Chapter 14

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This will be the last chapter for this week.

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After the blacksmith test was over, Elder Jian went back to join the other elders and another elder from among the elders came to the arena.

He was an old man who looked like he was in his late 40s, but one could never guess the actual age of a cultivator as the person could have spent years or a century to reach the realm he currently could be at, only in some rare cases did one could find young cultivators with heaven-defying talent have reached such realm in cultivation while still at a very young age. The elder who now stepped on the arena was among the former group. He was wearing the robe worn by Beast Tamers.

Astra greeted the elder.

"I am Huang Ji, a Beast Tamer, and the elder at the Beast Tamer Hall. I'll be responsible for conducting and judging your beast tamer test.

Without wasting any time let's get into it. You should know what us beast tamers field of excellency is? Your toady's test would be conducted on that basis. You'll have to tame a beast from the Beast Forest. Oh, and it's the forest where you and Nanea met, from what I heard. You'll have an entire day, that is, you have to tame a beast and bring it with you by this time tomorrow if you can't then you'll fail the test. And don't worry since the Beast Forest is quite a dangerous place so I'll send some guards and Nanea to accompany you, but they be helping you any way in this test. If they do, then you'll immediately fail the test and there is no more reason left to continue the test from then as either way you'll only be a outer sect disciple" [Elder Huang Ji]

Understanding elder Huang Ji's word Astra nodded and got ready for the test. He went to his dorms with Nanea to prepare for the test so that he could leave sooner as the forest was 30 minutes far on walking. So, they had to rush it. He quickly went to the dorm and prepared everything, packed them in a bag and left for the forest. Seeing Astra leave, all the elders went to their respective halls to continue their duty as they had to wait till the next day to conduct their tests and after their tests were conducted then only would the result be announced.

On the other hand, Astra accompanied by Nanea and a couple of guards were heading to the forest. They had been rushing to the forest at full speed. The guards were quite a few cultivation realms higher than Astra so was Nanea, but Astra didn't have any issue keeping up with them, as the Qi in his body was the purest and the densest and on top of it, he even was a body cultivator so it wasn't a big issue that he could keep up with them.

After running at full speed for about 10 minutes, they finally reached the entrance of the forest.

"Now, we've reached the Beast Forest. Listen Astra don't venture too deep into the forest as you could encounter a beast with high cultivation realms and your life could be in danger. So, you should only search of the beast to tame in the outer part of the forest." [Nanea]

Understanding Nanea's concern, Astra nodded. He then entered the Forest with the others.

The group searched around the forest so that Astra could tame a beast and pass the test, but to his bad luck, they couldn't even a single beast. Now, they all had been searching the forest for a beast for 4 hours, but they still couldn't find one. With no luck in finding any beast, they decided to get near to the inner entrance of the Beast Forest. They all walked for an hour until they reached the entrance of the Inner part of the forest. The only treason they hadn't rushed there was son that if they encountered any beast, Astra could try with taming it.

After finally reaching the entrance of the inner forest, the group began looking around for beasts at the inner edge of the outer forest.

After searching around for the next 3 hours, Astra heard something nearby. He looked around to know from where the sound was coming from. Looking around for a while, Astra and the group found a cave. They all cautiously walked to the entrance of the cave and peeked inside the cave. To their surprise, they saw a White Lion cub beast inside the cave. At first look it could be seen that the lion cub beast was very week, as if it hadn't eaten anything for quite a few days, and as it was still a cub, it didn't have enough strength to hunt for itself. They looked around the surrounding of the cave to see if its parents were anywhere near but couldn't find anyone, so Astra decided.

"I've decided, I am going to tame this beast." [Astra]

Every one of the people with him were surprised at his declaration, it was to know that everyone who tamed a beast, it was to boast their strength and increase their chances of survival in this world of cultivation, but here Astra was who declared that he would tame this weak looking beast.

Hearing this, Nanea interjected.

"Are you sure about that? You should know what the reason is why cultivators choose to tame a strong beast. And here you are going to tame a weak little beast." [Nanea]

Astra then continued.

