Meng Hao continued to peruse the jade slip.

“Neo-demons are very unique. They’re initially broken up into nine levels. The first three are equivalent to the Qi Condensation stage. The middle three are similar to Foundation Establishment, whereas the final three are like Core Formation…. Neo-demons which possess power equivalent to Nascent Soul Cultivators are Earthly neo-demons!

“Earthly neo-demons are relatively uncommon. However, even rarer are neo-demons that are as powerful as Spirit Severing Cultivators. Those are Heavenly neo-demons!” Meng Hao thought back to the Flying Rain-Dragon, and how people had a.s.sumed it was a Heavenly neo-demon. Now it made more sense.

“Above Heavenly neo-demons is a twelfth level, as rarely seen as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. Neo-demons like that are totems, and are as powerful as the Dao Seeking stage, only a step away from being Immortal!

“Do totems really come from Immortals?” thought Meng Hao. He thought back to all the totems he had seen and studied, and also of the great tree in the Crow Scout Tribe. Suddenly an image appeared in his head of an ancient totem composed of the magical symbols of the Celestial soil. He shook his head.

“Maybe that’s only where some totems come from. In any case, when it comes to totems, there are weak and strong ones.” He suddenly looked up from the jade slip toward the five little Greenwood Wolves, who sat sitting trembling in their wooden kennels.

“Newborn wolves who have level 1 power. These Greenwood Wolves have pretty good latent talent; beasts like these would be relatively rare in the Southern Domain. It seems the Western Desert really is a suitable place for neo-demons to exist.” He closed his eyes to sink into contemplative meditation.

Late in the night, Meng Hao suddenly began to hear various whimpering and crying sounds. They turned into howls that sounded almost like the tantrum of a child. They started out slowly, but by the time dawn lit the sky, the cries were continuous.

The sound of it was now mournful, as if filled with discontent at the most unjust thing in all Heaven and Earth which had occurred.

Meng Hao’s brow was furrowed as he opened his eyes. The sky above was hazy as he looked out at the kennels in the courtyard. The five little green-colored wolves were currently scratching frantically at the door of the kennel area. They were even gnawing at the wood, their eyes s.h.i.+ning green. They were… hungry!

They let out continuous anguished howls, and their bodies s.h.i.+vered weakly. Most melodramatic of all was that the door was half gnawed away!

“Oh shut up!” said Meng Hao, glaring at them.

The five little wolves instantly shrank back, looking anxiously at him with their huge, glittering eyes. They appeared to feel wronged, and also starving. From the moment they had been born until now, they had never gone hungry for an entire day! The feeling of hunger filled them with fright.

Meng Hao’s scolding made them feel completely maltreated.

Five little wolves, and one person, looking at each other underneath the hazy sky.

After the s.p.a.ce of about ten breaths had pa.s.sed, however, the five little wolves once again began to let out mournful howls. They were being abused! They were hungry! They had never gone a day without eating before, and now they were being scolded by Meng Hao. Their high-pitched sobbing rose up into the sky, and their little bodies s.h.i.+vered as if with cold. Some of them even had wood chips on their mouths. Seeing this, Meng Hao rose to his feet and walked over. As he neared, the little Greenwood Wolves pressed up against the door to their kennel area, staring anxiously at Meng Hao and wailing as loud as they could.

Meng Hao reached out and grabbed one of the little wolves. The others suddenly seemed to get extremely nervous, and shrank back into the corners of the their kennels.

The little Greenwood Wolf that Meng Hao had grabbed had a white mark on its head. It wasn’t very obvious at first, but if you looked closely, it was clearly visible.

After picking up the little wolf, it began to cry out miserably and tremble. Its wide eyes were filled with helplessness and fear.

“Still howling? I think you were howling the loudest just now.” He glared commandingly down at the little wolf.

The little Greenwood Wolf with the white scar continued to let out victimized yips. Meng Hao could hear grumbling of its stomach. He reached out to touch it and found that its stomach really did seem to be completely empty.

He cleared his throat, abashedly. “It seems I forgot that they’re not the Blood Mastiff. They actually need to eat….” It really had completely skipped his mind.

The Blood Mastiff didn’t need to eat, and Meng Hao had long since reached the state where he abstained from food. The little wolf could sense that Meng Hao’s att.i.tude had changed, and instantly began to howl even louder. The pained expression in its eyes became even more obvious. Meng Hao suddenly felt a bit guilty.

“Okay, okay, stop crying,” he said, stroking the little wolf’s fur. “It’s my fault, okay? Just hold on a bit, I’ll get you something to eat.” He put it back into the kennel and then immediately turned and hurried out of the courtyard. Recalling the words spoken by the old man as he left, he headed off toward the mountains.

He returned at midday, a forced smile on his face. After entering the courtyard, he saw the five little wolves laying there listlessly in their hunger. He hurried over, going from kennel to kennel. After prodding each little wolf awake, he picked up their wooden feeding bowls and then produced some of the food he’d acquired that morning and put it inside for them to eat.

As soon as the little wolves smelled the fresh meat, all the latent power in their bodies seemed to explode out as they charged forward and began to gulp it down.

Meng Hao stood off to the side watching. He basically hadn’t accomplished anything the entire morning other than searching around to find some food. This was going to be a problem.

“I’m not sure how the other Cultivators raise their neo-demons, but if I have to keep doing this, it’s going to be really inconvenient….” Meng Hao frowned. However, thinking back to the plaintive howls of the little wolves, he realized that he couldn’t possibly allow them to starve to death.

