I'm Just a Beast Tamer

「Three years after Wen Shulin and Zhuang Ruying eloped.」

By the Li River, at the place where Jiang Zuo once lived, two uninvited guests arrived.

"He’s been gone for so many years. What’s the use of coming here now?"

The two were elderly men, one dressed in a green robe and the other in white.

The green-robed elder had a dark, livid complexion, and his tone was hostile.

"We’re already here. We might as well take a look."

The white-robed elder, however, was much calmer, walking around and observing his surroundings.

"Hmph! If you ask me, we should have just annihilated the Daze Dynasty! They clearly had the information long ago but only reported it to the Worldwide Bank now! If they had told us sooner, how could that person have possibly escaped!"

Zhu Laoqi said resentfully.

"Old Zhu, you can say what you want, but don’t actually do it. Mortals are like ants, their lives are worthless, but the rules of the Worldwide Bank must be followed. You know the consequences of breaking the rules."

Zhu Shaoqing warned.

In the eyes of either them or the Worldwide Bank, the lives of mortals were not worth mentioning.

But if they could kill the informant today, then other people on missions could also kill their informants.

Before long, no one would dare to report information to the Worldwide Bank.

The value of the Worldwide Bank as a channel would be greatly diminished.

Therefore, regardless of the informant’s motives, taking action against them was strictly forbidden.

If Zhu Laoqi really did that, Zhu Shaoqing couldn’t expect to get away unscathed either. According to the rules, he would receive the same punishment.

"Besides, even if the Daze Dynasty had reported it sooner, it would have been too late. After that person obtained the Cultivation Jade Stone, he vanished without a trace in just a few days. Just like the investigation files said, he’s extremely cautious."

"Furthermore, if it had been reported earlier, the ones sent here wouldn’t have been you and me."

Zhu Shaoqing went to great lengths to appease Zhu Laoqi’s resentment.

"I know, I know. We’ve already fallen so low as to be sent to the Mortal Territory for this kind of mission. What’s not to endure? I was just complaining a bit."

"Old Zhu, you’re the smart one. Tell me, what’s the plan?"

Zhu Laoqi sighed, much of his frustration dissipating.

"We have three options now. The first, of course, is to give up the search and head back. After all, he’s been gone for over ten years, and this Zhao Li is cautious. Many of our methods are useless in the Mortal Territory, so the chances of finding him are extremely small."

"The second is to find the proprietress of that bone-ornament shop. Back then, she was the one closest to this Zhao Li. Not long after Zhao Li left, she also left Lizhou."

"However, aside from her and her son’s names, no one knows where they came from."

"More than ten years have passed, so the chances of finding her are also very slim."

"The third is to find that eloped couple. According to rumors, those two also had a close relationship with Zhao Li. It’s only been three years since they left, and they have distinct characteristics, so finding them should be relatively easy."

Zhu Shaoqing analyzed carefully.

"Giving up is out of the question! That Cultivation Jade Stone is said to be the key to a Secret Realm. If we can find it, our reward will be substantial! If we can pull this job off, we’ll never have to do this kind of grunt work again!"

"That proprietress was destitute back then; she and her child nearly died outside Lizhou City. She clearly didn’t have a close relationship with Zhao Li."

"Zhao Li didn’t take her with him when he left. Even if we found her, it’s impossible that she’d know where he is. Zhao Li is a cautious man; he wouldn’t go out of his way to find her and expose his location."

"But that couple... after leaving Lizhou for nearly twenty years, they both returned to find Zhao Li here. It’s highly likely the two of them have some kind of agreement with him."

"If we can find them, the chances of finding Zhao Li will be high!"

Zhu Laoqi wasn’t actually a fool; he was just too lazy to think most of the time.

After Zhu Shaoqing laid out the three options, he gave it a moment’s thought and already had his answer.

"Good. Then let’s go find that couple. Let’s hope our luck isn’t too bad."

Zhu Shaoqing nodded.

Zhu Laoqi had a point. He had been thinking the same thing.

...

The methods of Immortals are beyond comparison for mortals. Back then, the Wen and Zhuang families had exhausted all their efforts but still couldn’t find a trace of Wen Shulin and his wife.

Yet it only took Zhu Laoqi and Zhu Shaoqing half a year to follow the trail and find where Wen Shulin and Zhuang Ruying were currently living.

The couple was now living in seclusion in a small town where they had opened a bookstore. Zhuang Ruying had also given birth to a child.

"What should we do? Use the Soul Capturing Technique on them directly?"

Zhu Laoqi watched Wen Shulin’s sweet, happy family of three, but remained unmoved.

All he could think about now was the Cultivation Jade Stone.

"We can spare a little more time. That Zhao Li is cautious. If he’s nearby, he might sense something and escape."

"If that happens, I’m afraid we’ll never be able to find him again."

"Let’s observe them in secret for a while first. See if he is still in contact with this couple."

Zhu Shaoqing said after a moment of thought.

Zhu Laoqi had no objection. Haste makes waste, and it was never wrong to be cautious.

If Zhao Li really did sense something and run, there would be no do-overs.

The two of them settled down near Wen Shulin’s house and, in the blink of an eye, had been observing the couple in secret for half a year.

"Send someone to cause trouble for them!"

After half a year, they hadn’t seen the couple make any unusual moves.

