Chapter 2741 - 2742: Dilemma and Choice

As time went by, the Beastmasters who still hadn’t passed the trial grew increasingly irritable. Even though Feng Yuan and his group stayed far from the challenge sites, the net was flooded with news of conflicts breaking out over trivial matters.

Feng Yuan and the others weren’t surprised. Anyone capable of clearing the test had basically done so already; the ones left could only keep trying over and over, hoping to break through before the deadline.

The Ascension Stone’s effect was astonishing, practically a one-step ascension for everyone. Precisely because of that, the number of people taking part in the trial hadn’t dropped after so many had passed; instead, it kept climbing.

Especially after many saw that people from the official army were mostly able to get Ascension Stones, some started harboring unrealistic fantasies. Even knowing full well they had almost no chance, they still wanted to gamble on it.

"Yang Hongzhi is coming over? Well, he’s fine, but... Najia will be with him, right?"

At dusk the next day, hearing from Veronia that Yang Hongzhi was coming to find him, Feng Yuan felt a bit puzzled. It wasn’t that he had anything against Yang Hongzhi, but Yang was not like Qi Chen and the rest—the one following Yang Hongzhi around was Najia.

Sure, it seemed fine for now, and the Imperial People hadn’t launched a surprise attack at this time, but... wouldn’t it be better for a Divine Beast to stay in the city? What was that guy doing coming here to relax now of all times?

"Mmhm, of course it’s coming. It sounds like he’s here to invite you to expand your team."

Glancing at Feng Yuan, Veronia knew what he was thinking. Even if rotations had been arranged across all regions and the defense forces’ challenge difficulty was clearly much lower, the rotation wasn’t fully completed yet.

That meant that as of now, city defenses everywhere, including Maomu City, were in a weakened state. It wasn’t to the point of being easily overrun, but they couldn’t intercept all invaders in a short time—especially if the invasion was large-scale.

The presence of a Divine Beast could nicely cover that flaw. After all, the power of Divine Beasts really wasn’t something an ordinary Beastmaster could compare to.

Najia coming over meant Maomu City now only had Drudgeon guarding it. If the Imperial People actually did something during this window...

"Expanding the team? Makes sense. He only had two guardians before; this time his limit’s probably been maxed out."

Rubbing his chin, Feng Yuan realized what Yang intended to do. The Ascension Stone wasn’t just a simple, brute-force boost to a Guardian Beast’s combat strength. There was still the Taming Beast Contract bond between beast and Beastmaster, and the Ascension Stone didn’t bypass that. While elevating the beast’s strength, it also fed back the corresponding years of growth in ability to the Beastmaster—without side effects.

That was how Beastmasters like Qi Chen, who originally could contract only two guardians, suddenly unlocked all the remaining Guardian Beast Positions.

That limit existed in the first place because a Beastmaster’s spiritual power wasn’t enough to sustain that many Taming Beast Contracts. The "limit" was just the ceiling imposed by spiritual power consumption.

Legendary Level usually meant a Beastmaster’s potential was almost fully tapped and all of their contract slots were basically unlocked.

Qi Chen and his group had only two guardians each. Now their Guardian Beast Positions had suddenly expanded to eight, so naturally they needed to fill out the team.

Whether there would be more Ascension Stones later or not, at the very least, adding a few new guardians now to complete the lineup was quite important for them.

Feng Yuan hadn’t mentioned this before purely because he’d judged that until the Ascension Stone trials ended, things would be chaotic everywhere. Plus, Wild Spirit Beasts were banding together to resist the War. At a time like this it wouldn’t be easy to find suitable guardians to fill out their teams.

Once the trials ended and order was restored across regions, Feng Yuan believed the authorities would definitely give thought to this sudden group of Beastmasters with a surplus of Guardian Beast Positions.

After all, aside from unreasonable things like Ascension Stones, a Guardian Beast’s growth basically depended on time grinding away.

The earlier a lineup was completed, the more it benefited most Beastmasters. Qi Chen and his group were no exception.

Feng Yuan himself didn’t really need this, since he didn’t actually rely on Guardian Beasts for combat power and his team composition wasn’t a normal lineup.

So he didn’t feel much about expanding his own team and was still planning to let things develop naturally. But that wouldn’t work for Qi Chen’s group. They’d finally gained such a huge edge; there was no way they could stay as casual as before.

Previously, Feng Yuan had assumed the authorities would arrange for these Beastmasters to expand their teams after the trials ended. He hadn’t expected them to start already?

