Originally, Lin Chuan didn't plan to stay in the Capital City for too long.
After all, there wasn't much worth his prolonged stay; the entire city couldn't even find a few decent Spiritual Beasts.
His original plan was to leave after paying his respects to Katori Chion.
Where he would go after leaving was beside the point; at least he wouldn't stay in the Capital City, which had basically no Spiritual Beasts.
But now...
Because of Zhou Tianque and Feng Yingge, Lin Chuan stayed in the Capital City for an extra week.
During this week,
Lin Chuan exchanged knowledge and learned from the two of them, occasionally even conducting Spiritual Beast training and cultivation together.
From time to time, they would engage in 1v1 practice matches following the Baby Cup rules to verify the effectiveness of various skills and tactics.
It must be said, the collision of multiple completely different cultivation styles and ideas truly yielded immense improvements.
It was far better than working in isolation.
In fact, Lin Chuan felt that even if he simply inherited and added points, unless it was a powerful Combination Skill suitable for his team's overall style and tactics, it wouldn't bring as much comprehensive improvement as this one week.
The exchanges during this week, the supplementary daily Spiritual Beast cultivation techniques, many novel cultivation ideas, and small tips for skill development and training were things he had never thought of before; these were different cultivation ideas that could only arise from different cultures and regional styles.
Of course,
Lin Chuan and the two of them didn't spend all their time discussing and cultivating Spiritual Beasts; they also teamed up to explore and enjoy the Capital City.
Although the Beast Master circle in Dongyang was quite bad, the mortal society was still very prosperous, even more so than Qinghe City. Ordinary people lived relatively peacefully, and there was no shortage of various worldly living resources. Well, at least in this regard, Dongyang did quite well and didn't cause widespread suffering among the people.
As he spent more time with Zhou Tianque and Feng Yingge, Lin Chuan gradually discovered a key point.
Lin Chuan originally thought that the two, coming from aristocratic families and sects, would be different.
Just as they initially appeared, Zhou Tianque was a gentle, classical noble young master, while Feng Yingge was straightforward, dashing, and heroic, like a female warrior. At first glance, they didn't seem to be from the same mold as ordinary Beast Masters.
Unexpectedly, after a week of interaction and as their relationship gradually became familiar, both Zhou Tianque and Feng Yingge began to reveal their true natures.
Zhou Tianque looked very classical and proper, and he acted very proper, appearing like a noble young master, but in reality, he was a deeply repressed pervert.
Lin Chuan discovered that after his daily Spiritual Beast training and personal cultivation as a Beast Master, he often went to various entertainment and dance halls in Dongyang.
At the same time, he would mumble some phrases, such as:
'Today is free, let's go to the pleasure quarters to listen to music.'
'Glad to have two friends, let's celebrate, go to the pleasure quarters to listen to music.'
'The Way of the Beast Master is interconnected, I've made progress, let's drink a cup of wine, go to the pleasure quarters to listen to music.'
'Golden Spirit Sword's level increased by 1 small level, a small celebration, go to the pleasure quarters to listen to music.'
Of course, Zhou Tianque didn't actually do 'those things'; he controlled himself very well in that regard. Well, he simply enjoyed watching beautiful ladies sing and dance. In his words, this was cultivating one's temperament and nurturing one's artistic conception. Only by maintaining the best emotional state could he achieve greater improvement in subsequent cultivation and training.
Lin Chuan reserved his judgment on this.
Zhou Tianque was a repressed man who loved watching beautiful ladies sing and dance.
Feng Yingge...
Normally, she dressed in a neutral cyberpunk style and had a boisterous personality. In actual combat, she was an incredibly cool figure, a fiery female warrior riding a phoenix and wielding a long spear.
However, the truth was, she was actually an anime and game otaku!!!
According to her, the entertainment culture in the Holy Heaven Ancient Kingdom was too strict. Anime movies that even slightly showed arms or thighs would be banned, and romance novels or galgames were treated like forbidden books and games. Since the anime and game industry was relatively developed in Dongyang, she came here for her travels.
Then, Lin Chuan saw Feng Yingge with a two-dimensional moe girl pillow in her left hand and a bag of various highly anthropomorphic Spiritual Beast figurines in her right.
Even her Spiritual Beast, Little Red, was cosplaying as a completely black bird wearing half a skull bird mask, claiming to be a harbinger bird, a type of demon from the Underworld.
How to put it?
Lin Chuan's initial impressions of Zhou Tianque and Feng Yingge were completely shattered.
But at the same time, it made Lin Chuan feel that they were more real, more flesh and blood.
Beast Masters from aristocratic families and sects were actually not that different.
They were also human, capable of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, and they had their own hobbies and interests.
They were not some unapproachable, arrogant beings.
At least, Lin Chuan observed that they did not act arrogant or put on airs towards the powerless common people; they were all very humble and polite. It was only towards the Beast Master circle in Dongyang that they showed disdain.
Just like that, a week later,
Lin Chuan bid farewell to the two and parted ways.
After all, Lin Chuan had an unspeakable cheat on him.
If he kept teaming up with them, many operations would be difficult to perform.
For example, inherited skill point allocation, and Wan Wan's various immortal arts would be difficult to practice. Wan Wan pulling out one or two immortal arts was reasonable, but having all five elemental immortal arts, and each of them being either Expert Grade or Master Grade, would be too shocking.
