Blue Feather Airlines and other spirit beast-related services are exclusively for Beast Masters, meaning adults aged 16 or older who have undergone the awakening ceremony.
Children under 16 who haven't awakened their Beast Master talent are not allowed to use spirit beast-related services, with the exception of a few where absolute safety can be guaranteed.
This is because only after becoming a Beast Master does one's physical constitution receive extraordinary enhancement through the feedback of the spirit beast contract.
In the event of an accident, such as a Blue Feather Airlines eagle crash, even a Level 1 Beast Master would be much more resilient than an ordinary human child who hasn't awakened their Beast Master talent; even if injured, their chances of surviving until treatment arrives and being rescued are much higher.
As for Lin Chuan, despite having escaped the small pond of Tianshang Town, he had only registered as a Beast Master for just over two weeks.
Undoubtedly, this was Lin Chuan's first time riding a flying spirit beast in his life!
Flight, since ancient times, has been a dream of humanity.
This holds true for both his previous life on Blue Star and his current life on Azure Star.
In his previous life on Blue Star, humans invented hot air balloons, gliders, airplanes, and other means of transport for flight.
In this life on Azure Star, it's much simpler and more convenient.
Those who cannot go far on the Beast Master path and eventually return to societal life rely on services like spirit beast air travel to reach the sky.
However, those capable of progressing further on the Beast Master path will almost always contract a flying spirit beast at a suitable time to carry them into the sky.
Not all, but at least 99% of Beast Masters do this.
The remaining 1% are Beast Masters with such severe acrophobia that they faint upon ascending, a condition completely untreatable; such Beast Masters are commonly nicknamed 'Moles' in the community.
Lin Chuan was not a Mole; in fact, he had no fear of heights whatsoever. He enjoyed the sky even more than the average person.
Sitting on the Blue Feather Eagle's back, feeling the air currents brush against his face and through his hair, Lin Chuan couldn't help but want to let out a loud shout.
However, Lin Chuan held it in.
After all, this was in a big city, and shouting loudly would be quite undignified. The main reason was the people below; pedestrians below would complain or even take photos and post them on their social media.
Moreover, this Blue Feather Eagle wasn't his spirit beast; he could ask it to fly a bit slower, but changing the flight path was absolutely out of the question. He'd have plenty of time to shout and run wild once he contracted his own flying spirit beast and flew to a place where no one else was around.
Suppressing the urge to shout, Lin Chuan couldn't resist the urge to take photos and record videos.
He raised his left hand, lightly touched the fingerprint sensor button on his watch's Pet Space Device, and a virtual screen projected. He tapped it twice, immediately activating the recording function and beginning to record the aerial view.
The Blue Feather Eagle Lin Chuan was currently riding, named Blue Nine, was likely an experienced old hand.
Noticing Lin Chuan starting to take photos and videos, Blue Nine consciously slowed its flight speed and even occasionally circled around to allow Lin Chuan to capture a 360-degree panorama, which made Lin Chuan give it a thumbs-up, indicating he would give it a 5-star review later.
Half an hour later, Lin Chuan arrived at the Qinghe City Beastmaster Association.
He would have arrived in 15 minutes at most if he hadn't needed to take photos and videos along the way.
The Qinghe City Beastmaster Association.
It was even larger than the Beastmaster Association in Tianshang Town, practically a castle.
It had a dedicated spirit beast airport for flying spirit beasts to land and take off.
From what Lin Chuan saw at that moment, there were no fewer than fifty flying spirit beasts taking off and landing there.
Most of them were Blue Feather Eagles, belonging to Blue Feather Airlines.
A few, however, were flying spirit beasts contracted by other individual Beast Masters.
To be able to contract a flying spirit beast, pass the flight examination, and hold a flight permit for the airspace within a large city, even if the person wasn't a Professional Beastmaster, they were certainly a strong individual of considerable power.
Some Beast Masters showed off, controlling their spirit beasts to dive and land.
There were also several Beast Masters wearing special flight goggles but not equipped with those rigid, secure safety harnesses on their spirit beasts. They controlled their spirit beasts, using some unknown skill, to take off explosively like cannonballs, soaring into the sky amidst a sudden gust of wind.
Their whoops and hollers turned into shooting stars in the sky, rapidly flying away.
This made Lin Chuan's mind recall scenes of certain 'ghost fire' youths drag racing on Blue Star in his previous life.
Speaking of which, Qinghe City also had many unique specialized competitions, among which the two most famous were:
One was the surfing and fishing competition, the Qinghe Cup.
The other was the flying spirit beast riding rally, the Qingkong Cup.
Both of these competitions were key projects for Qinghe City, the most attractive events for outside tourists. Whenever they were held, they were sure to draw countless visitors to watch live.
