The aftermath of the Apprentice Tamer Exam was not a roar; it was a cacophony of furious, high-pitched whispers that echoed throughout the halls of the Myriad Beast Guild. Su Ye, the newly minted Apprentice Tamer, was not celebrated. He was the subject of an emergency session of the Grand Council of Elders.
Su Ye stood in the center of the gilded Council Chamber, a vast room where every Elder present radiated spiritual pressure strong enough to crack the marble floor. He was accompanied only by Uncle Chen, who stood shivering by the massive, carved bronze doors.
Zhu Zhu was nowhere to be seen, currently enjoying a nap in a secure, high-quality titanium safe (which Su Ye rented with the last of his earnings) after attempting to eat the brass handle of the Council Chamber entrance.
Facing him were three figures of immense power:
* Elder Lin: The Head of the Examination Board. He was purple with rage.
* Elder Cai: The Head of Revenue (whose crystal column Su Ye destroyed). He looked ready to weep gold tears.
* Grand Elder Shen: The supreme authority of the Guild Hall. Old, wise, and dangerously calm.
"Su Ye!" Elder Lin slammed his fist onto the table.
"I have never witnessed such utter disrespect in two hundred years of service! You desecrated a Tier-9 Qi Resonance Column! You introduced livestock into a sacred examination! And you dared to accuse a Master Tamer of incompetence!"
"With respect, Elder Lin," Su Ye replied, adopting the calm, measured tone he'd learned from listening to the Tortoise Ancestor for hours.
"I stand by my actions. The Qi Resonance Column was flawed. It was unable to handle the spiritual compression of the Void-Swallowing Bloodline and thus catastrophically failed its test. The fault lies with the manufacturing, not the beast."
Elder Cai wailed, "The manufacturing was pristine! The column cost forty thousand high-grade Spirit Stones! That debt falls to the Twilight Stable, which means, by law, it falls to you! You owe the Guild Hall forty thousand Spirit Stones!"
Su Ye sighed, reaching into his tunic and pulling out a small, folded piece of parchment. He had anticipated this.
"Elder Cai, please review the results of the practical exam."
Su Ye unfurled the parchment, which detailed the acquisition of his new beast.
"As per Guild regulations, a Tier-3 Spirit Beast, such as the Iron-Back Wolf (a highly coveted fighting companion), is valued at thirty thousand Spirit Stones. The Void-Swallowing Pig, while previously considered 'failed livestock,' has proven its unique, Tier-8 potential and is thus valued conservatively at fifty thousand Spirit Stones."
Su Ye looked Elder Cai directly in the eye. "My two newly acquired beasts, valued at eighty thousand Spirit Stones, more than cover the cost of the damaged property. In fact, the Guild Hall now owes the Twilight Stable a net profit of forty thousand Spirit Stones.
I suggest you issue a reimbursement voucher immediately."
Elder Cai choked. The logic was flawless, the math undeniable, and the arrogance infuriating.
Grand Elder Shen, who had remained silent, raised a hand, silencing the room. He gazed at Su Ye, his eyes piercing.
"Su Ye," the Grand Elder's voice was low, carrying the weight of command. "Your financial maneuvering is astute. But you do not understand the political repercussions. Master Mo is connected to the Minister of War.
By humiliating him, you have challenged the established order of Taming. The Guild believes beasts must be broken to submit. Your method—of curing chronic pain with 'flossing'—undermines our very authority. Tell us, honestly: What is your secret? What dark art allows you to gain the complete devotion of two high-tier beasts in under an hour?"
Su Ye knew he couldn't reveal the Ancestor Link. No one would believe the ghosts, and it would likely lead to him being burned as a heretic. He had to frame his truth in terms they understood.
"My secret is not a dark art, Elder Shen," Su Ye said, choosing his words carefully. "It is Observation and Biology. I spent my life studying the physiology of beasts. Master Mo approached the Wolf with the assumption it was a rebellious foe that needed to be enslaved. I approached it with the assumption it was a patient in severe pain."
Su Ye tapped his temple. "While Master Mo saw only spirit energy and muscle fiber, I saw improper mandibular alignment and a foreign body lodged in the superior arcade."
He looked at Elder Lin. "If the Guild Hall trained its Tamers to respect the physical body of the beast rather than relying solely on brutal spiritual dominance, you wouldn't have so many 'untamable' specimens filling your stables."
The Elders exchanged uncomfortable glances. This wasn't heresy; it was a devastating critique of their entire curriculum.
The meeting concluded without an official ruling, but the political battlefield was drawn. That night, the official punishment was handed down:
* Exile Confirmed: Su Ye was officially designated the Master of the Twilight Stable—a title that sounded grand but simply cemented his exile to the remote, dilapidated compound.
* The Enrollment Mandate: To ensure he couldn't just enjoy his isolation, the Council mandated that Su Ye must recruit three official disciples within the next month. If he failed, his license, and his entire debt-cleared net worth, would be revoked.
Master Mo delivered the news personally, standing outside the Twilight Stable gate, flanked by two armed guards.
"A Master Teacher requires students, Su Ye," Mo sneered, enjoying the catch. "And since your reputation is 'that madman who punches beasts in the stomach,' no student in the Kingdom will dare approach your hovel. You will fail, and you will be mine."
