"Phew, unexpected... but... not unmanageable."
After hanging up the phone, Feng Yuan glanced out the window at Xiao Ji and the Flame Chasing Furry Dog, who were working hard to adapt to their new powers. With a slight smile, he muttered to himself. The call just now was from Qi Chen, who wanted Feng Yuan to help with the special training for his and Dou Yanlan’s beasts.
As for what kind of special training? Feng Yuan hadn’t expected them to pass the challenge so quickly. Or rather, at first, Feng Yuan hadn’t thought it impossible for Qi Chen and the others to pass the challenge; he just didn’t think it would be so soon.
Feng Yuan did not realize that by taking Qi Chen and the others around, he had accumulated a lot of hidden achievements for them. Of course, he also didn’t know that all his actions in the war on The Imperial Timeline would be converted into achievements, reducing the challenge difficulty and increasing the rewards.
For Feng Yuan, the challenge wasn’t difficult, so his focus was entirely on the rewards, and he didn’t notice that these achievements could reduce the difficulty.
No matter what, it’s worth celebrating that good friends can pass the challenge, so Feng Yuan directly asked Veronia to help bring Qi Chen and the others over.
That’s right, the space lockdown had been completely lifted last night. After all, they needed to take turns rotating defense in various places, so they could only temporarily return to the most urgent wartime state to release a large number of soldiers for rotational defense.
The civilians who needed protection were not deprived of their challenge eligibility; instead, people were arranged on the second afternoon to protect those willing to participate in the challenge as they headed to the challenge points.
There is no choice; speaking of ordinary people, it’s not necessarily because they’re too young; it could also be that their beasts really have no potential. After all, in modern times, as long as one doesn’t lack potential, becoming a Beastmaster isn’t much of an issue.
Of course, if one believes they have potential and wants to participate in the Ascension Challenge, no one will stop them. It’s just that most people are not optimistic about it.
Such people do exist, but they’re very rare, and even when Maomu City arranged for them to register, not many signed up.
Because discussions about the first day’s challenges had already spread online.
Although unrelated to strength, these challenges still seem to rely heavily on potential. Based on data compiled by attentive individuals on the internet, disregarding veteran Beastmasters and official and military teams, new Beastmasters from the Beast Taming Academy have the highest pass rates, followed by university students with Spirit Beast nurturing as their specialized major, and then those whose top majors don’t involve Spirit Beast nurturing or strength enhancement.
Those who graduated high school or entered society even earlier have the lowest pass rates. This is not absolute, of course, as some Beastmasters don’t follow the modern education system, but their potential does not lag behind students from the Beast Taming Academy.
Although these statistics are not entirely accurate, they do show a general trend: the challenge, whatever else it is, is less about strength and much more about potential.
Most ordinary people understand they’re not suitable for this. If they had the potential, they wouldn’t have given up the road to becoming a Beastmaster, so there aren’t many willing to try.
Of course, if they saw hope, they might not be unwilling to try hard.
Now everyone’s focus is on the challenge, and even the existing defense deployments must release at least a third of their forces for rotation.
In this situation, it’s impossible for humans to maintain the space lockdown, because it simply won’t work logistically. At the very least, to complete the defense with the remaining forces, fast spatial transfer means are essential.
As for the possible dangers of doing so? They can only do their best to minimize that possibility.
Because of this, Feng Yuan didn’t need to bother Long Boduo anymore; he just had Veronia open a Space Gate.
"Hmm, it’s pretty much as I guessed. By the way, have you had breakfast? Want to grab something to eat together?"
Looking at the beasts behind the two of them, Feng Yuan rubbed his chin and spoke. Whether it was Cotton or Ah Mu, they’ve both used the Ascension Stone. However, Ah Mu, like Xiao Ji, did not reach Legendary Level strength; instead, the Hao Chun Bird had steadily stepped into the Legendary Level.
"Different potential. Although the Ascension Stone claims to have no side effects, my tests found that when it comes to ultimate moves, there are only regular ultimate moves without any special combinations, and that’s an issue too."
Dou Yanlan understood what Feng Yuan meant and spoke up. It was indeed strange that Ah Mu didn’t advance to the Legendary Level after using the Ascension Stone, but they quickly figured out the reason.
