Moddy went closer to the drum and looked at it from different angles. It heard the sound that came from Shi Li's finger flicking a while ago and thought that the sound was pretty loud. From the looks of it, Shi Li made a drum taking Moddy's height into consideration as it could easily put one of its paws on the drum.
Moddy then raised the said paw and tapped on the batter head gently.
Bang!
Contrary to its expectations, Moddy's tap that would have only made a soft sound instead create a loud sound that could be heard throughout the clearing. Moddy raised its paw one more time and this time, it hit the batter head with more force, resulting in a...
Bang!
Obviously, a louder sound. Moddy couldn't help but feel some happiness from beating the drum. Whenever it used its techniques that utilized world energy, it had to tap on the ground with all of its strength in order for the sound that carried its world energy to travel to the enemy. But with this drum, even if it hit it softly, a sound loud enough to carry the world energy is created.
Moddy then hit the batter head of the drum a few more times, a smile on its cute face before stopping and looking at Shi Li with eyes of happiness.
"Nya...I never thought...there would be an instrument comparable to the voncona that would allow me to produce such loud sounds nya..." Moddy couldn't help but look at the human before it at a new light.
"Voncona?" Shi Li tilted his head in confusion. "What's that?"
"Ah..." Moddy heard Shi Li utter the word it uttered a while ago and instantly fell silent as it didn't really mean to say that. "It's uh...an instrument from my memories nya."
"Okay then..." Although Shi Li had his suspicions, he wasn't really the nosy type so he put the matter to rest and then lifted the drum up as he held it with both hands.
Moddy looked at this and instantly made a pleading expression as it embraced Shi Li's leg. The first thought that came to its mind was that the human would make an equipment like this to make it feel a temporary happiness before ultimately destroying it, in the end bringing it to despair.
"Don't destroy it nya! I beg you!"
"Destroy it?" Shi Li felt that Moddy was acting weird. "Why would I destroy it? You need it for your techniques right? I'm just carrying it so we can search for more Rank 3 Beasts."
Seeing that it misunderstood Shi Li's intentions, it let go of its grasp from Shi Li's leg as it awkwardly chuckled before following Shi Li.
"Nyahaha...right. Le-let's go nya..."
...
After that somewhat awkward experience for Moddy, Shi Li and Moddy searched outside the clearing Shi Li made and found multiple Rank 1 and 2 Beasts which they hunted at first before ignoring later on. They hunted a few of them at first since Moddy wasn't still proficient in using the sound created by the drum as the wave to carry world energy. But the more beasts they killed, the more proficient Moddy grew to the point its efficiency didn't lose out to casting the techniques by tapping on the ground.
A few hours later, the sun was already up in the middle of the azure sky. At these moments, Shi Li and Moddy finally found another Rank 3 Beast to fight. In short, the fight was anticlimactic.
Bang!
"[Neko Power Boost]!"
Bang!
"[Neko Binding]!"
Fwoosh!
"[Flame Slash]!"
"Urgh!" The Rank 3 Beast Shi Li and Moddy were attacking easily fell to its knees thanks to Moddy's support in terms of buffing Shi Li's attack power and binding the enemy in place, and Shi Li's half mastered Flame Slash that held a lot of strength.
After that, they were able to fight 8 more Rank 3 Beasts and killed them within minutes, bringing the total of killed Rank 3 Beasts to 10, only halfway complete to the challenge Shi Li's father gave him.
...
Whenever Shi Li and Moddy were done hunting beasts for the day, they would go back to the clearing and cultivate. Currently, Shi Li was still in the process of tempering his muscles to the state of iron before he could cultivate the second level of the auxiliary cultivation technique he had and break through to the 3rd Temperi—Martial Novice stage.
He picked up the Wooden War Hammer he crafted and laid down flat on the somewhat bumpy ground as he circulated all of the strength within his body and soul to the arm that held the hammer and started to slam down on every nook and cranny on Shi Li's body.
Moddy looked at this and couldn't help but ask Shi Li, "Nya...is this how humans cultivate?"
Shi Li, who was still hammering his body, spared a bit of his concentration to answer Moddy's answer. "For some humans, that would be a yes since they want to obtain greater strength like me, but for the most part, it's a no. How about you Moddy, how do you cultivate?"
Moddy pondered for a bit, with the incessant sounds of hammering in the background, before replying, "Well I can cultivate either with inner energy or by eating the remains of the beasts I killed nya."
"Do they give you the same effect?" Shi Li asked, still hammering his body.
Moddy shook its head. "Nyah. When I use inner energy to cultivate, it feels like my brain is expanding nya. But when I eat the remains of beasts, it feels like my body is expanding nya."
"I see," Shi Li nodded and understood that beasts also had internal and external methods of cultivation. He was still hammering his body at this moment, looking at the current state of his muscles by closing his eyes.
"Hmm...some parts of my muscles have already showed the toughness of iron, I think I can reach the peak of the 2nd stage for my body before I go home."
...
The next day, Shi Li and Moddy searched throughout the Forest of Ruin once more, with Shi Li carrying a drum while Moddy was searching for Rank 3 Beasts thanks to its great manipulation over world energy.
With this setup, they were able to kill 7 Rank 3 Beasts at this current day, which meant that Shi Li only needed 3 more Rank 3 Beasts to finally complete the challenge his father gave him.
Once night fell once more, he continued on hammering his body with the Wooden War Hammer, with almost all of his muscles showing the toughness of iron.
And finally, on the 6th day of Shi Li's stay in the Forest of Ruin.
As if was luck was on their side, Shi Li and Moddy were able to kill 6 Rank 3 Beasts, bringing the total of Rank 3 Beasts they killed to 23, successfully completing the challenge Shi Xingwan gave to Shi Li!
And not only that...
At the night of the 6th day, Shi Li continued on hammering his body with the Wooden War Hammer with intense fervor, the toughness his muscles showed at the moment was drastically tougher in comparison to the toughness his muscles showed a few days ago.
As he was hammering his body, he placed his other hand on the necklace he always wore, a red pearl was affixed to the string. This red pearl was the reason why Shi Li was able to progress quickly these past few weeks or so since his aptitude was constantly being improved.
Bang!
After hundreds and hundreds of hits, an explosion sound could be heard from Shi Li's body as his muscles suddenly expanded to a great extent before contracting back to normal.
Shi Li looked at this and couldn't help but place the Wooden War Hammer down on the ground and then jump in joy with his newfound strength as he shouted, "I finally did it!"
"I finally reached the peak of the 2nd stage!"