Chapter 2728 - 2729: Adaptation

"Is it not just a simple power increase?"

Looking at Xiao Ji with surprise, Feng Yuan hadn’t expected the Crimson Judgement to significantly boost control. Of course, the previous out-of-control state was related to Xiao Ji forcibly using power beyond the limit. The power was immense not only because it was a Divine Beast Technique but also because Xiao Ji tapped into power that exceeded his control capacity.

This had previously led to Xiao Ji almost unable to control the Crimson Judgement, whereas now, with strength close to Legendary Level, Xiao Ji clearly no longer needs excessive power to boost its effect.

Even so, turning an offensive ultimate move into this form was still beyond Feng Yuan’s expectations. Although the Ascension Stone hasn’t truly experienced those years, the simulation is based on the user’s own information. In Feng Yuan’s impression, Xiao Ji always liked violent outputs.

Xiao Ji rarely mastered this kind of strong control ultimate move, as it requires a lot of practice time, and the effects wouldn’t even slightly increase the power limit.

Xiao Ji let out a loud eagle cry, seemingly very happy. The Netherfire Star shimmered overhead, the falling sparks danced in the breeze like flying fireflies. Even Veronia had to admit, Xiao Ji’s move was quite impressive.

Not maintaining this state continuously, Xiao Ji rubbed its head against Feng Yuan. The Netherfire Group exploded like fireworks in the sky and slowly extinguished. Within a few minutes, the myriad Netherfire Stars completely disappeared, and likewise, the crack in the sky vanished at some unknown time.

The Flame Chasing Furry Dog glanced at Xiao Ji continuing to practice transforming its form. Ever since following Feng Yuan, it became increasingly lazy. Xiao Ji’s performance was merely admired silently without any thought of competing, as there was no need.

As its power rises, the gap in strength between it and Xiao Ji only widens. There’s no way around it; the uniqueness of Divine Beasts means Xiao Ji’s abilities are maxed out in all aspects before reaching the Divine Beast Level.

Whereas the Flame Chasing Furry Dog is different, limited by its race. In terms of attack and speed capabilities, it is almost maxed out, but its defensive abilities compared to the Fire Wolfhound stages have grown limited, and stamina growth is about the same. Though it has improved, it hasn’t reached the order limit.

This wasn’t so evident during weaker stages, since everyone’s limits were not high at that time. However, now with increased power, someone like Xiao Ji with maxed-out capabilities in all attributes has incredibly formidable strength.

After teasing Xiao Ji for a while, Feng Yuan asked it to quickly go back and continue practicing form transformation. As for Feng Yuan? He needed to prepare a place to sleep at night, after using the Ascension Stone, Xiao Ji and the Fluffy Fire Wolfhound are temporarily unsuitable to enter the city and stay in the village.

Because they might not be fully adjusted to their current state yet, it requires some observation time to ensure they, especially Flame Chasing Furry Dog, won’t unintentionally release flames and burn the house.

Xiao Ji doesn’t need to worry about the Netherfire on it. Feng Yuan just tested while teasing Xiao Ji that those Netherfire are more like decorations and only manifest physically when Xiao Ji enters combat mode and releases offensive moves.

As for those Netherworld Crows guarding the treetops, Feng Yuan doesn’t understand what’s going on either, at least Xiao Ji’s Rare Level form looks somewhat peculiar.

Bringing two Netherworld Crow assistants? No, according to Xiao Ji’s description, they should just be two controllable puppets. Feng Yuan doesn’t know why this strange thing appears in Xiao Ji’s evolved form.

Taking out the Ancient Black Book, with the help of Veronia and Tamur, Feng Yuan built a temporary wooden house. The internal furniture was substituted with plants. Watching the fireplace burning the firewood, Feng Yuan clapped his hands and said

"That’s it, let’s rest here for the next few days."

No choice, Xiao Ji and the Flame Chasing Furry Dog’s current situation is unclear, and Feng Yuan doesn’t dare bring them back to the village, or else accidentally setting the house on fire wouldn’t be a good thing.

There are a lot of people similar to Feng Yuan who received the Ascension Stone today. Although their beast evolutions were mainly advancing to the next order, this sudden surge of power inevitably brought them similar concerns.

