My beast can't be a demon.

Chapter 269: Requests from the Pioneer Army

Xu Dalong stood on a sand dune in the desert, looking at the billowing smoke and dust in the distance, his brows slightly furrowed.

"Hasn't the logistics department delivered the new Crooked-Tooth Dog yet?" Xu Dalong asked the adjutant behind him.

The adjutant looked at Xu Dalong, who looked exhausted, and said, "We have consumed too much energy here. The Crooked Dog is not a spiritual beast that can be artificially cultivated. The logistics department can only send people to the A2511 secret realm to capture it. I heard that in order to catch more Crooked Dogs, they even sent out missions to various beast control academies."

Hearing the adjutant's words, Xu Dalong also smiled helplessly: "This group of logistics is also the same, how could they think of letting students go to the A-level secret realm."

"Without the Cuoya Hound, I'm afraid we won't be able to move forward." Just then, a young beastmaster came over.

He has a handsome face and a tall stature.

His tanned skin from years of wind and sun gave him a hint of the iron-blooded aura that is unique to a soldier.

Link Kexing, one of the most talented beastmasters in history, owned a fourth-tier quasi-divine beast the year he graduated from the Beast Taming Academy, and it was a quasi-divine beast that he trained himself.

After graduation, he directly joined the pioneer army and started his own frontline exploration journey.

Today, he has grown from a young boy into a determined soldier.

However, even such a powerful beastmaster was troubled when faced with the dust in this unknown secret realm.

The sand and dust in this secret realm seemed to possess some special intelligence, and would cause the greatest harm to humans and pets that entered it in different ways.

Its powers so far include gales, sandstorms, legions of sandmen, quicksand traps, and mirages.

"If it really is a spiritual beast, it is at least a quasi-god level spiritual beast." Linking frowned as he looked at the dust in the distance.

So far, only the Crooked Dog can avoid the sneak attack of the sand dust through its innate keen spiritual perception.

Therefore, the pioneer army urgently recruited the wrong-toothed dogs from the rear.

After sacrificing a large number of Crooked Dogs, they finally advanced to their current position.

It was this advancement that made them more convinced that this piece of sand and dust was intelligent.

It seemed to know that Xu Dalong and Lin Kexing were not easy to mess with, so it never had any direct conflict with them, but constantly used the environment to cause any trouble to the pioneer army.

Shachen was indeed very clever. Faced with such tactics, even though they were all fourth-rank beastmasters with the help of quasi-gods, Xu Lin and the others had no better solution and could only bite the bullet and continue to advance.

In the past, faced with such difficulties, the pioneers would generally choose to temporarily give up exploration and instead let the R&D team in the real world behind develop new solutions to deal with the existing difficulties.

There is no need to increase casualties when things can be solved with science and technology. This is the main concept of modern pioneers in exploring new secret realms.

You can say that this lacks a bit of the passion and fearlessness of our ancestors, but it is indeed the most effective way.

And you really can't say whether it is more cost-effective to pay subsidies to sacrificed beastmasters or to develop new technologies.

Just based on the existing information and data, R&D spending has begun to decline rapidly since six years ago, and the R&D personnel in the rear can always find various unique angles to solve the various difficulties faced by the pioneering army.

The only problem is...

"General, we have eaten all the supplies we brought." The adjutant shouted to Xu Dalong with a look of despair.

Xu Dalong's face changed drastically: "What did you say? All?"

The adjutant swallowed and took out a bag of powdery substance: "These are all we have left."

Seeing what the adjutant was holding, Xu Dalong, who rarely showed any emotion even when facing attacks from wild beasts, shouted angrily, "Why haven't you thrown this thing away yet!"

"But...it is indeed food." The adjutant murmured.

Yes, it is indeed food.

Food that tastes worse than shit.

This is the emergency food that the logistics department gave them with their latest equipment not long ago.

A kind of mushroom.

Although it is known as a delicious mushroom, it has a despairing taste.

The toothless dogs in the army would show horror when they saw them eating this kind of thing.

And this is just a microcosm of the countless outrageous scientific research in the real world over the years.

In the front-line troops of the pioneer army, many people are discussing whether there is a mushroom fairy in the real world and why so many research and development products appear in the form of mushrooms or fungi.

