Summoning Technique is Key

Summoning Technique Was the Key

Only today did Fate understand why Windfire Town had looked a little deserted yesterday. It turned out most people had gone to the Falling Moon Mountains to hunt Magic Beasts, while some mercenaries had escorted several merchant caravans to the Lans Empire. As if they had arranged it beforehand, they all rushed back today.

Anna's tavern was packed to bursting. Though it was called a tavern, it only served some rough rye ale; most people had come for the one-of-a-kind Malatang. Fate, who washed vegetables and doubled as a waiter, was so exhausted he could hardly catch his breath, and still could not keep up.

More than three thousand skewers of Malatang were sold out by the afternoon. Some mercenaries and adventurers who hurried over did not get any and left in a huff. A few rookie adventurers who had just arrived in Windfire Town wanted to throw a tantrum because they had not gotten to eat, but before they could curse more than a few words, several people threw them out into the street and pounced on them for a fierce beating.

"Keep your eyes open. If so much as one plank falls off this tavern, we'll use your bones to patch it back on." A burly man cursed with a grin, then kicked the terrified adventurer in the face again.

"Uncle Hark." Li Junshan had a skewer of chicken between his teeth as he asked, "How come I haven't seen Xilu here today?" Beside him, Fate held a basin of scalded vegetables and ate at leisure. He had long since changed out of his magic robe, and in coarse hemp clothes, he was eating with great relish.

"That brat ran over yesterday to eat Malatang and didn't even bring me a few skewers. Today I shut him up at home to train. I'll eat the remaining dozens of meals." Hark spoke with a chuckle.

"Useless." Anna jumped out, kicked a groaning greenhorn several steps away, and sprayed Hark's face with spit.

"I'm telling you, Hark, you useless thing. Xilu earned that Malatang with his own ability. If you want to eat, then come eat. You think this old lady can't collect the money and go move things out of your house?"

Black lines covered Hark's forehead, and he did not dare talk back, only kept retreating.

"What are you hiding for? Are you that afraid of this old lady? Afraid I'll eat you? Look at that sorry state of yours." As she spoke, still not having vented enough, Anna grabbed Hark by the ear and dragged him toward the roadside.

"Will she be all right?" Fate very professionally began to worry about the proprietress's safety.

"She'll be fine." Li Junshan spat out the chicken bone and smiled. "Those two are a man and woman in love. The more they fight, the sweeter it gets. Hark won't fight back."

Fate's eyes lit up. Who said men were any less gossipy than women? He asked, "Then why was the proprietress chasing Xilu for money yesterday? Since she has feelings for Uncle Niu, she could just not charge him."

"That's Anna, not anyone else," Li Junshan said. "Money is money, feelings are feelings. No one separates them more clearly than she does."

From afar, he saw Anna and Hark standing at the street corner, their voices growing lower and lower as they spoke. Hark said something, and Anna actually twisted her bucket waist coquettishly, making Li Junshan's vision swim. He hurriedly turned and went back into the shop.

"Mr. Fate, there's nothing to do now. We don't open at night, so I'll take you out for a stroll." Li Junshan washed the grease from his hands and casually changed into a cleaner set of clothes.

Fate naturally could not have asked for more and hurried after him. The two circled Windfire Town's central avenue a few times, then Li Junshan led him toward the woods at the edge of town.

Fate could not figure out what he was thinking. He did not treat Li Junshan as a child at all, so he asked nothing.

After entering the woods, they found an open space. Li Junshan sat on the ground, and only after Fate sat down beside him did he ask, "There's a very large place inside my head. What's going on?"

"A very large place inside your head?" Fate frowned and thought for a while, then said, "Are you talking about a Spirit Space?"

"Spirit Space?" Li Junshan's eyes brightened. This term was indeed much more precise than his own description. He quickly nodded and said, "Yes, a Spirit Space."

"How big is it?" Fate also became interested.

Li Junshan lifted his head and looked around blankly a few times, then said tentatively, "I feel like it's about the size of this town."