Although their achievements were not as many as Feng Yuan’s, or even far from it, their beast potentials weren’t as good as Xiao Ji’s. As for the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound? Although it seemed transparent following Feng Yuan, its potential was indeed quite high.
So even though their extra rewards were slightly inferior to Feng Yuan’s, they still steadily allowed their beasts to step into the Legendary Level, except for Ah Mu.
Because Ah Mu transformed a sliver of Nainefar’s power into its core, its potential became much greater, which meant it only advanced to Rare Level strength and not even to the peak of Rare Level like Xiao Ji, who might touch Legendary Level at any time.
"Special combination moves? Hmm, that makes sense. After all, simulation can’t genuinely forecast the future; lacking those specialized methods is normal."
Initially, Feng Yuan didn’t realize what Dou Yanlan was saying, but he quickly understood.
In normal growth, aside from the ultimate moves they can naturally learn, they also acquire various copings due to different encounters, like how Xiao Ji and the others learned a bunch of random stuff following Feng Yuan.
Whether they’re useful or not, these are all foundational, but in the Ascension Stone’s future simulation, there aren’t these unexpected factors. Or rather, it simply pushes them to that phase, making them master the corresponding ultimate moves based on the most common, basic possibilities.
The ultimate moves used for specific environments won’t be granted by the Ascension Stone; they need to be learned and mastered independently, which Feng Yuan hadn’t tested before, so he didn’t notice this situation.
"Uh, does that mean you stayed up all night testing ultimate moves?"
Glancing at the beasts behind them, Feng Yuan asked in surprise. From Good Level to Legendary Level, even if they’re basic ultimate moves, it would take quite some time to go through them all.
"Not at all; we got the Ascension Stones in the afternoon and finished testing by around two."
Scratching his head, Qi Chen was a bit embarrassed. Feng Yuan looked at him, shook his head with a smile, and said,
"I see, over here... do you want to open a Mirror Space with Veronia’s help and have a meal while resting? I’m planning to stay here these few days; how about you guys?"
"Thanks for having us, we’re also..."
Qi Chen awkwardly glanced at Ah Mu and the others behind him and said to Feng Yuan. With a smile, Feng Yuan replied,
"No problem, I’ll help you prepare a little cabin. By the way, what’s going on with Ah Mu? Even with Transformation Skill, it can’t maintain a freely movable size?"
Currently, the beasts behind Qi Chen and the others were all quite large. Even the petite Cotton was as tall as Dou Yanlan standing on the ground, and Xing Bo was even more imposing, towering over two meters tall.
The Hao Chun Bird was fine as it hadn’t evolved, so its size didn’t change at all. However, Ah Mu was clearly taller, now standing about three or four meters high.
Cotton and the others were understandable - since they hadn’t needed the Transformation Skill with their previous size, needing practice now made sense.
Ah Mu was different; before, it needed the Transformation Skill just to follow Qi Chen around, and now it was even bigger, so Feng Yuan suspected it had hit a limit with the Transformation Skill.
But this wasn’t surprising. If Feng Yuan remembered correctly, the War Tree generally fluctuates in height between five and ten meters.
Simple Transformation Skills seem insufficient.
With a bright smile, Qi Chen awkwardly said to Feng Yuan,
"That’s exactly it, so I was hoping you could help..."
"No worries, after we eat, let Ah Mu try the Transformation Skill, which doesn’t have any size limits. It’s just much more difficult."
Recalling Ah Mu’s next form, Feng Yuan decided to settle it in one go by letting Ah Mu learn the Transformation Skill directly, which has no size restrictions and allows for free changes in size.
Even after gaining mastery, one can change appearances, although transforming into a human form is only superficial.
Unlike the human form of Divine Beasts, transforming into a human through the Transformation Skill is only in appearance. Whether eating or speaking, it remains in its original state, meaning unless it can naturally speak human language, the transformation won’t allow it to speak human words.
As for the weight, that’s not much of a problem as it changes proportionally with the size, increasing and decreasing, so it won’t be a concern, unlike the Transformation Skill.

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