Chapter 81

The second floor’s laboratory was equipped with specialized dark attribute detection devices. The three of them left Professor Xie Qingwei’s office and headed to the examination room set up for extraordinary creatures.

Among Mu Huiyue’s two pets, Baiya frequently undergoes various health checks and is quite familiar with human testing equipment.

The Xiaoyun Dog Breeding Base has a complete set of measurement standards for different attribute Xiaoyun Dogs. When Mu Huiyue went back to Changning City earlier, she even took Baiya there for a visit.

Baiya’s current physical data is also far ahead of its peers at the breeding base, and it is rare to find one like it that has mastered B-level skills in the warlord race’s growth stage.

On the other hand, Ellen has never undergone such tests.

As a Beast Master, Mu Huiyue doesn’t know what data needs to be measured during the Blade Fang Beast’s check-up, or what standard qualifies as being healthy and excellent.

“Normally, Mu Huiyue would pay attention to his bone health and the state of the black mist, ensuring that the skeletal soldier was not starving.

Xie Qingwei had the tall skeleton lie on a metallic-colored flat device, placing sensory magnets on its ribs and leg bones, then taking samples from the blue flames burning in its eye sockets and the surrounding black mist.

Because of her contract with the guardian spirit, Professor Xie is very familiar with undead creatures and moves with expertise and skill.

Mu Huiyue looked at the skeletal soldier lying on the examination table, covered in various tubes and wires.

The scene at that moment was reminiscent of an emoji that Wen Li had once sent her, from a meme in an action movie. The injured character is rushed to the hospital for emergency rescue, the atmosphere tense and intense, yet he was already a skeleton.

I can still save him

Mu Huiyue couldn’t help but curve the corners of her lips, feeling the beast master’s slightly mocking mood. The flame in Ellen’s eye sockets flickered, making a faint clicking sound of helplessness.

The examination device emitted a crisp beeping sound and soon displayed the readings.

Next to the examination table were three giant LCD screens, on which rows of numbers rapidly appeared. In addition to the normal hidden energy value, there were many units of measurement and counts that Mu Huiyue couldn’t understand.

Xie Qingwei slowly widened her eyes as the rapidly changing readings flashed before her, revealing an expression of amazement.”

“‘As expected…’

Mu Huiyue also looked at the readings and asked, ‘Are there any abnormalities with Ellen, Professor Xie?’

She was genuinely curious as to why Xie Qingwei had such a strong reaction to Ellen.

It was indeed remarkable that Ellen had evolved from a little skeleton into a monarch-tier skeletal soldier, crossing racial and rank boundaries, but at its core, it was still just a monarch species.

From the perspective of a researcher at Xie Qingwei’s level, it shouldn’t have been something to be amazed by.

After all, there were at least a hundred research projects and topics on monarch species at Jingzhou University, and there were plenty on emperor-tier species as well.

‘…’ Xie Qingwei paused briefly, realizing this wasn’t something that could be explained in just a few words.

‘I’ll start from the beginning and give a simple description,’ said the researcher in the white lab coat, looking at her student.

‘What do you think the dark attribute hidden energy is, Huiyue?’

This question was somewhat beyond the scope of a freshman’s knowledge.

Mu Huiyue thought for a moment, hesitating before replying, ‘It’s the energy related to the night… and the shadow space?’

Xie Qingwei didn’t give a direct answer but continued, ‘Light and darkness, they sound like the sun and moon, the connection between light and dark. The skills and extraordinary creatures of these two attributes indeed show similar characteristics.’”

‘However, these two categories are different from other attributes, as they do not have distinct representations like [fire], [lightning], [water], or [plants]. Therefore, ancient beast masters could only name them based on the most superficial appearances, which is why we have [light] and [dark].’

‘In modern scientific research, we have gradually discovered forces closer to the original power of the light and dark attributes.’

‘The hidden energy of the light attribute is the power of [order] and [rules], which is released and maintained according to special patterns.’

‘Therefore, light attribute skills and beast characteristics often have [purification] and [healing] effects.’

‘These two effects are essentially manifestations of hidden energy following a certain [order]—bringing things back to their original form.’

