Beast Taming: My System is Bugged

"Mr. Zhong from Celestial Cloud City, having heard of the Forbidden Area Dominator’s renown, hobbled through this area. He has brought the final puzzle piece for the *Ultimate Skill: Mastery of Wood Escape* and wishes to request an audience."

"It is called *Wood Escape Flood Dragon Power*, derived from the power generation method of a Wood Escape Flood Dragon’s tail swing. The first edition was called *Flood Dragon Tail Swing*."

"Successors later extracted this method’s Origin Power and improved upon it by introducing the Fierce Dragon Array of the new era. As a result, the tail swing move was no longer a set of combat actions, but a high-end, complex Technique..."

Gu Ming looked at the series of updates from the system. It was a lot of information; he needed a moment to process it.

He had originally wanted to find a Combat Skill for Cyan Treasure, but the system had evolved it into a future "Technique."

In the present-day Great Zhou, the word "Technique" was similar to "Cultivation Technique." Both referred to specific cultivation techniques or arts used to improve oneself and master special abilities.

In comparison, the requirements for a Cultivation Technique were comprehensive and multi-faceted, involving numerous steps.

Combat Skills generally involved practicing a set of movements and memorizing the pathways for Mana or Blood Qi circulation within the body. There wasn’t much need for anything related to Enlightenment; even if there was, that was a concern for High-star Level Pet Beasts.

At most, training was supplemented with topical ointments and ingested cultivation formulas to aid in Cultivation.

Gu Ming had heard the term "Technique" before and had assumed it was the same as a "Cultivation Technique."

But from the system’s wording, there was clearly a difference.

As Gu Ming listened to Teacher Zhong explain the opening stance of *Flood Dragon Tail Swing*, he was also mentally reading the system’s explanation.

In reality, the system updated in sync with Teacher Zhong’s lecture, providing text related to the Cultivation of *Wood Escape Flood Dragon Power*. Every word was a pearl, incredibly precious.

Gu Ming had to give it two hundred percent of his attention, effectively splitting his mind in two. With one half, he listened to Teacher Zhong’s lecture; with the other, he studied the system’s new-era "Technique."

As time went on, after half a theory class, Teacher Zhong felt it was about enough. With Gu Ming’s Talent, there was no need to explain things too thoroughly. Skipping around in his lecture would better suit a genius’s nonlinear way of thinking.

Therefore, he took a sip of water, stopped lecturing, and turned to give Cyan Treasure some hands-on instruction.

Teacher Zhong was seen pressing his fingers into a few of Cyan Treasure’s muscles, making it quietly exert force to feel the sensation of blocked Blood Qi.

"Can you feel it? Breaking through these Blood Qi blockages can more than double the Power of your tail swing. Come on, give it a try..."

On Gu Ming’s end, his brows furrowed slightly when he saw the system stop updating the Technique’s content.

But it wasn’t a good time to interrupt Teacher Zhong, who was busy teaching Cyan Treasure the movements.

Of course, his mind was also swimming with questions.

Taking advantage of a break in Teacher Zhong’s hands-on instruction, he pulled out his phone and searched for Techniques circulating on the market, casually ordering one to see what it contained.

After reading for a while, the confusion etched on Gu Ming’s face remained unresolved.

"You were engrossed in the Record of the Outer Celestial Demon and got caught by Mr. Zhong."

"Is my lecture that boring?"

Suddenly, Teacher Zhong’s voice sounded from behind Gu Ming.

In that short amount of time, Gu Ming had already become lost in the world of his phone.

He hadn’t realized it at first, but when the system message popped up, he immediately shut off his phone and turned to face the teacher behind him.

Truth be told, he had gotten used to skipping unimportant classes to give Cyan Treasure extra training.

But the top students in the class did the same thing. If everyone was doing it, it wasn’t a problem.

"Teacher, I’d like to ask, what’s the difference between high-end Techniques, a conventional Combat Technique, and just Combat Techniques?"

Gu Ming sidestepped the issue of him slacking off and steered the conversation directly to Techniques.

Teacher Zhong, also used to the nonlinear thinking of his genius student, heard Gu Ming’s question and answered without hesitation:

"They’re all just Skills, in the end. Why ask about this?

"But if you insist on a hierarchy, a Technique is superior to a Combat Technique, and a Combat Technique is better than mere Combat Techniques."

He noted that Gu Ming had mentioned the word "high-end," so he was clearly asking about Techniques. What he was teaching now was not a Technique, nor was it a Combat Technique; it was a set of Combat Techniques.

