: Nurturing, Double Happiness

The crimson liquid fell onto the grave mound and immediately seeped in.

gurgling...

As if rain had come after a long drought, a faint sucking sound could be heard from inside the grave mound.

Wait until the liquid in the water tank has decreased by about one-tenth.

The dark red soil of the grave mound tinged with a dark red hue. Zhu Yu stopped pouring the medicinal liquid, waved his hand to set up a simple spiritual energy restriction on the water tank, placed his palm on the grave mound, and stared intently at it.

[Non-product quality: 33%]

In just a short while, the tiger corpse seed's cultivation level increased slightly. It is foreseeable that once it finishes digesting the nurturing liquid, its cultivation level will increase even more.

"good."

Zhu Yu's face lit up with joy, he nodded in satisfaction, withdrew his arm, and stood up. Just as he was about to pick up the water vat and leave, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a familiar dark red light out of the corner of his eye.

His smile froze on his face, and he quickly circulated his spiritual power, rapidly covering his body with a light gray protective shield.

next moment.

There was a muffled thud.

The dark red light ignored Zhu Yu's alarmed expression and plunged headfirst into the water vat beside him. The spiritual energy barrier covering the surface did not provide any resistance.

"That guy!"

Zhu Yu was taken aback for a moment, then his face lit up with joy. This demonic insect had actually walked right into his trap. Without thinking, he took out a mid-grade first-tier "Ice Arrow Talisman" from his inner pocket, poured spiritual power into it, and activated it.

The three-inch-long ice-blue talisman silently turned to ashes, and a chilling ice-blue arrow appeared. As soon as it appeared, the surrounding temperature plummeted to freezing point, and glistening ice crystals condensed.

Perhaps they sensed danger.

A dark red streak of light flew out of the water vat, but instead of escaping, it flew straight toward Zhu Yu's face.

"Perfect timing!"

Seeing this, Zhu Yu was not surprised but delighted. With a slight thought, the ice-blue arrow trembled slightly and suddenly disappeared.

next moment.

Click...

The ice arrow appeared before the black and red light and crashed straight into it. The moment it made contact, the arrow silently disintegrated into a sky full of crystalline light, and a cold wave even colder than before suddenly erupted.

In the blink of an eye.

A thick layer of ice crystals condensed on the corpse ground within a ten-meter radius. Before the mantis demon insect in the center of the cold wave could react, it was frozen into a ball by the cold wave and fell to the ground.

"ha…"

Seeing this, Zhu Yu was overjoyed and wanted to step forward to check, but hesitated for a moment. He then took out the "Thousand Vine Talisman" from his inner pocket, channeled his spiritual power into it, and activated it.

The talisman silently turned to ashes.

Under his control, the power contained in the talisman condensed into a slender vine, about the thickness of a little finger, entirely green, and covered with ferocious barbs. He drove it down into the corpse ground and bound the frozen demonic insects together.

"call…"

Zhu Yu was now completely relieved. As a type of imprisoning talisman, the "Thousand Vine Talisman" not only bound the target but also absorbed the spiritual power contained within their body, thus strengthening itself.

In this situation of one reduction and one increase.

A mantis demon insect of only the lowest rank has absolutely no chance of breaking free.

"Wouldn't you call this a double celebration?"

Zhu Yu smiled, raised his hand and summoned the vines that imprisoned the demonic insects into his palm. He scanned them with his divine sense, confirmed that they were alive and well, and nodded slightly.

After checking and confirming that the tiger carcass was unharmed, he picked up the water tank containing the cultivation solution and glanced at it. The liquid in the tank had decreased by about one-twentieth.

"You can eat so much!"

Zhu Yu was taken aback, but the fist-sized mantis demon insect actually swallowed several times its weight in medicine in just a few breaths.

After the initial surprise, the smile on his face deepened.

"Serves you right for being greedy! I've caught you red-handed!"