Upon hearing this, Mu Huiyue suddenly understood.

Both the light and wood attributes have many healing skills, but the healing effects of the two energies are actually quite different.

Wood attribute skills activate the energy within living organisms, accelerating healing and compensating for injuries through growth. Therefore, wood attribute healing skills mostly only work on living beings, and the additional effect is the stimulation of internal potential, accelerating personal growth.

Light attribute skills are more focused on [restoration], returning an injured individual to their healthy state before the injury. They not only heal living beings but can also be effective on certain objects that contain hidden energy.

Thus, the additional effect of light attribute skills is [purification], removing all impurities that shouldn’t exist and restoring the object to its original state.

If the light attribute is [rules] and [order], then what about the opposite dark attribute?

Xie Qingwei quickly answered her question: ‘The hidden energy of the dark attribute is the manifestation of [chaos] and [disorder].’

‘Disorder…’ Mu Huiyue frowned slightly, finding it difficult to understand.

In her view, the characteristic of dark attribute hidden energy was more reflected in the perception of emotions.

“Dark attribute beasts like Ellen, who can directly feed on the emotions of their contract holders, also have clear emotional preferences.

Even after her dark attribute-enhanced beast master talent reached level 3, her own ability to perceive others’ emotions became much more sensitive, allowing her to directly gauge the true feelings of anyone she encountered.

Mu Huiyue shared her doubts with Professor Xie.

Professor Xie couldn’t help but smile and responded with a question: ‘How do you think the hidden energy representing [disorder] manifests in the world as we understand it?’

‘It’s the night and shadows untouched by light, the subspace reflected by the absence of tangible laws, and the massive emotions generated by human beings through their thoughts and spirits.’

Professor Xie softened her voice.”

‘The birth of emotions varies from individual to individual. There is no standard measure, and it is difficult to trace its causal laws… even the humans who generate emotions themselves cannot define what it truly is.’

‘For the extraordinary creatures born from hidden energy, this mysterious force is the [disorder] that contrasts with order. It is the manifestation of the dark attribute.’

I see…

Mu Huiyue suddenly understood something. She recalled the well-known story of the Primordial Spirit and Count Star Dragon.

It was precisely because of the interest in the special [emotion] between humans and extraordinary creatures that the Primordial Spirit introduced the concept of [contract], which marked the beginning of a new era in the relationship between beast masters and their beasts.

Count Star Dragon’s partner, the [Night Star Dragon], judging by its name, should also be a dark attribute extraordinary creature.

The emotion that even the high-dimensional being, the [Primordial Spirit], the source of hidden energy, found intriguing… this is the power of the dark attribute.

Professor Xie’s voice paused for a moment, giving Mu Huiyue some time to digest, before continuing.

‘Now that you understand this, let’s return to our original topic—Ellen… the monarch-tier skeletal soldier, what kind of existence is he?’

“In our past research, we found that high-tier dark attribute extraordinary creatures are rarely found, especially those formed through post-natal evolution.”

“High-tier dark attribute extraordinary creatures above the monarch species are mostly discovered in A-grade and S-grade secret realms. Even in dark attribute secret realms, wild extraordinary creatures born after entering the fusion phase are mostly below the general species level.”

“In contrast, there are dark attribute pets like the [Guardian Spirit], which can only evolve after a contract is formed and do not have wild individuals of high-tier species.”

Mu Huiyue pondered for a moment and said, “…It’s not a limitation from the innate core skills, but because the wild environment, or rather the secret realm during the fusion phase, doesn’t have enough emotional intensity to support the evolution of wild dark attribute extraordinary creatures to high-tier, right?”

Xie Qingwei showed a hint of surprise. Although Mu Huiyue was only a freshman, her theoretical foundation was solid, and she immediately grasped the key point.

“Exactly. This was the result of our team’s research last year. The evolution of dark attribute extraordinary creatures not only requires a foundation in innate core skills but also needs a certain degree of emotional energy—these two factors complement each other.”

“High-tier dark attribute species formed through post-natal evolution almost always experience strong emotional resonance with a beast master during their evolution, and your Ellen… you both even surpassed the limitations of innate core skills.”

