16: Chapter 16 The Progressive Old Father

On the way back, Lu Hu didn't stop and start; he sprinted all the way, reaching home in just one day.

"Roar~"

As soon as he entered the territory, a tiger came running. It was Tiger Dad. Lu Hu had been gone for five days, and Tiger Dad's size had increased significantly; he was nearly 1.6 meters tall and four meters long—a colossal beast.

With tiger fruit and the simple breathing technique, Tiger Dad's strength was rising rapidly.

Once he got closer, Lu Hu's gaze suddenly changed. He saw a scratch on Tiger Dad's back. It wasn't deep and had just started to scab over.

Although it was a minor injury, Lu Hu couldn't understand what kind of animal, other than those hairless apes, could wound Tiger Dad after he'd eaten tiger fruit.

There shouldn't be any powerful characters around. Having roamed the mountains for two and a half years, the biggest guy he'd seen was that Big Clumsy Ox.

"Roar~"

Tiger Dad came up to Lu Hu, his cold gaze softening as he lowered his head to nuzzle Lu Hu. Having not seen him for a few days, Tiger Dad's intelligence was steadily increasing.

He also understood more and more how mysteriously strong his son was. Even though his son's size had shrunk a bit more, he knew that his son's strength could no longer be judged by size.

Lu Hu wanted to know what happened with Tiger Dad's injury. After a difficult exchange, Lu Hu learned that the day before yesterday, a fierce beast had entered the territory. As for what kind of beast, it was too difficult for Tiger Dad to express.

Piecing it together through guesswork, Lu Hu reconstructed the event: that beast had approached the spirit ginseng field and was driven away by Tiger Dad, leading to a fierce battle between the two.

In the end, Tiger Dad drove the beast away, but he was also wounded by the opponent's claws.

"Hmph!"

Lu Hu snorted coldly. How dare something eye his spirit ginseng; it better not let him catch it.

I'll flick your bits until they explode!

"Roar!"

Recalling the fellow who tried to steal his spirit medicine, Tiger Dad also felt a lingering fear.

At the time, he could see that the fellow was in poor condition, as if heavily injured. From his experience, it couldn't exert much force at all.

Logically, he should have been able to win, but once the fight started, he found he couldn't touch the opponent at all. Its movements were too agile; his lunges and paw strikes simply couldn't land.

After a few rounds, all his heavy strikes were dodged. Not only did he waste a lot of stamina for nothing, but his back was also scratched by the opponent.

Fortunately, that fellow's claws and teeth weren't very powerful. The worst injury it inflicted was just the minor scratch on his back.

That fellow also knew it couldn't beat him, so it ran away!

"Roar~" (If I had landed just one hit, I would have definitely bitten him to death!)

Tiger Dad was still a bit unwilling; if he had bitten that guy, he definitely could have killed him.

Lu Hu looked at Tiger Dad. Although he didn't know exactly what was being said, he could see Tiger Dad's indignation.

A tiger's movements are agile enough. For something to be faster than a tiger, could it be some kind of leopard?

Thinking as they walked, the two tigers returned to the den. Tiger Dad began digging in the soil under the Tiger Fruit Tree. Soon, he unearthed tiger fruits wrapped in leaves. Tiger Dad let out a soft roar at Lu Hu.

"Roar~" (Son, these are the ripe fruits!)

Lu Hu was surprised. He had been away for about a week and had left thirty bags of Spirit Fertilizer to nourish the spirit ginseng and the Tiger Fruit Tree.

One bag of Spirit Fertilizer was equivalent to a year of growth. Tiger Dad must have focused on fertilizing the Tiger Fruit Tree.

During the seven days he was gone, the Tiger Fruit Tree had ripened twice.

Still nine fruits at a time!

Out of eighteen fruits in total, Tiger Dad had eaten two, leaving sixteen.

The full name of the tiger fruit was the Tiger-Strengthening Fruit. Lu Hu knew very well how tempting this thing was to a tiger.

Even though Tiger Dad was becoming smarter, he was still just a beast and couldn't think of things too complexly.

