Other than the different names, the rest of the stat panels were exactly the same.

But now wasn't the time to study them, so Li Pu could only put them away for the moment.

Next up was scouting that couldn't be done with the straw man.

So Tong Qinxin volunteered and had the Shadowflame Demon take on this job.

Its body was pretty fragile, sure, but it was still their most reliable option right now.

So just like that, the three of them continued waiting by the dungeon's light gate.

The Shadowflame Demon actually counted as the fast-moving type; about thirty minutes later, it came back with news.

As for how big this dungeon was, the Shadowflame Demon had no answer, because it hadn't gone through the entire area.

It had only explored the area outside the bamboo forest; inside that bamboo forest was a presence it didn't dare approach, and barging in might get it discovered.

"Don't tell me the BOSS is inside that bamboo forest?"

Chang Shoushang held his chin.

"Would a BOSS really be that close to the dungeon entrance?"

Tong Qinxin wasn't convinced.

As a student of Imperial University, she'd run plenty of dungeons and had never seen that kind of setup.

"Did it find the dungeon core or any magical beast distribution?"

What Li Pu cared more about was this.

Given the current situation, the safest move was to avoid the dungeon core for now.

As for magical beast distribution, that was because he wanted to farm them.

[Flame shadow… flame shadow, flame shadow!]

The Shadowflame Demon only answered Li Pu's question.

"It says it found some scattered magical beasts, but not many."

"As for the dungeon core, it didn't run into any suspicious spots."

Tong Qinxin translated.

"How about we go over and take a look?"

Li Pu asked for everyone's opinion.

Anyway, the areas the Shadowflame Demon had scouted were safe enough; it was about time they stretched their legs.

"I'm in."

Tong Qinxin had no objections.

"I demand to walk between you two."

Chang Shoushang voiced his concern.

He wanted to explore the dungeon, but he didn't want to get hurt.

So the three of them, with their summoned beasts, set off under the Shadowflame Demon's guidance.

Soon, they spotted a pool of lake water in the distance.

[Flame shadow, flame shadow]

The Shadowflame Demon pointed ahead; there was a flock of avian magical beasts there.

They were pacing along the water's edge, foraging back and forth.

"What's this dungeon even supposed to mean…"

Walking at the front of the trio, Li Pu was the first to see what those magical beasts looked like.

They were… a bunch of chickens.

A bunch of chickens as tall as half a person.

Snow‑white feathers, pitch‑black beaks and talons.

Just like the cows and zebras from before, these were also black‑and‑white only Black‑Bone Chickens.

"They look… kind of weird."

Tong Qinxin raised her wristwatch and secretly gave them a scan.

[3rd Transfer C‑Rank, LV40]

The data quickly came back.

[Kung-fu cluck!]

Turned out these Black‑Bone Chickens were surprisingly sensitive; the moment they got scanned, they immediately noticed them.

So seven or eight Black‑Bone Chickens flapped their wings and charged this way.

[Grass!]

The straw man, who had sworn to reclaim his pride here, dashed straight at them.

"Your summoned beast is way too reckless!"

Seeing this, Tong Qinxin's face changed.

They'd already gotten a taste of the magical beasts' strength here just now.

Two cows and zebras were enough to beat her Angel into the ground; now with seven or eight rushing in together, how was the straw man supposed to handle that?

What they should be doing was strictly fighting according to formation.

Melee at the very front, ranged providing fire support, healer keeping up with supplies.

Not this kind of lone hero charge, going up outnumbered.

[Kung-fu cluck!]

The leading Black‑Bone Chicken gave its wings a flap and launched a flying kick straight at the straw man.

"They know kung fu too?!"

Tong Qinxin's face changed again.

Normal chickens do not do flying kicks.

[Poo‑grass!]

The chicken claw stabbed right into the scarecrow's heart… though it didn't actually have one.

Then she really did see that flock of black-boned chickens swarm up and start pecking madly at the scarecrow.

This scene was way too similar to her Angel getting stomped just now!

And look at that scarecrow now, getting chased and rolling all over the ground.

"Why are you still spacing out here, junior?"

"Little Scarecrow is already screaming in mis… laughter? Huh?"

Tong Qinxin hadn't finished her sentence before she forcibly changed her wording.

[Ha-ha grass! Hahahagrass!]

