Celestial Beast Taming

This made the Sunlight Thorn’s tendrils look like venomous snakes covered in golden rings.

Many soft, white rootlets appeared within the thorny bush, intertwining and coiling around each other.

They coiled together smoothly, like neatly laid electrical wires.

The Sunlight Thorn, which had once been a bundle only the size of a soccer ball, now had its longest tendrils stretching nearly two meters.

The number of tendrils had more than doubled, with over thirty of them now climbing the Iron Thorn Wood Frame.

Combined with the golden rings on the tendrils and the orange aura enveloping them, the Sunlight Thorn now looked anything but ordinary.

Zhong Yi used All Things Exploration to inspect it.

[Guardian Beast Name]: Sun Wheel Thorns

[Guardian Beast Species]: Rosaceae/Rosa Genus

[Guardian Beast Level]: Mortal Beast Level (1/10)

[Guardian Beast Type]: Light Element/Fire Element

[Guardian Beast Quality]: Silver

Skills:

[Drawn by Light]: Absorbs sunlight or related energies to rapidly grow and increase its strength. The sun’s energy will seamlessly raise its Tier while improving its Quality.

Exclusive Traits:

[Sun Wheel Re-rooting]: Forms coiled Re-rootings within the thorn bush. These Re-rootings can simultaneously absorb and store sunlight during the day. At night, they release the stored light, helping the main body absorb sunlight even after dark.

[Flower Dawn Energy Gathering]: When each tendril is fully charged with Energy, it will sprout a flower bud. Each bud independently absorbs and stores sunlight. This energy can be injected into the Re-rootings or projected as a combat measure.

He saw that the original Sunlight Thorn had now evolved into Sun Wheel Thorns.

Its Quality had smoothly risen from Unranked to Silver.

The Bloodline’s evolution also changed its Basic Skill, Drawn by Light.

Originally, the Basic Skill Drawn by Light could only absorb sunlight to grow and increase its strength at an extremely rapid pace.

But now that its Bloodline had evolved into Sun Wheel Thorns, the Basic Skill Drawn by Light could absorb not only sunlight, but also sunlight-related Energy.

This perfectly complemented the Exclusive Trait, Sun Wheel Re-rooting, which Sun Wheel Thorns gained upon reaching Bronze Quality.

The Sun Wheel Re-rooting was clearly referring to those smooth, semi-transparent, slender roots coiled in the middle of the thorny bush.

Zhong Yi had high expectations for the Exclusive Traits his Sun Wheel Thorns had gained.

But the Exclusive Trait, Sun Wheel Re-rooting, still came as a massive surprise.

It completely raised the growth potential of this Guardian Beast!

These coiled Re-rootings could absorb sunlight alongside the Sun Wheel Thorns during the day and store it.

The Re-rootings’ absorption didn’t interfere with the speed or efficiency of the main tendrils.

Once night fell and the sun set, the tendrils should have been unable to absorb sunlight and would stop growing stronger.

However, the coiled Re-rootings could release the light they had absorbed during the day.

This allowed the Sun Wheel Thorns to continue absorbing sunlight even at night.

It could use the nighttime to continuously improve its strength.

The sun is typically only in the sky for a dozen or so hours a day, allowing the Sun Wheel Thorns to absorb its light.

Now, the Sun Wheel Thorns could grow stronger every single moment.

In a way, the Exclusive Trait gained at Silver Quality, Flower Dawn Energy Gathering, both enhanced the Sun Wheel Re-rooting trait and provided the Sun Wheel Thorns with an offensive option.

Compared to the latter, Zhong Yi was more interested in how Flower Dawn Energy Gathering enhanced Sun Wheel Re-rooting.

No one could predict the weather, after all!

On cloudy or rainy days, the cloud cover would block the sun’s rays, drastically reducing the Sun Wheel Thorns’ absorption efficiency.

On such days, the sunlight absorbed by the Re-rootings would be quickly exhausted by nightfall.

The Exclusive Trait Flower Dawn Energy Gathering allowed the Sun Wheel Thorns’ tendrils to sprout flowers when fully charged with Energy.

On a bright, sunny day, each of these flowers could independently store sunlight.

On cloudy days, or at night when the Sun Wheel Thorns’ Re-rootings ran out of light, the energy stored in the flower buds could be injected into them.