"It's not that I don't know that it that every beast has to go through breakthrough in their cultivation to become strong. It's not like any beast could be strong from the moment they are born, if it did then what was the reason for the existence of such weak beasts." [Astra]

With the words of Astra, Nanea became silent. What Astra said was all true, no one's burn as a peak being, they all must work hard to reach the peak.

After stating his words, Astra proceeded towards taming the beast cub. According to the books in the set's library on beast taming, it was essential for the tamer to make the beast fawn over him/her if they want to tame a beast. The little beast looked weak, and it was too skinny, so it was clear that it hadn't had anything for the past couple of days, so Astra gave it some fruits and a piece of meat that he had in his bag.

At first it was quite cautious of the group, but when Astra took out things for it to eat, it lowered its guard and proceeded to eat the fruits and meat. After the beast had its fill, it went to Astra, the person who had given it the food for it to eat and saved him from dying, and rubbed its body on the body of Astra, as if telling 'Thank You!' of the food he'd given him and expressing its gratitude.

Astra was quite happy with the response he got from the little white lion beast. He smiled while looking at it and spoke.

"You're welcome!" [Astra]

After that he played with the beast for some time, then spoke.

"Do you want to come with me to explore the world together? And Enjoy life to the fullest, with nothing to worry about necessities of life." [Astra]

The little white lion beast stared at Astra's face for quite a while as an awkward silence spread in the cave.

Then Nanea spoke.

"You… dumbass, who would be willing to follow you if you suddenly out of nowhere ask them to follow. And to top it all up, you're asking a beast, a non-intelligent being to follow. Can it even comprehend you word?" [Nanea]

Though Nanea was right at what she said. But Astra felt something else.

"I know that no one would be willing to follow me if I suddenly state things like that, but this little fellow here seems different. I can feel it. I even have the feeling that it can understand each and every word that we've been speaking up until now." [Astra]

Now this dumbfounded the people following Astra. 'How could he know that? And to even say that this small beast could understand each n' every word we speak.'. this was the thought that was going through their brains.

On the other hand, seemingly understanding the meaning behind Astra's words, the beast walked towards Astra, who was looking at it with a heartwarming smile, it nodded his head as if it was saying that it was willing to follow him wherever he went.

With the White lion beast cub's response, Astra was overjoyed. Following the method of forming contract between the tamer and the beast, Astra dropped a drop of blood in the little beast's mouth. As soon as the drop of blood landed in the beast's mouth, the beast widened its eyes. It was because, from the drop of blood the density and purity of Qi that it felt couldn't be explained as it was unlike anything the beast had felt before. It now knew that it had made the right decision to be with him.

After the contract was complete, the beast delightfully jumped onto Astra's shoulder with delight and seeing this Astra with a slime on his face patted its head. The beast really liked it, it could be seen with the cute expression it had on its face.

After that, Astra thought 'I can't call it a little beast of white lion beast's cub, so it'd be better to name it, but without knowing it's gender, how can I name it?'

Seeing how silent Astra was, Nanea understood in what dilemma Astra was in.

But before she could speak, Astra spoke to the beast.

"Umm… little fella. I can't call you that every time that when we communicate, but to name you I first need to know your gender. Can you tell me?

Listen if you're a male shake your head up and down but if aren't the shake your head left and right. Do you understand?" [Astra]

Since the contract was established, the little beast could understand what it's master, Astra, was speaking about.

Then Astra asked it if it was a male on which it shook its head telling it wasn't a male but rather a female.

Knowing this Astra contemplated for some time then spoke.

"How do you like the name Pulchera, it means Beauty. And since you're a girl I wish for you to become a real beauty when you grow up.

Do you like?" [Astra]

The beast wagged its tail and shook its head up and down as if saying that it really liked the name.

"Ok, then from today onwards I will call you Pulchera." [Astra]

Being given a name and being referred to as a beauty at the same time, the little beast, Pulchera, was overjoyed and couldn't help wagging her tail more and more and looking at Astra with cute little face.