Chapter 6: High-Level Breeder

Wang Mu was busy all day. Since he had to go take the assessment tomorrow, he turned in early that night.

The Blueleaf Mistflowers and the other plants had already been planted by hired workers, and the spirit butterflies would be quite fond of them. After preparing the nutrient solutions as well, Wang Mu set out for the Association with Qingling and a secure case in his arms.

A breeder's assessment only took a single day, so there was no need to worry about anything happening to the spirit butterflies.

...

The Breeder Academy stood right beside the Breeders Association, so Wang Mu was thoroughly familiar with the route by the time he arrived. The doorman spotted him and, from three meters away, extended a hand in a welcoming gesture.

Wang Mu had only just taken out his paperwork when a woman stepped forward and accepted it. "Mr. Wang, please come with me. This assessment will take place in Secret Realm No. 17. The materials you requested have already been prepared and will be delivered after your assessment officially begins."

The woman was extremely professional. After leading Wang Mu through the formalities, she brought him straight to the entrance of the secret realm. It was a black doorframe with a blue vortex revolving within it. Sitting by the entrance was a middle-aged man, and when he saw Wang Mu approach, he tapped the desk before him.

Wang Mu immediately placed the secure case on the desk. The man scanned it with an instrument, confirmed that it had not been tampered with, then checked Qingling to ensure it carried no prohibited items. After that, he handed Wang Mu a jade token.

"When you feel that you have completed the assessment, or if you fail, channel spiritual power into this. Someone will come verify it."

"You may enter now."

"Thank you."

With that, Wang Mu took the jade token and stepped into the secret realm.

A complete secret realm had laws of its own, the most obvious being the flow of time. But that was not actually a good thing for humans. Only spirit beasts could withstand such differences in time flow. Because of that, formations had been set up in such special secret realms to keep certain regions within normal time.

The Association, however, had made clever use of this and turned them into examination grounds.

After passing through the doorway, Wang Mu found himself inside a room, with a grassland-like environment stretching beyond it. The materials he had requested were piled there in ten neat sets. The mere sight of them put him in an excellent mood.

The reason he had chosen to use Commander-rank eggs in the assessment was precisely because of those materials.

He had, of course, considered the possibility of failure. But that possibility was small, and in that case, he had to maximize the use of his resources. With these eggs paired with the full set of materials, the breeding process could be made even more perfect. When it was over, these spirit butterflies would become Wang Mu's first true source of wealth.

An assessment?

No, this was a supply run.

Wang Mu opened the secure case and placed the eggs into the incubator. Outside, they would have needed a full day to hatch, but here, it was done in mere seconds.

The newly hatched Greenleaf Caterpillars were slender and fragile. Their Shared Level was only 1, so when Wang Mu shared his own abilities with them, he had to suppress them all the way down to the Beginner stage.

After that, he took them all out. He truly had not expected them to hatch so quickly, so he had not divided up their food beforehand.

In the ten cultivation containers, Wang Mu placed different materials. The ordinary ones included Azure Jade Bamboo leaves. Greenleaf Caterpillars in their earliest stage were far too frail and could only be fed low-grade materials. Then he placed them into the accelerated-time region and waited for their first molt.

At the same time, Wang Mu prepared the food and materials needed for that first molt.

There was the Fortifying Base Fluid, which made a Greenleaf Caterpillar's body stronger.

The various plant leaves used in the first feeding determined the attribute leaning the Greenleaf Caterpillar would develop.

Two of them were fed Azure Jade Bamboo, two were fed Blueleaf Mistflowers, and two were fed oleander petals. These were to recreate the Azure Jade Butterfly, the Silver Butterfly, and the Poison Powder Butterfly. Two of each meant certain success and guaranteed that Wang Mu would at least reach the level of a High-Level Breeder.

As for the remaining four Greenleaf Caterpillars, they were fed fire-attribute Redleaf Mulberry leaves, wind-attribute Windbell Flowers, water-attribute poplar blossoms, and light-attribute Brightglow Grass. Wang Mu had specially reasoned out the materials for all four. In theory, they could evolve into Elite-rank spirit beasts.

