Once the little penguin had eaten and drunk its fill, it grew sleepy again. That was how newborn creatures were—they spent most of the day asleep.
After Luo Yu returned it to the Beast Taming Space, he glanced at the position of the sun. It was still early; no one at the Beast Management Bureau would even be at work yet, so he simply went over to the inkfish pond, picked up the feed, and began feeding the inkfish.
“Eat up, eat up.”
“Whether I can keep this research institute for good—from here on, it's all up to you.” As Luo Yu scattered feed, he searched for those four advanced-talent individuals.
Those four advanced-talent holders looked no different from ordinary individuals. Judging by the naked eye alone, they might even be less well-developed than some ordinary ones.
“The Beast Masters who raise inkfish are probably all trying to figure out how to make them evolve.”
“After all, a single Monarch Species... no matter where you put it, is an extremely formidable fighting force.”
If it were possible, Luo Yu naturally wanted to uncover the inkfish's evolved form as well. Who wouldn't want a Monarch Species?
A reasonable guess: not every batch of inkfish had the potential to evolve. To evolve, they probably needed some “special talent.”
But even though Luo Yu could see every individual's information, it did him little good—he had no idea which talent was the key to an inkfish's evolution.
Unless he got the chance to lay eyes on the inkfish's evolved form, the Water Demon Beast, and observe its talent for himself. After all, upon evolving, it might well retain the talent it had before.
“A talent that can evolve a school of fish into Monarch-tier... at the very weakest it'd have to be an advanced talent, right? Maybe even a top-tier one.”
“There are still too few inkfish here. But if I make progress in other areas of inkfish research, I might be able to apply to lease a big fish pond and raise more of them. When that happens, I might just find an individual with the evolution talent.”
Luo Yu soon found his favorite inkfish again.
It was that Breeding Exemplar.
[Individual Talent]: Breeding Exemplar (advanced talent; produces outstanding offspring more easily than ordinary individuals.)
As a breeder, what's the thing you fear most?
What you fear most is offspring that can't inherit their parents' talent.
It's extremely common—true in human reproduction as well. Two star students from Tsinghua or Peking University can absolutely have a child who turns out to be a hopeless student, and the odds aren't small.
But after seeing this talent, Luo Yu felt that this scenario probably wouldn't happen among this inkfish's offspring.
No matter how you looked at it, the Breeding Exemplar talent was made purely for reproduction. Its offspring might not surpass the parents, but perfectly inheriting the parents' talent—that wasn't asking too much, surely?
Of course, if the offspring could undergo a positive genetic mutation and gain even stronger talents, that would naturally be even better.
So rather than researching how inkfish evolve, the most reliable approach was to use this inkfish first to breed a batch of powerful-talent, strategically significant new stock.
“Normally, no one is willing to contract a mutated beast like the inkfish.”
“But what about an advanced-talent inkfish? That's a different story.”
In truth, in Luo Yu's view the gap between Mid-tier Common Species and Lower Common Species wasn't that large—nowhere near as large as the gap between ordinary talent and advanced talent!
For example, an ordinary-talent inkfish might merely have one organ that developed a little better, but an advanced-talent inkfish can alter the effects of its special abilities, or even learn abilities outside its own attribute!
Luo Yu then sought out the other advanced-talent inkfish, first pinpointing the dark octopus.
“A Dark Affinity inkfish... if it's an inkfish that can master Dark-type abilities, Beast Masters would definitely want one.”
“After all, the Dark-type is a top-tier attribute, standing above the ordinary elemental attributes...”
“What if I had it breed a pile of offspring with the Breeding Exemplar...”
Luo Yu thought it over, then shook his head. Judging by his years of breeding experience, it wouldn't work.
In fact, you didn't even need breeding experience to know that was unreliable...
Because!
After observing, he found these two were the same sex—both female.
Two of the same sex couldn't breed.
If he could get two same-sex inkfish to breed, that would indeed be one hell of a scientific achievement—in a completely different sense.
Also, although the Dark Affinity inkfish had this special-ability talent, Luo Yu wasn't quite sure how to teach it Dark-type abilities...
It would probably take Dark-attribute resources, wouldn't it? Far too costly.
Luo Yu could only turn his gaze to the male “Eight-Blade Style inkfish” and “Mercy inkfish.”
Of the two, the Eight-Blade Style inkfish was the first to be eliminated. The talent was quite good, but the Mercy inkfish was clearly more valuable.
The Eight-Blade Style inkfish's value lay mainly in combat—it could control eight special abilities at once, a pure firepower specialist. The Dark inkfish was the same; its talent leaned toward combat.
If all you wanted was fighting strength, picking a high-tier species pet beast outright was probably the better choice.
But the Mercy inkfish was different—it was a rare medical pet beast!
“This one's good.” Luo Yu nodded. Medical pet beasts were rare goods anywhere.
Currently on Jingyue Island, only the official Jingyue Hospital had a breedable medical pet beast species, imported from another island.
However, because of species and environmental problems, breeding had never gone well. They weren't a native species, after all, so their overall numbers were small.
When Beast Masters fell ill or got injured, they had to book an “expert appointment” for even a chance of seeing these medical pet beasts.
As for the ship crews, even fewer could have a medical pet beast on board. Most Beast Masters still used various medicines to treat wounds, with fairly ordinary results—so a serious injury out on the sea meant a high death rate.
