passed and the air sacs in the toad’s throat had swelled to half the size of its body, the expansion finally came to a halt.

It was by leveraging this tactic that the Red-eyed Golden Toad successfully endured the life-and-death ordeal.