At Jones’ question, once again Snow flipped through her clan’s monster encyclopaedia, the sound of the pages was the only sound in the room as everyone held their breath.
“Hmmm… This is an odd spirit beast. Hmm? There isn’t any with its features. Is it a normal critter?”
“Aisa said that it is called a million years Snow stoat.”
“Million years? There are things that can live that long? I don’t see anything like it. Wait… could it be that it’s not in the spirit beast section.”
She quickly flipped to the back of the tome, rushing through the bulk of the book until she reached the divine beast’s section.
Divine beasts are superior to all other kinds, but any type of beast be it spirit, demonic or magical beasts will be able to become a divine beast once their cultivation level breaks through a certain realm.
However, there are also some beasts that are naturally born divine beast, but such beings usually have very pure Ancient Bloodlines.
When Snow flipped to the divine beast section, she patiently looked through each page. The book is very well categorised, and soon she found a divine beast that looked quite alike what Jones has.
A portrait of a beautiful snow-white stoat with an extremely cute face and a slender body was drawn on the page. The only difference is the white stoat in the portrait have blood red patterns on its body, making it look like a fearsome beast.
“Deific Snow Tyrant!”
Snow almost shouted with astonishment reading off the name from the page. This ermine might be a divine beast!
Not only so, but it is also of the tier that could battle with the best divine beasts that even the dragon race fears it.
It had an incredibly powerful life force, and shrugging off a blow or two from a dragon emperor is not out of the question for a fully grown Deific Snow Tyrant.
It was this overwhelming vitality which allowed this young ermine to survive a million years in a land with such thin spiritual energy. But the most powerful ability it has is its inborn illusionary abilities that can confound the five senses. In a duel between two powerful fighters, a split second of hesitation could be the difference between life and death, one can estimate just how fearsome this little thing will be when it grows up.
After reading through its detailed information, it turns out that the Snow stoat is a powerful ancient beast that had been wrestling with dragons and other divine beasts for dominance since time immemorial. But that powerful tyrant is only a tiny little thing right now. It pounced on the kitten, and the two rolled away playfully.
“Its life force is very strong, easily allowing it to shrug off the powerful bites and claws of the dragon race and making it the natural enemies of all serpent and rodents type beasts. Its speed is also top-tiered among the divine beasts.
Jones, you should take good care of this one. I can’t even imagine how you found one.”
Jones’ eyes sparkled from hearing that. He already loves the tiny little thing. His father and Kairos’ dad are both rangers, and as a son of a tracker, he had seen a lot of wild beasts.
But nothing could match his snow stoat. Not only is it the descendant of a powerful line, but its looks is also too enchanting! The coat of pure white fur is soft to the touch, and its round face and large eyes are filled with emotion. Much too lovely for his heart to bear. The boy with a heroic and gallant figure almost gave a girlish squeal, then tactfully camouflaged it with a cough.
“What about mine!”
The others that heard how powerful his contract beast also eagerly asked about their own.
Soon a large amount of information is gathered even if not every pet is listed.
They found out that even Jim’s True Flames Heavenly Bird is a rarely found offspring of a black flames phoenix and another avian. Because its bloodline is diluted, it is cast away by the Phoenix race. Despite having the blood of a divine beast, when it fell into the Mortal Realms, its fate is usually sealed.
The amount of spiritual energies in a place like Gaia is pathetic for divine creatures. Not only are resources that could help them grow sorely limited, but even hatching might also be a problem.
The royal wind wyvern that Edward became an exception. As one of the eight leaders among the wyverns, representing the wind element, it has the bloodline of dragons, and extremely powerful among magical beasts. However, considering the lineage of the other three beasts, it is the only resident of this land.
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Although, Kairos had an inkling that its identity might not be so straightforward either.
They also checked the pouchful of gem eggs with Kairos. The yellow crystallised egg holds the Divine mystic fox. A divine beast that has rampaged through the heavens since ancient times. Unlike the Deific Snow Tyrant which have numerous followers and the dragon race which gathers in groups, this fox roamed the battlefields alone. Its might is of the legendary class and had once sundered the very earth. The only weakness of their race is their poor ability to propagate, but it only brings up the value of the gem being found.
Where did it actually come from?
Not just the divine mystic fox, the other coloured gems are equally dumbfounding.
The Heavenly lightning Kirin is a divine beast that secludes itself from others. Its mane holds a thunderstorm that those that come too close can only be destroyed. While gentle by nature, the encyclopaedia also records that it had driven several divine races to extinction after being provoked.
