Hall Master Xie Jiuchen and Grand Elder Wei Yuqing glanced at one another in confusion.
The ancient beast language sounded incredible, but its heritage had already been lost. The possibility of learning it through books was zero.
Even if the content of the book was authentic, without a tutor to guide one, it was impossible for one to verbalize the sound out accurately.
What made things worse was that each word of the ancient beast language had a special zhenqi circulation method to verbalize it. Without it, it was impossible to pronounce it accurately, especially with a human's sound box.
Countless predecessors of the Beast Hall had devoted their lives in an attempt to decipher the language, but none had succeeded. Yet, this fellow said that he wanted to browse through those books to learn the language so leisurely... Did he really think that he could master it just by reading through those?
"Un!" Zhang Xuan nodded.
"This..." Hall Master Xie Jiuchen hesitated. Knowing the impossibility of the task, he tried to talk Zhang Xuan out of it, "Studying the ancient beast language isn't something that can be accomplished all of a sudden. Without a proper tutor, I'm afraid that you might accidentally injure yourself..."
"I'm just taking a casual look. If, by chance, I were to succeed, perhaps I'll be able to tame this fellow!" Zhang Xuan smiled.
Hearing the other party insisting on the matter, Hall Master Xie Jiuchen frowned in displeasure.
Given how the other party cleared the Ten Beasts Cage so easily, his talents and strength were definitely top-notch. But why would a genius like him choose to do something so pointless and foolish?
Do you think that the ancient beast language is something one can grasp just by reading books?
If that was the case, there wouldn't be so little beast tamers who knew the ancient beast language.
By chance... If it were possible to succeed by chance, they wouldn't be in such a dilemma.
You must be jesting!
"Fine. Elder Wei, lead him there. Feel free to browse through the books of the Beast Hall. However, I won't tolerate you making a fuss over the Ten Beasts Cage after this!" Hall Master Xie Jiuchen said, suppressing his displeasure.
"Alright!" Zhang Xuan nodded.
Even though the Beast Hall had many savage beasts, it was still nigh impossible for them to gather a sufficient number of them for Zhang Xuan to challenge the Ten Beasts Cage another nineteen times. The reason why Zhang Xuan insisted on the matter previously was to force the other party to compromise.
After observing the Nightmare Beast for a while longer, Zhang Xuan was still unable to come up with a better idea, so he decided to follow behind Grand Elder Wei Yuqing to the library.
"The books on the ancient beast language are placed randomly throughout the library, feel free to browse through them!"
As the duo reached the library, Grand Elder Wei Yuqing gestured to the massive collection of books inside.
He shared the same thoughts as Hall Master Xie Jiuchen. To think of learning the ancient beast language just by reading books... You must be dreaming!
If it was that easy to take it on, beast tamers adept in the ancient beast language wouldn't be so valued.
Grand Elder Wei Yuqing left with a look of disappointment on his face. Zhang Xuan noticed it, but he didn't pay it any heed. In any case, he would prefer to be left alone here anyway.
The Xuanyuan Kingdom Beast Hall's library was much larger than that of the Xuanluo Mountain Range branch. Countless books were placed upon tall bookshelves that extended all the way to the limits of one's sight. Since Zhang Xuan was already here, he might as well just collect all of the books within. Thus, placing his fingers on the first book on the first row, he started running.
...
"Seems like he's still too young. His outstanding accomplishment has led to his complacency!"
Returning to the courtyard, Grand Elder Wei Yuqing shook his head.
"Considering how he was able to become a 2-star beast tamer and could face a Zhizun realm savage beast despite his young age, it is no wonder that he would become complacent. But still, to attempt to learn the ancient beast language just by browsing through books, he is underestimating the occupation!"
Hall Master Xie Jiuchen said with a slight frown on his face.
Initially, he bore great expectations of this young man... However, after hearing the solution the other party came up with, all of his goodwill for the other party vanished.
Knocking the Nightmare Beast out... You must be pulling my leg!
To tame a savage beast, one had to learn its habits, likes, dislikes, and such. Forcibly knocking the other party out would only incur its resentment.
That fellow had a proud nature. It was already difficult to tame, and if they were to really knock it out, the possibility would probably drop to zero.
"Indeed!" Grand Elder Wei Yuqing nodded in agreement.
"Let's not talk about him. How are the challengers of the Ten Beasts Cage faring?" Hall Master Xie Jiuchen asked.
While the group was tending to the Nightmare Beast, the Ten Beasts Cage had been busy as well.
Many of the geniuses who came to Xuanyuan Kingdom were stirred by Hall Master Xie Jiuchen's speech, and they were spurred to give it a try.
"I took a look before coming here, and the challengers... aren't doing too well!" Grand Elder Wei Yuqing flashed a bitter smile.
