I'm Just a Beast Tamer

"Brother Zhou, you don’t look so well," Cao Guangshan couldn’t help but ask, looking at Jiang Zuo as they boarded the ship together.

"I didn’t sleep well last night."

Jiang Zuo casually gave an excuse.

It was true he hadn’t slept well, but the real reason for his discomfort was something else.

When the sect recruited, unless someone came from a Cultivation Clan, the sect preferred to take in seedlings who had never cultivated before.

Although Jiang Zuo possessed the Cyan Wood Nirvana Skill, he hadn’t tried to practice it since returning to the Cultivation Realm ten years ago.

Even though the effects of his Five Elements Spirit Body had been greatly diminished, Jiang Zuo felt that his own Spirit Root Talent hadn’t changed.

His Spirit Root Talent should still be a supreme-grade Spirit Root, not weakened by the Mysterious Stele like his Five Elements Spirit Body was.

But the Spirit Root Talent measured yesterday had shaken him.

That night, he couldn’t resist secretly practicing the Cyan Wood Nirvana Skill for a moment, wanting to confirm what his Spirit Root Talent was truly like.

The moment he tried, Jiang Zuo felt the already thin Spiritual Qi in the surroundings begin to surge toward him frantically.

If he had continued to cultivate, the scarce Spiritual Qi around him would have likely been devoured in an instant.

Frightened, Jiang Zuo immediately stopped the Cultivation Technique.

By forcibly interrupting his Cultivation, Jiang Zuo immediately suffered a backlash from the technique.

Fortunately, because he hadn’t truly begun to cultivate and because of his Five Elements Spirit Body, the backlash didn’t cause much harm, only slightly damaging his meridians.

It would take ten days to half a month of rest to recover.

Seeing this, Jiang Zuo knew his feeling was correct.

The effects of the gray light released by the Mysterious Stele only made it impossible for outsiders to accurately measure his Spirit Root; it hadn’t truly affected his actual Spirit Root Talent.

...

In the blink of an eye, a week had passed since Jiang Zuo arrived at the Black Tortoise Dao Sect.

For the first few days, new Outer Disciples like Jiang Zuo were mostly familiarizing themselves with the environment and collecting their introductory benefits, such as Outer Disciple robes and daily necessities.

After they were settled, the Black Tortoise Dao Sect began to have people teach these Outer Disciples an introductory Cultivation Technique.

For the first three years, Outer Disciples could focus solely on their Cultivation without worrying about missions or Sect Contribution.

Within these three years, there would be no assessments. As long as they attended classes and cultivated, they would receive a fixed amount of cultivation resources each month.

After three years, depending on their individual cultivation progress, Outer Disciples could choose different sect missions to earn Sect Contribution.

From then on, aside from some basic benefits, Outer Disciples who wanted cultivation resources would have to exchange Sect Contribution for them.

The very first thing newly-initiated Outer Disciples had to do was cultivate to open their Qi Sea.

Without an opened Qi Sea, Cultivation was out of the question.

Jiang Zuo’s Qi Sea had been opened long ago, and after attending the cultivation course on how to open a Qi Sea and gaining more knowledge on the subject, he realized that his own Qi Sea was likely extraordinary—practically heaven-defying.

The Qi Sea of an average Cultivator, when first opened, has a radius of about one meter.

For those powerful geniuses, the initial radius of their Qi Sea is about three meters.

As for Jiang Zuo, the radius of his Qi Sea was a terrifying nearly thirty meters!

Originally, his Qi Sea’s radius wasn’t so terrifying, but on the day he fully formed his Five Elements Spirit Body, the radius of the Qi Sea within him had suddenly exploded.

The result was that the current radius of his Qi Sea was thirty times that of an ordinary Cultivator and ten times that of a genius Cultivator!

And that was just the difference in radius.

If one were to consider the volume of Spiritual Power it could hold, the difference would be even more terrifying.

Jiang Zuo suspected that if it weren’t for his own heaven-defying talent, an ordinary person with such a Qi Sea would probably just give up in despair.

