Chapter 348 – Zhizhi Awakens

Still, Zhizhi was undergoing changes of its own—the energy aura surrounding its body was expanding.

At first it had been at the level of a low-rank magical beast, but over the past two days, it had clearly reached the level of an intermediate magical beast.

And it wasn’t even a year old yet!

Beyond that, its appearance had also changed somewhat.

It had grown a tiny bit, now about the same size as the other young monkeys of its age group, and it even looked like it had put on a little weight.

Its fur had shifted from pure white to a silvery-white with a faint silver sheen, thicker and fluffier than before.

Mo Lan had used the Wood-Shaping Spell to make Zhizhi a small bed, and right now it lay curled up on it like a ball of silvery-white silk.

Every day when she brushed Zhizhi’s fur, she made sure to give it a thorough petting while she was at it.

During Zhizhi’s comatose sleep, young monkeys often came to visit.

Contrary to what the white-haired giant ape had led her to believe, Zhizhi was actually quite popular among the young monkeys.

One day a little monkey would pick a fresh flower and bring it over as a gift; the next day another would find a perfectly round stone and present it to her.

At first, Mo Lan assumed Zhizhi was the group’s darling, and these were little gifts the young monkeys brought when visiting their baby sister.

But later, when the young monkeys were whispering beside Zhizhi’s bed, Mo Lan got curious and eavesdropped using Heart Speech.

Translated from monkey-speak, what they were saying was: “Big Sis Boss, I found such-and-such good stuff and brought it as tribute. Please don’t beat me up when you wake!”

Heaven knows how disillusioned Mo Lan felt when she first heard that.

The image of a sweet, adorable little Zhizhi in her mind instantly transformed into a fierce gang leader.

Though Mo Lan was quite fond of the fierce gang leader version too, still… that wretched old white-haired giant ape had lied to her again!

Back then it had told her Zhizhi was small, ate little, was obedient and well-behaved, and just as clever as itself. Now it seemed that apart from being small and clever, everything else was debatable!

What was most infuriating was that it had even taught Zhizhi to play pitiful and fish for sympathy!

Good thing Zhizhi would be with her from now on—otherwise such a perfectly good little monkey would have been led completely astray.

Fuming, Mo Lan went out and found the white-haired giant ape for a round of combat practice.

Vasida’s Dietary Fortification Card was very effective. With sustained use, combined with the combat techniques from her Earth memories, she could now fight evenly against the top-tier fighters among ordinary wild beasts.

Having stayed among the golden-armed ape tribe for so long, the young monkeys visited her tent more and more often, grew familiar with her, and became increasingly brazen.

Mo Lan wasn’t the only one who had experienced the “honor” of being covered head to toe in little monkeys—her tent’s living quarters would also be “overgrown” with young monkeys every few days.

The furniture inside had already been wrecked and replaced with a fresh batch.

And yet, after the young monkeys caused trouble, they knew to sneakily deliver some magical materials as an apology.

Whether the stuff was useful or not was beside the point—the way they acted all mischievous and then obediently hung their heads in remorse made Mo Lan unable to bring herself to kick them out.

Of course, the young monkeys’ intelligence was still limited, and they were young, so getting into trouble again right after apologizing was an all-too-common occurrence.

Mo Lan could only complain to Zhizhi: “Zhizhi, if you don’t wake up soon, your brothers and sisters are going to tear our home apart!”

The moment she finished speaking, she looked down and met a pair of lively silver-gray eyes.

“Zhizhi, you’re awake?” Mo Lan exclaimed in delighted surprise. “Your eyes changed color too? They’re so pretty!”

“Zhi?” Really?

Mo Lan hadn’t used Heart Speech just now, yet she understood Zhizhi’s meaning perfectly.

This was the heart-to-heart connection between a magical familiar and its witch.

“Of course!” Mo Lan conjured a water mirror and floated it in front of Zhizhi, reflecting its current appearance.

Zhizhi: “(⊙_⊙)?!”

It reached up in horror, yanking the two little yellow flowers off the top of its head.

After pulling them off, it looked at its Mistress with some trepidation.

“These were gifts from your dear little brothers while you were sleeping. I thought they looked cute, so I tied your hair into little buns and stuck them in,” Mo Lan said with a smile.

“Zhi!” Mistress, let me go have a word with the boys!

“Go right ahead!” Mo Lan watched encouragingly as it zipped out in a flash. Before long, chaos erupted across the golden-armed ape territory.

A single silver-white little monkey was chasing a whole pack of golden-furred young monkeys, beating them up.

Watching the battle from the shadows, Mo Lan felt deeply satisfied.

Her Zhizhi really delivered—avenging in one fell swoop all the harassment she’d endured from those little monkeys!

Only after Zhizhi had played enough did Mo Lan call it back to ask whether it felt any changes in its body.

That question seemed to flip a switch. Zhizhi immediately smacked its lips: “Zhizhi~” It was craving alcohol even more now!

It had just chased the little brothers past the wine cellar cave three times, smelling the aroma of alcohol each time, yet hadn’t found a chance to sneak in.

Zhizhi hadn’t yet learned to control the mental link and had accidentally broadcast its inner thoughts. Mo Lan didn’t even need mind-reading magic to know everything crystal clear.

She truly didn’t know whether to say little Zhizhi was smart enough to be considerate of its Mistress, or that it was setting up the old monkey king to take the fall!

Mo Lan immediately pulled out a wine card—one she had specially made for little Zhizhi after learning it fed on alcohol. It contained not only wines from Earth but also fruit wines and wine lees from the old monkey king’s cellar cave.

“Take this. You can take the wine out or put it back in. Try them and see which ones you like, and I’ll make you more cards with those later.”

Mo Lan showed it how to use the card.

Zhizhi’s reverence for Mo Lan instantly surged to the point of overflowing.

Grandpa was right—her Mistress really could provide for her!

She hugged a bottle and glugged it down, and before long her little face was flushed red.

At the same time, Mo Lan noticed that Zhizhi’s fur was glowing with an even richer silver light. Looking more closely—

Good heavens! It was spatial power!

Zhizhi had become a space-attribute magical beast?

Despite all that wine, Zhizhi stopped after drinking just one bottle.

The rest it took out one by one and carefully tucked them into its belly.

Zhizhi gestured to Mo Lan, accompanied by squeaky monkey-speak, and only then did Mo Lan understand—a companion space had appeared in its belly.

It was roughly the size of the living quarters, just big enough to hold all the wine.

Zhizhi said it wasn’t picky and liked all kinds of wine, and that this would last it a very long time.

But what it was actually thinking was that it was worried about drinking too much at once and making Mo Lan think it was too expensive to keep—so it planned to eat only about thirty percent full per meal.

After drinking, it was eager to prove its worth, thumping its chest with little “ooh ooh” sounds, volunteering to go fight for Mo Lan.

What it didn’t realize was that since it still couldn’t control the mental link, every last thought had already been laid completely bare!

Mo Lan stroked Zhizhi’s silk-like fur. “Don’t worry, I can afford to keep you. I can make cards like this on a whim! Drink as much as you want!”

Zhizhi stared at her in disbelief.

Only after Mo Lan emphasized it three times did it finally take out another bottle of wine.

It hesitated and wavered while taking the bottle out, but the moment the cap came off, it drank as if it had been parched for days, draining the whole thing in no time.