Even if they failed, it would not matter. Because of their attribute leanings, they would evolve with absolute certainty into Excellent-rank spirit beasts of their respective attributes. At that point, once Wang Mu shared those attribute spells back to himself, the next time he bred new spirit butterflies, he would be able to add spells as another "material" during the molting stage.

In other words, there was no possible way for Wang Mu to lose. These four attribute spirit beasts would be bred sooner or later regardless.

The assessment proceeded in an orderly fashion. After the second molt, Wang Mu continued feeding them. This time, however, the materials he added were much more expensive. For example, there were the various elemental jades. A gram of Light Jade sold on the market for ten thousand. Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth jades were eight thousand a gram, wind jade nine thousand, and lightning jade fifteen thousand.

Unfortunately, lightning was also considered a rare attribute. Wang Mu had only been able to come into contact with the mental type because of Wang Lingfeng's Phoenix-Eyed Butterfly. He had no research into lightning, so naturally he had not bred any spirit beasts related to it.

There were no elemental jades for the mental type, so what Wang Mu used instead was the spirit core of a First-Rank Demon Beast, the Patterned Snake. A single one cost thirty thousand.

High-quality spirit beasts sold for high prices, but the materials needed to breed them were far from cheap. There were some spirit beast evolution methods that had long been made public, yet no one attempted them. Either the materials were too expensive, or the process was too complicated. Anyone who was not a professional breeder simply had no way to make proper use of those materials.

Wang Mu belonged to a comparatively straightforward school. He used food to increase a spirit beast's potential and guide it toward evolution. The spells he shared were practically a cheat, raising the probability of a spirit beast evolving. If paired properly, they could even guarantee evolution with absolute certainty.

There were, of course, other methods of evolution.

Unfortunately, Wang Mu lacked both the strength and the means for them, so he could only put them aside.

The third molt also came to an end. This time, all the Greenleaf Caterpillars were fed was nutrient solution. Once they had eaten their fill, they entered the cocoon stage.

By then, three hours had already passed.

Which meant that even for the breeding of other spirit beasts, a single day would have been more than enough.

Wang Mu waited quietly, observing whether the cocoons had absorbed enough energy. Once they were nearly ready, he took them out and brought them to the simulation chamber, activated Sunrise Mode, and waited for them to break free of their cocoons.

Just as it had happened at home, the Silver Butterfly emerged first, followed closely by the Poison Powder Butterfly and the Azure Jade Butterfly.

The Azure Jade Butterfly had not undergone any obvious change, but the talents of the other two spirit butterflies had both reached Low Grade, High Quality.

After all six butterflies emerged, they immediately began circling around Qingling. Their instinct after leaving the cocoon was to seek out mates, so this time Wang Mu had Qingling interfere. It released a faint mist, which was spiritual energy in vaporized form. Sure enough, it drew the spirit butterflies in to drink from it.

At that moment, Wang Mu hurriedly removed the other four cocoons. Without the catalytic effect of skills, their foundations were not quite as deep, so they emerged more slowly.

Even so, they all evolved successfully.

Water Mist Butterfly (Adult): 0

Bloodline: Excellent

Talent: Water (Low Grade, Mid Grade)

Innate Spells: Water Mist (Beginner), Water Arrow (Beginner)

Shared Level: 3

Spark Butterfly (Adult): 0

Bloodline: Excellent

Talent: Fire (Low Grade, Mid Grade)

Innate Spells: Flame Arrow (Beginner), Sparks (Beginner)

Windchime Butterfly (Adult): 0

Bloodline: Elite

Talent: Wind (Low Grade, High Quality)

Innate Spells: Wind Blade (Beginner), Illusory Windchime (Beginner), Tailwind (Beginner)

Shared Level: 3

It was actually an Elite-rank spirit beast with three skills!

