In the 3770th year of the Yuanhe Calendar, on the Eastern Continent, known as the Qiwu Continent—the largest among the four great continents—four major powers had divided over seventy percent of the entire continent. These four nations were the Sida Empire in the east, the Qilanlou Alliance in the north, the Tailong Empire in the south, and the Huanabang Duchy, which lay in the southeastern part between the three.
Among the four powers, the Tailong Empire boasted the strongest national strength, followed by the Qilanlou Alliance, then the Sida Empire, with the Huanabang Duchy being the weakest.
And the story begins to unfold slowly in Yuanshu City, the capital of the weakest Huanabang Duchy.
Yuanshu City, an ancient cultural capital with a history of over a thousand years, is located near the center of the Qiwu Continent. This city, rich in cultural atmosphere, is one of the most prosperous cities on the continent.
On the western outskirts of Yuanshu City, there is an academy covering an area of about one hundred jia (a unit of land measurement). It is Yunliu Academy, one of the five renowned academies in the Huanabang Duchy that is famous across the entire continent.
Since its establishment, this academy has cultivated countless outstanding talents for the duchy, so it is well-deserved to be called the top institution of learning in the duchy. Within the academy, according to the skill needs in the future, it can be simply divided into three departments: the Armor-Warfare Department, the Illusion-Magic Department, and the Divine-Craft Department.
Each of these three departments is further divided into dozens or even hundreds of courses. Every student enrolls at the age of twelve, chooses one course as their major and two as minors according to their own will, and completes the basic studies before the age of sixteen.
After the age of sixteen, depending on their performance in the academy, they will decide whether to continue with advanced studies or graduate to seek employment.
As the name suggests, the Armor-Warfare Department teaches students how to use beast illusory armor to unleash their own potential, enhancing their attack power, defense, and recovery ability in combat; the Illusion-Magic Department guides students on how to utilize external energy through beast illusory armor to achieve powerful "magical effects" with strong attack power; the Divine-Craft Department uses some spirit beasts with special abilities, and before they grow into beast illusory armor, guides their special abilities to mature faster, making the spirit beasts transform their forms into tools with special functions.
In Class 11 of the 66th Year Class of the Armor-Warfare Department (the class name is derived from the last two digits of the Yuanhe Calendar year when students enroll), more than thirty students are listening intently to the teacher on the podium lecturing on the history of spirit beasts.
The teacher, around forty years old, wrote a few words on the blackboard and then began speaking with great enthusiasm: "As all of you know, the history of humans using spirit beasts dates back 2,800 years. Legend has it that spirit beasts were a type of weapon created by our ancestors in ancient times. Later, a cataclysm befell the world, destroying all ancient civilizations, and humanity entered a chaotic dark age. It wasn't until 2,800 years ago that Hainie Weilubin, the Sage of Beasts, discovered dormant spirit beasts in ancient ruins. After decades of research, he finally uncovered the way to use spirit beasts and made it known to the world, causing a global sensation. At that time, various nations also devoted themselves to excavating ancient ruins. With the joint research of people around the world, countless types of spirit beasts were discovered. After another thousand years of research, the spirit beasts we use today finally took shape."
He paused and then continued: "Nowadays, our spirit beasts can be roughly divided into several stages. First is the egg stage. Spirit beasts in the egg stage have no abilities before hatching. The growth periods of different types of spirit beasts vary, but the egg stage generally takes about three years. That's why the duchy stipulates that all children who reach the age of twelve must enroll in school to learn how to control spirit beasts—because everyone must find their own spirit beast egg at the age of twelve. I believe by now, many of you have already had your spirit beast eggs hatch!"
He added: "Once hatched, the spirit beast enters the juvenile stage. Juvenile spirit beasts have no abilities, but you can already tell what type they belong to. This period is also called the master-recognizing stage. A spirit beast has only one chance in its life to recognize a master, and once it does, it remains loyal for life. Additionally, there's an interesting observation: the shorter the juvenile stage, the higher the rank of the spirit beast. For example, the royal spirit beasts used by the duchy's royal family are said to have a juvenile stage of only one month."
