I really must be careful in how I battle because each time something happens, I am drained to the point of needing several days to recover properly. But with each recovery, I could feel myself getting stronger. It's as if my body is learning about my flaws during the battles and fixing them by itself later on.
We set up our camp on the spot. To ensure that the Winged Lion will stay near our camp, Tulip cast a barrier spell, which I reinforced with a barrier of wind the day following the battle when I regained enough strength to do it.
Four days later, I was good enough to go out and hunt creatures for their meat. The meat isn't for us. Cultivators can rely on the energy absorbed to sustain themselves. And even though we still eat occasionally, it is purely for the enjoyment of cooking and eating tasty food.
All of the meat that I collected from dead creatures was for the cub. According to Pangu, the Winged Lion won't come near the meat if it smells multiple people's scents on it. It was essential that I kill all of these monsters and beasts, as the Lion would be more prone to trust me. When I was resting, Tulip wanted to go out hunting in my place, but upon insistence from Pangu, she reluctantly agreed to stay.
Once I had collected enough, I slowly approached the Winged Lion cub, which was playing with a pebble it had dug out of the thick snow. It rolled it from side to side and even tried chewing on it. As soon as it saw me, it hid the pebble below its claw and growled at me.
Not wanting to provoke it further, I retreated as slowly as I approached, but not before dropping the corpse of a monster that resembled a rabbit. I was now out of its sight, but I could clearly see everything from my position.
At first, it growled at the corpse. Then, after seeing no response, it flapped its small wings and landed beside the meat. After a few smells, it could no longer ignore the desire to eat and started gnawing at the dead monster. The pace at which it ate left me speechless, as it barely took a second for the Winged Lion to eat up the entire corpse, including the bones, the skin, and the fur; nothing was left at the place where I dropped the rabbit-like monster.
It looked around for more, but it found none, so it returned to play with the pebble. The next day, I repeated the same process, and I made sure that it saw that I was the one bringing this food. But on the third day, I dropped the corpse and retreated to a place where it could clearly see me.
As per the previous days, it growled at me, trying to scare me away. I just stood there and waited for it to change its reaction. Soon enough, it slowly crawled towards the corpse and carefully ate it. I smiled and left for the tent before it could ask for more.
I repeated the same actions for a week. In the first few days, it was way too cautious, but this caution dropped gradually every day. Today, I decided to change things up a bit. The meat that I brought was roasted instead of raw. Clearly, the Winged Lion prefers it roasted.
The next month was basically the same. By the end of it, I was beside the Winged Lion when it ate. Some days, I even gave it beast cores after it finished eating the meat. I didn't know if I had to laugh or cry from the way it would growl and jump around in happiness whenever I brought out the cores.
One day, after it finished eating its food and gnawed at the core, I slowly reached out with my arm to pat and caress its head. It stopped for a second when my hand touched its fur, but then continued gnawing as it enjoyed the care it was given. I smiled at this because it meant that the Winged Lion finally trusts me.
Suddenly, I felt in my soul that I was connected to the beast. My eyes widened in surprise as I comprehended what had just happened. Pangu told me that the probability of this happening was pretty much impossible, as beasts are intelligent creatures. And no intelligent creature would allow itself to be in this position, because, like humans, they have their own pride. Despite the surprise, I grinned because I achieved this impossible thing.
The Winged Lion formed a bond with me! The taming was beyond a success!
--------------------------
Updated on 9/4/2025