Chapter 133 — The Classic Choose-One-of-Seven

"This Mutated Ginseng Baby's vitality rivals that of a sapling of the Tree of Life, and its energy value is very high—not inferior to the cubs of other monarch-species pet beasts. Its own nourishing effects are excellent as well. Moreover, it possesses the super-tier skill Source of Life, which restores life force and physical stamina at extreme speed. It can rapidly self-produce high-quality tonics at minimal cost, with powerful recovery—very suitable for tamers whose enhancement talents drain enormous physical stamina."

"Contracting this pet beast essentially means giving up combat power in exchange for enhanced survival ability. Although you don't have an enhancement-type beast taming talent and have no use for places that drain stamina, it can greatly extend the duration you can use the Relic Pearl to phase. Once you reach Legendary rank and can phase using your own beast taming space, the effect will be even more pronounced."

Shi Shuo and Shi Yun were stunned.

Source of Life? A super-tier recovery skill? Unlimited high-quality tonics self-produced at minimal cost?

If one contracts a tonic-type plant pet beast, what the pet beast's level-ups feed back to the tamer is stamina recovery ability...

Shi Jin was tempted again. Damn it—at present, the Dragon-Blood Willow and the Spider Lily were fine, but the Ancient Tree of Life and the Ginseng Baby were both what he needed.

The former, though unable to directly produce tonics, as long as there were seeds, Life's Grace combined with Plant Control could rapidly force high-quality tonics to maturity.

The latter was itself a super-tonic, likewise possessing the ability to produce at high speed. And most importantly, after contracting the Ginseng Baby, his own stamina recovery ability would undergo a qualitative change—a perfect match for the skill compendium.

"This one's good too," the beast-eared senior suggested.

Shi Jin: ???

Are you here to help me choose?

You clearly just want them all!

Lu Yan continued introducing the remaining three.

What remained were pet beasts without super-tier skills and not of monarch species, but somewhat special in themselves.

"The Forest Spirit is a plant spirit body gestated and evolved from an entire forest. It's similar in concept to a Mountain Soul or a Lake Spirit. It can possess ordinary plants, accelerating their growth and helping them evolve into spirit plants, granting them combat ability. As it grows, it can control an entire forest. When the types, quality, and number of plants it possesses reach a certain upper limit, it may evolve into the monarch-species pet beast, Lord of the Forest, and awaken the Plant Control skill."

"This one's very good too," the beast-eared senior praised. Lu Yan was amazing—finding so many rare plant pet beasts.

Shi Jin: "..."

It really was good. Likewise capable of creating a tonic army, and most importantly, he could assemble a plant legion according to his own ideas.

Contract one—equivalent to contracting a whole group.

"The Seven-Star Four-Leaf Clover is a very special plant pet beast. All its skills lean toward defense—it has defensive techniques against every type of attack. And because of its small size, it can coordinate perfectly with a beast tamer to guard them."

"Beyond that, it also has a precognition-of-danger psychic skill that carries a hint of time-related nature, helping the tamer turn misfortune into fortune. Hence it is also called the Lucky Clover. This one, actually, is quite suitable for unlucky fools who like to court death."

Lu Heng meant those colleagues of theirs who had died in archaeology.

Shi Jin swallowed hard, his heart racing again. Shi Yun—Shi Yun—he had finally encountered his first Shi Yun-type skill!

He wanted it!!!

"I want it!" the beast-eared senior sister echoed.

Shi Jin: ???

"As for the Straw Magician, it's a rare space-attribute beast. It possesses the wondrous ability 'Straw Substitute'—if an enemy attacks the Straw Magician's master, the damage will very likely be transferred to a straw dummy created by the Straw Magician. Or rather, from the very beginning, the enemy's attack target was the straw dummy all along."

"This is also a beast that can enhance a beast tamer's ability to preserve their life."

This time, before the beast-eared senior sister could speak, Shi Li cut in. "Do you want this one too?"

Bai Xi shook her head. "It's too ugly, all gloomy and sinister."

Shi Jin: ???

"So, have you thought it over?" Lu Heng asked with a smile, looking at Shi Jin.

As for these beasts, apart from the Blue Spider Lily, which she would need to capture herself, the rest were scattered in different places and would have to be bought, traded for, or requested through her connections and favors. She just didn't know which one Shi Jue had his eye on.

Shi Jin fell into deep thought.

Based on his preferences, he first ruled out the Dragon-Blood Willow, the Blue Spider Lily, and the Straw Magician.

Pure combat-type beasts—he wasn't exactly lacking in those.

The Blue Spider Lily sounded like it would be dangerous to obtain and contract. Forget it.

The life-preserving ability granted by the Straw Magician wasn't urgently needed either; the Ruin Pearl was actually sufficient for now.

Most importantly, Chongchong was about to gain a space attribute, and space attributes no longer held much appeal for him.

As for the Tree of Life, the Mutated Ginseng Baby, the Forest Spirit, the Seven-Star Four-Leaf Clover...

Shi Jin ruled out the lucky clover once more. A danger-prediction skill—he'd see if he could copy it later. As for contracting it, forget it; a boy as outstanding as him wouldn't have bad luck.

Then he dismissed the Forest Spirit as well. Mainly because its cultivation cycle was too long, and this kind of DIY beast clearly required a whole entourage of high-grade spirit plants once it evolved—nurturing one was equivalent to nurturing a whole group, an enormous expense. And he—he had no money! Besides, the plant-control skill awakened after evolution was just too lacking in novelty.

In other words, whoever he taught plant control to would become a Monarch of the Forest. There was no need to deliberately pursue the orthodox path.

In the end... only the Tree of Life and the Mutated Ginseng Baby remained as options.

Shi Jin considered the Tree of Life's advantages. First, it still had one more stage of evolution into a high-tier monarch race. Although the conditions were unknown, there was indeed still a possibility of evolution.

Second, the Tree of Life was well suited to serve as a gardener. Combined with plant control, it could cultivate all kinds of spirit plants inside the Ruin Pearl, not limited to supplements.

But the drawbacks: it needed a cultivation cycle. At present, the Tree of Life sapling's level was too low, its gardener level wasn't high either, and he couldn't teach it plant control. Perhaps for a year or two, he wouldn't be able to experience the joy of rapidly producing high-quality spirit plants himself—self-sufficiency might not even be possible, let alone making money from it.

The Mutated Ginseng Baby's advantage was that, once contracted, it would immediately provide feedback on physical recovery speed. Paired with the skill compendium's effects, it was superb—it could give him a decent stat-allocation experience in the short term.

Beyond that, even before contracting it, it could rapidly produce high-quality supplements at high speed to supply the current Shi Jin, helping him save a substantial sum of money.

As for drawbacks, it had no combat ability whatsoever. It was a mutated variety, and its future development path was unknown.

"Senior, do you have any suggestions?"

Shi Qi turned to Lu Heng.

"I'd suggest... the Tree of Life sapling, the Mutated Ginseng Baby, the Forest Spirit, and the Seven-Star Four-Leaf Clover."

Lu Heng smiled. "The word 'lucky' in lucky clover isn't just for show."