Chapter 109 — The Greenfluff Worm's Airborne Tactics

This was actually her second time taking the professional assessment. When she first came to the Ancient Capital for it, she had failed.

But through that very stage, a top-tier master with a similar talent had recognized her gift, taken her as a disciple, and nurtured her.

After a year of cultivation, it seemed she had not only broken through in beast-taming space grade compared to last year, but had even contracted a more powerful spirit beast.

Without question, she too was a candidate demanding close attention—in fact, she had already reached the standard of an intermediate beast tamer.

Professional beast tamers were divided into three titles: primary, intermediate, and advanced.

The criteria for primary and intermediate lay chiefly in beast-taming space grade and combat experience; the spirit beasts were still basically transcendent-grade.

Only at the advanced title did a beast tamer need to possess a spirit beast whose growth grade was commander-level.

3. Miao Dongdong.

Beast-taming space grade: Level Two.

Test spirit beast: high-tier transcendent race, transcendent-grade Parasitic Gu.

Energy value: 3,294.

This year's examinees had truly given these master examiners no end of surprises.

"This one... what is going on here?"

"This Miao Xiaodong is a bug master—or you could call him a gu master."

"This Parasitic Gu has parasitized a low-tier monarch race Emerald Tree Python," Master Qu Li said.

Bug Masters and Gu Masters are, in fact, just like Dragon Tamers, Machinists, Plant Controllers, Spirit Mediums, and Elementalists—all of them are simply branches of the Beast Tamer calling.

It was only that Gu Masters were far too rare a breed; you might not find a single one among ten thousand Beast Tamers. The demands on beast-taming talent and cultivation methods were extraordinarily high, and the art was almost always passed down within families.

A high-tier transcendent species: the Parasitic Gu. This Gu worm was not powerful—and yet it was very powerful indeed.

It could parasitize the corpse of a dead spirit beast, seizing the nest like a cuckoo, much in the manner of body possession.

Take Miao Xiaodong, currently ranked third in energy value on this basic test. His Gu worm had only achieved that score by taking control of the corpse of a dead king-tier spirit beast cub.

The masters nodded, then began to speculate about the origins of this Miao Dongdong.

There were only so many Gu Masters in the Eastern Brilliance Ancient Kingdom, and capable ones were fewer still. Where could he have come from...

4. Shi Jin

Beast-taming space level: second rank.

Test spirit beast: mid-tier transcendent species, Iron-Eating Beast.

Energy value: 3,186.

The masters and examiners: ???

"This... what is going on here now?"

The first three, they could all understand.

One had contracted a king-tier spirit beast ahead of schedule thanks to his beast-taming talent.

One had accumulated strength over long years and made a comeback, standing at a higher level himself.

One owed it to the peculiar nature of a Bug Master. But this fourth place—what was this... who on earth was he?

"Him..." Qu Jie, as the chief supervisor of this professional assessment, had access to more information than the other examiners.

He narrowed his eyes and looked at Cen Yu's portrait.

"He is a pre-selected examinee from the Archaeology Department of the Ancient Capital University. Word is that a few months ago he just cracked open an ancient ruin and discovered the evolution path of the Iron-Eating Beast. That news has not spread yet. The evolved Iron-Eating Beast has king-tier potential, and this one of his seems to have awakened part of that evolutionary bloodline—very unusual indeed."

"And I hear that, apart from that ancient Iron-Eating Beast site, he also cracked a trial-type ruin back in his hometown. He is a genius in the archaeological world."

The masters felt their hearts tighten. So that was it.

This crowd of archaeologists were no simple folk either—after all, the fortunes hidden in those ancient ruins were simply too numerous to count.

This Shi Jin was worth watching too; he was hardly much worse than the ones before him.

5. Yu Shu

Beast-taming space level: second rank.

Test spirit beast: high-tier commander species, Spectral Bone Wyrmling.

Energy value: 2.

This examinee was no stranger to them either.

Both of this examinee's parents were top-tier Beast Tamers of the Ancient Capital. He had perfectly inherited their talent and had achieved no small distinction in dragon taming and spirit commanding.

The Spectral Bone Wyrmling was a species formed from the skeleton of a dragon after death—not a true dragon, and unless it evolved, it would remain in wyrmling form forever. Hence its relatively low species rank.

Even so, compared to ordinary examinees, it was exceedingly formidable.

If the examiners remembered rightly, this Yu Shu had also contracted a dragon soul of commander species. Once the bone dragon and the dragon soul fused, it might well be no worse than a king-tier spirit beast. Bone dragon and dragon soul together already possessed the greater part of a dragon's power.

Qu Jie said, "The selection of key seed examinees must take into account not only the basic test results, but also the examinee's other spirit beast, as well as their own beast-taming talent."

"After all, the score of a single spirit beast does not mean much at present."

"Understood!" The examiners nodded.

This year's professional assessment... was going to be interesting. At least judging by the top five Beast Tamers on the basic test, not one of them was a pushover.

...

Meanwhile, in the examination hall, Shi Jin had fallen into deep thought.

If one were out in the wild, and one's own body and spirit beast had been tainted by the venom of a Floating Venom Spider, what should one do?

Eleven's rapid healing did not seem to work—that only dealt with ordinary injuries.

He wondered whether adding points to a higher level would help. If "Peerless Mastery" would not do it, surely max level ought to have some detoxifying effect?

Shi Jin's thoughts ran wild.

And yet, plainly, that was certainly not the correct answer... The correct answer was for the Beast Tamer to find a way through other natural resources in the wild.

Which plants around here could neutralize this poison, again...

"You two really dropped the ball," Shi Shuo said, his face darkened with exasperation.

Eleven and the bug: "Damn it, why did we have to get poisoned with something this vicious? Couldn't we just have one-shot the other side before it landed?"

By now, Shi Jin had answered more than half the exam paper.

It had gone fairly smoothly, though there were still a few questions that Shi Jin racked his brains over and simply could not work out.

Still, judging by how things stood, there was nothing more he could do—he just had to pass, he absolutely had to pass!

...

The 150 minutes allotted to Shi Yun passed in a flash.

Plenty of examinees handed in their papers early, but Shi Jin was not among them; he dawdled right to the very end.

Once the papers were collected, Shi Jin instinctively made to do something...

Something like comparing answers with his classmates.

But it seemed he did not know a single soul here.

"Forget it. Results come out tomorrow anyway, and there should be answers online before long."

"I'll just check my answers against the correct ones directly."

Following the flow of the crowd, Shi Jin left the Lotus Lake examination site at a brisk pace, giving the young lady from the same examination hall no chance to ask for his phone number, and then let out a long sigh.

The hardest hurdle was behind him, cleared or not; if all went well, the day after tomorrow he would sit the third stage of the assessment, and that one would be simple.