Beast Taming: My System is Bugged-Chapter 113 - 112: The Five-star Editor’s Worry

Wang Teng raised an eyebrow, teasing, "Why so glum? Don’t tell me you bombed the exam."

Gu Ming gave him a look but didn’t respond directly, heading straight to the Pet Beast Store for work.

Although the exam had taken up his lunch period, his work hours were flexible.

When Gu Ming arrived at the Pet Beast Store, Lu You was already there.

They briefly discussed the exam after he arrived, but seeing that Gu Ming was lost in thought, the introverted Lu You didn’t press him further.

His silence wasn’t a deliberate snub. Gu Ming was still reeling from the future exam questions projected by the system.

Those questions, from 32 years in the future, revealed numerous subversive Beast Taming theories.

’Question 10: In the early application of "Adaptive Traits" to Combat Skills, which type of cultivation is most emphasized?’

A. Muscle Memory.

B. Divine Sense.

C. Blood Qi.

D. Mana.

For the actual exam question, he had chosen B. His choice would normally have no bearing on the future exam question, but what if he’d gotten it right?

And so, Gu Ming was now checking the system’s historical pop-up comments, looking for any hints that he had answered correctly.

Unfortunately, the system hadn’t made any particularly obvious complaints about his answers.

It only roasted Gu Ming after he finished the entire four-hour exam in one go.

"Getting on in years, are we? But your test-taking speed is much faster than many students in the repeater course. You’re a real old-timer, full of vigor."

Seeing the system’s pop-up comment, Gu Ming was speechless.

’But on the other hand, could this mean that my answers are actually the correct ones in the future?’

To find out for sure, Gu Ming picked up his phone and asked Teacher Zhang when he would be at the school. He wanted to go over the answers with him.

Teacher Zhang had the same idea. He brought two answer sheets from his office and came to the Pet Beast Store.

Teacher Zhang had been one of the proctors that day and was off duty after his shift ended.

Although he wasn’t one of the graders, a group of teachers at the school had quickly gone through the test and compiled a set of unofficial answers.

These weren’t the official answers, just a reference for students, which was exactly what Gu Ming wanted.

So when Gu Ming asked if there was an internal answer key, Teacher Zhang immediately handed him a paper answer sheet and a corresponding digital version of the answers.

Gu Ming stopped his training and found a table in the store to check his answers.

Lu You naturally joined him, recalling her own answers and filling them out on an answer sheet.

Fortunately, as Beastmasters, they both had excellent memories and quickly began to tally up their scores.

After a rough calculation, Lu You had reached the 260-point threshold.

Gu Ming’s score was just ten points shy of perfect, an exceptionally high score for the theory portion.

However, they couldn’t grade the subjective questions themselves.

Teacher Zhang also helped out, and the three of them graded each other’s subjective questions, then averaged the scores.

A short while later, Teacher Zhang calculated that Gu Ming had about 290 points, while Lu You likely scored between 260 and 270.

Gu Ming stared at the answer sheet, but his thoughts were on the system.

’So, what about the system’s side?’

’If the system also gives me a high score, it means many of my answers are probably correct even by future standards.’

Sure enough, the system described Gu Ming in a highly exaggerated tone:

"Retaking the exam after 32 years, Gu Ming actually scored 290 points! As expected of Old Deng, truly terrifying!"

Gu Ming was overjoyed when he saw this message.

His heart raced. This meant his answer to question 10 on the real exam was very likely the same as the future’s answer.

In the real world, this question asked which area of cultivation to focus on when a Pet Beast that had failed its Evolution tried to evolve again.

He remembered choosing B at the time.

Looking back at question 10, option B on the future exam was "Divine Sense."

He couldn’t be sure if he was right, because Gu Ming genuinely didn’t know which category a Combat Skill with Adaptive Traits should focus on.

’Can Divine Sense really make a Combat Skill adapt to one’s body?’

Gu Ming had thought the answer would be C, "Blood Qi," since Blood Qi was so important.

As for "Muscle Memory," that was probably the least likely choice, because muscle memory is rigid and doesn’t fit with a flexible trait like "adaptive."

