Mysterious Notebook
"Mm, this is the best outcome, I really hoped for this!"
Sophia, seeing that the barmaid who saved her mother and sister didn't die and had even become Eddie's life-guarding battle beast, was overjoyed.
She nodded her little head in agreement with her brother's words.
As Eddie and his group prepared to leave, the Smoke Woman floated out from the dense smoke, curiously staring at Eddie's retreating figure.
Although her memory had vanished, there seemed to be a few remaining fragments that made her feel there was something different about him, but she didn't yet know how to respond.
Back in White-Stone City, Eddie asked Sophia to go to the outer hall and called out the old fox.
Upon hearing the story, the old fox jumped up, "How could this be possible? You're all trying to fool me, wanting to see me make a fool of myself, right? "
"How can a human turn into a battle beast? "
"That's impossible! When people die, they die. They absolutely can't be resurrected, let alone become a battle beast. "
"What's with your expressions? As the vice dean, I'm knowledgeable, understanding both astronomy and geography. Even this basic common sense I should know! "
"Where's your evidence? Let me see... Oh, I'm fainting!"
This matter was better kept secret. After discussing in the outer hall, they seemed to have come to a conclusion.
What exactly it was, Eddie didn't know, but seeing the old fox wink at him, it seemed not to be bad news.
After gathering for a while, the Hawk-Eye man, Rambo, took Yehken, Haye Yew, and others for hellish training.
They felt they were far behind Eddie and would only hold him back. Even Haye Yew, who was previously lazy as a pig, started to strive for improvement under Eddie's influence.
His progress was astonishing.
Before leaving, Yehken asked Eddie if he wanted to team up for the Hundred Schools Elite Competition.
"Are you past the fifth-level master? If so, you can't enter the Zodiac anymore."
"No." Eddie usually didn't bring out his summoning grimoire for combat, so his level was very low, still just a second-level warrior.
"Then let's go!" Jean, trained by her master since childhood and always practicing combat, surpassed the fifth level early on and never had the chance to enter the Zodiac.
She envied Eddie.
Of course, in pursuit of the greatest combat power, she only trained life-guarding battle beasts and was much stronger than her peers, except for Eddie, the abnormally strong transmigrator.
The old fox supported Eddie's training.
Eddie wanted to meet Inan and Laura, but both women, as if by agreement, hid and refused to meet.
They seemed to know the parents were looking for Eddie and persistently avoided him.
Inan was somewhat better, as she left a letter for Eddie, saying she would return home for a while and meet up with him later at the Hundred Schools Elite Competition.
Laura, the lord of Falling-Flower City, simply left no message at all.
Jean said she was happily cultivating Enchantress Fragrant Flowers and Starlight Azure Grass at home every day, probably almost forgetting about Eddie.
As for the mysterious beauty who resembled the beautiful dean, Jean didn't mention her at all, as if she didn't exist.
Eddie wanted to ask, but felt that Jean, this rouge tiger girl, was already showing jealousy just mentioning Laura.
Asking about the mysterious beauty might turn her into a raging tigress, so he held back his curiosity.
If his cousin Rue and sister Sophia weren't there, Eddie definitely wouldn't have missed the chance.
This rouge tiger girl was not only beautiful and had a great figure, but she also had decent strength. As for her temperament...
well, it's better to ignore that. The most important thing was her sixth sense talent, which was always a threat. Winning her over and making her his woman would eliminate that threat.
Although her father, Alexander, was an emperor and might be angered by Eddie winning over his daughter, making Jean his own had become a long-awaited desire in Eddie's heart, one he couldn't let go of.
Perhaps Jean sensed the danger of being with Eddie, so she purposely brought along Rue and even Sophia.
With his cousin and sister around, it was not easy for Eddie to turn into a big bad wolf in front of them.
"Heaven-Reaching Tower."
"You're such a miser, why keep so many treasures to yourself?" Jean was infuriated by Eddie's reluctance to spend money.
"I'm saving them to get married!" Eddie declared righteously.
"..."
Jean rolled her eyes upon hearing this and remained sullen for a long time.
Sitting in the 'air carriage' that cost twenty gold coins to charter, she even thought about throwing Eddie out.
Sophia, who had never ridden such an air carriage before, was thrilled by the view outside.
Eddie, who had often flown in airplanes, felt nothing special about this slow-moving air carriage.
While the three girls chatted, he took out the mysterious notebook left by his parents.
Even with his third-level Eye of Wisdom, he couldn't decipher the hidden texts, but combining it with the vision beyond the physical realm, he could vaguely perceive some information.
Eddie learned a kind of innate intuition in the dream world from the sword spirit elder sister who transformed into a giant loli.
Combining these, he could vaguely sense some information inside.
Those might be messages left by his mother, pointing out: when cultivating battle beasts, the longer the training period at the same level, the greater the growth; the more times a battle beast learns and breaks through at the same level, the better.
Conversely, upgrading solely based on energy without learning is harmful to a battle beast's growth.
She also specifically mentioned that the growth of battle beasts can be generally divided into five directions.
The first is upgrading through energy consumption, letting battle beasts devour magic crystals to level up, which is the fastest but also the most damaging to their future growth.
The second is combat upgrading, allowing battle beasts to learn and level up through battle, which is the best but slowest and most dangerous method.
This is feasible for the extremely strong, but for ordinary warriors with low strength, letting their battle beasts level up entirely through combat is a joke, as it can easily lead to their death or disability.
This method is best suited for warriors with great potential, specifically for cultivating life-guarding battle beasts.
The third approach combines both internal and external methods, feeding magic crystals and growing through battle.
This is the most common method used by warriors in Dragon Ascend Continent. It allows for faster leveling but is only slightly better than the first method of pure energy cultivation.
