Chapter 2739 - 2740: The Legendary Threshold

"Why did you even agree? You knew that place would be a mess, and you still insisted on going there to stir things up? Besides, for Xiao Ji, whether it joins the battles in The Imperial Timeline or not doesn’t affect getting the Ascension Stone at all."

Rolling his eyes, Feng Yuan said irritably. With Qi Chen’s group diving into The Imperial Timeline again, Feng Yuan could already guess the reason. Even if they can’t grab the Ascension Stone directly, their overall contribution to the War will lower the difficulty of their Ascension challenge.

But Feng Yuan doesn’t need that effect at all. If he can cheat once, he can cheat many more times. As for further boosting the Ascension Stone’s effect, that’s even more unnecessary.

Whether it’s Xiao Ji or Ah Mu, none of them are suited to try the Ascension Stone again in the short term. Right now they’ve only just fully familiarized themselves with their new powers; as for filling in gaps and tidying things up, none of that has been done yet.

According to Feng Yuan’s estimate, at least for the next two years, Xiao Ji and the others aren’t suitable for using the Ascension Stone at all. After all, starting from Legendary Level, a Beast Tamer’s strength is no longer judged purely by raw power; it also includes its unique Domain. And the Ascension Stone simply cannot catalyze a Domain.

That thing naturally forms based on the Spirit Beast’s growth experiences and the distinctive traits of its own power. No matter how long a future the Ascension Stone deduces, it’s all fake; it’s not something they truly lived through. The accumulation of a Domain begins at Legendary Level. If you skip straight past that, while it’s not like there’s no way to fix it, it’s still a huge hassle.

Feng Yuan didn’t say all this out loud. Anyway it’s not something they need to worry about for now. As for Qi Chen and the others? Feng Yuan actually isn’t worried, because they’re well aware of the situation, so there’s no need for him to go out of his way.

"Alright, even if you get another Ascension Stone right now, it’s useless to you. Have you mastered your Legendary Level Domain and aura?"

Seeing that Xiao Ji was still unwilling, Feng Yuan lightly patted it and spoke helplessly. Even though Xiao Ji is one of the Divine Beasts, there’s no special treatment in this regard, because essentially this stuff is nothing but the accumulation of insight and experience, and has nothing to do with talent. To put it bluntly, all that’s required is living long and going through a lot.

On this front, Xiao Ji is more than just a little lacking; it’s even inferior to the Flame Chasing Furry Dog. That guy at least has a certain age on it.

Xiao Ji let out a dissatisfied cry, clearly unhappy. Veronia chuckled softly and said,

"Even though you haven’t reached Legendary Level strength yet, you can already start touching that kind of thing, you know."

Normally, only at Legendary Level can you come into contact with these things. But this isn’t absolute; strength is also an important factor. For someone like Xiao Ji, who hasn’t officially advanced to Legendary Level yet but already possesses Legendary Level strength, of course it can grasp this kind of content.

After all, this stuff is just accumulated experience and life history; it doesn’t directly involve power growth. So when Veronia egged Xiao Ji on to study and master this aspect, Feng Yuan couldn’t be bothered to stop her.

After all, even Divine Beasts can make good use of this. There’s no problem in learning about it.

"Legendary Level Domain and aura... this kind of thing..."

With Feng Yuan bringing it up like that, Dou Yanlan and Qi Chen both turned to look at their own Spirit Beasts and fell silent. They really had overlooked this matter. Unlike at the low Order stages, from Legendary Level onward, strength is no longer judged solely by Energy intensity.

Domain and aura are also indispensable components. While these two don’t directly increase strength, they let their Ultimate Moves be used far more smoothly. You could even say that starting at Legendary Level, each Ultimate Move will become unique thanks to the influence of the Domain.

That’s right, a Domain can change the effect and power of an Ultimate Move to a certain extent. It looks somewhat similar to a Crystal Domain, but is also different. A Domain is an exclusive power unique to each Spirit Beast, and the changes it brings are also tied to that uniqueness. Even Legendary Spirit Beasts of the same species have different Domains, because their experiences and habits can never be identical.

This naturally means the Ultimate Move Changes triggered by their Domains are also different. These differences make the combat style of Legendary Spirit Beasts far more flexible and much harder to counter.

This was something they should have thought of long ago. It’s just that their strength rose too fast; even Dou Yanlan hadn’t yet wrapped her head around the fact that she was already a Legendary Beast Master.

So naturally she hadn’t realized that Ah Mu and the others currently have no Domain or aura at all—that’s a huge problem.

No, Ah Mu doesn’t count, since it hasn’t stepped into Legendary Level yet. Unlike Xiao Ji, Ah Mu isn’t even at top-tier Rare Level strength, so it simply has no way to grasp this kind of thing.

