Chapter 47: Blight Butterfly, Mind Energy Methods

When Xu Younian walked over, Ye Xuan realized that the students of Cangzhou University, as well as those from the affiliated high school, had already begun making their way into the Spirit Pagoda.

Letting his gaze wander, Ye Xuan noticed that on the body of this jet-black Spirit Pagoda, there were patterns of all sorts of beasts. Each one of those beasts looked extremely lifelike. It was as if they could walk right off the building and devour the people.

Xu Younian came over to keep Lin Shiru company for a short while and then left on the pretext of having to deal with something. He left one instructor behind to keep her company, a woman with the last name Nian. She used to be acquainted with Lin Shiru.

The two of them kept an easy conversation going on, and the atmosphere was a lot better than the somewhat awkward one that Xu Younian had kept up. And as for Ye Xuan, the bulk of his attention was on the Cangzhou University students.

This was because a lot of them had released their beasts since they were about to enter the pagoda. It made for an eye-opening experience for Ye Xuan. Before this, he had looked up the Internet for information on quite a few beasts, and he had also watched a lot of videos.

Watching videos was one thing, but it could never hold a candle to being in such close proximity to these beasts.

“That butterfly, is that the Blight Butterfly?”

Suddenly, Ye Xuan’s eyes widened, and his gaze fell upon a student with long, straight hair. The student wore a long black skirt; she had exquisite facial features, and there was a faint butterfly mark between her brows. Hers was a calm face, and she stood silently.

Not a single person approached her.

However, perched on her shoulder was a black butterfly gently flapping its wings. Ye Xuan guessed that it was the Blight Butterfly, a beast with a grade of five gold stars. It was said that it could start blights and cause the enemy’s luck to be terrible.

It was just that this sort of beast was extremely rare, and Ye Xuan had only seen a tiny bit of information of this on the Internet, and so he did not dare say for sure this was the beast.

Of course, this was no problem at all for Ye Xuan. When he felt that it would be difficult for him to ascertain the beast’s identity, he immediately tapped into the power of the Beast Editor and identified the beast.

“It really is the Blight Butterfly!”

After Ye Xuan identified the beast, he immediately and subconsciously took a step back. Like everyone else, he kept some distance from this horrifying thing. According to the identification, this butterfly well and truly lived up to its name as being a beast with a grade of five gold stars.

Not only that, but also this was a beast at the apex of the gold grade.

Just then, just as Ye Xuan had his eyes on the student, Lin Shiru let her gaze fall on the girl as well. Shock flashed through her gaze as she turned her head. A Blight Butterfly at the grade of five gold stars was, indeed, rare. But she had found someone as powerfully talented as Ye Xuan, who had far surpassed her expectations.

She believed that Ye Xuan would be no less powerful when he grew. As she let herself get lost in her thoughts, she could not help but glance at Ye Xuan. She wondered if Ye Xuan would awaken a decent level of Beast Taming Talent once he hit the Dark Iron grade.

She also wondered if it was possible to be bound to two beasts again.

Whoosh!

Three minutes after the Cangzhou University students stepped into the black doors to the Spirit Pagoda that had been left wide open, one of them finally stepped out.

But when he stepped out and realized he was the only one there, his face twisted immediately, and he seemed torn.

Whoosh!

But shortly after, one figure after another surrounded him—they had been sent out by the Spirit Pagoda.

“The trial of the Spirit Pagoda is not dangerous.”

To the side, the instructor named Nian saw the dubious look on Ye Xuan’s face and then explained, “The Spirit Pagoda is a very strange thing itself.

“Not only does it possess spiritual intellect, but also it is very powerful. Initially, Cangzhou sent out two Challengers to take control of this Secret Realm before we finally reached an agreement with the Spirit Pagoda.”

“We are permitted to let a thousand or so students in to train here.”

“It possesses the spiritual intellect?”

Shock colored Ye Xuan’s face, for Lin Shiru had not told him this before.

He thought about it and then said in a small voice, “Miss Nian, can we treat the Spirit Pagoda as beasts to be bound to us?”

“No, we can’t.” She shook her head when she heard him and then said, “According to the information we’ve archived from relics, only inborn spiritual treasures that possess such spiritual intellect can be treated as beasts and forge a bond with Beast Tamers.”

“That said, we have no idea what sort of existence spiritual treasures are. Not a single one of us from Cerulean Planet has ever seen one.”

“As for the Spirit Pagoda, it was likely created by beasts capable of refining weapons among other things, according to the estimation of our Challengers. It can only be commanded by certain special beasts, and it cannot be bound to us like beasts are.”

“Beasts that can refine weapons?”

To Ye Xuan, it felt like the door to a new world had opened.