He had already prepared himself mentally for all the tiger fruits to be eaten by Tiger Dad. He hadn't expected Tiger Dad to leave so many for him.

"Roar~" (The scent of these fruits is too strong, so I buried them underground.)

Tiger Dad raised his head, proud of his clever decision. The fragrance emitted by the tiger fruits was too strong; he suspected that the fellow from before had come because it smelled them.

After getting injured in the fight, to prevent such a thing from happening again, he had thought about eating all the fruits. But the fruit tree belonged to his son; if he ate them all, what would his son eat when he returned?

So, after much deliberation, he thought of the method of burying the tiger fruits underground.

Sure enough, after being buried in the soil, the scent of the tiger fruits no longer spread.

"Roar~" (Hurry up and eat them!)

Tiger Dad turned his head. The scent of the tiger fruits was too fragrant. Once unearthed, the smell alone made him drool. He really couldn't look anymore; if he did, he wouldn't be able to help himself.

"Roar~" (You eat.)

Lu Hu placed a tiger fruit in front of Tiger Dad, signaling him to eat.

Under his year and a half of painstaking cultivation, the old father had made great progress!

Lu Hu felt a great sense of accomplishment. After thinking it over, he put away ten of them and gave the rest to Tiger Dad.

A good performance deserved a reward!

"Roar!"

Tiger Dad happily ate one tiger fruit. As for the rest, he threw them back into the soil, his giant paws scratching at the dirt pile to bury them again.

He already had a deep understanding of the tiger fruit's effects. He couldn't digest them all at once, so burying them and eating one a day would maximize the benefits.

Lu Hu ignored him and instead took out his harvest from the past few days from the system inventory to tally it up.

A total of ninety-seven lingzhi still growing on tree stumps.

Seventy tuckahoes and over a hundred and sixty roots of he shou wu.

In addition, he had also collected some seeds for the three types of medicinal herbs.

'I'd better finish the task first.'

Lu Hu began to get busy. With the knowledge from the compendium of a hundred herbs and the help of Spirit Fertilizer, transplanting these three types of herbs wasn't very difficult.

Seeing this, Tiger Dad, who had eaten a tiger fruit, also came to help. The two tigers worked until late at night, finally planting all the lingzhi, tuckahoe, and he shou wu.

After buying ten bags of Spirit Fertilizer and scattering them, Lu Hu looked at the irregular patches of medicinal fields and couldn't help but shake his head.

"I still need to find a territory suitable for large-scale cultivation as soon as possible!"

Small-scale planting was fine here, but large-scale planting would be a bit troublesome.

The next day, the medicinal herbs fertilized with Spirit Fertilizer grew vigorously. To be safe, Lu Hu didn't dig them up immediately; he still planned to let them grow for another half-month.

Lu Hu didn't plan to buy any more Spirit Fertilizer. He didn't have many Spirit Coins left and wanted to save them for emergencies.

In the following days, the growth rate of the tiger fruits and spirit ginseng slowed down.

But this didn't stop Lu Hu from eating one tiger fruit a day and having ginseng with every meal. He spent a lot of time practicing every day.

Meanwhile, Tiger Dad imitated Lu Hu's breathing method every day, and Lu Hu corrected him time and again.

He improved with each attempt, and after persisting for many days, a surge of energy was born within Tiger Dad's body. It wasn't spiritual power, but a weaker form of energy.

Lu Hu guessed it might be internal energy. It was weak, but its effect was similar to spiritual energy; once channeled, it could enhance one's physical strength.

Furthermore, Lu Hu discovered that with internal energy, when Tiger Dad ate potent medicines like ginseng, he could also refine a portion of the medicinal power to strengthen the internal energy within his body.

Thus, Tiger Dad also began to roam the mountains looking for herbs to eat, just like Lu Hu. Combined with the ginseng Lu Hu shared with him, Tiger Dad's internal energy grew at an exaggerated rate every day!

Lu Hu's cultivation also progressed rapidly; he could practically slap his yesterday-self to death every single day.

On this day, Lu Hu stopped his cultivation. The lingzhi, tuckahoe, and he shou wu had been transplanted for half a month. He could start harvesting and complete the system task!