"Next is the growth stage. During the growth stage, the spirit beast will undergo a transformation and mimicry to attach itself to the master it recognized in the juvenile stage. This is because spirit beasts in the growth stage need a large amount of energy, which they can't obtain solely through their own absorption. Therefore, they must rely on their masters to provide energy. The more energy the master provides, the faster the spirit beast grows, and the stronger it will be when mature. So, students, don't think that if your spirit beast is of a lower rank than others, you will definitely lose to them. For instance, among the ten most renowned masters on the continent, three use low-rank spirit beasts."
"Then comes the metamorphosis stage. This is the most vulnerable period in a spirit beast's life. During this stage, the spirit beast will transform into the form most suitable for its master, based on its growth, the energy provided by the master, and the master's own attributes. It may become combat armor—beast illusory armor, magic armor—magic illusory armor, or even a craft auxiliary tool—beast spirit tool. Since a spirit beast undergoes metamorphosis only once in its life, the academy's goal is to teach you how to guide your spirit beast to grow into the form you need and desire. Of course, the purpose of our Armor-Warfare Department is to teach you how to guide your spirit beast to become beast illusory armor. I believe you learned this in your first year here, so I won't go into detail."
"Finally, there's the mature stage. After going through the previous stages, the final stage of a spirit beast—the mature stage—is the practical stage. Depending on the final form, it can be combat-oriented beast illusory armor, magic-oriented magic illusory armor, or a beast spirit tool with special abilities, which can also be called a craft auxiliary tool."
"In addition, among all stages of a spirit beast from hatching to practical use, except for the egg stage and juvenile stage which have no special abilities, the growth stage, although absorbing energy from the master without fully attaching, will also provide the master with limited attack and defense capabilities. During the metamorphosis stage, because the spirit beast is in a fragile state of structural transformation, it not only can't provide power to the master but also needs the master's protection to successfully complete the metamorphosis. In the mature stage, the spirit beast's form is completely fixed, with powerful abilities that can greatly help the master. Moreover, it's said that some spirit beasts have hidden abilities, a second attribute."
At this point, Teacher Gais on the podium suddenly noticed the boy sitting at the back by the window, staring distractedly outside.
Seeing Yafan looking out the window without paying attention to his lecture, Teacher Gais felt a surge of anger. Known as the "Tricky Teacher" by students, only Yafan Stark dared to ignore his class. He was about to lose his temper, but recalling Yafan's usual behavior, he felt a sense of frustration. Since enrolling at the age of twelve, Yafan had always been withdrawn, introverted, and eccentric.
He wasn't unaware that many people in the academy sneered at Yafan because he was from the Stark family, but Yafan always responded with a cold face and never seemed angry.
Teacher Gais sighed and thought to himself: "Growing up in a family with such great fame must be painful if you don't have the talent to live up to that fame." Shaking his head, he was about to continue when the timekeeping beast let out a bird-like cry.
He cleared his throat and said: "Everyone, go home and review today's lesson. Tomorrow, I'll bring specimens of spirit beasts in various stages for you to see. Class dismissed."
As soon as he finished speaking, most of the students hurried out. Teacher Gais packed up his things, glanced at Yafan, who was still staring out the window in a daze, sighed, and left as well.
At this moment, Yafan Stark, who had been looking outside, slowly turned his head. Seeing that only a few people were left in the classroom, he thought in confusion: "Why is class over already? It was so fast." After a brief moment of confusion, he came to his senses, packed his things, and prepared to leave.
Suddenly, A group of people came over with great momentum,heading straight for him. Five of them surrounded him in a circle. Among them was a boy around fifteen or sixteen years old, just like him, but over 180 centimeters tall. He said, "Master Yafan, have you brought your spirit beast?"
Yafan was stunned. "Spirit beast? What spirit beast?" He couldn't help but feel puzzled inwardly.
The boy, upon seeing Yafan's expression, knew that he hadn't been listening to his words again.
A rather delicate-looking girl beside them sneered, "Naken, how could Master Yafan bother to take the words of us commoners to heart?"
The boy, Naken, couldn't help but get angry. "Yafan, you asked for this. Don't blame me."
With that, he grabbed Yafan's hand. Without letting Yafan say a word, he, along with the others, hurriedly dragged Yafan to an open space by a small lake in the academy. He let go of Yafan and stood three steps in front of him.
