Chapter 308 — Great Harvest After Returning to Donghuang

For besides its savage fighting strength, this totem's talent for escape was first-rate: it could burrow into the deepest magma, the deepest bowels of the earth, and even a Dragon God could do nothing about it.

Look at the countries that had crossed it — the Seven Isles, for instance, still suffered the occasional mild eruption or minor quake, all of them the Lava Totem's revenge.

To be precise, the Eight-Headed Serpent Totem, the Giant Ape Totem, the Lava Totem, and the Sky Island Totem — the totems that could run wild in the Chaotic Sea — not one of them was easy to deal with. Unless circumstances were exceptional, Eastern Radiance, the Seven Isles, and Mirage Abyss City all preferred not to tear off the mask and go to open war with them.

So Shi Jin and the others quickly left the Lava Totem's domain and returned to Eastern Radiance.

By now, though they had learned that the Variegated Archipelago had been recovered, they had no leisure to go and look; they decided to wait until the Chaotic Sea settled down.

So many pirates had died in the Lava Totem's domain, and both the Eight-Headed Serpent Kingdom and the Giant Ape Kingdom had lost an Overlord; the Chaotic Sea was bound to grow even more chaotic. No place to linger — no place to linger...

The Heaven-Reaching Whale, the White Azure Dragon, and the others escorted Shi Jin and his group out of the Chaotic Sea. After taking from Shi Jin the resources newly allotted to the Conservation Department, they turned back toward Listening Snow City.

As for Lockcloud City, they meant to pay a visit to Shi Yan's Gem Cat later; a matter as great as the Gem Cat's breakthrough ought to be reported back in Eastern Radiance first.

"Why have you suddenly turned so diligent?"

Aboard the Silver Sea Warship, Shi Jin saw the Gem Cat sprawled on the flying carpet, cultivating hard, and had to laugh.

That was not like the Gem Cat at all.

By rights, having broken through, it ought to be slacking off even more, utterly free of care.

"What do you know." The Gem Cat curled its lip.

All this hard work now is so I can slack off better later!

"What do you mean, what do I know." Shi Cen curled his lip. "Isn't it just perfecting your race?"

Once a transcendent life form reaches the Totem level, race and racial grade no longer matter to them.

Because at this level, they can already tap into the potential of life itself, independently optimize their own race, develop new racial skills on their own, and refine their own bloodline as well as that of their offspring.

Though they cannot reach Mythic race, a Totem-level life form, so long as it is willing to train, will basically never fall below high-tier Monarch race. The term "quasi-Mythic race" was tailor-made for Totem-level beings.

You could say that every Totem ultimately becomes a quasi-Mythic race.

So if Monarch-race creatures still have a small chance of existing as identical races, as populations, then Totem-level creatures—because they can freely DIY and optimize their racial bloodlines—are already very difficult to find exact racial peers for.

For example, the Dragon God of Mirage Abyss City used this very ability to evolve itself into a humanoid dragon girl.

The Gem Cat grinned. "No, the main thing is developing new skills."

"What skill?" Shi Tang asked.

"It's a secret."

Shi Jin: ???

"Is it impressive?"

"It should be." The Gem Cat was certain—after all, it would let it slack off.

Shi Heng nodded. Then go develop it. Once you've succeeded, I'll see just how impressive it really is. If it is, then it's mine.

By now, Shi Jin couldn't even be bothered to copy transcendent skills anymore, not even the cat's Phantom Star Annihilation.

Phantom Star Annihilation was powerful—a rare multi-element transcendent skill, hardly weaker than skills like the Sword of Interlace, perhaps even much stronger—but he hadn't copied it either. The novelty had worn off.

The main issue was that non-racial skills were hard to use for driving up growth level, and transcendent skills were difficult to begin with. So unless it was a supremely powerful transcendent skill like the Mark of Time or Infinite Devour, Shi Yu planned to prioritize raising his beasts' racial skills, which would also better drive up their growth levels.

"We're here."

Ahead, the land drew closer and closer.

……

Granted, it was Shi Yan and the Gem Cat's reckless antics that had dragged Xiao Qin, Huang Qi, and Qin Mingzhi to Heat Island, and the three of them had nearly been caught up in danger because of those antics. But after surviving this crisis, the three were thoroughly convinced by Shi Zhao.

Ginseng Baby had crushed two Monarchs. Any one of the beasts could be pulled out to fend off the vortex demon beasts' assault. And the man himself could summon two Totems to his rescue. Add to that having "personally cultivated" a Totem-level Gem Cat—no need to think twice to know that following Shi Jin meant living the good life from here on out.

When Shi Jin disembarked to return to Ping City, Xiao Qin stood on the warship and nodded toward Shi Heng. "Leave the renovation work on the Ocean Environmental Protection Department base to me from here on."

"I'll leave it to you." As soon as Shi Jin finished speaking, his figure blurred, and the Totem-level Gem Cat teleported him back to Ping City in a single instant.

Once.

Only one use of Instant Teleportation.

In an instant, they crossed the Ice Dragon Snow Mountain—larger in area than Icefield City—and arrived at Ping City, at Shi Ying's training villa.

This Instant Teleportation efficiency had Shi Jin drooling.

When would Buggy reach Totem level? This Instant Teleportation—what difference was there between it and a city teleportation array? It was just too useful, a hundred thousand times better than before.

Totem level—he loved it, loved it.

"Ah, feels like it's still far behind the Sky Emperor's intercontinental teleportation array. Annoying." Beside him, though, the Gem Cat was thoroughly unsatisfied.

"Stop showing off." Shi Qi's mouth twitched.

The reason they had rushed back this time was that Feng Jin had come straight from the Ancient Capital and was waiting for them. They couldn't keep an old man waiting too long.

Of course, the main reason was still…

"Feng Jin, now there shouldn't be any problem with me becoming a formal member of the First Bureau, right?"

Seeing Shi Jin and the others finally return, Feng Jin—who had been sitting at the stone table in the courtyard for quite a while—rose joyfully at last. But the very next words out of Shi Jin's mouth left Feng Jin utterly speechless.

The requirement for formal membership in the First Bureau was the ability to command Totems in battle and having jointly resolved a Donghuang crisis. Before, although Shi Yan and the Ice Dragon were on good terms, there had been no sign he could casually invite the Ice Dragon to act. But this time…

He looked at the Monarch guardian of the Ancient Capital University who was freeloading off Shi Jin—no, who should now be called Donghuang's guardian deity, the Gem Cat—and fell silent. Add to that… two Totem Dragon Kings going together to rescue Shi Jin… and a growing-stage Vast Sea Spirit… With this background, even other minor details could be ignored. Early entry into the First Bureau wasn't impossible.

"Shi Jin's under my protection. Just let him join." The Gem Cat said magnanimously.

The First Bureau's resources—why not take them when they're free?

Right now, Feng Jin had many things he wanted to say, but seeing Shi Jin and the others at this moment, he didn't know where to begin.

Scold Shi Jin and the others for running around, for going to dangerous places? The key problem was that their gains this time were absurdly huge.

Praise them? Feng Jin, who treated Shi Qi as his own child, regarded Shi Jin the same way he did Lu Heng—he didn't want to encourage this tendency to recklessly run off to dangerous places.