As night ended and dawn broke, Jiang Ziliu opened his somewhat weary eyes, roused to full wakefulness by the light of the rising sun.
He had seen too many heart-stopping scenes last night to dare sleep deeply, keeping himself half asleep and half awake as much as possible.
Fortunately, his tamed beast, the Mutated Lightning Snake, had watched over his safety during the night.
After waking, Jiang Ziliu ate something and wiped his face with a damp towel.
Only then did he put away the Mutated Lightning Snake that had guarded him all night to let it rest, before recalling the Azurite Rock Man resting in a secluded spot beneath the tree.
Setting aside development and offensive power, the Azurite Rock Man was a very good tamed beast.
It was an earth-type exotic beast that could remain vigorous for a long time without rest, then recover through a lengthy rest when necessary.
It was unlike the Mutated Lightning Snake, which needed a certain amount of sleep every day to recover.
In the morning sunshine, Jiang Ziliu continued to send the Azurite Rock Man ahead to scout the way while he followed closely behind.
Most of the tamed beasts he encountered along the way were the same kinds as before.
That was because this area had plenty of forest.
Only when noon approached did he cross two hills and reach a small stretch of plains.
A river lay ahead, with broad grasslands along its banks.
After humanity's Great Cataclysm, the wilderness had raced headlong down the path toward a primeval state, never looking back.
His destination lay at the far end of the grasslands.
These grasslands were an extremely dangerous place, home to nearly a million basic varieties of cattle, sheep, and rabbit exotic beasts.
There were even more smaller exotic beasts, such as rodents, insects, and birds.
They had once all been plant-eating animals, but in this era, many originally herbivorous exotic beasts had evolved into omnivores.
The cattle, sheep, and rabbit exotic beasts did not mind adding little creatures such as insects and rodents to their diet for a taste of meat.
They were more aggressive and more dangerous.
Upon entering this area, Jiang Ziliu summoned the Mutated Lightning Snake, which had been sleeping to recover its strength, and had him guard him.
He followed an S-shaped route rather than proceeding in a straight line.
That was because powerful carnivorous exotic beasts of bronze and even silver rank lived around here, including giant leopards and giant snakes.
He had to avoid these dangerous creatures' territories and travel along their borders.
Before long, Jiang Ziliu spotted a herd-dwelling exotic beast called the Earth Savage Bull.
They possessed tremendous physical strength and could also use earth-attribute supernatural attack skills such as Rock and Earth Spikes and Earth Tremor.
Earth Savage Bulls were widely distributed across these grasslands. Adults generally had a black iron grade life level, while a small number of mutants could grow to bronze rank or even the higher silver rank.
They were strong, yet they were also favored prey for even stronger wolf, leopard, and giant snake exotic beasts.
Those carnivorous creatures were larger and stronger, all of them bronze or even silver rank.
The overwhelming strength granted by their higher life levels allowed them to disregard counterattacks such as the Earth Savage Bulls' spikes and hunt them with ease.
There was also the Giant-Horned Wind Sheep, a wind-attribute exotic beast whose strongest mutants could grow to silver rank.
This sheep-type exotic beast grew extremely slowly.
They needed nearly thirty years to reach peak black iron grade, and whether they could reach bronze rank depended on whether they could consume living or nonliving precious medicines found in the wilderness as special resources.
After consuming precious medicines of the corresponding attribute, they would undergo beneficial mutation and evolution, advancing to the bronze level.
The foundations of knowledge about tamed beast evolution in pharmacology came from the beneficial evolution of this kind of exotic beast.
The essence of evolution through potions was a product of analyzing and summarizing the various factors behind beneficial evolution in exotic beasts.
Giant-Horned Wind Sheep were very fast and produced many young, with dozens of offspring in a single litter.
Earth Savage Bulls and Giant-Horned Wind Sheep were the most common choices of tamed beasts for humans with relatively low potential-beast tamers with D- and C-grade talents.
Earth Savage Bulls had tremendous strength and excellent endurance, and ate ordinary plants with a little meat, making them excellent at transporting goods through the wilderness.
It could be said that once a beast tamer with a low-grade talent contracted an Earth Savage Bull, they would have no trouble making a living.
Freight for numerous trading companies, resource shipments between bases, and the transport of beast tamers' miscellaneous trade goods all required beast tamers contracted with Earth Savage Bulls.