Wang Mu was delighted. From the very beginning, he had prepared himself for all four to come out merely Excellent. This unexpected gain made him especially happy. That was the income from three whole skills!

He looked with satisfaction at the fourth spirit butterfly.

To his surprise, it was another pleasant shock.

Brightglow Butterfly (Adult): 0

Bloodline: Elite

Talent: Light (Low Grade, High Quality)

Innate Spells: Light Blade (Beginner), Radiance (Beginner), Light Beam Strike (Beginner)

Shared Level: 3

All of them belonged to Wang Mu. This, too, counted as one of the Association's benefits. No matter what level of assessment one was taking, as long as it was the first time, the Association would provide the materials free of charge. If one succeeded, one took the spirit beasts away and received one's rank advancement. If one failed, that was fine as well. For a second assessment, one paid fifty percent of the material cost, and after that, one paid the full amount.

As for sharing abilities, that could wait until he returned home.

Wang Mu checked the time. The entire process had taken five hours and eleven minutes. He immediately took out the jade token and activated it.

【Please wait 1–3 minutes. Professional staff are entering the examination ground.】

It did not even take a minute before the man who had examined him at the entrance stepped inside. This time, he was wearing a pair of glasses. He carefully inspected the spirit butterflies resting upon Qingling one by one, then said to Wang Mu, "Congratulations. You are now a High-Level Breeder registered with the Association."

"The jade token is your proof. Go find someone to enter your information and handle your identification. If you've also opened a breeding center, that can be processed at the same time."

After saying that, the man turned and left the secret realm at once, decisive and utterly without hesitation. Those spirit butterflies had not stirred even the slightest surprise in him. The Association had stood firm for so many years, and he had seen all manner of geniuses. It was not as though Wang Mu had bred a Commander-rank spirit beast on his very first assessment. A single reminder was more than enough.

Wang Mu understood that the man's final sentence had been meant as a reminder. Before he could even thank him, the man had already left. Helpless, Wang Mu led his spirit beasts out. The woman from earlier was already waiting there. She took one look at the beautiful spirit butterflies, and after only the briefest pause, her expression returned to normal.

"Mr. Wang, I will take you to process your certification."

Wang Mu nodded. "All right. And please register the information for the breeding center as well. Sorry to trouble you."

"It is no trouble. The Association provides assistance to every one of its members."

With the woman's help, all the formal procedures were completed very quickly. It was only after Wang Mu had returned home that he felt the entire trip had gone almost unbelievably smoothly. He touched the badge pinned to his chest. It was made chiefly of silver. At the bottom were three raised five-pointed stars, while the center bore the image of a pair of uplifted hands.

This represented the status of a High-Level Breeder.

Breeders wore golden badges. No star meant Probationary Breeder, one star meant Junior Breeder, and so on.

Wang Mu had only seen a few Low-Level and Mid-Level Breeders today. He had not seen a single true Breeder. But barring the unexpected, the middle-aged man who had inspected him had to be one, and at the very least of the intermediate tier. Only someone like that could certify a High-Level Breeder so casually.

These Breeders wished they could split their time in two, yet here they were being called over to supervise assessments. They were usually in foul moods because of it, and all the more prone to pick faults. Anyone who could pass under those conditions was almost certainly the real thing.

The Breeders Association knew that.

In fact, it was deliberate.

One could not simply allow anyone and everyone into an industry like this. They wanted elites, and only elites.

And this line of work truly could change a person's fate.

Wang Lingfeng was fifty-five now. Given his lifespan of over two hundred years, he was no longer in the stage of youth, and his features were beginning to shift toward middle age. Yet after all these years, he still had only a single Elite-rank spirit beast.

But a breeder like Wang Mu, so long as he possessed talent and ability, could mass-produce Elite-rank spirit beasts.

Of course, breeders with real ambition generally did not pursue mass production. Once they could breed Elite-rank spirit beasts, they would strive to breed Commander-rank ones. After that, Beast King rank, then Lord rank...

Wang Mu was the same.