Chapter 258 — Ginseng Baby's Invincible Evolution

But with the Void Butterfly and the Jiuli Battle Beast—such pets—having been conjured up by Shi Jin, and Shi Jin being a member of their Third Bureau after all, there might just be some chance he could successfully develop a mutated strain of Ginseng Baby.

"Hard to say. After all, I don't know what other mutation materials he'll use. If he brings in higher-grade Time Essence materials... then who knows?"

The Gem Cat licked its paw and said, "Higher-grade Time Essence materials—probably not. But there is a Moonlight Gem, plus the death force from the Undying Pool on the Undead Battlefield. It's a real hodgepodge... Honestly, with a century of experience, I can't figure out the scientific basis for assembling evolution materials like that. President Ye, do you?"

The Owl: ...What kind of bizarre evolution formula is this?

President Ye: "...This."

President Ye was baffled. A Light-attribute material representing moon power, the Moonlight Gem? The Undying Pool representing death force and the Water attribute? Time Soil representing Time Essence and the Earth attribute, and the Time Secret Realm representing pure Time Essence...?

How could it be so mixed up!

Could Shi Jue be trying to cultivate the Ginseng Baby toward the Time Essence type?!

With President Ye's years of breeding experience, even he found his thinking grinding to a halt.

For an ordinary pet beast, bearing two primary-secondary attributes was already the limit. Any normal breeder knew it was best not to exceed two attributes in evolution materials—targeted cultivation was more reliable. But Shi Tan, that one...

"Do you know what Shi Jin said?" he asked the Gem Cat.

The Gem Cat said, "He said a gambler's high is fleeting, but a gambler forever is forever high. Use the high-grade materials, take a gamble, turn a bicycle into a motorcycle—multi-attribute combinations easily produce unscientific skills."

President Ye: ???

The Owl: Is this how your Third Bureau breeds pet beasts?

The Owl felt that this prophecy was surely a sure thing.

...

Under normal circumstances, Shi Jin wouldn't dare gamble, of course. But with Buggy as a successful case, and with the Transcendent Mutant having already demonstrated its ability to easily handle all kinds of mutation forces, the odds of success in this gamble had become quite high.

The Time Secret Realm.

This was a pale, vast world—white earth, white sky, white buildings, white mist filling everywhere.

After Shi Jin entered, he felt an unbearable stifling heat, as if the air had grown much thinner. He walked a few steps and found his movements became extraordinarily difficult—it seemed gravity here differed from the outside world.

Most importantly, not long after entering, Shi Jin felt his mind unable to concentrate, as if meditation would be very hard. Startled, he immediately took a breath of the sweet air from his sachet.

"Awoo!"

"Mmm!"

"Eee!"

"Mew!"

After Shi Jin came in, he naturally let out his four pet beasts. Compared to him, their ability to adapt to the new environment was much stronger—they hardly felt any major change at all.

Still, it made sense. President Ye had told the Owl that they would come out after three days outside—thirty days inside—so clearly they figured Shi Jin would have no trouble spending a month in here.

"We evolve first, then train."

"The pressure in here rises the longer we stay, so while Ginseng Baby's still in good spirits, let's evolve first," Shi Jin suggested.

"Eee!!!"

Ginseng Baby threw its arms high, mimicking a leader in celebration, signaling wholehearted agreement.

Meanwhile, Eleven crossed his arms, wearing the look of a big shot—whatever works, whatever works.

Red Eye, aloof from it all, shifted ceaselessly between sword spirit, sparrow spirit, and phoenix spirit, dancing through the Time Secret Realm.

"Mmm..." Buggy cheered Ginseng Baby on while pulling a long face.

It had done the math: Red Eye and Leader both outranked it in species grade, each with three or four super-tier skills, and now only Ginseng Baby was left at the bottom. If Ginseng Baby also mutated and evolved into something strong, then...

A sudden urge to cry welled up in it. It was beginning to understand—evolving first isn't necessarily best; the characters that come later are always stronger than the ones before.

The reason was simple... Shi Jin's strength and resources kept rising, so the evolution materials he used would only get better as time went on.

Having decided to evolve right now, Shi Jin and the others arrived at the plaza of the white palace within the Time Secret Realm.

It was bare here too, but compared with the white wasteland outside, at least it barely counted as a place for people to stay.

Once there, Shi Jin and the others began taking out the various mutation materials.

Moonstone, a tier-seven light-attribute resource containing lunar radiation—the same radiation that had once given rise to the werewolf species and the giant ape totems of the Seven Isles. Ginseng Baby's dose was surely far smaller, but it should still have some mutating effect.

There was also Time Soil, imbued with the power of time, able to induce mutation in plants.

And the Death Spirit Fruit, which had a chance to let a living being comprehend the power of death—or to erode that being with death power until it perished.

Add to that a single time-mutation fruit Ginseng Baby had wrangled out of the Ice Dragon Ruins, and that was about the entirety of their holdings. But before eating any of it, Ginseng Baby first set about absorbing the mutation power generated by the Time Secret Realm through its Mutation Body.

"Eee..." After absorbing for a while, Ginseng Baby furrowed its brow, face sour. The volume here was only a little greater than at the Ice Dragon Ruins; there was indeed time-mutation power, and the stimulation was stronger, but absorption still wasn't all that efficient...

As expected, the power of time was terribly high-end.

"Take it slow." Shi Jin said with an unhurried smile.

That said, he produced a deck of playing cards and called over Eleven, Buggy, and little Red Eye: "Let's play while we wait."

Ginseng Baby: ???

"The deeper we go into the Time Ruins, the greater the mental pressure. You don't feel anything yet anyway, so we might as well rest up first."

"Chirp." Eleven thought that was a bit of a waste of time essence, and Buggy agreed. Both family beasts wanted to train up Overlord Will as fast as possible and had little interest in leisure right now. Red Eye was somewhat tempted, but seeing that Eleven and Buggy hadn't spoken up, it turned its head with great difficulty and decided to go train.

"No problem. You two train on your own—just leave Doudou Bear and the Dragon Girl Phantom here to play with me." Shi Jin was very considerate of others.

His all-around constitution was certainly no match for a beast's; he couldn't take the pressure nearly as well, so he could only eke out the days through recreational activities...

One day later in the Time Secret Realm...

More than two hours had passed in the outside world.

Once Shi Jin entered the Time Secret Realm, President Ye and the others had departed before long—after all, by their calculations, Shi Jin wouldn't be coming out for three days outside.

President Ye, that busy man, went straight off to his work, while the Gem Cat dragged the Prophecy Owl, that local bigwig, off to treat it to a meal.

For a time, no one was watching Shi Jin—and just then, inside the realm, he and the beasts had reached the most critical moment.

After a day of time essence, Ginseng Baby had accumulated a good deal of time-mutation power in its body through its Masterful Mutation Body. It felt that with this power alone, it could mutate and evolve, greatly boosting its strength.