Lu Heng first looked at the table of contents, then casually flipped to a page and started reading.
He wanted to take a look at what kind of information was recorded in this Encyclopedia of Small Monsters.
'Golden Armored Beast. This is a local monster that mutated due the appearance of qi. Its original form is a pangolin...'
There were basically two types of monsters in the wilderness outside the city. One was an invasive monster that came to the Earth through the Otherworld Passage.
The other type were monsters that mutated from the local wildlife on Earth due to the appearance of qi.
Generally speaking, the danger-level of the former was much higher than the latter.
Lu Heng quickly scanned the page.
There was not enough time for him to study it in detail before the meal was ready, so he could only look through it briefly and see what type of information would be listed about the monster.
'Tonic effect!'
When he saw the last column of the Golden Armored Beast's information table, Lu Heng suddenly noticed the two words, 'tonic effect'.
This piqued his interest and he read what was written there carefully.
After all, the primary reason why he wanted to leave the city to hunt monsters was because the meat of some of these monsters had excellent tonic effects which would be very beneficial to the human body.
Of course, the reason was that actual combat would help him improve quickly, allowing him to catch up to his peers within a short period of time.
Those in the high school martial arts class had already been practicing martial arts for three to four years. Disregarding their actual level of strength, their combat experience alone was greater than his.
If he wanted to make up for this gap, he had to take risks.
"... soup brewed from the meat of the golden armored beast can greatly increase the speed of muscle tempering. Specifically, depending on the quality of the meat and the cooking process, it can increase the tempering speed by 30% to 70%."
After reading these few lines of text, Lu Heng was stunned.
This Golden Armored Beast was really great. If he could drink a bowl of soup brewed from the meat of the Golden Armored Beast every day, then…
Lu Heng swallowed his saliva and continued reading.
The words after that talked about the other nutritional effects of the Golden Armored Beast.
According to what was written there, the shell of the Golden Armored Beast was also very useful. The active ingredients in it could help temper the bones, and it was an important ingredient for a medical concoction.
'It's a pity that this Golden Armored Beast is very difficult to kill.'
'Ordinary swords and sabers can't cut through its shell, and even bullets can't penetrate the shell either...'
Lu Heng shook his head.
The Golden Armored Beast did not have strong attacking capabilities, and it was not particularly difficult to fight. It just happened to have especially high defensive capabilities.
Moreover, it was also capable of burrowing into the ground, which made it very difficult to kill a Golden Armored Beast in the wild.
Only experienced martial artists with excellent equipment would see a higher chance of success when hunting these.
In other words, even if a newbie like him was lucky enough to encounter a Golden Armored Beast, he could only watch it escape.
Lu Heng directly flipped to another page to look for information about the invasive monsters.
At this moment, Lu Xiaoxiao suddenly said, "Second brother, you haven't answered my earlier question."
Lu Heng turned his head and asked, "What question?"
"Did that sister give you these two books?" Lu Xiaoxiao asked.
Hearing this question, Lu Heng fell into a state of deep thought.
Lu Xiaoxiao's question had given him some inspiration.
He might be able to ask Liu Shiyao for help to borrow some books related to the martial arts class.
At this time, he had already decided to participate in the university entrance examination the next spring and to take the corresponding martial arts exam.
If he wanted to successfully pass the university entrance examination, he would have to master enough martial arts knowledge. Otherwise, he would be stumped by the exam questions.
Given that he was assigned to the civil class back in junior high school, he was extremely lacking in terms of martial arts knowledge. There was a lot of ground to make up.
However, in order to do so, he had to have access to the books he needed.
He did not have any friends who were studying in the martial arts class, so his only option was to ask Liu Shiyao for help.
Although Liu Shiyao was also studying in the civil class, given her status, it should be quite easy for her to borrow those books.
'I wonder if she'll be willing to help me... I guess I can only try.'
Thinking of this, Lu Heng nodded to Lu Xiaoxiao and said, "That's right, those two books were lent to me by that sister."
He was going to try to borrow books from Liu Shiyao soon, so using her as an excuse this time as well would not matter much. It would be too difficult to explain the matter to Xiaoxiao otherwise.
After all, the origins of these two books were rather complicated. He did not want to explain how he had gotten them from Old Xu, as it would be difficult to conceal the matter regarding the flower poison ginseng.
"Oh." Lu Xiaoxiao nodded.
Lu Heng thought that she had no further questions, so he turned to check on the pot on the stove.
At that moment, Lu Xiaoxiao suddenly piped up, "Second brother, that sister is really nice to you."
Hearing this, Lu Heng turned his head and said, "Xiaoxiao, it's just two books. Don't think too much about it."
"Second brother, did she really only lend you these two books?" Lu Xiaoxiao looked straight into his eyes and asked.
Seeing her gaze, Lu Heng felt a little strange, but could not think of any reason why she would reiterate the question. He nodded and said, "That's right. Other than the food stamps from before, she only lent me these two books."
Once he said this, Lu Xiaoxiao suddenly displayed a knowing expression and said, "Then she secretly likes you."
Lu Heng was dumbfounded.
What was going on? How did Xiaoxiao come to such a conclusion?
"Xiaoxiao, don't let your imagination run wild..."
Lu Heng was about to clarify the matter, but just as he was about to open his mouth, Lu Xiaoxiao waved something in front of him and said, "This is a food stamp for meat. I recognize the word 'meat' on it."
"Food stamp for meat?"
Lu Heng's brain briefly short-circuited. He was at a complete loss as to how this situation had transpired.
Lu Xiaoxiao continued, "There are a total of ten food stamps. That sister must have secretly put them into the book. She probably likes you very much."
"This..."
Lu Heng's mind raced.
By this time, he had already reached a conclusion. These ten food stamps had to have been hidden inside the book by Old Xu.
"Second brother, I know that you've been hiding this matter from me because you're afraid that I'd be unhappy about it."
"I'm not unhappy. I'm actually happy to know that you have a girlfriend."
"Even if I'm sent out of the city tomorrow, I no longer have to worry about the continuity of our Lu family line."
Lu Xiaoxiao tried her best to imitate the speech of an adult.
However, the stronger she appeared and the more mature she seemed, the more bitter Lu Heng felt in his heart.
He knew that this reflected the incompetence of the adults in her life. This was why poor children often matured early.
For example, He Bing's family was very well-off, so he lived a carefree life every day, while Lu Heng himself was burdened by all kinds of livelihood matters every day.
"Xiaoxiao, that's not something that you should be worried about." Lu Heng reached out and patted Lu Xiaoxiao's head.
There was nothing much to say or do about it at this moment. It would be more productive for him to think of ways to improve the conditions of their family.
"Xiaoxiao, show me the food stamps you found," Lu Heng said.
"Here."
Lu Xiaoxiao handed over all ten food stamps to Lu Heng.
Lu Heng took a quick look at them. When he saw them, he became ecstatic.
"They are all universal food stamps!"