Scarecrow: So itchy! So itchy! Help! Summoner!

Turned out that no matter how hard those sharp chicken beaks pecked, they couldn't do much real damage to the scarecrow.

They all went straight through its body and into the ground.

The occasional scrape just made it super itchy.

"Alright, quit playing."

Li Pu folded his arms and urged it on.

So next, Tong Qinxin could only stare, dumbfounded, as the scarecrow beat that whole flock of black-boned chickens into the dirt all by itself.

When one side is almost immune to the other side's attacks, that numerical advantage basically vanishes into thin air.

"So… that grass-typed physique had this kind of hidden function too?"

Tong Qinxin felt she was truly broadened her horizons this time.

After all, something this low-grade, no one usually even bothers to take it out and show it on stage.

Scarecrow: Grass!

As for Li Pu, he started collecting the related items.

Black-boned chicken feathers, very easy related materials to farm.

The skill attached to the related material was the same as he'd guessed, also [True Kung Fu].

He fused it with [Snail Grass] again, but unfortunately this time there was no rank-up.

As for the card, it wasn't much different from the previous two.

[Kung Fu Chicken]

Balanced, 10 pts, C

ATK 20, 100/100

[True Kung Fu - Passive]: When Kung Fu Chicken takes damage from an attack, it retaliates once for 5 damage to the source of that damage

After clearing this wave of magical beasts, the three continued forward.

Later, they ran into a large black-and-white banded snake, the kind that just screamed "highly poisonous" at a glance.

Tong Qingxin's Angel got wrapped up and bitten by the snake in just a few moves.

It died on the spot and could only wait for revival.

The scarecrow, with its [Willpower] that granted immunity to toxins, once again put on a stunning performance.

All on its own, one stalk of grass took the opponent down.

Li Pu pocketed another copy of [True Kung Fu], and this time the fusion finally pushed [Snail Grass] up from B to B+.

Looks like the higher you go, the harder it is to rank up—two copies of [True Kung Fu] only raised it by half a tier.

They kept exploring, and besides the snake, quite a few other magical beasts showed up.

The numbers weren't large, but every one of them was strong, and more importantly, each knew a few moves of kung fu.

There were rabbits, monkeys, dogs, skunks, honey badgers, and so on.

All these magical beasts shared one very consistent trait: their appearance or fur was entirely black and white.

While Li Pu's doubts grew deeper, he also harvested more copies of [True Kung Fu].

He smoothly upgraded [Snail Grass] to A+, making it his second-highest-rank skill, only below [Power of Godzilla].

The pity was that no matter how he fused it after that, [Snail Grass] stayed stuck at A+ and wouldn't budge.

He suspected that from A+ to S, even though it looks like just half a rank on the surface, the actual progress needed is massive. So even though he'd already fused a lot of [True Kung Fu] into it at A+, it still didn't succeed; he'd need even more [True Kung Fu].

Or maybe, because of the fundamental gap between A+ and S, it needed some kind of opportunity to complete the upgrade.

In any case, Li Pu wasn't planning to attempt any more fusions for now.

Because at the scarecrow's current level, every fusion was quite expensive.

After Bubbu and Little Ugly Wolf reincarnated, his personal funds weren't exactly plentiful; he had to spend sparingly.

As for why he didn't let Bubbu and Little Ugly Wolf learn the extra [True Kung Fu], the lack of money was only a secondary reason.

The main thing was that this skill didn't mean much to them; they'd almost never have a chance to use it.

And you can't let their skills get too cluttered either—adding one more skill would further raise the cost of using [Friend of Magical Beasts] on them.

Aside from that, he also got a pile of cards.

They were all the same as before, only the projection and the names were different.

Unknowingly, Li Pu had collected a complete set of a kung fu zoo—no, wait, more like two or three sets.

The three of them had now been hanging around in the dungeon for most of the day and discovered the area was quite large, comparable to that previous [Minor Five Element Realm], maybe even bigger.

Anyway, for the moment they hadn't found the edge or the dungeon core.

But as they walked, they now spotted a large hall in the distance.

As they got closer to the hall, the chill in the air grew stronger and stronger.

Even the plants around them started thinning out.

"[Kung Fu]?"

Standing before the great hall, Chang Shoushang tilted his head and read out the two words on the card face.

...

...