Under One Person: Rebuilding the Glory of the Beast Master

Zeng Su walked to the edge of the pool, squatted down, and looked Xuan Hei in the eye.

He said, "Sorry to keep you waiting!"

Xuan Hei opened his mouth, but after a long while, he managed to squeeze out a sentence: "Who...who was waiting for you?"

Its voice trembled slightly, and the final note rose uncontrollably.

"I'm just sunbathing here. Whether you come or not is none of my business."

After it finished speaking, it quickly retracted its head into its shell, leaving only a slit and one eye showing.

Bai Jiahei walked over from behind and nudged Xuanhei's shell with its nose.

Xuanhei was pushed forward half an inch by the force of the push, and a muffled voice came from inside the shell: "Don't push me."

White and black rose again.

"I told you not to provoke me."

White and black continue to arch.

"You stupid pig, are you ever going to stop?! Fine, fine, I give up."

Xuanhei reluctantly poked its head out of its shell, but dared not look at Zeng Su. Instead, it turned its head to stare at a clump of reeds beside it, as if counting how many reeds there were.

Zeng Su smiled and shook his head. In fact, he could clearly sense Xuan Hei's feelings and even some of his thoughts, but he didn't point it out. Xuan Hei had lived for so long, it was normal for him to be a little arrogant.

"Um..." Xuanhei suddenly spoke, but his voice was so soft that it was almost inaudible if you didn't listen carefully, "Have you been... alright these past few days?"

Upon hearing this, it was stunned and quickly explained, "Uh! I was just asking casually, you can answer if you want."

Zeng Su smiled slightly: "It's nothing, I was just exhausted. I'll be fine after a few days of rest. I'm sorry to have worried you."

"Who's worried about you?!" Xuanhei's voice rose a notch.

But Zeng Su didn't say anything, he just quietly watched it.

It paused, then its voice suddenly lowered: "...Are you really alright?"

"I'm really fine," Zeng Su said.

Xuanhei stared at him for several seconds, then snorted and turned his head to the other side.

"It's good that you're alright. If anything had happened to you, my plans would have been ruined. You promised to help me get out of here, so you can't go back on your word."

Zeng Su nodded: "I remember."

Then he sat down by the pool. Bai Jiahei also lay down and stuck his head into the pool, blowing bubbles.

"Let's begin!" Zeng Su shouted to Xuan Hei.

This time, Xuanhei didn't act coy anymore. It came over and pressed its body against its master's side, but the heart inside the tortoise shell suddenly started beating wildly.

"It's real! It's real! It's real!!"

This sentence kept echoing in its mind.

"call!"

Zeng Su let out a long breath and then placed his hand on the dark armor.

The Qi of both parties began to merge instantly, and this stage was completed in an instant under the state of perfect contract. This is the state that all beast masters dream of achieving, but for Zeng Su, it was extremely simple.

Five-colored Qi flowed through his body, perfectly merging without any resistance. However, he was now even further away from the third level of Reversal of Life. But there was no other way; he couldn't give up the methods of the Beast Master.

He now possesses seven types of Qi: his own Qi, the steel-attribute Qi of white and black, and the five elements Qi of profound black—it's practically a melting pot.

However, the power condensed within his body by this Qi is greater than the sum of its parts.

Now he needs to take the first step in his evolution from black to a spirit turtle: condensing the five elements of bloodline into one.

The method of refinement was already deeply imprinted in his mind, and he could begin immediately without needing to conduct experiments.

As he moved, a special power began to mobilize the bloodline within Xuanhei's body. This method of condensing bloodlines was extremely dangerous. Bloodlines are the most fundamental element supporting a life; any mishap in any aspect can lead to bloodline collapse and death.

However, the condensation method provided by Unlimited Evolution is specifically designed for Xuanhei, with a perfect fit and no errors.

Xuanhei could sense the changes in its own bloodline, and in the process, it could even clearly feel that its dependence on the Qi formation was beginning to decrease.

He didn't lie to me.

Only now did Xuanhei truly believe Zeng Su's promise.

And it dared not move rashly, for fear of interfering with its owner's ability to perform.

Zeng Su stopped after consolidating his bloodline for less than 10 minutes. It wasn't that he didn't want to continue, but his internal energy couldn't hold up any longer. In just 10 minutes, his energy had been depleted to only one-fifth, and he didn't want to experience the feeling of his energy being completely exhausted.

Then he took out a cloth bag from his pocket, inside which was the Taimu Mountain Golden Ginseng that Lu Jin had given him. He took out a piece and put it under his tongue, which could quickly restore his Qi.

Xuanhei craned his neck and stared at him expectantly, and he naturally understood what Xuanhei meant.

