That was only a small portion of the storage ring. What had particularly caught Zhang Xuan's eye was the incredible pile of saint beast inner cores by the side.
Saint beasts might enjoy a longer lifespan than humans, but death ultimately came to all. Accumulated over several millenniums, the number of saint beast inner cores in the storage ring had reached an unbelievable number—there were several hundred of them!
Every single one of these inner cores was incredibly valuable and could be sold at an astronomical price.
After looking through all of the treasures within the storage ring, Zhang Xuan was completely dumbstruck.
Compared to the Golden Beartiger Beast, he felt like a beggar flaunting a coin in his bowl before a tycoon
Delighted, Zhang Xuan turned to the Golden Origin Cauldron and said, "You have done well getting this for me! How do you wish to be rewarded?"
With so many treasures in the storage ring, it was very likely that the Golden Beartiger Beast had hidden it somewhere discreet so that no one else could get to it. If the Golden Origin Cauldron had not gotten it out of the Golden Beartiger Beast, he might have just missed it.
Despite Ding Ding's occasional silly behavior, it seemed like it was still reliable in crucial moments like this!
"Hehe, it will suffice as long as Master doesn't forget to raise my strength," the Golden Origin Cauldron said.
"Don't worry!" Zhang Xuan nodded.
Currently, the Golden Origin Cauldron was only a Saint low-tier artifact. As long as Zhang Xuan raised his smithing capability further, he would be able to help raise its tier.
It was also due to this promise that the Golden Origin Cauldron had willingly submitted to Zhang Xuan back then. Otherwise, as the proud Guardian Saint Artifact of the academy, it couldn't possibly have acknowledged anyone as its master so easily!
Threat might force another to submit, but it would only eventually breed acrimony and result in betrayal. It took a combination of both the carrot and the stick in order to instill true loyalty.
After leaving the cavern with the Golden Origin Cauldron, Zhang Xuan was welcomed by the Scarlet Blaze Lion, Tigerhead Beast, and the other kings.
"How is it?" Zhang Xuan asked.
"Master, all of the spirit beasts that were fighting have been pulled back, and they are currently waiting for you at the foot of the mountain!" the Scarlet Blaze Beast hurriedly said.
After everything they had gone through, they no longer dared harbor any second thoughts regarding their loyalty to the young man before them.
"Let's head over." Zhang Xuan nodded as he began making his way to the foot of the mountain.
They soon saw thousands of spirit beasts of the Cloudmist Ridge gathered orderly at the foot of the mountain. As Zhang Xuan appeared before their eyes, a commotion broke out amid them; each and every one of them widened their eyes in astonishment.
They were in the midst of fighting against the Master Teacher Academy when they were suddenly brought here. They had no idea what exactly had happened, and why the kings would choose to negotiate with the humans.
Stepping forward, Zhang Xuan began speaking without any hesitation.
"The growth of a beast is reliant not only on absorbing the essence of the world and spiritual energy, but to emulate the behavior of humans and cultivate…"
…
Around the time that Zhang Xuan arrived at the foot of the Cloudmist Ridge, School Head Mo also arrived at Leiyuan Peak.
It had been almost four hours since the duo went to the Cloudmist Ridge to negotiate, and Zhao Bingxu had already gathered all of the students along with Mu shi and the other school heads in preparation to fight a bitter war.
When they saw School Head Mo return alone, without the principal by his side, their complexion turned incredibly awful.
Zhao Bingxu immediately rushed forward, grabbed School Head Mo, and asked him in agitation, "Where is the principal? How is he?"
"Mo Zhu, how can you allow the principal to face such danger alone? If something happens to him, how do you intend to face the teachers and students of the Master Teacher Academy?" Wei Ranxue glared at School Head Mo so coldly that it felt that the latter would freeze on the spot.
When Zhao Bingxu returned and informed them that their principal had gone to the Cloudmist Ridge to negotiate in order to stop the war and reduce their casualties, all of them nearly had died of shock.
What kind of place was the Cloudmist Ridge?
It was a land dominated by spirit beasts and saint beasts, and nearly all cultivators who dared to tread those lands were never heard from again. It wasn't easy for them to find a new principal to lead their academy to greater heights, and if they were to lose their principal over this matter, they would be the sinners of history, and no amount of time would wash away their sin.
"I…" A bitter smile filled with helplessness emerged on School Head Mo's face.
