67-76

Spirituality was a combination of 'intelligence' and 'assimilation'.

The higher the spirituality of the spirit beast, the stronger its learning ability would be.

Furthermore, spirituality was also a major standard that drew the line between spirit beasts and ferocious beasts.

The improvement of learning ability for ferocious beasts was mostly reliant on their survival instincts, which were made up of brutality and the survival of the fittest. In other words, they had an unruly 'ferocious nature'.

Rational spirit beasts could communicate telepathically with humans, but crazy ferocious beasts were irrational most of the time.

However, be it spirituality or ferociousness, they were both embodiments of learning abilities.

Through their unique learning methods, spirit beasts and ferocious beasts could continuously assimilate some innate skills that uniquely belonged to their own race.

Furthermore, they could also learn some common skills through getting trained by Beast Tamers as well as their usual battles.

Based on what the Little Golden Eagle had described, coupled with the accident that had just happened, Giles made a bold speculation.

Under the influence of his spiritual power, 'telling stories to spirit beast cubs' became a special method to increase their 'spirituality'.

After a spirit beast cub finished listening to the story, its spirituality would rapidly increase, far exceeding that of ordinary spirit beasts.

That was why they were immersed in the story he told them, as they were playing the main character in that world and assimilating the skill.

In addition, there was an abundant supply of spiritual energy in the warm room of the spirit-beast section, which could continuously transmit spiritual energy for the growth and evolution of the spirit beasts.

Under these circumstances, the spirit beast cubs that had heard the story would not stop growing and evolving after absorbing spiritual energy.

The main reason why the Little Golden Eagle had lost control of its evolution this time was because it had activated the 'Devour' skill and swallowed four additional beast cores. This resulted in the spiritual energy turbulence in its body.

This was because even if it did not use its skills to swallow the beast cores, the spiritual energy provided within the spirit beast section was sufficient.

At that thought, Giles recalled something Madam Janice had told him at the blood pool.

Madam Janice noticed that the bodies of Giles' spirit beasts, which had fallen into a deep slumber, contained a tremendous amount of spiritual energy.

This might be one of the reasons why their combat strength far exceeded other spirit beasts of the same rank.

By soaking in the blood pool and sleeping, not only could they strengthen their bodies, but they could also slowly digest and absorb the immense spiritual energy in their bodies.

Coupled with the speculation he had just made and the viewpoint proposed by Madam Janice, Giles speculated that the previous spirit beasts must have absorbed too much spiritual energy when they evolved after listening to the stories, resulting in a situation similar to 'overnutrition' occurring in their bodies.

Moreover, they did not have the Little Golden Eagle's innate skill 'Devour', which could quickly digest and absorb spiritual energy. Therefore, even after evolving to the Gold rank, there was still a huge amount of spiritual energy left in their bodies that had not been completely absorbed. As such, their combat strength far exceeded that of spirit beasts of the same rank during battle.

However, just as excess nutrition would bring some harm to the body of a human, the prolonged storage of such a large amount of spiritual energy in the body of a spirit beast would also be accompanied by a certain degree of risk. There might even be some side effects, such as high spirits, violent temperaments, and so on.

Fortunately, the appearance of the blood pool and Madam Janice helped them resolve the hidden danger in their bodies.

With the help of the blood pool to absorb the remaining spiritual energy in their bodies, coupled with the fact that Madam Janice's main body was a Legend-rank spirit beast, only then did Giles feel assured leaving his spirit beasts in the blood pool and wait for their transformation.

Madam Janice's words also reminded Giles that his method of 'telling stories to accelerate the growth of spirit beasts' actually had some hidden dangers and even had quite a few side effects.

Previously, when the few spirit beasts were absorbing the spiritual energy, he did not intervene and did not restrain them from absorbing the spiritual energy. As a result, they ended up in a situation similar to 'overnutrition'.

This was just like when humans replenish a large amount of fat, vitamins, and proteins through overeating within a short period of time, but they had not undergone a large amount of training to promote digestion and absorption in the stomach. In this way, although their bodies had become larger and their weight had increased, they were still just fat people.

This method of 'allowing the spirit beast to absorb spiritual energy continuously after listening to the story so as to accelerate its growth' was not only detrimental to the spirit beast itself, but also did not conform to the Beast Tamer guidelines.

What Beast Tamers needed to do was to teach spirit beasts combat skills and let them learn some common skills during their growth process together with their spirit beasts. It was not enough to just raise their spirit beasts.

This was just like how parents had to let their children learn and guide them to discover their hobbies and specialties during their growth. They would not just release their children after their children had eaten their fill and grown up.

After noticing this, Giles scanned the sleeping spirit beast cubs around him and made a decision.

"Looks like whether it's for them or for myself, I have to control my spiritual power when I tell stories in the future."

"Otherwise, even if situations like that of the Little Golden Eagle's special situation today, did not occur again, there would still be a hidden danger of absorbing and penting up a lot of spiritual energy like the other spirit beasts."

"But looking at the effect of the lullaby I hummed just now, the impact of my powerful spiritual power doesn't seem to be limited to telling stories."

When Giles was humming the lullaby earlier, he had deliberately tried to control his spiritual power, only letting out a trace of it to see how it worked.

The outcome was as he had expected. Under the influence of that trace of spiritual power, the spirit beast cubs who heard the lullaby quickly relaxed their tense nerves and entered a deep sleep.

"Since I can freely control that immense spiritual power, I'll have to try to control the effects of my spiritual power on them the next time I tell a story."

Feeling the gentle breeze blowing into the courtyard of the spirit beast section, Giles looked at the sleeping spirit beast cubs beside him and suddenly felt that this scene was very warm and adorable. He then took out his camera, which he had not used in a while, from his spatial wristband.

After making sure that the camera lens and the shutter were okay, Giles looked at the nearly used-up film in his camera, Seeming to remember something, he suddenly sighed.

"Hai, I haven't taken pictures of them in a long time. I wonder if they still remember this."

Before Giles replaced Alice to be in charge of Starlux Gym, he, who was responsible for taking care of the spirit beast cubs, would take pictures of them every day to record their daily lives and growth.

The spirit beast cubs also enjoyed this. Sometimes, they would even criticise Giles for not taking good photos of them when he took shots of them, and would then get Giles to take a few more.

However, recently, not only Giles, but even the spirit beast cubs seemed to have forgotten about this matter.

"Forget it, I'll just treat this as a long-awaited surprise."

Thinking of this, Giles tried his best to straighten his right hand and raised the camera high up. He aimed it at himself and the spirit beast cubs surrounding him before pressing the shutter of the camera.

Click!

The heartwarming scene beside Giles was frozen in the photo that the camera slowly printed out.Seeming to have heard the sound of Giles using the camera to take pictures, the spirit beast cubs that were snoring around Giles slowly opened their squinted eyes. They were all yawning and stretching in their sleep.

After coming to their senses, they suddenly felt that the sound that had awakened them from their slumber was somewhat familiar. They raised their heads in confusion and began to search for the source of the voice.

"Ah! Giles helped us take pictures again!" Seeing Giles take the photo from the camera, a spirit beast cub let out a cry of surprise.

The spirit beast cubs that had yet to wake up were originally rubbing their eyes. When they heard this cry, they immediately became energetic.

Excited, they all gathered around Giles and peered into his arms, all of them wanting to see what Giles had taken with the camera.

"Make way! Don't push! Save me a spot!"

"What did Giles shoot this time? Did anyone see it?"

"I'm guessing someone had a strange sleeping posture and was photographed by Giles!"

"…"

Seeing how the spirit beast cubs had such a huge reaction to the photo taking, Giles couldn't help but laugh at himself.

Looks like they didn't forget about this matter. They're still passionate about taking photos. I'm the only one who's been blinded by glory and lost my way.

After realizing this, Giles looked at the group of lively spirit beast cubs in front of him and suddenly felt a heavy burden lifted off his chest.

Although he had never felt like he was carrying any burden, when he recalled what he had been doing recently, he knew it was actually because of his competitiveness or rather vanity.

"Perhaps it's because I was called trash for more than ten years, that's why I was so eager to prove my strength to everyone."

Looking down at the picture of himself in his hand, Giles suddenly realized that the "revenge" action he had subconsciously taken some time ago was so childish and laughable.

He was like a child who had been neglected for a long time rushing to show off his new toy to other children, as if thinking that they would regret it and that someone would take the initiative to play with him in the future.

