I Contracted Myself

Sparring with Zhou Jielin, Zhang Ping gained a lot.

When the class ended, Zhang Ping noticed that Wang Jieming was already bruised and battered.

It was clear that the adventurer sparring with Wang Jieming had a bad temper.

But that was normal.

People paid high tuition fees to learn, hoping for a better chance of survival when they left Mingzhu City for adventures.

Who wouldn’t want to spar with a genius and improve together?

Encountering a partner like Wang Jieming would naturally be frustrating.

Zhang Ping and Zhou Jielin got along well because Zhang Ping's Ape King Form was more advanced than Zhou Jielin's, offering many points of reference for Zhou Jielin.

Therefore, Zhou Jielin was willing to teach Zhang Ping some basic knowledge that seasoned adventurers knew.

The last thing anyone wanted was a partner who couldn't improve themselves and ended up being a mere sparring dummy.

"Are you okay?" Zhang Ping asked Wang Jieming.

Wang Jieming shook his head slightly and forced a smile, "I'm fine, just didn't learn much. Not sure if I can master it in five days."

He had thought there would be teaching sessions today.

But from start to finish, Bai De had no interest in repeating the lesson, only correcting some apprentices' mistakes during sparring.

Most importantly, Bai De didn't teach Wang Jieming again.

It was like some teachers in Zhang Ping's previous life, who only focused on the good students and completely ignored the poor ones.

If this continued for the next few days, Wang Jieming would never master the Ape King Form.

Zhang Ping thought for a moment and asked, "Are you free at noon?"

"Noon? Yes, I am," Wang Jieming replied, a bit surprised.

Zhang Ping invited, "Then you can come find me. You know Iron Soul, right? You can come to Iron Soul, and I'll teach you the Ape King Form. But whether you can master it depends on you."

"Iron Soul? Never heard of it, but I'll find it," Wang Jieming said immediately.

Zhang Ping nodded, "Alright, come find me tomorrow."

Iron Soul was just a street away from Wang Jieming's place, so it wasn't hard to find.

After agreeing, the two returned together.

The next day.

At noon, while Zhang Ping and Liu Tiefeng were having lunch, Wang Jieming came over.

After Liu Tiefeng went upstairs for a nap, Zhang Ping began teaching Wang Jieming. Wang Jieming's learning ability was very poor, so Zhang Ping broke down the Ape King Form into several small movements, teaching one movement at a time. When that didn't work, he had Wang Jieming practice just one movement for an hour.

He found this method effective; after an hour, Wang Jieming had indeed mastered one movement.

"Not bad, next movement. Watch me do it once, then you follow," Zhang Ping said with a smile, seeing that Wang Jieming had learned the first movement.

The teaching continued until evening. Wang Jieming went home for dinner and agreed to meet at the boxing school later.

Most boxing schools started classes at eight and ended at eleven, though some started at six and ended at ten. The Beast King Boxing School followed the former schedule.

Although the former had one hour less of teaching time, it was more expensive.

Zhang Ping hadn't experienced other boxing schools' courses, so he wasn't sure about their teaching quality. But Bai De's teaching was decent; most apprentices could quickly get started, except for the weirdo Wang Jieming.

The next two days were uneventful.

The Sweep Team's actions against the Tianchang Fox became more cautious. Zhang Ping only noticed one less Tianchang Fox and wasn't sure if it was killed or moved elsewhere.

He didn't ask Liu Sishan, just continued pointing out new Tianchang Foxes and re-evaluating the previously identified ones, but found nothing new.

This made him unsure if it was a trap by the Tianchang Fox or just an accident.

By the weekend.

Mingzhu City didn't have weekends off, but generally, people took breaks on weekends.

The Beast King Boxing School also had a day off, so students didn't need to attend classes.

In the morning, Zhang Ping didn't knead dough but tried forging the Mingzhu Blade again. This time, he successfully forged a qualified Mingzhu Blade, or at least he felt it was successful.

He took the Mingzhu Blade to Liu Tiefeng, who was smoking, and asked, "Grandpa Liu, did I succeed?"

"Huh? What did you say? Where's Dashan?" Liu Tiefeng looked up, confused.

Zhang Ping was stunned, then looked towards the shop entrance. After a while, Qiu Qiang appeared, carrying bags.

"Zhang Ping, my brother, I'm back," Qiu Qiang said with a grin.

He put the bags on the counter and sat beside Liu Tiefeng, complaining, "Damn, I almost got screwed this time. For some reason, there were fewer wild beasts and mutated beasts outside, so we had to go deeper into the northern forests. We ended up encountering a wolf pack, and they were all mutated beasts."

"Are you alright, Uncle Qiang?" Zhang Ping asked, not seeing any obvious injuries.

Qiu Qiang gritted his teeth and rolled up his sleeve, revealing several nasty wounds on his arm. He sneered, "The wolf pack wouldn't let us go. I had no choice but to let the others leave while I stayed behind to cover them.

