Chapter 25: Aura of Affinity with All Things |
Lu Fengmian met Elder Sun’s expectant gaze, his expression steady, his face carrying the calm smile a Perfect Senior Brother ought to have.
“Since Junior Martial Uncle thinks so highly of me, then this disciple will give it a try.”
His tone was very casual, as though he were merely agreeing to conduct a routine inspection of the dining hall.
In truth, a storm had long since erupted in the depths of his sea of consciousness.
“System! System! System! System!”
【Host, I am here. Strong emotional fluctuations detected. Please continue...】
【To hell with staying calm! Save me!】
On the surface, Lu Fengmian looked calm and composed, but inwardly he had already dropped to his knees and begun begging for mercy.
“The Affinity with All Spirits makes spirit beasts like me, but so what? I can’t just stand there the whole time waiting for them to throw themselves into my arms on their own, can I? That would be way too suspicious! System, do you have a tutorial for communicating with spirit beasts? A crash-course version. It’s urgent!”
“Hurry up! Elder Sun is about to stare a hole through my back!”
【Detected risk of the “Perfect Senior Brother” image collapsing. Providing Spirit Beast Communication Skill (Mastery). Would you like to accept it immediately?】
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!”
Inside his sea of consciousness, Lu Fengmian practically kowtowed to the system.
The relief supplies had finally arrived! System, you really were his god!
A stream of mysterious information instantly poured into his sea of consciousness.
Countless methods for refining mental energy, ways to perceive the emotional fluctuations of spirit beasts, and means of turning thoughts into transmittable language were all branded into his soul, as though he had practiced them thousands of times already.
As Lu Fengmian walked toward the stone platform, he still maintained an outward appearance of calm and composure, even though he had just experienced an epic inner struggle from the brink of collapse to complete recovery.
—Alright, I was back in the game again.
He walked with steady steps, unhurried, the hem of his brocade robe lightly brushing the ground.
Many eyes in the audience seats focused on this young man who had been quietly standing behind Elder Sun all this time.
“So this is the first disciple recently accepted by Lingyun Sect’s Sect Master?”
“He really does look very poised, but I wonder what his actual skills are like.”
“This is a beast-taming specialist event. Can a disciple from a famous sword cultivation sect really pull it off?”
“Hush, let’s watch.”
Elder Sun stared without blinking, his neck stretched forward by three extra inches, as though he wanted to press his face right against the back of Lu Fengmian’s head.
He was both anxious and full of anticipation.
Lu Fengmian arrived at the stone platform, but he did not go directly for a high-difficulty target the way Saintess Jiang Fuxue had.
His gaze slowly swept over the spirit beasts on the platforms, and at last settled on a Bloodfeather Owl with medium difficulty and a somewhat gentler temperament.
He was going to test the waters first.
After all, this was his first formal communication; he could not fail right at the start.
He whispered inwardly, “Aura of Affinity with All Things, activate.”
There were no spiritual energy fluctuations, no release of mental energy, not even a movement that could be called a “technique”—he merely extended his hand toward the Bloodfeather Owl.
The Bloodfeather Owl had been leisurely preening its feathers, utterly ignoring the clamor outside.
Yet when that slender, pale hand drew near the stone platform, it abruptly raised its head.
Its bead-like eyes fixed straight on Lu Fengmian’s fingers.
Then, under the gaze of the crowd—some indifferent, some curious—this little creature, which had not established contact with anyone and had ignored all previous challengers, actually flapped its wings and proactively hopped onto Lu Fengmian’s palm.
It tilted its head, rubbed against his fingertips, and let out a soft, thin, incomparably contented purring sound from its throat.
The entire venue instantly fell silent.
Lu Fengmian was stunned as well.
He lowered his head and looked at the little bird in his palm. It had already narrowed its eyes in comfort and was even rubbing its head against his hand. Another wave of shock hit him:
Wait. System.
Was its aura really this effective? It should have told him earlier! If he had known, why would he have panicked so frantically just now?
Then what was the communication skill he had just learned for? Just to set the mood?
In the stands, after a brief silence, an uproar finally broke out.
“What did he do? What exactly did he just do?!”
“I didn’t see anything! He just held out his hand!”
“That bird jumped up by itself! It jumped up by itself!”
Old Sun was still holding that neck-stretched posture, his mouth slightly open, his eyes wide, to the point that he had even forgotten to stroke his beard.
He had originally thought Lu Fengmian might possess some unique secret technique.
He had thought this martial nephew of his might truly have some hidden, unfathomable talent.