Hah, it seems like my heart is still not strong enough.

Giles sighed to himself, then shook his head in self-deprecation.

However, when he saw the spirit beast cubs surrounding him, Giles couldn't help but feel gratified.

"Fortunately, I still have them…"

Before Giles could say anything, the photo in his hand was blown up by a gust of wind.

When the spirit beast cubs squeezing towards Giles saw this, they all looked up.

"Ah! I saw it clearly! All of us seem to have been photographed!"

"I saw it too! Haha! You slept while hugging your tail again!"

"What's wrong with hugging my tail while sleeping? Not only do you snore in your sleep, but your nose is also covered in mucus!"

"…"

When the spirit beast cubs looked up, they also jumped a few times, wanting to try and grab the photo from the air.

However, because they were small and could not jump, they could not reach the photo that had been blown into the air.

Giles had been about to stand up too, but when he realized that the little fox was still sleeping in his lap, he sat there and watched the picture being blown up by the wind.

Whoosh!

Giles suddenly felt a gust of wind beside him, and his eyes narrowed unconsciously.

On a closer look, it turned out that the Little Golden Eagle had flapped its wings and brought down the picture floating in the air.

"Not bad, Little Golden Eagle. Looks like your pre-evolution explosive strength still remains."

After taking the photo from the Little Golden Eagle, Giles stroked its head in approval and smoothed down the feathers that were slightly raised on its head.

"Alright, alright. Everyone, don't be anxious."

To prevent the situation just now from happening again, Giles kept the photo in his spatial wristband.

Then, he waved his right hand at the spirit beast cubs around him, indicating for them to not be anxious.

"I'll put this photo in our album. When the time comes, everyone can just look through the album like before."

Seeing that it had been a long time since Giles had mentioned looking through the album, the excited spirit beast cubs quickly became obedient.

Seeing that the spirit beast cubs had quietened down and stopped making a din, Giles scanned the surroundings.

He realized that apart from the Little Fox changing its position to sleep on his legs, the other spirit beast cubs had already woken up.

In order to not disturb the Little Fox that was healing him, Giles communicated telepathically with the dozen or so spirit beast cubs beside him.

"Since everyone has woken up, I'll apologize for the accident today."

After using spiritual communication to apologize to the spirit beast cubs, Giles, who was sitting on the spot, bowed slightly to the spirit beast cubs.

The spirit beast cubs that had just sensed Giles' spiritual connection were originally looking at Giles excitedly, but when they saw Giles suddenly bow and apologize, their eyes immediately widened.

Just as the spirit beast cubs were panicking and puzzled by Giles' actions, Giles, who slowly raised his head, looked at the Little Golden Eagle standing by the side and began to explain the situation to the spirit beast cubs.

"The main reason why the Little Golden Eagle lost control during his evolution today is because of me. I promise that when I tell stories in the future, I will control the spiritual power I release to prevent any accidents like today's from happening again."

After hearing Giles make the promise in a solemn manner, the spirit beast cubs' gazes couldn't help but shift to the Little Golden Eagle.

Recalling the 'spiritual energy storm' that the Little Golden Eagle had triggered when it lost control of its evolution, they still felt a lingering fear.

At that moment, there were even a few spirit beast cubs that took the initiative to go over to Giles and rubbed against his right hand.

"Giles, we're never going to pester you to tell us stories again."

After sensing the message from these spirit beast cubs, the other spirit beast cubs struggled internally for a while before nodding at Giles.

The main reason why they had pestered Giles to tell them stories was because they realized that they had vaguely sensed a slight improvement in themselves after listening to the stories.

However, they could not tell what exactly had improved. Perhaps it was that their emotions had become richer, or perhaps their minds had become smarter.

However, the spirit beast cubs with the most obvious enhancement effects would begin to absorb spiritual energy and complete their evolution after listening to the story.

Without exception, this was the same for the Little Golden Eagle.

However, the unexpected situation that the Little Golden Eagle had caused also sounded an alarm bell for the spirit beast cubs.

This method of accelerating one's growth by listening to stories seemed to be accompanied by some risks.

If they were not careful, they might end up in a similar predicament as the Little Golden Eagle.

Therefore, for the sake of their safety and that of Giles', the spirit beast cubs all gave up on taking the shortcut.

"Okay, that's alright, because I originally planned to teach all of you some combat-related knowledge and skills."

Giles looked at the spirit beast cubs, who had pestered him everyday to tell them stories, all expressing that they would not listen to stories anymore because of the accident that had just happened.

He understood that they were still worried about the accident that had just happened and respected their thoughts, but he also proposed a compromise to the spirit beast cubs.

"But in the future, if any of you want to listen to stories, you can come to the small wooden house in the spirit-beast section to look for me."After receiving the message Giles sent with his spiritual power, the spirit beast cubs all nodded.

However, after today's incident, they wouldn't take the initiative to look for Giles to listen to stories for the time being, at least.

Seeing the spirit beast cubs nod in agreement, Giles felt relieved.

Just as he was about to get up and move around, he lowered his head and stroked the Little Fox on his lap. He couldn't help but feel curious about the Little Fox.

Since the Little Fox could heal him just now, his left arm must have been bandaged by her.

I wonder how she did it. Are her tiny paws that agile?

"Giles, Little Fox is really amazing! She was the one who asked me to find the bandage in your room. She was also the one who helped you bandage your wound," the Little Golden Eagle exclaimed when it saw Giles looking down at the Little Fox.

"That's right. All of us fell unconscious previously, but the Little Fox was the first to wake up. She witnessed the entire process of you saving the Little Golden Eagle."

"Yes, we even misunderstood the Little Golden Eagle after we woke up. It was all thanks to Little Fox's help that we cleared up the misunderstanding."

"Giles, Giles, the bandaging method that Little Fox used is identical to the one you usually use. When did you teach her?"

"…"

When the Little Golden Eagle mentioned that the Little Fox had helped Giles bandage his left arm, it caused a commotion among the spirit beast cubs around them.

After they snapped out of it, they realized how calm and collected the Little Fox was.

As the spirit beast cubs fought to be the first to describe what had happened, Giles also briefly organized his thoughts.

He more or less understood what had happened while he was unconscious.

When Giles looked at the Little Fox on his lap, his eyes were filled with curiosity and surprise.

It had fallen unconscious like the other spirit beast cubs, yet the Little Fox could regain consciousness before the other spirit beast cubs. Giles was not surprised about that.

After all, the Little Fox's mother, Madam Janice, was a Legend-rank spirit beast that could already transform into a human form.

As the descendant of a Legend-rank spirit beast, although the Little Fox was still only a Bronze-rank spirit beast, her physique and strength should be far above this group of spirit beast cubs.

However, what Giles did not expect was that compared to the group of immature spirit beast cubs in front of him, the Little Fox seemed very mature.

Based on the description of the spirit beast cubs, the Little Fox's calm and collected way of handling things was completely different from her young cub appearance.

"But previously, I treated her and the other spirit beast cubs equally. Furthermore, I didn't communicate with her mentally, so I really didn't have a chance to discover this."

Thinking of this, Giles, who felt a little ashamed, scratched his head awkwardly.

Madam Janice had entrusted her daughter to him, but he had been treating the Little Fox as a pet all this while.

"I haven't communicated spiritually with Little Fox recently. I wonder if she will mind."

Seeing that Giles was merely scratching his head and had no intention of continuing communicating with them, the spirit beast cubs participating in the spiritual communication gradually quietened down.

A gentle breeze blew through the courtyard, and an emerald leaf landed on Giles' shoulder. Then, it slowly slid onto the Little Fox's forehead.

There was a short silence, until a familiar yet unexpected voice rang out in Giles' and the spirit beast cubs' minds.

"Oh? Why are you guys suddenly not chatting anymore?"

When he heard Little Fox's voice in his mind, Giles, who was scratching his head, subconsciously looked towards his lap.

He saw the Little Fox on his lap pulling the leaf off her forehead.

Then, she languidly turned around and narrowed her eyes and met his eyes.

"Uh, when did you wake up?"

Hearing Giles' awkward question, the Little Fox on his lap stretched its limbs.

"Probably while you were taking pictures."

"In that case, did you receive everything we communicated about?"

"Pretty much."

