"Was it successful?"
After feeling a surge of heat travel through his body and eventually settle into his dantian, Wang Yuan, who was practicing for the first time in his life, was somewhat uncertain.
According to the Taoist Book of the Wild Dog Daoist, under normal circumstances, a magician practicing the Gathering Beasts Magic Skill should do so once a day, and within three to five days, one can master it if they start hearing the dragon and tiger's roar.
If one still couldn't master it after seven days, it meant that they were fatefully incompatible with the skill, and there was no need to continue cultivating it.
Even the Wild Dog Daoist, who already had experience in the Human Face Painting Skill, took three full days to master the basics of the Gathering Beasts Magic Skill.
And here was Wang Yuan, succeeding on his first attempt?
After re-examining the Taoist Book and repeatedly comparing those ghost-like characters, Wang Yuan could only attribute the reason to his own Life Chart of the White Tiger Holding Position.
In short, this matter depends on fate!
One of the Precept Taboos of the Transformation into Tiger Technique is: having the "Yin" character in one's life chart.
Those whose life charts have the Yin Character with Seal or White Tiger Holding Position or those born with the Innate Strange Phenomena of Tiger Aspect can be exempt from Precept Taboo four and partly exempt from Precept Taboo three.
One of the Precept Taboos of the Gathering Beasts Magic Skill is also to have the "Yin" character or the "Chen" character in one's life chart.
Referencing the hints in the Transformation into Tiger Technique.
Presumably, those valuable life charts like Yin Character with Seal, White Tiger Holding Position, Azure Dragon Hidden Form, or those born with the Dragon and Tiger Aspect can also enjoy special treatment in the Gathering Beasts Magic Skill.
Moreover, this privilege isn't limited to just Precept Taboos, it also significantly reduces the difficulty of cultivation compared to ordinary people.
"It's probably because the Transformation into Tiger Technique comes from Master Ge, who has more powerful cultivation and higher status, and he made detailed notes for this magic.
And it's normal that the Gathering Beasts Magic Skill, being an incomplete collection by the Wild Dog Daoist himself, lacks such annotations. Without the corresponding life chart, the Wild Dog Daoist failed to notice this," Wang Yuan realized.
After confirming that he hadn't done anything wrong, Wang Yuan couldn't help but become extremely excited and decided on the spot to experiment with the Daoist Skill.
He pricked his fingertip and wrote the characters for "beast" and "imperial decree" in the palm of each hand with his blood, then clasped his hands in front of his chest to form the Divine Tiger Seal, softly chanting:
"Heavenly Soldier precede, Golden Tiger sprint forth. Fierce beasts of the celestial forest, secure all gates. Summoned to immediate presence, called to the forefront. The Red Book shines forth, wind and fire unfettered. Sealing Talisman obeys the command, the Golden Horse bears the message!"
"Summon! Imperial decree!"
The dormant surge of heat within his dantian instantly responded, spreading out far with Wang Yuan's commanding voice.
Simultaneously, Wang Yuan thought about the type of animals he wanted to summon.
"Gentle herbivorous beasts, gentle herbivorous beasts..."
Theoretically, after mastering the Gathering Beasts Magic Skill, he could summon various animals, birds of prey, fish, and insects.
By simply replacing the word "beast" with the characters for bird, fish, or insect.
Knowing well about the flaw of the Daoist Skill, which could gather but not regulate, Wang Yuan naturally chose to start with the simplest to avoid being attacked by the summoned wild beasts.
Whoosh!
In the blink of an eye, a grey-furred rabbit hopped out of the brush and quietly lay down at Wang Yuan's feet.
Following that, a plump squirrel leapt from a treetop, and two sleek-furred rats emerged from decaying leaves...
After a short while, many larger and farther beasts heeded the call as well—monkeys, deer, water buffaloes, wild goats, sika deer... the list was extensive.
Just when Wang Yuan thought that the number of gathered beasts had reached its limit,
Grunt grunt grunt...
From the nearby bushes, a noisy grunt suddenly sounded, and soon after, a whole herd of wild boars, both big and small, also ran out.
This caused the original group of animals to scatter in chaos.
There's an old saying in the woods, "One pig, two bears, three tigers"; often, a group of wild boars can be more dangerous than bears or tigers.
Wang Yuan immediately climbed up a nearby large tree.
He truly hadn't expected that within just a two hundred meter range of casting the spell, there would be so many beasts living.
Watching the chaotic scene below, Wang Yuan had to form the Divine Tiger Seal again.
Pacified by the power of the tiger, the group of creatures finally calmed down, encircling him in a large ring and bowing their heads as if worshipping a true king of the forest.