"What?" Fate was shocked. His eyes went round as he cried out, "As big as Windfire Town?"

Li Junshan nodded. In truth, he did not dare tell the truth. Although that space was dark and he could not see it clearly, he could feel that it was extremely large, so large he had no way to describe it.

"You are a Summoner," Fate said excitedly. "Oh, I misspoke. In the future, you will definitely become a Summoner, the greatest Summoner."

"Summoner?" Though Li Junshan had heard the term before, he was not very clear on it.

"Yes." Fate said excitedly, "The types or number of Magic Beasts a Summoner can summon are greatly related to his Spirit Space. You have such a large Spirit Space at such a young age. If you properly cultivate the Summoning Technique, your future achievements will definitely be limitless."

"Summoning Technique?" Li Junshan vaguely felt he had grasped something.

"I got too excited." Fate took several deep breaths and waited until his mood calmed a little before saying, "Summoner is a declining profession on the continent. Because Summoners themselves are too frail and have little offensive power, relying entirely on summoned beasts to fight, and because of some special law, they must have their feet on the ground to release their summoned beasts, while most mages can also possess powerful Magic Beasts through magic contracts or equal contracts. So now very few people on the continent cultivate the Summoner profession, unless..."

"Unless what?" Li Junshan grew a little anxious.

Now this is more like a normal child.

Fate thought this in his heart, smiled faintly, and felt he had regained a bit of confidence as he spoke with assurance. "Unless the Summoner's Spirit Space is extremely large and he possesses powerful spiritual force, he can summon a massive horde of Magic Beasts. This kind of Summoner is definitely a nightmare for other professions. Like Arnoliva, once the most famous Summoner on the continent. He could summon one hundred and eight Magic Beasts, and Mr. Arnoliva was also the first Summoner in history to force his way into the ranks of Saint Realm powerhouses."

The number naturally isn't a problem. Unfortunately, I don't dare try even one. Li Junshan thought dejectedly in his heart.

"What was that Magic Beast egg you took out yesterday? Where did you get it? Has it hatched already?" Fate took the opportunity to throw out the questions that had troubled him all day.

"That... mm... Mr. Fate, when my Spirit Space appeared, there was inexplicably a Magic Beast egg inside it. It's the one you saw yesterday. What's going on with that?" Li Junshan organized his words as he spoke, his eyes fixed firmly on Fate.

"Innate Summoned Beast." Fate sucked in a cold breath, the corners of his mouth stretching without limit.

"Innate Summoned Beast? What does that mean?" One Magic Beast egg had frightened Fate this badly, and Li Junshan felt it had been wise to conceal the Alien Queen and the countless other Magic Beast eggs.

Only after a long while did Fate calm down and say, "Among Summoners, there is an extremely low chance that when the Spirit Space forms, they will possess an Innate Summoned Beast. Unlike other Magic Beasts, an Innate Summoned Beast can grow without limit. In the end, what sort of strength it can become, no one dares predict. According to epic records, such a precedent has not appeared in ten thousand years, so many people treat this claim as legend. I never thought it was actually true."

Ah, if I hadn't appeared in this world, perhaps this would forever have remained a legend. Aliens can keep evolving and growing, but the problem is I don't dare use them.

Li Junshan said this in his heart. He frowned and thought for a long while, then asked, "I have a very bad premonition. This Magic Beast egg is extremely dangerous, so dangerous that every time it's about to hatch, my spirit becomes extremely tense and chaotic. I feel like I have no way to control it and can only send it back. Fortunately, this egg stops hatching inside the Spirit Space."

"That is why you must learn the Summoning Technique and cultivate spiritual force. Only then can you communicate with the summoned beast and control it. At that time, the danger will be for your enemies. No matter how ferocious a summoned beast is, before its own Summoner, it is an obedient farm dog. It will only act according to the Summoner's will."

"So that's how it is." Li Junshan's eyes lit up, and he clapped his hands excitedly.

"How do you know so much? You're a mage, not a Summoner."