Yafan was filled with confusion. Naken was the grandson of his family's old butler, Bulanxiwa, and could be regarded as a servant of his family. Entrusted by his father, Naken came to Yunliu Academy to study together with him and take care of him by the way.
Naken was completely the opposite type of person to Yafan. He had quite high martial arts talent and was praised by teachers as a once-in-a-decade genius. He was tall and handsome, and his personality was very humorous and funny, which made him quite a popular figure in the academy.
It was just that, for some reason, he always liked to compare various things with Yafan, ranging from martial arts, magic to academic performance and tests. Every time he surpassed Yafan, others would always clap and say, "Good job." He also looked quite proud, which really made Yafan puzzled.
Yafan helplessly felt that Naken seemed to always like to find trouble with him. Although Naken always said at home that he was training him, and his family also seemed to agree with this, Yafan couldn't help but get used to it.
Thinking of this, a light bulb went off in Yafan's mind. He suddenly remembered that on his way home yesterday evening, Naken had also surrounded him with a group of people, as if talking about something related to spirit beasts. However, he was then fascinated by watching a water-attributed spirit beast fishing in the stream by the roadside, lost in thought for a moment, so he didn't hear clearly what Naken was saying. Could it be that Naken dragged him here now because of what happened yesterday?
However, didn't Naken know that he didn't have a spirit beast? Why is he still called to bring a spirit beast?
Not allowing Avatar to think too much, Naken had already stretched out his right hand and shouted in a low voice: "Tiger King." "
As soon as the words fell, I saw some patterns protruding on Naken's right arm, and then peeling off along the pattern like a wonderful layer, revealing his slightly white original skin color, and the peeling off things gathered into a golden animal like a cat on his right palm.
Yafan was stunned and said secretly: "It is an intermediate fourth-order fire tiger spirit beast, fire tiger." "
Naken smiled evilly at Yafan and said, "Master Yafan, since you refuse to take your spirit beast, then I will ask you to help me identify the spirit beast I hatched recently, the Tiger King." "
After saying that, he shouted: "Tiger King, flame impact cannon." "
Before Yafan could react, the Tiger King in Naken's hand had already opened his mouth, and a fireball about five centimeters in size formed from the Tiger King's mouth, and then shot out, quickly hitting Yafan's chest.
With a muffled snort, Yafan only felt like a hot hammer hit his chest hard, making him dizzy and making him unable to stand anymore, staggered back a few steps, and knelt down.
The original beautiful girl, Lanite Less, said disdainfully: "Look, the people of the Stark family can't even stop a flame blast cannon. "
After the pain in his chest passed, Yafan raised his head, only feeling a surge of resentment in his heart, and asked in a hoarse voice, "Why?" Why do you have to do this every time, where have I offended you? Why do you keep asking me for trouble? "
"Naken, you should be considered a member of my family, why do you do this to me? Is it really that fun to bully me? Yafan questioned Naken.
Naken smiled and said, "Family? What a joke! I'm just a servant of your family, right? Who is a family member with you, the noble young master? "
A young man on the right who looked a little fat, Yilian Lanbang, said even more disdainfully: "Who told you to be such a useless aristocrat!" We commoners are fed up with the bullying of your nobles, how can we not get more interest from you!" "
After saying that, the other people burst into laughter and nodded in agreement.
Yes, strength is everything, in this world, whether it is a commoner, a nobleman, or a royal family, strength is everything.
And the spirit beast represents power, and therefore, the reason why the royal nobility is higher than the common people is because they have powerful spirit beasts and great power.
What is the difference between him, a noble son like Avansdack, who has no spirit beast and no power, and a commoner? You can only be bullied. Hearing what Yilian said, Yafan could only be silent, and could only secretly hate why he had no power?
I could only watch myself being bullied, and I could only watch the backs of Naken and his party gradually leaving amidst disdainful laughter.
In the Principality of Warner Pradesh, some people may not know who the current prime minister is, but when it comes to the Stark family, every person in the principality will give you a thumbs up and praise: "What a hero." "
Let's start with the Battle of Shaanxi Guan 49 years ago, when Han Rosdaq, who was ordered to be in danger, resisted a 10,000-man force of the Tailong Empire for 17 days until the rescue forces arrived and saved most of the southern part of the principality.