After bringing Zhang Xuan to the library, he took a look, and the sight he saw brought a bitter smile to his face.
Previously, Beast Tamer Zhang pummeled the Whirlwind Wolves and easily passed the stage. He even won their admiration at that. Thus, the first few geniuses who attempted it also charged straight at the Whirlwind Wolves. However... They ended up being pummeled instead, and two of them were almost gnawed to death.
One of the more formidable geniuses managed to pass the Whirlwind Wolves stage and faced the Tiger Head Beast.
He imitated Zhang Xuan's strategy and struck the other party's abdomen. In the end, his arms nearly fell off from the rebound, and he was nearly smashed into meat paste by the Tiger Head Beast.
In less than an hour, more than ten geniuses had already fallen. On top of that, most of them didn't even pass the first stage.
Even the famous Jiang Nanping, Fang Jin, Luo Tang, and a few others had given it a try. There were some of them who were even stronger than Zhang Xuan, but they were defeated in the first stage.
Before Zhang Xuan, those wolves were obedient as though pugs, so the challengers didn't view them as a threat. Yet, when it came to them, they showed their true might as predators of the forest.
"If it were that easy to clear the Ten Beasts Cage, we wouldn't have not a single successor for the past thousand years!"
Hall Master Xie Jiuchen seemed to have anticipated this result, and he shook his head in lamentation.
He knew very well the difficulty of the Ten Beasts Cage. He didn't underestimate it just because Zhang Xuan cleared the trial easily.
"Un!" Grand Elder Wei Yuqing nodded. At this moment, he suddenly recalled a matter and said, "Right, the ruckus Beast Tamer Zhang created through challenging the Ten Beasts Cage is too great. I'm afraid that... even if we were to organize the Beast Taming Competition, there wouldn't be much point to it!"
"Oh?" Hall Master Xie Jiuchen was taken aback.
"Beast Tamer Zhang is young, and he meets the prerequisites for the Beast Taming Competition... After he cleared the Ten Beasts Cage, his prestige had soared. Under such circumstances, it will be pointless for one to win the championship..." Grand Elder Wei Yuqing smiled bitterly.
"You mean that... everyone views Beast Tamer Zhang as their goal? So, even if we conduct the Beast Taming Competition, and someone wins the championship, as long as the champion doesn't clear the Ten Beasts Challenge, would he be recognized by the masses?"
Xie Jiuchen came to a realization.
If the jade before was much too radiant, it would dull the glow of the others behind.
This Beast Tamer Zhang was clearly such a jade.
He cleared the Ten Beasts Cage in a single go, breaking the thousand year record of the Xuanyuan Kingdom Beast Hall. If no one was able to match up to his achievement, even if someone were to win the championship of the Beast Taming Competition, the prestige of the achievement would surely pale greatly in comparison.
"Indeed!" Grand Elder Wei Yuqing nodded.
"This..."
Hall Master Xie Jiuchen's smiled bitterly.
Actually, it wasn't that he'd neglected this matter. It was just that, from the very start, he didn't expect that fellow to clear the Ten Beasts Cage, let alone clearing it so easily!
"Since that's the case, pass down an order saying that... the content of the Beast Taming Competition this time around will be the Ten Beasts Cage. Whoever passes the challenge will be the champion!" After hesitating for a moment, Hall Master Xie Jiuchen continued, "Also, check which branch does Beast Tamer Zhang belong to. If no one clears the Ten Beasts Cage... He'll be the champion!"
"Alright!" Wei Yuqing nodded.
This was the only solution left.
If Zhang Xuan knew that he could win the championship on top of earning the spirit beast blood essence through challenging the Ten Beasts Cage, it would be hard to say what he would feel.
However, at this moment, his mouth was curved into a helpless frown.
After a day of hard work, he finally collected all of the books in the Beast Hall into the Library of Heaven's Path.
After taking all of the books, he thought that it should be easy for him to compile all of the ancient beast language books in here to learn the language. However... after taking a look, he finally understood why Xie Jiuchen and the others didn't think well of him.
The predecessors had indeed left many books on the ancient beast language, and they had left many comments regarding its verbalization. However... after the verification of the Library of Heaven's Path, the only words that were authentic... numbered less than ten!
With less than ten words, how could one communicate with the savage beasts?
To think that in several hundred ancient beast language books, there would be less than ten correct words...
It was no wonder no one had been able to succeed. With this kind of success rate, it would be a miracle if one could succeed.
"Seems like learning the ancient beast language is impossible..."
Zhang Xuan shook his head in disappointment.
If he had mastered the ancient beast language through the Library of Heaven's Path, it would be much easier for him to tame savage beasts in the future. However, from the looks of it now, it seemed like he had underestimated the matter.
The ancient beast language was a creation of Kong shi, and if one could learn it that easily, there would not be so many stumped beast tamers in the world.
