t for medicinal herbs started to grow slowly, and after several centuries of development, it has become the largest market for medicinal herbs in the entire continent. Thanks to its prosperity, the sm...Chapter 248: Ah Li 2

"It doesn't matter if it's a small beast; it can正好可以給這個小吃貨增加一些食物！你帶我去看看，我看看是否合適。" Xiaoyao said nonchalantly.

"The place is quite far from here. If it's not suitable, don't blame me." The girl weakly said. She didn't know if others would be satisfied with her location choice.

"It's okay, walking around a bit is fine. Along the way, you can introduce your situation to me. Oh, no need for family background information, just tell me about your Lion Power status." Xiaoyao immediately clarified to avoid any misunderstanding from the girl.

"My situation is very simple; I have only trained up to the basics," the girl said weakly.

"How long have you been training When did you start and how many hours do you train each day" Xiaoyao asked consecutively, wanting to know all these details for further deductions.

"I started at age seven. It's already been eight years. I don't train a fixed amount of time every day; when there is no food, I would spend more time training and less otherwise. On average, it might be around three hours per day," the girl said.

From these words, Xiaoyao gathered some information: this girl was fifteen years old this year, and she trained to distract herself from hunger, indicating that she often didn't have enough food. Indeed, she was a small beggar.

"Eight years of training for three hours each day, yet you're still at the basics Logically speaking, five or six years should be sufficient. Are you trying to build a solid foundation" Xiaoyao looked puzzled.

"No, that's not it. It's just I don't have money to buy Lion Power manuals; my basic training knowledge was gleaned from others' secret readings. Also, I've heard that breaking through the basics consumes much energy and requires plenty of food for replenishment, which is unaffordable to me…" The girl said somewhat bitterly, life had forced her to remain at this level.

"You don't need to worry anymore; just eat your fill. We'll deduct some from this little glutton." Xiaoyao patted the creature on his shoulder.

“Chomp!” The creature seemed quite opposed, protesting against any food being taken away from it, becoming very displeased with the girl as a result.

"…" The girl thought to herself. This little monster seemed intelligent and could understand human speech; truly strange but really cute!

“Oh, by the way, what's your name” Xiaoyao asked since he still didn't know her name.

"I'm Ah Li! Just call me Ah Li!" The girl replied.

Xiaoyao knew about her surname long ago as Lion Kingdom had only one surname: "Lion," unless someone was an immigrant. As for this nickname, given the nature of a small beggar like her, it would naturally be just that — no fancy names expected here. At present, she simply went by Ah Li.

Names for people in her social class didn't matter much to others or herself; she was usually called "little beggar."

"Alright, Ah Li, now lead me to the place you mentioned, and we'll begin our research," Xiaoyao said.

Ah Li nodded. "Yes! Do you still have any food"

"Yes…" Xiaoyao responded.

“I need more…” Following Ah Li out of the city, they headed to a distant mountain range outside the city walls. Xiaoyao didn't mind this as he had already explored most places in Lion City during his days there.

Xiaoyao first roamed around the entire Kingdom before starting research on those with Lion Power. This was only a minor plan, so it wasn’t too big an issue if no useful information came up.

"Hey Ah Li, how much longer" Xiaoyao asked after walking for quite some time into the mountain range without reaching their destination. However, he found this place’s scenery quite nice and thus only now inquired.

"We're almost there, but do you have more food!"

“No…” Xiaoyao said, “I thought you were so small and wouldn’t eat much, yet you turned out to be just as big a glutton as this creature…"

Xiaoyao was now out of food. Ah Li had been eating throughout the journey — consuming enough for ten people over several days!

Although Xiaoyao brought more than that, another little glutton couldn't resist eating it all up very quickly.

The creature watching others eat would naturally want to eat too, especially when its own food was now being shared.

"What else can we eat inside" Ah Li asked, wanting a clear answer on what food might be available further in.

"When the time comes, I'll prepare it for you two gluttons. If it's just about eating, there will be plenty of materials around here to satisfy your cravings," Xianyao said somewhat irritably.

