Chapter 403: Breaking Through to the Fourth Rank (Three-in-One Chapter, Requesting Everything)

【Spirit Beast Name】: Leopard Kirin Beast (Growth Stage, High-level Exotic Beast)

【Spirit Beast Realm】: Upper 3rd Rank

【Spirit Beast Species】: High-level Commander

【Spirit Beast Quality】: Superior Quality

【Spirit Beast Bloodline】: Purple Firmament Kirin (Pure)

【Spirit Beast Attribute】: Thunder Attribute

【Spirit Beast Status】: Lethargic "Latent Bloodline Transition status; combat power no longer declines. There is a possibility of a third bloodline evolution at any time, though it may also never occur again."

【Spirit Beast Weakness】: Ice

Leopard Kirin Beast: A large predatory spirit beast, primarily excelling in speed and close-quarters combat. Its fur and scales have superior resistance, its bite force is excellent, and it is the most adept at running among spirit beasts.

Species Traits: Electrocute, Thunder Prison Sea (Weather-type trait; brings thunderclouds upon appearing, enhancing Thunder Attribute skills while paralyzing opponents and reducing their reaction speed; duration is related to the realm).

In this evolution, the Thunder Leopard Beast evolved into the Leopard Kirin Beast, rising from a High-level General Species to a High-level Commander Species; its strength can be said to have increased significantly.

As for its status as a High-level Exotic Beast, to Li Zhangsheng, it was merely optional; he did not believe that under his cultivation, the Leopard Kirin Beast could not become a Leader-level Demon Pet.

Besides this, the Leopard Kirin Beast also gained the Thunder Prison Sea trait. Like the Scorching Sun trait, this also belongs to the weather-type category, capable of boosting the Demon Pet's strength for a certain period while weakening the opponent.

Finally, the Leopard Kirin Beast gained a Bloodline Inheritance Skill of the Purple Firmament Kirin—Thunder Escape. This is an escape-type skill known for its explosive power, which can be maintained for a period. The only downside is that it cannot be micro-managed, which also leads to Thunder Escape having little significance in actual combat, serving only for fleeing.

Although it is not as good as the Three-legged Golden Crow's Golden Crow Transformation Rainbow skill, the difference is not that large, and it is similar to the Lingming Stone Monkey's Somersault Cloud skill.

The only pity is that in this evolution, the Leopard Kirin Beast's quality did not rise.

"The Latent Bloodline Transition status might lead to a third evolution; this time I've really hit the jackpot!" Li Zhangsheng secretly thought to himself, unable to suppress the joy in his heart.

Generally speaking, bloodline transitions often only allow for two evolutions, and sometimes even just one; the probability of three or more evolutions can be said to be infinitesimal.

Originally, Li Zhangsheng thought two evolutions were already quite good, at least meeting his requirements for a Temporary Spirit Pet, but he did not expect the Leopard Kirin Beast to have the possibility of a third evolution.

Of course, no one knows when the Leopard Kirin Beast will undergo its third evolution, and it is even possible that it will never evolve again until it dies.

However, this ultimately gave Li Zhangsheng some hope. According to his 'experience', as long as the Leopard Kirin Beast evolves one more time, its quality will have a high probability of promotion.

This so-called experience comes from Day and Night; they were also existences that evolved twice, and only after consuming a Moon Soul Star Snatching Pill that slightly improved their quality did they complete their promotion in quality.

In addition, in the ancient book Li Zhangsheng read that described bloodline transitions, there were also records regarding latent bloodline transitions. Among them was this point: as long as one occasionally gives a spirit pet with a latent bloodline transition Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure of the same attribute to consume, it can effectively increase the possibility of the spirit pet's evolution and shorten the evolution time.

"Thunder Attribute Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure, I seem to only have this one on me!" Li Zhangsheng rested his chin on his hand and pondered, thinking of the Thunder Element Crystal the size of an adult's fist that he had obtained from the Black Dragon Harikuchi's Dragon Lair.

Unfortunately, this Thunder Element Crystal was too precious; not only was he reluctant to part with it, but he had also long since planned its use.

"Using a Heavenly Essence Grade Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure is truly too wasteful. I'll go to the market one of these days to buy some of the cheapest Heaven and Earth Spiritual Object grade Thunder Attribute Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure!"

According to their different efficacies, the cheapest Heaven and Earth Spiritual Objects are only worth about a thousand Soul Crystals, and the most precious are only worth tens of thousands of Soul Crystals; they cannot reach six figures.