You could say that on Jingyue Island, medical pet beasts were an extremely scarce type of working pet beast.
Moreover, counting carefully, the Great Tide that came once every ten years was only ten months away. When it arrived, Jingyue Island would surely suffer heavy casualties—and at a time like that, the value of medical pet beasts would be even greater.
If he could breed a batch of inkfish that had mastered healing abilities, they might not have the strategic value of a Monarch pet beast, but their impact on Jingyue Island would definitely not be small.
It would absolutely shake up Jingyue Island's medical system.
And the fame and fortune brought by breeding large numbers of Mercy inkfish would make him a hot commodity—a genius biologist on Jingyue Island. The research institute would most likely remain in his hands, and he would undoubtedly be able to apply for more research funding.
Yes. All things considered, large numbers of medical inkfish held more strategic value.
“My first breeding project is decided.”
“Use the Breeding Exemplar and the Mercy inkfish to produce large numbers of medical individuals.”
“Once there are plenty of inkfish with Medical Specialization, keep refining and purifying the bloodline until the strain approaches stability.”
It hadn't taken Luo Yu long to settle on the breeding project. Seeing that it was still early, he decided to create a separate breeding space for them right now...
Two hours later, inside the research institute, Luo Yu wiped away some sweat and let out a long breath.
It had taken him a while: he put away some of the institute's research equipment that he wouldn't need for the time being, and the rest was entirely devoted to supporting the inkfish breeding.
With all that done, Luo Yu turned to observe his little darlings again.
Not the little penguin July—the inkfish.
Love doesn't vanish; it just moves on.
The Ground Penguin was his true love, his own son, no question—but right now the inkfish were his livelihood, the foundation he stood on.
The two inkfish that needed to be paired up had already been scooped out, and for the moment they were being kept in one of the ecosystem tanks that simulated a water environment.
In the tank, the water plants swayed gently, an air stone bubbled out fine streams of bubbles, and the two inkfish lay lazily at the bottom.
When Luo Yu had scooped them up earlier, the stress had made them squirt out a good deal of ink, so now they were resting, gathering their strength...
Luo Yu, in a white lab coat stained with ink, crouched in front of the tank, took a couple of looks, and chuckled.
“Water temperature, twenty degrees...”
“Salinity, thirty parts per thousand...”
“Hiding rocks, mud burrows, nests—all provided. Perfect for a little hanky-panky.”
“Water flow precisely simulated to match the tidal shifts of the inkfish breeding season.”
“Preparations complete.”
“From here on, it's up to you two!”
He reached out and tapped the tank.
Ordinary octopuses are actually quite intelligent, and hard to raise and breed in captivity.
But according to research, after mutating, inkfish had severely regressed in intelligence. Perhaps it was precisely because the individuals had no brains that they could fuse and evolve into a new species...
Otherwise, hundreds of intelligent individuals fusing and evolving, one body carrying hundreds of minds, would be far too terrifying.
Now Luo Yu had everything ready. He planned to quietly observe for a few days; if they still wouldn't mate, he'd bring out the science and the strong stuff.
Besides this tank—the Breeding Exemplar and the Mercy inkfish—going into Breeding Base No. 1, Luo Yu, to satisfy his own curiosity, had also put the female Dark inkfish and the male Eight-Blade Style inkfish together on their own, and set up the optimal mating conditions for them too. This was Breeding Base No. 2.
Breeding Exemplar paired with the Mercy octopus... Dark octopus paired with the Eight-Blade Style octopus... Luo Yu looked forward to the day they'd produce offspring.
“Awake?”
After he'd finished all this, the little penguin July happened to finish its nap. Luo Yu summoned it onto his shoulder, and its round eyes fixed on the ecosystem tank ahead, brimming with curiosity.
“Wuji...!? (This is...?!)” Looking at the sultry mood lighting in the tank, it asked Luo Yu why these four had been put in on their own.
“Well...” Luo Yu paused to think it over, feeling the topic was a bit unsuitable for young penguins.
“You'll understand when you're grown up. When the time comes, I'll find you ten wives—don't worry. No, wait, you penguins seem to be monogamous. Hmm, good.” Luo Yu stroked his chin, hoping that when July grew up it could find a suitable mate. After all, it had a top-tier talent, and finding a partner worthy of it would be quite difficult.
“Wuji...!? (Wives? What's that? Can you eat it?)”
“You can't eat them, thank you very much. And no sneaking bites of these four inkfish, hear me?” Luo Yu didn't trust this glutton one bit.
“Wuji! (What use is a wife you can't eat? I'm going to become the Earth God and put an end to this Ocean Era!)”
Luo Yu blinked. “Wait, who taught you that?”
The little penguin July scratched its head and indicated that these were all things Luo Yu had said in his sleep.
Something about how he absolutely had to become the Earth God and end this Ocean Era...
The little penguin patted its chest to show that it was very smart indeed! Since this was Luo Yu's expectation for it, then whatever this Earth God business was, it was definitely going to be one!
“...” Luo Yu shouldn't have doubted this little thing's intelligence.
“Keep it down, keep it down. Don't go blabbing once we're outside. There are a lot of sea creatures around right now, and what we're doing amounts to raiding their home—say it out loud and you'll get beaten up.” Luo Yu warned it.
Chapter 7