The Lightning-Type Cultivation Path for an Iron-Eating Beast

"Oh, look, someone finally took first place."

In the main monitoring room, five professional Beast Tamers enjoyed the air conditioning as they commented on the live scores.

They weren't directly responsible for security. Generally speaking, rescuing examinees was left to the security company personnel.

"Looks like he hunted five Long-Spined Wild Boars. Good grief, that Beast Tamer and his pet seem like a remarkably energetic pair."

After a brief assessment, they moved on to other topics without paying the change much attention. Only a few hours had passed, after all, and the assessment was still a long, long way from over...

Professional Beast Tamers were unquestionably tamers with Transcendent Level pets, but that didn't mean the security personnel who hadn't passed the professional assessment necessarily lacked Transcendent Level combat power.

To qualify for the professional assessment, a Beast Tamer's Beast Taming Space had to reach level two, with its crystal walls changing from colorless to gray, and their pet's growth level had to reach the Transcendent Level.

Professional Beast Tamers were the cream of the crop, picked from the tamers who met those conditions. They had to excel in every respect, from theoretical knowledge and wilderness survival to practical combat.

So Beast Tamers who qualified for the professional assessment but hadn't passed it weren't necessarily as weak as most apprentices. Rather than apprentices, they were better described as prospective professionals.

One of the security personnel this time, Yan Qi, was a prospective professional. Both he and his pet were at the required levels, but he hadn't passed the professional assessment. He couldn't outcompete the others, so he hadn't earned that certificate.

Born and raised in Ping City, Yan Qi had an Iron-Eating Beast as his initial pet. He had studied at the Bamboo Stone Dojo, the Iron-Eating Beast headquarters, and thus understood the species reasonably well.

From the first moment he saw Shi Yu's Iron-Eating Beast on the monitor, he realized that Shi Yu and Eleven were no ordinary pair.

In all his time at the Bamboo Stone Dojo, the Iron-Eating Beast headquarters, he had never seen an Iron-Eating Beast master Expert Level Hardening while still a cub. It was outrageous.

His own Iron-Eating Beast had reached the Transcendent Level and had been raised for five or six years... yet its Hardening had only recently reached the Expert Level.

In any case, Shi Yu was definitely no ordinary person. Out of curiosity, Yan Qi used his personal phone to call the Bamboo Stone Dojo during his break between shifts and got hold of Dojo Master Lin, who was teaching students there.

"Master Lin, do you remember me? It's Little Qi, Yan Qi, the one nicknamed Little Bear."

The person on the other end said, "Little Bear Yan Qi, the one who took the professional assessment for two years without passing and went to work for a security company?"

That hit him right in the heart.

Yan Qi smiled bitterly. "I'm sorry, I've brought shame to the Bamboo Stone Dojo..."

"Master Lin, I'm currently working security at the Tianmang Mountain Training Base, and I've run into a very interesting Beast Tamer."

"His Iron-Eating Beast looks to be only about two years old, but it has mastered Expert Level Hardening. It's outrageous! Is he a new junior apprentice at our Bamboo Stone Dojo?"

"I really don't remember him, and I haven't heard anyone mention him, so I called to ask you. Oh, right, his name is Shi Yu."

At the Bamboo Stone Dojo.

In a very elegant room with mountains and water, a middle-aged man with a meticulous expression fell silent for a moment.

An Iron-Eating Beast around two years old, with Expert Level Hardening?

Was Yan Qi sure he wasn't joking? How was that possible?

It could be said that all the Iron-Eating Beasts in Icefield City came from the Iron Bamboo Breeding Base. If there were an Iron-Eating Beast with such outstanding talent, he couldn't possibly be unaware of it.

"What did you say his name was?"

"Shi Yu. His name is Shi Yu."

Shi Yu!

"Him?" Lin Hongnian recalled Dr. Lu from Ancient Capital University visiting him at the Bamboo Stone Dojo a few days ago.

She seemed to have asked him to help train a distant relative... and that relative was called Shi Yu?

She had come to him because Shi Yu's initial pet was an Iron-Eating Beast.

She had even offered a high-grade resource obtained from a ruin as payment.

Lin Hongnian had also looked into the Iron Bamboo Breeding Base's records concerning Shi Yu's pet. The results were that Shi Yu's background was ordinary, and he had even bought his pet on a loan. He was born and raised in Ping City, and Lin Hongnian had no idea how he had become connected to Lu Qingyi, a favored daughter of heaven even on a national scale.

Still, he couldn't refuse Dr. Lu this favor, especially since she had offered sufficiently valuable compensation.

"The Iron-Eating Beast Shi Yu received was clearly only a little over a year old, and he received it less than a month ago, didn't he?"

"Expert Level Hardening?" Lin Hongnian realized what he had overlooked, and his expression grew serious.

"Did Dr. Lu help him train it using some special method?"

Otherwise, Lin Hongnian couldn't imagine how an apprentice Beast Tamer could have trained an Iron-Eating Beast cub's racial skill to the Expert Level in such a short time...

Perhaps Lu Qingyi had given Shi Yu some rare cultivation resource.

"Master Lin, Master Lin..." Having heard nothing from the other end of the phone for a long while, Yan Qi spoke again.

"Yan Qi, you said Shi Yu is training over at Tianmang Mountain, right?"

"That's right."

"Mm, I see."

