Chapter 75: Reaching the Limit
“Offering a large reward for conception, Beast Tamers preferred.”
Seeing the sudden post that popped up on the forum, Zhou Ming was instantly speechless. Truly, all kinds of freaks and lunatics were roaming around this place.
The only redeeming feature was that the woman in the photo was quite beautiful, dressed in very revealing clothes. However, to Zhou Ming, she held no appeal whatsoever. He clicked his mouse and deleted it directly before continuing to browse through other forum posts.
After scrolling for a long while, Zhou Ming didn’t come across any useful information. It was either advertisements or gossip — not a single piece of content of any real value.
However, Zhou Ming didn’t seem disappointed. He already had some understanding of the forum’s current state.
When the forum was first established, there truly had been a lot of valuable information. But as its reputation grew, all sorts of people flocked in, and eventually it turned into what it was today.
Zhou Ming was merely browsing the forum to pass time, to let his fatigued body recover after training in the Mad Python Martial Way, and also to see if he might stumble upon a pleasant surprise.
But judging from the situation now, Zhou Ming probably wouldn’t get any unexpected harvest.
Once his body recovered, Zhou Ming stopped browsing the forum and continued to practice the Mad Python Martial Way.
When night fell, after settling his dinner and taking a bath, he began flipping through the books about Beast Tamers he had bought from the Black Market.
According to Zhou Ming’s daily schedule — in the morning, he cultivated the Basic Meditation Technique; in the afternoon, he trained in the Mad Python Martial Way; at night, he read through the books he had collected.
His days passed in a strict and steady rhythm — mind, body, and knowledge. Zhou Ming was like a parched sponge, continuously absorbing the water he needed.
Because he knew that compared to the disciples of great powers who possessed complete inheritances, he was still far behind, and could only do everything possible to close the gap.
Over the next two months, Zhou Ming stayed home following this routine. Aside from going out for necessities, he secluded himself indoors, digesting the resources he had previously obtained.
After all, only by converting resources into his own strength would all his efforts in obtaining them hold meaning.
In Zhou Ming’s plan — obtain resources, convert them into strength, then use strength to obtain even more resources — he would proceed step by step along this path.
As for Zhou Ming’s beasts, aside from Inkband and Vermilion Jade who were consuming Spirit Nurturing Pills, the rest of the serpents were released into the sewers to hunt Hardfur Rats — a species that could never be completely exterminated anyway.
The only ones affected were the Rat Exterminators within Qinshan Base, who had been returning empty-handed for the past few months.
But even if Zhou Ming knew that, he wouldn’t care about their feelings. What he was doing could even be considered as helping Qinshan Base for free.
Two months later, inside Zhou Ming’s bedroom — in a pitch-dark environment where one couldn’t see even a hand before their face — a flicker of lightning suddenly flashed from Zhou Ming’s eyes as he ended his meditation.
“Electricity born from the void?”
Seeing this strange phenomenon, Zhou Ming naturally understood the reason behind it. It was the manifestation of his Spiritual Power reaching its limit.
After exhausting the resources he had purchased earlier, Zhou Ming had practiced the White Bone Contemplation Meditation Method three times. During this last session, his Spiritual Power finally reached its limit.
Looking back, for Zhou Ming to reach such a level at the age of twenty was not merely due to the White Bone Contemplation alone.
It was the combined result of the Serpent Saliva Fruit, the Amethyst Potion, the White Bone Contemplation, many other resources — and Zhou Ming’s own unwavering perseverance.
Unlike after his first meditation, though Zhou Ming still felt a trace of weakness, it was much lighter than before.
At least this time, he could get up on his own and turn on the lights in his room.
“With my current state, I can now focus on cultivating my beasts.”
“Though… this will have to wait until next year.”
It had been about five months since Zhou Ming left Qinshan Base for the Green Mist Jungle. It was now November — the beginning of winter.
Thinking of how, since coming to Blue Star, he had spent two full years focusing solely on the path of the Beast Tamer, Zhou Ming felt a touch of weariness. He decided to take this winter as a time for proper rest and relaxation.
Cultivation required both tension and relaxation — pushing oneself too hard would only hinder one’s progress on the Beast Tamer’s path.
The next morning, Zhou Ming — dressed in a black winter coat — left his residence early. Since he couldn’t leave Qinshan Base for the time being, he decided to visit the Hunter Guild.
Not to take on missions, but to see if he could gather any useful information. After all, during this season, many hunters who had gone out would be returning to Qinshan Base.
Many of them liked to drink and brag in the Hunter Guild’s bar, and some who had obtained rare resources would bring them for private trades in addition to submitting official missions.
Given Zhou Ming’s current situation, visiting the Hunter Guild was the perfect opportunity — to relax his mind and maybe stumble upon a new opportunity.
There were two lively places in the Hunter Guild — the bar and the stalls.
The former was for the mental decompression of most hunters. Wandering the wilderness year-round, dancing on the edge of life and death, most hunters’ mental states were far from healthy.
The numbing effect of alcohol was their spiritual sustenance, helping them relieve inner pressure.
The latter, the stalls, displayed all sorts of strange items gathered by hunters in the wild — some worthless, others priceless treasures.
Because it was difficult to appraise these items, and hunters were unwilling to sell cheaply, private stall trading naturally emerged.
Once, someone even found a treasure among these stalls, and since then, the Hunter Market had grown increasingly lively.
This time, Zhou Ming didn’t drive, as parking spaces near the Hunter Guild were notoriously hard to find due to its popularity.
Although few people in the base could afford cars — and those could only be used inside the base — for hunters, buying and maintaining one wasn’t much of a burden. Thus, the Hunter Guild area was one of the rare places in Qinshan Base where parking was scarce.
“Ding.”
The familiar sound of the tram chime rang out. Zhou Ming wasn’t in a rush and was the last to get off.
“The sunlight feels so nice today.”
After stepping off, Zhou Ming looked up at the warm sun, feeling completely relaxed and comfortable.
It had been a long time since he’d enjoyed this feeling of basking in sunlight.
For months, he had either been in the mist-shrouded Green Mist Jungle, or at home honing his martial skills and meditating with the White Bone Contemplation, then studying his collection of books at night.
Both his mind and body had been in a constant state of tension.
For his decision to go out and take a walk today, Zhou Ming felt it was absolutely the right one.
“Could you move aside?”
Just as Zhou Ming stood at the tram door, soaking in the sunlight with a blissful expression, someone interrupted him.
Turning his head, Zhou Ming saw that there was actually one more passenger getting off after him — and he was blocking the way.
“Ah, sorry about that.”
Zhou Ming quickly apologized and stepped aside from the door.
The other person didn’t say anything more, merely gave Zhou Ming a look filled with pity — the kind one would give to a fool — before getting off and walking away.
Leaving behind only Zhou Ming, standing there with an embarrassed expression.