Although the Little Fox had already woken up, she was still very happy that Giles was worried that he would disturb her rest and had specially used spiritual communication to communicate with the spirit beast cubs.

In addition, the unexpected situation today had greatly changed her impression of Giles. At that moment, she already regarded Giles as a true friend.

"So you think it's strange that I know how to bandage a wound?"

Seeing that the Little Fox had taken the initiative to ask this question, Giles didn't hesitate at all and nodded.

"Did you learn this Beast Tamer's basic bandaging method from Madam Janice?"

The 'bandaging method' that the spirit beast cubs mentioned earlier was actually the basic bandaging method that Beast Tamers had to learn since they were young.

When he learned that the Little Fox knew how to bandage wounds with gauze, Giles immediately thought of her mother, Madam Janice, who had already transformed into a human form.

When the Little Fox heard Giles mention its mother, it communicated with Giles telepathically.

From her message, Giles learned that Madam Janice, who was a Legend-rank spirit beast that advocated peace, would often step forward to mediate the conflict between the ferocious beasts in the Solomon Mountain Range in order to maintain the balance between the various races. If necessary, she would even save some of the ferocious beasts.

After learning this, Giles couldn't help but sigh.

"No wonder you could clear up the misunderstanding for the Little Golden Eagle so calmly and quickly. At the same time, you also treated the wound on my left arm."

"Since you mentioned the injury on your left arm, I'll remind you again."

The Little Fox stretched out its little paw and pointed at Giles' bandaged left arm, as she told him the exact effects of the two healing skills she had activated previously.

"Previously, after I used 'Rapid Treatment' to stop the bleeding, I used 'Slow Healing' to guide the spiritual energy that entered your body so that it wouldn't damage your body any further."

"But I can only use these treatment methods on you twice a day. If it exceeds two times, my spiritual energy might cause you harm."

"Therefore, before you completely absorb the tremendous spiritual energy in your body, it's best not to do any intense exercises, in case your wounds burst open and cause your spiritual energy to rampage."

In the face of the Little Fox's kind reminder, Giles nodded solemnly.

After confirming with the Little Fox that the wound on his left arm had become smaller, Giles slowly got up and carried her and walked out from under the tree.

"Oh? Is it almost noon?"

Giles was shocked to see that he only had a short shadow on the ground.

"In that case, there should be many Beast Tamers waiting outside the door for a long time!"

"I have to hurry and open the door of the gym!"

Giles kept the Little Fox in his arms and the Little Golden Eagle into the space within his tattoos before quickly settling the other spirit beast cubs in various areas of the spirit beast section.

However, when he rushed from the spirit-beast section to the reception area of the gym and opened the door, he found that there was no one outside.

Giles couldn't help but frown and fall into deep thought.

"Why didn't anyone come to the gym today?"Could it be that because I've been away for some time, so no one has come to the gym to challenge me recently?

Upon thinking of this, Giles subconsciously shook his head and immediately dismissed the thought that had just popped into his mind.

It shouldn't be because of this reason. After all, when I was out recently, the gym was handed over to Mr. Gars from the Spirit Beast Chamber of Commerce to manage."

I only asked Mr Gars to manage the employees who are responsible for opening and cleaning the training areas of the gym every day because the number of Beast Tamers who come to the gym every day to borrow the training ground is many times more than the number of Beast Tamers who come to challenge the gym daily.

Even if no one came to challenge the gym today, there should still be Beast Tamers who come to borrow the training ground.

As far as Giles knew, for Beast Tamers, apart from "finding the Gym Leader to carry out the evaluation for spirit beasts" and "obtaining the badge that allowed them to participate in the tournament by challenging the Gym Leader," the most important use of the Beast-taming Gym was to provide training grounds for Beast Tamers and spirit beasts.

This was because hundreds of years after the resurgence of spiritual energy, in order to withstand the impact of the beast tide that could break out at any moment, humans had built layer after layer of high walls outside the base city.

However, not all Beast Tamers had the ability to bring their spirit beasts out of the base city to train in the wilderness.

Almost 90% of Beast Tamers usually trained their spirit beasts in the base city.

Since they were going to train their spirit beasts in the base city, the division of training grounds became a problem.

There was limited space in the base city, and Beast Tamers' training of their spirit beasts would greatly affect the surrounding environment. Therefore, the trainee Beast Tamers who were still learning in the school basically used the training ground in the school.

However, in society, there were countless cases of public training grounds being insufficient or occupied.

There were even groups that had formed cliques to occupy training grounds.

After the Beast Tamer Association intervened, the Beast Tamers who had originally fought over the public training grounds were eventually punished.

After that, the Beast Tamer Association also guaranteed that in every municipal district in the base city, there would be at least a larger public training ground that would be provided to Beast Tamers who lived in that area.

This "public training ground" was the predecessor of the gyms in all the base cities. The original gym leaders were actually the administrator sent by the Beast Tamer Association to each public training ground to maintain order.

Therefore, the title of "Gym Leader" was equivalent to the glory of being the strongest in the municipalities.

They were used to intimidate and deal with groups that wanted to occupy the public training ground using violence.

"Could it be that those Beast Tamers have waited until almost noontime, so they went to have lunch first?"

Giles stepped out of the door and looked up at the blinding sun as he speculated.

"At least, that should be the case for now. But as long as someone comes, it'll be fine. At the very least, it won't be a case of zero income for today."

Whether it was to borrow the training ground in the gym, letting the Gym Leader evaluate the ranks of the spirit beasts, or to obtain the badge by challenging the Gym Leader, all these events needed to be paid for.

After all, the manpower and resources needed to manage such a large gym were not small expenses.

'Borrowing the training ground in the gym' was the main source of income for the gym.

This was because although there might not be someone challenging the Gym Leader or asking the Gym Leader to evaluate the rank of their spirit beasts on a daily basis, there would definitely be many people coming to the gym to borrow the training ground every day.

"If that's the case, we can just wait for them to come knocking as usual."

Although the reason for this speculation was a little far-fetched, it allowed Giles put his doubts aside for the time being.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he turned around and headed back to the reception area. He then switched on the computer at the front desk.

"Let's see if anyone made an appointment to come to Starlux Gym for the evaluation or to challenge the Gym Leader, during the period I was gone."

Normally speaking, after finding the Gym Leader to complete the evaluation for a spirit beast, it would usually be accompanied by a challenge against the Gym Leader in order to obtain the badge.

This was because after the ranking evaluation was completed, the challenger and the Gym Leader would know the rank of the spirit beast. The Gym Leader would also take out spirit beasts of similar ranks to accept the challenge.

However, there was a limited number of spirit beasts registered by the Gym Leader on the official website of the Beast Tamer Association for the challenge against Beast Tamers. Therefore, in order to challenge the Gym Leader, Beast Tamers from the same district and city would come to the Gym to register their appointments a day earlier. The Beast Tamers from other base cities would make appointments online and wait until their appointments were successful before coming to challenge the Gym Leader.

After logging into Starlux Gym's account on the official website of the Beast Tamer Association, Giles directly clicked on the profile picture of the account.

It was a star that shone in the dark night sky, and also the badge that represented Starlux Gym.

After the stars on the profile picture flickered, Giles entered the main page of Starlux Gym's webpage which was registered with the Beast Tamer Association.

However, to his surprise, when he scrolled down to the Beast Tamer appointment interface, he was surprised to discover that the number of people who had made an appointment for the "Rank Evaluation" was 0, and the number of people who had made an appointment to "Challenge the Gym Leader" was also 0.

"How strange! Why didn't anyone make an appointment for next month?"

Looking at the two "0s" displayed on the interface of the Starlux Gym's website, Giles frowned slightly. His expression gradually became serious.

He had originally wanted to confirm how many people had made bookings before going online to search for relevant information to solve the problem of the Little Golden Eagle's incomplete evolution.

Moreover, he also wanted to know if he could strengthen his physique like other Beast Tamers by absorbing that enormous amount of spiritual energy.

As for the matter of Beast Tamers making appointments for "Rank Evaluation" and "Challenge the Gym Leader", he could either design a short-term training plan for the Little Golden Eagle and Little Fox, or he could directly cancel the appointments on the Internet.

After all, he was only the "acting gym leader" in name. In reality, he was just an ordinary Beast Tamer in the gym.