"You see? So is he an apprentice at our Bamboo Stone Dojo or not...?"

Lin Hongnian said, "Not yet, but he may be later. By the way, since his Iron-Eating Beast's Hardening has reached the Expert Level, and he happens to be at Tianmang Mountain, and you're there too, guide him to the Magnetic Mountain Area. Let him focus his training there. It'll lay a foundation in advance for learning the dojo's skills."

"Huh?" Yan Qi still hadn't caught on.

Damn it, what's going on? He hasn't even joined yet, and they're already going to teach him the dojo's secret skills? Yan Qi was envious...

The safe zone.

Shi Yu finished his instant noodles and ate two ham sausages before he was barely no longer hungry.

He planned to rest for a while, then head straight to the Magnetic Mountain Area to play with the Electric Slimes.

As for the five Long-Spined Wild Boars, he could finally stop dragging them around and leave them here.

"Shi Yu."

While Shi Yu was quietly meditating and resting in a corner of the grass shelter, the security guard who had registered his points earlier came over again.

"What is it?"

Shi Yu opened his eyes and turned to look at him.

Yan Qi chuckled. "Nothing much. Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Yan Qi."

"Are you planning to go hunting again this afternoon?"

Shi Yu nodded.

"Then I suggest you go to the Magnetic Mountain Area. There's a kind of electric ore there, a level-one iron ore resource containing energy. It's one of the foods Iron-Eating Beasts eat."

"Electric iron ore?" Shi Yu thought back. It did seem to be one of the foods recommended in the Iron-Eating Beast cultivation manual, though it wasn't a high priority.

Compared with Iron Bamboo, it didn't do much for Hardening or the beast's growth. At best, it filled the stomach and kept hunger away.

"Come with me for a moment."

Yan Qi called Shi Yu over, intending to talk somewhere relatively open.

What does this guy want? Shi Yu was taken aback, but followed, deciding to see what medicine this security guard was selling in his gourd.

"I'm actually an apprentice at the Bamboo Stone Dojo, and my initial pet is also an Iron-Eating Beast. By the way, do you know what the Bamboo Stone Dojo's two secret techniques are?"

Yan Qi spoke after they had left the grass shelter.

"If I remember right, they're a skill called Thunder Palm and another called Cannon Fist?" Shi Yu said, recalling what he knew.

So this guy is an apprentice at the Bamboo Stone Dojo... No wonder he was so interested in me and my Iron-Eating Beast.

Iron-Eating Beasts trained by the Bamboo Stone Dojo were famous for their ability to master fire and lightning, and their signature techniques were Thunder Palm and Cannon Fist. Shi Yu knew that, of course, since he still had to go to the dojo to study later.

"Mm, that's right, Thunder Palm and Cannon Fist. With special cultivation methods, Iron-Eating Beasts have a chance of awakening the ability to control fire and lightning."

"For example, if one wants to control lightning, one of the basics is for the Iron-Eating Beast to eat metal ores with electrical properties, such as electric ore."

"Why are you telling me this?"

Shi Yu also knew that if a pet wanted to master skills outside its race, it needed targeted cultivation, and food was a very important part of that.

But eating electric ore alone certainly wasn't enough, or it wouldn't have become one of the Bamboo Stone Dojo's exclusive secret skill manuals.

Even if it wasn't as complicated as the method for evolving a Green Silkworm into a Goddess of Light Butterfly, it couldn't possibly require just one kind of food.

"I heard from Master Lin at the Bamboo Stone Dojo that you might come study at the dojo later, so I just wanted to give you a heads-up."

"The minimum requirement for eating electric ore is for an Iron-Eating Beast's Hardening to reach the Proficient Level. Your Iron-Eating Beast's Hardening is already at the Expert Level, so it definitely won't have any trouble fully absorbing the nutrients in electric ore."

"If you plan to study at the Bamboo Stone Dojo later, the Magnetic Mountain Area is actually the best training environment for you on Tianmang Mountain right now. There's plenty of electric ore there, as well as many lightning-type creatures..."

"Eating electric ore and constantly subjecting the body to lightning attacks are actually basic training for mastering Thunder Palm. I think you could start getting familiar with it in advance."

[Skill]: Thunder Palm

[Skill level]: Intermediate

[Description]: A lightning-type skill that gathers high-intensity electric current in the palm, giving it piercing power as formidable as a sharp blade, with a paralyzing effect.

Yan Qi spoke with a smile, but sighed inwardly. His Iron-Eating Beast had already reached the Transcendent Level, yet it still hadn't managed to master Thunder Palm. It could only make a negligible current flicker around its palm, nowhere near enough to form a skill.

If it could master Thunder Palm, he would have passed the professional assessment long ago.

Thunder Palm alone was powerful enough. If it were combined with Hardening... Yan Qi found himself yearning for that kind of power.

"Is that so? Thank you."

Shi Yu hadn't expected an apprentice from the Bamboo Stone Dojo to know him before he had even gone to visit.

Did this count as the first lesson from that Dojo Master Lin?

He had already planned to go to the Magnetic Mountain Area to copy Size Alteration, and now it seemed he had another reason he couldn't afford to miss it.

When it came to eating... Shi Yu figured he could forget about exchanging the Magnetic Mountain Area's electric ore for points. If Eleven's combat and training grew too intense over the next three days, it would probably all end up in Eleven's stomach.