Naturally, they also attracted countless fishing enthusiasts and flying enthusiasts from across the Star Rock Federation to participate.
There were also club teams formed by related enthusiasts participating in the competitions, and the prize money was very generous.
Most importantly, the winners also received a special title for one year, which was what these participants desired most.
For the fishing competition, it was 'Qinghe Overlord'; for the flying competition, it was 'King of Qingkong'.
Although they had no practical use and couldn't be exchanged for points or goods at the Beastmaster Association, these two titles were the lifelong dream of countless fishing and flying competition enthusiasts.
Getting back to the main topic.
The Blue Feather Eagle wouldn't perform a dive like those show-off spirit beasts; it descended slowly and steadily with Lin Chuan.
Many Beastmaster Association staff members were waiting around the spirit beast airport.
Seeing a new face like Lin Chuan, one staff member immediately came forward to greet him.
This was a young man roughly Lin Chuan's age, with a rather well-defined and somewhat handsome face, though he had dyed his hair a strange, non-mainstream purple.
He wasn't wearing the standard Beastmaster Association uniform but ordinary casual clothes, with a work badge hanging around his neck and black and white striped Beastmaster Association temporary worker armbands on his sleeves. Lin Chuan estimated that this was a new Beast Master who had taken on a new recruit task for the Beastmaster Association and was working here as a temporary employee.
And as soon as the young man spoke, it confirmed Lin Chuan's guess was correct.
The young man, with a familiar and enthusiastic demeanor, said:
"Hello, my name is Tan Yan."
"Are you also a new Beast Master, friend? Did you just arrive in Qinghe City? Are you visiting from another big city, or from a town under Qinghe City's jurisdiction?"
If it were an official Beastmaster Association staff member, their professionalism would make them keep quiet and not ask so many questions; only temporary workers would interrogate like they were checking household registrations.
Although this information wasn't exactly secret, being questioned like this upon arrival was somewhat irritating.
Unless the person being questioned was also a social butterfly who loved this kind of familiar chat.
While Lin Chuan wasn't socially anxious, he wasn't a social butterfly either. He felt a slight discomfort.
However, he didn't show it, merely nodding slightly.
"Lin Chuan, from Tianshang Town."
Lin Chuan replied softly.
Tan Yan's eyes, however, suddenly lit up.
"That's impressive, friend!"
"It's only been half a month since graduation and awakening, right? Is Tianshang Town already too easy for you? Have you already conquered Tianshang Town's Baby Cup? Are you coming to Qinghe City to develop?"
Tan Yan didn't look down on Lin Chuan at all because he said he came from a small town under Qinghe City's jurisdiction.
On the contrary, he seemed a little excited.
If it were other ordinary new Beast Masters in Qinghe City, or some middle-aged women, they might genuinely look down on Lin Chuan as a country bumpkin, but Tan Yan wouldn't.
This had to do with Tan Yan's family situation.
Tan Yan wasn't from a wealthy family; he was far from Lin Chuan's middle-class background. He was just an ordinary commoner. His parents both worked in media and news-related fields. Although they weren't famous journalists, just photographers and archivists, it was enough for Tan Yan to be influenced and understand more than the average Qinghe City resident.
In fact, for low-level Beast Masters.
Whether in a provincial capital, a city, a small town, or even a village, they were all pretty much the same. No one was necessarily stronger than another; even someone from a village could defeat someone from a provincial capital.
They were all equally 'rotten': starting spirit beasts with low bloodline potential, starting funds of less than a few tens of thousands of star rock coins, afraid to compete in the Baby Cup, and having to constantly grind for new recruit tasks. High-level materials and precious resources were even more out of reach.
Ultimately, most of them would be washed ashore by the tide, unqualified to embark on the true Beast Master path, and could only return to daily life, becoming diligent cogs in the national society.
The real, significant differences only appeared among the various genius Beast Masters.
Especially someone like Lin Chuan, who emerged from Tianshang Town and arrived in Qinghe City in just two weeks, he definitely surpassed 99% of new Beast Masters in Qinghe Town, including Tan Yan himself. He was an existence capable of contending with local geniuses in Qinghe City.
Even if he ultimately couldn't defeat the local geniuses of Qinghe City, he wasn't someone that an ordinary new Beast Master, destined to be washed away by the tide, could casually look down upon or call a country bumpkin, simply by virtue of being a local of Qinghe City.
"Lin Chuan, do you want to go to the service area? Or the shopping area?"
"The Qinghe City Beastmaster Association is very large inside, with over a dozen underground facilities. Its spatial capacity is estimated to be more than ten times that of your Tianshang Town's, and even with signs, first-timers can get lost."
