Emotion was an extremely hidden attribute, one that was very easy to overlook.
Especially since the Auspicious Cloud Qilin possessed not only Emotion, but also Wind and Psychic as its two other attributes.
Among them, the Psychic attribute made Pet Beasts more rational and calmed their minds.
This indirectly suppressed the power of the Emotion attribute, making its already subtle presence even harder to notice.
If an Auspicious Cloud Qilin ever fell into a furious rage, allowing Emotion to erupt with power equal to—or even surpassing—the other two attributes—then they would immediately discover the existence of that power.
Yet they were Mythical Pet Beasts, capable of sensing fortune and danger through psychic perception, living carefree lives while focusing entirely on developing the powers of Wind and Psychic...
And after all these years, they still had never discovered their own third attribute.
Just imagining that possibility made Jiang Xing struggle to hold it together.
He had always assumed the little qilin was lazy and gluttonous because of its own personality...
But now it seemed that the little qilin's parents were probably not exactly hardworking Pet Beasts either.
That was likely why, through constant exposure, they had raised the little fellow into such a laid-back personality.
Thinking about it carefully, Jiang Xing had "captured" the little qilin quite a while ago.
Yet up to now, the two adult qilins had never even shown themselves once, as though they had completely forgotten the little qilin even existed.
Jiang Xing gave the little qilin a sympathetic look.
Could this kid actually have been picked up somewhere?
"Ah-li!?"
On the other side, the little qilin jumped up in shock.
They actually had a third attribute?!
To Mythical Pet Beasts, attributes were no longer merely attributes—they were practically divine "Authorities"!
Gaining an entirely new attribute meant gaining a brand-new Authority, one that could greatly increase their strength without raising their Power Level at all!
This was unbelievably important!
And Jiang Xing had actually accomplished something like this.
As expected of the meal ticket it had chosen!
Jiang Xing also understood the significance of it and asked, "Do you want to go back and tell your parents?"
Of course—
The little qilin was just about to nod when it suddenly froze.
Wait, no. If it told its father and mother about this, they would definitely ask how it had learned it...
And there was no way it could hide its thoughts from them. If they questioned it a little further, the whole story about freeloading food and drinks at Jiang Xing's place would come spilling out.
At that point, there was a very high chance it would be grounded.
Staying inside the secret realm wouldn't actually be that bad. Sure, it would be boring, but at worst it could just sleep all day.
But if that happened, it would never get to eat all those delicious little cubes ever again...
The little qilin rapidly weighed the pros and cons before shaking its head.
"Ah-li~" (Not going.)
Anyway, Jiang Xing was a researcher. Sooner or later, he would publish this discovery.
Once that happened, its parents would eventually discover the power hidden within themselves anyway...
So why should it sacrifice its delicious little cubes for that?
Besides, it liked Jiang Xing, liked the Rainbow Dragon Hatchling, liked little phoenixes...
Staying here was super fun. It had no desire to go home at all.
"...Bruh."
After sensing the little qilin's thoughts, Jiang Xing completely lost it.
This was the divine Authority treasured by Mythical Pet Beasts?
It wasn't even as attractive as Energy Cubes.
No wonder they had failed to discover the hidden power within themselves after all these years.
They were way too much of couch potatoes!
...
Seeing that even the little qilin itself did not care much, Jiang Xing also set the matter aside.
Now that the little qilin already knew about the existence of the Emotion attribute, he could help it develop the power of that attribute and assist its rapid growth anyway...
As for the qilin couple, they were Mythical Pet Beasts standing at the very top of Earth's food chain.
Even without Jiang Xing worrying about them, they were true divine beings—existences that were practically invincible.
So there was no need to think too much about it. Better to continue the research.
Jiang Xing turned his attention back toward the Emotion attribute and, with the help of the Pet Beast Compendium, continued screening for possible Emotion-type Pet Beasts.
Although the Pet Beast Compendium had been compiled by scholars and certainly contained many mistakes, it was generally reliable enough to serve as a reference.
