By the riverbank.

Ah Kun was submerged in the river, its breath bubbling to the surface.

The seed-cracking hamster crouched underground, attempting to practice the Green Treasure Breathing Technique.

Gu Ming’s Divine Sense transformed into two wisps of Sword Qi, entering the bodies of the two Pet Beasts to monitor their conditions in real-time.

Meanwhile, he himself was flipping through the tablet Lu You had handed him, rapidly browsing the various research papers she had compiled.

Lu You stood to the side, not daring to speak, her gaze furtively fixed on Gu Ming as he looked at the tablet.

His focused profile, the swift gestures of his hands as he scrolled—everything proved that his reading speed was far beyond that of an ordinary person.

This made Lu You take a deep breath. ’He’s so fast even when just reviewing information. How can I ever catch up to his Talent?’

An indescribable pressure welled up inside her, making her heart tighten and bringing back her self-deprecating thoughts.

If not for the courage that had awakened within her Divine Sense, she might have already regressed to her reclusive girl state.

Now, she could feel the gap between them, but she didn’t give up because of it. Instead, she gritted her teeth, determined to keep pace with Gu Ming.

While Gu Ming studied, she too had to rack her brain and ponder the breathing cultivation techniques.

Her Mouse Treasure was also practicing the Green Treasure Breathing Technique.

Sparring with Cyan Treasure daily had also greatly increased Mouse Treasure’s experience. Its Breathing Technique was currently at the Master Level, but it had not yet reached Great Success.

Lu You’s understanding of Breathing Techniques could be said to be second only to Gu Ming’s among all the candidates present.

She turned her head to look at Ah Kun swimming in the river. Others might overlook the Grouper Fish’s potential, but having come this far, she could see that Ah Kun’s potential was limitless.

The Green Treasure Breathing Technique seemed powerful, but when applied to a Water Element Pet Beast, it was truly lacking something.

A fish’s breathing should be integrated with its aquatic environment to unleash its full capabilities.

While Lu You was thinking, Gu Ming was using a speed-reading method to memorize the existing knowledge, glancing at the system from time to time to see if the system’s plot had been updated.

Behind him, quite a few classmates had followed with their Pet Beasts to practice.

Gu Ming was the original creator of the Green Treasure Breathing Technique and currently the Beastmaster with the highest Skill Level in it.

Where else could they go but here, to try and secretly learn from Cyan Treasure and pick up some ideas?

Gu Ming knew what they were thinking but didn’t stop the outsiders from following him.

If they wanted a fight, he was ready. If not, they could all engage in some friendly competition and work on the Breathing Technique together.

Perhaps as they tinkered with it, Gu Ming could capitalize on their bursts of inspiration and gain some future knowledge for himself.

By the time noon arrived, Gu Ming had committed all the relevant papers compiled by Lu You to memory, and the system’s plot finally updated.

"You sit by the river, watching Ah Kun swim."

"Although your own comprehension is a bit poor, the Juvenile Kunpeng’s is not low, and you have a classmate with severe social anxiety as an advisor.

After half a day, you all finally managed to create a rudimentary Kunpeng Breathing Technique..."

Gu Ming immediately perked up, feeling several passages from the research papers spark a torrent of inspiration for modifying the Breathing Technique.

These flashes of inspiration were all based on Cyan Treasure and the knowledge Lu You had provided. They were modifications backed by a large amount of data, not something created from nothing or a single leap to the heavens.

Gu Ming carefully committed these inspirations to memory. As he strung them together, he was struck by the realization that this was the "Kunpeng Breathing Technique," created by combining the Kunpeng Devouring Secret Technique and the Green Treasure Breathing Technique.

The data for this technique came from records of the harmonization frequencies produced when Ah Kun used the Green Treasure Breathing Technique. Gu Ming definitely wouldn’t have had the time to record that data.

But since the system had the data, that meant he had it.

Gu Ming immediately put it into practice, instructing Ah Kun to modify its breathing frequency. He had it make its first attempt at organically combining the Devouring Secret Technique with the Breathing Technique, discarding the original foundation of the Green Treasure Breathing Technique.