Xie Qingwei glanced at the skeletal soldier’s test data, her gaze lingering on the innate core skill, [Shadow Stealth].”

“The little skeleton and the skeletal soldier species cannot independently comprehend shadow space-related skills. Ellen’s situation… I suspect that you used a special method to teach it [Shadow Concealment] during its little skeleton phase. When it evolved, the skill also advanced to [Shadow Stealth], am I right?”

Mu Huiyue nodded. Just by looking at the test data, Professor Xie had already figured out most of Ellen’s situation.

She briefly described the process of Ellen’s evolution. In addition to the proficiency in Shadow Concealment, there was one other special aspect: Ellen completed its evolution in a graveyard.

After listening, Xie Qingwei fell into a brief moment of contemplation before switching the test display to another section.

This measured the contract power between a beast master and their beast. While emotional intensity is difficult to measure, the resulting fluctuations in dark attribute energy can be sensed.

“Not only that, but the biggest difference between Ellen and other creatures of his kind is his intentional expansion of his food intake.”

“Expansion of food intake?” Mu Huiyue was slightly taken aback.

Xie Qingwei’s eyes reflected the special sensing data as she said, “Dark attribute and undead pets are very unique. They can completely rely on emotional energy for nourishment. The feeding preference of the little skeleton species is the human [sense of belonging], which did not change even after it evolved into a skeletal soldier.”

“But, Huiyue, you must have given Ellen far more emotional energy than just [sense of belonging], and he likely didn’t want to waste any of it. He even altered part of his physical structure to ensure he could fully absorb all the emotions provided by his beast master.”

“Click, click…”

Mu Huiyue hadn’t expected that the small detail she had hidden would be exposed in this way. Ellen let out a slightly stammering clicking sound, and the entire skeleton appeared flustered. The black mist around him gradually surged up.

His appetite was indeed different from that of his kind, and it became even more apparent after his evolution.

But this was not an intentional expansion; it was something innate.

As long as it was an emotion given by Huiyue, no matter what kind, he would carefully absorb it, little by little.

This was the instinct of dark attribute extraordinary creatures, as well as a longing deep in his soul.

“I see… no wonder Ellen’s death mist developed so well,” Mu Huiyue tapped her chin, not very surprised.

Looking solely at the appearance quality, Ellen’s death mist could even match the fully evolved guardian spirits of mid-level monarch races. She had initially thought it was due to absorbing the [Ethereal Blue Immortality Flower], but now she realized it probably had something to do with Ellen’s appetite.

Seeing that the beast master had no other reaction, the nervous skeleton slowly relaxed, and the surging black mist gradually sank back to its original place.

Huiyue was not frightened by his unusual appetite, and the emotions transmitted through their bond had not diminished in the slightest.

At least for now… he did not want Huiyue to see these undignified and undelicate desires too soon.

Beside her, Xie Qingwei continued, “Our current main research direction is the [Evolutionary Drive of Dark Attribute Extraordinary Creatures].”

“At present, the mainstream academic view is that the evolutionary drive of extraordinary creatures comes from their innate core skills. The evolution of this key skill can propel the extraordinary creature to complete a leap in life forms.”

“However, I believe that, in the case of dark attribute extraordinary creatures, the opposite might happen.”

“It is the uncontrollable evolutionary energy that drives the evolution of the innate core skill in reverse.”

After finishing, Xie Qingwei shrugged helplessly, “Although our research has completely hit a bottleneck, and there have been no breakthroughs for several months.”

“But your and Ellen’s case… in some ways, is a perfect answer.”

“How can a talent core skill, which is normally impossible to evolve beyond its tier, be driven backward by evolutionary energy?”

She smiled slightly, “You just change the talent core skill.”

“As long as we can figure out exactly what factor influenced Ellen’s evolution, causing the core skill to change, and manage to reproduce that, we can achieve a groundbreaking conclusion that will shock the academic world… and all beast masters around the globe.”

Xie Qingwei looked at the young freshman, her eyes sparkling as she extended her hand.

“Welcome to my research team, Huiyue.”