Qi Cultivation cultivators absorb Spiritual Qi, refine it into their Qi Sea using a Cultivation Technique, and convert it into their own Spiritual Power.

When the Spiritual Power accumulated in the Qi Sea reaches its limit, a Cultivator can continue to cultivate to expand the Qi Sea’s radius.

An expansion of the Qi Sea’s radius represents a breakthrough for the Cultivator, raising their Qi Cultivation level by one layer.

Generally speaking, when one’s Cultivation level increases, the Qi Sea’s radius must expand by at least one meter.

Only then, upon reaching the Qi Sea’s new capacity limit through cultivation, would it be possible to expand it further.

If the Qi Sea’s radius expands by less than a meter during a breakthrough...

...it means one’s potential is exhausted, and breaking through to the next layer is basically hopeless.

However, this wasn’t absolute. With years of persistent Cultivation, it was possible to expand the Qi Sea’s radius bit by bit and achieve a breakthrough.

Besides a Cultivator’s talent, the other factor affecting the Qi Sea’s expansion during a breakthrough was the Cultivation Technique they practiced.

A powerful Cultivation Technique allows a Cultivator’s Qi Sea radius to increase more significantly during a breakthrough.

This was the fundamental reason why ordinary Cultivators couldn’t defeat geniuses or those who practiced powerful Cultivation Techniques.

And geniuses not only possessed formidable talent but also practiced powerful Cultivation Techniques.

How could ordinary Cultivators possibly compare to them?

Other Qi Cultivation cultivators worried about opening their Qi Sea and expanding its radius.

Jiang Zuo also had a worry, but his worry was that his Qi Sea’s radius was too large.

To put it bluntly, the Qi Sea of most Cultivators, even so-called geniuses who had reached the Perfection stage of the tenth layer of Qi Cultivation, was not as large as Jiang Zuo’s, who had yet to even begin cultivating.

What Jiang Zuo had to worry about was how he could possibly fill his Qi Sea.

If the Qi Sea wasn’t filled, there could be no breakthrough.

And even with his talent, cultivating would be no simple matter.

However, Jiang Zuo was never one to rush such things.

Especially since Jiang Zuo had to face another situation.

He would most likely need to cultivate five different elemental Cultivation Techniques simultaneously!

Otherwise, his Five Elements Spirit Body and his supreme-grade Five Elements Spirit Root would go to waste.

And for a newly initiated Outer Disciple, obtaining five different elemental Cultivation Techniques from the sect was impossible.

So, Jiang Zuo was decisive. If he didn’t have the right techniques, he wouldn’t train for now.

After using the basic introductory technique he’d learned to feign opening his Qi Sea, Jiang Zuo headed to the Black Tortoise Dao Sect’s Beast Taming Arena.

Jiang Zuo had already found out that the Black Tortoise Dao Sect had a sizable Beast Taming Arena.

Various Spirit Beasts were raised in the Beast Taming Arena.

Among them, the most popular with Outer Disciples was a tier-one Spirit Beast called the Cloud Rock Eagle.

The Cloud Rock Eagle was fast, had high defense, and decent attack power. It was an excellent tier-one Spirit Beast for both travel and combat support.

With good luck, it could even advance to tier two.

The Beast Taming Arena had a perennial mission to raise Cloud Rock Eagles, which was one of the few Spirit Beast raising missions available to Outer Disciples.

After all, even a tier-one Spirit Beast was not easily obtained.

This mission only existed because the Black Tortoise Dao Sect had an overabundance of Cloud Rock Eagles, with a considerable number of young eagles hatching each year.

Had it been any other Spirit Beast, newly initiated Outer Disciples couldn’t even dream of touching them.

"Junior Brother Zhou, are you sure you want to raise four Cloud Rock Eagles at once?"

"I have to remind you, there are standards for raising Spirit Beasts. If you fail the assessment, your qualification to raise them will be revoked, and in serious cases, Sect Contribution points will be deducted."

"It often takes five years to raise a Cloud Rock Eagle out of its fledgling state."

"If any problems arise during these five years, all the effort you’ve put in will have been for nothing."

