Luo Yu Research Institute

The next day. Luo Yu began special training with the little penguin. The Ground Penguin's species ability was Burrowing. To put it bluntly, this skill had no offensive power whatsoever. Whether it was the inkfish's Ink Spray, the Ground Penguin's Burrowing, or the Coiling Wind Worm's Wind Gathering, these were all low-level special abilities whose function was to help them evade predators. By comparison, among the same lower-tier species, the Wave Dog's skill "Flowing Fang" was much more powerful—biting a vital point could kill many prey in a single strike. That was precisely why Jingyue Island had selected the Wave Dog as one of the three pet beasts suitable for new beast masters to contract, since it at least had some combat capability. That said, an ordinary Ground Penguin's Burrowing might be weak, but it apparently had nothing to do with July... It possessed top-tier earth talent, born with an extremely deep resonance with the earth. This led to the result that even a low-level special ability like Burrowing could produce outrageously extraordinary effects in its hands! Boom!!! Watching the ground beneath July instantly turn soft, like a quicksand vortex, as if it had submerged into an ocean of earth, Luo Yu could not help but fall silent. "You sure this is Burrowing?" If Luo Yu remembered correctly, other low-level mutated beasts using Burrowing needed physical assistance to dig, just like moles—the special ability and body had to work together to quickly burrow underground, and they only dug an underground tunnel. But July, possessing top-tier talent, did not seem to work that way when using Burrowing for the first time; it directly created a huge pit! Not digging, but creating. This pit could be made into a trap to bury enemies alive! "Good, good, good..." Looking at the burrow entrance covered by sand and soil, and at the little penguin poking its head out with half its body underground, head exposed, waiting for the next instruction, Luo Yu pondered for a moment. "I think it's necessary to change the training direction for your Burrowing skill." "Since you have this talent, there's no need for the Burrowing skill to be used only for escaping death." "Muu ji?" July tilted its head. "It would be best if you could clap your hands, and a burrow would directly appear beneath the enemy's feet, causing the enemy to fall underground, then bury them with sand and soil!" After Luo Yu finished speaking, he felt that by his own description, this Burrowing skill was somewhat illegal, but judging by July's performance when using its special ability for the first time, its Burrowing could indeed achieve that extent... Heh... in the future, it would be best not to have any beast master fight him on the ground, otherwise, making the opposing beast master fall underground from a distance... ............ That day. While letting July train its Burrowing, Luo Yu also tried to develop the true power of its talent "Walking Volcano". The enhanced Burrowing effect was, to put it bluntly, just a basic attached effect of "Walking Volcano"; the true power of this talent was still the high-temperature magma power after communicating and resonating with the power of earth veins. But after a simple attempt, Luo Yu also discovered that top-tier talents were not so easy to excavate. Even with "talent", a certain "opportunity" was needed to activate the core ability. Just like the inkfish with the "Dark Affinity" talent—even with the dark attribute aptitude, it was impossible to awaken dark special abilities out of thin air. If no one taught it and it had no lucky encounter, then obviously it would never know its own talent for a lifetime. However, something good did happen that day. During this period, the Dark Octopus and the Eight-Blade Style Octopus had also mated! Thus, Luo Yu's two breeding pairs had all completed mating, but soon after, Luo Yu faced a serious problem... To ensure the inkfish's nutrition supply, his money was running out. July, in its juvenile growth period, could still obtain the necessary nutrients for growth through the Beast Taming Space, but the inkfish, during this critical breeding period, continuing to eat ordinary feed was obviously not conducive to their laying eggs... Insufficient nutrient intake would most likely affect the offspring's talent... To make money, to conduct research, to conduct research he had to invest money—he seemed stuck! "Doesn't Chen Bo still owe me one hundred?" Luo Yu stood at the research institute entrance catching his breath, remembering this debt, when just then, a familiar figure approached from afar. "Luo Yu!" Professional attire, black stockings... Seeing the other party, Luo Yu was slightly stunned—it was that divination prodigy! And upon seeing Luo Yu, Yuwan also quickened her steps and came before Luo Yu. "Teacher Yuwan, is what you're tucking under your arm research funding? Did I pass my assessment?" Luo Yu felt the other party's arrival was too timely. "Do you have a dog's nose?" Yuwan was taken aback. She could even smell that? Luoshui Research Institute... now it should be called Luo Yu Research Institute. Inside the research institute, Yuwan handed over the relevant documents and said: "Congratulations, you indeed passed the breeding assessment. From now on, this research institute is yours." "According to the meeting discussion results of the higher-ups, you can continue to use Luoshui Research Institute for another year, and if there is relatively major progress in the inkfish research, then you can continue to use the research institute thereafter." "Thank you