He watched as the little wolves quickly consumed the food that he had spent the morning acquiring. Then, they started to howl again. Suddenly he felt a headache coming on.

“You guys are all little Patriarchs….” he said with a sigh. He quickly produced some water to give them. After lapping it up, their expressions were that of content. They immediately ignored Meng Hao and started to play.

Meng Hao looked up at the afternoon sky, then went back to his wood cabin, where he sat down cross-legged to think. After a moment, his eyes suddenly opened wide, and were filled with a bright glow.

“Even though they’re neo-demons, they still have Cultivation bases. Since they do… then I can start feeding them medicinal pills at any time! In the Western Desert, they view medicinal pills as precious treasures and don’t use them often. Of course they wouldn’t feed them to low-level neo-demons.” It was at this point that he thought of the Demon Nurturing Pill of the Frigid Snow Clan. [1. Meng Hao bought the Demon Nurturing Pill formula with his battle achievements in chapter 370]

The pill formula for the Demon Nurturing Pill was very strange. In fact, medicinal plants only made up a small portion of the formula. The rest of the ingredients required refinement of the blood and flesh of various high-level neo-demons. Originally, Meng Hao had been a bit confused by this, but now it made sense.

“The Frigid Snow Clan used to be one of the most powerful Clans in the Western Desert. They produced generation after generation of Grand Dragoneer. The reason for that surely had to do with their secret Dragoneer technique along with some special medicinal pill formulas.

“The Demon Nurturing Pill uses the blood and flesh of various different neo-demons, and can actually be concocted to a variety of levels.” Meng Hao slapped his bag of holding to produce the enormous corpse of a Flood Dragon.

Back on the battlefield of Holy Snow City, Meng Hao had taken the opportunity to collect some bodies of various neo-demons with the intention of researching and using them in some way. This Flood Dragon had a cultivation base at the early Core Formation stage; according to the ranking system, that would make it level 7.

“Concoct some Demon Nurturing Pills and try out the secret Dragoneer technique on these little wolves, and they should be fine.” Meng Hao looked back at the kennels, and the little wolves play fighting with each other.

He waved his hand, and the Flood Dragon corpse began to shrink. A moment later, it had transformed into a collection of blood mist. At this point, Meng Hao produced his black pill furnace.

The face of the teenager that existed on the pill furnace looked listless. It glanced at Meng Hao, and this time, did not dare to display any rancor. It obediently faded away, allowing Meng Hao full use of the pill furnace and not obstructing him in any way. [2. He acquired the black pill furnace during the Violet Furnace Lord trial by fire in chapter 281. The furnace initially resisted him, making it impossible for him to use. Later, he handed it over to the meat jelly in chapter 295. Eventually he forced it to capitulate when he concocted the Perfect Gold Core Pill in chapter 336]

He sent the blood into the pill furnace. As for the medicinal plants, he had quite a few, but not every single one that was required. If he was an ordinary alchemist, he would be at a loss. However, being a Grandmaster of the Dao of alchemy, he was able to extract medicinal properties from other medicinal plants that he combined together to meet the requirements of the formula.

Medicinal plants emerged, and Meng Hao continued to concoct until late in the night. He held the pill furnace in his right hand, heating it with the invisible Everburning Flame and staring into it as he made occasional adjustments.

This was his first time concocting a Demon Nurturing Pill, so time went by relatively slowly. The following morning at dawn, the five little wolves started to howl in hunger once again. Meng Hao’s eyes glittered brightly as he slapped the pill furnace. It let out a booming sound, and then a red-colored medicinal pill shot out.

The instant it appeared, the image of a snarling Flood Dragon could also be seen inside it. It seemed as if the Flood Dragon wanted to take control of the medicinal pill and fly away with it. However, Meng Hao reached out and grabbed the pill. No matter how it struggled, it wasn’t able to escape his grip.

“Eighty percent medicinal strength. There’s still room for refinement!” Meng Hao tossed the pill back into the pill furnace and began to use the Alchemy Dao Trans.m.u.tation Incantation to further refine it. After two hours pa.s.sed, a deep red medicinal pill emerged that emitted no medicinal aroma.

However, as soon as it appeared, a smell began to waft out that Cultivators would not be able to detect, but that neo-demons could. They could clearly smell it, and as soon as the aroma appeared, the five little wolves stopped their howling and suddenly looked over. They pushed up against the kennel door, staring through the cracks at the pill in Meng Hao’s hand. Their bodies trembled and they seemed to be on the verge of going crazy. They started bas.h.i.+ng against the door, as if they were willing to die to get ahold of the pill.

At the same time, in all the surrounding areas of the Crow Scout Tribe that were devoted to raising neo-demons, which included roughly one hundred courtyards, roars began to sound up. All of the neo-demons from level 1 to 6 began to go crazy. Their howls lifted up to shake Heaven and Earth. It seemed that the appearance of this medicinal pill was like some indescribable blessing in their eyes.

Hundreds of neo-demons were all roaring. The intensity of the sound immediately shocked all of the Neo-Demon Kennelists in the various courtyards. Looks of confusion appeared on their faces, and they began to cast various spells on the neo-demons in their unprecedented madness.

The old man who had acted so arrogantly to Meng Hao before was now panting, his eyes wide. He stared at the level 4 neo-demons he was raising, his face filled with astonishment at how crazy they were acting.

A mult.i.tude of voices rose up in the area.

“What’s going on…?”

“What happened?”

“Are the neo-demons rioting?”