"Hmm? There seems to be another book on the ancient beast language there..."
Just as Zhang Xuan was about to leave the library to convince Xie Jiuchen to find a way to knock out the Nightmare Beast, his eyes suddenly caught sight of a book lying in the corner of the room.
It was a thick book with the word 'Language' written in an ancient language on it.
As it was placed in a remote corner, he didn't notice it previously.
He hurriedly walked over and took it out.
This book was around ten fingers thick, and a thick layer of dust cloaked its cover. Its paper was also slightly yellow, betraying their old history. It seemed to have been placed here for innumerable years, unnoticed by anyone.
"Flaws!"
Touching it, a similar book appeared on the shelves within the Library of Heaven's Path.
"Hmm? This isn't ancient beast language?"
Flipping it open, Zhang Xuan was taken aback.
Written in it were the introduction and the pronunciation of a unique language. However, it was clearly different from the ancient beast language he had seen before. As for what language it was, it wasn't written on the book, and the Library of Heaven's Path didn't indicate anything either.
"There is a total of three correct words!"
Zhang Xuan flipped through the book.
There were thousands of words written in the ten-fingers thick book, but after the verification from the Library of Heaven's Path, there were only three correct ones.
"Correct!"
Zhang Xuan gathered all of the correct portions to form an entirely new book.
"I should try these three words first..."
Taking a deep breath, Zhang Xuan drove his zhenqi according to the method derived from the book through the Library of Heaven's Path.
"Moo!"
A sound echoed, and the world around Zhang Xuan seemed to tremor violently for an instant. At the same time, his body swayed, and the sight before him turned dark.
"What... kind of language is this? How can it be so fearsome?"
Zhang Xuan greedily took in deep breaths to make up for the immense energy expenditure that almost knocked him out upon verbalizing the word.
He had only made a single sound, and his zhenqi was almost sapped dry. On top of that, his instincts told him that if not for his incredibly pure Heaven's Path zhenqi, even if he knew the correct method, it would be impossible for him to verbalize that sound.
After studying the ancient beast language, he knew that even though it was impossible to pronounce the words correctly, as long as one found the correct zhenqi circulation method, it wasn't a problem to speak fluently.
But that single sound he just made nearly caused him to pass out! That was way too fearsome!
"It is said that the more formidable a language is, the more difficult it is to verbalize it. It will have a high requirement on the purity of one's zhenqi as well. Could it be that this language is extremely formidable?"
Zhang Xuan's eyes lit up.
Even though he was baffled, it did little to dampen his agitation.
After reading through innumerable books, he knew that humans weren't the only race in the Master Teacher Continent. There were many races, and each of them had their own languages, the more formidable a race was, the more powerful their words would be. At the same time, the requirement on the purity of one's zhenqi would be much greater as well.
Heaven's Path zhenqi was definitely a top-notch existence even among superior zhenqi. Despite this, Zhang Xuan was still unable to sustain the expenditure from voicing out the words. What kind of language did these three words originate from for them to be so powerful?
After studying it for half a day, he realized that he couldn't interpret the contents of the ancient book. In fact, he couldn't even read a single word. Thus, he shook his head and gave up.
"Given that I have only learned a few words, I can't depend on the ancient beast language anymore..."
Zhang Xuan thought that he could return accomplished with the ancient beast language in his arsenal.
"But in any case, I should still try and see if I can hoodwink the Nightmare Beast with these words. It would be good if I succeed. Otherwise, I'll have to look for other solutions!"
Stretching his back lazily, Zhang Xuan walked out of the library and headed toward the courtyard where the Nightmare Beast was housed.
Even though he had only learned a few words, through the Library of Heaven's Path, he was certain that these were authentic words from the ancient beast language. Perhaps, he might be able to convince the other party with just these words.
If, on the off chance, he succeeds, he would be able to earn thirty spirit beast blood essence immediately.
Otherwise, he would have to find a way or another to knock the Nightmare Beast out.
"Beast Tamer Zhang!"
Soon, he arrived at the courtyard. Before walking in, he saw many figures walking anxiously about the previously remote courtyard.
The huge group of beast tamers that he saw above when he was clearing the Ten Beasts Cage were all here.
"What happened?"
Zhang Xuan walked in doubtfully, and he immediately saw two familiar figures amidst the crowd.
"Beast Tamer Zhang!"
The other party also saw him, and they walked up to him.
"Hall Master Feng and Beast Tamer Wang, why are you two here?"
Zhang Xuan was perplexed.
These two were the beast tamers from the Xuanluo Mountain Range branch, Hall Master Feng and Beast Tamer Wang.
"Why are we here?" Hall Master Feng and Beast Tamer Wang coughed. "The Beast Taming Competition has been brought forward, but we weren't able to contact you. Thus, we came here in advance!"
