I'm Just a Beast Tamer

The Black Tortoise Dao Sect was located amidst a vast mountain range, and the Beast Taming Arena occupied one of these great mountains entirely.

The mountain was sectioned off from top to bottom by layers of restrictive wards. The Spiritual Qi was densest at the upper levels, where the rare Spirit Beasts were kept.

Cloud Rock Eagles, being the most numerous and lowest-level Spirit Beasts, resided at the foot of the mountain, which was also the largest area.

Other first-tier Spirit Beasts were also kept there.

Like Jiang Zuo, quite a few Outer Disciples came to the Beast Taming Arena to raise Spirit Beasts. However, there wasn’t a single one as young as him.

You couldn’t last in the Beast Taming Arena without some skill. The disciples who remained were all senior brothers who had successfully raised several Spirit Beasts, and their ages were generally forty and above.

Furthermore, most of them raised terrestrial Spirit Beasts.

Only a handful of Outer Disciples were capable of raising Cloud Rock Eagles.

Most of the Black Tortoise Dao Sect’s Cloud Rock Eagles were raised by a few elderly specialists at the Beast Taming Arena.

They were all advanced in age and no longer competed with the ordinary Outer Disciples, focusing solely on raising Spirit Beasts in the Beast Taming Arena.

These old men had also mostly given up on Cultivation. Their greatest path for advancement was to refine their Beast Taming techniques and become a steward of the Beast Taming Arena.

Within the Black Tortoise Dao Sect, there was no small number of such elderly disciples.

Most of them were older individuals who possessed a specific skill but whose Cultivation had stagnated, making further progress difficult.

Jiang Zuo’s new residence was situated next to the homes of several old men who specialized in raising Cloud Rock Eagles.

The four juvenile Cloud Rock Eagles couldn’t all be gathered at once. It took the Beast Taming Arena a month to deliver them to Jiang Zuo one by one.

"Zhou the kid, come take a look! What’s wrong with my Cloud Rock Eagle? It doesn’t seem very happy today, and its appetite is poor!"

Jiang Zuo had just taken the last of his Cloud Rock Eagles from another disciple when an old man rushed over, a juvenile Cloud Rock Eagle in tow.

The several old men nearby who specialized in raising Cloud Rock Eagles were all rather Zen-like. The thing they did most often was study how to raise their Cloud Rock Eagles better.

After Jiang Zuo arrived, the old men heard about him and immediately came over to test his abilities.

They saw that Jiang Zuo could interact effortlessly with the Cloud Rock Eagles and could truly understand what they were trying to express.

The old men were astounded, as if he were a celestial being, and felt the stark disparity in the world.

They had researched painstakingly for so many years without ever figuring out what the young Cloud Rock Eagles were thinking, yet Jiang Zuo could do it easily with just his talent.

Of course, they were just sighing with emotion.

They had long since grown accustomed to the gap between talents.

The difference between a cultivation genius and an ordinary person was immense.

And Jiang Zuo’s talent for raising Spirit Beasts couldn’t be converted into Cultivation, so it was ultimately just a minor path.

The old man who came looking for Jiang Zuo was named Su Kaifu. Among the group of old men, he was the most passionate about raising Cloud Rock Eagles.

After learning of Jiang Zuo’s ability, he would run over to ask for advice whenever he encountered a problem, big or small.

"It is unhappy. It was probably bullied, or another Cloud Rock Eagle stole its favorite food."

Jiang Zuo said after a glance at the juvenile Cloud Rock Eagle.

"Its food was stolen? I know! It must have been that little girl, Da Ya!"

Su Kaifu immediately thought of something and stomped back angrily.

Having raised Cloud Rock Eagles for so many years, he had long developed the habit of feeding them separately, so it was unlikely that one would be bullied or have its food stolen.

It was impossible for another juvenile Cloud Rock Eagle to have done it, but his own granddaughter, who was just over six years old, was a very likely culprit.

Su Kaifu and several other old men had already settled down and made their homes in the Beast Taming Arena.

Not only did they live here, but so did their children and grandchildren.

As long as no more than three people were cultivating at the same time, the Beast Taming Arena wouldn’t interfere. This was considered a benefit for these old men who quietly served the sect.

Moreover, the Beast Taming Arena also needed mortals to do certain jobs. Their families didn’t live here for free; basically, the entire family worked for the Beast Taming Arena.

"Oh, right! Zhou the kid, don’t make dinner tonight. Come eat at my place. My grandson was tested and found to have a mid-grade Spirit Root! He’s going to become an Outer Disciple of the sect, so we have to celebrate today!"

Su Kaifu walked a few steps, then remembered something else and turned back to tell Jiang Zuo happily.

He had one son and several daughters, none of whom had any Cultivation Talent.

Except for his son, all his daughters had married and moved away.

He never expected that his grandson, who was only eleven, would be tested and found to have a mid-grade Spirit Root.

This was even better talent than Su Kaifu himself possessed.

Upon hearing the news, Su Kaifu had been overjoyed for a long time.

"Congratulations! I’ll be there."

Jiang Zuo congratulated him.

That evening, Su Kaifu invited all his acquaintances from the area.

Jiang Zuo also took the opportunity to get to know the few other Outer Disciples who raised Cloud Rock Eagles.

These Outer Disciples were more or less apprentices to Su Kaifu and the other old men. Whenever they ran into difficulties raising Cloud Rock Eagles, they would seek advice from them.

