"The rules are already set and won’t be changed," Liu Wanliang said.
"That’s good," Zhao Xing nodded.
After that, Zhao Xing didn’t ask any more questions, and Liu Wanliang remained silent as the team quietly waited in front of the Canghai Cave Heaven gate.
From time to time, teams walked across the wilderness, and soon the entrance was surrounded by a spectacular crowd.
Although there were only more than fifty thousand Beast Tamers, the number of their battle pets was unlimited. You could contract as many as you were capable of.
However, for mid-third-rank Beast Tamers, the number of soul contracts they could form was limited.
Because forming a soul contract also had its burdens, more so than cultivating the Grassman Skill.
At least with the Grassman Skill, you could split your Life Soul and choose to "log off," entering a dormant state with low activity, or retrieve the Life Soul Power back into the original body.
But Beast Tamers bore the burden of their battle pets’ life souls. Imagine having hundreds or thousands of Mountain Cats or Gray Lion Dogs barking in your mind all day long... within a year, the Beast Tamer would go mad.
It’s also not possible to cancel a contract just because there’s no battle; frequent operations would damage both the battle pets and the tamer.
"Normally, Beast Tamers take fewer than ten battle pets into a fight; having quality is more important than quantity, and it’s hard to manage many,"
"Even for high-grade Beast Tamers who have reached the Primordial Soul Realm, capable of bearing a larger number, won’t do so."
Relying on sheer numbers only makes sense when the quantity reaches a certain scale; otherwise, it’s better to focus on nurturing a few key battle pets.
"When the version of Spiritual Energy Recovery arrives, the spiritual wisdom of battle pets will be significantly enhanced, and both Beast Tamers and their pets will learn to cultivate their Life Souls, thus increasing the contract limit."
"However, Beast Tamers who could rapidly amass an army are still a minority." Zhao Xing glanced around at the nearby Beast Taming teams.
Even with the recovery of spiritual energy, the issue of financial resources could not be overlooked; nurturing battle pets required a massive expenditure of resources.
Nurturing a few primary battle pets was already taxing enough, let alone dozens? Only the wealthy could afford it.
For Beast Tamers, the money spent on battle pets was ten times, even dozens of times, more than the money spent on themselves.
Take Zhao Xing himself, aside from the special case of the Mountain Cat, nurturing the Spiritual Illusion Goat and the Gray Lion Dog to the fifth rank cost him nearly twenty million in resources.
This was still at cost price since Zhao Xing was himself a producer of resources and possessed the Transformation of Thunder. For others, the cost could be multiplied several times over.
Being a Beast Tamer was an extremely expensive occupation, second only to Mechanical Masters. Most graduates had to rely on noble patrons, or they were themselves of noble descent. Independent Beast Tamers were very rare.
Among many professions, the cheapest upgrade path was that of a Martial Artist, of course, this was relative to other cultivation occupations.
"There’s nothing much to see now; everyone has restrained their strength and obediently walks on the ground, revealing no special signs," Zhao Xing quickly withdrew his gaze.
Since arriving on Baiyun Island, everyone had to walk; flying was prohibited, even birds had to walk with their claws.
The Beast Tamers cast spells to suppress the power of their exotic beasts and conceal their auras.
Reaching this point, all were well-trained, and the movements in the wilderness were very minimal.
With four hours remaining, Zhao Xing simply put down the bamboo box, leaned against it, and closed his eyes to rest.
The Gray Lion Dog, Mountain Cat, and Spiritual Illusion Goat took defensive positions, guarding Zhao Xing.
Zhao Xing’s mind sank as he inwardly observed the Pure Essence Space.
At this moment, the Pure Essence Soil had expanded from thirty-four thousand one hundred to sixty-eight thousand square feet.
However, this still belonged to the category of third-grade soil.
The Pure Essence Space had the following properties:
First, living beings, only plant life forms could be brought in, and they must not be below the fifth rank, matching the Pure Essence of Fifth Grade.
Second, non-living beings, only two types could be brought in.
The first type was wood attribute materials, with a weight limit.
The second type was energy treasures, such as the "elemental crystal," a pure energy crystal, without a weight limit, only constrained by space.
At this moment, the Pure Essence Soil was already thriving.
Apart from tree-type plants that had not yet reached maturity, all other types were fully mature.
Zhao Xing had divided the Pure Essence Soil into three areas.
The first area was for plant species, entirely planted with plant species like lightning bamboo, resilient vines, poisonous mushrooms, and Thousand Sound Bamboo.
This was the largest area, with numbers exceeding ten thousand.
The second area was for recovery plants, mainly for Primordial Energy recovery and detoxification herbs.
The third area was for consumable plants, primarily materials needed for the Ten Thousand Skill Avatar.
In addition, at the center of Zhao Xing’s Pure Essence Soil stood fifty avatars.
Among them were the nine strongest Ten Thousand Skill Avatars.
"In this competition for rankings, Beast Tamers and battle pets were not allowed to bring any divine weapons,"
"However, inside there were equipment supply points, simulating the situation in Dragon Court Ancient Land. In the ancient ruins of the Dragon Court, it was possible to find some broken equipment scattered around. Even broken, some could still be very powerful,"
"I hope these avatars don’t count as divine weapons," Zhao Xing thought to himself.
Zhao Xing wasn’t worried about the plant species.
Because in the official Beast Taming Department’s obscure classifications, there was once a category for plant tamers.
It was later removed because the Minister of Agriculture’s profession refused to acknowledge it.
This was a branch of the Minister of Agriculture’s profession; how could it be classified under the Beast Taming Department?
However, there was precedent for the Self Sect’s Minister of Agriculture to compete for a place in Dragon Court Ancient Land.
It was just very rare.
A Self Sect’s Minister of Agriculture was already very rare.
Combat-type Self Sect’s Minister of Agriculture were even rarer.
In reality, many Self Sect’s Minister of Agriculture mainly cultivated economic plants.