Chapter 293: Beast Tamer?!

The morning sun cast a sharp, golden glow over the massive, volcanic stone pavilions of the Black Fire Academy’s central training halls. Tony Clark walked along the wide marble walkways with his usual slow, lazy steps, his dark hunting cloak draped loosely over his hardened shoulders.

As he navigated through the crowded public practice fields, his dark eyes scanned the surroundings with a look of quiet curiosity. He immediately noticed a distinct phenomenon that defined the higher echelons of the inner campus. Almost every single elite disciple, high-level wizard, and senior magus walking past him was accompanied by a powerful, glowing spiritual creature.

To his left, a proud inner disciple was meditating alongside a massive, blue-fanged frost wolf whose body radiated a freezing mist. To his right, an elegant young lady from a prominent noble clan carried a fiery crimson hawk on her shoulder, its feathers humming with raw fire-attribute laws.

In the Eternal Sun Realm, a high-tier spiritual beast was not considered a simple animal or a common hunting companion. It was treated as a literal companion beast—an absolute extension of a magus’s own spiritual sea that acted like a secondary soul.

When a cultivator perfectly synchronized their energy pathways with a matching creature, the beast could absorb ambient primordial aura on their behalf, effectively doubling their cultivation speed and providing an unstoppable, lethal card during an open combat duel.

"A secondary soul that can automate my cultivation and shield my flank," Tony muttered smoothly to himself, a slow, villainous grin curling the corners of his lips as his strategic mind instantly locked onto the concept. I have the Void Dragon’s Shadow Bow and a peak Elder Disciple foundation, but if I want to trample over the absolute laws of this universe and crush the Faith Family permanently, I need to secure the best possible beast on this continent.

However, according to the inherited memories of his duplicate body, procuring a top-tier companion beast was a task that required an astronomical, mind-boggling amount of wealth.

Common low-grade beasts like spiritual rabbits or mountain badgers cost a few hundred Aura crystals, but a genuine, ancient-lineage creature capable of adapting to his shadow-and-wind attributes could easily cost hundreds of thousands of high-grade crystals—a sum that would make even wealthy noble families slide into bankruptcy.

"If a legendary beast requires a mountain of gold, then I will simply print that mountain before the sun sets tonight," Tony sneered coldly, his tone dripping with absolute, unyielding defiance.

He turned on his heel and strode straight back toward the Cloud-Mist Pavilion, his lazy demeanor vanishing entirely the moment he locked the heavy wooden doors of his private meditation chamber.

He had no intention of wasting time sleeping. He pulled out the massive silver container that Selena Faith had delivered to his doorstep, spreading the five hundred sheets of Premium Silk Bamboo Paper across the smooth mahogany desk. He tightly gripped a master-grade carving pen, dipping it deep into the thick, high-tier Core Blood Ink extracted from spiritual fire-beasts.

BOOM!

Tony violently activated the Storm Breathing Technique at its absolute triple-speed capacity, turning his entire chamber into a dense vortex of silver primordial aura. His right hand moved with a fluid, terrifying precision, the tip of his pen tracing thousands of intricate, glowing runic lines across the blank parchment without a single fraction of delay.

The system’s Primordial Talisman-Making Art danced through his muscle memory like a master script, completely stabilizing the intense fire laws inside the ink. One by one, the bamboo sheets flashed with a blinding crimson light as high-tier Blazing Nova Talismans were printed by the dozen, stacking up in heavy, dense rows across the desk.

Tony worked tirelessly through the entire night, forcing his meridians to open to their absolute limits to guide the chaotic energy flow. It was a brutal, bone-shattering mass production scene that would have caused any standard master elder to experience a total spiritual collapse from exhaustion, but Tony’s waterfall-hardened frame endured the massive stress beautifully.

By the time the final ray of dawn broke through the morning mist, all five hundred sheets of paper had been completely transformed into pristine, world-shaking explosive talismans, their collective aura humming with enough destructive force to turn the entire outer district into a permanent graveyard.

Tony slowly laid down his pen, his muscles completely stiff and his breathing heavily ragged as a deep wave of physical exhaustion washed over his eyes. He collapsed back against the soft pillows of his jade-carved bed, his fingers raw and cramping from holding the pen for twelve continuous hours.

Knock. Knock.

A soft, timid knock suddenly rattled the heavy wooden door of his pavilion. Tony’s Truth Eye slowly activated on instinct, perceiving the familiar, pure energy signature of his loyal young servant lady standing outside in the morning mist. She had finally managed to navigate the inner campus security lines using Tony’s premium direct-disciple token, her face flush with a mix of intense relief and frantic excitement.

"Come in," Tony called out, his deep baritone voice carrying a faint trace of tiredness but remaining perfectly steady.

The young servant lady pushed open the door, her eyes instantly widening to the size of saucers as she caught sight of the massive, glowing mountain of five hundred crimson talismans lining the desk. She swallowed her immense shock, knowing her young master was an absolute monster who could perform miracles, and rushed to his bedside with rapid, urgent steps.

"Young Master! You are completely pushed to the brink of collapse again!" she cried out softly, her voice filled with deep, genuine concern as she pulled a tightly rolled parchment scroll from her spatial storage pouch.

"I spent the entire night gathering the latest intelligence reports from the academy’s grand beast dens and the central district’s public auctions just like you secretly commanded me. This parchment contains the absolute list of all the rare spiritual companion beasts currently available for purchase inside the academy and in the outside city market! I brought it here immediately so you could review the options."

Tony sat up smoothly on his rock bed, a slow, highly amused grin curling his lips despite his exhausted state. He felt a sudden surge of intense curiosity, his villainous ambition completely wiping away his physical fatigue as he reached out his hardened hand to accept the heavy scroll.

He unrolled the crisp parchment, his dark eyes locking onto the glowing runic text to find the perfect, lethal creature that would act as his secondary soul and launch his final, absolute takeover of the entire realm.

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