Gu Shi Yi still had a blank look on his face, and the old man hummed,
"What do you know? This isn't ordinary sand; this is a byproduct of a Spirit Vein... Gathering Spirit Sand. It needs to eat a hundred catties a day, and you need to shovel it over to feed it..."
He then pointed behind the enclosure,
"Then collect the shit it excretes..."
Gu Shi Yi's mouth simply remained open, still looking blankly at the old man as he continued,
"What it excretes is good stuff; you might even get to eat it. You'll understand later!"
"Oh..."
Gu Shi Yi expressionlessly nodded, and followed the old man to observe a sheep that looked just like an ordinary mountain goat,
"Meh..."
The sheep bleated at Gu Shi Yi, digging at the ground with its head, and that's when Gu Shi Yi noticed, its four hooves were gleaming, as if made of gold. The old man said,
"This is a Spirit-Seeking Beast that the overseer of the Spirit Mine keeps with me. Let it out and it can find Spirit Veins just by walking around the hills. You need to take good care of it..."
Such a sheep was easy to raise; its food was grass soaked in Spirit Spring Water. After that, Gu Shi Yi met a truly small creature, a tiny one, that looked very similar to the macaques he had seen on TV, but it was completely white and had a long tail.
Women always had a weak spot for fluffy things, and Gu Shi Yi was no exception. He took the small macaque from the old man, who had removed it from the cage, and couldn't stop stroking it,
"What kind of macaque is this?"
The old man chuckled,
"A macaque... you think it's like those bandits you find in the mountains outside? This little thing is a Flying Macaque. Since it's still a juvenile, it hasn't grown wings yet. Be careful not to touch its chin; it has poison glands there. If you, a mere mortal, touch it, you could immediately turn black all over and die from the poison!"
Gu Shi Yi startled, hurriedly withdrew his finger that was about to scratch the little one's chin, and said with an awkward smile,
"The Exotic Beasts here are really extraordinary!"
The old man harrumphed and said,
"This little guy hasn't been eating much these past days, so today you're in charge of filling its belly... Okay, since you're a mere mortal with a frail body, I won't give you a hard time. That's about it. If you take good care of these three little creatures today, I'll tell you how to process the Abdominal Limb of the Fish Kui Beast and even let you borrow my kitchen!"
"Thank you, old sir!"
Gu Shi Yi was both shocked and delighted, bowing deeply while holding the little macaque...
Next, Gu Shi Yi worked from dawn until dusk, firstly feeding the Golden-Horned Beasts with three heads. That Gathering Spirit Sand seemed just like ordinary sand, but when Gu Shi Yi went over with a shovel, he only then realized its weight,
"Good grief! It's really heavy!"
Just a small scoop required Gu Shi Yi to exert all his strength, and after taking a few steps, he dumped it in the trough in front of the animal pen. Thankfully, ever since he was young, he had been training with the Old Taoist Priest and was stronger than the average person, but even so, it took him most of the day to shovel a hundred catties of sand to feed those three cows. Fortunately, despite their frightening appearance, the three-headed cows were gentle and ate without fuss.
Gu Shi Yi went around to the animal pen to shovel their dung. They simply stepped aside, allowing Gu Shi Yi to shovel away behind their behinds. Pinching his nose, he shoveled their mountainous, foul-smelling dung into a cart and pushed it aside, then cleaned the animal pen with water,
"Moo..."
The three heads seemed quite satisfied and together mooed at Gu Shi Yi, who was overwhelmed by their "fragrant" breath and tumbled over...
Afterward, Gu Shi Yi fed the sheep, which had a bit of a temper; it lowered its head and threatened Gu Shi Yi with its horns as soon as she approached. Gu Shi Yi quickly offered it a handful of grass and, after placating it, went into the pen to clean. She accidentally got butted and was about to retaliate with a kick,
"Hmmph!"
The old man in the hall outside suddenly coughed,
"I told you, that thing is entrusted to my care. If you hurt it, I won't just let it slide—you won't be able to leave my shop!"
Gu Shi Yi jumped at the sound, quickly bowed to the sheep and, with a thumbs-up, said,
"Well done, old sir! Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Fancy another go?"
"Meh!"
The sheep rolled its eyes at her, then turned away, ignoring her!