Chapter 51 - Undisclosed: Dragon Meditation
Outside the Spirit PaG.o.da, doubt wove itself into Lin s.h.i.+ru"s eyes when she realized that Ye Xuan had not emerged despite how much time had pa.s.sed. She just had not expected for Ye Xuan to stay so long in the Spirit PaG.o.da.
After all, of the two beasts that Ye Xuan was bonded to, Lil Wan was only a three-star grade Ancient Wood Elf. The Challenger-level Beast Tamer, the one who held the record for dozens of years, was bonded to beasts who were all five-star grade when he was an apprentice.
Whoosh…
In the s.p.a.ce within the Spirit PaG.o.da, Lil Wan worked the Mutated Aucuba Vines, and they appeared beneath the two Four-Armed Demon Apes" feet as if they were Spirit Snakes The Mutated Aucuba Vines were unbelievably quick. In the blink of an eye, the two Four-Armed Demon Apes were thoroughly bound. With the tightening of the vines, the two Four-Armed Demon Apes were tightly bound to each other.
Roar! Roar!
But then, in this moment as the two Four-Armed Demon Apes growled and struggled, the Mutated Aucuba Vines that Lil Wan commanded snapped with a crackle. The two FADAs had been occupied for quite a while solely because they had to struggle out of the MAVs.
The Tyrannosaurus" eyes were thoroughly red. It growled, making a charge forward.
Roar!
It barely took two steps forward before it was stopped by the FADA charge towards it, the one the Tyro had taken down earlier.
"It"s over."
Ye Xuan sighed a little when he saw this. Things unfolded just as he expected. Barely a few seconds pa.s.sed before the Tyrannosaurus growled. The two FADAs combined their strength and sent the beast flying seven, eight meters back.
The Tyro tried to flex its wings and fly, but it was thoroughly subdued by another one of the FADAs.
Whoosh whoosh whoos.h.!.+
As Ye Xuan expected, he was very quickly ejected from the Spirit PaG.o.da like the rest of the students were.
He suddenly realized that the FADA holding down his Tyro, as well as the other two FADAs, had suddenly frozen.
After that, their bodies abruptly turned into beams of light, disappearing from the s.p.a.ce.
Following the disappearance of the three FADAs, an illusory image of an aged person replaced them.
"Who is this?"
Ye Xuan"s eyes widened.
According to what Professor Nian had said earlier, Cangzhou had initially mobilized two Challengers to conquer this Secret Realm before they finally managed to sign an agreement with the Spirit PaG.o.da.
It was the Spirit PaG.o.da that had evaluated his aptness level earlier.
And the illusory old figure in front of him right now was very obviously related to the Spirit PaG.o.da in some way.
"Relax, child."
Upon seeing Ye Xuan"s expression, the old person said with a warm smile on his face, "I harbor no malice towards children. I"m merely in awe of this world of yours, that it"s able to birth a genius like you, child, and so I stepped out here to meet you."
Was that so?
Ye Xuan"s heart stirred.
Although he did not dare believe this old person completely, he still heaved a little sigh of relief.
"How shall I address you? Pardon me, but could you be the artifact spirit of the Spirit PaG.o.da?" Ye Xuan questioned curiously.
"You can call me the Elder of Arrays, child."
The elder said with a smile, "As for whether or not I"m an artifact spirit—the Spirit PaG.o.da is a regular artifact, so it has no artifact spirit.
"My real ident.i.ty is, in fact, the array spirit of the Great Spirit Array."
An array spirit?
Ye Xuan was stunned.
Upon catching sight of Ye Xuan"s puzzled expression, the elder slowly explained, "there are all sorts of beasts on this world, and one of them is a beast known as the array beast.
"I was materialized by a Beast Tamer using array beasts, and I was an array spirit who served to guard the Chaoxi Sect"s trial grounds."
The Chaoxi Sect? Curiosity bloomed on Ye Xuan"s face. This was another term he had never heard of before. The words the elder used before—"this world of yours"—was also making him think.
"It is as you imagine."
The elder seemed to know what Ye Xuan was thinking. He spoke slowly, "I"m actually from another world. This planet that I"m from had suffered a catastrophe hundreds of years ago.