As long as he told the Beast Tamer Association's municipal department about the actual situation and let the relevant staff and the headquarters of the Beast Tamer Association confirm that 'Starlux Gym Leader Alice is temporarily not in the gym because of a certain mission', Giles would no longer have to worry about the 'rank evaluation' and 'challenge the Gym Leader'.

Although Giles only wanted to search for information as soon as possible to solve the Little Golden Eagle's problem and the problem with his body…

He had also thought that the fewer Beast Tamers who made appointments for the 'Rank Evaluation' and 'Challenge the Gym Leader', the better. If that really couldn' work, he could just cancel all of them.

However, the special occurrences that had happened one after another made him feel somewhat uneasy.

It was almost noon today. Not only were there no Beast Tamers who came to the gym to borrow the training ground, but the number of Beast Tamers who scheduled evaluations and challenges online for the next month were also '0'.

"Has something major happened recently?"

With this question in mind, Giles exited from the main page of Starlux Gym.

Just as he switched to the official website of the Beast Tamer Association to search for real-time news, a striking notice posted on the official website made his eyes widen.

"Announcement: The Beast-taming Gyms in each base city will be closed one after another from today onwards. Please wait for the Beast Tamer Association to make announcements about the specific opening time. The name list of the first batch of Beast-taming Gyms to be closed is as follows: Ireland Gym, Victor Gym, Starlux Gym."

"Ireland Gym, Victor Gym and Starlux Gym…"

"All the Beast-taming gyms in my base city have been included in the name list of the first batch of Beast-taming gyms to be closed."

Looking at the announcement posted on the Beast Tamer Association's official website, Giles finally found the answer to the question that had puzzled him for a long time .

No wonder no Beast Tamer came to Starlux Gym today to borrow the training ground even though it's almost noon.

The Beast-taming Gym is temporarily closed for the time being. This concerns whether or not Beast Tamers have any venues to train their spirit beasts.

When the Beast Tamers learned of this news, they probably ran over to the Beast Tamer Association's various divisions in the base city to protest.

"But why did the Beast Tamer Association suddenly announce that they would close all the Beast-taming Gyms?"

Regarding the matter of "Beast-taming Gyms temporarily closing", Giles could not figure out the Beast Tamer Association's intentions.

He opened the main page of Starlux Gym again and tried to find some clues from the notifications sent by the Beast Tamer Association, but he still found nothing.

"Before this, there hasn't been any news about temporarily closing the gym. Is the Beast Tamer Association about to make a big move?"

Thinking of this, Giles shook his head resignedly and exited Starlux Gym's main page.

"Forget it, I won't think about it too much first."

In Giles' opinion, these questions were not for him to think about.

He was only managing Starlux Gym on behalf of Alice, and was not actually the Gym Leader of Starlux Gym.

The most important thing now was to resolve the Little Golden Eagle's problem and the issue with his body.

"Since the Beast Tamer Association has announced that they're going to close the gym for the time being, I better close the door of the gym first."

"Otherwise, it will be troublesome if someone barges in."

Giles walked out from the reception area of the gym and was about to close the door to Starlux Gym when he heard a familiar voice.

"Giles, long time no see!"

It was noon, and the sun outside was as glaring as ever.

Giles, who was looking out the door, squinted his eyes and realized that the person who had greeted him was an elderly man with a white beard.

"Mr Rex? Why are you here?"

Giles was surprised to see that it was Mr Rex, the person who had posted a mission online for him.

When the beast tide erupted last year and attacked the city, Mr Rex and his Epic-rank spirit beast, Fiery Bird, became heroes in protecting the city.

Furthermore, he was one of the commanders of the City Guards in this base city. At the same time, he was responsible for maintaining the security and order around Giles' area.

After the Beast Tamer Association announced that the Beast-taming Gyms would be closed, there would probably be quite a number of Beast Tamers gathered at the Beast Tamer Association Branches nearby to protest.

However, as the Commander of the City Guards responsible for maintaining order, Mr Rex had appeared outside Starlux Gym.

Moreover, looking at his current expression, he seemed to be quite happy. He could even greet Giles as usual.

Giles, who was surprised and curious about this, looked at Rex and asked subconsciously, "Mr Rex, shouldn't the City Guards be very busy today?"

"Hmm? You mean the matter of a group of Beast Tamers gathered at the different branches of the Beast Tamer Association to protest?"

Giles was puzzled by Rex's relaxed attitude when he answered the question.

"Our base city has twelve Beast Tamer Association branches. It's only been one morning, but they've already been dealt with?"

"Haha, Giles, this is because you lack experience."

Rex stroked his white beard and smiled as if everything was under control. He was smiling so much that it formed even more wrinkles on his face.

"Although our City Guards are under the jurisdiction of the Beast Tamer Alliance and we aren't sure what your Beast Tamer Association is planning to do by suddenly issuing an announcement for the Beast-taming Gyms to temporarily close its doors, the Beast Tamer Association will always inform our City Guards in advance to make preparations before such a huge move."

"Besides, your Beast-taming Gym is only temporarily closed. It's not like the Gym Leaders aren't around."

"In the past, no matter which district had Beast Tamers causing trouble, it was always the Gym Leaders and our City Guards who dealt with it. Today is naturally no exception."

"After the various Gym Leaders rushed to the scene to help our City Guards maintain order, the Beast Tamer Association also proposed to open the training area of the Beast-taming Gym and provide the training grounds for the Beast Tamers."

After hearing Rex's explanation, Giles caught onto another piece of information.

"In other words, apart from the training ground provided to the Beast Tamer, the other projects and areas are temporarily closed?"

"Yeah… this should be what the Beast Tamer Association wants."

Giles' sudden question stumped Rex.

After some thought, Rex suddenly mentioned a person to Giles.

"However, you can ask Her Excellency Hash about the specific situation after she comes."

"Her Excellency Hash?"

Giles subconsciously repeated the name Rex had mentioned.

He suddenly felt that this name was familiar, but he could not remember who it was.

However, Giles was certain that he had never seen this person before.

"Oh, by the way, Giles, the other gym leaders of our base city have already met with Her Excellency Hash two days ago."

"Because you haven't been in Starlux Gym recently, I brought Her Excellency Hash here today."

Rex also knew that Giles had never met Hash before, so he began to introduce her to Giles.

"As the newly promoted Elite Beast Tamer this year, Her Excellency had broken the record at the age of 25 and was evaluated as the youngest Elite Beast Tamer."

"Now that she has come to our base city to be the deputy commander of the City Guard's high wall in the outer city, she is an indispensable force for us in fighting off the beast tide in the future."

"Today, when the Beast Tamer Association's Division near your Starlux Gym was blocked by a group of protesting Beast Tamers at the door, it was also with the help of Her Excellency Hash that our City Guards were able to maintain order in the venue so quickly."

After introducing "Her Excellency Hash", Rex even lowered his voice and hinted to Giles, "Giles, as an elite Beast Tamer, Her Excellency Hash has a lot of say in your Beast Tamer Association."

"If you can prove your strength to her, then she can help you confirm your identity as the acting gym leader."

Giles was wondering if he had heard the name 'Hash' before, but Rex's last sentence reminded him.

Right now, Alice, the Gym Leader of Starlux Gym, had been away for many days, and he, the so-called "acting Gym Leader", had fainted because of the accident this morning.

In addition, after he returned yesterday, he did not receive any news from the Beast Tamer Association, so he did not know that Starlux Gym would be temporarily closed from today onwards.

Therefore, when the door of the Beast Tamer Association's nearby branch was blocked by a group of protesting Beast Tamers, he was unable to rush over to the scene to help the City Guards maintain order like the gym leaders of the other districts.

"In that case, it seems that this Excellency Hash whom I've never met before has helped me greatly."However, Giles did not take Rex's words to heart.

The current Giles was no longer the same Giles who had just taken over the management of the gym and was eager to prove his strength.

Right now, he actually did not care about the identity of "acting gym leader".

Giles, who was lost in thought, was only trying to recall where he had heard the name 'Hash' before.

"He's only 25 years old and the youngest elite Beast Tamer. I should definitely have an impression of such an impressive person."

If the "Gym Leader" was the strongest Beast Tamer in the municipal district, then the "Elite" was the strongest Beast Tamer in the base city.

Rex said that "Her Excellency Hash" had been awarded this honor at the age of 25. Although it might be an exaggeration, the fact that she could help the City Guards quickly maintain order like the other gym leaders meant that she was minimally as powerful as the gym leader.

