Xiang Bai stared at his blocked arm, momentarily stunned, then instantly became excited.
"Great!"
Xiang Bai retracted his waist and bent his elbow, assuming the stance of the Basic Fist, his fist aimed directly at Li Cunxu. Li Cunxu's gaze remained calm, his feet together in a defensive posture as steady as Mount Tai.
Xiang Bai charged forward, his fist transforming into a bolt of lightning, fiercely striking toward Li Cunxu. Li Cunxu stood firm, unmoving, holding the centerline, his horse stance solid, using his palm to deflect Xiang Bai's punch.
After a while, Xiang Bai's frustration grew. Fighting Li Cunxu was neither satisfying nor enjoyable. His moves were slippery, constantly dissipating Xiang Bai's force, like punching a slippery bar of soap.
This was the Defensive Fist, a technique invented by a player based on Tai Chi. This fist technique had little offensive power, focusing instead on defense and survival. It also came with a complementary footwork technique called Escape Steps.
Many bosses in the game didn't follow martial ethics. If they couldn't defeat the player's Pet Beast, they would attack the Beast Tamer directly. Therefore, experienced players generally learned a few self-defense techniques.
Li Cunxu was also having a tough time. Although he had the Evil Dragon Power from the Evil Dragon Curse, it had only been a day since he acquired it. Meanwhile, Xiang Bai was bolstered by his Super Strength Talent, giving him immense strength.
After two minutes, the roles of attacker and defender reversed. Xiang Bai felt that Li Cunxu's strength was increasing.
Xiang Bai's heart sank. Could it be that Li Cunxu had been holding back earlier?
Li Cunxu hadn't been holding back, nor had his strength increased. It was Xiang Bai's strength that had weakened.
If there had been a mirror to reflect his face, Xiang Bai would have immediately realized he was poisoned, seeing the purple hue on his face.
Xiao Ruan's Trash Poison Gas had spread throughout the arena. Xiang Bai had only noticed the gas irritating his eyes but had forgotten that inhaling it could also poison him.
Until, with a thud.
The Hercules Monkey staggered and fell. Seeing the monkey's purple face, Xiang Bai finally understood.
The Hercules Monkey had been poisoned, and he was likely poisoned as well.
Xiang Bai looked at Li Cunxu, his voice hoarse, "Why aren't you poisoned?"
Li Cunxu smiled, revealing his white teeth and the Detoxification Pill clamped between them.
"I prepared a Detoxification Pill."
"No wonder! Referee, I concede."
Xiang Bai knew that continuing the fight would only lead to defeat, so he decisively surrendered.
The battle ended, and Li Cunxu let out a sigh of relief.
Finally, it was over! He was in so much pain.
His limbs were trembling.
He estimated his muscles would be swollen and sore tonight.
"Next time, I'm not stepping into the ring myself."
As he walked out of the competitor's passage, Lin Jiusan, who was waiting for him, praised,
"I didn't know you had such skills. Your kung fu is quite impressive."
Of course, it was impressive. Even as a self-defense technique, it had been rigorously selected by players.
"You flatter me," Li Cunxu said.
"The Variant Pet Beast with the Poison Tamer Talent you wanted, I found it."
"That was fast!"
Li Cunxu was somewhat surprised.
"It was just good timing. The Widow Red Spider Queen in the Poison Forest Secret Realm gave birth to a large brood of Little Red Spiders. Two of them mutated, both with the Poison Tamer Talent, and both are white in color. One is lazy, likes to hide everywhere, and the other is gluttonous, with a strong desire for adventure, always running around. Which one do you choose?"
The Widow Red Spider Queen, a massive Poison-type Pet Beast, is extremely cruel by nature and can give birth to tens of thousands of Little Red Spiders at once.
With the Widow Red Spider Queen's prolific breeding, could the Little Red Spiders become a plague? That wouldn't happen.
Out of the tens of thousands of Little Red Spiders, only two or three would survive to adulthood. The Little Red Spiders were inherently bloodthirsty and cruel, often killing each other, resulting in at least half of them dying. Natural survival would claim some more, and the Widow Red Spider Queen would devour a batch of the grown Little Red Spiders, leaving only a few to survive in the end.