Najia also had spatial methods, so it didn’t need Veronia’s help to open a gate. The reason Veronia came to inform Feng Yuan first was just to avoid showing up too abruptly, in case Feng Yuan’s side happened to be in the middle of something awkward.

Given that Feng Yuan had Veronia and Tamur with him, plus himself, it wouldn’t be strange for anything bizarre to be happening. Even more so since when Najia had asked earlier, Veronia had mentioned that Feng Yuan was having Xiao Ji and the others do live combat practice and sparring.

After a while, Najia opened a Space Gate and waved at Yang Hongzhi. Feng Yuan smiled and said,

"Got time on your hands now?"

Yang Hongzhi shook his head helplessly, glanced at Xiao Ji and the others, and said,

"I haven’t had the chance to take part in any operations lately. Maintaining spatial seals is still a bit... difficult for it."

"Mm, true enough. But you should have some combat capability now, right?"

Feng Yuan froze for a moment and then spoke. Yang Hongzhi’s strength had been decent before, but only within his age group. To fight the Imperial People, he’d still been a bit lacking.

As for whether he’d gotten an Ascension Stone—

Qi Chen and his group had no trouble at all; how could Yang Hongzhi possibly fail to get one? Najia’s contributions were all counted toward Yang Hongzhi as well.

Looking at Najia on his shoulder, Yang Hongzhi smiled and said,

"Thanks to it, Xiao Hui and the others can also fight those Imperial People now."

"Right, the higher-ups just contacted the surrounding Wild Spirit Beast groups. Over the next couple of days you can take turns going out to look for suitable new guardians. If you need to, you can submit a request and they’ll assign you to the corresponding Wild Spirit Beast gathering grounds."

Remembering something, Yang Hongzhi spoke up. Feng Yuan gave him a puzzled look and said,

"You came all the way here just to tell me that? Couldn’t you just say it over the phone?"

Feng Yuan wasn’t surprised that the authorities had such arrangements. Without official help right now, ordinary people really wouldn’t be able to find any Wild Spirit Beasts. It was just that this didn’t seem important enough to warrant a special trip.

"Heh, no, uh... I mainly wanted to ask if you think I should be considering the whole Qi Realm Stance thing?"

Scratching his head, Yang Hongzhi looked a bit embarrassed. Feng Yuan eyed him suspiciously and said,

"Qi Realm Stance isn’t much use to you for now. You basically can’t get the Defensive Stance, and the Attack Stance doesn’t mean much. You’d be better off thinking about things related to the Crystal Domain."

"Are you hesitating over team composition?"

Even though Yang Hongzhi hadn’t spelled it out, Feng Yuan could already guess what he was getting at. The emergence of the Crystal Domain had directly changed Guardian Beast lineup strategies, never mind the Qi Realm Stance.

Looking at Najia, Yang Hongzhi said awkwardly,

"I’m not familiar with Qi Realm Stance. If that thing turns out to be like the Crystal Domain..."

"Qi Realm Stance isn’t weak, especially the Defensive Stance. But it has a huge impact on the mind. The Ascension Stone didn’t boost you guys in that area, so I don’t recommend you think about it right now."

"Xiao Ji, show them Qi Realm Stance Defense."

As he spoke, Feng Yuan called Xiao Ji over, had it switch into Qi Realm Stance Defense, and asked Veronia to help. Watching the Black Sun continually launch counterattacks, Yang Hongzhi and the others fell silent.

The power was really high, and the coordination between the Flame Chasing Furry Dog and Xiao Ji was clearly much stronger than in their non–Qi Realm forms.

But... the fact that they couldn’t use it was the problem. Neither Yang Hongzhi nor Qi Chen’s group thought Feng Yuan was exaggerating.

Especially Qi Chen and the others. Having Qi Realm Stance Attack themselves, they understood all too well how it affected the mind. Even now they still hadn’t fully recovered. Qi Realm Stance Defense was indeed out of reach for the time being.

"We do need to expand the guardian lineup now, but..."

Qi Chen was also conflicted at the moment. The strength of Qi Realm Stance was gradually being revealed, and the Defensive Stance alone already tempted him.

"Best not to think about it. Don’t forget, no one’s really studied that thing yet. Instead of worrying about it, you’re better off going by affinity and luck. Qi Realm Stance isn’t something you can toss out as casually as the Crystal Domain anyway."

Feng Yuan shrugged and advised them. He wasn’t surprised that their thinking had shifted. In the face of War, only strength mattered. That former ’go with the flow’ attitude was ultimately something for peacetime only.