Chapter 4

After riding for more than half an hour, Su Yi returned to his neighborhood.

Due to the living space being largely occupied by extraordinary creatures, urban housing is now in extremely short supply.

Neighborhoods like the one Su Yi lived in no longer considered things like greenery and lighting. The buildings were tightly packed together, almost as if they were trying to merge completely.

Darkness and dampness were the main themes here, especially for those living on the lower floors. It was as if they were living in caves, barely seeing any light throughout the day.

"Is this my home?"

Su Yi sniffed hard, and a mix of mold and garbage stench hit him.

Strangely, he didn't feel the slightest urge to vomit.

This body must have been accustomed to it long ago.

Looking at the old residential building, which was at least thirty years old, Su Yi wasn't too surprised. After locking his bicycle, he climbed the stairs according to his memory.

The handrails in the hallway were rusted, and large patches of the wall's plaster had molded and fallen off. In the corner, a cluster of centipedes that made his scalp tingle was huddled together.

"Mom, I'm back."

Su Yi took out his keys and opened the door, shouting into the house as a matter of habit.

However, the house was empty, and no one responded.

"Shouldn't she have a day off today? Did she go to work a shift for a colleague again?"

Su Yi shook his head.

To earn more money, Ms. Jiang Xiaoxiu often worked shifts for her colleagues, sometimes for sixteen hours straight. Su Yi had advised her many times not to work so hard, as it wasn't worth it to ruin her health, but it was in vain.

After washing the rice and cooking, Su Yi took out the prepared ingredients from the fridge and quickly made a couple of dishes. He then started eating.

Although his cooking skills weren't great, the dishes were still edible.

After a quick meal, Su Yi walked around the entrance a couple of times to aid digestion, then returned to his room.

He took off his shoes, sat cross-legged on the bed, and prepared to begin his "first" meditation.

Meditation wasn't a cultivation method that Beast Tamers had come up with on their own. It was discovered by various countries' armies in the mystical realms over forty years ago, at the beginning of the disaster.

Meditation isn't just about closing your eyes and daydreaming. It requires following certain rules, emptying your mind, immersing yourself in the world, and resonating with the floating spiritual energy.

Once your mental strength reaches a certain level, you can attempt to channel the spiritual energy and open a Beast Tamer space.

The Beast Tamer space can store contracted beast pets.

Inside the Beast Tamer space, beast pets can use the Beast Tamer's mental strength to accelerate their cultivation.

Moreover, the higher the Beast Tamer's mental strength, the greater the benefit to the beast pet.

Clearly, the Beast Tamer space created by Beast Tamers belongs to the spatial ability category.

For this reason, many experts in the field of Beast Taming have asserted:

Humans are not fundamentally different from other extraordinary creatures. Other extraordinary creatures have racial talents like fire, ice, and earth, while humans have mental and spatial abilities.

Of course, such statements, while having some market, still have many unexplainable aspects.

The most puzzling question is:

If humans are extraordinary creatures with mental and spatial abilities, why can they only master these abilities through contracting beast pets and opening Beast Tamer spaces, and not on their own?

For example, mental extraordinary creatures like the Little Mermaid have a series of skills like sleep, charm, and hallucination.

And the spatial divine creature, the Sky Splitting Divine Phoenix, has incredibly powerful abilities like spatial leap and spatial collapse.

These questions still lack a reasonable explanation.

"My mental strength seems to have really improved!"

As soon as he entered the meditative state, Su Yi found that his mental strength was more resilient, and he could channel more spiritual energy.

However, he didn't rush to open his first Beast Tamer space. Instead, he entered a deep meditative state as usual.

He wanted to adjust his mental state to the best before attempting to break through.

This would increase the success rate!

He didn't want to fail again. The backlash from failing to open a Beast Tamer space was very painful, akin to staying awake for two days and two nights.

After entering the deep meditative state, he almost lost track of time.

He didn't know how long it had been, but his mental strength was already nearing its peak.

However, just as he was about to attempt to break through, a light knock came from outside the room.

"Xiao Yi, are you asleep?"

In an instant, Su Yi came out of his meditative state.

"I'm not asleep."

He responded and hurried to open the door.

He naturally recognized his mother, Ms. Jiang Xiaoxiu's voice.

He was just a bit puzzled as to why she would knock on his door at this hour. Usually, to avoid disturbing his meditation, she wouldn't even wear shoes when she came home from work.

"Why did you finish work so early today?"

Su Yi glanced at his electronic watch and saw that it was not yet nine o'clock, which made him a bit curious.

"Did you sleep through it? I'm not on the night shift today."

Ms. Jiang Xiaoxiu flicked her hair and then took out an elegant rectangular wooden box from her bag, smiling as she said, "Here, I bought this for you."

"What is it?"

Su Yi took the wooden box and curiously opened it.

The next moment, his eyes widened in surprise.

Inside were three Spirit Grass plants!

Three whole Spirit Grass plants!

Before he could speak, Ms. Jiang Xiaoxiu rubbed her slightly red, cold hands and continued:

"Your teacher Liu called me and said you needed this to aid your cultivation. You should have told me earlier what you needed for your studies. Use these three for now, and let me know if you need more."

So she didn't go to work the night shift; she went to buy Spirit Grass...

"Mom..."

Looking at Ms. Jiang Xiaoxiu, who seemed completely unconcerned, Su Yi felt a lump in his throat.

He was very clear about their family's situation.

These three Spirit Grass plants would likely deplete all their savings, and they might even go into debt.

Before he came to this world, this amount of money wasn't much to him, but the same care and concern brought back many memories.

After starting work, he rarely communicated with Ms. Jiang Xiaoxiu. When he occasionally stayed home for a few days, he would find her nagging annoying...

Looking at the mother in front of him, who was much younger than in his memories, Su Yi suddenly realized that he had forgotten many things before he came to this world.

However, there seemed to be something wrong with this Spirit Grass!

"Mom, where did you buy this Spirit Grass?"

Su Yi noticed something and immediately frowned.

"I bought it at the Sea Treasure Market opposite the Beast Tamer Department Store. There was a promotion at a stall, and you could get three for a 30% discount, with each one costing 6,999. Is there a problem? Sea Treasure is one of the top ten companies in our Longteng country, and they advertise every day. They shouldn't... they shouldn't sell fake goods, right?"

Seeing Su Yi's expression, Ms. Jiang Xiaoxiu immediately became nervous.

This was worth over 20,000!

"It's not fake, but the quality is a bit lower. The spiritual energy it contains is only about 90% of the standard Spirit Grass. But at a 30% discount, it's not a bad deal."

Su Yi smiled and replied.

"That's a relief. I was scared to death, thinking I had been cheated."

Ms. Jiang Xiaoxiu let out a sigh of relief.

"Next time, don't go alone to buy such things. I'm at least a semi-Beast Tamer and can sense the spiritual energy inside. I can tell if it's watered down with just one look."

Su Yi said seriously.

"One look? So our Xiao Yi is already so capable! I understand, I'll take you with me next time."

Ms. Jiang Xiaoxiu's face lit up with pride, and she continued, "It's getting late, I won't disturb you. Remember to go to bed early."

"Okay, you should rest early too."

Su Yi watched her leave and then gently closed the door.

The moment the door closed, the smile on his face vanished.

Looking at the Spirit Grass in his hand, a surge of anger rose to his head.

"Damn scammers!"