Chapter 471 — Lu Yan Arrives

"ROAR~!!" With a roar, a dog-type creature stood barking before the gate of Shi Jin's villa. It had fluffy white fur, imposing blue eyes, and black cloud patterns coiling around its neck, limbs, body, and long tail—a remarkably domineering beast. Beside it stood a beautiful woman in a blue-black combat suit, for whom it knocked on the door.

"Coming, coming." Hearing the Wind Demon Lion's cry, Shi Jin walked straight out to welcome Lu Yan and the others.

"Sorry, I ran into a wanted criminal on the way and dealt with it on the spot—wasted a bit of time," Lu Yan said with a smile upon seeing Shi Jin.

"The big dog's distinguished itself again, huh." Shi Qi looked at the Wind Demon Lion. Having received the Zhenxie Lion inheritance, Lu Yan's big dog possessed the ability to sense malevolent intent, so whenever Lu Yan went on archaeological expeditions, it would conveniently distinguish itself—catching villains with unfailing accuracy.

"ROAR!!" The Wind Demon Lion grinned smugly.

"This familiar setup reminds me of when we first met," Shi Yan said with a chuckle, looking at the radiant, beautiful Lu Yan. "Back then, Senior, you brought the Wind Demon Lion to find me."

"Yeah." Lu Heng smiled gently. "Who'd have thought I'd find a world legend."

"I can't afford to fall behind either. I came this time to let you choose: take a look at the new ability I've developed."

"Senior, you really succeeded," Shi Tang said.

"Mm." Lu Heng nodded. "But unlike your Mind Domain, it's a different direction."

Three months ago, after Shi Jin awakened his body-control talent, he had given the talent bead to Lu Yan so she could develop a beast-taming talent of her own.

And Lu Yan's call just now was to tell Shi Jin that she had finally succeeded.

She had also developed telepathy into a combat-type ability.

In the courtyard, Shi Yan and Lu Heng faced each other. Lu Heng said, "I'll name it 'Mind Resonance'—an ability somewhat more scientific than your Mind Domain."

"Uh."

"If, during battle, my emotions, mind, and will with my beast can enter a harmonious, synchronized state, then I can activate the Mind Resonance ability."

"Under Mind Resonance, whether it's my attributes in every respect,

or my beast's attributes in every respect, all receive a very considerable boost."

"Of course, the consumption is slightly greater than a normal enhancement talent. You could roughly regard it as the application of 'the power of mind and emotion.'"

"For example—" Lu Heng patted the Wind Demon Lion beside her. The next moment, the Wind Demon Lion's expression turned solemn, its eyes blazing bright, revealing a majestic look of hatred for evil, brimming with righteous spirit.

At the same time, Lu Heng beside it underwent a complete change in aura. Just moments ago she had been a gentle senior; in this instant she was like a valiant, dashing policewoman, her eyes flowing with resolute will, her face full of righteousness. Under her gaze, even Shi Jin couldn't help feeling a twinge of guilt, as though he were a child who had done something wrong and run into a police officer.

Hum.

Because both now shared the mental trait of hating evil, Lu Heng and the Wind Demon Lion achieved perfect Mind Resonance. Shi Jin could sense that Lu Yan's spiritual power and the Wind Demon Lion's power in every respect were rising rapidly.

Shi Zhuo's mouth fell slightly open. He had already seen the energy value of the overlord-level Wind Demon Lion rise to 82 million—utterly unbelievable, considering that the Wind Demon Lion had not yet activated Mythic Revival.

A moment later, Lu Heng's and the Wind Demon Lion's states stabilized. Lu Yan's smile returned, the corners of her mouth lifting involuntarily. "Well? What do you think?"

Can you resonate with other beasts too?"

"Of course."

"For example, my Empress Flower—right, my Imperial Consort Flower. When it evolves, it's different from the Wind Demon Lion. Its spiritual trait, its personality, is that it has a heart full of pride. If I can adjust my own mind and emotions, experience and understand its character,

then I can achieve attunement with it too, and enter a state of spiritual resonance."

"But that part is rather difficult to pull off." Lu Yan smiled helplessly.

Making herself hate evil as if it were a personal enemy was doable, but making herself as proud as the Empress Flower, proud as an empress—she had tried many times, and only succeeded a handful.

Shi Huan could not help saying, "This spiritual resonance—for the many beast tamers with the gift of telepathy, it's more universally valuable than the spiritual domain."

"Senior, you're even more impressive than me."

"Without you I definitely couldn't do it." Lu Heng smiled and said,

"I've already summarized my experience and sent it to you. Shall we study it together?"

"If you can learn it, you'll definitely do it better than me."

"All right." Shi Yan said, "But I'm in pretty bad shape right now.

Lin won't let me overuse my gift and transcendent power. I'll deal with that later—but I can help you develop it in depth."

"What's wrong with you now?" Lu Yan looked at Shi Jin with concern. "Don't keep yourself wound so tight. It's fine to relax a little.

"Just a little accident, an accident." Shi Jue said sheepishly. He was already slacking off enough—it was purely that his golden finger was all about burning through his life.

"Senior, spiritual resonance, mythic revival, multiple bursts—could your beasts' energy values break a hundred million?" Shi Tang asked.

"Still a bit of a stretch for now."

"With a little more training it should be no problem." Shi Jin said in surprise, "I feel like after cultivating for a while longer, Senior, you'll have the strength to challenge for a title too."

"Still a long way off." Lu Yan waved a hand. "But if there's a chance,

I'd very much like to challenge for the 'Transcendent' title."

"You already have the 'World Legend' title, so you probably won't fight me for it, right?" Lu Heng laughed.

The Transcendent title was one of the titles issued by the Nine Luminaries Alliance, prepared specifically for beast tamers with the gift of telepathy. Because telepathy provides no combat power boost, to this day no telepathically gifted beast tamer had ever attained title-level combat power—that is, totem-level combat power.

This title had naturally remained vacant for a long time.

Shi Jin had clearly met the requirements before, but he had already obtained the World Legend title in advance, so naturally he paid no mind to any Transcendent title.

"A beast tamer shouldn't be able to get two titles, right?" Shi Jin scratched his cheek. The titles issued by the Nine Luminaries Alliance seemed to carry nothing beyond an honor boost—no real substantive reward.

Otherwise, he felt, the Alliance still owed him a "Dragon King" title.

The Dragon King title required one to command a dragon-type beast in a battle against a dragon-type totem for a full day and night—that was the minimum standard. And he had commanded dragon-type beasts to destroy a dragon-type totem and defeat a dragon-type totem, so by rights they should give it to him! It was just the sort of thing that would make a certain dragon-riding youth named Yu Shu lose his dreams.

"There really is no precedent." Lu Heng laughed. "What, you want to try it too?"

"Or should I start a 'I Have a Dream' series and get a title for every single beast?"

"Forget it." Shi Zhuo smiled faintly. "I don't have the energy for that."

"Senior, stay here with me for a while. I happen to have a resource that can give your strength a decent boost in a short time. Then we'll see how well it works—maybe before long you'll be able to challenge for the 'Transcendent' title."

"No—half a month from now, go challenge it and see how big the gap still is."

"Hm?" Lu Heng was taken aback, thinking Shi Jin was joking.

Unless it was a mythic resource, how could she have title-level combat power half a month from now?