[An Aberration of a Genius?]

In Yue Bing's eyes, her Third Brother, who had never attended an academy, had far better control than those second-year students at the academy.

Without having learned any control techniques at all, he had instinctively set a target for the Thorn Flower, then merged his mind with it, turning his own senses into the Thorn Flower's attack perception. This was a major hurdle in the growth of every plant-type student. Plant-type summoned beasts differed from summoned beasts of every other type. They possessed no intelligence or thought, only instinct. No method could "teach" them to attack; a person had to merge minds with the battle beast, or there was simply no way to control a plant-type battle beast.

Third Brother had done it with ease.

And he had figured it out all by himself.

In only a few seconds, he could make the Saliva-Spitting Thorn Flower he had just contracted and summoned spray venom at its target.

With such comprehension and talent, if he attended the academy, perhaps the instructors would regard him as a peerless prodigy seen only once in a hundred years?

Looking at the dejected Yue Yang, Yue Bing in black was most shaken not by his comprehension, but by the fact that this Third Brother, whom everyone called trash, had no idea just how terrifying his own talent was!

"Huh?" Just as Yue Yang was about to gloomily hide in a corner and draw circles, he suddenly noticed that the Saliva-Spitting Thorn Flower before him was rapidly withering.

A fragment of knowledge flashed through his mind, and he slapped his thigh again.

He really was an idiot!

The venom-spraying Saliva-Spitting Thorn Flower had advantages that other creatures lacked. For instance, it needed neither feeding nor care, much less any special living conditions. Compared with bird-type and beast-type battle beasts, which had to be fed and consume magic crystals to evolve, and insect-type and fish-type battle beasts, which needed specific conditions just to survive, plant-types and puppet-types were the easiest to manage. If a puppet-type was damaged, it could simply be taken to the Puppet Palace for repairs. But if it was destroyed, it was gone forever—there was no resurrection. Moreover, the greatest flaw of puppet-type battle beasts was that they could not evolve.

Plant-types could evolve, but their greatest weakness was their movement speed. They were simply far too slow.

They also lacked intelligence. Training a Saliva-Spitting Thorn Flower to spray venom was less useful than getting a Wind Wolf or Shadow Leopard and letting them attack enemies directly by instinct...

Still, the Saliva-Spitting Thorn Flower had its strengths as well. Its greatest advantage was that it could evolve by devouring corpses. Aside from puppet-type corpses, it could continuously consume any living creature's remains, slowly digest them, then use the energy in those corpses to evolve and level up.

It was just that Thorn Flowers were extremely weak in their early stages. One spray of venom consumed all their energy, causing them to wither rapidly.

Of course, this was not true death. If they were reduced to ashes, then they could not be revived.

Among all summoned beasts, whether holy beasts or divine beasts, only one kind could never die: the Life Guardian Beasts within the Summoning Codex!

Life Guardian Beasts were the only summoned beasts that would never die or betray their masters. Other summoned beasts all had loyalty ratings. Once their loyalty fell too low, they would flee in battle. In severe cases, they might even disappear automatically from the Summoning Codex...

"It seems you've noticed. Yes, plant-type battle beasts differ from all other types. They have one special instinct: 'rooting.'" Yue Bing in black controlled her Saliva-Spitting Thorn Flower to spray venom, striking the intersection at the center of the mud circle on the wall with incredible speed and precision—right on the bullseye. Yue Yang felt deeply ashamed at the sight.

As expected of the genius girl of the family. She really was impressive!

Yue Bing in black's Saliva-Spitting Thorn Flower slowly withered as well, but unlike Yue Yang's Thorn Flower, it did not disappear.

The Thorn Flower fell to the ground, then slowly—very, very slowly—began to grow again.

Like a little teacher, Yue Bing in black explained to Yue Yang, "Just now, I had the Thorn Flower root itself into the soil. With energy replenished from the earth, it will fully recover in about ten minutes instead of withering."

Like an elementary school student listening attentively in class, Yue Yang nodded happily. "All right, I'll try again!"

"Hm?" Yue Bing in black froze when she heard that.

Try again?

Hadn't he just contracted a Codex? Anyone who had just contracted one was a novice apprentice, and a novice apprentice could only summon one battle beast a day. That Saliva-Spitting Thorn Flower had already withered, so what was he trying again? She had originally wanted to take this opportunity to lecture him, to make him protect his summoned beasts and not let them die so easily. After all, everyone's number of summons was extremely limited, so whether in battle or in everyday life, they had to cherish them...

He—he could still summon?

Yue Yang, oblivious to what the girl was thinking, excitedly summoned another Saliva-Spitting Thorn Flower, then painstakingly controlled it to root itself in the soil.

"Success! I finally succeeded!" Yue Yang clapped his hands in delight, grateful that while he might not be a genius, he was not utterly mediocre either.

Yue Bing in black nearly toppled headfirst onto the ground at the sight.

Thus began the following conversation between the younger sister and her counterfeit older brother.

"Third Brother, didn't you just contract a Codex? I mean, you only successfully summoned one a few days ago, right?" the astonished Yue Bing in black asked.

"Yes, that's right." Yue Yang nodded.

"Then what level are you now? A level-one novice apprentice, or a level-two warrior?" Yue Bing in black asked again.

"A level-one novice apprentice," Yue Yang answered honestly.

"What rank of level-one novice apprentice are you? Beginner, intermediate, or advanced? How far are you from level two? What I mean is, could you have accidentally advanced to level two and become a beginner warrior?" Yue Bing in black asked suspiciously.

"No, how could it be that fast? Look, I'm definitely a beginner level-one novice apprentice. I know advancing to level two is difficult." Although the transmigrator had only been here a few days, the knowledge instilled in his mind by the Bronze Codex had taught him a little. He opened the first page of the Bronze Codex and showed Yue Bing in black his level and assessment. What she saw made the girl even dizzier. She asked, "Third Brother, isn't a level-one novice apprentice only able to summon one battle beast? How can you summon two?"

"Ah..." Yue Yang scratched his head. "Actually, I didn't summon two!"

"You didn't? Then what is this?" Yue Bing in black pointed at the Saliva-Spitting Thorn Flower Yue Yang had just summoned, wondering whether this was some kind of hallucination.

"It's still the same Saliva-Spitting Thorn Flower from before!" Yue Yang was puzzled. Was there something wrong with that?

"Even if it's the same one, it already withered! You shouldn't be able to summon it again today, so how could you possibly summon it again?" Yue Bing in black was about to faint. Could this Third Brother of hers be the legendary genius seen only once in a thousand years? It was said that there was a kind of aberrant genius who could exceptionally summon a battle beast especially compatible with them twice.

But such freaks were not merely rare once in a hundred years; there had not even been more than a few heard of in a thousand years.

Was her Third Brother one of these freaks?

When Yue Bing in black looked at Yue Yang again, her eyes held a different light, as though she were looking at an ultimate super-freak.

Yue Yang had no idea that he was different from others, and he still tried to explain in confusion. "Actually, it didn't die! When I summoned the Thorn Flower just now, I used Offshoot Summoning. I left its main body behind and summoned the secondary body split off from it. Anyway, the offshoot had the same abilities. Even if the secondary body died after splitting off, the main body remained and wasn't affected... Of course, summoning it this way was rather exhausting."

"What did you say? You know how to use 'Offshoot Summoning'?" Yue Bing in black felt as though a thunderbolt had exploded in the sky.