Sensing that the couple was unlikely to contact Zhao Li under normal circumstances, Zhu Shaoqing decided to change his approach.

If they made Wen Shulin and his wife encounter a problem they couldn’t solve on their own, they would most likely try to find Zhao Li, assuming they knew how to contact him.

Soon enough, a group of local thugs set their sights on Wen Shulin’s bookstore.

Wen Shulin and Zhuang Ruying were experienced in dealing with such thugs.

They thought they could solve the problem by just paying them off, but who knew that these thugs were like a bottomless pit that could never be filled.

The connections they had paid for in the past were all silent now.

The couple keenly sensed that they were being targeted and that this was not a problem money could solve.

So they simply closed the bookstore and decided to move somewhere else.

They weren’t locals to begin with, so moving to a new place wasn’t an issue at all.

But unexpectedly, not long after they moved, they ran into trouble again.

The two could only move again.

But it was useless. They moved several times, and every time they arrived in a new place, they would be targeted and harassed within a few days.

The couple was mentally and physically exhausted. That night, faced with the thugs who had come to cause trouble, Wen Shulin knelt on the ground and begged them loudly to spare him and his wife.

"Old Zhu, what do you think?"

Zhu Laoqi and Zhu Shaoqing watched intently.

"A man’s knees are precious as gold. He was once a high-ranking official of the Cao Kingdom, yet he’s willing to kneel and beg these scoundrels for mercy rather than seek out Zhao Li. It seems he truly doesn’t know where Zhao Li is."

Zhu Shaoqing said flatly.

"Then let’s not waste any more time. Let’s use the Soul Capturing Technique."

Zhu Laoqi said, a little disappointed.

That night, as Wen Shulin and his wife were preparing for bed, the two men suddenly appeared in their room.

Before Wen Shulin or Zhuang Ruying could react, Zhu Laoqi used the Soul Capturing Technique on them.

After a round of questioning, both men frowned.

"They really don’t know where Zhao Li is, nor do they have a way to contact him. However, the woman said she had an agreement with Zhao Li... but the agreement was to find Zhao Li to cook them a meal?"

"What the hell kind of agreement is that?"

Neither of them understood if this could even be considered an agreement.

"Or maybe it’s just a code phrase that we don’t understand,"

Zhu Shaoqing said after some thought.

"Regardless, since she had an agreement with Zhao Li, it’s possible he’ll come looking for them."

"But continuing to wait blindly isn’t a solution either."

"Let’s take them back to that first town and then spread the word. Let Zhao Li know that we have the couple. If he wants them to be safe, he’ll have to bring the Cultivation Jade Stone in exchange for their lives."

"Zhao Li doesn’t know the true purpose of the Cultivation Jade Stone, and he can’t practice the Life Essence Returning Skill on it. The chance he’d use it to trade for them is quite high."

"He might even rely on his martial prowess and try to deal with us directly."

Zhu Shaoqing quickly made his decision.

The two moved extremely fast.

Three days later, a piece of news spread rapidly through official channels.

...

[The Celestial Dao rewards the diligent! By continuously raising Black Stone Fish, you have obtained the fish race’s Racial Ability: Underwater Breathing Technique!]

[The Ten Thousand Beasts Atlas is now open!]

On this day, as Jiang Zuo finished raising his latest batch of three Black Stone Fish, a long-unseen text prompt flashed before his eyes.

Jiang Zuo’s spirits immediately lifted, and he called out his attribute panel.

Racial Ability: Underwater Breathing Technique

—Underwater Breathing Technique: A fish Racial Ability. In oxygenated water, you can breathe freely underwater like a fish. Racial Abilities can be learned by a Pet Beast through advanced training.

’Good! A proper Underwater Breathing Technique, no strings attached! From now on, the underwater world can be my home turf too!’

’A Pet Beast can learn a Racial Ability through advanced training? Great Black has something new to learn!’

Jiang Zuo was delighted as he read the description for the Underwater Breathing Technique.

After he began observing third-rank Beast Patterns and had increased his Spiritual Power, Jiang Zuo was occasionally able to draw a second-rank Night Cat’s Eye.

The compatibility between Night Cat’s Eye and Great Black was quite high. It only took two years for Great Black to learn it, allowing it to see permanently in the dark.

Now there was the Underwater Breathing Technique to learn as well, and Jiang Zuo didn’t think it would be a problem for Great Black to master it.

After all, it often went into the water to play with Xiaoqing.

On top of that, Great Black had been continuously practicing the Blood God Skill all these years and had now reached Great Success in the Meridian Passage stage.

Under Jiang Zuo’s guidance, it was not far from reaching Perfection in the Meridian Passage stage.

Over the past ten-plus years, Great Black had made enormous progress.

As for Xiaoqing, it was as if time had stood still.

More than ten years had passed, but it hadn’t grown in the slightest. It was still just a little bigger than a soccer ball.

Occasionally, after raising a round of Black Stone Fish, Jiang Zuo would place Xiaoqing into the Cultivation Beast Cage to check its status.

He found that although Xiaoqing hadn’t grown, its condition hadn’t declined either, which he considered good news.

Jiang Zuo had always been worried that its internal Spiritual Power would dwindle under the influence of the Heaven and Earth Sealing Spirit Array.

But from the looks of it, Xiaoqing seemed able to resist the Heaven and Earth Sealing Spirit Array’s drain on its Spiritual Power.