Beast Taming: My System is Bugged

Chapter 320 - 308: The Breathing Technique Is on Fire (2)

Mouse Treasure and the company’s Red Carp King practiced the Transmission Skill together.

The temporary worker Yuan Ge’s Night Demon Cat would occasionally unleash Nightfall in the training grounds.

When it didn’t have a mission, it would seize the opportunity to cultivate on the side, voraciously soaking up the Spiritual Qi in the company’s training grounds.

Gu Ming also highly valued the company’s internal Cultivation Dao Field. Its design was at least at the Four-star Level; just breathing here meant drawing dense Spiritual Qi in and out of his nostrils.

Cultivating his Divine Sense here was also highly effective; his daily Cultivation of *Cyan Pine* would increase it by a small amount.

But the good times didn’t last long.

After a week of Cultivation, when it was time for Team Leader Da Fei to check on their progress, Gu Ming felt his Spiritual Power stagnate.

At the same time, Cyan Treasure’s Breathing Technique Cultivation also hit a bottleneck, getting stuck just shy of Perfection.

In its dreams, Cyan Treasure had already refined the Breathing Technique to its absolute limit, completing the theoretical groundwork.

Now was the critical moment. It needed a massive amount of high-quality Spiritual Qi to saturate its body, giving it a chance to break through that bottleneck and elevate its Breathing Technique to the Realm of Daoist Skill Perfection.

At that point, with a single breath, it could cause the Spiritual Qi of mountains and seas to surge inward, drawing all the Spiritual Qi in the entire training room into its body.

Gu Ming observed the Dao Field for fifteen minutes and finally noticed the problem:

The quality of the Spiritual Qi within the field had dropped drastically.

The reason was that the number of Pet Beasts practicing the Breathing Technique had skyrocketed by more than a hundredfold compared to just ten days ago.

Nowadays, the Pet Beasts entering the Dao Field were either using the Green Treasure Breathing Technique or a Breathing Technique their masters had developed on their own.

Some were even using Breathing Techniques for specific Pet Beast types that they had paid to learn online.

With so many Pet Beasts packed into the Four-star Level Dao Field and breathing in unison, even with the Spirit Gathering Array running at full power, the Spiritual Qi it produced wasn’t enough to go around.

The moment any Spiritual Qi appeared, it was instantly drained dry, making its quality practically nonexistent.

As a result, cultivating in the company’s Dao Field was now even less effective than in a One-star Level Dao Field.

Once Gu Ming understood the crux of the issue, his expression instantly darkened.

...

"SQUEAK SQUEAK!"

The Sunflower Seed-eating Hamster finished ten Circulations of its Breathing Technique Cultivation and let out a frustrated sound.

Over the past two days, it had noticed its Cultivation efficiency dropping rapidly.

But it never imagined that today it would make zero progress.

’The only way to improve my Breathing Technique is to go back and cultivate in the training room at the school villa.’

Lu You also wore a helpless expression. She glanced around and saw hundreds of Pet Beasts all practicing the Breathing Technique. Furthermore, every one of them had reached the Master Level of proficiency, enabling them to maintain their breathing without interruption.

At this rate, there definitely wasn’t enough Spiritual Qi in the training grounds to go around.

"What are we going to do..." Lu You whispered.

"Forget it. Let’s go report to Team Leader Da Fei and explain the situation. If it stays like this, we won’t be able to get any work done next week."

Gu Ming said, shaking his head.

「Not long after.」

The members of the Blue Flame Task Force arrived at Team Leader Da Fei’s office. The Sunflower Seed-eating Hamster and the Red Carp King performed Relay Cultivation with the Transmission Skill, passing thirty percent of their comprehension of Nightfall to Team Leader Da Fei’s Pet Beast.

Team Leader Da Fei had a smile on his face as he nodded slightly. "Not bad, not bad. You’ve met the quota on schedule.

"So, for next week, the requirement is to reach at least forty percent comprehension. Can you do it?"

"Team Leader Da Fei, we can’t do it," Gu Ming said, shaking his head.

Upon hearing this, Ruan Fei’s expression immediately turned cold. "What if you extend your hours?"

"You should go take a look at the training grounds. Everyone is practicing the Breathing Technique, and there’s no longer enough Spiritual Qi in the Dao Field to go around.

"This Cultivation Technique, which requires a minimum of Three-star, is already difficult to execute.

"With the Two-star Mouse Treasure participating, the demands of the Cultivation Technique are even higher.

"At the very least, the Spiritual Qi supply can’t be cut off. Mouse Treasure has to continuously refine Mana with its high-Skill Level Breathing Technique just to maintain the Transmission Skill. Now, with no Spiritual Qi in the Dao Field, we can’t even train anymore."

Ruan Fei wasn’t an unreasonable person. After listening to Gu Ming’s explanation of the logic, he immediately set off to inspect the training grounds on the company’s second floor.

When he returned from his inspection tour, Ruan Fei’s expression wasn’t very good either.

