Under One Person: Rebuilding the Glory of the Beast Master

"The Sanyi Sect? I've heard Uncle Runzu mention it." Zeng Su put down his bowl, looked at his grandfather, and said, "Grandpa, what do you mean...?"

"I want to send you to the Sanyi Sect." Zeng Qing'an said directly, without beating around the bush. "With your talent, the Sanyi Sect has no reason not to accept you. Once you enter the Sanyi Sect, you will be a disciple of the orthodox Xuanmen sect. With the Sanyi Sect as your backer, there won't be many people in the world who dare to touch you."

Zeng Su fell silent.

He understood the subtext in his grandfather's words.

"Is Grandpa afraid that someone will harm me?"

"It's not that I'm afraid," Zeng Qing'an shook his head, "it's that it's bound to happen. You can hide this strange beast you've raised for a while, but not forever. Zeng Family Village is only so big, about a hundred households, a few hundred people. Who doesn't have relatives? The news will spread sooner or later. When that time comes—"

He paused, then his voice deepened: "By then, those who come to Zengjiazhuang will no longer be just bandits."

Zeng Su understood.

Lord Ma's two hundred or so bandits would be a catastrophe in the eyes of ordinary people, but in the face of the true power of the supernatural world, they couldn't even make a ripple.

The Three Sects, Longhu Mountain, Wudang, Quanxing, and various other families and sects... these are the ones who truly devour people without spitting out the bones.

"But Grandpa," Zeng Su thought for a moment and raised a practical question, "Doesn't the San Yi Sect have age requirements for accepting disciples? I remember it being at least twelve years old?"

"Those are ordinary disciples." Zeng Qing'an waved his hand. "The San Yi Sect also has an unwritten rule—those with exceptional talent have no age limit. Zuo Ruotong himself entered the sect at the age of seven and was already famous in the martial arts world at the age of fourteen. You are eight years old this year, which is not early."

Zeng Su remained silent for a while.

He was pondering a question—would going to Trinity Gate be a good thing or a bad thing for him?

The positive side is obvious: the Sanyi Sect can provide him with what he needs most at this stage—a safe environment for growth and top-notch cultivation resources. The Sanyi Sect's foundation is incomparable to that of the Zeng Family Village; its cultivation methods and guidance from senior practitioners will save him from many detours.

There's a downside: going to Sanyi Gate means leaving Zengjiazhuang, leaving his grandparents, and leaving the home he's lived in for eight years. Moreover, Sanyi Gate has strict rules, and once you enter, many things will no longer be up to you.

But all of these are acceptable.

What truly made him hesitate was another issue.

"Grandpa, would the Sanyi Sect be willing to accept a beast master?" Zeng Su asked the crucial question. "The Sanyi Sect is a legitimate sect of Xuanmen, practicing orthodox methods. You know better than I do the status of beast masters in the world of supernatural beings."

Zeng Qingan smiled, his smile filled with pride.

"Su'er, you underestimate yourself. You're only eight years old and you've already raised a strange beast. If word gets out, it won't be a question of whether the Sanyi Sect wants you or not, but whether they can even snatch you away."

"The Beast Master has been at the bottom of the supernatural world for two hundred years because no one has been able to reach your level. You are different. You have walked a path that no one in the Zeng family has walked for two hundred years. The experts of the Sanyi Sect understand what this means better than anyone else."

Zeng Su looked at his grandfather without saying a word.

Zeng Qingan stood up. "Once the snow stops and the road is clear, I will personally take you down the mountain."

"Your parents passed away early, and your grandmother has cherished you like the apple of her eye all these years. She'll definitely be heartbroken to send you away," Zeng Qing'an's voice was a little strained. "But even if she's heartbroken, she has to let you go. In this world, living is more important than anything else."

Zeng Su lowered his head, looking at the half bowl of rice left in his bowl, and suddenly felt a lump in his throat.

He thought of his parents from his previous life, of that ordinary home, and of those days he could never return to.

In this life, God gave him a new home, loving grandparents, and a chance to start over.

He didn't want to let this opportunity slip away.

"Okay." Zeng Su raised his head, looked into his grandfather's eyes, and said the same word.

Clean and decisive, without hesitation. It wasn't to escape disaster, but simply to gain more power.

"Hmm!" Zeng Qing'an nodded at his grandson and reached out to give Zeng Su's head a good pat. "My grandson is so sensible. He goes to bed early tonight and will be leaving in the next couple of days."

Zeng Su did not return to his own room, but instead went to the old house, where it was dark and gloomy.

