Chapter 1: Monster Tamer

Midsummer, dusk!

"Hoo, almost there!"

Deep in the great mountains, the youth's eyes were sharp as a hawk's, his body moving with his intent; even while running at high speed, he could still easily avoid obstacles along the way, moving through the mountain forest as if flying.

The surrounding scenery flashed by rapidly, and even though the mountain terrain was complex, it did not cause him much trouble.

His name is Li Zhangsheng, dressed in a moon-white robe, with fair skin; he is a spirited and radiant, handsome young man!

One wonders how many young maidens would be charmed by such a fine gentleman of this dusty world.

As Li Zhangsheng ran, the pack hanging on his back moved constantly, and one could vaguely hear tender roars, as if some living creature were trapped inside, struggling subconsciously.

Roar—

Suddenly, a majestic and impassioned roar rang out, shaking the forest; the entire mountain forest fell silent, and countless lurking animals fled frantically as if they had encountered a natural predator!

Not far from here, a dense thicket rustled, and suddenly, a majestic tiger with a white forehead and striped eyes burst out.

Its height was close to one zhang, and its body length was about five meters; its tiger eyes, large as copper bells, were piercingly fierce, and its black nose twitched as if searching for something.

Hearing the movement behind him, Li Zhangsheng felt a tightening in his heart and a sense of urgency, but instead of stopping, he ran even more vigorously.

Suddenly, the tiger with a white forehead and striped eyes landed on a rock about a zhang square on the mountaintop, overlooking the scene below, carefully searching for its target.

In the blink of an eye, the tiger with a white forehead and striped eyes noticed Li Zhangsheng, its pair of tiger eyes chilling and piercing, revealing a look that suggested it would devour him.

In an instant, its agile limbs began to exert force, and the tiger with a white forehead and striped eyes pounced out; its massive tiger body displayed a flexibility and speed inconsistent with its size, easily avoiding trees along the way, its lashing tiger tail whistling and causing branches and leaves to scatter continuously.

Like a bolt of lightning, the tiger with a white forehead and striped eyes rapidly shortened the distance between itself and Li Zhangsheng.

Listening to the increasingly loud movement behind him, Li Zhangsheng felt quite bitter; if he had a choice, how would he have actively provoked a tiger with a white forehead and striped eyes?

For this operation, Li Zhangsheng had spent a total of five days laying out a rather detailed plan; as long as the plan went smoothly, he could not only avoid life-threatening danger but also obtain an exceptionally generous reward.

Of course, even the most detailed plan can have deviations; Li Zhangsheng could only do his best to check for gaps and improve, praying that no accidents would occur along the way, otherwise there would be the possibility of ending up in the tiger's maw.

Following the pre-arranged route, Li Zhangsheng braced his spirit, his face flushed red, and his speed increased by several notches; being chased by a five-meter-long tiger with a white forehead and striped eyes, how could he not give it his all!

The mountain forest was overgrown with trees and the terrain was complex, forcing Li Zhangsheng to frequently change his route.

Within a few breaths, Li Zhangsheng followed the marks he had made along the way and arrived at the first target location.

Not far away, there were several adjacent and severely bent crooked-neck trees, with a large amount of green branches and leaves scattered on the ground; if one observed carefully, one could vaguely see several green vine ropes covered by branches and leaves.

These green vine ropes were quite tough and were all made into slipknots, forming circles that encompassed several meters, leaving only a narrow space for safe passage.

This was a slipknot trap, a trap set using the bending force of tree branches; once prey stepped into the rope, the rope would instantly tighten due to a series of principles, and the slipknot would also contract due to the springing up of the branches, tightly binding the prey that stepped into the trap.

As he approached the trap, Li Zhangsheng slowed his pace slightly and passed through this area with small, quick steps.

Soon, the tiger with a white forehead and striped eyes stepped into the trap area; in its high-speed dash, it did not notice the ground and stepped into the slipknot trap.

Before the tiger with a white forehead and striped eyes could take another step, the green vine rope instantly tightened, tightly binding its right forelimb.

At the same time it was bound, a sound of cutting through the air rang out, and the bent branches sprang up violently, trying to pull the tiger with a white forehead and striped eyes upward.

