Beast Taming: My System is Bugged-Chapter 82 - 81: The Seed Has Formed?

After finishing its practice, Mouse Treasure remained still, silently circulating its Cultivation Technique.

It had just undergone the baptism of the Hall of the Great Dao, gaining a profound epiphany and a much deeper understanding of the Earth Shifting Technique.

Deep within its Dantian, amidst the plate-like formations of its Earth Element Mana, a verdant seed glimmered with spiritual light.

"This is..." Lu You said in astonishment, lightly covering her mouth.

Her gasp drew the attention of everyone present.

"What’s wrong?" Gu Ming asked, looking over.

He didn’t have a Pet Beast Contract with Mouse Treasure, so he couldn’t directly sense the state of its Cultivation Technique. Furthermore, the Hidden Dao Pill concealed its aura, keeping the presence of its technique hidden within its body, imperceptible to outsiders.

Teacher Zhang was the first to walk over. He pressed his fingers against the hamster’s abdomen and closed his eyes to feel it.

An idea struck Gu Ming. He had the ability to use Spiritual Waves, which he could use for close-range sensing via a form of bone conduction.

No matter how strong the Hidden Dao Pill and the local Concealment Array were, they couldn’t prevent such a close-range inspection.

Gu Ming went over and pressed his hand against the hamster’s side. He silently performed a Visualization of the Cyan Pine in his mind, feeling its branches and leaves sway, causing ripples to spread across a water surface.

Using his Spiritual Power to carve an array, after about ten seconds, the Spiritual Waves generated by Old Deng’s Health Array were transmitted into the hamster’s body, quickly relaying all of its internal information back to Gu Ming.

On the other side, Teacher Zhang opened his eyes, a look of surprise flashing across his face.

He was surprised by the new discovery in the Sunflower Seed-eating Hamster’s Dantian, and also by Gu Ming’s Spiritual Detection.

’That fluctuation feels a lot like Divine Sense.’

’Has Gu Ming already developed Divine Sense?’

’No, no, I refuse to believe that’s Divine Sense. How could anyone be so ridiculously talented?’

’It must be that Spiritual Technique!’

Gu Ming’s Brain Array Carving Technique was outrageous. Teacher Zhang still didn’t understand how it worked, only having a general idea.

Now that he’d seen it in action, this Spiritual Technique was truly incredible. At just the level of a One-star Beastmaster, he already had an ability similar to Divine Sense.

But that wasn’t the main point right now. His attention quickly returned to Mouse Treasure.

"How could the Earth Shifting Technique produce Grass Mana? Is this really an Earth Element Technique?"

"It is an Earth Element Technique, but this is another unexpected development, Teacher." Gu Ming wasn’t sure how to explain it. It involved an entire system of Ultimate Skills, a miraculous reaction produced by multiple Cultivation Techniques.

Now, two Cultivation Techniques had successfully merged, sprouting a Grass Seed in the earth.

A cause for celebration.

This meant Mouse Treasure had taken another step toward the Wood Escape Ultimate Skill.

「Teacher Zhang is full of praise for this. It is a good omen for cultivating Mastery of Wood Escape. The next step is to continue cultivating the Dantian, apply fertilizer, and turn it into fertile soil. An Earth Element Pet is meant to nurture Life Power in this "land," while a Grass Element Pet follows the opposite approach.」

「You are deep in thought about this. Comprehension of Wood Escape Ultimate Skill guidance +1」

Gu Ming: "..."

The real Teacher Zhang knew nothing about this, but that was fine. As long as the Teacher Zhang in the system knew, that was all that mattered.

Teacher Zhang examined it for a while longer, then shook his head, a hint of pity on his face.

"It’s a pity it’s only a Monochromatic Technique. If the Earth Shifting Technique had a higher upper limit, this soil should have been able to stabilize. What a shame."

Having seen Gu’s Dual-Colored and Tri-Colored Techniques before, he had thought Gu’s New Technique would once again be somewhere between dual- and tri-colored.

Still, even being just monochromatic was stunning enough for Teacher Zhang.

The manager clicked her tongue in wonder, her eyes full of admiration. "Gu, it looks like you could go the competition route. Look at this momentum you have creating Cultivation Techniques! You’re not much different from those geniuses."

Gu Ming, however, ignored their praise. He listened intently to Teacher Zhang’s words and mused, "Teacher, what if the soil can’t be stabilized?"

"If it can’t be stabilized, the seed will die. It won’t have enough nutrients, after all."

Zhang Yunpeng had experience creating his own Cultivation Techniques. Although his position wasn’t high and he hadn’t been famous before, just from this short observation, he could already see what Gu Ming was up to.

Simply put, Mouse Treasure was planting a tree.