Pigs are actually quite clean creatures, especially their black and white burrows, which have no odor at all and are made of soft, warm cotton blankets.

In the past, he often liked to stay in the old house and sleep on Baijiahei's soft belly, but he didn't do that tonight because Baijiahei's fur was too stiff now. Even wearing a cotton-padded coat, it was uncomfortable to sleep on it. So he could only sleep in the quilt next to him, while Baijiahei slept at the door to protect its owner from the wind and snow.

Lying on the ground by the light of the oil lamp, Zeng Su looked at his hands, the hands of an eight-year-old child. They were not big, but the knuckles were distinct, and thin calluses had formed on the fingertips—the result of massaging acupoints every day for more than a year.

The year's efforts paid off, and Baijiahei successfully evolved, giving them their first alien beast. But this is far from enough; there is still a long way to go.

If one could raise a beast like Liu Kunsheng, a celestial being from Northeast China, then one could truly say they had established themselves in this world.

Suddenly, Zeng Su thought of another question.

His "unlimited evolution" ability can only be used on his own tamed beasts. And how many tamed beasts can he possess at a time? One? Three? Ten? Or more?

Beastmasters are weak, but this world does not limit the number of beasts a beastmaster can control. A beastmaster can easily create a large army of beasts if he wants to.

Of course, in reality, doing this is not very useful, because even contracting with ferocious beasts like tigers and lions is only useful for ordinary people, and it is not very effective against skilled people with supernatural abilities.

Furthermore, taming beasts also consumes the beast master's Qi, so for ordinary beast masters, going for the mass troop build is not very useful, but rather a hindrance.

He doesn't need to care about this situation at all; he can make any of his tamed beasts evolve into exotic beasts, or even more powerful beings.

Once he has an army of strange beasts, he will have the right to speak even to the entire world of strange people.

Of course, all of this is predicated on the fact that he must first live to that time and possess the corresponding resources and cultivation level; otherwise, it's all nonsense.

What he needs to do now is to join the Trinity Sect and find a strong backer so that he can accumulate power when he is weak.

Place your hand on the rough, white skin and feel the rich, warm energy within it.

This energy was much stronger than his own.

This is a mythical beast.

He suddenly wondered what conditions were needed for the Ironfur Boar's next evolution.

He brought up the system panel.

The light screen unfolded before my eyes, and below the black and white data, several new lines of text appeared:

【Iron-bridled Pig (D)】

[Evolutionary Path]

【Route 1: Steel-bristled Boar (C) - Conditions: Target age ≥ 5, complete five life-or-death battles, temper the physique 100 times using a specific method, and feed (Spirit Steel Feed)】

【Route Two: Dragon Blood Pig (B-) - Requirements: Target age ≥ 5 years old, weight 1500 jin (750 kg), seven hidden acupoints opened using specific techniques, fed three jin (1.5 kg) of exotic beast blood daily, and fed (Dragon Blood Feed)】

【Condition 3: Target age ≥ 4 years old, Qi meridians fully open, establish a deep spiritual connection with the master, feed [Spiritual Intelligence Food] - Unlock evolution route: Spirit Rhinoceros Pig (C)】

[Note: The current target is a low-level exotic beast, with relatively low training value.]

Zeng Su stared at the three routes for a while, making his own plans.

The requirements for the Steelbristle Pig are the most straightforward, focusing purely on combat. It's not difficult to gather Spirit Steel Feed, and its potential rating has reached C, which is quite good.

The Spirit Pig, also rated C, well, it doesn't seem very useful, so I passed on it immediately because it doesn't need any support right now.

As for the Dragonblood Pig, it's quite impressive, with a potential rating of B-, which is a leap of two major tiers. If White and Black could evolve into a Dragonblood Pig, that would be incredibly powerful.

However, he really didn't know where to get three catties of alien beast blood every day for the evolution conditions. Was he supposed to make a kind of original soup to make original food, and have Baijiahei drink his own blood directly? Wouldn't that be exploiting a bug? Furthermore, the ingredients for making dragon blood feed actually required one liter of dragon essence blood.

Alas, the dragon! It is unknown whether such a divine beast still exists in this world. Even if it does, what right does it have to obtain other people's essence and blood? The word "dragon" is synonymous with strength. Such a powerful being cannot be easily dealt with.

Therefore, of these three evolutionary paths, only Steel-bristled Boar is the most suitable.

"Who cares? As long as it can evolve, it won't be bad."

He turned off the panel and patted his large, white belly. He couldn't be too ambitious now; he just needed to get through this smoothly.

