I'm Just a Beast Tamer

"He ran?"

Shi Butong was completely surprised by how decisively Jiang Zuo had fled.

’Could it be...’

’That this mortal had already used up all his tricks? That he had nothing left, knew he was no match for me, and decided to run the moment I made a move?’

The more Shi Butong thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

At this thought, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret.

’If I’d been a bit bolder and attacked with my full strength, I might have already killed that mortal.’

’All the benefits Guan Shiping obtained would have fallen into my hands.’

But the man had already escaped into the sea, and there was no way for him to give chase.

He thought of the Spirit Turtle with its rare bloodline, the Innate Spiritual Soil, and that huge pile of Heaven and Earth Primordial Power Ore.

Shi Butong felt nothing but regret. The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became.

"Senior Brother, I’m afraid we’ll have to keep these mortals here as witnesses. Otherwise, this whole affair will be hard to explain."

his junior brother said from the side, looking down at the mortals below.

"Let’s go down. Gather all the mortals in the area. At the very least, we need to figure out that man’s identity."

Shi Butong sighed.

His junior brother was right. Everyone from the Liuyun Sect and the Yellow Dao Sect was dead; only the two of them from the Earth and Stone Temple were unharmed.

Without those mortals to testify, they would have a very difficult time explaining themselves.

Four Dao Foundation Cultivators—one was instantly killed by a first-tier Spirit Turtle, and the other three were killed by a Mortal Martial Artist?

If you hadn’t seen it with your own eyes, who would believe such a story?

Quite a few people on the island had been drawn over by the Cultivators in the sky.

They didn’t necessarily know they were Immortal Masters, but they knew they were definitely not ordinary people.

Their arrival on Fire Mist Island suggested that some sort of treasure might have been unearthed.

Those who could recognize them as Immortal Masters were even hoping for a fortuitous encounter with an immortal.

A large crowd, each with their own agenda, had gathered below.

They hadn’t dared to rashly step forward and offer treasures like Jiang Zuo, but they had witnessed everything that had just happened.

"Was that really Master Qianhai?"

"Who doesn’t know Master Qianhai? Could there be any mistake?"

"He killed three Immortal Masters under the pretense of offering a treasure... Master Qianhai is that incredible!"

"Could it be that Master Qianhai is actually an Immortal Master too?"

"Impossible. If Master Qianhai were an Immortal Master, those other Immortal Masters wouldn’t have let their guard down."

"All we can say is that Master Qianhai has been hiding his abilities too well. Who could have ever imagined he was so powerful!"

The crowd had just been watching the spectacle, but after seeing Jiang Zuo suddenly strike, some felt a sense of dread and wanted to get away, unwilling to be drawn into the conflict.

But it was too late to leave. With a single Magic, Shi Butong and his junior brother swept up everyone who tried to flee and brought them back.

Unable to leave, the crowd grew worried, but they couldn’t help but discuss what they had just witnessed.

The Yu Family Siblings were also among them.

The two of them had witnessed everything from the closest possible distance, and they were utterly shaken.

After ascending to the rank of Grandmaster, the two had been full of themselves, feeling that with the world so vast, there was nowhere they couldn’t go.

Who would have known they would first encounter high-and-mighty Immortal Masters who treated the two of them, both Grandmasters, as if they were nothing.

Then Jiang Zuo appeared and, in the blink of an eye, killed three Immortal Masters whom they hadn’t even dared to look at directly.

What was more, Jiang Zuo was clearly a Martial Artist too, yet he had displayed a power they couldn’t comprehend at all.

They felt that their so-called Grandmaster status was worth nothing in this world.

"Quiet down, all of you. Do you know who that man was?"

Shi Butong asked after silencing the crowd’s chatter.

"We do! He’s the Beast Taming Master, Qianhai! Everyone on Fire Mist Island and in Wangxiang Sea City knows him. He’s extremely skilled at raising Seated Mountain Eagles, and he even has a Great Black dog that’s a Huajin-level Grandmaster! But he has always been kind and disliked fighting. Before today, no one knew he was so formidable himself!"

someone immediately shouted, giving a remarkably comprehensive summary.

