The Shanghai Evolution Conference came to an end. Without any suspense, the Best Achievement Award was won by Jiang Xing.
The reward for this award was an evolution trophy modeled after the Mythical Pet Beast Zhenhai Xuanwu, along with a tax-free prize of up to 100 million.
When Jiang Xing picked up the check representing the prize money, aside from joy, there was also a sense of post-event emptiness.
So I'm a billionaire just like that? That was way too easy.
Only after sitting down for a while did he finish savoring the moment.
100 million in cash was indeed a huge sum. For an ordinary family, it would be more than enough to live comfortably for a lifetime.
But once you got involved with Pet Beasts, this amount of money was nothing.
Just like how a fifth-generation fighter jet costs over a hundred million dollars, an Overlord Tier Pet Beast—on par with top-tier weapons—also required training costs measured in hundreds of millions.
And compared to top-tier weapons, scientific research consumed even more money. The most cutting-edge research equipment, such as particle colliders, cost tens of billions to build.
In the Beast Taming World, the cost of such things wouldn't be any lower.
Just the more than three hundred Rainbow Dragon Hatchlings in Jiang Xing's research institute were already worth far more than 100 million.
'A normal person's breakfast costs a few bucks, but starting up a particle collider costs several hundred million. Even if the economic system collapses, it'll collapse next door first—it has nothing to do with me…'
Moreover, compared to making money, the feeling of realizing one's self-worth by changing the world through scientific research was what truly fascinated Jiang Xing.
Just like after the Evolution Conference ended, Jiang Xing and Dr. Ail were immediately surrounded.
One Pet Beast scholar after another acted like star-chasing fans—excited, enthusiastic, and endlessly talkative.
"Dr. Ail, which Pet Beasts do you think might have evolution conditions related to personality?"
"Dr. Ail, can we use personality theory in reverse—matching suitable personalities to reduce the resources required for evolution?"
"Jiang Xing, do you think the Chocolate Chicken has personality-exclusive evolutions? Would it require specially designed evolution processes?"
"Jiang Xing, do you think the Golden-Patterned Koi evolving into the Rainbow Dragon Hatchling is related to the rainbow-formed Dragon Gate? If we replaced it with a Thunder Dragon Gate or a Rock Dragon Gate, could we change its attribute and evolve it into a Thunder Dragon Hatchling or a Rock Dragon Hatchling?"
"Jiang Xing…"
These scholars weren't necessarily asking questions to get answers—
They simply wanted to gain more inspiration to refine their own research topics.
Jiang Xing was the same. Some of the scholars' questions were quite interesting and gave him new ideas.
However, there were too many people—he simply couldn't talk to everyone.
So he took out his phone, added each scholar's contact information one by one, and arranged to continue discussions online. Only then did everyone leave satisfied.
Dr. Ail was clearly much more experienced in handling this situation.
By the time Jiang Xing managed to extricate himself, Dr. Ail had already been waiting for a while and took the initiative to greet him.
"Jiang Xing, thank you for proving the personality hypothesis… It troubled me for many years, and now that it's finally been confirmed, a weight has been lifted from my mind."
Jiang Xing said somewhat embarrassedly, "You had already provided a complete theoretical framework. I was only able to prove it due to luck."
"Luck is also a very important talent… On the path of Pet Beast studies, those not favored by Ganesha find it difficult to go far."
Dr. Ail was not only a Psychic-type scholar but also a mythologist who studied the mythology and secret realm history of that region.
Of course, this had nothing to do with mythology right now.
He continued, "A long time ago, I publicly stated that whoever could prove the personality hypothesis could become my student… but you are already Dr. Xu's student, so let's leave it at that."
"Instead, you may make one request of me, and I will do my best to fulfill it."
In the field of Pet Beast research, such academic bounties were not uncommon.
They were mainly used to attract more scholars to help complete hypotheses.
Jiang Xing wasn't surprised, but he fell into thought.
Academic knowledge? He already had a teacher…
Large sums of money? He already had the prize…
A Pet Beast hatchling would be a good option. He could request a Pet Beast unique to that region—satisfying both his collector's instincts and obtaining a high-potential asset…
But it still felt like something was missing.
Until his gaze swept across the projector in the lecture hall—and suddenly he realized.
Equipment!!
After hundreds of years of development, the Beast Taming World had also created many devices related to Pet Beasts.
Although not as high-tech as those in the Pokémon world, their effects were still quite impressive.
These devices were often extremely expensive and difficult to replicate, usually reserved exclusively for Beast Tamer PhDs and placed in their research institutes.
Jiang Xing had seen many rare experimental devices in Dr. Xu's institute before and had long been envious.
Now that he had his own research institute, it only had the most basic experimental equipment… how could that be acceptable?
Now was the perfect opportunity to obtain a specialized device from a Psychic-type research institute, thanks to Dr. Ail's offer.
"Doctor, I'm planning to train a Giant Magnet Entity as an assistant for my research institute."
"But its evolution condition requires a special field capable of achieving Mental Synchronization…"
"A Mental Field Generator—you want that, don't you?"
Dr. Ail replied straightforwardly, "I'll have my assistant deliver the device to your research institute."
"Thank you, Doctor!!" Jiang Xing said excitedly.
The Mental Field Generator could not only provide the necessary environment for the evolution of Psychic-type Pet Beasts like the Giant Magnet Entity but also generate mental fields with special effects.
For example, environments that made people more irritable, or more calm.
When applied to Pet Beast training, it had considerable effectiveness.
From now on, whether Jiang Xing trained Golden-Patterned Koi or conducted research related to Friendship, it would prove useful.
This trip to the Shanghai Evolution Conference had not been in vain.
Money and equipment—truly a bountiful harvest!
After bidding farewell to Dr. Ail, Jiang Xing left the venue with Li Lingyin, completely satisfied.
As he left, he suddenly felt like he had forgotten something…
[You participated in an academic conference and successfully used your Gyarados evolution paper to bring a true shock of Pokémon evolution studies to the world—even Pokémon Professors were convinced by your research achievements!]
[Conference Influence: A!]
[Paper Completion: S!]
[Audience Shock Level: SS!]
[Overall Evaluation: S+!]
[Based on the conference type, you have obtained an Evolution Item Blind Box (Legendary)!]
Oh, right—the system.
He had been thinking about too many things these past few days, and the academic presentation had absorbed him so much that he had forgotten about it.
Next time, don't be so low-profile, got it?
That said, what could a Legendary-tier Evolution Item Blind Box contain?
Curious, Jiang Xing chose to open it.
A loud shout rang in his ears: "Wow, Legendary!"
[You have obtained Eternal Thunder Stone (Legendary)]
[Name: Eternal Thunder Stone]
[Effect: Once obtained by someone from the Pokémon world, this thunder stone contains eternal energy. It can be used infinitely and possesses the power to evolve specific Pokémon.]
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---