One had to know that when Beast Tamers teamed up, there would usually be over a hundred people gathered at the Beast Tamer Association to protest. In addition, they might even let their spirit beasts out to cause trouble. The impact and destruction that this would cause was no small matter.

Therefore, at times like this, they often needed someone with absolute strength to suppress and intimidate them. Otherwise, the agitated Beast Tamers would not quietly listen to others.

But why did Mr Rex specially bring such a powerful Elite Beast Tamer to Starlux Gym?

Although Giles could not remember where he had heard the name 'Hash' before, he suddenly remembered that Rex had mentioned that Her Excellency Hash would come over later.

"Mr Rex, didn't you mention that Her Excellency Hash would come to Starlux Gym?"

"Yes, it has only been three or four days since Her Excellency Hash came to our base city. We, the leaders of the City Guards, are also cooperating with her to help her familiarise with some of the important figures in the various municipalities."

Rex's smile faded when Giles mentioned that Hash was coming to Starlux Gym later. His expression always became serious when work-related matters were mentioned.

"Her Excellency Hash met with the various Beast-taming Gym Leaders of our base city two days ago. Yesterday evening, when I was introducing the person in charge of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr Gars, to Her Excellency Hash at the Spirit Beast Chamber of Commerce, we didn't expect the eldest daughter of the Spirit Beast Chamber of Commerce, Elena, to come back.

"It was also Miss Elena who told us that you had already returned to Starlux Gym, so after settling the commotion at the Beast Tamer Association's branches this morning, Her Excellency Hash and I came over from the Beast Tamer Association branch."

Rex paused for a moment, looking helpless.

"It's just that I walked a little faster than her, so I rushed over to confirm if you were in the gym."

Giles could hear the helplessness in Rex's voice. Looking at Rex's white hair and beard, Giles could not help but wonder, Mr Rex is already 60 years old this year. How can he move faster than an Elite 25-year-old Beast Tamer like Her Excellency Hash?

Just as Giles was pondering this, he suddenly felt the ground beneath his feet begin to shake.

After several tremors, a huge figure slowly blocked the sunlight at the entrance of the gym.

"Is this Alice's Starlux Gym?"

After hearing a lazy female voice ask in a puzzled tone, Giles regained his senses and looked up.

He saw a three-meter-tall Alligator Snapping Turtle, that was as large as a truck, standing in front of him.

This Alligator Snapping Turtle's four limbs and abdomen were brownish-yellow in color, similar to the soil. Its head and feet were protected by a grayish-white armor in the appearance of tree bark.

The most eye-catching thing about it was the emerald green tortoise shell on its back, as if it was covered in a huge leaf.

However, upon closer inspection, one would discover that it was actually a thick and large tree.

On the edge of its shell and above its four limbs, it had many mushrooms and moss as embellishments.

If it were anyone else, when they first saw this giant Alligator Snapping Turtle, they would probably think of it as a moving rockery.

Feeling the pressure coming from the giant Alligator Snapping Turtle in front of him, Giles could not help but be shocked.

That intense pressure was not only brought about by this Alligator Snapping Turtle's huge body. Its body itself vaguely emitted a powerful aura.

This giant Alligator Snapping Turtle is a spirit beast that is minimally at the Epic rank. Moreover, it might have already entered the Legend rank.

At the thought of a Legend-rank spirit beast possessing the ability to speak human language, Giles turned his head in surprise and looked at Rex.

"Uh, Mr Rex, could Her Excellency Hash whom you mentioned just now be this Legend-rank Alligator Snapping Turtle spirit beast that can speak the human language?"

"Her Excellency Hash is not a spirit beast, but this Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle is indeed about to enter the Legend rank. Besides, when I first saw this Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle, I was also shocked like you."

Rex waved at Giles dismissively. Then, he raised his head and waved towards the back of the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle.

"Your Excellency, this is Giles whom I mentioned to you a while ago."

"Huh? You're saying that this kid is the acting gym leader who helped Starlux Gym win the championship in the Florida Beast-taming Gym Tournament?"

Following the indolent female voice, the tree on the back of the Alligator Snapping Turtle slowly began moving and fell backward.

Only then did Giles realize that the tree on the back of the Alligator Snapping Turtle was actually the tail of the Alligator Snapping Turtle. On the turtle shell of the Alligator Snapping Turtle, there was actually a green lawn.

The reason why that tree-like tail had covered the back of the Alligator Snapping Turtle was also to shield the person on the turtle from the dazzling sunlight at noon.

A woman with disheveled hair was sitting on the lawn on the turtle's back. She looked like she had just woken up. She was scratching her messy hair and yawning.

When Giles looked up at her, she, who was stretching and squinting, also looked down at Giles.

"Is the quality of our Florida Beast-taming Gym Tournament already so low?"

After staring at Giles for a few seconds, Hash frowned and asked Rex unhappily, "Although the contestants representing the Beast-taming Gyms are all candidates for the next Gym Leader, you can't possibly let a Beast Tamer who isn't even at the Gold rank stay on till the end and win the championship, can you?"

"Your Excellency Hash, did you just say that Giles is a Beast Tamer who isn't even at the Gold rank?"

Rex was greatly puzzled by Hash's evaluation of Giles.

"But as far as I know, after Giles won the championship of the Florida Beast-taming Gym Tournament, he was already evaluated by the Beast Tamer Association as an Epic-rank Beast Tamer."

"You said that he has been evaluated as an Epic-rank Beast Tamer by the Beast Tamer Association?"

Hash, who was originally stretching on the back of the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle, suddenly perked up when he heard Rex mention that Giles was an Epic-rank Beast Tamer.

Giles watched as she jumped from the back of the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle all the way to him. Before Giles could react to what Hash was planning, she grabbed his right hand.

"Hah, I thought that I was still sleeping and had made a mistake in my judgment. I didn't expect the outcome to be so disappointing!"

As the spirit beast tattoo on Giles' right arm lit up slightly, Hash sighed in disappointment and once again evaluated Giles' strength.

"I really don't know what the Beast Tamer Association's evaluation standard was when they evaluated you."

"They actually rated you, a five-star Silver-rank Beast Tamer, as an Epic-rank Beast Tamer.""Five-star Silver rank?"

An unfamiliar term suddenly popped out of Hash's mouth, catching Giles and Rex's attention.

However, Hash had no intention of staying on this topic.

"Your name is Giles, right? I can verify with my spiritual perception that your strength is not at the Gold rank yet."

After putting Giles' right hand down, Hash pointed at the spirit beast tattoo on Giles' right arm.

"Of course, if you want to prove to me that you have the strength of an Epic-rank Beast Tamer, then let out the spirit beasts that helped you win the championship at the Beast-taming Gym Tournament."

"If there is one Epic-rank spirit beast or three or more Gold-rank spirit beasts, I can consider preserving your identity as the Acting Gym Leader."

Rex could not help but feel anxious when he saw that Hash, who had been languidly dealing with everything the past few days, suddenly became serious.

"Giles, after you won the Beast-taming Gym Tournament, didn't the Beast Tamer Association give you an Epic-rank Beast Tamer badge? Why don't you show that badge to Her Excellency Hash?"

After Alice, the Gym Leader of Starlux Gym, temporarily left Starlux Gym for some reason, Beast Tamer Giles, who was in charge of Starlux Gym, had become the so-called "Acting Gym Leader".

However, in reality, Giles' identity as the 'Acting Gym Leader' was not recognized by the Beast Tamer Association. Furthermore, he had not taken the initiative to look for the Beast Tamer Association to report the situation.

Therefore, if one really wanted to look into it, Giles' act of accepting the challenges of other Beast Tamers on behalf of Alice and granting the challenger the Gym badge, was a complete violation.

Although Rex was not very clear about the Beast Tamer Association's criteria for selecting the Gym Leader of the Beast-taming Gyms, after asking the other gym leaders, he learned that the Beast Tamer Association's minimum requirement for a Gym Leader was that they had to be at least Gold-rank and had three spirit beasts that were beyond that rank.

This was also the main reason Rex had invited Hash to Starlux Gym today.

As Giles was his benefactor who helped him to avenge his grandson, Bart, Rex had always wanted to find a chance to repay Giles' kindness.

After learning that Giles already had several Gold-rank spirit beasts and had won the championship of the Florida Beast-taming Gym Tournament, Rex began to think of ways to find an opportunity to validate Giles as the "Acting Gym Leader."