Ah Kun panicked a little upon hearing this.

’Why? Why abandon Big Bro’s Breathing Technique? It feels pretty good to me.’

Ah Kun held immense respect for Cyan Treasure and had always felt it was lucky to be able to use its big brother’s Breathing Technique.

To abandon this technique was tantamount to abandoning its acknowledgment of Big Bro Cyan Treasure.

This made Ah Kun feel awful.

"It’s not abandonment, Ah Kun, it’s modification," Gu Ming said, realizing he had been a bit hasty. He immediately changed his approach and explained it to Ah Kun from a different angle.

Before its Evolution, Ah Kun’s memory wasn’t good.

Now that Ah Kun had the Memorization Array, it could remember a lot more. It took Gu Ming some effort, but he finally made it understand.

"The Green Treasure Breathing Technique isn’t gone. It has been adapted and fused to suit your body.

"It’s like you are in it, and it is in you."

Upon hearing this, Ah Kun’s eyes lit up. It began to earnestly modify its internal breathing frequency, while also changing most of its breathing pathways.

Of course, the initial stage of modifying a Cultivation Technique was difficult. Coupled with its bad memory, Ah Kun followed its master’s instructions, tore it all down, and began structuring the new Breathing Technique from scratch.

The Green Treasure Breathing Technique, which had been approaching Great Success, was discarded just like that. But it would retain the Dao Charm of gazing upon the back mountain, where a hundred rivers converge to nourish a thousand trees.

With Ah Kun pioneering the modification, the subsequent modifications for Mouse Treasure also became easier.

The latter didn’t resist either. It readily complied, abandoning the former Breathing Technique. It no longer used Cyan Treasure’s Visualization Image, switching instead to a Visualization of the great earth.

Furthermore, it stopped absorbing large amounts of other types of Spiritual Qi, solely gathering Earth Spiritual Qi from underground.

These two changes were immense.

The seed-cracking hamster had always been accustomed to absorbing all sorts of Spiritual Qi. After a full Circulation within its body, it would use the Earth Shifting Technique to expel the unsuitable Spiritual Qi—that is, spit it out as a Wind Ball.

Its Skill Level in Storm Ball wasn’t as high as Cyan Treasure’s, nor was its power comparable. It was barely usable, but Mouse Treasure normally wouldn’t use it, lest it try to show off its meager skills before an expert.

Mouse Treasure burrowed underground, closed its eyes, and began its Visualization of the great earth. It used the new breathing rhythm customized by Gu Ming to simultaneously perceive how it was being applied throughout its body.

Gu Ming’s Divine Sense roamed within the two Pet Beasts’ bodies, making real-time adjustments based on the physical status data updated by the system—a little tweak here, a slight increase in speed there.

Every flow of water and earth produced a massive amount of physical data, and making adjustments was also very troublesome.

At that moment, Gu Ming couldn’t help but think, ’It would be great if I could use a calculation Array to process the information on their internal stress in real-time and distribute it rationally.’

"Although you’ve taken the first step in modifying the Cultivation Technique, reaching a barely usable state, you are only halfway to completion and have hit a stalemate."

"Faced with a sea of data, your fifty-year-old self finally buckles under the pressure. You collapse to the ground, having lost all creative thought on the Cultivation Technique, only wanting to get an Array to help process it all."

"The speaker was careless, but the listener was attentive. The classmate with severe social anxiety heard your words and had a flash of inspiration, thinking of adding a calculation Array to lower the two Pet Beasts’ learning difficulty."

Gu Ming smacked his thigh.

’Speak of the devil!’

’I was just thinking I needed an Array, and the system delivers. It’s like getting a pillow when you’re sleepy.’

And just like that, as Gu Ming was smacking his thigh, Lu You, who was beside him, glanced at Ah Kun and also offered a suggestion in a small voice.

"I was just looking at some calculation-type Arrays. Why don’t we have Ah Kun create a calculation Array in its mind? After all, the new Breathing Technique requires paying attention to too much information. Ah Kun can’t handle it."