I'm Just a Beast Tamer

Yu Yunhui had been about to struggle free from Yu Xuemei’s grasp when he witnessed a scene that would be seared into his memory for the rest of his life.

The two siblings stared, their eyes wide with disbelief, as Wei Jichang was slapped to death by Great Black in a single blow.

That was a Meridian Passage expert!

Even if Wei Jichang was a Meridian Passage Martial Artist who had barely crossed the threshold, he was still a Meridian Passage expert—strong enough to chase the two of them to the brink of desperation.

Just when they were about to be caught by Wei Jichang, he had gotten greedy over a Longevity Jade and was subsequently swatted to death by a dog standing nearby.

The situation felt so surreal, like a dream, that the siblings couldn’t help but wonder if they were dreaming.

’If we told anyone about this, would they even believe us?’

The two siblings looked at each other, momentarily at a loss for what to do.

A dog that could kill a Meridian Passage Martial Artist with a single slap—could you even call that a dog?

But looking at the large black dog, aside from its ridiculously massive size, it didn’t look much different from an ordinary black dog.

If that hadn’t been the case, Wei Jichang wouldn’t have let his guard down so completely.

"Sis, what do we do?"

Yu Yunhui was a bit indecisive.

He was two years younger than Yu Xuemei and rather impulsive, whereas Yu Xuemei was very level-headed. She was usually the one to make the major decisions.

"We wait. The owner of this place is definitely no ordinary person! If his dog is this powerful, he himself is very likely a Grandmaster!"

"We barged in here and saw such a huge piece of Longevity Jade. It doesn’t look like that dog will just let us leave."

Yu Xuemei said, glancing at Great Black.

She felt the large black dog’s gaze drifting over her and her brother, intentionally or not.

"But what if the owner of this place isn’t willing to let us go..."

Yu Yunhui worried that the owner wouldn’t be so courteous with them.

"There’s no point in worrying too much. With a dog like that here, even if we managed to escape now, it probably wouldn’t take much effort for the owner to hunt us down. If we run, it might be even harder to explain ourselves later."

"Look at this big black dog. It’s clearly powerful, but it doesn’t seem ferocious at all. The owner is probably reasonable. As long as we swear not to tell anyone what happened here, it’s very likely he won’t make things difficult for us."

"Besides, if this big black dog hadn’t intervened, we would have been killed by Wei Jichang. Now that Wei Jichang is dead, the worst that can happen is we die along with him. What’s there to be afraid of?"

Yu Xuemei said calmly.

After hearing her explanation, Yu Yunhui calmed down as well.

It was true. The two of them had originally planned to kill Wei Jichang to avenge their parents, even if it meant dying in the process.

Now that their great enemy was dead, there was nothing left to fear.

The two found a spot on the shore, sat down, and began tending to each other’s wounds.

Seeing that the two of them weren’t leaving, Great Black didn’t pay them any more mind.

Had they merely been passing by, Great Black wouldn’t have acted. After all, Jiang Zuo had never told it to stop anyone who was just passing through.

But Wei Jichang had tried to steal something, which was a different matter entirely.

Although these two appeared to have been fugitives, he couldn’t just let them walk away now.

Before long, Jiang Zuo returned from Eagle Mountain.

"WOOF WOOF!"

Upon seeing Jiang Zuo, Great Black conveyed what had just happened.

Jiang Zuo was speechless. ’That guy was really asking for it.’

’As the first person to be slapped to death by Great Black, I wonder if you could call that a fitting end.’

"It’s you!"

Yu Yunhui cried out in surprise when he saw Jiang Zuo.

"Oh, it’s you two. Were you chased all the way here?"

Jiang Zuo looked at the Yu Family Siblings, remembering them.

"Is this your dog?"

Yu Yunhui asked, his voice filled with shock and suspicion.

"He’s my family’s. My grandfather sent me here to gain experience and left him here to keep me company."

This time, he wasn’t hiding away in some desolate place. To gain a large amount of Beast Taming Reputation, making a name for himself was essential.