"If you need, let me guide you."
"Don't worry, it's free! This is my new recruit task."
Tan Yan was very enthusiastic.
It seemed he was just a naturally friendly social butterfly, and not intentionally checking household registrations or looking down on rural people with an urban identity. This made Lin Chuan feel a little embarrassed.
Lin Chuan nodded, accepting Tan Yan's offer to guide him.
As a result, Tan Yan became even more enthusiastic. If Lin Chuan hadn't timely stepped back half a pace, he would have slung his arm around Lin Chuan's shoulder.
"Let's go to the service area first. I need to turn in a delivery quest and also register for housing rental."
Lin Chuan said, he didn't have too many thoughts or ideas.
And Tan Yan, upon hearing Lin Chuan's words, his eyes sparkled even more.
If it was just coming to the Beastmaster Association to register and turn in a quest or something, that would be fine; maybe he was a genius, maybe not, 50/50 chance.
But registering for housing rental!?
A new trainer who could rent housing at the Beastmaster Association at this time point was definitely not ordinary! The probability of him being a genius Beast Master greatly increased!
Why was Tan Yan so enthusiastic?
This brings us to the various new Beast Master competitions in Qinghe City.
Small and medium-sized ones need no mention, there's no need to talk about them.
The key were the large Baby Cups, especially the two large Baby Cups that Qinghe City strongly supported and held annually!
Unlike typical large Baby Cups, which might be suddenly applied for by a wealthy company for advertising or other purposes.
In Qinghe City, these two regularly held large Baby Cups were dubbed 'Super Baby Cups' by the well-meaning media reporters.
One was the Little Qinghe Cup, and the other was the Xiao Qingkong Cup.
They were subordinate competitions to the Qinghe Cup and Qingkong Cup, respectively.
They were sponsored by the various fishing clubs of the Qinghe Cup and the various soaring clubs of the Qingkong Cup, respectively.
These two Super Baby Cups would attract news reporters from across the city and even other cities nationwide to interview, livestream, and pay attention. Various famous academies, and even the Eight Great Academies, would send special personnel to observe.
Therefore, once the Little Qinghe Cup and Xiao Qingkong Cup were held, they would be accompanied by many things that small and medium-sized Baby Cups would not have, such as intelligence peddlers!
If one could scout out intelligence related to the spirit beasts, skills, and tactics of potential champion contenders in advance and sell it to other participants or underground gambling organizations, the profits would be incomparable to grinding a few new recruit tasks.
Well, being an intelligence peddler and selling information was small money, just a crooked path.
The true broad and prosperous road was the path of PY (Personal Yuan, or connections)!
If one was lucky enough to meet the eventual champion in any of the Super Baby Cups, and managed to PY well, adding them as a Blue Penguin friend, or at least getting familiar, that was the most crucial and most promising path for both future and money.
Following him from the beginning, keeping records all the way, even livestreaming, and for those capable, becoming an exclusive reporter—like Tan Yan himself had this capability.
This was the real opportunity for soaring success!
Even if one didn't meet a player who could win the Super Baby Cup, PYing with a few ordinary genius Beast Masters, and managing to get into their social circles, would also be quite remarkable.
Thus, with enough money and the friendship of genius Beast Masters obtained through PY.
Perhaps the person in question might be temporarily lagging behind now, possibly unable to get into a good university, but in the future, they might still take off and become a Professional Beastmaster.
Local genius Beast Masters in Qinghe City, those capable of conquering various small, medium, and even a few large Baby Cups, had basically been divided among other fellow travelers who also walked the path of PY. They had a bunch of 'Little Tails' following them, wanting to cling to their coattails, asking to be carried, and seeking PY and Blue Penguin friendships to get familiar. Tan Yan simply couldn't snatch a spot.
Only external genius Beast Masters had no strange attachments on their legs, giving Tan Yan a chance to cling to them.
Tan Yan wasn't sure if Lin Chuan could win the Super Baby Cup; he probably thought it was unlikely.
But this didn't prevent Lin Chuan from most likely being a genius Beast Master. After all, being able to emerge from Tianshang Town at this point in time was certainly extraordinary.
Such a genius Beast Master, if he could PY with him, add him as a Blue Penguin friend, and maintain regular contact, or at least get familiar, having more connections meant more paths. This was the great life lesson his parents, who worked in the media industry, had taught him since childhood, and Tan Yan had always deeply believed in it.
Based on this life philosophy, although his Beast Master talent wasn't great, his family background wasn't great, and his initial contracted spirit beast wasn't great either, he was still considered a well-off ordinary commoner in Qinghe City's Beast Master Middle School.
Well, in this world, there is never enthusiasm without reason.
He, Tan Yan, just wanted to progress too much.