It was the time of the day when the sun was almost at its peak position.
Mark, Song Yue, and Song Yun finished their lunch together and the former started talking about his plans for their next destination.
Meanwhile, the manticore was sleeping, as usual, the anaconda continued to coil itself around the mountain and keep an eye on the ocean, and the demigod realm beast, Lan Ju, on the other hand, was babysitting the golden-furred kitten.
The Zheng and Tishanan were of the same species and shared a common ancestor. Hence, it didn't take long for them to bond. Not to mention, the kitten was also of beast emperor grade.
As a result, Lan Ju became its teacher and tried his best to train the junior.
For the past few days, he woke up the little kitten early in the morning and made it run ten laps around the perimeter of the island as a warm-up.
After that, Tishanan will tag along with Lan Ju as it goes into the ocean to catch some beasts.
The kitten, which used to only drink milk, eat eggs, and some cooked chicken meat until it came onto the island, was fed the meat of the high-quality Aquatic Spirit beasts along with their core.
However, since it refuses to eat raw food unlike the manticore, Mark had to cook it in the form of stew before feeding it. Song Yun also helped by volunteering to cut down the beasts, removing inedible parts, washing their meat, etc…
After eating fill, the kitten will sleep until the evening. And then, it will spar the manticore in darkness to improve its reflexes and senses. Of course, it goes without saying that the beast king will go easy on the little creature.
As a result, Tishanan grew stronger at a rapid pace. Only ten days have passed since they came onto the island and the golden-furred kitten was already on the brink of making a breakthrough to the 4-circle realm, although its size hasn't changed a bit from the day it was born.
Very soon, it will make a breakthrough. Mark was also postponing his plans for the past couple of days for the same reason. And if all goes well, it will happen today.
At present, somewhere deep in the ocean about 300-400 meters below the surface, a five-tailed scarlet leopard was choking a great white shark with one of its tails while the little kitten was watching it from the leopard's head.
It was surrounded by some kind of bubble technique that was not only nullifying the water pressure but also making it stick to the leopard's head. Soon, the powerful beast king of the 7-circle realm became a corpse and the other tails of the zheng slapped down the water, making the both of them swim upwards to the surface.
In no time, both of them returned to the island.
As soon as Tishanan got free, the kitten left its master and rushed toward one of the houses and entered the one where the humans were in the middle of their discussion.
*Meowwwww*
The delightful greeting call from the kitten interrupted them and the couple rose to their feet immediately to welcome it with smiles on their faces as if their little kid returned from kindergarten.
As Song Yue and Mark raised their arms to hug it, the kitten halted in its footsteps and stared at the both of them.
"Tishanan, come here." "You'll come to this big sister, right?"
Mark and Song Yue crouched down and suddenly fought for its attention. It's just a little contest they do every day for fun.
The little kitten moved his head left and right to look at both of them for a while before it rushed toward Song Yue and snuggled in her arms.
Song Yue let out a grin and showed a 'V' to her fiancé, "Schatz: 4, Markie: 2. Hehe, I win once again…"
Mark crossed his arms to the chest and scolded the kitten, "betrayer. I'm your master, and yet, you always take her side."
As soon as the words escaped his mouth and he looked away, the kitten suddenly opened his eyes and jumped onto his shoulder, rubbing its cheeks with his cheeks, "Mawww".
Mark didn't look at it and continued to play it out, "Hmpf, I won't talk to you."
Song Yue knew that Mark was acting. So, she didn't interfere and quietly watched the kitten, which jumped onto his head and then at his other shoulder to lick his other cheek.
When Mark turned his head once again, the kitten dropped down his head and let out a woeful meow, expressing its sadness. Perhaps, that already melted down Mark's heart and he didn't try to take the joke too far, quickly petting it by rubbing its chin.
The kitten became happy and it jumped back into Song Yue's lap to take a short nap, making Mark shake his head with a smile. "This cheeky little brat…"
Roughly after 15 minutes, the kitten was woken up by Song Yue and its eyes directly fell on a spherical shaped organ that is as big as Mark with bones protruding from all of its sides. It appears to be so much rich in energy.
Even the manticore in the house and the anaconda on the mountain couldn't help but stay awake and stare in the direction where they were sensing such energy.
However, just like the aquatic beasts in the ocean, none of them dared to come closer to the core as Lan Ju displayed the aura of a demigod.
Of course, after staying for more than a week on the island, Song Yun already knew his real identity and it appeared that Mark doesn't care about it. Neither did Song Yun confront Mark on the matter nor did the latter have given any kind of explanation. In fact, it only made Song Yun more loyal to his friendship with his son-in-law.
Anyways, back to the present, Tishanan jumped from Song Yue's arms and landed on the ground before steadily walking toward the core.
Looking at it, Mark asked the zheng once again, "Are you really sure that Tishanan is going to be alright? He is only a 3-circle realm beast." He was worried that the core of a 7-circle realm beast king will be too much for the tiny little kitten.
For a brief moment, Lan Ju showed signs of being frustrated upon being questioned by Mark for the nth time since noon. But, since he is the future Patriarch of the Lan Sect, he cannot get angry with him without any good reasons.
Hence, taking a deep breath, Lan Ju answered as calmly as possible, "I told you earlier. Tishanan is different from me. He was born to an ancient-grade beast and would likely be one in the future. So, there's nothing to be worried about."
Mark nodded and signaled the kitten to proceed.
As Tishanan opened its tiny mouth, Lan Ju forcefully plucked out a bone, letting the energy escape the core through a hole. The demigod realm beast then redirected the energy toward the kitten.
At a rapid pace, all the energy flew into the kitten, which started refining it. Soon, a blinding flash of light covered the kitten and the latter started to float in the air.
The phenomenon made Lan Ju's eyes light up and he exclaimed, "It's going better than I expected."
Meanwhile, far away from the location, deep inside the ocean where there is no sunlight, a pair of glowing eyes opened before a deep voice escaped like a sonic boom, "the time has come sooner than I thought. I wonder whether he is truly ready for the task."