[Growing Macaque: E-rank Mutant Beast, Strength 42, Agility 47, Stamina 48, Defense 35, Spirit 15, Bloodline Talent: Giantification, Berserk, Fire Control]

[Adult Water Buffalo: E-rank Mutant Beast, Strength 45, Agility 44, Stamina 50, Defense 66, Spirit 8, Bloodline Talent: Great Strength, Iron Armor]

A single meal of high-quality Mutant Beast offal soup had boosted both beasts by 5 Agility, 2 Strength, and 3 Defense each!

As expected, the fastest way for Mutant Beasts to grow was to consume high-quality Mutant Beast flesh!

If all of the Rat King's meat were eventually consumed, it would probably be enough to push their E-rank potential to its absolute peak.

Zhao Yin turned the Eye of True Sight on Song Xiaodao. Her attributes hadn't changed at all.

Just like in his previous life.

Humans couldn't rapidly increase their attributes by eating Mutant Beast meat.

Half an hour later, both beasts woke up.

"Get to work!" Zhao Yin ordered.

They scrambled to their feet and followed Song Xiaodao to continue chopping firewood.

Alone in the tent, Zhao Yin suddenly remembered he still had a Beef Can.

He took it out.

Now that meat was no longer scarce, there was no point in saving it.

He opened it, ate it, and checked his attributes. Sure enough, his Strength had increased by one point.

Afterward, Zhao Yin cleaned up the utensils, then took out the White Rat King's hide. He cut it into pieces and hung them inside the tent to dry in the shade, preparing to process them into leather armor later.

......

By the end of the morning, the corpses of four hundred Gray Rats and six Giant Rats had been completely processed by the rats.

Old Black entered the Invisibility Tent and transmitted telepathically: "Master, the work is done!"

Zhao Yin grunted in acknowledgment, still cutting rat hide.

Old Black saw clearly what was in his hands-the White Rat King's hide.

It froze for a moment, but its emotions barely stirred.

The obsession that had once consumed it had already been completely stripped away by Zhao Yin.

"Take me to see," Zhao Yin said, and walked out of the Invisibility Tent.

Nearly ten thousand jin of rat meat had been piled into a small hill, with rain-washed banana leaves spread underneath. Beside it rose an even larger mound of rat bones, along with a heap of rat hides and sharp claws.

"Master, the meat, hides, and claws from those six Giant Rats are all here." Old Black gestured for Zhao Yin to walk past the hill of rat meat.

Behind it lay a pile of materials dismantled from the E-rank Giant Rat corpses.

"Well done!" Zhao Yin praised. He pulled thirty Chestnuts from his Spatial Ring and tossed them to Old Black. "Take these and split them with the others."

Old Black's eyes lit up with excitement.

Since the apocalypse began, there had been no proper food. Even as the Rat King, what it usually received was mostly rotten zombie flesh and Zombie Cores.

It had been so long since it had tasted anything like this!

Old Black snatched up a Chestnut and stuffed it straight into its mouth, shell and all. A few chews, a swallow, and it narrowed its eyes in bliss.

It devoured six in one breath, then let the six Giant Rats divide the remaining twenty-four.

All the rats sent grateful thoughts to Zhao Yin.

Zhao Yin waited until they finished eating, then gave the order: "Done eating? Back to work!"

"Slice all the Gray Rat meat and hang it in that higher grove. Don't let it get dirty."

"Wash the organs clean, slice them up, and hang them separately from the meat!"

"Hang the rat hides in the shrub forest on the other side. Keep them in the shade to dry-no direct sunlight!"

Without enough salt to cure everything, Zhao Yin planned to smoke the rat meat and organs into dried meat. That would make storage much easier.

Rat hides were also valuable supplies. Even if Zhao Yin had no immediate use for them, he could trade them later for resources he needed. In a pinch, they could even be boiled and fed to his Contract Beasts!

After giving his instructions, Zhao Yin turned and headed to the other side.

Over the course of the morning, Song Xiaodao and the two beasts had chopped nearly thirty thousand jin of firewood.

Zhao Yin ordered them to haul it all to the tall forest and scatter it according to the positions he indicated.