Even if I really had tried to stop the principal, do you think that I would have been able to stop him?
"Enough! This isn't the time to be talking about this. How is Senior Uncle doing, and what is the current situation on the Cloudmist Ridge?" Mu shi interjected sharply. "I heard that the Ten Indomitable Kings of the Cloudmist Ridge are all vicious beings who are filled with hostility for humans. You probably met with a lot of trouble negotiating with them, right?"
The others also quickly turned to School Head Mo, waiting intently for him to respond.
"Trouble? …" School Head Mo had no idea where he should start from.
There was indeed a lot of trouble, but they weren't the ones who faced trouble.
After spending some time organizing his thoughts, School Head Mo began speaking.
"The Ten Indomitable Kings demanded that the negotiation be conducted in a certain cavern, and we headed over and began discussing how we should resolve the conflict. In the midst of that, our principal… headed out for a moment, and when he finally returned, out of the Ten Indomitable Kings… nine had become his tamed beast! And the three thousand aerial spirit beasts, too, had acknowledged him as their master! In other words, other than the spirit beasts who had battled with the students earlier, all of the Half-Saint, Nascent Saint, and Saint realm beasts on the Cloudmist Ridge have all become our principal's tamed beasts…"
Before School Head Mo could finish his words, he noticed a bizarre silence hanging in the air. Perplexed, he raised his head to take a look, only to see all of the school heads and Mu shi staring at him with slackened jaws and bulging eyes, as if the limits of their rationality had been challenged.
Seeing their expressions, School Head Mo wasn't surprised in the least. There was no one in the world who wouldn't react in this way after hearing such news.
To head to a negotiation and end up taming all of the enemy's forces…
Who could have imagined that?
Negotiation? More like a seizure of property!
Did it really have to be so exaggerated?
"That is everything that happened…" Looking at the looks of disbelief of those around him, School Head Mo could only shrug helplessly.
To be honest, if he hadn't been there to witness it himself, even he would never have believed such a story.
Ever since the establishment of the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy, the beasts of the Cloudmist Ridge had been a huge threat. Many of the previous principals had attempted to do something about it, but their efforts had been futile.
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Yet, the principal of the current generation, despite being yet to be inaugurated, had already completely overturned the other party's nest!
On top of that, not only did he snap the threat from its very roots, he had even tamed all of the saint beasts, which would bolster the forces of the Master Teacher Academy significantly!
With this additional force, perhaps the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy could be pushed up a single ranking among the Four Great Academies of Qingyuan Empire.
With his head still spinning from having heard such an unbelievable epic, Zhao Bingxu asked, "Where is the principal now?"
"He had me return to organize the students while he deals with some miscellaneous affairs. He is probably still at the Cloudmist Ridge at the moment," School Head Mo replied.
"Zhong Dingchun, have your students take the wounded to your Physician School for treatment. Xu Changqing, get the students of your Martial Arts School to remain on guard in case a battle occurs. As for the other school heads, follow me to the Cloudmist Ridge!" Knowing that his Senior Uncle was still in the Cloudmist Ridge, Mu shi swiftly made arrangements.
Naturally, the responsibility for treating the wounded students would fall on the Physician School. And even though School Head Mo had said that the problem was resolved, the situation wasn't entirely clear yet, so the Master Teacher Academy still had to keep its guard up in case an accident occurred. Of the ten schools, the Martial Arts School boasted the greatest fighting power, so they were left to stand on guard.
"Yes!" Zhong Dingchun and Xu Changqing nodded before rushing off to make preparations.
"Let's go!" Mu shi nodded before rushing over to the Cloudmist Ridge with the other school heads.
…
"Look, what is that?"
Before they even reached their destination, they suddenly noticed innumerable spirit beasts gathered at the foot of the mountain with their bodies lying on the floor. Their eyes were gleaming in gratitude and respect, a vast contrast from the savagery and viciousness when they were battling before.
At the very forefront of the army of spirit beasts was a young man standing on the back of one of the Saint realm kings. His nonchalant voice echoed resoundingly, drawing in an overwhelming amount of zhenqi into the surroundings that it created an illusion of lotus flowers falling from the sky. Listening to the words of that young man, the spirit beasts seemed to fall into a trance.
This was the ability that only 5-star master teachers possessed, Spirit Gathering Diction!
"This is… a lecture for the spirit beasts?"
The arriving master teachers were stunned.
