"You seem to be quite familiar with this forest..." Sabina said softly as she watched Rocky waltz freely in the forest without hesitation. She figured he must have known the forest like the back of his hand, as he easily avoided running into spirit-manipulated beasts.
"Of course!" he answered cheerfully. "I could navigate this forest with my eyes closed," he said with twinkle in his eye.
Sabina glanced at Rocky dubiously. Upon locking eyes with her and seeing her doubtful expression, Rocky threw his head back and laughed.
They continued to walk for about an hour.
"It should be around here," Rocky said as he stopped abruptly.
"What do you mean?" Sabina scanned their surroundings, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
With a mischievous smile, Rocky summoned Uriah from the Magic Spiritual Space. He then reached into his bag, and pulled out a bottle containing magical saliva. He gingerly loosened the cap on the bottle and then darted off, leaving Uriah with the opened bottle.
Soon after, roars from beasts nearby thundered throughout the forest. So thunderous was their animal cry, the very trees of the forest seemed to quake in fear.
Eyebrows knitted, Sabina suddenly noticed a scent in the air-- then, 20 to 30 wild spirit-manipulated beasts gathered before them. She couldn't hide her shock, wondering how so many beasts could materialize all at once. Of course, she didn't know that the magical saliva actually had fatal attraction properties. No spirit-manipulated beast could refuse it; even the Dark Heaven Insects couldn't escape from its tantalizing scent.
At this point, Uriah had returned, followed closely by a group of two-star and three-star wild spirit-manipulated beasts— at least thirty in total, all fierce, forming quite the spectacular scene.
Even an ordinary spirit manipulator of the Earthly Stage would be scared to bits!
But before Rocky and Sabina, these spirit-manipulated beasts didn't pose a threat.
"Let's race to see who can disable the most
iva. You have seen the miracle liquid and its abilities," said Rocky as he kept eating.
"Ten drops?" Sabina's eyes lit up. She now realized the true value of this miracle liquid. She knew this would be extremely useful to any spirit manipulator. And yet, Rocky gave her ten drops as a gift.
Of course, if Sabina knew that Rocky had been taking the miracle liquid every day for a while now, her reaction would've been different.
"Why did you give me such a precious gift?" Sabina asked, confusedly.
"Precious?" Rocky shook his head with a smile. To him, the magical saliva was easy to replenish, so to him, this was nothing special.
"You saved me twice!" Rocky paused to think, then responded.
"I don't need that." As much as Sabina wanted to take the previous bottle, she was a woman of principle. She refused to accept an item so valuable that easily.
"If you don't need it, just throw it," Rocky said nonchalantly. "I never take back what I have given. Thank you for cooking dinner." Rocky stood up and walked to a relatively secluded spot in the forest. He then sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began the process of cultivation.
Sabina watched him leave, too dumbfounded to speak. Thoughts raced across her stunned mind. Tightening her grasp on the bottle of precious magical saliva, there was a twinkle in her eye.