A Million-Year-Old Soul Pet

After that, the group followed Professor Yan to the sales area as they listened intently to his introductions of the various soul beast eggs on display.

Along the way, they each picked out their favorite ones.

Professor Yan spoke with an amiable tone. For some reason, he did not carry the air of a professor when he talked.

Leading the way, he explained the history of the many soul beasts, future growth prospects of the various soul pet eggs, how the Contract Soul Masters should train them, how to increase the intimacy between the two sides, and more. He was indeed very knowledgeable.

Though he spoke at length and gave extremely detailed accounts, the way the professor had explained such topics was very entertaining, and made everyone who heard it laugh out loud.

Before long, everyone was done with their selections.

Wang Che suddenly asked, "Professor Yan, I'm asking this seriously. Do you think the green caterpillar has any potential?"

With a smile, Professor Yan answered, "In theory, no."

Just these three words seemed to invalidate his purpose and existence.

Upon hearing this, the green caterpillar resting on Wang Che's chest suddenly looked at Professor Yan restlessly.

The little soul pet only calmed down when Wang Che stroked its head, and proceeded to stare at the professor with its wide eyes.

Professor Yan looked back at the green caterpillar in surprise, studying it curiously. "It seems that its intelligence level is quite high. This means that your soul power would be slightly stronger than the average person's.

"However, the potential of the green caterpillar species is much too low. The theory of species potential was the result of countless researchers exploring the evolutionary patterns of soul beasts over years. As such, you shouldn't expect there to be too many anomalies, especially when it comes to soul pets like the green caterpillar.

"In high school, you should've learned the basic theories of soul beast evolution. A green caterpillar will evolve into a Green Nether Butterfly after its cultivation base reaches ten years or so.

"The Green Nether Butterfly is the final form of its evolution, but its potential is not high either. It's only about 200 points. Even with a different nurturing process, the range will not exceed ten points; there won't be much deviation, basically."

Professor Yan suddenly paused. "I can, however, tell you some information that perhaps even a university student may not have known. Green caterpillars can mutate and evolve. There was an abnormality as such in the Clear Capital War Zone in recent years. Apparently, a Contract Soul Master with a martial soul of the Linguistic Spirit Tree chose a wild green caterpillar with a cultivation base of three thousand years as his second soul contract.

"After a while, the special power of the Linguistic Spirit Tree martial soul started to fuse with the wild green caterpillar, causing it to mutate and evolve into the Linguistic Spirit Insect King. In addition to its original bug type, the caterpillar also became a dual attribute psychic type soul pet."

When they heard this, everyone in the group was shocked.

Psychic type soul pet.

Even among the many types of soul pets, psychic type soul pets were considered to be especially powerful.

Furthermore, this was with taking the other soul pets of considerable strength into account.

"This new type of soul pet is currently being researched by the Clear Capital War Zone. Its species potential is as high as 420. Such a figure is above average, when compared to other rare soul pets."

Professor Yan shook his head slightly as he continued, "After the other war zones learned of this news, they tried to replicate it by sending Contract Soul Masters with the martial soul of the Linguistic Spirit Tree to sign a life contract with three-thousand-year green caterpillars in the wild. Unfortunately, nothing happened those times… To this day, the specific reason for the mutation is still unknown.

"Moreover, it's quite difficult to find a three-thousand-year green caterpillar in the wild and also nigh impossible for you to awaken the martial soul of the Linguistic Spirit Tree. This specific martial soul originates from the Clear Capital War Zone. Even then, there's only a handful of them over here…"

The professor's story fascinated everyone.

This information was of a secretive nature, so naturally the school hadn't known of it earlier.

Professor Yan explained, "In addition to the prerequisite of possessing the Linguistic Spirit Tree martial soul, that first Contract Soul Master may have used some other methods we are unaware of. Our closest guess is that it had something to do with food. After all, the evolution of soul pets, with this world's current scientific ability, is a subject that has always been studied intensely."

Wang Che found these words to be very intriguing.

Unable to contain himself, Xu Haifeng asked, "So there's really no possibility?"

Professor Yan laughed and replied with a question, "What is the most basic rule in modern day soul pet studies?"

"Evolution is the only way a soul pet can break through its limitations as a lifeform."

The professor nodded at Xu Haifeng's answer. "That's right. Next, what are the two most important factors in the evolution of soul pets?"

Another student answered subconsciously, "Martial soul and cultivation base."

This was general high school soul pet knowledge.

Professor Yan continued with a sigh, "Yes, martial soul and cultivation base. Any evolutionary path is a result of these two factors. I believe all of you know a little about normal cultivation evolution."

"A green caterpillar evolves into a Green Nether Butterfly after 10 years of cultivation; Cuckoo Bird evolves into a Loud Cuckoo Bird after 30 years of cultivation; it evolves into a Wind Cuckoo after 60 years of cultivation; Hundred Flower Beast evolves into a Thousand-faced Flower after 70 years of cultivation; it becomes a Flower Fairy after 140 years of cultivation; Young Feather Eagle evolves into a Steel Wing Eagle after 200 years of cultivation…

"Evolution and mutation are related to the martial soul. In ancient times, soul beasts could only evolve through this method. However, the efficiency of obtaining martial souls to evolve from slaughtering humans was very low indeed."

He turned to Wang Che. "The green caterpillar's limit is very low when it comes to cultivation evolution. As for mutation evolution, you don't have the right elements with you right now."

Professor Yan stopped speaking after that.

The students understood what he meant.

Wang Che pondered for a moment and asked again, "What if a green caterpillar was cultivated to an even higher cultivation base?"

"How high?" Professor Yan asked, smiling.

Wang Che said the largest number he knew from his 18 years of memories, "A million years."

Everyone fell silent.

The professor was also taken by surprise.

He probably hadn't expected to hear such an answer.

Professor Yan remained silent for a while without answering Wang Che's question. After thinking about it, he asked slowly, "Do you know why we use age to determine the cultivation base of our soul pets today?"

This was a very advanced question, one that most students would not be able to come up with an answer for.

Wang Che, however, replied instinctively. "Because in ancient times, the cultivation bases of most soul beasts were equivalent to their lifespan. As such the limit to their lifespan also served as the limit to their cultivation base."

"That's right," Professor Yan remarked, satisfied with the answer. "Soul beasts of the ancient eras needed a long time to develop intelligence that could match up to that of the humans'. This was because the soul beasts then could only absorb the soul power of heaven and earth passively, meaning there was no way for them to awaken their martial soul and cultivate soul power like humans do.

"Therefore, their soul power became proportional to their lifespan. The longer they lived, the stronger they became.

"A million years was the limit, even for soul beasts of the ancient era. Now, let's take those who couldn't live for millions of years, but rather hundreds of thousands of years into account as well. How many soul beasts fitting this criteria do you think existed in the ancient era?"

Wang Che shook his head. He really did not know.

The school's syllabus did explain the concept of a million-year-old soul beast at some point, and had given some examples, but there had not been much specific information on the topic.

Professor Yan opened up both his palms, showing the number ten.

"We know about ten of them."

Professor Yan did not give the group any time to speculate and quickly continued, "There were only about ten or so descendants of those soul beasts that managed to survive the disaster three thousand years ago. In other words, without the life contract, theoretically speaking of course, only those ten soul beasts have the ability to cultivate up to a million years.

"To answer your question, the chances are lower than one in a billion."