1982 Ashy

Having cooked who knows how many corpses, the beast chef found his energy to be falling.

Little Shrubby was getting quite a bit tired now, as he had been using his flames nonstop to cook them.

These were all immortal beasts, and as such normal fire wouldn't even harm them. Only Little Shrubby's Immortal fire could cook them properly.

As such, the beast had expended quite a bit of his energy in this process.

Still, not wanting to disappoint his master, Little Shrubby continued his work. At the same time, he could feel that his own cultivation base was actually improving due to the constant practice.

Because of this, the beast was gaining too and there were no losses.

Thankfully by the time the third day rolled in, Lin Mu finally felt a shift in his stomach.

~SHUA~

The obscure runes on his stomach all turned into rings and disappeared on the surface.

~HUU~

"That is certainly a new record for me." Lin Mu muttered to himself as he rubbed his stomach.

He finally had a sense of satisfaction and did not feel like his hunger would go out of control any time soon.

'Though even if it is now normal, I feel like I can still eat more if I want to.' Lin Mu thought to himself.

But he took a look at Little Shrubby and the hard working twins and shook his head.

'This is enough for now. If I need it, I'll have to handle it later.' Lin Mu thought to himself and spoke. "You three can rest now." 

"Are you fine now?" Little Shrubby asked.

"Yeah, that was enough food for me." Lin Mu replied.

"If you need more, I'll always be ready to cook." Little Shrubby said with confidence.

"And we'll hunt more!" Xiao Yin and Xiao Yang chimed in.

"Haha, of course." Lin Mu patted the beasts and let the return to the Sleepscape for now.

Their recovery would be faster there and they would also be able to rest a bit better.

With the beasts gone, Lin Mu was now left alone with just the tiny bird as a companion. 

"You're still asleep too." Lin Mu muttered while gently stroking the tiny bird's head.

So far, the bird's condition seemed to be the same and it was still adapting to the changes. Of course, its body had undergone more changes too.

One could now see tiny feathers sprouting from its skin. They were still very small and were just emerging because of this, they now looked like spines.

One might even mistake the bird for some kind of a hedgehog if they didn't see the beak.

"Do bird feathers look like this when they grow out though?" Lin Mu couldn't help but question.

Even if the feathers were still small, their spine still seemed to be quite sharp. Not to mention, the color of the feathers had changed too. They were now an ashy gray in color.

"It is certainly not a Snow Stream Sparrow now." Lin Mu said to himself. 'Perhaps it'll be time for a new name soon.' He thought next.

He began to think of what would be a good name for the beast. Since it now had a mixture of impure bloodlines and none of them were dominant, it was technically a new species.

As such, Lin Mu could give it an entirely new name.

But just to be sure, Lin Mu first checked the thousands of books about beasts that he had collected. He wanted to ensure that this was truly a new beast and he wasn't just mistaken.

It took him a couple of hours, but he did confirm that there was no such beast like this before.

"Guess I can give it a new name later." Lin Mu concluded.

It was a bit exciting and novel for him, as this was the same as recording a new discovery. In fact, he could write a detailed account of the bird and its characteristics before adding it to a book and selling it.

There would certainly be some information pavilions willing to buy it.

Of course, the cost wouldn't be much, not even a handful of spirit stones. But it would still be a new discovery nonetheless.

If one wanted to make a lot more from such books, they would have to gather hundreds of beast records first. But this was a hard task, as most of the beasts were either already recorded, the beasts they found would simply be a variant of those per-existing beasts.

The bird also fit the latter category as it could be considered a variant of a Snow Stream Sparrow before. But now it had turned into an entirely new species. 

Still, Lin Mu didn't rush to name it.

He first let its body fully develop, as there was no telling if other characteristics would appear. 

But one thing was for sure, he was now going to keep the bird.

"Guess another tamed beast wouldn't hurt." Lin Mu smiled and began to establish a link between himself and the bird.

Due to the bird's cultivation base and Lin Mu's own bloodline, it was a very easy task for him to turn it into a Tamed Beast. He didn't need any complex technique for this, just the basic beast taming method was more than enough to work.

After all, the bird was just at the Dao Shell realm, while Lin Mu was an immortal.

~shua~

Shortly after, the link was established and the tiny bird had officially become Lin Mu's fourth tamed beast.

It was still asleep though, and had no idea that it had become a tamed beast. Of course, even if it did know, there was little chance that it would reject.

Lin Mu had already saved it before, and the bird liked him.

This was something that would have happened regardless.

"Now for a name… at least a nickname." Lin Mu muttered as he looked at the ash colored feathers that had now grown more.

"You're name shall be… Ashy."