Beast Taming: My System is Bugged

「A few days later.」

Gu Ming successfully mastered the Everlasting Pure Water Technique and began guiding Ah Kun in its Cultivation of Pure Energy.

This wasn’t a normal form of Cultivation. Instead, it involved circulating the Mana in its body along the pathways of a Pure Energy Body.

The cultivation pathways of a Pure Energy Body are quite flexible, which isn’t the case for a creature of flesh and blood.

But Ah Kun was no ordinary creature of flesh and blood.

Possessing the Devouring Evolution ability, even if a pathway was blocked, it could use its Talent Ability to force its Mana through with sheer will, much like water seeping through a crack.

Because of this, when its Mana encountered a blockage of flesh and blood, Gu Ming gave a direct order: "Force your way through!"

Ah Kun, being rather rash, simply trusted its master and drove its Water Element Mana into its own flesh, causing a sharp pain to erupt within its body.

Fortunately, as it circulated its Mana, Gu Ming was also feeding it medicine and had it simultaneously activate its Devouring Secret Technique.

The medicinal herbs digested by the Devouring Secret Technique transformed into a continuous stream of Medicinal Power, which soothed the flesh and wounds being constantly battered, canceling out half the pain.

This made it less painful for Ah Kun’s Mana to break through the blockages of flesh. At most, it just consumed a great deal of Mana.

After a round of Cultivation, Ah Kun felt a sense of clarity throughout its body, as if everything had been connected.

’Could it be?’

Ah Kun looked at its master, only to see him shake his head.

’Huh? It wasn’t a success?’

Ah Kun was stunned, having thought it had succeeded.

"The pathways have to be found through trial and error. How could you succeed on the first try?"

Gu Ming said, shaking his head.

Teacher Zhang was confused. Gu Ming hadn’t even let the Pet Beast jump out of the Fish Tank, so how did he know it had failed?

In truth, the system had its own answer as to whether Ah Kun would succeed.

If it had succeeded, the system would have sent a pop-up message updating Ah Kun’s Cultivation progress. Since it failed, it only displayed:

"Ah Kun’s first round of Cultivation has ended. It has made a preliminary attempt at the Pure Water Technique. Its body’s Water Attribute Affinity is insufficient to achieve a full connection. Further training and Devouring are required."

Gu Ming could only feed it again, having Ah Kun continue this Cultivation, Devouring, and digesting to increase its Water Attribute Affinity.

Teacher Zhang swept his Divine Sense over it and discovered that the consumption was too great.

A single Circulation of Cultivation had already consumed ten percent of the Mana in Ah Kun’s body.

After two Circulations, twenty percent of its Mana was gone.

Keep in mind, Ah Kun was cultivating this technique so it could survive out of water, in the open air.

This kind of Cultivation Technique had to have extremely low consumption, reaching a negligible level, so as not to affect the Pet Beast’s condition during normal daily life.

If the consumption was too high, it would affect its sustained combat ability.

Therefore, when Ah Kun had to stop and rest after ten Circulations of Cultivation, Teacher Zhang offered his opinion, believing this method was inappropriate.

"Gu Ming, you’re just copying the survival Cultivation Technique pathways of a Shuiliuliu. This isn’t right. It’s not a Shuiliuliu; it’s a Grouper Fish."

He hoped Gu Ming would choose pathways for Mana circulation that were along already opened meridians, rather than trying to transmit it through flesh and blood.

Even if it could be transmitted that way, it was too energy-intensive, and success wasn’t even guaranteed.

However, Gu Ming insisted on his own view.

He believed there was a reason the system had chosen these pathways; it wasn’t a random choice.

It was just that the pain experienced during this cross-species Cultivation was necessary, especially since its Attribute hadn’t yet met the standard.

Gu Ming shook his head and used the amount consumed in today’s ten Circulations as a baseline, hoping Teacher Zhang could bring ten portions of medicine every day to help Ah Kun’s Cultivation.

"Water Attribute Affinity +1"

As he spoke, Ah Kun’s Water Attribute Affinity increased by another point.

Gu Ming glanced at Ah Kun’s current Water Attribute Affinity. It had only reached the "Excellent" level and was not yet at "Peak" affinity.

This would definitely require long-term feeding of Water Attribute materials.