Li Zhangsheng had his own ways of making money, so he could afford such consumption.

"Congratulations!" Ning Bizhen offered her sincere blessings at the right moment.

"It should be mutual congratulations; we don't distinguish between each other!"

Li Zhangsheng teased casually, causing a happy smile to appear on Ning Bizhen's face.

Women, after all, need to be coaxed!

In the time that followed, Li Zhangsheng and Ning Bizhen remained at Tiger Roar Mountain for special training. During the day, they trained their Demon Pets, at night they cultivated their Mental Power, and during their leisure time, Ning Bizhen would teach Li Zhangsheng some knowledge.

Unexpectedly, the one who trained the hardest was not Aixi, not Kailan, and certainly not Adai, but the Red Dragon Xieryasina.

Under the supreme temptation of Gold Coins, Xieryasina trained crazily every day as if injected with chicken blood, always exceeding the training plan Li Zhangsheng had assigned.

In view of this, Li Zhangsheng even specifically added extra earnings for it: as long as Xieryasina completed the daily training plan, it could receive ten Gold Coins for every extra hour of training!

This directly led to Xieryasina's total training time increasing to a monstrous 15 hours.

Xieryasina's training intensity was too high. At first, Li Zhangsheng was a little worried, fearing that Xieryasina could not withstand such training intensity and would suffer bodily damage, so he would give it a physical examination every day.

It was only after a period of time that Li Zhangsheng finally set his mind at ease; perhaps this was the talent of a dragon.

Seeing Xieryasina working so hard, Ning Bizhen followed suit, formulating the same plan for her young Red Dragon, and the effect was quite good.

Time passed slowly, and the strength of the Demon Pets improved day by day. Almost every few days, the two would change the training methods for their Demon Pets, and occasionally they would hold some friendly matches.

Due to the huge gap in their realms, Li Zhangsheng was naturally completely crushed, only occasionally managing to win a match.

This situation lasted for a total of more than half a month, to be precise, 22 days; at this time, there were five days left before the start of the school term.

During this period, Xu Wenhua often went to the Silent Forest to search for the traces of the Black Dragon Harikuchi, and finally succeeded in finding it and fought a great battle with it.

Unfortunately, Xu Wenhua could not keep the Black Dragon Harikuchi at all.

After encountering Xu Wenhua, the Black Dragon knew it was no match and did not give Xu Wenhua any chance to entangle it, directly fleeing while enduring the attacks.

However, the Black Dragon Harikuchi still valued its life. Seeing that Xu Wenhua kept looking for trouble, and its life safety could not be guaranteed, it finally chose to move house.

After abandoning its original territory, the Black Dragon Harikuchi finally found a new territory in the hinterland of the Silent Forest.

As for how the Black Dragon Harikuchi moved the corpse of the ancestral Black Dragon, that was not something Li Zhangsheng could know.

After Xu Wenhua's detection, the new Black Dragon territory was two or three hundred miles away from Luo City; Luo City would no longer have to face the threat of the Black Dragon Harikuchi directly in the future.

Without the threat of the Black Dragon, the military and civilians of Luo City all breathed a sigh of relief, and the whole city began to celebrate.

Xu Wenhua did not stay in Luo City for long; he was the helmsman of the Yuanling Academy, and there were many things in the Academy that required him to handle, so he could not stay away for a long time.

Apart from expelling the Black Dragon, nothing else related to Li Zhangsheng happened.

From beginning to end, Cai Yangqian never appeared in Luo City, and it was unknown whether it was because he did not find out Li Haoqiong's identity or because the Li Family Manor was too strong.

Even though Xu Wenhua had already left, the Li Family Manor still had two Fifth-tier Beastmasters, Li Haoqiong and He Yan, sitting in town, and even at Tiger Roar Mountain, more than ten miles away from the Li Family Manor, there was the even stronger Ning Bizhen.

As long as Cai Yangqian's IQ was online, he would definitely scout out the reality of the Li Family Manor, and naturally, he could not take the initiative to come to the door and look for abuse.

After 22 days of special training, Li Zhangsheng's strength improved steadily. The biggest gain was still his Mental Power; due to the rise in the quality of Day and Night and the evolution of the Crown Scorching Bird, Li Zhangsheng's cultivation speed was once again improved.

Most importantly, every night Ning Bizhen would take the initiative to 'dual cultivate' with Li Zhangsheng, which caused his Mental Power to rise with the tide; in less than a month, he was about to touch the critical point of advancement.

