Beast Taming: My System is Bugged

Chapter 159 - 157: A New Evolution Method

It was the third week of April.

Midterm exams were next week. Just a short while ago, Gu Ming had been busy training Cyan Treasure’s Laser Skills and dealing with matters related to the Visualization Image. In the blink of an eye, the exams were almost upon them.

After Gu Ming returned from his hometown, Cyan Treasure’s Plant Life Laser had successfully reached the Master Level under Ma Tianba’s meticulous training.

However, Cyan Treasure’s Light Poison Fang hadn’t been perfected yet, so it was impossible to see just how powerful the Laser Skill was now that it had reached the Master Level.

In addition, the Visualization Image was a huge hit, selling incredibly well within the city. Gu Ming earned a small fortune, and his personal funds rose back to over twenty million.

With money in his pocket, Gu Ming’s gaze naturally fell upon Spirit Stones once again.

By constantly eating to practice the Elephant-Swallowing Demon Technique, Cyan Treasure had finally brought the Cultivation Technique to the Master Level.

After reaching the Master Level, Cyan Treasure could devour a considerable number of Spirit Stones. It could consume basically twenty Spirit Stones in a single day.

Just like that, Gu Ming’s supply of Spirit Stones was completely depleted.

Over the past two weeks, Gu Ming had asked Teacher Zhang to withdraw cash multiple times, intending to convert the money into Spirit Stones.

However, perhaps because he had withdrawn too many Spirit Stones in such a short period, the system didn’t convert the money. Instead, it displayed:

"At your request, Teacher Zhang has brought back cash from the bank."

Gu Ming was speechless.

Of course, Gu Ming wasn’t withdrawing money for the cash itself. Now that he could no longer exploit the system’s loophole, he started to get anxious.

He calculated that he had already withdrawn over five hundred Spirit Stones in the past two weeks.

Perhaps five hundred Spirit Stones was the short-term limit. Any money withdrawn after hitting that cap could no longer be converted, and he had no idea how long he’d have to wait before he could do so again.

Since he couldn’t get Spirit Stones through Teacher Zhang, he had to find another source. He couldn’t afford to halt his Cultivation, especially with the competition as his goal. Stagnation was not an option.

With a steady supply of Spirit Stones, Cyan Treasure’s Cultivation speed was incredibly fast.

An ordinary Little Cyan Snake needed a full year of Cultivation to reach the Two-star standard, but with the help of Spirit Stones, Cyan Treasure was already more than halfway there.

At this rate, it would definitely be able to advance to the Two-star Level before the competition.

It had already accumulated a considerable amount of Mana, provided its supply of Spirit Stones didn’t run out.

This brought up the topic of the mainstream method for a typical Pet Beast to evolve from the One-star to the Two-star Level.

But before discussing Evolution Methods, it was important to understand why a Pet Beast’s Realm of strength was designated by Star Levels.

The reason lay in the word "star" itself.

A Pet Beast with one Inner Core in its body is called a One-star Level Pet Beast.

With two Inner Cores, it’s a Two-star Level Pet Beast.

By the same logic, the number of Inner Cores a Pet Beast possesses determines its Star Level.

"Star" is the Daoist Skill term for an Inner Core.

This wasn’t just a flowery term. In fact, when a Pet Beast’s Inner Core was cultivated to an extremely high Realm, it could be refined to possess the majestic power of a celestial star.

At later stages, the Dantian of a High-star Pet Beast would become as vast and boundless as the cosmos itself, containing immeasurable Power, with Inner Cores shining within like stars.

Of course, Cyan Treasure was still a long way from cultivating its Inner Core into a true "celestial star."

Focusing on the evolution from One-star to Two-star, if Cyan Treasure wanted to advance, the most fundamental method was to cultivate a second Magic Power Inner Core. Doing so would allow it to evolve to the Two-star Level.

Right now, in Evolution Class, the homeroom teacher was also discussing this very topic.

By now, a small number of the top students’ Pet Beasts had evolved to the One-star Level, so Gu Ming’s advantage was no longer as significant.

Therefore, the homeroom teacher was broaching the topic of evolution, helping the class plan their Pet Beasts’ next evolutionary paths in advance.

"Besides the conventional evolution through two Inner Cores, there are other methods, such as physical mutation or bloodline awakening..."

The homeroom teacher was playing the same old tune, reviewing the mainstream Evolution Methods they had discussed before.

However, this time she introduced new topics: the Splitting Method and the Refining Method.

"If your Inner Core is powerful enough, you can use a Splitting Technique, supplemented by medicinal conditioning, to divide it into two. Alternatively, you can ’reforge’ the Inner Core and then forge a new one..."

Hearing this, Gu Ming’s expression turned serious, and he began to listen intently.

This knowledge was all imbued with the principles of the Great Dao. The finer details of splitting an Inner Core, in particular, were hard to grasp just by reading a textbook; one couldn’t understand the specific sensation of an Inner Core dividing in two.

This sensation was the key to guiding a Pet Beast through the Splitting Method, preventing the new Inner Cores from being of unequal size.

Cyan Treasure was also listening attentively. Since this concerned its future evolution, it too was heeding the teacher’s Sound of the Great Dao.

It grew tense upon learning that an uneven split could make its Skills unbalanced, cause a sharp increase in errors, and even shut the door on any possibility of future evolution.

’I didn’t realize the process of evolving from One-star to Two-star was so intricate,’ it thought. ’The slightest misstep could destroy my chances of evolving further.’

At this point, the homeroom teacher, Ling Jun, looked toward Cyan Treasure. "This is especially critical for mutated Pet Beasts when evolving to the Two-star Level. If the Inner Core splits poorly, any potential it had to evolve to the Three-star Level could be wasted.

"To achieve a perfect evolution, it’s best to find a teacher with a proven track record of successful cases to provide guidance throughout the entire process."

The homeroom teacher’s gaze was pointed, landing on Cyan Treasure and Gu Ming.

Gu Ming understood everything else she said, but he pretended not to hear that last part, staring at the blackboard like a block of wood.

The homeroom teacher pursed her lips and turned her attention to the other students.

And just like that, the other students turned their eager gazes on her, wanting to know just how many perfect evolutions she had supervised.

She beamed at this. The perfect evolution cases she had overseen were all significant successes, mostly from the previous class of seniors she had taught.

Very few of the other teachers at the school would take on such cases.

Most teachers preferred to play it safe, taking on simple custodial training tasks. They were easy, stress-free, and a good way to build a reputation without risking bad reviews.

Gu Ming continued to ignore her. The instructional part of the class was over, so he tuned out the subsequent sales pitch and looked at his system.

The system’s updated summary of the class was more or less the same as what Teacher Ling had said.

The only difference was the emerging Foundation Establishment Evolution Method from the year 550.

When Gu Ming saw this, he let out a soft "hmph," suddenly stopping and scrolling back through the text.

"Build a Great Dao Foundation within the Dantian Realm and enshrine the Inner Core upon it. This evolution process is known as Foundation Establishment. It is a new Two-star Pet Beast Evolution Method that emerged this year and is still in the experimental stage."

"Elder Ling only mentioned it in passing and did not explain it in detail. After all, it was a new type of Evolution Method that even she had no experience with, and it wasn’t yet stable."

The system’s "this year" referred to the year 550, which made it an extremely advanced Evolution Method from Gu Ming’s current perspective. It might not be the most compatible method for Cyan Treasure, but it was definitely ahead of its time.

As someone fascinated by future technologies, he was eager to learn what this Foundation Establishment Method was all about. It sounded a lot like something out of a Cultivation Immortality novel.