for the trouble, Teacher, for personally making a trip." Luo Yu smiled. "I thought Longfeather Gull would deliver it to me." Yuwan shook her head: "You created the breeding qualification examination record of Jingyue Island, passing at the youngest age... how could a mutated seagull deliver it?" "Moreover, there is your research funding for the next year. With the Longfeather Gull's security level, if it got lost, what would happen..." Research funding! Although the research institute itself had many precious research instruments that could assist him in training and researching pet beasts, it was not what Luo Yu cared about most. The important thing was that every research institute had fixed matching research funding, issued once a year. Yuwan took out a stack of money bags and handed them to Luo Yu, having prepared them long ago. As she handed them over, she asked: "By the way, how exactly did you contract a Ground Penguin? Surely not because Ground Penguins and the few pet beasts I divined for you are all black and white in color, right?" Luo Yu had long thought someone would ask him this question. He said: "Our Jingyue Island has fisheries and agriculture. For farmers, it is actually suitable to contract earth-system mutated beasts." "However, because earth-system mutated beasts are buried deep underground and hard to capture, and because grass-system and water-system mutated beasts also have some abilities that benefit crops, very few people among them contract earth-system mutated beasts." "I feel this market is quite blank, and I want to specialize in cultivating earth-system mutated beasts in the future, researching agriculture. Contracting a Ground Penguin with Burrowing special ability is because I thought that after it grows up, it can help me understand the underground ecology on my behalf." "The water-system track is too competitive; switching to a niche track for research is not bad either." "But after contracting, I discovered its talent was unexpectedly good, which could be considered fate." "Is that so?" Yuwan was slightly taken aback. This explanation... Although this explanation was whimsical, if it was the train of thought of a 15-year-old boy, it was not impossible. Having the lesson of parents as a precedent, Luo Yu not wanting to touch the ocean and wanting to study land was also very reasonable. "I thought you knew about that matter." Yuwan said. "What matter?" Luo Yu was taken aback. "This is the other reason I came here personally. You look at this first." She took off her backpack, and then... pulled out a blue-green snake from it! "Hee hee~" The blue-green snake stared at Luo Yu unblinkingly and made a sound. "A Blue-scaled Snake!" Luo Yu was not afraid; he had raised pet snakes before, and after getting used to it, he found it quite cute. This was a lower common species mutated beast, with decent defense and deadly venom. Luo Yu's eyes displayed its data. [Race]: Blue-scaled Snake [Attribute]: Water [Species Rank]: Lower Common Species [Life Level]: Level 1 [Species Ability]: Venom Injection [Individual Talent]: Dragon Blood (ordinary talent, affected by earth veins, possesses a trace of ancient dragon bloodline within the body.) Luo Yu looked at the other party. What did this mean... "Little Yu, look at this snake—is there anything special about it?" Yuwan smiled faintly. "You can grab it and observe; it won't attack." A test for him? "All right." Luo Yu directly grabbed the Blue-scaled Snake and observed it up and down, then pried open its mouth to observe inside and out. About five minutes later... Luo Yu put the Blue-scaled Snake down and let out a long breath. He looked at Yuwan and said: "The gums and oral cavity of a normal Blue-scaled Snake should be healthy pink, a sign of sufficient blood and qi." "But its gums are somewhat pale. Normally, this is a sign of anemia, weakness, or blood loss." Yuwan said: "So you mean it is developing poorly?" "No." Luo Yu said: "If it were anemia, the Blue-scaled Snake's behavior would also be weak." "But through its pupils, development, range of motion, and mental vitality, there is no great difference from a normal Blue-scaled Snake with normal spirit. Since it is not weak, but its gums and oral cavity are pale, this is very abnormal." "Oh?" Yuwan put away her smile. "This kid really knows a lot..." "What is your conclusion?" "I speculate that although it appears to have weak blood and qi, its vitality is undiminished. It should have a special bloodline. This bloodline requires a great deal of nutrients, so it absorbs the nutrients from its blood, making it appear to have insufficient blood and qi, but because of this excellent bloodline, it feeds back extraordinary power to it, so it can function normally and is not affected too much." "However, I cannot judge exactly what bloodline it is without professional instruments. If Teacher doesn't mind and isn't in a hurry, I can now use the research institute's instruments to conduct a deep detection." "In any case, this Blue-scaled Snake should not be simply suffering from insufficient blood and qi or poor development. On the contrary, it has a unique bloodline." After Luo Yu finished speaking, Yuwan took a deep breath. "As expected of my student!!!" "You are right." Luo Yu: ? You only taught me swimming and identifying pet beasts—what does that have to do with you? This is me reasoning backward from the result! "Teacher Yuwan, can you finally tell me what the matter is now?" "All right... speaking of this matter, it is also related to the Ground Penguin's evolution path..." "Related to the Ground Penguin's evolution?!"}