As the era has advanced, many Pet Beasts once believed to have "no evolutionary forms" have been proven to simply possess more obscure evolution conditions—in reality, they can evolve.
Especially after seeing Ugly Waterfowl's moves, Jiang Xing arrived at what could only be called a "radical hypothesis"—
Perhaps, in the Beast Taming world, all Pet Beasts possess the potential to evolve!
It's just that humanity's understanding of evolution is merely the tip of the iceberg, which is why such misconceptions arose.
Just like in the microscopic world: people initially believed atoms were the smallest indivisible particles. Yet with theoretical breakthroughs, electrons, neutrons, protons… were subsequently discovered.
Those Pet Beasts that "cannot evolve" simply have undiscovered conditions.
'Once I finish the current research topic, I can look for similar Pet Beasts and dig into their evolutionary potential.'
For now, Jiang Xing's main focus was still on Ugly Waterfowl.
After all, compared to the theory of "changing natural evolution into Friendship-based evolution"—which overturns common knowledge—"discovering a brand-new form and proving that Friendship is the evolution condition" is clearly much easier for people to accept.
However, Ugly Waterfowl was not a Golden-Patterned Koi.
It was neither an ornamental Pet Beast, nor a resource-type Pet Beast, nor a combat-type Pet Beast.
No one wanted to contract it, so it naturally didn't appear in breeding farms or nurturing facilities.
Additionally, according to the Pet Beast Encyclopedia, Ugly Waterfowl was so ugly that even predators didn't want to eat it. It had no natural enemies—but also, because it was too ugly, even its own kind rejected it, making it a solitary species with low reproductive success and a small population.
Only by going to rural areas in the Jiangnan region could one find them.
With the Shanghai Evolution Conference about to begin, Jiang Xing obviously couldn't leave for the countryside at a time like this.
So he made a phone call, asking Senior Li to make the trip for him, gather some Ugly Waterfowl, and send them directly to the research institute.
Mm, Ugly Waterfowl was also a Water-type Pet Beast—no problem there.
Senior Li readily agreed.
He had once come from a common background himself. Being able to build his current wealth was not only due to graduating as a top student from Yuzhong University, but also closely tied to Dr. Xu's students.
Maintaining good relationships with juniors, obtaining first-hand information, and investing early—
Even if the probability of failure far exceeded success, a single successful investment would make up for everything.
After hanging up, Jiang Xing shifted his attention back to the Howl Hound.
Training Power ≈ the "Return" move—this was only his hypothesis, and might not be correct—
After all, the system mission came from the purple-black pup. It was the undead form of Howl Hound; its attributes, abilities, and moves had all undergone massive changes.
If, after revival, the undead Howl Hound forgot Training Power and instead obtained an entirely new "Return"-type move, with the two being completely unrelated…
Then Jiang Xing's hypothesis would collapse, and he would need to rethink the entire research direction.
So before gathering more Pet Beasts and formally researching Friendship, Beauty, and even emotional energy, Jiang Xing first needed to conduct a full examination on the purple-black pup.
Having prior experience examining the Rainbow Dragon Hatchling, Jiang Xing asked Master Jian to help contact a research institute in Shanghai and purchase some basic research equipment.
After moving the equipment into the secret realm, he spent two days completing the examination of the purple-black pup.
And finalized its Pet Beast Encyclopedia entry.
...
[Name: Undead Guardian Hound]
[Attributes: Fire, Undead]
[Talent: Unyielding Loyalty — When stepping forward to protect its Beast Tamer, its dual defenses increase significantly.]
[Species Tier: Low Commander Tier]
[Species Moves: Intimidate, Bite, Tackle, Will-o'-Wisp, Grudge, Training Power…]
[Description: A ghost-type Pet Beast. A loyal Howl Hound that, unable to sever its emotional bond with its master, revives after death and transforms into an Undead Guardian Hound, forever accompanying its master.]
...
Good. Undead Guardian Hound hadn't acquired any strange moves. The only ability that might be related to Friendship was still Training Power.
Jiang Xing could proceed with his research with peace of mind.
However, the existence of Undead Guardian Hound itself put him in a dilemma—
According to the test results, Undead Guardian Hound was not an evolved form of Howl Hound. It was more like an entirely different base Pet Beast.
And as a base Pet Beast, its strength was quite impressive—not only had its Species Tier reached Low Commander Tier, it also possessed Unyielding Loyalty, a protective talent highly effective under wild battle rules.
The Fire + Undead attribute combination was also an excellent battle pairing.
Combined with its loyalty that not even death could erase, it was easy to foresee that Beast Tamers would adore it.
But…
For Undead Guardian Hound, being loved might not be a good thing.
If certain Beast Tamers only wanted Undead Guardian Hounds and not Howl Hounds, they might exploit the Howl Hound's loyalty—sending them to their deaths just to transform them into Undead Guardian Hounds…
A symbol of loyalty, yet doomed to be exploited even in death because of that very loyalty—too grim.
If he concealed this and didn't publish it, that didn't seem right either.
Howl Hound was a High Extraordinary Tier species. In the future, it could evolve into the Mid Commander Tier [Roaring Hound] and the Low Monarch Tier [Moonhowl Divine Hound].
As a household dog, it could guard homes and courtyards, and was also the first Pet Beast for many civilian Beast Tamers.
If he concealed the existence of Undead Guardian Hound, then those Beast Tamers who truly loved their Pet Beasts and shared deep bonds with them would lose the chance to ever see them again.
'No wonder among Pet Beast researchers, necromancy researchers and undead specialists are the most controversial—praised and criticized alike…'
'Innate undead Pet Beasts are one thing. But those that transform after death… they place far too heavy a test on morality and human nature.'
Carrying this internal conflict, Jiang Xing continued researching the cause behind Howl Hound's transformation into Undead Guardian Hound.
Soon, he found a breakthrough—
From the moment he entered the courtyard secret realm, Jiang Xing had already noticed it was saturated with deathly energy, creating a deeply uncomfortable sensation.
And his mentor, Dr. Xu—not only an authority in Water-type research—had also proposed and proven the Environment Theory, demonstrating that certain special environments serve as evolution conditions for specific Pet Beasts, and further verifying the connection between environment and evolutionary energy…
Su Muli's Storm Sea Lizard was also based on this theory—by creating a special storm region at sea through its own power, it achieved a brand-new evolution, proving that "artificial environments can also serve as valid evolution conditions"…
In fact, Jiang Xing's manual creation of the Dragon Gate to enable Golden-Patterned Koi evolution was also based on principles from Environment Theory…
Because of this, Jiang Xing was extremely sensitive to environmental factors and specifically acquired a set of energy observation equipment.
The results were exactly as expected.
Within this small secret realm, there existed an extremely pure concentration of death energy.
In terms of purity alone, it far exceeded even the little Qilin's power!
One must know, the Auspicious Cloud Qilin was a genuine Demi-God Level Pet Beast. For something even more powerful and pure than that—its source could only be a Mythical Level Pet Beast.
And according to the idea that Mythical Pet Beasts are equivalent to gods…
This power came from the God of Death.
The reason Howl Hound could transform into Undead Guardian Hound—and persist for so long—was entirely because this secret realm had been thoroughly permeated by death divine power, turning it into a special "Land of Death."
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