Beast Taming: My System is Bugged

Chapter 152 - 150: The Truth Comes to Light

As Gu Ming pointed, everyone except for a confused Lu You looked toward Mrs. Gu.

At that moment, they all felt the aura of Cyan Pine emanating from Gu Ming grow thicker, far surpassing the intensity he had shown just moments before.

For a strange moment, they had a vision, as if they saw the silhouette of a cyan pine flash across Gu Ming’s body.

Mrs. Gu patted her right shoulder and said, "You’re saying there’s a Pet Beast here on me? There isn’t."

She wore a look of bewilderment.

Before she had even patted her shoulder, the Hidden Mist Butterfly had already flapped its wings and flown off, circling in the air.

The gentle breeze from its flapping wings stirred up even greater waves on the surface of Gu Ming’s Sea of Consciousness.

Compared to the breeze Gu Ming could stir up in his own mind, the Five-star Hidden Mist Butterfly’s control was on a completely different level of subtlety.

Massive waves began to rise. It was a blatant, powerful Mental Suggestion meant to influence him, to make him believe it was all just an illusion.

Logically speaking, a disturbance of this magnitude in his Sea of Consciousness should have constituted a Spiritual Attack.

However, the Hidden Mist Butterfly’s level of control was beyond anything a Low-star Beastmaster could possibly imagine.

The enormous waves on the water’s surface merely swelled high and fell slowly, never inflicting any actual Spiritual Attack on Gu Ming.

The Mental Suggestion grew stronger and stronger in Gu Ming’s mind, attempting to make him believe his mother’s words.

However, after his breakthrough, Gu Ming’s spiritual resistance had improved even further.

While resisting the interference from the Mental Suggestion, Gu Ming used multiple Arrays to quickly pinpoint the source of the waves on the sea’s surface, locking onto the Hidden Mist Butterfly’s position.

Gu Ming pointed again, this time to a spot high up in the air.

"Cyan Treasure!" Gu Ming suddenly shouted his Pet Beast’s name.

Before anyone could react, Cyan Treasure, acting on a telepathic link, opened its mouth in that instant and shot out the Storm Ball it had been holding ready in its throat.

SWOOSH! The Storm Ball, swirling with various kinds of Spiritual Qi, flew toward the spot Gu Ming had pointed to and suddenly exploded.

The Hidden Mist Butterfly was unharmed. It had been startled when Cyan Treasure opened its mouth to fire, but its body had subconsciously executed an Escape into a spatial rift, so the attack missed.

Because of this, the Storm Ball detonated in mid-air, scattering into nothing. Other than a violent blast of chaotic Spiritual Qi washing over everyone present, it didn’t hit a thing.

Gu Ming was also caught in the Storm Ball’s explosion. He was thrown into the air and fell backward.

The others, aside from Mrs. Gu, weren’t as close to the blast’s center and managed to stay on their feet. Their clothes just whipped loudly in the wind, and they each took a step back.

From within the spatial rift, the Hidden Mist Butterfly saw where the Storm Ball had been aimed—it was the exact spot where it had been hovering.

’Gu Ming definitely sensed my position.’

’Under these circumstances, is there any point in hiding anymore?’

’I’m a Five-star Pet Beast, after all. Using Mental Suggestion on a junior is already overkill.’

’For even Gu Ming to break free from the suggestion and sense my location is an incredible feat.’

’Besides, I also sensed a breakthrough-level surge in his Spiritual Fluctuation. It’s obvious his Cultivation Technique has advanced.’

Gu Ming, for his part, was wondering why the Storm Ball hadn’t hit.

’Could it be that this Pet Beast’s form of existence is beyond my imagination?’

Just then, Mrs. Gu sighed and said:

"Since you’ve already figured this much out, I won’t hide it from you anymore. For that, I have to apologize."

"Let me be the one to explain."

The old man stepped forward to explain the whole story.

Gu Ming’s expression shifted again and again. He never would have imagined it was actually true. It was all so absurd.

