Chapter 485 — The First Rule Revival
The Beast-Taming Craftsman Page 2 of 4
"ROAR!!!" The Martial Emperor's other pets fanned the flames as well.
The iron-eating beast had been the ninth to join the Martial Emperor's team, yet its strength had progressed the fastest; these old veterans all felt a bit of a crisis.
The freshly evolved Demon God Iron-Eating Beast would surely need to adapt to its skills through battle. Frankly, none of them wanted to be the sparring partner. So...
In the next moment, the Martial Emperor's iron-eating beast looked toward Eleven and the grinning Shi Zi: "......" It was rather speechless. This little runt—did it really want to fight it that badly?
"Ahem." Shi Jin noticed it too—the Martial Emperor's team was pretty competitive as well, hardly any less so than his own. These nine beasts all possessed Overlord Will; that was quite remarkable. "They can certainly use some mutual adjustment. Senior Martial Emperor, let's have them stop at the first touch."
"Afterward, the other beasts should get to know one another too, and build up some rapport," said Shi Li.
"Mm." The Martial Emperor said, "I have a quasi-god-tier ruin that I carry with me—it's where I usually train. Let them practice there." The Martial Emperor sensed that Shi Jin would make an excellent sparring partner.
Once one reached the legendary domain, everyone of comparable strength was an enemy; there was scarcely any chance for training bouts against equals. He sensed that after preparing for battle alongside Shi Shuo, his overall strength might rise another notch.
Shi Tan felt the same—after sparring with the Martial Emperor, famed throughout history for his combat prowess, his overall strength could improve considerably.
"You people..." General Ji Yunzhong smiled wryly. "I wonder if I might be permitted to watch a bout between the two Iron-Eating Beasts."
"I'd like to as well..." said Ji Li.
The Martial Emperor shook his head with a smile. "Very well. Everyone come along, then."
Hearing this, Shi Jin smiled faintly. "Then I'll summon all my beasts as well." With the Martial Emperor's nine totems as sparring partners, Eleven alone in combat wouldn't be nearly enough.
The Martial Emperor nodded. Thereupon, Shi Jin summoned Chongchong and the others—but this summoning once again left the Martial Emperor and the rest collectively silent. Buzz!!
Nine pitch-black summoning arrays appeared all around Shi Jin, making Ji Li and Ji Yunzhong's eyes go wide. They counted carefully... one, two, three... nine!
They rubbed their eyes, quite certain they had not miscounted.
As the nine summoning arrays appeared, out came Chongchong, Ginseng Baby, Crimson Pupil, Susu, the Lin clone, Little Machine, Duckie, Little Purple, and Qi—even the Martial Emperor was somewhat dumbfounded.
Was something not quite right here?
A legendary beast tamer had a level-seven space; by rights, there should be only seven contract slots. Yet counting the Iron-Eating Beast already outside, Shi Jin had opened ten summoning arrays and summoned ten beasts!!
Mind you, that was the number of contracts only a mythic-tier beast tamer possessed!
"ROAR!" The moment Chongchong and the others emerged, their gazes fixed at once on the Martial Emperor's beasts—Chongchong especially, which immediately locked onto the Martial Emperor's Azure Dragon.
Among the beasts Shi Jin summoned, the Rubik's Lin was merely a clone, here to arrange battle-preparation plans for the others; its true body was still researching the secret weapon against the Meteorite Moose. Qi had only just woken up and was still groggy—it pulled Little Purple over and hugged it like a pillow, its little cherry mouth opening in a yawn.
"T-ten... ten!!" Ji Li was bewildered.
But why were most of Shi Ying's beasts shrunk so small, looking so utterly harmless! Even Ginseng Baby was among them.
The only two that looked the part of strong contenders were that colossal Molten Lava Dragon and the Demonic Duck radiating an abyssal, terrifying aura. Shi Jin explained, "My beast-taming space has been enhanced, so I can contract a few more beasts."
At this very moment, the Martial Emperor showed envy for the first time. If only he too could contract more beasts—his constitution would surely grow even more powerful.
"Is this the sword spirit that slew the Black Void Divine Dragon?" The Martial Emperor looked toward Crimson Pupil, the spirit of the Immortal-Slaying Sword Array, now shrunk to Qi's size, like a miniature swordmaiden. "Though what I'm more curious about is this one..."
The Martial Emperor looked toward Susu, the Sea-Spirit of the Vast Sea, now in the form of a water slime, and felt only disbelief.
"I have some conjectures about its identity and species—I wonder if they're correct." The Martial Emperor addressed Shi Li. "What conjectures?" said Shi Li.
"The strongest demigod of legend, guardian deity of the Vast Sea, the Sea-Spirit that commands the mightiest purification power." The Martial Emperor said, "The Sea-Spirit of the Vast Sea that has not appeared for a thousand years."
"What?!" At the Martial Emperor's words, General Ji Yunzhong and Ji Li abruptly turned to stare at Susu.
"Ning." Susu sighed. When would it ever shed its identity as a Sea-Spirit of the Vast Sea and become a Spirit of the Starry Sea?
"Yes—the reason I said I could help you purify the Meteorite Moose's radiation, Senior Martial Emperor, is precisely because of it. Unfortunately, it's currently in its reincarnation phase and its strength has not fully recovered. A strike like the one that repelled the Meteorite Moose before—it can only produce a limited number of those." Shi Li said.
"It really is a Sea-Spirit of the Vast Sea?" General Ji Yunzhong said in disbelief. This was a species out of legend!
With a history a hundred times older than even the Meteorite Moose's legends!
He stared at Shi Jin as if at some freak of nature. Just what was this person's background? "You..."
After a silence, the Martial Emperor's gaze swept once more, one by one, over Shi Ying's beasts. Among them, Little Purple and Qi were the ones he could read least—these two had the weakest power fluctuations, yet gave him the most peculiar feeling of all.
"It seems there's room for improvement ahead," the Martial Emperor thought.
To prepare alongside the Martial Emperor for the coming great decisive battle, Shi Jin and the others all entered the Martial Emperor's ruin space.
Whether Ji Li or General Ji Yunzhong, both were intensely curious—between the Martial Emperor's Iron-Eating Beast and Shi Ying's Iron-Eating Beast, who exactly was stronger? "It's a level above—if it loses, don't go saying it was trained by us." Chongxuan and the other elders offered their encouragement to the Martial Emperor's Iron-Eating Beast.
"ROAR!!" The Martial Emperor's Iron-Eating Beast kept its Devil-God form, its whole body shrouded in darkness, roaring without pause. Tch, how annoying—no matter how strong the opponent, it was only Overlord-tier; they were both nine-inscription beasts, so how could it possibly lose?
Besides, that little Iron-Eating Beast, though also of the royal line, by the look of it, was evolving toward the lightning sub-attribute. Whereas it was evolving toward the spatial sub-attribute.
By attribute alone, it already had the upper hand.
And that was indeed the case—whether the Martial Emperor's Iron-Eating Beast, or those of Ji Yunzhong and Ji Li, all had evolved toward the spatial sub-attribute. By comparison, Shi Jin's choice of lightning had been out of sheer necessity.
It wasn't that he disliked space; it was that back then he simply had no money to raise a space-attribute beast—spatial resources were so expensive. Lightning, on the other hand... Eleven could eat its fill anywhere.
Not that Shi Cen had any regrets—lightning was no weakling either! "Let's see how their evolutions turned out."