As the two talked, the Mystic Eagle had already descended to barely two hundred meters above the ground.
The Mystic Eagle's body, with a wingspan of more than twenty zhang—nearly thirty—immediately caused an uproar among the pedestrians below. Its enormous form swooped low overhead, sending many people scrambling indoors in panic.
"Damn it, what is that thing? Quick, quick, go call the City Defense Bureau! A beast—a beast is coming!"
"Don't panic. There's a pavilion on the eagle's back!"
"So this is a tamed beast too?!"
"Don't flying beasts have to land at the Pasture Inspection Field of the Exotic Beast Bureau? Disturbing the city streets is a serious crime!"
"Move! Move!!! My Earth Dragon Turtle's been startled! Get out of the way!!"
"Ah! Ah!! No!!!"
"Waaah—"
Disaster always struck so suddenly.
Amid the shouting and cursing, and the children's cries, a giant tortoise three or four zhang long was suddenly startled on the broad thoroughfare. It charged straight into the market district along the street!
A cloud of smoke billowed up from shattered bricks and tiles, and cries of agony rang out at once!
"."
The commotion below made Xu Yuan instinctively look down through the wooden window. He watched in silence for two seconds, then turned back and gave Zhou Chen a questioning look.
He didn't understand why they had deliberately descended to this height to glide down.
Zhou Chen understood what Xu Yuan meant. He smiled, unconcerned, and explained:
"Third Young Master, the Exotic Beast Bureau's regulations state that civilian flying beasts must stay at least sixty zhang above the streets of a city. This Mystic Eagle is at least seventy zhang above the ground, so this is entirely that Earth Dragon Turtle's own fault."
As he spoke, Zhou Chen gave a quiet chuckle.
"The Mystic Eagle didn't even release its aura, and that Earth Dragon Turtle still got startled and lost control. Heh, I'd guess that batch of Earth Dragon Turtles probably passed the Nine-Fold Beast Assessment through backdoor connections at the Exotic Beast Bureau. If this gets reported, someone's in for trouble~"
Hearing his explanation, Xu Yuan more or less understood what had happened. He turned away and said nothing more.
At the Mystic Eagle's gliding speed, the stretch of road where the incident had occurred soon vanished from sight.
And, as it turned out, there were no more incidents of beasts being startled and injuring people along the way.
Xu Yuan kept his gaze on the layout of the city below.
The streets crisscrossed in every direction. Apart from a few crowded market districts where pedestrians rubbed shoulders, most of the city's streets resembled those of an ancient city in Xu Yuan's memory, though they were much wider. The middle of each street was broad enough for three or four carriages to travel side by side.
But Xu Yuan barely spared those streets a glance. What drew his attention was the massive official road below, which almost split the city in two.
This road was more than twice as wide as any road in his previous life.
And the things racing along it weren't ordinary carriages, but all kinds of beasts thundering at full speed.
From atop the Mystic Eagle, Xu Yuan looked down and even spotted road designs in the distance that resembled elevated highways and tunnels.
He couldn't help being surprised by the design of the roads and the sheer weight they had to bear as those enormous beasts thundered across them.
But as soon as the thought crossed his mind, Xu Yuan shook his head lightly.
He'd nearly forgotten how this world worked.
The materials of his previous life probably couldn't compare to those of this world.
The material strength of the sword Ran Qingmo had been holding earlier would probably have been enough to build a Gundam back in his old world.
What's more, this world had formations to reinforce things.
With that thought, Xu Yuan turned his attention to the various enormous beasts thundering along the massive official road.
He rifled through the original owner's memories, but found only vague fragments.
After a pause, Xu Yuan turned his head and asked:
"Mr. Zhou, what was that Nine-Fold Beast Assessment you mentioned earlier?"
"Oh, that."
Zhou Chen glanced at the road below and considered his words before replying:
"Simply put, it's a set of laws for sects and merchant associations that sell beasts."
"." Xu Yuan said nothing, his eyes fixed on Zhou Chen.
Seeing his expression, Zhou Chen realized the Third Young Master wanted more detail. He clicked his tongue and sighed helplessly.
As an expert, Zhou Chen wasn't aloof. In fact, he was quite the chatterbox.
And he was more than happy to talk when someone was willing to listen.
After sighing, Zhou Chen leisurely explained the Nine-Fold Assessment for beast taming to Xu Yuan. By the end, without even waiting for Xu Yuan to ask, he had launched into everything he knew about beast training.
Once Zhou Chen finished, Xu Yuan silently sorted through all this new information in his mind.
Beasts.
Where human labor fell short, beasts made up the difference.
From ancient times to the present, humanity in this world had never stopped taming beasts.
They had started with the simplest method: beating them into submission. Over time, their methods had gradually developed into a system.
Beasts' long lifespans, strength, endurance, and, in some cases, ability to fly made them ideal "tools" for humanity.
So, despite all the difficulties, people had continued taming them, and beasts had gradually become part of ordinary people's lives.
For transportation, heavy labor, and sending messages—and even as enormous war beasts specially trained for the battlefield.
A whole new tech tree, branching off in a completely different direction.
At that thought, Xu Yuan shook his head slightly.
That wasn't quite right. Perhaps in a world with qi, this was the natural path for technology to take.
But no matter how far beast-taming techniques advanced, even the fully obedient mechanical beasts of his previous life could malfunction. Beasts, with minds of their own, were naturally even more prone to such risks.
Their instinctive panic when faced with natural enemies, their ferocity when hungry, or commands from a higher-ranking member of their species backed by bloodline suppression could all send a tamed beast into a rampage.
The Exotic Beast Bureau of the Great Yan Dynasty had gathered all the lessons learned over generations and established the Nine-Fold Assessment for civilian beasts, doing everything possible to ensure they wouldn't run amok and hurt people.
Besides that, Zhou Chen had also mentioned military beasts.
Where there were civilian beasts, there were naturally military ones too.
The inspections and assessments for military beasts were even stricter, with no fewer than seventeen stages.
Having more or less pieced together everything he knew about beasts, Xu Yuan let out a long breath and glanced sideways with a smile.
"I knew nothing about this before, but after hearing you explain it today, I have to say beasts are quite fascinating."
Zhou Chen grinned too and lowered his voice.
"If you're truly interested, Third Young Master, you could visit the Tian'an Chamber of Commerce's branch in Jingjiang City."
Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow.
The Tian'an Chamber of Commerce was a massive merchant association with branches throughout the Great Yan Dynasty. In Cangyuan, it practically served as the system's shop. It had a branch in every region, and as long as you had enough money, you could buy whatever materials or pills you needed from them.
"The Tian'an Chamber of Commerce?"
Zhou Chen grinned.
"Yes. They have all kinds of rare beasts. Now that you've begun cultivating, you could go pick out a couple."
"Pick out?" Xu Yuan noticed something odd about Zhou Chen's choice of words.
Zhou Chen looked at Xu Yuan in surprise and asked softly:
"Third Young Master, you didn't know?"
"Know what?"
"The Tian'an Chamber of Commerce is an enterprise of the Prime Minister's Estate."
"."
Xu Yuan's mind suddenly went blank.
At that very moment,
he finally understood what kind of Prime Minister his cheap old man was.
Before you continue