Jiang Zuo had long considered the possibility of people discovering this place. He didn’t even have to think hard about it; as soon as he started selling the Seated Mountain Eagles, this location would quickly become common knowledge.

To that end, Jiang Zuo had fabricated an identity: he was a young scion from a Beast Taming Clan, out gaining real-world experience.

This would make it easy to explain how he was so skilled at taming Seated Mountain Eagles and would also help him avoid a lot of trouble.

After all, a Hidden Clan with such unique abilities wasn’t something ordinary people could afford to offend.

"Your grandfather? In that case, could your grandfather be an Inner Breath Grandmaster?"

Yu Yunhui couldn’t help but ask nervously.

He didn’t doubt Jiang Zuo’s words in the slightest. After all, he had come to Fire Mist Island on the same boat as Jiang Zuo, and that incredibly powerful black dog hadn’t been on board then.

Besides, how could an ordinary person possibly obtain such a massive Longevity Jade?

"I’m not sure about my grandfather; I’ve rarely seen him take action. But my Great Black is getting close. I estimate his Cultivation will reach the Grandmaster Realm in a few days."

Jiang Zuo said, pointing at Great Black.

A black dog at the Grandmaster Realm!

The Yu Family Siblings were thoroughly shaken.

’My heavens, what kind of clan could possibly raise a black dog to the Grandmaster Realm?’

Although Jiang Zuo said he wasn’t sure and had never seen his so-called grandfather in action...

...this only gave the two siblings more room for imagination, further solidifying their suspicions.

’He’s never seen his grandfather in action? Doesn’t that just mean his clan has so many powerful people that his grandfather doesn’t even need to intervene?’

"The man who chased us here was a Meridian Passage Martial Artist. He tried to steal your Longevity Jade and was killed with a single slap by Senior Great Black. It seems Senior Great Black is indeed about to break through to the Grandmaster Realm."

Yu Xuemei said respectfully, her form of address for Great Black having changed.

’So what if he’s a dog? If he has the potential to become a Grandmaster, he is a senior on the Martial Dao!’

"May I ask for your name, young brother? And what do you plan to do with us?"

Then, Yu Xuemei gritted her teeth and asked.

"Just call me Qianhai. I have no interest in your business with that man, and I won’t do anything to you. Just don’t tell anyone about this place."

"After all, our family is a peace-loving Beast Taming Clan. We don’t like to fight and kill."

Jiang Zuo waved his hand, gesturing for the two to leave.

He truly wasn’t interested in their tale of grudges and revenge. Since he didn’t plan to help, it was better not to know the details.

"Okay! We swear we won’t tell anyone about what happened here!"

The two siblings breathed a sigh of relief and then gave their solemn promise.

They actually had many more questions, but seeing that Jiang Zuo wanted them to leave, they didn’t dare say anything more.

They were afraid that if Jiang Zuo changed his mind, they might not be able to leave at all.

Although Jiang Zuo looked much younger than them, setting aside the astonishingly powerful Senior Great Black...

...Jiang Zuo himself was probably much stronger than them as well.

They hadn’t forgotten how, after disembarking from the boat, several members of the Flying Fish Gang had been secretly injured.

That incident was clearly this man’s doing, and the two siblings had no idea how he had pulled it off.

’A Longevity Jade? It seems this Jade Stone is even more valuable than I realized.’

After the two had left, Jiang Zuo gazed at the large Jade Stone.

...

「Three days later.」

Jiang Zuo returned from Eagle Mountain with three young eaglets he had selected.

The three eaglets were only a few days old and palm-sized.

Jiang Zuo placed them near the Jade Stone for Great Black to watch over, then jumped into the sea to catch fish.

Over the past few days, Jiang Zuo had been visiting Eagle Mountain to observe, but he wasn’t just watching the eaglets.

The eaglets didn’t require that much observation; Jiang Zuo was more focused on the adult Seated Mountain Eagles.