And even among Techniques, there’s a distinction between high-end and low-end.

Low-End Techniques have almost the same standing as a Combat Technique.

But when you get into the finer details, a Technique is still superior.

"A high-end Technique emphasizes the unity of knowledge and action, combining Enlightenment, physical movements, and cultivation all into one.

"The Cultivation threshold for a Technique is too high, and the process is long. It’s not suited for a crash course, and in the short month or so I have with you, it’s not appropriate for me to teach you a Technique.

"But don’t you worry. This set of Combat Techniques, the Flood Dragon Tail Swing, is part of the Wood Escape Flood Dragon Technique system.

"As long as you master the Flood Dragon Tail Swing, you’ll be able to learn the Wood Escape Flood Dragon’s Combat Technique in the future.

"That’s a set of Combat Skills comparable to Low-End Techniques; it’s nothing to scoff at."

At this point, Teacher Zhong started showing off the Pet Beast he’d raised, and a proud look appeared on his face as he talked about the Sub-dragon Race Combat Technique he had personally researched and created.

Gu Ming listened for a few sentences, but something still felt off.

The high-end Technique the system mentioned had characteristics like "Origin" and "Array," while the unity of knowledge and action was just the baseline standard for Low-End Techniques.

From this, it seemed the system’s Techniques were far more advanced than modern ones.

On the surface, he offered a few compliments. When he learned that this was the fruit of Teacher Zhong’s publication in the Five-Week Journal, the look of admiration on his face grew even more intense.

"By the way, Gu Ming, I heard from your teacher that you published a few journal articles in high school. Which ones were they?"

"Two of them were published in the *Flood Dragon Monthly Report*, and another was in a less famous journal," Gu Ming said humbly.

Hearing the name *Flood Dragon Monthly Report*, Secretary Zhong suddenly sobered up.

Isn’t that a four-star journal?

And he’d even published two articles in it.

He only knew that Gu Ming had a Talent for Cultivation Techniques and had been published in a Beastmaster academic journal.

But Teacher Zhang never mentioned it was a four-star journal.

He recalled back in his senior year of high school, he was over the moon when a Cultivation Technique he’d created himself was picked up by a reviewer for a one-star journal.

Gu Ming’s starting line was far, far higher than his had been.

Even the high school seniors in Celestial Cloud City couldn’t guarantee a publication in a journal, let alone a four-star one.

’A contestant truly worthy of the competition.’

Suddenly, Secretary Zhong lost all desire to show off, at least for the time being.

Time to get back to the lesson.

Secretary Zhong picked up where he had left off in the lecture.

This time, his speaking speed doubled, and he didn’t pause again.

He jumped from one key point to the next, skipping over unimportant common knowledge and assuming Gu Ming already understood it.

If he didn’t understand, he would naturally ask.

And so, Gu Ming braced himself and managed to barely keep pace by relying on the textual explanations popping up from the system.

Half the day flew by in a flash.

He had been lecturing on the Sub-dragon Race’s Combat Techniques for half the day. The physical movements had been covered long ago; all that remained were the details, which showed just how complex these Combat Techniques were.

Cyan Treasure needed to train and master hundreds of ways to exert its muscles, and on top of that, it had to memorize the pathways for circulating Blood Qi.

The rest was just practice and refinement. Teacher Zhong figured that since Cyan Treasure had a powerful circulation Cultivation Technique like the Earth Shifting Technique, circulating Blood Qi wouldn’t be difficult either.

"The main difficulty is still the new method of muscle exertion. It is, after all, a snake—and a Little Cyan Snake at that. The physical difference between it and a Flood Dragon is just too great.

"The practice process ahead is bound to be filled with constant injury and overcoming hardship. Be mentally prepared.

"I’ve already created a custom prescription for you for the next month."

As he spoke, Teacher Zhong asked Gu Ming for his phone and, in a matter of seconds, completed the registration for a membership account.

"I entered a referral code, so your account is now a High-Level membership. Just enter your bank card details, and the company will ship the items immediately.

"For now, keep practicing. Tonight, we’ll combine it with a medicinal bath for high-intensity training."

Gu Ming hadn’t even asked how much it would cost, but he had a sinking feeling he’d fallen into a trap. ’This is going to cost a fortune.’

But for the sake of the new-era Technique, this was a price he had to pay. ’How else can I get a glimpse into the Techniques of the future?’

Besides, the medicinal ingredients Teacher Zhong was sending might not even be from this era.

’Who knows,’ Gu Ming thought, ’maybe if I brew them in private, they’ll transform into some kind of future medicinal soup.’