“Indeed, they exist, though they are rare. One other thing—most of such beasts that appear on Cerulean Planet are not of high grades or levels. They remain a far cry from the powerful beasts that exist in the relics or our archives,” Lin Shiru said from the side.

“Is that so?”

Ye Xuan seemed to be deep in thought. As the few of them chatted idly, five minutes had already elapsed since the first wave of students entered the Spirit Pagoda.

At this time, only a handful of students were still holding their own in the Spirit Pagoda.

“They’re doing quite okay if they’re persisting for so long,” one of the instructors who was keeping an eye on the situation said with satisfaction.

After the Beast Tamers entered the Spirit Pagoda, they would have to fend off waves of enemies that the Spirit Pagoda assigned for them in accordance with their rank.

Then, the ones who persevered the longest and broke through the most rounds would come out of it with the best score.

On average, Beast Tamers who were able to stay three minutes in there would earn 60 points, which was considered a passing mark, even though barely, and they would earn a prize that was neither good nor bad.

Staying in there for four minutes would earn them a score of about 70 and so on and so forth.

Five minutes would earn them 80 points.

Six minutes earned them 90 points.

But since the inception of the Spirit Pagoda, there had only been a dozen or so people who earned 90 points.

Only three scored 91 points.

And only one had ever scored 92 points.

Whoosh!

As soon as the teacher had spoken, a few students walked out of the Spirit Pagoda, one after the other.

“How was it?”

A teacher immediately welcomed them after seeing the students walk out.

“I did pretty bad. I only scored 89 points.”

It was a student with bright red hair who stood at a height of 1.9m who shook their head.

“Man, I’m much worse, then. I only scored 88 points.”

“I scored 87.”

A few of the other students shook their heads as well. They might have been shaking their heads, but the other students who were present had their gazes fixed on the group, and they felt a wave of envy pass through them.

To a lot of people, these results were more than they could hope for. Ye Xuan saw a few of them dawdling in front of the Spirit Pagoda, and he was speechless. After every examination, the top students would all huddle together and compare, saying things like “I got this wrong. That’s probably going to cost me two or three marks.”

And another would say, “I’m way worse. I took a nap after I finished the paper, and I only realized I read a question wrongly when I submitted the paper.” This was the sort of feeling Ye Xuan got from this scene.

“All right, hurry and fall back in line since you’re all back.”

The teacher who had stepped forward to ask after them could not stand the sight of the students anymore. They waved a hand and signaled for the bunch of students to head down and allow for the next batch of students to enter the Spirit Pagoda. It just so happened that the student who had what seemed like the Blight Butterfly was among this wave of students.

Ye Xuan’s eyes glinted. He wondered how long she would stay in the Spirit Pagoda.

“Ah, right.”

Just then, the teacher named Nian seemed to think of something and said to Ye Xuan, “I don’t know if you’re aware, Ye Xuan, but the moment a student steps into the Spirit Pagoda, it will first ascertain their talent.”

“The more talented ones will receive preferential treatment when the rewards are handed out at the end. Those with talent that far exceed their peers will also be able to choose and bring a Mind Energy method out of the pagoda with them. Of course, only those who score 90 and above will be accorded this privilege.”

She was very curious. She wondered just how well Ye Xuan, who Li Shiru thought so highly of, would do. Of course, she was not the only curious one.

Out of all the instructors and students from Cangzhou University, there was practically no one who was not curious about Ye Xuan.

“A Mind Energy method?”

Ye Xuan asked curiously, “I thought we could only advance our beasts’ grades by relying on their reverse nurturing.”

“That’s right.”

Instructor Nian nodded as if a little surprised that Ye Xuan was not entirely certain of something like this.

She thought about it and then said, “It’s just that this planet has a lot of methods that allow for Beast Tamers to train their own Mind Energy even if it doesn’t have a lot of techniques to help them raise their own levels.”

“On top of that, such techniques will likely allow for Beast Tamers to unlock a special ability at every level once they have mastered the said method.”

“For example, they’ll be able to enhance the techniques the beasts have, such as the Blazing Flames Technique or the Expansion Technique.”

“And mastering your Mind Energy will draw out greater strength from these powers.”

“Like the special talents that Beast Tamers awaken when they advance in rank?” Ye Xuan said, his heart stirring.

“Yes, exactly that,” Instructor Nian said with a nod. “It’s just that, comparatively, the power that comes from such training is likely to be a little weaker from the talent that Beast Tamers awaken.”

“You don’t have to worry too much about this,” Lin Shiru cut in just then. “Jiangzhou University has a collection of a dozen or so methods. We’ll pick one that is most suitable for you and hand it to you once you advance to the Dark Iron level.”

She paused when she said this and then continued, “Of course, it’s not a bad thing if you’re able to earn a better method in the Spirit Pagoda.”