Chapter 390 — Lin Zhuo's Portable Grandma

Generation after generation of Beast Tamers had left much behind. Compared with the Martial Emperor's era, today's Donghuang had accumulated two thousand more years of foundation. Even facing a Totem King like Yun Kuang, it would not despair as the ancients had. To shake today's Donghuang, a Myth would likely have to descend.

"Is there anything I can do?" Ji Li said. "As a Ruin Spirit, in an awakened state my spirit body can remain active for several more decades. Is there anything I can help with?"

"That's easy enough. Senior Ji, after you return to Donghuang, why not take up your old trade again and breed Iron-Eating Beasts?" Shi Jin smiled slightly.

The others nodded as well. Indeed, Ji Li was the Legendary breeder who had raised the Iron-Eating Beast Legion for the Martial Emperor.

And the Iron-Eating Beast Legion could now be confirmed as the strongest legion of the Martial Emperor Dynasty.

Ji Li had even told everyone just now that the Iron-Eating Beast Legion her father had commanded had once slain a Totem in battle!

If such a legion were revived in the modern era, it would surely raise Donghuang's strength greatly.

"Good." Ji Li nodded. Indeed, this suited her best.

She said, "Leave those 108 Iron-Eating Beasts from just now to me to breed."

The Iron-Eating Beasts the Gem Cat and Shi Jin had brought in numbered 108 in total.

Not a large number, but not a small one either.

The batch Ji Li and the others had led out in their flight were presumably all "elites."

Every one of them had reached Perfect rank in hardening proficiency.

They must have received very meticulous breeding from an early age; they stood only one step from being able to evolve. With continued breeding, a Jiuli Legion a hundred bears strong could be raised within a very short time.

"No problem." Shi Jin laughed. When the time came, both Senior Ji and this herd of Iron-Eating Beasts would be drawn into the Iron-Eating Beast Legion under his command!

"Senior Ji, is Yun Kuang very strong? Have you seen Yun Kuang?" At this, Qu Ling looked toward Ji Li.

She cared about Yun Kuang a great deal as well. After all, ever since Shi Jin had come out of the Martial Emperor Ruin, Qu Ling had gained an extra task: to investigate information on Yun Kuang within the Totem nations.

"Extremely strong." Ji Li looked at her.

"Yun Kuang wields a quasi-divine skill—you could call it a nascent divine skill. No one can match it."

"The Martial Emperor contracted nine totem-grade beasts in total, and a few among them even reached top-tier totem combat power.

"And the Martial Emperor's top-tier fusion talent allowed him alone to inherit the strengths of all nine beasts, fusing ten into one. Even so... after years of fierce battle, the first to falter was the Martial Emperor himself. Through round after round of fighting, Yun held on by sheer racial advantage, but the Martial Emperor gave out one step ahead of each of his beasts."

"All because of the quasi-divine skill that Yunying Kuang commanded."

Ji Li recounted the events of that time to Ke Chuanqi and the others with a note of despondency.

"Mm, I heard Elder Chongxuan speak of it," Shi Li said.

"Even the Martial Emperor merging with nine totems wasn't enough?" Ji Feng's expression was grave.

Ji Li shook her head. "Though the Martial Emperor could marshal the power of multiple totems through his top-tier fusion talent to suppress Yun Kuang, when faced with a quasi-divine skill, even after fighting himself he gained little advantage."

"A quasi-divine skill has already touched upon the power of rules, and the damage wrought by rule power is exceedingly hard to heal, even with mythic-grade medicine, if the attributes don't match."

"The skill Yun Kuang wielded carried a radiation wound that could not be cured or purified, one nearly impossible to root out."

"A quasi-divine skill... that's the term for a super-tier skill cultivated to its utmost limit, isn't it?" Ke Chuanqi murmured.

Even a legend like him had in truth never come into contact with that stratum.

After all, at present the only being in Donghuang who could touch the rudiments of a divine skill was the Dragon God.

And of those in Donghuang who could reach the Dragon God, apart from Shi Jin, there were only Lin Shuo and the Mechanical Legend—even a powerhouse like the Bahai Legend found it difficult.

Not like Ji Li, whose father had even taken part in the battle against Yun Kuang, and so understood this field exceedingly well.

"Mm."

"But as for quasi-divine skills and the rudiments of divine skills, according to the Martial Emperor, there are three conditions for attaining them."

"Cultivating a super-tier skill to its utmost limit is only one of them."

"Each of these three conditions is as hard as climbing to the heavens. Even a legendary beastmaster like the Martial Emperor found them hard to fulfill—and this is only a quasi-divine skill, to say nothing of the distant realm of myth and a complete divine skill."

Recalling the Martial Emperor's forlorn expression at the time, Ji Li too felt heavy at heart.

"Let me share them with everyone."

"The first is to cultivate a super-tier skill to its utmost limit. The difficulty of this, so it's said, is ten times that of an ordinary beast cultivating itself up to totem grade through a super-tier skill!"

Ji Feng, Qu Ling, and the others were struck dumb.

To bring a super-tier skill to the point of sublime mastery is to reach totem grade.

That difficulty alone blocks off the vast majority of beastmasters today.

Legendary beastmasters who can personally raise a beast to totem grade number fewer than one across the whole Blue Star at present.

And the difficulty of cultivating a quasi-divine skill is ten times that?

"Elder Ji, what about the other methods?" Ji Feng could not help asking.

This was a fine chance to broaden one's horizons.

The trip had not been wasted.

Even the Gem Cat, a totem itself, could not help turning its head to listen.

"The Martial Emperor said the second method relies on bloodline inheritance. If a beast's parents are of a mythic race,

then after birth it has a chance of carrying a quasi-divine skill innately—that is, the rudiments of a divine skill. As it grows and trains this skill, the skill will naturally become a complete divine skill, helping it cross over into mythic grade."

"So the young of mythic beings may carry a quasi-divine skill from birth. But if even overlords find it so hard to breed offspring,

mythic beings must find it even harder, surely?" Ji Li said.

"Has the Martial Emperor ever seen a mythic being or the young of a divine beast?" Qu Ling asked in astonishment.

Ji Li shook her head. "I don't know either, but that is what the Martial Emperor said."

"The third method, so it's said, is 'combination.' Since it is very hard to cultivate a quasi-divine skill through a single skill—without enough time-accumulation to develop one skill to its utmost—then one relies on two, three, four, or even more super-tier skills, more special powers, and even the beastmaster's own power, to combine into a mighty composite skill, a composite skill sufficient to touch the rules, and refine it into a quasi-divine skill."

"But in the Martial Emperor's words, this is not necessarily simpler than the first method. It demands peerless talent—using innate gift to make up for time-accumulation."

"If it succeeds, then that life may already be called a 'mythic race,' possessing, like a demigod-grade being and like the young of a divine beast, the foundation to grow into mythic grade."

Shi Li: "Does mastering a quasi-divine skill make one a mythic race? Without mastering a divine skill?"