9: Breakthrough and Grand Prize
After Su Ze and Xu Yao left the Beast Tamer Association, they each returned to their respective homes.
They needed to spend time refining the unexpected windfall of quenching thought beads to further improve their strength before the Beast Taming College Entrance Examination.
Both of them had refined a quenching thought bead before, so refining a second one was a familiar process.
However, the quenching thought bead obtained from Guo Linshan was of higher quality and larger, so it took longer to refine.
It only took Su Ze one night to refine his first quenching thought bead, but this second one took him an entire day and night.
It wasn't until late the next morning that Su Ze completely refined the quenching thought bead.
The good news was that with the help of the high-quality quenching thought bead, Su Ze finally successfully broke through the Tenth Level.
At the moment of breakthrough, the Spiritual Power he had accumulated through years of cultivation surged forward, forcefully pushing his level up several more stages.
Before this, although he couldn't break through, the Spiritual Power he cultivated still existed and remained within his body.
This Spiritual Power had settled before the breakthrough barrier, making what should have been a simple breakthrough very difficult.
Therefore, Su Ze needed to use the power of the quenching thought bead, combined with the demon beast eggs he had eaten over the past two days, to forcefully burst through the barrier in one go.
After breaking through the barrier, this excess power did not simply vanish.
Several forces intertwined, causing Su Ze's momentum to continue rising steadily.
Level 11, Level 12... Level 15, Level 16.
Su Ze rose 6 levels in a row, only stopping once he reached Level 16!
This was even with Su Ze deliberately controlling the breakthrough; he had originally intended to stop at Level 15 and transfer the excess power to the Void Spirit Turtle to prevent the level gap between them from becoming too large.
Ultimately, however, both of their strengths unified at Level 16, showing just how powerful his accumulated Spiritual Power combined with the quenching thought bead's energy truly was.
"Whew, I've gained too many levels at once. I need to adapt properly before I can fully exert my power," Su Ze said, opening his eyes and exhaling a breath of turbid air after his breakthrough.
The massive surge in Spiritual Power in an instant made him feel a bit lightheaded and swollen-headed.
Compared to Su Ze, the Void Spirit Turtle, which also rose six levels, was merely a bit larger in size with a darker shell, showing no signs of discomfort.
After all, for a demonic beast, leveling up was just normal growth.
However, in a natural environment, a demonic beast's growth is very slow.
Once contracted as a beast, the demonic beast can pass through its weak infancy and growth periods more quickly by complementing its Beast Tamer.
Su Ze slowly stood up; he had mostly adapted by now, or at least no longer felt so dizzy and uncomfortable.
"This breakthrough didn't just let me rise six levels in a row; my excess Spiritual Power is now enough to support the cost of another beast contract. I can contract a second beast!"
With the god-tier gacha system, Su Ze didn't lack beasts; he could hatch a new demonic beast whenever he wanted.
However, having started with a Gold-rank beast, he no longer cared for lower-tier Bronze or Silver grade demonic beasts.
"There are still ten days left until the Beast Taming College Entrance Examination. I can still pull ten gachas using the god-tier gacha system. I hope I can pull another Gold-rank beast before the exam!"
Su Ze chose to save up today's pull attempts.
He wanted to gather ten gacha opportunities for a ten-pull.
Based on his experience with gacha games in his past life, a ten-pull usually had a higher probability of getting something good.
The only problem was that during these ten days, he couldn't pull demon beast eggs to advance the progress bar.
Regardless, he wouldn't be able to fill the progress bar in ten days anyway, so it wasn't really a loss.
Over the next few days, Su Ze basically stayed indoors, adapting to his suddenly increased power.
During that time, Xu Yao only came by once.
After spending two days and nights refining the quenching thought bead, this girl's Spiritual Power successfully rose three levels in a row, breaking through to Level 13.
She also shared some of her power with the Azure Phoenix Butterfly, raising it to Level 12.
This was already an excellent result; consecutive breakthroughs were typically the domain of geniuses.
So, Xu Yao immediately sought out Su Ze, wanting to spar with him and familiarize herself with her power.
As soon as Su Ze opened the door, he saw the Azure Phoenix Butterfly perched on Xu Yao's shoulder, flapping its wings and showing off.
It wanted to teach this human, who dared to compete with it for their master's affection, a lesson!
Then... the Void Spirit Turtle, perched on Su Ze's head, briefly revealed its aura, and the Azure Phoenix Butterfly immediately wilted.
With the same bloodline, a four-level difference was already worlds apart.
Seeing this, Xu Yao couldn't help but warn him, "Brother Su Ze, it's very dangerous if a beast's level is too much higher than its Beast Tamer's. You must be careful!"
She thought Su Ze had given most of the quenching thought bead's power to the Void Spirit Turtle, which was why its level had risen so much.
Su Ze smiled and said, "Thanks for the concern, but I'm currently the same level as the Void Spirit Turtle, so it's not dangerous."
"Same level?..." Xu Yao was a bit dazed.
This meant Su Ze was now a bona fide Level 16 Beast Tamer.
To think that just three or four days ago, he wasn't even a Beast Tamer; this rate of improvement was unprecedented!
This couldn't help but give Xu Yao a sense of urgency, as if she would be left far behind if she wasn't careful.
So after that day, Xu Yao didn't come to see Su Ze again, seemingly focusing on meditating and cultivating in her room.
Ten days later, on the morning of the Beast Taming College Entrance Examination.
Having finally saved up enough for a ten-pull, Su Ze entered the system space early in the morning.
Inside the system space, the gacha machine, which had been silent for ten days, began to operate once more.
Su Ze watched expectantly as the vast number of beast taming eggs tumbled inside.
Just like before, after an unknown number of rotations, a bronze-colored egg rolled out first, followed by a silver egg.
But Su Ze remained unmoved; he was waiting for that flash of golden light.
He waited like this until the eighth egg, and all of them were Bronze or Silver grade.
Su Ze was gradually becoming disappointed.
Just then, as the ninth egg rolled out, a flash of golden light suddenly appeared.
Su Ze immediately perked up.
"It dropped! It dropped on the ninth one this time! My luck isn't bad at all!"
Sure enough, a gold egg came rolling down.
Just as Su Ze was preparing to exit the system and stop looking at the last egg...
A light so brilliant it was blinding erupted from the gacha machine's exit, and a magnificent, dazzling beast taming egg slowly rolled out, bumping into the gold egg in front of it.
Su Ze was stunned; the previously satisfying gold egg no longer seemed so appealing.
"The grand prize... This is the f*cking grand prize! Who cares about a gold egg! I knew that boys who smile often don't have bad luck!"
Because that egg was a diamond egg, representing a Diamond-rank Demonic Beast that could break through to the maximum level of 100!