Clearly, he had also discovered that the Spiritual Qi in all the training grounds on the second floor was practically nonexistent.

There were simply too many Pet Beasts practicing the Breathing Technique. Even if their numbers were halved, the Spiritual Qi quality in the Cultivation Dao Field would be severely diminished, a far cry from what it used to be.

However, stopping this situation wasn’t something he could do with just a word.

After all, ever since Gu Ming won the national competition, his Pet Beasts had been studied by countless high school students.

High school teachers across the country were also researching the secrets to the success of Pet Beasts like Cyan Treasure and Mouse Treasure.

Among their discoveries, the Breathing Technique was unearthed and became a massive hit in high schools across the nation.

Nearly everyone in the country was now researching Breathing Techniques unique to their own Pet Beasts.

As a result, all sorts of Breathing Techniques had blossomed across the country.

Being on the front lines of Cultivation Technique Study in the Capital, company employees naturally had to research Breathing Techniques using their own Pet Beasts or ones rented from the company.

Besides, the Breathing Technique had another benefit:

It allowed for the constant Refining of Mana, which in turn gave Pet Beasts the opportunity to use Cultivation Techniques they previously couldn’t perform.

Thus, the basic process for developing a Cultivation Technique now included the preliminary step of practicing a Breathing Technique.

This had led to the current near-deadlock. Team Leader Da Fei sat in his seat, closing his eyes to ponder for a moment before turning to Gu Ming.

"You all can take today off. I’m going to report this to the higher-ups and see how this can be resolved."

Giving them a day off was the decision Team Leader Da Fei had arrived at after some thought.

’This isn’t an easy problem to handle. I can see this becoming the new wave,’ he thought. ’Gu Ming has started a craze for Breathing Techniques and Relay Cultivation.’

’The research process for Cultivation Techniques has changed because of it.’

’Forbidding everyone from using Breathing Techniques is impossible.’

’If other companies use them and we don’t, we’ll be left behind.’

’But asking leadership to increase the budget for the company’s internal Dao Field to upgrade the Spirit Gathering Array won’t work either.’

’Judging by today’s numbers, upgrading it by one Star Level clearly isn’t enough.’

’We’d need to upgrade the Array by at least two Star Levels to have any surplus Spiritual Qi.’

’But plans can never keep up with change.’

With Team Leader Da Fei’s keen instincts regarding Breathing Techniques, he had a feeling that even upgrading the Array by two Star Levels probably wouldn’t be a surefire solution.

After all, as the development of Breathing Techniques and new Cultivation Techniques continued to advance, the demand for Spiritual Qi would only grow, becoming a bottomless pit that could never be filled.

’As for upgrading the Array by three Star Levels?’

’No one would dare to approve that.’

’This is no longer a problem that can be solved simply by throwing more resources at it.’

’It’s a dead end.’

For now, the only option was to have the higher-ups meet to assess the situation, then wait and see what to do next. A solution might not even be available by tomorrow.

Gu Ming was rather surprised to hear they were getting a day off.

’Perfect,’ he thought. ’I can take care of some other things, like catching up on my temporary work.’

’Although I can guide high school students via video call or have them come to the company to train, it’s always restrictive. I’m always afraid of Team Leader Da Fei catching me and chewing me out.’

Having gained this day of freedom, his colleague Yuan Ge rubbed his hands together and asked:

"Since you have the time, could you give some guidance on my Pet Beast’s Relay Cultivation?

"I’ve watched a lot this past week, so I have some ideas of my own. I’ve also studied a good bit of the theory on my own."

Gu Ming thought to himself, ’My two Pet Beasts are in desperate need of a high-density Spiritual Qi Environment.’

’This is the perfect chance to use Yuan Ge’s "Spirit Stone" offering to help them break through their final bottleneck.’

So, he readily adjusted his plans and nodded in agreement, consenting to go to the Dao Field at Yuan Ge’s university to offer guidance on his cultivation.

"You’ll be renting a private Cultivation Chamber, right?" Gu Ming asked.

Universities have many private Cultivation Chambers with built-in Cultivation Dao Fields, just like the training room in his villa at Wenquxing University.

However, that training room had a time limit.

It was free for eight hours a day, but if one cultivated non-stop for twenty-four hours, the overtime fees were extremely high.

A single hour of overtime cost nearly a million, a fee Gu Ming simply couldn’t afford.

He knew the villa’s training room used a Four-star Level Array; he just normally didn’t have much time to cultivate there.

In other words, if he was going to guide Yuan Ge, he naturally needed a good Dao Field for his own two pets to cultivate in as well.

Although Yuan Ge’s face was a mask of financial pain, he still promised:

"I’ll rent a training room with a Four-star Level Dao Field, don’t worry. Oh, right, Ms. Lu You, you should come and offer some guidance too."

Lu You didn’t say anything, but her Pet Beast’s eyes were already wide with excitement.

Gu Ming took the opportunity to invite her along. Though Lu You waved her hands in refusal, she still ended up following Gu Ming out.