Half a month's time is not long, but not short either. By the time Viji finished drinking all the blood that Su Duan drew for the first time, the membrane on its eyes had completely receded, revealing beautiful azure eyes. Four pearly white fangs had fully grown in its mouth, and its body had grown larger as well.

Su Duan drew a new vial of blood as the food supply for the next half month. Because Viji's body size had increased, so had its appetite, so this time Su Duan drew 400 milliliters.

Due to the healing properties of his blood, Viji's digestive issues had slightly improved, but it still couldn't eat much solid food and mainly relied on his blood for energy intake.

Viji showed extraordinary excitement for the second vial of blood he drew. Not only did it lick the small feeding tube clean, but in its eagerness, it snapped the tube in half with its fangs with a crisp crack.

This frightened Su Duan, who hurriedly pried open its mouth with a pale face to check for injuries.

A cub's oral cavity is very delicate, so it would be troublesome if cut by glass shards.

Only after checking twice and probing inside with his fingertips to confirm there were no wounds did Su Duan let out a sigh of relief.

However, the reckless cub still needed to be disciplined. Su Duan picked up the black furball by its two short front paws, made it stand on the tabletop, and solemnly educated it: "You can't bite things randomly, what if you get hurt?"

The cub let out two "chirp chirp" sounds and fawningly rubbed his hand with its tail, its azure beast eyes taking on a pitiful look.

Viji was progressing quickly and could now basically understand what he said. When scolded for misbehaving, it would even act cute to gain sympathy.

Just like now—

Seeing that Su Duan's expression still hadn't softened, the cub pulled out one paw and hugged Su Duan's hand together with the other. It rubbed its fuzzy face against his hand like a kitten, its fine black whiskers brushing the back of his hand as it let out pitiful "meow meow" cries from its throat.

Viji had a strong learning ability. Up to now, it had pretty much learned the cries of all the cubs in the orphanage and could flexibly apply them at the right moments.

Although he knew the cub was deliberately acting in a way to make him relent, Su Duan still couldn't resist the cub's affection and coquettishness like before. After hesitating for a few seconds, he still curved his fingertips to hook Viji's little whiskers.

Viji immediately hugged his fingertips and started nuzzling them.

After helplessly finishing disciplining the cub at home, Su Duan took out his little notebook and recorded this incident along with Viji's previous misdeeds.

Viji was still illiterate, so it remained completely unaware that Su Duan was recording its dark history. It was simply satisfied that its prey's attitude had softened and began its daily activity of licking its little prey to mark it.

After finishing the notes, Su Duan asked the system about Viji's abnormality just now.

He had always fed Viji on a schedule, so it shouldn't have been starved to the point of suddenly becoming so fierce.

The system explained: "It's because your bloodline has fully awakened, Master, making your blood even more delicious."

"...Oh, right." Only then did Su Duan remember this matter.

He himself didn't really feel anything special about this so-called bloodline awakening that was supposed to make him tastier. He couldn't smell any unique scent on himself either. But Viji's reaction was intense, to the point that it caught him a bit off guard.

Thinking carefully, Viji had indeed been getting clingier day by day over this half month, repeatedly lingering near obvious blood vessel areas like his wrists and neck. He had thought it was due to Viji's personality, but now it seemed to also be related to his maturing body.

It appeared that the olfactory systems of beastmen and non-beastmen were indeed different.

In that case, there was one very important matter—

"System, can you help me buy a bottle of scent masking agent on the Star Net?" According to the system's introduction, delicious Planters were on the menu for all beastmen. It's just that because their blood had "medicinal" effects for the Luota race, the Luota were the most persistent in pursuing them.

If some reckless beastman caught a whiff of that scent on him, it might bring trouble.

The system said: "No need to worry, Master. The Luota race's scent has a very strong masking effect. The treatment target has already completely covered your scent with its own."

Scent covering...referring to Viji's daily licking behavior?

Su Duan raised his wrist and sniffed but still couldn't detect the Luota scent that the system claimed had covered him. Perhaps he had been imperceptibly surrounded for too long to notice anymore.