They had seen master teachers conducting lectures for their peers, students, and fellow cultivators, but this was the very first time they had seen anyone lecture spirit beasts.
And more importantly, every single one of the countless spirit beasts in the area was listening intently to each word that was spoken, and some of them were even using their snouts or paws to make notes on the ground.
In the midst of their shock, Zhang Xuan's voice suddenly sounded.
"… Alright, I will end the lecture here. You are dismissed!"
Roar!
Roar!
But despite Zhang Xuan's words, the spirit beasts didn't scatter. Instead, they raised their heads and roared in unison, the sheer volume of which shook even the clouds in the sky. After which, they rose from the ground, and a droplet of blood floated out of each of their glabellae and toward Zhang Xuan.
"The heck…"
Watching a wave of fresh blood rushing toward him, threatening to drown him within it, Zhang Xuan's knee weakened, and he nearly collapsed on the spot.
I was just conducting a casual lecture for you all; no one is asking you to acknowledge me as your master…
Besides, even if you all want to acknowledge me as your master, there is no need for you to do it together, right? A droplet of blood from nearly a hundred thousand spirit beasts… That is probably enough to fill even a swimming pool!
Zhang Xuan fell into a frenzy, but Mu shi and the others nearly lost their minds.
It seemed like their principal didn't intend to stop with just taming the Ten Indomitable Kings… His aim was all of the spirit beasts in the Cloudmist Ridge!
A hundred thousand spirit beasts… With such a force, their principal could overrun even a Tier-1 Empire like Hongyuan Empire with a single word!
"To make so many spirit beasts acknowledge him as their master and resolve such a huge threat for Hongyuan Empire… T-this… there is no way to calculate his contribution at all! I must report this to the Beast Hall!" School Head Mo muttered with quivering lips.
To make all of the spirit beasts of the Cloudmist Ridge acknowledge him as their master with a single lecture, there was no one who had achieved such a feat before him, and it was likely that no one else would after him… The contribution from doing so was immeasurable!
On top of that, the other party had also tamed the Ten Indomitable Kings and many Nascent Saint and Half-Saint beasts as well…
If Zhang Xuan was only an ordinary 7-star beast tamer with no contribution to the Beast Hall before, at this very moment, he could be considered a hero of the Beast Hall!
He couldn't help but remember the saying, 'Silent in rest, devastating in action'. This sure was applicable to Zhang Xuan at that moment!
In the midst of his shock, School Head Mo didn't forget to heave a sigh of relief too. It's fortunate that I had the foresight to apply for the 7-star beast tamer emblem for him earlier on so that he need not take the examination. Otherwise, I can hardly imagine what the state of the Beast Tamer School would be in now…
After seeing the tragic states that the Blacksmith School, Physician School, and Apothecary School were in after a visit from their principal, School Head Mo deeply feared that the other party would come to take their beast tamer examination as well, so he took the initiative to apply for it in advance. From the looks of it, it was probably the wisest decision he had ever made in his life.
Otherwise, if all of the spirit beasts and saint beasts in the Beast Tamer School were to take him as their master as well, there would definitely be a huge riot among the students!
"Let's go over…" Suppressing his shock, Mu shi raised his trembling hands and gestured for everyone to head over to Zhang Xuan's side.
But moving over, they found themselves faced with a tearful young man.
The crowd hurriedly clasped their fists and greeted him. "Paying respect to Principal Zhang!"
As if meeting his savior, Zhang Xuan hurriedly rushed over and pleaded with reddened eyes. "You are here… Have these spirit beasts gone insane? Why are they so insistent on taking me as their master? School Head Mo, you are the head of the Beast Tamer School… Do you have any idea how one can halt the acknowledgement ceremony?"
He had really only come here to conduct a lecture; he had no intentions of becoming their master! None at all!
"Halt the acknowledgement ceremony? I fear that there is no way to do so…" School Head Mo shook his head.
It was extremely difficult to tame even one of these spirit beasts, and their principal had managed to tame all of them. Yet, he still had such an expression on his face… Principal Zhang, do you know that you are drawing a lot of hostility from beast tamers around the world?
On the other hand, upon hearing that there was no way to undo the acknowledgement ceremony, a look of helplessness and despair surfaced on Zhang Xuan. A mouthful of blood spurted from his mouth, and he couldn't help but exclaim in agony.
"I have sinned!"