At least he needed to train for a period, stretch out the timeline, say, three or four months.
Then, combined with finding opportunities and picking up some heavenly treasures, he could gradually reveal all sorts of unreasonable things.
Zhou Tianque and Feng Yingge also didn't seem to have any intention of teaming up for their travels.
And so, the three of them each embarked on their own journey through Dongyang.
However, the three made an agreement.
They would meet again in the Capital City in six months, and then they would truly have a battle to verify the gains from their travels.
...
How should one travel?
Following the style of the Sixth Academy, Lin Chuan set a big goal for himself, along with many small goals.
The big goal was, as Katori Chion suggested, to randomly challenge a few Dongyang Beast Master families and spar with their younger generation.
The small goal was to delve into the Dongyang Beast Master circle and experience the situation there.
Although the common Beast Masters here walked a mistaken path of Beast Mastering—well, it couldn't be called entirely mistaken, as no one had walked this path to its end; it could only be said to diverge greatly from the contemporary Way of the Beast Master.
It primarily focused on subduing and enslaving wild Magical Beasts for combat, with basically no emphasis on cultivation or nurturing.
Their attitude towards Magical Beasts was entirely like that of tools.
When they encountered better and stronger Magical Beasts, they would frantically pursue them, sparing no effort to capture them.
If the Magical Beasts they had couldn't keep up in strength or suffered severe injuries that couldn't be easily healed, they were basically abandoned in the wilderness to fend for themselves.
Uh, abandoning them in the wilderness to fend for themselves—only Beast Masters in Dongyang with a good conscience would do that.
For Magical Beasts that couldn't keep up in strength or suffered severe injuries, the usual way Dongyang Beast Masters dealt with them was to turn them into materials.
How to put it, Lin Chuan was a little unaccustomed to it.
However, he couldn't completely deny this approach. In short, the Dongyang Beast Master circle had developed a unique culture.
Perhaps, on this path, most of it was dross, but maybe there would be something worth learning?
Even if there really was nothing at all worth learning, its very nature as pure dross was worth a closer look. Hmm, to be viewed as a negative example.
Lin Chuan took on a few low-level quests and one high-level quest from the Lightbringer Society, using them as training projects to delve into the common Beast Masters of Dongyang.
The low-level quests involved expelling or clearing some Magical Beasts near the Capital City.
For Lin Chuan, these were considered low-level quests, but for Dongyang Beast Masters, these were medium-level quests, requiring several Beast Masters to team up to complete them.
Lin Chuan also teamed up with two Dongyang Beast Masters, as being a lone wolf all the time wouldn't allow him to experience much.
Hiding his true strength, Lin Chuan's combat performance was neither hot nor cold.
Then, he watched the other two Beast Masters he was teamed with.
After defeating the target group of Magical Beasts, they would capture the good-looking ones with Sealing Orbs, and kill all the ordinary ones, putting them into storage bags to be turned into various materials when they returned.
Lin Chuan just watched, silently, without making any comments.
High-level quest:
Hunt or capture a 3rd-tier Lost Trail Deer.
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Lost Trail Deer
Attribute: Illusion Attribute
Bloodline Rank: Commander Grade Lower
Skills: Phantom Trail
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Lin Chuan specifically chose this high-level quest.
He wanted to see if he could find a Lost Trail Deer tribe along the way, and thus get some inheritance reincarnation materials. The Phantom Trail skill was truly an excellent skill for making a quick escape.
For this quest, Lin Chuan did not team up with other Dongyang Beast Masters.
Other Dongyang Beast Masters would generally need four or five so-called Advanced Beast Masters to form an Advanced Adventuring Party to take on such a quest.
For Lin Chuan, one person was enough.
Lin Chuan no longer bothered with ordinary 2nd-tier Magical Beasts.
With his current team's combat power, coupled with the Spiritual Rune Pistol, only 3rd-tier Magical Beasts posed a challenge to him.
Even the 3rd-tier Terror Puppet Giant in the promotion assessment secret realm trial, Lin Chuan was confident that with his current team's combat power, he could kill it.
The Lost Trail Deer inhabited the Light Forest.
The Light Forest, also known as the Mist Forest.
This was a vast and boundless forest located northeast of the Capital City.
Perhaps some might wonder why it had these two names?
Light and Mist seemed to have no connection whatsoever.
In fact, both terms were true descriptions of this vast forest.
This forest was perpetually shrouded in a thin mist. Although thin, it was a mist carrying natural Illusion Attribute energy, and even Wind Attribute Spiritual Beasts could not easily disperse it.
Ordinary humans who wandered into it would get lost within half a minute, eventually either being attacked by wild Magical Beasts or starving to death inside. Even ordinary Dongyang Beast Masters, if they didn't have some special methods or weren't accompanied by Illusion Attribute Magical Beasts, wouldn't dare to venture deep inside. Therefore, it was called the Mist Forest.
As for the origin of the name Light Forest...
It was because this forest was said to secretly house a legendary Magical Beast, a Saint Grade Lower bloodline, the Light Unicorn.
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Light Unicorn
Attribute: Light
Bloodline Rank: Saint Grade Lower (Legendary)
Possessed Skills: Unknown