"Junior Brother Zhou, although you have Beast Taming Talent, it’s best to take it one step at a time. Raise one first to get familiar with the process. If there are no issues, then you can consider raising more."

The one in charge of registering the raising applications was a senior brother at the seventh layer of Qi Cultivation. He reminded Jiang Zuo of this after hearing his request.

In this round of Immortal Seedling selection, the Black Tortoise Dao Sect had accepted over a hundred Outer Disciples in total.

Although Jiang Zuo’s aptitude wasn’t great among the hundred-plus new Outer Disciples, his perfectly balanced Five Elements Spirit Root and his Beast Taming Talent—recognized by Elder Luo—had made him somewhat known among the Outer Sect senior brothers.

Even though Jiang Zuo had come to request raising Cloud Rock Eagles just a few days after joining the sect, this senior brother didn’t stop him or say he couldn’t.

The Black Tortoise Dao Sect had no such rule.

For the first three years, Outer Disciples were not required to do sect missions.

But if they wanted to do sect missions on their own initiative, the Black Tortoise Dao Sect wouldn’t forbid it.

In fact, the Black Tortoise Dao Sect even encouraged such behavior.

After all, if a disciple really did no sect missions for three years and only started when the time was up, they would likely be completely clueless and know nothing.

As for how to balance Cultivation and sect missions, that was up to the Outer Disciples themselves.

"Senior Brother, I’m confident I can raise them well. I’ll take four!" Jiang Zuo said with persistence.

"Alright then. I’ve submitted the application for you, but it depends on whether Elder Yan approves it. Come back tomorrow, and you’ll know the result." The senior brother shook his head and didn’t try to persuade him further.

"Thank you, Senior Brother." Seeing that his application had been registered, Jiang Zuo clasped his fists and left.

Yan Bocheng was one of the Sect Elders in charge of managing the Beast Taming Arena. He was responsible for the status of the Spirit Beasts being raised, loan applications, and so on.

That evening, Yan Bocheng came to the Beast Taming Arena to handle some daily applications.

When he saw Jiang Zuo’s application, his interest was immediately piqued.

’Zhou Yong... so this is the kid Old Zhao was talking about?’

’Applying to raise four Cloud Rock Eagles at once... he seems very confident in his Beast Taming Talent.’

’Oh well, I’ll see for myself whether this kid’s talent is real or not.’

A few days ago, Yan Bocheng had seen that old fellow Zhao Pan, who had specifically told him that he had found a talented individual for the Beast Taming Arena this time.

Yan Bocheng hadn’t paid it much mind. After all, the Beast Taming Arena wasn’t just any other place in the sect. Raising a Spirit Beast couldn’t be done in a year or half a year; it took several years at the very least.

Even if that Zhou Yong truly had Beast Taming Talent, he wouldn’t come to the Beast Taming Arena for sect missions for at least another two years.

Unexpectedly, in less than a week, that Zhou Yong had shown up at the Beast Taming Arena and was applying to raise four Cloud Rock Eagles right off the bat.

If an ordinary new Outer Disciple had made such a request, Yan Bocheng would have rejected it without a second thought.

But Zhou Yong’s Beast Taming Talent had been recognized by Elder Luo, as well as that fellow Old Zhao.

Yan Bocheng was very curious to know if the Beast Taming Arena had truly gained a promising beast taming seedling.

"Junior Brother Zhou, Elder Yan has approved your application. You can go back, pack your things, and move into the Beast Taming Arena," the senior brother from yesterday said immediately when Jiang Zuo arrived the next day.

’Excellent!’

Jiang Zuo’s spirits lifted.

This way, not only could he raise Spirit Beasts, but he could also leech off the Spiritual Qi in the Beast Taming Arena.

The Spiritual Qi in the Beast Taming Arena was far denser than in the collective living quarters of the Outer Disciples.

Some Outer Disciples had their eyes on the dense Spiritual Qi of the Beast Taming Arena, hoping to raise Spirit Beasts there, do sect missions, and leech off the Spiritual Qi for their Cultivation at the same time.

It was a pity that Outer Disciples who came with such intentions usually ended up on the Beast Taming Arena’s blacklist.