This was a high bar for ordinary Beastmasters.

Currently, the only state-run, tuition-free institution was the Royal Academy. Universities like it were extremely rare. After all, this was still a dynastic era, and since the cultivation of Beastmasters involved many parties vying for their share of the profits, private universities were the majority.

Gu Ming heard the first Cultivation Technique prompt:

"Create a Breathing Technique from scratch that integrates Breathing Spiritual Qi, Refining Mana, and physical training. You may reference the Green Treasure Breathing Technique. The less it overlaps with the Green Treasure Breathing Technique, the higher your score will be!"

Gu Ming was stunned for a moment. He looked over at his Cyan Treasure, almost thinking he had misheard. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Cyan Treasure had a shocked expression on its face, and Ah Kun, beside it, stared with wide eyes.

He turned his head to look at Lu You and found her staring intently at him as well.

At the same time, he felt a host of gazes from the surrounding crowd fall upon him in unison, focusing on him and his Pet Beast, Cyan Treasure.

Evidently, this competition question reflected the examiners’ research into the new trends of Cultivation Techniques for Low-star Pet Beasts.

The "Green Treasure Breathing Technique" was a new Cultivation Technique that had only recently emerged in Lanqi City and its surrounding areas. It had not yet become popular throughout the province.

But powerful figures in the provincial government were constantly monitoring the popular trends in Cultivation Techniques for low-tier, Low-star Pet Beasts.

Some who studied the "Green Treasure Breathing Technique" were astounded, believing it had infinite potential and was exceptionally well-suited for Low-star Pet Beasts.

However, the "Green Treasure Breathing Technique" had numerous flaws of its own.

The higher-ups had taken notice of this extremely valuable Cultivation Technique and planned to spread its renown, encouraging more people to pay attention to it and create more Breathing Techniques based on it.

Some believed this Breathing Technique could change the entire ecosystem for low-tier Pet Beasts, and they predicted that perhaps every student in the academy would be learning it in the future.

But at this very moment, many people in the province were still unaware that the original creator of this Cultivation Technique was right here, taking the exam.

At the back of the examination area, a major figure—a Seven-star Level Beastmaster—stood with his arms crossed, watching a screen projected by a Thousand-eyed Wind Bird. In the center of the screen, Gu Ming was designated a key person of interest.

Many of the instructors present were also focused on Gu Ming.

Gu Ming had made a huge splash in the last provincial exam, causing many instructors to take notice of him and study why his Pet Beast possessed such incredible stamina.

A Little Cyan Snake shouldn’t possess such immense combat power and endurance. Even for a Mutated Pet Beast, this was excessive.

After some research, the instructors discovered the "Green Treasure Breathing Technique" and planned to promote it further.

The high-ranking leader at the back chuckled softly:

"Haha, Gu Ming must be in a tough spot now, right? I doubt he can create a Breathing Technique better than the ’Green Treasure Breathing Technique.’"

"I’ll take the opposite bet. This Cultivation Technique was likely developed with his teacher, but he must have been heavily involved himself. I’m optimistic about him."

"I believe he can create his own unique Breathing Technique in this competition.

"Besides, that fish next to him is clearly no simple creature either. It can’t rely on the ’Green Treasure Breathing Technique’ forever."

Breathing Techniques had only just begun to emerge, and a second Cultivation Technique of the same kind had yet to appear. Even masters of Cultivation Techniques would need time to digest and study them.

For now, those paying attention to Low-star Beastmasters were mostly Beastmasters from the education sector. They had discovered something:

Their initial attempts to develop a universal Breathing Technique eventually led them to realize they were on the wrong path.

Every Breathing Technique had extremely high potential for customization.

Although the "Green Treasure Breathing Technique" had the ability to self-adapt, its fundamental framework was fixed. The only Pet Beast it was perfectly compatible with was the Little Cyan Snake, Cyan Treasure.

No matter how high their Skill Level, other Pet Beasts could never surpass that level of compatibility.

Therefore, to fully unleash the maximum potential of a Breathing Technique, it had to be tailor-made for one’s own Pet Beast.

This competition was designed precisely to see what innovative sparks the contestants could generate when it came to the personal customization of Breathing Techniques.