He reached out and tapped Xuanhei's head. Xuanhei didn't flinch; in fact, he nodded in agreement.

"This isn't something that can be done overnight; it takes time," he explained.

"It's okay, I can wait!" Xuanhei replied excitedly. He had already waited for hundreds of years, so waiting a little longer wouldn't matter at all.

Because it has seen hope and touched the possibility of leaving, that's enough.

Next comes the infusion of essence and blood, which is no easy task. Essence and blood represent the purest energy in the human body, and a large loss of essence and blood can be life-threatening.

Moreover, even a single drop of his essence blood would leave him in a state of weakness for a period of time. This is where the advantage of the Three Ones Sect comes into play: having a powerful backer provides good protection, and one need not worry about external dangers.

Unrestricted evolution also provides a method to force out essence blood. Extend your index finger and a round blood bead will emerge from the fingertip. A drop of essence blood is about the size of a peanut.

But with just this drop of blood, Zeng Yao's face turned visibly pale, and his heart began to pound violently, a normal reaction to insufficient blood supply.

Baijiahei sensed its owner's weakness and quickly moved closer to its owner's side.

"Hmph!"

It was asking its master what was wrong, and it even adopted a fighting stance, with the steel needles on its back standing up.

"I'm fine!"

Zeng Su offered words of comfort.

Xuanhei, standing to the side, lowered his head.

"I'm sorry, Master!" it said, this time genuinely calling him "Master." It understood that Zeng Su was doing this for its sake.

"It's nothing serious, you just need to rest for a while."

Zeng Su addressed the two beasts, then dripped the essence blood from his fingertip onto Xuan Hei's head.

The moment the blood essence dripped onto Xuanhei's head, it disappeared like water being absorbed by a sponge. Immediately afterwards, the runes on its tortoise shell suddenly lit up, accompanied by five-colored light reflecting off the shell.

The five colors—blue, red, yellow, white, and black—rot endlessly.

How should I put it! The current Xuanhei is like a big colorful ball.

Suddenly, its black body trembled violently, and its four claws dug several deep grooves in the stone. A sudden, intense pain surged from the depths of its bone marrow, and it almost bit off its tongue.

"Bear with it," Zeng Su's voice came. "Your essence is merging into your bloodline. This process will be a little painful, but it won't last long."

Xuanhei wanted to argue, "This is called a little pain?"

It was in excruciating pain, having never experienced such agony in hundreds of years, but the only thing that escaped its mouth when it opened was a muffled groan; it couldn't speak at all.

It now feels as if something is taking root and sprouting inside its body, pulling out those originally independent Five Elements bloodlines one by one, and then forcibly twisting them together.

Bai Jiahei lay beside Xuan Hei, staring intently at him, feeling a little relieved.

"Luckily, my evolution didn't hurt this much."

Zeng Su took two steps back and waited quietly.

He wasn't the one to perform the essence and blood initiation; he was merely a "catalyst." Xuanhei would have to bear the rest of the initiation process himself.

All he can do now is wait.

Five minutes have passed.

The black body gradually calmed down from its initial violent trembling, and the five-colored radiance on the tortoise shell also began to subside, slowly changing from a dazzling light to a warm glow.

Finally, the light disappeared completely.

Xuanhei lay motionless on the ground, like a stone covered in moss, exuding an aura of despondency.

Zeng Su squatted down and poked its shell with his finger.

"Is he dead?"

"No." A dark voice came out, carrying a weakness of someone who had just survived a catastrophe, "but I feel like I'm not far from death."

"When can I get out?" Xuanhei asked weakly, this was the thing it cared about most.

"The road ahead is long; this is just the first step. There's a lot more to go, so you need to be mentally prepared."

"Huh?" Xuanhei's eyes widened in surprise upon hearing Zeng Su's words. This was just the beginning? It thought it was over, and that it would have to continue enduring that kind of pain.

"No~~" Xuanhei cried out in his heart, feeling a sense of despair.

Seeing Xuan Hei's appearance, Zeng Su curled his lips into a mocking smile and said, "What, are you scared?"

Upon hearing this, Xuanhei snorted, his arrogant demeanor returning: "What storms haven't I weathered? Bring it on!"

Of course, Xuanhei's voice trembled slightly when he said this.

-

In the days that followed, Zeng Su's life took on a new rhythm.

Every morning, he first attends the morning class, meditates and circulates his Qi, and the circulation of the Beast Technique becomes smoother and smoother.

After the overdraft during the Xuanhei Contract, his Qi did not decrease but increased, showing faint signs of a breakthrough.

After morning classes, he went to the beast enclosure to finish his work. Then he went to the water pool to help Xuanhei and Baijiahei evolve.

