With Su Muli's help, Jiang Xing successfully refined the evolution conditions for the Mysticfeather Peacock.
However, the evolution conditions for the Abyssal Water Phoenix Fledgling still had yet to be cracked—
After testing, even the best-trained Ugly Waterfowl, whose theoretical Beauty score had nearly reached 200 points, still failed and evolved into a Mysticfeather Peacock instead.
Jiang Xing guessed there were probably two possible reasons.
The first was that its real-time Beauty score still wasn't high enough and needed to exceed 200.
The second was that the evolution conditions were still incomplete and required the involvement of Friendship.
No matter which possibility it was, they would still need to spend several more days filling in the missing conditions.
At this point, the Honey Attendants on the other side had also reached a critical stage.
Compared to the nightmare-level difficulty of raising the Ugly Waterfowl, raising Honey Attendants was basically baby-mode difficulty...
They could practically raise themselves!
The butler-like Honey Attendant Xiaoxian had once been a teacher at a Pet Beast academy. Its mastery over moves, training methods, and all kinds of foundational knowledge had already reached the absolute pinnacle.
If not for being limited by its Bug-type aptitude, as well as the fact that Honey Attendants had no known evolution forms, it would have long since taken another step forward and reached an even greater realm.
As a result, in only a few days, Xiaoxian had already worked together with Su Muli to develop an entirely new Friendship-based move—
[Sweet Kiss: A kiss filled with affection that injects life force into the target's body. The higher the Friendship with the target, the stronger the healing effect.]
Well, all one could say was that Xiaoxian truly deserved its reputation as a teacher from a nanny academy.
Even when developing moves, what it excelled at most was still healing and affection rather than offense.
And not long after, it quickly developed an entirely new Beauty-based move as well.
[Sugary Aura: Surrounds itself with a sweet fragrance to display its charm, causing targets who pay attention to it to recall pleasant memories, thereby lowering their guard and reducing their defensive capability.]
During the development process of these two moves, Su Muli's contribution actually wasn't that high.
The move principles, concepts, and ideas had all been conceived by Xiaoxian itself.
Su Muli mainly taught it knowledge related to Friendship and Beauty, while also helping answer certain questions regarding move development.
With Xiaoxian's control over its own power, completing the move development process was incredibly easy.
Not only that, it even gathered the other Honey Attendants inside the research institute, pulled out a little blackboard, and began enthusiastically lecturing while scribbling across it, the room constantly filled with lively chirping sounds.
The Honey Attendants below all sat properly with notebooks in hand, diligently taking notes as they listened.
Very quickly, once Teacher Xiaoxian's move class ended, the Honey Attendants had already grasped all the core points of the moves. Within only a couple of days, they had learned both entirely new moves.
Even Su Muli found herself feeling envious after seeing this.
So this was a teacher-type Pet Beast?
There was barely any difference between it and a human breeder!
With a teacher-type Pet Beast acting as the research institute's butler, researchers only needed to provide enough food and could otherwise completely leave everything alone, without worrying about any miscellaneous breeding or maintenance work—
It could continuously train new Pet Beast assistants and might even, with an extremely tiny probability, raise an entirely new "teacher-type Pet Beast"!
Su Muli's own research institute didn't have such a rare existence.
She either recruited them from schools whenever she had time, or spent enormous sums hiring professional breeders to help train Pet Beast assistants at her institute...
How could they possibly compare to Xiaoxian's level of dedication?
Still, although Su Muli was envious, she had no intention of contracting one herself.
Pet Beasts with teacher aptitude were simply too rare. They were treasured foundations guarded closely by every academy and major family clan. Even as a top researcher, it would be difficult for her to convince them to part with one.
Perhaps only after becoming a doctor-level researcher would she gain the opportunity to contract a teacher-type Pet Beast.
As for someone like Jiang Xing, who had picked up an elderly teacher whose lifespan was nearly exhausted and who no longer had any future potential, then even formed a contract with it...
Su Muli could only say one thing:
Little bro had guts.
...
With Teacher Xiaoxian personally handling the lessons, all the Honey Attendants successfully learned the new moves.
Levels, resources, Friendship, Beauty, items...
All kinds of evolution conditions had already been fully prepared.
As for even more complex and diversified evolution resources, setting aside just how absurdly far they would need to push them, even if Jiang Xing had wanted to continue, Xiaoxian simply didn't have any more time left.
At this moment, due to the feedback from the contract, it had temporarily returned to its peak condition.
Then, after experiencing the Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix Conference and witnessing countless Ugly Waterfowls complete their evolutions, its confidence had also reached its peak.
In other words, this was precisely the moment when its momentum was at its strongest!
If they missed this opportunity, then even if they piled on countless additional conditions afterward, the gains would not outweigh the losses.
Jiang Xing had already made his decision.
Today would be the day of the Honey Attendant's evolution!
One had to remember that when he crafted the evolution items, what he used was Arceus's Fairy Plate.
Even if the road ahead for the Honey Attendant had already come to an end, he would forcibly carve out a brand-new path using the power of the alpaca!
No matter what, the Honey Attendant had to—and absolutely would—complete this evolution!
'Still, before the evolution begins, let's have one final therapy session.'
Jiang Xing had always believed that Pet Beast evolution was deeply connected to the power of the heart.
Dr. Xu's research had also proven that under certain circumstances, the emotional power of Pet Beasts would fluctuate and even surpass their limits... thereby generating enormous amounts of evolution energy and producing stronger evolutionary effects.
Therefore, before attempting evolution, it was extremely necessary to strengthen a Pet Beast's will to evolve and reinforce the power of its heart through various methods.
The mythical legends, the Dragon Might Dragon Gate, the Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix...
At their core, all of them existed to achieve this very purpose through "external interference."
Which was precisely what Dr. Xu referred to as "special circumstances."
As for the exact method of interference, naturally, it had to be tailored to the situation.
'A brave Golden-Patterned Koi longs to surpass itself, overcome everything, and transform into a dragon...'
'An ugly Ugly Waterfowl longs to change itself, to stand beneath the sunlight and become dazzlingly beautiful...'
'Then what do the Honey Attendants long for?'
The answer definitely wasn't evolution itself—
Because evolution was merely the means of realizing a desire, not the goal of that desire.
Just like how the Ugly Waterfowls longed for evolution not because they desired "evolution" itself, but because they wanted to change their current situation.
Jiang Xing needed to uncover the desires of the Honey Attendants and understand the thoughts hidden in their hearts.
Only then could he better design the "illusion realm," guide them into erupting with the power of their hearts, and generate even more evolution energy.
Thus, Emotional Expert Jiang Xing logged in and called Xiaoxian together with all the Honey Attendants into the study.
"Everyone, I have a question."
Jiang Xing sat behind the writing desk.
Stacks of thick books had been piled across the tabletop like rows of benches.
The tiny winged sprites descended from the air and sat neatly atop the books, looking curiously at Jiang Xing, thinking he was about to announce something important.
Unexpectedly, he asked them a question instead.
"What do you like?"
"In other words, have you ever thought about what you want for yourselves? And after evolving, what kind of existence do you want to become?"
"Sii, sii..."
After hearing the question, although the Honey Attendants were confused, they still maintained their usual energetic and cheerful mood as they huddled together and began chattering excitedly among themselves.
Jiang Xing couldn't understand what they were talking about, so he turned his gaze toward Xiaoxian, the one who had formed a contract with him and could communicate with him heart-to-heart.
"Xiaoxian, what about you?"
"You agreed to form a contract with me because you believed in the power of evolution and longed for evolution as well."
"So then... why do you long for evolution?"
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