Chapter 1: Greenwood Treant

On the projection screen, a golden lion more than twenty meters tall threw back its head and roared. In that instant, the heavens blackened. Then golden-red fissures tore through the sky, like a god opening its eyes. Meteors streaked through the darkness one after another, and amid thunderous detonations, they utterly destroyed an abandoned city overrun with black vines.

The scene shifted. The flaming lion leaped several times through the air and arrived beside a person shrouded in golden fire.

With that, the footage ended.

The classroom fell completely silent. Zhu Tao was very satisfied with the effect. He brought the ruler down on the desk with a sharp crack, jolting the students out of their daze. "You shouldn't have seen this clip before. I only got it from the military this morning."

"Now then, all of you, analyze the video and give me your conclusions."

Wang Mu's thoughts were still lingering on that falling meteor shower. It reminded him of his previous life, when a sudden meteor impact had devastated Earth's surface, and he had died as well. Fortunately, his luck had been fairly good at the time. He had been struck directly and turned to ash without the slightest pain.

What he had never expected was that he would be reborn.

And in this life, his luck was still not bad. He had transmigrated into a world where humans fought by commanding spirit beasts. His family circumstances were ordinary, but because Wang Mu had displayed intelligence far beyond his peers ever since childhood, they were willing to support his studies.

Between becoming a Beast Tamer and a Breeder, Wang Mu had chosen the latter.

That choice was tied to his talent: Sharing.

As Wang Mu understood it, once he established a certain connection with another party, he could share his own abilities with them, or share their abilities with himself. Of course, he had to initiate that "sharing" on his own.

As it happened, Wang Mu had already looked into this. After Beast Tamers purchased spirit beasts, they usually remained in long-term contact with breeders. Wang Mu could give a certain ability to a spirit beast, let the Beast Tamer train and strengthen it, then share it back to himself afterward. It was a perfect arrangement.

Still, the reason that had truly pushed Wang Mu onto the path of a Breeder was simple: excellent spirit beasts were far too expensive. Since he was bound to fall behind others at the start, he might as well choose another path and overtake them from the side.

Pulling his thoughts back, Wang Mu quickly reviewed the images from just now and already had a rough answer in mind.

At that moment, three minutes were up, and Zhu Tao spoke as he always did. "That should have been enough thinking time. Now I'll give you one minute to write down your answers."

Everyone in the classroom immediately began operating the screens built into their desks, and Wang Mu did the same. He finished in less than thirty seconds.

Zhu Tao split his attention across several answers at once. The more he read, the more expressionless he became. Only when he reached Wang Mu's answer did his face ease somewhat.

CRACK!

The ruler slammed against the podium. Zhu Tao glared at them, deeply disappointed. "How many times have I told you not to think only about speed? For breeders, the most important quality is carefulness. It doesn't matter if you're a little slower."

"This time, Wang Mu gets three points, Lin Jinghai gets one point, Du Lin loses one point, and everyone else stays the same."

Zhu Tao's in-class quizzes usually followed the same format. He would bring out an unpublished recording, give them three minutes to think after watching it, one minute to answer, and then proceed to the review.

The projection displayed Wang Mu's answer for everyone to see.

"The golden lion's original form was the Crimson Flame Lion. It evolved after absorbing a special flame and was likely altered through a Beast Tamer sharing an ability by contract."

"The unidentified vine creature possessed both darkness and wood attributes. It likely had a clone-type trait and was restrained by fire."

After reading it once, Zhu Tao smiled.

"Many of you identified the lion's original form correctly. Only Wang Mu pointed out the method of evolution. That's right. This is the latest breeding method proposed by Master Xu Chen."

"As everyone knows, a spirit beast can share one innate talent with its Beast Tamer. Every time a Beast Tamer rises by two levels, they can contract one additional spirit beast. But what if the process is reversed?"

"Sometimes a spirit beast can no longer improve through normal means. Yet an ability shared from the Beast Tamer can break that bottleneck, allowing the spirit beast to fuse perfectly with a new ability. If the combination is good enough, it can gain a chance to evolve."

"The Crimson Flame Lion's fire has spreading and clinging properties. If you still couldn't work backward from that to infer the Nightmare Vine's traits... forget it. I'm too lazy to lecture you. You're all about to graduate anyway."

"Class dismissed. Wang Mu, come with me."

...

Zhu Tao led Wang Mu straight to the Breeding Hall. It was a hemispherical building with a transparent shell, covering roughly ten square kilometers. It was not only one of the Shanhai Breeder Academy's most important assets, but also the face of Shanhai City itself.

Its interior employed spatial technology, fusing a secret realm with reality. Its true size was equivalent to twice the area of Shanhai City. Countless varieties of spirit beasts lived within it, and every year, all Beast Tamers of age in Shanhai City came here to receive their initial spirit beasts.

Zhu Tao spoke directly. "You know as well as I do that breeders are always busy. Aside from their own descendants, they rarely take disciples. But when they come across a talented junior, they still invest a little."

"You're only sixteen. Everyone else in your class is at least four years older than you, yet your grades are the best. Passing the Intermediate Breeder assessment won't be a problem for you. At the end of the term, I'll be returning to my own breeding center, so I'll give you a gift ahead of time. Pick whichever spirit beast you want from here."

This was something of a tradition among breeders. Anyone who passed the Junior Breeder examination had to spend a year teaching at the academy. If they encountered a promising seedling during that time, they were expected to offer some support. Wang Mu would do the same once he reached that level in the future, so he did not refuse.

"Thank you, Teacher Zhu."

After that, Wang Mu began to observe his surroundings.