Once this kind of damp wood was lit, the entire grove would fill with thick smoke and the temperature would rise. Smoking combined with heat-the rat meat would be sterilized and dehydrated in no time.

By nightfall, fifty thousand jin of wood had been arranged.

But nearly ten thousand jin of rat meat still needed to be sliced and hung. Even with seven rats working, it was an enormous task.

According to Zhao Yin's requirements, every Gray Rat's meat had to be cut into several hundred slices.

Hanging it was also troublesome. They had to climb the trees, cut off the smaller branches, then skewer the slices of rat meat onto those broken stubs one by one.

If they couldn't finish by afternoon, they would work through the night!

That night, Zhao Yin slept alone in the tent.

Even Song Xiaodao had been sent out to help hang rat meat.

Early the next morning, Zhao Yin woke to find that a fire had already been lit in the tall forest. Thick smoke blotted out the sky.

To prevent the fire from growing too large and setting the whole forest ablaze, Zhao Yin called over Old Black and the six Giant Rats.

"Go watch the fire. If the forest burns and ruins my dried meat, I'll use the meat on your bodies to make up for it!"

All seven large rats trembled from head to tail and darted into the forest.

Smoking dried meat was a long process.

Zhao Yin looked at the pile of rat bones.

Scraps of meat, fascia, bone marrow, and cartilage still clung to them.

There was no way to eat all of that before it spoiled.

But if he smoked them like the dried meat, dehydrated bones wouldn't be worth gnawing on.

"I'm not short on food anymore, but I can't just watch it rot. How many people in the apocalypse have nothing to eat?"

Zhao Yin called over Song Xiaodao, Little Monkey, and Old Bull. "Since you've got nothing better to do, haul all the bones to the tall forest and smoke them too."

......

It wasn't until the morning of the third day that the rat hides had finished drying and the dried meat was nearly done smoking.

Zhao Yin sent all his Contract Beasts to collect the rat hides and rat meat. He sat inside the tent with Song Xiaodao and took down the White Rat King's hide.

Zhao Yin cut out one large and one small set of leather armor pieces, then sliced off a small strip of tail hide and trimmed it into leather cord.

Song Xiaodao used a Rat King claw to punch small holes through the armor pieces, then threaded them together with the leather cord, pulling it tight and fixing it in place.

A complete set of leather armor.

It looked crude, but in terms of raw defensive power, it definitely surpassed ordinary D-rank defensive equipment!

After finishing two sets, only one-third of the entire Rat King hide had been used.

Zhao Yin thought for a moment, then called Little Monkey over. After having it activate both abilities, he custom-made an enormous set of leather armor for it as well.

In the end, only scraps remained from the Rat King hide.

Zhao Yin had Song Xiaodao stitch them together. He made a large pocket on the chest of Little Monkey's armor and fashioned a backpack for Song Xiaodao.

In the future, collecting Zombie Cores and Star Crystals would be much easier. Carrying supplies into battle would be more convenient too.

Next, he took out all of the Rat King's claws and examined them.

The two hind claws were hard, but not sharp enough.

He hadn't figured out how to use them yet.

But the two front claws were deadly weapons!

Eight claw blades, each two chi long, gleaming with cold light-like eight short swords.

Zhao Yin pried the eight claw blades free from the two front claws. He gave one each to Song Xiaodao and Little Monkey as close-combat weapons.

Then he found two sections of the Rat King's front leg bones and attached them to two more claw blades.

Instantly transformed into long blades.

Zhao Yin gave one each to Little Monkey and Song Xiaodao!

The Spiked Club and the chipped Tang saber were confiscated on the spot.

Afterward, Zhao Yin made two long blades for himself as spares. The remaining two Rat King claw blades would serve as short blades!

"Alright, go help collect the rat meat!" Zhao Yin waved his hand.

Little Monkey shrank its body, took off its new leather armor, and treated it like a treasure. It carefully bundled the armor into a pack with a leather cord and carried it on its back. The short Rat King claw was tucked into the belt at its waist. The long Rat King claw was gripped in its hand.

Only then did it bounce out after Song Xiaodao.

Zhao Yin had been busy all morning. He was just about to rest when Song Xiaodao came running back.

"Zhao Yin! Zhao Yin! Old Black and the others caught some thieves stealing food!"

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