But he had never imagined that this “unique technique” would be this unbelievable.
He had done nothing at all, merely extended his hand, and that spirit beast had clung tightly to him of its own accord.
What kind of realm was this! This was the very state where even spirit beasts would throw themselves into their master’s embrace!
Old Sun’s aged face rapidly flushed red, from his cheeks to his ears, and from his ears down to his neck.
That was not embarrassment, but excitement, ecstasy, and an extreme kind of fanaticism that made him want to rush out of the stands, run three laps around the entire venue, seize everyone by the collar, and shout, “Did you all see that? That is a disciple of our Lingyun Sect!”
He gripped the railing tightly, his fingertips trembling.
Calm down, calm down.
Sun, you are the head of Lingyun Sect’s Spirit Beast Garden. You have seen all sorts of major occasions. You must not disgrace yourself. You must not act like some inexperienced green youth who had never seen the world...
But that was Lingxuan’s direct disciple! That was a senior brother of their Lingyun Sect! That was a god acknowledged by even Lord Fuzhu and Luwu!
To hell with calming down!
He sniffed hard, doing his best to make himself look like a respected elder.
But the smile on his aged face simply could not be suppressed.
Lu Fengmian thought that since he had already turned on the cheat function, why bother testing the waters? He should just challenge the highest difficulty directly.
He gently set the Bloodfeather Owl back onto the stone platform. Before he could even turn around to look toward the central high platform where the Ink Jade Swallowtail Dragon was...
Silver bells rang out, and a figure moved faster than he did.
With smooth movements, Saintess Jiang Fuxue leapt onto Baihu’s back. Before the sound of the bells at her ankle had even faded, she had already arrived in front of the Ink Jade Swallowtail Dragon’s platform.
She did not turn back, but her voice rang out clearly, carrying thirty percent pride and seventy percent declaration:
“I will try this Ink Jade Swallowtail Dragon.”
The gaze of the entire venue instantly converged on her.
There was a faint smile at her lips, but in her eyes burned an unyielding fighting spirit.
Ever since she had appeared, the attention of everyone present had never left her.
She was the saintess of the Beast Taming Sect, the standard-bearer for the younger generation of beast tamers, and the object of everyone’s admiration.
But just now, when the Bloodfeather Owl had voluntarily flown into Lu Fengmian’s palm, she had clearly heard the surrounding gasps and whispers—
“What background does that person from Lingyun Sect have?”
“That Bloodfeather Owl actually jumped up on its own. That’s too...”
“Fairy Fuxue put in so much effort just now, yet this person did it with ease.”
Saintess Jiang Fuxue did not show it on her face, but her nails had already quietly dug into her palm.
She could accept someone being stronger than she was.
But she would absolutely not accept her own radiance being easily stolen away by a “senior brother” from a famous sword cultivation sect—and one who might not even know beast-taming arts—before she had even had the chance to go all out.
Then what would that make her?
The Ink Jade Swallowtail Dragon.
She had to conquer this Ink Jade Swallowtail Dragon.
She not only had to win this trial, she had to win beautifully, flawlessly. She wanted everyone to remember who the true protagonist of today’s “Trial of the Beast-Taming Heart” really was.
She drew a deep breath, closed her eyes, and focused her mind.
This time, she held nothing back.
Her mental energy surged out like a tide, yet it was not oppressive; rather, it was a closeness of layered richness, delicacy, and purity.
She poured into it all the experience and talent she had accumulated since childhood living alongside tens of thousands of spirit beasts.
That mental energy wove itself into a great invisible yet gentle net, slowly wrapping around the Ink Jade Swallowtail Dragon, trying to surround it, soothe it, and resonate with it.
This was already the limit of what she could do.
The Ink Jade Swallowtail Dragon lay coiled within the spiritual spring. Its black-jade scales shimmered faintly, while the little jade horns on its head turned with ancient and majestic patterns beneath the light.
Its silver-white vertical pupils were half-closed, as though it were indifferent to everything outside.
The moment Saintess Jiang Fuxue’s mental energy touched it,
it opened its eyes.
That gaze was icy and arrogant, as though it were looking at a noisy mosquito.
There was no hostility, no attack, not even any emotional fluctuation at all.
Saintess Jiang Fuxue’s mental energy seemed to slam into an invisible yet indestructible wall.
That wall was not one of resistance, but one of complete disregard.
Her goodwill, her affinity, and the talent she took pride in were, to it, like a breeze brushing over its scales—utterly meaningless.
She refused to believe it.