Li Cunxu wasn't in a hurry to make a decision. He inquired in detail, "Are the two Variant Little Red Spiders cruel?"
"Let me check."
Lin Jiusan made a phone call to gather information and then said to Li Cunxu, "Compared to the behavior of the Little Red Spiders, they can't be considered cruel."
Hearing this, Li Cunxu had a clear idea in his mind. These Variant Little Red Spiders were worth considering.
When choosing a Pet Beast, one shouldn't just look at talent or potential; personality was equally important.
A cruel personality indicated difficulty in taming. Unless one was confident in their ability to control it, it was best to avoid contracting such a beast, as it posed a risk of killing its master.
Some ferocious Pet Beasts, when enraged, wouldn't care about the mutual destruction clause in the Beast Taming Contract and would kill their Beast Tamer as if they were an enemy.
Players paid special attention to this aspect because being killed by their own Pet Beast resulted in severe experience penalties.
If killed by a boss, NPC, or monster, the death penalty was losing some experience, at most one level. However, if killed by one's own Pet Beast, the player would lose five levels. Considering how difficult it was to level up in the later stages of the game—sometimes taking months to gain a single level—losing five levels at once was a devastating blow.
Losing five levels wasn't the end of it.
The player would also need to resolve the issue of their Pet Beast's betrayal. If not addressed, the Pet Beast would continue to kill them.
There were four solutions to this problem.
First, forgive the Pet Beast and do everything possible to reconcile with it.
Second, abandon it by releasing it into the wild. The downside was wasting a Contract Slot, and if the released Pet Beast died, the player would suffer a permanent 20% experience penalty, meaning they would need 20% more experience to level up compared to others.
Third, confine the Pet Beast in the Beast Taming World, preventing it from coming out. However, this would cause the Pet Beast to become depressed and damage the Beast Taming World. If confined for too long, the Pet Beast might commit suicide, which the system would interpret as the Beast Tamer intentionally abusing the Pet Beast, resulting in a permanent 50% experience penalty. This was worse than simply releasing it.
Fourth, use an item to dissolve the Beast Taming Contract. This wouldn't waste a Contract Slot, but the items needed to dissolve the contract were extremely rare, ten times harder to obtain than Expansion Items.
Li Cunxu was torn. Which one should he choose?
"Are you struggling to decide which one to pick?"
"Yes."
"Children make choices; adults take them all."
Lin Jiusan winked at Li Cunxu.
Li Cunxu understood Lin Jiusan's hint—if he wanted both, Lin Jiusan would give him both.
"My Contract Slots are limited. I'll just choose one."
After some consideration, Li Cunxu resisted the tempting offer.
In his previous life, as a player, he had dungeons to farm and wasn't short on resources. But in this life, he wasn't a player, and there were no dungeons to farm. Resources were bound to be limited, and the limited poison-type resources would only be enough to cultivate one excellent poison-type Pet Beast.
Moreover, his Contract Slots were indeed limited.
"I'll choose the first Variant Little Red Spider, the one that's more lazy."
"That's not a wise choice. When selecting a Pet Beast, it's best to avoid lazy ones. It's better to choose one that's diligent or disciplined," Lin Jiusan reminded him.
"No, I'll choose the lazy Variant Little Red Spider."
Laziness wasn't a big issue; it could be corrected.
The other one enjoys adventure, indicating a somewhat reckless personality, which is not ideal for a Poison-type Pet Beast.
The personality of a Poison-type Pet Beast should ideally be as cunning and deceitful as the Poison attribute itself.
"I'll deliver it to you the day after tomorrow."
"Alright."
"Huh? Where's my daughter?"
Lin Jiusan turned around, but his daughter was nowhere to be seen.
"I'm here!"
Lin Qingwei came running over with a medicine jar in her arms and handed it to Li Cunxu.
"This is Tiger Bone Traumatic Injury Medicine. Applying a bit of it can reduce swelling, relieve pain, promote blood circulation, and relax the meridians."
Li Cunxu pondered for two seconds before accepting the Tiger Bone Traumatic Injury Medicine.
He indeed needed the medicine; even now, his hand was still trembling slightly.
(End of Chapter)