Chapter 9: Chapter 9: The Magical Pet Food

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There was a two-story supermarket just over seven hundred meters in a straight line from their home, where summoning of beast taming was not allowed. Before entering the supermarket, both of them withdrew their beasts.

Chen Xing executed a reverse summoning formation on Taotie. After a flash of light, Taotie vanished from the ground.

The only change was an additional blurry space in his mind, the volume of which was hard to determine, but he could vaguely feel it wasn’t large. The small Taotie fit just right inside it.

The Taotie, now retracted into the beast taming space, made anxious cries, “Ow? Ow? Ow!”

Ever since hatching, Chen Xing had rarely returned Taotie to the beast taming space, so Taotie felt lost and afraid in the empty void, constantly calling for Chen Xing.

After entering the supermarket, Chen Xing purchased the ingredients he needed—a total of ten jin of beef and a big bag of various vegetables.

“Do you have enough money?” Chen Lingya was about to pay when Chen Xing took out a pile of change from his pocket.

Chen Xing said, “Don’t look at me like that. I’m out of money. This is the transportation and living allowance Mom gives me.”

Chen Xing had saved all that money, which amounted to more than three hundred. Although the family budget was tight, Liu Yuzhen did not skimp on the siblings’ daily expenses and even occasionally gave them some pocket money.

Chen Lingya scoffed, “Humph, take kindness for granted. As if anyone’s got their eye on your pennies.”

Before returning home, they also bought two newspapers at the kiosk downstairs. Chen Guohai was the only one at home, as even on weekends their mother had to work, doing a part-time job at a restaurant. On weekends, the business at the restaurant would boom, and sometimes Liu Yuzhen would be able to bring home some leftovers in the evening.

Chen Xing opened the balcony door and handed over the two newspapers to Chen Guohai, “Dad, I bought you newspapers, the Great Xia News and National Boundary News that you like to read.”

Chen Guohai took the newspapers and spoke lethargically, “You two go ahead with your tasks. I’m going to bask in the sun for a while. I have to take medicine at noon so I won’t eat lunch.”

His illness was very peculiar, requiring not only rest but also frequent sunbathing, as the doctors said sunlight had a certain inhibitory effect on the disease inside him.

Chen Xing went to the kitchen to process the ingredients, washed the meat and vegetables, and began preparing them in various ways: boiled, steamed, raw-cut, eggs beaten…

Everything was done in an orderly and busy manner.

At first, Chen Lingya was curious about what Chen Xing was making and stood watching at the kitchen door for a while. After a few glances, she quickly lost interest.

Because it seemed her brother was really just cooking…

After processing all the ingredients, Chen Xing made a large pot of fragrant meat rice.

In the moment of its successful preparation, a silver light flashed across the surface of the pot, followed by a layer of shimmering silver glow.

A line of mysterious text, only visible to him, appeared above the pot of rice, similar to that Stone Booklet. It was not written in any recognizable language, yet he understood its meaning.

“Basic Carnivorous Pet Food” (Good) – This is a pot of steaming fresh pet food that can fill up a pet, but only carnivorous pets can fully absorb the nutrition inside.

Looking at the glowing pet food, Chen Xing thought for a moment and then took out his phone to take a photo.

The photo in the phone’s gallery was just a pot of food, without any silver glow on the surface.

As expected, it seemed that only he could see it.

It was fine if others couldn’t see it. Otherwise, how would he explain that the food he cooked could glow? One lie can only be covered by even more lies.

He then summoned Taotie again. The Taotie, which had fallen asleep in the beast taming space, suddenly found itself back in the outside world.

Before it even had a chance to feel aggrieved, its nose picked up the aroma coming from the pot.

“Ow, ow, ow!” It howled as it ran toward the direction of the pot, but its legs were too short, so it could only stand below the stove, looking up anxiously and hopping around occasionally.

“Eat!”

The food was made for it to eat.

Chen Xing found an infrequently used plate and filled it to the brim.

The little crocodile gobbled it down ravenously.

While the little crocodile was eating, Chi Yu also appeared from nowhere and ran over.

“`

Chen Lingya followed behind, “Just now, Chi Yu opened the door by itself. Is this the pet food you made?”

“You should try it too!”

Chen Xing generously grabbed another plate and filled it up.

While Taotie was still hungrily wagging its tail and eating, Chi Yu had already licked the plate clean and was gazing at its little master with eager eyes.

Chen Xing added more to its plate, but for Chi Yu, a plateful was merely a mouthful. For a big cat nearly two meters long, similar in size to a Siberian tigress, a pot of this pet food weighing over ten pounds was just enough for a meal.

“Sis, if it’s all eaten, you can just go buy another portion,” Chen Xing said as he filled the plate again for Chen Lingya.

Chen Lingya was skeptical, “Alright. But you haven’t added some kind of appetite stimulant to it, have you? They seem to love it so much, even I’m getting curious to try some.”

She had tasted this kid Chen Xing’s cooking before, although that was years ago.

His previous cooking skills were just at the level of “not lethal,” so how did he suddenly become a great chef?

Chen Xing didn’t even blink, “Maybe this is talent, after all. ‘It takes only three days for a prodigy to emerge…’.”

Talent… maybe this kid did have a knack for cooking.

Chen Lingya was speechless. While everyone else was studying Beast Taming, was this brat secretly learning how to cook?

Chen Xing originally thought this pot of food would last Taotie for several meals, but with the addition of Chi Yu, the gluttonous eater, it was devoured in one sitting.

The meal wasn’t cheap either; the groceries alone cost three hundred and sixty-one yuan.

To verify the effects of the pet food, there was still a bottle of nutritional reagent that Chen Xing had held back from using, intending to observe the contrast in effect.

For a growing beast, there was no more direct measure than its physical development.

Waking up the next morning, Chen Xing looked at Taotie, who was snoozing beside his pillow, and immediately noticed that it seemed to have grown quite a bit.

He took out a measuring tape and from the tip of its tail to the top of its snout, it measured 62.4 centimeters.

Wait a minute?

To make sure he hadn’t misread, he measured again.

Indeed, he had gotten it wrong the first time; 62.6 centimeters, having shorted it by 0.2 centimeters.

He sat up in bed and with his high school-level math, he solved a simple equation: 62.6 minus 52.8 equals 9.8.

To have grown 9.8 centimeters overnight, that was more terrifying than eating hormone-injected pig feed!

He felt that he could start pig farming, with this level of expertise, wouldn’t he become rich in minutes?

And this was just the basic pet food; what about the intermediate pet food, the advanced pet food?

More importantly, the cost was low!

Even though this meal cost three hundred and sixty-one yuan, the bulk of it had been devoured by Chi Yu.

If he economized according to Taotie’s appetite, it could last at least four meals.

That meant ninety yuan per meal.

Expensive? For him at this stage, the expense was indeed not small.

His pocket money for a month was only one hundred yuan.

A meal equated to a month’s pocket money, but he was also aware that the price was already very reasonable.

For any Beast Tamer, if they knew the effects and cost of the pet food, they would exclaim in disbelief. If they still found it expensive with such cost-effectiveness, they could only blame themselves for not having worked hard enough all these years and should really reflect on that.