Genius Beast Taming: Starting from Awakening an S-Rank Talent

Li Lang sighed, "You guessed right, 99% of the beast tamers who entered the core area of ​​the Xuanxiao Mountains died! Even Commander Xu's eldest son lost two of his main fifth-tier beast tamers!"

A beast tamer's level is synchronized with the strongest beast they have contracted. Commander Xu's eldest son originally had two peak fifth-tier beasts and one fourth-tier beast, making him a top-tier fifth-tier warrior beast tamer.

Now that two of its fifth-tier main beasts have been lost, only the fourth-tier beast remains. Its level has plummeted, and it has become a fourth-tier grandmaster beast tamer.

To become a fifth-tier warrior beast tamer again, one must not only endure the backlash of the soul from the death of a beast, but also expend a massive amount of resources and time to raise a beast back to the fifth tier, resulting in a heavy loss.

Zhou Heng gleaned the key information: "Commander Xu's eldest son also went deep into the Xuanxiao Mountains and survived?"

"That's right!"

Li Lang nodded: "At that time, the strongest beast tamer present was Commander Xu's eldest son, but the greatest threat to the Moon-Covering Demon Willow and the Sun-Covering Demon Vine came from the other five sixth-tier extraordinary creatures. Therefore, the Moon-Covering Demon Willow and the Sun-Covering Demon Vine chose to concentrate their firepower on the other five sixth-tier creatures first. When they were free to kill Commander Xu's eldest son, fortunately, his two fifth-tier beast tamers were extremely loyal and protected him with their lives, barely giving him a chance to survive. At the critical moment, Commander Xu suddenly arrived and saved his eldest son!"

Zhou Heng understood that Commander Xu's coincidence in arriving was probably due to his father's efforts.

If it weren't for Zhou's father's reminder, which allowed the garrison to quickly learn about the situation inside the Xuanxiao Mountains, Commander Xu might not have personally gone deep into the mountains to investigate, and his son would probably be in grave danger.

"And then?"

Li Lang spread his hands: "The Moon-Hidden Demon Willow and the Sun-Covering Demon Vine are extremely cunning. They used their roots and vines to sweep away the corpses of all the Death Beastmasters and extraordinary creatures, directly breaking through the atmosphere and escaping from Xuanxiao Star into the vast universe. Now we don't even know which planet they've hidden on. Even Commander Xu's personal pursuit has yielded no results."

"This is unreasonable."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Heng frowned deeply: "Before reaching the sixth rank, the Moon-Hidden Demon Willow and the Sun-Covering Demon Vine can indeed accelerate their growth by devouring flesh essence. But once they reach the sixth rank, especially at its peak, flesh essence becomes completely useless for their advancement to the seventh rank. Why would they risk everything to set up such a deadly trap? Is it just to devour this flesh essence?"

Li Lang's expression turned somewhat strange: "It's quite a strange thing, actually. According to the garrison's post-incident analysis and some secret intelligence, the Moon-Hiding Demon Willow and the Sun-Covering Demon Vine, which were previously entrenched deep in the Xuanxiao Mountains, were actually a couple!"

Zhou Heng raised an eyebrow: "A couple?"

"Yes! In fact, many flowers, plants and trees also have males and females. But because the Moon-Hidden Demon Willow and the Sun-Covering Demon Vine are different species and are both special plant-type extraordinary creatures, it is extremely difficult for them to reproduce. Therefore, they came up with this method of devouring large amounts of high-level flesh and blood, absorbing life essence, and using it to reproduce."

After explaining to Zhou Heng, Li Lang couldn't help but exclaim in amazement, "Thinking about it now, the universe is truly vast and full of wonders. Even a willow tree and a vine can fall in love and make such a big fuss about having a child. It's really frightening."

Zhou Heng, however, remained remarkably calm: "Both the Moon-Hidden Demon Willow and the Sun-Covering Demon Vine are high-level Diamond-rank species with extremely high intelligence, comparable to humans even at the fifth rank. It's normal for them to possess complex emotions similar to humans after reaching the sixth rank. After all, love is inherently irrational. Who says a willow tree and a vine can't love each other? However, they shouldn't take the lives of other creatures for their own love. Such reckless behavior is unacceptable to the Alliance; their fate is already sealed."

Li Lang was taken aback for a moment: "What you said makes a lot of sense."

He paused, then added, "A truly staggering number of people have died this time."

Zhou Heng asked, "Is there a statistic on how many beast tamers died?"

Li Lang shook his head: "I don't know the exact figures, but the Xuanxiao Daily reported it on its front page today, so there should be some preliminary statistics."

Zhou Heng immediately took out his communicator, pointed his finger, and a light screen was projected.

He went directly to the official homepage of Xuanxiao Daily.

The most prominent position on the homepage is a special report on the "Xuanxiao Mountain Tragedy".

Zhou Heng opened the report and quickly browsed through it.

The report mentioned that, according to preliminary statistics, the identities of more than 20,000 beast tamers who died deep in the Xuanxiao Mountains the day before yesterday have been confirmed.

This number is alarming.

The report also included a list of some of the victims whose identities had been verified, along with their names and black-and-white headshots, apparently to facilitate inquiries and mourning for their families.

Zhou Heng's finger slid across the screen at random, quickly scanning the list of the dead.

Suddenly, his finger paused, stopping on a name and a photo.

A young man with a slightly arrogant face.

It was the young beast tamer who had jumped out to criticize him when he had previously collected the Soul-Crying Night Raven Crystal Core, but was stopped by his third grandfather and forced to apologize to him.

Zhou Heng paused for a moment, then continued searching.

Sure enough, on another page, I found information about the middle-aged man who had made a contract with the Bloodfeathered Horned Eagle, along with his black-and-white photograph.

This person was a man who could bend and stretch, yet he still fell into a trap in the end, which is truly regrettable.

The communicator was closed, and the light screen disappeared.

Zhou Heng let out a soft breath and remained silent.

The phrase "the impermanence of life" carries an even clearer and heavier weight at this moment.

The training ground fell silent for a moment.

After a while, Zhou Heng chatted with Li Lang for a few more minutes and obtained more information about the subsequent impact of the incident and the garrison's response measures.

As is customary, Li Lang sat at Zhou Heng's house for a while, drank a cup of tea, and then took his leave.

Zhou Heng looked up towards the direction of the Xuanxiao Mountains, his gaze deep and thoughtful.

Zhou's father quietly approached Zhou Heng's side: "My dear son, what are you thinking about?"

Zhou Heng's voice was strained: "I was just thinking that human life is really worthless."

Mr. Zhou's expression remained unchanged: "You've seen the news?"

Zhou Heng nodded.

Zhou's father told Zhou Heng a secret: "This matter is not as simple as reported in the news. The Moon-Covering Demon Willow and the Sun-Covering Demon Vine have been living peacefully in the Xuanxiao Mountains for more than three thousand years. The reason for this riot is actually the work of the Heavenly Principle Sect."

The Heavenly Principle Sect is also one of the Four Religions and Three Assemblies, and fifty years ago, before the Dragon Sect caused trouble, it was the leader of the Four Religions and Three Assemblies.

Later, when the Dragon Sect rebelled, the Heavenly Principle Sect suffered a severe blow, and the Qingyang Society seized the opportunity to rise again, which led to a decline in the Heavenly Principle Sect's status among the Four Religions and Three Societies.