Unfortunately, the tiger with a white forehead and striped eyes was too heavy, weighing over a ton; with the rebound force of the branches, it was impossible to lift it up at all.

Even so, the tiger with a white forehead and striped eyes was still restricted and forced to stop its forward progress; its right forelimb was hoisted high, making its appearance quite disheveled, and for a time it could not continue the pursuit.

The tiger with a white forehead and striped eyes struggled subconsciously, wanting to break free from the restraint of the rope.

Unfortunately, the green vine rope was extremely resilient, and it would take some time to break free completely.

Hearing the movement behind him, a smile appeared on the corner of Li Zhangsheng's mouth, but he never looked back, nor did he have any intention of stopping, starting to put distance between himself and the other party.

The reason is simple: this tiger with a white forehead and striped eyes was not an ordinary animal, but a unique product of this world—a Spirit Beast!

This is a world of Spirit Beasts; whether in the sky, on the earth, in the ocean, or even in harsh areas like volcanoes and swamps, all kinds of Spirit Beasts survive.

Spirit Beasts are born from various creatures, including animals, plants, and even rocks and water droplets; they possess all kinds of special abilities. Perhaps due to the World Rule of this world, over time, a special profession was born in this world—Monster Tamer!

Li Zhangsheng is a Monster Tamer!

Monster Tamers can sign contracts with wild Spirit Beasts, train Spirit Beasts, cultivate Spirit Beasts, command Spirit Beasts in battle, and even use the special abilities of Spirit Beasts to complete various tasks.

Generally speaking, a Monster Tamer's first Demon Pet is mostly provided by their family, elders, or sect. Li Zhangsheng's situation is quite special; he has elders and a family, but because he awakened a special ability, he looked down on the wild Spirit Beasts they provided, because in his view, the grade of these Spirit Beasts was too low.

At the same time, for a Monster Tamer, the first Demon Pet is extremely important; this even relates to their life and future achievements.

Due to the World Rule, when a Monster Tamer contracts their first Spirit Beast, both parties will conclude a Life Contract.

Therefore, the first Demon Pet is also known as the Life-Bound Demon Pet.

The Life-Bound Demon Pet is extremely important; it can significantly provide feedback to the Monster Tamer. The more excellent the Life-Bound Demon Pet, the faster the Monster Tamer's growth rate!

However, the premise of all this is closely related to the quality and realm of the Life-Bound Demon Pet. The better the quality and the higher the realm, the more it feeds back to the Monster Tamer, and vice versa!

Quality is equivalent to a combination of aptitude and template; Spirit Beasts with high aptitude grow faster and are easier to break through bottlenecks; the template is equivalent to obtaining different levels of amplification; the higher the template, the stronger the amplification obtained.

In addition, if the Life-Bound Demon Pet dies, it will also bring serious backlash to the Monster Tamer, so under normal circumstances, Monster Tamers will pursue high-quality Life-Bound Demon Pets as much as possible.

However, ordinary Monster Tamers can only "see" the basic information of a Spirit Beast after contracting it. For them, whether they can capture a high-quality Demon Pet requires not only superior judgment but also sufficient luck.

Luck is ethereal, yet it truly exists; there are always some lucky ones in the world who "accidentally" contract a wild Spirit Beast of extremely high quality or even a mutation, eventually climbing to the peak, but such people are ultimately a very small minority.

Judgment is related to discernment and experience; one infers their quality based on the strength, body size, and momentum displayed by wild Spirit Beasts, but such judgments are often inaccurate, and at the same time, it consumes a lot of energy and may even put oneself in a dangerous situation.

Finally, there is strength; if one cannot even defeat the wild Spirit Beast one wants to contract, then what is there to talk about regarding a contract.

Theoretically, as long as one has sufficient strength, any wild Spirit Beast, whether strong or weak, can be contracted.

Unlike ordinary Monster Tamers, at the moment he became a Monster Tamer, due to some change, Li Zhangsheng's soul underwent a mutation, thereby mastering an extremely special ability.

