Chapter 349 — Don't Scrape Anymore, Master Ji

"So you've finally shown up!"

Star Capital Tech Park.

The Mechanical Campus of the Ancient Capital University.

By the time Shi Jin arrived, Feng Jin and the rest had already come out to greet him, too impatient to wait.

"Sorry to keep you all waiting, sorry to keep you waiting."

Shi Jue said to Feng Jin, Hao Ling, Grandma Li and the others who had come out to welcome him.

"We've been waiting miserably long."

Hao Ling of the Ancient Capital University's School of Mechanics said, eyes wide and pleading.

This year his mood had been like a train ride — one jolt after another.

First Shi Jin won the national championship, the Ancient Capital University's education budget swelled, and the School of Mechanics got to sip a little of the broth too. He had been overjoyed.

But right after that, Feng Jin informed him that, apart from basic expenditures, the entire research budget of the School of Mechanics for the year would go to Shi Jin. Hao Ling's heart dropped with a thud, and he had no idea what was going on.

In the end, when Feng Jin showed Hao Ling the data on the mechanical phantom beasts, this aged, top-tier mechanical master was struck dumb.

He could only feel that it was utterly absurd.

After his worldview had been shattered and reassembled, he wished he could run off to the Void Capital Ruins himself and serve as Shi Jin's assistant.

Unfortunately, Shi Jin wanted nothing but mechanical materials — no assistants at all — which nearly drove old Hao up the wall.

He could not understand it. What on earth was going on with Shi Jin?

Shi Jue knew he had only just contracted the Hundred-Form Machine not long ago; he was clearly a rookie mechanist, so how had he suddenly cooked up something this insane? It made no scientific sense.

In truth, Shi Cen was not so heartless as to want to turn Hao Ling away; the main reason was that Lin found Hao Ling's level too low and feared he might drag down his own progress in the research.

The heartless one was Lin...

In any case, it was not until Hao Ling had a talk with Feng Jin and Dr. Li that he learned Shi Jin had been planning this for a long time.

Long before, Shi Jin had conceived the idea of resurrecting ancient creatures, inspired by the Void-Solid Phantom skill and his experience with the dreaming Tyrannosaurus fossil.

And that idea had ripened completely the moment Shi Jin's archaeological work uncovered the artifact containing the Mechanical-type's strongest talent, "Awakening."

Apart from Lu Heng and Bai Xi, no one had known about Shi Jin's archaeological discovery of the Awakening Mirror; but when he revealed the mechanical phantom beasts, he told Feng Jin, Grandma Li and the others as well, leaving them itching with envy. This kid — how was he this lucky?

It left them sighing. They were all members of the Eleventh Bureau, but between one person and another there was, without question, a gap.

The Listening talent was formidable, yes, but the other members of the Eleventh Bureau were hardly formidable to that degree.

Lu Heng cracking part of a mythical ruin and having her beast obtain a mythical inheritance was already counted among the Eleventh Bureau's rather impressive gains.

But Shi Jin — the Mu Huiyin inheritance, the Martial Emperor's inheritance, the Empress's secret lore, the Void Emperor's inheritance, the great haul from the Canghai Ruins at Qixia City, and the Yue Maiden's artifact — none of it was in any way inferior.

The benefits that brat Shi Jin had reaped from ruins and archaeology were simply outrageous. They reckoned that among all of history, only the Dragon Emperor, who had directly won the recognition of a mythical ruin, could match Shi Jin in sheer fortune.

"How are the preparations coming along?" Grandma Li asked.

"All smooth. Besides the Tyrannosaurus, a few extinct species will be displayed alongside it as mechanical phantom beasts." Shi Li said, "Thank you for the fossils."

"Think nothing of it. Just bring me a few more fruits next time." Grandma Li beamed. She meant the Time-Brewed Fruits that Shi Jin had recently presented to her — after all, without her, he could never have contracted the Ginseng Baby.

In truth, even Grandma Li marveled at the mutated Ginseng Baby.

To think Shi Jin had raised it to such a level — to think that after evolving, it had become something capable of slaying two Overlords... She had definitely given it to the right person. Good thing she had not used it to make soup herself and had instead given it to Shi Jin to raise; otherwise she would have suffered a terrible loss.

The Time-Brewed Fruit — the signature skill of the Time Emperor's beasts.

Grandma Li speculated that if Shi Ying's Iron-Eating Beast had obtained its inheritance from the Martial Emperor, then the Ginseng Baby must have obtained its Time-Brewed lineage from the heroic spirit of Mu Huiyin, one of the Time Emperor's subordinates — or perhaps from the Totem Ice Dragon.

That brat Shi Jin really was lucky; every archaeological find of his could be used to strengthen himself. Grandma Li's judgment was not wrong, either: the Ginseng Baby's mutated form had indeed absorbed a great deal of Time-Brewed power in the Ice Dragon Ruins.

"Rest easy. Leave the Mechanical Convention to me and don't worry — I guarantee I'll give all you seniors a surprise." Shi Jin said with certainty. "Right now I need to go prepare for a battle."

"A battle?" Feng Jin and the others, who had been about to press Shi Jin for more details, were stunned. What battle?

Weren't you here for the Mechanical Convention? How had battle gotten mixed into this?

"On my way over from the Void Capital, I ran into Ji Feng, and we agreed on a one-on-one. It's here in Star Capital, so I want to go get ready first."

The crowd was dumbfounded. Hell — even on your way to the Mechanical Convention you can't sit still... Shouldn't you be preparing for the convention right now? What the devil is preparing for a duel with Ji Feng?

"No helping it, no helping it... How about you come watch a match tomorrow first? The Mechanical Convention isn't until the day after — no rush." For the convention, Lin preparing on his own was enough.

The crowd: ...

...

Shi Ying did indeed need to do some preparing of his own.

Preparation before a battle still mattered a great deal.

Eleven had only just come out of special training and was not in good form; some adjustment was plainly needed.

To fight with the Stamina Source in its concealed state, its reserves hollowed out — how could that compare with fighting on a full reserve?

Beyond that, Eleven also needed to stock up on Bean Bears before the fight.

In competitive beast taming, no rule forbade a beast from stacking its buffs to the brim and settling its state before combat began.

Generally speaking, though, most self-enhancement skills burned enormous stamina and could not be sustained, so few beasts ever entered a burst state ahead of time.

Chi Tong's Ten Thousand Swords as One, Eleven's Edge Burst and Gigantification — all were enhancement buffs, and none of them suited early activation, because it was meaningless; it only wasted more stamina.

There were, however, skills that cost less rather than more when used in advance.

In Shi Qi's battle against Ji Feng, his Elemental Sovereign had been able to bank reserve elemental energy inside its body beforehand and then draw on it directly in combat — much the same trick as Eleven's Concealed Edge or Su Su's Infinite Devouring Space.

This was the kind of pre-enhancement the rules allowed.

And besides the concealed Stamina Source, Eleven had another skill of the same sort: Beans to Soldiers.

Before a battle he could spend stamina to create the maximum number of Bean Bears and carry them on his body, then slowly recover his stamina to full; when the fight came, he could send out the already-formed Bean Bears directly, rather than burning vast stamina to conjure them on the spot.