But that doesn’t stop them from getting a head start on preparations, because this stuff is tied to experience. Under normal circumstances, they should actually be the ones lacking it the most. Except thanks to Feng Yuan, their life experience is... honestly hard to put into words.

If you say they’ve had too little, well, they’ve gone through stuff that many Legendary Beast Masters have never encountered. If you say they’ve had too much... how could that be? The three of them have only been Beastmasters for a bit over a year. No matter how you spin it, that’s not "a lot."

Or rather, their experiences have quality, but not enough quantity.

Fortunately, their preparations are for the Spirit Beasts who will be joining their roster soon, not for Ah Mu and the others. Otherwise, if they hadn’t woken up to this in time and used the Ascension Stone again, and then jumped straight into Legendary—no, Legendary Level is fine—if they accidentally entered Legendary Level’s next stage, the Legendary Level that leads to the Legendary Stage above, it would be a real headache.

It’s not that there’s no way to fix it, it’s just troublesome. In the past everyone improved step by step; problems like today’s simply never came up.

The reason that stage is called Legendary Level is because Spirit Beasts at this stage have the strength to forge a legend, or you could say, they themselves are a legend.

If your foundation hasn’t been built up properly and you charge into this stage rashly, they have no idea what might happen. After all, the Ascension Stone isn’t the same as those reckless experiments from the past.

However, those past failed experiments have already proven that Domain accumulation is extremely important for Beastmasters at the Legendary Stage and Legendary Level.

Relying on external force to yank a Spirit Beast up to Legendary Level doesn’t just mean lacking the power of a Domain; it also means losing control over that explosively increased, enormous power within its body.

The half-finished Legendary Level Spirit Beasts spawned by those failed experiments didn’t have a single one that lived longer than a month.

After that, the Divine Beasts openly warned humans that if they ever tried that kind of experiment again, they absolutely wouldn’t show mercy.

It was precisely those experiments that made humans start taking Domain cultivation at the Legendary Stage seriously.

"If you get a second Ascension Stone, my suggestion is that Ah Mu and the others best not use it yet. That includes Ah Mu itself."

Glancing at Qi Chen’s group, Feng Yuan spoke. Ah Mu might only be at Rare Level strength, but Feng Yuan couldn’t pin down where its strength would end up if it used the Ascension Stone a second time.

If it’s only Legendary Level, that’s still manageable. But if it jumps to Legendary Level’s next step—Legendary Level’s higher tier, the Legendary Level that edges toward the Legendary Stage—it’ll be trouble.

No matter how he looks at it, Feng Yuan just doesn’t believe the Ascension Stone can generate a Domain. That thing won’t conjure memories out of thin air, and one major component of a Domain is past experiences.

"We understand that part. But... do we need to remind others about this?"

Thinking of something, Dou Yanlan looked at Feng Yuan somewhat uncertainly and asked. Even she had overlooked this important issue—what about other people?

"Mm, probably not. You guys are a special case. Being able to get an Ascension Stone at Good Level... that shouldn’t be common, right? I mean, the difficulty’s right there."

Feng Yuan rubbed his chin as he spoke. Qi Chen’s team had his help—tons of oddball methods on top of that—and then the War contribution lowered the difficulty, so it all felt nice and easy.

As for everyone else? It’s not that Feng Yuan looks down on them, but at low Order stages the means available really are extremely limited. Anyone who can clear that trial are bona fide geniuses. Qi Chen and the others are decent, but strictly speaking, they’re not the strongest of the pack.

Those real prodigies will inevitably have someone teaching them. Even if Feng Yuan doesn’t remind anyone, that crowd won’t possibly miss something this important.

"That... does make sense..."

Thinking of that brutal challenge, Qi Chen scratched his head and gave an awkward laugh. Seeing Xiao Ji still unconvinced, Feng Yuan sighed and said,

"Veronia, show Xiao Ji what a Legendary Level Domain actually looks like. Otherwise it’s just going to stay stubborn."

"Mm-hmm."

Shooting Feng Yuan a sideways glance, Veronia waved her small hand. The Crystal Luminance Stone Torrent appeared once more, except this time it had changed: two dragons formed from Crystal Luminance Stones intertwined as they flew, rising into the sky before detonation.

Unlike a normal explosion, this time a huge suction erupted from the detonation point—or rather, from the very start, there was no Shock Wave from an explosion at all.

The terrifying suction spread outward, and the Energy in the surroundings was drawn in massive amounts, gathering and weaving into colorful streams of light.

"This is... asynchronous activation? Trigger the Ultimate Move first, then let the Ultimate Move itself replenish the Energy it needs to keep firing?"

Feng Yuan froze for a second before finally realizing what Veronia had done.