It wasn’t just him. A large group of people began chattering all at once, their stories all more or less the same.

’Damn it!’

’Kind and dislikes fighting, my ass!’

’Didn’t you see him kill three Dao Foundation cultivators the moment he struck?’

Shi Butong felt too exasperated to even retort.

But seeing that everyone recognized him, things would be much simpler.

"Don’t all talk at once! I’ll question you one by one, and you will answer one by one. Don’t even think about lying. Tell me everything you know, and you’ll be fine. But if you lie... then prepare for a fate worse than death!"

Shi Butong roared.

Afterward, the two martial brothers questioned everyone one by one, asking basically everything they could.

"The stories are all basically the same. The man came to Fire Mist Island in his teens, claiming to be from a Beast Taming Clan. He’s been raising Seated Mountain Eagles here for twenty years and only left once, just a few days ago."

The junior brother reported the information he’d gathered, then fell silent for a moment.

’This kind of lifestyle... and you’re telling me he’s a mortal?’

’He’s more of a Cultivator than actual Cultivators!’

’Even I couldn’t just stay in one place for twenty years like that.’

"This man’s identity is very strange. He doesn’t act like some country bumpkin who’s never left this island."

"Forget it. There’s no point in overthinking it. It’s also possible we’re just too inexperienced to recognize what’s going on."

"For now, let’s get these mortals settled. Have the Worldwide Bank notify the Liuyun Sect, the Yellow Dao Sect, and our Martial Uncle. We’ll decide what to do after they arrive."

Shi Butong said with a shake of his head and a sigh.

The Liuyun Sect and the Yellow Dao Sect both lost two Dao Foundation members. Their sects would definitely send someone from the senior generation to investigate.

Their Earth and Stone Temple couldn’t stay out of it either; they had to get their elders involved.

After settling the mortals, the two martial brothers went to look for the Seated Mountain Eagles that Jiang Zuo had raised.

There were still plenty of Seated Mountain Eagles on Fire Mist Island, but Jiang Zuo had already commanded his to fly away in advance.

The two of them wouldn’t have been able to tell them apart anyway, so they simply captured a few random Seated Mountain Eagles to pass off as the real ones and muddle through.

As long as the blame didn’t fall on them, it would be fine.

...

Jiang Zuo had frantically gathered a large amount of Heaven and Earth Primordial Power Ore, tossing it into his storage bag and the Pet Beast Spirit Garden. When he saw Shi Butong looked ready to fight him to the death, he knew he couldn’t stay to pick the place clean and decisively leaped into the sea to escape.

After jumping into the sea, he immediately donned the Ten Thousand Beasts Armor and swam at full speed along the seabed.

Once he had swum a considerable distance away, Jiang Zuo took out the storage bags as he continued to move.

They belonged to Guan Shiping and the two men killed with him, as well as Ye Kailan, who had been killed by Xiaoqing.

The storage bags of all four people had fallen into Jiang Zuo’s hands.

The storage bags mostly looked like small sachets, while the Spirit Beast Bags were much larger. Jiang Zuo easily told them apart.

The storage bags and Spirit Beast Bags of all four required Spiritual Power to open.

Jiang Zuo couldn’t use Spiritual Power to open them, but he couldn’t just carry them around forever either.

With so many storage bags, it was possible one of them had a tracking marker, making it extremely dangerous to keep them on his person.

Jiang Zuo had to find a way to let Xiaoqing out first.

Before he cultivated the Life Essence Returning Skill, Jiang Zuo would have been helpless.

But now he could try using his Power of Destruction to break the bag’s opening.

As for whether Xiaoqing might be harmed in the process, Jiang Zuo couldn’t afford to worry about that.

If he didn’t break the bag to let it out, Xiaoqing would starve to death inside the Beast Bag sooner or later.

And as long as it didn’t die instantly, he could use his life-giving power to save it.

The Power of Destruction worked as expected.

The gray light in Jiang Zuo’s palm flashed for only a moment before the Beast Bag was destroyed.

With a POP, the Beast Bag burst open, and Xiaoqing appeared beside Jiang Zuo.

WHIMPER...