These beast tamers were equivalent to the truck drivers of Jiang Ziliu's previous life.
Together, they formed the basic links of humanity's logistics and trade in this era, serving as a foundation for commerce within and between bases.
Beast tamers with greater growth potential might choose exotic beasts such as Earth Savage Elephants or Earth-Walking Dragons, which had both high transport capacity and high combat strength.
These people could transport high-value goods and occupied the upper end of the beast transport industry.
The transport of the very highest-grade goods relied on gigantic flying tamed beasts.
Their fees, however, were even higher!
Meanwhile, thanks to their terrifying speed and decent endurance, Giant-Horned Wind Sheep had become the basic tamed beasts for military personnel at the various bases.
The military generally adopted human orphans who had lost both parents and trained them from childhood, leaving little issue with their loyalty.
Those among them with high potential contracted high-level exotic beasts and became the military's main fighting force.
Those with low potential mainly contracted Giant-Horned Wind Sheep, forming the basic cavalry forces of the beast-taming world.
The military chose Giant-Horned Wind Sheep because these sheep-type exotic beasts had modest dietary requirements and were fast.
Most importantly, they were rather bold and would not panic under any circumstances. When moving in groups, they would even attack dragon-type exotic beasts that possessed draconic might!
They did not cower when encountering ordinary powerful exotic beasts, either.
These traits made them a choice for military tamed beasts deployed on a large scale.
Some beast tamers with lower talents also chose Giant-Horned Wind Sheep.
For one thing, their young were cheap. For another, they made excellent mounts during adventures, and their speed could improve a beast tamer's chances of survival.
As Jiang Ziliu crossed the grasslands, he carefully observed these Earth Savage Bulls and Giant-Horned Wind Sheep.
If he had not possessed his innate skill, Probability Judgment, he would certainly have chosen an economical, cost-effective exotic beast like the Earth Savage Bull.
Fortunately, he had a golden finger and could find a path for his own continuous growth and development.
He was even confident that he could subject low-level tamed beasts to special, continuous evolution.
Jiang Ziliu concealed his presence throughout the journey and even encountered a bronze-rank Azure-Eyed Wind Lightning Leopard patrolling the edge of its territory.
Fortunately, the concealment skill fed back to him by the Azurite Rock Man was up to the task, and he successfully remained hidden, without even giving off a scent.
If discovered, he knew this kind of exotic beast would not mind tasting human flesh.
Generally speaking, humans held considerable appeal for carnivorous exotic beasts in the wilderness. This stemmed from the instincts inherited from the source of their bloodlines-the primordial exotic beasts that had emerged from the Gate of the End.
Those beings harbored instinctive hostility and desire toward humans.
He finally reached the river in the center of the grasslands.
The river was very broad, two li across, but only a shallow, narrow stream flowed through its center.
It was currently the river's dry season, and he had specifically asked around about this location, a relatively safe place to cross.
Just as he reached the riverbank, the Azurite Rock Man suddenly sent him a warning.
A small human caravan was crossing the river ahead.
But that was not the unusual part. Rather, the Azurite Rock Man had detected traces of another unfamiliar human beast tamer.
Jiang Ziliu immediately crept closer and lay in the grass along the bank, carefully watching.
It was a small caravan of around fifty people. Perhaps they had chosen this minor route out of fear of being robbed on the main road.
The caravan used basic Earth Savage Bulls for transport, and every bull was laden with goods.
The transport caravan had forty Earth Savage Bulls alone.
Ten beast tamers served as guards, including bronze-rank beast tamers. Their tamed beasts included Black-Feathered Frenzied Lightning Eagles, Big-Mouthed Iron-Winged Birds, and Wind-Piercing Blue-Feathered Eagles.
There were also special land-based exotic beasts such as Azure-Eyed Wind Lightning Leopards, Giant-Horned Wind Sheep, and Illusory Light Foxes.
The party even included special reconnaissance-type tamed beasts.
It could be said that this was quite a good lineup, capable of handling most threats in the wild.
But the Azurite Rock Man discovered that the caravan's people had completely failed to detect a hidden beast tamer.
That hidden beast tamer was lurking in a small pool in the middle of the river.
His exotic beast was also unusual: it was actually a very special, large bronze-rank skunk nearly a meter tall!
