Beast Taming Star Journey

Chapter 426

As the blinding white light faded, I staggered and knelt on the familiar bluestone slabs. The stench of a foreign land no longer lingered around my nose, but rather the fragrance of spring grass mixed with earth. Su Yao's phoenix was the first to let out a clear and melodious cry, its golden feathers reflecting the sunlight in tiny dappled patterns that fell on her pale yet smiling face.

“He’s back… He’s really back…” The Platinum Strategist slumped to the ground, his trembling fingers tracing the floor, his voice choked with emotion. The Gold Boy threw himself into his arms, the tears he had been holding back in the corridor finally bursting forth, but when he looked up and saw me, he smiled through his tears: “Brother, look! The crack is disappearing!”

I turned around and looked back. The eerie rift that had once swallowed us was like ice and snow melting in the sunlight, its edges shimmering with tiny silver light, gradually shrinking into a single spot of light. Before the last ray of light dissipated, I seemed to see a familiar figure—a thallium warrior with his back to us, a giant axe on his shoulder, walking into the depths of the alien realm. His robes fluttered in the nameless wind, like an everlasting battle flag.

“He…” Su Yao gripped my hand tightly, her voice trembling.

"He chose to stay," I whispered. That day in a foreign land, when the thallium warrior turned to stand in front of the mercury messenger, what flashed in his eyes was not despair, but a sense of relief and acceptance. Perhaps for this warrior who always charged to the front, risking his life to save his comrades was a destiny he had already written himself.

“I’m sorry…” A hoarse voice came from behind. The Beastmaster leaned against an old locust tree, the lion’s carcass lying at his feet, blood still seeping from its chest wound. He stared at his bloodstained hands, his Adam’s apple bobbing: “In that foreign land, I…”

"Because of the selection competition three years ago?" I interrupted him. I still remember when we first met, he always looked at me with complicated eyes—that's when I realized that he had tried his best but failed to be selected for the Beast Tamer team, while I, as a newcomer, was admitted despite not meeting the requirements. Jealousy had already taken root in his heart.

He looked up abruptly, his eyes filled with shock. Su Yao sighed softly and knelt down to bandage his wound: "Actually, you already knew that Yu took a fatal blow for you during the selection competition, right? He still has that scar on his back."

The Beastmaster's body trembled violently. I unbuttoned my shirt, revealing a gruesome old scar on my left shoulder—a scar from three years ago, when I shielded him from the claws of the alien creature with my body. He suddenly lowered his head, his shoulders shaking violently: "I'm sorry... I thought you got in through connections..."

“It’s over.” I patted his shoulder, looked at the rescue teams arriving one after another in the distance, and suddenly smiled: “What you should be worried about now is how to explain to the medical team why a grown man like you is crying your eyes out.”

He wiped his face in a fluster, finally managing a relieved smile. In the distance came hurried footsteps; a team of researchers and beast tamers in white coats rushed towards him, led by my mentor—Professor Bismuth. When the old man saw me, his eyes instantly reddened, but he deliberately kept a stern face: "You brat, using spatial power again without permission? Look at the state you've become!"

Looking down, I noticed a faint silver-gray tinge on my fingertips—the backlash from overusing my beast-taming power. Su Yao immediately grabbed my hand anxiously, the warmth of the phoenix coursing through my body: "I told you not to push yourself..."

"It's alright, a good night's sleep will do." I smiled and ruffled her hair, but out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a familiar figure behind the crowd. The Mercury Messenger was being helped along by medical staff. He looked up at the sky and murmured to himself, "So this is what sunshine feels like..."

Three days later, at the Beastmaster Alliance's victory banquet, I finally understood the full picture of this "alien crisis." Satellite footage was playing on the big screen—the moment we returned from the rift, all the alien entrances around the world closed simultaneously, as if they had never existed.

“According to the latest research,” Professor Bismuth adjusted his glasses, “the eyes of those alien creatures are actually ‘biological nodes’ connecting different spaces. By destroying the core node, you have essentially closed all the doors.” He suddenly looked at me, a glint of pride in his eyes: “Especially Xiaoyu, the spatial power you have unleashed is very likely the awakening of the bloodline of the ‘first generation of Beast Tamers’ from a thousand years ago.”

The banquet hall erupted in applause. I looked down at the audience; the thallium warrior's seat was empty, but a wine glass we had reserved for him sat on the table—the rescue team had found his giant axe on the edge of a foreign land, but not his body. Perhaps, in some unknown space, this warrior was still practicing his way.

By the time the celebration banquet ended, the moon had already climbed above the willow branches. Su Yao and I strolled through the Alliance Garden, where phoenixes and white wolves chased and frolicked on the grass. She suddenly stopped, and as she turned around, her eyes reflected the starry sky: "That day in that foreign land, when I kissed you, your face turned as red as a tomato."

"No way!" I felt my ears burning, but suddenly I grabbed her hand. The warmth of her palm was even greater than I remembered, like the gentle spring breeze that always accompanied her gaze when she looked at me: "Su Yao, actually, I've always wanted to ask..."

"You want to know when I agreed to be your girlfriend?" She suddenly laughed and lightly tapped my forehead with her fingertip: "Silly, it was already when you blocked an attack for me during the selection competition."

I was stunned. It turned out that those times fighting side-by-side, those moments of life and death together, had already bound our fates tightly together. In the distance, the white wolf suddenly let out a joyful howl, and the phoenix spread its wings, skimming across the lake, creating ripples of silvery light.

Three months later, the Beast Tamer Alliance welcomed a new batch of students. I stood on the training ground, watching the metal-clad youth clumsily forming a contract with a wolf cub, while the iridium-clad beast tamer patiently guided him. Su Yao walked over carrying a stack of documents, her hair adorned with the silver feather hair clip I had given her—made from a phoenix's shed tail feathers.

"Latest mission." She blinked. "An unusual energy fluctuation has appeared on the northwestern border, requiring an elite team to investigate. The captain, well..."

“Of course it’s you.” I smiled as I took the mission briefing, my fingertips tracing the “Special Operations Team” stamp. Outside the window, sunlight pierced through the clouds, casting long shadows on the training ground. The white wolf, who had been lying at my feet, was now purring softly, as if recounting tales of its near-death experiences.

Professor Bismuth's shouts came from afar, saying there was an urgent research project that needed my participation. I stood up and looked at Su Yao's eyes, which were shining brightly in the sunlight. Suddenly, I understood that the so-called "finding a way out of a desperate situation" is never the end—it is those hands that held each other in the darkness and the hope that was ignited in the face of adversity that are the forces that keep us moving forward.

As we embark on our journey once more, the setting sun casts its last rays behind us, while ahead lies a new dawn, always full of promise. The wind whispers past our ears, carrying the laughter of our fellow trainees from afar, mingled with the scent of grass and sunshine. This time, we are no longer afraid of the unknown challenges, for we know that as long as we are by each other's side, we are each other's strongest armor.

(End of the book)