Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The soul beast base was huge, consisting of several regions such as the sales, combat, research, and display areas, as well as the Soul Pet Recovery Center.
There were a total of six floors, the first five of which were open to the public. The last floor was the administrative area of the base and was solely for employees only.
Out of the few large districts, the most populated one was surprisingly not the sales area.
It was the combat zone.
“It seems that there are really a lot of people in the combat section on the third floor,” said Xu Haifeng as he raised his head and looked at the second floor with expectant eyes. “It’s not far from us.”
‘Combat’ was one of the hottest topics among the Contract Soul Masters.
To the high school students who had just started training their soul pets and had not even awakened their martial souls yet, it was indeed not a spectacle.
Wang Che stole a glance and looked away.
He was more interested in the obscure information of this world.
Inside the sales region, there was a dazzling array of soul pet eggs.
They were all labelled to indicate what type they were, and the prices were detailed too.
The starting price was 10,000 dollars. The value of money here was similar to the purchasing power of the Yuan at the beginning of the 21st century on Earth.
It was expensive, but it was not unreasonable.
“The eggs on this side of the soul beast base are all professionally bred.The people here meticulously oversee the various soul beast species. Even if the appearance of the soul pet eggs are very similar, they can clearly distinguish between them.
“Most of the free ones given by the Federation look the same. Even your teacher will find it difficult to tell what soul beast will hatch from it…
“Those are all very similar. It’s very tough to distinguish them from their external size and patterns alone.
“If you discover an unidentified special soul beast egg, however, you will need all sorts of advanced equipment to detect the life fluctuations within it. From this, you can deduce its details. This is one of the research methods adopted by our soul beast base.
“In our research area, there are currently as many as ten unknown soul pet eggs. We haven’t completely examined them yet, so you guys can go take a look.”
An old and hearty voice came from ahead.
Wang Che looked toward the direction of the sound. It was an elderly man in his sixties or seventies dressed in a white lab coat.
The old man had snow-white hair, but his face was full of vigor; his eyes were bright and full of spirit. He wore a pair of glasses as he explained to the dozen of students crowding him with a smile.
Xu Haifeng said, “That’s Professor Yan. Doesn’t he look quite young? He looks like he’s in his sixties or seventies, but in reality, he’s already close to 120 years old. He’s also a Contract Soul Master, but he mainly focuses on research.”
“He does look very young,” replied Wang Che. He could feel that the professor’s life force was still very dynamic.
Currently, he was unable to cultivate and draw Qi to temper his entire body. His divine sense was far from awakened.
However, as a former cultivator of the Immortal Ascension Realm, he still possessed basic senses and intuition.
As such, he was extremely sensitive to worldly energy fluctuations.
He might not be able to feel it in detail, but this elderly man was obviously extraordinary. Even if it was not Wang Che, any other ordinary person could have subconsciously felt that he was not as simple as he looked as well. He exuded a special aura.
“Hey, why aren’t you guys waiting for us?” asked Xu Haifeng as he walked over and greeted them with a smile. “Wang Che is here.”
The group of students turned around and stared at the two of them, especially at the green caterpillar with its head sticking out of the pocket on Wang Che’s chest.
For a moment, everyone had different expressions on their faces.
There were fellow unfortunate ones who pitied each other and also held a young soul pet in their arms.
Some welcomed him with a smile, some were silent, some laughed without a care in the world, and some were unusually excited…
“Brother Che, as an elite student, I never expected your luck to be worse than mine. As an ugly person, I feel better about myself now.”
“Did you see that? How did that happen? He’s handsome though, he probably exchanged his luck for good looks.”
“Brother Che, you’re starting with a green caterpillar from the beginning? That’s amazing. There are 28 people in our class who chose the free soul beast egg, and no matter how average they were, they’re at least carps with 101 potential. Your pet has less than 100 potential. It’s not good at all.”
“The Federation distributes normal soul pet eggs. According to the current online statistics, the probability of incubating a young, rare soul pet with a species potential of over 200 is at 4%. As for those with a species potential of less than 100, the probability is 5%.
“In a sense, you’re kind of lucky to have a rare soul pet.”
…
More than ten of the students laughed and greeted him.
However, behind their smiles, there was not much ridicule.
Instead, it was mostly teasing, with a hint of sadness and pity.
This was mainly because Wang Che had been very popular in school with his outstanding looks and excellent results.
Now that the first soul pet he had hatched was a green caterpillar, it came as a huge shock to the rest of them.
During the winter break of the third year, they had to sign a life contract to hatch their first soul beast egg.
This was to prepare for the martial soul awakening half a year later.
Now that winter vacation was over, most of the students who had chosen free soul pet eggs had already hatched their first soul pet.
Wang Che smiled. Talking to such young children reminded him of the time he had just embarked on the path of cultivation.
“It’s actually not that bad. Going by probabilities, with me as the one with the worst luck, the other 28 students will definitely be able to hatch pretty good soul pets,” suggested Wang Che.
His mindset shifted, and he added righteously, “I’ll sacrifice myself for the greater good!”
As an Immortal Ascension cultivator who had lived for tens of thousands of years, he had extremely powerful control over his body.
Not to mention, Wang Che had integrated himself with many life forms during his travels within the universe.
He could easily blend in with many non-human creatures; mere students were nothing to him.
When the others heard his statement, they were slightly stunned and fell silent.
“F*ck!” Xu Haifeng laughed as he punched him jokingly. “To be able to act so natural and smooth at a time like this, you make me feel really cheated of my emotions. You’re indeed worthy of being who you are, Wang Che.”
“I’m so touched!”
“Brother Che, if you don’t mind the gender, I can…”
“Hey, Brother Che, I hate that I’m not a girl…”
“…”
As the group of students giggled, Professor Yan was sizing up Wang Che. When he heard the children’s laughter, he grinned.
“You’re Wang Che, right? You have a good attitude. If you’re not able to awaken your martial soul in the future, come to my soul beast base.”
Everyone was surprised.
This was a heavy offer, one that was not easy to come by. The services provided by this soul beast base could not be considered mediocre by any means.
Regular people were usually ineligible to enter at all.
Even Contract Soul Masters had to fulfill certain conditions to work here.
It was not normal for a professor to extend such an opportunity to a stranger they had just met.
However, Wang Che shook his head and said, “Professor Yan, when I first came here, I observed that most of the researchers in this base are women. You’re not trying to recruit me to relieve the tension in your base, are you? I wouldn’t do that.”
Professor Yan was first taken aback before he chuckled out loud.
“Not bad, young man. I didn’t expect you to read my thoughts.”
When the other students heard his tone, they realized that he was joking.
However, Xu Haifeng shook his head.
He could tell that the professor had been serious, but Wang Che had managed to shuffle past it with just a few snappy words.
‘This guy is bright indeed,’ Xu Haifeng thought to himself.
He actually knew that Professor Yan had said that because of a certain person’s request, the goal of who was simple – she wanted Wang Che to have a good future.