Jiang Ziliu soon understood why this person dared to lie in ambush here. That skunk-type tamed beast could actually release a colorless, odorless, airborne poison gas that rendered humans and tamed beasts unconscious.
The skunk's position was directly upwind of the entire party.
Not long after the poison gas spread, some members of the caravan began to feel something wrong with their bodies.
But it was already too late. Every beast tamer in the party had succumbed. Even if their tamed beasts could withstand it, the beast tamers could not.
With the beast tamers all down, their tamed beasts lost their direction.
Finally, beneath the shroud of poison gas, all the tamed beasts collapsed in panic as well.
Jiang Ziliu was also upwind. He guessed that this poison might have a temporary effect, rendering beast tamers and their beasts unconscious for a time without killing them outright.
But how could this person rob an entire caravan alone?
Unless he had a high-grade spatial item or a spatial-type tamed beast!
Soon, however, Jiang Ziliu learned that he had been utterly mistaken.
This person was not here to rob them at all. He had another objective.
He emerged from the water dressed head to toe in black leather clothes, trousers, and a hood, with special waterproof goggles over his eyes, keeping himself thoroughly concealed.
It could be said that no one could recognize him beneath such an outfit.
He approached the fallen caravan and drew the curved saber from his back, beheading its members one by one. His clean, practiced motions made it clear at a glance that he did this often.
This was an assassin!
He had actually chosen only to wipe out every human in the caravan!
As the beast tamers died, tamed beasts such as the Earth Savage Bulls also let out uncontrollable, agonized cries in their unconsciousness before dying, their wails intertwining throughout the riverbed.
Yet this person continued slaughtering like an ice-cold machine.
The lives of beast tamers and their tamed beasts were linked. If a beast tamer died, their tamed beasts would certainly die.
If a tamed beast died, its beast tamer would not die, but would suffer tremendous backlash.
Under normal circumstances, after a tamed beast died or fell into slumber, the entire Beast-Taming Space would also become dormant, making it impossible to nurture tamed beasts and difficult to contract new ones.
Jiang Ziliu understood. This suspected beast-tamer assassin had come specifically to wipe out the entire caravan.
The skunk's ability also made him understand that no matter how large or small exotic beasts were, their abilities could not be underestimated.
A single bronze-rank skunk had brought down the entire party.
Only after ending the lives of all the beast tamers did the man set fire to all the goods. He then quietly surveyed the surroundings for a while amid the blood-soaked killing ground before unhurriedly disappearing into the grass on the opposite bank.
Jiang Ziliu felt that he might have accidentally stumbled upon something major.
This was either slaughter sparked by a particular commercial struggle or a special conspiracy involving certain factions targeting one another.
The other party had come entirely to wipe out the caravan, not to rob it as he had originally guessed.
Jiang Ziliu did not make any rash movements. He suspected that this person might still be watching from the shadows.
So he had the Azurite Rock Man move underground and search quietly.
Sure enough, the Azurite Rock Man soon found him. He was actually hiding in the grass on the opposite bank, watching to see whether anyone had witnessed it all.
Only after a full half hour did the Azurite Rock Man report that the man had vanished completely.
But Jiang Ziliu still did not move recklessly. Sure enough, a little while later, the man actually crept back through the grasslands behind him and was detected by the Mutated Lightning Snake.
The man's current position was not far from Jiang Ziliu.
The atmosphere was heavy. Jiang Ziliu activated Life Aura Concealment to its fullest, not daring to take so much as a deep breath.
At the same time, he held an iron pellet ready in his hand. If the assassin discovered him, he would immediately use Electromagnetic Cannon to deliver a lethal strike.
He did not believe that a human beast tamer could withstand the power of Electromagnetic Cannon!
Fortunately, luck was on his side, and the man did not discover any traces of Jiang Ziliu's passage.
This time, he merely checked briefly before leaving again.
Jiang Ziliu remained hidden for nearly another two hours before swiftly leaving the area. He crossed the river at another, more dangerous location farther away and made his way to the opposite bank.
This experience let Jiang Ziliu personally understand what it meant that a beast tamer's dangers came not only from exotic beasts, but even more from their own kind. It had taught him the most vivid, real lesson!
He would not meddle in other people's affairs. Finding soul crystals safely was his foremost goal!