"The Chaoxi Sect had it worse.
"An enormous, hulking figure capitalized on the catastrophe. It barged into the Palace of the Ocean Dragons, a powerful force, and wrecked a great half of that palace. The Chaoxi Sect were one of the many sects affiliated to the Palace of the Ocean Dragons, and so we were affected as well. The trial grounds I guarded, along with plenty of s.p.a.ce fragments, all fell down upon your world amidst the chaos."
Was this the source of the disasters in our world?
Ye Xuan"s mouth fell open when he heard the elder.
It was then that he realized there existed so many secrets following the great changes of this world hundreds of years ago.
"Who are you looking for, Elder of Arrays?" Ye Xuan looked to the elder and ask, lost in thought.
"Because there is a lack of resources in this world, the Challenger-level Beast Tamers are more or less at their limit. It"s simply too difficult for an existence more powerful than a Challenger to emerge, far too difficult."
The elder fell silent for a beat, then said, "But you"re different. Your Talent far exceeds my imagination, and perhaps you just might be able to become an existence like that.
"If so, then you"ll be able to break the shackles binding this world and head towards broader skies.
"And so I seek you out, to forge an affinity.
"I will bet on you, under the rules that I must abide by."
Bet?
There was a faint twinkle in Ye Xuan"s eyes.
He was naturally interested in something beneficial.
While Ye Xuan stewed in his thoughts, the Elder of Arrays waved a hand and a single Beast Ring flew through the air, landing in his palm.
"This is the reward you qualify for. You have survived five rounds lasting six minutes and nine seconds, earning you a score of 93."
As the Elder of Arrays spoke, his hand glided through the s.p.a.ce and rows of words appeared in the air.
"Aside from that, your Aptness Level makes you eligible to pick a technique that will condense your psychic power."
Ye Xuan let his gaze fall on the words that the Elder of Array had make appear in the air. He instantly noticed that there were dozens of psychic power techniques the elder had brought out.
"The Art of the Divine Scale, Heavenly Meditation, Dragon Meditation, Mastering the Seven Emotions, Sky-Sailing Golden Buddha, Three Refinements of Sword and Armor…"
Take the Art of the Divine Scale, for example. The Beast Tamer would be able to condense their psychic power after practicing this. On top of that, the Beast Tamer would also be able to command dragon-type beasts to grow a single scale, one that grows against the grain, which would grant them an enormous increase in their attributes.
Heavenly Meditation affected Beast Tamers and their Magic Element beasts; their ability to sense the attributes they were bonded to would greatly increase.
This would increase the power of their skills, as well as hasten the speed at which they mastered the skill. There was a total of three layers to this technique. They corresponded to the three stages of Beast Tamers: Dark Iron, Bronze, and Silver.
As long as they completed the first layer of training, the Beast Tamer would be able to use the Heavenly Meditation ability on their beast. After that, for every layer of the training they complete, the power of the Heavenly Meditation technique amplifies. But the Beast Tamer has to complete all three layers of the training. It is only after that, when they turn to practicing a higher-level technique, the Heavenly Meditation technique will belong to the Beast Tamer forever.
Otherwise, should the Beast Tamer decide to practice another technique, the power of the Heavenly Meditation technique would be lost to them forever.
Another point to note was that, once they decided to practice this technique, the Beast Tamer would have to first achieve Gold level before they could switch to practicing another one. It was not just that. They were only allowed to switch to practicing other Gold-level techniques that corresponded to their level.
This much was tantamount to saying a Beast Tamer would only be able to obtain one ability per the three stages of Dark Iron, Bronze, and Silver.
Ye Xuan picked out a few techniques. He looked over them briefly and realized this was pretty much the case for quite a few of the techniques.
Some of them even had four or five layers.
Practicing these techniques would only earn him one ability. If he wanted to switch to practicing another, he would first have to achieve Platinum or even Diamond level.
After all that reading, he raised a brow and asked the Elder of Arrays, "Elder of Arrays, I don"t know too much about these techniques. Could you recommend me one?"
"Clever boy."
The Elder of Arrays smiled. Immediately, he waved a hand and the host of techniques in front of him immediately disappeared.
There was but one left—Dragon Meditation.