Shi Yu was certain he had heard a voice.
And the feeling was just like using Telepathy.
He searched for the source and locked onto it. It was definitely that stone statue...
But no matter how he looked at it, the statue didn't seem like a supernatural lifeform.
It was just an ordinary stone statue that ancient people had carved in the likeness of a stone giant.
Could it have gained sentience?
Impossible. If it had evolved into a supernatural lifeform, other Beast Tamers would have noticed it long ago.
There was no shortage of foot traffic here.
In a place like the Beast Tamer Association, high-level Beast Tamers were everywhere, and plenty of them had the Telepathy talent.
A wild supernatural creature couldn't have stayed hidden. This statue had been standing here for at least a few years, hadn't it?
After the voice faded, Shi Yu continued to observe it.
He watched it for a while but still found nothing. It was an utterly ordinary stone statue, made of utterly ordinary stone.
As a rule, Telepathy couldn't be used to communicate with inanimate objects. That was common knowledge, unless Telepathy had some unknown use he didn't know about.
"That's all for now. I have something to do later, so I'll be going."
"You don't need to think too much about it. A beast tide isn't something you need to worry about yet. Even if that ice dragon from the legends came back to life, our Beast Tamers could stand against it."
Teacher Zhang smiled as he spoke to the group.
In ancient times, dragons had been creatures far beyond reach, but in modern times, dragon tamers had long since become a profession. Though rare, they were no longer so far out of reach.
"Okay, thank you, Teacher Zhang," Chen Kai said.
Shi Yu thanked him as well. After they said their goodbyes, Teacher Zhang left, leaving Shi Yu and the other three looking at one another.
"Are we still going back to play whack-a-mole?" Chen Kai asked.
"Not anymore. We'll do it another time," Shi Yu said. "I just remembered I have something to do too..."
"Is it urgent? We could grab a meal before you go..."
"Very urgent!"
Chen Kai and the others had wanted to invite Shi Yu to dinner that evening before leaving, but Shi Yu left in such a hurry that the four of them simply went their separate ways.
In the end, Chen Kai and the others hadn't even gotten Shi Yu's contact information...
There was nothing to be done. Shi Yu hadn't bought a phone. They cost more than ten times as much as they did on Earth, and he couldn't afford one for now.
If they wanted to reach Shi Yu, they could only leave a message for him at the Beast Tamer Association...
The difference between the two worlds was that on Earth, buying a panda, tiger, or elephant was extremely difficult, but buying common tech products was easy.
Here, an Iron-Eating Beast at full price cost less than a home in the city, but tech products were much more expensive.
After they parted ways, Shi Yu headed straight for Ping City's library to look up some information.
Unfortunately, even by evening, he still hadn't found what he wanted to know.
But although he hadn't found what he was looking for, he had gained a better understanding of this world.
The history of this world could roughly be divided into three eras.
The Mythical Era, the Totem Era, and the Beast Taming Era.
The Mythical Era was said to be the era when the first mythical creatures born of heaven and earth ruled the planet.
The Totem Era was when humanity came into being and struggled to survive by various means in the territories of powerful creatures.
The Beast Taming Era was when humanity began to master the ability to tame beasts.
The Beast Taming Era could, in turn, be divided into ancient and modern periods.
The turning point came over a hundred years ago, when seven human nations jointly established an alliance.
It was a simple division into three eras, but for certain special reasons, there were many gaps in this world's history.
For example, why the first mythical creatures had all disappeared was a gap in the historical record, and no one knew when it had occurred.
And what Icefield City had experienced two thousand years ago was clearly also a part of history that people had yet to fully uncover.
"I can't be curious, I can't be curious, I can't be curious!!"
After leaving the library, Shi Yu kept repeating it to himself.
"I can't be curious, I can't be curious, I can't be curious!!"
He forced himself not to think about those things.
His old habit was acting up again.
In his previous life, Shi Yu had been an archaeologist. Later, for certain special reasons, he had come into contact with an unknown mythological system. Driven by curiosity, he had switched careers to become a mythologist.
After that, traveling to ruins and ancient sites, following his teacher as they explored this unknown mythological system, had become his daily routine.
And then he had died.
While exploring, he had run into an accident: a mountainside had collapsed and buried him alive. Afterward, he had transmigrated here.
"Curiosity killed the cat."
Remembering how he had once been obsessed with studying the history of that unknown mythological system, Shi Yu wanted to slap himself.
Wouldn't it have been better to stay home, play games, and watch anime? Why had he gone around investigating and researching all those dangerous places for no reason?
In any case, now that he had transmigrated to this even more dangerous world, Shi Yu only wanted to live a more comfortable life within safe limits.
He had to enjoy himself properly in this life.
Although this world's history seemed to have even more mysteries and a more authentic mythological system, he, Shi Yu, would never follow the same old path he had in his previous life.
Absolutely never-
At the Ping City Beast Tamer Association, in the park, beneath the stone giant statue.
The sky had already grown dark, and there was practically no one else in the park.
Shi Yu looked at the statue under the moonlight and asked, "Were you the one who spoke during the day?"
"Were you refuting the history that person was talking about?"
That's not how it was...
No matter how he looked at it, it seemed like a rebuttal to what Teacher Zhang had said, but only Shi Yu had heard it.
"Brother Stone Statue, say something."
Shi Yu used Telepathy to communicate with the statue.
But unlike during the day, the statue showed no reaction.
"If you don't say anything, I'm leaving."
The statue remained unmoved.
Shi Yu fell silent. Could something be wrong with his state of mind?
He recalled how he had felt when he looked at the statue that afternoon.
He had just finished listening to Teacher Zhang describe that history and had grown curious about it.
Since Teacher Zhang had said that account of history was only speculation and hadn't been confirmed, Shi Yu had looked at the statue and subconsciously wanted to know what had really happened.
That seemed to be when he had heard the statue's voice.
"Tell me."
Shi Yu stared at the statue, subconsciously recalling the times he had visited sites across the land, studied ancient artifacts, and sought the truth of history.
"Tell me. I can reveal the truth of history."
At that moment, Shi Yu's thoughts flowed freely. He truly wanted to make the truth of this history known to the public.
Right now, he didn't want to listen to the statue's voice, but to the voice of history.
He believed his state of mind was now extremely similar to what it had been that afternoon.
He used Telepathy again, searching for the feeling he'd had that afternoon.
It seemed... his head had been rumbling??
Rumble!!!!
The sound came. A single rumble shook Shi Yu's scalp numb.
But this sound clearly hadn't rung out in his head or his mind. It had exploded beside his ears.
He raised his head, his mouth hanging open, because the sky seemed to have suddenly trembled just now.
Crack!
Then the statue caught Shi Yu's attention again.
This time, a sound really had come from the statue, but it was the sound of it splitting apart.
Before his eyes, a crack split the statue from top to bottom...
"Fuck, something's gone wrong." Shi Yu turned and walked away. He swore that if he ever went back to his old line of work, he'd be a dog.
That line of work was too dangerous, even more dangerous than being a Beast Tamer.
"Eleven, save me."