He had discovered that a very small portion of the adult Seated Mountain Eagles possessed strength equivalent to the Great Success stage of Skin Refining.

A significant number of them, however, hadn’t even reached the threshold of Skin Refining.

After observing their hunting and feeding habits, Jiang Zuo had come to a rough conclusion.

For a raised Seated Mountain Eagle to be able to carry a person in flight, it needed to have at least the strength of the Skin Refining stage, and possibly even reach Great Success in Skin Refining.

Otherwise, with such a large body, it would have trouble flying on its own, let alone carrying a person weighing over a hundred pounds.

Jiang Zuo remembered seeing videos of some very large eagles that were so heavy they had to use the wind to take off.

Sometimes, if the wind wasn’t strong enough, they could only stand there foolishly with their wings spread.

This was a world of Cultivation and high-level martial arts, so it couldn’t be measured by the standards of his original world, but the principle was the same.

So, why did some Seated Mountain Eagles have Skin Refining strength while most did not?

Jiang Zuo already knew the reason.

The key was their diet.

The ones with the strength of Great Success in Skin Refining ate only the fish from the sea that had grown up under the influence of the Jade Stone.

The ordinary Seated Mountain Eagles would occasionally eat wild beasts caught on land.

But the Seated Mountain Eagles at Great Success in Skin Refining never did.

Therefore, to ensure the Seated Mountain Eagles grew up to have Skin Refining strength, he had to feed them sea fish!

Those sea fish were highly nutritious for the eaglets, allowing their bodies to develop optimally from a young age.

But the fish in the sea were also divided into ordinary and premium quality. Feeding them different types of sea fish resulted in different levels of strength when they grew up.

Very few Seated Mountain Eagles were able to eat premium sea fish from start to finish. A considerable number of them had to resort to eating land beasts when food was scarce.

This was the difference between raising them well and raising them poorly, and it was the reason why the people on the island who raised Seated Mountain Eagles found it so difficult to produce ones capable of carrying a rider.

Now that he knew the reason, the next steps were simple.

Jiang Zuo believed that the period right after the eaglets hatched, when they were at their youngest, was the most critical.

During this period, Jiang Zuo planned to feed them the best quality fish meat.

Once they grew a bit bigger and their appetites increased, he would switch to more ordinary sea fish.

With the Longevity Jade, raising Seated Mountain Eagles capable of carrying a rider would not be difficult!

Under Jiang Zuo’s meticulous care, the eaglets grew rapidly day by day, at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Once they were a little older, Jiang Zuo could begin their various training regimens.

Although the sea fish deserved much of the credit, the fact that well-raised Seated Mountain Eagles could achieve the strength of Great Success in Skin Refining showed that their innate aptitude was quite good.

The three Seated Mountain Eagles Jiang Zuo had selected each came with two innate Talent Slots. With the bonus from his Intermediate Beast Tamer status, that meant three Talent Slots each.

After becoming an Intermediate Beast Tamer, Jiang Zuo had raised Black Stone Fish for over twenty years.

Because it was difficult to train the combat abilities of Black Stone Fish, he had equipped the combat talents while raising them, but the talents didn’t gain much experience.

As a result, his combat talents had not yet reached Lv. 3.

However, even Lv. 2 combat talents had a significant impact on the eaglets.

With all three Talent Slots filled, the eaglets’ Learning and growth were incredibly fast. Under the influence of the combat talents, each one became an extremely skilled fighter.

Normally, it took about a year for an eaglet to grow from hatching until it left the nest.

After leaving the nest, an eaglet would then have to live on its own for several months to half a year.

To grow to the point where it could carry a person, it would typically need to grow for another year after becoming fully independent.

In other words, to raise one from a hatchling to a point where it could carry a rider normally took about two and a half years in total.

But with the Longevity Jade, Jiang Zuo estimated that he could drastically shorten this time.

In just over a year and a half, the Seated Mountain Eagles he was raising would be able to carry a person in flight!