……

The next morning, before dawn, Zengjiazhuang was already bustling with activity.

The men were divided into three teams: one team dug traps and set up roadblocks around the village; another team inspected the firearms and ammunition of each household; and the last team gathered the best-fighting pigs in the village, which Zeng Qing'an personally selected.

"That one won't do, it's too old."

"This thing is too fat; it can't run."

"That one—yes, that one, bring it over here so I can see it."

Zeng Qing'an stood on the threshing ground, surrounded by a group of pigs, their grunts rising and falling, but none of them ran away. He examined each one, using his Qi to probe their bodies and sense their potential, finally selecting thirty-eight from over a hundred pigs.

Thirty-eight pigs, plus the beasts tamed by other animal masters in the village, formed a large pig army.

Don't underestimate this pig army. Under the control of the Beast Master, it is no less powerful than a human army, and in some ways even stronger.

Beastmasters are generally considered weak among superhumans, but that doesn't mean they are powerless; otherwise, how could this power have been passed down?

"Father." Zeng Runzu walked over, his face less playful and more resolute. "The roadblocks on the north side of the village are set up, and the traps on the south side are dug. The firearms have been counted: seventeen quick-firing guns, three Mauser pistols, and less than two hundred rounds of ammunition."

"That's all?" Zeng Qing'an frowned.

"That's all," Zeng Runzu said with a wry smile. "Our village isn't an armory; it's already quite an achievement to have this much."

Zeng Qingan didn't say anything more and turned to walk towards the ancestral hall.

Halfway there, he suddenly stopped and looked back at the mountain path outside the village.

The snow was still falling, and the mountain path was a vast expanse of white, so nothing could be seen.

But he always felt that something was slowly approaching from behind that white expanse.

This feeling made him uneasy.

Zeng Su spent the whole morning in the backyard helping Bai Jiahei familiarize himself with the power, but that alone wouldn't be enough. The application of power could only be solidified in real combat.

Zeng Su also knew a little about what Zhuangzi was going to encounter, but Zeng Qing'an told him not to interfere.

"With adults like us looking after Zhuangzi, there's no need for a child like you to worry about him." These are Zeng Qing'an's exact words.

It wasn't that Zeng Qing'an was being arrogant, but rather that he didn't want Zeng Su to get involved in this kind of thing too early. Besides, Zeng Family Village also had the strength to resist this matter.

Besides that, Zeng Qing'an's most important task now is to send Zeng Su to Sanyi Gate, and he plans to set off this afternoon.

Everything is proceeding smoothly.

Around noon, a commotion suddenly erupted in front of the village, followed by a streak of fire shooting straight into the sky—the signal that the sentries had spotted the enemy.

"not good."

Upon seeing this, Zeng Qing'an, who was feeding pigs, did not hesitate and immediately moved quickly towards the direction from which the firelight was coming, while simultaneously using his Beast Sensing to communicate with his tamed beast.

"Boom!"

A sound like an explosion rang out, and a huge creature rushed out of Zeng Su's pigsty. It was a large pig with pure black fur, and its size was as big as an elephant.

This is Zeng Qing'an's tamed beast, Big Black. Its potential rating is D, but its potential has not been realized, and it is still at the level of an ordinary beast.

There's nothing that can be done about it. Zeng Qing'an doesn't have the ability to evolve indefinitely. He's already gone to great lengths to raise Big Black to its current level.

Big Black is extremely powerful. When he followed Zeng Qing'an to roam the martial world, he had accumulated many battle achievements. Zeng Qing'an even earned the nickname "Pig Herding Knife".

However, Big Black was really too old, almost 30 years old, which is more than twice the age of other pigs of its kind.

So Zeng Qing'an didn't let Big Black fight anymore. He provided it with good food and drink every day and even arranged for a sow for it, allowing it to live a carefree and leisurely retirement life.

However, in the past two years, even the little sows have lost interest in Big Black. He sleeps twice as much as he wakes up every day, and there's nothing he can do about his life coming to an end.

"Big Blackie, can you still fight?" Zeng Qing'an flipped over and straddled Big Blackie, patting his old buddy's big belly hard.

Big Black sensed the long-lost fighting spirit emanating from its master, its cloudy old eyes lit up, and it let out an excited growl.

"Hmph~~"

It can still fight, it can still charge, just like when it was young.

"Old buddy, after following me for so many years, I still have to trouble you in the end." Zeng Qing'an patted Big Black's head, and with a squeeze of his pig belly, Big Black charged out of the yard like a heavy tank.

When he arrived at the entrance of the manor, Zeng Qingde was already there with his men.