It sounded simple, but it was actually very complex—it was the Life Domain, something ordinary students would never encounter.

Zhang Yunpeng expanded on this from the perspective of Cultivation Techniques, and he could quickly imagine what kind of power would erupt from the combination of an Earth Element Technique and a Grass Element Type Technique.

After all, during the major college entrance exams and his university days, he had seen quite a few Pet Beasts that dual-cultivated both Earth and Grass elements.

The Life Force and control they displayed made them a particularly striking combination in the Pet Beast Realm.

Earth and Grass could make Grass Element Summoning Skills much harder to deal with. For example, with a life supply from the soil, the hardness and control of Poison Vine Entanglement Skills would double.

For another example, after being enhanced by complementary Earth Element Skills, Grass Element Healing Skills would provide even deeper healing.

However, Healing Skills weren’t so easy to train. Low-star Healing Skills were still learnable, but there were no leads on High-star Level ones; they were completely monopolized.

While the two men were pondering Mouse Treasure, Manager Ruan couldn’t see what was happening inside its Dantian.

Looking at Gu Ming and Lu You, her thoughts turned to Gu Ming’s future path—competitions.

She came from a prominent family and had once considered the competition route herself, but unfortunately, her Talent was limited, and she couldn’t make it.

Usually, she only ever heard her family’s elders drone on about the geniuses of other families. She was sick of hearing it.

She never expected to see one of those "kids from another family"—and one from a poor background, no less—right in front of her.

However, the manager also knew that if Gu Ming really wanted to participate in competitions, the effort required went far beyond just Pet Beast Cultivation Technique Study.

Combat, Nurturing, and Cultivation Techniques—the three were inextricably linked.

Focusing on just one could easily lead you into a trap.

Seeing the two men finish their examination, Manager Ruan stood up and started chatting with them.

Gu Ming had never seen a competition before; he only knew it was a route to get a recommendation for university admission.

When the topic turned to competitions, Gu Ming couldn’t contribute, but he absorbed information like a dry sponge.

He cast a curious, knowledge-seeking gaze at Sister Ruan. She coughed twice and said, "Competitions don’t just require you to create original Cultivation Techniques; sometimes they need you to solve problems."

"Let me tell you about a competition question I saw back in my day."

"An Adolescent Stage, One-star Fiery Monkey has been practicing a Fire Attribute Technique for eight months. Suddenly, it can’t cultivate anymore. Its Dantian seems to be stuck, and it’s discovered to have been afflicted with some kind of poison."

"As a Beastmaster who specializes in Cultivation Technique Study, how should you advise it? And how would you identify the problem with the Pet Beast, or which of its meridians are damaged?"

"Poison? Was it injured in a fight? Can you examine the pet on-site, or do you have to figure it out just by looking at a test paper?" Gu Ming asked.

"There’s a Pet Beast on-site. It’s a bit like diagnosing a patient. That’s just one type of question. You might also be asked to go into the mountains to find a specific medicine, and during the search, other candidates might try to stop you, so you’ll most likely have to fight."

Teacher Zhang added from the side. He then glanced at Cyan Treasure, a little worried about its combat ability.

Hearing the topic of competitions, Lu You, though it had nothing to do with her, also pricked up her ears to listen to the problem.

It turned out the Fiery Monkey had been accidentally bitten by a certain type of Snake Pet. It was just a small wound, but the poison had followed the bloodstream into the meridians crucial for its Cultivation Technique, causing them to deteriorate and rot.

At this point, the Fiery Monkey could no longer practice its original Cultivation Technique. Its main meridians had rotted away, requiring a Beastmaster to use their experience to modify the technique’s pathway.

In a severe case, they might even have to change the fundamental concept of the Cultivation Technique itself.

This was no less difficult than creating a whole new Cultivation Technique.

Questions like this were quite common in past competitions.

Of course, the Attribute might change. Sometimes the test would be on the Wind Attribute, other times the Grass Attribute.

A Beastmaster couldn’t possibly be an expert in every attribute. They inevitably specialized in the domain of one or two attributes of Spiritual Qi. After all, a person’s research time is limited, and the Pet Beasts they contract with are generally not cross-attribute.

Gu Ming now had a small advantage: he had already guided an Earth Attribute and a Grass Attribute Pet Beast in cultivating new techniques. Moreover, these techniques were improvements upon their original Basic Skills, so he could specifically look for problems related to these two attributes.

Listening to the manager’s description of the competition question, Gu Ming fell into silent contemplation, pondering how he would modify the Cultivation Technique.

He subconsciously glanced at the system, only to see it was acting up again. What he heard in the system’s version of the question was a million miles off from what Manager Ruan had said, giving him a headache.