It took Su Muli quite a while to barely digest the concept of Beauty.
Yet her emotions remained impossible to calm, still filled with shock and helplessness.
Both the Friendship Theory and the Emotion attribute were earth-shattering achievements capable of opening entirely new fields.
Jiang Xing releasing those discoveries one after another had already stirred monstrous waves throughout the academic world—and even across the entire globe—drawing countless Pet Beast scholars into the field as they scrambled to conduct research.
Even Dr. Xu had been shaken by the consecutive breakthroughs to the point of feeling old.
And at a time like this, Jiang Xing actually told her—
"Actually, I still have another research result. I felt it didn't really fit with Friendship, so I held it back instead of publishing it."
"...?"
Su Muli could only describe it with a single sentence.
He was barely human.
At this moment, Su Muli could finally fully understand how Dr. Xu had felt back then.
A lot of people called her a genius researcher, believing she could become the youngest Doctor and inherit Dr. Xu's legacy...
But compared to her junior?
She suddenly felt that maybe becoming a Beast Tamer suited her more.
She even found herself having the same thought countless Pet Beast scholars had once had when facing her.
'How can a monster like this even exist?'
"It's actually not that bad," Jiang Xing explained. "Since it's possible to 'detect emotional power through the move Return and derive Friendship values'..."
"Then it's also possible to 'detect charm power through the move Seduction and derive Beauty values.'"
"..."
Su Muli rolled her eyes at him.
Stop humblebragging already.
Using Return and Friendship as a basis for expanded research really was a reasonable line of thought.
Quite a few people were already researching things like "Hatred values," "Anger values," "Fear values," and other emotional metrics.
It was just that those values fluctuated far more wildly and were easily affected by outside influences, making it difficult to produce reliable results in a short period of time.
But Beauty? That was way too much of a leap—
Charm wasn't an emotion. In fact, it was even more abstract and elusive than emotions. There weren't even any corresponding offensive moves tied to it, only all sorts of special moves whose power couldn't really be measured.
Trying to connect Friendship to Beauty was like seeing a pencil and suddenly thinking of an ear pick. Sure, both were long and straight, but they had basically nothing to do with each other.
The fact that Jiang Xing could think of this, deeply research it, and actually produce results could only be described as his "research instincts" kicking in again.
As a top-tier researcher herself, Su Muli occasionally experienced moments of sudden inspiration too—those flashes where she would notice some unique factor and achieve a breakthrough.
But Jiang Xing...
Su Muli seriously suspected the guy was throwing a rave party inside his brain. The flashes of inspiration never seemed to stop.
No matter what she thought internally, Su Muli still remained at the research institute to help train the Ugly Waterfowl, improving their proficiency with the move Seduction.
Instead, Jiang Xing finally freed up his own hands and gained a lot more spare time.
After thinking it over, he felt that continuing to leave his fans hanging wasn't very appropriate.
Besides, both the Mysticfeather Peacock and the Abyssal Water Phoenix Fledgling were definitely related to Beauty. Before revealing their evolution requirements, people at least needed to understand the concept of Beauty first...
That was also part of the system's mission.
So, he organized and summarized all the data he had recorded while training the Ugly Waterfowl during this period, compiling the information related to the move Seduction and charm values.
Then he rewrote it into a new paper and uploaded it to the academic archives of the Beast Taming Association.
Its title was:
[Hypothesis and Proof of Beauty]
Afterward, he logged into his social media account, shared the paper's link, and posted an update.
[I'm very sorry. Because of the discovery of the Emotion attribute, my research schedule was delayed, and I wasn't able to release the evolution conditions for the Abyssal Water Phoenix Fledgling and the Mysticfeather Peacock on time...]
[Moreover, I discovered a brand-new type of power within them. Their exact evolution conditions still remain unclear and require deeper testing. I hope everyone can understand.]
[Sticker: Inky Kowtowing]
At this very moment, the internet was in total chaos. Water-type Dao Lords and Fire-type Supremes were battling so fiercely it felt like the heavens themselves were collapsing.
