"Huh..."
Lu Fei was surprised when he saw the changes on the Virtual Data Panel in front of him.
First, there was an addition to his skill list - "Fish Spear Skills". He only acquired this skill on the second day of making arrows, after two days of spearfishing in the river.
What caught him off guard was that his experience points, which stood at four points yesterday, surged to fifteen points unexpectedly.
However, it made sense as he had battled a Fish Demon in the river that day, which would have contributed to his experience gain.
But what took him by surprise was beneath his abilities; there was an additional point in his previously empty Soul Power category.
This surprised Lu Fei.
"How did this point of Soul Power even appear..."
Looking at the virtual panel, Lu Fei pondered.
He thought through everything he did that day. When he woke up in the morning and checked the panel, there was no change.
Since he had a task to complete, instead of going for a gathering, he directly headed back to the bamboo forest from the day before and continued to work on making arrows.
At noon, he finally completed the 1,500 arrows requested by the Bear Leader, thus completing the task.
Then he went to the stream to catch some fish to satiate his hunger.
Immediately after, the Crow Demon was attacked by a Fish Demon.
He dived into the water to save the Crow Demon, piercing the eye of the Fish Demon who was left injured and fled.
He ate roast fish yet again.
And finally, he moved all the arrows back to his cave.
Right up until now...
Even after reviewing everything that occurred during the day, Lu Fei concluded that the anomaly was his fight with the Fish Demon.
The rest was pretty much the same as the previous day.
Then a question arose; Did the Fish Demon he had stabbed in the eye die?
If it hadn't died, where was the point of Soul Power from?
But if it had died, it could explain his newly acquired point of Soul Power.
"Soul Power..."
As he muttered the words, Lu Fei contemplated his previous speculations about Soul Power, doubting if it referred to the power of the soul."
After all, the virtual panel system seemed somewhat similar to the game mechanisms he had previously encountered.
In those games, killing monsters granted experience.
In reality, seemingly killing a Fish Demon granted him Soul Power, which seemed reasonable.
Upon connecting these thoughts, Lu Fei found that his Soul Power made sense, the source could be explained.
If this truly was the case, the Fish Demon he stabbed in the eye was likely dead by now.
That must be the source of his Soul Power.
At that thought, Lu Fei immediately realized that there might be a slain Fish Demon downstream waiting for him to loot.
Beasts that achieved sentience and transformation into Demons, all did so after encountering opportunities – most of these involved Spirit Grass or Spiritual Medicine.
Lu Fei was confident that the Fish Demon in the water was no exception.
The body of such beasts would offer great benefits if consumed by other demons.
Which is why the corpses of Little Demons on Rolling Mountain were quickly whisked away by the leaders soon after their death.
The bodies were either consumed exclusively by the leaders or offered to the Great Commander, or even served at the Mountain King's table.
Upon reflecting, Lu Fei recalled that the Crow Demon told him that Rolling Mountain and Snake Coil Mountain had gone to war. He initially concluded that the higher-ranked demons wanted to cull the numbers of the lower-ranked demons to ration provisions.
Yet now, he considered that while maintaining numbers and saving expenses might be an aspect, the primary reason was likely to harvest the corpses of these lower-ranked demons – The bodies of creatures that consumed Spiritual Objects were in a way discount Spiritual Objects.
By turning two opposing forces onto each other, resulting in mayhem and death, both parties could mutually reap a crop of Little Demon corpses.
It was a completely win-win trade-off.
As he thought, Lu Fei felt a cold bead of sweat form on his forehead.
He earnestly considered the harsh conditions for lower-ranked demons like him on Rolling Mountain.
Treatment: A single meal a day, which may not suffice; otherwise, protection from the Mountain King.
The duties of these minor demons: Unpaid work, no overtime pay, tirelessly laboring without complaints, subject to beatings, punishments, and even, death; all of which went without saying.
Now another provision had been added: Regular fights to randomly select who would become food.
The more he thought, the more Lu Fei realized how starkly 'Survival of the Fittest' applied here. To put it mildly, the lower-tier demons were merely struggling to survive; to be blunt, they were merely livestock kept by more potent creatures.
'Survival of the Fittest...'
Lu Fei felt the stark reality of this idiom for the first time.
To escape this fate, there was only one option - diligent cultivation.
With this realization, Lu Fei decided to look for the Fish Demon he likely killed, not wanting it to go to waste.
However, it was still early in the night.
Best to wait till later.
Once he settled on this plan, Lu Fei ceased his thoughts, his attention once again returning to the virtual panel before him.
Only then did he notice that there was a faded '+' sign next to the Cultivation Technique, Ability, and even Innate Talent options on his virtual panel.
With this thought, he clicked the '+' sign next to the Demon Clan Breathing technique under Cultivation Techniques.
The next second.
A virtual prompt appeared before him.
[This enhancement will consume a point of Soul Power, continue with enhancement?]
[Yes, No]
Looking at the virtual prompt, Lu Fei suddenly understood.
The Soul Power was akin to the free attribute points in games that he used to enhance his abilities.