It seems the mantis was intoxicated by the potion, as it didn't even try to dodge. Normally, given its ghostly speed, catching it wouldn't be so easy.

"Could it be that the medicine was very beneficial to it? That's why it didn't avoid it..."

Zhu Yu made a guess in his mind, then, holding the vine bundle that imprisoned the demonic insect in one hand and picking up the water vat in the other, turned around and walked out of the corpse ground.

Return to the courtyard.

Perhaps sensing the aura of the demonic insect, Little Black glanced at Zhu Yu with its dark eyes, then silently turned around, retracting its six limbs, head, and tail into its carapace.

"Promising!..."

Zhu Yu stared at it speechlessly, shook his head, and stepped into the house.

Place the medicinal liquid used to cultivate tiger carcasses properly.

Zhu Yu sat in the main seat of the living room, examined the vine cluster, and with a slight thought, a sharp pain shot through his fingertips, from which drops of bright red, jade-like blood seeped out and floated in front of him.

Once the blood droplet had condensed to about the size of a thumb, he nodded slightly. "That should be enough."

After speaking, he probed his blood with his divine sense, and under its influence, the blood slowly formed a pictographic rune similar to the character "契" (qi).

Instead of immediately imprinting the contract mark, Zhu Yu used his divine sense to touch the mark left by the Ice Arrow Talisman and disperse its power.

Suddenly, some water seeped out from under the vines.

"go!"

Zhu Yu dared not be negligent. With a slight thought, the "Contract" character immediately flowed into the gaps in the vines and landed on the mantis demon insect, which had just been unsealed and was not yet fully conscious.

As drops of blood seeped in, a surge of angry resistance welled up, and the "Contract" script became unstable, on the verge of collapsing.

Zhu Yu quickly extended his divine sense to stabilize the "Qi" character script and urged the vines to contract inward.

crunch...

One after another, vicious barbs pierced into the gaps in the mantis demon's limbs, making a chilling sound. Without the protection of spiritual light, it could not last more than a few breaths before it began to ooze strands of transparent blood.

buzzing...

The mantis demon's mouthparts emitted a rapid buzzing sound like a mosquito, its will becoming even more violent and angry. However, it was bound by the vines and could not move. Its will was gradually suppressed by Zhu Yu's divine consciousness, which was much larger than its own.

A short while passed.

The vines on the table silently transformed into specks of emerald light and dissipated, while a streak of black and red light shot out and flew to the living room door with lightning speed.

Just as it flew out the door, the light suddenly dimmed rapidly, revealing a fist-sized, dark red mantis that looked like it was carved from jade, which fell to the ground with a thud.

next moment.

A gentle force carried it back to the living room, landing in the palm of the handsome young man sitting in the armchair.

"That's clever..."

Zhu Yu felt the grievances and anger surging from the demonic insects. After thinking for a moment, he raised his hand and made a gesture. A stream of crimson liquid gushed out from the water vat beside him, landing in his palm and gathering to the size of an adult's fist before stopping.

He placed the medicine in front of it and said with a smile:

"Little one, do you want some?"

As if it had caught a whiff of the fragrance, the languid mantis suddenly raised its head, its tiny eyes glancing at the crimson liquid and then at Zhu Yu's smiling face.

After a moment's hesitation, it reluctantly crawled to the crimson blood mass, opened its jaws, and took a vicious bite.

"good…"

Zhu Yu's lips curled slightly, and he reached out to touch the mantis demon's head, but seeing it raise its sickle-shaped forelegs, he immediately abandoned the idea and laughed:

"She's quite arrogant..."

Unlike Xiao Hei, the Mantis Demon Insect, despite being only a low-grade first-order insect, has already developed its own consciousness, making it somewhat difficult to control with just divine sense imprints.

Of course, you can forcibly control and command it, but the consequence of doing so is that the divine imprint will gradually shatter under its repeated resistance.

However, renewing the contract is not so easy.

"Let me see what kind of talent spell you've awakened..."