That night, Li Zhangsheng finally made it to the evening. He clutched his excited mood and said to Ning Bizhen: "Bizhen, tonight is the time for me to advance!"

"In just half a year, you are about to advance to the Fourth Rank. You may have created the fastest historical record for breaking through to the Fourth Rank in our Langya Kingdom!"

Ning Bizhen looked even more excited than Li Zhangsheng, having quite the feeling of witnessing history.

Li Zhangsheng suddenly hesitated and said, "Isn't this too high-profile?"

This seemed to run counter to the essence of "keeping a low profile"!

"You say that as if you weren't high-profile enough before!"

Ning Bizhen stared at Li Zhangsheng with a very strange look.

"Alright!"

Li Zhangsheng was between laughter and tears; he had indeed been very high-profile during this period, not only in the Academy Exchange Tournament but also in thwarting the conspiracy of Hei Long Ha Li Ku Qi and successfully protecting Luo City.

"Keeping a low profile has its benefits; you can make a fortune in silence, but you can't deliberately slow down your own cultivation speed. Being high-profile also has its benefits. If you weren't high-profile enough, could you enjoy your current treatment? Would Vice Principal Xu come here in person for your sake?"

Ning Bizhen paused and continued, "Besides, it's not like you don't have backing. Based on the power rankings of the Langya Kingdom, it's quite stable for our Yuanling Academy to be in the top ten, let alone the top five!"

In the Langya Kingdom, the strongest power is naturally the Imperial Family, followed by the Royal Academy and the Qin family. These three powers all have Emperors sitting in command, undoubtedly overriding other powers.

Next are several King Families, such as the Liu Clan of Yecheng, the Sun Clan, etc. Although they have lost the protection of an Emperor, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse, so how could ordinary powers reach them?

If it were the Yuanling Academy in its prime, it naturally wouldn't be inferior to these families that have lost the protection of an Emperor. Unfortunately, the battle three years ago directly caused the Yuanling Academy to suffer a great loss of vitality, losing a large number of high-level personnel and elite Instructors.

However, the foundation of the Yuanling Academy is still there, so entering the top ten is still relatively stable.

Li Zhangsheng is the hope for the revival of the Yuanling Academy, and the Yuanling Academy can be said to be protecting him like a treasure. This time, Xu Wenhua coming out in person for him can be said to show his attitude to the outside world.

Unless Li Zhangsheng does something that provokes heaven's wrath and people's resentment, with the protection of the Yuanling Academy, other powers would have to weigh whether they can withstand the wrath of the Yuanling Academy if they want to move against Li Zhangsheng.

"Then let's start cultivating!"

The night sky could not be seen inside the tent. According to custom, Li Zhangsheng and Ning Bizhen jumped directly onto Yuangungun, their backsides sinking right in; this was also the place where they cultivated every day.

Tonight, a bright moon hung in the sky, and the starlight was brilliant, dotting the pitch-black night sky; it was the perfect time to cultivate starlight-type techniques.

After everything was ready, the two closed their eyes and began to circulate the "Four Symbols Star Monster Taming Art".

To advance to a Fourth-rank Demon Tamer, two conditions must be met.

First, condense 365 stars. At this moment, Li Zhangsheng had already condensed 363 stars, and he was only one step away from advancing to a Fourth-rank Demon Tamer.

Second, he needed four Elite Demon Pets, using their Origin Power to reflect and illuminate the 365 stars, and using their power to complete the transformation!

If 1st–3rd rank belongs to the junior Demon Tamer level, then 4th–6th rank is the intermediate Demon Tamer level. This means that the breakthrough from the third rank to the fourth rank is equivalent to a breakthrough in a major realm; once the advancement is successful, the Mental Power will undergo a transformation.

It is also for this reason that the difficulty of the breakthrough is significantly higher than before; even if these two conditions are met, there is still a not-insignificant probability of failure.

If the breakthrough to the fourth rank fails, the Demon Tamer's Consciousness Sea will be shaken and will require a period of recuperation.

However, this does not mean there is no way to increase the success rate. If a Demon Tamer has more Elite Demon Pets and they are of higher quality, they will provide more help to the Demon Tamer, and the success rate will naturally increase.

Li Zhangsheng had a total of seven official Demon Pets, all of which had reached the Elite level, and they were all very excellent. If he still couldn't complete the breakthrough with this, he might as well find a piece of tofu and bump into it to die.