At the same time, Gu Ming recalled all the strange things that had happened at home in the past.

They had seemed like quirky antics, and he’d mistaken them for a normal part of family life. After all, it’s normal for family members to be a little silly sometimes.

Only now did he realize that it was all the result of interference from the Hidden Mist Butterfly’s Mental Suggestion.

After learning that his family had indeed been hiding so much from him, Gu Ming was momentarily at a loss for how to speak to them. The entire situation had changed, after all.

A feeling of resentment and indignation flashed through his heart.

But thanks to the system’s hints about future events, Gu Ming was already mentally prepared. The massive shock didn’t shatter his composure; instead, he was simply unhappy with his family’s deception.

As an outsider, Lu You looked extremely uncomfortable.

’Should I escape into the house to hide? It probably isn’t right for me to listen in on their conversation,’ Lu You wondered.

Lu You lifted her foot and began to quietly back away.

Also retreating quietly with her were Teacher Zhang’s family and their Pet Beasts.

The group slipped back into the house. Once they could no longer hear the voices from outside, they let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"Teacher, so Gu Ming’s family aren’t gamblers, they’re..."

Lu You trailed off, hesitating to finish her sentence.

She didn’t know how Gu Ming would face the family that had deceived him, or if he could adapt to his new family situation.

After all, before this, Gu Ming had been someone who fought with his all, with no safety net to fall back on at home.

Now that his family’s circumstances had changed so drastically, the drive that had pushed him to work so hard could vanish at any moment.

...

「Late at night.」

Gu Ming sat on his bed, performing the Cyan Pine Visualization in his mind.

The drama from a few hours ago had ended. At Mr. Gu’s signal, the Black and White Long-Armed Ape had begun to fulfill the promise Mr. Gu had made earlier.

From now on, whenever it was free, it would put Cyan Treasure through military-style training.

If Mouse Treasure was also around, it would be trained too.

Now, Gu Ming was in his bedroom doing his own Cultivation, while Cyan Treasure and the Sunflower Seed-eating Hamster were still outside in the yard undergoing high-intensity military training, their pained cries echoing through the air.

Anyone who didn’t know better would think some wild beast was abusing a family’s Pet Beasts.

Since it was high-intensity, non-stop military training, there were naturally no breaks to be had.

As he faced the strict military training dished out by his dad’s Pet Beast, Gu Ming watched the bullet comments that occasionally popped up from his system:

[Cyan Treasure’s Combat Instinct EXP +1]

[Cyan Treasure’s Power +1]

All the resentment and indignation in his heart slowly began to dissolve.

After his anger subsided, Gu Ming’s rationality returned.

Putting aside the unreasonable deception, he knew his parents had done it for his own good.

It was just that their method of education was hard to accept.

Gu Ming recalled the sights he’d seen in his childhood, the people he’d met, and the things he’d experienced. Aside from their supposed gambling habit, his family’s teachings about conduct and values had always been spot-on.

Other than the fact that they had lied to him, his parents had essentially fulfilled all their responsibilities.

No matter how much Gu Ming cared about the principles of honesty and trust, he couldn’t deny that his parents had poured all their love into raising him.

Because of this, besides being angry, he found it difficult to hate them.

After he had completely calmed down, Gu Ming looked at the massive amount of plot that his system was frantically updating.

That’s right. After Gu Ming had exposed his parents, the system had updated its content.

Reality was already absurd enough, but when an event in another timeline didn’t match what was happening in reality, the system would bug out.

In the future timeline, Gu Ming and Lu You were supposed to have come to his hometown for special training with Teacher Zhang’s family.

The reason given by the system was that Teacher Zhang wanted to train Cyan Treasure’s wilderness combat skills, so the group had returned to the hometown.

In reality, however, his parents and grandfather were all alive and well.

Whenever a major family event occurred on Gu Ming’s side, the system was prone to bugging out. After all, in its timeline, those people were already dead.