For ordinary warriors, this is the best method, but for the extremely strong, it's not the optimal choice, as the battle beast will eventually hit a growth ceiling unless a stroke of luck occurs.
The fourth direction is the fusion of warrior and battle beast, growing together, which leads to excellent growth but isn't feasible for everyone due to inherent limitations.
Eddie noticed that Jean adopted this method, and Laura and the mysterious beauty seemed similar.
However, they didn't just have one battle beast like Jean, who only used one life-guarding battle beast, making her cultivation more focused.
What shocked Eddie was that the fifth growth direction was somewhat similar to his own situation.
The mother of the tragic man pointed out that this growth direction is non-replicable and requires a warrior with a special physique to make a 'Soul Blood Pact' with the battle beast, turning it into a life-guarding battle beast.
The goal is to cultivate the life-guarding battle beast to a level above holy beasts, and then through a secret method, advance the beast to a divine level or even higher.
Eddie was surprised that the mother of the tragic man also knew about the Soul Blood Pact and realized that he had been contracting beasts in this way all along, unintentionally, yet the result coincidentally matched the fifth growth direction described by the tragic man's mother.
With the guidance of the mysterious notebook, Eddie learned many secrets. Yet, more secrets remained hidden within.
Eddie regretted that if his Eye of Wisdom talent were upgraded to the fourth level, he would likely uncover more secrets.
"This mother is definitely a genius. Only Queen Vivien knows the Soul Blood Pact, and she knows it too. That's extraordinary!" Eddie marveled internally.
Reflecting on his own physique, Eddie felt it might be different due to his transmigration.
The barmaid died but transformed into a life-guarding battle beast and contracted with him, an impossibility for people of Dragon Ascend Continent.
There was also the Blood Queen, who combined with a phantom to become a life-guarding battle beast...
The Bull Shadow evolved after possessing the Bronze Bull, and little Wenli was contracted and hatched in front of him by Queen Vivien.
Then there's the mysterious metal beast and the unhatched Reaper Mantis, also related to his blood!
Even the Thorn Witch once licked his blood...
Eddie contemplated that he should explore this direction in the future. Regrettably, his current third-level Eye of Wisdom could not decipher all the information, and the secrets he could see from the tragic man's mother's notes were still very limited.
"What book are you reading?" Jean asked curiously.
"Erotic illustrations." Fearing Jean's curiosity, Eddie gave her a cheeky answer to cut off her inquisitiveness.
Returning to the Star Domain, they headed towards the entrance of the Golden Zodiac.
Jean and Rue couldn't enter, so they stayed outside waiting, while Eddie and his sister Sophia formed a team to enter the Zodiac.
Since Eddie had already cleared Aries, this time he and Sophia were teleported into Taurus.
"Brother, let me take the lead!" Sophia decided to show off her skills in front of her brother.
"No, I have a better idea."
Eddie suddenly remembered a secret technique from the mysterious notebook, thinking it might be applicable to Sophia.
After hearing Eddie's method, Sophia's face flushed with excitement. "Can this really work?" she asked eagerly.
Eddie hadn't tried it before and wasn't sure, but he stroked his sister's head to encourage her.
Taurus, similar to Aries but seemingly larger, didn't have mechanical beasts, but there was a row of bull-headed statues.
As soon as they approached, the statues came to life, turning into bull-headed warriors. These warriors were not very high-level, all being Bronze Level 3.
Sophia summoned two century-old tree guardians, confident they could handle them. Eddie left the Grey Doom Wolf to take care of these bull-headed warriors.
If it were before, the Grey Doom Wolf might have struggled, but after evolving into a Golden Level Ancient Apocalypse Wolf following the battle at the foot of the Cloud Top Heavenly Pool Mountain, its strength had greatly increased.
Later, it even defeated the crippled giant, Xingmeng.
Now, the Grey Doom Wolf was no longer the timid Iron Spine Devil Wolf that had entered Aries.
Eddie and Sophia dashed into the interior.
The bull-headed warriors roared threateningly but didn't attack the two shielded by protective barriers.
Instead, they charged at the Grey Doom Wolf, disguised as a Bronze Level 3 beast.
Holding his sister's hand, Eddie rushed into the outer circular corridor and discovered nearly a hundred Evil Eyes emerging from various places.
These Evil Eyes floated in the air, their large eyeballs shooting beams of white light.
Others might have avoided the attack first.
Moreover, for ordinary warriors, half an hour would have passed after clearing the first batch of bull-headed warriors, making it difficult to defeat these Evil Eyes.
Eddie and Sophia entered in less than a minute.
After two rounds of chaotic light beams from nearly a hundred Evil Eyes, realizing their enemy was unharmed, they started shrieking, seemingly trying to intimidate with telekinesis.
Eddie felt nothing, but Sophia felt a slight palpitation.
If she had been alone, she would have been scared, but with her brother holding her hand, Sophia kept running, rushing into the main corridor.
The Evil Eyes followed but retreated at the entrance, seemingly fearful of what was inside.
"My God!" Sophia was shocked by the scene before her and exclaimed.
In front of Eddie and Sophia was a group of savage bulls.
Ten massive Bronze Level 5 Savage Bulls, each formidable in size;
five super muscular Silver Level 5 Savage Bulls, snorting fire and smoke;
and two enormous Golden Level 5 Savage Bulls, each larger than a regular wooden house, with a leg taller than Eddie, their huge red eyes almost dripping blood, staring at Eddie and Sophia with a peculiar murderous intent.
These two Golden Level 5 Savage Bulls occupied a small position on each side, each taking up less than a tenth of the space.
Occupying eighty percent of the space, with nothing else around, was the real boss—a white bull lazily lying on the ground, fast asleep.
This white bull was not a savage bull at all and seemed to have no offensive capability.