"The Beast Taming Competition has been brought forward?" Zhang Xuan blinked his eyes in surprise.
If the other party hadn't raised this matter, he would have already forgotten the issue.
Ever since arriving at Xuanyuan Kingdom Beast Hall, he immediately rushed to the Ten Beasts Cage. Right after that, he went to the courtyard to meet the Nightmare Beast before busying himself at the library. As such, he had no way of knowing that the Beast Taming Competition had been brought forward.
Besides, he didn't explicitly agree to the competition then. Thus, he didn't pay much attention to the matter.
"You didn't know?"
Seeing the confused expression on the other party's face, the two great beast tamers swayed.
"I didn't!" Zhang Xuan confirmed their suspicions.
"But... you are the champion of the competition!" The two beast tamers scratched their heads in frenzy.
Are you for real? Just a moment ago... Hall Master Xie Jiuchen announced that Zhang Xuan was the champion of the Beast Taming Competition!
He even specially visited them to offer his congratulations...
Despite being the champion, he actually didn't even know that the competition had been brought forward...
Can you be any more confusing than that?
"Champion? What champion?"
Not only were the duo baffled, Zhang Xuan was also bewildered by the situation as well.
I don't even know when the competition is held, how in the world did I become the champion?
"The content of the Beast Taming Competition this time is the Ten Beasts Cage. Of all of the participants, you're the only one who succeeded... So naturally, you became the champion!"
Seeing that the other party really knew nothing at all, Hall Master Feng could only explain the situation speechlessly.
To think that even someone as confused as him could become the champion, he was truly speechless.
For every single competition, their Xuanluo Mountain Range branch would always go around searching for talents to vie for a good placing. Yet, they had never succeeded...
This time, they managed to win the championship, yet the candidate himself didn't even know what was happening.
"I see... Is there any prize for the champion?"
After hearing that he became the champion just because he challenged the Ten Beasts Cage, Zhang Xuan was speechless. But soon, recalling something, his eyes lit up.
Becoming the champion wasn't anything much to him, what he was more concerned about was the reward!
If he could win twenty or thirty spirit beast blood essence, he could spare himself much hassle.
"The reward is five spirit stones. I have already claimed it for you, you can check on it!"
At which, Hall Master Feng took out a narrow jade box. Opening it, five spirit stones placed side by side appeared before Zhang Xuan's eyes.
"Just these?"
Zhang Xuan thought that he would be able to earn generous rewards by winning the championship. Yet, for the reward to be only five spirit stones, the Beast Hall was truly miserly.
However, no matter how little the reward was, it was still useful to him. There was no reason for him to reject it.
After keeping the spirit stones into his storage ring, he glanced at the surroundings and asked, "What's happening? Why are so many people gathered here?"
Yesterday, when he came, a formation was set up here, and no outsiders were allowed to enter. Why did the situation become like that all of the sudden?
"The Beast Hall caught a Half-Transcension savage beast, and they wish to tame it. However, they had been unable to find a feasible method to do so. The reason why the pushed forward the Beast Taming Competition was to gather the hall masters, elders, and talented beast tamers from all around Xuanyuan Kingdom here to brainstorm on a viable method to tame the Nightmare Beast!" Hall Master Feng explained.
The motive of pushing the competition forward was for this savage beast. Since the competition was already over, Hall Master Xie Jiuchen decided to gather all of the beast tamers here to brainstorm over this matter.
This led to the current commotion outside of the courtyard.
"Oh!" Zhang Xuan came to a realization.
It seemed like the other party didn't think that he would succeed in learning the ancient beast language.
But it was no wonder why the other party would think so. Even with the prowess of the Library of Heaven's Path, Zhang Xuan had only found a few correct words. It would take a miracle for anyone to learn the language through those books.
"Has anyone succeeded yet?" Zhang Xuan asked.
"No one has succeeded yet. A Half-Transcension savage beast is too strong, the possibility of succeeding is extremely low..."
Shaking his head, Hall Master Feng sighed.
Even a 3-star beast tamer like Hall Master Xie Jiuchen was helpless before the Nightmare Beast. How could normal beast tamers like them have any good ideas?
Several ideas were brought up, but they were all refuted.
"Look, the genius Wei Youdao intends to give it a try!"
"Wei Youdao? The genius who managed to reach the third stage of the Ten Beasts Cage yesterday?"
"Yes, that's him..."
...
Just as the trio was talking, a commotion broke out among the crowd. Zhang Xuan turned around and saw a youngster walking toward the Nightmare Beast in the metal cage.
In front of the metal cage stood Hall Master Xie Jiu Chen, Grand Elder Wei Yuqing, and a few other beast tamers. A grim expression hung on their faces.
They also knew that it was unlikely for anyone to succeed, and they were already prepared for a worst case scenario.