Every additional Emotion-type Pet Beast discovered provided another powerful piece of evidence for the brand-new Emotion attribute!
Just as Jiang Xing was fully focused on his research, flipping through the compendium and searching for Pet Beasts—
he suddenly received a call from Dr. Amru.
The moment the call connected, an elderly voice spoke in somewhat clumsy Mandarin.
"Jiang Xing, I'm at the airport in Yuzhong City right now. How do I get to your research institute?"
"You've already arrived in Yuzhong City?" Jiang Xing asked in surprise.
Dr. Amru laughed.
"I signed up for the Friendship Evolution Conference you're hosting. I came a little early and planned to do some sightseeing for a few days while also stopping by your research institute."
"We've talked for so long, yet we still haven't properly met in person."
So this was an offline meetup?
Jiang Xing could not help but laugh before glancing at the time.
Only then did he realize there were merely four days left before the Friendship Evolution Conference officially began.
In fact, registration for the conference would close tomorrow.
The moment he realized that, Jiang Xing sucked in a sharp breath.
Crap!
He had originally planned to use this period to completely figure out the evolution conditions of Pet Beasts like the Abyssal Water Phoenix Fledgling and publicly reveal them during the Evolution Conference...
He had even confidently bragged about it in his public posts.
But while researching, he had suddenly discovered the unknown variable within the Clouddown Bird and gotten completely sidetracked, throwing himself wholeheartedly into that investigation...
And in the blink of an eye, the Friendship Evolution Conference was about to begin, yet he had completed only one-third of the project.
Considering the Clouddown Bird had the simplest evolution conditions of them all—his total overall progress was probably not even one-third.
'There's no way I'll make it in time...'
Jiang Xing calmed himself down.
Forget it. Panicking now would not help anyway.
The Evolution Conference had already been building hype for nearly half a month. Postponing it was impossible.
He could only shelve part of it for now and reveal only the complete information on the Clouddown Bird—as for the Abyssal Water Phoenix Fledgling and the Mysticfeather Peacock, he would release only their full compendium entries while temporarily withholding their evolution methods.
It just so happened that both of their evolution methods were related to Beauty.
And that, in turn, involved the concepts of Beauty and Contest Appeal. Jiang Xing had not even formally introduced the concept of Beauty yet. If he directly revealed all of this now, he would be biting off more than he could chew.
Better to finish the papers for the Friendship field first.
As for the unexplored territory ahead, he could always come back to it later.
'Among the Ugly Waterfowl's three evolution forms, the Clouddown Bird is the representative of Friendship Evolution.'
'So the Friendship Evolution Conference should naturally focus on Friendship Evolution.'
'That's perfectly reasonable.'
The moment the thought of postponing things arose, the whole world suddenly felt much broader.
Jiang Xing stopped dwelling on the issue and focused on chatting with Dr. Amru instead.
"Please wait a moment. I'll head to the airport and pick you up right away."
"No need to trouble yourself. Just tell me the address and I'll take a taxi over."
Since Jiang Xing had fallen silent while thinking earlier, Dr. Amru had effectively been left hanging. Yet there was no displeasure in his tone as he laughed in clumsy Mandarin.
"You're researching a project for the Friendship Conference?"
"I heard that Dr. Xu has already signed up as well. This conference is going to be lively."
"Haha, let me tell you in advance—my research results this time definitely won't disappoint any of you."
Dr. Amru sounded extremely confident, clearly very satisfied with his own research results.
However, compared to Dr. Xu, he still lagged far behind.
At the very least, Dr. Xu knew exactly what kind of opponent he would be facing this time—
Jiang Xing lowered his head and glanced at the computer screen, the corners of his lips curling upward.
Friendship belonged to emotional energy.
Emotional energy belonged to the Emotion attribute.
And attributes themselves were inseparably linked to evolution.
So...
If he proved the existence of the Emotion attribute at the Friendship Evolution Conference—that would be perfectly reasonable, right?
"I won't disappoint you either."
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