The morning of the Beast Taming Hall's Aptitude Test dawned crisp and clear. A palpable energy buzzed through the Green Mountain Sect. A mixture of ambition, anxiety, and pressure. For the thirty outer disciples participating, it was a day that could define their future. For the hundreds of spectators, it was a source of entertainment and gossip. For Li Yu, it was one of the most important days of his life.
He was escorted from his small hut by the ever-silent Sister Feng. He wore the clean, simple linen robes he had been given, which now marked him as something other than a menial laborer, yet not quite a disciple.
He was an anomaly, a third category of person that drew stares from every direction. As they walked towards the main training grounds of the Beast Taming Hall, he could feel the weight of countless gazes upon him. Many were looking down on him, that he didn't belong but others were also cheering him on, as the dark horse that he was.
He kept his head bowed, his expression calm and his heart a steady, powerful drum in his chest. His breakthrough to the Seventh Stage of Body Tempering was a secret anchor, a deep well of power that gave him a confidence no one could see.
The testing ground was a vast, open-air arena. At one end stood a high platform where the elders of the Beast Taming Hall were seated. Elder Ning was in the center, her expression as stern and unreadable as a stone tablet.
To her sides were two other elders, a portly and cheerful-looking man and a thin, severe-faced elder with a goatee. Below them, in a designated area, stood the thirty participating disciples. They were a collection of the outer sect's disciples that were trying to get into the beast hall, most of them between the Fourth and Sixth Stages of Body Tempering.
Li Jie was among them, standing near the front, his posture reeking of arrogance. Not from his own strength but from the borrowed strength of the one he served. When he saw Li Yu being led to a separate, isolated spot near the side of the arena, his lips curled into a vicious sneer. He whispered something to his companions, and a wave of derisive laughter rippled through his group.
"Look, the lucky fish-feeder has arrived!"
"Does he think he's going to tame a beast by feeding it? What a joke."
"I bet he fails the first round. Elder Ning is just trying to make a point about not relying on luck."
Li Yu ignored them all. His senses were focused on the arena floor. It was divided into several sections. In one, there were a series of cages containing various small, agitated beasts. In another, there was a large, shallow pool of water. He could feel the chaotic, nervous energy of the creatures, a symphony of fear and aggression that he could understand better than the whispers of the disciples.
The portly, cheerful elder, whose name was Elder Zhao, stood up and addressed the participants, his voice booming across the arena. "Welcome, disciples, to the annual Aptitude Test! Today, we seek not the strongest among you, but the most attuned! The path of the beast tamer is one of empathy, control, and mutual respect. There are many paths that one can take to become a beast tamer, which one you choose will define how you will progress in your journey."
He gestured to the first section of the arena. "The first trial is simple: The Trial of Calming. Each of you will approach a cage containing a Rank 1 Horn-Tailed Rabbit. These creatures are timid but highly sensitive to spiritual intent. Your task is to calm the beast. You may not use your own Qi to intimidate it but martial spirits are allowed. You have the time it takes for one incense stick to burn. Succeed, and you move on. Fail, and you are dismissed."
One by one, the disciples stepped forward. The first few, puffed up with confidence, tried to project their spiritual will onto the frantic rabbits. The creatures only became more terrified, slamming themselves against the bars of their cages. They failed.
Others were more successful. They softened their aura, projecting feelings of peace and calm. A handful managed to get the rabbits to stop panicking and huddle quietly in a corner of the cage. They passed, earning polite applause from the crowd.
Li Jie's turn came. He approached the cage with a confident smirk. He didn't try to project a gentle aura. Instead, he released the spiritual pressure of his Grade Four snapping turtle spirit. It was a heavy, earthy presence that didn't feel gentle, but it felt power and immovable. The small rabbit, faced with the aura of a powerful predator froze in place out of sheer instinctual terror. It was not calm but it was still.
Elder Ning frowned slightly but Elder Zhao announced, "A passable application of spiritual pressure. He passes."
Finally, it was Li Yu's turn. A wave of murmurs and snickers went through the crowd as the small, eleven-year-old boy walked towards the final cage. The rabbit inside was the most agitated of all, driven into a frenzy by the auras of the previous participants.
Li Yu stopped a few feet from the cage. He closed his eyes. He couldn't feel the rabbit's emotions directly—it was not a creature of water. But after more than a year of constant, intimate connection with thousands of demonic beasts, he had developed the skills of observation and a natural sense of how the beasts were thinking.
He observed the rabbit not with a spiritual link but with the keen senses of a master naturalist. He saw the frantic trembling of its limbs, the wild, dilated pupils, the way its ears were pinned back in pure terror. He didn't need to feel its thoughts to know its state: it was a creature convinced it was about to die.