After drinking the blood drawn from his fully matured body, Viji's digestive issues caused by staying in the shell stage for too long improved rapidly. It no longer showed rejection reactions to the various foods provided by the orphanage. Theoretically, he could completely stop the blood drawing and just feed Viji normal food.

But Su Duan didn't stop and persisted in regularly feeding Viji blood, even though the frequent blood loss had started impacting his physical condition.

Because when Viji drank the third vial of newly drawn blood, the recovery progress that had been stuck at zero suddenly increased a bit.

It was this little bit that solidified Su Duan's determination to continue giving blood.

Viji's genetic illness was a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment. He couldn't possibly give up on the only current hope for a cure. So the blood supply definitely couldn't be stopped...if he really couldn't hold up, he could still take that pill that could erase all negative statuses.

Time passed quickly. By the time Su Duan drew the fifth vial of blood, the recovery progress had risen to 10 points. The cub that was originally the size of his palm had grown as long as his forearm. Its body was no longer a furball like when it was first born, but slightly elongated. After shedding its baby fur, the newly grown fur was glossy black and smooth, irresistible to touch.

Like a blue-eyed house cat.

However, this Luota cub was far fiercer than a house cat. This race seemed to innately possess a predator's instincts. Its learning ability was also astonishingly strong. The originally very long cub education video playlist had imperceptibly passed the halfway mark, and Viji had completely mastered the techniques in it.

Su Duan couldn't help but start pondering what they should do after these videos finished playing.

It is undeniable that Viji needs practical experience and more systematic education.

Perhaps they should still leave the orphanage and find a quiet and peaceful place to live, letting the system forge identities for them and send Viji to school.

Su Duan sighed and worriedly stroked the tip of Viji's swishing tail.

For people with children to raise, education is always an unavoidable topic.

Just as Su Duan was troubled by future arrangements, Viji, who could no longer be called a little cub but still stubbornly squeezed himself into his prey's arms, was intently staring at the light screen in front of him as before.

This episode of the video did not teach hunting techniques, but only theoretical explanations about adulthood.

The Luota race is a species that tends to live alone. They have a strong sense of territory. The affection between parents and offspring mostly only exists when the cubs are still cubs. When the cubs enter adulthood and can freely switch between human and beast forms, it is time for the cubs to establish their own homes.

Even if some parents who have a particularly good relationship with their children keep the cubs for a longer period of time, this time limit often does not exceed three years.

Grown up, become stronger, then leave... Viji, who read this information in the video, couldn't help but constrict his pupils.

It didn't want to leave, but wanted to stay by the side of this delicious human forever, being stroked by his slender fingertips, listening to him speak in his clear voice, whether it understood or not—even if it was scolding, it was fine—and letting his body be filled with its own scent.

-- No matter what, as long as it could stay by his side.

However, constantly growing and gaining strength was the instinctive nature of a predatory race.

The desire to become stronger engraved in its instincts and the wish to always be together inevitably clashed, wrestling evenly in its heart. Viji couldn't help but let out an irritated hiss.

Immersed in the issue of cub education, Su Duan heard its somewhat anxious voice, came back to his senses a bit, and reached out to gently rub its furry head, leaning close to its ear and asking, "What's wrong? Do you need to go to the bathroom?"

The human's pleasant voice fell beside its ear full of sensitive nerves, making it involuntarily twitch its ear tips. Along with it came that nice smell, constantly tempting its taste buds, making it reflexively want to hug and lick to deepen the mark.

-- And it did just that.

Decisively abandoning the unfinished cub education video, the Luota cub that had already become a big baby turned its body, tightly grabbing Su Duan's clothes with its two front paws, stretched out its head, and started licking at the base of his ear.

The extremely sensitive skin at the base of his ear was lightly swept by a soft and moist object, bringing up a wave of numbness that could not be ignored. Su Duan couldn't help but lightly gasp.

It was just this slight movement that made the cub lying on top of him even more excited, and it even used its already grown sharp canine teeth to suggestively grind against the soft skin.

Su Duan frowned from being licked, his palms empty resting on the cub's back, not daring to forcibly pull it away. "Why all of a sudden...?"

When touching its delicious little prey, the scales in the Luota cub's heart had already tilted in an instant, the little figure with "racial instinct" written on it was beaten to the ground, crying pitifully.