In the night sky, the Four Symbols Constellations flickered slightly, casting a pillar of starlight that fell on Li Zhangsheng, reflecting him in the silver starlight.

At this time, Ning Bizhen guided a large amount of Starlight Power to fall on Li Zhangsheng, while simultaneously neutralizing the violent factors within the Starlight Power.

The Starlight Power turned into silver needles and fiercely pierced into the pores all over Li Zhangsheng's body, beginning to wander through his limbs and bones, destroying and repairing at the same time, strengthening his physical body while also bringing him intense pain.

However, Li Zhangsheng had long been accustomed to this level of pain and, without any distraction, focused his attention on his Consciousness Sea.

In Li Zhangsheng's Consciousness Sea, 363 stars were flickering around the Soul Light Sphere at the center. In this "starry sky," there were only the last two small dark areas left.

Under the stimulation of the Starlight Power, the Soul Light Sphere began to shine brightly, and a large amount of Mental Power turned into a monstrous wave, rushing toward the second-to-last dark area.

With Ning Bizhen's assistance, in just a quarter of an hour, the last two dark areas were swept away, and under the scouring of the Mental Power waves, they finally turned into two brilliant stars.

With 365 stars achieved, Li Zhangsheng met all the conditions for advancement and truly reached the edge of advancement.

The next moment, Li Zhangsheng used the mental channels between him and his seven Demon Pets to instantly make contact with them.

Since they were all Elite Demon Pets, they could provide assistance for Li Zhangsheng's advancement.

Upon hearing Li Zhangsheng's heart's voice, the seven Demon Pets took action one after another.

Soon, wisps of Origin Power began to rush out of the Demon Pet Space where they were located, and with the help of the mental channels between the two sides, they appeared in Li Zhangsheng's Consciousness Sea.

Due to their different attributes, the color and nature of their Origin Power were clearly distinct.

Under Li Zhangsheng's control, these seven strands of Origin Power quickly spread throughout his Consciousness Sea, gradually completely covering the 365 stars.

The 365 stars emitted a brilliant and dazzling radiance, and then shot out rays of milky white light, which landed on the Soul Light Sphere.

The moment the two made contact, the Soul Light Sphere swallowed all these radiances as if a long whale were drinking water.

The 365 stars continued to radiate light, and within a few breaths, the Soul Light Sphere gradually spat out wisps of milky white liquid.

This was liquefied Mental Power; using Origin Power to compress a large amount of intangible and formless Mental Power into a liquid state, its density far exceeded the previous Mental Power.

Just at this moment, these liquefied Mental Powers began to wrap around the first star of the first layer.

The 365 stars were distributed in three layers of space; the first layer had 36, the second layer had 72, and the rest were in the third layer.

During this process, Li Zhangsheng could clearly feel that this star was in the midst of transformation; with the help of the liquefied Mental Power, these stars were removing the dross and keeping the essence.

Soon, the liquefied Mental Power wrapped around the second star, the third star...

By the time all 36 stars in the first layer of space were wrapped in liquefied Mental Power, a very thin crescent moon slowly appeared in this layer of space. As the Soul Light Sphere gave birth to more liquefied Mental Power, the crescent moon began to thicken at an extremely slow speed.

Until this moment, it meant that Li Zhangsheng had successfully completed the advancement.

At the same time, Li Zhangsheng sensed a Demon Pet Space in the dark, and his contract slots had once again been upgraded.

Relying on the opportunity of breaking through a major realm, Li Zhangsheng's body shook violently, and in the palm of his right hand, a milky white light spot suddenly bloomed with brilliant and dazzling radiance.

Unknowingly, Li Zhangsheng had opened the fourth Star Aperture of the Vermilion Bird Constellation—Xing Ri Ma!

In less than a month, with Ning Bizhen's powerful assistance, Li Zhangsheng had opened four Star Apertures of the Vermilion Bird Constellation.

Of course, this was mainly because it was easier at first and harder later.

Within a few breaths, the Xing Ri Ma Star Aperture sucked all the Starlight Power in his body dry, just like a long whale drinking water.

It still didn't feel satisfied and began to absorb the Starlight Power attached to the surface of his body.

Ning Bizhen guided too much starlight, and the absorption speed of the Xing Ri Ma Star Aperture was not as fast as Ning Bizhen's guidance speed.

Soon, the Xing Ri Ma Star Aperture was full, and it faded and disappeared in Li Zhangsheng's right hand.

