As Zhong Yi sorted through the Mortal Beast Remains, Hong Ji kept busy as well.
Although the Substitute Puppet didn't have much combat power, its strength was far greater than that of Zhong Yi, a sixteen-year-old human boy.
"Hong Ji, help me extract the poison glands and cavities from these three Red Pit Vipers. Be very careful not to rupture the glands."
The scales of a Red Pit Viper were extremely tough. With his own strength, it would be difficult for Zhong Yi to use scissors to cut from the snake's mouth to its abdominal cavity and remove the poison gland and cavity.
Using the Red Pit Viper's venom and cavity as materials to cultivate an Insect-Catching Hibiscus during its Quality promotion had a chance of inducing its Evolution into a Red-Faced Hibiscus.
The Insect-Catching Hibiscus was a type of Mortal Beast kept indoors to attract and capture mosquitoes and other insects, possessing no combat power to speak of.
It harmed these insects with a corrosive acid secreted from its flowers. However, if induced by the Red Pit Viper's cavity and venom, the Insect-Catching Hibiscus could successfully evolve into a Red-Faced Hibiscus.
The Red-Faced Hibiscus's flowers would then be able to contract their floral cavity and spit out the acid, just like a Red Pit Viper.
The Red Pit Viper's venom could also strengthen the potency of the Insect-Catching Hibiscus's Digestive Fluid and make it venomous.
Among all snake-type Guardian Beasts of the Mortal Beast Level, the Red Pit Viper's combat power was only mid-tier.
But the Red Pit Viper could poison and kill creatures more than ten times its own size, swallow them whole, and digest them in an extremely short amount of time.
Its digestive ability ranked at the very top among Mortal Beast Level snake-type Guardian Beasts. Even many Extraordinary Level snake-type Guardian Beasts couldn't compete with the Red Pit Viper's digestive prowess.
And after an Insect-Catching Hibiscus evolved into a Red-Faced Hibiscus, it could perfectly inherit the Red Pit Viper's digestive ability.
At that point, the hibiscus would no longer need to feed on small insects like mosquitoes. Instead, it could devour large creatures up to twenty times its own size, using the energy from their flesh and blood to rapidly increase its Quality.
Looking at the neatly sorted piles of Mortal Beast Remains, Zhong Yi released the Soul-Controlling Flower rooted in his soul.
In that instant, air, time, and space seemed to stand still. A bewitching, illusory, blue-purple flower materialized behind Zhong Yi.
The blue-purple flower had thousands upon thousands of drifting floral filaments. Like the tentacles of a sea anemone, they encircled Zhong Yi, sheltering him at their center.
Facing the Mortal Beast Remains on the ground, the Soul-Controlling Flower, which was already in desperate need of a large supplement of Life and Soul Energy, felt an extreme craving.
However, the Soul-Controlling Flower did not immediately wave its ribbon-like petals and swarm the Mortal Beast Remains to feed. Instead, it seemed to ask for Zhong Yi's permission.
It was just like a child seeing a delicious treat and first asking their mother for permission to eat.
Zhong Yi had sorted these Guardian Beast Remains precisely to gauge the Soul-Controlling Flower's preferences and determine which types of remains it liked to eat.
"Go on, eat. If it's not enough, I'll get more for you."
Upon receiving Zhong Yi's command, the filaments clustered around him remained still. The rest, however, extended continuously, coiling around the Mortal Beast Remains on the ground like tentacles.
A blue-purple radiance began to pulse between the filaments. As the light surged, the Life and Soul Energy within the Mortal Beast Remains was continuously siphoned away.
Zhong Yi could feel the Soul-Controlling Flower in his soul, having absorbed the Life and Soul Energy, contentedly swaying its blossom and wriggling its roots.
A substance as dark as ink faintly appeared between its roots. Like soil, this material surrounded the Soul-Controlling Flower's rhizome.
Through his connection with the Soul-Controlling Flower, this inky substance felt as if it had grown from his own body.
Zhong Yi had a crystal-clear understanding of this dark, inky substance.
This substance was called Flowing Soul Soil. It was a material naturally generated by the Soul-Controlling Flower's root system as it absorbed Life Energy or Soul Energy.
On one hand, the Flowing Soul Soil could serve as a form of protection, helping Zhong Yi defend against soul-level attacks.
On the other hand, this Flowing Soul Soil was, surprisingly, a unique substance that could promote the evolution of all things and trigger a leap in their Quality!
It could greatly increase a Guardian Beast's probability of evolving when it broke through a Quality tier!
Zhong Yi couldn't help but look at the Insect-Catching Hibiscus, whose Quality was on the verge of a breakthrough. He decided he would soon properly test the Flowing Soul Soil's effect on promoting a Guardian Beast's evolution.
In less than three minutes, the Soul-Controlling Flower had completely absorbed the Life and Soul Energy from over three hundred pounds of Mortal Beast Remains, but it was still hungry.
So, Zhong Yi turned to Hong Ji, who had finished separating the Red Pit Vipers' poison glands and cavities, and said.
"Hong Ji, go tell Uncle Huai to get his hands on as many Guardian Beast Remains as possible."
"If there are any Extraordinary Level Guardian Beast Remains, don't be stingy—buy them all. Buy as many as you can."
In Zhong Yi's view, hoarding money was far less important than increasing his strength.
Besides, for him, making money in this Guardian Beast World was an extremely easy matter.
Right now, nothing was more important than letting the Soul-Controlling Flower absorb its fill of Energy.
Although the Soul-Controlling Flower hadn't absorbed enough Energy to be full, the process had yielded more than just one result. While absorbing the Life and Soul Energy, it hadn't just secreted Flowing Soul Soil from its roots; it had also grown a sac-like organ on one side of its blossom.
A large portion of the Life and Soul Energy that the Soul-Controlling Flower absorbed through its blossom gathered in this newly grown, sac-like organ.
Before long, Hong Ji returned to the warehouse with a Storage Pouch.
"Master, there are over 1,800 pounds of Mortal Beast Level remains here. There's only one Extraordinary Level carcass—a relatively complete Luminous Flame Scorpion."
"Other than its left pincer being completely shattered, the rest of its body has no other obvious injuries."
Zhong Chenghuai had been running this Guardian Beast Shop for many years. Although he hadn't achieved much with it, he had built up some channels and connections.
Now, those channels and connections were proving useful. Otherwise, finding so many Guardian Beast Remains in such a short time—and ensuring they were still fresh—would have been no easy task.
After Zhong Yi poured out the Guardian Beast Remains, his gaze fell upon the giant, nearly two-meter-long scorpion with crimson and black markings.
The Luminous Flame Scorpion was a Fire and Rock Dual Element Insect Guardian Beast. It attacked by manipulating flames, and the Rock Element within its body was forged by its Fire Element, condensing into dark-red, crystal-like armor.
This crystalline armor covered its carapace, giving the Luminous Flame Scorpion extremely powerful close-combat abilities.
It was unclear how the Luminous Flame Scorpion's left pincer had been shattered, but it was obvious the creature had been killed by an overwhelmingly superior force.
The Soul-Controlling Flower wasn't a picky eater to begin with, so this time, Zhong Yi didn't bother sorting the newly acquired Guardian Beast Remains.
However, it was clear that the Soul-Controlling Flower was far more interested in the Extraordinary Level carcass of the Luminous Flame Scorpion than in the other Mortal Beast Remains.
The Soul-Controlling Flower began to feast on the more than two thousand pounds of Guardian Beast Remains. Life and Soul Energy surged into it like a tidal wave, making the flower even more bewitchingly beautiful.