The old couple sat on the sofa, staring at the closed door to the room.
They had been feigning loud cries and shouts in the living room for a while now.
But their son in the room completely ignored their wailing.
This left the two of them, who were only pretending to cry, feeling a little helpless.
"This kid..."
"What do we do? The Little Cyan Snake alone definitely isn't enough. We have to make our son contract a new Pet Beast."
"At this point, our only option is to use force."
"Even if a forced relationship isn't a happy one, once it's a done deal..."
Mr. Gu said, his eyes glinting.
Mrs. Gu nodded, then seemed to realize something and slapped Mr. Gu's leg.
"What kind of rotten analogy is that? Who even talks like you?"
...
「Inside the room.」
Gu Ming had no idea what his parents were planning.
The commotion outside the door only proved that they were getting desperate.
'How much of their concern is genuinely for this family is questionable.'
'But one thing is certain: the money isn't in their hands, and that's why they're desperate.'
Gu Ming shook his head, pushing aside those messy, trivial matters. Right now, he just wanted to test the Old Grouper Fish's Talent Ability.
"Here, try and see if you can devour a Spirit Stone."
Gu Ming tossed the small piece of Spirit Stone it had brought back into the Fish Tank.
The Grouper Fish opened its cloudy eyes. It didn't recognize the stone as the one it had picked up; it only sensed the overflowing spiritual light, which seemed to be very enticing food.
It swam over, opened its mouth slightly, and swallowed the Spirit Stone in a flash.
「The Kunpeng has swallowed the Spirit Stone. Unfortunately, it has forgotten the method for its racial talent's Cultivating Technique, so this Spirit Stone cannot be digested for now.」
Gu Ming frowned to himself. 'As expected, it's not that simple.'
If it could really use Devouring Evolution, it would have evolved to One-star long ago over all these years, instead of dragging things out until it was on the verge of death.
'Forgotten the method for its racial talent's Cultivating Technique?'
'Or rather, it probably has no idea how to use a Cultivating Technique at all.'
'After all, it's just an ordinary Grouper Fish.'
On the market, it's just a basic Water Element Fish Pet that can only be raised to One-star at most. Its potential is even lower than the Little Cyan Snake's.
"Hold on, I'm going to look some things up," Gu Ming said.
He took out his phone and browsed the national Beast Taming knowledge network, searching for research papers on the Grouper Fish as a Pet Beast.
The search system immediately listed hundreds of papers.
It was a basic Pet Beast, so many Beastmasters had researched it. However, the fact that there were no examples of a Two-star specimen after so many years of study was enough to prove its poor potential.
Gu Ming paid for and downloaded several of the most subscribed papers and began reading them on the spot.
Half an hour later, he had a general understanding of the Grouper Fish's situation.
People contracted Grouper Fish mainly to use their abilities to clear out invasive species from rivers.
Over the past sixty years, Beastmasters had developed a system based on "Big Fish Stomach" and "Biting" that could give the Grouper Fish decent combat strength in rivers.
It should be noted that "decent" here refers to its strength against ordinary fish—that is, fish without extraordinary abilities.
When facing Spirit Pet Fish, its combat effectiveness was quite average.
Its main advantages were that it was easy to raise and possessed a certain level of intelligence, allowing it to help fishermen herd fish and perform other auxiliary tasks.
To put it bluntly, the Pet Beasts in the community shop were all packed with these kinds of functional abilities to help people with chores; combat ability as a Spirit Pet wasn't a priority.
Gu Ming wasn't surprised. He hadn't expected the Grouper Fish to defy the heavens in the first place.
But the two words the system had mentioned, "Devouring Evolution," constantly echoed in his mind, impossible to shake.
'No, I can't let its Talent go to waste.'
Since the system said it had it, Gu Ming would believe it.
"Old Ban, do you believe you have the ability of Devouring Evolution?" Gu Ming asked, pulling up a stool and sitting by the Fish Tank.
The Old Grouper Fish was full of question marks.
It might be old, but that didn't mean it was a stupid fish.
'Look at what the master is saying. Devouring Evolution, of all things.'
'If I could use Devouring Evolution, I wouldn't have languished in that community shop for years without anyone showing the slightest interest.'
Gu Ming didn't give up. He continued to search through the papers, saying as he did:
"I know you don't believe me, but just trying to believe won't kill you, right?"
"You only have a few months left to live anyway. Trust me, a miracle could happen."
Old Ban didn't know what kind of trick Gu Ming had up his sleeve.
