3: Chapter 3 Questioning, Starlight Evolution
Li Yu mustered his courage and approached the Starlight Wolf.
The Starlight Wolf glanced at him, lying on the ground with a face full of disdain, snorting a breath through its nose. Its bored expression seemed to say—go ahead, let's see what tricks you have.
Song Jiang's eyes held hope mixed with a warning; the warning was for his own beast, telling it to cooperate throughout the process.
Supervisor Song, however, had a face full of doubt and disbelief.
The Beast Tamer industry had been around for thousands of years, and the blowout stage where evolution paths flourished had long since passed.
Current evolution paths were like a nearly dried-up well, with only the last few trickles remaining.
If nothing else, the number of new evolution paths discovered in Ningyang City every year did not exceed ten at most.
One could imagine just how difficult it was to research a new evolution path.
Li Yu arrived in front of the Starlight Wolf and raised his hand. In a mysterious flick of his fingers, tiny green lights enveloped the Starlight Wolf.
His face gradually turned pale.
Song Jiang looked delighted and whispered, "It's the Spirit Probing Hand! Brother, did you see that?"
"Idiot," Supervisor Song glared at him, "The Spirit Probing Hand is an introductory skill for Breeders. Every Breeder knows it, and it's a low-level skill at that. What are you so excited about?"
"At least it proves he really is a Breeder."
"Nonsense!"
Supervisor Song spoke up, "The Starlight Wolf might have other evolution paths, but those could only be researched by a Senior Cultivator. Do you really think a lowly Intern who's only studied for a few years can research its evolution plan?"
Song Jiang lowered his head and muttered, "It's better than having no hope."
Supervisor Song shook his head and looked at Li Yu, his brow furrowing.
As the head of the company's Cultivation Department, he knew the company's hiring standards well. The Interns from prestigious universities all possessed refined and profound Spirit Probing Hand techniques.
But this young man's Spirit Probing Hand was rusty and crude; he didn't look like someone from a prestigious university at all.
Could there be some problem?
He pondered secretly.
...
Li Yu didn't know Supervisor Song's thoughts. His original intention was to use the Spirit Probing Hand to demonstrate his professionalism, but he hadn't expected it to become a flaw.
Fortunately, the Spirit Probing Hand was just a cover.
With a flip of his hand, the low-grade universal evolution card appeared. He silently thought, "Use."
The evolution card turned into a streak of light, mixed with the green light, and shot into the Starlight Wolf's body. After a moment, it returned from Li Yu's hand back into his mind.
[Star-Moon Evolution - Starlight Wolf King: Combine 20g of Starlight Grass essence, 112g of Scorching Stone powder...]
A detailed evolution plan, along with a wealth of information about the Starlight Wolf, appeared in Li Yu's mind all at once.
It was no exaggeration to say that no one understood the Starlight Wolf better than he did.
"I have a basic understanding of the situation. I already have an evolution plan."
Li Yu turned back and said.
Song Jiang looked delighted and nodded repeatedly, "Really! That's great!"
"Is that so? How impressive. I should remind you, don't let anything go wrong with the beast's cultivation," Supervisor Song said with his usual indifferent attitude.
Li Yu smiled and didn't mind. He patted the Starlight Wolf's back and said, "Follow me."
The Starlight Wolf's eyes widened in surprise, seemingly not expecting a human to speak the wolf language. It followed him closely.
Coming to something like a weighing scale, Li Yu connected various testing wires to the Starlight Wolf and then turned on the connected machine.
While waiting for the test results, Li Yu went to a main console, took out some scratch paper, and quickly wrote down the required materials.
Once the materials were listed, he put the paper into the nearby delivery port.
The cost of these materials would be charged to the person who swiped their card to open the door, so every material Li Yu used would ultimately be reimbursed by Supervisor Song.
Supervisor Song had no objection to this. After all, it was for his brother's cultivation; it was normal for him to provide the materials, and as a supervisor, he received a discount on them.
At that moment, the Starlight Wolf's attribute test was completed.
[Monster Name]: Starlight Wolf
[Monster Quality]: Excellent (C)
[Monster Level]: Bronze Level 8
[Monster Attribute]: Star-Moon
[Monster Talent]: Starlight Sharp Claws, Stardust Tracking
[Monster Description]: A monster mutated after absorbing faint starlight, an evolved form of the Star Wolf. Targets touched by stardust will be tracked.
Beast qualities from low to high are: Elite - Excellent - Extraordinary - Overlord - Monarch...
Each quality is further divided from low to high into F-E-D-C-B-A-S.
Excellent C-grade.
It could only be described as mediocre—not good, but not bad either. It was a fairly common level among ordinary Beast Tamers.
Li Yu led the Starlight Wolf into the incubation pod. Just then, the materials were delivered through the console's transmission channel, a whole basketful of them.
Li Yu picked up the materials and, after identifying them, took them to a material processing machine. He processed the materials with a rusty but accurate technique.
His somewhat rusty technique once again made Supervisor Song frown, and the look of suspicion in his eyes deepened.
Time passed minute by minute.
Once all the materials were processed, Li Yu mixed them according to the evolution plan. Finally, the dozen or so pounds of materials formed a reagent slightly thicker than a finger. The pale blue liquid shimmered with specks of starlight.
At this point, Li Yu looked up and noticed someone was missing. He asked, "Where is Supervisor Song?"
"My brother went out to make a call."
"Make a call?"
"Yes."
Li Yu's heart skipped a beat, thinking things were bad. That guy must have realized he was a fake.
There was no time to think. He strode into the incubation pod, woke up the sleeping Starlight Wolf, and poured the potion down its throat.
With a "bang," he closed the door of the incubation pod.
He returned to the console.
Li Yu adjusted the parameters and then grabbed a red handle, slowly pushing it upward.
Hum—
At the top of the incubation pod, a gun-like device aimed at the Starlight Wolf and shot out a beam of white light.
This was the mixed elemental light that assisted evolution, like an ignition key for the process.
At that moment, the sliding side door of the laboratory was heavily pushed open. With a "bang," it hit the wall at the end of the track.
Supervisor Song walked in with a dark expression, still clutching a phone whose screen hadn't turned off yet. Seeing Li Yu holding the red handle, his expression changed abruptly.
"Stop! Stop right now!" he roared, a surge of regret rising in his heart.
He should have realized earlier that there was something wrong with this young man!
An Intern's cultivation level might not be high, but their material processing would definitely be very agile.
Because they needed to assist, their daily tasks were basically processing materials. But this young man's technique was so rusty; he didn't look like a battle-hardened Intern at all.
Not to mention his Spirit Probing Hand was so crude and low-level!
"Brother, what's wrong?" Song Jiang was confused.
"You've been tricked. This guy," Supervisor Song panted, pointing at Li Yu and shouting, "this guy is simply..."
Before he could finish his sentence, the Starlight Wolf's scream echoed from inside the incubation pod.
"Not good!"
Supervisor Song ignored everything else and lunged toward the console to grab the red handle, intending to turn off the stimulating beam of light of evolution.
But before he could turn it off, a brilliant white light lit up inside the incubation pod, spreading through the entire cultivation room like water.
The Starlight Wolf's screams gradually softened. Within the white light, the wolf's silhouette was slowly being elongated.
"Brother! It worked! It worked, brother!" Song Jiang shouted excitedly.
Supervisor Song gripped the red handle, completely dazed. The flush of anger on his face gradually faded back to normal.