Raising Pet Beasts in Douluo Continent (Please Follow!!!)

The Dark Gold Bear crossed his arms over his chest and puffed it out. He tilted his head back to look at Su Ming, seemingly finding the posture uncomfortable, and his entire body grew larger, changing from a miniature Dark Gold Bear back to his original size.

His head was raised, his eyes looking down as he gazed at Su Ming from above, his expression seemingly telling Su Ming to continue.

Go on, then. What am I supposed to do?

Su Ming found the Dark Gold Bear's posture rather amusing.

So this was the kind of personality the Dark Gold Bear had.

"Do you know what your advantages are?"

The Dark Gold Bear blinked and shook his head.

The advantages of being a Soul Spirit?

He did not understand.

Su Ming said, "I mean your own advantages."

The Dark Gold Bear's gaze grew impatient. He let out a roar, telling Su Ming to stop beating around the bush and get to the point.

A bear's brain was not meant for all this twisting and turning.

"Thanks to the Meteorite Iron Mine, your talent in the Metal Element has been fully developed. Your bloodline is already close to evolving," Su Ming reminded him.

The Dark Gold Bear suddenly understood.

Right!

That was my advantage.

"You're still in Soul Spirit form now. You're no longer a bear on your own—you have a Soul Master helping you evolve. A smart Soul Master who can help you plan out your future growth path!"

A gleam of intelligence flashed through the Dark Gold Bear's eyes.

"Roar!" (That makes sense. I acknowledge you!)

"Haha, then from now on, we'll be partners who improve together," Su Ming said.

As for Soul Spirits, he had always felt that they could be cultivated like tamed beasts. As the Soul Spirit improved, the Soul Master would improve as well. It was just that under normal circumstances, Soul Spirits could not cultivate to raise their cultivation.

But Soul Spirits were real individuals, and they possessed spiritual Origin. They still had the potential to evolve and grow stronger.

Contract a Soul Spirit, nurture the Soul Spirit, then receive its feedback.

That was not a bad direction either.

Of course, he could not neglect the foundation for the trivial. One still had to be strong oneself. If he received a Soul Spirit's feedback but failed to perfectly integrate the Soul Spirit's abilities into his own system, then it would only be wasted effort.

"From now on, I'll call you Little Gold."

The Dark Gold Bear roared, clearly not very pleased.

Little?

Was this bear little?

He gestured at his own height and compared it with Su Ming's.

"Let's talk business. Your top priority right now is bloodline evolution."

"Roar!" (Right!)

"And the greatest reason you've reached this point is the Meteorite Iron Mine. It allowed you to absorb sufficient Metal Element Qi, stimulating a favorable evolution in your bloodline."

"Roar!" (Right!)

"So, if you want your bloodline to evolve, then either you obtain some fortunate opportunity, or you continue step by step, using further development of the Metal Element to complete your bloodline's self-awakening."

"Roar!" (Right!)

The Dark Gold Bear secretly gained a little more trust in Su Ming.

Good heavens, so a Soul Master's brain was this useful. A bear had never been able to sort out its thoughts so clearly before.

"Do you know what I do?"

"Roar!" (Right!)

"Roar." (No, I don't.)

The Dark Gold Bear roared twice in succession.

Su Ming pointed behind the Dark Gold Bear.

The Dark Gold Bear turned around. Feeling cramped in the small room, he returned to his miniature form.

After turning around, he saw the blacksmith shop.

"Roar~" (So you're a blacksmith~)

"That's right. I'm a blacksmith. I spend every day around metal, and I can help you evolve as well," Su Ming said.

"Roar!" (Right!)

"But bloodline evolution isn't something that can be achieved so easily."

"Roar!" (Right!)

"So, Little Gold, you need to personally take part in the Forging as well and help me complete the metal forging."

"Roar!" (Right!)

"Simply coming into contact with metal isn't enough. Ideally, the metal should feed back to you. The Blacksmith Association has cases like that—just forge the metal's Spirituality into being. But from what I can see, metals capable of being forged with Spirituality are exceedingly rare in this world and inherently extraordinary. Blacksmiths are merely catalysts." Su Ming finished in one breath this time. "That relies too heavily on the materials. It's unsuitable for someone like you, who needs to benefit from forging feedback over the long term. So we need to find a way to let Ordinary Metal give birth to Spirituality as well."

This time, Little Gold did not immediately respond with a roar. Su Ming had said a bit too much, and he needed time to process it.

After a while, he roared.

"Roar!" (Still right! As expected of a Soul Master!)

"If metal has no spirit, then we'll give it one. You're a Soul Spirit. You have a spirit."

"Roar... roar?"

Little Gold felt that something was off.

He let out two loud roars, questioning Su Ming.

"Roar!" (You're so smart. Don't you have a spirit too?)

Su Ming said helplessly to Little Gold, "I have a physical body. My soul is hidden within it, so there's no way to separate it. You're different. You're purely a spiritual entity, and because of your contract with me, you're extremely stable. As long as you don't damage your Origin, you can recover within my Sea of Consciousness."

Little Gold indicated that he did not understand.

Su Ming smiled.

It was better that he did not understand.

"It doesn't matter if you don't understand. You only need to do as I say. We're bound together now—if one prospers, we both prosper; if one suffers, we both suffer. If you evolve, I'll benefit too. Of course I'm thinking of what's best for you."

"Roar!" (Right!)

"You only need to cooperate with me. While forging, try splitting off part of your spirit into the metal. I'll use Forging techniques to grant the metal Spirituality. Once that Spirituality grows, it can feed back to you. It's a win-win."

"Roar?" (If I split off my spirit, then when it feeds back to me, it'll become more?)

"That's right!" Su Ming said. "The feedback brought by creating Life is tremendous. Growing in sync from weak to strong is also the easiest path."

"Let me give you an example. When a Life is first born, its spirit is 1. As it grows, from birth to childhood, its spirit rises along with it to 10. Then when it reaches adulthood, it rises to 100. Right now, you're that 100. You've already enjoyed that process, so continuing to improve is difficult. But metal is different. Once you successfully give the metal 1 point of your Spirituality, it will go from having nothing to possessing a spirit. Then, after undergoing growth again and again until it reaches 100, even if only ten percent feeds back to you, that's still 10 points of spirit. And metal's greatest advantage is how quickly it grows. As long as the Forging technique is up to par, perhaps the whole growth process can be completed in just a few days!"

This time, Little Gold thought for a full two and a half minutes before hesitantly nodding his bear head.

"Roar." (Not bad. I more or less understand.)

Su Ming smiled.

Very good.

Though it had wasted a bit of time, he had at least made his Soul Spirit understand the purpose of what they were about to do.

"Then next, let's try to create the Spiritual Forging System."

Little Gold looked full of energy too.

Could he improve now?

Su Ming did not make any unlimited promises this time.

"Let's be clear first: we don't have the right method yet, so we'll have to explore. The early stages may be difficult. We may even have nothing but investment and no gains. But as long as we find the right method and successfully develop Spiritual Forging, we'll have an infinite future!"

"Roar!" (Bring it on!)

A brave little bear feared no hardship!