Recalling how concerned its master had been about its wound back on the shore, it chose to believe.
It knew it wasn't worthy of being contracted by its master, and these next few months would be its last.
It was willing to trust a human, to trust Gu Ming.
Even if it was just a lie to fool it.
At this thought, the Grouper Fish nodded at Gu Ming and flapped its small fins.
Gu Ming could feel its trust.
Although the level of trust wasn't high, it was at least enough to get the fish to cooperate with his attempts.
"Good that you believe me. I'll see if I can find any research on Devouring talents in here..."
Gu Ming nodded and went back to searching through the relevant papers.
Just then, the system's text screen activated again.
「You wander into a forbidden zone and stumble upon the Record of the Outer Celestial Demon. This is a wicked scripture documenting countless unorthodox paths. It is extremely dangerous, easily leads people to become obsessed with heterodoxy and reliant on external objects, and will bring about a fatal disaster.」
「Ignoring the risks, you become engrossed in the Record of the Outer Celestial Demon, attempting to find the Devouring Secret Technique of the Kunpeng Race.」
「Little do you know, very few Beastmasters have ever been able to research the Kunpeng Secret Technique.」
"Record of the Outer Celestial Demon? Is it talking about this knowledge network?"
"Wait, 'very few'? Doesn't that mean there actually is one in here?"
Gu Ming hadn't been confident about finding a relevant paper.
But the system's text screen gave him a boost of confidence.
As long as such a paper existed, all he had to do was find it.
At worst, he'd just have to go through every single paper on Grouper Fish.
It would just take some time, that's all.
A student's time is the cheapest thing there is. He'd just bury his head in the papers and treat it as studying.
And so, he hunkered down in his room and sifted endlessly through research papers.
During this time, Mrs. Gu came in with a glass of warm milk, intending to persuade her son to buy Spirit Medicine. But when she saw him engrossed in his studies, her eyes reddened again.
Moved, Mrs. Gu became even more resolute in her plan.
She gently set down the milk and quietly closed the door as she left.
Inside the room, the Little Cyan Snake would wake up, absorb a Spirit Stone, then go back to sleep. It repeated this cycle over and over.
Gu Ming remained in this state of seclusion for the entire night.
「The next morning.」
Gu Ming got up to brush his teeth, scrolling through the second-to-last research paper as he did.
「Sinking deeper by the day, growing ever more gaunt, you suddenly discover the Ancient Kunpeng Secret Technique, and your spirits are instantly lifted.」
Gu Ming's spirits lifted. He stopped brushing his teeth and immediately took his phone back into the room.
"Old Ban, I found it!" Gu Ming said in pleasant surprise.
The Grouper Fish, which was blowing bubbles in the Fish Tank, waved its fins to greet its master, wondering what he had found.
"The Secret Technique for Devouring Evolution, I found it," Gu Ming said in a low voice after closing the door.
This whole thing was surreal. If his parents heard him, they would definitely think he had gone mad.
But he knew he wasn't crazy. This paper definitely contained the Secret Technique the Grouper Fish needed.
He moved the small stool over, sat down by the Fish Tank, and began reading it out to the Old Grouper Fish, word by word.
The Little Cyan Snake was coiled on Gu Ming's shoulder. Having just woken up, it also listened intently.
At first, Gu Ming read quickly, but toward the end, his reading speed slowed down.
It wasn't that he couldn't read the words, but that the content was mind-numbingly boring.
It was a study on the swimming speed of a Grouper Fish when weighed down after devouring different foods, followed by a comparison table.
The types of different foods, their weight in grams, the amount of nutrients and Spiritual Qi they contained, and then the distance the Grouper Fish traveled.
It was all data, all dry descriptions.
'Where's the Cultivation Technique? The Cultivation Technique I was looking for?'
In any case, Gu Ming didn't see any key points on using a Cultivation Technique.
There wasn't even a Visualization Image in it, let alone anything about Cultivation.
'Is reading a research paper like this really going to work?'
However, the story in the system's text was progressing quite differently.
「You are reciting the Wordless Celestial Scripture, which contains the Dao of Kunpeng Devouring, earnestly imparting the teaching.」
「Unfortunately, your Dao Practice is too shallow, and the Juvenile Kunpeng's intelligence has not yet been awakened. It is unable to comprehend the mysteries within. The progress of this Enlightenment session is almost zero.」
「Kunpeng Devouring Secret Technique experience +1」