He didn't try to impose his own feelings upon it. He knew that any active projection of will, no matter how gentle, would be perceived as a threat. Instead, he drew upon his understanding of the natural world he learned over this last year.
He reached out with his spiritual sense, but he did not fill it with intent. He cloaked it in the gentle, non-threatening aura of the «Myriad Rivers Returning to the Sea Art» and projected the feeling of the environment itself—the feeling of a harmless breeze, a silent stone, a blade of grass.
He wasn't telling it to be calm. He was demonstrating through his aura that he was an inert, non-threatening part of the world, as insignificant as the dirt beneath its paws.
The effect was profound. The rabbit, which had been expecting another wave of predatory intent, was met with a presence that felt like nothing at all. Its frantic scrabbling slowed. It stopped, its nose twitching.
It looked at Li Yu, its red eyes losing their panicked glaze. Slowly and cautiously it took a hesitant hop forward. Then another. It moved to the front of the cage, pressed its small body against the bars closest to Li Yu and began to groom its whiskers, completely at ease.
A silence fell over the entire arena. Some were surprised, some happy that he passed, others shaking their heads thinking his approach wasn't cool. Most had tried to dominate or soothe the beast in a quick way. This menial laborer, though it took some time, was able to make it seek him out.
Elder Ning looked down from above with her sharp eyes glowing with an intense light. Elder Zhao's cheerful smile was replaced by a look of nodding approval at the approach..
"He passes," Elder Zhao said, as the incense stick burned out.
Of the thirty participants, only twelve moved on to the second trial. The mood had shifted. Some disciples that had looked at him with contempt were starting to see him in a slightly different light. Most of those still saw him as someone with just a bit of skill that will still fall sooner rather than later. Several in the crowd were cheering him on.
"The second trial," Elder Zhao announced, his voice regaining its composure, "is The Trial of Luring." He pointed to the large shallow pool. "In this pool is a school of Rank 2 Silver-Finned Dace. They are notoriously shy. Your task is to enter the pool and using only your affinity, lure one of them into your hands. You may not use nets, bait, or your Qi to trap them. Again, you have one incense stick's worth of time."
This was a test of active affinity, far more difficult than the passive calming of the first trial. The disciples entered the waist-deep water one by one. They stood for long moments, projecting their auras, trying to coax the shimmering silver fish towards them. The Dace were incredibly sensitive, darting away at the slightest hint of aggressive intent.
Most failed. A few, through sheer patience, managed to get a fish to swim close enough for them to snatch it out of the water, a clumsy but effective method.
Li Jie, once again, used his snapping turtle spirit's aura. However, he was using his brain this time around. He projected a feeling of a large, slow, non-threatening rock. After a long wait, a curious Dace swam too close and he lunged, catching it with surprising speed. He passed.
Finally, it was Li Yu's turn again. He waded into the pool, the cool water a familiar, comforting presence. Here, he was in his element. The other disciples had tried to make themselves appealing to the fish. Li Yu knew this was the wrong approach. He didn't need to lure them. He just needed to become part of their world. This test was actually incredibly easy for him.
He closed his eyes and activated the «Myriad Rivers Returning to the Sea Art». His already subtle, fish-like aura intensified. He didn't just feel like a fish; to the simple senses of the Silver-Finned Dace, he was a fish. A large and strange but completely harmless member of their school.
He didn't stand still. He began to move slowly and gracefully through the water. His movements perfectly mimicked the natural, flowing dance of the Dace around him. He wasn't a foreign object in their pool; he was just another current, another shadow.
The school of Dace, instead of avoiding him, began to swim with him, accepting his presence completely. He opened his eyes, lowered his cupped hands into the water, and simply waited. A moment later, a large, healthy Silver-Finned Dace, seeing his hands as just another piece of harmless underwater terrain, swam directly into his palms. He gently closed his hands around it, its silvery body wriggling softly against his skin.
He held it up for the elders to see.
This wasn't luring. This wasn't trickery. This was integration. He had become one with the school. The elders and those around him were very impressed that he was able to be just one of them. It was simple for him with his technique but for others to do that would be difficult.
"Impossible…" the severe-faced elder with the goatee whispered, his voice audible in the hush.
Elder Ning's gaze locked on the small, dripping boy in the center of the pool. The look in her eyes was no longer just interest. It was the look of a master artisan who had just discovered a piece of unblemished jade. "This boy can be taught, he already has such a natural affinity with beasts, especially those that are aquatic. First with the sturgeon, then toad and now these," she thought.
Li Yu gently released the Dace back into the water and waded out, his expression as placid as ever, leaving behind a crowd to discuss the results. The final trial had not even begun, but in the eyes of the one of the persons that mattered most, the test was already over, she had seen enough.