He tossed a sealed parchment detailing the exam's failure criteria at Su Ye's feet and turned to leave.
Su Ye picked up the parchment. He looked at the desolate stable, the rotting fence, and the sleeping Tortoise.
"Master Mo," Su Ye called out. "You are missing a fundamental point about reputation."
Mo paused, turning back with annoyance.
"You spent your life building a reputation as a wise master who accepts the best students," Su Ye said, a cold edge entering his voice. "I have built a reputation as a miracle worker who takes the worst trash and turns it into gold."
Su Ye held up the parchment. "You gave me three weeks to find three students. Good luck competing with that."
The next morning, Su Ye was busy instructing Uncle Chen on how to set up a new drainage system for the Wind Wolf's enclosure ("It's pining because its bedding is damp, Uncle Chen! Damp bedding causes spiritual stagnation!").
A shadow fell over the courtyard.
A figure stood hesitantly by the gate. She was petite, wrapped in a pristine white silk robe that contrasted sharply with the mud and decay of the stable. She was breathtakingly beautiful, with features so delicate they seemed carved from jade, but her expression was one of profound, cold anxiety.
This was Princess Luo Bing, the genius of the Imperial Family, whose Ice Phoenix bloodline made her a prodigy among the Outer Disciples.
She looked around the wretched stable with an expression of confused disgust.
"Are you... Master Su Ye?" she asked, her voice light but firm.
"I am," Su Ye said, wiping mud from his hands. "Welcome to the Twilight Stable. Mind the rat traps."
Princess Luo Bing approached, ignoring the rat traps. She held a small, beautifully ornate cage—the kind reserved for high-tier Spirit Birds. Inside the cage sat a magnificent Ice Phoenix.
Or rather, what should have been a magnificent Ice Phoenix.
The bird was shivering violently. Instead of shimmering blue feathers, it was mostly bald. Only a few pathetic tufts of down remained. It looked like a frightened, plucked chicken.
"Master Su Ye," the Princess began, her cold composure cracking slightly. "I beg you. I have seen every 5-Star Tamer in the capital. They all say my Phoenix is suffering from a cursed decay. That the bloodline is failing. That it must be euthanized."
She clutched the cage. "This is my Imperial Guardian Beast. If it fails, my entire family loses status. My future is ruined."
She looked up at Su Ye, her eyes holding both desperation and humiliation.
"But then I heard the rumors. They say you can fix the unfixable. That you can save the dying."
She bowed low. "Please. I offer you my entire year's salary, my family's lowest Spirit Stone mine, anything! Please save my Phoenix!"
Su Ye looked at the majestic bird reduced to a shivering, bald mess. He reached out and gently placed his finger on the cage wire, touching the bird's wing.
Zzzzt.
The connection pulled him instantly into a dazzling, frigid world of ice and snow. Before him stood a colossal, radiant creature: the Grand Ice Phoenix Matriarch. Its wingspan dwarfed the mountains, and its voice was the crystalline sound of falling ice.
"FINALLY! A WARM-BLOODED APE!" the Matriarch shrieked, not with pain, but with annoyance. "I have been screaming for months! This idiot descendant is not cursed! She is not dying!"
Su Ye braced himself. "Then what is the issue, Senior?"
"She is allergic to the new silk lining this girl put in the cage!" the Matriarch bellowed, sending an arctic blast across the mental space. "It's synthetic polyester! It makes her sweat! She is the embodiment of FRIGID PERFECTION! She is supposed to be cold! She keeps sweating and getting skin rashes! The feathers are falling out from CONSTANT SCRATCHING! Tell that girl to put her on a marble slab and feed her some hot peppers!"
Su Ye blinked, pulling out of the connection.
He looked at the devastated, pleading Princess, whose entire future hung in the balance.
He looked at the shivering, bald, majestic-looking chicken.
Su Ye sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Princess Luo Bing," he said, sounding utterly exhausted. "Your Phoenix is fine. It just has severe contact dermatitis."
The Princess frowned, utterly confused. "Dermatitis?"
"She's allergic to that cheap synthetic bedding," Su Ye explained simply. "It makes her itchy and prone to sweating. We need to switch her bedding to unpolished granite and introduce capsaicin to her diet to boost circulation."
Su Ye looked at the beautiful, highly-ranked genius of the Imperial Family. "Also, she seems to have developed a nervous habit. She keeps pecking her own claws."
The Princess's composure shattered. "Pecking her claws? But... but the Grand Elder said her Qi was receding!"
Su Ye shook his head.
"She's bored, Princess. You spend too much time reading scrolls and not enough time playing fetch. We'll start tomorrow. Bring two pounds of dried chili peppers. And congratulations, Princess. You are Disciple Number One."
The Princess stared at the ground, utterly bewildered, then slowly nodded, a single tear of relief and confusion rolling down her cheek.
Su Ye watched the most beautiful woman in the capital walk away, still clutching the cage containing the world's most itchy, spoiled chicken.
"Disciple Number One," Su Ye grinned, turning to Uncle Chen. "Now, where do you think the best place to find a kid with a crippling phobia of beasts might be?"