"Oh..." Liyu seemed to accept this answer and then led Xianyao forward, but after a while, she couldn't help asking again, "Do you mean we can find the ingredients here"

"..." After a moment's silence, Xianyao squatted down by the side and dug into the ground to dig up several plant roots. "This is edible... Hey hey, do you really need to be this anxious They haven't been washed yet! Come on, even Eat-Eat came here for some fun..."

While Xianyao was showing off the plant roots, Liyu grabbed one and started munching on it without hesitation. And Eat-Eat wasn't far behind, swallowing one whole!

Xianyao could understand that Eat-Eat wouldn't mind eating some dirt, but he couldn't figure out why Liyu seemed not to care either and ate them directly along with the soil.

"It tastes good! What is this If I had known it was like this, I would have been digging here all along..." Liyu kept praising as she continued eating.

"This is called Earth Fruit. It's a common yet hard-to-spot item in nature! Are you sure eating soil is fine" Xianyao looked at her with dirt still on his mouth and couldn't understand why she would do that.

Why be so anxious Even if they can't wash it, they could wipe them off before eating!

"What's wrong with eating a bit of soil If these foods are snatched away by someone else, wouldn’t I regret it later Food needs to be eaten as soon as possible," Liyu shook her head and explained, revealing her attitude towards food.

“Nobody’s going to take your food here.” Suddenly Xianyao felt a pang of sympathy. He couldn't imagine how this girl had managed to survive...

"What about it" Without caring about his feelings, Liyu pointed at Eat-Eat and said.

“…” Xianyao fell silent. Indeed, Eat-Eat was known for stealing food.

The whole journey, Xianyao let Eat-Eat find her own food while he hunted some wild game. Some daring beasts even showed up in front of him and he had no choice but to accept them with a smile.

After an hour's walk, when Xianyao was about to ask something, he suddenly saw the scenery open up before his eyes and they finally came out of the forest, arriving at a rather spacious clearing.

The formation of this clearing was due to a riverbank with a long waterfall. Although the drop wasn't great, it stretched for over one hundred meters. Below the falls was a wide water pool that felt bottomless, yet the water beside it was not deep.

It seemed like this place had appeared out of nowhere.

The formation was quite peculiar, but Xianyao didn't mind as nature often gave birth to such wonders. For instance, above this wide area was just a narrow river with only ten meters in width—entirely different from here.

Therefore, there was no need to think too much about it; existence had its reasons!

"This place is good enough for us. There's even a small wooden house over there," Xianyao said as he looked around and noticed a dilapidated little cottage standing on the riverbank downstream.

“…” Liyu explained sheepishly, “It’s me who built it to shield from wind and rain.”

"Well, then this isn't too bad. Let's clean up here first and have something to eat. As for the house, I'll deal with that later while you focus on cultivating your lion strength," Xianyao said.

“Is it okay like this” Liyu was somewhat puzzled because she had been brought by Xianyao, yet now he was handling trivial matters while she only needed to cultivate. This made her feel uncomfortable.

"Your task is just to cultivate; that's what I want from you! However, I need to check your progress. While you're cultivating, I might use my true energy to monitor your situation," Xianyao explained.

“Okay, I understand. You can do it if you have to.” Liyu was not bothered by this as it was agreed upon beforehand and she wouldn't oppose it.

Surely, at her current level of cultivation, others checking her progress didn’t matter much!

Soon enough, Xianyao set up a sturdy stove on the pebble-covered riverbank where he would be staying for an extended period. Then came what surprised Liyu as she saw him pull out a large pot and kitchenware seemingly from thin air, along with some seasoning.

Liyu was skeptical about how Xianyao could carry so many things in his bag.

She sneaked a peek at his backpack when he had gone to wash the utensils. She found it stuffed full of items that didn't seem like they came from within!that, unless you're talking about an Internal Condensation," said逍遙 with a shake of his head."What good things can't be wasted" Eastern Without Reverence asked Daoist逍遙."Of course, it's a good thing....