The Nine Realms Hell Hound was found at the final pages of the book. Instead of a full page, only scribbles of the description of it are written down. The existence of this divine beast itself was merely speculation. It’s rumoured to have the ability to travel between planes and hide in the shadows, but other than this ability, all other features of it is a complete blank. All who had met the hellhound have all perished in the annals of history.
The True-life Hydra from the green gem is also a divine beast of the legendary class. It was said that a great god once took an entire millennia trying to slay one, but in the end after grinding this divine beast into dust, it once again regrew itself driving the god into madness.
The last of the five coloured gems is the silver one who bores the name, Alastor. After checking through the book several times, they could not find any beast with such a name, but since the five gems are found together, they all guessed that it must be a divine beast as well.
All of a sudden, everyone started wondering where these five gems come from. From Kairos’ memories, it is clear that he did not recall getting them from anywhere.
Not only Alastor, but the golden crystallised egg they won from Calculus, the colourless crystallised egg that Kairos bought, and Tommy’s demonic kitten are also all not listed on Snow’s book, making their attributes a complete mystery.
The guys sat down in dumbfounded silence. The contract beasts that they have are way beyond what could be found in a normal pet shop. Perhaps the ermine and the turtle could be powerful monsters which true worth are misidentified, but the existence of the demonic cat and the five coloured crystallised eggs definitely smells heavy with manipulation.
Even the existence of the royal wind wyvern is barely believable to be stocked but no matter what, the grade of their pets is truly too high.
A deep frown appeared on Kairos’ forehead. Just thinking about the cost to feed these little ones gave him a tremendous headache. Most likely, the Mortal Realms could not support such beasts.
To make such an expression after getting a room full of beasts with an ancient lineage, if a tamer were here at this moment, he would have an instant meltdown. You collected all these treasured beasts and frown? The heck! Why don’t you give me one, I’ll like to frown too, I’ll frown the whole day, I’ll gladly get my family to frown together with me for the rest of our lives in your stead.
As he was in deep thoughts, a sudden image of a gigantic pair of eyes flashed across his mind. Floating in the middle of the sky, the golden iris and black pupils looked right at him and immediately he came out from his trance jerking backwards in shock. That gaze seemed to have pierced through him with a glance.
“What’s wrong?”
“No... it’s nothing. Don’t this feel like someone is manipulating things?”
“It does stink of somebody’s presence, but somehow I feel that there is no danger from that person,” the others all agreed as one making Kairos feel his hair raise on his arms.
“If someone could bring such powerful beasts into the Saint city for us, then that person must be incredibly powerful. If he or she means any harm to us, we will probably be destroyed already.”
It felt creepy to see everyone so certain about a thing unknown but hearing this logical deduction from the Jones, Kairos finally relaxed. He had come to the same conclusion before, and these words reinforced his thoughts.
“Aisa, did you feel any manipulation on these crystals and the contract beasts we purchased from that shop?”
A..Aisa don’t think so? Aisa is not sure…
Stumped, Kairos could only let go of the matter for now. Whoever is behind everything, will show up. For now, there is nothing he could do except to be more careful.
Snow stood up with her tome. Now that she had finished helping them, she prepared to excuse herself.
Kairos gave her an appreciative thanks. Amongst all he had met, this girl is one of the more trustworthy ones and a war buddy, otherwise, he wouldn’t have asked for her aid when there are so many secrets in this room. Of course, her soul slip also played an important role.
“Remember we still need to have an aptitude test to take before our holidays!” Snow reminded them before she headed off.
“WHAA?” the boys shouted in unison.
In the first place, they didn’t expect to graduate to the second year, and since finishing the final exam with flying colours, a sense of celebration and holidays had taken root in their hearts.
They had completely forgotten!
Before going for their holidays, each student will be measured by the testing crystals and go through the combat room.
After they return to the academy from their six months long holidays, they will once again be tested to check for improvements.
The test will include checking each student’s current cultivation ranking and their combat ability.
Besides measuring their current strength, they will also need to take a latent talent test to know each person’s gifts.
Unlike the academy’s enrolment Potential Examination which only measures one’s speed in cultivation and is basically costless, the latent talent test offers a detailed measurement that requires an expensive amount of spirit stones to activate the assessment crystal.
It is because of this the school created the filtering exam at the end of the first six months of joining the academy. Only those that pass the mock battlefield exam will be worthy of this test, while the rest will be expelled or sent to the Trade Federate.
Of course, those students with lots of money or a powerful background may retake the year by re-enrolment.
While this is an exciting procedure for the six who have all made vast improvements to see where they stand, these exhausting tests begin the following morning.
No wonder Snow is quick to excuse herself!