"Mana" was also a possibility, but "Divine Sense" was truly unexpected, yet it somehow made sense.

But for now, he hadn’t cultivated any skills with Adaptive Traits. ’I hope a skill like Mastery of Wood Escape has them,’ he prayed silently.

...

Inside the editorial department of the *Array General Knowledge Monthly*, the reviewer, Chen Chi, frowned as he read through Gu Ming’s submission:

Title: A New Spiritual Technique Iterated from the *Cyan Pine Unmoving Technique*—*Cyan Pine*

Corresponding Author: Gu Ming (Qing Lake High School, Grade 12, Class 1)

Publication History: "Green Treasure Breathing Technique" - a Dual-Colored Holy Light Technique (*Flood Dragon Monthly Report*)

Seeing this, the editor of the five-star periodical already wanted to reject it.

’With a publication history like that, he dares to submit to a five-star periodical?’

Chen Chi was a veteran editor. He had lived through the golden age of submissions, a time when he was flooded with Four-Colored and Five-Colored Techniques every month.

He wouldn’t even give a second glance to an author like Gu Ming, whose best work was only a Dual-Colored Technique.

He knew that times had changed. The Hall of the Great Dao didn’t appear as frequently as before, and the occurrence of Tri-Colored, Four-Colored, and even Five-Colored Holy Light had dropped significantly.

As a result, techniques certified with a lower-colored Holy Light, which he would have disdained in the past, now had some meager value.

But they were only barely worth a glance.

In his heart, Chen Chi still preferred to use submissions from established figures.

A history of publishing a Dual-Colored Technique was still far too insignificant in his eyes. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Suppressing his impatience, he skimmed the paper’s introduction. It described using a Brain Array Carving Technique and Visualizing Cyan Pine, completely abandoning the core concept of the user embodying the pine tree.

To him, this seemed neither one thing nor the other—a heretical, nonsensical approach.

While iterating on a Cultivation Technique certainly required innovation, innovation didn’t mean completely discarding the philosophy of the original and starting from scratch.

This wasn’t innovation anymore; it was forging a completely new path, something he found hard to accept.

The introduction clearly stated that the author was just a third-year high school student, still learning.

This further reinforced his biases. ’You’re not some grandmaster, so what are you doing messing around like this? Who would dare trust your technique?’

Just as he was about to reject the paper, his eyes finished the introduction and caught the part where Gu Ming mentioned the technique had been accepted by the Hall of the Great Dao and was a Tri-Colored Holy Light.

He froze.

’Tri-Colored?’

’Perhaps it’s not entirely worthless after all.’

If it had been described as an incomplete technique, still in the conceptual stage, his first instinct would have been to reject it.

But to say it had already been accepted by the Hall of the Great Dao meant the technique itself was functional. It proved the author wasn’t just spouting nonsense, so it was worth a look.

Thinking this, he forced himself to read on.

Although the technique Gu Ming submitted was indeed related to arrays, the idea of carving an array in the brain made his skin crawl.

And to be clear, that wasn’t from excitement, but from fear.

Chen Chi knew far more about arrays than Gu Ming did.

Carving an array in the brain was tantamount to engraving an array onto a person’s Sea of Consciousness.

That was equivalent to locking one’s thoughts in place, turning them into a zombie.

Gu Ming might not know how zombies were refined, but Chen Chi certainly did.

Carving an array in the brain was the Core Technique for creating zombie Pet Beasts.

In other words, what Gu Ming had written wasn’t anything new. In fact, it was extremely dangerous.

Publishing something like this would be irresponsible to the public.

Refining a zombie pet was one thing, but if you were carving an array in a person’s brain, who knew if the technique had the hidden risk of turning them into a zombie?

Chen Chi spent five minutes reading it through. Unable to gauge the risk himself, he had no choice but to call for help.

"Xiaozhang, have Professor Luo take a look at the manuscript I just sent over. If it poses a clear risk to Beastmasters, then just forget about it," he said, calling Professor Luo’s assistant.