After chatting with the old man for a while, Rocky found out that the old man's name was Jackson
Chen. That girl he met, was his granddaughter, Sue Chen. People in these villages had lived here for
generations. Even though it was dangerous to live here at the Gehenna Border, they had already
become accustomed to living under constant crisis and the burning flame of war.
While Rocky was talking to the old man, Sue Chen noticed that little Rubygon had begun drinking milk
from a goat. Admiring his tiny chubby body, Sue Chen couldn't help but smile. "It is so cute!" She came
forward almost involuntarily and touched it gently with her fingers. Seeing that little Rubygon wasn't
averse to her touch, she took it up in her arms delicately.
"Sue, don't touch someone else's..." Jackson Chen tried to stop her.
"It'll be okay." Rocky looked at Sue Chen with a smile on his face and said, "Its name is Rubygon."
"I did not ask you!" As her expressions gave away, Sue Chen was obviously not fond of Rocky. She
glared at him as if to make him back off and hugged little Rubygon even tighter. She immediately
turned to little Rubygon. "So your name is Rubygon. You are very adorable, but you have such a
terrible name. Why don't we just call you Mimi? Do you like this name, my little love?"
Rocky instinctively laughed. He thought to himself, 'Ha-ha! Mimi sounds like a cat's name!'
"Rocky, unfortunately, I have spoiled my granddaughter too much. I apologize for her rude behavior.
Please, don't mind her," Jackson Chen said apologetically.
Rocky waved his head actively to assure him he wasn't hurt. He also let Sue Chen play with little
Rubygon for a while. But when the time was almost up, he said goodbye to both of them and left with
Rubygon.
Half a month passed by in the blink of an eye.
Although Rocky was named captain of the sixth team, the crew was largely idle except for vain routine
patrols. It felt like he was named captain just for the sake of it.
Dejected and upset, Rocky spent most of his time in his own cultivation. However, the cultivation of the
Earthly Stage had not been as easy as that of the Mortal Stage. In spite of the additional aid of the
magical saliva, the progress had still been very slow.
Compared to himself, little Rubygon grew much faster. This was because Rocky fed it a little magical
saliva every day to speed up its growth. Around two weeks later, Rubygon had developed the basic
form imitating its parents. It exuded strength and honesty. More importantly, it seemed to be around the
same size as Uriah before.
Time passed, and now, little Rubygon was almost fully grown. It was time for Rocky to identify its star
rating and figure out its hidden talent. This can't be done earlier as it was too young and
underdeveloped.
Based on its parents' appearance, Rocky found the related records in the Beast Encyclopedia. To his
surprise, Rubygon was a rare species of spirit-manipulated beast which was called Bear-tiger. This
species was considered to be powerful and cruel. Especially when agitated, they would lose all control
and most likely, attack. To sum up, it could be a very frightening species. It was no wonder that even
the third team and the fifth team suffered during their hunting periods in the Maze Forest.
However, as per the Beast Encyclopedia, Bear-tigers were usually gregarious. Rocky was at a loss. He
couldn't figure out why little Rubygon's parents had come to the Maze Forest to give birth to it.
Generally speaking, a Bear-tiger's star rating could range from four to two. If Rubygon could reach the
fourth grade of the four stars, it would be as powerful as a spirit manipulator in the Heavenly Stage.
Rocky could tell that Robygon's talent was not less than that of Uriah's. It just needed to be nurtured.
However, since Uriah broke through from less than one star directly to three stars, its potential in terms
of strength was unclear. Rocky had not been able to identify all of its attributes so far. Besides, Uriah
had magical saliva and a super physique, both of which were uncommon for a spirit-manipulated beast
to possess. There was not a single record related to Uriah in the Beast Encyclopedia, which made it a
mysterious and strange new species that was worth studying.
Rocky took little Rubygon inside the house and landed it on the ground. He sat down cross-legged and
applied the Radiance Evaluation Skill as suggested in the book.
He could see a triangular glow forming around little Rubygon. Suddenly, its body flashed a variety of
brilliance, and the blazing streak reflected from the ground directly and ambiguously.
"It seems Rubygon is definitely at least a three-star spirit-manipulated beast!" Rocky felt overjoyed, his
eyes gleaming with little Rubygon's luminescence. The reason why he was so glad was because the
blazing streak reflected from the ground was so indistinct that it was next to impossible to distinguish.
After learning the evaluation skill, he had been able to easily identify spirit-manipulated beast under two
stars. Unfortunately, when the spirit-manipulated beast reached three stars or above, he was still
incapable of determining its star rating.
This meant that if he could not quantify little Rubygon's rating from the glow, little Rubygon was at least
three stars. A three stars rated beast was already considered a pretty good one. If it were to turn out to
be a four-star one, it would be really a big deal.
However, generally speaking, a spirit manipulator could only control one spirit-manipulated beast. So,
no matter how strong little Rubygon was, it would still not be controled by Rocky, since he already had
Uriah.
"Can I only identify you as a powerful spirit-manipulated beast but not control you?" Rocky saw little
Rubygon rolling back and forth on the spot. Of course, little Rubygon in its prime years, was only
thinking about playing. He smiled with a helpless expression on his face.
Rocky was not one to give up so easily. He thought to himself, 'Why should every spirit manipulator just
be able to manipulate only one spirit-manipulated beast?' Going with the surge of feelings, he decided
he must find a way to break this tradition. So he could make little Rubygon his own spirit-manipulated
beast. Fearlessly, he set out on a journey to study how to control two spirit-manipulated beasts at the
same time.
If Rocky managed to pull this off, he would send shockwaves throughout the world...
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