This ability allows his Mental Power to possess extremely powerful penetration, capable of ignoring the obstruction of the Spirit Beast's physical body and pointing directly to the origin. As long as Li Zhangsheng releases his Mental Power, he can obtain the basic information of the Spirit Beast based on the knowledge he has mastered; this information includes name, realm, quality, Bloodline, and so on.

After many experiments, Li Zhangsheng reached a conclusion: according to the different quality of Spirit Beasts, Spirit Beasts will produce different differences according to the strength of their brilliance.

Of course, this special ability also has limitations, mainly related to the strength of his Mental Power. With Li Zhangsheng's current Mental Power, he can at most encompass an area of 30 meters.

Ordinary Monster Tamers can only obtain Spirit Beast information after signing a contract, which requires a lot of time and energy, especially since it is very inaccurate, and everyone's energy is limited.

Compared with ordinary Monster Tamers, Li Zhangsheng does not need to complete a contract to obtain the basic information of a Demon Pet, and it is all the Spirit Beasts within an area; which of the two is better or worse is self-evident.

When Li Zhangsheng grows up in the future, perhaps releasing his Mental Power once will be able to encompass an area of several miles or even tens of miles, and the efficiency will be greatly improved.

This is also why Li Zhangsheng would flatly refuse the "Inferior Quality" Spirit Beasts provided by his family and risk stepping into the wild to find high-quality Spirit Beasts.

Being born into a family allowed him to receive family-style training and education from a young age, including physical exercise and knowledge of wilderness survival; most importantly, Li Zhangsheng had great self-awareness, as the place he searched was not far from the family, and this area had been swept by the family many times, so there were almost no powerful wild Spirit Beasts, and as long as preparations were thorough, a certain level of safety could be guaranteed.

Li Zhangsheng pursed his lips and sprinted away at full speed.

Roar—

Soon, a violent roar sounded from behind; seeing Li Zhangsheng running further and further away, almost disappearing from sight, the White-Fronted Tiger grew anxious and hurriedly opened its mouth, where countless cyan light spots rapidly gathered, transforming into a pale cyan Wind Blade that instantly cut the rope into two segments.

After breaking free from its restraints, the White-Fronted Tiger leaped up; it jumped very far, leaping directly out of the trap's range, and seeing that Li Zhangsheng was about to leave its field of vision, Wind Attribute energy gathered once more, its massive tiger body was covered by a layer of cyan flowing light, and its already fast speed increased by another notch.

Up ahead, Li Zhangsheng's ears twitched slightly, and feeling the sound drawing closer, he still did not look back, continuing to grit his teeth and charging headlong toward the next destination.

It's close!

The White-Fronted Tiger's eyes widened in anger, its open mouth revealed sharp fangs, and its Agile and powerful limbs moved at high speed, rapidly shortening the distance between the two.

In the span of a few breaths, only thirty meters remained between the White-Fronted Tiger and Li Zhangsheng, and it would soon catch up.

Logically speaking, Li Zhangsheng had entered the White-Fronted Tiger's long-range attack range, but the White-Fronted Tiger seemed to have some reservations and never launched a long-range offensive against Li Zhangsheng.

It was also at this moment that Li Zhangsheng ran to the end of the mountain forest, where the biting mountain Wind blew against his face, surging like a tide and making his clothes rustle loudly.

The path ahead was cut off, surrounded by jagged, dangerous rocks and swaying withered grass; it was, shockingly, a ten-thousand-foot cliff. Below the cliff, clouds and mist shrouded everything, making it unfathomably deep; a mountain rock fell, and one could not hear a single echo for a long time.

However, several dozen meters away, there was another cliff, where another stretch of mountain forest was located.

Regarding the environment here, Li Zhangsheng was well-prepared, having even practiced it fully several times back then for the sake of safety.

Without hesitation, Li Zhangsheng grabbed the rope fixed to a large tree on the opposite side, took a step forward, stepped hard on the mountain rock at the edge of the cliff, and quickly charged toward the opposite cliff.

In the blink of an eye, the White-Fronted Tiger also appeared at the end of the mountain forest, and upon discovering that Li Zhangsheng was about to escape, it no longer had any reservations and subconsciously wanted to condense a Wind Blade.

(End of chapter)