When facing wolves, especially mutated ones, you mustn't let them surround you, or you're done for.

I fought and retreated, then ran into a group of wildmen in the forest. I got hit by a wind blade right away, almost slicing my waist. Luckily, I had a one-time-use burrowing shovel. I had to use it despite the pain.

The wolves couldn't find their prey and attacked the wildmen instead. I took the chance to slip away and even got a good item."

As he spoke, he took out a green gem.

"Isn't this a Wind Gem?"

Zhang Ping looked at the gem, surprised.

Wind Gems weren't real gems.

They were rare biological crystals.

Almost all mutated beasts containing wind elemental energy could form Wind Gems in their bodies, and even some awakeners with wind talents could form similar gems.

Wind Gems could store wind elemental energy, which could be released through mental guidance to create wind blades or storms.

Other elements also had corresponding elemental gems.

For example, Liu Sishan likely had a Water Gem in her body because her advanced talent was Energy Compression, which often formed elemental gems.

However, having an elemental gem in the body didn't mean it could be easily extracted.

Usually, elemental gems dissipated with the elements after the mutated beast or awakener died, with only a small chance of remaining.

Since elemental gems equated to an additional ability, they were priceless in Mingzhu City, extremely rare and valuable.

"I pried this from a wildman's weapon, so I got my revenge," Qiu Qiang said proudly.

He handed the Wind Gem to Zhang Ping, smiling generously, "Here, take a look. Genuine ones are rare. The city is full of fakes. If you haven't seen a real one, don't buy it easily; it's easy to get scammed."

Zhang Ping carefully took the Wind Gem.

His knowledge of elemental gems came partly from school and partly from Liu Tiefeng's teachings.

But even Iron Soul didn't have a Wind Gem, only some fakes they had collected.

As soon as he held the gem, Zhang Ping felt a slight chill in his palm.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed a faint breeze emanating from the Wind Gem.

The breeze was very faint, like the subtle coolness felt when touching water.

"Wind elemental energy is invisible inside a living being. Once released, it becomes wind. Only in elemental gems can you see its energy form. Look closely at the gem's center; there's a milky white energy. That's wind elemental energy," Qiu Qiang explained seriously.

Zhang Ping nodded, indeed seeing the milky white energy.

"This thing requires both feel and vision. Once you've seen the real one, you can tell the fakes. Remember this moment to avoid getting scammed in the future," Qiu Qiang laughed.

Zhang Ping acknowledged, then closed his eyes to carefully feel the Wind Gem's texture, hardness, and temperature.

Suddenly, he heard a 'pop.'

Then came a burst of static, like an old TV losing signal and turning into a snow screen.

After a moment, he heard many male and female voices.

His eyes widened slightly, and he immediately used Appraisal on himself.

[Appraisal Successful]

[Summoned Beast: Zhang Ping]

[Master: Zhang Ping]

[Race: Human]

[Potential: ☆☆]

[Lifespan: 89]

[Rank: Primary Awakener]

[Level: 3]

[Talents]

[Contract Gem: Can consume stamina and mental strength to form a Contract Gem. Once the target willingly accepts the Contract Gem, their life, soul, and consciousness will be dominated by the Summoner, but they will also receive the Summoner's potential and luck boost. After the first use, subsequent uses will slightly enhance their potential and have a 1% chance of awakening a new talent. Note: Summoner Zhang Ping's talent, obtained by depleting IQ, potential, and luck, is powerful but has significant drawbacks. Overambition may not be a good thing.]

[Absolute Command: You have absolute control over your summoned beasts. They cannot disobey your orders.]

[Absolute Obedience: You must absolutely obey the Summoner's orders and execute them loyally.]

[Strategic Appraisal Skill: Can appraise targets, with a small chance of obtaining their information. The smaller the power gap, the higher the success rate. After the first successful appraisal, subsequent appraisals of the same target will have a significantly higher success rate. Note: This talent was born from the curiosity of both Summoned Beast Zhang Ping and Summoner Zhang Ping.]

[Night Walker: Gain night vision, significantly reduce presence at night, greatly increase movement speed, decrease weight, and become completely invisible in shadows.]

[Fire Eater: Can restore stamina by consuming flames and convert excess flames into fire elemental energy stored in the body. After releasing the energy, gain a temporary flame-wrapped effect until the fire elemental energy is exhausted.

This ability will gradually enhance the user's high-temperature resistance.

Note: Potential is just potential. Only when realized as strength does it become true power.]

[Wind Whisperer: The wind will bring you all kinds of information, whether you want to know it or not.

Note: There are no walls the wind can't penetrate, and no secrets the wind doesn't know.]

...

Indeed, a new talent.

Zhang Ping thought to himself, even wanting to complain, is the chance of awakening a new talent really just one percent?

However, 'Wind Whisperer' was a passive skill. He couldn't control its activation or deactivation, meaning he could only passively receive the information it brought.