This resulted in many powerful Beastmasters tonight scrambling for open space to camp in the wild. The Tea Wood Town Area is relatively better because the number of Beastmasters here is not particularly numerous.

Conversely, the surroundings of Maomu City are different. Although more open space is available around Maomu City, there are significantly more Beastmasters compared to the Tea Wood Town Area, not to mention many are soldiers in the city defense sequence, usually moving in large groups.

The discovery of the hidden conditions was thanks to the collective challenge by the city defense sequence soldiers.

That even without participating in the United Army frontline combat, just maintaining order in the rear and assisting the frontline logistics can still earn rewards. Although these rewards are not Ascension Stones, they do reduce the challenge difficulty.

Once the contributions are summed up, it quickly becomes apparent that those soldiers with contributions in stabilizing the rear faced much easier challenges than free Beastmasters.

Even Qi Chen and his group were like this. Initially, Qi Chen and his friends were worried about whether they could pass the challenge because, in relative terms, it was relatively fair, focusing solely on potential and battle experience and skills, unrelated to sheer strength.

Qi Chen and his group didn’t have much confidence in themselves, considering the gap when compared to those who passed the entrance exams for Upper Capital Beast Taming Academy.

However, upon facing the challenge, they immediately noticed something off with the difficulty; it wasn’t higher but lower.

Which is indeed normal. Even though they aren’t the main force like Feng Yuan, upon thorough reflection, several of Feng Yuan’s battles related to the Empire War involved them. Even though they didn’t play a significant role, it still constituted a record of achievements.

If truly calculated, their contributions might well surpass some of the city defense sequencer soldiers.

After all, they’ve been involved in many major events, and those events contained significant achievements, even if their share was small, it was still substantial.

The discovery of this hidden rule led the increasingly chaotic Main World order to stabilize instantly.

Everyone was aware, that although this particular challenge had no chance of leveraging this rule, once they capture the Imperial Timeline, a second challenge will clearly arise.

At that time, contributions will be calculated from now onward, making it clear that engaging in sabotage now won’t grab any benefits and might even increase difficulty crazily.

Especially in the not-so-distant World Defense Battle, there was an instance where the committed crimes weren’t offset by recorded successes. Instead, everything was settled together, and in severe cases, rewards could be attributed to blameless intimate kin.

They didn’t want to experience that kind of punishment now.

With night behind them, Feng Yuan rubbed his eyes to wake Xiao Ji and them up, only to find they were already awake, practicing form transformations outside while applying various ultimate moves to adapt.

Though the Ascension Stone provided them with initially high control force for ultimate moves, this doesn’t mean they are familiar with their new forms.

This is an impossibility, as the Ascension Stone won’t impart any extra memories, considering this falls under the side effects category.

Control force and more resemble things like muscle memory, requiring practice to thoroughly grasp.

Not much need to elaborate for ultimate moves, like Xiao Ji’s Crimson Judgement, many ultimate moves undergo formation changes as strength increases.

More often, they just replace old ultimate moves with new ones, although these ultimate moves require trying out.

Because the same ultimate move varies in power, range, and others depending on different Spirit Beasts’ hands, and even some special Spirit Beasts exhibit different forms with the same moves.

"They’re really putting in effort."

Watching Xiao Ji and the Flame Chasing Furry Dog outside the window, Feng Yuan shook his head with amusement as Veronia glanced at Feng Yuan and said

"Well, what do you expect? Although it claims zero side effects, clearly they need to adapt themselves."

"Haha, after all, it’s something new, even for a new phone, doesn’t it take some time to set up and get used to?"

Laughing, Feng Yuan didn’t dwell on this topic. He planned to make a hearty breakfast, then once breakfast was over, let Xiao Ji take him on a flight around the area.

This was agreed upon yesterday, an important matter long promised between Feng Yuan and Xiao Ji.

Last night, Feng Yuan also asked Xiao Ji about his preference. Though nighttime flights seemed appealing to him, Xiao Ji still preferred to complete this promise during the day, thus postponed until today’s execution.

Just when Feng Yuan took out the ingredients to prepare, his phone rang. With a puzzled look at the remark on the phone, Feng Yuan found it odd that he would call at this time.