Chapter 657 — Epochal Breakthrough

At its level of skill, the form of its power was no longer bound to fruits; so long as the opponent was not strong or did not resist, it could channel the power of reincarnation at them from afar.

At this moment, under Ginseng Baby's direction, Eleven immediately shrank into a transcendent-level little panda not even knee-high, squealing pitifully atop the meteorite.

Chitong became a little loli, Xiaoji turned into a chicken-like little dinosaur, and of course Yaya could not escape the fate of becoming a little duck-billed beast.

Soon, every one of Shi Ying's pets had reverted to infant form; were it not for the protection of Shi Jin's power, staying out in the starry void at all would have been a problem.

"Do your best," Baihe cheered them on as Shi Jin and the others began to efficiently use the breath of the epoch to remodel their constitutions.

First Eleven, then Chongchong, and after that Ginseng Baby...

And so a month passed before all of Shi Ying's pets finally completed the evolution of remodeling their epoch constitutions.

Evolution, it was called, yet once they finished, they basically felt no fundamental change in themselves—though at this moment Shi Jin truly did sense that the Shi Jin Beast seemed able to contract them as well.

"Good, keep going," Shi Li said.

"After contracting, you should be able to advance further." Baihe had watched from the side the whole month, offering pointers from time to time. Now, seeing that Shi Jin had completed a round of training, she said, "Remember to be careful of the lightning tribulation."

"Mm. Your breakthrough progress from here on may be a bit fierce."

"Understood." Filled with a sense of urgency, Shi Jin began having Eleven and the others line up like Bulu to complete their contracts with the Shi Jin Beast.

"Awoo!!" Having checked in, Eleven felt its physical constitution grow stronger, as if it had received feedback from the Shi Jin Beast; the Shi Jin Beast itself had improved a little too, though not as much as Eleven.

And with the Shi Jin Beast and Eleven both stronger, Shi Jin himself naturally received feedback as well—a true "triple win," as they say.

Then came Chongchong, Ginseng Baby, Chitong, Susu, Lin...

Xiaoji, Yaya, Xiao Zi, Qi, the munchkin cat, Xiao Bing, Guigui...

One after another, Shi Shuo's pets contracted with the Shi Jin Beast in succession, and each gave and received feedback with it; with Shi Cen also getting a share of the broth, once the round of contracts was complete, Shi Xiao immediately felt the changes in his body.

Not long ago he had only just broken through to the fourteenth heaven, and now, without even fusing with the Shi Jin Beast—merely having the Shi Jin Beast contract all the pets he had contracted one after another—the connection of his contract with the Shi Jin Beast alone was enough to loosen his bottleneck once more.

The phantom of the fifteenth heaven faintly appeared.

"Someone like you—this is my first time seeing it."

Beside him, seeing that Shi Jin was about to break through to the divine-level fifteenth heaven, Baihe marveled without end.

And this, it seemed, was only the beginning.

After the Shi Jin Beast contracted all of Shi Ying's pets, its compatibility with Shi Ying finally reached 100 percent; the two were in perfect accord, enough for a perfect fusion.

This time, as Shi Jin fused with the Shi Jin Beast through their combined form, there was no longer that subtle, hard-to-control sensation from before. What was even more terrifying, however, was that the amplification brought by this fusion with the Shi Jin Beast was simply unimaginable, shaking Shi Jin to the core.

Boom!!!

Lightning lit up the entire starry sky, its power so inconceivable that even high-tier supergods would be moved by its might. It seemed to coalesce into a fist of thunder, poised to strike down at Qi.

Crackling arcs of lightning merely fell upon the stars and instantly annihilated them one after another.

That such a terrifying tribulation lightning could be summoned was also connected to the changes in Shi Jin's body at this moment.

During the fusion with the Shi Jin Beast, Shi Ying's physique instantly reached the level of an early high-tier transcendent, undergoing a qualitative transformation; the Shi Jin Beast's physical power was at this moment perfectly fused into Shi Jin.

Beyond that, origin force—that special power—had also thoroughly become power under Shi Che's control, no longer requiring Shi Jin to mobilize it a second time.

The enhancement of physical power gave such forces as the soul and spirit greater room to swell; though the improvement was not as terrifying as that of physical power, they were gradually drawing closer to and aligning with it.

Rumble.

It was not merely the divine-level fifteenth heaven; after Shi Ying's two bodies fused with each other, the upper limit of his beast-taming rank was still surging upward.

The sixteenth heaven!

The seventeenth heaven!

The eighteenth heaven!

At that rate of ascent, Shi Ying's pets were all dumbstruck.

"This is exactly the effect." Only when Shi Ying's realm had broken through successively to the divine-level eighteenth heaven did it stop, and Baihe smiled. This was precisely what was needed for there to be hope of defeating Chao Nengzhao.

"I'm about to face my tribulation," Shi Jin called out. "This time the tribulation lightning really does seem formidable..."

"Awoo!!!" Eleven and the others were ready too, poised at every moment to assist Shi Jin.

The tribulation lightning this time had been accumulated from breaking through four realms in succession—the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth heavens—and that ever-swelling thunder fist, which looked vast enough to annihilate a sea of stars, came crashing down like the hammer of the cosmos, radiating an overwhelming sense of oppression.

Even its mere aftershock stirred up a starry storm that swept across the entire domain of stars.

"As far as I know, throughout all the ages of this cosmos, the highest achievement any beast tamer has ever reached at the divine level is the divine thirteenth heaven. The divine thirteenth heaven offers absolutely no possibility of advancing to the cosmic level, let alone becoming one of those eternal cosmic sustainers."

"But you are different. You carry within you the power system of the previous epoch. With the power of two epochs united as one, perhaps you can create a miracle the likes of which has never been seen in all history."