This part of the Shanhai Realm was not wilderness. It was an artificially constructed ecological zone, and its layers were naturally well defined. This region was inhabited by plant- and insect-type spirit beasts. Their greatest advantage was that they were easy to raise and had short growth cycles, making them suitable for someone from a family like Wang Mu's.

Nor were rare spirit beasts lacking here. There were even Commander-class ones such as the Greenwood Treant, Madam Blossom, and Fragrant Rose.

Madam Blossom belonged to the fairy category. It stood about half the height of a person, had a human-like appearance, striking beauty, and wore a dress made of flowers. It was proficient in at least two mid-tier wood spells.

Fragrant Rose was a fairy with a rose blooming atop its head. It was comparatively small, only about twenty centimeters tall, and resembled a doll. It specialized in enhancement-type spells.

Both of them were extremely popular spirit beasts, priceless on the market. At the same time, they both evolved from the Flower Sprite, whose initial form was the Grass Sprite.

Wang Mu wanted to choose them as well.

Yet the Greenwood Treant was still the best option.

It was an ancient-tree-type spirit beast, usually two to three meters tall. It could gather earth and wood spiritual power and produce Verdant Spirit Dew, which contained wood spiritual power. It was a fine evolution material and could also be used for healing.

It could help care for plant-type spirit beasts, grow spirit herbs, and improve the environment. With one by his side, Wang Mu would be able to establish a proper habitat for plant-type spirit beasts.

Some insect-type spirit beasts were even fond of the Greenwood Treant.

The most famous of these was the Greenleaf Butterfly. As one of the weakest and easiest spirit beasts to subdue, it possessed astonishing growth speed, strong reproductive ability, and considerable hereditary stability. As long as there was one powerful father or mother, it could produce a large number of excellent offspring—but only by starting from the Greenleaf Caterpillar form.

The Greenleaf Butterfly had only one talent: Adaptability. Through different conditions, it could evolve into brand-new forms, more than a hundred in total. The weaker ones were merely low-tier spirit beasts, while the stronger ones could surpass the Lord rank and reach the King rank.

Yet across the entire Shenzhou Continent, there were only three King-rank forms, seven in total, all controlled by four King-rank Beast Tamers.

Wang Mu's father had an Elite-rank Phoenix-Eyed Butterfly with the talent Phoenix Eye. It could unleash pressure and oppress the enemy with mental force. It also possessed spells such as Mental Storm, and Wang Mu had already "shared" all of them.

Any spirit beast that possessed rare mental-type spells could be sold for a million as long as Wang Mu managed to breed a Phoenix-Eyed Butterfly, even if that species had a maximum lifespan of only twenty years.

Wang Mu had always performed well for the sake of this gift from a senior, and he had long since decided what kind of spirit beast he needed. The Greenwood Treant was one of them.

However, even spirit beasts of the same species could possess different talents and spells from one individual to another. That was where eyesight and judgment truly mattered. Wang Mu's ability required him to establish a certain connection with the target before he could share with it and examine which abilities were available for sharing.

He had no use for that at the moment, but his years of study had not been in vain. He walked toward a stretch of grassland. The terrain there was extremely flat, and four banyan trees rose abruptly from the open ground. One of them was so vast it almost formed a forest by itself. That was the Greenwood Treant progenitor of the Shanhai Realm. It was in its Rooted Form, so there was no need to consider it.

Of the remaining ones, there was another that was also exceptionally tall. It was not in its Rooted Form, yet its canopy still covered an area thirty meters across. Beneath it stood two small trees only one meter high, while green mist spread across the grass and was absorbed by them.

Those were the ones that could actually be chosen, and it had become a simple choice between the two.

From the outside, there was not much difference between them. Even after Wang Mu approached, they remained utterly still, like real trees.

Wang Mu took the chance to inspect their leaves. One of them was clearly more luxuriant. Its leaves were deep green, and even its trunk had already turned a dark brown. Its defensive power could at least withstand an ordinary fireball spell.

The other had leaves that were unremarkable by comparison. Its bark was tea-brown, and tiny bright specks shone within its cracks, as though someone had dusted it with silver powder. Wang Mu's mental power was strong, and he could vaguely sense a gentle current of energy flowing within it.

Almost instantly, Wang Mu made his decision.

"Teacher, I choose this energy-type Greenwood Treant."

The Greenwood Treant had two developmental paths. One absorbed energy to strengthen its body, granting astonishing defense and ever-growing recovery. The other condensed a Wood Spirit Core, specializing in the use of energy and capable of casting spells.

These represented the two evolutionary paths of the Greenwood Golem and the Greenwood Spirit.

For Wang Mu, whose talent allowed him to share abilities, the energy-type was naturally his favorite. Otherwise, he would never be able to obtain things like the Greenwood Treant's physical defense.

As a Commander-class spirit beast, the Greenwood Treant already possessed a certain level of awareness. When it sensed itself being mentioned, its leaves swayed slightly, as though in response.

Zhu Tao, who had been about to speak, paused for a moment. The words of advice he had intended to give were swallowed back down, and he simply said, "Fine. Sign the contract directly, take it home, and after that, you'll graduate."

In truth, as a qualified teacher, he would have recommended the other one instead. The stronger a Greenwood Treant's body was, the more spiritual qi it could gather, and the more Verdant Spirit Dew it could produce. That made it better suited for a breeding center.

But the student had made his own choice, and the Greenwood Treant had responded. That meant the compatibility between the two was high. Whether one was a Breeder or a Beast Tamer, when it came to contracting spirit beasts, bloodline and innate talent were certainly important, but compatibility was the true core.

Sometimes, if compatibility was high enough, they could continue evolving without needing a single material at all!