Not long ago, Rex, who had learned that the Elite Beast Tamer, Hash, was coming, had decided to seize this opportunity and thought of a brilliant solution.

That was to get the Elite Beast Tamer, Hash, who had a certain amount of authority in the Beast Tamer Association, to come to Starlux Gym and help to acknowledge Giles as the "Acting Gym Leader" of Starlux Gym.

This way, regardless of whether Giles had violated the rules previously, he would be spared some punishment because of his identity being recognized.

Furthermore, Giles had already obtained the approval of the Beast Tamer Association during the Beast-taming Gym Tournament.

Not only did he have the badge of an Epic-rank Beast Tamer, but he also had a few Gold-rank spirit beasts.

Hence, Rex was not worried at all about whether Giles could pass the evaluation.

However, the moment Hash arrived at Starlux Gym and saw Giles, she immediately said that Giles was not even at the Gold rank, which made Rex's heart clench.

Although with his abilities, he could also sense that Giles was not an Epic-rank Beast Tamer, Giles did have an Epic-rank badge from the Beast Tamer Association after all.

Therefore, when he heard that Hash had asked Giles to release the few spirit beasts that had participated in the Florida Beast-taming Gym Tournament, Rex hurriedly asked Giles to take out the certified Epic-rank badge from the Beast Tamer Association.

If Giles did not pass Hash's evaluation today and let Hash know that there was an "acting Gym Leader" like him whose strength was not even at the Gold rank, then Rex would become a sinner who repays kindness with ingratitude!

However, to his surprise, Giles only shook his head after hearing Hash's request.

"Your Excellency Hash, as you said, I indeed don't have the strength of a Gold-rank Beast Tamer now."

After Giles finished speaking, from the space on his arm, he released a bird-type spirit beast that Hash and Rex had never seen before.

"Among the spirit beasts that have contracted with me, the strongest one is this Silver-rank Metal-feathered Eagle."

As the Little Golden Eagle was still in an incomplete state of evolution, Giles did not call it 'Little Golden Eagle' when he introduced it to Hash and Rex.

However, the Metal-feathered Eagle did not have any objections to the new name that it had temporarily obtained. Instead, it affectionately rubbed its head against Giles' right hand.

Giles smiled when he saw this. With a faint smile, he raised his right hand and stroked the Metal-feathered Eagle's head.

However, when Giles talked about the few spirit beasts which Hash asked him about just now, Giles' expression darkened.

"As for my spirit beasts that participated in the Florida Beast-taming Gym Tournament, they are still recuperating elsewhere."

"If that's the case, then you're not qualified to be the Acting Gym Leader."

After hearing Giles' explanation, Hash, the elite Beast Tamer, also made her judgment solemnly.

"Mr Rex, when we return to the Beast Tamer Association's Brach, we'll report the situation at Starlux Gym to the higher-ups."

"Until the headquarters of the Beast Tamer Association issues a notice, Starlux Gym will temporarily close until Gym Leader Alice returns."

"During this period, Giles is only responsible for opening and managing the training grounds of Starlux Gym. He will lend the training ground to other Beast Tamers."

"By the way, I still have to check when I get back. I want to see if Starlux Gym has committed any violation by accepting challenges from other Beast Tamers during the time that Alice was gone."

"Giles, I'll remind you once here. If you've given any Beast Tamer the Starlux Gym's badge during this period of time, you had better tell me yourself."

"Otherwise, if I find out that you've been violating the rules during this period of time, the Beast Tamer Association will punish you even more severely."

Rex, who was standing aside, looked at Giles guiltily when he heard that Hash, whom he had brought along, was about to punish his benefactor, Giles.

He had originally wanted to get Hash to help him acknowledge Giles as the "Acting Gym Leader". This way, he could repay Giles' favor.

However, to his surprise, after seeing Giles, Hash did not acknowledge that Giles had the strength of an Epic-rank Beast Tamer.

Furthermore, Giles' spirit beasts that were originally Gold-rank and above were actually all not by Giles' side.

However, Giles didn't look flustered at all when facing the verdict that Hash had made.

Or rather, he had already realized this morning what mistakes he had made.

Therefore, when he heard from Hash that the Beast Tamer Association might punish him, he felt much more relieved.

"Your Excellency Hash, when I was managing Starlux Gym after Gym Leader Alice left, there were indeed situations where I was challenged by Beast Tamers, and it wasn't just once."

To Rex's surprise, Giles frankly admitted that he had violated the rules.

"Although I don't know how the Beast Tamer Association will punish me when the time comes, I would like to thank you first for helping Starlux Gym deal with the dispute at the Beast Tamer Association this morning."

Giles said as he bowed his head to Hash and thanked her, "Thank you for your help this morning.""I didn't expect this kid to have such a proper attitude when admitting his mistake."

In the face of Giles' sudden mention of the dispute this morning and the fact that he had bowed to her to thank her, although Hash's expression did not change much, her impression of Giles had still changed quite a bit.

"But since he grew up with Alice, I don't think his upbringing is bad."

"If the violations he made while he was acting as the Gym Leader aren't especially serious, I can think of a way to help him deal with these problems for Alice's sake."

"Hah… It seems like there'll be a lot of work to be done after I get back. My sleep time is going to be less than 12 hours again."

After these thoughts arose in his mind, Hash yawned and waved off Giles, who was bowing and thanking him.

"Enough, you don't have to thank me for handling the dispute this morning. Your Starlux Gym Gym Leader Alice is not in the gym."

"Even if you were there, it's not your place as a Gold-rank Beast Tamer to handle the huge scene where more than a hundred people gathered to cause trouble."

"Besides, among the spirit beasts that you've contracted, is this Metal-feathered Eagle the strongest?"

After wrapping up the business matters he had to settle at Starlux Gym today, Hash realized that the bird-type spirit beast that Giles had contracted had a special form.

This metal-feathered eagle that was standing on both feet had two additional eagle claws on both sides of its chest.

Judging from the weak state of the two eagle claws, it was probably still not used to them.

However, judging from the luster of its feathers, its body was in a very healthy state.

It seems to be the type I've never seen before!

"Eh? What's with your Metal-feathered Eagle? Is it a newly-discovered spirit beast?"

Giles was pleased to see Hash raise the question about the Metal-feathered Eagle out of curiosity.

The reason why he had let the Metal-feathered Eagle out of the space was to attract Hash's attention.

In his opinion, since Ha Xi could sense his strength through her spiritual energy just now, with Hash's knowledge as an Elite Beast Tamer, she might be able to solve the problem of the Metal-feathered Eagle's incomplete evolution.

"A newly-discovered spirit beast? I think so?"

In the face of Hash's question, Giles also behaved like he didn't know much.

After all, he really could not determine the Metal-feathered Eagle's situation.

"However, the Metal-feathered Eagle's situation is related to its evolution failure."

Upon saying this, Giles walked to the side of the Metal-feathered Eagle and picked up the two eagle claws by its chest, one on each side.

"These two eagle claws grew out after its evolution failed, but according to the message the spirit beast sent me, it still can't use its powers for these two eagle claws."

Upon hearing Giles' words, Hash put away his curiosity and solemnly walked over to the Metal-feathered Eagle.

She raised her right hand and stopped in front of the Metal-feathered Eagle's chest. Then, her palm lit up with a faint green glow.

"Hmm? This is… Beast Cores? I think I understand now."

After examining the situation inside the Metal-feathered Eagle's body through the spiritual energy released from her palm, Hash's expression became much more relaxed.

"It must have eaten a few beast cores before it evolved. As for how many there were, I can't be sure now because it absorbed a portion of them."

"But it's precisely because those few beast cores have not completely been absorbed that its evolution is also incomplete. This is why its hands are powerless."

After hearing Hash's deduction, Giles nodded slightly.

"Looks like my previous thoughts were right. The Metal-feathered Eagle's current situation is indeed an incomplete evolution."

After confirming that his train of thoughts were correct, Giles asked Hash about the solution.

"Your Excellency, how should I help this Metal-feathered Eagle evolve successfully? Should I help it absorb the remaining spiritual energy from the beast cores?"

"Yeah…"

Hearing Giles' question, Hash pondered for a few seconds before suddenly turning around and patting the huge Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle behind her.

"Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle, use your 'Absorption Vine' on this Metal-feathered Eagle."

