Chapter 97 — The Iron-Eater Has Really Evolved
The Beast-Taming Craftsman Page 1 of 3
Bingyuan City, Pingcheng District.
Gym Master Lin Yu was meditating quietly inside his martial hall.
Suddenly, a phone call interrupted his cultivation.
"Xiuzhu?"
Seeing who the caller was, Lin Yu froze for a moment.
For the past half month, he had phoned Lin Zhuo every day to ask about the progress of the investigation into the Iron-Eater ruins.
And the news he received had never been good—no progress at all.
But today, his daughter had actually called him of her own accord. Did that mean she had something?
With a nervous heart, Lin Yu answered the call.
And the other end greeted him at once with a tremendous surprise.
"Dad, Shi Jin has preliminarily figured out how the Iron-Eater evolves. The catch is, it requires the Iron-Eater to master master-level Hardening. Do you want to give it a try?"
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Shing!
Lin Yun shot to his feet, eyes wide.
"Truly?"
he asked, trembling with anticipation.
"Yeah. But the experimental cost of the evolution materials might be a 'little' on the steep side."
"Can you bear to part with it?" Lin Zhuo said.
Grade-five resources correspond to an ordinary master-level beast tamer.
Grade-six resources correspond to a top-tier master.
Grade-seven resources correspond to a legendary beast tamer.
The Iron-Eater's evolution materials included two grade-five resources, three grade-six resources, and one grade-seven resource—the price could well be imagined.
And as the first people to attempt it, if anything went wrong along the way, the experimental costs would certainly add up.
"It's not a question of whether I can bear to part with it. Money is made to be spent."
"Anyway, whatever savings our family has will all be your dowry one day. At worst the dowry's gone—Xiuzhu, from here on you'll have to rely on yourself." Lin Yun was nothing if not practical.
Sister Xiong Qi: ???
He wasn't wrong, after all—Lin Zhuo was an only child...
"Whatever!" Sister Xiong Qi said after a silence.
She didn't need such things anyway. The Iron-Eater's evolved form was what mattered!
The Zhushi Martial Hall and the Iron Bamboo Breeding Base were both properties of Lin Zhuo's family.
Beyond that, they also held ownership of two energy crystal mines—the family had mines.
As for the various side businesses related to food, those were merely incidental, the icing on the cake.
Though Lin Yun was only an ordinary master-level beast tamer, he was far wealthier than tamers of his tier—one might say the richest man in Pingcheng.
After all, his family had run an Iron-Eater breeding base for several generations, and their fortune was substantial.
But for that very reason, they harbored an unusual obsession with the Iron-Eater.
Any ordinary master-level beast tamer would long since have retired the Iron-Eater from his team.
The Lin family was different—they had instead poured vast sums of cultivation resources into the Iron-Eater.
Generally speaking, a species grade determines the upper and lower limits of one's growth grade.
Take a creature with a transcendent-grade species rating: given ample nourishment and sound growth conditions, reaching the transcendent grade in growth was truly not difficult—it was only a matter of time.
But once the growth grade surpassed one's own species grade, further growth became extraordinarily difficult, and the difficulty climbed steadily.
At that point, the cultivation resources required would have to be multiplied several times over, far costlier than raising a beast of high species grade.
Yet even under such constraints, Gym Master Lin Yu had forced an Iron-Eater of middling transcendent species grade all the way up to near monarch grade.
Had it not been for the species limitation, Lin Yu would even have been willing to spend his fortune to smash the Iron-Eater up to monarch grade.
After all, a beast at monarch growth grade was the standard-issue equipment of a proper master-level beast tamer.
Before any feasible plan had even been confirmed, Lin Yun had dared to pour so many resources into the Iron-Eater; now that a definite and workable plan existed, he would naturally dare to invest all the more.
"Then that settles it. I'll head to the Ancient Capital right away!"
Right now, for Lin Yun, nothing mattered more than the Iron-Eater's evolved form.
……
The outskirts of the Ancient Capital, at the Iron-Eater ruins.
After finishing her call to her father, Sister Xiong Qi sank into thought.
"How did it go?"
Shi Yan and Sister Xiong Qi asked almost in unison.
"Director Li says Ancient Capital University will provide us with some technical support."
"They'll bring in experts to help us forge the alloy battle armor," said Shi Li.
Those metallic ores were all high-grade resources with exceedingly strange properties, and forging them into an alloy would be no easy task.
At the very least, students like Shi Jin and the others could never manage it on their own.
"My father says he'll come over at once as well."
"So, as long as the evolution method is correct, we're basically set?" asked Zheng Yan.
Everyone turned to look at Cen Yu.
After all that talk, it still came down to whether the evolution method was reliable or not.
"Relax. History never lies to anyone."
Shi Yu sounded quite confident.
Still, if the ruins dared to deceive him, he would certainly come back here and spend a month being catty about it before leaving.
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"It's getting late, Shi Yun. Let's go grab something to eat first," said Shi Jin, patting his belly.
Everyone: "Seconded!"
……
That very day, Lin Yun arrived at the Ancient Capital.
No telling whether he had used his master-level privileges to skip the queue and catch a flight, or simply flown over on his own flying pet beast.
Once everyone had gathered, Shi Jin, Sister Xiong Qi, the Seven Heroes of Archaeology, Mentor Ding, Director Li, Lin Yun, and the rest assembled in a seminar room at Ancient Capital University.
Besides them, there was also an expert Director Li had invited—a mechanist.
A formidable mechanist is well versed in materials science and forging as a matter of basic skill; mechanical life-form pet beasts all come from their hands.
To them, so long as there were materials, hand-building a mecha was not terribly difficult.
High-level mechanists are elite talents rarer than dragon tamers. By normal reckoning, a mechanist's scarcity is at least one tier above that of beast masters specializing in other kinds of pet beast cultivation.
"This is Hao Ling, dean of our Ancient Capital University's School of Mechanical Engineering, a top-tier mechanist."
Director Li introduced him to everyone with great courtesy.
"Hao Ling, hello!"
Lin Yun was overwhelmed—he had not expected that this research into the Iron-Eater's evolution would be built up into such a grand affair by Shi Jin, Lin Zhuo, and the others.
One was the head of Ancient Capital University's archaeology department, the other the dean of its School of Mechanical Engineering—put together, every association president in the Icefield City could not match the prestige of those two.
"Master Lin, you're too kind."
Hao Ling was in his sixties but did not look old. He smiled warmly at the group, and especially at Shi Jin, seated alongside Lin Zhuo and the Seven Heroes of Archaeology.
He knew these people had all gathered here because of Shi Jin.
He himself had come because of Shi Ying's status.
When Director Li told him that this project was being led by a young member of Bureau Eleven who would one day join Ancient Capital University, Hao Ling had immediately agreed to help without a second thought.
Though at his level, even in the face of full members of Bureau Eleven everyone met as equals, that did not stop him from doing this young member of Bureau Eleven a favor.
Besides, Director Li had personally asked him, and cooperation between the various colleges of Ancient Capital University was common enough—there was no reason to refuse.