Now, Baijiahei often stays in the pool to keep Xuanhei company, this lonely turtle.

Moreover, since he took over the animal pen, the meat supply problem of the Sanyi Sect has been largely solved. The black pigs that were originally thin and weak are now all plump and strong, and the egg production of the Luhua chickens has more than doubled.

However, the animal pen has reached its capacity, after all, the amount of food that so many livestock need to consume every day is not small, and it is currently in its best condition.

"Junior Brother!"

Shouts came from outside the animal enclosure. Zeng Su looked up and saw Lu Jin standing outside the fence waving at him, his smile as bright as ever.

"Senior brother."

"Look what I brought you!" Lu Jin took out a small cloth bag from his pocket, waved it at Zeng Su, then jumped over the fence, walked up to Zeng Su and handed the bag over.

Zeng Su took it and opened it; inside were five stones.

To be precise, there are five pieces of jade.

Each piece is about the size of a pigeon egg. Although they are irregularly shaped, their surfaces are smooth and warm, and they gleam softly in the sunlight. They are all top-quality jade.

And as soon as he held it in his hand, he knew that this was the spirit jade he was looking for.

"Senior Brother Lu, how did you know I was looking for jade?" Zeng Su looked up at Lu Jin.

He remembered that he had only mentioned it to his Uncle-Master Si Chong once, saying that he wanted to find jade of good quality, and had not told anyone else about it.

Lu Jin chuckled: "What secrets does the Sanyi Sect have? You can just ask around and find out. Besides, I'm the young master of the Lu family. Although the Lu family can't compare to the major sects like the Sanyi Sect or Longhu Mountain in the world of supernatural beings, it's still an old and established family. Finding a few pieces of jade is a piece of cake for us."

He pointed to the pieces of jade in Zeng Su's hand: "These are all top-quality jade pieces; they should meet your requirements!"

"Hmm!" He nodded, then asked, "How much are these jade stones?"

This is the most important thing. If it's too expensive, it will be troublesome, because Xuanhei needs to devour 100 spirit jades to evolve into a spirit turtle.

Lu Jin scratched his head: "It'll probably add up to around 1000 silver dollars!"

Lu Jin then waved his hand and said magnanimously, "It's just a few pieces of jade, I'll give them to you, why talk about money?"

Lu Jin was very magnanimous, but Zeng Su dared not accept it.

That's 1000 silver dollars. Even a young master like Lu Jin from the Lu family wouldn't be able to just casually take it out.

At this time of year, it's considered quite good for an average person to earn five or six yuan a month.

So this jade is too hot to handle. Lu Jin is good to him, but he can't take advantage of others.

"Junior Brother?" Lu Jin saw him staring blankly and waved his hand in front of him. "What are you thinking about?"

Zeng Su snapped out of his reverie: "I'm thinking about how to make money."

"Make money?" Lu Jin was taken aback for a moment, then laughed. "How old are you? What are you thinking about making money? The family is supporting you, you won't go hungry."

"It's not about being hungry or not." Zeng Su shook his head. "I need too much jade. If I don't find a way, I'll never have enough even if I save it up forever."

"Wait a minute," he said to Lu Jin, then turned and went to his room.

When he returned, he was carrying a small box containing the money that Uncle Runguo had left for him before he left.

There were ten gold bars in the box, each weighing about two taels. At the current market price, one tael of gold could be exchanged for about forty silver dollars, so these ten gold bars were worth about eight hundred silver dollars.

"Senior Brother Lu, here are ten gold bars for you. I'll pay you the rest later." He handed the box to Lu Jin.

Upon seeing the gold bars in the box, Lu Jin waved his hands repeatedly. "What are you saying? I already said it's a gift for you, why would you take the money!"

"Senior Brother Lu, I know you are the young master of the Lu family, but 1000 silver dollars is just too much. I can't possibly accept it like this. Senior Brother, you must accept it," Zeng Su said firmly.

Seeing Zeng Su's tough demeanor, Lu Jin touched his nose. He knew he had to accept the gold bars, otherwise it would hurt the feelings between his fellow disciples.

"Alright, I'll accept the gold bars. But you don't need to return the other money. Consider it a gift from your senior brother. Don't say anything more, or your senior brother will be unhappy," Lu Jin said after taking the box.

Zeng Su felt a surge of warmth upon hearing these words.

"Thank you, senior brother."

He then chatted with Lu Jin for a while, and Lu Jin left after learning that Bai Jiahei was not there.

Lu Jin originally wanted to have a match with Bai Jiahei today, but he had to wait for Bai Jiahei to come back before making an appointment.

Zeng Su returned to his room with the jade, resting his chin on his hand as he pondered how to make money.