Hash even specially added on to remind the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle to pay attention to the amount of strength it used, "Remember to be gentle. It's enough to wrap a slender vine around its abdomen."

The Metal-feathered Eagle, which had been standing obediently at the side, could understand what Hash was saying.

When it heard that Hash had asked the huge Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle in front of it to attack it, the Metal-feathered Eagle subconsciously wanted to flap its wings and dodge.

Right now, it was still a spirit beast that had yet to evolve to the Gold rank. Facing the attack of this Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle that might have already stepped into the Legend rank, it was impossible for it to stand still and receive the attack.

Just as the Metal-feathered Eagle flapped its wings and was about to dodge the attack, a hand gently pressed down on its head.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine with me by your side."

Hearing Giles, who was standing beside it, comforting it, and feeling Giles' touch, the Metal-feathered Eagle's emotions calmed down.

Yeah, if it's really dangerous, Giles will definitely protect me like before.

Realizing this, the Metal-feathered Eagle stopped flapping its wings and stood rooted to the spot.

Although one could tell from its constantly trembling feathers that it was still afraid of the huge Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle in front of it, under Giles' touch, it had no intention of dodging the 'Absorption Vines'

Seeing that the Metal-feathered Eagle's emotions were gradually stabilizing, Hash also looked at Giles in approval.

She could tell that the Metal-feathered Eagle was still instinctively afraid of high-ranking spirit beasts. However, it was probably out of trust towards Giles that it still chose to stand rooted to the spot in the face of the imminent attack.

The Metal-feathered Eagle's trust in Giles could actually force it to overcome its instinctive fear. The fact that Giles had shown this made his image in Hash's heart improve greatly.

One had to know that determining whether a Beast Tamer was qualified or not was not based on the strength of the Beast Tamer, but rather on the bonds between the Beast Tamer and the spirit beast that he had contracted.

This was because when Beast Tamers commanded the battle from outside the arena, they usually had more information than the spirit beasts in the arena. Therefore, whether the spirit beasts could overcome their instincts during the battle and choose to listen to the Beast Tamers' commands was especially important.

Victory and defeat were usually decided in that instant. If the Beast Tamer outside the arena seized the opportunity and gave the command, but the spirit beasts in the arena were unable to seize that fleeting opportunity due to their instincts, then no matter how strong this Beast Tamer was, he would still be considered a failure when it came to beast taming.

In Hash's opinion, Giles was a qualified Beast Tamer. However, he and his spirit beast were still too weak in terms of strength.

"Don't worry, although there will be a certain amount of pain, the pain is only momentary…"

Before Hash could finish speaking, the Tree-tailed Alligator Turtle pierced a vine towards the Metal-feathered Eagle at his signal.

The Metal-feathered Eagle clearly did not expect such a huge Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle to be able to use its skill so quickly.

Giles, on the other hand, sighed when he saw the vine stab the Metal-feathered Eagle. He looked helplessly at Hash.

"Your Excellency, there's no need for you to do this so abruptly, is there?"

"Although the Metal-feathered Eagle and I were already mentally prepared, we still couldn't react."

"If I wait for you and the Metal-feathered Eagle to react, it will have to hurt for a while longer."

Hash made an injecting gesture at Giles as she said, "In order to reduce the pain as much as possible, wouldn't the doctors try to divert your attention before giving you an injection?"For Hash to suddenly make such a vivid metaphor was indeed beyond Giles' expectations.

However, on second thought, he realized that although he and Rex called Hash "Your Excellency", Haxi was only three years older than him.

Judging from Hash's behaviour previously, she was not a talented Beast Tamer who behaved arrogant and looked down on others.

Besides, Hash was right. If the Metal-feathered Eagle watched as the vines slowly pierced into its body, it would clearly suffer more.

Giles squatted beside the Metal-feathered Eagle and stroked it gently as it lay trembling on the ground.

"Metal-feathered Eagle, how are you feeling?"

Through spiritual communication, Giles asked the Metal-feathered Eagle about the feeling in its body.

"Giles, the swelling pain from the remnant spiritual energy from the beast cores has been greatly reduced."

Sensing the message from the Metal-feathered Eagle, Giles realized that the absorption vine hadn't pierced the Metal-feathered Eagle's abdomen.

Although the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle released and absorbed the vines very quickly, the vines seemed to be attached to the Metal-feathered Eagle's abdomen before slowly extending to wrap around its waist.

Looks like the vines are absorbing the remnant beast-core spiritual energy in the Metal-feathered Eagle.

Seeing the absorbing vines grow thicker and thicker, Giles made his own speculation, but at the same time, a question arose in his heart.

Is Her Excellency Hash planning to absorb all the remaining beast core spiritual energy in the Metal-feathered Eagle using the vines?"

In that case, how will she release the spiritual energy absorbed by the vines?

With that question in mind, Giles prepared to observe the situation first and see what Hash had in mind.

As the Metal-feathered Eagle stopped trembling, the vine had also formed a belt around its waist.

"Giles, will this belt made of vines continue to absorb the spiritual energy in my body like it did just now?"

Although the swelling pain from the beast core's spiritual energy was gone, the Metal-feathered Eagle still felt a lingering fear when it recalled the feeling of its spiritual energy being forcefully absorbed from its abdomen by the vines.

After Giles communicated with the Metal-feathered Eagle telepathically and confirmed that there was nothing unusual with its body, he voiced his doubts to Hash, "Your Excellency Hash, as far as I know, the 'Absorption Vines' is a control-type skill that limits the target's movement by continuously absorbing the spiritual energy in the target's body."

"However, the spiritual energy absorbed by the vines will turn into nutrients for the vines. If we allow the vines to absorb spiritual energy incessantly and grow, the vines will eventually entangle around its target."

At that, Giles paused. Then, pointing to the vine belt around the Metal-feathered Eagle's waist, he looked gravely at Hash and said, "So, does the 'Absorption Vines' that you got the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle to use on the Metal-feathered Eagle still have some special effects?"

"Don't worry about that, Giles."

Rex, who was standing at the side, thought to himself, Not good.

Initially, after seeing Giles thank Hash for what had happened this morning, he thought that Giles' way of handling the situation was pretty good.

Although this didn't change the fact that Hash had made the judgment to have Starlux Gym close for the time being, it could at least improve Hash's impression of Giles.

And the fact of the matter was that Hash actually had a pretty good impression of Giles. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gotten the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle to help.

However, Giles' questioning gaze might offend Hash and Rex knew how strong Hash was.

It was said that two days ago, the Gym Leader of the Ireland Gym had wanted to challenge Hash because he was unhappy with Hash's attitude of lying on the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle when she was meeting him.

In the end, his three strongest spirit beasts took turns fighting, but they didn't even make the Tree-tailed Crocodile Turtle, who was standing at the same spot, take a step back. Instead, the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle took on all three by itself and defeated them one by one.

On the same day, the Gym Leader of Ireland Gym was warned and punished by the Beast Tamer Association.

Although Hash gave Rex the impression that she was lazy, it had only been a week since Rex met Hash.

Therefore, he was unable to determine what kind of temper Hash had. He could only hurriedly step forward to smooth things over after Giles asked the question. He started to change the topic, "Her Excellency Hash's Tree-tailed Alligator Turtle is a spirit beast that is about to enter the Legend rank. Furthermore, Her Excellency Hash is also an Elite Beast Tamer. She must have her reasons for the way she's dealing with the Metal-feathered Eagle's problem. Giles, you don't have to ask too much ."

Seeming to be afraid that Giles had yet to realize Hash's strength as an Elite Beast Tamer, Rex even introduced the characteristics of spirit beasts like the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle to Giles, "Giles, you should know that the flaw of spirit beasts with long average lifespans is their slow growth."

"The average lifespan of the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle has always been in the top three among the known spirit beasts."

"When a wild Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle is 20 years old, it's usually only at the Silver rank. Very few can break through to the Gold rank."

"Her Excellency Hash had contracted the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle since she was young and was able to raise the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle to the Epic rank within 20 years. That's simply unprecedented."

Before Rex could finish, Hash put one hand on his forehead and waved at Rex with the other, gesturing for him to stop.

"Enough, enough, Mr Rex. I know you're stating the facts, but I'm sick of hearing them. Besides…"

Hash paused for a moment before putting down his hand that was covering his forehead and looking at Giles with interest.