This would allow the Re-rootings to continue releasing light, ensuring the Sun Wheel Thorns could keep growing stronger.

As the Sun Wheel Thorns’ Tier and Quality continued to rise, its nature as a Combat-type Guardian Beast would become more apparent. The Sunlight Energy Bullets projected from its flower buds via Flower Dawn Energy Gathering would deal considerable damage.

But with the Thorny Sparrow Hunters in the picture, rather than focusing on the Sun Wheel Thorns’ offensive capabilities, Zhong Yi preferred gaining functional Exclusive Traits like Sun Wheel Re-rooting and Flower Dawn Energy Gathering to accelerate the Sunlight Thorn’s growth.

After forming the Contract with Sun Wheel Thorns, Zhong Yi didn’t use any Energy Cores to raise its strength.

Instead, he planned to wait for the sun to rise the next day to test just how quickly the Sun Wheel Thorns could raise its Tier and Quality by absorbing sunlight alone.

Before the Contract, the Sunlight Thorn had an extremely strong sense of territory and was openly hostile toward Zhong Yi.

If it weren’t for its lack of offensive abilities, the Sun Wheel Thorns probably would have attacked him long ago.

But now, thanks to the Contract, the Sun Wheel Thorns allowed Zhong Yi to stroke its fragile Re-rootings, even as he bent down to touch them.

As a plant-type Guardian Beast, the Sun Wheel Thorns wasn’t very intelligent.

Zhong Yi didn’t bother giving the Sun Wheel Thorns a nickname, but he did instruct it not to randomly attack any other living things in the mansion.

Especially the Cleaning Mice responsible for tidying up!

As the Sun Wheel Thorns absorbed sunlight and its Tier and Quality increased, its intelligence would also improve.

In the meantime, Zhong Yi planned to bring everyone in the mansion to the Sun Wheel Thorns one by one so it could get familiar with them.

From now on, the Sun Wheel Thorns would be the Zhongyi Mansion’s most diligent gatekeeper.

Zhong Yi hadn’t forgotten the pair of Thorny Sparrow Hunters he had spent a full five hundred Potential Points to purchase from the Celestial Destiny Society.

Zhong Yi took the Thorny Sparrow Hunters out of his Storage Pouch. The beaks and claws of both birds were bound with tape.

The two Thorny Sparrow Hunters, each no bigger than the palm of his hand, immediately revealed a fierce glint in their eyes and began flapping their wings frantically the moment he took them out.

Thorny Sparrow Hunters were extremely aggressive and sensitive Creatures. If he let the two little things continue to struggle, they would soon damage their own wing feathers.

Feeling threatened, this Thorn Hunting Sparrow Couple struggled nonstop, and might even break their own wings.

Zhong Yi used All Things Exploration to inspect the two Thorny Sparrow Hunters.

[Guardian Beast Name]: Thorny Sparrow Hunter

[Guardian Beast Species]: Parasitic Finch Species/Weiqie Genus

[Guardian Beast Level]: Mortal Beast Level (1/10)

[Guardian Beast Type]: None

[Guardian Beast Quality]: Unranked

Skills:

[Sparrow Companion Thorn]: Seeks out a thorn-type plant to act as a host and form a parasitic bond. After bonding, the sparrow gains the thorn’s attributes and strength. If the host thorn dies, the sparrow will also perish due to the Contractual Relationship.

After confirming that both Thorny Sparrow Hunters were healthy, Zhong Yi tossed the two sparrow-sized birds toward the Sun Wheel Thorns.

He commanded the Sun Wheel Thorns to envelop the two Thorny Sparrow Hunters.

The skill, Sparrow Companion Thorn, allowed a Thorny Sparrow Hunter to form a parasitic bond with a thorn-type plant as its host.

After the bond formed, the host thorn could manage and command the Thorny Sparrow Hunter as if it were its master.

The Thorny Sparrow Hunter, in turn, would display an instinctually fawning nature toward its host thorn.

After all, if the host thorn were to die, the Thorny Sparrow Hunter contracted to it would also lose its life.

This was the fundamental reason why Thorny Sparrow Hunters would fearlessly attack any intruders, preventing their host thorn from coming to any harm.

Enveloped by the tendrils of the Sun Wheel Thorns, the Thorny Sparrow Hunters immediately stopped struggling.

They were instantly filled with bliss, like two little mice that had fallen into a vat of rice.