Fate's face reddened. He hemmed and hawed for a long while before saying, "My father and grandfather were both Summoners. It was precisely because this profession had declined that they made me switch to studying magic."

"So that's it." Li Junshan said urgently, "Then do you have any secret family manuals, something like a very powerful Summoning Technique? Could you lend it to me to look at?"

Fate rolled his eyes and said, "What secret manuals? Books on the Summoning Technique are everywhere across the entire continent. They aren't worth much, and the cultivation methods are all more or less the same. The difference lies in a person's comprehension and talent."

"Come on, back to town." Li Junshan stood and ran toward town at top speed. Fate was somewhat baffled and quickly followed.

The two ran back to the tavern. Anna and Hark sat in a corner of the tavern, chatting and laughing, and paid them no mind. Li Junshan dug out a wooden plank, took a charcoal stick and wrote a few words, then tucked the plank under his arm and ran toward the busiest trading market in the center of Windfire Town.

"Will this really work?" Fate sat beside Li Junshan, staring at the big words on the wooden board: "Summoning Technique training books exchanged for one thousand skewers of Malatang from Anna's tavern."

"Don't worry. You can get anything here. I heard a golden-lion noble from some orc kingdom once bought the daughter of a duke from the Lans Empire here for twenty thousand gold coins. Besides, my Malatang is the only one of its kind in Windfire Town, and Anna, that money-grubber, set the price so high. Someone will definitely come trade." Li Junshan was very confident.

Sure enough, before long, a crowd squeezed over.

"I've got one here! Take a look, it's still new." A man with triangular eyes waved the blue leather booklet in his hand.

"Mine, mine! Five hundred skewers will do." A fatty desperately held up five thick fingers.

"I have one too. Three hundred, just three hundred skewers."

Seeing that the booklets in those people's hands all had the same packaging, Li Junshan guessed these were all officially printed by the continent's authorities. He was just about to pick one at random and buy it when a pitch-black hand reached out from the crowd, pinching a yellowed booklet. Then its owner revealed himself—it was a filthy beggar.

"A family heirloom Summoner secret manual! I won't trade it for a single skewer less than one thousand!" the old beggar shouted with all his might, covered in sores and reeking to the heavens.

"I'll take his. Everyone, disperse." Li Junshan's heart stirred. He tucked the wooden board under his arm and helped the old beggar up.

The trading market naturally had its own rules. Although the others had failed to make the exchange, they did not dare cause trouble and slowly scattered, though curses were inevitable.

"What family heirloom secret manual?" Li Junshan took the booklet from the old beggar's hand and casually flipped through it a few times.

"My grandfather said this was a textbook personally compiled by Mr. Arnoliva back when he taught at the imperial academy. But later, as the profession of Summoner declined, these textbooks went out of print too." The old beggar said shakily, "This book belonged to my grandfather's grandfather's... I can't make it clear either. In any case, it's been passed down for many years. A unique, out-of-print copy."

"The life of your Summoned Beast is your life. Respect it and treat it well, and only then can you grow."

This sentence was written on the book's title page. Li Junshan casually turned a few pages and said, "Good, this is the one. Come to Anna's tavern early tomorrow. I'll add another five hundred skewers for you."

"What a good person." The old beggar's face filled with tears of excitement as he said, "Every day I smelled that fragrance over there. Young master, you even gave me a few skewers before. I only stopped going because I saw the lady boss scolding you. It was too delicious. I don't have many days left to live. If I can eat my fill just once, it'll be worth it."

"It's fine." Li Junshan smiled and said, "Anna has a knife mouth and a tofu heart. You can go every day and it'll be fine."

After saying that, he repeatedly reminded the old beggar to come early tomorrow. Only then did Li Junshan walk back together with Fate.

"Picked up a treasure, didn't I?" Halfway back, Li Junshan said cheerfully, "What I used to love doing most was hunting for treasures in flea markets and secondhand markets. I could always buy good stuff."

"Fleas? Secondhand markets?" Fate said blankly. "Where are they? The Lans Empire or the Baolong Empire? How come I've never heard of them?"