When his body could barely hold on any longer, Li Zhangsheng slowly opened his eyes, a sharp gleam flashing within them; this was a normal phenomenon caused by a massive increase in Mental Power, and as long as he stabilized for a period, he could restrain this unstable Mental Power.

Crack—crack—

Just as he stood up from Round-Rolling, the bones all over Li Zhangsheng's body continuously emitted crisp popping sounds.

He gripped his right hand tightly, feeling as if he had been reborn.

This was no illusion; for an Intermediate Monster Tamer to advance from a Primary Monster Tamer, such a breakthrough in a major realm would provide great feedback to the Monster Tamer, both in terms of Mental Power and the physical body.

Of course, compared to Mental Power, the enhancement of the physical body was not as obvious, as after all, a Monster Tamer primarily cultivates Mental Power.

Li Zhangsheng moved his hands and feet, producing bursts of Wind and Thunder sounds; due to cultivating the Four Symbols Star Monster Taming Art, his physical strength far exceeded that of an ordinary Fourth-rank Monster Tamer.

"Finally, I can perform the long-awaited Instant Movement!"

Li Zhangsheng had been looking forward to Instant Movement very much; this was an ability that an Intermediate Monster Tamer could naturally master, unrelated to any Secret Technique, and mainly related to the massive increase in the density of Mental Power.

The two major hallmarks of an Intermediate Monster Tamer are Instant Movement and Flying Through the Void; the former allows for instantaneous shifting of position based on rank, greatly increasing a Monster Tamer's survival ability, while the latter allows one to step on the void, which can be called the paradigm of showing off.

For instance, Xu Wenhua likes to appear with his hands behind his back, using the method of trampling on stairs.

Even though there are clearly no stairs in the void, he insists on doing this unnecessary act; Li Zhangsheng felt this way of appearing was quite flashy, and he also wanted to try it.

Suddenly, Li Zhangsheng's figure vanished and appeared directly dozens of meters away; the distance of Instant Movement is related to the Monster Tamer's rank, and Li Zhangsheng could only teleport within a hundred meters.

Instant Movement consumes a lot of Mental Power; Li Zhangsheng sensed it and discovered that he could perform it at most five times before his Mental Power would be exhausted, which was incomparable to Xu Wenhua.

Li Zhangsheng clearly remembered that one time, Xu Wenhua had brought him along and teleported directly to the courtyard where he lived; the gap between the two was very obvious.

At this moment, Li Zhangsheng lifted his foot and stepped into the void; his right leg hovered directly in the void, and he walked toward the void in the manner of climbing a heavenly ladder.

The principle of Flying Through the Void is very simple, being nothing more than using liquefied Mental Power to cover the whole body to achieve the ability to forcibly make oneself float.

In fact, the speed of Flying Through the Void is quite fast, feeling no worse than the Illusion Wings Secret Technique, though it requires continuous consumption of Mental Power; however, if paired with a Flying Secret Technique, the speed can be greatly increased.

With these two abilities, Li Zhangsheng's survival ability could be said to have greatly increased.

"Everyone, come out!"

At this moment, Li Zhangsheng summoned Aixi, Kailan, and the Crowned Blazing Bird.

They had one thing in common: they had all reached the Elite 9th rank.

Hmm, this time it was Li Zhangsheng who was holding them back.

"I have already advanced to the Fourth Rank, everyone can try to break through!"

As Li Zhangsheng's voice fell, the three Demon Pets began to be enveloped by light of different colors, attempting to break through their bottlenecks and become Leader-level Demon Pets.

Immediately, Kailan was filled with the light of advancement, and her aura began to rise significantly.

During the process of transformation, her body size slowly increased, growing from 85 centimeters to 95 centimeters before finally stopping.

As Kailan grew taller, the green outfit on her body also grew larger; this was a garment that possessed the ability to change size and also had powerful defensive capabilities, while the green ribbon at her waist could further increase her agility.

In this way, Kailan became Li Zhangsheng's first Leader-level Demon Pet.

For Demon Pets of top-grade quality, breaking through to the Leader level is truly not difficult.

Seeing that Kailan had completed her breakthrough first, Aixi felt anxious and used all her might to break through, giving the impression that she was squatting in a latrine.

If the book pages are short, it is mainly related to the paragraphs being relatively long; if I were to break paragraphs every one or two sentences or even every two or three words, the book pages could indeed increase significantly...

Today's goal: Three, pigs, verify!

(End of chapter)