The next day.
Listening to the rustling leaves outside the window, Lu Heng got up and stretched in the room.
The ancient bed was still a bit hard. Lu Heng had added a mattress last night before he could barely fall asleep.
Lu Heng put the items that didn't belong to this era back into his spatial storage, then returned to the space to wash up and change his clothes.
He pushed open the wooden window of the room and looked towards the forest on the back mountain. The wind blew through the leaves in the mountain forest, creating a rustling sound.
"Mr. Lu, are you up?"
Outside the courtyard, a disciple's voice entered the room along with a knock on the door.
"Yes." Lu Heng wasn't sure if he could be heard outside, but he still replied. Then, he tidied his outer robe and walked towards the courtyard gate.
"Mr. Lu, this is your breakfast. It's made with a few small dishes according to your previous preferences. Please let me know if there's anything else you'd like to eat when I come to collect the bowls and chopsticks."
The disciple respectfully handed over a food basket. After Lu Heng took it, he bowed respectfully again and took a few steps back.
"Yes, I understand. You may go now."
Lu Heng closed the courtyard gate casually with one hand while carrying the food basket with the other.
He ate breakfast in the room and was quite satisfied with the food. The breakfast delivered was not bland; instead, it featured more meat dishes. The portion size of each dish was not large, but there were several varieties of small dishes.
In fact, the dishes delivered today were not all Lu Heng's favorites, as the disciple had claimed.
It was just that his life in the apocalypse had instilled in him the habit of not wasting food, so he had eaten almost everything that was delivered before.
This time was no different. He finished all the food in the food basket and placed the empty dishes back into it.
After a while.
"Little friend Lu, hahaha, I heard they've already sent you breakfast. I figured you'd be done by now. Shall we go see that Fire Phoenix?"
Outside the courtyard, Wu Chenzi's hearty laughter rang out.
Lu Heng quickly walked to the door, opened it, and said, "Alright, I just finished breakfast."
"Yes, my Fire Phoenix has probably just woken up. That fellow..."
A moment later, Lu Heng followed Wu Chenzi to a clearing in the forest on the back mountain.
On a patch of open ground not far away, a giant bird with pale red feathers was lying in a nest of grass. It occasionally preened its feathers, and the vibrant, long tail feathers at its tail twitched a few times.
"How is it? Beautiful, isn't it? I captured this Fire Phoenix when I was young. I just thought it looked good, and it was a fire-elemental magical beast, which suited me well."
"Its appearance is very beautiful. Is this Fire Phoenix rare?"
"Of course. Wild Fire Phoenixes are rare, and they only lay eggs every few years. I happened to get this egg by chance and hatched it myself."
"But its temper is really bad! Sigh! Don't go near it; it will breathe fire at you..."
Before Wu Chenzi could finish speaking, Lu Heng had already walked towards the Fire Phoenix. As he approached, the Fire Phoenix looked at him.
The Fire Phoenix did not breathe fire at Lu Heng as he got closer. This Fire Phoenix was only a level six magical beast. As Lu Heng approached, a level six fire-elemental magic crystal appeared in his hand.
These magical beasts were unlike the magical beasts Lu Heng had contracted. They didn't need to consume magic crystals to upgrade themselves. The reason this Fire Phoenix had not upgraded for so long was that after being tamed by humans, they no longer went out to find other magical beasts to obtain magic crystals. They could only wait for their masters to provide them with magic crystals for upgrades.
And as the masters of these magical beasts, it was not easy to tame them in the first place, so how could they allow their levels to become too high?
Especially for magical beasts raised as mounts, their levels would be suppressed to prevent them from escaping.
The Fire Phoenix was paying attention to Lu Heng simply because it sensed that Lu Heng was holding a fire-elemental magic crystal, and it was a level it greatly desired.
"Huh? Why isn't this fellow attacking you?" Wu Chenzi asked from a distance, looking puzzled.
"I don't know." Lu Heng replied simply. He stopped about a meter away from the Fire Phoenix.
"Could it be this?" Lu Heng took out the magic crystal from his怀 and played with it in his hand.
"Little friend Lu, hurry back!" Wu Chenzi also saw the fire-elemental magic crystal in Lu Heng's hand at this moment and shouted with a slight surprise.
"What's wrong?" Lu Heng, holding the magic crystal, turned to look at Wu Chenzi behind him.
"Chirp!"
A bird's cry sounded beside him. As expected, the Fire Phoenix snatched the magic crystal from Lu Heng's hand and swallowed it.
"Oh, what a waste. Why do you carry such high-level magic crystals with you? Don't you put them in your storage ring?"
"Ah, I took it out to look at it this morning and forgot to put it back."
Lu Heng shrugged nonchalantly. He had many magic crystals of this level in his spatial storage.
"What a waste of good resources, your Fire Phoenix. Sigh." Wu Chenzi shook his head, looking regretful, at the Fire Phoenix.
"It's nothing. I still have some of these. They're not particularly rare items."
"I wanted to ask you about this yesterday. When I first met you, you were only at the fifth level of Enlightenment. I didn't expect that after not seeing you for a few days, I can no longer discern your Enlightenment level. You have already broken through to the eighth level of Enlightenment."
Yesterday, when he first saw Lu Heng, Wu Chenzi had already realized this. However, there were other people around at the time, so it wasn't convenient for him to ask.
"Yes, I hunted some magical beasts outside, and my attributes' levels have increased."
Wu Chenzi was stunned for a moment, looking at the Fire Phoenix beside him, whose eyes were filled with longing and were still staring at Lu Heng's actions.
"Look at this fellow. It really doesn't treat you as an outsider. It never even looks at me proactively when I come over."
"No way, it's just a magic crystal. Can it really be this..."
Lu Heng had intentionally fed the Fire Phoenix that magic crystal earlier, but he had no intention of snatching Wu Chenzi's mount. After all, such exclusive items, unless given to him willingly, Lu Heng could not forcefully take them given their current relationship.
He just wanted to get close to the Fire Phoenix to see what kind of magical beast it was and what was special about it.
"I've never fed it your magic crystal. Sigh, I'll tell you more about this later. You look first. I see it's not on guard against you now."
"Hahaha, that's good. I was actually afraid it would breathe fire at me just now."
Lu Heng tentatively reached out and stroked the Fire Phoenix's feathers.