And as the center of the storm, the moment Jiang Xing posted a new update on social media, it immediately drew the attention of every Beast Tamer.
When they discovered that the post wasn't announcing the evolution conditions, but was instead a delay notice—
The Fire-type Beast Tamers burst into laughter on the spot, while the Water-type Beast Tamers instantly lost their minds.
No, seriously bro?!
You're the newly risen giant of the research world! The top genius who discovered an entirely new attribute!
And now you're suddenly telling us that the Pet Beasts you personally raised still have unclear evolution conditions and that you're delaying things again...
Other than Friendship evolution, what other conditions could there possibly be?
Answer me!!
Filled with confusion, they all rushed into the paper link.
Moments later, the comment section under Jiang Xing's newest post was filled with people metaphorically dropping to their knees.
"I kneel before the boss."
"So this is what a true research big shot looks like? He just finished establishing Friendship Theory, Friendship evolution, and the Emotion attribute, then immediately turned around and opened up another entirely new field?!"
"We've been studying Friendship this whole time, and now you're telling me these two Pet Beasts actually evolve through Beauty? Damn it... that makes way too much sense!"
"I knew it from the very first glance! There was no way these things weren't Beauty evolutions!"
"I studied this question before. It was clearly called Friendship Theory back then, so why did I suddenly stop recognizing it after the name changed?"
"So even after seeing the answers, we still can't solve the problem?"
"I get it now, I really get it this time... If I remember correctly, the next step should be a Beauty Contest + Beauty attribute!"
"Stop talking, brothers. I'm already starting research on the new attribute. Wait for my news!"
The Friendship Evolution Conference had only just ended. The second half of the conference was still being continuously rebroadcast across major media platforms, with its popularity remaining sky-high.
Under such explosive attention, Jiang Xing publishing the Beauty Theory paper was like pouring a ladle of hot oil onto a raging fire—it detonated instantly!
Many Pet Beast scholars had originally been preparing to devote themselves to research on the Emotion field.
But before they could even begin, another entirely new field had suddenly appeared beside it—another brand-new continent!
At that moment, they actually fell into confusion—
Should they research the Emotion attribute instead?
Or should they go study Beauty?
How could such a blissful dilemma even exist?!
Meanwhile, the researchers who had personally attended the Friendship Evolution Conference and experienced that overwhelming shock firsthand were even more speechless.
For example, Dr. Xu directly tagged Dr. Amru in the comment section and posted a very simple message.
"?"
A moment later, Dr. Amru replied with a single message of his own.
"Damn."
...
The exchange between the two Doctors was merely a tiny microcosm.
The entirety of China had already completely exploded because of that single post.
As for the instigator behind everything, Jiang Xing soon received a phone call from Chang Feng.
"Student Jiang Xing, the officials are planning to hold this year's Researcher Title Conferment Ceremony in five days."
"May I ask if you'll have time to attend?"
"So soon?" Jiang Xing asked in confusion.
In the Beast Taming world, the title of Pet Beast Researcher carried extraordinary significance.
Every year during the New Year period, a dedicated conferment ceremony would be held to officially award qualified Pet Beast scholars with the title of Researcher.
And for major ceremonies like this, recipients would usually be notified well in advance so they could clear their schedules and prepare early.
So why was it being moved forward this year? And why the sudden emergency notice?
Jiang Xing inexplicably recalled the phone call Dr. Xu had given him a few days ago...
Was Teacher seriously not joking around?
Sure enough, Chang Feng explained: "You've already published so many major achievements without even being an official Researcher yet... Recently, the pressure on the officials has been enormous."
"So they decided to hold this conferment ceremony early and officially grant you the title of Researcher."
"If you're unavailable five days from now, then we can arrange another date first."
Cold sweat instantly broke out across Jiang Xing's back.
A conferment ceremony specifically being held for me?
Wasn't this treatment way too extravagant?
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