"Based on Giles' understanding of the abilities of plant-attribute spirit beasts, he clearly has some understanding of the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle."

In the face of the question Giles had raised to him, not only was Hash not the least bit angry, but she actually admired Giles.

When Giles found out that she was going to help, he had trusted her completely and made the Metal-feathered Eagle stay where it was.

However, Giles wasn't the kind of weakling who blindly worshipped and trusted the strong.

He knew the effect of the skill 'Absorption Vines', which was why he was assured to let her Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle unleash its 'Absorption Vines' on the Metal-feathered Eagle.

However, the reason he asked this question now was clearly because he was weak and had yet to come into contact with the high-level usage method of the 'Absorption Vines'

At the thought of this, to reassure Giles, Hash explained to Giles why she was doing this, "Giles, as you described just now, the 'Absorption Vines' is a control skill that continuously absorbs the target's spiritual energy and binds the target to limit their movement."

"However, I got the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle to only release one Absorption Vine in order to deliberately control the binding effects of the 'Absorption Vines' so that the vine would mainly exert the absorption effect."

"Right now, the belt around the Metal-feathered Eagle's abdomen that is formed from the 'Absorption Vine' is actually a protective measure to help the Metal-feathered Eagle absorb the remaining spiritual energy in the beast cores."

"After that, you can get the Metal-feathered Eagle to absorb the spiritual energy stored in the vines first. With the 'Absorption Vine' as a transit point for the beast core's spiritual energy, it shouldn't experience any uncontrollable rampage when it absorbs the remaining spiritual energy in the beast cores."

"However, even if the Metal-feathered Eagle loses control again when it absorbs the spiritual energy in the beast cores, the 'Absorption Vine' will also forcefully absorb the spiritual energy of the uncontrollable rampage as nutrients for its growth, just like what happened just now.

"Therefore, with this 'Absorption Vine' as the carrier for the beast cores' spiritual energy, the safety of the Metal-feathered Eagle can be guaranteed.""Is this an Elite Beast Tamer's and an Epic-rank spirit beast's skilful control and application of skills?"

After hearing Hash's explanation for using the 'Absorption Vines' , Giles, who was surprised, subconsciously lamented.

Although he could roughly guess Hash's motive for getting the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle to use the 'Absorption Vines' through his understanding of the 'absorption of vines' skill, with his limited combat experience, he had to admit in his heart that Hash's understanding and planning with the 'Absorption Vines' as well as the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle's control and usage of its skill were areas that he had completely not touched on before.

However, Giles wasn't disappointed or discouraged by this. On the contrary, he was filled with joy and excitement.

This was because he realized that on the road to becoming the "World's Number One Beast Tamer", there was another senior worth learning from.

"My little tricks are just child's play."

Listening to Giles' subconscious sigh, Hash shrugged nonchalantly.

In her opinion, this was indeed not a big deal.

She just happened to know a skill that could help the Metal-feathered Eagle.

"I'm just an Elite Beast Tamer that was newly promoted this year. Compared to the seniors before me, I'm just a primary school student."

Elite Beast Tamers are only primary school students. In that case, wouldn't I, a Beast Tamer who isn't even at the Gold rank, be equivalent to a kindergartener?

Hearing Hash's analogy, Giles couldn't help but sweat. He didn't voice out the thoughts that had popped up in his mind.

However, he also realized how far away he was from his target.

At the thought of this, Giles stood up. Then, he lowered his head and bowed to thank Hash once again, "Your Excellency, thank you very much for your help."

Seeing this, the Metal-feathered Eagle, who was lying at the side, also got up and imitated Giles in bowing and thanking the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle.

"It's nothing. You can put the Metal-feathered Eagle into your tattoo space to let it recuperate first."

"Today, let's just stabilize the spiritual energy in its body first. Don't let it absorb the spiritual energy in a hurry."

Seeing that everything was more or less settled, Hash yawned and wanted to climb onto the back of the Tree-tailed Alligator Snapping Turtle to continue sleeping.

However, as she turned around, she suddenly noticed Giles' left hand, whose eagle claw tattoo was glowing as it recalled the Metal-feathered Eagle.

"This is… gauze?"

After Giles retrieved the Metal-feathered Eagle, Hash went over to Giles and looked at his left hand in confusion.

"Your left arm… How did you get your entire left arm injured?"

Hash gently gripped Giles' left wrist. When she raised Giles' left arm, she saw the bandage hidden under Giles' long sleeve of his shirt.

"Huh? What's with the spiritual energy flow in your body? Why is it so imbalanced?"

After grabbing Giles' wrist, Hash was surprised to find that the spiritual energy contained in Giles' left arm was more than the spiritual energy in Giles' body.

Moreover, the main source of the spiritual energy she sensed from Giles' body seemed to be from his left arm.

"This was caused when the Metal-feathered Eagle's evolution went out of control due to the spiritual energy turbulence."

Giles hadn't expected Hash, who had been planning on leaving, to suddenly lift up his bandaged left hand.

Furthermore, based on what Hash said, she had specially come to ask about it because she realized that the spiritual energy flow in his left hand and body was imbalanced.

"At that time, it was unable to continue absorbing the spiritual energy that had gone out of control during the rampage. Therefore, I directly helped it absorb a portion of it through the spirit beast tattoo that was connected to our contract."

Listening to Giles' indifferent words about such a dangerous act, Hash and Rex looked at each other. They could both see the shock in each other's eyes.

Although they had never personally experienced their spirit beast losing control due to a spiritual energy turbulence, they had witnessed it happening many times.

The terrifying 'spiritual energy storm' was something that even the body of a spirit beast could not withstand. There were many spirit beasts that had been severely injured because they had lost control of their evolution.

Even if the Metal-feathered Eagle evolved from Silver-rank to Gold-rank, the 'spiritual energy storm' caused by its evolution losing control was not something that a Beast Tamer like Giles, who was not even at the Gold rank, could withstand.

That was why Hash and Rex were shocked.

In their understanding, if Giles really helped the Metal-feathered Eagle absorb a portion of the spiritual energy from the rampage, even if Giles' internal organs were not directly torn to pieces by the violent spiritual energy, his left arm that was absorbing the spiritual energy would have exploded from the violent spiritual energy.

However, what Hash and Rex did not know was that the Metal-feathered Eagle had not actually started evolving from the Silver rank, but from the Bronze rank.

Therefore, when it was preparing to break through to the Gold rank, a portion of its spiritual energy had in fact already been exhausted, and the 'spiritual energy storm' it triggered was not that large.

In addition, after Giles' left arm absorbed the spirit energy, it was also treated by the Little Fox in a timely manner.

With the Little Fox's spiritual energy as a guide, the violent spiritual energy didn't continue to destroy Giles' body.

However, a large portion of the spiritual energy was still stuck in Giles' left arm.

If it was not dealt with properly, it would also be a high-risk hidden danger.

"I think that's probably why the Metal-feathered Eagle's evolution is incomplete."

With a grave expression, Hash looked from Giles' wrist, which she was holding, down to his arm.

There were several dark red traces on the gauze along Giles' left arm. They were left behind after the blood from the wound had dried.

"When spirit beasts lose control of their evolution due to the spiritual energy turbulence, the final outcome would be a failure in their evolution. Moreover, more than half of the spirit beasts would be severely injured because of the violent spiritual energy after their evolution failed.

"Although the Metal-feathered Eagle had also lost control of its evolution due to the spiritual energy explosion, Giles had helped it absorb a portion of the spiritual energy, so it was able to remain unharmed. In fact, a rare sign of an incomplete evolution had even appeared."

Hash, who kept analyzing, stared at the bloodstained gauze on Giles' left arm. Her gaze was no longer one of admiration, but of respect.

She had also seen the consequences of people intervening in the 'spiritual energy storm' many times. The Beast Tamers who interfered would undoubtedly end up with serious injuries along with their spirit beasts in the end.

Therefore, she had nothing but respect for Giles, who was willing to risk his life for a spirit beast.

As Hash was almost half a head shorter than Giles, coupled with the fact that she had been looking up from Giles' wrist from the start, she quickly saw Giles' handsome face when she raised her head. Giles, who was listening to Hash's continuous analysis, also had his head slightly lowered.

The two of them stared at each other, and the atmosphere momentarily fell silent.

Until Giles awkwardly raised the question in his mind, "Uh… Your Excellency Hash, so what special treatment method is there for my left arm?"