The team leader, Han Rosdack, was just a pioneer young player, and he was only twenty years old at the time.
Then there was the Battle of Bibo Prairie 28 years ago, when the battle situation was in a stalemate, and Han Rosdaq, who served as the commander of the reserve army, disobeyed the order of the commanding officer to stay in place, and used his son, Yulesdaq, who was only 21 years old, as the captain of the death squad, rushed into the rear army of the enemy Tailong Empire and beheaded Huan Long, the commander-in-chief of the Tailong Empire's command army.
This battle promoted Han Luo to deputy commander of the Principality's army, and Yu Lai became the youngest cavalry commander in the history of the principality.
Then there was the palace rebellion ten years ago, when the commander of the air combat team, Liebert Cayton, rebelled, and as a result, Han Luo and Yu Lai, who were the king at that time, joined forces with the eldest grandson Yahua and the second grandson Yaxu to eliminate more than 130 people in the core of the resistance.
Shockingly, everyone in the core of this rebellion was a good hand to a hundred, but they didn't expect to be completely killed by four people, especially Yahua and Ashu were only fifteen or sixteen years old.
This battle made the principality set up a commander-in-chief position above the three commands, and of course Han Luo held it, and the vacant army corps commander was held by Yu Lai, and Yu Lai's two sons held the positions of chief and deputy thousand cavalry commanders.
Finally, five years ago, the Albuquerque Commercial Port was attacked by a group of 500 pirates with beast phantom armor. At that time, the defenders were all eliminated overnight, but Yahua, who was on vacation, Ya Xu and his third brother Yaruo defeated all 500 pirates in the harbor after a night of fierce battle. As a result, of course, the three brothers, with an average age of twenty years old, were immediately promoted as heroes, and Yaruo also rose to prominence with this and served as the commander of five hundred cavalry.
But compared with his talented father and brother, Avansdaq, as a son, can seem so small. In fact, he is not as bad as outsiders imagined, but he is more like an ordinary fifteen-year-old boy, without amazing talents, although he inherited from the Stark family's consistent excellent appearance, but in martial arts cultivation is ordinary, magic practice is ordinary, and there is no impressive miraculous skills.
All in all, he is an ordinary teenager who catches a handful on the street.
In contrast, compared with his dazzling father and brother, it is really disappointing, but if it is the only one, it is fine, but when he was ten years old, the king of the principality, King Deye, wanted to know what special talents the youngest son of the Stark family had, so he made a special exception and conducted a test on Yafan at the age of ten, thinking that there would be amazing discoveries, but who knows, he was disappointed.
Yafan is ordinary in all aspects, the only surprising thing is that his mental stability index (note) is less than half of the lowest index of ordinary people. This means that he can't even hold the most basic beast spiritual tools that belong to life aids, which is lower than ordinary commoners, and he is a lowly race that belongs to slaves.
How can such a person not be disappointed that such a person has appeared in the Stark family, which is full of heroes.
Even so, his father still used his influence to enable Yafan to enter Yunliu Academy to study in the basic class, but Yafan's situation has not changed at all in the past four years, but the annual mental ability test has deteriorated, and now it is less than one-fifth of the average person. He has been able to upgrade smoothly in the past three years, and it is all thanks to the influence of his Stark family that the academy has barely allowed him to study smoothly to this day.
And this is also an open secret in the academy, and the name of the Stark family's unpromising Yafan has spread throughout the original Dawn City.
Note: The lower the spiritual index, the worse the stability of the spiritual wave, the worse the self-control ability, and the most important thing to control the spirit beast is the stability of the spiritual wave.
The law of the principality stipulates that those with a spiritual index of more than 200 can have spirit beasts of beast phantom armor or magic armor, and only spirit beasts with beast spirit types between 102 and 200. Generally, the spiritual index of normal people is between one hundred and two hundred nine, and the higher the index required by the more advanced spirit beasts. But this is only approximate, now as long as you are rich and powerful, even if you lack ability, you can become the master of a high-level spirit beast.