40: transition

After the father and son returned to the farm, Xu Du went back to his own business, leaving Xu Yan alone in the living room.

As for Xu Yan, he first summoned Zhu Yan and Wuxiang from his Beast Taming Space, allowing his two Spirit Beasts to meet.

There was no sign of the two tamed beasts fighting for affection. Being a Mechanical Spirit Beast, at least the recently born Wuxiang wouldn't exhibit such emotions. Furthermore, although Zhu Yan was very close to her master, Xu Yan, she didn't possess any particular possessiveness.

Thus, the first meeting between the two Spirit Beasts concluded in a relatively harmonious atmosphere.

After the meeting, Xu Yan had Zhu Yan return to the Beast Taming Space to continue absorbing the power from the shadow stone, attempting to break through to General Rank.

Meanwhile, Xu Yan took Wuxiang to an open area on the farm to begin testing its skills.

Among Wuxiang's skills, Energy Absorption and Energy Shield were tested simply and quickly: the former draws in ambient energy to replenish itself, and the latter creates an energy shield for protection.

The skills Xu Yan mainly tested were Mechanical Reassembly and Mechanical Summoning.

After testing Mechanical Reassembly, Xu Yan found that the skill was extremely malleable. Wuxiang could create everything from the simplest tools, electronic eyes, and mechanical arms, to more complex items like firearms and mechanical greatswords.

However, due to limitations in its own knowledge and strength, Wuxiang was currently unable to assemble things Xu Yan suggested, such as Laser Cannons or Gundams. Still, as Wuxiang's strength increases and its knowledge base accumulates, achieving these types of form changes should not be too difficult in the future.

This reminded Xu Yan of a class from a game in his previous life, the Mechanic, a class that relied on assembling and summoning various mechanical equipment and robots for combat.

This feeling became even stronger after testing the subsequent three skills that belonged to a single combination: Mechanical Summoning, Mechanical Detonation, and Mechanical Recycling.

With Wuxiang's current strength and the entry-level skill rank of Mechanical Summoning, it could only summon the lowest grade of Self-Destructing Machines. These machines had no offensive power on their own and relied entirely on self-detonation upon contact with the enemy to inflict damage. They could also be used for scouting or triggering traps, and Wuxiang could summon a maximum of five at one time.

As for Mechanical Detonation and Mechanical Recycling, the former directly detonates the products of Mechanical Summoning, while the latter recycles the discarded mechanical products to restore Wuxiang's own energy.

Combined, the three form a very practical set of combat skills.

With Wuxiang's existence, Xu Yan could also roleplay the Mechanic class, and his own combat power and life-saving abilities were greatly enhanced.

After finishing the skill tests, Xu Yan granted Wuxiang access, allowing it to autonomously download knowledge regarding various mechanical and military industries via the network, enabling it to fully assimilate this information and unlock more types of mechanical transformations.

As for Wuxiang's food, Xu Yan had already ordered a large quantity of various Tier 1 and Tier 2 metals—materials equivalent to the Soldier Rank and General Rank materials for ordinary Spirit Beasts—on the way back from the Mechanical Institute.

When Xu Yan took Wuxiang from the Mechanical Institute, he used the welcome gift given by Wang Liang to directly exchange for a Mechanical System Metal Formula. This formula involved smelting, purifying, and combining various effective substances within the metal to be absorbed and integrated by Mechanical Spirit Beasts, essentially making it a type of spirit food formula.

Furthermore, when making spirit food, Xu Yan discovered that Wuxiang also provided extremely powerful assistance.

For example, Wuxiang, when transformed into glasses, could display the status and fusion level of various materials with extremely accurate data. It could also record every step Xu Yan took while making spirit food, using large amounts of data collection to identify Xu Yan's shortcomings and propose suggestions for improvement.

In addition, after understanding how the equipment operated, Wuxiang utilized the characteristics of a Mechanical Spirit Beast to directly integrate with the instruments. This allowed the previously rigid instruments to output different levels of power according to Xu Yan's habits and intentions, making the spirit food preparation process more comfortable and convenient for Xu Yan, thereby improving the quality of the finished product.

In short, after experiencing Wuxiang's assistance, Xu Yan declared that contracting Wuxiang was absolutely the right decision!

The following period was spent by Xu Yan cultivating Wuxiang, studying cultivation knowledge, and training in various firearms usage and combat positioning.

Time flew by, and one month had passed since Xu Yan contracted Wuxiang.

Half a month ago, Zhu Yan successfully broke through to the General Rank, and her overall strength was greatly enhanced. Although there were no major breakthroughs in her skills, according to Zhu Yan's own description, her current self could easily defeat ten of her previous selves.

With Zhu Yan acting as a sparring partner and stimulus, Wuxiang's strength also improved rapidly. In one month, it rose from Soldier Rank Level 7 to Soldier Rank Level 9, not far from General Rank, and all of its skills had been upgraded to the Mastery level.

The forms that Mechanical Reassembly could transform into increased once again, and the precision was further improved, consequently boosting the power of the transformed creations.

Mechanical Summoning could now summon small mechanical constructs like Mechanical Rats and Mechanical Snakes. They barely possessed the physical strength of the Soldier Rank High Grade, but they had no offensive methods other than basic attacks and self-detonation. However, the maximum number that could be summoned reached fifteen.

As the strength of his Spirit Beasts increased, the date for the Breeder Assessment also gradually approached.

On this day, after tidying up briefly, Xu Yan brought Zhu Yan, who was hiding in his shadow, and Wuxiang, who had transformed into a Rubik's Cube, to the Breeder Association in Ning City.

When Xu Yan arrived, many people were already waiting inside the Breeder Association.

Compared to the usual Breeder Assessment, which only had dozens of participants each time, the number of attendees for this assessment had already exceeded one hundred by the time Xu Yan arrived, and more than half of them were high school seniors around Xu Yan's age.

Having heard Zhao Xuan's previous introduction to the Cultivation Department of the Third Academy, Xu Yan was not overly surprised by this scene.

These were the people Zhao Xuan had mentioned—those who wished to pass the Soldier Rank Breeder Assessment before the College Entrance Examination to gain entry qualifications for the Cultivation Departments of the Eight Great Academies.

However, it was unknown how many of these people possessed genuine ability to pass, and how many were simply trying their luck despite insufficient preparation.