Evolution Plan 2.0

This Beast Tamer battle gave Jiang Xing a new inspiration.

After the battle ended, he eagerly explained his newly formed idea to Dr. Xu and Su Muli, earning both of their approval—

"Using Dragon Gate Leap as the evolution method alone really is a little too simplistic."

"The core idea of this project is to use powerful willpower to draw out the hidden Dragon Power within Golden-Veined Koi, allowing them to evolve into dragons."

"Yet the requirements for crossing the Dragon Gate have nothing to do with willpower, and instead depend on proficiency with the Water Leap skill."

"That was clearly rather disjointed."

"After all, Fish King successfully evolved into a Rainbow Dragon Cub not because it was the first to leap over the Dragon Gate, but because its will met the standard for evolution—its crossing of the Dragon Gate had actually involved a trick, rather than being accomplished through sheer strength."

"If a Golden-Veined Koi had maxed-out Water Leap proficiency, it could easily cross the Dragon Gate, but that did not necessarily mean it could evolve."

"However..."

"Integrating the Dragon Might skill into the Dragon Gate would change that!"

"Then, the process of Dragon Gate Leap would no longer test jumping ability, but the koi's willpower."

"Only koi that overcame their fear and possessed hearts comparable to a True Dragon Heart could cross the Dragon Gate and become True Dragons!"

In truth, because Jiang Xing's updates had been too slow, the videos circulating online had recorded the entire evolution process of the Rainbow Dragon Cub.

Thus, many Beast Tamers who could not wait any longer had already copied the contents of those videos, gathering Golden-Veined Koi, finding wilderness waterfalls, and creating Rainbow Dragon Gates...

They attempted to replicate the evolution process of Carp Leaping Over the Dragon Gate through this method.

However, just as Jiang Xing had emphasized in his paper—

Dragon Gate Leap had never been the core condition for Golden-Veined Koi evolution.

Even Fish King had only completed its transformation after Jiang Xing nurtured it day and night, played it Azure Dragon videos, told it stories, and planted a seed of "becoming a dragon" in its heart.

Those Beast Tamers attempting to replicate Carp Leaping Over the Dragon Gate had clearly only copied its outward form without understanding its true essence.

As a result, they had all failed. Not a single one had succeeded in replicating it.

It was precisely because of this that people believed Jiang Xing's Golden-Veined Koi must contain some unknown secret that allowed them to evolve, and their enthusiasm had remained high.

Now, after discussing it with his teachers, Jiang Xing had obtained an even more complete evolution plan—

Not only could Dragon Might be added as a test when creating the Rainbow Dragon Gate,

but Golden-Veined Koi could also be trained with the Dragon Might skill during their upbringing, tempering their wills and allowing them to gradually overcome fear.

This was true willpower training: artificially creating Fish Kings!

To that end, Dr. Xu had also given Jiang Xing materials on the [Dragon Might] skill, asking him to teach the Rainbow Dragon Cub to learn and use it—

This skill was very similar to the [Intimidate] used by Thorn Sea Lizards. It could stimulate a Pet Beast's latent strength, intimidate enemies, make them retreat, or even strip them of their will to fight.

In fact, once a Thorn Sea Lizard evolved into a Storm Sea Lizard and acquired the Dragon Attribute, the Intimidate skill it mastered would automatically become Dragon Might.

The Rainbow Dragon Cub would need at least several days to learn Dragon Might.

Before then, Su Muli's Storm Sea Lizard would handle the training in its place.

As the training plan changed, the school of Golden-Veined Koi showed noticeable changes in less than a day.

Under the intimidation of Dragon Might, the docile Golden-Veined Koi, like the vast majority of weak Pet Beasts, quickly lost their will to fight. They even abandoned all resistance and voluntarily submitted before Dragon Might.

The Golden-Veined Koi with Brave personalities, however, were able to barely preserve the last trace of fighting spirit despite their fear, at least avoiding an immediate rout.

Such a performance was exceptionally rare among all low-level Pet Beasts.

Seeing this, even Su Muli could not help but marvel.

"They're only Awakening Rank Pet Beasts, yet they can withstand Dragon Might... Even if it's only the bare minimum, that's still astonishing."

"They might really be able to prove the Personality Conjecture."

Jiang Xing nodded in agreement, inwardly amazed.

How had no one discovered Pet Beasts with such tenacious wills before?

Well, Golden-Veined Koi with Brave personalities were rare to begin with, and they were unsuitable as ornamental Pet Beasts, so few people kept them...

Even if someone did raise them, no one would think of using Dragon Might to scare these little Awakening Rank fishies.

Instead, that had made them a blind spot hidden in plain sight.

After discovering the extraordinary qualities of these Brave fishies, Jiang Xing's enthusiasm for research grew even stronger, and he threw himself wholeheartedly into their cultivation.

During this process, Li Lingyin also learned quite a lot.

Although Jiang Xing was poor at Beast Tamer battles and terrible at commanding, his cultivation knowledge—especially his knowledge of cultivating Golden-Veined Koi—was genuinely extensive.

A truly powerful Beast Tamer could not possibly know only how to battle while knowing nothing about training and cultivation.

Not to mention that there was also a genuine Heavenly King Rank Beast Tamer beside them.

Therefore, for Li Lingyin, her experience working as an assistant at the Jiang Xing Research Institute was an even more valuable gain than her starter Pet Beast.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Su Muli fought Jiang Xing another two times and claimed victory to her heart's content.

After all, she was experienced. Once she understood the principles of the Heart of Exhaustion, she quickly came up with a new way to counter it—

Intimidate was not the only thing capable of reducing fighting spirit. Act Cute could do it too. (The Lucky Cloud Qilin gave a like.)

Su Muli switched her Pet Beast to an [Ice Sea Rabbit] and used the [Harmlessness] skill, successfully lowering the Rainbow Dragon Cub's fighting spirit and reducing its number of revivals to fewer than two.

That way, she only needed to take down two or three lives to defeat the Rainbow Dragon Cub...

Just recalling it made Su Muli feel that this Pet Beast Talent was outrageously overpowered. Even when countered so specifically, it was guaranteed to have two lives, and with luck, three. It was simply merciless.

Fortunately, she had one too and was just waiting to join in.

Just as Su Muli was looking forward to it, Dr. Xu left the research institute.

Over the past two days, he had recorded quite a bit of data on Legendary Pet Beasts, greatly satisfying the curiosity of a Beast Taming Doctor.

Unfortunately, he still had many things to handle and several projects underway at once, so he could not remain here indefinitely.

Before leaving, he gave Jiang Xing a contact.

"You obtained quite a lot of Qilin Fur before, right?"

"This is Master Jian's personal account. She's the finest item craftsman in the country... Only in her hands can those rare materials fully realize their value."

"When you add her, put down that you're my student. Just ask her to help you make some items."

"As for the crafting fee and such, she'll put it on my tab."

"Thank you, Teacher!"

Over the past two days, Jiang Xing had taken the opportunity to learn quite a lot from Dr. Xu. Now that his teacher was about to leave, he felt somewhat reluctant to part with him.

Once he received the contact, however, his attention was immediately drawn to the item craftsman—

Earlier, he had plucked an enormous clump of Qilin Fur from the Lucky Cloud Qilin, estimated to be worth more than one billion.

However, selling such rare material for money would be far too wasteful...

Jiang Xing was not short on funding at present. Turning it into items was the best choice.