Among them, many naturally timid animals were still trembling slightly, only staying because the magic compelled them not to leave.
Wang Yuan had some realizations.
The basis of the Gathering Beasts Daoist Skill is formed by one's Life Chart, Dragon Bone, and Tiger Bone, similar to the authority of the Government Office, which is based more on intimidation rather than affinity.
And just as the Government Office might face rebellion, a magician could also be attacked by a horde of beasts.
Wang Yuan clasped his hands in a mantra and cautiously began to issue commands:
"Lift your paw, lie down, left, right..."
Soon, Wang Yuan helplessly found that these creatures all had wooden heads.
The most thoroughly executed command was to have them charge in a particular direction all together.
Wang Yuan couldn't help scratching his head:
"Looking at the current situation, using these temporarily summoned beasts to create chaos, assist in escape, or charge in a mass is not impossible, but that seems to be the extent of their use.
Compared to the Wild Dog Taoist, who could command packs of wild dogs to assist in hunting, I am still 108,000 miles away."
He had foreseen this situation and wasn't too disappointed.
Because he had already figured that, until he could further his cultivation of the "Transformation into Tiger Technique" to personally command a group of beasts without fearing backlash, this was the most appropriate use of the Daoist Skill.
Wang Yuan took out a medicine bottle, swallowed a "Human Face Beast Heart Pill," and suddenly the various noisy animal roars around him began to change.
"My king, the wood ears on the North Slope have sprouted, if we don't go now others will pick them, I want to eat those tasty wood ears, hmm hmm..."
This was from a large wild boar weighing at least two hundred pounds.
"Why hasn't the king let us go yet? After the rain, the grass is soft and tender, no more eating a mouthful of soil for me, I want to eat lots of soft grass. Moo..."
This was from an old cow that was continuously chewing something, obsessed with the thought of tender grass.
"..."
By human standards, these creatures were all mentally challenged, with their minds only focused on survival and reproduction.
The only good thing was that they couldn't lie.
First using the "Gathering Beasts Magic Skill" to gather a group of wild beasts, and then using the "Human Face Beast Heart Pill," which enabled communication between human and beast languages, to collect information, was simply perfect.
Although the summoning range was only 200 meters, many wild beasts have their own territorial ranges. For instance, the territory of wild boars is approximately 12 square kilometers.
Upon confirming that the idea was feasible, he planned to summon birds and insects with even larger ranges of activity to build an aerial information network scattered with his own eyes and ears everywhere.
Just as he was contemplating the bright future of this Daoist Skill, he suddenly heard an indescribable noise nearby.
Looking down at his feet, he immediately became furious.
Two shamelessly mating large rats, right there, were piling one on top of another, chattering incessantly.
"This Black Beauty is not bad, thanks to the king's grace. This year, I've saved enough food, and I plan to increase my descendants by two hundred times, squeak squeak..."
This rat was evidently much more intelligent than the other beasts, and its speech was coherent.
"But what if, when I get back to the den, Beauty Hua and Yellow Beauty start fighting...?"
'Too many beauties to choose from? Getting too cocky, huh?'
However, before the offended Wang Yuan could take action to teach it a lesson about human malice, amidst the chaotic animal chatters, he suddenly heard:
"Be careful when you all go foraging lately, I've smelled the scent of a predatory beast prowling around. There might be a tiger that has recently arrived near our home.
It loves to eat us plump wild boars."
Wang Yuan finally got the information he wanted, and his spirits immediately lifted, sparing the large rat for the moment.
Since he had mastered the "Gathering Beasts Magic Skill" in one go and discovered an advantage to his "White Tiger Holding Position,"
he prepared to strike while the iron was hot, planning to perfect the "Transformation into Tiger Technique" tomorrow during Yin Day and time, which occurs once every twelve days.
The most crucial material for the practice was—a live male tiger!
As Beauty Huang had mentioned just before she left, even before Wang Yuan had arrived here, a ghost had once seen a fierce tiger roaming outside Wangren Town.
Wang Yuan wanted to try if he could use the "Gathering Beasts Magic Skill" to locate the material needed for his practice.
However, just as he was carefully listening to pinpoint exactly where the tiger was hiding,
a voice as coarse as a cracked gong suddenly sounded from behind:
"I was wondering why all the wild animals nearby had disappeared; turns out they've all run here.
Where did you come from, kid, daring to steal the food from our White Mountain Lord's mouth? Give it back to us right away!"
"Who is talking?"
Wang Yuan turned around to look.
There, in the dimly lit woods, five blue-skinned little ghosts walked out, shoulder to shoulder.