Xu Dalong sighed and said, "Let's retreat back to the initial camp first."

If this thing were really to be distributed as food, Xu Dalong was really worried that there would be a mutiny in the army.

When Xu Dalong led his troops to retreat to the camp, they happened to meet the logistics troops who came to deliver supplies.

Everyone had an expression of being saved.

Looking at the various canned foods that made them want to vomit, they all expressed their desire.

Compared to those damn mushrooms, these cans of luncheon meat filled with starch and offal debris are simply fucking delicious!
Along with these supplies came batches of mis-toothed dogs.

Looking at the cages of the crooked-toothed dogs that were constantly being taken off the pack pets, Link Xing was a little surprised and said, "So many this time?"

"We didn't expect that either." The beastmaster in charge of the escort also smiled helplessly.

"It seems that you are really working hard for our needs." Linking Xing said with emotion.

"No... In fact, the logistics department almost forgot that you have this need." The escorting beastmaster had a good relationship with Linking, so he told the truth.

Lin Kexing was slightly stunned when he heard this, and then said helplessly: "Well, I don't think this is surprising at all. Our logistics uncles are like this."

"So, where do so many wrong-toothed dogs come from?" At this time, Xu Dalong asked.

"Some students took on this task and handed it over to us."

"Students?!" Link Xing, who was organizing the reception of the Deformed-Tooth Hounds, widened his eyes when he heard this. He pointed at the thousands of Deformed-Tooth Hounds in front of him and said, "You said this was done by students? Did all the students in the Beast Taming Academy go out? That's not right? Ordinary students don't have the qualifications to enter the A-level secret realm."

"It's a student." The escort officer said, "He seems to be from the New Guangdong Beast Control College. His name is Zhou Lu. Because this kind of thing is so unbelievable, I went to find out more about it."

"Zhou Lu?" Xu Dalong was stunned when he heard the name.

Lin Kexing also noticed his boss's strangeness and asked, "Old Xu, do you know him?"

"He seems to be my brother's classmate." Xu Dalong recalled, "I saw his performance in the first Beast Taming Exam last time. He is indeed very talented as a Beast Tamer."

"Didn't your brother take his first exam last year?" Link asked, "How come this boy named Zhou Lu has the ability to enter the A-level secret realm in just one year? And isn't your brother from Xin'an Beast Taming Academy? Maybe they have the same name, right?"

Lin Kexing's words also made sense, but Xu Dalong felt that there shouldn't be so many coincidences in the world. He silently memorized the name in his heart and planned to ask Xu Wuhu after returning this time. If it is really the Zhou Lu he knows, then this genius boy must be won over.

It would be a shame if such talent were wasted on the field.

"By the way." Xu Dalong suddenly looked at the escort officer and said, "We have new needs here."

"A new demand? Come on, you are really my uncle." The escort officer showed a desperate expression.

"Then you can also ask the logistics department to reject our request." Xu Dalong said coldly, "It will only mean losing the mineral deposits under the desert."

This sentence made the escort officer's face change.

Isn’t the reason why Xu Dalong brought the pioneering army here to confront an unknown sand beast of at least level four because there are all kinds of non-renewable energy sources that are urgently needed in the real world under this desert?

According to official estimates, as long as the resources under this desert are fully developed, the pace of human modern technology replacing spiritual pets will be greatly accelerated.

Is this a good thing for the Beast Tamer? No one knows.

But it is a good thing for the authorities.

As long as they control this mineral deposit, the authorities will at least have a card in their hands: "fully implement the plan to replace spirit pets with technology." Whether or not this card will be played depends on the performance of the major beast-taming families that have been hindering the authorities.

These beast-taming families, relying on their monopoly on the breeding methods of some special spiritual pets in the early years, used the spiritual pets in their hands to monopolize many industries, and therefore the official reforms and management were often influenced by them.

Xu Dalong is a soldier and he firmly carries out any orders issued by the authorities.

If there really is a wave of technology replacing spirit pets in the real world in the future, he doesn't think there is anything wrong with it.

This is the necessity of the times.

Someone once said that there are only two paths for future Beastmasters.

One way is to become a competitive player, a star of the competition that everyone is paying attention to, and drive your pet to fight in various competitions to gain popularity and bonuses.