Then again, a Grouper Fish’s Water Attribute Affinity was typically only "Average."

Affinity was generally divided into seven levels: Poor, Low, Below-Average, Average, Above-Average, Excellent, and Perfect.

Most Water Element Pet Beasts generally had Average affinity.

More outstanding Water Element Pets usually had Above-Average or Excellent affinity.

Only a very small number of Water Element Pets were born with Perfect affinity, such as the Pure Energy Body Shuiliuliu. They were this type of Pet Beast.

Shortly after birth, they could master the ability to survive out of water on their own, a feat far beyond Ah Kun’s reach.

If it weren’t for Ah Kun’s ability to increase its Attributes through Devouring Evolution, this Cultivation Technique would be impossible to master. Teacher Zhang’s cautious advice would have been the correct path.

***

After Ah Kun’s Cultivation was on the right track, Gu Ming shifted the focus of his attention back to Cyan Treasure.

Cyan Treasure had recently entered the Hundred Days Foundation Establishment stage. Every day, it reinforced its Foundation Establishment Platform while also training its Life Energy moves.

Over the past few days, Gu Ming had repeatedly observed the Foundation Establishment Platform inside its body. Aside from the Dragon Pattern Tripod becoming more solid and the suction force for grasping the Magic Power Inner Core growing stronger, there were no new changes.

Furthermore, Cyan Treasure was getting closer and closer to mastering the Ultimate Skill, "Mastery of Wood Escape."

Speaking of Mastery of Wood Escape, Gu Ming called over the Sunflower Seed-eating Hamster, having them begin the next stage of their Cultivation together.

Mastery of Wood Escape was a Combined Technique of Earth Power and Grass Element Power. Both Cyan Treasure and the Sunflower Seed-eating Hamster had already conditioned their Dantians to a near-perfect state.

The "Spirit Root Tree" planted inside Cyan Treasure’s body was already brimming with vitality.

Especially after its Foundation Establishment, the Light Grass Spirit Root Dual Attribute Tree inside its body glittered brightly. The soil beneath its roots was exceptionally fertile, nourished daily by a large amount of nutrient fluid.

Meanwhile, the Sunflower Seed-eating Hamster, which had been cultivating alongside Cyan Treasure, had also received help from Ma Tianba.

This had made its Dantian quite fertile as well, second only to Cyan Treasure’s and far superior to that of an ordinary Sunflower Seed-eating Hamster.

At this moment, the two were like counterparts reflected in a mirror. Aside from their different native Attributes, they were both very close to the next stage of Cultivation.

"Today, you’ll start cultivating the Earth Escape Technique." As Gu Ming spoke, he pulled Teacher Zhang over.

While Teacher Zhang was outwardly explaining how to cultivate the Earth Escape Technique...

...the system, on the other hand, was explaining how to use their bodies’ innate abilities to execute the Earth Escape Technique Skill.

This was fundamentally different from what Teacher Zhang was teaching.

Teacher Zhang assumed that neither of them knew it yet and needed to start cultivating the Earth Escape Technique from scratch.

The system, however, believed that the two Pet Beasts’ physical abilities were already sufficient to perform the Earth Escape Technique. By relying on the Earth Shifting Technique and Earth Element Mana, or by using the Life Energy nurtured within the soil to activate the Technique, they could transform into earth and escape into the ground.

Simply put, it was like using the Earth Escape Technique as an instinctual talent, which was far more brilliant than what Teacher Zhang was describing.

However, Gu Ming didn’t interrupt the teacher’s lesson and just listened quietly from the side.

Teacher Zhang said,

"This is the Earth Escape Technique Visualization Image I borrowed from the office. I have to return it afterward."

"After you’ve committed it to memory, try to grasp the feeling of circulating the Earth Escape Technique by noon today. After that, you can slowly practice until you reach the Entry Level."

As the Earth Escape Technique Visualization Image was unrolled, the ink-wash mountains on it suddenly began to flow, seeming to surge out from the earth itself and strike the minds of the two Pet Beasts, Gu Ming, and Lu You.

With a jolt, their minds were plunged into the fantasy world within the Visualization Image. Their bodies melted into mud and escaped into the earth. Gazing at grass and trees as tall as skyscrapers and boulders larger than mountains, they had a novel experience unlike any other.