Yang Xiao returned to Nanmu City and greeted the guards at the gate,
"Without my permission, do not allow anyone to disturb me."
The Guard Team of the Century Commercial Building was carefully selected by Xiao Zhe from a group of trustworthy elders at Kongming Academy; they were absolutely loyal to Yang Xiao.
Yang Xiao entered his second-floor room, closed the door, and took out the black bottle.
Yesterday afternoon and this morning, he had put in about a hundred and ten desert fish. He was unsure what effect this milky liquid would have.
Yang Xiao poured some of the liquid from the black bottle into a small cup.
Somewhat disappointed, there was only about half a cup of liquid.
Why is there so little?
After a moment of thought, Yang Xiao understood that the mutant monsters previously stored in the black bottle were dozens of meters long, with one monster equivalent to several desert fish.
Yang Xiao took a small sip; a strong current rushed through his body.
"It seems the quality of these desert fish isn’t bad, and the current is quite strong."
It took several tries for Yang Xiao to finish the liquid in the cup. The Genetic Data System in his mind did not seem to prompt any upgrade notifications.
Yang Xiao concentrated and glanced at it, then chuckled to himself.
He remembered that the Genetic Data System in his mind would prompt based on the highest attribute. For example, his current highest attribute was Agility at 50 points. To increase by 1 point above 50, naturally, a tremendous amount of energy would be required.
Currently, his Strength, Defense, and Wisdom attributes were all only 40 points, which in theory should be capable of increasing by 1 point.
Yang Xiao focused his intention on Strength, and sure enough, the Genetic Data System prompted that he could increase 1 point in Strength.
Yang Xiao immediately increased his Strength by 1 point.
The Genetic Data System then changed to:
Strength 41, Agility 50, Defense 40, Wisdom 40.
"Based on this estimation, there are more than a thousand desert fish near the underground river in the desert, which can help to increase about 10 points in Genetic Attribute, which is not bad."
Yang Xiao rested in his room for a while, went downstairs, and greeted the guards, throwing them a few weapons he had found in the desert.
"You take them for appraisal. I don’t know if they’re any good."
The guards were ecstatic.
Everyone knew that the weapons Yang Xiao brought out of the desert had at least 6 points added to their attributes, which was simply a premium for them.
Before, those weapons were given to Xiao Zhe and then distributed to those experts with Primordial Genes at Primary Level or above, and ordinary people had no chance at all.
Yang Xiao threw them directly without even appraising them, and those guys immediately thought that if they appraised a treasure with high attributes, they would have struck it rich.
Yang Xiao waved his hand, led the Flame Horse into the Transmission Array, and returned to the desert.
It was just after noon, and there was no one near the Genetic Store; everyone had gone to the Underground River to catch fish. Without the four large teams from Wentian City, Magic City, Zongli City, and Qingyun City, everyone had a much better chance of finding good items.
The Giant Eagle was lying down near the Genetic Store asleep; the Flame Horse neighed once, and the Giant Eagle immediately lifted its head and flew over excitedly.
Yang Xiao rode his horse, accompanied by the Giant Eagle, to hunt monsters outside.
All the way until the afternoon, after hunting about a dozen monsters, Yang Xiao estimated the time and realized it was about time for everyone to return to the Genetic Store, so he took a detour with the horse and the Giant Eagle, bypassing the direct passage everyone takes, and headed towards the Underground River.
By the time Yang Xiao reached the Underground River, the people catching fish had all left.
Yang Xiao quickly took out the Black Bottle, pressed the blue Rune on it, and began to collect the bodies of the desert fish on the ground; the fish turned into streaks of light as they entered the bottle one after the other.
Altogether, it took Yang Xiao about an hour to collect approximately seven to eight hundred desert fish into the Black Bottle.
"It looks like I have to come and collect again tomorrow."
There were still about five to six hundred desert fish left.
Thinking of the Sand Demon, Yang Xiao didn’t dare to delay. He mounted the Flame Horse and raced off in a sprint.
After arriving at the Genetic Store headquarters, he found a secluded spot to sit down, took out two desert fish from his Space Ring, gave one to the Giant Eagle and the Flame Horse, and ate one himself.
Although he now possessed the Black Bottle to refine Mutant Monsters, he still needed to put on a show for everyone else, to imply that he also grew up by eating one bite at a time.
Yang Xiao, holding a sword, kept slicing the flesh of the desert fish to eat, suddenly thinking, how could he have forgotten to ask Xu Nanqiang for some mustard paste? It would have been nice to dip it in soy sauce too.
After yesterday’s fight, many people recognized Yang Xiao; several approached him to say hello. Yang Xiao just nodded his head and responded with a few indifferent words.
Early the next morning, Yang Xiao repeated his tactic, riding the Flame Horse and arriving first at the desert Underground River. However, there weren’t as many fish as the day before; there were only about twenty desert fish swimming in the river. They were caught by Yang Xiao and the Giant Eagle together, yielding more than 200 Genetic Balls.
Yang Xiao took out the Black Bottle and put the remaining five to six hundred desert fish into the bottle. Riding the Flame Horse, he took a detour before anyone else arrived.
Now, there were one thousand three hundred desert fish in Yang Xiao’s Black Bottle, which made him a little excited inside.
The first batch of forty to fifty people got up early and ran to the desert Underground River.
"Damn it, how come there’s not a single fish?"
"Hey, what about the corpses of the desert fish on both sides of this Underground River? Why have they suddenly disappeared?"
With this reminder, the crowd became panicked.
"What happened? Where are the fish?"
"Could it be that a Monster came and ate them all last night?"
"That’s impossible, right? If there was a huge Monster, there would be traces on the ground, right? There should be remnants of the desert fish that were torn and bitten, right?"
"Maybe the Monsters swallowed the fish whole, like how we eat dumplings."
Therefore, rumors started circulating among the crowd about Giant Beasts lurking near the Underground River. Everyone fishing became more cautious, always occasionally checking their surroundings, fearing that a Monster might suddenly appear.
The desert fish coming out of the Underground River also became scarcer, and with two to three hundred people crowded together, what each could get was even more limited. Thus, some people began to leave the Underground River to hunt Monsters elsewhere.
Yang Xiao returned to Nanmu City once more. This time, the more than a thousand desert fish in the Black Bottle helped him increase his Strength to 10 points.
Strength represents the most direct attack damage; the higher the Strength, the greater the attack damage.
Yang Xiao’s current Strength and Agility had both reached 50 points. Judging solely by these two attributes, he was now on the same level as someone with an Enhanced Gene Intermediate.
There were only a few days left until the City Kings Conference in the Xuanming District, as mentioned by Gu Bo, so Yang Xiao began hunting Monsters desperately in the desert. Every day, the Genetic Balls he acquired, along with the equipment dropped by the Monsters, could be sold for about seventy to eighty thousand Crystal Coins. On the day before he was set to leave for Magic City, Yang Xiao had gathered more than seven hundred thousand Crystal Coins, still about two hundred thousand short of a million.