Seeing Jiang Zuo, Xiaoqing whimpered at him plaintively twice.

"There, there, it’s okay. I’ve already killed the person who captured you. Here, hurry up and open all these storage bags."

Jiang Zuo didn’t stand on ceremony with Xiaoqing and quickly took out the storage bags.

He wouldn’t feel at ease holding on to these things; it was better to get rid of them as soon as possible.

Xiaoqing’s mood immediately brightened upon hearing that its captor was dead.

However, after touching the storage bags, it shook its head, indicating it couldn’t open them.

"You can’t open them? Have these storage bags been soul-bound?"

Jiang Zuo felt a headache coming on.

But on second thought, it was normal. After all, these were Dao Foundation Cultivators. They usually had some wealth, so of course the storage bags they used would be of a higher grade.

Besides, these people were clearly from sects, not your average Loose Cultivators.

"Looks like I’ll have to spend some of my life force and just destroy them."

Jiang Zuo had no other choice but to channel his Power of Destruction again.

Jiang Zuo didn’t know what would happen to the items inside once the storage bag was destroyed.

If they were going to be damaged, he would just have to find a place to bury the rest and see if he had a chance to come back and open them later.

POP!

Under the effect of the Power of Destruction, the first storage bag shattered like a balloon.

A large number of items appeared out of thin air in the sea.

The first one he opened was the storage bag of Guan Shiping’s junior brother.

The contents of Guan Shiping’s own storage bag were the best; Jiang Zuo had overheard their conversation and knew there was a piece of Innate Spiritual Soil inside.

Jiang Zuo certainly wasn’t going to experiment with that one. If the contents were destroyed, the Innate Spiritual Soil would be gone.

’Spirit Talismans, Spirit Stones, Magical Artifacts, and some materials.’

Jiang Zuo’s gaze swept over the items floating in the water.

Other than the Spirit Stones, Jiang Zuo didn’t plan to touch anything else, letting them sink to the seabed.

"Just over two thousand low-grade Spirit Stones. So poor!"

Jiang Zuo gathered all the Spirit Stones and, after a quick count, couldn’t help but shake his head.

This just showed how little Jiang Zuo knew about the Cultivation Realm. For an ordinary Cultivator, it was an achievement just to avoid debt while forging their Dao Foundation.

After ascending to the Dao Foundation stage, most ordinary Cultivators had to live frugally for a considerable period.

Jiang Zuo then destroyed and opened Guan Shiping’s storage bag with some anticipation.

BANG!

The moment the storage bag was destroyed, a sky full of items slowly drifted down through the water.

’So much stuff!’

Jiang Zuo was dazzled by the sight.

The first thing he did was find the piece of Innate Spiritual Soil, which was stirring restlessly, and put it away.

Then he scrambled to collect the Spirit Stones.

Among the cloud of items, most of them were Spirit Stones.

"Not bad! A rough estimate puts it at over fifteen thousand!"

Jiang Zuo was overjoyed.

With this, he had suddenly gathered a third of the Spirit Stones needed to upgrade his Spirit Garden.

Besides the Spirit Stones, Talismans, Magical Artifacts, and materials, Guan Shiping also had several bottles of medicinal pills that looked quite valuable.

Jiang Zuo hesitated for a moment but still shook his head and didn’t pick them up.

’Since I’m not even picking up the materials, there’s no need to be greedy for this little bit of profit.’

With the Pet Beast Spirit Garden, Jiang Zuo had also considered whether he could put the items inside it to block any tracking.

The possibility existed, as the Pet Beast Spirit Garden was a system-related item.

Theoretically, the security should be very high.

But Jiang Zuo didn’t do it.

The security might be high, but since it hadn’t been tested, it wasn’t a hundred percent certain.

If it turned out not to work, he wouldn’t get a second chance to regret it.

Even with these Spirit Stones, Jiang Zuo planned to toss them into the Spirit Garden and have Xiaoqing check each one for anything unusual.

But this was purely due to Jiang Zuo being overly cautious. No normal person would think of tampering with low-grade Spirit Stones.

They were too easily traded. Once exchanged, no one would know their origin. Using them to track someone would just be asking for trouble.