Contract, Achieve Soul Venerable!

"Race potential unknown, no evolution method yet..."

Xu Bai fell into a brief silence as he read.

To date, he had cataloged nearly two hundred Soul Beasts, but this was truly the first time he had encountered such a situation.

And this description—"Heaven has fifty, the Great Way forty-nine, leaving one to escape"—it was a bit more high-end compared to the descriptions of other Soul Beasts.

This isn't just finding a treasure; this is encountering a stroke of destiny!

Xu Bai's eyes flickered slightly, filled with both excitement and hesitation.

After all, this was the ancestral grave of that Sword Douluo. If he took this sword away, wouldn't it be the equivalent of stealing the tombstone of his ancestor?

If something with the same nature as digging up someone's ancestral grave were exposed, he would surely be torn limb from limb...

Hiss—

Just thinking about it made him wince.

But this Sword Spirit was simply too special.

If he thought about it carefully, perhaps the race potential was unknown because its age exceeded a million years, and the Manual couldn't display it yet. Perhaps there was no evolution method because this was already its final form.

Most importantly, didn't having no evolution method mean he wouldn't have to spend Gold Soul Coins on that aspect?

A Beast Tamer's pet that knew how to save its master money—this was simply his dream pet!

In that instant, Xu Bai felt as if two little figures had appeared on either side of his head.

The one on the left said, "If Heaven gives you something and you don't take it, you will suffer for it. How can you just give up on a destiny that's already in your hands?"

The one on the right countered, "Since you've decided to take it, why not go all the way? Why not just 'take it all'? These nine swords are all forged from rare, precious metals. If you melt them all down, let alone Di Yi and Little Blue, you'd probably have enough resources for the next few pets you need ten thousand years from now."

The conservative side felt the radical side was being far too conservative.

Xu Bai pondered for a long while and still felt the left side made more sense; the right side was truly too extreme.

"That makes sense. If Heaven gives you something and you don't take it, you will suffer for it. Besides, I'm contracting the Sword Spirit, so I might not necessarily take the sword itself. And looking at the dust on the sword, I fear no one has been here for many years. If I really take the sword, who knows when Sword Douluo will discover it? Even if he does, with the Beast Taming Space, Sword Douluo might not be able to find me..."

"However, I won't take it for nothing. Isn't there a Soul Extermination Operation in a dozen years or so? I will take action then to repay the karma. Of course, if my abilities aren't enough by then, I will provide an early warning."

Thinking this to himself, Xu Bai tried to give himself some psychological comfort.

"Beast Tamer, what are you thinking about?"

At this moment, Di Yi walked over and asked curiously.

"I'm thinking about what name to give your new partner..."

Xu Bai glanced at Di Yi and spoke without hesitation.

"New partner?"

Di Yi paused, thinking back to how the Beast Tamer had been staring at this sword while lost in thought. It had a rare moment of wit:

"Beast Tamer, the new partner you're talking about wouldn't be this sword, would it..."

"Correct, but there's no prize."

Xu Bai waved his hand and said, "Go play over there. I'm getting ready to start the contract now."

Di Yi took two steps back, found an empty spot to lie down, and watched its Beast Tamer with curiosity.

Wait, isn't a Beast Tamer supposed to tame beasts? How can he sign a contract with a sword? Di Yi's large head was filled with question marks.

Xu Bai was naturally unaware of the confusion in Di Yi's heart, but even if he were, he couldn't be bothered to explain. Once he contracted this Sword Spirit, Di Yi would understand what it needed to understand; as for what it couldn't understand, no amount of explaining would help.

"Little Sword Spirit, can you hear me?"

Looking at the sharp sword before him, Xu Bai asked softly.

Clang~

The sword trembled slightly, as if responding subconsciously. The meaning it conveyed was very chaotic; even with his Telepathy talent, Xu Bai couldn't understand what the Sword Spirit wanted to express—it was even less coherent than the Blue Silver Grass.

But thinking about it, that was normal. This sword had likely just developed a faint intelligence. If he equated it to a Soul Beast, it would be like one that had just reached ten years of age and become an official Soul Beast.

After all, you couldn't expect a sword that had been stuck in a valley for who knows how many years to be human-like.

Since conversation was impossible, he would just sign the contract directly.

Xu Bai sighed softly, silently whispered "Senior, forgive me," and then moved his mind. The Soul Mark on the back of his right hand instantly lit up with a soft glow.

Just like the previous two times, it quickly covered his entire palm.

Then, as he slowly touched the blade, a stream of light seeped in. Upon finding that faint, newly-born intelligence, it transformed into a contract seal and branded itself upon it.

With that, the contract was formed. Those who break their word shall suffer the punishment of broken promises!

After this mysterious voice echoed, a formation appeared, and the sharp sword transformed into points of light that merged into the Soul Mark.

Immediately after, a nearly transparent white Soul Ring slowly condensed around Xu Bai, then rose unsteadily alongside his other two purple Soul Rings.

"Level thirty-two. Finally a Soul Venerable!"

He murmured softly, feeling the soul power within his body, and roughly calculated his current soul power level.

The Sword Spirit's age was too low; the soul power feedback brought by contracting it could not be called non-existent, but it could only be described as negligible.

The two levels he had gained were due to the remaining soul power feedback from the first beast and Little Blue after their ages reached a thousand years.

Suppressing the joy in his heart, Xu Bai moved his thoughts and cast his gaze toward the Manual within his Sea of Divine Consciousness:

[Beast Taming Top 1]: Mutated Green-Red Tiger (First)

[Attribute]: Metal

[Current Age]: ...

[Beast Taming Top 2]: Mutated Blue Silver Grass (Little Blue)

[Attribute]: ...

[Beast Taming Top 3]: Sword Spirit

[Attribute]: Sword

[Current Age]: Eleven years

[Racial Potential]: ????

[Racial Skill]: Sword Heart Clarity (Superb)

[Evolution Path]: None

[Current Soul Beasts Recorded in Manual]: 185

"Heaven-defying. Its age is only eleven years, yet its racial skill's initial proficiency has already reached the Superb level. It truly lives up to being hailed as an anomaly by the Manual."

Xu Bai clicked his tongue in secret, thinking to himself that this gamble had paid off. With talent like this, he felt that if he could raise it properly, he could just lie back and coast.

He just didn't know how many resources it would take to cultivate the Sword Spirit. If he remembered correctly, just deducing the initial cultivation method for the Sword Spirit would consume a "massive amount" of mental energy.

Xu Bai's current mental energy certainly couldn't support such a deduction, but fortunately, he had already attained the rank of Soul Venerable. Once he recorded a few more Soul Beasts later, his mental energy would surge once again.

If he was lucky, he might be able to push his mental energy to the upper echelon or even the peak level of a Soul Emperor.

After understanding the Sword Spirit, he hurriedly turned his attention to the Beast Taming Space; this was the main event of the day.

Just like the previous two times, after contracting the little Sword Spirit, the scope of the Beast Taming Space expanded several times over. If not for the lack of a complete ecological environment, the Beast Taming Space could now be considered a small world in its own right.

For the Xu Bai of the past, this would have been a happy trouble, because as the space expanded, the distance to completing the process of perfecting his Beast Taming Space grew significantly longer.

But now, the trouble was gone, leaving only happiness; naturally, the bigger the Beast Taming Space, the better.

Because after attaining the rank of Soul Venerable, although his Beast Taming Space Martial Soul did not grant him True Body Armor, it had unlocked a new skill called "Devour."