Naturally, they had heard about Jiang Zuo.

Unlike Su Kaifu and his friends, these Outer Disciples looked at Jiang Zuo with expressions that were not quite convinced or friendly.

The reason was simple. To motivate Outer Disciples like them, the Beast Taming Arena would reward the best-performing disciple every three years.

Before Jiang Zuo arrived, they could still compete for these rewards based on their own abilities.

If Jiang Zuo was really as capable as they said, the rewards would be completely out of their reach.

Jiang Zuo paid them no mind. ’They’ll soon understand that I’m not their competitor.’

They were still thinking about doing a better job to win the Beast Taming Arena’s rewards.

But Jiang Zuo was already preparing to write a manual on how to raise Cloud Rock Eagles.

Jiang Zuo had calculated it. Without using the resources from his Pet Beast Spirit Garden, it would take at least four years for these Cloud Rock Eagles to mature, no matter how fast they grew.

Even if he raised one Cloud Rock Eagle, the sect would give him a good amount of Sect Contribution.

But earning contributions only once every four years was still too slow.

Especially since he wanted to build a reputation and earn Beast Taming Reputation, which would take at least several decades.

Jiang Zuo didn’t want to wait that long.

And the method he came up with was very simple.

’Publish a book! Write a manual!’

As animals, even Spirit Beasts, their Spiritual Wisdom is not high in their youth, so the meanings expressed by their sounds and actions are quite fixed.

Even for the Cloud Rock Eagles Jiang Zuo was raising, he had to constantly teach them before they could communicate more complex information with him.

Otherwise, the information they could convey was actually very limited.

However, ordinary people didn’t have a Beast Taming System, so they didn’t know the precise meaning behind the sounds and actions that seemed so similar, and could only rely on guesswork.

But Jiang Zuo could clearly understand the meaning contained within each of their sounds and actions.

As long as Jiang Zuo wrote the manual in enough detail for everyone to understand, it wouldn’t be long before his reputation spread among the disciples.

Once he trained a few more impressive Cloud Rock Eagles, the speed at which his fame spread would explode.

But Jiang Zuo didn’t dare to be too outrageous.

’If I write a manual just days after arriving, people might suspect me of having some secret method.’

So Jiang Zuo planned to spend two or three months on this task.

This also aligned with Jiang Zuo’s goal of making the manual precise and easy to understand. Spending a little more time on it wouldn’t hurt.

While Jiang Zuo was starting to write the Cloud Rock Eagle breeding manual, Cao Guangshan came looking for him twice.

The first time, he told Jiang Zuo that he had successfully opened his Qi Sea and begun Qi Cultivation, and that Jiang Zuo could find him if he ever needed help.

The second time, he came to tell Jiang Zuo gleefully that he had found a girlfriend. She was very beautiful, and Jiang Zuo even knew her—it was Nie Qiuling, who had also come from Zhenhe Pass.

Jiang Zuo had some impression of Nie Qiuling. After all, among the disciples recruited from Zhenhe Pass, she had the highest talent and was quite a beauty.

’Based on my gut feeling, Nie Qiuling wouldn’t be interested in a country bumpkin like Cao Guangshan.’

’But I’m not a mind reader. Who knows, maybe Nie Qiuling is into that sort of thing?’

After all, you can’t generalize about people’s tastes. So, aside from congratulating Cao Guangshan, Jiang Zuo didn’t say much else.

’If Cao Guangshan really does get dumped, it’s just a breakup.’

「Three months later.」

"It’s finally done!"

That night, Jiang Zuo looked at the neatly written manuscript and let out a breath of relief.

In truth, he had been mostly finished over half a month ago.

He had spent the last half a month striving for precision, constantly revising his work.

「Two days later.」

"Zhou the kid, you have to be the judge! Tell us who’s right!"

Su Kaifu and a few of the other old men came looking for Jiang Zuo, arguing noisily.

The reason was that two juvenile Cloud Rock Eagles were chirping and squawking at each other, and the old men, with nothing better to do, were guessing what they were saying.

They ended up arguing with each other in the process.

"Ah, about that... if you read this book I’ve written, you should be able to figure it out."

Jiang Zuo had been waiting for them. After hearing them out, he immediately took out the book he had written.

"*Juvenile Cloud Rock Eagle Breeding Manual*?"

Su Kaifu and the other old men stared, wide-eyed, at the book Jiang Zuo handed them.

’It’s one thing to understand what the Cloud Rock Eagles are saying, but he can even write it down to teach others?’

’Are all young people this heaven-defying these days?’

"Quick, give it to me! Let me see if it’s any good!"

one of the old men shouted, trying to snatch the manual away.

But he wasn’t the only one; the other old men had the same idea.

For a moment, the old men almost came to blows.

"Stop fighting! We’ll go back and read it together!"

Finally, with a loud shout, Su Kaifu found a compromise.

Then, without another glance at Jiang Zuo, the old men hurried away with the breeding manual.

...

"What? That kid with the surname Zhou wrote a *Juvenile Cloud Rock Eagle Breeding Manual*?"

Three days later, when Yan Bocheng heard the news reported by a subordinate disciple, he nearly spat out the tea he was drinking.

"Yes, sir. It’s said to be very well-written and highly effective. Apparently, Su Kaifu and the other old men are fighting over the manual every day."

The subordinate disciple replied with a nod.

"This won’t do. I have to go see for myself!"

Hearing this, Yan Bocheng could no longer remain calm.