Martial arts have become extinct worldwide, yet I am forced to have a large family.

at the same time.

Entrance to Secret Realm No. 121.

"Sir!"

The person in charge stood at attention and responded loudly, "Yes! I do indeed have a person here named 'Yang Xi'an'!"

After a few more words were spoken on the other end of the phone, the person in charge replied again:

"Sir! But Yang Xi'an entered the secret realm alone half an hour ago!"

There was a deathly silence on the other end of the phone, followed by new instructions.

The person in charge's voice was filled with bitterness and helplessness.

"Sir... the space tunnel is currently in an extremely unstable early stage, with very violent fluctuations."

"It's absolutely impossible to send more people in to look for him!"

------

The dense primeval forest blocks out the sun, and the ancient trees with their intertwined branches and leaves reach for the sky.

Yang Xian had been walking in the woods for almost two hours.

"The direction the official team chose for me is just too unlucky!"

Along the way, apart from some strange flowers and herbs whose names they couldn't recall, they didn't see a single decent spiritual plant, let alone any rare and precious herbs.

The official route is to move in a straight line in the designated direction, with the exit of the space tunnel as the origin of the coordinate system.

Once you reach a certain distance, you can break away from the route and explore freely.

The purpose of this is to allow the first batch of "worker bees" to expand their exploration area as much as possible.

As for the treasures obtained during the free exploration phase, they naturally belong to the individual.

Yang Xian took out the small "pathfinding pointer" from his pocket, checked that he hadn't deviated from the general direction, and then put it back.

"There's nothing here, where am I supposed to find the 'Nine-Turn Life-Extending Lotus'?"

Yang Xian had a headache.

This thing is a legendary sacred medicine, extremely rare.

The most critical issue is the scarcity of information about it; even top-tier families like the Jiang family provide only vague details.

According to scattered records in the ancient books of the Jiang family, the "Nine-Turn Life-Sustaining Lotus" usually grows at the intersection of two extreme environments, such as extreme cold and extreme heat, or a place where life and death converge.

Its shape resembles a lotus, with nine petals. Its color is variable and changes over time, completing a cycle every nine days.

The medicinal effect is strongest when the nine lotus petals display nine completely different colors.

"The boundary between extreme environments... that area is too large."

Yang Xian sighed and continued walking, leaving footprints on the thick layer of fallen leaves.

This secret realm was much larger than he had imagined; trying to find a specific spiritual plant here was like finding a needle in a haystack.

After walking a while longer, Yang Xian suddenly stopped.

"The smell of blood!"

A faint smell of blood drifted into his nostrils on the breeze.

Yang Xian's eyes narrowed.

He lowered his body and silently crept towards the direction from which the smell of blood was coming.

As he parted the last enormous fern leaf, the sight before him made his pupils shrink slightly.

Not far away, on an open ground, lay a huge wolf carcass.

This wolf was the size of a grown bull, and its entire body was covered in silvery-white fur.

However, at this moment it fell to the ground silently.

It had a huge, penetrating wound between its chest and abdomen.

Yang Xian carefully observed the ground around him, his brows furrowing deeply.

"That's so strange!"

"How did it get here after sustaining such a fatal injury?"

"The surrounding ground was very clean, with no signs of a fight whatsoever."

There weren't even any footprints, not even a trace of blood... it's like he appeared out of thin air.

Yang Xian was filled with doubt.

Does it have the ability to teleport?

Did he use his last bit of strength to make a spatial jump before he died?

Yang Xian held his breath and cautiously approached.

A wisp of true essence circled around the wolf corpse, and only after confirming that there was no residual energy or traps did he finally feel completely at ease.

He crouched down, reached out to check the silver wolf's breath, and then examined the stiffness of the corpse.

"He's completely dead, probably been dead for about half a day."

He took out his dagger, skillfully split open the silver wolf's head, and took out a beast core that shimmered with silver light.

"This energy level is at least that of a fifth-realm level demon beast."

"What a pleasant surprise!"

Yang Xian carefully put away the beast core.

Just as he was about to get up and leave, his ears suddenly twitched.

A very faint whimper came from beneath the silver wolf's massive body.

Yang Xian's heart stirred, and he laboriously moved the silver wolf's corpse a short distance away.

Beneath the wolf carcass's belly, where it had been lying, were two furry little creatures curled up.

They are two wolf cubs.

They looked like they had just been weaned, their bodies were only the size of a palm, and their bodies were covered with a layer of soft, silvery-gray downy hair.

At this moment, they were huddled together, shivering, and had injuries of varying degrees.

Two pairs of watery eyes were staring at Yang Xian in fear.

Seeing their pitiful appearance, Yang Xian instantly understood.

"This silver wolf of the fifth realm must have risked its life to escape to this remote place in order to protect its cubs."

"The two wolf cubs survived by sheer luck, but they were also seriously injured."

These two wolf cubs are too fragile. If we leave them here, they definitely won't survive the night.

Yang Xian looked at the two little cuties and remained silent for a moment.

Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind.

"It's such a waste to leave them here."

"How about... I adopt them?"

"It's good to have some company in this secret realm. Maybe in the future, I can even train them into 'contract beasts'."

Owning a contracted beast is the dream of many martial artists.

Unfortunately, many people don't have this opportunity.

The native monsters of Blue Star were nearly wiped out during the catastrophe of the monster invasion three hundred years ago.

Only a very few powerful races carved out their own territories in the deep mountains and forests, barely surviving.

A small minority choose to depend on humans for survival.

In northern China, there is a sect famous for its beast taming, whose disciples all sign contracts with magical beasts.

They cultivated together and fought side by side, making them extremely powerful.

"I heard that 'contracted beasts' need to be raised from a young age to maximize their loyalty and greatly increase the success rate of the contract."

Yang Xian thought about it more and more and it seemed more and more reliable.

This silver wolf is at least a great demon of the fifth realm, and its offspring's bloodline talent is definitely not lacking.

It's like getting two incredibly promising future helpers for free.

With that thought in mind, he no longer hesitated and carefully reached out his hand.

"Awoo!"

Seeing Yang Xian's hand reach out, one of the wolf cubs immediately bared its tender teeth and let out a low growl that had no real threat.

Yang Xian smiled, not minding at all, and took out a water bottle to add some water to them.

Then, he held one in each arm and hugged them.

The warm, soft touch melted his heart.

"From now on, you'll be working with me."

"Although I've never had pets before, I will try my best to take care of you."

"From today onwards, you are my people... cough!"

"Even my dog... no, that's not right either."

"...Anyway, let's clean your wounds first."