Chapter 177 — Birth of the Little Sword Spirit
The Beast-Taming Craftsman Page 1 of 3
Outside the Heroic Spirit Ruins, all was silent.
Under the stunned gazes of the students, Eleven slowly shrank from its colossal beast form and reverted to its restrained state.
Watching Eleven transform, Yu Shu and the others felt a tangle of complicated emotions.
They had assumed that Shi Ying's performance during the club assessment was the limit of his ability.
They had assumed that his ace had briefly been swapped out for the Ginseng Baby...
But never had they imagined that Shi Jin's participation in the club assessment had been nothing but a game to him.
His ace had never been sent out from start to finish.
With a single new pet alone, he had shattered their worldview into a thousand pieces.
"Can we just stop competing already?"
Ever since the survival trial began, after countless blows, Yu Shu had thoroughly lost his nerve.
Even with his talent advantage, he had no idea how to compete any further.
A sword spirit of a high-tier overlord species!
This almost guaranteed that Shi Jin was destined to become a legend.
This member of the Ji family had won the recognition of the Ice Dragon General's heroic spirit—his luck was simply off the charts.
Yet at this moment, Yu Shu could not even muster jealousy, because even if given the chance, he doubted he could have passed the trial Shi Jin had just endured.
Shi Jue was not only absurdly strong in his beasts—he himself was absurdly strong.
Yu Shu even suspected that Shi Jin had orchestrated the summoning of the Ice Dragon General's heroic spirit entirely on his own.
Everyone had heard the exchange between the two—it was obvious both sides knew the same beast, the Ice Dragon.
"Shi Jin!" "Shi Jin!"
When everyone snapped back to their senses, they saw that on the altar, an Iron-eating Beast was still standing on all fours.
As for Shi Jin, he was no longer riding on its back—instead, he hung off Eleven's back like a bow-shaped pendant, eyes closed, looking anything but conscious.
"Eee!!"
On the Iron-eating Beast's body, apart from Shi Jin, there was also a Ginseng Baby examining Shi Ying's condition.
After a moment, the Ginseng Baby reached its conclusion: Shi Jin's body was simply too weak—he had just fallen asleep.
It condensed a nutrient whisker, pried open Shi Ying's mouth, let him hold it in his mouth, and figured that would do.
As for Jue's injuries, they had already been healed in that instant by the Iron-eating Beast and the Ginseng Baby using high-speed regeneration, leaving not a trace to be seen.
"What happened to him!"
At this moment, Director Li and the others rushed onto the altar in a panic, and at the sight of the collapsed Shi Jin, their bodies trembled violently—Shi Jin could not afford to have anything happen to him now.
"Ying, Zzzz~~"
Eleven closed its eyes and pretended to snore, using its acting method to tell the crowd about Shi Jin's condition.
He's sleeping. Keep it down.
Everyone: "..."
"The soul seed has already merged into his body, hasn't it." Director He looked toward Qixia's side.
"It should be." Examiner Feng nodded.
"Who knows when it will hatch."
A heroic spirit soul seed was a truly wondrous thing—apart from the person it acknowledged as its master, no outsider could hatch or contract it.
Essentially, once formed, it was bound to a certain beast tamer.
It would merge into the beast tamer's body and wait quietly to hatch; even without a contract after hatching, it would guard the beast tamer himself like a guardian spirit.
Thus, heroic spirits were vastly different from other pets—they were hard to covet, and even if an outsider obtained one, without the heroic spirit's recognition, the two parties would reject each other.
Just now, everyone had clearly seen General Mu Huiyin's heroic spirit and sword spirit together transform into light, condense into a soul seed, and fall into Shi Jin's hand.
This meant the Ice Dragon General had already acknowledged Shi Jin.
"Director Li, take them to rest."
"Next, we need to seal off the Heroic Spirit Altar here—we still have one more thing to do."
Instructor Feng looked down at the crowd below.
"Indeed." Director He nodded—everyone present today would have to sign a confidentiality agreement.
The matter of Shi Jin obtaining Mu Huiyin's heroic spirit must not be exposed.
Mu Huiyin was the foremost figure under the Emperor of the Eastern Radiance Dynasty in those days—she surely took part in the first Totem War.
This was a figure who truly shared a blood-deep enmity with the totem alien races.
It was even possible that many totem aliens who bore personal grudges against Mu Huiyin herself still survived to this day.
If Mu Huiyin's battle record was genuine, then the hatred her name drew would be by no means small.
The totem aliens had never ceased their vengeance against the descendants of those war heroes.
Within the ancient Eastern Radiance Kingdom, no one could be certain whether totem aliens had planted sleeper agents in hiding.
At the very least, the Eastern Radiance Kingdom surely had agents planted among the human race in the totem zone—so within the kingdom itself, there would inevitably be no shortage of totem alien eyes.
Before Shi Jin had fully grown, it was better to keep all word of Mu Huiyin sealed away, to avoid unnecessary trouble.
Shi Jin had merely contracted an ordinary sword spirit—where would an Ice Dragon General come from? They knew nothing!
Nothing at all!
"Seal the news for now," Director Li nodded. The rest could be left to Bureau Eleven to handle internally.
Shi Jin... Bureau Eleven members—not one of them was ever easy to deal with.
He had barely arrived at the Heroic Spirit Ruins and already stirred up such a commotion. Who knew whether the old headmaster would faint from shock once he was informed...
...
Shi Jin dreamed a long dream.
In the dream, Shi Jin seemed to see himself transformed into a red sparrow, and after being scorched by flames, reborn from the ashes like a phoenix rising from fire.
"Whoosh—"
A long while later, Shi Jin jolted awake.
He quickly rose from the bed and looked around.
It was a rather nice infirmary...
Beside him, Eleven and Baby Ginseng were holding a phone, apparently looking at something...
When they noticed Shi Jin was awake, they quickly turned their heads.
"Awoooo!!" Eleven waved its hand excitedly.
"Eeya!!" Baby Ginseng was excited too—they had discovered the daydream diary that Chongchong had written.
Shi Jin: "..."
Shi Jin extended his hand and looked at his palm.
The next moment, a red orb of light—the soul seed of the sword spirit—slowly floated up from his palm.
Gazing at the soul seed, Shi Su and Shi Yun fell silent.
During that final strike, his consciousness and vision had nearly blurred away, but he could still see that General Mu Huiyin had ultimately merged into it as well.
So then... had Mu Huiyin's heroic spirit simply vanished, just like that?
At the time, Mu Huiyin's heroic spirit had indeed said that in the end she would completely dissipate, becoming a soul seed and forming an entirely new undead lifeform.
Yet now that it had come to this, Shi Jin suddenly felt a trace of regret.
"Mu Huiyin's true body died after suppressing the Ice River Totem, and now her heroic spirit has become a soul seed."
"What a pity."
Shi Yu had many things he wanted to ask the Ice Dragon General. Compared to the soul seed, he wished more to learn from her about the early days of the Eastern Radiance Dynasty—especially about the Emperor of that time.
But at this moment, there was one more thing weighing heavily on Shi Jin's mind.
That was Mu Huiyin's bloodline and origins.
Just what race was she a hybrid of, alongside human blood?
From the beginning until now, Shi Jin had grasped two points.
One: the sun.
The flames of the sword spirit gave him a feeling very close to the fire of the sun.
Two: the phoenix.
If the dream just now was connected to this soul seed...