The other way is to join the pioneering army and various exploration organizations, go to endless unknown secrets to find various mineral resources, and inject endless power into the technological engine of human society.

In fact, the authorities have indeed begun to prepare for these two paths.

On the one hand, we vigorously promote various competitions, and on the other hand, we let the pioneers step up their exploration of various mineral deposits.

This is also the main reason for the current shortage of manpower in the logistics forces.

At the same time as Xu Dalong, there were more than a dozen pioneering armies exploring different secret realms, and they needed to meet the supply needs of these pioneering troops at the same time.

"Tell me, what do you need?" the escort officer sighed and asked.

Xu Dalong said calmly, "We need helpers who can fight against large spirit beasts, and who are beastmasters of large unknown spirit beasts that can break themselves into a sandstorm. They must be at least level four."

Hearing that they were not here to ask for supplies, the escort officer breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I'll pass it on."

"No need to look for it in the Pioneer Army, go find the nursing team or the Veterans' Hospital." Xu Dalong stopped the escort officer who was about to leave, "I know the Pioneer Army, and no one is suitable to fight against this spirit beast now."

"You want to send out the divine beast? That's impossible." The escort officer shook his head.

Although theoretically, the pioneer army still retains the opportunity to request assistance from the divine beasts, due to various events in the real world and the fact that several of the divine beasts in the Invalides have already entered the preliminary steps of hospice care, the authorities will no longer easily send the divine beasts to the secret realm.

Xu Dalong naturally knew this: "Ask more, maybe there will be a suitable candidate."

The escort officer said, "I can only help you convey the message. As for whether you can find the person you need in the end, it depends on luck."

Having said that, he left with his pet.

"I say... what should we do with these misshapen dogs?" Link pointed at the pile of misshapen dogs not far away and said with a wry smile, "That's a lot of food for the day, right? Those damn logistics guys didn't even give us enough dog food."

"Aren't there still a lot of delicious mushrooms? Just use them as dog food."

"Even dogs wouldn't eat this stuff!" Linking complained.

Xu Dalong had a blank expression on his face: "I ate it when I was hungry. Didn't you eat it the same way at the beginning?"

Upon hearing this, Link Xing showed a desperate expression: "Can we not mention this anymore? I feel desperate just thinking about it now."

Xu Dalong finally couldn't hold it anymore: "Do you think I'm not desperate?"

It has to be said that the lethality of the delicious mushroom is indeed strong. Anyone who is a frontline member of the pioneer army will have a change of expression when they mention it.

On the other side, Zhou Lu cleared out all the immortal souls he could find in the secret realm and returned to Xin Yue College.

As soon as he arrived at the temporary residence, he saw Ye Qingyu sitting in Wu Xiaoqing's laboratory.

"Sister Qingyu, why are you here?" Zhou Lu asked in surprise, "Are there any results from the investigation of the Immortal Country?"

"No." Ye Qingyu smiled bitterly and shook her head, "Someone else took over."

This was not beyond Zhou Lu's expectations.

"So, you're taking a vacation right now?"

"It would be great if it were that easy." Ye Qingyu said helplessly, pointing at Wu Xiaoqing and said, "Isn't this a new R&D task for Xiaoqing?"

"New R&D tasks?"

This time it was Wu Xiaoqing who answered him: "It was sent from the Pioneer Army, requesting the development of a product that can suppress sandstorms, especially large-scale sandstorms."

"Suppressing sandstorms? This is almost a weather weapon, right?" Zhou Lu asked in surprise, "Is it really possible?"

"Is it impossible?" Wu Xiaoqing asked directly.

Um...if it's Sister Xiaoqing...

"In fact, Xiaoqing has already completed this task."

"Ah?" Zhou Lu was shocked. "Isn't this the task that was just issued?"

"It's true that the task was just assigned." Wu Xiaoqing chuckled, "But the product doesn't have to be newly developed. I looked through the previous research samples and actually found a suitable product."

"Mushrooms again?" Zhou Lu asked suddenly, and then felt that he had asked in vain.

But Wu Xiaoqing gave an answer that surprised Zhou Lu: "It's not a mushroom, it's moss."

As she spoke, Wu Xiaoqing took a glass bottle and showed it to Zhou Lu: "A kind of moss that can reproduce quickly in the desert."

(End of this chapter)